Mark Moxon

Bonus video: someone asked me to show the two ships looking at each other in a spaghetti-western style. Here you go: Cobra vs Viper, head-on. It doesn't end well.

The less good news is that it isn’t accurate enough yet, so player 1’s ship jumps around a bit This is because I’ve used Elite’s own dot product code, which was designed for visibility checks, so only the sign bit is accurate I’m writing a double-precision version that I hope will fix this (4/6)

Player 1’s scanner view is in cyan, player 2’s scanner view is in yellow. Players will be able to choose different ships and loadouts The good news is that this proof-of-concept confirms that the geometry behind two-player Elite is sound That’s the tricky part, so this is a relief! (3/6)

The videos show player 1 (top) in a Cobra Mk III and player 2 (bottom) in a Viper They demonstrate both ships independently flying past each other This clip shows the rear view working too Though it’s a bit hard to demo a two-player game when there’s only one of me! 😂 No lasers yet… (2/6)

Two-player #BBCMicro #Elite is coming along nicely. It now supports two pilots in two ships with two controllers and a split-view screen Here are some work-in-progress videos - see the thread for an explanation There’s lots to fix, but at least we have a proof-of-concept… (1/6) #retrocomputing

This is my first time using a memory heatmap to analyse #BBCMicro code Here's The Sentinel calculating landscape visibility (b-em emulator) Look: ray-casting radar patterns matching the landscape layout, right there in memory! The algorithm revealed! I love this #retrocomputing meta-level stuff 🤯

Not sure if this animated GIF will look any good on here, but the latest batch of articles talks about how the 3D objects are drawn, such as the Sentinel example here. It's pretty interesting when it's slowed down...

This is pretty cool. It's a visualisation of the internals of The Sentinel on the #BBCMicro. This is it generating the game landscape for the first level from 256 pseudo-random numbers. Next week I'll be releasing a deep dive into exactly how this works. #retrocomputing #retrogaming #c64 #8bit

Here’s an example - the iconic box art from the BBC Micro version, brought to life in-game. And there’s a Commodore 64 version too. You can even swap files between the two, so you can create a scene on a Beeb, save it and play it on a C64. I really enjoyed building this one, I have to say!

The incomparable @negativecharge.bsky.social recently converted the Commodore 64 Elite music to the Electron. I've finally found time to add it to Electron Elite. Here's the docking computer in all its one-channel glory. Turn your sound on! #retrocomputing #retrogaming #electron #bbcmicro #8bit

My new project is a version of BBC Master Elite, but with a twist. Sure, it’s pretty niche, but this has never been done before, which is always fun. Can you tell what it is yet? The clue's in the clip... #retrocomputing #retrogaming #bbcmicro #8bit #elite

Today's addition to #Acorn #Electron #Elite is the energy bomb animation from the Apple II, BBC Master and NES. In the original Electron version, the energy bomb did little more than beep gently. Now it rages with lightning bolts! That's much better. #retrogaming #retrocomputing #8bit #bbcmicro

The Compendium version of #Acorn #Electron #Elite now has missions - three of them, in fact. Here's the briefing for the Constrictor mission, backported from the #BBCMicro; I've also ported the Thargoid plans mission, and the Trumbles from the #C64 and #NES. 🫡 #retrocomputing #retrogaming #8bit

The enhanced version of #Acorn #Electron #Elite continues to grow. I've now added the ship hangar, which gets shown when you dock. This feature was only in the BBC and NES versions, and not the Commodore 64 or Apple II, so that's a one-up for the Elk. 🫡 #retrogaming #retrocomputing #8bit

It's #Thargoids Thursday in the enhanced version of #Acorn #Electron #Elite. Here's me misjumping into witchspace and being ambushed by Thargoid motherships and their Thargon drones. Electron commanders can now join in the bug-hunt - at last! #retrogaming #retrocomputing #bbcmicro #8bit

Enhanced #Elite on the #Acorn #Electron now has 31 different ship types (compared to just 11 in the original). Here's a little clip showing an encounter with a Krait and a Mamba on the way to the sun. Coming soon... Thargoids! #retrogaming #retrocomputing #bbcmicro #8bit

Enhanced #Elite on the #Acorn #Electron now has proper docking computers. Good to see they're as nail-bitingly dodgy as all the other versions! Next on the list is to add 21 additional ship designs with spawning and tactic logic. That might take a while... #retrogaming #retrocomputing #bbcmicro

I've also implemented fuel scooping, so those fuel scoops can finally be used for... well, scooping fuel, and not just cargo canisters. Don't leave home without them! (3/3)

Approaching the sun through a minor asteroid belt. I've always loved flying towards the sun in BBC Micro Elite, so it's good to see it on the Electron. That ball of flickering fire hanging in the blackness of space always has such a feeling of remoteness and grandeur. (2/3)

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire! (In enhanced #Acorn #Electron #Elite, that is.) The speed isn't bad, considering the sun is probably the most screen-memory-intensive (i.e. slow) feature of #BBCMicro Elite. More clips in thread. (1/3) #retrocomputing #retrogaming #8bit

#Elite on the #Acorn #Electron is slow - way slower than on the #Commodore64, for example. But how does the enhanced 16K SRAM version cope? Turns out enhanced Electron Elite is faster than the #C64! Sure, it can't compare on colour or music. But... result! 🚀 #retrogaming #retrocomputing #bbcelite

Latest features in enhanced #Acorn #Electron #Elite: * Proper disk access menu * Military lasers * Extended system descriptions (edible poets!) * System search * Planetary details (meridians/equators and craters) * Fast, flicker-free graphics Looking good! #retrogaming #retrocomputing #bbcmicro

Overall the speed improvements aren’t too bad. They don’t quite reach the speed of the #BBCMicro shown here, as screen memory and zero page are still accessed at 1MHz, so there's a limit to what's possible. But hopefully it’s enough to support Thargoids, suns, planetary details and more! (4/4)

The second speed-up is to replace the loop-based multiplication and division routines of the original with the log-based routines from the #C64 and 6502 co-pro versions. You can see the speed increase here: loop normal routines on left, log-based routines on right. (3/4)

The first speed-up is to move speed-critical code into sideways RAM. Main memory on the Electron is shared with screen memory so it can only be accessed at 1MHz, but SRAM can be accessed at 2MHz, so this can really help. You can see the speed increase here: original on left, SRAM on right. (2/4)

I am working on speeding up #Elite on the #Acorn #Electron. It's going well. On the left is the original; on the right is my enhanced version. It's all down to sideways RAM and backporting faster code from the #BBCMicro and #C64 versions. More details in thread. (1/4) #retrocomputing #retrogaming

I have added flicker-free planets to the #Apple II version of #Elite. Flicker-free on the left, original version on the right. That's every 6502 version done now. No-one left behind! Info and downloads: elite.bbcelite.com/hacks/flicke... #bbcmicro #c64 #apple2 #retrogaming #retrocomputing #8bit

I've managed to build the recently released source code for Elite II on the BBC Micro. It does... something! Though I have absolutely no idea what is going on. Still, here it is: Elite II from 1985. I think they're in trouble, whoever they are... #retrocomputing #retrogaming #8bit #elite #bbcmicro