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PacManPlus

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Posts posted by PacManPlus

  2. Posted

     

    Hi guys!

     

    2 hours ago, TailChao said:

    Does the Cuttle Cart II map anything which could respond to reads when A12, A14, and A15 are low?

     

    Secret registers from $0000 - $0FFF or $2000 - $2FFF are suspect, as these would be enabled when the BIOS reads from $8000-ish. The NTSC and PAL BIOSes stay above $C000 which would prevent a conflict like this.

    Thank you!

    I don't believe it is that, only because the PAL BIOS uses $23XX and $27XX without issue...  We're (RevEng and I) are using $18XX and $27XX.

     

    43 minutes ago, tep392 said:

    I've been playing around with RAM in the Versiboard for the last several days.  Your symptoms sound similar to what I experience with RAM errors.  I'm running a RAM test in a loop and displaying any read errors that show up.  I'm finding that the RAM will mostly work except for some specific areas of memory.  But those errors will gradually go away as the console warms up.  Does the CCII run the binaries out of RAM?  I don't know what the cause of the problem is but I've found that the speed of the RAM and the temperature of the console are factors.

     

    Edit:  one other thing is that dirty cart slot connectors aggravate the problem.  One of my consoles has some corrosion in the cart slot.  I have to periodically reinsert carts to get them to work.  I've found that adjusting the position of the my test cart in the slot can help with the RAM errors.

    I've actually left the cart in the slot from the beginning (cold unit giving corrupt menus) to completely warmed up (no corrupt menus at all).  

    Ok, I'm going to have to BIOS mod my other unit to see if it happens on that one.  That may lean toward the RAM issue being the culprit.

  4. Posted · Edited by PacManPlus

    I haven't had an issue with any normal / retail games so far, haven't found any with the homebrews that I've tried (Ive even tried 'Tainted Love' - the 512K cart!), nor with the Dragonfly.  Now granted, I don't have that many stand alone games, so I can't test with everything, but I've tried some of the ones I thought might give it a hard time (like Bentley Bear).

     

    It's just this CCII thing is bugging me.  The original NTSC BIOS works no matter what the temperature of the machine, as does the original PAL BIOS, so what gives?

     

    *EDIT* - I'm just afraid that if this is happening with the CCII, it could happen with something else. :( 

     

  8. Posted

    Good Morning:

     

    6 hours ago, BrianC said:

    Hi. I have been playing this incredible hack lately and I noticed a freeze when playing Pac-Man Plus in this collection on the dragonfly. So far, I have only encountered this in Pac-Man Plus. I'll test on Mister and emu to see if I can repeat it.

     

     

    4 hours ago, BrianC said:

    Had it freeze in Ms. Pac-Man too. My PSU got hot with the Dragonfly, so that might be the issue. No lockups in mister.

     

    Thank you so much for the compliments! (Although it isn't a hack, it's a homebrew ;) )

     

    Can you tell me at what point the crash happened?  Was it during normal gameplay, or after clearing a board, or after dying, or ?

     

    Thank you,

    Bob

  10. Posted · Edited by PacManPlus

    Here's a weird issue I wanted to throw out there...  if anyone has any ideas...

     

    The BIOS works great - except for the CCII.  It seems that if the console has been off for a bit, the CCII menu mostly comes up corrupted. Powering off/on the unit can make the menu come up normal about once every 15 boots.  If I leave the unit on for a while, the longer it is on, the more often the menu comes up normal.  Up to the point (I would say after leaving the unit on for about 20 to 30 minutes), then the menu comes up correct - every time.

     

    I've *never* seen this before, and I'm curious to know why the cart doesn't react that way with the standard NTSC bios or even the standard PAL one.

     

    Does anyone have any ideas?

     

    Thanks!

  12. Posted

    I just watched the developer spotlight, for the sole reason of seeing what people wrote in the chat (I couldn't see that or even the game screens during the show).  A couple of people ( @-^CrossBow^-, @sramirez2008 ) picked up on what was going on in the background. :evil: 

     

    So for those of you who watched it now know what @RevEng, @Trebor, and I are working on - the Non-Interactive Title Screen as a BIOS with a small non-cart game.  A couple of things:

     

    - It hasn't been released yet: although we have figured out why the ARM 2600 games wouldn't originally play, we are still working through issues with the CCII showing up with a corrupt menu about 1/2 the time.

    - I will be making a small (8K), exclusive game to this BIOS for when there is no cart inserted.

    - I had a third point, but I can't remember what it was....

     

    BTW, Yes, that was a 3-D printed case that you saw, I am still working on the top of it (which is why it wasn't there).  I plan on calling it the '7800 Jr.' case, as it will be smaller than the original.  It will also be flat, with the front ports and switches easier to access, which should make the Atarivox fit nicer in the 2nd player port.  There will have to be a small modification to the RF shielding bottom (for people who still have theirs on) in order to make room for the screw posts. :) 

    • Like 8

  16. Posted

    13 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

    Can I make one tiny suggestion?

     

    You can completely take it or leave it, and this is admittedly rather picayune and anal retentive - but it would drive me nuts if I didn't mention it:

     

    On the Title Screen, (which looks beautiful, by the way) - at the Bottom where it says Bandai-Namco - this drives me nuts because if the goal is to make it fairly arcade accurate - "Bandai" didn't exist yet in 1979, and their name didn't appear on the Arcade Title Card screens.

     

    Again - totally up to you, and you can laugh at me for it, but to me - this makes it feel more like a port from a Gameboy version, than the Arcade.

     

    Yes - I am crazy.

    You are absolutely right.  (and thank you for the compliments). :)
     

    I moved the Namco copyright to the bottom.

    OK - THIS is the final one. :P 

     

    Galaxian.A78 Galaxian.BIN

    • Like 12
    • Thanks 3

  19. Posted · Edited by PacManPlus

    Just a curiosity thing here:

     

    I enabled Kangaroo mode this morning before work, as it would be great to be able to use that third color.  However I wanted to get an opinion on this as doing so has the following effects:

    - You don't see the stars during the attract mode (except at the VERY bottom of the screen)

    - You don't see the stars behind the swarm when playing

    - You see the 'black boxes' behind the diving enemies when they are on top of the rest of the swarm

    - anything else I may have forgotten.

     

    Doing this will allow me to fully use the 'blue' for the flagship and the player, and possibly a third color for the other aliens, if I can re-work it.

     

    I forgot to post it this morning, so I'm doing it quickly now while I'm waiting for something to run here at work...

    What do you think?  (Personally, the black boxes bother me too much). :(

     

    Galaxian.A78 Galaxian.BIN

    • Like 3

  23. Posted

    2 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

    Just gave this a try on Normal and Hard.  I think both diffs settings are right on.  I made it to the third wave (Normal) but have a bug report.  At the end of Wave 2, I had a Flagship and one other (non-red) enemy on the screen.  I killed the Flagship and the wave ended, without giving me a chance to kill the last enemy. I wasn't able to recreate this, but will try to test again sometime today. 

     

    @sramirez2008 - What was their status?  Both in the swarm, both in the air, or which one was in the air and the other in the swarm?  Also, do you remember if the flagship originally had escorts and you shot them, or attacked without escorts?

    Thanks!

  24. Posted · Edited by PacManPlus

    @sramirez2008 -  Thanks, Steve, I'll also see if I can recreate it.

    @llabnip - Yep, we worked on that one.  320B mode only has two palettes with 3 colors each.  Also,  one of the colors in each palette can only be used in certain situations.  So, I had to come up with a compromise with all enemies, players, shots, and text colors:

    Palette 1 - Blue (special case color - can only be used next to red or yellow), Red, and Yellow

    Palette 2 - Red (special case color - can only be used next to aqua or purple), Aqua, and Purple.

     

    The special case explanation is a very quick one; it's really used in pairs, next to color 2 or color 3.  i.e. it can't be used next to itself or background.

    • Like 3

  25. Posted · Edited by PacManPlus

    Ok... up next...

     

    I have the level number up top.  Also, I *think* I have the difficulty close to the arcade (normal).  I was never very good at the arcade game, so it's difficult for me to tell.  (Where's @negative1 when you need him?) :) 

    The 'Easy' mode should be quite a bit easier, and 'Hard' mode is absolutely brutal.

     

    Let me know.

     

    So, if this is ok, I have left:

    - Finish Sounds

    - Game Demo

     

    Galaxian.A78 Galaxian.BIN

    • Like 11
    • Thanks 2
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