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I know a bunch of platforms are getting ports of the game and the author is giving out the source code freely, just curious if anyone is tackling that project or not?

I dont think that he is giving "freely" the source code. He is taking the control about releases of game.
So:
1 - You can ask for port it;
2- He will do a agreement with you and will give the source code;
3 - You will must return to him the game finished;
4 - He will turn it commercial via cartridges or virtually.

Well, now the author uploaded the source code here:
https://github.com/zeropolis79
Unfortunately, there is not a source code for ZX version that is more close to our SMS, so somebody interested will have of port it from 6502.
Edit: There is a Z80 source code from C128 but i dont know how much it is close to Sega 8 bit.

segarule wrote

Well, now the author uploaded the source code here:
https://github.com/zeropolis79
Unfortunately, there is not a source code for ZX version that is more close to our SMS, so somebody interested will have of port it from 6502.
Edit: There is a Z80 source code from C128 but i dont know how much it is close to Sega 8 bit.

The C128 has both a 6502 and a z80, but, since the port was based on the C64 versio, it uses 6502 assembly. An alternative would be to use the Amiga an/or SDL versions as starting points, since they are made in C (obviously, the graphics routines would have to be rewritten from scratch, no matter what).

segarule wrote

Well, now the author uploaded the source code here:
https://github.com/zeropolis79
Unfortunately, there is not a source code for ZX version that is more close to our SMS, so somebody interested will have of port it from 6502.
Edit: There is a Z80 source code from C128 but i dont know how much it is close to Sega 8 bit.

That repository must be the author of those ports.
The author of the game is David Murray who lives in Texas (in the USA).
David just made a long video on his youtube channel ("The 8-bit Guy") announcing he's basically done with the game. IIRC he said he might be willing to do a little bit of bug checking but he's otherwise not interested in new ports.

Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf.
https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/

1 step for our SMS.

"Hardware requirements: MSX1, V9990, OPL4"

Wow, those are some ridiculous requirements for MSX1. Maybe the 4 or 5 people in the world with one of those will be able to play the game.

best regards,
- dink

segarule wrote

Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf.
https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/

1 step for our SMS.

And you want to tell me the Master System will be able to handle graphics and sound like that? No way in hell

Cris1997XX wrote

segarule wrote

Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf.
https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/

1 step for our SMS.

And you want to tell me the Master System will be able to handle graphics and sound like that? No way in hell

Easy friend. I mean that game is in hardware close to our SMS. Maybe with the author (ROBOSOFT) giving the source code. But im also just speculating...

Cris1997XX wrote

segarule wrote

Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf.
https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/

1 step for our SMS.

And you want to tell me the Master System will be able to handle graphics and sound like that? No way in hell

Why not? It's only 16 color graphics. The colors will be slightly different on the SMS. You probably want to use blues in stead of greys, due to the lack of greys.
The main character has a lot of animation so you will have to stream the tiles. I believe it's 24x24 pixels, which is smaller than i.e. Sonic. It doesn't even have to be a sprite, it can be background too, as everything is on a 8x8 pixels grid.

Drawing the character behind the background might be problem but there are different solutions for this. Background prio when the character is a sprite. Drawing a sprite on top might work. When the character is bg, then it needs to be draw in software anyway.

A hud like this is only a problem on the SMS when combined with smooth scrolling of the play field.
But there is no smooth scrolling in the original game even on snes and Mega drive ports. Some ports scroll by each 8 or even 16 pixels. Without smooth scrolling, i believe it will no problem to draw hud like this on the SMS.

The sound on this MSX port is extremely well made, and sounds much better than other ports. This will be hard match no matter what system. But don't underestimate SMS FM either, it can sound great when in good hands.

The amount of buttons is a problem on a lot of ports. At least the SMS has a 3rd button, although it is on the console itself. A Mega drive controller might be a good solution.
Many other older systems have even less buttons, so the game comes with a snes gamepad adapter.

Made a SMS mockup of the title screen by combining the Amiga and Snes art :)

I didn't count the tiles though.

Attack of the Petscii Robots - SMS title mockup.png (8.43 KB)

slogra wrote

The amount of buttons is a problem on a lot of ports. At least the SMS has a 3rd button, although it is on the console itself.

How about using the second controller for extra buttons?

slogra wrote

Made a SMS mockup of the title screen by combining the Amiga and Snes art :)

I didn't count the tiles though.

Diggin' your palette choices, that screen seriously pops hard.

gallos_11 wrote

How about using the second controller for extra buttons?

Yeah, that is a great solution too!

xfixium wrote

Diggin' your palette choices, that screen seriously pops hard.

Thanks!

The tile count is very high though. So many details will have to be removed. Like the moon, the whole street, and buildings will have be repeated or removed.

I was thinking it might be possible to use more tiles by using 3bpp tiles, instead of 4bpp tiles. The green text can even be 1bpp. It should work, right?

The title picture will look like this when using 8 color tiles and 4 palettes. Still very nice imho.

Edit: made mistake in the previous picture so replaced it

Attack of the Petscii Robots - SMS title mockup-8x8-4p8c-u4.png (9.09 KB)

gallos_11 wrote

slogra wrote

The amount of buttons is a problem on a lot of ports. At least the SMS has a 3rd button, although it is on the console itself.

How about using the second controller for extra buttons?

You could do that on an emulator or FPGA device but that's not really a pleasant thing to do on original hardware. Having to hold and operate two controllers at once is rather awkward, isn't it?
Also requires players to own and connect two fully working controllers, which can be slightly more of a demand these days.
(though that didn't stop some Famicom developers from doing that, utilizing it had two permanently attached controllers.)

Wouldn't the main issue for a port be the RAM usage? The original game on Commodore PET was designed with 32KB in mind I believe. The SMS's got 8 by default...

https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots/ (the system requirements are in the description)

armixer24 wrote

Wouldn't the main issue for a port be the RAM usage? The original game on Commodore PET was designed with 32KB in mind I believe. The SMS's got 8 by default...

https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots/ (the system requirements are in the description)

Yes, it would need plenty of refactoring and memory relocation to separate the mutable parts from the immutable ones, that is, assuming that, in the end, the remaining mutable parts happen to be small enough to fit 8kb, which may not necessarily be true.

Since there exists a NES port, it would be interesting to see if it has such relocation in place, or if it is simply using a mapper with extra RAM.

Then again, there's always the option to create a SMS mapper with 32KB or more of extra RAM on the cart, wich would greatly expand the possibilities for porting games from other Z80 platforms.

Quote

Edit: made mistake in the previous picture so replaced it

WOW. Nice screen. It need a "SMS" in building replacing MSX.

Quote

Having to hold and operate two controllers at once is rather awkward, isn't it?
Also requires players to own and connect two fully working controllers, which can be slightly more of a demand these days.

A 6 button genesis controller could solve this problem.

Quote

Yes, it would need plenty of refactoring and memory relocation to separate the mutable parts from the immutable ones, that is, assuming that, in the end, the remaining mutable parts happen to be small enough to fit 8kb, which may not necessarily be true.

Since there exists a NES port, it would be interesting to see if it has such relocation in place, or if it is simply using a mapper with extra RAM.

Then again, there's always the option to create a SMS mapper with 32KB or more of extra RAM on the cart, wich would greatly expand the possibilities for porting games from other Z80 platforms.

In fact, this would be a BIG problem in port it. Most systems requires 48/64KB. So is almost impossible.

Usually in microcomputers you need a lot of RAM because you need to load the graphics there, but this is not needed for consoles. Looking at the game, I don't think it needs more than 3-4 kbs....

slogra wrote

The tile count is very high though. So many details will have to be removed. Like the moon, the whole street, and buildings will have be repeated or removed.

I was thinking it might be possible to use more tiles by using 3bpp tiles, instead of 4bpp tiles. The green text can even be 1bpp. It should work, right?

Actually i don't think 3bpp will work. It will still be 4bpp in memory, so it doesn't save memory.
So the title screen needs to be simplified to get the titlecount down.

haroldoop wrote

Since there exists a NES port, it would be interesting to see if it has such relocation in place, or if it is simply using a mapper with extra RAM.

Many games use 8KB on-cart RAM (only sometimes with a battery for saving) which effectively raised the total to 10KB.
Then again, these days it seems the homebrew community has just started inventing their own mappers, so what is on an original cart is irrelevant these days.

Though SMS can do on-cart RAM but perhaps is not as useful since it would need to be bankswapped with ROM under a standard Sega mapper? (Cart RAM would still occupy the 8000-BFFF space, yes?)

Hey, friends, maybe dont be impossible. There is a Atari 7800 version:
https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1282

The Atari 7800 have only 4KB of RAM and the game is good. Good sound and graphics:

Author	Message
Braillynn Joined: 23 Dec 2022 Posts: 6	Is anyone working on a SMS Attack of the Petscii Robots port? Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:57 am
Braillynn Joined: 23 Dec 2022 Posts: 6	I know a bunch of platforms are getting ports of the game and the author is giving out the source code freely, just curious if anyone is tackling that project or not?

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:29 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	I dont think that he is giving "freely" the source code. He is taking the control about releases of game. So: 1 - You can ask for port it; 2- He will do a agreement with you and will give the source code; 3 - You will must return to him the game finished; 4 - He will turn it commercial via cartridges or virtually.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 9:15 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Well, now the author uploaded the source code here: https://github.com/zeropolis79 Unfortunately, there is not a source code for ZX version that is more close to our SMS, so somebody interested will have of port it from 6502. Edit: There is a Z80 source code from C128 but i dont know how much it is close to Sega 8 bit.

haroldoop Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 853 Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil	Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:17 am
	segarule wrote Well, now the author uploaded the source code here: https://github.com/zeropolis79 Unfortunately, there is not a source code for ZX version that is more close to our SMS, so somebody interested will have of port it from 6502. Edit: There is a Z80 source code from C128 but i dont know how much it is close to Sega 8 bit. The C128 has both a 6502 and a z80, but, since the port was based on the C64 versio, it uses 6502 assembly. An alternative would be to use the Amiga an/or SDL versions as starting points, since they are made in C (obviously, the graphics routines would have to be rewritten from scratch, no matter what).

KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 501	Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 2:17 pm
KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 501	segarule wrote Well, now the author uploaded the source code here: https://github.com/zeropolis79 Unfortunately, there is not a source code for ZX version that is more close to our SMS, so somebody interested will have of port it from 6502. Edit: There is a Z80 source code from C128 but i dont know how much it is close to Sega 8 bit. That repository must be the author of those ports. The author of the game is David Murray who lives in Texas (in the USA). David just made a long video on his youtube channel ("The 8-bit Guy") announcing he's basically done with the game. IIRC he said he might be willing to do a little bit of bug checking but he's otherwise not interested in new ports.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 10:37 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf. https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/ 1 step for our SMS.

dink Joined: 09 Dec 2013 Posts: 226 Location: detroit	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 1:36 pm
dink Joined: 09 Dec 2013 Posts: 226 Location: detroit	"Hardware requirements: MSX1, V9990, OPL4" Wow, those are some ridiculous requirements for MSX1. Maybe the 4 or 5 people in the world with one of those will be able to play the game. best regards, - dink

Cris1997XX Joined: 29 Jan 2023 Posts: 11	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 4:21 pm
Cris1997XX Joined: 29 Jan 2023 Posts: 11	segarule wrote Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf. https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/ 1 step for our SMS. And you want to tell me the Master System will be able to handle graphics and sound like that? No way in hell

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 6:27 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Cris1997XX wrote segarule wrote Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf. https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/ 1 step for our SMS. And you want to tell me the Master System will be able to handle graphics and sound like that? No way in hell Easy friend. I mean that game is in hardware close to our SMS. Maybe with the author (ROBOSOFT) giving the source code. But im also just speculating...

slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:03 pm
slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	Cris1997XX wrote segarule wrote Game ported to MSX 1 with some better conf. https://www.msxdev.org/2023/09/19/msxdev23-18-attack-of-the-petscii-robots/ 1 step for our SMS. And you want to tell me the Master System will be able to handle graphics and sound like that? No way in hell Why not? It's only 16 color graphics. The colors will be slightly different on the SMS. You probably want to use blues in stead of greys, due to the lack of greys. The main character has a lot of animation so you will have to stream the tiles. I believe it's 24x24 pixels, which is smaller than i.e. Sonic. It doesn't even have to be a sprite, it can be background too, as everything is on a 8x8 pixels grid. Drawing the character behind the background might be problem but there are different solutions for this. Background prio when the character is a sprite. Drawing a sprite on top might work. When the character is bg, then it needs to be draw in software anyway. A hud like this is only a problem on the SMS when combined with smooth scrolling of the play field. But there is no smooth scrolling in the original game even on snes and Mega drive ports. Some ports scroll by each 8 or even 16 pixels. Without smooth scrolling, i believe it will no problem to draw hud like this on the SMS. The sound on this MSX port is extremely well made, and sounds much better than other ports. This will be hard match no matter what system. But don't underestimate SMS FM either, it can sound great when in good hands. The amount of buttons is a problem on a lot of ports. At least the SMS has a 3rd button, although it is on the console itself. A Mega drive controller might be a good solution. Many other older systems have even less buttons, so the game comes with a snes gamepad adapter.

slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:40 pm
slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	Made a SMS mockup of the title screen by combining the Amiga and Snes art :) I didn't count the tiles though. Attack of the Petscii Robots - SMS title mockup.png (8.43 KB)

gallos_11 Joined: 07 Jun 2010 Posts: 193	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:35 pm
gallos_11 Joined: 07 Jun 2010 Posts: 193	slogra wrote The amount of buttons is a problem on a lot of ports. At least the SMS has a 3rd button, although it is on the console itself. How about using the second controller for extra buttons?

xfixium Joined: 18 Jul 2020 Posts: 366	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 8:07 pm
xfixium Joined: 18 Jul 2020 Posts: 366	slogra wrote Made a SMS mockup of the title screen by combining the Amiga and Snes art :) I didn't count the tiles though. Diggin' your palette choices, that screen seriously pops hard.

slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 9:29 pm
slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	gallos_11 wrote How about using the second controller for extra buttons? Yeah, that is a great solution too! xfixium wrote Diggin' your palette choices, that screen seriously pops hard. Thanks! The tile count is very high though. So many details will have to be removed. Like the moon, the whole street, and buildings will have be repeated or removed. I was thinking it might be possible to use more tiles by using 3bpp tiles, instead of 4bpp tiles. The green text can even be 1bpp. It should work, right? The title picture will look like this when using 8 color tiles and 4 palettes. Still very nice imho. Edit: made mistake in the previous picture so replaced it Attack of the Petscii Robots - SMS title mockup-8x8-4p8c-u4.png (9.09 KB)

KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 501	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 4:15 am
KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 501	gallos_11 wrote slogra wrote The amount of buttons is a problem on a lot of ports. At least the SMS has a 3rd button, although it is on the console itself. How about using the second controller for extra buttons? You could do that on an emulator or FPGA device but that's not really a pleasant thing to do on original hardware. Having to hold and operate two controllers at once is rather awkward, isn't it? Also requires players to own and connect two fully working controllers, which can be slightly more of a demand these days. (though that didn't stop some Famicom developers from doing that, utilizing it had two permanently attached controllers.)

armixer24 Joined: 12 Aug 2021 Posts: 70	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 10:21 am
armixer24 Joined: 12 Aug 2021 Posts: 70	Wouldn't the main issue for a port be the RAM usage? The original game on Commodore PET was designed with 32KB in mind I believe. The SMS's got 8 by default... https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots/ (the system requirements are in the description)

haroldoop Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 853 Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 11:29 am
	armixer24 wrote Wouldn't the main issue for a port be the RAM usage? The original game on Commodore PET was designed with 32KB in mind I believe. The SMS's got 8 by default... https://www.the8bitguy.com/product/petscii-robots/ (the system requirements are in the description) Yes, it would need plenty of refactoring and memory relocation to separate the mutable parts from the immutable ones, that is, assuming that, in the end, the remaining mutable parts happen to be small enough to fit 8kb, which may not necessarily be true. Since there exists a NES port, it would be interesting to see if it has such relocation in place, or if it is simply using a mapper with extra RAM. Then again, there's always the option to create a SMS mapper with 32KB or more of extra RAM on the cart, wich would greatly expand the possibilities for porting games from other Z80 platforms.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 12:41 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Quote Edit: made mistake in the previous picture so replaced it WOW. Nice screen. It need a "SMS" in building replacing MSX. Quote Having to hold and operate two controllers at once is rather awkward, isn't it? Also requires players to own and connect two fully working controllers, which can be slightly more of a demand these days. A 6 button genesis controller could solve this problem. Quote Yes, it would need plenty of refactoring and memory relocation to separate the mutable parts from the immutable ones, that is, assuming that, in the end, the remaining mutable parts happen to be small enough to fit 8kb, which may not necessarily be true. Since there exists a NES port, it would be interesting to see if it has such relocation in place, or if it is simply using a mapper with extra RAM. Then again, there's always the option to create a SMS mapper with 32KB or more of extra RAM on the cart, wich would greatly expand the possibilities for porting games from other Z80 platforms. In fact, this would be a BIG problem in port it. Most systems requires 48/64KB. So is almost impossible.

kusfo Joined: 29 Mar 2012 Posts: 859 Location: Spain	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 1:09 pm
kusfo Joined: 29 Mar 2012 Posts: 859 Location: Spain	Usually in microcomputers you need a lot of RAM because you need to load the graphics there, but this is not needed for consoles. Looking at the game, I don't think it needs more than 3-4 kbs....

slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 4:48 pm
slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 353	slogra wrote The tile count is very high though. So many details will have to be removed. Like the moon, the whole street, and buildings will have be repeated or removed. I was thinking it might be possible to use more tiles by using 3bpp tiles, instead of 4bpp tiles. The green text can even be 1bpp. It should work, right? Actually i don't think 3bpp will work. It will still be 4bpp in memory, so it doesn't save memory. So the title screen needs to be simplified to get the titlecount down.

KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 501	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 5:10 pm
KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 501	haroldoop wrote Since there exists a NES port, it would be interesting to see if it has such relocation in place, or if it is simply using a mapper with extra RAM. Many games use 8KB on-cart RAM (only sometimes with a battery for saving) which effectively raised the total to 10KB. Then again, these days it seems the homebrew community has just started inventing their own mappers, so what is on an original cart is irrelevant these days. Though SMS can do on-cart RAM but perhaps is not as useful since it would need to be bankswapped with ROM under a standard Sega mapper? (Cart RAM would still occupy the 8000-BFFF space, yes?)

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 9:13 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 384	Hey, friends, maybe dont be impossible. There is a Atari 7800 version: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1282 The Atari 7800 have only 4KB of RAM and the game is good. Good sound and graphics:

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