"Pixie!"

Use this forum to submit new files for the download section of the archive. I will check each submission and upload it to the archive on a regular basis.
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snarkhunter
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"Pixie!"

Post by snarkhunter »

Well, I'm not even sure uploading this may actually be useful to anyone - ever...

... anyway!

This is a drawing software I had been designing and writing in 1986. Please do not expect anything brilliant. The main raison for my designing this was that none of the currently available software (at that time, and for that machine) would do what I then needed them to. So I decided to try my own way and see for myself whether or not I would actually be able to do anything from scratch. And it was only intended for personal use.

But after sending fully functional copies to a few friends of mine, they did their very best to convince me that it was worth sending to some Dragon software publishers and have it distributed! This is how the user's guide was quickly born afterwards.

Basically, it was a matter of making most Dragon's graphic functions available under full joystick control (... the only keys used being in order to BOOT the software!). And a bit more... I did incorporate a "zooming" routine that had been published in "Dragon User", and I even "stole" a couple of icons (the "eye" icon was from "Manic Miner", and I seem to remember the "mouse" icon was from a LCD game ad I had found in a toys catalogue! But everything else was my very own work and, once again, it was only intended as a personal tool in the first place, nothing that was meant to ever reach outside my circle of friends associated with the Dragon). So, if anyone was ever offended by this, I want to apologize now.

Sending a copy provided a positive response from Harris Micro Software, who offered to distribute it since its spirit was close to the graphic environment the company provided (such as "Basic 42", etc.). And this is how an extra line appeared in the ads for that company, starting (I think) with the June 1986 issue (P. 31). I just could not believe I was listed in Dragon User as a genuine software author!

Since Mr. Harris was never to be heard from again afterwards, I assumed that he had either never sold any copy of "Pixie!" (... which would not be too surprising, actually), or decided to run away with the loot! :lol:

Earlier today, I did generate a user's guide in "Word" format, but I found out such a file may not be uploaded here. So it is available to anyone who has the ability to put it up for download from the archive. Please let me know whom I should mail it to (the file's size is only 114 KB).

One more thing: I'm not sure it can actually be used (...!) since control was heavily based on analog joystick reading. It looked easier to use it under "MESS", and merely impossible under "XRoar". Any ideas or help about this welcome.

One final word of warning. Due to the tight (to say the least) memory available on a Dragon 32, I remember eventually facing some "?OM" issues after working with the software for a while. The Basic code was made as compact as possible, and stack allocation was tight, too. Yet 32 KB are still 32 KB, which is not that much whenever two graphic pages are needed by the software.

This is something I'll be glad to discuss here. That is, should anyone be actually willing to!

... And, just to demonstrate the software could actually be used, you have to know the icons on the main screen were all created using Work In Progress versions of "Pixie!" : That says it all, does it not?! ;)

P.S. ... And maybe it's far too many words here for such a piece of crap!
Attachments
OTHER13A (sources to PIXIE!).vdk
"Pixie!" source code ("Dream" format) + "Diskdream"
(180.02 KiB) Downloaded 219 times
OTHER20 (PIXIE!).vdk
"Pixie!" (DragonDOS bootable disk)
(180.02 KiB) Downloaded 225 times
Alastair
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by Alastair »

snarkhunter wrote:Earlier today, I did generate a user's guide in "Word" format, but I found out such a file may not be uploaded here. So it is available to anyone who has the ability to put it up for download from the archive. Please let me know whom I should mail it to (the file's size is only 114 KB).
Is it possible to convert the guide to a PDF as I assume PDFs may be uploaded here? Otherwise you can zip the Word file and post the zip file here.
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snarkhunter
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"Pixie!"

Post by snarkhunter »

Well... I'm afraid posting PDF's is not possible either!

But thanks for the suggestion anyway: Here's a zipped version of the document converted to a ".pdf" file.

Since I uploaded the ".vdk" files yesterday, I thought it might be a good idea to update the program so it will be possible to use it under joystick emulation within "XRoar" or "MESS". I think this would take changing the "analog" reading to another method (such as moving left when the joystick value is lower than X, moving right whe it is higher than Y, etc). Not sure I'm still able to achieve any such things nowadays, though!
Attachments
PIXIE-SYS.zip
"Pixie!" - Basic part of the software (i.e. "PIXIE.SYS") as a ".txt" file
(2.68 KiB) Downloaded 225 times
Pixie! (User's Guide).zip
User's Guide to "Pixie!"
(55.28 KiB) Downloaded 212 times
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snarkhunter
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"Pixie!"

Post by snarkhunter »

... Here's a new copy of the screenshots, in the borderless 640X480 format. And getting those using "MS¨Paint" is definitely somewhat of a painful process! (I could not tell how many failed attempts have preceded these pictures)
Attachments
Pixie_1Loading (640x480).png
Pixie_1Loading (640x480).png (9.77 KiB) Viewed 5229 times
Pixie_2Credits (640x480).png
Pixie_2Credits (640x480).png (9.44 KiB) Viewed 5229 times
Pixie_3Main (640x480).png
Pixie_3Main (640x480).png (13.26 KiB) Viewed 5229 times
Sarah
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by Sarah »

I like your toolbox icons - nice to see something like this for the Dragon! :)
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snarkhunter
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by snarkhunter »

Well, thank you very much for the kind compliment! But I'm afraid I never did anything else this "good" (i.e. picture-wise) again afterwards!

For some reason I still cannot figure out at the moment, there seems to be an issue with the software running under "XRoar": As soon as the main screen gets displayed, the program goes into a loop, playing that annoying "error" tune over and over again. I glanced at the Basic code and I assume there must be some sort of "unexpected error" arising, that results in the said loop.

At the moment, it's pretty obvious that this program may not be used under "XRoar". Yet it does work fine under "MESS" (with mouse replacing joystick when it comes to controls).

As a demonstration, here is a screenshot (from "MESS") showing the "Beanstalker" loading screen displayed in Pixie!'s main window. It would be kind of nice if "Pixie!" could work properly under "XRoar".
Attachments
PIXIE!_screenshot.png
PIXIE!_screenshot.png (7.41 KiB) Viewed 5214 times
sixxie
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by sixxie »

You're probably emulating a Dragon 64 (the default) - your code uses USR0x, so it needs the Dragon 32 BASIC ROM, or editing.

I gave it a go with a PC joystick attached, and it seems operable, though I didn't have the instructions at the time.

Edit: oh yes, in case anyone else hits this, you also need to be using the DragonDOS 1.0 ROM to BOOT this!
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snarkhunter
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by snarkhunter »

You might be right... but I would have believed "Dragon 32" to be the standard mode here!

And, indeed, after setting the shortcut to "-machine dragon32", this error disappeared. Which still does not make the software any more useful, though, because of the mandatory analog joystick control. Rather than the actual joystick absolute coordinates, I should have used relative motion detection instead. But the way it was originally designed made it possible to move quite fast through the icons.
sixxie wrote:Edit: oh yes, in case anyone else hits this, you also need to be using the DragonDOS 1.0 ROM to BOOT this!
Still works fine with release 1.1C, which I generally use under emulation...
My original disk drive was a "DragonDOS 1.0" version, and that is what the software was created with, i.e. including all existing ROM/DOS bugs!

Otherwise, one only has to load and run "PIXIE.SYS".
zephyr
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by zephyr »

I have modified PIXIE's BASIC code (USR0x) to make a Dragon 64 version. I have also renumbered the BASIC which has saved 366 bytes. The D64 version is attached...

BTW, I also use DragonDOS 1.1C for all emulated Dragon machines. ;)

Regards,
Steve

EDIT: Attachment removed.
Last edited by zephyr on Sun May 20, 2012 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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snarkhunter
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Re: "Pixie!"

Post by snarkhunter »

Thanks, Steve! But this is raising a couple of extra issues...

The last lines in "PIXIE.SYS" use "ERL=18000" statement to make sure the error was actually inside the program. Line 18000 has become line 74 in your update: This would have to be corrected, too!

How is it possible to use disks in "64" mode?! Because all the loading/saving is done from/to disk. If the Dragon 64 only handles tapes, then there will be another I/O issue...

And it's nice to know it can actually be used with a joystick under emulation. Not that there are so many people who would be willing to, anyway... but it's still nice to know! :)
Last edited by snarkhunter on Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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