• Assembly Game Development

    From unixl0rd@80:505/12 to All on Wed Aug 3 21:01:01 2022
    Hello,

    I've written a few simple games in 8086 assembly using Turbo assembler, and I like it. To create my sprites, I use MtPaint. If it's a CGA game, I use a 4-colour palette, otherwise, a 256-colour palette. Once I'm done, I save the image as an XPM file, then I run
    the file through a PHP script that cuts it up into 8x8 byte arrays. The output is then copied into my source code (I use a custom
    label called Tilemap to reference the array). To render a sprite, I create an array of tile indices, and I pass it to a subroutine
    that loops over the individual pixels of each tile and copy them into video memory.

    The process was a pain in the ass to come up with, but it works really well. I wonder if game developers back in the 80s used a similar technique. I don't have a game development background, so I don't know the 'right' way to do things when it comes to retro game development.

    By the way, Turbo debugger is a must have. I don't think I would be able to write assembly without it.

    ... "Yes, Tanis, I PROMISE I won't touch it." - Tasslehoff Burrfoot

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  • From hollowone@80:505/12 to unixl0rd on Thu Mar 30 12:41:38 2023
    By the way, Turbo debugger is a must have. I don't think I would be able to write assembly without it.

    I never knew how to use TD with my DOS assembly back then. Bust perhaps it was because I was using it only to code full screen VGA/VESA graphics and I only had one monitor available.

    So the only way I could figure out something wrongly is by dropping values on the screen somehow or using certain pixel positions and colors as my morse language.

    But I really liked TD to reverse engineer somebody's else code, without the need or running it. More as a disassembly tool.

    So much missed knowledge today.

    -h1

    ... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a copy.

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