Would anybody be able to show me some code (C++/assembler), for
writing to flash (64K or 128K),  or reading/writing eeprom?

Hi everyone,

Been a couple of years since I last posted here, but I'm back with a new
software release: Spriteric, a new GBA sprite importer!

Spriteric is not your average sprite conversion tool. It takes your entire
directory of sprites / animations / palettes and converts it into an
immediately usable C source file, ala Tumeric. Download your copy now at
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/spriteric/spriteric-0.81.zip?download

Yes, Spriteric is open source. I've created a Sourceforge project for it
here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/spriteric/. If you're interested in
working on Spriteric, please e-mail me and we can talk about CVS access.

I need your feedback to improve Spriteric! Please e-mail me with any
sugesstions / bug-reports / feature requests you may have. Remember, your
feedback counts!

Yours,
Linus Tan (Soulshift)


---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+
     Readme for Spriteric v0.81a
---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+

     Spriteric is a tool that allows you to convert sprites into C code that
can
be compiled into most console game projects. It scans a user-specified
directory for sprites, animations and palettes, and converts these into C
arrays
wrapped a hierarchy of structures.

     Spriteric is a command line tool, and is intended to be called from your
project's makefile. It generates three files, a C source file encapsulating
the
converted data, a header file exposing the SPRITERIC_ROOT structure and
another
containing the definitions for the spriteric structures.

---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+
     How to use
---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+

1. Prepare the directory containing your sprite animations in 8-bit or 4-bit
    paletted bitmap format, as well as your palettes. See the TestSprites
    directory for an example.

2. Run spriteric with your sprite directory and your desired output
directory as
    arguments. e.g.

    spriteric ./YourSpriteDir -o=./TargetDir

3. The files YourSpriteDir.c and YourSpriteDir.h will be generated in
TargetDir.
    Simply add YourSpriteDir.c to your makefile and include YourSpriteDir.h
    where you need to access the sprites.

---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+
     Limitations
---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+

Currently:
  - Only GBA format sprites can be exported.
  - Only .act (Adobe Color Table) format palettes are supported.

Please lodge a feature request at
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/spriteric
or e-mail me directly if you'd like to see a particular console or format
supported.

---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+
     Contact
---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+

     Please note that FontMapper is in a very early stage of development. You
can
help by sending me bug reports, suggestions and feature requests through
Sourceforge (http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/spriteric) or via the
e-mail
address below.

Linus Tan:
     e-mail:     ltan AT epicentrix DOT net
     homepage:   www.epicentrix.net

---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+
---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------
---+

Spriteric is Copyright (C) 2003 Linus Tan

Spriteric is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
Please see license.txt for details.

This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software.
OSI Certified is a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.

dear

in vba , if you select auto mode and write any data to address 0x0e005555 , the
saving  mode then be switched to flashmode.

in flash mode , u can not  turn back to srammode.

so , u d better force emu to srammode to test your function.

bst.rgd.

yj


-----????-----
???: schoebey [mailto:roman@...]
????: 2003?10?29? 5:14
???: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
??: [gbadev] Re: sram read/write trouble


--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, "Yuanjun" <yuanjun@2...> wrote:
> dear
>
> set your emulator saving mode to SRAM-MODE on vba!
>
> yj
>

save mode was set to 'automatic', so it should have switched
automatically....
however, i think there was a bug in the release of that version of vba
(v1.6 - i've now tried with an earlier version and with the newest
beta, which both worked fine).

thanks for all your replies

kind regards
schoebey

--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, "Yuanjun" <yuanjun@2...> wrote:
> dear
>
> set your emulator saving mode to SRAM-MODE on vba!
>
> yj
>

save mode was set to 'automatic', so it should have switched
automatically....
however, i think there was a bug in the release of that version of vba
(v1.6 - i've now tried with an earlier version and with the newest
beta, which both worked fine).

thanks for all your replies

kind regards
schoebey

dear

set your emulator saving mode to SRAM-MODE on vba!

yj

----- Original Message -----
From: Fredrik Olsson <flubba@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 10:23 PM
Subject: Re: [gbadev] Re: sram read/write trouble


> Den 2003-10-23 17:37:59 skrev "schoebey" <roman@...>:
>
> >i'll just reply to my own post ;-)
> >
> >well, it turned out that on the EMULATOR, reading fails, while on the
> >REAL HARDWARE, it's no problem......but i have no idea why!
> >
> >any guesses?
>
> It would help if you told us which emulator you're using.

I've tried doing this trick in Boycott I think it was.. Ages ago. But if
I remember correctly you have to specify which type of backup memory is
installed on the emulated card. The reason being that the behaviour of
your code should be different if it say SRAM or EPROM'ish.. Don't
remember exactly, but it's something in that alley...

- Tom

> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: schoebey [mailto:roman@...]
> Sendt: 23. oktober 2003 17:38
> Til: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> Emne: [gbadev] Re: sram read/write trouble
>
> i'll just reply to my own post ;-)
>
> well, it turned out that on the EMULATOR, reading fails, while on the
> REAL HARDWARE, it's no problem......but i have no idea why!
>
> any guesses?
> (it's not very time-efficient to dump the whole program to a flashrom
> everytime i change s.th...;-) )
>
> schoebey
>
>
>
> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>

Den 2003-10-23 17:37:59 skrev "schoebey" <roman@...>:

>i'll just reply to my own post ;-)
>
>well, it turned out that on the EMULATOR, reading fails, while on the
>REAL HARDWARE, it's no problem......but i have no idea why!
>
>any guesses?

It would help if you told us which emulator you're using.

i'll just reply to my own post ;-)

well, it turned out that on the EMULATOR, reading fails, while on the
REAL HARDWARE, it's no problem......but i have no idea why!

any guesses?
(it's not very time-efficient to dump the whole program to a flashrom
everytime i change s.th...;-) )

schoebey

hello everyone

i have something like this in my code:

unsigned char *pSav = ((u8*)0x0E000000);
unsigned char a,b;

a=pSav[0];
b=pSav[1];
pSav[2]=a;
pSav[3]=b;
pSav[4]=pSav[6];
pSav[5]=pSav[7];

(just to check if read/write works)
it SHOULD set byte 2 and 3 to value of 0 and 1, same with byte 4,5 to
val of 6,7...BUT bytes 2,3,4,5 get totally different values...

write access works fine, i've tried several times with different
approaches, but whenever i try to read some bytes from sram, i get
wrong values....(i even tried code from someone whose implementation
seems to work - without any success...)

is it possible that the compiler screws things up here?
thanks for any help!

schoebey

LCC doesnt have an optimizer...Bought the book, tried my hand at it gave up
(what language is that book written in, certainly not english)...

David



At 11:13 PM 10/20/2003 -0300, you wrote:

>   And how about Fraser & Hanson's LCC?
>
>   I recall there was a port of LCC for the ARM somebody started some years
>ago...
>
>   Regards.
>
>At 13:14 2003-10-20, you wrote:
>
> >I started working on an ARM backend to vbcc (http://www.compilers.de),
> >which appears to be a pretty good compiler.  I went on vacation a couple of
> >weeks ago and have not gotten motivated to pick up where I left off.  If
> >anyone is interested in helping out with this backend I could probably use
> >it.  right now the ARM backend is the most mature of the two I am working
> >on.  Ideally I want to get a working thumb backend, something to use as an
> >alternative to gcc for the gba...
> >
> >David
>
>--                / Bernie: "Can you help me? I have
>PabloBleyerKocik /        lost my sense of direction."
>   pbleyer        / Kermit: "Have you tried Hare Krishna?"
>    @embedded.cl / -- The Muppet Movie, 1979.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

And how about Fraser & Hanson's LCC?

   I recall there was a port of LCC for the ARM somebody started some years
ago...

   Regards.

At 13:14 2003-10-20, you wrote:

>I started working on an ARM backend to vbcc (http://www.compilers.de),
>which appears to be a pretty good compiler.  I went on vacation a couple of
>weeks ago and have not gotten motivated to pick up where I left off.  If
>anyone is interested in helping out with this backend I could probably use
>it.  right now the ARM backend is the most mature of the two I am working
>on.  Ideally I want to get a working thumb backend, something to use as an
>alternative to gcc for the gba...
>
>David

--                / Bernie: "Can you help me? I have
PabloBleyerKocik /        lost my sense of direction."
   pbleyer        / Kermit: "Have you tried Hare Krishna?"
    @embedded.cl / -- The Muppet Movie, 1979.

David Welch wrote:
> A new gcc is out for those that care and I was notified that they were not
> going to fix the existing thumb bug(s)...delayed again...(actually they
> appear to be bugs in gcc, which have been exposed by the thumb back end,
> which means two things, either fix the actual gcc problem, or tweak the
> thumb backend to work around the problem)...

Would it be possible for you to provide
more details?

AFAICT, ARM/Thumb support in GCC 3.4 CVS is steadily
improving - hand-coded floating point support, DFA
scheduler description for the ARM processor pipeline,
etc. Also see:

     http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2003-10/msg00462.html


> I started working on an ARM backend to vbcc (http://www.compilers.de),

I would urge you to help improve Thumb support
in GCC itself - the internals are documented to
a large extent, lots of very helpful people can
be found on the gcc development list and if no
one else, at least Richard Earnshaw should be
able to help you out with any difficulties you
might encounter.

I have nothing against vbcc as such and frankly,
do not know much about its capabilities, but if
GCC can be improved with a little effort to suit
your needs it'll benefit all of us and help
maintain this great Free software.

Ranjit.

--
Ranjit Mathew          Email: rmathew AT hotmail DOT com

Bangalore, INDIA.      Web: http://ranjitmathew.tripod.com/

A new gcc is out for those that care and I was notified that they were not
going to fix the existing thumb bug(s)...delayed again...(actually they
appear to be bugs in gcc, which have been exposed by the thumb back end,
which means two things, either fix the actual gcc problem, or tweak the
thumb backend to work around the problem)...

I played with http://www.htsoft.com 's compiler not long ago, I was
impressed with how small the package was (download was 1.5mb or so).  thumb
wasnt working, based on what I was told it should be out now, I have not
checked.  The asking price is $1200 I told them that was a deal stopper,
perhaps a $50 license for hobbyists, they didnt necessarily say no...The
ARM demo version was okay, good features, not necessarily the cleanest code
although I think the optimizer is disabled in the demo.  You cannot control
the startup code in the demo so I hit a brick wall and gave up...

I started working on an ARM backend to vbcc (http://www.compilers.de),
which appears to be a pretty good compiler.  I went on vacation a couple of
weeks ago and have not gotten motivated to pick up where I left off.  If
anyone is interested in helping out with this backend I could probably use
it.  right now the ARM backend is the most mature of the two I am working
on.  Ideally I want to get a working thumb backend, something to use as an
alternative to gcc for the gba...

David

> Did you see that website posted in the
> previous topic?  They're offering 300 big
> ones ($300) to anyone who can figure out
> how the e-reader works, you should try to
> win the money man...
Pfff.. I'm doing this just for fun, not for the money, have plenty of that
already. However, still great for someone to offer that money.

Cool Tim, keep up the good work.

Did you see that website posted in the previous topic?  They're
offering 300 big ones ($300) to anyone who can figure out how the e-
reader works, you should try to win the money man...

Here's the link incase something happens to the topic...
http://www.interspecialty.com/game/ereader.php

Good luck to any of you 1337 guys out there who attempt to figure
out how the e-reader works, I sure wanna know it's inner functions
myself...

If anyone needs scans of E-Reader cards to test their research let
me know, I have access to a whole bunch of e-reader card scans...

-pkmndata

---------------------
> Did the printout scan and work?
No, it did not. I guess the 203 DPI dotcode was too large for the e-
Reader
because the quality was perfect.

Now some good news ...

I bought a HP DeskJet 3650 printer the day after my try on the Seiko
SLP-100
label printer and just now I was able to print a *working* dotcode at
1200/300 DPI using my own software :))

This proves amongst others that the dotcode does not have to be as
small as
a real one, which is about 344DPI, but can be (a little bit) larger
too.

To be continued ...

> Did the printout scan and work?
No, it did not. I guess the 203 DPI dotcode was too large for the e-Reader
because the quality was perfect.

Now some good news ...

I bought a HP DeskJet 3650 printer the day after my try on the Seiko SLP-100
label printer and just now I was able to print a *working* dotcode at
1200/300 DPI using my own software :))

This proves amongst others that the dotcode does not have to be as small as
a real one, which is about 344DPI, but can be (a little bit) larger too.

To be continued ...

Well as I said I would here is my effort to stimulate our efferts to
understand how to use the e-Reader to 'play our code'..  A cash prize is now
offered for ther person or group who breaks the mystery first.  Please
disreguard the links and tabs that dont work. I have not had time to finish
the other webpages yet...

http://www.interspecialty.com/game/ereader.php

Thats the best offer I can make.  If anyone wants to throw in cash or prizes
please contact me!  All I need is for you to say you will  pay/give prizes
and when the contest is won I will foward a payment address.  No nead to
send it to me.

> For that matter, there's the GCN Action Replay that is available
> at places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy yet claims to let you play
> import games on an unmodified GCN.  Between that piece of
> information and the knowledge that AR works by patching the
> binaries while they're in memory, I'd think that would be a more
> obvious route for exploits (though there must be a catch since
> they've been making Action Replay for what, a decade now without
> getting forced off the market...)
>

The first AR came out 1987, for C64. I had one.

George.
.

> Rob

On Friday 10 October 2003 19:49, Damian Yerrick wrote:
> --- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, Groepaz <groepaz@g...> wrote:
> > i'd suggest waiting until someone comes up with a method to
> > run code on the gc without all the PSO crap, and then think
> > about linking up a GBA :)
> Given that Pokemon Pinball can access GameCube-exclusive
> features such as vibration through the Game Boy Player, there
> may be some interface analogous to that of Super Game Boy.  I

For that matter, there's the GCN Action Replay that is available
at places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy yet claims to let you play
import games on an unmodified GCN.  Between that piece of
information and the knowledge that AR works by patching the
binaries while they're in memory, I'd think that would be a more
obvious route for exploits (though there must be a catch since
they've been making Action Replay for what, a decade now without
getting forced off the market...)

Rob

On Saturday 11 October 2003 11:16, Stephen Stair wrote:
> That is interesting...
> not more than 2 consecutive data dots likely means the data isn't stored in
> plaintext ;)
> I'll mess around with it and see what I can figure out :) - could be some
> wierd form of RLE

something simelar to "gray code" is probably involved too (almost certainly is
with any form of bar-/dotcode)

gpz

Hello Daniel,

Friday, October 10, 2003, 12:26:42 AM, you wrote:

D> http://www.bizfonts.com/datamatrix/faq.html#Formats

D> Here are common formats for matrix codes...
D> Perhaps the dots do not in them-selves represent a direct binary data, but a
D> charter which can represent bits or bytes ..

And this seems to be what you searched for
http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/txt/ep/0670/555/



--
Best regards,
  Leonid                            mailto:leprud@...

That is interesting...
not more than 2 consecutive data dots likely means the data isn't stored in
plaintext ;)
I'll mess around with it and see what I can figure out :) - could be some
wierd form of RLE
-Stephen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Schuerewegen" <Tim.Schuerewegen@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 10:08 AM
Subject: RE: [gbadev] Dot code


> > http://www.bizfonts.com/datamatrix/faq.html#Formats
> >
> > Here are common formats for matrix codes...
> > Perhaps the dots do not in them-selves represent a direct
> > binary data, but a charter which can represent bits or bytes ..
>
> One thing I noticed is that within each dot code block (see blue area in
> picture below) the data, when read from top to bottom, left to right, has
no
> more than 2 consecutive black dots. Maybe that is worth investigating.
>
> http://users.skynet.be/firefly/gba/e-reader/dotcode02.png
>
> Green  = marker
> Yellow = alignment dots
> Red    = "1" + address (14 dots) + error correction? (10 dots) + "0"
> Blue   = data
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

Hello Daniel,

Friday, October 10, 2003, 12:26:42 AM, you wrote:

D> http://www.bizfonts.com/datamatrix/faq.html#Formats
D> Here are common formats for matrix codes...
D> Perhaps the dots do not in them-selves represent a direct binary data, but a
D> charter which can represent bits or bytes ..

better look here:

http://www.delphion.com/details%3Fpn10%3DUS06279830

Nintendo uses Olympus dotcode.



--
Best regards,
  Leonid                            mailto:leprud@...

Can we download the game code?

If so, how many bytes is the program?  How many bytes are stored on the
card?  How many bytes are control info/instructions for the e reader?

Does any one have a dump of the e-reader program that loads the game data?

So many questions!  I feel that the e-reader could be of great use for the
non-profit home brew community.  It would be geat to pass out demos on ;)
Therefore I am putting together a webpage to accept info about the e-reader.
Ther first person or persons to offer enough info to allow users of this
list to load a demo program on the e-reader will ge offered a little prize!
Small prizes will be offered for smaller info.  i.e. Dot code data format,
or pramaters for software to be loaded by e-reader ect... URL to come...

Perhaps one of the developer sited would like to host a rewards webpage
where several people could put money in a pot for the winner(s)!?!



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Schuerewegen" <Tim.Schuerewegen@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 10:08 AM
Subject: RE: [gbadev] Dot code


> > http://www.bizfonts.com/datamatrix/faq.html#Formats
> >
> > Here are common formats for matrix codes...
> > Perhaps the dots do not in them-selves represent a direct
> > binary data, but a charter which can represent bits or bytes ..
>
> One thing I noticed is that within each dot code block (see blue area in
> picture below) the data, when read from top to bottom, left to right, has
no
> more than 2 consecutive black dots. Maybe that is worth investigating.
>
> http://users.skynet.be/firefly/gba/e-reader/dotcode02.png
>
> Green  = marker
> Yellow = alignment dots
> Red    = "1" + address (14 dots) + error correction? (10 dots) + "0"
> Blue   = data
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

> I'd like to know what the people here thinks about software
> engineering method that is the best for GBA or any other
> game development

I don't think there needs to be a significantly different software
engineering methodology for AGB than for other game platforms.  Most of
our software engineering methodologies are taken from the general
information technology industry.

You'll probably find more helpful information on this subject if you
check out the Software Engineering Game Development list.
http://lists.midnightryder.com/listinfo.cgi/sweng-gamedev-midnightryder.
com

- Dale

Did the printout scan and work?

----- Original Message ----- > I had to print it at 344dpi on my HP DeskJet
3650 (brand new) to get the
> correct size.
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>

--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, Groepaz <groepaz@g...> wrote:
> i'd suggest waiting until someone comes up with a method to run code
> on the gc without all the PSO crap, and then think about linking up
> a GBA :)

Given that Pokemon Pinball can access GameCube-exclusive features
such as vibration through the Game Boy Player, there may be some
interface analogous to that of Super Game Boy.  I remember that
'Space Invaders' for Game Boy had a mode that would buffer-overflow
the SGB to load the Super NES version of the game.

--
Damian

> http://www.bizfonts.com/datamatrix/faq.html#Formats
>
> Here are common formats for matrix codes...
> Perhaps the dots do not in them-selves represent a direct
> binary data, but a charter which can represent bits or bytes ..

One thing I noticed is that within each dot code block (see blue area in
picture below) the data, when read from top to bottom, left to right, has no
more than 2 consecutive black dots. Maybe that is worth investigating.

http://users.skynet.be/firefly/gba/e-reader/dotcode02.png

Green  = marker
Yellow = alignment dots
Red    = "1" + address (14 dots) + error correction? (10 dots) + "0"
Blue   = data

Tim

> Me either... I compared the printout of mine to another dot
> code though, and see it's a little bit smaller... I wonder
> if maybe it's not 360dpi (As I suspect), and maybe some
> obscure resolution?

I had to print it at 344dpi on my HP DeskJet 3650 (brand new) to get the
correct size.

Tim

http://www.bizfonts.com/datamatrix/faq.html#Formats

Here are common formats for matrix codes...
Perhaps the dots do not in them-selves represent a direct binary data, but a
charter which can represent bits or bytes ..