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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : PICO PETSCII
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Martin H. Guru  Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1114 |
Hi Mark, thank you for your response .. We are very grateful for any constructive criticism, Feedback and suggestions for improvement as it helps with "quality management". Even things that seem obvious to us when we deal with them every day can be confusing for someone who is not so familiar with them. Therefore, we are perhaps a bit operationally blind and rely on feedback. We are in the middle of development, so there are many inconsistencies in the program, but it is far from finished either. Keep in Mind, by now Petrobot Pico is Work in Progress. For example, the "Controlls" section in the Menu is by now just a Placeholder for a Funktion that isn't already written. The instructions for using the keyboard have also not yet been written. But they are identical to the keys, used in the PET/C64/AMIGA/PC DOS version. look at https://www.the8bitguy.com for those manuals. We share the work as a "Hobby team project of computer enthusiasts", so everyone can contribute something to programming, but Volhout has the lion's share of writing the game logic. Be a little lenient if some things don't work yet. They simply haven't been programmed yet Edited 2023-11-11 16:06 by Martin H. 'no comment |
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thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
Hi Mark. I bear some responsibility for the PicoGAME VGA and also wrote the Lazer Cycle game and may well end up implementing the controller support for Petscii Robots on the PicoMite. What is an "Atari style gamepad", do you mean "Nintendo style" ? Best wishes, Tom Edited 2023-11-11 17:55 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4247 |
Hi Mark, Thank you for your feedback. I myself am developing the game on the PicoGameVGA from Mick and Tom, but purely on keyboard control. I actually use the usb terminal as a keyboard. I tested PS2 Others (Kevin, Martin) have looked at LCD. Yes, the music score is great. Porting this is all Martins work, as are the graphics, and this all would not have been possible without Peter Mathers help in fixing MMBasic bugs and adding features. I even have the feeling he is holding back a new release of MMBasic, to make sure the new version has all bug fixed related to this game… It is a true team effort. Volhout Edited 2023-11-11 18:05 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1114 |
Tom As you know I also use the PicoGAME VGA. As I remember you also managed to get SNES Style Controllers to work on it.  I ordered a cheap clone with 9 Pin Dsub connection, which would be optimal for all controlls in this Game. Hope you can help implementing it  Cheers Mart!n 'no comment |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
Oh dear  .Yes, I wrote code that will read a "proper" SNES controller, see https://github.com/thwill1000/mmbasic-sptools/blob/master/src/splib/ctrl.inc Alas, the one pictured is unlikely to be a proper clone. I have a box of cheap controllers and never found a proper 9-pin SNES clone; though it is theoretically possible and I'm sure the Mick-collective could design a drop-in PCB for one of the "clone" enclosures. Most likely the one pictured has NES internals and the extra buttons either duplicate A&B or use an oscillator to provide "autofire" A&B. Another alternative that I have (though it may have a 7-pin connector that I was going to rewire) is that instead of containing the expected shift-register(s) it emulates them using a 5v microcontroller - that won't run off the PicoMite 3v3 supply. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Tom Edited 2023-11-11 20:14 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1114 |
So we may need a SNES clone with the original connector (which hopefully works with 3.3V) and an adapter that can then be used on dsub. Like they built for the Atari Version(I think). I'll wait to see what comes. Thank you for the Link, In the meantime I can try to integrate my NES controller into the program (same button assignment as the GameMite). Edited 2023-11-12 00:33 by Martin H. 'no comment |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6798 |
This one is an electronic clone of a NES controller. It could probably be expanded to a SNES with an extra chip and made attachable to a NES interface though - it's the software that changes. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
Not necessarily. I just went down to the "box of shame" and opened up a clone SNES controller with the "original" 7-pin connector. It contains an unmarked 16 pin IC and a handful of passives. It's not wired correctly to be a shift-register (and the pull-up resistors aren't present either). In an earlier discussion (12+ months back) @Volhout surmised it was a micro-controller emulating the original shift-register design and @Sasquatch tested a similar device and found it didn't work with the PicoMite, surmising it was a 5v device*. * Note that the real NES and SNES controllers are nominally 5v, but fortunately for us the 4021 shift-registers they are built around (the SNES uses 2 x 4021 chained together or a single 20-pin V520B) will run acceptably at 3v3. Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
Note that none of the photos on the listing corresponding to the AliExpress image that @Martin H posted show whether this device has the shoulder buttons or not, and the listing says "Compatible Nintendo Model: Family Computer", which if accurate is the Nintento FamiCom, known to us in the "West" as the NES, not the SNES (Super FamiCom). EDIT: I know far too much about Nintendo gamepads. I'll be interested to hear what Martin ultimately has delivered. Best wishes, Tom Edited 2023-11-12 01:26 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| MarkF Regular Member  Joined: 01/08/2023 Location: AustraliaPosts: 47 |
Thank you Volhout, Tom, Mick, Martin for your comments (above). Hmmm. I'm not sure of which gamepad I have then. It's switched. See PHOTO below. I bought it from Ebay Australia and it arrived in 3 days: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/355051578514 It works well with the PicoGAME board. P.S. Many thanks to Mick Ames for the PicoGAME VGA design. I had fun making it.  Edited 2023-11-12 15:52 by MarkF |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6798 |
That's the original Famicom controller design. It pre-dates the Super Nintendo NES IIRC. I'm pretty sure it's the same internally. Glad you like the board. :) EDIT: No, it's not the original Famicom. That doesn't have 4 buttons on the right. It looks more like a Famicom clone of some sort. There's a few pics almost half way down this page. Edited 2023-11-12 21:56 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4247 |
A new version.... I tested on VGA only. This one does not use the library anymore. It needs the new PicoMiteV50708-RC15 So... Install PicoMite 5.07.08-RC15 Take care: RC15 erases all options, so you have to re-install all options (SD card, OPTION AUDIO .... , OPTION CPUSPEED 252000, OPTION MODBUFF ENABLE) UNZIP petrobot24.zip and put on SD card. LIBRARY DELETE (should not be needed after RC15 install) CHDIR "petrobot24" RUN "pet24.bas" Dying from attacking hoverbots may not be error free in all cases, but in general it works. This has the new soundfile from Martin, a fixed level-a, and (I hope) all fixes to make it run on the LCD version. Happy gaming... Volhout F3=cheat, F4=kill all robots petrobot24.zip PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1114 |
Very pleasant using flash disk load  Used just on Game*Mite so far and I haven't found any errors yet. 'no comment |
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| Bleep Guru Joined: 09/01/2022 Location: United KingdomPosts: 511 |
Deleted, after some experiments. Edited 2023-11-13 04:15 by Bleep |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
Hi guys, I find optimisation of MMBasic to be very tricky; some things you expect to be cheap are expensive and others that you expect to be expensive are cheap. I suspect that replacing the call to scan_units() with this might bring dividends by reducing the number of lines of code that have to be scanned for each unit: For i = 0 To 47 Select Case UT(i) Case <= 22 : Call "unit_ai_" + Str$(UT(i)), i Case >= 71 : Call "unit_ai_" + Str$(UT(i)), i End Select Next And then implementing a raft of "unit_ai_X(i)" subs. YMMV, Tom Edited 2023-11-13 04:48 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
You might be able to simplify further by leaning on error handling for missing subs, e.g. For i = 0 To 47 On Error Skip Call "unit_ai_" + Str$(UT(i)), i Next Tom Edited 2023-11-13 04:47 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4043 |
How are you auto-starting it ? As far as I know you can either: - OPTION AUTORUN a flash-slot, or - there is also a (legacy) mechanism involving creating a subroutine called MM.STARTUP which I'm guessing needs to be in the program currently in flash-slot 0 on startup ... though possibly it would also run from the LIBRARY. I can't find code or documentation for auto-starting something that isn't in flash, but I may be being thick .Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1114 |
Good Morning Tom for that, it is saved in Flash :-) EDIT 'autoexec.bas Drive "b:" Chdir "b:/Petrobot24/" Run "pet24.bas" F1 FLASH SAVE 1 option autorun 1 this is how it works for me. the Name is just a Reminder for me, what this program is for and for nostalgic reason, there is no Code in Firmware which search for it :-D. Sorry for the Confusien Edited 2023-11-13 15:34 by Martin H. 'no comment |
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| MarkF Regular Member Joined: 01/08/2023 Location: AustraliaPosts: 47 |
Thanks Mick for the info regarding the Famicon controllers. Your Wikipedia link here with images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#Accessories |
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| MarkF Regular Member Joined: 01/08/2023 Location: AustraliaPosts: 47 |
Game keyboard control request please ... I went to play the game, and for some reason I was unable to do a search or move objects. I discovered I had the caps lock on. After viewing the game code, most of the keyboard controls work with lowercase only. I see that capital [M] toggles the music, and lowercase [m] is to move objects. A suggestion... 1) Could the toggle music key be changed to something else (any unused key) e.g. [p] ? and then... 2) Can the game control code be altered so that it operates with either lower/upper case? e.g. [Z] or [z] for game object search. |
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