sh3-rg

What IRC network is this channel on?

I've released my little microFLY game over at Atari Age. It's not quite 100% just very close, but could do with some testing if anyone has time to fire it up. Emulator won't work too good with it, so it's hardware only really.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241958-%ce%bcfly-new-jaguar-game-release/

 

Is there anyway you could create a list of steps to get this committed and into a Jag? I know this seems basic, but I am not getting how it all fits together. Admittedly, my skills have rusted, perhaps to nonexistence, but I would still love to play with it a bit.

 

Thanks in advance

-Mac

 

Here's a link to the thread with the details:

http://www.jagware.org/index.php?showtopic=1195

rB+ website: http://reboot.atari.org/new-reboot/rbplus/

The site has a list of the commands specific to rB+ with details of how to use them and examples where necessary. There are also links to other resources such as the BCX help site (the BASIC variant/C translator rB+ is built upon, containing all the other regular BASIC commands supported with examples and descriptions) and the U-235 sound engine it makes use of.

There are tutorials designed to help a beginner get to grips with how a project comes together and a primer to help the absolute novice get a picture of how rB+ works in the context of the Jaguar hardware (more specifically, the Object Processor).

Tutorial 1 takes the reader through the process of considering a game after the concept is decided: First creating assets then completing the sprite descriptions based on them and finally having rB+ gather them into the game. It then goes on to consider the major game elements of the tutorial game (Doger - a simple Frogger-style game) and presents the reader with the fully commented BASIC program.

All of the rB+-specific commands used are explained where necessary and the reader can experiment by altering aspects of the program, building the project and sending to the skunkboard or Virtual Jaguar. Building projects, both BJL-style and ROM projects, is also covered.

Further larger scale case study projects are planned, these will allow us to go into more detail and explore more in-depth features in the context of a game program, as well as smaller more fun and digestible features explaining individual aspects of rB+ such as particles and the map system.

Work is almost complete. There's a bit more content than expected so early in the project, so much so that that CJ suggested an area of the site be dedicated to all things rB+/Raptor rather than trying to cram it into forum posts. I've completed Tutorial 0 which is an overview of Jaguar in an rb+ context. Tutorials 1.1 and 1.2 are done and present the raptor list entries, building the lists and managing the assets via the new assets.txt file. There's a fully commented little game to go with this (as mentioned in the previous post, I switched and wrote a new one from scratch), and a description of a few of the less obvious areas I myself stumbled through and hope to ease others past much more smoothly. There's also some talk on the flow of game design using rb+, the best ways to begin and a few tips on setting up the .BAS file before any programming commences.

So tomorrow I have to package up the game project folder, create a page containing the BASIC listing for the site, make sure all the pages link together correctly, make a page listing all the rB+-specific commands for quick reference, list some links to other resources such as the BCX help site and then I think it will be ready to all go live.

The plan is to keep adding smaller little features that explore the modules and functions of rb+, along with a larger case study type game project that should hopefully pull in lots of this into one game project over time. That might even allow for development work from a number of sources, depending on who is interested and can be arsed

/me likes where this thread is going

(sorry, not been able to sign in for quite a while, reset my password yet again this morning).

As CJ said, the problem occurs before you even get to that point, not so much once the hash is passed. If it gets that far it's you more likely doing something wrong, not the Jaguar CD. CD-R is just a bad place to go, that's why we put out games on CD-R with binaries on a standard disc, so we couldn't be accused of presenting people with unusable products... in the end it doesn't really matter, Jaguar fans rarely play games anyway, they put them on shelves and in storage boxes (joke!) but tbh, I've done exactly that (no joke!)... and it's really daft

I'm working on a tutorial at the moment. As it's BASIC and the idea is to get anyone and everyone involved or able to play around with their Jaguars, the first part doesn't even touch on rb+ at all, it's more intended as background reading to get even people who haven't written a single line of BASIC before into the right frame of mind regarding how the Jaguar does its thing (at least the bits of it someone wanting to have a go with rb+ need to get to grips with). It only gets as technical as reading through a simplified sprite definition and having people consider the possibilities.

The second part goes on to set up a full sprite definition file (it's a Raptor Object List, but the terminology throughout attempts to keep it all on the overly friendly side) and then goes into the beginnings of using that from within rb+. The only thing here is CJ suggested a much simpler and easier game to use for this, so I've decided to put this on hold as more something for the next stage of the tutorial (as it has much more possibilities for introducing more of the features available). So my next job is to rework that for the simpler game, which will require me to create the simple graphics assets and get the game up and running.

I just want to get people using it and discovering how powerful Raptor is, even via BASIC. That feels like it should be a priority because if more people could see the fun it can be as I have over the last 6 weeks or so, that wouldn't be a bad thing at all :0)

As I work through the various features of rb+, I'm putting bits and pieces together into a demonstration program as well. It's all but finished but requires a lot of fine-tuning to make it more slick as a presentation. I've also got a couple of my own game thingies I'm working on. But early this week, I'll be concentrating on getting parts 1 and 2 of the tutorial ready to put up here and on Atari Age. Probably on the Reboot site as well. It seems a bit selfish to tear off into the depths of rb+ without giving others the first leg up into what initially appears to be a baffling series of assembler source files and little in the way of documentation.

Just a quick note, I haven't been able to get Towers 2 to run properly. Is there a trick or any special settings for this one?

Think talking about ROMs of commercially available games, even if they are your own legal backups or whatever, is just the wrong side of the line it's best not to even approach.

Maybe it shouldn't be but, you know, dramaz etc.

As for VJ, I don't think the current aim is to get it running this, that or the other particular ROM, more about getting the emulation tighter which in turn makes more software compatible. Jagulator was more targeted to that kind of patch/hack/botch-per-game style of emulation, but that's much less useful as a development tool for obvious reasons and Jagware is all about dat dev shit ;-)

Presumably you have tried PMing SubQmod at AA.

He sold up and moved on a long time ago (I bought much of his hardware, including a broken skunk and a broken Jag CD). He now plays Battlefield a lot instead apparently.

Is this image supposed to boot automatically in the JagCD? I burned it @ 16X using DiscJuggler but get the ?

Please bear in mind I burned this to a Memorex cd-r so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

EDIT: Even w/ Protector SE the cd won't load/be recognized

It should, yes. If I had my Jaguar/CD set up I'd burn it and try, but unfortunately I don't. Will try to do so later today.

The various Soul Star betas out there all seem to have issues. I would test your burn of Jagtopia to see if it'll first let you load up any commercial CD you have. Once you know it works and the timings involved you should at least be able to go from there.

You know your SoulStar copy works with Protector SE and I can't think of any reports of Jagtopia failing to help load something, so... not sure what else to say other than good luck! ;-)

I think it's less about how much you pay and more about the dye the discs use and the burner/software combination used to write them.

The most reliable brand I've used were the TDK spindle of 50 I had. http://www.dabs.com/products/tdk-cd-r-52x-...indle-34FZ.html But even with these, one of my Jag CDs really doesn't want to entertain the idea of running them.

Hi, is there a version that's encrypted?

The one I have requires a bypass cart to load in JagCD. Thanks

If you have the game binary you could always use JiFFI: http://reboot.atari.org/new-reboot/jiffi.html (yeah, MOAR PIMPIN)

EDIT:

Here is the DJ image link:

ULS image of DTS

--

I really am going back into hibernation now, honest.

Rather a touchy subject in the past depending on who, where and why.

You actually might not be doing anything wrong other than using a brand of media that your Jaguar CD unit dislikes. CD-R wasn't really a thing when those units were made and they were never designed to make use of them (around the time of the Jaguar's release, if not he CD unit's, a burner cost around the same price as a family car ). If you're getting the (?), a good way to check if it's the burn or the disc is to use a bypass cart or a game with bypass and see how your burned discs fare then. If you still get errors, it's likely a problem in the imaging/burning process, not the disc.

For reference, brands we've had good results with include Taiyo Yuden and JVC (same company these days IIRC).

As for software, when producing images and burning masters for manufacture, I've used the freeware version of DiscJuggler. I made a guide (inspired by Gregg/QueenMeka's post on his site): http://reboot.atari.org/new-reboot/burning.html DJ is no longer available AFAIK as Padus went pop, but the link has an archive available to grab.

I've only ever used DJ for burning self-produced images, not imaging and burning my original Jaguar games, so I can't say for sure how much luck you're likely to have.

...

OK, suppose I should continue my hibernation now...

Whisky!!!11

I don't think Tyrant has been seen for some time. If anyone locates him, please give him a prod in the direction of NexGam Atari Forum where there is a queue of guys patiently awaiting new SFDX controllers

Hello all!

 

If you own the CD-version of Impulse X and a MemoryTrack (and some cables, a Windows-PC,..) you can now read up some info on how to make backups of your "Selfcreated Levels" and how to restore them on your MemoryTrack:

http://www.mdgames.d...levels_eng.html.

 

So you can also start to exchange your level set MT-files with other Impulse X users now

 

Kind regards

Matthias

The link is broken, has the classic AA "..." in the middle. I'm guessing an AA post appeared some moments before this one

Chrome won't let me at that 2nd file, says it contains Malware.

It's hard to see in the photo of the TV, but does the first line of the image look correct? It doesn't look like the deckchair bars but with the bleeding it's hard to tell if it's the same as the emulated image.

Where's the video?

Happy birthday you you,

Happy birthday to you,

happy birthday Dear Nyancatlover,

Happy birthday to you.

ps poulpe sucks tentacle

Added post/pack options and ordering info to AA thread... so why are you still reading this?!

A lot of info added to the thread on AtaiAge - take a visit

So that's why rebooteroids with a spinner is now the most silkiest silky thing I've ever slind my slippery fingers over? OK, cool.

Now includes joypad reading feature.

Are you sure it's still a sound engine, or are you trying to compete with Raptor?

He's actually part of the Raptor team now with that release, he just hasn't realised it yet

I've seen encryption bypass carts floating around the net. Are these still useful given the utilities out there nowadays?

 

I don't give a fig about backup CDs. Just want development to go as smoothly as possible.

They're only useful for me when testing usually ULS) CD-R burns. CD-R is unreliable with Jaguar CD. While ULS is known good, if something fails to load I need to know if it's the burn or the contents. The hash check seems (to me at least) to be something the CD player struggles with most when using CD-R. I don't know whether something times out with a longer seek with CD-R for whatever reason, I only know what I see and that using the bypass avoids that and let's me see if a burn works with it, then I can try without knowing this.

Beyond that they have no use, they were only of use before it became possible to produce hashed discs.