archive.worldofdragon.org

Could be talking about defining an interpreted language and then having an interpreter on multiple platforms, Dragon included.

If that were so, then the program (game) should work on a real Dragon?

Well this is all speculation of course, but it could mean file formats and capabilities all constrained with Dragon hardware in mind, even if a Dragon runtime only comes later.

The "8 colours on screen at once" thing is interesting, would mean writing a tool to generate the colour set change timings from a source image (and there are quite harsh limitations on how often the CPU can actually do that).

I'm sorry Ciaran, I don't mean to be negative about this, but unless it can be explained to me in great detail, I just can't see how a game can work under XROAR or MESS Dragon 32/64 emulation, and not be usable on a real Dragon.

Regards,
Steve

Yeah it does seem a little unclear... (2) and (3) should be the same unless (2) refers to a modified emulator. I guess we wait and see!

Agreed!

It could be that the program also requires a cartridge to be inserted into the Dragon, or it may require the use of altered ROMs.

Either would be easy with an emulator, but may be too costly to produce physically.

It is possible that they plan to make some modifications to the BASIC ROM, but that costs nothing on the Dragon 64, because the ROMs can easily be copied to RAM in 64K (MAP1) mode.

The only way a cartridge could possibly be useful, is if it were to add new hardware, like RAM, sound generator chip, etc. To emulate it would require modified versions of XROAR and MESS.

Good evening everyone,

First off, I hope that you all had a good Christmas and New year, and that 2011 is off to a great start for you.

Im sorry for the lateness of this reply but we have been tremendously busy of late, however we should be in a position to give you a demo (rolling or working) by the beginning of the month.

I find that I have to apologise again to you all as I can see by reading the posts that my last post caused quite a lot of confusion with people and I have to admit that this was something I wanted to avoid. However it looks like I did misunderstand the brief I got from the programmers and so to just try and sort this out for you all, I can now confirm the following as being correct:

1. The initial program (Game) will be a PC only version. It will run under emulation, but as snarkhunter has said, this is because “...provided as an embedded "emulation+software" item”.
We decided to do this as we wanted to get the game out as fast as we could do for the Dragon community, and so we had to compromise on its platform delivery.

2. The adventure creator program will have two releases. One will be PC only so that people without access to a real Dragon computer will be able to create a game that will run under the above conditions on a PC. The second release will be for an actual Dragon computer. By its very nature you will also be able to run this second release under an emulator, so I am informed.

3. When the package is fully finished it WILL run on an original Dragon computer. However it looks like it may be the Dragon 64 and not the 32 version.

4. ALL programs that you make with the finished creator WILL be able to be run in ANY emulator and of cause on a Dragon computer.

5. The program uses a basic keyboard interface. We will be producing for you a simple keyboard overlay that you can cut out and place over the Dragons keyboard. However there is an option to use a software mouse interface too. This “mouse” will on the Dragon be controlled by the joystick and on the emulated software by a PC mouse.

I will try and keep you all updated as much as possible in the coming weeks, and I will have one of my staff update you when I am not free so that you wont be left in the dark as you were last month.

With regards,

Simon.

Sounds great Simon - looking forward to it!