My review of Scrapyard Dog...

[gorfcadet]

 

Hope everyone is doing well! My kids liked it at least!

Let me know what you think or if I missed something.

[fluxit]

Your review mirrors my feelings about the game pretty much exactly. I wanted to like Scrapyard Dog, but I just couldn't. My cart came from O'Sheas, so there was no disappointment with the purchase, which is about the only positive point that I could personally add to your experience.

 

When I first played Super Mario Brothers, I didn't enjoy it much. I found the control to be too slippery, and the following games even more so. I did think that the music of SMB and the sequels was brilliant. The game play grew on me, and I now like most of the 2D SMB games quite a bit, even the sometimes ridiculous 'Lost Levels.'

 

I find Bubsy on the Jaguar annoying, as it always seemed as though my deaths were more attributable to the fact that I couldn't see what was coming up, and IIRC the characters are slightly too large relative to the screen for the speed of the game and the level design.

 

Scrapyard Dog doesn't make me feel strongly enough about it to annoy me. It doesn't really push my buttons either way. I'd rather take on the chaotic and slightly unfair colorful atmosphere of Bubsy any day, over the drab, and difficult, but not particularly rewarding Scrapyard Dog.

[Jess Ragan]

The title character looks like Bill Clinton at age 28.

[high voltage]

A very good game on Lynx, what happened?

 

Your girls are funny, I enjoyed that the most (I don't like kids, so that's something to treasure).

 

Anyway, back in the days, so many great platformers on VCS, A8. Like mentioned Lynx even had a few good ones.

 

Problem was, all the great A8 coders, by that time the 7800 appeared, closed shop.

 

Atari just needed Japanese coders, which they couldn't, thanks to Nindicks communistic attitude.

Edited September 17, 2018 by high voltage

[Inky]

The main character is ugly, the graphics seem very washed out, some of the jumps are way too ridiculous, and even though I never reached it, I've seen video of the final boss.. WTF is that crap?

[DracIsBack]

I have mixed feelings on this game.

 

On one hand, looking at it from the eyes of someone who bought the game when it was new, it answered an age old question. For years, I wondered if the 7800 could play a Super Mario Brothers type game. In 1989, it often seemed like the 7800 had some technical limitation that prevented it from playing multi level side scrollers. This said, "yeah - it could". 17 levels. Smooth scrolling. Hidden rooms. Some neat touches.

 

And I had fun with it.

 

Now as a side scroller, how is it? I don't know - kinda meh. I liked the graphics. The scrolling was fast and smooth. The sounds weren't bad for TIA. The basketballs had a neat bounce sound. The music was there, but subtle, which is often a good thing where TIA is concerned. I liked the variety.

 

The biggest problem was that the game was just too hard. Some of the jumps were just way, way, way too difficult and it got in the way. The game could have been a bit more fun with a bit more tuning.

 

It's a solid proof of concept for the 7800. Not an amazing game, but I'm glad to have it. I enjoyed it, it proved a point. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest it is not. Commando it is not. Midnight Mutants it is not. Alien Brigade it is not. But I liked it.

[gorfcadet]

I have mixed feelings on this game.

 

On one hand, looking at it from the eyes of someone who bought the game when it was new, it answered an age old question. For years, I wondered if the 7800 could play a Super Mario Brothers type game. In 1989, it often seemed like the 7800 had some technical limitation that prevented it from playing multi level side scrollers. This said, "yeah - it could". 17 levels. Smooth scrolling. Hidden rooms. Some neat touches.

 

And I had fun with it.

 

Now as a side scroller, how is it? I don't know - kinda meh. I liked the graphics. The scrolling was fast and smooth. The sounds weren't bad for TIA. The basketballs had a neat bounce sound. The music was there, but subtle, which is often a good thing where TIA is concerned. I liked the variety.

 

The biggest problem was that the game was just too hard. Some of the jumps were just way, way, way too difficult and it got in the way. The game could have been a bit more fun with a bit more tuning.

 

It's a solid proof of concept for the 7800. Not an amazing game, but I'm glad to have it. I enjoyed it, it proved a point. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest it is not. Commando it is not. Midnight Mutants it is not. Alien Brigade it is not. But I liked it.

 

I agree with you. I can appreciate it as a proof of capability and concept; a game this big needed more people and money behind it to get it right. It was very ambitious, but too much to expect a small team (maybe one person?) to get tuned up for release. Some of those jumps are just cheap!

[jefffulton]

Good review. The kids are adorable. It's a really disappointing game.

[Baby Blue Azure]

Does anyone have a version of this DOG that works on an emulator? We need it! G173 and I both need it. Or if you're shy or not here, pls send it to atari78in84@yahoo.com. Thanks, BBA

[Trebor]

Does anyone have a version of this DOG that works on an emulator?

 

Scrapyard Dog (1990) (Atari).a78

 

Good dump, proper header and confirmed working under the emulators: A7800, MAME/MESS, & ProSystem.

[Baby Blue Azure]

Way cool, Trebor. Downloaded and wonder if G173 can ship his latest Mario hack of this either here or off-line (if the little guy is shy). Up late tonight? Aren't you in Germany? I'm having late lunch on the CA coast right now. Sunny day, 71.5F right now. Warm for where I am.

[Trebor]

Way cool, Trebor. Downloaded and wonder if G173 can ship his latest Mario hack of this either here or off-line (if the little guy is shy). Up late tonight? Aren't you in Germany? I'm having late lunch on the CA coast right now. Sunny day, 71.5F right now. Warm for where I am.

 

Florida. 71.5F is the cool weather.

Currently, 89F here and feels like 99F, per TWC site.

[Jinks]

Only 50F here. Winters coming freezing temps some nights already. Cant wait till may to warm up again...only two seasons here winter and road construction.

[Atarifever]

Only 50F here. Winters coming freezing temps some nights already. Cant wait till may to warm up again...only two seasons here winter and road construction.

We must have discussed this at some point and I have forgotten, but are you in Newfoundland too? That sounds exactly like here. I think we hit like 3 degrees celcius a few nights ago. Garbage summer out here too.

 

As for Scrapyard Dog, I think on the 7800 it is interesting, but on the Master System or NES, or any of the 8 bit computers, it would be considered a total dud. In fact, honestly, it probably would never receive enough attention to be considered even a dud.

[stirrell]

At some point I really got into this game. Obviously not as good as the Lynx version or platformers on other systems, but I still found it a decent game. It helped that I had a re-wired Genesis controller to play it with, I think. Then I got to the end of the game... and that about killed any further desire I had to play it after failing the puzzle the first time.

[Baby Blue Azure]

Thanks, Trebor. I am running Prosys 1.3f on XP and your version of DOG.a78 works like mine - it doesn't (whole screen = 00, Black). Are there special settings you have to make to have it work? I have other games that are 1 Meg and it seems they all work. I can run dumps and see if yours matches mine 100% but obviously that won't prove anything.

On the off-subject of "weather," sorry for the confusion. When I said CA, I was referring to CAlifornia, not CAnada. The fog on the central coast holds the temps down and people flock over here to enjoy 30-40F cooler temps.

 

QUIZ,

So if Trebor is in Florida and that RPD guy who sometimes mutters to himself on this blog is also in Florida, are Trebor and Oz Necserced one of the same? Ah Ha!

 

Have a good weekend guys. I am working a new speedy JOUST GT-R game right now but it has a bug that I don't understand. I may have to cut one feature out of it and then I'll try to get it released on Monday. Hint: it looks like a pinball game with up to 8 balls at once! So while we wait for RPD's new pin we could be playing this. /BBA

[Trebor]

Since the ProSystem emulator is notorious for not reading headers properly, it often requires manual updates to its ProSystem.dat file. It directs the emulator how to manage ROMs. The copy of ProSystem you are utilizing evidently lacks the proper info for it.

 

Just a heads-up, though, in understanding ProSystem is being leveraged as your go to emulator; the hacks you are creating may have issues with closer to hardware accurate emulators, such as A7800, and more importantly, real hardware. The timings under the ProSystem emulator are too generous and do not reflect the hardware properly. In some cases, the discrepancy is quite large.

 

Nonetheless, to each their own. Look for version 1.3g, as it is the latest update for ProSystem which should have the proper entries/hacks to allow Scrapyard Dog to work.

 

Sorry, but a big solid "F" on that quiz, Blue. I wish I had an ounce of the programming ability Bob has - ditto with his talent to play instrument(s). We do have common interests in music though, and of course, the 7800.

[Baby Blue Azure]

So I get an "F" as in "Florida." Thanks for being patient with my self-made quiz. Good thing you have a good sense of humor. RPD does a great job, and you do too, IMHO. I see you on uTube as well.

 

True, I almost never test my new-fangled "junk" on hardware or A7800 em. My life is already a mess, so I don't use MESS. But you're right, I should attempt the others, if I ever had the time for that.

 

The Prosystem 1.3g can be found here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/124215-prosystem-emulator-update/page-7

 

Whew, that's been around for a while (2015), so now I have that and can try that, thanks to you. From the comments that people have made, I could some day whack that game and perhaps make it more playable. It helps me to have an emulator that actually shows the game on the screen ! Again, thanks. /BBA

[Baby Blue Azure]

OK, so I've downloaded Prosystem 1.3G and it runs Trebor's version of SCRAPYARD DOG so I can play it for the first time on an emulator. But if I change 1 byte, the game won't play as an .a78 or bin. G173's SD Mario hack won't play on PS 1.3G either. By the by, I compared Trebor's .a78 with the one I had and it's 100% identical. So no surprises there. I played to a few hundred points and I like the game for the time spent on it. The challenges are to fix the main character - I would never pick the nose on the title screen or in-game, and sections of the game are too difficult. It seems the format of this game would be easy to make invincible but that would be too easy to play. We'll see what I find.

 

This demo shows how easy the game is, I guess (is it invincible?):

 

I am currently building a disassembly of SPRAPYARD DOG. It currently weighs in at 533 pages, and is in document check now. There are 583 JSR's which seems like a lot for what this game does. I notice there appears to be some dead code in the game so this project could be harder than anticipated.

 

I downloaded A7800 emulator as I need a more sophisticated method to support 64K (and above) games. Geez, you guys put a lot of work into this! I have to decide whether I'll operate in OSX or Win. I wonder if XP is considered a "modern" OS? It's not clear to me what is the minimum OS is, in OSX or Win.

 

To avoid duplication of effort, I wonder if anyone on here, or off here, has ever attempted to decode this game before. If so, let me know here or at atari78in84@yahoo.com. Thanks! /BBA

[TigerSuperman]

I like Scrapyard dog 7800, I really do. But I always felt even when it was newer that the game was rushed and the Lynx version was likely the game they wanted to make. The graphics are for the most part fine but I can't help but feel some of those tiles look like old gray Game Maker blocks from the early 2000's. I also didn't like the floaty jump physics.

 

There's a speed run of someone playing SYdog while only jumping up and down across the screen which shows the poor enemy and stage design. I liked the fact there was finally a side-scrolling platformer with secrets on the 7800 and again, I like the game. But SYdog is not the platformer people were waiting for.

Edited September 27, 2018 by TigerSuperman

[gambler172]

Way cool, Trebor. Downloaded and wonder if G173 can ship his latest Mario hack of this either here or off-line (if the little guy is shy). Up late tonight? Aren't you in Germany? I'm having late lunch on the CA coast right now. Sunny day, 71.5F right now. Warm for where I am.

Hi BBA

saw,that you have found the Mario

game....it works only on Cuttle cart 2

and not on an emulator....i do not

know the reason.....maybe you can try

to put my changes in the working

Scrapyard dog file....but i gues this

is not so easy....

Btw...if you contact me....try here

on AA message....my email does not

work right

 

greetings Walter

Edited October 4, 2018 by gambler172

[Baby Blue Azure]

Roger that, good buddy. Yes, I eventually found your Mario on my hard drive by accident. The guys did a great job on Prosys through 1.3G. Maybe the next go-round will fix this. There are other emulators but I have nothing else up and running at this time. SY DOG is 128K so there's a lot of bytes to analyze to fix and/or to change things. There are settings on the Prosys that could alter the result, but I haven't experimented with anything yet. I dropped 7800 this week to work old time favorite KABOOM! on the 5200. It goes out within the next 24 hours. I have one more whack on JOUST I want to finish before looking at SY DOG. /BBABY