418 replies to this topic

[SpiceWare]

I confirmed the attract mode doesn't work in the current build.

[Keatah]

Yep. That's one of the hidden virtues of the VCS - games maintain speed really well. I once had a dream about where we had to keep riding our BMX's faster and faster or the game (whatever it was) would do exactly that, get choppy and de-rez itself.

[Keatah]

Check PM for some additional characterization notes and what else I found related to the attract screen bug.

[stephena]

SpiceWare, on Tue Oct 2, 2012 7:37 PM, said:

²while the stress test will run on Stella, it's not useful as a stress test because Stella doesn't emulate how long the ARM processes take to run.

I know you're finishing up this game soon and don't have a lot of time, but I'd like to discuss what would be required in Stella to properly emulate ARM timing.  This doesn't have to be done right away; maybe add it to your updated TODO list

[SpiceWare]

stephena, on Wed Oct 3, 2012 3:53 AM, said:

what would be required in Stella to properly emulate ARM timing

Add cycle counts to the ARM emulation, but I suspect it'll be a bit more complex than the 6507 emulation because of the MAM (cache) that can be disabled/partially enabled/fully enabled.

[SpiceWare]

I've fixed the attract mode bug, a new Release Candidate will be posted tonight.

[Mr SQL]

Spice,
this game rocks! I was just playing the most recent build on my 2600 (it freezes in Stella) and checking out your C source code for the ARM; very cool, reminds me of the Compumate the way the ARM can take over the 2600

[SpiceWare]

iesposta, on Tue Oct 2, 2012 9:26 PM, said:

I did want to mention that I like when it's very hard and there's an impossible amount of things flying around

Thanks to this comment, I've squeezed in another Easter Egg.  Trigger it and you've activated No Man's Land where 12 large asteroids start each round

[keilbaca]

SpiceWare, on Wed Oct 3, 2012 10:07 AM, said:

Thanks to this comment, I've squeezed in another Easter Egg.  Trigger it and you've activated No Man's Land where 12 large asteroids start each round

I want to know this easter egg and stream it tonight

[SpiceWare]

keilbaca, on Wed Oct 3, 2012 10:10 AM, said:

I want to know this easter egg and stream it tonight

The 2nd Release Candidate is getting posted tonight, along with another Stress Test build which is the same as activating the easter egg.

[SpiceWare]

• Attract mode has been fixed
  
• update to the second easter egg
  
• added third easter egg, No Man's Land, which will start every wave with 12 large asteroids

Release Candidate 2 ROMs - Harmony or Stella¹
 spacerocks20121003_NTSC.bin   32K   78 downloads
 spacerocks20121003_PAL.bin   32K   62 downloads

Stress Test ROM - Harmony²
 spacerocks20121003_STRESS_TEST.bin   32K   56 downloads

¹ Requires Stella ver 3.7.1 or later. See first post for instructions on how to reduce flicker.

²while the stress test will run on Stella, it's not useful as a stress test because Stella doesn't emulate how long the ARM processes take to run.

Edited by SpiceWare, Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:23 PM.

[Keatah]

I've found the braking action of the 70-80 degree thrust angle (while going full tilt) to be quite useful. It allows you to quickly get from one side of the playfield to the other without having to perform a lengthy and precise reverse thrust like in Space Wars or Asteroids. You can stop on a dime if you do it right. Sort of like sliding and skidding on our BMX's when we were kids.

[SpiceWare]

I noticed a minor glitch last night and have fixed it.  New Release Candidate will be posted tonight.

[keilbaca]

I won't be streaming until at the very least, Saturday night. I can't wait to show this off

[SpiceWare]

• fixed the synchronized rotation issue with large asteroids

Release Candidate 3 ROMs - Harmony or Stella¹
 spacerocks20121004_NTSC.bin   32K   219 downloads
 spacerocks20121004_PAL.bin   32K   123 downloads

Stress Test ROM - Harmony²
 spacerocks20121004_STRESS_TEST.bin   32K   86 downloads

¹ Requires Stella ver 3.7.1 or later. See first post for instructions on how to reduce flicker.

²while the stress test will run on Stella, it's not useful as a stress test because Stella doesn't emulate how long the ARM processes take to run.

Edited by SpiceWare, Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:23 PM.

[vazquezrick]

Wow, very nice!

[Omegamatrix]

I tried the release candidate 3, and the stress rom that goes with it on real hardware. No bugs or screen rolling that I can see.


I don't have my genesis controller with me. Maybe RevEng could test it?

[Philsan]

Darrell, no problems with the stress test on a PAL machine and Harmony.

Something strange happened with normal PAL version.
The enemy ship's shape was always similar to Pac-Man's ghost!
I've tuned off my VCS and now ship's shape is normal.
I dreamed?

[SpiceWare]

Blinky Lives!  

You found the second of the three Easter Egg (the first is the credits screen, the third is No Man's Land).

You can make Blinky go away by doing the same thing you did to make him appear, though a power cycle is probably quicker

[PFL]

Been playing the stress test build on my PAL Jr and found no problems.

[stephena]

This may be a stupid question, but how do you install the ROM on a Harmony cart?  I've been testing Stella, and noticed the reports of sound working differently.  So I copied the ROM to an SD card and inserted it, but it doesn't seem to work on my Harmony.  Do you have to use the programming tool to install this instead??

[Omegamatrix]

I think you need V1.05 of the bios installed on the Harmony. You can get it here, at the bottom of the post. Once installed you can load it on the SD card like any other game.


http://www.atariage....-cart-software/

Edited by Omegamatrix, Sat Oct 6, 2012 5:17 PM.

[stephena]

Confirmed on the BIOS update; it's now working fine.  It's amazing how you forget the simplest things.  I'm the one that wrote the programming tool software FFS!

I'll try to find some time over the next few days to compare the sound between Stella and the real thing, but playing for a few minutes I didn't notice much difference ...

[SpiceWare]

I'm not at home, but I recall the asteroid explosions as one sound effect that stood out to me.

[iesposta]

Somebody beat me to it? Aww!
Well, here is what I saw a few hours ago.
I _think_ I know what I did to get this Easter egg...
And I know the credits Easter egg (I'm in them for suggesting something, thanks again SpiceWare!)
Still don't know how to get the third one. DON'T TELL, just say if you got it.

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