Matthias

Hello! Here is what a Branch-object looks like (ASCII-art taken from the Underground-docs): ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 10 This is what a branch object looks like: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Phrase #0: 63 56 48 40 32 24 16 8 3 0 +--------^---------^-----+---^--------^--------+--------+--+-----^----+---+ | unused | Link-address | unused |CC| VCnt |011| +------------------------+---------------------+--------+--+----------+---+ 42..........24 23..16 15.14 13...3 2..0 19bits 8bit 2bit 11bits 3bits (11.8) Although a Branch-object is one of the more simpler object-types, creating it with a 68000 isn't quite easy, because the 68000 can only handle up to 32bits (a LONG-word), while all Jaguar-objects are layed out in 64bits (PHRASEs). That's the reason why the Link-address is spread over two registers (d2+d3) in the given 68000-assemblercode, additionally you need to consider that unlike the 68000, which can read a LONG-word from a WORD-adress, all PHRASE-variables need to be aligned on a PHRASE-boundary, so you can usually forget the lowest 3 bits when composing a Jaguar-graphicsobject. BTW: The Link-adress is not an offset, it's a real 22bit-address in the Jaguar's Objectprocessors addressspace. Looking at the object-layout the two used 68000-registers should be filled with portions of the link-address like this: d2 will be used for the bits 32 to 42 of the PHRASE, holding the upper 11 bits (11-21) of the 22bit-Link-address it its lower 11 bits, d3 will be used for the bits 24 to 31 of the PHRASE, holding bits 3-10 of the 22bit-Link-address in its upper 8 bits. For d3, SWAPing is just a fast way to move the desired link-adreessbits from the lower 16bit-half of the 32bit-register to the upper 16bit-half. Kind regards Matthias

Hello all! At the moment i am very confident that Impulse X can be released this year Since some weeks i have added fixpoint-calculation for the ballmovement, so finally the game plays at similar speed under both PAL/50Hz and NTSC/60Hz, and also the 2 difficulty settings now implement 2 different ball speeds. I am always surprised to hear people asking for Clicks!, because there was an inflation of games like this on all platforms, but after not playing it for a very long time and then demoing it at the Euro-Jagfest 2010 i can understand you Kind regards Matthias

Hello! Of course it's ok Kind regards Matthias D.

Hello MegaData! Depending on the number of team-members and their type of jobs in the project you should consider to use a Concurrent Versions System (CVS) to share the project-files (sources, data-files), and a simple mailing-list can be sufficient to hold the contact between the team-members (and helps to archive the correspondence). A Yahoogroup can also be used to some degree (can handle mail-traffic and store files). Best regards Matthias

Hello all, so far you had to have either an Alpine board or a similar cable-based upload-solution to be able start the CD-encryption tool, now i have added another option: Just use your Jaguar-CD-player! This week i have modified my RAM-based version CDEN16.ABS of the CD-encryption tool in a way which allows it to run from CD, as soon it is started it will ask you to open the lid of the Jaguar-CD-player and to insert the desired un-encrypted CD it should process for you (the result of the encryption-process will be send to your PC via a serial connection, see my CD-encryption-tutorial for details). You can find CDRecord-tracks as well as CD-Images for DiscJuggler and Nero of this "CD-encryption-CD" in the "Tools"/"CD creating" section of my Jaguar-site. Kind regards Matthias

Hello! I am not an experienced Alpine-user, but here is how i have understood the CD-encryption-process when using the Alpine: You should have at least these files: CDEN.DB CDENCR.DB CDENCR.TXT CDENCR.DTA CDENCR.SYM PRIVATECD.KEY Put in the un-encrypted CD into the Jaguar-CD-player and then use one of the Alpine-tools to upload and run CDEN.DB, this debugging-script will call another script called CDENCR.DB which uploads the CD-encryption-tool (CDENCR.TXT, CDENCRY.DTA and CDENCR.SYM) into the Jaguar/Alpine and starts it. The CDENCR-tool then asks for the PRIVATECD.KEY-file which is uploaded by the still running CDEN.DB-script. Then the encryption-process is done and the results will be saved to 2 files: HASHTAB.CD will hold the calculated HASH-table and CDREPORT.TXT is the CD's TOC (needed only if you later run the CD-verification-tool AFAIK). Please adjust the file-paths in both scripts CDEN.DB and CDENCR.DB before you use them! Also note that HASHTAB.CD will only contain the quite small calculated HASH-table, while my improved program adds the proper CD-track-wrapper around the HASH-data. Hope this helps Matthias

Hello! Thanks :-) My work is based on the stuff Curt Vendel had released in the end of 2003, you should be able to download the sources for the cartidge- and CD-encryption programs from his website. Also all those "Alpine-developers" out there should be able to provide you with the encryption-executables and descriptions how to use them, i am not the right person for this. Bye! Matthias

Happy New Year! Matthias

Hello, here is the official Euro-Jagfest 2006 announcement Björn Baranski (BMX) released today: I'll be there Matthias

Hello! Here are some more, taken by Sijmen Schouten (Mr. Atari) and his wife Sandra: Mr. Atari's pictures I think 20-25, may be more, may be less. Regards Matthias

Hello, i've uploaded some few pictures here: Pictures from Euro-Jagfest 2006 We had a lot of nice discussions and fun with the Lynx and Jaguar tournaments. Regards Matthias

Hello! I just have uploaded a webpage for the DoubleFeature-product. The reports about the Euro-Jagfest will be posted either on sunday or monday ;-) Bye! Matthias

Hello Stabylo! Besides of a lot of other projects of mine the focus will be on Clicks! and on Double Feature #1 (with Reversi and ConnectThem) for the Jaguar and i will also try to show the new MultiGame-project Karri Kaksonen and Songbird Production (and a lot of others) are working on for the Lynx. Best regards Matthias

Hi Pocket! Of course you can: Just visit first the Euro-Jagfest on saturday (it's a 1-day event) and travel back to France to visit the Retro-Gaming Connexion on sunday (its 2nd day)! ;-) Have fun! Matthias

Hello all! I agree, it's unfortunate that both the Retro-Gaming Connexion and the Euro-Jagfest are on the same weekend and even the UK-Jagfest being just a week before, hopefully this will be different next year. I hope that the people at the UK-Jagfest will have a great event this weekend, wished i could be there! Best regards Matthias

Hello! Ok, meanwhile i have seen that i was wrong when saying that width and height will be put into a 16bit-register, but my trouble was related to the proper setting up of the registers and the understanding of how the blitter works. To clear (or fill) a contigous area like a whole screen you can either think of this screen as a 2-dimensional object (width, height) , or as a 1-dimensional object of length "width*height". You can use the Jagaur-blitter for both versions, but the latter (the 1-dimensional) will only work as long as width*height are less than $10000. Here is some 68k-code i use to clear 2-dimensional areas in my applications/games: . . move.w #320,screenwidth move.w #208,screenheight move.l #PITCH1|PIXEL16|WID320|XADDPIX,screenflags . move.l #myfirstscreen,d0 jsr Clear16bitscreen . move.l #mysecondscreen,d0 jsr Clear16bitscreen . ;******************************************************************* Clear16bitscreen: ; Point A1BASE to the data move.l d0,A1_BASE; destination-address move.l screenflags,d0 or.l #XADDPIX,d0 move.l d0,A1_FLAGS ; Set the pixel point to 0,0 move.w #0,d0 ; y swap d0 move.w #0,d0 ; x move.l d0,A1_PIXEL ; Set fractional pixel pointer move.w #0,d0 ; y swap d0 move.w #0,d0 ; x move.l d0,A1_FPIXEL ; Set up the step size to ; -screenwidth in x and ; 1 in y move.w #1,d0 ; y swap d0 move.w screenwidth,d0 neg.w d0 move.l d0,A1_STEP ; Set up the fractional step size to 0 in x ; 0 in y move.w #0,d0 ; y swap d0 move.w #0,d0 ; x move.l d0,A1_FSTEP ; Set up Counters register move.w screenheight,d0; y swap d0 move.w screenwidth,d0; x move.l d0,B_COUNT ; Put some data (0s to clear the screen) in the blitter for it to write ; This is a cheat I am using all 0 so there is ; no need to word swap move.l #0,d0 move.l d0,B_PATD move.l #0,d0 move.l d0,B_PATD+4 ; Now Turn IT ON !!!!!!!!!!!!! ; NO SOURCE DATA ; NO OUTER LOOP ; Turn on pattern data ; Allow outer loop update move.l #PATDSEL|UPDA1,d0 move.l d0,B_CMD .waitforblitter: move.l B_CMD,d0 ; wait till blitter has finished its work andi.l #1,d0 beq .waitforblitter rts Bye! Matthias

Hello! I run into the same problem ;-) I don't have the docs at hand (nor a source-code) but the solution is, that your height*width needs to be less than 65536 (range is $0-$ffff) because both values are combined in a 16bit-register. But i think you can use a trick and tell the blitter to fill 2 or 4 pixels during the same step ( like 240 lines of 160 "DoublePixels"). Perhaps i can come up with a better description tomorrow... Best regards Matthias

Hello! Ok, i am using this sentence in the credits-screen: LZSS packer by Ray of tscc Is this ok? I am using "LZSS" because of the state of confusion i am currently in, see below: Hmm, recently i began wondering about this: On Ray's website he talks about a new version of his LZ77 stuff which he calls LZ78, the DOS-EXE i use to compress (pack) the files outputs LZ77, does this mean that we all use an outdated version now on the Jaguar? Regards Matthias

Hi! Ok, finally found the problem: Your RISC-code simply consumpts too many registers! ;-) The reason why i asked for the RISC-source was that i have to integrate it into a huge project with an already established RISC-code-environment. Sadly this RISC-code-environment (--> the function dispatcher) leaves only few registers for the called subroutines. Ok, now it's working, so i am happy :-) Thansk again! Matthias

Hello! Today i started incorporating it in my project, the decoding RISC-code isn't working yet :-( , but the C-function which i found on Ray's site. I'll let you know how it procedes :-) Bye! Matthias

Hi! Ok, thanks for this :-) I'll let you know if/when i got it incorporated in my project. Thanks again! Matthias

Hello! At the moment i don't plan to make a release for the CompactFlash-card or normal cartridge. Perhaps this will change later, who knows. Best regards and thanks for your interest in my games. Matthias

Hello, thanks everybody for the warm welcome! Matthias

Hi! Ok, thanks! Matthias

Hello! I have one: Why isn't the RISC-source released? I haven't found it in the archive. :-( Best regards Matthias