Vectrex game programming in C (using Xcode)

[Nes4life]

Guddler has gone above and beyond and practically handed the homebrew community the ability to write Vectrex games in C in Xcode on the Mac! Although some of the tools existed previously, this is the first time they've all been brought together in an 'easy-to-use' form.

My first game using the official 'Guddler approved Vectrex C coding suite' is:

https://github.com/Phillrb/Dance-Dance-Vec ... a dance mat game for Vectrex (dance mats not included)!

There's still no music but the basic framework is there. The current plan is to port the many awesome chip tunes available for Atari-ST / Spectrum / Amstrad as they share the same audio chip.

Guddler is still working on a more feature-rich API and will (hopefully sometime this year?) have something up on Github that improves upon the current suite. Thanks mate

If anyone has a Mac and fancies getting involved in Vectrex homebrew games development then get in touch! Also available is my vector resource tool: https://github.com/Phillrb/VectorGen

 

[cparsonsuk]

Will have to check that out although I'm well under way on my Vectrex game in Assembler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrndOZsPm0

Going to do side art for the Vectrex to make it look like a custom Big Blue arcade cab and do a flyer in the style of the 80s arcade ones for the game.

cNp

 

[Hurray Banana]

Nice one Guddler.

Phil have you got a video of this dance game mate?

Also love the vectrex game Chris, reminds of seaquest on the vcs

 

[Nes4life]

I'll get a video up later. The bin file is on the GitHub read me - just open it in a vectrex emulator.

 

[Nes4life]

BIG Update!

Today I published the Xcode template so that anyone can create a new vectrex game in C in Xcode: https://github.com/Phillrb/vec-c I spent the latter part of last year's spare time extending the c-bridge that Guddler had put together, implementing a number of key bios functions, and finally packaging it all with the Xcode template, example game, and example use cases. Highlights include playing inbuilt and custom music, sounds and 2 player simultaneous gameplay.

The game I just published alongside this is Vecpong: https://github.com/Phillrb/vecpong (bin file is available there if you just want to play it in ParaJVE rather then compile it yourself). The game I'm going to go back to next (and finish properly with the latest vec-c build) is dance-dance-vec (https://github.com/Phillrb/Dance-Dance-Vec).

I've spent most of my time extending vec-c and packaging it and consequently I now know the vectrex bios inside out so doing things like playing music and sounds is pretty simple now (with a nice c-wrapper around it!).

I'm about to update http://vectorgaming.proboards.com/ with all of this too.

 

[Hurray Banana]

Great community effort here Phil

 

[minwah]

I've not used Xcode before and am not much of a C programmer, but this sounds great! Looking forward to having a play...

 

[backflipper]

Nice work to all involved!

 

[guddler]

Had a quick nose at GitHub from my phone earlier and it looks good so well done Phil

The only thing that I "do" differently is that I separate out the C BIOS stubs into a separate file and load that into a different area of memory in the build scripts. Fact of the matter is though that if someone is up to writing a game then they should be up to making their own minds up about that kind of stuff or they won't get very far.

I use the term "do" very loosely since I've not done anything with it for a loooong time now. To which I apologise since months back Phill would ask me about stuff and ultimately get ignored as my head wasn't into it - sorry dude

guddler2016-01-11 21:30:54

 

[Nes4life]

No worries Guddler!

It was a fun journey attempting to understand the Bios commands and bridge them to C. I simply started writing vecpong and then refined Vec-C as I went along by writing the new methods as I needed them. There's still a few minor issues / bugs but it's my hope that others will contribute to the template as it gets used more. There's now a very low barrier to entry for any iOS / Mac devs out there that are thinking of making Vectrex games

 

[Nes4life]

Resurrecting this thread for general purpose Vectrex programming chat.
It can be done in C or assembler. You don't actually need a Vectrex to start as there's plenty of emulators out there that do a good job.

If you've got a Mac then use my github as a good place to start

 

[RolyRetro]

Does anyone know where I could get my hands on a Vectrex multi-cart or SD interface to play homebrew games on my Vectrex?

Just got myself a new controller and keen to play some of the games I missed first time around.

Also does anyone know if there are homebrew versions of the classic Atari vector games for the Vectrex? My Star Wars cab is taking time to fix...

Cheers

 

[cparsonsuk]

Does anyone know where I could get my hands on a Vectrex multi-cart or SD interface to play homebrew games on my Vectrex?

Madtronix make some great multicarts:
http://www.madtronix.com/en/

As does Sean kelly, his are the originals really and he's lately done a new batch selling on eBay for $50. Once his supplies run out these sell for more than triple that price and it can be years between batches:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sean-Kelly-Vectrex-Multi-Cart-BRAND-NEW-BUY-IT-NOW-/122038106844?hash=item1c6a09badc:g:shQAAOSwintXSpZl

Burners-wise, if you're buying one now I would go with the Mateos Burner:

http://www.vectrex.hackermesh.org/

I already have one of the older Richard Hutchinson ones which has served me well but Juan Mateos' one is simpler and quicker and readily available; I now use it for my development and testing.

Bear in mind that a lot of the modern homebrew games are not available as .bin files so you might still need to buy those to play them.

PackRat video games do a great line in cheap reproductions of older homebrews, all official and with permission:

http://www.packratvg.com/vechbrews.html

Also does anyone know if there are homebrew versions of the classic Atari vector games for the Vectrex? My Star Wars cab is taking time to fix...

There's been half finished version of Tempest (Abyss) on one of the John Dondzilla carts and he also did a Star Wars alike in the form of Star Fire Spirts. Both are on this cart but don't expect either to sate your desire to play the originals:

http://www.packratvg.com/vmania.html

A developer called Fury has done versions of a lot of the Cinematronic games; most are discontinued but every year he adds one of his old games to his freely available .bin files:

http://www.furyunlimited.com/_sgg/f10000.htm

 

[RolyRetro]

Thanks for probably the most comprehensive answer I've ever had to a question on any forum!

I'm going to get one of the multicarts from Madtronix, should keep me busy for a while.

Cheers!

 

[cparsonsuk]

Thanks for probably the most comprehensive answer I've ever had to a question on any forum!

I'm going to get one of the multicarts from Madtronix, should keep me busy for a while.

Cheers!

Heh, I was typing it in full flow and thinking "I know too much about the Vectrex"

Good choice on the madtronix cart, LOADS of stuff on those.