[Coco] Phoenix IDE gaining sprite/tiles/map editor

[Roger Taylor]

It's a great time, indeed.  I have just integrated a very nice 
sprite/tile/map editor into the Phoenix IDE.  There's still more work 
to do but the editor is a full function utility that can output data 
and even assembly code in preset and custom formats.  I plan to have 
it output in binary at first so the MMUINC function can be used in 
CCASM to embed the data during the build process.

The first thing I did was import my own hand built sprite set for the 
Agent C game which was 12 people/characters, a filing cabinet, some 
papers, a key, etc. into the editor.  It broke apart my solid BMP 
image of all the sprites into their own sprites.  I then copied each 
single sprite into it's own sprite set so I could give each character 
3 or 4 different variations, like smiling/talking/eyes moving, etc. 
to give them a little bit of "character".  Very easily done in the 
editor especially with the copy/paste/duplicate/selection editing, etc!

This is what I'll be using the sprite editor for, but others may want 
to use it to create a tile based Mario Bros style game.  The editor 
comes with some sample files that have a map and sprites if anyone 
wanted to take some existing sets and make a game out of those.

I'll probably end up having to buy an audio editor for the IDE.  The 
font editor already outputs in binary format so it looks 
promising.  With fonts, sprites/maps, and sound, would these features 
convince you to try building your next CoCo game completely from a PC?

-- 
~ Roger Taylor