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playsoft

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Everything posted by playsoft

  1. This is what the latest version looks like using composite output from a NTSC 130XE and PAL 800XL. NTSC/LCD: NTSC/CRT: PAL/LCD: PAL/CRT:
  2. Sorry, I don't know. I guess you could search Darryl's posts and see when he made them available. I think I only posted the hack to allow the RMT version to run from the Utlimate Cart (it runs OK from other loaders).
  3. Same hack applied (so that it runs from the Ultimate Cart correctly). DK_A8_RMT_$09.xex
  4. Allan posted Dan Kramer's 5200 trak-ball guide here if you have not already seen it: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/125406-8-bit-conversions/?p=3306094
  5. I like the small ones too. The 7800 sprites are only a little larger than these, so the paths are better suited to the smaller size. I think the 7800 formation paths are too slow and the challenging paths a mixed bunch; some are fine, others are too slow or too fast.
  6. As you have seen mentioned in this thread, there are lots of other possibilities which need to be explored. I will share anything I do in case it is useful, but I am only likely to touch it a couple of times a year. I think for the challenging stages it would be better to double buffer the bitmap and do proper and/or plotting. This will actually be quicker as the advantage of the single buffer exclusive-or is really only for the formation. From a previous test (for something else) double buffer with column draw/erase was able to handle 12 sprites at 60Hz similar to the large sized sprites here (from what I remember). So I think the challenging stages can work perfectly at this resolution with the large sprites at 60Hz. Of course that will require some memory, for the second buffer, the column draw/erase routines and the sprite masks. It is also feasible in the formation stages for the program to detect when it is too busy for 60Hz and switch to half frame rate mode where it doubles up the movement steps. Similarly when it detects that it can run at 60Hz again it can go back to full frame rate mode (with a bit of hysteresis to stop it switching too often). This will mean that the player would not notice any slowdown, just that the sprite movements become more coarse. Most of the time the player is blasting enemies so maybe this will only happen if they keep missing! I do think you need to explore character mode. At it's busiest my test moves 5 formation sprites plus the 8 incoming ones in a single frame. Really there should be 10 incoming ones, as after the opening stages you get 10 incoming enemies, 8 go into formation and 2 go straight into attack. Potentially character mode allows you to do the formation with hardware, so even if the sprite handling is not significantly quicker it may still benefit. Anyway, just my thoughts.
  7. I think you probably have to compromise somewhere if you want it to run on stock hardware and there will be various opinions about what it must do. For me that would be 60Hz, single line resolution with the full number of enemies - I am not concerned about colours or how the formation moves. I would not want to put a lot of effort into something unless I was confident of the results, so for me it's something only to dabble with now and then. In case they may be of use these tests take the path data from the 7800 version and use exclusive-or bitmapped mode with reasonable results. The graphics for the small version come from Galactic Chase, one of the first games I brought for the A8. So perhaps I would end up doing Galactic Gala. Anyway, my "plan" is to do character mode tests next year. test_small.xex test_big.xex source.zip
  8. It looks fantastic. I like all the detail but especially the viewpoint from behind the ship.
  9. It is a software bug in the game, just that you get away with it on the 4-port but not on the 2-port. You cannot rely on uninitialized RAM having any particular value, so reading this uninitialized location and writing it to the GTIA register is a bug. The programmer was unlucky that the uninitialized value was OK, otherwise it would have been easily found and corrected before the game was released.
  10. I would say that is a matter of taste as there are comments elsewhere that single out the ship design as being "cool". I like it, it looks anime inspired to me. You say "narrow tunnels"... Wide narrow tunnels or Normal narrow tunnels? The default should be Normal tunnels on the A8 version; reach them and find that which you desire. I did not think this was necessary with Wide tunnels since you have so much more leeway. I can add a cheat code that will put the ship into tunnel mode. That way most people will play the game with the graphics as Harvey intended but the option is there for those that really don't like it.
  11. From here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/246939-altirra-270-released/?p=3477587 The issue is that the game reads an uninitialized memory location ($0C) and writes it to a graphics chip register (GTIA register PRIOR). That it's OK on the 4-port but not the 2-port is down to the initial power up state of RAM on the two different systems. On the 4-port the initial power up state is a value (perhaps $00) which doesn't cause an issue when written to PRIOR. On the 2-port it is a value which puts the graphics into GTIA mode 11 (80 pixels wide, 16 hues, 1 luminance), hence you can't read the text. Note that it is not related to the BIOS as the cart runs in diagnostics mode and takes control of the system before any initialisation.
  12. Thank you - but it's fine. My enjoyment from this hobby is from developing the game which takes many months, not how many likes I get in a few days. It's had lots of downloads which can't be bad.
  13. There are other "rewards" in the same vein when you progress further. Thanks for the suggestions. I prefer the more accurate collision detection. I think the ship is a little smaller than the arcade and there is the small ship option. I will change the stage check though. I originally coded it like the arcade but it felt wrong to be able to skip the last part of a stage by crashing just as the next stage appears. But this has been suggested a couple of times now so I will change it.
  14. Oh well, it would have been nice to have been asked. I was going to see if I could get the difficulty right in PAL mode. And assuming I was successful ABBUC have missed out on a disk submission. Anyway here's my mine which will support the Sega controller. Tunnels are normal by default (the wide option was for the 5200 non-centering stick). Also P is for Pause, R is for Reset. The rest is probably the same. scramble.xex
  15. The 5200 has 2 button joysticks as standard and I did not think it was a sophisticated enough game for the A8 nowadays.
  16. Credit to Harvey for that. There are others, some similar to the one you've seen and other things as well. To see them all you'll need to do 4 complete runs starting with the normal ship, 8 with the small ship. There are also some cheats but it seems a bit early to give away the codes now.
  17. Yes there are 4 speeds of movement spread over 4 frames. At the slowest speed you move 1 frame in 4, at the fastest 4 frames in 4. Most of the time you are moving fast but it does make a subtle change to control.
  18. I wasn't planning an A8 release as I thought the game was a better fit for the 5200. The biggest issue would be getting the level of difficulty correct for PAL as the slower frame rate does make it a lot easier.
  19. After a few months of dedicated practice you'll get better:
  20. Credit is due to whoever it was at Konami that designed Scramble. Every element of the game is so simple but they really work well together.
  21. Changing the logic in a game is difficult. You might be lucky and find that the accelerator/brake button presses affect some variables that you could manipulate with the joystick position instead... but this is unlikely. Keeping the game logic the same but changing the inputs is easier. You could use the joystick position to effectively determine how many times the accelerator/brake buttons are pressed over a certain number of frames. This would be similar to how the joystick functions in Scramble. There is a dead zone in the middle and four zones either side. Depending on the zone the ship is moved 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 frames out of 4 frames. I don't know whether this would give you the functionality you require with the racing wheel. I won't promise anything but I will take a look at it when I have some time.
  22. Thanks for the nice comments, I was pleased how it turned out.
  23. This is my attempt at Scramble on the 5200. Press a trigger or start and you'll see the options screen. Press the numeric key of the option to step through the different settings. 1. Difficulty - select between Normal and Easy. 2. Tunnels - select between Wide and Normal. By default Wide is selected which makes the tunnel section possible with the 5200 non-centering joystick. If you play with a digital (or centering) joystick then you should select Normal tunnels. 3. Ship size - (usually...) selects between Normal and Small. 4. Rockets - select between Normal and Fast. 5. Autofire - select between Off, Fast and Slow. 6. Trigger 1 - select between Missiles and Both. This allows you to play with a single button joystick. If you select both then the (main) trigger will both fire a missile and drop a bomb. 7. Lives - select between 3, 4 and 5. 8. Scroll - select between Normal and Fast. Thanks to kiwilove for his help with the graphics. Also to PacManPlus for making the level data available and to CyranoJ for explaining it! scramble.bin
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