Chuckie Egg 2023
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Chuckie Egg 2023
Hello.
I read somewhere that arcade type games probably wouldn't be well suited to being run over the Tube so I thought I'd give it a try. After all, many arcade machines work fine with multiple CPUs sharing out the workload so why not a Beeb and a co-pro? The worst that could happen is that it doesn't really work, no?
So here's a new version of Chuckie Egg, including a level editor. Requires a 2nd Processor with a 65x CPU in it.
EDIT: The files at these links were replaced with new versions that fix issues with PiTubeDirect and also ReCo6502 68516 on 07 JAN 2024
https://samskivington.com/public/beeb-d ... gg2023.ssd
https://samskivington.com/public/beeb-d ... gg2023.adl
Both discs contain the same files. ADFS loads them significantly faster than DFS.
NOTE: Versions of b-em up to and including v2.2 have issues with the Tube ULA implementation that cause this program to sit waiting for a response from the parasite straight after displaying the controls. I'm not going to try to work around that because it has been fixed in the pre-release version of b-em that I've been using during testing - https://github.com/stardot/b-em/releases/tag/m5000-filt. Hopefully v2.3 isn't too far off.
Enjoy.
I read somewhere that arcade type games probably wouldn't be well suited to being run over the Tube so I thought I'd give it a try. After all, many arcade machines work fine with multiple CPUs sharing out the workload so why not a Beeb and a co-pro? The worst that could happen is that it doesn't really work, no?
So here's a new version of Chuckie Egg, including a level editor. Requires a 2nd Processor with a 65x CPU in it.
EDIT: The files at these links were replaced with new versions that fix issues with PiTubeDirect and also ReCo6502 68516 on 07 JAN 2024
https://samskivington.com/public/beeb-d ... gg2023.ssd
https://samskivington.com/public/beeb-d ... gg2023.adl
Both discs contain the same files. ADFS loads them significantly faster than DFS.
NOTE: Versions of b-em up to and including v2.2 have issues with the Tube ULA implementation that cause this program to sit waiting for a response from the parasite straight after displaying the controls. I'm not going to try to work around that because it has been fixed in the pre-release version of b-em that I've been using during testing - https://github.com/stardot/b-em/releases/tag/m5000-filt. Hopefully v2.3 isn't too far off.
Enjoy.
Last edited by SamSkivington on Sun Jan 07, 2024 9:48 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Hi Sam, thank you for this, it's really good and I'll try it on the real beeb later.
One thing though - Harry appears to have lost his ability do to the move I'm calling the "ladder swing"...
In the original, if you hold up/right/jump together while jumping towards a ladder and keep all three held, he will immediately jump off the ladder again, almost as if he's swinging off it. In some places ( eg level 3, level 7) this can be a very effective way to get around.
How easy would it be to restore him to his full repertoire of moves?
Cheers
Tom
One thing though - Harry appears to have lost his ability do to the move I'm calling the "ladder swing"...
In the original, if you hold up/right/jump together while jumping towards a ladder and keep all three held, he will immediately jump off the ladder again, almost as if he's swinging off it. In some places ( eg level 3, level 7) this can be a very effective way to get around.
How easy would it be to restore him to his full repertoire of moves?
Cheers
Tom
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Thanks tnash!
Hmmm. Interesting. Thanks for highlighting. The gameplay code is identical (untouched) from the original. This has been validated against several thousand telemetry recordings from a slightly modified (records the telemetry) version of the original too. I'll check the input code to make sure there's nothing amiss there. Thanks Again.
Hmmm. Interesting. Thanks for highlighting. The gameplay code is identical (untouched) from the original. This has been validated against several thousand telemetry recordings from a slightly modified (records the telemetry) version of the original too. I'll check the input code to make sure there's nothing amiss there. Thanks Again.
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I've tried this now on real hardware and a desktop computer with emulators, including jsbeeb, and what you are expecting from the key actions you have described seems to work fine.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Just sent you a private message - yes the jumping works fine on the real beeb so it must either be an odd keyboard or linux b-em thing.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Just downloaded this and had a play. It's amazing - not just because you have managed to improve Chuckie Egg, but also because this is (I think) only the second ever second processor game for the Beeb! (after Elite obviously).
I'd be interested to hear how the work is shared between the two processors. In Elite the second processor sends a stream of co-ordinates across the Tube to be plotted - so are you doing something similar here in terms of sprite movement commands? I'm guessing the game engine lives in the host whereas all the data and UI live in the parasite?
I'd be interested to hear how the work is shared between the two processors. In Elite the second processor sends a stream of co-ordinates across the Tube to be plotted - so are you doing something similar here in terms of sprite movement commands? I'm guessing the game engine lives in the host whereas all the data and UI live in the parasite?
- Diminished
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
This is bloody excellent.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I would think that golden age arcade games are well suited to running over the tube as many just have memory mapped sprite x, y, no. and palette information that could be sent each frame with the beeb only needing to do the drawing, input and sound.SamSkivington wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 7:12 pm Hello.
I read somewhere that arcade type games probably wouldn't be well suited to being run over the Tube ...
Most also have a charger mapped display that could be sent as updates rather than having to check the whole lot every frame as I do in most of my ports.
I have been tempted to port some more games using this setup but haven't got around to it yet!
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I'm really interested in this but don't have time right now to download and play it. Plus I don't have a real co-pro and my current emulator is a really old (like perhaps 8-10 years) version of b-em on Linux so it may not even work without an upgrade.
Would anybody be kind enough to share screenshots or perhaps a short video capture please?
Would anybody be kind enough to share screenshots or perhaps a short video capture please?
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
That's exactly how this works. Apart from the timing signals, the parasite runs the show and tells the host what to do on its behalf. A bit more specific than the stream of PLOT commands Elite uses but essentially the same thing.
Last edited by SamSkivington on Sun Dec 17, 2023 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
After kicking the Acorn Tube protocol out of the way, the parasite does absolutely everything from gameplay to state management and only uses the host for I/O (file access, keyboard, joysticks, sound and screen)
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Does it run smoother or at a higher frame rate? In any case it would be great to see a video
Well done! Could be the start of a whole new story
Well done! Could be the start of a whole new story
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
It switches between 50 and 33.3fps. UI is 50fps but when you're playing the game it's the same tick rate as the original.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I appreciate that the gameplay and mechanics is unchanged… wondering what might be possible though with two processors… perhaps the music could somehow take advantage???
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Not quite sure what you mean, but I was limited to two sound channels for the music because I wanted to keep the movement and egg/seed sounds in at the same time. Music 5000 was on the list of possibles but didn't make the cut.
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I made a test a while back that had raw, streamed TMS5220 speech and SN76489AN sound data in this same set-up and that worked well. I might revisit that in a future game.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
That could be quite something
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
A handful of screenshots as requested above
Last edited by SamSkivington on Fri Dec 15, 2023 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I thought that you had a palette colour spare with 2 foreground and 4 background, but on closer inspection it looks like 1 forgetting (yellow), one midground (cyan) and 4 background, assuming you are using the palette and not sprite making + store and bgnd redraw or tile redraw.
I was wondering about nula mode 1.5 allowing 50fps, but vertical movement and moving platforms would need to move 1,1,1,2 assuming that they move 2 pixels vertically and you couldn't use the pallet trick anymore plus bad things would happen when eggs and birds overlapped!
I was wondering about nula mode 1.5 allowing 50fps, but vertical movement and moving platforms would need to move 1,1,1,2 assuming that they move 2 pixels vertically and you couldn't use the pallet trick anymore plus bad things would happen when eggs and birds overlapped!
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Thank you! It looks great
- Cybershark
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Am glad you got around to the screenshots, as your initial post was very much a "soft sell" (and I honestly couldn't see what all the fuss was about). It all sounded (technically) quite brilliant but I had no idea what we were getting. I checked it out just for curiousity's sake, but maybe you should have led with this outline of the key features:
Excellent work! This really is one all-singing, all-dancing package!
Excellent work! This really is one all-singing, all-dancing package!
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Good shout. Updated the lead post. Thank you!
- aidanthegasman
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
I'm absolutely dazzled by this game Sam.
Obviously Chuckie Egg is a timeless classic; obviously the Beeb version is one of the best versions out there. And obviously, a whole bunch of people have attempted to poke it and tweak it here and there to improve it (adding a bit of colour, or adding joystick support, or designing new levels).
What you've done, however, is to basically redo the entire thing, using resources (a co-pro) which we can all emulate (sadly I don't have a hardware Tube). You've added a wealth of magnificent features. The music is perfect (who could argue with the choice of tune?) I love the Demo Mode in particular: it looks as if Henhouse Harry has some sort of AI: rather than randomly running around, he avoids the chickens and his jumps onto lifts, etc, are perfectly timed. There are only 2 ways I can think of to make this work: either you have a working AI (in which case, why limit us to 15 seconds of demo?) or each is a short, pre-recorded sequence (as in the original arcade PacMan). Can you let me know which it is?
This will undoubtedly be my default version of the game from now on, when I need my Chuckie Egg fix!
Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
Obviously Chuckie Egg is a timeless classic; obviously the Beeb version is one of the best versions out there. And obviously, a whole bunch of people have attempted to poke it and tweak it here and there to improve it (adding a bit of colour, or adding joystick support, or designing new levels).
What you've done, however, is to basically redo the entire thing, using resources (a co-pro) which we can all emulate (sadly I don't have a hardware Tube). You've added a wealth of magnificent features. The music is perfect (who could argue with the choice of tune?) I love the Demo Mode in particular: it looks as if Henhouse Harry has some sort of AI: rather than randomly running around, he avoids the chickens and his jumps onto lifts, etc, are perfectly timed. There are only 2 ways I can think of to make this work: either you have a working AI (in which case, why limit us to 15 seconds of demo?) or each is a short, pre-recorded sequence (as in the original arcade PacMan). Can you let me know which it is?
This will undoubtedly be my default version of the game from now on, when I need my Chuckie Egg fix!
Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
- aidanthegasman
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Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
And I still got it, baby!
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Just downloaded both .ssd and .adl version of the game to try on my real Master, but on the point "Initializing" is on the screen it stops.
And this also happens on b2.
Any suggestions? Or did I miss something on the forum?
Cheers
And this also happens on b2.
Any suggestions? Or did I miss something on the forum?
Cheers
Happy with my BBC Master
www.mybbcmaster.nl
www.mybbcmaster.nl
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Silly question but are you using a second processor on your master?I believe it’s a second 6502 processor version. Hope I’m not wrong on that!
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
Yes got the CoPro activated.
Tried on MOS 3.2 and MOS 3.5 with both 6502 and the 65C102
Tried on MOS 3.2 and MOS 3.5 with both 6502 and the 65C102
Happy with my BBC Master
www.mybbcmaster.nl
www.mybbcmaster.nl
Re: Chuckie Egg 2023
No was a good question. i do make these mistakes now and then
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Happy with my BBC Master
www.mybbcmaster.nl
www.mybbcmaster.nl