The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi. I'm looking for a sprite generator package to run on an real QL with onboard 512K RAM board and vDrive. I have a copy of Digital Precision's SSG (which I recall as being pretty good) on microdrive cartridge from the late 80's which has long since become unreadable. I'm aware of FSG but would prefer a machine code based solution. Can anyone advise either how I might obtain a copy of DP's SSG (mdv image would be the holy grail) or something of a similar nature. Thanks.

Hi,

Send me PM, with your email address, I have all DP software in FLP and MDV image formats.

Thanks Derek. PM sent.

fiskus wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2023 9:49 pm Thanks Derek. PM sent.

Hi fiskus.
If you manage to use SSG with more than 15 sprites, please let me know!
I tried to, but encountered some issues.
For more details please see topic https://www.theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=36525#p36525

Andrew wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:53 pm

fiskus wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2023 9:49 pm Thanks Derek. PM sent.

Hi fiskus.
If you manage to use SSG with more than 15 sprites, please let me know!
I tried to, but encountered some issues.
For more details please see topic https://www.theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=36525#p36525

According to the SSG v4 documentation, the there a limit of 16 sprites on the screen at once.

If this is a limitatation, then, the SSG woukd have to altered. I did dissassemble SSG with DISA, but understanding the dissassemble is another matter.

Derek_Stewart wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 10:17 pm According to the SSG v4 documentation, the there a limit of 16 sprites on the screen at once.

If this is a limitatation, then, the SSG woukd have to altered. I did dissassemble SSG with DISA, but understanding the dissassemble is another matter.

I could only use 15 sprites on screen at once, not 16.
Also documentation says that there is a limit of 256 sprites in total - 16 on-screen + 240 off-screen that can be swaped with the on-screen.
I found that only the first swap works, but not the subsequent swaps.
I documented all issues in the topic linked above, with code examples to show the issues.

Hi,

Maybe the Sprite Designer is not worth the effort, maybe sorites using the Pointer Interface would be more flexible, but harder to use.

Andrew wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:53 pm

fiskus wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2023 9:49 pm Thanks Derek. PM sent.

Hi fiskus.
If you manage to use SSG with more than 15 sprites, please let me know!
I tried to, but encountered some issues.
For more details please see topic https://www.theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=36525#p36525

Hi Andrew,
Sorry, I haven't tried that so am unable to comment. The main reason is that I have been unable to get the sprite design program to run and having looked at the other thread you referred to from a few years ago, I notice that you say it won't run under Minerva and needs JS. Do you know if there's any way around this other than to swap my ROMs back?
Thanks.

fiskus wrote: Sat Oct 14, 2023 3:50 pm Hi Andrew,
Sorry, I haven't tried that so am unable to comment. The main reason is that I have been unable to get the sprite design program to run and having looked at the other thread you referred to from a few years ago, I notice that you say it won't run under Minerva and needs JS. Do you know if there's any way around this other than to swap my ROMs back?
Thanks.

The programs for creating sprites (Design and Construct) need JS ROM. I was unable to make them work on Minerva.

Andrew wrote: Sat Oct 14, 2023 10:07 pm

fiskus wrote: Sat Oct 14, 2023 3:50 pm Hi Andrew,
Sorry, I haven't tried that so am unable to comment. The main reason is that I have been unable to get the sprite design program to run and having looked at the other thread you referred to from a few years ago, I notice that you say it won't run under Minerva and needs JS. Do you know if there's any way around this other than to swap my ROMs back?
Thanks.

The programs for creating sprites (Design and Construct) need JS ROM. I was unable to make them work on Minerva.

About 5 years ago, I decompiled these two programs back into SuperBASIC when I was working on the decompilers.

I don't think I spent a lot of time on checking to see if the decompiled copies work OK, but I've just loaded them up in QPC2 and they appear to run.

If you would like them, PM me an email address. You might be able to get them working in Minerva.