Port this to family BASIC

Started by Jaek_3, November 21, 2015, 07:51:18 pm

Previous topic - Next topic

Jaek_3


zmaster18

Yes. This looks pretty dang simple. Once you understand how to PRINT wherever you want using LOCATE, displaying the graphics is easy. You must also learn how to use the keyboard or controller as input. Put these 2 concept together, and you will be able to make pacman eat dots. To make the ghost chase after pacman is a bit of a challenge, but not too hard. You just need to break down these actions into their individual steps.

With the graphics in the BASIC's BG tiles, you can actually make an exact copy of the maze in Pacman on NES easily.

I've actually been thinking about doing a port of Mario Bros in Family BASIC, since the BASIC cart has all the Mario Bros graphics in it for characters and BG tiles.

Jaek_3

So, could you port this? I don't know enough about BASIC to do it myself. Really interested in that Mario Bros port though. Do you know any cool Family BASIC games?

zmaster18

I think with my knowledge of BASIC, I could make a choppy port of pacman just like the video. But to make a smoother, more animated port with more ghosts would take me a little longer. I also think animating all the characters would really slow down the game as there would be a lot of calculations for the ghost's AI.

As for cool BASIC games, there aren't too many that are impressive. Search on Youtube for 'family basic nnd'. These are compilations of videos of Famicom BASIC games from the Japanese site Nico Nico Douga. There are more than 100 examples to see.

Jaek_3

The problem with those nnd games are that I can't find the source code

Post Merge: November 21, 2015, 08:15:53 pm

Also, here is a link to the magizine where this originates from. It's on page 44. The version in the video does not display all of the code because he used the list command
http://www.atarimania.com/mags/pdf/Atari-User-Vol-3-No-05.pdf

zmaster18

You really aren't going to find any source code online anywhere. Or tutorials. You want a tutorial on Famicom BASIC? Then this is the only place you would find one, on Famicomworld. There are only a few threads here that discuss BASIC programming.

The best way to learn this language is start reading the translated manual, copying the examples,and then start playing with or modifying the examples. Then once you get the commands, try making little functions by yourself. Like try making a title screen where you press start, or a high score table function, or a sprite that moves with the controller.

Once you feel ready to make a game, write down every function you need to make in detail, in plain old english. Then convert these detailed descriptions into code. Then combine all the functions you made into the game! :) One step at a time.  8)

P

It may or may not become 5 lines in Family BASIC but it should be very possible to port the code.

For source code there are plenty out there, mostly in Japanese though. Famicomworld is probably the best place for Family BASIC info in English (check the Family BASIC super thread).

Like Zmaster said, study the manual (it has a good tutorial from page 15) and post questions in the forum when you don't understand how to proceed. We'll help you! ;)

Jaek_3


zmaster18

I just read the article in the magazine. That game looks pretty simple to port! I only skimmed over it, but it seems do-able. I also like how it explains the what each line does. I would actually focus on those line explanations instead of just the code. You need to turn those detailed explanations into code yourself though  :)

Start with line 10 "draw matrix, get skill level". You may want to omit the skill level for now and just focus on drawing your matrix of dots first. To do this, you will need PRINT CHR$( ), LOCATE, and you're going to want to repeat that in a FOR-TO-NEXT loop.