Scorpion Engine

[earok]

Phew. Done for the weekend.

[ Show youtube player ]

http://earok.net/games/AlexKiddScorpion.lha
http://earok.net/games/AlexKiddScorpion.adf

[Amigajay]

Amazing work Earok! I have a feeling this will lead to good things to come!

[roondar]

Nice work, this is looking good

[carrion]

Coding some simple engine myself lately I know how difficult job it is to utilize amiga hw properly.
So huge congrats for you so far earok!
question: Do you code in in Blitz Basic? if so is it entirely coded in BB or maybe some ASM inlines?

[earok]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

AmigaBill's trying out Alex Kidd tomorrow.

https://www.twitch.tv/events/7DahCtDCQ0OrrvcdpcQOyA

It's 99% BB, though there's some tiny bits and pieces in ASM. Eg, I wanted to be able to blit directly between memory addresses, so I whipped this up -

Statement DoTileBlit{source.l,dest.l,tilesize.w}

    !WaitBlit{1}

    Move.l #$09f00000,$DFF040 ;A->D copy, no shifts, ascending mode
    Move.l #$ffffffff,$DFF044 ;no masking of first/last word
    Move.w $0,$DFF064 ;A modulo=bytes to skip between lines
    Move.w #ScreenModulo,$DFF066 ;d modulo=bytes to skip between screen lines

    Move.l D0,$DFF050 ;Source
    Move.l D1,$DFF054 ;Destination
    Move.w D2,$DFF058 ;Start Blit

End Statement

Statement DoMaskTileBlit{source.l,dest.l,tilesize.w,masksize.w}

    !WaitBlit{2}

    Move.l #$0fca0000,$DFF040 ;Masked copy
    Move.l #$ffffffff,$DFF044 ;no masking of first/last word
    Move.w #0,$DFF064 ;A modulo=bytes to skip between lines
    Move.w #0,$DFF062 ;B modulo=bytes to skip between lines
    Move.w #ScreenModulo,$DFF060 ;c modulo=bytes to skip between screen lines
    Move.w #ScreenModulo,$DFF066 ;d modulo=bytes to skip between screen lines

    Move.l D0,$DFF04C ;Image - B
    Add.l D3,D0 ;Get the mask Address
    Move.l D0,$DFF050 ;Mask - A
    Move.l D1,$DFF048 ;Destination - C
    Move.l D1,$DFF054 ;Destination - D
    Move.w D2,$DFF058 ;Start Blit

End Statement

[Tigerskunk]

Really amazing stuff. ..

This might be the needed game changer (pun intended) for less asm savvy Amiga developers.

[phx]

Originally Posted by earok

    Move.w $0,$DFF064 ;A modulo=bytes to skip between lines

Here you have been lucky, that $0.w usually contains 0.

[earok]

Originally Posted by phx

Here you have been lucky, that $0.w usually contains 0.

Geez, oops. That was an amateur mistake! Thanks for pointing that out.

I meant to ask you - I'm currently using the PTPlayer (Idrougge's library). Am I allowed to use that in a commercial project? Including (potentially) if there was a commercial release of the Scorpion Engine itself?


Edit: Cheers Steril707! Appreciate it

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by phx

Here you have been lucky, that $0.w usually contains 0.

Kudos for noticing stuff like that in a listing...

[malko]

I am not used to all these UK acronyms, but are you really :
"Kneeling Under Desk Of Supervisor" ?
Looks naughty/kinky

[saimon69]

@malko
That gives to the Kudos points of the old Project Gotham a totally new unexpected meaning... (that is where i heard Kudos for the first time)

[malko]

Joke apart, here is the definition from the Oxford dictionary

[earok]

A brief update on the way forward:

- There's still a few more features I'd like to add (numerical counters for UI, projectiles, maybe hardware sprites), as well as a re-write of the manual and additional features added to the Zelda demo, before some form of public release of the compiler. But I'm not too far way from that.

- What I'm likely to do at the start is put the source for the three sample games on a Github repo, along with a binary of the compiler. This will give me a way of updating the sample games, as well as giving others the ability to tweak and update the sample games themselves with additional levels, features and the like. The repo itself may contain the manual.

- Long term, asides from additional features, bug fixes and optimisations, the general intention is that there'll be importers to bring in projects from other platforms (certainly Backbone, perhaps SEUCK and NESMaker), as well as potentially an engine port so that Scorpion games can be played natively on other platforms (Windows, Mac, Android etc).

- The general intention is the engine will always be available free and unrestricted for freeware projects, but but a commercial edition of the compiler may be licenced. I'm leaning towards setting up a Patreon account for this purpose (I figure that might also be useful for anyone that wanted to back development of the engine, even if they didn't want to develop a Scorpion game themselves). But that's certainly not set in stone yet, and I'm open to advice and guidance here.

[Tigerskunk]

Very nice!

Especially the Github idea.

[phx]

Originally Posted by earok

I meant to ask you - I'm currently using the PTPlayer (Idrougge's library). Am I allowed to use that in a commercial project? Including (potentially) if there was a commercial release of the Scorpion Engine itself?

No problem. The license in the Readme says that ptplayer is public domain. Do with it whatever you want!

[dlfrsilver]

fabulous tool. Some great games will very possibly happen on the Amiga with it.

The best, is that the A1200 + memory + hard drive will offer great possibilities with it.

[earok]

Cheers guys!

I've got my copy of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, so I'm likely to be tied up for awhile. So I've gone ahead and published an early, early preview release of the compiler, along with the current 'source' for the three games. This is an unofficial, under the radar soft-launch, just to get the compiler out there so people can start tinkering.

https://github.com/earok/scorpion-engine-demos

Here are the caveats:


Firstly, the manual isn't done - what I had already done on it basically needs to be rewritten from scratch. I'll start publishing the manual piece meal over the next few weeks. As such, it may be better to tinker with the existing samples rather than try to build something from scratch.

Secondly, the exact design and capabilities of the engine still isn't set in stone. Games written to work with the current Scorpion Engine/Compiler will absolutely break on future updates. (though I'll try to make detailed notes about whatever's been changed when I do updates)

Thirdly, the compiler is Windows-Only at this stage. I'll at some stage look at creating compilers for Mac and Linux.

Fourthly, the engine is still missing certain critical features (numerical counters and player-projectiles amongst many other bits and pieces), these are still forthcoming.


I'd recommend using Git to clone the repo if you can, otherwise you can also simply download a zip file. To use it, just run "scorpion.exe" in the compiler folder, choose which of the three projects to compile.

For editing maps, you'll need Tiled. For editing scripts and the project configuration, any text editor should do.

For editing animations, we've used an old beta version of Spriter - that's another potential complication in that the old Spriter beta is no longer officially supported or available, but I've included it on the Git repo (cheers to Michael Parent).

[saimon69]

Do you think the engine can handle a game in the style of Cadash?

[Tigerskunk]

I am really looking forward to all the games that will be created with this.
There is literally no excuse anymore...

[earok]

@saimon69

The short answer is - I don't see why not. The ink scripting supports a complicated RPG system behind the scenes, including random numbers (dice rolling), storing XP, handling level ups, dialogue and branching decisions.

Cheers @Steril707, I'm also hoping that it gets picked up for a few projects.