"One example being using hardware timers, the screen sync interrupt a nd low level coding to flip pallets during the screen draw and so get more colours than are supported normally.
I worry that the new generation have had it too easy and that these skills will be lost."
No worries. Anyone who has needed to code for the Gameboy Color needs these tricks and more to survive. We use HBlank interrupts for palette loading (to go from 32 colors to more than 256), sprite reloading (HW max 40 upped to 64 or so), split screening, wavy screen fades, etc. The same techniques will be ported to the GBA as well...
Hehe! Who needs a can of air (aka dust bunny repellant) when you got one of these things in there. Perhaps it could double as a hover craft witht he correct mods to the case;)
Not everywhere. Where I work, all the leads sit down and create what the actual game will be. We are given a genre and license to start from, but the actual game play/design itself is left to us. This has worked ver well thus far. We have 2 good RPG (lite) titles under our belt - each having sold over 1.5 Mil copies - on a Gameboy Color to boot!
Umm, in a vaccuum, wouldn't all the liquids in your body suddenly become gases? Also, I have a feeling all your soft tissues would come flying out of your mouth/nose due to the pressure difference. I don't think temp/radiation/lack of air would be that big of a deal when your chasing your giblets around in zero G. Actually, if things worked out right, the liquid turning to gas may jet propel things away from you making you a temporary rocket. Kinda a neat picture if it;s not you...
Try programming for the Color Gameboy. (or original). 32K ram - 4K paged. Emulated Z80 processor (meaing you get 1/3 of the normal Z80 registers and 1/2 the commands) running at 2Mhz. All programmed in assembly.
There are still a few fields where every byte counts. I spend an appreciable amount of time byte optimizing op-codes just to get the stupid games to fit onto the ROM cartridges (16K paged ROM - 64 to 256 pages depending on config)
Perhaps I'll get a real job someday and work on a real system:)
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Poor quoting skills on that one. My bad. Sorry!
"One example being using hardware timers, the screen sync interrupt a nd low level coding to flip pallets during the screen draw and so get more colours than are supported normally. I worry that the new generation have had it too easy and that these skills will be lost." No worries. Anyone who has needed to code for the Gameboy Color needs these tricks and more to survive. We use HBlank interrupts for palette loading (to go from 32 colors to more than 256), sprite reloading (HW max 40 upped to 64 or so), split screening, wavy screen fades, etc. The same techniques will be ported to the GBA as well...
Hehe! Who needs a can of air (aka dust bunny repellant) when you got one of these things in there. Perhaps it could double as a hover craft witht he correct mods to the case ;)
Not everywhere. Where I work, all the leads sit down and create what the actual game will be. We are given a genre and license to start from, but the actual game play/design itself is left to us. This has worked ver well thus far. We have 2 good RPG (lite) titles under our belt - each having sold over 1.5 Mil copies - on a Gameboy Color to boot!
Umm, in a vaccuum, wouldn't all the liquids in your body suddenly become gases? Also, I have a feeling all your soft tissues would come flying out of your mouth/nose due to the pressure difference. I don't think temp/radiation/lack of air would be that big of a deal when your chasing your giblets around in zero G. Actually, if things worked out right, the liquid turning to gas may jet propel things away from you making you a temporary rocket. Kinda a neat picture if it;s not you...
Bad troll, no cookie.
I'll byte.
:)
Try programming for the Color Gameboy. (or original). 32K ram - 4K paged. Emulated Z80 processor (meaing you get 1/3 of the normal Z80 registers and 1/2 the commands) running at 2Mhz. All programmed in assembly.
There are still a few fields where every byte counts. I spend an appreciable amount of time byte optimizing op-codes just to get the stupid games to fit onto the ROM cartridges (16K paged ROM - 64 to 256 pages depending on config)
Perhaps I'll get a real job someday and work on a real system
Or program for the Gameboy Color where I dream of being able to use 'C'. We're still stuck using Z-80 assembly...