7 ms·

Nirvana Engine for ZX Spectrum (2013)

70 points by bane 11y ago

Marazan 11y ago
Splendiferous. ZX Spectrum wins again.
jug 11y ago
Wow, this is pretty amazing, haha. Can't wait for the latest ZX Spectrum games to take advantage of this! Hmm, I wonder how/if it affects performance. No catch besides the RAM usage?
- Leynos 11y ago
  It relies on the colour attributes being twiddled every few scanlines, so I'd be rather sceptical of its applications. That said, there is a video of it running here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQajN1XWzJY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQajN1XWzJY (on a 48k Speccy no less), and it looks rather performant.
  - fuzzix 11y ago
    Was just looking at a review for a new game, Stormfinch, which uses this engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2sd2FNPTBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2sd2FNPTBs It's clearly a little clunkier than monochrome or simple colour attribute shooters, but still pretty competent.
    - Theodores 11y ago
      Some of those sound effects are AY-8192 sounding to me, explosions on the spectrum were never like that.
      - chipsy 11y ago
        The Spectrum 128 contained an AY-8192, so you are right on the money. Earlier models were beeper only.
      - Narishma 11y ago
        They added an AY chip to the Spectrum starting from the 128K model I think. It was also available as an add-on to the original 48K.
    - watmough 11y ago
      Clunkier. Yep. Doesn't look near as good as the 'real' Spectrum R-Type. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6lvAXSGBpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6lvAXSGBpI I think it's the blocky movement that kinda kills it for me.
      - Narishma 11y ago
        Perhaps I'm missing something but the video you linked to seems to have blocky movement as well.
  - Marazan 11y ago
    Spectrum clock rate covers a multitude of ills.
  - nobullet 11y ago
    Dream Walker: Alter Ego 2 as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYufMwAxOl4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYufMwAxOl4
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - anon4 11y ago
    Ugh, but that leaves little CPU time for actual game logic. This new trend of devs sacrificing gameplay in order to push more colours to the screen is ludicrous. Next year they'll just be selling games that have no actual gameplay, but are just long animated movies!
ParrotyError 11y ago
When I was in my teens I bough a book called "Advanced Spectrum Machine Language" by David Webb (IIRC) and it had examples of a rainbow processor (high-res colour by repeatedly writing to the attributes file quickly) and a full-screen horizon (by flipping the border colour bit at the right time). I've often wondered what other tricks were possible. For example, would it be possible to mix colours by changing the attributes on successive frames? So you could, for example, make orange by mixing red and yellow?
- Joeboy 11y ago
  I had that book! Programming books were generally out of my budget back then, but I saved up for that one, which I recall being full of incredibly clever tricks. I wonder if this is the same David Webb - I guess it probably is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Webb_%28Hong_Kong_activist%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Webb_%28Hong_Kong_activi... I think switching between colours at 25hz would give you pretty horrible flicker, although maybe we would have forgiven that in the Spectrum era.

70 points by bane 11y ago

Splendiferous. ZX Spectrum wins again.

jug 11y ago

Wow, this is pretty amazing, haha. Can't wait for the latest ZX Spectrum games to take advantage of this! Hmm, I wonder how/if it affects performance. No catch besides the RAM usage?

Leynos 11y ago
It relies on the colour attributes being twiddled every few scanlines, so I'd be rather sceptical of its applications. That said, there is a video of it running here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQajN1XWzJY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQajN1XWzJY (on a 48k Speccy no less), and it looks rather performant.
- fuzzix 11y ago
  Was just looking at a review for a new game, Stormfinch, which uses this engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2sd2FNPTBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2sd2FNPTBs It's clearly a little clunkier than monochrome or simple colour attribute shooters, but still pretty competent.
  - Theodores 11y ago
    Some of those sound effects are AY-8192 sounding to me, explosions on the spectrum were never like that.
    - chipsy 11y ago
      The Spectrum 128 contained an AY-8192, so you are right on the money. Earlier models were beeper only.
    - Narishma 11y ago
      They added an AY chip to the Spectrum starting from the 128K model I think. It was also available as an add-on to the original 48K.
  - watmough 11y ago
    Clunkier. Yep. Doesn't look near as good as the 'real' Spectrum R-Type. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6lvAXSGBpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6lvAXSGBpI I think it's the blocky movement that kinda kills it for me.
    - Narishma 11y ago
      Perhaps I'm missing something but the video you linked to seems to have blocky movement as well.
- Marazan 11y ago
  Spectrum clock rate covers a multitude of ills.
- nobullet 11y ago
  Dream Walker: Alter Ego 2 as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYufMwAxOl4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYufMwAxOl4
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- anon4 11y ago
  Ugh, but that leaves little CPU time for actual game logic. This new trend of devs sacrificing gameplay in order to push more colours to the screen is ludicrous. Next year they'll just be selling games that have no actual gameplay, but are just long animated movies!

ParrotyError 11y ago

When I was in my teens I bough a book called "Advanced Spectrum Machine Language" by David Webb (IIRC) and it had examples of a rainbow processor (high-res colour by repeatedly writing to the attributes file quickly) and a full-screen horizon (by flipping the border colour bit at the right time). I've often wondered what other tricks were possible. For example, would it be possible to mix colours by changing the attributes on successive frames? So you could, for example, make orange by mixing red and yellow?

Joeboy 11y ago
I had that book! Programming books were generally out of my budget back then, but I saved up for that one, which I recall being full of incredibly clever tricks. I wonder if this is the same David Webb - I guess it probably is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Webb_%28Hong_Kong_activist%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Webb_%28Hong_Kong_activi... I think switching between colours at 25hz would give you pretty horrible flicker, although maybe we would have forgiven that in the Spectrum era.