BBC AGD Games

[oss003]

Ok guys,

time for a preview .......

I managed to convert Simons magnificent 'Robot, The Impossible Mission' game to a BBC version ........
It uses some extra AGD features which are added to the BBC version now like SW RAM usage (thanks Kieran), Megablocks and Adventuremode.
You do need 16KB Sideways RAM to run the game.

I still have to find a way to load a panel on the screen before starting the game........
The game has to look like this:

Greetings
Kees

[tricky]

Looking good, how do you load it on an Atom?

[oss003]

Looking good, how do you load it on an Atom?

You mean the panel?

On the Atom I have a Basic loader which loads the title screen and waits for a keypress. Then the panel is loaded in video memory and after that the game is loaded and ececuted.

In the BBC version, the video registers are tweaked to get the right resolution before the game starts so loading the panel has to be done in the game after the tweaking ...... but not every game has a panel ... I can however always load a panel and if no panel is needed, just load an empty panel...... or do the tweaking in Basic ..

Greetings
Kees

[SimonSideburns]

Oh wow, I'm blown away. I thought I'd never see the day the game would run on the Beeb.

Now if only we had more memory for a higher colour mode. something to think about for nULA I guess.

As for calling the game magnificent, what can I say except thanks.

[oss003]

Guys I have a question .......

I'm having problems with the keyboard read routine OSBYTE &79 checking for the '9' or the 'I' keys.
According to the Advanced User Guide, the internal keycode for '9' is &25 and for 'I' is &26 but when I test it in AGD it seems that both values need to be switched ......... so the '9' keycode is &26 and the 'I' is &25 .....

Can somebody confirm this?

This is the code:

Code: Select all

;--------------------------------------------------------
; Keyboard test routine.
;
; Input:
;  A = key to read
;
; Output:
;  carry clr = key pressed
;  carry set = key not pressed
;--------------------------------------------------------

ktest:
	sta z80_a		; save key
	tya
	pha

; _BEEB keyboard read
	lda z80_a
	eor #$80		; _BEEB just look for this key
	tax

	lda #$79
	jsr OSBYTE

	txa
	bmi pressed 	; _BEEB X is negative if key is pressed

	sec			; key not pressed
	pla
	tay
	rts

pressed:
	clc			; key pressed
	pla
	tay
	rts

Greetings
Kees

[lurkio]

According to the Advanced User Guide, the internal keycode for '9' is &25 and for 'I' is &26 but when I test it in AGD it seems that both values need to be switched ......... so the '9' the keycode is &26 and the 'I' is &25 ..... Can somebody confirm this?

Have you seen this?:

• viewtopic.php?f=42&t=17242&p=242931#p238989

[oss003]

Have you seen this?:

• viewtopic.php?f=42&t=17242&p=242931#p238989

No, but this confirms my findings ......
BTW these were the only 2 wrong keys in the table ......

Thanks ...

Greetings
Kees

[soviet]

do you got any new AGD games to run on the BBC

[oss003]

do you got any new AGD games to run on the BBC

Yes, a lot of them are running now but a lot are using sideway RAM.
I even got WinAGD working to design your own games, please have a look at: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=17991&hilit=BBC+MPAGD

Maybe I'll convert some games in my vacation starting soon ....

Greetings
Kees

[oss003]

Hi guys ... I have a question about BeebAsm ...
For AGD I want to create a discimage which can be auto-booted.
These are the lines in my batch file to do this:

Code: Select all

REM Use BeebAsm to make a BBC disc image

 IF NOT EXIST Output/%1.bin goto error
 echo PUTFILE "Output/%1.bin", "AGDGAME", $1200, $1200 > disc.asm
 echo PUTFILE "B-em/LOADER.BAS", "LOADER", $1900, $8023 >> disc.asm
 echo PUTFILE "B-em/TITLE.SCR", "TITLE", $5800, $5800 >> disc.asm
 beebasm.exe -i disc.asm -do Discs\%1.ssd -boot AGDGAME

This works fine but !BOOT executes *BASIC and *RUN AGDGAME and what I want is *BASIC and CH."LOADER"
Is this possible?

Greetings
Kees

[tricky]

-opt N
Has the same effect as
*OPT 4,N
Where I think the default is 3, *exec
I write the !boot from beebasm and only -opt, not-boot iirc
You can also give it an image as a template.

[oss003]

Tricky, if I use

Code: Select all

beebasm.exe -i disc.asm -do Discs\%1.ssd -opt

then a parameter error is generated.
Is there a way to start a Basic program with *RUN?

I also tried to create a !BOOT file with the PUTTEXT command, that doesn't generate an error but doesn't create the file !BOOT on the image .....

Code: Select all

 echo PUTTEXT "B-em/BOOT", "!BOOT", $0000, $FFFF >> disc.asm

boot.png (18.78 KiB) Viewed 1599 times

[tricky]

I use:

Code: Select all

ORG &C000
EQUS "B%=&" : HEX4 MAIN : EQUS 13
EQUS "CH.", 34, "MOON", 34, 13
save "!BOOT", &C000, P%, 0, 0

The first line is because I *LOAD the game in the basic loader and then CALL B% to start it.
I'm sure that there are better ways to do this and to write my MACROs, but this is what I use:

Code: Select all

MACRO HEX1 v
	d = v AND &F
	IF d<10
		EQUB '0'+d
	ELSE
		EQUB 'A'+d-10
	ENDIF
ENDMACRO
MACRO HEX2 v
	HEX1 v DIV &10
	HEX1 v
ENDMACRO
MACRO HEX4 v
	HEX2 v DIV &100
	HEX2 v
ENDMACRO

PS And I build the final image with:

Code: Select all

..\tools\beebasm.exe -w -vc -i build.asm -do MoonPatrol.ssd -opt 3 -title "MoonPatrol"

[CMcDougall]

Is there a way to start a Basic program with *RUN?

I did have a program from The Micro User, but can't find it

this also does it for a small program :

[oss003]

Ok, got it working now ......... my mistake ....
I manually added !BOOT ...... at the wrong place.
This works for me:

Code: Select all

REM Use BeebAsm to make a BBC disc image

 IF NOT EXIST Output/%1.bin goto error
 echo PUTFILE "Output/%1.bin", "AGDGAME", $1200, $1200 > disc.asm
 if exist "screens/titles/%1.SCR" (
   echo PUTFILE "screens/titles/%1.SCR", "TITLE", $5800, $5800 >> disc.asm
 )
 if exist "screens/panels/%1.PAN" (
   echo PUTFILE "screens/LOADERPAN.BAS", "LOADER", $1900, $8023 >> disc.asm
   echo PUTFILE "screens/panels/%1.PAN", "PANEL", $6800, $6800 >> disc.asm
 ) else (
   echo PUTFILE "screens/LOADER.BAS", "LOADER", $1900, $8023 >> disc.asm
 )
 echo PUTFILE "screens/BOOT", "!BOOT", $0000, $FFFF >> disc.asm

I also expanded it to add a titlescreen and a panelscreen if they exist.

boot.png (18.78 KiB) Viewed 1560 times

Greetings
Kees

[daveejhitchins]

Is there a way to start a Basic program with *RUN?

You should be able to modify this quite easily . . .

Transfer.ssd

(26.25 KiB) Downloaded 32 times

Dave H

[oss003]

Hi guys, I was wondering if it is possible to change the screenaddress to &A800 (in sideways RAM).
This is the idea to have a much free RAM for AGD as possible:

Is this possible?

Greetings
Kees

mem.png (7.57 KiB) Viewed 442 times

[hoglet]

Is this possible?

In a word, no!

Sorry...

[oss003]

And the screen from &0E00-&2600?

[tricky]

Yep, that is fine.
R12=HI(scr_addr/8)
R13=LO(scr_addr/8)

Apart from &E00-&1900 is probably owned by DFS with &1100+ usually free if not using file handling other than *LOAD/*RUN.

PS If you don't need the disc after loading, I think it is safe to *TAPE and then use it anyway, exiting with a psudo power on reset but it probably isn't "legal".

[kieranhj]

I figure I should just share this here, rather than leave it languishing on my PC. Although I'm no longer actively helping with the development of BBC AGD, I did have some success a while back converting Foggy's Quest by Dethmunk into MODE 1 to give it a bit of colour (the Spectrum version looks gorgeous!) It's hardcoded for the BBC Master I'm afraid as this was just WIP.

[lurkio]

I figure I should just share this here, rather than leave it languishing on my PC. Although I'm no longer actively helping with the development of BBC AGD, I did have some success a while converting Foggy's Quest by Dethmunk into MODE 1 to give it a bit of colour (the Spectrum version looks gorgeous!) It's hardcoded for the BBC Master I'm afraid as this was just WIP.

Oh, this is very good, for heaven's sake! Brilliant work! Please don't give up on this..!

Are there any other AGD games for the Beeb that are in progress or already complete?

The only one I know of is ROBOT - The Impossible Mission

[oss003]

I figure I should just share this here, rather than leave it languishing on my PC.

Hi Kieran,

I want to update this version to be compatible with the mode4 version as soon as I have time. Also implementing INK and PAPER is on my list to create coloured text foreground and background like the Atom version.
First I want to get MPAGD working with the new memory map so that you have one block for the game.
To be continued ...

Greetings
Kees

[SimonSideburns]

The only one I know of is ROBOT - The Impossible Mission

I just played through ROBOT - The Impossible Mission on the web based emulator and managed to complete it on Medium difficulty level with two lives remaining, and there were some quite odd glitches with sprites. It seems like sprites were picking up the first frame of the next sprite on one of the frames for the current sprite. This wasn't an issue on the original Spectrum version.

I wonder what's going on with that.