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2010-06-26T22:09:00.001-05:00

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SGC!

2010-02-21T04:18:00.002-06:00

I'm planning to attend SGC (http://www.sgconvention.com) in Dallas July 2-4, 2010. Hopefully, I'll have some new retro project to show, at the show.

Frog Feast for the ColecoVision.

2007-12-20T12:09:00.000-06:00

Frog Feast is being ported to the ColecoVision by 'Mark2008'.

The details of the port can be found on the AtariAge forums:
Frog Feast ColecoVision port

CD32 version previewed in Amiga Future

2007-11-26T21:40:00.000-06:00

The Amiga CD32 version of Frog Feast is previewed in Amiga Future (http://www.amigafuture.de) #69. I purchased my copy from http://www.amigakit.com.

PAL Dreamcast version works. SNES version to be converted to PAL.

2007-11-12T12:02:00.000-06:00

I was able to test Frog Feast on a PAL dreamcast, and it works without any issues.

I am in the process of starting a PAL version of Frog Feast for the SNES. These will be shipped in the European style cartridge shells, but will be a bit more expensive, due the to additional costs in obtaining the cartridge shells and boards.

Jaguar cartridge version will be released on Oct 31st.

2007-10-28T00:32:00.000-05:00

The Jaguar Frog Feast cartridge will be releaed on the 31st of October at 12 am CST (GMT-6).

We will also be holding a release event. Details can be found at:
http://frogfeast.rastersoft.net/CountDown.html

Dreamcast version just needs to be tested.

2007-09-25T07:30:00.000-05:00

The Dreamcast version has sound and music, and boots fine on a real system. I will be testing out this version over the next couple of days.

The first Frog Feast Jaguar cartridge now on sale

2007-09-24T07:32:00.001-05:00

The first Frog Feast Jaguar cartridge is on EBay:

We are going to sell the first five on EBay. These are labelled as special editions, and will show the number on the title screen. The remaining stock will go on sale in five weeks, just in time for halloween.

Dreamcast version started.

2007-09-24T07:28:00.000-05:00

Over the last week, I started a Dreamcast version of Frog Feast. It is now playable, and can play an S3M file for background music. I am having trouble getting wave files to play back. I'm using version 1.1.2 of kos, do to some unknown issues in getting newer version to work correctly. I've added in the sound manager from later version, but it crashes when I play a sound.

Neo Geo CD issue.

2007-09-18T23:44:00.000-05:00

I'm sure this is somewhere in my notes, but the text files on the CD (cpy.txt, abs.txt and, bib.txt) need to contain SNK or 'SNK corporation'. This probably only applies to cpy.txt, as this is used for protection on the Neo Geo CDZ.

CD32 version of Frog Feast works.

2007-09-18T23:41:00.000-05:00

I received my CD32 and was able to test out Frog Feast on it. It plays fine. I'm not sure about the screen position. I need to verify the position on a TV.

Jaguar cartridge version finished and CD32 version delayed.

2007-09-06T00:50:00.000-05:00

I finished up the Jaguar cartridge version. I had to copy most of the graphics data to ram. This fixed the issue with the music playing slowly. Cartridge should be created within the next couple of weeks.

I pulled my CD32 out, and it's not working. I sent it to a friend to look at. I'm hoping it's just the capacitors. I'm also going to pick up a second one, as a backup. Once I have a working CD32, I can complete the testing of the CD32 version, and fix any remaining issues.

The FM Towns version is also waiting a few fixups. I should get back to it shortly.

CD32 finished, needs testing. FM Towns progress.

2007-08-27T08:16:00.000-05:00

I added the last of the functionality to the CD32 version of Frog Feast. The sky changes color over time, and it should display correctly on a PAL display. The PAL change involved changes to more code than I expected. The allocated display memory is now 256 pixels high, instead of the 224 it was before. I will be testing on a real CD32 player over the next week.

I started implementing the sprite functionality into the FM Towns version. Understanding the functionality of the sprite system will take some investigating.

CD32 near complete

2007-08-23T02:31:00.000-05:00

The sound issues were resolved. Sounds are properly stopped before starting another one. CD audio playback was added. A few gameplay problems were fixed.

There are two features left to implement. The background color needs to be changed based on time, and implement support for PAL mode. Once the features are implemented, this version needs to be tested on a real CD32 to ensure it runs at full speed.

Slight CD32 progress and FM Towns delay

2007-08-22T21:06:00.000-05:00

I added preliminary sound support to the CD32 version of Frog Feast. Sound support wasn't too difficult to add. The audio hardware supports sound at almost any playback rate, up to about 13,000 khz in 8 bit signed pcm/raw format. The most difficult part of playing back a sound is preventing it from repeating once the sound ends. This is solved by setting the sound channel to play an empty sound after the audio hardware has queued the information for the sound. The audio hardware has shadow versions of the sound registers. Once the information is stored in the shadow registers (8 scanline appears to be long enough), the registers can be changed. The trick now is to find a way to stop the current sound to start another one, without a delay. And I need to change the sound routine to use both channels, so that the sound doesn't just play from one speaker. The last thing is a small change.

I also changed the blitter to handle blitting a 24 pixel wide sprite. This was messed up before. Before the source stride was hard coded into the routine.

Setting the gcc optimzation to -O3 was causing a fairly random crash, using version 2.95.3. Using -02 removes the crash. That had me scared a little. I thought it was bliting fix causing the problem.

I am delaying the release of the FM Towns version to add in sprite support. Sprites are handled in hardware, which will speed up the game even more! The recent changes have made adding sprites worthwhile.

Frog Feast two year anniversary.

2007-08-20T21:38:00.000-05:00

Frog Feast was first released at Classic Gaming Expo 2005 (in Dallas and San Jose) two years ago. A 'brief' story, of the first two years of Frog Feast, is now up at:
http://frogfeast.rastersoft.net/2Year.html

CD-I Frog Feast Interview and game information posted.

2007-08-16T09:39:00.000-05:00

Devin Shockwell has posted an interview and CD-i Frog Feast game information on 'The Black Moon Project' website (http://blackmoon.classicgaming.gamespy.com/default.asp).

The interview can be found here:
Black Moon interview

And, the game information is located here:
Black Moon Frog Feast Game Info

Thanks Devin, the interview was a pleasure to do, and reminded me that it's time for my annual playing of 'Z' (Bitmap Brothers Z info page). :)

FM Towns Frog Feast

2007-08-13T10:44:00.000-05:00

The FM Towns version of Frog Feast has been updated to use a 256x240 double buffered front plane, and a 320x240 static backplane. This was inspired by the CD-i version.

I initially tried a 256x240 mode for both screens. The only problem with using the 256x240 mode, is that it leaves a blank area on the sides of the screen. And, using a 320x240 mode for the foreground screens doesn't allow for double buffering. Without double buffering, the sprites flicker near the top of the screen.

Jaguar CD Frog Feast, and FM Towns reworking

2007-08-06T17:42:00.000-05:00

The Jaguar CD version of Frog Feast is available for pre-order from OlderGames.com:
http://www.oldergames.knurdz.com/shop/pre-order.php

The FM Towns version is under going some changes, to improve the speed. The speed of the old version wasn't bad, but I want it to work near perfectly.

Inspired by the methods used in the CD-I version, I've modified the FM Towns version to use the back plane as the background and the front plane for text and sprites. This makes it faster to clear the sprites, and removes the need to clear the text layer. I am in the process of changing the resolution to 256x240, to allow double buffering the front plane.

Jaguar CD version of Frog Feast nearly complete

2007-07-28T01:19:00.000-05:00

The Atari Jaguar version is nearly complete. I used a library provided by SebRmv of the Removers. It's a fairly complete library for Jaguar development. There are no speed issues with this library.

I have to fix a graphics corruption issue, ensure PAL is properly supported and, do some testing. I'm still looking for a mod file for the title music.

This version came together pretty quickly, using the library.

CD-I Frog Feast... Waxing poetical

2007-07-23T03:05:00.000-05:00

The journey to complete Frog Feast for the CD-I began a little over two weeks ago. In the process I've learnt more about the CD-I that I would've thought possible. It all started with a simple request for examples on using the CD-I RTOS. I had come to realize that the Balboa library wouldn't allow the level of performance I needed. For the most part, the Frog Feast development was driven by the rapid pace of implementing features. There were a few moments where I had to wonder if Frog Feast would run on all CD-I models. In the end, overcoming these frustrating challenges, provided the extra motivation needed to properly finish Frog Feast. I feel Frog Feast is a solid game for the CD-I.

Developing Frog Feast, for the CD-I, reminded me of the programmer stories I read about in ZZap! or Amiga Format. Writing much of the underlying code in 68000 assembly, and the optimizations needed to get everything running smoothly, felt like being a programmer in the early 16 bit days. I got a glimpse of the challenges faces by these early programmers. They had to overcome some pretty big issues to get their code running smoothly on these limited platforms; and doing all of this while struggling with limited documentation and early development tools. The only true answer to their problem was the challenge to overcome it. They would have had to try many solutions before they arrived at the one that did exactly what they needed. I also developed a great admiration for the few development companies that released arcade or fast action games for the CD-I. Getting decent speed on a system not designed for fast action games is a huge challenge. This is probably equivalent to developing a dos game using the BIOS: something never used in dos games.

The CD-I version of Frog Feast is, by far, the most optimized version of Frog Feast. Much of the game code was redesigned to eliminate speed issues. The low level graphics routines were optimized for speed and designed to do only one thing as fast as they can. The SNES and the FM Towns versions are the second and third on the most optimized list. The SNES version was more challenging to get working correctly, due to battling the 65816 and development tools. And, I'm not as fond of the 65816, compared to the 68000. The CD-I version has additional features not available in any other version; it has an exit option, a credits screen and, slightly better AI. The load time on the CD-I was not an issue. I thought this was going to be a big challenge. Everything that is needed, except for the credit screen and sounds, are loaded while the two opening screens are shown. The loading time only takes up part of the time displaying the screens. This version of Frog Feast has the greatest number of blog entries; which, I believe, shows the number of challenges faced developing the CD-I version.

In the end, I'm pleased with the results and enjoyed overcoming the challenges of the CD-I. I look forward to developing more games for the CD-I. For a few weeks, I had a chance to experience what it was like to be a programmer in the early days of 16 bit game development; optimizing code to overcome speed issues and, redesigning code to avoid slowdowns. I say to the CD-I, in my best Arnold voice, "I'll be back!"

All know issues resolved.

2007-07-22T03:38:00.000-05:00

What a difference a day can make. I've gone from wondering if Frog Feast would ever work on a Mini MMC CD-i player, to feeling confident about a release.

I've resolved all of the issues that I'm aware of on the CD-I version of Frog Feast. There was another issue that would've caused Frog Feast to fail on any system without a DVC cart or extra memory. I was allocating memory for sound that was 18 times bigger than it needed to be. This turned a 27k memory requirement into almost 512k. This was futher compilcated by the fact that I didn't think about the extra memory provided by the DVC cartridge.

I now have one thing left, and that's displaying a credits screen. It won't be anything spectacular, but gives credit to the people that have made Frog Feast possible, and a couple of marketing weenies. (just kidding RW) :)

CD-I Frog Feast back on track.

2007-07-21T21:07:00.001-05:00

Thanks to CD-I Fan, the problem with Frog Feast playing on Mini MMC based players is solved.

I had already implemented part of the solution, and had tried the other part. But, I had never tried both parts. This is a big relief to have this behind me.

All of the bits (3 in total) were used in the Balboa sources.

Now, to implement the last part of Frog Feast, and wrap this up!

CD-I 350,60x,205/910 issue

2007-07-21T04:14:00.000-05:00

I've spent the entire day looking for the problem on Mini MMC based players. I cannot find a solution for the problem. I've rearranged the FCT many times, done traces on the Balboa version of Frog Feast, studied many FCTs from different games and even followed the code through the Balboa sources.

The image I get, on my CD-I 605, is 320 x 224 or 256. Frustration is setting in as there is no clear answer or any direction on where to search for a solution. A 320x224 ot 256 mode is not listed in any documentations that I've seen.

CD-I Frog Feast has sound effects.

2007-07-19T04:59:00.000-05:00

I finally got sound effects into Frog Feast. It was quite a challenge to figure out all of the little issues to get sound to play correctly. It looks like I may not be able to have the background sound play during the game. The sound effects pause the background sound, which probably wouldn't be noticable. But, there is some latency in restarting the sound, causing a noticable silence. The game is fast paced enough that the frog, tongue, fly and water noices are almost always playing.