Yeah, I can see how that would be unintuitive, and probably breaks some kind of UI usability rule. I just think of it as a performance meter where taller is better (a measure of how much free time we have each field)..

@@CocoTownRetro I wonder what would happen if other resource consumption meters would be like... RPMs and Fuel would certainly be a problem. A temperature gauge isn't exactly a resource meter but when it's high it's not good. Just things to think about I guess. It's certainly a clever implementation. To test your meter against having too many cycles consumed exceeding the current frame, you can add a loop of NOPs to intentionally consume cycle resources to exceed the current frame and then people can see where "laginess" == "exceeding cycles/frame limits" and this gauge will help a casual viewer/programmer see where such performance problems occur.

Talking is hard

@@CocoTownRetro Indeed it is.

Indeed. Another idea from Matt Greer's blog is using different colors in the meter to illustrate how much time is spent in each task performed in the frame. You can imagine different memory taps that are triggered after each subroutine from the main loop, and they get translated into their own colored fraction of the overall meter.

Interesting. It's like that turns the entire frame into a big performance counter.

I love it! Some very cool ideas!

Thank you, David!

Great, I'm glad it piqued your interest!

Thanks, it's been a while! There are a couple things in MAME I have been wanting to explore more deeply, so I'm getting around to that now.

I'm not thinking specifics for music yet, but I'm guessing it will probably be something original. MAYBE with a touch of Funky Town, but no promises! 😜

@@CocoTownRetro Your fans have been watching this whole adventure unfold for all of this time. Each episode begins with the music! The rhythm part of the song on loop as well as the chorus in some form would actually be excellent game music. And it's kind of your signature sound now. It completely belongs in there. It would just be the "Cherry on top" to see the game completed (one day) and to play that music which will take us all back to all of your development episodes. Do what you can, but the musical callback will definitely be a salute to the fans. It might also be a "mystery" for those who never watched... perhaps an intermission screen or some sort of easter egg that points people back to your youtube. :) Anyway, loving what you're doing except for maybe your latest #Septandy episode :) (just kidding, it's also very interesting and makes me want to give some of your analytical review a try)

Excellent. That means now is the right time to move future episodes of this series to my brand new paid streaming services, CoCoTown+ and CoCoTown+ Premium. 🤣

@@CocoTownRetro Sign me up!

Thanks!

No finer compliment!

Thanks, David! I did use that base 2 notation when defining the bytes that comprised the bullets. But since the other sprites are authored in basic and then run through a series of tools to generate the FCB's, I didn't think that generating those byte values in base 2 format would really offer me much more. You might be able to roughly make out a pattern when viewing the %-notation values in the source, but not nearly as clear as the basic program that draws the sprites to begin with.

@@CocoTownRetro I just thought I would let you know it was an option :) Though I am glad you already knew :) I just wasn't sure and want to make sure you knew that was an option. :) Thank you gain for sharing your adventures. :)

I see, much appreciated! I continued to discover and learn new things about assembly and LWASM on a regular basis. So if you see anything that it looks like I'm unaware of, always feel free to let me know!

They won't draw properly if I make them overlap. But yeah, I've been able to get rocks next to each other and it's looking ok so far.

oh my

@@CocoTownRetro What? Are you going to add lions and tigers and bears? (Oh my!) 🤣

That's a temporary indicator to let me know that the joystick is pointed up. I added that before I added jumping, so I would know that joystick detection was working. I should have removed that when I got jumping working, but I guess I was too lazy or something. 😜 I do need to get rid of that soon.

@@CocoTownRetro I REALLY love your channel, you make it it fun !

😃😃😃

^^^^^^^^ This guy gets it.

Glad you enjoyed it! Based on my progress so far, it does look like this will take a long time. 🙂

I haven't looked into it, so I can't really know for sure yet. My guess is that if I were using stale bullet structures, the bug would show itself more as random garbage bullets rather than an orderly triple of bullets each time. Instead, if I had to guess, I'd say it would have something to do with the interaction with the rotating background and the bullets.

All in due time. 🙂

Oh man, if only it worked that way!

And thank YOU for your frequent words of encouragement!

@@CocoTownRetro It is no problem. I do enjoy your entertaining way of showing your progress and learning with your project. There are times I wish I had the will to do what so many of you do on KZbin showing your projects and sharing. :)

Yeah, the jump distance was definitely a gut thing. I wanted it to be enough to clear 1 hole with enough leeway that the player didn't have to be ultra precise. That said, when I start laying out the obstacles for real, I'll need to ensure that the jump distance allows for multiple obstacles in a row, as you point out. Either that or space them out a bit more.

5 bits is still the same cycle count as 8 bits anyway. It saves a byte, but not a cycle.

@gp2k00: Adjusting X to eliminate 2 bytes from the offset looks to be a good idea. A store with no offset will be one cycle shorter than a store with a 5 bit or 8 bit offset. Good eye! Trying to get 4*32 to fit doesn't seem to offer much benefit since I need to adjust X anyway for the other 5 lines.

The 6809 push/pulls registers in strict order. Also, if the pattern doesn't repeat, you'd lose continuity.

Yes, indeed! Unfortunately, double buffering prevents me from using some of your cool ideas. For example I'm using extended mode addressing to point U into the off-screen buffer rather than using immediate mode addressing. Also, the current pointer into the gravel that I need to start from is different per buffer, so I can't use self modifying code to store that. (Instead I retrieve and update it from within a per buffer structure in memory.) Even so, the speed is really nice.

Those cycles will surely go somewhere. I can't promise they'll go into a rocket though. 😉

Garbage gravel might be a desirable effect! What a cool idea! Let's add more nauseam!!! That could be the best source of gravel ever!

@CurtisBoyle: I'm using stack blasting elsewhere, so I turn off interrupts at the beginning of the main loop, and turn them back on just before I sync to FS. I would eventually like to have simultaneous sound effects during gameplay, but I’m thinking of attempting that using cycle counting within the game loop rather than relying on HS. I will probably change my mind on how to do that about a dozen times by the time it's finished, though. 😏

O that we all could be. 🙂

Thank YOU! And yes, I'm curious to see what some of the other “forbidden” commands can produce. 🙂 Haven't tried them yet!

I was pretty much unaware of semi graphics 24 back in the day. I actually had Barden’s graphics book, which did list it among all of the graphics modes. But I didn't really understand what I was reading or the potential of that mode. It's surprising to think that a computer with the word “color” in its name would de-emphasize such a powerful mode. It would be cool if folks start to leverage Curtis and Nick’s work here to make some new programs that take advantage of this mode.

Thanks! Though before I get any fancier I really should concentrate on more of the game basics.

Thanks! And yeah, there can be something rewarding when one discovers something subtle versus having it too obvious to miss.

What I've got now may already be about as fancy as I'm willing to go, though!

I'd be willing to bet the programmer came up with the wheel animation first, then built a whole game around it just to flex.

Indeed. Heck, one of my bugs from last week actually had the car hovering in the air already!

But now that it's done, I think it's worth leaving it in versus taking it out. 😁

Yep, that would be nice. But there are more pressing game issues that must be attended to! 🙂