That’s a good point, DogP.

I probably wouldn’t use it for large images like that, unless they were for a cut-scene or something, but it could be useful for converting sprites with lots of colors, where there wouldn’t be a lot of repeating chars anyway, no matter what dither is used.

I’ve used pattern dithering, too, but, as can be seen in your example, a lot of detail is lost, especially in the darker areas. Plus, I just don’t like how it looks, especially when animated.

One of the many (many, many, MANY) projects I still haven’t started is a program that can analyze a set of tiles and find “virtual duplicates” that, say, have the same numbers and general distribution of each shade, and lets you choose which to keep (or just arbitrarily throws one away). It could also take the form of a more intelligent version of Alberto’s “Map Constructor” that looks at the image prior to (or during) conversion.

Another way to save chars would be to find tiles that are the same basic pattern, but lighter or darker (or inverted, etc.). Then, one char could be used with two different palettes (in addition to flipping and/or mirroring).

Congrats on the machine; it looks nice. I also have a red arcade cabinet (Midway Truxton) but I have no room in the house for it.

I’ve played MVS Panic Bomber via emulation. The game-play is indeed practically identical to the VB version. I haven’t played it for any considerable length of time, so there may be significant differences in the later levels, story, etc.

I found out something kind of interesting that’s semi-related to this: the versions of GCC and GNU Binutils in gccVB are the exact same versions included on the BeOS Developer Edition 1.1 CD.

Just for fun, I may try to build gccVB under BeOS. Too bad the emulators and FlashBoy software don’t work under BeOS 😛 (although RB and/or Mednafen [when the source is released] might build with a bit of work).

Well, no-one seems to be interested in this anymore, but here is a practically complete version of the font. I’ll fix reported bugs if possible, and if there are any type designers/experts out there, I’ll definitely listen to any tips/tricks/hints/commentary/suggestions.

I technically own the copyright, but I really don’t care what’s done with it (although an anti-VB hate site would be in seriously poor taste :-P). …a small gratuity would be a nice gesture, if you can spare it. 😉

Attachments:

1. virtual-logo-1.zip

w00t! Triple-post, FTW! 😛

Well, here’s my nearly-final, public-beta, all-warranties-disclaimed, good-enough-for-government-work version of the VB logo font.

Eat instruction manual before using. 😉

Attachments:

1. virtual-logo.zip

Crumbs… I was hoping there was a clue to my problem there… Oh, well. Back to the drawing-board!

I’m thinking of starting a “blank” template project for VUCC using what I’ve learned, then try to recreate the water demo from scratch using it. Then, I could turn it into a “mini-tutorial” on using the IntSys kit.

VirtualChris wrote:
What do you mean by linear gravity?

I explained it in detail in this post (which is a reply to this post) and then attached my implementation to this post.

KR155E wrote:
Fantastic! A really inspiring tech demo! Also thanks a lot for including the source once again. 🙂

It has a serious bug, though: I tried it on FlashBoy and the objects are randomly “flickering” up and down. Like a fourth of all objects is randomly changing heights. I tried to take a screenshot but, unfortunately, it was not good enough to see the details.

Is this “random height change” in addition to the actual water ripples, or is the water static with flickering objects?

I’m trying to port this to VUCC, but the water won’t ripple and the objects are behaving in a way that sounds just like your description.

Oh, yeah… I forgot:

The “vbWaitFrame” function that comes with the Wiki Sample Code (and the PVB Coding Competition logo code), which uses the XPSTTS register, is fundamentally flawed and should not be used in new code.

I have not yet found a suitable replacement. I thought about making something that uses the VB’s timer, but while looking at the Bound High source, I noticed that it only uses the timer for playing music. I’ve yet to find how it synchronizes animation and user input.

Still using linear gravity I see… still, a good idea and not a bad beginning.

Glad to see you’re still dev’ing and hanging around PVB!

Any time, e5frog! That’s a nice deal you got! My second VB was also $6, but I got Vertical Force and a Performance AC adapter with it. It was at least 6 years ago, though. Nowadays, anything below $40 is a deal… 😉

Let us know how you get on with the link cable. I’ve still only got one VB connector. I used it for a VB->PC cable that I never got working. It wouldn’t be too hard to make another, though. I used the edge connector from an old floppy drive cable.

http://www.projectvb.com/linkcable.html

Project: VB. Learn it. Love it. 😉

RAD wrote:
Hm.

“games can be enjoyed with 3D effects” sound NOT like “games will have real 3D graphics” to me…

Maybe, we will get something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf8udkeVcVs&feature=related

You may be right, but with all the 3-D movies and TVs coming out lately, I’d say it’s very likely to have a real stereo display, like the parallax barrier LCD. Besides, you just proved that the current DSi can do that, so why would they need to make a whole new machine?

DogP wrote:
I made a pinout of it a long time ago, but IIRC almost all the pins were shifted by one pin from the final.

DogP

I wonder what the reasoning behind that was… Maybe they just found out it would be more efficient to route the cart and/or main-board if the pin-out was changed a bit. Then again, it could also have been some kind of theft deterrent, like those special lug-nuts that require a matching wrench. Or none of the above 😛

EDIT: Of course, with such a simple bitmap font format, you can’t (easily) adjust the kerning. In the TTF, the one will have less space around it when it’s next to letters and (certain) punctuation… Assuming I ever finish it 😛

Also, I just noticed that I changed the internal name of the font, but not the filename. I hope that doesn’t confuse anyone 😉

I think Antoine’s trying too hard, what with the picture of his sister “girlfriend” and all this off-topic chatter… 😉

heh, just kiddin’, Tony!

KR155E wrote:
Your changes to my font are very well done, I will add them soon. 🙂

Thanks! I also wanted to make the digits all the same width (as they are/will be in the TTF) because I hate it when you can’t stack a column of numbers. And forget about making a clock or timer with changing width! Yuck!

…but I wanted it to be a “more-or-less” drop-in replacement. It’s your call, though.

Here’s a beta TTF of the logo font. I wouldn’t use this in production, but it might get someone started…

It’s not kerned, it’s not hinted… the bearings aren’t even set right! But, it proves I’ve actually been doing something 😉

I’ve also attached a tweaked version of Krisse’s bitmap one. I didn’t readjust the spacing (for backward compatibility) but the space around the “A’s” really should be collapsed or it’ll look funny.

Attachments:

1. 

   chrisses-version-lo-res.png
   

1. virtual-boy.zip

Hmm… Maybe something to that effect should be added to the page about it?

That’s weird, because I almost mailed the developer of the device about adding VB support, back when it was the “Snega2usb” (awful name :-P).