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davidbrit2

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Posts posted by davidbrit2

  1. Posted · Edited by davidbrit2
    Update

    Just got my copy today. It's absolutely fantastic, and really accurate (i.e. completely brutal). It plays great with my converted NES controller. The pinball table is a bit tough to get the shot angles with the straight overhead view, but that'll come with practice.

     

    Don't let the difficulty scare you off, because the addition of "classic" AI and adjustable starting lives make it a lot more accessible than the arcade cabinet.

     

    After a couple of plays, I got 238,500 on default settings. Going to need some more work...

     

    EDIT: 501,660 on defaults. That's probably the best I'll hit today. :) I like how the game remembers which side the hoop ball is on in between games, just like you'd see on the arcade machine.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 2

  2. Posted

    10 hours ago, Albert said:

    That is easily done if someone creates the appropriate icons that match the existing icons in size and appearance.

     

     ..Al

    I think that particular photo requires a good eggplant emoticon.

    • Confused 1

  4. Posted

    On 12/29/2019 at 2:42 AM, GoldLeader said:

    I thought this was gonna be about a car that catches fire...Auto Fire?   LOL...I crack myself up.

     

     

    I guess everything's relative.   Like, I didn't learn until years later how I'd gotten those initials to show up on Yar's Revenge.  But Space Invaders?   I guess I thought everyone knew about this one back in the day. 

     

    It always blows my mind when I find someone that doesn't know the continue code for Super Mario Bros. :)

     

    "Man, that game was hard! If you die, you have to go all the way back to the beginning!"

    "Uh, no you don't..."

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Deteacher said:

    Understanding how the enemies move makes it pretty easy to group them all together (with the help of a few peppers.)  Then you can rack up SERIOUS points for getting them all on a bun and sending them for a ride.

     

     

     

    It appears that when an enemy reaches an intersection, it checks Peter's position along the axis perpendicular to the direction the enemy was traveling. So if the enemy is walking horizontally along a platform, the game checks if Peter is above or below that enemy. If he is, the enemy turns 90 degrees and heads in that direction (if possible). The same logic applies for climbing - and stepping off - ladders.

     

    But when Peter's position along that axis is the same, e.g. standing on the same platform the enemy is walking along, there seem to be some exceptions. At 0:26 in the video, one of the three hot dogs goes up the ladder as the trio passes by. What causes that? Is there simply a degree of randomness like the barrels in Donkey Kong?

     

    The decision process at intersections might be something like this:

     

    1. Is Peter's position along the perpendicular axis different from the enemy, and does the ladder/platform proceed in that direction? If so, turn 90 degrees and head that way.

    2. Is Peter's position along the perpendicular axis equal to the enemy? If so, randomly make a 90-degree turn approximately 1/3 of the time, and ignore the turn 2/3 of the time.

    3. Is it no longer possible to keep traveling in the same direction (end of ladder/platform)? Randomly (?) turn 90-degrees from among the available choices.

     

    Time to fire up MAME and experiment a little.

  6. Posted

    1 minute ago, Jumpman1981 said:

    I had a quick play, and I noticed a few things about the enemy movements:

     

    All enemies move in the same way - they all directly chase Peter, but they never pass a stairwell that can get them to the platform he's on

    The only real difference is how quickly they make their next move; The eggs are sharper than the hot dogs, and the pickles are sharper than the eggs. 

     

     

    Yeah, if Peter is at a very obvious oblique angle to an enemy, the enemy will pretty much always get on/off a ladder at every opportunity, opting for whichever direction brings them closer to Peter.

     

    Where things get a bit unpredictable is when Peter is standing on the same floor or ladder as one of the enemies while its heading toward him. Sometimes they will pass by any turns and head straight for him, and occasionally they will make a turn that will actually take them further away.

     

    It's probably something really simple like the way the ghosts in Pac-Man choose their target squares, but I've never been able to figure it out.

  7. Posted

    As I faintly recall, my basic setup process is something like this, there are likely lots of other variations that work just as well.

     

    Things you need:

     

    1. FreeMCBoot memory card - This is your foot-in-the-door. Don't use this for game saves. Ever. Think of it like your recovery boot disk. And maybe make yourself a backup copy.

    2. uLE (uLaunchELF) - A simple shell for running programs from any attached storage device, doing file system and disk maintenance, etc.

    3. OPL (Open Playstation Loader) - The program that boots and runs PS2 ISOs from a hard drive (or flash drive or Windows network share)

    4. WinHIIP - PC program for installing ISOs onto a PS2 hard drive attached to your computer.

     

    What to do:

     

    1. Boot your FreeMCBoot memory card.

    2. Use uLE, likely installed on the FMCB memory card, or from a flash drive, to format your hard drive.

    3. Download the latest FreeMCBoot installer and copy it to a flash drive. Run it from uLE to install FreeHDBoot onto the hard drive. Now would also be a good time to install FMCB to another memory card so you have a backup copy.

    4. Download the latest version of uLE (which I think is actually not called uLE anymore) and OPL and put them on a flash drive.

    5. Boot up uLE again, and copy the latest uLE and OPL over to the appropriate partition on the hard drive. I forget which one you're supposed to put custom binaries on - I think it's "config" or "system" or something. Check the installation instructions for those two utilities. You may also want to copy the newer version of uLE to your FMCB memory card.

     

    At that point, you should be able to boot up the hard drive, and use the FMCB menu editor to add OPL and uLE to the main menu.

     

    Of course OPL isn't all that useful if you don't have any ISOs installed. I generally use WinHIIP + IDE-to-USB adapter to do this. Make sure you configure WinHIIP for 128-bit HDLoader the first time you run it! Once WinHIIP is all set up and the drive is connected, choose your PS2 drive from the drop-down menu. WinHIIP will read the partition map, and you can then install games either directly from a DVD/CD drive, or from an ISO file. When you're done, close WinHIIP, safely disconnect the drive from Windows, and pop the drive back into your PS2.

     

    OPL for some reason isn't configured to activate any storage devices by default, so the first time you launch it, it won't see your hard drive, and you will stare in silent dismay. Go into the config menu, set the hard disk to auto, and make sure you press the correct button to save your settings to your memory card (it's really easy to cancel by mistake). I think you may also have to set it to browse the hard disk by default so you don't have to dismiss the menu every time.

     

    Once you're all set, it's as simple as booting the PS2, running OPL from the FMCB menu, and choosing a game from the list.

     

    I know this sounds like a complicated pain in the ass, but it's really not all that labor intensive, and having a jukebox of 300+ GB of PS2 games at the ready is an absolutely worthwhile payoff. :)

  8. Posted

    Has anybody thoroughly dissected the enemy AI in Burger Time (as has been done for Pac-Man)? It seems like most of the time, they proceed straight ahead, and will make a 90-degree turn whenever it becomes possible, preferring whichever direction will move them toward Peter Pepper. But it seems like the enemies will ignore corners often enough that there must be something else going on, perhaps with behavior varying by enemy type. Anybody figured it out?

  9. Posted

    47 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

    Each player (port), auto detects the type of joystick to use (i.e. the ProLine or the CX-40).  You can't use both ports for the same player.  The coupler would be the way to go although you can't bump the table with the Track & Field  controller then.

    I purchased a Hyperkin joystick (with the buttons on both sides) for the sole purpose of making it into a 7800 joystick for Baby Pac-Man.  To me, it's a perfect solution for it.

     

    Ah, didn't realize table nudging made it in! Mostly because it's not a very easy cabinet to nudge successfully. :P

     

    Which Hyperkin joystick did you use? I've been wanting to hack up a decent 7800/2600 arcade stick.

  10. Posted

    I just ordered myself a copy. I've always had a strange fascination with this game since first playing it when I was around 2-4 years old, and even did a little of the work recreating the table with Visual Pinball back in college. My dev machine ended up being too slow to run the pinball simulation and Visual PinMAME simultaneously, and Visual Pinball kind of stagnated after that. I always make sure to play a few games when I happen rarely across a working machine.

     

    What are the control options for the 7800 port? I'd love to be able to use a joystick in port 1 for the video game portion, and my Track & Field controller in port 2 for a reasonable facsimile of the pinball control panel. I'm sure I could whip up a simple coupler to make that work if it's not natively supported.

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

     

    It may not be totally clear on the box, but it does play the games. All artwork, play screens, etc., are representative. So there won't be any refunds, compensation, etc. Some early review units sent out featured arcade versions, which could not be produced at the last minute, so the home versions featured in all stores is solely what's available to buy. There are not different versions out there. Sorry for any confusion. If there's a change, they'll make an announcement.

     

    And to reiterate one more time, the Bandai-Namco Blast! features the home versions of the games. Walmart has Pac-Mania instead of Tower of Druaga. That's the only difference in products. If the products change, there will be a future announcement.

     

    That's honestly pretty scummy if they've sent out pre-production/review units with arcade versions, and displayed arcade versions on all the packaging and marketing, but the retail units are only the NES/Famicom versions.

    • Like 4

  15. Posted

    Well, the 2004 Atari Flashback was the first popular modern plug-n-play system with support for simultaneous 2-player gaming, but its own existence (and that of other 2004 entries into the market) was a response to the surprise popularity of Jakks Pacific's 2003 plug-n-play line, made up of their Atari (10-in-1 joystick--actually from 2002), Namco I (Pac-Man-headlined 5-in-1), and SpongeBob SquarePants TV Games systems. I think Techno Source's first NOAC-based Intellivision plug-n-play systems were also 2003, but most likely, it was the Atari and Namco brandings that put the plug-n-play category on the map. It wasn't actually a brand new category, of course, with bootlegs and Toymax's 2001 Activision system predating the gold rush, not to mention the 1975-1977 home Pong fad.

     

     

    Can you confirm that the game selection is the same as what Bill's ArmchairArcade.com post lists? His post is the word from AtGames, but it's always best to get a confirmation from a unit obtained from the actual retail channels.

    Yes, as far as I can tell, Bill's list matches my unit exactly.

     

    Also . . . if you have the time, could you check the system and split the game list into arcade/NES/Genesis? :)

    NES: Mega Man, Mega Man 2, Tetris (Famicom version)

    Genesis: Champions World Class Soccer, Judge Dredd, Phelios

     

    Everything else is the arcade version, at least according to the menu. I haven't tested everything yet.

     

    One thing I did notice is that the audio in Edward Randy is absolutely awful. The game seemed to play okay otherwise.

     

    One last request, much quicker than the previous one: try fooling around with booting up the system while holding down various combinations of buttons, to see if you can figure out what the key sequence is to boot into the debug/test mode. We've been able to do that on past Atari Flashbacks (power on while holding Start and Select) and FB Portables, which has helped ID the underlying hardware. Of course, if you're game for a deep dive, you could also just open up your system shell and check out the PCB directly, but I recognize that that might be going a bit far with a pricey new toy.

    Reread my last post. ;)

     

    tl;dr recap: Yes, there's a button mounted on the motherboard. If you open up the case and hold it down while powering on, you'll be taken to an Android bootloader. From there, you appear to be able to install/flash things either via SD card or ADB sideload. I don't know if any data lines are brought out to the microUSB charging port; my computer didn't show anything connected.

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    I just picked up the Arcade Legends one tonight. I haven't tried every game on it yet, but it's pretty good overall. I've noticed some audio latency in games (maybe 0.2-0.25 seconds at the most), but actual input/video latency is extremely minimal, so overall it's quite playable. Commando felt very responsive, for example. Granted, I suck at arcade Commando, but I felt like I was sucking about the usual amount.

     

    It has save states for many (most?) of the games, but it doesn't appear to do high-score saving. At least it didn't for Lock'n Chase. Video quality is good, being HDMI, but it appears to do non-integer scaling with no real smoothing, so it's slightly rough, but not ugly.

     

    The biggest disappointment is that there doesn't appear to be any way to adjust dip switches or operator settings for the arcade games.

     

    There's an SD card slot on the back of the device, though it's officially supposed to be used for firmware updates, and there's nothing in the menu to load ROMs from the card. But here's the kicker:

     

    https://i.imgur.com/6Qcs4B1.jpg

     

    This thing runs Android! If you open up the case (use a PH0 on the four screws underneath the rubber feet), you'll see a tiny surface-mount pushbutton nestled between the HDMI and microUSB ports. Hold down that button and power on the machine to be taken to the bootloader menu. From here, there appear to be various means of installing updates and/or software packages, but I'm not enough of an Android hax0r to do anything productive with this. But considering how easy that was to find, I'd be surprised if we weren't able to install custom emulators and have huge ROM collections on an SD card in short order.

     

    The real head-scratcher here is Tetris. It's the old Famicom version of the game from Bulletproof, where you have to press up to rotate, A or B to hard drop, and there's no soft drop. The Tetris Company is generally pretty strict about how Tetris is presented these days, meaning games have to conform with a set of gameplay and cosmetic details that make up what's known as the "Tetris guideline". And this one definitely doesn't conform. No idea how AtGames got it on here.

    • Like 4

  18. Posted

    As for the samples, MAME operates this way too. At least the version I has running on my Raspberry Pi arcade did. I seem to remember the steps being higher pitched in videos I have seen.

     

    As for Crazy Kong, I beleive that was unlicensed?

     

    There's some debate about Crazy Kong. I've seen some claims that it was an officially licensed clone. According to this, the arrangement only lasted a few months:

     

    https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14413211357527714092&q=564+F.+Supp.+937&hl=en&as_sdt=2,5

  19. Posted

    It runs and plays beautifully. No discernible input lag (unlike Vs. Super Mario Bros.). I have only two very minor gripes:

     

    1. They're using samples, rather than emulating the arcade's analog sound generators. This is most obvious in the squeaking noise when Mario walks or climbs. On the arcade hardware, it's played with various different pitches, but this version just has one sample used for all squeaks.

     

    2. Where's Crazy Kong??? :)

     

    But otherwise, two thumbs up.

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    k3ys writes in his eBay auction:

     

     

    I suppose it means if you have switches 3 and 7 UP and switches 4, 5, 6 DOWN you will enable RAM in block 2, 3 and 5 but not in block 1 which means the VIC won't detect it when you power it on, but it is still there for you to POKE and PEEK at.

     

    16K cartridge games usually load into block 5 ($A000) and block 3 ($6000). Scott Adams' adventures load into block 2 ($4000) and block 3. A select few 16K games load into block 1 ($2000) and 5, which causes an issue here as you both want block 1 disabled on power on, and enabled later on. You might need to NEW after loading the first half of a 16K game, in case the BASIC pointers have been altered.

     

    Does the Pi use its own power or does it draw from the computer just like SD2IEC does? I don't know if the Pi would be more power hungry.

     

     

    The Pi is using its own power supply, 2.1 A, which I'm sure it wouldn't be able to get from the serial port.

     

    Interesting idea about leaving the $2000 bank disabled, though a few 16K ROMs use that bank. I was booting the VIC with the main expansion-enable switch disabled (SW2, I think it was), so basic would show the usual ~2900 bytes free, then I would flip SW2 to enable the RAM and load the images. I would start with the A000 ROM (since BASIC is less likely to be doing anything inside the ROM block), then do NEW, and load the lower block (6000, 2000, or whichever), flip the write-protect switch on the memory board (SW1), then hit the reset button. Some games seemed to work just fine, like Robotron, for example. Arachnoid would often crash after a minute or two.

  23. Posted

    Just bumping this old thread to mention that I bought one of these last week, and was able to play with it over the weekend. It works great, though I neglected to note that Doom requires a 35K expansion to run. (k3ys, if you're reading this, I'd totally purchase an upgrade to a design that includes a second 4K chip to max out the RAM. Is Doom the only game that requires such a config?)

     

    I've had some degree of success running cartridge images loaded from "disk" (Pi1541), though 8K images that only use the A000 bank seem most reliable. I suspect the other RAM banks might be getting fiddled by BASIC. Things I've tried: boot the Vic with only the needed RAM banks enabled, boot with the expansion disabled, then enable it after BASIC has already done its memory mapping, and setting the read-only switch after loading. Some 16K ROMs work okay, some would crash after a bit. Not sure if any of the games are relying on mirroring of the ROM by ignoring certain address lines on the cartridge port.

     

    Disk/PRG games seem fine; I played a bit of Sword of Fargoal without issue. The BASIC memory test program included in the manual reported no problems. I'll have to try out Realms of Quest III to really put it through its paces.

     

    My Vic is a bit fussy about booting with the expansion enabled, and will often hang on a black screen. I can't tell if it's a power issue; it seems like it boots more consistently when I disconnect the Pi1541 from the serial port. I've only tried that a few times, so that's merely anecdotal so far.

  24. Posted

    Finally, an affordable true 1541 emulator that's rather easy to assemble. What a great piece of hardware!

     

     

     

     

    Yeah, it's fantastic! I've been playing all kinds of stuff on my C64 and Vic-20, and all of it works great. Well, except for the mountain of C64 stuff that doesn't run right on an NTSC machine, and it'll be a few days before my 32K RAM expansion for the Vic-20 gets here, so I'm limited to 16K games at the moment. But so far I haven't really found anything that seemed like it failed on account of the Pi-1541. The only downside is that it perfectly emulates the slow loading speeds of a real 1541. :D

  25. Posted

    Never heard a daughterboard called a "hat" before, but this is a slick idea - Pi1541-Raspberry-Pi-Hat.

     

    It's pretty common terminology in Pi-land. The Arduino set call them "shields".

     

    Be careful if using more than one device. They're re-designing the circuit for the cable connector because although the original version will work fine if you're just using the Pi, if you daisy-chain other iec devices it can overload Pi's io pins

     

    Yeah, DON'T daisy-chain this thing with multiple serial devices if you built the original level-shifter interface design. You might be able to get away with one floppy drive without killing the Pi's GPIO. I haven't had any problems using it as the sole connected device, though.

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