+Atarius Maximus Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Here's a collection of River Raid hacks that I created using Thomas Jentzsch's commented disassembly (which I also attached). My original idea was to make 'River Raid Turbo' with a much faster jet, but I created a few more while I was at it just for fun. River Raid Turbo - Push up for 'Turbo mode' and you'll see your jet flies much faster. Left/Right movement speed was also increased. River Raid Turbo (with Fast Shots) - Same as the prior version but with faster shots from your jet. River Raid (Fuel Tank is always Full) - No need to fill your fuel tank, it's stuck on Full all the time. River Raid (Fast Shot) - Your missile fires much faster than normal. River Raid (Fly over land) - Collision detection is turned off for hitting the river banks, you can fly over land. Flying over houses recharges your fuel, not sure why. River Raid Trainer - Unlimited Lives & Fuel and collision detection is turned off. River Raid Random (original hack by batari, not me) - You will start at a random location in the river every time you hit reset River Raid Random (Turbo/Fast Shots) - Batari's binary hacked to have turbo speed and fast shots. River Raid Plus (Turbo/Fast Shots) - I hacked Thomas Jentzsch's River Raid Plus hack to include turbo speed and fast shots. River Raid Turbo (Fast Spread Shots) - Based on Nukey Shay's hack, this is the fast shot turbo version with the 3 shot spread firing. River Raid 3 - This is the original Spread-Shot hack created by Nukey Shay. Batari added four rivers to the random hack, you will start off at a random place in those four rivers on one player games only (Game #1 ,3, 5 and 7). In River Raid Plus, Thomas added balloons as another obstacle to get in your path while you navigate your plane down the river. He also changed the start of the game as if you had just passed bridge 2002, and the starting and maximum difficulty was increased. I will not be able to merge batari's random river start into Thomas's Plus hack, there are so many differences in the disassemblies that WinMerge makes it look like two completely different files. . Random river hack info: Game River #Players 1 1 1 2 1 2 3 2 1 4 2 2 5 3 1 6 3 2 7 4 1 8 4 2 . Enjoy! Steve RiverRaid.asm riverraid_always-full-tank.bin riverraid_fast-shot.bin riverraid_fly-over-land.bin riverraid_trainer.bin riverraid_turbo.bin riverraid_turbo_fast-shot.bin RiverRaid_Random(batari).bin riverraid_random_turbo_fast-shot.bin RiverRaidPlus_turbo_fast-shot.bin RiverRaid_Turbo_Fast-Spread-Shot.bin RiverRaid3.bin 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 The turbo version is my kind of speed. I like to go fast. Here's random River Raid to add to the list: atariage.com/forums/topic/123709-thomas-jentzsch-and-a-random-river-raid-who-can-do-it/?p=1494439#entry1494439 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Wasn't Carol Shaw's original idea for River Raid to be a space game but it was deemed to crowded a genre at the time so she changed to a more earthbound military game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I like to go fast too, RT. Because of the detailed comments in TJ's disassembly it'd be easy to make a new hack with any combination of the changes I made to the already posted hacks. If anyone would really like to see a different combination that I didn't already make I'd be happy to do it. EDIT: I added batari's hack to the first post. I may see if I can disassemble batari's hack and add the turbo feature to it by comparing it to the disassembly. And to AtariLeaf - I never heard that about Carol Shaw's plans to make it a space game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 It's pretty obvious in the disassembly where to change the seed for the river when you start the game. I don't know how batari made it random every time, though. It looks like changing the seed to a different value would change the starting river from the original game but it'd still be the same every time you reset the hacked version. ; initial values for the random number generator: SEED_LO = $14 ; change "to go, where no one has gone before" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 A 2 button version would be cool...one button to shoot flying objects like planes, and a second button to drop bombs on the ships! Like Xevious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I like to go fast too, RT. Because of the detailed comments in TJ's disassembly it'd be easy to make a new hack with any combination of the changes I made to the already posted hacks. If anyone would really like to see a different combination that I didn't already make I'd be happy to do it. EDIT: I added batari's hack to the first post. I may see if I can disassemble batari's hack and add the turbo feature to it by comparing it to the disassembly. And to AtariLeaf - I never heard that about Carol Shaw's plans to make it a space game. If you could add random turbo versions, that would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Fantastic idea, SoundGammon, but definitely beyond my skill level. That would be a major change even for an expert assembly programmer, which I'm not. I can easily make changes to collision detection, speed, colors, sprites, fuel, the missile firing rate and number of lives/unlimited lives. That's just about it as far as what's quick and easy to modify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I'll take a look at making a turbo version of batari's random hack tomorrow, RT. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 And to AtariLeaf - I never heard that about Carol Shaw's plans to make it a space game. I can't verify whether this is true but i found the article that I originally read" http://www.riverraid.org/riverraid_history/index.php Carol mentions that her original intent was to make a space game when moving to Activision, but when management told her there were too many space games on the shelves, she decided to spend her efforts making a river game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hacking Thomas' disassembly is easy, finding the differences between two uncommented disassembled ROMs is not quite as easy. I attempted to hack in the changes I made in the 'turbo' river raid into batari's random hack and I ended up with a corrupted binary. I may try again later, but I'm putting it off for now. Maybe Fred or Thomas could make the change if they happen to see this. This is what I changed in the commented disaassembly to make the Turbo, fast shot version: To increase the speed of the missile shots: MISSILE_SPEED = 14 ; y-speed of the jet missile (Changed from 6 to 14) This was changed so that when the game scrolls in at the beginning the jet is positioned correctly: INTRO_SCROLL = 88 ; counter for scrolling into new game (Changed from 48 to 88) This modifies how fast the jet moves from left to right: .leftRight: LDA dXSpeed ; 3 increase the x speed change CLC ; 2 ADC #99 ; 2 (Changed from 8 to 99) This increases the speed of the jet: .setBlockVars: LDA #5-1 ; 2 add speedY*3 to blockOffset -> max. speed = 3 lines/frame (I changed LDA #3-1 to LDA #5-1 to increase the game speed) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hacking Thomas' disassembly is easy, finding the differences between two uncommented disassembled ROMs is not quite as easy. Would a program like WinMerge make it easier to spot the differences? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 WinMerge helped, thanks for the suggestion RT. It was still a bit of a PITA but I was able to get batari's random start binary hacked with the turbo speed and fast shots. I added it to the first post. Here's the disassemblies too, in case any one would like them. River_Raid_turbo_fastshot.asm RiverRaid_original.asm RiverRaid_original_commented.asm RiverRaid_random_batari.asm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 River Raid isn't the first time I've tried to make a game faster or harder. For those that like hacks that make games faster you'll probably like these too, there's some from myself and some from others: Nukey's Jr. Pac Man Throttle: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/73046-2600-jr-pac-speed-throttle/?hl=throttle Thomas' Amidar Double Speed: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/24757-amidar-double-speed-hack/?hl=%2Bamidar+%2Bdouble&do=findComment&comment=274064 Thomas' Sadistroids hack of Asteroids: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/31160-sadistroids-was-asteroids-turbo/?do=findComment&comment=359422 My 'Sadistic' Dragonfire hack: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/46219-a-sadistic-dragonfire-hack/?hl=%2Bsadistroids&do=findComment&comment=558748 Thomas' Faster Kaboom hack 'Sadoom': http://atariage.com/forums/topic/32115-kaboom-9-high-scores/?hl=%2Bspeed&do=findComment&comment=370836 Thomas' recently posted Miner 2049er 'Faster': http://atariage.com/forums/topic/216412-miner2049er-faster/?hl=%2Bfaster&do=findComment&comment=2829156 My 'Space Race Sadistic' hack of Freeway: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/71699-space-race/ My 'Sadistic' hack of Berzerk: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/81231-sadistic-berzerk/ My 'Sadistic' hack of Yars Revenge: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/81257-sadistic-yars-revenge/ Sadoom(NTSC&PAL).zip Dragonfire_Sadistic.zip SpaceRaceFast.zip BerzerkSadistic.zip SadisticYar.zip sadistroids__v1.1_.zip Jr. Pac Man Throttle.zip Amidar Double speed.zip Miner2049er (faster).zip MsPacThrottle.zip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 WinMerge helped, thanks for the suggestion RT. It was still a bit of a PITA but I was able to get batari's random start binary hacked with the turbo speed and fast shots. I added it to the first post. Thanks. I changed the Random River Raid link on the right side of the Harmony Cartridge page to point to this thread now: randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-harmony-cartridge.html#hacks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 I feel honored, RT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 I can't verify whether this is true but i found the article that I originally read" http://www.riverraid.org/riverraid_history/index.php That was an interesting read but I question the validity of the article based on this comment: "With the levels in River Raid being randomly generated, it is unlike other Atari games of the generation. As most Atari gamers know, you need to get used to seeing the same background or level design over and over again as you play these games. River Raid is unique in that you never seem to see the same set up twice in one sitting. This adds a lot to replay value as the gamer of today might have trouble with monotony." Unless the author was playing batari's random version the river is generated exactly the same every time you play. I wouldn't doubt that Carol was told to change it from a Space game, though, that was a very popular theme back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 I hacked Thomas Jentzsch's River Raid Plus hack to include turbo speed and fast shots. The Binary was added to the first post. River Raid Plus: http://atariage.com/hack_page.html?SystemID=2600&SoftwareHackID=68 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 I wonder if the 3 shot hack below could be added to any of the hacks in this thread: atariage.com/forums/topic/270556-can-this-awesome-river-raid-hack-work-on-the-real-game/?p=3861881 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Yes...very easily if you removed the screensaver code. This hack only required a couple dozen bytes, so I tracked down some optimizations so I could keep everything intact (including the screen saver). The missile skew and 3-frame counter use the previously-"always zero" ram locations, so the code that used those in the original was rewritten slightly. A few things were moved from their original locations for byte-sharing. Apologies for using my own disassembly...files with *everything* tagged are confusing to me! RiverRaid(FantasyMode).asm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted October 13, 2017 Author Share Posted October 13, 2017 You made it a little more difficult for me by not using TJ's disassembly, Nukey. This version has been modified to include the turbo speed and fast shots along with the Spread Shot firing. I commented my changes in Nukey's disassembly in case anyone would like to modify them. Edit: I included this hack and Nukey's original hack in the first post of the thread. RiverRaid_Turbo_Fast-Spread-Shot.asm RiverRaid_Turbo_Fast-Spread-Shot.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 You made it a little more difficult for me by not using TJ's disassembly, Nukey. Sorry...can't do it any other way (it's what I grew up doing). If I see labels everywhere instead of values and addresses, I start to go cross-eyed...everything remains unfamiliar. Interesting that nothing was gained using cycle-exact timing instead of good 'ol WSYNC, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.