Noob, nub, however you want to pronounce it

[Jedite01]

'Tis true, for there is no need to have time synchronization on a forum. Of course unless someone is soooo desperate for an answer or reply

And I got three points on Pixel Joint! Happiness! I never knew a simple three points would make me so happy I'll have to get more work in And the funny thing is... I don't even know what points are for That's weird though, I would think one picture would be worth one point... And the fact that my picture hasn't even been approved yet Perhaps that's a bad thing? But then why would they give me three points? I'm obviously going to deep into the issue. And I think this topic has gotten WAY too random. My bad

[FrozenDelight]

Points mean prizes.

[Jedite01]

I wonder what they give out :/ It better be Sega related

[FrozenDelight]

Yeah, maybe. Perhaps it will be a Sega Pico, something I know longer need because I just found one ON THE STREET! How weird is that?! The chances of that are tiny. No games though

Sorry, I apologise to the powers that be, I keep posting off topic, I shall not do it again. Hay, heres a question that is kind of related;

I'm having major problems coming up with an idea for my animation degree film. It only has to be short, 2 mins minimum probably. One of my ideas is to do a pixelated video games themed short, kind of like Dan the Man or Pirate Baby Cabana, or whatever its called. Not as good as that though, I couldn't pull off something as amazing as that.

It could be a 'pretend' game, or just have a retro game look to it. Any ideas? Help would be great. But no worries if no one is interested.

[Jedite01]

Oh man, why do people just come across Sega objects lying on the street when people like ME have to pay for them?! Sometimes the way this world works annoys the crap out of me Language?

And, maybe I can help...?

If you're talking about drawing a pixel art film, I actually did that before, it's not that tough (Though it is very time consuming... If I remember correctly I had to draw some 100 frames for about 30 secs of animation
) But of course that was with Windows Movie Maker, and Movie Maker has some frame rate issues when pictures are displayed for the shortest amount of time... I can explain it better, but to stay on the topic of ideas...

I have made several (Awful, pitiful looking) animated films. They were a variety of whatever, basically (I would draw bad horror flicks, weird nature flicks and of course game mock-up flicks) I would also draw space-themed films where a character would travel across space. That was three years ago Unfortunately due to my idiocy, I stored the short films on FLOPPY DISKS which have a tendency to FAIL, so most if not all of my movies are dead

You can make a pixel film on anything you want! Anything, I suppose... Right? Anything?

[FrozenDelight]

Concerning finding things on the street, I'm not usually that lucky. Also I don't actually know if it works coz I don't have any games. The games are quite expensive on ebay

Um yeah, it can be about anything. Well, I guess it would be advised against doing anything based on copyrighted material. I'm looking for story ideas. I had one idea a while ago, but it's too ambitious.

[Jedite01]

Oh, story ideas. I just had a debatable fail, haha

Copyrighted material... I always thought you could use copyrighted material without permission if you gave credit when credit is due... And you have to make sure you don't sell whatever you happen to use that is copyrighted. People use the famous Sonic as a basis for many fangames, and I don't recall them being sued.

Story ideas... I'm trying to think what would be a good story for a two minute film... Well, I'm stuck. I would suggest a completely random film for two minutes. And by random I mean anything can happen. As long as it amuses the viewer, that's whats important (Blah) It can be like a short .GIF type thing. .GIFs are short animations that usually loop. I hate .GIFs. Don't ask why, I just do.

[Shiru]

I always thought you could use copyrighted material without permission if you gave credit when credit is due... And you have to make sure you don't sell whatever you happen to use that is copyrighted. People use the famous Sonic as a basis for many fangames, and I don't recall them being sued.

You was wrong. From laws point of view, you can't use copyrighted material if you don't have the rights, for any purposes. There is an exception called 'fair use', but it is exception, you should prove 'fairness' in the court in case of problems. Companies usually not sue or threat the fans because this not bring them money, or make more loss than profit. Don't forget, the whole copyright thing is all about money.

[Jedite01]

My bad, thanks Shiru, you probably saved me a few court dates

[FrozenDelight]

I shouldn't have brought up the copyright issue anyway. Only said it so I didn't have to explain in more detail. But basically, whatever the legal issues are, it doesn't matter because my teachers wouldn't be very happy if my degree film featured Sonic the Hedgehog, lol.

I wouldn't wanna do that anyway, would be kind of embarresing to show in front of the class, haha. BTW it will be shown on a cinema screen at the end of the year!

[Jedite01]

Wow, that sounds cool. I want my pixel art/movies on a cinema screen! Again there you go with the lucky stuff, and the weird thing is, I don't even know why I'm jealous of an educational system lying on the street. Jeez, I'm just a hardcore collector like that.

Anyway, spinning off topic for just a moment while staying on topic for another moment, I want to... Erm, announce something?

So I was going through the forums, reading about 3D rendering on the Genesis, and as Shiru told me in the beginning of the topic, it's not the easy. So then it came to me...

Major noob moment...

The Genesis, while alone, definitely doesn't do 3D very well. If I've learned one thing, it's a tile based system (Duh...) However, the Genesis, with a Sega CD, has more power. I was reading the Official Sega CD Documentation, and of course, I barely understood any of it, but what I did understand is the following...

1) The Sega CD adds a second CPU; The exact same CPU as the Genesis, but a faster clockrate, at 12.5 MHz
2) More RAM (Do I need to give the specifics?)
3) A better GPU (I don't know if they were called that, let's just say Custom ASIC) that supports numerous effects *Mode 7* that were *slightly* if not completely comparable to the *ahem* SNES's features
4) An enhanced sound chip that features PCM capability (Therefore in theory, one could produce SNES music on a Sega CD console )

So I guess what I'm getting at is... Wait. I have a question before my question

Could one access all of the Sega CD's features from a Genesis cartridge? If not, I just wasted your time

I know very little about the startup process of the Sega CD, but I think that the BIOS checks first to see if a cartridge is in the Genesis, and if it is, the Sega CD's CPU and Custom ASIC as disabled while the sound controller is left on for mixing and other sound stuff I have yet to pay attention to (Something about Q Sound is all over my Sega CD games) Right...? I need a professional Someone who can teach me at least the basics of the Sega CD

[Shiru]

SCD features could be accessed from the cartridge. However every add-on add ons you more pain. SMD is already two-CPU system, with three kinds of RAM, common bus, etc. Luckily, on SMD second CPU doing only sound, and not in every game. With SCD you'll get one more CPU, another one kind of RAM, and things became more compicated, because CPU's have to share much more job. And of course, additional hardware does not give you easy-to-use features like 3D graphics, it is you who should program all these things to do that you want.

You really should start from simplest possible things on simplest possible configuration. No one could succeed starting from very complicated things having no background knowledge and experience.

[Jedite01]

Okay, you're right. Simplest things first! And I will stick with that now, no more jumping around from difficulty to difficulty!

I guess I could start with this?

1.) Make text appear on the screen
2.) Make a picture appear on the screen
3.) Make the text scroll

I can't imagine how many lines of coding that will take. So I should probably start with reading a manual on how to program the 68000...

But I don't know how long it will take, so I have to learn how to stop being impatient One more question before we move on with our lives... What languages can one program the 68000 in besides ASM? Isn't it so much fun teaching a noob?

[Shiru]

There are three ways to program SMD:

- assembler, obviously
- BASIC (BasiEgaXorz)
- C (few compilers and kits)

If you know Basic or C, start from these. They are allow to use portion of assembly code, if you'll need this, and they allow to not know M68K at all, if you not need this.

[Jedite01]

Actually, I have SOME experience with Basic (Believe it or not ) so I'll start with that.

Wow, I can't believe you can program a Sega game in Basic, haha. I remember these functions, CLS, PRINT, GOTO - And some more. I have knowledge! YAY!