Create your own Vectrex ROMs!
Vectorzoa
With the colder evenings drawing in I thought you might like something
to tinker with on your Vectrexes! :) I have produced a simple test
framework that enables you to write your own Vectrex binaries
displaying whatever image you like. My reasons aren't entirely
altruistic however, I have a new game which I hope to launch in 2007
and I want YOU to help me with the graphics! I want a variety of
artwork to use in my new game (working title- "Spike's Sea Snap
Safari")
Please take a look at :
http://vectorzoa.com/vecdraw/vecdraw.html
There you will find some explanation and a .ZIP to download. This
contains a few ASM files and an icon to compile them with a DOS AS09.
This is included for simpilicity and your convenience and in no way
disrespects the original author Frank A. Vorstenbosch. AS09 V1.11 is
provided in it's original form and retains his copyright.
It's all VERY simple, to make your Vectrex ROM just double click on
the "COMPILE ME" icon.
To change what you draw read and modify the EDITTHIS.ASM. No other
files need be changed.
Have fun with it and if you make any aquatic life, fish, eels, sharks,
then send the EDITTHIS.ASM file to vectrex at vectorzoa.com with a
subject of SSSS and the name of your creation. All submissions will be
displayed on Vectorzoa.com. If I use it in the game you get in the game
credits! If I get many submissions I will release a second version that
enables animation too!
For the moment you will need to use the normal tools to upload this to
Vectrex - Richard's VecFlash or you can use an emulator such as MESS.
Our very own Vectrex Emulator messiah, Parabellum has recently
released ParaJVE 0.3 which works beautifully! A simple hack of the
ParaJVE configuration.xml file or even copying over one of the exisitng
ROMs will do the trick. Parabellum is working on some awesome new
features that should make this even easier, so stay tuned for his news
and support his efforts, ParaJVE is the coolest thing to happen to
Vectrex emulation and debugging in years!
Please email me at Vectorzoa with your comments and artwork (of any
kind)
(or post in this thread)
Cheers Alex
P.S. Remember the vectorzoa blog for fresh updates.
Steril707
creativity...awesome idea...
Richard Hutchinson
Is it going to be a version of Shark! Shark! ?
(would work well on the Vec)
Richard H.
Vectorzoa
> Is it going to be a version of Shark! Shark! ?
Arghhhh!, No it is not a copy of an old game
(I am really starting to regret compromising my original game policy
with JE)
It is an new idea featuring underwater photography. (snap as in photo)
I'll add Shark! Shark! (which I have never played) to your list of
games to make for Vectrex. (Star Wars, Battlezone,.. etc) :]
Seriously tho, I've just had a peek and the idea of the fish growing as
in Shark Shark would take advantage of the scaling feature. However I
already thought my fish might grow as you got closer to them.. I'm
hoping for a mellow relaxing experience, kinda like an enjoyable, laid
back arcade game where you play for pleasant discoveries and experience
rather than points. (although of course there will be points) [Dammit
now someone will mention Ecco the Dolphin!] ;)
You gonna start the ball rolling and draw something Richard?
<nudge nudge>
Cheers Alex
sp...@madtronix.com
i found it easiest to take a paper with those squares on it like you
used to have in school. then draw a fish on it and read the lines from
the raster and transfer to code.
easy.
still needs some fine tuning but here's a first version of "spiky
fish":
(using comments may be helpful)
(use this text as EDITTHIS.ASM)
DB 24 ;25 lines being drawn
;draw the fish body
DB 20,-50 ;move to outer border of fish
DB -10,20
DB 35,-10
DB -15,25
DB 30,-5
DB -20,20
DB 20,10
DB -25,5
DB 15,25
DB -25,-10
DB 5,30
DB -25,-30
DB 5,30
DB -40,-10
DB 20,-20
DB -40,10
DB 25,-25
DB -30,0
DB 25,-10
DB -25,-25
DB 30,0
DB -15,-30
DB 35,20
DB -15,-20
DB 40,0 ;finished fish at (20,-50)
; VECTORZOA Drawing Method 2.
draw_detail
; EDIT THESE LINES to draw a more complex shape or add detail
DB D_MOVE,0,30 ;move to lefteye position
DB D_LINE,-10,5 ;an eye
DB D_MOVE,5,-5
DB D_LINE,5,5
DB D_MOVE,0,30 ;move to right eye position
DB D_LINE,-10,5 ;an eye
DB D_MOVE,5,-5
DB D_LINE,5,5
DB D_MOVE,-30,-15 ;move to mouth position
DB D_LINE,-5,0 ;mouth
DB D_LINE,0,-20
DB D_LINE,5,0
DB D_LINE,0,20
DB D_MOVE,0,-5 ;teeth
DB D_LINE,-5,0
DB D_MOVE,0,-5
DB D_LINE,5,0
DB D_MOVE,0,-5
DB D_LINE,-5,0
DB D_END
Richard Hutchinson
Nah, I'm crap at design art :(
Tell you what I will do, I'll make tags of the chosen designs for the
winners.
Richard H.
Vectorzoa
wobbly it will get. I thought I might leave that uncorrected as it is a
cool way to make the fins etc wobble (free animation! :) So just order
your "detail" in Method 2 so that the things you want to wibble the
most appear towards the end when the beam is most "tired"
[remember, currently none of the emulators simulate beam drift]
Franck, that would make an excellent test parameter. Since it is easy
to write (sloppy) code that works beautifully on a PC em, but looks
terrible on the real deal Vectrex. Really easy algorithm to do this-
Just add one (PC hires) pixel for every line drawn until Recal or
Reset0Ref is called. Decide the direction at "power up" and keep
drifting in that direction.. (Empirically most seem to favour drifting
bottom left)
1 submission, 4 left to get the full animation version. ;)
Cheers Alex
parabellum
first, I'd like to thank you for your supporting on ParaJVE, it's
really heartening to see such feedback :)
I'll remember your drift idea and definitely add it later on, when I
work on the ramp delay too. In principle, it wouldn't be too hard to
implement, as OpenGL primitives work with floating coordinates, rather
than integer (pixels).
But enough with that, I don't want to hijack your initial topic, which
is very interesting and refreshing!
Thanks to your framework, I had a first go at vectrex drawing, and here
is the result (erm... it's supposed to be a crab, btw ;)
As I made a couple of tests, and didn't know which one to pick, I've
included both of them to let you choose (not sure if any of them is up
to the standard, so I wouldn't mind at all if it doesn't make it to the
final game).
=== CRAB #1 ======================================
draw_outline
DB 19 ; 19 lines
DB 0,0 ; line 1 (this is the only pair that doesn't draw a line)
DB 5,10
DB -10,20
DB -1,-15
DB -4,15
DB -5,-10
DB 5,-25
DB 15,-5
DB 15,10
DB 5,25
DB 0,20
DB -5,25
DB -15,10
DB -15,-5
DB -5,-25
DB 5,-10
DB 4,15
DB 1,-15
DB 10,20
DB -5,10
draw_detail
DB D_MOVE,5,-33 ; right eye
DB D_LINE,13,25
DB D_LINE,-10,-5
;
DB D_LINE,-3,-20
DB D_MOVE,0,-4 ; left eye
DB D_LINE,13,-25
DB D_LINE,-10,5
DB D_LINE,-3,20
;
DB D_MOVE,-17,-6 ; mandible
DB D_LINE,-2,6
DB D_LINE,7,2
DB D_LINE,-7,2
DB D_LINE,2,6
;
DB D_END
=== CRAB #2 ======================================
draw_outline
DB 19 ; 19 lines
DB 0,0 ; line 1 (this is the only pair that doesn't draw a line)
DB 5,10
DB -10,20
DB -1,-15
DB -4,15
DB -5,-10
DB 5,-25
DB 15,-5
DB 15,10
DB 5,25
DB 0,25
DB -5,25
DB -15,10
DB -15,-5
DB -5,-25
DB 5,-10
DB 4,15
DB 1,-15
DB 10,20
DB -5,10
draw_detail
DB D_MOVE,-12,-28 ; Left eye
DB D_LINE,-2,-7
DB D_LINE,18,-5
DB D_LINE,5,-20
DB D_LINE,5,-5
DB D_LINE,-10,25
;
DB D_MOVE,0,5 ; Right eye
DB D_LINE,10,25
DB D_LINE,-5,-5
DB D_LINE,-5,-20
DB D_LINE,-18,-5
DB D_LINE,2,-7
;
DB D_END
Vectorzoa
http://vectorzoa.com/vecdraw/pics.html
Roberto Nerici
> once more, i am amazed by the speed of your developments and your
> creativity...awesome idea...
>
Seconded. Alex told me about this idea a week ago, but I didn't think he
meant he was going to get this going _right now_! Typical Alex I think!
Regards
Roberto/.
parabellum
As it could be of help regarding Alex' initiative, here is a quick post
to inform you that the new version 0.3.2 of ParaJVE, that can Assemble
and Reload sources files on the fly is available for download at
http://vectrex-emu.blogspot.com/
It has been successfully tested with the Vectrex Drawing Test Tool
sources, as well as Thrust sources.
Many thanks to Alex for inspiring the idea, and for his tests on the
preview! :)
Cheers,
Franck.
Vectorzoa a écrit :
Chris Romero
:-)
Such a simple and nice feature.
--
Sincerely,
Chris
cromero at romero dot org
"parabellum" <Parabe...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1162995163.4...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Chris Romero
See here: http://www.retrousb.com/vectrex.html
parabellum
don't know how to do that in Java yet). So at this point, unfortunately
I really can't tell whether it would be feasible or not.
Chris Romero a écrit :
Richard Hutchinson
And yes, the phosphor effect really adds to the emulation experience.
Thanks for doing this !
Richard H.
Chris Romero
--
Sincerely,
Chris
cromero at romero dot org
"parabellum" <Parabe...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1163007292.5...@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
ShaddamVI
In my opinion Parabellum has got it right, this is an emulator after
all. It's meant to bring Vectrex to the masses, not play to a minority
of specialist hardware collectors.
I'd rather Franck implement mouse driven lightpen support with his time
instead! ;)
Cheers Alex
Chris Romero
feature implemented. We could play all weekend long without having to get
up. The full bath feature with shower plug-in and automatic screen defogger
would come later.
Just kidding, sorry to hijack your subject.. :-)
--
Sincerely,
Chris
cromero at romero dot org
"ShaddamVI" <x...@chaom.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1163020006.5...@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
Vectorzoa
process an absolute dream!
Thanks to the submissions thus far, especially Megatron who has made
some great contributions! Plenty more fish in the sea though, guys!
Have a go today!
On another note I have just tried ParaJVE v0.3.2 (with mouse simulated
analogue joystick controls.) with Star Sling FE (Remember this is a
FREEWARE (non distributable) download. from Vectorzoa.com. ) I have to
say I am VERY pleased with the results. It plays a dream, it's actually
MUCH easier using a mouse, but plays as if it were intended for such.
Another reason to check out ParaJVE, breathing new life into old
Homebrews! :)
Probably bad news for Madtronix.com and the real
Vectrex Cart based Star Sling Turbo Edition though!! ;)
Cheers Alex
parabellum
Richard Hutchinson a écrit :
Lee K. Seitz
Vectorzoa <r...@vectorzoa.com> wrote:
>On another note I have just tried ParaJVE v0.3.2 (with mouse simulated
>analogue joystick controls.) with Star Sling FE (Remember this is a
>FREEWARE (non distributable) download. from Vectorzoa.com. )
I get "Unauthorized URL Referrer - Access Denied" when trying to
request a copy of Star Sling FE.
--
lkseitz (Lee K. Seitz) .at. hiwaay @dot@ net
"@!#?@!"
-- Q*bert