Fahrve Lives!

We are still barreling towards the end of Retrochallenge 2015/01, and the Apple II port of Fahrfall is still progressing nicely. We must be getting close, as the star of our show has finally started showing-up for dress rehearsals. Yes, ladies and gentleman, Fahrve now joins our party!

Low-Res Perspective

Representing Fahrve on the Apple II is a little tricky, at least when using the low-resolution video mode. The CoCo version of Fahrfall uses a video mode with a resolution of 64x96, while the Apple II low-resolution mode is 40x48. Obviously some scaling is required, but at such low resolutions scaling inevitably leads to distortions. Fahrve was already only slightly better than a "stick figure", and on the Apple II that is more true than ever. In particular, cutting the vertical resolution in half forced some compromises in the shoulder details and the thickness of the feet. The extra horizontal thickness of the blocks forced spreading the Fahrve graphics a bit wider as well, in order to get separation for the arms and legs.

A Tale Of Two Fahrves

Another quirk of the Apple II low-resolution mode required some consideration. The color of each pixel is encoded with 4-bits of data and two pixels are encoded in each byte, but the two pixels encoded are on different lines. This means that two pixels encoded in the same byte when plotting a figure on an even numbered line are suddenly encoded in different bytes when plotting the same figure on an odd numbered line!

This problem is not really any different from the problem of plotting a figure in a mode where multiple horizontal pixels are encoded in the same byte. One option is to use shift and rotate operations to transform a source image into a properly adjusted set of values in the video buffer. But that method is slow, and already awkward when dealing with horizontally encoded pixels. Using bit manipulations on vertically encoded pixels seems potentially even more awkward.

A better performing option is to use a different version of each sprite for each data alignment option. This increases the amount of memory required for sprite handling, but in this case we only require two versions of each sprite, one version for even-numbered lines and a second version for odd-numbered ones. Since I already have to keep track of Fahrve's vertical position anyway, choosing which sprite to display is reduced to a simple odd/even check on that number.

Sidestep: The Issue

When Fahrve moves from side to side, I depict him with one foot up and the other arm up as if he is shuffling to the side. The foot/arm up combination alternates between left/right and right/left as Fahrve continues to move on the platforms. Obviously, each of these sprites needs odd- and even-numbered line versions as well. That is four versions of Fahrve for horiztontal movment alone!

Along with the sideways-moving versions of Fahrve, there are odd and even versions of Fahrve standing still on the platform. There are also odd and even versions of Fahrve falling through the air with his feet pulled up and his hands above his head. Altogether there are eight versions of Fahrve for Fahrfall. For maximum performance, these are implemented directly in code rather than as bitmaps in data. In truth, this extra code nearly doubled the size of Fahrfall. Of course, that took it from slightly more than 1K of code to just under 2K... :-)

As you can see, the game is really coming together. I have to admit that despite the lack of scoring, I can now occupy a few enjoyable moments of my time playing with Fahrfall on the Apple II. Still, it doesn't really look a lot like a game just yet. If you want to see how that turns-out then you'll still have to stay tuned!