Tuesday, December 12, 2006

XeO3: Bugging me....

Been a few weeks now since I last did anything really, so I started to try and hunt down the bug in the new cache system. I'm getting less and less time just now, so I only really got a chance to go over the code a little but I'm sure its in the cache. I reduced the number of cache entries down to 2, and the sprite corruption showed up everywhere, so I think its something to do with the last cache block, although I've no idea currently what that is. I hope to start proper debugging tonight, but that assumes I'll be able to stay awake long enough. I'm currently struggling with a cold which has me virtually asleep at my desk.

Anyway, while plodding away with XeO3 this year, I've been thinking that 8bit development has gotten far easier than it used to be, and I don't think theres any one reason why, I think tools are better, turn around is better, editors and web help and we just know more about it. Hell, I did the C64 multiplexor in a couple of days! It used to take weeks! But with this bug, I'm starting to think that its all just down to experiance. I've done lots of harder things now, and retro coding is pretty simple as far as game logic goes, so we just dont make as many mistakes as we used to when we were starting out. This new bug on the other hand is a little more complex as it's now using a more advanced/faster cache that will take a little time to unravel. Still, its good to know that I can still learn stuff, and Im not quite as thick as I once was.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A new working cache system will change all the stuff here. Until that time, I'm getting frustrated a bit, because I wouldn't get pleasure in assembling a 2nd level, and then be forced to rewrite it due to unsuspected limitations. Now waiting seems to be better. In the meantime, I'm porting the 2nd lvl's music to the new music format, I feel I'll fight for memory again! ;)

Mike said...

well, not really....Its been in for a little while, but its still a bit buggy.

well, you can always start drawing sprites for later levels if you're stuck with something - or script some paths; and like you say, you always have the music to fall back on :)

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, I simply played few times with paths until now, waiting for a stable and complete scripting.
Oh, I just finished the first porting of the 2nd lvl music, and I'm out by 54 bytes only! :) Now the fight begins, of course.
I'm using the blog in order to talk, 'cause you're not online (hence busy).

Anonymous said...

Bah! Not 54 but $54 bytes, so they're a big bunch! At the moment, I reached $30...