Dark Bit Factory & Gravity

GENERAL => Challenges & Competitions => Topic started by: Xalthorn on August 30, 2008

Title: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Xalthorn on August 30, 2008
Code: Me
Graphics : Me (and Photoshop if we're being fussy)
Music: "On Wheels" by Anders Dator Felix Dator from modarchive.org
Tools:
TINYPTC Ext (Rbz)
ufmod.o music player thing
bin2bas (Rbz) to create includable music
Jim's BMP loader and my exporter to throw it back out as an includable
upx  to compress the executable

Okay, my 3rd and probably final entry into this challenge.  This one took way too long as I was trying to work out what I wanted to include in it.  A lot of ideas came to me and were then thrown into the bin as too 'game-y'.

My biggest concern is how smoothly/fast/slow it runs.  I'm having real hassles getting a consistent speed on this computer.  Please let me know if it seems overly slow or fast in sections and I'll let you know if it's meant to be slow or fast at that part.

Anyway, here goes...


Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Shockwave on August 30, 2008
This runs really nicely on my config :D

It's 40kb of pure niceness, I'd go as far as saying that this would probably place in most scene competitions that have a 40kb category for it's novelty value and niceness.

The loading screen brought back some lovely memories :)
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Xalthorn on August 30, 2008
Phew! I'm pleased it runs properly.

I was careful to try to mimic the loading process fairly accurately.  I never realised you had a speccy, I had you down as a C64 owner and it's rare to find someone who enjoyed both.

And no, I'm not about to dig up the schoolboy 'my computer is ace, yours sucks' thing all over again ;)
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Shockwave on August 30, 2008
I never realised you had a speccy, I had you down as a C64 owner and it's rare to find someone who enjoyed both.

http://www.nicksimpsonx.com/page1.php (http://www.nicksimpsonx.com/page1.php) ;)
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Xalthorn on August 30, 2008
Yeah that's what I figured :D

I always remember that the C64 could do clever things like play music during loading, whereas the speccy had that wonderful acoustic pleasure whilst loading.  Although you could reduce the noise by plugging the tape deck into the mic socket instead of ear and let the sound travel across the board to the ear socket and give your ears a bit of a break ;)
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Shockwave on August 30, 2008
I used to enjoy the loading sound :)

Is that perverse?

Loading operation wolf on the +2 was 20 minutes of screechy audio lovelyness, and half the time you had to do it again because...

R: TAPE LOADING ERROR!
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Xalthorn on August 30, 2008
I'm not sure about enjoying it, but I know when I hear it, it reminds me of the good old days.
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Optimus on August 30, 2008
I absolutely love this! You even tried to simulate the vram of speccy (with the 3 screen parts) and then the intro is just lovely and so is the music.
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: benny! on August 30, 2008
Spectrum style in perfection!!!

Very good one!  :clap:
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Xalthorn on August 30, 2008
hehe thanks

It took a lot of head scratching to work out how I was going to get the three bands on the SCREEN$ with the shorter screen.  I ended up giving myself a 'screen$' resolution of 96 pixels high and splitting this into 3x 32 bars which then worked nicely to give me 8 bars of 4 lines to at least vaguely follow the original.

I love that guys music, it's compact and works great with these types of demos.  I was trying to find some way to convert an old spectrum audio (fairlight, or "robin of the wood" would have been perfect) but I couldn't find one :(
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: gooner on August 30, 2008
Another fantastic entry from you Xalthorn well done mate. :clap: :clap: :clap:
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Pixel_Outlaw on August 30, 2008
This demo is a REALLY hard hitter. I love to see physics done in isometric style, very very cool.
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Praecor on September 01, 2008
great great great work! doesn't get much better!  :cheers:

Brilliant to see how ppl respect their roots like this.
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Xalthorn on September 01, 2008
Thanks folks  :updance:

The general nature of this forum and the people on it makes coding these things worthwhile.  There's nothing better than producing something that you're proud of and to see people appreciate it.
Title: Re: [REDUCED RES] Speccy
Post by: Rbz on September 01, 2008
That's a great work again Xalthorn !