Star Castle Arcade - Beta Release

[Andromeda Stardust]

The Star Castle bins posted here do not run on my Harmony Cart at all. I have no issues with any other ROMs. Any ideas?

I also made the same mistake. You need to use the .CU file included in the Zip archive. The .BIN does not work for some reason. My Harmony BIOS is 1.05 and the .CU works great!

[SPIKE]

played the cart at the Houston Arcade Expo yesterday!

 

so cool!

 

and got to hang out with Albert too!

 

can't wait till i can get a copy!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I also made the same mistake. You need to use the .CU file included in the Zip archive. The .BIN does not work for some reason. My Harmony BIOS is 1.05 and the .CU works great!

The way this game is saving the high score on the cart is new. Therefore the .CU file contains the CUstom code Harmony needs to be aware of it.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Thomas Jentzsch

[YANDMAN]

God im super excited for this game Thomas thank you thank you the atari scene is on fire right now

[Mr SQL]

Awesome game Tom!

 

Played this at my last pong party, fantastic and captivating soundtrack - we listened to it when we weren't playing; that opening song is incredible - what is it?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

It's not from me. Actually it was already there when I first joined and later took over development. I have to dig up some old mails, I think the name was mentioned somewhere.

 

Chris should know better.

[cd-w]

It's not from me. Actually it was already there when I first joined and later took over development. I have to dig up some old mails, I think the name was mentioned somewhere.

 

Chris should know better.

The music is a TIA chiptune composition by Richard (Kulor) Armijo called "Zombified Zombie Bones". He entered it in the battle of the bits competition back in 2008, and kindly gave his permission for me to use it in Star Castle. You can find some of his other awesome chiptune creations linked from his battle of the bits profile.

 

Chris

Edited November 13, 2013 by cd-w

[Mr SQL]

The music is a TIA chiptune composition by Richard (Kulor) Armijo called "Zombified Zombie Bones". He entered it in the battle of the bits competition back in 2008, and kindly gave his permission for me to use it in Star Castle. You can find some of his other awesome chiptune creations linked from his battle of the bits profile.

 

Chris

 

Very cool Chris! When I heard it I was reminded of Zombie Nation, and their adaptation of David Whittakers SID tune Lazy Jones into a top 10 hit; perhaps the composer was inspired by that group given the title of the tune! It's definitely awesome enough

 

The mp3 version on the battle of the bits site sounds off compared to the real hardware; they must have sampled it from an emulator.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

The mp3 version on the battle of the bits site sounds off compared to the real hardware; they must have sampled it from an emulator.

No emulator can flawlessly depict the audio/video "rawness" you get from playing real hardware on a CRT. Stella desperately needs to add "phosphor trails" to their list of special effects. When I play Star Castle, Circus AtariAger, or any other game with white sprites on a black background in a dark room, the phosphor trails are simply awesome! Makes me feel like I'm in an arcade.

Edited November 14, 2013 by stardust4ever

[iesposta]

No emulator can flawlessly depict the audio/video "rawness" you get from playing real hardware on a CRT. ... When I play Star Castle, Circus AtariAger, or any other game with white sprites on a black background in a dark room, the phosphor trails are simply awesome! Makes me feel like I'm in an arcade.

The "Circus Atariage" trails on a real CRT really blew my mind!

It is really, really awesome, and you can not see it in emulation or on an LCD panel.

 

Although to emulate that effect will take a lot of processing power.

The ultimate emulation goal is the simulate the display exactly as a real CRT would respond.

Easier said than implemented.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I know Stephen is working on the graphic fundamentals of Stella. This will allow him to implement such enhancements much easier.

[PFL]

I've always wondered why nobody has made a software CRT telly emulator. Just an emu that emulates an old telly. Nothing more. That could be used as a plug-in similar to how filters are used these days but it could have all the variables like vertical hold, saturation, brightness, volume. All the stuff the telly used to take care of. It would also alleviate the work of the console emulator coders. There's so many emus out there and every one of them has to duplicate the work of the rest as far as 'tv' output goes...

[+SpiceWare]

I've always wondered why nobody has made a software CRT telly emulator. Just an emu that emulates an old telly.

 

 

While not quite what you want, Cathode emulates a CRT terminal.

[+Nathan Strum]

While not quite what you want, Cathode emulates a CRT terminal.

 

We still have the real ones at work.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

 

While not quite what you want, Cathode emulates a CRT terminal.

Yes but is there a "virtual" TV cable you can use to plug Stella into it? It sounds like a software nightmare to plug old console emulators into a CRT emulator by way of some "virtual" cable. Honestly, the composite video filter on Stella is good enough. I just want my phosphor trails, please! If the Stella creator can add phosphor trails to the video effects tab, I would be ecstatic! I don't care if it uses a lot of CPU power as most of us have multicore processors now. Since the post-processing effects are completely separate from the actual emulation, premium effects such as phosphor decay could be handled by a separate CPU thread without affecting gameplay performance.

[+SpiceWare]

Yes but is there a "virtual" TV cable you can use to plug Stella into it?

 

 

If I was aware of one I would have posted it.

[Keatah]

I had a thread discussing this a while back. It failed to be serious. What I (still) think needs to be done is have a CRT module, much like we have Z-80 and 6502 cores available for emulators.

 

This "module" if you will, that I am describing, is a standalone bit of code that simulates to the best of its ability all the characteristics of an analog CRT assembly and the low-quality video signal coming into it. This would include simulating, in-depth, the following:

 

1- the standard faire of analog circuitry in a real TV chassis and assembly, the amplifiers & filters

2- flyback voltage and acceleration

3- horizontal and vertical amplifiers and drivers

4- electron gun operation

5- beam sweep

6- vertical freqencies of 30Hz to 250Hz with 0.1Hz granulation

7- color subcarrier of 3.57MHz

8- horizontal freqencies of 24kHz to perhaps 500kHz, again with 0.1Hz resolution

9- variable video bandwidth, beginning at 4.5MHz ranging to some big number like 50MHz or something

10- power supply variances

11- the various CRT geometry & picture adjustments we all know and love, like H.hold V.hold, contrast, color, tint, saturation, hue, convergence, pincusion, keystone, brightness, black level, gamma, tone, H.size, V.size, linearity, sharpness, bleeding, artifacting, fringing, resolution, color separation. All these things, and more!

12- a comprehensive examination and study of a selection of perhaps 50 different aperture grilles and phosphor masks

13- the same comprehensive exam of the phosphor chemistry itself, emission rates, phosphor persistence, glow, spill, color tone.

14- the nuances of how and where the input signal degrades and is "rebuilt" or amplified and reinforced

15- magnetic field interaction in the CRT tube, especially with the deflection coils and the point where the electrons leave the gun

16- the timings of the beam movement, the sweep, the retrace, or in the case of vector monitors the x,y movements and accelerations and delays

17- the interactions of the tube as a whole with its accompanying driving circuitry

18- as a catch all, consider the analog noise, hysteresis, instability, variances, all the things that must happen to a signal coming down the wire into the set.

19- noise and voltage levels, all the imperfections, crosstalk, spillovers, harmonics, signal isolation. How the phosphor reflects in the glass, and blooms, and smears and shimmers. The natural background noise introduced into the analog drivers of the beam. A/D, D/A, quantization noise, modulation, demodulation, frequency shifting, randomness..

20- basically the entire bag of analog video imperfections that are part and parcel of the composite/RF/NTSC system.

21- ability to accept incoming incoming video from whatever hardware is in the pc such as usb converters and digitizers or old-school vivo chips.

22- ability to accept digital data from emulators.

 

It's either all that or keep bellyaching over the dwindling supply of real CRTs.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I had a thread discussing this a while back. It failed to be serious. What I (still) think needs to be done is have a CRT module, much like we have Z-80 and 6502 cores available for emulators.

 

This "module" if you will, that I am describing, is a standalone bit of code that simulates to the best of its ability all the characteristics of an analog CRT assembly and the low-quality video signal coming into it. This would include simulating, in-depth, the following:

 

1- the standard faire of analog circuitry in a real TV chassis and assembly, the amplifiers & filters

2- flyback voltage and acceleration

3- horizontal and vertical amplifiers and drivers

4- electron gun operation

5- beam sweep

6- vertical freqencies of 30Hz to 250Hz with 0.1Hz granulation

7- color subcarrier of 3.57MHz

8- horizontal freqencies of 24kHz to perhaps 500kHz, again with 0.1Hz resolution

9- variable video bandwidth, beginning at 4.5MHz ranging to some big number like 50MHz or something

10- power supply variances

11- the various CRT geometry & picture adjustments we all know and love, like H.hold V.hold, contrast, color, tint, saturation, hue, convergence, pincusion, keystone, brightness, black level, gamma, tone, H.size, V.size, linearity, sharpness, bleeding, artifacting, fringing, resolution, color separation. All these things, and more!

12- a comprehensive examination and study of a selection of perhaps 50 different aperture grilles and phosphor masks

13- the same comprehensive exam of the phosphor chemistry itself, emission rates, phosphor persistence, glow, spill, color tone.

14- the nuances of how and where the input signal degrades and is "rebuilt" or amplified and reinforced

15- magnetic field interaction in the CRT tube, especially with the deflection coils and the point where the electrons leave the gun

16- the timings of the beam movement, the sweep, the retrace, or in the case of vector monitors the x,y movements and accelerations and delays

17- the interactions of the tube as a whole with its accompanying driving circuitry

18- as a catch all, consider the analog noise, hysteresis, instability, variances, all the things that must happen to a signal coming down the wire into the set.

19- noise and voltage levels, all the imperfections, crosstalk, spillovers, harmonics, signal isolation. How the phosphor reflects in the glass, and blooms, and smears and shimmers. The natural background noise introduced into the analog drivers of the beam. A/D, D/A, quantization noise, modulation, demodulation, frequency shifting, randomness..

20- basically the entire bag of analog video imperfections that are part and parcel of the composite/RF/NTSC system.

21- ability to accept incoming incoming video from whatever hardware is in the pc such as usb converters and digitizers or old-school vivo chips.

22- ability to accept digital data from emulators.

 

It's either all that or keep bellyaching over the dwindling supply of real CRTs.

This is delving way off topic. You can emulate all that to hell and back but we still need to fabricate a real-time display that works with light guns. A Plasma like display with custom drivers might work. Basically what we need to do is create a display that "follows" the beam. V-hold and H-hold are not necessary with a digital controller. First we create a 480 line ED display capable of producing strobing light that follows the beam. The phosphors will optionally be be laid out in a rectangular grid which will mimic the design of retro TV displays, rather than the square pixels of modern display tech. Secondly, there will be no overscan. The position of the 480 lines of display is predefined according to NTSC standards. The right hand and left hand edge of the display area can be adjusted using controls, to optionally display every pixel available to the video game console without cropping the image or leaving side bars. Various custom presets can be set for different game consoles. The most important aspect of the display is that the "beam" is scanned in real time using a digital controller. Each of the red, green, and blue phosphors has underneath it a tiny chamber filled with inert discharge gas. A pulse of current causes a discharge in every plasma cell which illuminates the phosphor. There is no "beam" per say, but the precise amount of discharge is determined by the instantaneous amplitude of the video signal. Interlaced or 240p video can be determined by counting the exact number of scan lines per frame. 240p video can be represented by doubling the scanlines for true 60Hz display which will prevent the venetian blinds effect often seen on HDTVs when 30Hz flicker is applied to a sprite. An optional 100% / XX% effect can be used to emulate retro scanlines for 240p sources. 480i interlaced video will be displayed on alternate scanlines as per NTSC specification. This custom plasma display will work with light gun games and also naturally display phosphor trails like a real CRT, but have a sharpness and clarity unparalleled by CRT displays. It should also include an NTSC RF tuner with support for both US and Japanese frequencies, as well as composite, S-video, component, and possibly HDMI (480i/p modes only). The HDMI standard still has the required timings for displays that scan the beam so it should work in 480 real-time display mode. The set will be strictly 4x3 aspect ratio since it is primarily meant for being used with retro game and/or video players. PAL models could also be produced which have SCART connectors and 576 scanlines. The PAL models will also able to play NTSC/PAL 60Hz formatted video signals in real time using a letterbox mode.

 

Now we just need some heavy venture capitol, crowd funding, or whatever else is necessary to produce these unique plasma displays that specifically cater to the analog video / retro video game enthusiast.

 

BTW, the concept probably wouldn't be viable since the custom sets will probably cost a minimum ten thousand USD a piece in quantity, when gamers can just go to the thrift shop and pick up quality used CRT sets for like $30. However, it such a display could be fabricated, it would be awesome!

[Keatah]

Off topic, yes. I propose we continue it in the proper thread. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/198369-rebuilding-todays-emulators-to-perfection/?p=2867996

[YANDMAN]

Holy crap there are a lot of in depth wants on previous posts, would it be too hard to make scanlines selectable in mess just like mame that's all i would like?

[raindog]

This is delving way off topic. You can emulate all that to hell and back but we still need to fabricate a real-time display that works with light guns.

 

No, we need emulators to support the Wiimote and you can get one of the many light-gun enclosures for it.

[iesposta]

Anyone irked by label contests because you see more than one design that you NEED to own on cartridge?

With the submissions so far, I really like at least four, and two I will just have to buy custom if I can!

I am sure when it's over, I'll want even more.

[+Guitarman]

Wow!! I'm behind the mark!! Can't wait for this to be released. I worked at Cinematronics during the production of his game (along with Ripoff) assembling the control boards and doing final system calibrations on the assembly line. It was a blast to work there. Looking forward to this release as I also apparently missed the first version!!

[+save2600]

Anyone irked by label contests because you see more than one design that you NEED to own on cartridge?

With the submissions so far, I really like at least four, and two I will just have to buy custom if I can!

I am sure when it's over, I'll want even more.

 

I'm with you on there being a handful of really excellent submissions.

 

Perhaps there could be alternate releases... such as a release that features the slightly different in-game ship design.

[raindog]

I dunno, I was easily able to pick a favorite (the one most like late-'70s, early-'80s arcade cabinet art while simultaneously having the least to do with the actual gameplay).

 

I can't imagine it'll win, but if it does, if I wasn't already guaranteed to buy a cart... I'd probably buy two if I could afford it, just to keep one.