Boulder Dash®

[+batari]

Excellent work!

What? Under Z26Win it sounds like the BoulderDash theme being beaten to death with a sack of accordions. Granted, it's a very old version of Z26Win. Do newer versions handle this mode of sound generation better?

 

EDIT: Grabbed latest version, sounds the same.

 

For those of you who haven't heard the BD theme lately (or at all), here's an MP3 of the original tune running at the proper NTSC rate.

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I'm almost 100% sure it's an emulator issue, as they are not (yet) designed to handle this kind of audio (except for Pitfall II which actually has its own driver written into the emus but it only works in this game.) It sounds much better on real hardware, and will also sound great on emulators as soon as they are updated to handle it properly.

[djmips]

Here is an mp3 of a microphone recording from my 13" TV playing off a cart on my Atari Jr. I sped up the tune after hearing the original version again. Also It seems I'm missing a few notes. I'll fix those later.

 

The recording's a bit noisy, but I think you will be able to make it out fairly well.

bdtheme.mp3

[ZylonBane]

Yah, that's pretty much what it sounds like under emulation.

[djmips]

Yah, that's pretty much what it sounds like under emulation.

887580[/snapback]

 

Well three cheers for the emulation authors!

[Bryan]

Yah, that's pretty much what it sounds like under emulation.

887580[/snapback]

 

Yeah, but you just don't have very many pitches available on the 2600 (it only has 5-bit divisors). All things considered, the tune is pretty good.

 

-Bry

[Paul Slocum]

Yeah, but you just don't have very many pitches available on the 2600 (it only has 5-bit divisors). All things considered, the tune is pretty good.

 

This latest version is a softsynth program so it has more better pitch resolution than normal 2600 music (16bit I think).

 

I think it sounds good, just needs a little tweaking. If possible, it sounds like the decay/release needs to be set a little faster.

 

-paul

[+batari]

Yah, that's pretty much what it sounds like under emulation.

887580[/snapback]

 

Well three cheers for the emulation authors!

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I thought it sounded pretty good on a real 2600 with my C-64 monitor. But maybe my ears aren't as good as they used to be. Since this supposedly updates every other scanline, the sampling rate should be around 7.5 kHz which theoretically should produce some aliasing to those with good hearing - but I can't hear any.

[ZylonBane]

Parts of it sound almost perfect. But the not-perfect parts sound like the musical equivalent of mumbling.

[djmips]

Parts of it sound almost perfect. But the not-perfect parts sound like the musical equivalent of mumbling.

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Yeah, like singing in a choir and just faking the part you don't really know. Mr. Bean anyone?

 

Now, that I have the original version to compare it with, I'll take a look at my note tables and double check the areas that sound wrong. I'll take Paul's suggestion and try to adjust the envelopes of the notes. I might even get fancy and change the envelopes/timbres depending on which section of the song is playing.

Edited July 7, 2005 by djmips

[moderntimes99]

Hi!

 

Here's an improved "chip" version of the Boulder Dash theme. It should be less blippy than the previous version. Also, a few notes causing noise have been tweaked.

 

Binary version:

bdchip.zip

(Run in z26 at fixed 60fps for true NTSC speed, e.g "z26 -r60 -d2 bdchip.bin")

 

Source code:

bdchipsrc.zip

 

MP3 version:

bdchip.mp3

(Sampled from my own 2600, no sound processing has been added.)

 

Regards,

Moderntimes99

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I like it.

 

Maybe we should use the original tune and Paul's music too.

[djmips]

Yeah, that's a great chip version. It seems that going with staccato notes that strongly convey the rhythm might draw attention away from the notes that are out of tune. Did you do much editing on the note frequencies? (removing and/or replacing notes)

 

Also, I'm not familiar with forum edicit, are the posts on bd music considered 'off-topic' (like this question certainly is) and should not boulderdash music be on a seperate topic?

[+Andrew Davie]

Yeah, that's a great chip version. It seems that going with staccato notes that strongly convey the rhythm might draw attention away from the notes that are out of tune.  Did you do much editing on the note frequencies? (removing and/or replacing notes)

 

Also, I'm not familiar with forum edicit, are the posts on bd music considered 'off-topic' (like this question certainly is) and should not boulderdash music be on a seperate topic?

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Posts related to Boulder Dash ® music are quite on-topic in this forum.

Cheers

A

[+Andrew Davie]

Here is an MPG showing

all 20 levels of the game. It starts with level 1 being played in entirety, then shows short snippets of all 19 other levels. I occasionally reset the machine between levels or when I get stuck, etc. The file is rather big (145MB) but it does show 15 minutes of gameplay! The game is nearing completion now. There's not much left to do, and only a very few middling bugs. The timing is much improved, and screen glitching is significantly reduced.

 

Cheers

A

[+johnnywc]

Andrew -

 

It looks like the link isn't working.

 

Thanks,

[cd-w]

Andrew -

It looks like the link isn't working. 

Thanks,

892237[/snapback]

 

Yes, it asks for a password for the ftp server for me too.

 

Chris

[+Andrew Davie]

Please try

this link.

[+Nathan Strum]

Very impressive! There are some neat looking level designs in there. (I never played the original Boulderdash, so I'm seeing these for the first time.)

 

Question - do Rockford's feet move when he's moving vertically? In the movie, it's hard to tell, and it kind of looks like he's sliding.

[andym00]

Well, here it is. Version one.

 

For future improvements, the square waves could be modified to triangle or sinus shapes but of course, we are talking some more cycles. There are cycles available, especially since the third voice is unused in this tune. Nevertheless, we have to keep in mind the cycles one might want to use for the display.

 

Also, I have not worked on adjusting the envelopes.

 

Some background on this technique. I was working on a soft synth (inspired by Bruce Tomlin's RedBox), when I stumbled upon Andy's code in the Stella archive. I had seen it when it first came out but I wasn't interested in a soft synth back then and I hadn't realized what it was. I think it's quite well done, and it really has room for improvement (a compliment). Of course, I wish I had written it first. 

 

I think it answers the musings that batari had in the 2600 red box demo thread about using direct control over the audio output to create music. I think there's a lot more cool audio potential here.

886126[/snapback]

 

Glad it was useful If you need any help decipering what it's trying to do or any questions, just ask.. It was a long time ago, and wanted to do more with it but it kind of was left to rot due to work commitments Was a while ago, but I can still remember almost perfectly what it did, and how and why I did certain things..

 

But it would be good to see it be used for something other than my pitiful programmer attempts at noises..

 

Pauls right though, you can add the standard TIA audio on it as well, you have on free voice, don't know what it's going to sound like of you start using the 2nd voice for anything, the one being used for the synth playback, probably a bi tlike a tortured cat

 

The idea of taking the 3rd voice of the softsynth would free a huge amount of time up in the kernel, and also in the voice processing code, also a large chunk of zeropage would be available again.. Also it would free a bit more dynamic range on the individual channel levels, might make the EGs sound a bit better, because they're very very feeble with only a few levels available to them..

 

I did initially experiment with other waveforms and they just don't sound good in 4 bits.. Far too much noise.. And I wanted something that sounded good, without people having to forgive whatever noise and stuff it might have.. The really beauty is the summing method for the square waves which is just beautiful I fully admit I ripped that idea of from Pitfall 2

[Joe Stella]

WOW. Super-amazing. I keep asking myself what people would have thought about this game or similar caliber offerings in the 70's and 80's. "Couldn't be done", and "impossible" spring to mind.

 

Can't you just see the jaw-dropping expression of Atari engineers back in the day? I wonder if any of the old devs check in on these forums. I'd love to read their reactions.

[Heaven/TQA]

the 2600 adaptation of the BD theme is quite good... i mean well converted compared to the pokey version of the atari 800...

[Cybergoth]

Any news on this one?

[+Andrew Davie]

Any news on this one?

 

Boulder Dash was developed to the point where the game mechanics were complete, and all of the levels of the original game were installed. I didn't complete the scoring or the title screen. But basically it's a fully functional playable game, with death, restart, etc. I just never got to the point where FSS and I had an actual agreement to release it.

 

There's a 15 minute MPG out there somewhere, showing all the levels being played -- but I don't expect the binary to ever see the light of day and I guess I'm really saying that this is now a dead project. Even though I fire it up occasionally and have a game or two It will probably continue to have the occasional showing at various Atari related shows.

 

Cheers

A

[BLarry71]

nothing would legally happen if you release it I don't think. Look at all the "illegal games" that are out now and I never heard of nobody getting into any trouble for it, not once.

[Godzilla]

this has been my number 1 with a bullet most wanted 2600 homebrew title, please don't let it die! heck lady bug just came out and you don't see a name change there... or, there are plenty of other easy name changes u can use without having to change the game one wit.