… and I finally have a font (the twenty minutes was due to me having to make a puts function).
Next task: Actually make a GAME. (After I’ve made a tileset and a spriteset, of course. Perhaps with a slightly more suitable palette.)
Currently I’m working on the level format, so I’m shoving that in a readme.txt. I should probably rename that file.
There isn’t any code to load the data just yet and I’m trying to work out the structure that entities should use.
Anyways, while you’re waiting, here’s some music I intend to use.
Bad news, it’s a tad broken. Not sure what’s causing it but it seems to do it every now and then, and I don’t think ADD hl,de is THAT broken.
The readme.txt file is out of sync in the dump, here’s how the stream works:
if the value is $01, then don’t write anything to the PSG.
if bit 0 is set, it’s a 1-byte lookup.
if bit 0 is clear, it’s a 2-byte lookup, low then high.
if the 2-byte lookup is $FFxx, then reset the stream.
The value for a “blank tick” used to be $00, not $01. Unfortunately, you can get values such as $0D00 of which the first byte read is… $00. D’oh!
And this is the thing itself. Enjoy.
After fixing the tile type set issues, it finally looks like it could actually be a game. What needs to be done now (after making graphics, of course) is getting the player, then some other entities working.
Also an earlier, definitely buggy dump behaves quite differently in Kega Fusion compared with Meka, and it’s here. How does this act on a real SMS?
Unfortunately there’s a scrolling bug due to the 28-tile scroll height. I need to adjust it properly when it wraps around.
Also entities aren’t being deleted when they fall down the bottom yet.
Well here it is, guys. It’s my LD19 entry. I basically just gave up and released it as is BUT AT LEAST IT’S RELEASED. No known major bugs.
We didn’t get the full blown all-1s parade like last LD, but it did appear on my entry. What makes this particularly horrible, however, is that I didn’t get many legit votes, and would have scored 4.10 for audio rather than 3.82. ARGH.
What we did get, however, was a lot of all-N/As and even more all-N/As-apart-from-community. I got one and two from those respectively.
IT’S NOT COOL.
People who do that should get suckness points rather than coolness points, and whoever gets the most suckness points (above a certain threshold) should be banned from voting until they’ve removed all copies of Game Maker from their computer (and possibly Unity and whatever else is “the easiest way to make games for Windows”).
In fact, they might as well be tortured by being forced to program a game for an old console in assembler. Like what I did, except done by someone who probably can’t even code in BASIC.
So, back to the topic.
If it doesn’t work, DON’T VOTE.
If you think the guy’s a complete idiot, PRETEND IT WAS MADE BY YOUR BEST FRIEND (I’ve yet to find an unexplained all-5s vote but these would be awesome (actually I think I just did on Coffee Forever)).
And now for the ultimate question: How do we stop these stupid, stupid votes?
Seriously, just use it. (Thanks to whoever linked it here.)
I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do LD20 (I might do a video mode 13h DOS entry using DJGPP), so I’ll offer my advice here.
Steer clear of Rhode Bass. It’s crap. Avatar provides a better bass.
The notes are: A, B, D, E, F#, and then they loop up each octave. If you want a minor scale, use the B as your base note. If you want a major scale, use D as your base note. This is basically music theory, though… the minor scale is a bit easier to work with and often sounds nicer. Note, this is not fundamental, but it is nice to know.
Some of the drums are crap. HC2 makes a nicer open hihat than HO. BD1 is good, BD2 is crap. CL(ap) is nice. SN1 and SN2 are fine, though SN3 is if you want to have a woodblock sound. TH isn’t worth using; just use TM1/TM2/TL.
Here’s an easy drumbeat to do: Put a kickdrum (BD1) immediately after every marker, and put a clap (CL) or a snare (SN1/SN2/both) immediately after every second marker (skipping the first). Put a hihat (HC1) on every column, though on every “3” you put an HC2 instead. It’s OK to not do the HC2 thing and just use HC1 on each column. It’s also OK to only do it on every “1” and “3”, and usually gives you a slightly punchier beat.
The rest is up to your experimentation.
EDIT: ARGH. Apparently you can’t export it. So if you don’t have stereo mix, ask someone nicely. Or of course you could always use this.
I think that if I were to do this, I’d have to participate in the Jam with someone. So, who’s desperate for a musician?
Conditions.
Platforms I can do my own mixing for.
Platforms which have mod/s3m/xm/it stuff.
Platforms where I’d have to search poospace for some playroutines because these really aren’t appropriate for PCM.
Platforms which call for PCM.
So yeah, here’s my offer. It’d be a way to get my mind of the stress of my assignments @_@
If I end up doing something, this’ll probably be my setup.
Not sure if I’ll compo or jam.
I can’t be bothered uploading screencaps just yet, but it sets mode 13h and doesn’t screw up. I think I have a vague idea on how to use RHIDE now.
So uhh this is what I’ve got so far. It handles the keyboard though I can’t seem to get a “non-blocking” handler yet.
This is just the editor. There isn’t any game yet.
So I’m basically learning how to program the SB16. I have done at least two floppy disk drivers, one which only reads one side of the floppy when not on an emulator, and the other doesn’t work at all on the real hardware. But I know how to do DMA… or at least knew, I’ll need to relearn it or something like that. (The floppy is the reason why you can’t use DMA 2 for Sound Blaster, IIRC.)
On top of that, there’s a main menu screen, a Level edit screen, a Gfx edit screen, and a Sample edit screen.
SB16 has been giving me hell. I thought I got direct mode working but it can only have so much shoved in before it gives in.
So I’m going to make an IRC bot game now.
I can safely say that this screenshot took WAY too long to process.
What were you expecting, something intelligent?
Anyways, there’s a nifty little hook system there, which should be sufficient for the framework I’ll be making.
With that said, I’m going to bed. Good night guys.
Declaration of crap.
That’s all you really need to know.
…I’m now able to share you a lovely link.
Even includes a Windoze binary, which is the only thing I did to this game today.
Here’s that screenshot again:
As you may be able to delve from this screenshot, I kinda suck at graphics.
I think I’ll use this “severely deformed” style for now, and if I ever find a way to improve on it within the timeframe I’ll consider it.
Yes, I am using a text editor for my main graphics editing.
So yeah, someone at the IRC said me this once, that using an Elo rating system would be more effective. I really didn’t understand what he meant back then, but I think that I do, now.
This is quite problematic. I don’t think we can just teach people how to vote. I think the best, as sfernald said, is to not take the voting too seriously.