Game of Life - NESdev BBS

Game of Life
by Yggi on 2012-01-06 (#88541)

Hello.
I have implemented the "Game of Life" for the NES as invented by mathematician John Conway in 1970.

See here for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

iNES ROM:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2i9hcr2oc7iibe4

Here's also the source code, but it is not very well written and not super efficient (I'm still a beginner):
http://www.mediafire.com/?0n0awmaz77pea7o

Controls:

SELECT
--> Switch between menu and cell selection

START
--> Shortcut to start the game

A
--> inside field, fill a cell (make it "alive"), inside menu activate the menu entry

B
--> inside field, empty a cell (make it "dead")

If you have never played Life before, you will probably want to try out some of the templates I prepared for you in the Templates-Section.

I hope you like it!

by Shiru on 2012-01-06 (#88544)

Nice, but that font is really difficult to read with these brightness jumps.

Also, try to use frame step in an emulator to check the moment when you switch to the templates menu and back.

by thefox on 2012-01-06 (#88548)

Shiru wrote:
Nice, but that font is really difficult to read with these brightness jumps.

When using colored fonts it's also especially important to test what it looks like on the real machine. I remember the fonts in Super NeSnake 2 looked really crappy on PAL NES.

by Yggi on 2012-01-06 (#88550)

Shiru wrote:
Nice, but that font is really difficult to read with these brightness jumps.

Thank you, I've changed the palette a bit, i think it looks good now (at least on my emulators - don't have a powerpak yet).
I was testing the game most of the time in an upscaled modus in FCEUXD SP and i thought it looked ok...

Shiru wrote:
Also, try to use frame step in an emulator to check the moment when you switch to the templates menu and back.

Do you mean the "scrolling glitch" before the menu appears?
No idea what causes this, I'm just doing a "normal" nametable upload.
The same glitch is also appearing when calling the help menu.

What's wrong with that code? Did I miss something?
Tried to fix this since an hour or so

Code:
LDA #$00
STA $2001 ;disable rendering
STA $2000 ;and NMI

LDA #<TEMPNAMETABLE ;setup pointer
STA Pointer
LDA #>TEMPNAMETABLE
STA Pointer+1

LDA $2002 ;reset high/low latch
LDA #$20 ;setup PPU
STA $2006
LDA #$00
STA $2006

LDX #$00 ;row position
--
LDY #$00 ;column position
-
LDA (Pointer), Y
STA $2007
INY
CPY #$20
BNE -
LDA Pointer
CLC
ADC #$20
STA Pointer
LDA Pointer+1
ADC #$00
STA Pointer+1
INX
CPX #$1E
BNE --

;attribute
LDX #$00
-
LDA TEMPATTRIBUTE, X
STA $2007
INX
CPX #$40
BNE -

;setup sprite (and delete the selection sprite)
LDA #64 ;Y
STA $0200
LDA #$01 ;Tile
STA $0201
LDA #$01 ;Attribute
STA $0202
LDA #24 ;X
STA $0203
LDA #$FE ;delete second selection sprite
STA $0204
STA $0205
STA $0206
STA $0207

LDA #%00011110
STA $2001 ;enable rendering
LDA #%10001000 ;enable NMI
STA $2000

LDA #$00
STA $2005
STA $2005

by Shiru on 2012-01-06 (#88552)

I guess you need to reset PPU_ADDR before enabling rendering, and wait for NMI before disabling rendering,so it will not get disabled in the middle of the frame.

by thefox on 2012-01-06 (#88554)

Shiru wrote:
I guess you need to reset PPU_ADDR before enabling rendering, and wait for NMI before disabling rendering,so it will not get disabled in the middle of the frame.

Also wait for vblank before enabling rendering.

by Yggi on 2012-01-06 (#88556)

thefox wrote:
Shiru wrote:
I guess you need to reset PPU_ADDR before enabling rendering, and wait for NMI before disabling rendering,so it will not get disabled in the middle of the frame.

Also wait for vblank before enabling rendering.

That was it.
Thanks

by tepples on 2012-01-06 (#88570)

Yggi wrote:
I've changed the palette a bit, i think it looks good now (at least on my emulators - don't have a powerpak yet).

I've found Nestopia's NTSC filter to be reasonably accurate to the TVs that I own.

Quote:
I was testing the game most of the time in an upscaled modus in FCEUXD SP and i thought it looked ok...

I haven't been able to get FCEUX's NTSC filter to look right.

by RLError on 2012-01-06 (#88574)

This is a really cool idea. Game of Life has been making the rounds on the internet lately. I wonder why? It's kind of a big thing. Personally, I am interested in the three dimensional varieties.

by tepples on 2012-01-06 (#88576)

NovaYoshi once made a (slow) 32x32 Life simulator. Perhaps I should bug him to release what he has so far.

Of course we're not talking about Life the board game or Life the game show, which airs on a channel that I think nobody knows about except bronies.

by RLError on 2012-01-06 (#88585)

Yeah there are just tons of cellular automata documents and programs out there. There's this one called Visions of Chaos that has fractals and many other things in both 2D and 3D.