Well, Eeems is doing the on calc one, but I think someone else hopes to do the computer-based one

Umm, Hot Dog, I might be able to, but could more specifics about how you want the map editor be possible first?

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The map editor allows one to create maps, map packs, tilesets and tilepacks.  A user compiles these into application variables for S.A.D.  I will give you the S.A.D. appvar file formats as soon as I can, but here's some information for you to start writing the program.  As always, feel free to ask questions, especially on irc if you can

Tilesets
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-A tileset can have up to 256 tiles.  Assume temporaily that tiles are 8x8, but be prepared for 16x16.
-The map editor assumes that the actual graphics for the tile set have been created as a bitmap.
-To create a tileset, one opens a tileset designer from the map editor.
-The first step is to give a name for the tileset, up to 8 characters.  The user also selects the bitmap with all the tiles designed on it.
-After the user selects the bitmap and names the tileset, the designer scrolls through each tile in the bitmap, one by one.  The user can either mark it as a standard tile, a tile with collision, or a tile containing a form of belthium crystals (full deposit, 1/4, halfway-mined, and 3/4)
-The tileset is then saved in two formats.  One is for the map-editor to use, the other is for S.A.D. to use.  You can decide how you want to save tilesets in map-editor format, but I would suggest that all you need is the name of the tileset and the bitmap location on the computer.

Tilepacks
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Tilepacks are collections of tilesets.  The map editor can create tilepacks for S.A.D., but it doesn't use them.  Basically, if the user wants to compile a tilepack, a dialog opens allowing a user to select as many tilesets to compile together as the person wants.  As the user adds more and more, the program will display how many bytes of calculator space the tilepack will take

Maps/Map Editor
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-An S.A.D. map can hold up to 10000 tiles.  That means that the height * width cannot be bigger than 10000.
-A tileset is chosen for the map by the user as the map is set up.  Once a tileset is chosen, it cannot be changed for the particular map, and only one tileset can be used.  When the map designer is loaded in the GUI, the tileset (as a bitmap) is loaded in a seperate window, allowing a user to choose tiles to paint.
-Grids can be turned on or off.
-There should be a button to allow a person to place starting locations.
-Maps can be saved, loaded, etc.  They can also be compiled to S.A.D. format when ready.

Map Packs
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Collections of maps.  These are created the same way as Tilepacks are, and once again, can only be made, not used, by the map editor

How big a SAD map with 10000 tiles would be in memory?

Slightly less than 10 KB.  I forgot to mention that S.A.D. is going to require user ram (another reason we made smaller sprites).  It would have been nice if we could have avoided that, but then most people proably will find it worth it.

The map Orita Five takes 3456 tiles, so I doubt that many people will be using all 10000 tiles allowed, that would be a VERY big map.

I assume maps will get archived on exit, right?

Good question.  Actually, maps stayed archived the whole time, and are never unarchived.  They just get copied to RAM, and then the ram with the map is cleared when the player returns to the main menu.  This also applies to tilesets.

Is it possible to have an option that would show up on calcs with xRam to "Use Ram or xRam"?

12x12 is harder than 8x8 or 16x16 in asm.

@ztrumpet: If the extra ram can be used in this circumstance, that's not a bad idea. I'll get back to you on that

@Silver Shadow  Do you have any samples of what you've worked on?