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152 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
152 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
Q1. Are you implementing the game just like the original (i.e. vector
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drawing)?
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A1. No, this is just a quick hack using sprites.
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While it would be pretty amazing, I haven't written
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a 6502 optimized vector drawing library.
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---
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Q2. Is the gameplay exactly like the game?
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A2. No, there are a lot of things that are hard to do in 40x48 and/or
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with only 48k of RAM.
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See the TODO file for a list of things I've noticed.
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The game is really amazing and subtle and some things you only notice
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after staring at it a long time.
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I haven't reverse-engineered the game code or looked at source code,
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my version is made purely by observing game play.
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---
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Q3. Why aren't the keyboard controls the same as the original game?
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A3. The Apple II has simplistic keyboard support.
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In general it's not possible to read more than one key at a time.
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Also on pre-IIe machines it's not really possible to get key-release events.
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Additionally, on older models there's no auto-repeat unless you
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hold down the REPT key, which makes running difficult.
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The original game really depends on being able to detect having
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multiple keys down at once.
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Q4. Does this have joystick support?
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A4. It should not be hard to add, and in fact would give controls much
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closer to the original.
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I probably won't have time to implement it any time soon though.
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----
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Q5. Is there anything impressive going on here, like with your other demos?
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A5. No, it's pretty much straight up "sprite" drawing.
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One unusual thing is I am using grey2 (color 10) as the transparent
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color rather than black, as there is black in the sprites.
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It's actually refreshing not having to cycle everything.
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---
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Q6. Why are some cutscenes tiny and some large?
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A6. I started making the cutscenes before I had a good feel for
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how large they'd be or how quickly they could run. Some of the
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earlier ones are smaller for that reason, before I decided I
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could afford full-screen ones.
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---
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Q7. How are you making the graphics?
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A7. Using the original for reference (currently a Windows/EGA version
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for some reason?) Size down to 80x48. (This isn't bad as the original
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is roughly 320x200 which scales well).
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I manually map colors to the Apple II Lo-res palette.
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Finally fine tune in a bit while using original for reference.
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---
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Q8. Why lores graphics? It's so *horribly* blocky.
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A8. Yes, but I like it anyway. So many colors!
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I spent a lot of time as an ANSI artist so I am used to blocky
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16-color graphics, and to be honest with you my art skills sort
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of peak at that resolution.
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Also Apple II graphics programming is painful and LORES is so
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much easier than HIRES (it's also smaller, faster, and takes
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less valuable RAM).
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Partly nostalgia too, but my family only had a monochrome monitor
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so I never got to experience full-color lores back in the day.
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Unfortunately this game doesn't really play well in monochrome.
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Q9. Are you going to make a version using Hi-res or Double Hi-res graphics?
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A9. No, there's an official version for the Apple IIgs if you want something
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like that. Apple II hires graphics with sprites are a huge pain
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to program, would probably be slower, and would take up a lot more
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RAM.
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---
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Q10. How about double-lores graphics (80x48)? It would give you almost
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square pixels?
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A10. While not as bad as Hires, double-lores is also a pain. It only
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works on the IIe with 128k or newer. Also you now have to copy
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things to aux memory, and your sprites have to worry about the
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colors being shifted (I think) on the AUX page. It will take
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twice the ram and probably run 1/2 the speed.
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Also the current code uses page-flipping to avoid flicker/tearing,
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but doing page-flipping in double-lores is really tricky.
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---
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Q11. Why are you targeting such an old machine, an original Apple II or II+?
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A11. Well, I own one. Also there's something about programming on a machine
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from 1977, whose graphics hardware is a glorified shift register,
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and is implemented entirely out of 7400 series logic and 555 timers.
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---
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Q12. In the intro, why not have lowercase letters?
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A12. The Apple II/II+ only supported uppercase letters by default.
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Also no "|" character, which explains why some of the ASCII art
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looks a bit odd.
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I suppose I could auto-uppercase on older machines on the fly like
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my Still Alive demo does. The memory budget is a bit tight though.
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---
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Q13. Could you really use this on an original Apple II from 1977?
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A13. Yes, in theory. You would have needed a 48k model which would
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have been expensive at the time ($2638). Also the disk image
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will fail to auto-boot and HELLO won't run as it's in Applesoft
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BASIC (not the Integer BASIC that came with the original II).
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You'll have to manually type C600G and then POKE the level you
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want to address 5 (0 for intro, 1 for LEVEL 1, etc)
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POKE 5,2
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then
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BRUN LOADER
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