Wilheim Posted March 23, 2018 Share Posted March 23, 2018 Hi, all! I'm truly interested in getting an NTSC fix for Druid. I found an a8s file on this forum, but unfortunately I can't make it work on real hardware nor in Altirra. Can anyone have an XEX version of this game? Attached is the patch I downloaded on this forum previously. Thanks in advance to all. Regards! patch.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 23, 2018 Share Posted March 23, 2018 (edited) Hi, all! I'm truly interested in getting an NTSC fix for Druid. I found an a8s file on this forum, but unfortunately I can't make it work on real hardware nor in Altirra. Can anyone have an XEX version of this game? Attached is the patch I downloaded on this forum previously. Thanks in advance to all. Regards! Hi, That was a save state from Win Plus that I did quickly cutting some of the soft sprite procedures down. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215868-game-druid-flashes-on-ntsc-machines-is-a-fix-available/ To fix the game for NTSC, the soft sprite procedures would need to be properly rewritten optimally. Edited March 23, 2018 by Tezz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted March 23, 2018 Author Share Posted March 23, 2018 Hi, That was a save state from Win Plus that I did quickly cutting some of the soft sprite procedures down. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215868-game-druid-flashes-on-ntsc-machines-is-a-fix-available/ To fix the game for NTSC, the soft sprite procedures would need to be properly rewritten optimally. Thank you, that's exactly where I got it. Is it possible to convert the save state to XEX format? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 23, 2018 Share Posted March 23, 2018 (edited) Thank you, that's exactly where I got it. Is it possible to convert the save state to XEX format? Thank you! Hi, yes that's possible although the sprites are corrupted in that test because some of the procedures have been simply skipped. If I have some time over the weekend I'll look at rewriting the sprite procedures to fix the game for NTSC. Edited March 23, 2018 by Tezz 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted March 23, 2018 Share Posted March 23, 2018 Hi, yes that's possible although the sprites are corrupted in that test because some of the procedures have been simply skipped. If I have some time over the weekend I'll look at rewriting the sprite procedures to fix the game for NTSC. That would be awesome. I'd love to see a fix for this as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted March 23, 2018 Share Posted March 23, 2018 Thanks Tezz! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 23, 2018 Share Posted March 23, 2018 Hi, yes that's possible although the sprites are corrupted in that test because some of the procedures have been simply skipped. If I have some time over the weekend I'll look at rewriting the sprite procedures to fix the game for NTSC. 10x "Likes" for that idea! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 I had a quick look into Druid this evening, fortunately I still have the files and notes from looking into it in 2013. The sprite procedures will need to be rewritten which will take some time. I'm actually working on another game to be released at the moment so in the meantime here's a hack attached which takes out one of the enemy sprites when running on NTSC systems which should make the game playable. I'd forgotten that I disassembled the music procedure from the C64 back then also so if there's enough free RAM I could write a simple music player to add that to the title screen. druid.xex 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Excellent! Thanks! Man, this thing runs fast on NTSC. I'm not sure it's so bad without one enemy, seeing how fast the action is. Put a new color table in and call it finished; although, that C64 music would be pretty neat. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 I just noticed something that doesn't look quite right, which is in the original version running on PAL too. When the screen is scrolling left or right, there is something out of sync on the left edge of the screen. If it's not too hard to fix, it would be nice to get that taken care of too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 I just noticed something that doesn't look quite right, which is in the original version running on PAL too. When the screen is scrolling left or right, there is something out of sync on the left edge of the screen. If it's not too hard to fix, it would be nice to get that taken care of too. I'll add that to the to do list for the final fixes 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 Thanks for the work on this! I know what I'm playing tonight :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 (edited) I found another graphical glitch, which, in this case, actually causes some gameplay problems. I'll have to recheck, but I believe it was happening with the PAL only version before too. What happens is I use an invisibility (maybe even a chaos will cause it too) before opening the door to the second level, with my key. Then, after entering the level using the key, I get this sprite that just jitters around in one spot. The sprite won't harm me; but I can't kill it either. In one case, this sprite appeared in doorwayand I was never able to enter the second level at all. Here's a video and savestate of the problem. If you use the savestate, you will have to go quickly to the left side of the corrupt sprite (as I've done in the video), in order to keep from dying; since my energy is at a very low level where I saved the state of the game. Druid - Sprite Problem.zip Edited March 26, 2018 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 I found another graphical glitch, which, in this case, actually causes some gameplay problems. I'll have to recheck, but I believe it was happening with the PAL only version before too. Certainly a bug. Is it present in the original release? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 (edited) Certainly a bug. Is it present in the original release? Give me some time to mess with it. Seems it's not so simple to reproduce as I described above. I've tried several times in a row to make it happen and can't get it to break on NTSC or PAL at the moment -- on any version I use (your XEX, the orginal XEX, or even CAS). But the error seems familiar to me. In fact I'm now starting to remember that it was also intermittent on PAL. That doesn't mean it's necessarily random, though; I just might not be doing the same things needed to produce it each time. Anyway, it's good I've got a savestate of it already. That may prove useful. Edited March 26, 2018 by MrFish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fingolfin Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 (edited) Tezz thank you very much for reworking Druid and making it NTSC compatible. Your work on this is greatly appreciated! Would like to help in this effort. When playing on real hardware I've noticed a graphical glitch on the right side of the screen for levels 1 and 2. In both cases it is all the way to right side and almost dead on in the middle of the screen; no pics but it's blue and yellow or white. There might be one other darker color as faint outline too of this glitch-image. Is it a glitch composite/reflection of Druid? Or one of the enemy sprites? (Or none of the above?) Happy to capture photo evidence and post if that is helpful. Also as Mr. Fish noted, "after entering the (second) level using the key, I get this sprite that just jitters around in one spot. The sprite won't harm me; but I can't kill it either." Although I haven't been prevented from going through the doorway by this sprite at or near the door at the start of the second level, I have encountered it. It never shows up as completely as the avi capture Mr. Fish has posted but it's still there. Druid's an interesting spin on and evolution of Gauntlet...a mix of Gauntlet, Dandy, Dark Chambers and maybe even Shamus somewhat (enemy a.i.? pacing? atmosphere? sfx?). Druid is different from these games having an exploration system that allows the player more complex interactions with the environment: (most of the time) the player gets to choose from a few different magic powers or special abilities/power-ups when these are found. There's also a good deal of choice and flexibility in using special abiltieis/power ups like invisibility, golem and chaos. Edit/Addition: There's more problem solving to Druid than the other games mentioned but it is still primarily a fast paced action game. The varieties of elemental magic, needing to replenish elemental magic frequently and other unique special abilities/power-ups are great innovations present in Druid. Of the games mentioned above, as far as Atari 8 bit versions go, for me only Shamus comes close to being as addictive and compelling for one-more-play as Druid. Thanks again for working on this Tezz! Edited March 27, 2018 by Fingolfin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Nice having another NTSC fixed game! We truly appreciate it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Give me some time to mess with it. Seems it's not so simple to reproduce as I described above. I've tried several times in a row to make it happen and can't get it to break on NTSC or PAL at the moment -- on any version I use (your XEX, the orginal XEX, or even CAS). The save state will be helpful, I'll take a look into this bug tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 @Tezz what's the good news? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ascrnet Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 to help I share this NTSC version of the time that someone made "I hadn't seen this post". 😅 Druid (NTSC).xex 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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