Finally figured it out!!!

Hello everyone,

Sorry for taking so long to post but man have I been busy!  I will try to make it a point of posting more often and talk about where I am at and what I have completed.
So I finally figured out how to move around the map and even detect collisions with mountains and oceans!!!  I have posted a video of the test movement and I will also post the assembly code.  I will be posting a simple tutorial on how to enter the assembly code using an Apple II emulator.  This is pretty cool because you can actually program on the emulator just like on the real apple computer!

The good and bad of the program is that is works BUT it is way too slow in its refresh rate.  I am working on speeding up the refresh so it is just like the game. 

Check out the videos:



The movement example shows a troll as the main character moving around the map.  incorporated Applesoft basic with assembly code to use the I, J, K and M keys to move UP, LEFT, RIGHT, and DOWN.  I also used the B key to restart the position of the troll.

I will post the code for both the Applesoft Basic and the Assembly code soon so you can enter it on an emulator and run through the program yourself!

Enjoy the video and know that we are getting close now!

Joe

We are getting close now!!!

Hello all,

Ok, so the photo you see above is a section of map in my Ultima 1 Revisited program! I have FINALLY figured out how to display 200 tiles from a section of the Ultima map on the screen and it is ALL programmed is Assembly! Is that cool or what? I think I will be able to figure out how to move around the map by this weekend. No promises but I am close!

On the next post I will explain just how I had to create each shape/tile. I know I explained about creating shapes earlier in the blog but I was using a specific shape creation program. For assembly you need to create each shape and turn it from graph paper, to binary, and finally to HEX. Pain in the a$$ process but it works great because you can use different colors for the shapes. I will be staying with the original colors that were in Ultima 1 and not using the colors that are found in the Ultima rewrite.

Here is a quick example of one of the shapes:

Also, I will be posting the Excel maps when they are completed. The files have the entire [4] maps created from separate tile images and placed in individual cells in an excel sheet. I have to say that it looks pretty cool to be able to see the entire Ultima map on the screen in one shot. Very cool!

Here is an example of the excel map:

I can't wait to be able to post all the code and show a video of a character moving around the screen on a generated Ultima 1 Map!

Well, I have to get back to programming but I just wanted to let you all know just how close we are to see it all work!

Joe

progessing nicely...

Hello all,

Well, from the image above I can tell you that things are progressing nicely! The above image shows 10 tiles set in two group’s side-by-side and 10 columns deep. Now you might think to yourself, "So what is such a big deal about this"! Well the big deal is I created this image from a program coded entirely in Assembly language! Yes, that's right! I have been able to figure out, “with help from Beth", how to create shapes\tiles, place shapes on the screen, and use simple loops to create rows and columns of shapes and this was all done totally in Assembly language! Yup, no basic here! Now don't get me wrong, this was not some easy task! I mean this was really hard! I have been banging on the keys for days programming, learning new code, and reprogramming code in assembly language just to get to this point.

But oh what a point it is! I am getting close to being able to place specific tiles in certain locations so I can reproduce the Ultima map from any location. This is what is taking me a long time to figure out. I need to be able to have the entire global map of Ultima placed in data strings and then be able to pull out just an area that is 20 tiles wide by 10 tiles deep!

This is the big one that will get me closer to figuring out how to finally move the group of tiles in a coordinate system.  I will be posting my excel files that have all [4] Ultima maps setup in an excel file.  I created this file by using a graphics program to reproduce each land tile and place it in a single cell in an excel worksheet.  So what the file will show is the entire layout of all 4 maps!  This shows everything!  All the tiles from all over the global map!  Pretty cool!

I will post these soon once I clean them up.

Stay tuned!

Joe