New version of Astro Blaster (was: I'm currently working on a version of AstroBlaster)

[sirmorris]

A bit late to the party ... but what can I say.

Stunning work there. AB is one of my all-time favourites. You have done it proud. Thank you.


Also My TMS was relieved at having something other than 'Call me Kenneth' Kendall to work with

[tricky]

Thanks, i really should add the docking bit for swram beebs, but i quite like the choice of more time or cooler laser that the fireball storm offers, that and I'ma bit lazy

[tricky]

I have found what I think is the cause of AstroBlaster not working on machines without sideways RAM (or 1 bank and no speech chip).
This should also add sampled speech back to anyone with Watford Electronics Shadow RAM who had it with the original version.
It looks like I have a typo, which is wrongly identifying WE Shadow RAM.
The fix is to change line 275 of LOADSWR from IF W% = 255... to IF W% <> 255...
New .ssd attached with fix, please let me know if this has any issues for anyone.

Michael Brown,
sorry for changing the files again!

Mark (Retro Clinic),
Sorry for doubting you or your excellent DataCentre.

AstroBlaster should work on any BBC Model B, B+, Master or Compact (only tested in emulation).
For the best experience, use RGB to SCART on a CRT (extra smooth) with a speech enable beeb with sideways RAM.
If there is a Speech chip and at least one bank of SidewaysRAM, you will have full speech (even without Kenneth Kendall).
If there is no speech chip, Up to two banks of SidewaysRAM or WE Shadow RAM will be used for sampled speech.

[Michael Brown]

Hi Tricky,

Just loaded the version of AstroBlaster into my Beeb (with Datacentre).
The game now works fine - It does not display any text at the bottom (as it is not loading any RAMs) and plays the game simply without the in game speech.
Works the same under both emulators as well!

Well done.

Is this now the final version and what are you going to create for us next?

regards,
Mick.

[tricky]

It is the final version unless i get inspired to add the docking level, but that would be quite a bit of work for not much Bang. If i did, i would add the mystery bonuses which are also missing.

I did start a thread asking what next, but have got distracted with rally-x, SelfTestOS and Phoenix.

[Michael Brown]

Hi Tricky,

Any chance you could finish your excellent version of Phoenix?

regards,
Mick.

[tricky]

By way of an apology for causing you to have to update your AstroBlaster disc, I will post an updated WiP.

[tricky]

Sorry again everyone, well pau1ie spotted a bug with Master and Master Compact joystick support.
Here is a new version, only $.game should have changed and it should only affect Master and Master Compact joystick support.
If anyone with a Master and or Compact could check and report back, that would be great.
Master Compact WARP is down on the joystick!

[pau1ie]

Hi Tricky

If anyone with a Master and or Compact could check and report back, that would be great.

It works, except that now the joystick button is warp rather than fire. My joystick is the BBC one and only has a single button - bottom picture on this page:

http://wouter.bbcmicro.net/pictures/har ... index.html

Still works well with the keyboard though.

Edit - Forgot to say, this is a Master 128 with datacentre.

Cheers

PaulH

[tricky]

I'll have to have another look, does down on the stick fire?

[pau1ie]

does down on the stick fire?

No.so far as I can see up and down don't do anything.

[tricky]

Sorry, confused myself, down is as I said before, compact only.
Maybe I am missing something important about the master joystick, I'll have to check,
For some reason, I was only supporting a single button, but I thought that that was because I copied the code from Carnival, which, only uses one button.
Does the fire button on the other joystick do anything?

[1024MAK]

Err, the only differences between a Master 128 and a BBC B is some of the addresses are different (if you are directly accessing the hardware).
The Master Compact of course does not have an analogue port (no A>D converter chip), so just has digital inputs via the user VIA 6522 port B (FE60-FE7F).

Code: Select all

FEC0-DF Analogue-to-digital converter (B/B+)
============================================
FEC0 Start conversion                   Status
FEC1                                    Data high byte
FEC2                                    Data low byte
FEC3 -                                  -

FE18-1F Analogue-to-Digital converter (Master)
==============================================
FE18 Start conversion                   Status
FE19                                    Data high byte
FE1A                                    Data low byte
FE1B -                                  -

Master Compact Joystick
==============================================
Pin VIA  Function
 1  PB3  Up
 2  PB2  Down
 3  PB1  Left
 4  PB4  Right
 5  CB1 
 6  PB0  Fire 1
 7  +5V  Used with some auto-fire joysticks
 8  0V   Ground / common
 9  CB2  Fire 2 (if used)

Mark

[pau1ie]

Does the fire button on the other joystick do anything?

No, it has no effect.

I am pretty sure fire used to fire on the previous version where the ship shot off to the right. Also, of course, I have to press fire to start the game.

[tricky]

[quote="pau1ie]I am pretty sure fire used to fire on the previous version where the ship shot off to the right. Also, of course, I have to press fire to start the game.[/quote]that is what i don't get, the fire button code hasn't changed, only the movement code, which just used a different address for the adc.

Mark, thanks, I don't think i knew about the second fire button on the compact. I will change the loader so that starting with fire2 on the compact disabled down for warp - if i ever get the rest correct!

I think the best thing i can do is probably write a little joystick checking program and ask people to try it for me. Maybe Dave could lend me a working master and compact, out maybe it will make a practicallittle project for abug south.

Paulie, one last thing, does fire work ok on carnival?

[1024MAK]

To help prevent confusion (Whoops! Too late )

There are various differences with so called "Atari" standard joysticks. I listed the functions that are listed as per the Atari ST pin-out where one possible second fire button may be used on some joysticks. It does not mean that all joysticks have a second fire button mapped to that pin (pin 9).

Further, I don't know if any Master Compact software actually uses a second fire button. Reading CB2 is done rather differently to reading one of the PB inputs.

Sorry if I confused matters

Mark

[tricky]

OK, I've written a test program for B, B+, Master and Compact (probably A to with ADC, but OS 0.1 would need a couple of tweaks).
Attached is a .zip containing a DFS, ADFS and TAPE image of the test program OSJOY.
There is a bit more about it here http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/forum/vi ... 7746#p7746.
I would appreciate it if anyone could try it on a Master and Compact as I don't have them.
Sarah, any chance of supporting two fire buttons in B-em? if not, I'll take a look later.
If anyone has anything a bit exotic (basically, not just a model B) I would appreciate knowing if the machine identification works correctly and whether left/right and the two fire buttons report correctly on all platforms.

[1024MAK]

I have a BBC B, a Master 128, and a Master Compact (all working). I do have a B+, but it is currently not operational

If I have time this weekend, I will try your test program. If I do, I will of course post up the results.

Mark

[pau1ie]

On my master I see on one of the joystics (Which are not labelled by the way) it says fire left. This one says right, left, centre etc. The fire button on the other joystick says fire right.
OS says 3.x Master. I have a retroclinic dualos fitted at the latest version (3.5?)

I think it is good.

[tricky]

Thanks, that is working correctly then.
I don't know why i called them left and right.
The "left" fire button should go with the stick which says left, centre (left), centre (right) and right. This should be fire in AstroBlaster, while the fire button which says "right" should be warp.
I'll go and check the AstroBlaster code again.
I would still appreciate anyone checking the compact, if possible with a one and two button stick.

PS, would it be possible to check the master in beeb mode and reportb back what it thinks the beeb is and if the stick still works, I'm guessing it won't work, but it may.

[tricky]

Found a silly bug in the Master code, so here should be the Master fixed version, only $.game changed.

Compact still uses up or down (can't remember for WARP)

[pau1ie]

The game works perfectly, brilliant.

The dualos only allows me to switch between 3.2 and 3.5, and I haven't fitted the switch, so I am stuck on 3.5, but I don't have a model B mode to try.

Cheers

PaulH

[tricky]

I've been tinkering with AstroBlaster as the first of my games to get a small update.
Not in game play, but in accessibility and in AstroBlaster's case making it a little more disk friendly.
I have reduced the number of files on the disc and compressed some of them to save space and load more quickly.
I have also made the joystick code "auto enabling", so pressing the fire button enables the joystick, allowing keyboard and joystick to be used together or swapped seamlessly.
I have also made the files ROM compatible so that they can be burnt as ROMs.
The game file ASTROBL is the main game and if it is in SLOT 0 (back cartridge slot on a Master/expansion port on a compact - I think) will boot at start-up. *ASTROBL at the prompt.
ASTROs1 is the "To battle stations" and "game over" samples. Test with *ASTROS1
ASTROs2 is the "Out of fuel" and "Warp activated" samples. Test with *ASTROS2
ASTROsp is the speech chip data for all of the in-game speech. No test.
The .ROM files in the .zip are identical to the files in the .ssd, but I thought they would be slightly easier to test.
I have tested them on my versions of b-em and beebem, but not on any real hardware, so please report any issues.

If you add the ROMs, and use the beeb before *ASTROBL, it might need a BREAK as each ROM writes to &7x, which is then detected by ASTROBL - I know this is not right, but is probably harmless (I hope).

I was thinking that ASTROBL + ASTROsp would be good for a beeb with speech chip or ASTROBL + ASTROs1 for a master/compact cartridge (Arcadian).

Mode7toBASIC is a BBC BASIC program I wrote to convert the MODE 7 loading screen into BBC BASIC, it might not be very useful, but as I had written it, I thought I would include it.

The code I use for detecting WE SHADOW RAM (the ROM actually), the code for finding sideways RAM banks and the code for uploading to SWRAM is all in BBC BASIC ASM as part of LOADER in case anyone is interested.

EDIT The sample for "To battle stations" seems a little odd on HW, so that probably needs looking at!

[tricky]

Fixed the broken samples, the ROM versions shouldn't have been affected as it was the length passed to the code that copies the ROMs into SWR.
I've also made it so that the samples on the loading screen can be skipped if you start in the first 10 seconds and reduced the attract repeats to once per minute.
I haven't extracted the ASTROs1, ASTROs2 and ASTROBL files, but they can be extracted and put on EPROM as before.

Game play should be unaffected and should still work on B, B+, Master and Compact with keyboard and/or joystick.
WARP is up or down on compact - I can't remember witch!

Let me know here if there are any issues I have missed.

ssd_titler is a small windows exe with source for setting the title on a .ssd file and resetting the accesses to 0.
It isn't clever, it just overwrites the first 8 bytes and the 5 bytes at &100, 12 bytes for title + writes counter, so anything other than a simple .ssd will probably get corrupted!
Usage: ssd_titler disc_image.ssd Title

[tricky]

Just got this message, I don't know which of the versions above were used, but the last one is the "oficial" version.

Hi again,
I was finally able to burn Astroblaster and Frogger to a 27256 EPROM. Seems to work great. Next I'll try Phoenix and one other (Space Invaders maybe).
...

I don't think I have done space invaders, but I thought I had done Carnival, but I can't find it!

[tricky]

I've got a new capture setup so thought I would post Astro Blaster on a real beeb.

https://youtu.be/-9X8fRGjmJ8 best watch in 720p to get 50Hz (well if your monitor is anyway )
EDIT I wanted to replace the audio on the youtube one, but that doesn't seem possible, so I have made the old video private and added a new one with ducking.

[SanguineBrah]

Hi tricky, I just got my TM5220 installed and was hoping to give it a spin with Astro Blaster, but it appears to be overwriting my filesystem in sideways ram, and so hangs at the splash screen. Some details about my setup:

Issue 3 Micro B, no TM6100 or track bodge
IFEL EEPROM board in the two rightmost slots, with two 32k SRAM chips in the other two slots (w/ appropriate leads soldered to pins 1&27 to make four banks)

Roms are as follows:
15 BASIC2
14 ZMMFS (MMFSv2)
13 SWRAM (MMFS copies to here)
12 SWRAM (ASTROs2 copies to here)
... Other stuff, including two untouched SWRAM banks

I have tested the TM5220 itself using the Computer Concepts roms and demo disk, and it seems to be fully functional. After Astro hangs, soft break goes back to MMFS, which then reports that its rom and ram versions don't match, which is what makes me think Astro is causing the problem here. Versions I have tested are the one from your menu compilation, and the most recent version from this thread.

I'm hoping there aren't hardware issues muddying the waters here, but it's possible I could have messed up the SWRAM installation, as my soldering skills are not the best. Ozmoo seems to report the empty SWRAM banks correctly but maybe there's a better way to rule that out.

[tricky]

Astro Blaster is just very rude and grabs the highest bank that it finds!
It looks like it isn't recognising the speech chip as I think that it only loads ASTROs2 if it is "Using sampled speech 2 SWRAM banks".
What gets printed with:

Code: Select all

A%=&EB : X%=&00 : Y%=&FF : S% = USR(&FFF4) AND &FF00
P.~S%

CALL E% searches for sideways RAM and stores the banks that it finds from &7F down to &70 with the first bank being at &70+?&70.
If it finds the speech chip and some sideways RAM, this line copies the speech data to SWRAM:

Code: Select all

360 ?&70=?&7F : ?&71=&23 : ?&73=&30 : ?&75=&80 : CALL C%

using the first available (highest) bank that it found, which is stored in &7F.
You could hardcode the bank to 10 by changing ?&70=?&7F... to ?&70=10...
ASTROs2 is going to the second highest bank ?&7E as it would then load ASTROs1 into bank ?&7F

PS I hope I haven't changed the code since the last upload as I have been changing the program that generates the loaders!

[SanguineBrah]

I do indeed get the message "Using sampled speech 2 SWRAM banks" on the splash screen. I typed your two lines of code above and it printed a 0 - I suppose that means it's not seeing the TM5220?

I'm not too clear on how to make the edit to hard code the other ram banks in, as I haven't done anything like that for about 25 years (this beeb was only recently rescued from the back of the family garage and I'm still getting my sea legs). I'm guessing it's in ASTROld (i.e. the loader)? The other SWRAM banks are at slots 8 and 9.

Would it matter if I had the CC Speech and TTS roms installed in other rom slots? I believe they have to be initialised before they affect anything but I'm not certain.

[tricky]

They should not affect it.
I used to detect the speech chip myself, but it used to get it wrong. After I swapped for the OS code, I realised that it was only on masters that it got it wrong and they can't have speech chips!
I'll get the latest and patch it for you when I get time.
For my r-type demo, I check for the ROM first, which would at least let you load it wherever you want.
I should probably avoid ram with copywrites if I can.
I'll put the old detection code back and auto fail on master/compact.
I do wonder what is stopping your OS from finding it. Actually, on some boards there are tracks to cut and join (May be needed for OS), but Astro Blaster and CC don't need this.