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Star Castle Developments


Thomas Jentzsch

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Since Chris is busy with his RL, I will continue his blog entry about Star Castle Developments here.

Source code can be found here.

Note: There are still some occasional glitches which I have to sort out. And maybe even a crash. So if you find one, please let me know. Especially if you can reproduce it.

Attached is the final build from October 2015 and here the (never ending) DONE and TODO list:

; Explanation:
; - = open
; o = partially
; + = done
; ? = debatable
; x = cancelled

; Arcade Differences:
; - 3  6 lives via dip switches

; x extra lives > 100
; + game speed increases with score, segments, time  .?
;   + gamespeed (0  7) now based on score (increases every 2000 points)
; + ring rotation
;   + not in sync
;   + direction moves with ring (TODO: check mines on rings, gun gaps)
;   + speed moves with the ring
;   + speeds
;     + increases with score (not castle)
;     + reverse rotation at constant speed: 4.7s/loop, (1st castle: middle)
;     + others: 0  1250 pts: 4.7 (outside)/3.2s (inside); 2500 pts: 3.2/2.35s; then: 2.4/1.9s
;       own speed range defined
;   + offsets are transfered with the expanding rings
;   o hit sparks (TODO: graphics)
; + killing gun and getting killed costs one life
; + shield kick
;   + ignores previous speed
;   + gives new speed
;   + doesn't reposition
; o ships
;   + facing left at life start
;   + start position moves up with each new life? (10 positions, 1st one seems random, 2nd one is bottom + 1?)
;   ? X and Y speed are NOT linked together
;   o deceleration is linear and lower
;   + ship decelerates differently in left/down (100%) than in right/up (~50%) direction!!!
;   + after castle completed, ship continues at current spot in next castle
;   + ship bounces during explosion
; o mines
;   + immediate respawn
;   + spawn position depends on gun direction (dir - 90°)
;   + spawn independent from ship direction
;   o hop back and forth on the rings
;   + higher homing speed at higher scores (as fast as player's ship)
;   + homing mine movement has some randomness to prevent mine grouping
;   + homing mine lifetime varies (lifetime counted on ring too, but only 50%)
;   + slower turning speed in lower castles
;   o mines hop much faster in arcade in higher levels
;   - max. one mine per ring segment
;   + disappear when they hit a ship
;   + mines on ring do not kill ship
;   o hit sparks (TODO: graphics)
; + gun
;   + shots immediately when there is a gap
;   x projectile moves a bit faster
;   + projectile disappears when ship is hit
;   x starts new gun life at last direction
;   + starts next ship at last direction
;   + shots whenever there is space, no matter where the player's ship is
;   + is turning slower, especially initially
; + bullets
;   + max. 3 at a time
; o sounds
;   o siren frequency depending on segments (~65  260Hz):
;     + intermediate screen (highest pitch, slightly higher than 3)
;     + 36  28: 0 (lowest pitch)
;     + 27  24: 1 (slightly higher)
;     + 23  20: 2
;     + 19  16: 3 (high pitch)
;     + 15  12: 4 (reset to between 1 and 2)
;     + 11   8  5 (slightly higher, still lower than 2)
;     +  7   4  6 (slightly higher than 3)
;     +  3      7 (slightly higher = intermediate)
;   - homing mines sound
;   + no sound when hitting segment first time
;   + thrust sound very low
;   - projectile sound starts with fire sound
;   - better sound mapping
;     - channel 0:
;       + 2. ship explosion (channel 1?)
;       + 8. siren
;     - channel 1:
;       + 1. gun explosion
;       + 3. projectile
;       + 6. bullet fire
;       + 7. ship ring bounce
;       + 9. thrust
;     - both:
;       + 4. mine hits
;       + 5. sector hits (channel 0?)
;     - homing mine sound
; + scoring: 10/20/30 points per segment hit (not per segment destroyed)
; + no leading zeroes
;   + score
;   + castle
;   + ships
;   + highscore
; ? scores are centered
; + digits are slightly wider
; -   .
; Bugs/TODOs:
; + it seems that the gun is correcting direction after finding a gap but before fireing
;   this leads to shots going through intact sectors
; + increase vertical screen size (TODO: use gained time)
;   + define extra stars data
;   + adjust stars in various screens
;   + center/resize other screens
; + make ring 1 data ordered like ring 0 + 2 data
; + gun needs gaps in all three rings
; o General task management
;   + allow individual tasks with priority and order
;   o adjust parameters of tasks (check if they could be skipped)
; + regenerate if middle ring is empty (test arcade).
; + homing mines broken at higher castles (>=6)
; + explosion too slow (check again when CPU time is reduced!)
; + vector angle gives too coarse results
; + occasional glitch when mine is shot
; - bullet sometimes glitches when it hits (could be same problem as with initial mine?)
; + DIR_SEARCH
;   x gap found a bit too early (counter clockwise)
;   + no gap found when GUNDIR = 17
; + occasional reversed intermediate castle/ship graphics
; + first mine glitch (only if thrusting or fireing!?)
;   resulted from following order: 1. x-pos mine
; 2. create mine
; 3. display mine
; + thrust sound corrupted
; + thrust sound set to lowest possible frequency and made 50% louder
; + siren twice as loud
; ? bullet/ring check may have flaws
; + occasional single pixel glitch on empty ring segments
; + another occasional single pixel glitch at start of new life (reason: odd without even rotate)
; + empty high score initials   . (instead of aaa)
; + difficulty switches fixed at start of game (4 different high score tables)
;   o make different high socre tables identifialble (colors only so far)
; + stop gun shooting when ship is exploding
; o more ring colors
;   + 8 different sets
;   o define colors
; o mine graphics (maybe slower?)
; + thrust sound broken after gun explosion
; + occasional crash!!! (X used in CheckRegenerate)
; + fixed last color mode remembered
; o check PAL colors on real hardware
; o mine explosion graphics? (code done, graphics todo)
; + add "arcade" to the title graphics
; o pulse red part of the title graphics in sync with music
; + (c) 201*3* (fixed "3" font)
; x new ship must not start at blind gun spot (but arcade does too)
; + highlights in small letters M and W and score 4
; + adjusted flashing text on/off ratio
; x vary ship's thrust display frames %10 -> e.g. %101
; + white vertical line before highscore
; - more gun explosion animations
;   o gain space
;   o optimize overlapping
;   - implement new data
; -   .
; Ideas:
; + transfer colors with rings too
;   + gun changes color too, is that OK?
; - PAL50 timing option
; + smaller ship to allow better manouvering?
;   + data (ship, ship + flames)
;   + offset
;   + reflection
;   + projectile collision
; + use direction search for mine/bullet ring hits
; x using VDELP0 to move ship smoother vertically (not possible)
; ? reverse display of double hit segments (dotted = complete, full = hit once)
;   o done, but is it a good idea?
; + increase some difficulties 1000 points earlier (kick chance, gun turning)
; x better do 16 difficulties for those?
; - reduce maximum ring rotatation speed (saves CPU time)
; + rename "Wave" into "Castle"
; ! adjust scanlines
;   + AA logo
;   + title
;   - Melody load
;   - hishscores
;   + game
;   + messages
 

star_74.bin star_74.cu.bin star_101.bin star_101.cu.bin Star_Castle_Arcade_152.cu.bin Star_Castle_Arcade_152.bin Star Castle Arcade (165, Stella).bin Star Castle Arcade (165, Harmony).cu.bin

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127 Comments


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Hey TJ - just wanted to chime in and say the mines look great! Also the siren really adds a nice touch too - very much like the arcade.

 

Thanks for taking the time to finish this one - can't wait!

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The rotating mines look good - much better than I was expecting! The updated siren also sounds great - nice work Ivan.

 

Chris

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This is regarding a question in the Stella 3.7.3 release thread about Star Castle ROMs being 28K/32K, where the former only works in Stella and the latter on Harmony.

 

I can extend Stella to detect 32KB ROMs with all zeros from 29K-32K as FA2 scheme, so that you don't need to release separate ROMs for each system. I can also add the case for 29K ROMs, where the first 1K is discarded (in case Batari fixes the 'append zero' issues, and 29K will be a valid FA2 ROM).

 

Do you think this would be helpful? I've actually already coded it, but await responses before I do the commit.

 

BTW, nice progress on the game; I can't wait to play it on the real thing.

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Just catching up on the rest of this thread (sorry... been busy with other projects).

  • I'd like to see an option (somewhere) to enable arcade colors only. The changing and transferring ring colors are nice additions, but from an arcade re-creation standpoint, I'd like to be able to play just using the standard "overlay". :)

I figured that one out for ya. To get arcade only colors, just play in black and white mode -- the real machine is black and white -- and make an overlay for your screen! (I didn't say it was easy :P) :) [select switch -> NTSC -> PAL -> B&W]

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I have posted the latest version 101, which has redone animations for the various explosions. Thanks again to Nathan, who did the graphics for me. :thumbsup:

 

We are getting closer to the end. :)

 

Note: The gun rotation is not 100% symmetric. This will be fixed soon.

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Always the higher number. 74 is the last release with the larger ship.

 

great now I have to save that to my my harmony cart do it next week after I return from WI

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I love the new large explosion!

On top of every other amazing thing I marvel at the siren sound. I can not imagine how that's done when Atari doesn't even have all musical notes. Brilliant!

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Re: Build 121.

Is that "ring starting out building slowly" intended? I hope so, it is really cool!

But now there is a noise sound (tone) that does not make sense. OK, the sonar "ping" is the stars/mines jumping places on the rings and leaving the rings. Reminds me of submarine sonar.

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Yes, that's intentional. I am trying to mimic how the arcade version recreates a destroyed castle.

 

Can you describe the tone a bit? I added a sonar ping sound (not finished yet) for homing or (depends on which version you got) ring jumping mines.

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OK, the sonar "ping" is the stars/mines jumping places on the rings and leaving the rings. Reminds me of submarine sonar.

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Yes, that's exactly how it should sound. I needed a sound for the homing mines which wouldn't constantly block a valuable sound channel. So I decided for this short ping.

 

My plan was (and still is) that the mines ping while homing (like in the arcade). And the frequency of the ping event happening will depend on how close the mines are.

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Don't know if you still see this, Thomas, but what happened to the source?

Last week it was here.

Version 152 is the last I saw/have.

Very nice explosion (best of all time!)!!

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