Shannon Birt
@shannonbirt.bsky.social
Retro Computer/Console enthusiast. Attempting to tick retro game developer off bucket list .
X : https://x.com/birt_shannon
Youtube : https://youtube.com/@shannonbirt9267
Discord Shazza#4474
X : https://x.com/birt_shannon
Youtube : https://youtube.com/@shannonbirt9267
Discord Shazza#4474
Its looking superb !!
What would a couple of other racers do to the frame rate ?
Be great to see .
What would a couple of other racers do to the frame rate ?
Be great to see .
October 30, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Its looking superb !!
What would a couple of other racers do to the frame rate ?
Be great to see .
What would a couple of other racers do to the frame rate ?
Be great to see .
If it was just a bit more accurate it could replace blastem possibly as my daily driver , the LUA scripting is lovely .
October 29, 2025 at 10:22 AM
If it was just a bit more accurate it could replace blastem possibly as my daily driver , the LUA scripting is lovely .
Haha , yes , when Pryon told me its a direct translation from the arcade text I could hardly believe it ;-)
Yes, there literally is a blast in this stage too and some processing , so its not all made up after all haha.
Yes, there literally is a blast in this stage too and some processing , so its not all made up after all haha.
October 16, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Haha , yes , when Pryon told me its a direct translation from the arcade text I could hardly believe it ;-)
Yes, there literally is a blast in this stage too and some processing , so its not all made up after all haha.
Yes, there literally is a blast in this stage too and some processing , so its not all made up after all haha.
We are having some fun with the White Bell power up text , Pryon has come up with some slogans we all say in our sleep and its translated really well here !!
October 16, 2025 at 11:26 PM
We are having some fun with the White Bell power up text , Pryon has come up with some slogans we all say in our sleep and its translated really well here !!
The blue bell bomb , is using sprites and taking advantage of mirroring and flipping / the fact the core is solid white and a few other tricks to get the tile usage right down.
Its 40 frames of animation and uses at most 147 tiles in vram.
It uses a heavily modified SGDK sprite engine.
Its 40 frames of animation and uses at most 147 tiles in vram.
It uses a heavily modified SGDK sprite engine.
October 16, 2025 at 11:25 PM
The blue bell bomb , is using sprites and taking advantage of mirroring and flipping / the fact the core is solid white and a few other tricks to get the tile usage right down.
Its 40 frames of animation and uses at most 147 tiles in vram.
It uses a heavily modified SGDK sprite engine.
Its 40 frames of animation and uses at most 147 tiles in vram.
It uses a heavily modified SGDK sprite engine.
One issue was the water, at the waterline we essentially need 3 background layers for the Catboss and we only have 2 on the MD , thankfully the sprites are very flexible , so we have sprites for the water , sprites for catpaws , periscope and cannons . The rest is forground animation.
October 16, 2025 at 11:24 PM
One issue was the water, at the waterline we essentially need 3 background layers for the Catboss and we only have 2 on the MD , thankfully the sprites are very flexible , so we have sprites for the water , sprites for catpaws , periscope and cannons . The rest is forground animation.
Can't write novels here but I'll give you the TL;DR version.
Catboss was very hard , much harder than he looks to implement this far. Several animating parts and cant use sprites for all of him as it would lead to sprite overload readily. So hes a combination of Forground + sprites.
Catboss was very hard , much harder than he looks to implement this far. Several animating parts and cant use sprites for all of him as it would lead to sprite overload readily. So hes a combination of Forground + sprites.
October 16, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Can't write novels here but I'll give you the TL;DR version.
Catboss was very hard , much harder than he looks to implement this far. Several animating parts and cant use sprites for all of him as it would lead to sprite overload readily. So hes a combination of Forground + sprites.
Catboss was very hard , much harder than he looks to implement this far. Several animating parts and cant use sprites for all of him as it would lead to sprite overload readily. So hes a combination of Forground + sprites.
Amazing work , very smooth !!
With a bit of color in sprites / backgrounds that would hide the fact the foreground is in 4 colors a bit .
What do you think is the next thing you will try ?
With a bit of color in sprites / backgrounds that would hide the fact the foreground is in 4 colors a bit .
What do you think is the next thing you will try ?
October 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Amazing work , very smooth !!
With a bit of color in sprites / backgrounds that would hide the fact the foreground is in 4 colors a bit .
What do you think is the next thing you will try ?
With a bit of color in sprites / backgrounds that would hide the fact the foreground is in 4 colors a bit .
What do you think is the next thing you will try ?
This was fabulous, back then I was semi decent at playing shooters and could clock this - great time it was !!
The c64 version is also really good.
The c64 version is also really good.
October 8, 2025 at 8:10 PM
This was fabulous, back then I was semi decent at playing shooters and could clock this - great time it was !!
The c64 version is also really good.
The c64 version is also really good.
Thanks :-) Pryon has used a high contrast / vibrant palettes and I think it looks close to the Saturn Port actually . Certainly similarities to Saturn port with the wider screen view also.
Using some tricks to get a few more colors here and there too , but mostly its just carefull color selection.
Using some tricks to get a few more colors here and there too , but mostly its just carefull color selection.
October 7, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Thanks :-) Pryon has used a high contrast / vibrant palettes and I think it looks close to the Saturn Port actually . Certainly similarities to Saturn port with the wider screen view also.
Using some tricks to get a few more colors here and there too , but mostly its just carefull color selection.
Using some tricks to get a few more colors here and there too , but mostly its just carefull color selection.
Thanks for the shout out , opened my inbox to 30+ notifications , BS never been so busy for me haha.
I have some good stuff coming , particularly if you like Konami / Penguins and Shooters on Megadrive ;-)
I have some good stuff coming , particularly if you like Konami / Penguins and Shooters on Megadrive ;-)
October 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Thanks for the shout out , opened my inbox to 30+ notifications , BS never been so busy for me haha.
I have some good stuff coming , particularly if you like Konami / Penguins and Shooters on Megadrive ;-)
I have some good stuff coming , particularly if you like Konami / Penguins and Shooters on Megadrive ;-)
Its setting the plane Priorities to High for BGB (so it appears infront of BGA ) so its not doing anything complex like a Z sort but it is a plane update to set the priority bit so theres a small cpu hit there.
October 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Its setting the plane Priorities to High for BGB (so it appears infront of BGA ) so its not doing anything complex like a Z sort but it is a plane update to set the priority bit so theres a small cpu hit there.
Smaller area effects can be done well or effects that rely on vertical expansion mainly as that can be done in hardware on MD using VSCROLL updates. DMA limit is also a problem , you can only update ~ 20 percent of the screen tiles in a frame so even with a faster cpu things are bottlenecked.
September 26, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Smaller area effects can be done well or effects that rely on vertical expansion mainly as that can be done in hardware on MD using VSCROLL updates. DMA limit is also a problem , you can only update ~ 20 percent of the screen tiles in a frame so even with a faster cpu things are bottlenecked.
Often on the MD due to lack of CPU / DMA capability to do it with raw processing they used tile drawing for superscalers or sprites with few animations (to save vram) which is chunky / repetitive like you say . Unfortunately its not easily fixed without hardware for the job. ...
September 26, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Often on the MD due to lack of CPU / DMA capability to do it with raw processing they used tile drawing for superscalers or sprites with few animations (to save vram) which is chunky / repetitive like you say . Unfortunately its not easily fixed without hardware for the job. ...
Theres been some efforts to do superscaler type roads using multiplexed sprites, that could work . It has that sort of superscaler look to it .
With the MegaCD you could get quite good general use results albiet not full screen without repetition / flips etc. Soulstar is very good .
1/2 ..
With the MegaCD you could get quite good general use results albiet not full screen without repetition / flips etc. Soulstar is very good .
1/2 ..
September 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Theres been some efforts to do superscaler type roads using multiplexed sprites, that could work . It has that sort of superscaler look to it .
With the MegaCD you could get quite good general use results albiet not full screen without repetition / flips etc. Soulstar is very good .
1/2 ..
With the MegaCD you could get quite good general use results albiet not full screen without repetition / flips etc. Soulstar is very good .
1/2 ..
In Parodius soon I will have to do the puffer fish and thats going to be a challenge so I'll have to see what is the best method for him .
September 25, 2025 at 7:37 PM
In Parodius soon I will have to do the puffer fish and thats going to be a challenge so I'll have to see what is the best method for him .
More detail could be done but it gets a lot more complex, eg splitting sprites into two colors then having to have combinations of those colors in vram . Then you could theorectically get to 40x40 or greater sizing .
There are other methods using sprites to scale but they use less accurate scaling.
There are other methods using sprites to scale but they use less accurate scaling.
September 25, 2025 at 7:35 PM
More detail could be done but it gets a lot more complex, eg splitting sprites into two colors then having to have combinations of those colors in vram . Then you could theorectically get to 40x40 or greater sizing .
There are other methods using sprites to scale but they use less accurate scaling.
There are other methods using sprites to scale but they use less accurate scaling.
One thought I've had is you could scale a small sprite eg 20x20 pixels up to full screen size using multiplexing .
Every pixel in the base object would be a sprite then. You would need 400 sprites though so hence mulitplexing would be needed.
1/2 ....
Every pixel in the base object would be a sprite then. You would need 400 sprites though so hence mulitplexing would be needed.
1/2 ....
September 25, 2025 at 7:34 PM
One thought I've had is you could scale a small sprite eg 20x20 pixels up to full screen size using multiplexing .
Every pixel in the base object would be a sprite then. You would need 400 sprites though so hence mulitplexing would be needed.
1/2 ....
Every pixel in the base object would be a sprite then. You would need 400 sprites though so hence mulitplexing would be needed.
1/2 ....
Haha it will be free eg fan based conversion, we will get a level 1 demo out soon.
September 18, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Haha it will be free eg fan based conversion, we will get a level 1 demo out soon.
Thanks Dan , we are aiming for a high-end close to arcade accuracy conversion with a couple of extra bells / whistles added . I'm lucky as I have some great talent supporting me with Pryon doing the palette / gfx working and Vector doing the FM/PSG Audio.
September 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Thanks Dan , we are aiming for a high-end close to arcade accuracy conversion with a couple of extra bells / whistles added . I'm lucky as I have some great talent supporting me with Pryon doing the palette / gfx working and Vector doing the FM/PSG Audio.