Zerosquare

Replied at FreeJag

I wrote a quick program to convert the pictures to .BMP files. The C source file is included.

8bit_to_bmp.zip

So far, it seems to work OK. Here's what I get from the Alice.pic file :

The program must be run from a command line, like this :

8bit_to_bmp <image file> <palette file> <output file> <image width>

You have to guess which palette file is the right one (just test them all), and the width of the image.

Only RGB palette files are supported at the moment.

Example for converting Alice.pic :

8bit_to_bmp alice.pic bset5.rgb alice.bmp 400

Thanks

Beware : upon checking, it seems that the 74HC4538 and 74HCT4538 ICs are not 100% compatible with the standard 4538. I think it could be fixed in software, but that would require an additional setting. In the meantime, I recommend against using them.

Here's my latest hardware project : an adapter to use the analog Atari 2600 paddles (the "Pong" ones, not the driving controllers). Each adapter supports two paddles.

It should be useful for Breakout or Warlords-style games

I tried to make it small and simple, and use cheap and easy-to-find parts.

Here's what it looks like. As you can see, it's possible to make it fit into the connector shells.

And here is the schematic :

Parts list :

- One 4538 (or HEF4538, CD4538, etc. not 74HC4538/74HCT4538) IC

- Two 10 nF ceramic X7R capacitors (6.3 V voltage or higher)

- Two 22 k, 5%, 1/4 W resistors

- One 100 nF ceramic X7R capacitor (6.3 V voltage or higher)

- One 9-pin male SubD connector + plastic shell

- One 15-pin high-density male SubD connector + plastic shell

The software routines to use the adapter are almost ready ; they still need a bit of tweaking, but they mostly work.

I'll post them here as soon as they're done, as well as additional information.

OK, after looking at it, it's definitely a 400x400 8-bit palettized image, not CRY or RGB16. However the palette is not in the .PIC file. Have you found any other files that could be it ? (i'm guessing it would be named something like "Alice.pal" and be 512 bytes long, or so).

I don't know any converter which does this.

If it's only for viewing, or if you have just a few images to convert, you can use JagViewer and take screenshots. (Beware though, it seems to be a bit buggy ; the colors are slightly wrong) : JagViewer.zip

If you have a lot of pictures to convert... I guess I could write a converter (I have most of the needed code already written for other projects).

But it cannot be fully automatic, as there isn't any way to know the location and the size of the images in the ROM.

In both cases, it won't work if the pictures are compressed in any way.

The IRC channel is currently being attacked by spambots. They can't be banned, because they use a lot of different hosts, and we don't want to ban anyone innocent by accident.

To keep them out, a password has been added. It is "do_the_math"

You can now join the channel by typing "/join #jagware password"

Sorry for the inconvenience.

EDIT : we had to change the password, it seems that the bots either "guessed" or brute-forced it.

So far, I've just been creating the sprites over a black background and then the programmer must toggle transparency on for the black. Are there easier ways to do it? It seems the Jaguar doesn't have a lot of options regarding transparencies. Can you specify a different color other than black to be the transparency?

However, if black is inconvenient when drawing (and that's often the case), you can use another color which is not used anywhere on your sprite. A common choice is pure magenta.

Once your sprite is completely drawn :

- use your paint program features to replace black by very dark blue

- do the same thing to replace your "transparent" color by pure black

If your sprite is going to be in the foreground of differently colored backgrounds, is it best to have a separate version of the sprite for each background so they can be blended better?

Sympa

Quelques p'tites remarques :

- du JPG aurait suffi, ça va plus vite à charger

- utiliser les images d'origine comme vignette, c'est pââââs bien

- lier la vignette à la version 1:1 de l'image pour qu'on puisse cliquer dessus, c'est bien

Nice !

This is a quick and dirty solution to that problem by just placing a 32 high bitmap (the height of our tileset) at the top of the screen to mask the garbage the OP draws.

It looks even better in hi-def

As I already said on AtariAge : it looks very promising, it's impressive how quickly you developed it. and the fact that it will be free with the source is especially nice.

I'm awaiting the release eagerly

Happy birthday Starcat, once again

Aucune idée, on ne l'a pas vu depuis décembre dernier...

Happy birthday to both

Once again, happy birthday to Symmetry

In a few months, if everything goes right

Thanks for the kind comments

Don't worry about overheating -- thanks to the advance in technology, the chip we use generates very little heat.

Thanks

It would also be a time consuming project. And in the end, only "clean" TOS/GEM apps would run, anything accessing the hardware directly is out of the question (and that includes 99% of the ST games).

I don't mean it's not interesting (it is), but beside the challenge, I doubt it would be really useful...

Thanks for the kind comments

kskunk > They're fake USB ports.

Actually, they're PS/2 ports with the equivalent of an embedded USB-to-PS/2 plug adapter (a lot of USB mice and keyboards also support the PS/2 protocol). We couldn't use the standard mini-DIN connectors, because there wasn't enough space left on the PCB. We also considered implementing real USB ports, but it would have made the hardware (and software) too complex. For those who would like to use real PS/2 devices, PS/2-to-USB plug adapters also exist.

ovalbugmann > Free time is indeed an important factor, so we prefer not to announce any release date... not yet, at least

And the production run will be machine-soldered. SCPCD says he'd be able to solder them by hand, but I don't want him to end up in an psychiatric asylum

atari_fan > No pre-orders yet. We want to be sure everything is OK first.

Welcome

...about everywhere ?

Yes, we finally got the PCBs from the manufacturer... the afternoon before the AC opening, in fact, so no time to solder the components (yet )

What you see are the first 4 prototypes. Two of them are for SCPCD and me, to check that the hardware is working as intended. The remaining two will probably be used for network testing, and may be sold if there are collectors interested in them

The pictures are not ideal, because the PCB were still packaged inside a transparent plastic film ; we didn't remove it to keep them protected until they're soldered. The whitish look on the pads is because of the silver plating (it was cheaper than gold plating, and it is a better conductor, actually). Besides the two sides shown, there are four internal copper layers.

And I won't tell how much those 4 PCBs cost us, but they're not exactly cheap

(but it's only because of the low volume : they're much cheaper if you make several tenths of them)