MarkMoxon

6 ms·

31.
by MarkMoxon 3y ago
Alas, the NTSC version doesn't actually work on NTSC consoles. The NMI timings have been changed to work with some (but not all) emulators in NTSC mode, but it isn't a full NTSC conversion, it's an NTSC emulation (at least, t
32.
by MarkMoxon 3y ago
Yes, no hardware timers are used in NES Elite, as there aren't any. Instead there's an NMI counter (nmiTimer) that counts every VBlank and wraps around every 50 ticks, so it's effectively a seconds counter on the 50Hz PAL ver
33.
by MarkMoxon 3y ago
Also, the JMP BEGIN approach will still work even if you move the BEGIN routine elsewhere in bank 7, so presumably it's done this way so things won't break during development when you're still trying to work out which bit of
34.
by MarkMoxon 4y ago
There are no ads or trackers on my site, so it can’t be that - it is just the page content and some JavaScript, nothing more. I suspect it’s because I’m using an old off-the-shelf script for the navigation, and the size of the nav has grown
35.
by MarkMoxon 4y ago
I agree, I think Elite was the first commercial example of a split-screen mode on the BBC. It does flicker a bit at the switchover point when the disk is being accessed, as it is interrupt-based, but it's not too bad. There’s lots of d
36.
by MarkMoxon 4y ago
Author here, sorry to hear that. The side menu is quite large so there is a bit of a delay on loading - the project has grown pretty big, and so has the nav! It works OK on my ancient iPhone 6, so it shouldn't really be unresponsive an
37.
by MarkMoxon 6y ago
Absolutely this - I’ve tried to explain things clearly in the commentary, not least so I can understand them again when I revisit bits of the code. I’ve got about 15 new deep dives that I'm going to be writing next, now that I've
38.
by MarkMoxon 6y ago
Absolutely. The original Elite was definitely a product of two brilliant minds working together. Ian Bell's site even lists who did what: http://www.elitehomepage.org/faq.htm#A3 This is what analysing the source made m
39.
by MarkMoxon 6y ago
There are tables for sin, cos and arctan, but these are only used for drawing the planet’s circles. All the ship-drawing and universe manipulation is done using the small angle approximation, so there’s no need for lookup tables. Lots more
40.
by MarkMoxon 6y ago
I’m planning to analyse the 6502 second processor version next - the source files are on Ian Bell’s site, so hopefully I’ll be able to give it the same lavish treatment. I really want to know how the code for the “full” docking computer wor
41.
by MarkMoxon 6y ago
Glad you like the site. It’s been a labour of love, no doubt about it! (Site author here, incidentally.)