April 30, 2021 Update

README.md

@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 # Manic Miner
  Remake of the ZX Spectrum game for the Apple II.
 
+Updates:
+i. 30 April 2021 - I Sped up rendering for a more even experience, especially
+in The Vat and The Warehouse.  The Apple II vesrsion is marginally slower than
+the ZX Spectrum version (I think - tested with Speccy) but feels pretty good.
+To make room for the fully unrolled level rendering, I sacrificed the lower
+case letters in the font.  I updated the table of timings, below.
+
 1. INTRODUCTION
 
 This is a game I have always loved, from the moment I saw it in a computer shop
@@ -88,35 +95,46 @@ as much as is possible given the limitations.
 4. TECHNICAL DETAILS
 
 The game is written in 6502 assembly language using the ca65 assembler.  The
-game uses memory from $0800 to $B52C.
+game uses memory from $0800 to $BE4B.
 
 Below is a CPU cycle profile of 1 game frame in stage 1 after a couple of
 seconds of being on the level.  The door isn't visible so this renders only the
-one enemy and Willy, as well as the level tiles.  The auidoPlayNote includes an
-artificial delay that's based on the number of tiles rendered.  If I didn't have
-that, the really empty levels such as SkyLab would play the in-game music way
-too fast.  However, this does mean that the game experience is smoother with the
-music turned off, since there's no artificial delay.
+one enemy and Willy, as well as the level tiles.  gameDelay is an artificial
+delay based on how many tiles were rendered, which smooths out the gameplay,
+and thus song tempo across levels.  If the music is turned off, audioPlayNote
+will also create an artificial delay to simulate the delay incurred by
+toggling the speaker.
 
-Hex | Dec | Frame % | Item
---- | --- | --- | ---
-19C3E | 105534 | 100% | Total Frame
+Cycle counts are not constant across all frames so all timings below are
+approximate.
+
+Hex | Dec | Frame % | Item
+--- | --- | --- | ---
+1267f | 75391 | 100% | Total Frame
 18 | 24 | 0% | inputGet
 E8 | 232 | 0% | willyMove
 80 | 128 | 0% | gameAI
-5EF3 | 24307 | 23% | screenClear
+5EF3 | 24307 | 32% | screenClear
 123 | 291 | 0% | tilesAnimateKeys
 47 | 71 | 0% | tilesAnimateConveyor
 6EB | 1771 | 2% | screenDrawSprites
-C55 | 3157 | 3% | screenDrawWilly
-C6FD | 50941 | 48% | screenDrawLevel
-DDA | 3546 | 3% | uiUpdate
-3A | 58 | 0% | screenDrawSprite (door)
-26 | 38 | 0% | screenSwap
-51BD | 20925 | 20% | audioPlayNote
+a07 | 2567 | 3% | screenDrawWilly (For collisions)
+71d7 | 29143 | 39% | screenDrawLevel
+8d1 | 2257 | 3% | screenDrawWilly (For display, over level)
+3A | 58 | 0% | uiUpdate
+3a | 58 | 0% | screenDrawSprite (door)
+28 | 40 | 0% | screenSwap
+1d1f | 7455 | 10% | audioPlayNote
+1f76 | 8054 | 11% | gameDelay (sparse vs abundant level draw equalizer)
 
-As can be seen, clearing the area where the world will be drawn takes almost 24%
-of the frame and drawing the level tiles takes about 50% of the frame!
+As can be seen, clearing the area where the world will be drawn takes almost
+32% of the frame and drawing the level tiles takes about 39%, plus 3% to
+re-render willy, of the total frame.  Drawing is almost 80% of the frame.
+
+The ZX Spectrum version had Willy under the level tiles, but I prefer Willy
+in front, so I re-render willy without collision detection once the level tiles
+have been drawn, so he is always in front (but before the door is drawn so he is
+behind the door).
 
 5. KEYS
 
@@ -272,6 +290,7 @@ apple commander jar file.  Here's how it's done for different shell's:
   GIMP exported BMP.
 * Everyone involved in the Apple II projects (AppleWin | AppleCommander).
 * Everyone involved in making the cc65 tools, it's very good.
+* Ian Brumby for showing me how you really unroll a draw loop.
 
 9. CONTACT