BadCoder Blog
Atari Jaguar Video-Games Programming and Development
BadCoder BlogAtari Jaguar Video-Games Programming and Development |
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My Atari.Org site is back, but nobody has been downloading BadCode4n as far as I can see from the log to date. I am having no feedback yet but I did not expect much response to a bug fix, I will be continuing with BadCode 5, as there is probably still some interest in a larger project even if nobody tells me that, rather than these small bits of code. The commonly used effects and useful bits of code that I can describe for BadCode5, in particular how the M68000 routines can be replaced with either blitter routines or GPU routines can be quite useful I think to novice programmers, accepting that Jaguar Underground programmers do not need advice. Have fun!
posted by Bad Coder Tuesday, February 25, 2003[edit]
Atari.Org seem to be having another bad day. My site is down again, I guess it will come back. Have fun!
posted by Bad Coder Sunday, February 23, 2003[edit]
Well as somebody noticed at least, http://badcoder.atari.org/ is back, Atari.Org kindly fixed it. In response, I've uploaded BadCoder4n (New Metal) again and I hope you have some fun with it. The game is little altered, as I said before in the blog, it's mainly updated to fix bugs which made me embarrassed. The options to adjust sound and music and the screen position are more intuitive with stand-in routines, and the Jaguar chases the white ball as well as it's own balls so that does make it rather more prone to miss it's own, making it more human I suppose. Now I'm going back to work on BadCode5, I've got an idea for a very simple but cool new easter egg to add to it. I think this will even last into project Tenuki. Have fun!
posted by Bad Coder Saturday, February 22, 2003[edit]
I just got notified that Scatologic released a new piece of hardware for the Jaguar. Their so-called Scatobox is providing Jaguar users with connection to RGB, composite video, and S-Video monitors, and has phono connectors for stereo output to your amplifier etc.. The main sale target of this unit though (priced at $100) is the hard-core Jaguar gamer who needs to network many copies of BattleSphere or Aircars together, perhaps at JagFest. (BadCoder is content to network his home-brew projects and a PC.) The unit is compatible with Atari's original JagLink, the Catbox, and the newly released $30 JagLink2. The hardware is nicely presented for collectors, in a normal Jaguar cartridge, with connectors through the face plate, or in a transparent shell for an extra $20. This will without doubt become a true collector item and will attract high prices as Scatologic are promising to limit supplies. The interesting thing for BadCoder and other UnderGround developers is the inclusion of a hardware on the unit to fight piracy of future Scatologic games. Scatologic make reference to a future Jaguar game that may have to use this, if piracy of Scatologic games occurs, the game being playable only by owners of the Scatobox. BadCoder feels particularly sympathetic on this count as distribution of my binaries is widespread despite my specific request to download from my site and not to redistribute the binaries, so I can judge interest. However, BadCoder is wondering if Jaguar owners will spend $100 in order to play a new game later on.
posted by Bad Coder Saturday, February 22, 2003[edit]
Big problem right now, my web-site has gone AWOL. For some reason, Atari.org seems to have deleted all the subdomains, I think their server has gone down, and so now I have to look around for another hosting provider, but everybody is linking to http://badcoder.atari.org/ so this is not good. I am hoping that after emailing the webmaster at atari.org, they will realise that the badcoder subdomain was in use, and that I still want to use it. If you are reading this and know what has happened, then I would be really pleased. Nobody has given me feedback on BadCoder4N incidentally (New Metal) so I guess, as I thought before, nobody reads this.
posted by Bad Coder Sunday, February 16, 2003[edit]
Well, I added extra movement to the main menu, (now it's really wacky!) and the game controls and features screens. The game, if you are not aware, supports both the standard Jaguar controller, and the (recommended) pro-controller, at this time the controls are not configurable but that will happen.
I am not sure if I am going to use the blitter to create special effects or not. I certainly will replace core block copy routines with blitter routines. The text scrolling speed on the text pages is obviously improved, I've taken the opportunity to explain the role of the blitter in basic terms, what it does, and when to use it. The blitter is really most useful for graphics which are not object related. If you program the Jaguar as a traditional frame-buffer machine, then it's great.
(I started to test an 8-player mode, but that will not be implemented in BadCode5, probably 6, along with the previously abandoned network support. With the arrival of
the JagLink2 device (see JI2 links), which I will obtain in due course, this should allow me new options for structuring team games.)
posted by Bad Coder Monday, February 10, 2003[edit]
One last thing - if you are reading this, please email me at anonymous.to, or sign my guestbook. In fact, my guestbook is preferable, and any feedback is most welcome. I have the feeling that despite the reported interest of many people, very few people are really interested in anything less than a full commercial 64-bit game on cartridge or CD. BadCoder will continue to develop code which demonstrates visually what can be done by bad coders, a retro approach I think, even if the form of the BadCoder binaries changes radically in the future. i.e. TENUKI.
posted by Bad Coder Monday, February 03, 2003[edit]
So, take a look at my site and you'll find that while developing BadCode5 I noticed some glitches with BadCode4 (Metal). Yes, unbelievably, I went back to the source and fixed them, while enabling one or two bits of code for which I had "source code hooks" in the code, but were not enabled. The biggest problem I saw was that one of the program description pages was included, but omitted, a repeat of an introductory page being shown instead. How that happened and nobody noticed, I don't know. The code base is unchanged, I made a couple of cosmetic changes to the graphics, in particular the title screen, where a twin planet has arrived. There are more sounds in the game, and messages flash-up after something happens. A problem was found in BadCode5 where players who catch the white ball at every opportunity could skip over the triggers for the activation of additional speed and / or balls. A clumsy piece of code was responsible, and has been replaced. You can call the BJL loader with * + # + Option, or call an illegal instruction to return to the BJL register dump screen, or the Alpine debugger, by holding * + # + Option + Pause. I hope that you find the game more playable than before, and understand that I cannot tolerate stupid mistakes in my code.
posted by Bad Coder Monday, February 03, 2003[edit]
TENUKI. My hint for the future. Everything you've seen so far will be used.
posted by Bad Coder Monday, February 03, 2003[edit]
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