@walkero

Thank you :)

For the performance graph, you'd need a special executable by me, then to send me the data logged by it and then to wait for me to process the data... sorry, not feasible :p

I've just noticed that I never told you about my demo THE CURE here - at least, I can't find any post about it here, neither from me nor from somebody else. Well, given that I've released an update a few minutes ago, I can tell you now about both the demo and the update

The demo is available for free download from https://www.retream.com/THE_CURE, where you can find also further details.

The update is due to the fact that lately I realized I could make the startup and cleanup code of SkillGrid more robust, so I improved it further. I decided to apply the same improvements to my other productions, and today it was THE CURE's turn...

v1.1 (20210602)
* Made startup and cleanup code more robust.
* Fixed (unlikely) memory leak in cleanup code.
* Replaced "actual" with "current" in standings graphics.
* Fixed/improved README.

@328gts

My pleasure


@all

One more minor update.
A user reported a bug in the community section on itch.io and, after checking out the code, I realized that I had introduced a bug (probably the cause of the reported issue, which unfortunately I could not reproduce) with the previous changes. It's fixed now.
Also, I have recompiled the game against a further updated custom framework, which makes the startup and cleanup procedures more robust (these last changes did not make it to the previous update by mistake), and improved the manual slightly.

Get the new version for free from https://www.retream.com/MeMO.

v3.11 (20210601)
* Fixed bug (introduced by the previous update) that allowed both players to point the same card at the same time.
* Recompiled against further updated custom framework, which makes the startup and cleanup procedures more robust (these last changes did not make it to the previous update by mistake).
* Improved manual slightly.

Lately I realized I could made the startup and cleanup code of SkillGrid more robust, so I improved it further. Then, I made similar (and more general) changes to my own custom framework (not used by SkillGrid for memory conservation reasons), which thus has now more robust startup and cleanup code, too. MeMO uses such framework, so it almost automatically benefits from the improvements (all that was needed was changing a couple of instructions and reassembling the code).
This change alone justfied a new release, so, while touching up the manual in preparation for it, I remembered that I was asked 2 joysticks support on itch.io: I seized the chance to add that as well; and, in the process, other ideas came to mind - here is the full changelog...

v3.10 (20210529)
* Recompiled against updated custom framework, which makes the startup and cleanup procedures more robust.
* Removed some leftover code that caused the program directory to remain locked.
* Added support for joystick in mouse port.
* Reworked/extended menu.
* Touched up hiscores graphics.
* Changed design of 'G' character.
* Made a few minor changes/optimizations.
* Added a new old-style 4 color icon (the previous one was accidentally deleted with the previous update).
* Improved/extended manual.

The new version is now available for download - get it for free from here.
If you give it a spin and you experience problems, please let me know so that I can try to fix them (and this might also contribute to improving the future SkillGrid update).

Looking at the previous posts, I've realized that I had forgotten to let you know about v3.9

v3.9 (20200626)
* Recompiled with the P61 flag p61exec set correctly (i.e. 1; before it was set to 0, and that caused music not to play on systems with the CPU vbr register pointing to a location other than 0).
* Avoided saving of the hiscore file when no hiscore is made.
* Moved some data to the code section, thus saving some bytes thanks to the PC-relative addressing modes.
* Made a little improvement to the startup routine.
* Fixed/improved manual.

@328gts

Thanks for the compliments and the feedback.
Scores it's something I've been pondering on forever, and eventually I ruled them out to keep the Amiga CD32 NVRAM slots to the minimum possible (in fact, only lately I actually decided to keep track of the time records for the same reason). That said, I still have 6 bytes left, so maybe I'll use them for the top 3 scores.

There's still some work to do, but the game is nearing completion!

PREVIEW #4

Since the previous preview, the following happened (details further below);
* added records;
* added HUD (I went for a bold and, at the same time, fresh and simple style);
* added 14-bit playback for speech samples (now they are crystal clear, while before the quantization noise was very audible - compare with the previous videos);
* attenuated reverb effect on speech samples;
* added saving of the number of the last level played, so, when it starts, the game automatically sets that level as the default one (of course, the player can still decide to play any other level among those that have been completed previously);
* improved some graphics;
* added saving of the audio mode setting;
* reworked startup code so that it is much faster (this was planned since the beginning);
* reduced disk space occupation;
* implemented advanced data loading/saving system.

About the records:
* the game measures the time taken to complete the levels;
* the game keeps track of the best time of each level.

About the HUD:
* top: current time;
* middle: level number;
* bottom: record time.

About the data loading/saving system:
* loads the saved data both from local file and through nonvolatile.library (handling graciously the cases where any or even both of the sources is/are not available);
* if both sources are available, merges the loaded data so that the resulting data contains the best information;
* saves the data to a local file and, failing that, tries to save it through nonvolatile.library;
* performs sanity checks/repairs;
* needs 44 bytes of disk space / 5 nonvolatile slots.

At the moment, there is a simple time limit of 20 minutes to complete a puzzle (which is almost as if there were no limit, as I don't want to put too much pressure on the player), but I'm still thinking about introducing a time limit system similar to the original one. More precisely, I'm considering whether to add a level-proportional time limit that can be extended with the time left from the previous level, while keeping the pressure of time low.

And one last thing I forgot to mention so far: the game will be free

Curious about how Follix is progressing? This new preview should quench your thrist...

PREVIEW #3

Latest changes:
1. added options menu;
2. added loading/saving;
3. added option to restart from any of the levels previously completed;
4. added trail graphical effect;
5. added music and mute options;
6. added title screen information overlay;
7. improved graphics;
8. improved sounds;
9. made various internal improvements.

Notes about the changes:
1. I decided to keep it minimal and stylish, adding new colors and - of course - more transparencies;
2. the game tries to load the data from both a local file and through nonvolatile.library, and then uses the best data found; the game tries to save the data to a local file and, failing that, tries with nonvolatile.library; at the moment, the only piece of information loaded/saved is the number of the highest level completed;
5. the music is the one I made for ArtPazz and, therefore, just a placedholder;
6. at the moment, it is used only to show the "about" page, but I plan to use it to show also times/scores/records (if I ever decide to add them - I haven't made my mind about this yet); technically, it adds a 75% opaque layer on top of the background and of the alpha-cycling logo;
8. in particular, I have improved the quality of the speech samples, but still they are affected by a light hiss due to quantization, so I'm thinking to use 14 bit playback for them.

General note: the sudden game-overs in the video are not due to a bug or a mistake, but are simply the result of pressing [ESCAPE]

@328gts

Thanks!


@all

PREVIEW #2

In this preview you can see that the core of the game is completely implemented now. In fact, the game can be played from the beginning till the end: all the 30 levels are in place! However, the most important thing to be done before the release is to add some nice gameplay feature. I have omitted the time limit and bonuses that were featured by the original game, as I don't want the game to be stressful (the same choice I made for ArtPazz), but I also want the experience to be richer than it currently is. Of course, there are also other things to do: graphics and sound effects have to be finished, music has to be written, the options menu has to be implemented and a nice story (which will unveil as the puzzles get solved) has to be penned. And I haven't decided yet whether to have a score and/or per-level scores (like the original game).

I'm DELIGHTED to know about your daughter! Thank you so much!
And I do understand your son ;)

Making ArtPazz (a remake of my third game ever, done in 1995) spurred me to remake (for the... erm... 4th time!) also my very first game (originally made in 1994): enter Follix, another puzzler for all AGA Amigas! The game has been in the works only for a couple of days now: the core is in place, but of course all the rest still needs to be done.
The original game was heavily inspired by Atomix, and so is Follix, although it introduces some gameplay changes. The "ix" at the end of the name comes precisely from "Atomix" - "Folli" instead, comes from "Follia", which is the Italian for "madness" (which links the game to ArtPazz also name-wise).

PREVIEW #1

The video shows the basic gameplay mechanics and these visual effects:
* 24-bit translucencies;
* 24-bit fading from/to black;
* 24-bit cross-fading;
* 8-bit alpha-cycling*;
* 8-bit alpha-cycling and 24-bit cross-fading at the same time*.

(*I genuinely wonder if this has ever done before on Amiga.)

Please note that the graphics are temporary: probably they will change completely (in fact, I'm going to experiment with something totally different right after posting this).
Technical note: like ArtPazz, also Follix is written entirely with AMOS Professional 2.00 and the in-house ALS library.

P.S. And, yes, now I'm dying to remake also my second game ever, but that's just one more entry in my TO-DO list for the moment being.

I have released a minor bugfix update for ALS which fixes a few minor issues.

v1.89 (21.03.2021)
* Fixed bug in ALS_SET_DISPLAY_COLORS_RANGE_FROM_PALETTE_SEGMENT[], which caused the low 12 bits of the colors to be set to the same value as the high 12 bits (because the instruction Areg(0)=PSA was placed just after the beginning of a loop, despite the comment just above said: "Areg(0) is set only once before the loop thanks to the fact that it is updated by Call with the value returned by ALS_SETCOLORXXRANGE()").
* Replaced all End/Pop Proc[False] with End/Pop Proc[0], as False might crash the Compiler in some circumstances.
* Fixed a comment in the ALS code.
* Fixed the metadata of a couple of ILBM files.
* Added a note to the demo3 program.

Oh, glad to hear it has also such therapeutic use :D
Have you tried playing with your kids (with adequately-sized tiles, of course)?

No, sorry, that would be no fun.

You're welcome!

Thank you, samo79!


@all

In case you're wondering: it's just a coincidence, and, yes, even people outside of Italy are allowed to post here :D

Thank you, guys!

Hello,

I have just released a new little game for AGA Amigas. It's a simple puzzler where the player has to reconstruct a picture split in a number of tiles - here's a video that clarifies the concept perfectly.
If you feel like, go get it from here - it's free ;)


SOME FEATURES

* Besides the 10 default images, the player can add more images by just dropping them into the appropriate directory (the pictures must be 320x256 pixels and have a depth of up to 64 colors).
* Likewise, it is possible to add more music modules to the appropriate directory.
* Up to 8 local players can challenge one another.
* Joystick/joypad and/or keyboard and/or mouse are all supported; they can all be used at the same time; any single device can control the game entirely (in the joystick case, two buttons are required).
* It comes as an: LHA archive, ADF image, ISO image.


BACKSTORY
In 1995 I made Puzzly, my third little game for Amiga (while, instead, I should have studied for the high school exit exam). It did not look good (although my eyes could not see that back then) and it had a very annoying feature that was even totally superfluous, but it was fun enough and I actually enjoyed it with some friends in a few of occasions. The game was written with AMOS Professional.
11 years later (2006), I worked on a project for the local department of the Ministry of Heritage. I had a technical role and I was surrounded by art experts. The project was called ART-PAST. It was so badly planned, the resources were so scarce, the salaries were so low and the demands on my colleagues were so huge that we soon ended up calling the project ART-PAZZ ("pazzo" means "mad"/"crazy" in Italian, and "pazz'" is the way it is spoken in our dialect), as those people were being driven mad and the overall atmosphere was totally crazy.
Now, 15 additional years later (2021), during a break from the writing of a novel, I found the perfect time for a small project like this. I rewrote the game from scratch using ALS, a graphics engine for AMOS Professional I released in October 2020 (rewriting the game using CSS, the ALS predecessor, is something I had been wanting to do for ages), keeping it as simple as I could.
I chose the name ArtPazz because the game might actually drive crazy, because "Pazz" (in Italian) sounds similar to "puzz" in "Puzzly"/"puzzle", because I threw some paintings in the mix and because it gave me one more reason to have a good laugh with some of the old friends involved in the ART-PAZZ... erm... ART-PAST project.


TECHNICAL NOTES

As indirectly stated above, ArtPazz has been written with AMOS Professional (version 2.00, to be precise). However, thanks to the self-produced ALS engine (https:www.retream.com/ALS), it is a proper AGA game - in fact, it:
* uses 8 bitplanes;
* uses 24-bit colors;
* allows 6-bit images under a 2-bit overlay with partially transparent colors.

Note: the overlay colors are white, gray and black; that is not due to technical limitations, but to ensure that the overlay looks fine regardless of the hues of the underlying images.

Hi all,

I'm looking for somebody to test an update that I've been working on for a while now. It seems that the custom NVRAM code doesn't work fine on all the Amiga CD32 machines, and I don't have that machine to make tests myself.

Requirements:
* Amiga CD32 machine with a 2.5 V or less version of the EEPROM chip (it's marked "AT24C08" and, among various other codes, it has also the voltage printed on it - for example, the chip at the middle bottom of this picture, just under the Alice chip, has a "25" meaning that it's a 2.5 V chip);
* easy storage support (HD/CF/floppy/etc.) - CD-ROM alone won't do;
* knowledge of AmigaOS, some basic technical skills, ability to provide clear reports and patience.

If interested, please send me an email to postmaster at retream dot com.
Thank you!

It took longer than I thought, but finally ALS is out!
Get it for free from https://www.retream.com/ALS.
I hope that it will be useful to somebody, and that some day I'll get to see a cool game made with it ;)

FINAL VIDEO

VIDEO PREVIEW #5

Since last time, I improved/fixed a few things, revised greatly the documentation and updated the programs shown in the video. I also prepared the project web page: https://www.retream.com/ALS (redirects to https://retream.itch.io/als).
Currently I'm continuing to revise the documentation iteratively: when no more corrections are needed, ALS will be released - and I hope to make that happen this week.