I made a port of Xixit to the X16

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[@evanfinn6454]

Don't sell yourself short- 4 weeks to port this game is an absolutely impressive timeline. Bravo, looks great! I would also volunteer that the music actually sounds BETTER on your version.

[@TheMadface80]

Not to mention on a machine that's far less powerful. It's truly impressive

[@StormsparkPegasus]

4 weeks to get something that originally ran on a 32-bit 486, working more or less intact on a 6502 is pretty impressive.

[@WelshProgrammer]

This right here, not only did you port the game to a less powerful system, but you did it in ASM, in 4 weeks, music, GFX and even added your own features. That is an incredible amount of work accomplished in a really short amount of time.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@WelshProgrammer To be fair, someone else ported the music for him, but it's still an impressive feat.

[@willgibson8534]

@@WelshProgrammer to be fair your over emphasizing the impressiveness as the code for the game was simple even for a 486, stop your david l butt hole sniffing your nose is already brown

[@efai]

The main reason why ports take less time than creating a new game is that when you create a port, you know exactly what you're going to do.. in the case of a new game, you have to invent things first, then you have to implement them, test them if they work, and if not, change them and test them again.. this is the process that takes the most time..

[@AndersHolck]

A port in my world starts from same code base. This is in my world not a port.

[@bruwin]

@@AndersHolck Well it's a good thing that your opinion isn't shared by the thousands of hardworking programmers that have created new code to port games to other platforms. Otherwise virtually nothing would ever have been ported. What a stupid, conceited worldview. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[@dennisneo1608]

Sounds like a bloody nightmare!

[@kilianhekhuis]

True, but my port of the PC version of Rick Dangerous 2 did take quite a while, and certainly more than 4 weeks, as it is a much more complex game.

[@AndersHolck]

@@bruwin i believe you totally misunderstood my statement. By the way, been a hard-working developer myself for over 30 years. Porting or rewriting games between platforms, scene, demos etc. So, guess you're fired.

[@earthsteward70]

When the ORIGINAL dev compliments you, you know you've done a good job!

[@damouze]

Hear hear!

[@ecernosoft3096]

WOW.

[@asasnat342]

love it when they do that instead of going "get the hell out" and hitting you with a C&D or whatever

[@Will45_]

Either that, or you're the only person left doing it

[@LMacNeill]

Whoa -- the music!! The FM-synth version actually sounds *better* than the original, IMHO!

[@thomasr.5443]

Yeah, just what I wanted to write just now!

[@Akira625]

I honestly didn't think you could get that sort of quality from FM.

[@kami-kun_va]

i agree

[@tarstarkusz]

Are you insane? Perhaps we just have very different tastes. I think the DOS version not only sounds better, but the X16 version doesn't really sound anything like it. In the DOS version, you can hear very distinctly, multiple instruments being played at the same time. I just assume when/if the X16 gets a good tracker, this can be fixed.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@Akira625 EDIT: This is not true. I misunderstood FM and everything that follows is based on a false premise. Sorry about that. END EDIT But isn't FM capable of playing back anything? Like a wave file in DOS, the Sound Blaster can play back captured CD sound. A 100 piece orchestra could be played back.

[@oreview]

Wow, my childhood was filled with releases by Tran. Kaeon was another that I only re-found recently after asking around on Reddit based on vague memories of a space and forest themed level design. And the Black Glass demos were often music background when I was in my room.

[@JimLeonard]

+1 for Black Glass reference

[@willemvdk4886]

Love it! You know what I'd like to see even more? A (long form) code walkthrough. I'm very interested in your code architecture and some of your routines. Would be very educational.

[@Pracedru]

Great work. Impressive what you can do with an 6502.

[@sanfrancrisko9962]

Well done David! And nico on the music port! Speaking of the music, the original composer, Andrew Sega (a.k.a. necros in the demoscene) is one of the best composers out there. Well worth checking out his other work both in games and in bands / solo projects

[@gargaj]

I had a chance to meet him, super nice guy too!

[@MrRaivokasMagma]

I'm more familiar with his work with band Iris (sadly disbanded now). Damn great composer :)

[@sanfrancrisko9962]

@@MrRaivokasMagma Yeah, Iris were great. Was so sad when they disbanded 😟

[@tomasburian6550]

Dat game music stayed with me till today. Everyone knows how scarce games were before internet distribution and games that hit you right there in the emotion were treasured. Great job on porting!

[@ClassicGameSessions]

It's pretty cool watching game development content on The 8-Bit Guy! Quite multi-talented - I'm impressed with what you did on the X16 and I'm looking forward to more videos like this!

[@artemus2]

Love these game development videos. I thoroughly enjoy all your history and restoration videos, but your game development videos are still my favorite.

[@yne2727]

👆Your useful message are good, but follow the easy way of making income, Tell Andrei jikh i referred you ✍️

[@GrooveyGrubworm]

Hearing you talk about sprites reminded me about when i was in college for game design, and I made a couple games in game maker. The final game me and my partner made was called Octospace, we didn't have a decent amount of time to do artwork so we ended up using a few sprites from game maker. I still have it on an external hard drive somewhere.

[@yne2727]

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[@davel231]

Regarding demoscene crews making games, Remedy Entertainment (Max Payne, Alan Wake, Control) was founded by members of Future Crew, creators of one of the demos shown at the beginning of this video.

[@nemis123]

Congratulations David. You are the inspiration for me as a programmer.

[@johngangemi1361]

You guys did an excellent job with this port. Doing this in assembly language wouldn't be easy either. The porting of the music was well done too. Great work!

[@flawed1]

“ One of the first PC games to actually look as good as an arcade machine of the era” This is the point I always try to make when people wonder what happened to arcades. The atmosphere of an arcade may have been amazing, but the main draw was that you couldn’t get graphics anywhere near an arcade at home… That’s just not true anymore

[@JARVIS1187]

That Xixit soundtrack ran on my headphones for hours! Soooo many hours! And I think, it will again…

[@zzador]

Awesome work. You have gone above and beyond to make that port as close to the original as possible. Btw. you should have a look at "TRSE" (Turbo Rascal Syntax Error). It's an IDE written by Democoders to create software for old systems (C64, NES, C128, ...) with a pascal like syntax. Much easier to code then assembler and most of the hardware-specific memory locations are also mapped to variables.

[@yne2727]

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[@drtwo]

That is so sweet that the original creator of that game message you and gave you praise I mean I worked really hard on this Creation in a video game called space engineers and I made a fully working fallout New Vegas flatbed truck and it's really hard to create something that works really really really well in space engineers it is a physics engine pretty much on steroids and I told a KZbinr that his video inspired me to do it and he gave me praise and I was smiling for the rest of that week so it was a real life changing experience

[@thomaszaniello7084]

Very Impressive, I can't get over how well the music turned out!

[@yne2727]

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[@andresbravo2003]

I felt this is a good port, I would ever appreciate to look forward for porting more Games to X16. Edit: I did made a Andres Plays video recently for playing the Xixit X16 Port!

[@rafammbass]

1:37 HWHILE made me remember of the cool HWHIP gag from family guy

[@Typical.Anomaly]

Almost all artists are perfectionists when it comes to their own products. Like Evan says, don't sell yourself short! As a "musician" (I just like to play guitar a lot lol), I should have a dozen albums out by age 44 but I always think my ideas suck. David, you rock. Never forget it! -4A 41 53 4F 4E

[@roudanskalamir9251]

Xixit is one game that I've been trying to aquire a copy of for years to no avail. The closest you can come to a common release is Chain Reaction but that version completely redoes the soundtrack and dammit I want my demoscene sounds.

[@guyh3403]

Wow. What an amazing job you peeps did!

[@yne2727]

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[@Jenisonc]

5:25 That x16 version is so incredible.. This whole "labor of love" project is full frontal, awesome.

[@jeanmorin4580]

I first saw "I made a port of XINIT to the X16" :D Love your videos, thanks!

[@PaulSpades]

Ohhh, that soundtrack remake sounds sweet.

[@organiccold]

Impressive result Dave, i been following your posts in the X15 Facebook group :)

[@Paul_Wetor]

Nice to see you using Paint Shop Pro 6. My 1998 version of Paint Shop Pro 5 is still my go-to basic photo editor.

[@yne2727]

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[@mr-meek]

Purple Motion

[@datagod]

Wow dude, you put a LOT of work into that. Awesome results! I think I like the new music better too.

[@yne2727]

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[@interactii]

Normally in a game like this once the sprites were settled, you redraw them in the background layer to free of your sprite objects for other effects, though I'm sure it makes it simpler when the hardware has that may sprites.

[@The8BitGuy]

Yes, it does.. It almost felt like cheating to use that many. But the machine can do 128 sprites, so why not?

[@johndododoe1411]

@@The8BitGuy You could use the freed up sprites for the original explosions.

[@toxy3580]

@@johndododoe1411 he was kinda speedrunning making it lol

[@prokrastnation6071]

Nicco1690 killed it! Well done, nearly an enhancement!

[@cianmoriarty7345]

It's quite amazing that you have gotten very nearly every the original 486 game running in a something effectively slightly less powerful than a 286, something more akin to a souped up Commodore 64 with an REU or SuperCPU. Albeit with a far nicer video card for these sort of games than was common for 286 systems, maybe something like an Amiga almost? And in just 4 weeks! On a system you had a very large part in creating. Your work ethic and brilliance is an inspiration, no joke.

[@yne2727]

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[@Dr.Quarex]

Always fun to hear the names of anyone from Renaissance back in the day! Ambience was running on at least one computer in my house at some point during the day for years. I probably ran it in MS-DOS on my Windows machines until 2000 when compatibility broke hard.

[@mikegarland4500]

Amazing work. Pretty much all of the changes made, are for the better, imo. I am just amazed at the amount of work you guys are putting into this!!

[@evanbarnes9984]

4 weeks to do this in assembly is absolutely mind boggling! Excellent work man. I can't wait to someday get myself a real Commander X16! Also, if you ever want something like a nice retro style walnut case for your X16, I'd love to make it! I'm a woodworker in my spare time.

[@spacedock873]

Really nice port. Sound conversion is amazing. All the work that has been put in has really paid dividends 👍😁

[@AiOinc1]

Wow! That music recomposition is brilliant! Could have fooled me, I'd have just thought it was an even higher sample rate than the original. Bravo! This is a very cool project and I hope to be able to buy an X16 soon. It gets more and more interesting every day. On the plasma, you might have gotten away with scrolling a repeating pattern on that layer while you were cycling the colors. This might have taken less time at least!

[@AiOinc1]

Update: My X16 came in yesterday and the first thing I did was play enough Quarx (the title of this port) to roll over the level counter.

[@948320z]

Most of the makers of the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay had backgrounds from the demoscene. In addition to being one of the best movie tie-in games of all time, it's also extremely impressive technically back then (this game actually predates Half-Life 2).

[@imqqmi]

That's really quick for such a high quality port! Well done! That fm music, I actually prefer it over the original!

[@yne2727]

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[@JoshuaPritt]

Yes. Always start with something simple like tic tac toe or similar when learning to code!

[@petermoeller5901]

This is a really well done and well paced video, thank you.

[@yne2727]

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[@ikbenale]

Whereas when I show demos to my family all they say is "when will you move out of the basement?"

[@aylim3088]

This was the video that introduced me to Xixit. Given it was released years before I was born, I of course had never heard of it, so this video had me curious. And now I love playing this game, it's surprisingly fun and addictive for such a simple game

[@ChaunceyGardener]

Congratulations, you have done a Tiertex job.

[@sohl947]

Great compromises and innovations to use the strengths of the X16 to good effect.

[@hundgirridchannel]

Amazing conversion and I like the "making of" style of this video.

[@yne2727]

👆Your message are useful but follow the easy way of making income Tell Andrei jikh i referred you👆✍️

[@jk180]

Well done sir. Can't wait to see the x16 in the wild

[@yne2727]

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[@Ant3rn]

Just to say, colour “collusion” code can be optimised, checking only moved and adjacent tiles. Upd. Like simplified pathfinding algorithm: Start from moved tiles, check adjusted for same colour, then if one found, check two possible positions for 3rd. After we found 3-match, check 4 and 5-long, and Z-shaped or something.

[@shawnparker7]

Great video David! Xixit looks like a fun game. Hope your 2023 is going well so far.

[@techrev9999]

Awesome. I was, actually, working on a port of Ularn at one point, life kind of distracted me off, lol. Beautiful job. Dang 6502 assembler is fun. Same with 8088.

[@yne2727]

👆Your message are useful but follow the easy way of making incomeTell Andrei jikh i referred you👆✍️

[@cattunger]

This is super cool and I'm glad it turned out this well! Looks awesome, and I'm always excited to see what's next from you.

[@yne2727]

👆 Your useful message are good, but follow the easy way of making income, Tell Andrei jikh i referred you 👆✍️

[@shootytheturtle]

David Murray. You are an excellent programmer.

[@RamsesTimeGame]

Looking forward to the X16. The time put into the hardware is amazing to me. I'm pretty impressed. Something else I want to ask is can there be another Planet X game for the X16? After all, it has so much you need to make that possible, right?

[@The8BitGuy]

I've thought a lot about making a Planet-X series game.. but if I did, it would be quite a bit more advanced that the previous ones. I'd probably go ahead and make it mouse controlled.

[@jengelenm]

Always a joy to watch your enthousiasm for retro computing

[@thedrunkmonkshow]

I'm so happy to see this resurgence and revival of vintage computer hardware. While I appreciated all the different software game compilations from Namco, Sega, Capcom and Nintendo over the years the NES Classic, SNES classic, Genesis Mini and others have proven that there's genuine interest in owning the hardware. I would love to see a DOSBox machine preinstalled with Windows 95 or can you imagine if Apple released a Macintosh Mini next year for their 40th anniversary!? The way things are going and with pushes like this wonderful X16 and the C64 Mini that it could be a reality in the next few years. 😊

[@yne2727]

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[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Ha, cool that you got a nice reply from the OG of this game!

[@retrobluehawk]

Excellent work. This game looks great and amazingly playable. Just goes to show, time spent programming vs playability isn't always a 1 to 1 trade-off.

[@yne2727]

👆 Your useful message are good, but follow the easy way of making income, Tell Andrei jikh i referred you👆✍️

[@snekulcire]

I like the FM synth sounds better. Very nice porting job.

[@nmosfet5797]

I'd sure like to hear that soundtrack!

[@nicco1690]

@@nmosfet5797 I will post it soon

[@pizzazif]

that snowing one looks like the commodore vic 20 christmas demo you talked about

[@DanTDMJace]

*C64 I think

[@Jordan4Ibanez]

Holy poop, the x16 version sounds amazing!!

[@WinterInTheForest]

I love the music from Columns, it's one of my all time favorite games.

[@OldMan_PJ]

Zone 66 was one of the games that gave me a seizure in my teens, the combination of low framerate and 360 degree motion really messed with my head.

[@Quessir]

Paint Shop Pro! Still using it all these years later, though really only as a catalogue for all of my old images and not actual editing (which I did use it for, for a veeeeery long time!). Great to see it in use! PSP 7.0 is what I've been using though.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Haha, cool that you're already making a game with a little hint of crossover!

[@M3n747]

Man, I used to play this game A LOT back in the day. Great job with the port!

[@yne2727]

👆 Your useful message are good, but follow the easy way of making income, Tell Andrei jikh i referred you👆✍️

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

I think your port is really true to the spirit of the demoscene. Your replica is indeed really close to the original version. Given the limitations of the X16, that's really impressive. Congrats. I really respect old-time developers who can still do low-level coding. Low-level coding is a dying art nowadays. Even microcontroller devs pretty much all switched to using high-level stuff.

[@yne2727]

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[@jameswilliams7183]

Absolutely love this type of video!!! Please more programming stuff.

[@VK2FVAX]

I love that Thomas gave his blessing. That's just so nice! Well done on this. Great choices and it looks grand. Xixit was one of my favourite 90's games. So addictive. Can't wait to buy a x16

[@JoseTorresMates]

I'm deeply impressed with your skills level. Love it.

[@I_love_our_planet]

Well done! :-), wait for the x16 to be available!!!

[@yne2727]

👆 Your useful message are good, but follow the easy way of making income, Tell Andrei jikh i referred you 👆✍️

[@chainq68k]

Tran is a legend on the DOS demoscene. Half of the PC/DOS 32bit demoscene stuff used his "PMode", to handle all the pesky details and differences of VCPI, DPMI, and what else was there to run on in 32bit mode, and have a linear address space. I did not know about his games. Great stuff, also, really good work with the port.

[@ropersonline]

You spoke to Tran about the port? Timeless. Heck, try porting _that._ Now there's a pickle for the knowing ones. Yes, that is a Dexter reference.

[@BloodBlight]

I love that you still use Paint Shop Pro... It really was a great program!

[@danman32]

Simplicity at its best: for the CPU, the game concept and implementation. I've often said that for video animation features of the past.

[@yne2727]

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[@jeromethiel4323]

From my own experience in the 8 bit era, just doing more coding tended to improve coding speed. As you figured out how to do certain things, you could actually cut and paste code blocks around, as you tend to do a fair bit of the same basic thing over and over. Plus, code re-usability is always a real time saver. If you already wrote a good Apple ][ bit scroller for the hires screen, you don't need to do it again, just use the one you've already written. Plus tools you've already written, if you can re-use those for asset generation, that saves a ton of time. Not to take anything away, 4 weeks is insanely fast. Because i am sure you were doing this in your spare time. Would love to know how many hours spent, as that would be even MORE impressive a benchmark.

[@kissingfrogs]

loved the making a game port overview. I would definitely be keen to watch a deeper dive.

[@yne2727]

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[@scififan698]

nicely done! you know your oldschool tricks!!!

[@yne2727]

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[@TheWizardHW]

Very impressive David! Amazing Job!!

[@WilliamLeue]

Unbelievable that you got this running on a 6502!

[@BobPlank_KK4DIV]

Very nice!! I am really looking forward to the X16 launch.

[@geehaf]

Does look good and the music is an evolution from the original. Great work David. 4 weeks IS impressive.

[@yne2727]

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[@lexluthermiester]

This is excellent! I actually want a CX16 now!

[@yne2727]

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[@forcedfeedbackclassicgamer5499]

Love 6502! Excellent work! Serious kudos for the music. I think the FM chip tunes actually sound better!

[@yne2727]

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[@dzltron]

Wow, I completely forgot about this game. I love this and the demo scene back then.

[@henryhybrid]

I was watching the Timeless demo from Tran for hours in the 90th and immediately had the soundtrack back in my ear when the name was mentioned. Mod-Soundtrack and a Gravis Ultrasound, those were the times...

[@yne2727]

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[@bubuAudio]

I love this kind of stuff

[@yne2727]

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[@Sycokay]

4 weeks...that's incredible. I don't think I could have done that back in the days when my brain was still young and undamaged...

[@Dorpz]

Oh man that's awesome! I loved Columns on my Sega Mega Drive, even though I was terrible at it. I never knew about Xixit but it looks great!

[@yne2727]

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[@heathwellsNZ]

Wow. Just wow! Well done indeed! That 8-bit block set is my favourite! Oddly enough this game reminds me of Popcap's Bejeweled Classic that I sometimes play on the iPad as a casual no-brainer fun game!

[@kuby64]

In terms of soundtrack, I'd like to imagine the DOS version being the Super Nintendo version and the X16 version being the SEGA Genesis version. I'm impressed with how he ported a DOS game to the X16. 👍

[@AmbientMusicStudio]

Fun stuff! Looking forward to launch day for the production hardware.

[@bdabbs4]

Oh man, Zone66! I've been trying to remember the name of that game for years now

[@Lion_McLionhead]

A version of tetris requiring the pieces to be matching colors is just evil.

[@liamodell7191]

What would be awesome is to create an easy-to-use game engine like this. Not just for Columns, Bejewled or Tetris games but for others to figure out new block puzzle games and see if the community likes it. I still think the next addicting puzzle game could be in this format.

[@Dave_thenerd]

Wow Bejeweled is older than I thought...

[@jess648]

I really hope the Commander X16 takes off

[@weirdboyjim]

On the PC with original vga anything with 256 colors over 320x200 required messing with the display registers directly and among other things disabling the automated bank controls. Those extra 40 lines required a bunch of extra coding, SWIV 3D went all the way up to 320x400 which is the highest you could go and double buffer on classic vga.

[@The8BitGuy]

Indeed. I actually asked Tran why he used the 240 mode in Xixit and he just said "because it looked better." I thought that was a lot of extra work for 40 more lines of screen resolution. But he gets my respect for putting in the extra polish on things like that!

[@freeculture]

I clearly remember using a mod player that used this mode, and it kinda looked like a demo.

[@donerlando9949]

I believe 320x240 gave you square pixels... Thank God we never went back to pixels that are not actually _square_ ;)

[@weirdboyjim]

@@donerlando9949 Yes! VGA would output either 400 or 480 lines with 200 lines modes scanning lines twice to get 400. 240 was never a standard mode but you can see how the right register tweaks allowed it. It was 320x240 > 64k that made it tough as you has to mess with the bank registers.