johnnywc

Updated ROMs for Galaga (now renamed Galagon) are available in the Homebrew forum in this post! Enjoy! John

Hello there! I just tested it and co-op works fine for me. Note that co-op is basically a 1 player game but both players take turns controlling the ship and both players each control a ship at the same time when you rescue your fighter and get double ships. If you start the game and your ship has red trim but the reserves have blue trim, you are in a co-op game. Once the red ship gets destroyed, player 2 will then control the blue ship. Hope that helps! John PS Note that you must have 2 joysticks plugged in for co-op mode. The release version will support Nathan Tolbert's QuadTari adapter that will allow you to plug two joysticks into the left controller port, freeing up the right controller port for the Atarivox/Savekey.

Hello all, Here are the updated NTSC and PAL60 demo ROMs for Galagon (aka Galaga). PLEASE NOTE: If you plan on playing this in an emulator, you must use the latest version of Stella (6.0.1) or Stellarator. The game works on the Harmony (and Encore) with BIOS 1.0.5 or higher. The game is full functional with the following changes: Savekey support has been disabled After completing stage 8, the game goes back to stage 1 The word "DEMO" is displayed on the title screen. There have been numerous changes since the last demo ROMs. Thanks to all the suggestions and recommendations! We are looking to finish the game up in the next couple of weeks in preparation for the game's release at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in mid-October, so any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks, John changed title screen to "Galagon" (thanks Nathan!) to coincide with the official name change from Galaga to "Galagon" the repeat fire response is faster for difficulty A (no autofire) removed the "150" score display during gameplay for killing a boss in formation (still displayed in the SCORING screen), moved enemies closer together on first wave of challenge stage so you can hit them as they fly in, per the arcade changed blue bee loop pattern so it doesn't fly as low under your ship fixed a bug where you could change skill level by pressing left/right on the Credits screen the breathing/expanding sound is stopped when there are no ships left in formation increase star blinking speed to better match the arcade added SFX when selecting the skill level (bee sound when decreasing, butterfly sound when increasing) removed the boss destroy sound after a 1000 point bonus on the challenge stage. It now plays the sound of the last enemy destroyed, per the arcade fixed SFX for special ships to match the arcade: scorpion: boss destroyed SFX Galaxian: boss hit once SFX all others: butterfly (red enemy) destroyed SFX (was the bee sound) you can now cycle through the number of players on the title screen by pressing the Joystick 2 button changed order of enemies flying in to match the arcade (blue bees are flown in last) fixed the order of flyin patterns 4 and 5 on stage 1 (they were reversed) move the wrap around enemies so they don't fly off the edges of the screen changed it so enemy ships don't fire when they're really close to your ship updated ship explosion sound (thanks Ross!) add "PLAYER 1&2" message when both ships are active during co-cop no fire on flyin for NOVICE until level 4; fire on flyin for ADVANCED on level 1 added in CHALLENGE MODE: Select CHALLENGE MODE by pressing left or right on the title page until CHALLENGE MODE appears for the skill level Challenge mode can be 1 or 2 player, or even 2 player co-op! The object of Challenge Mode is to clear as many challenge stages before you run out of ships while obtaining a high score The rules of Challenge Mode are: You always start with a double ship with 2 in reserve Extra ships are earned the same as in a regular game: 20,000, 70,000 and every 70,000 after that All stages are challenge stages. After a challenge stage is complete: If you have double ships: Perfect score: no change If you hit 38 or more enemies, you will lose a reserve ship, keeping the double ship. If you don't have a reserve ship, you will lose one of your double ships. If you hit 30 or more enemies, you will lose one of your double ships. If you hit < 30 enemies, you lose BOTH double ships If you have a single ship: Perfect score: Bonus ship awarded as a double ship Otherwise, you lose a ship added in CO-OP mode. To select CO-OP mode, press the SELECT switch (or Joystick Button 2) to cycle the # of players until 2 PLAYER CO-OP is displayed. Select the skill level for CO-OP: In NOVICE and CHALLENGE MODE, both players start the game since both ships are active The object of CO-OP mode is the same as a 1 PLAYER game except both players are working together to achieve 1 score. When there is one ship, the player controlling the ship alternates each time a player ship is destroyed or captured. When there are two ships, each player controls one of the ships and can independently move and fire! Player 1's ship has RED trim, Player 2's ship has BLUE trim Players cannot cross each other's path Players can 'push' the other player by moving their ship against the other ship. Players can resist being pushed by moving the joystick towards the other ship. The rules of CO-OP for a regular game (NOVICE, STANDARD or ADVANCED): PLAYER 1 starts in control of the ship (RED trim), except in NOVICE mode where both ships are active to start. In this case, PLAYER 1 controls the left ship (RED trim) and PLAYER 2 controls the right ship (BLUE trim) When there is 1 ship being controlled, the RESERVE ships are trimmed in the color of the player who will control the *next* ship. When a ship is destroyed, if there are reserve ships, the *other* player will take control of the next ship. When a ship is captured, if there are reserve ships, the *other* player will take control of the next ship. Note that if a ship is destroyed while the other is captured, the player captured will control the ship and the player that was destroyed will now be captured When a ship is rescued, BOTH players will now each control one of the ships (PLAYER 1 controls the RED trim ship and PLAYER 2 controls the BLUE trim ship). Note that the ship that was rescued will always be on the RIGHT while the ship that did the rescuing will be on the LEFT Both players are working towards one high score. The game ends when all ships have been destroyed and there are none left in reserve. At the end of the game, hit/miss results are displayed for each player. If a high score is obtained, only one set of initials are entered. The rules of CO-OP for CHALLENGE MODE: Both players are active to start (PLAYER 1 controls the RED trim ship on the left and PLAYER 2 controls the BLUE trim ship on the right) If there are double ships and 1 ship is lost, the ship on the left is removed (the ship that has been active the longest) When there is 1 ship being controlled, the RESERVE ships are trimmed in the color of the player who will control the *next* ship. When a ship is destroyed, if there are reserve ships, the *other* player will take control of the next ship. Both players are working towards one high score. The game ends when all ships have been destroyed and there are none left in reserve. At the end of the game, hit/miss results are displayed for each player. If a high score is obtained, only one set of initials are entered. galaga_dmo_v2_PAL60.bin galaga_dmo_v2_NTSC.bin

Champ Games will be in attendance also! My brother and I will be manning the Wizard of Wor Arcade and Galagon displays so be sure to stop by! Thanks to Al and Atari Age for such an amazing setup, it's by far our favorite booth @ the show!

Hello! Yes, I will post an updated demo this Sunday. It may also include the CHALLENGE mode and CO-OP mode as well.

As of now, we're still planning on releasing that game as "Wizard of Wor Arcade", so no worries!

Thanks! Hmmm, I didn't realize there was a Galaga clone made for the Tandy CoCo named "Galagon"! We actually decided to name the game after Champ Games (CHAMProgramming) PC clone that I did back in 1997: http://www.champ-em.com/galagon.htm Incidentally, I was able to reference a lot of the code in CHAMP Galagon for the 2600 version which helped immensely in the quick development!

That's great to hear Dan! Thanks so much for having Mappy and the demo of Galaga available to play at the VGS!

Hello! Galagon will first be available for purchase on October 19th, 2019 at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in Portland, Oregon, and then in the Atari Age store a couple weeks after that.

Thanks for the feedback! I did some testing with Autofire off (Diff A) and the repeat rate does seem a bit sluggish, so I've cut the delay in half which seems a lot better. I am going to keep the same constant rate for Autofire mode (same as it is now) so it's not any easier (I think Autofire is too easy as is), but will see what other people think during testing. The challenge stages are maybe a bit more difficult than the arcade, but I think the update to non-autofire mode may help for those using difficulty A. We are still tweaking the difficulty to better match the arcade, but due to the different resolution of the arcade screen vs. the 2600 it is a challenge. Although we are definitely trying to have 2600 Galaga be as close to the arcade game, we are also hoping that the 2600 version has it's own nuances that separate it from the arcade so people can enjoy a different experience and challenge. I think the only game that forces the user to rotate their screen 90 degrees is the homebrew "Merlin's Walls". Although I think it's a cool idea, I don't think I will be developing games with this requirement as there are a lot of people that play these games on old CRTs and asking them to rotate them 90 degrees to play one game is probably not good for the CRT (and perhaps a bit dangerous ). I understand what you're saying; for now the only marker you have is the actual score since putting more info up in that area is not possible without introducing more flicker. We originally were hiding the score when enemies were flying in from the top but changed it back for this very reason. Hopefully the score on the top and the reserve ships/level indicator on the bottom are enough to help position your ships for the challenge stages. If not, you can always use the force I will most likely upload a new demo in the next month or so to get feedback on the changes. FYI the final version is scheduled for release on October 19th at the Atari Age booth at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in Portland, Oregon. It will be available in the Atari Age store sometime after that, usually sometime in November (Al usually provides more details as the date approaches). Yes, good observation and good suggestion! I have implemented this and it's much better now (the delay for difficulty A is now 1/2 the delay for difficulty B when using Autofire). I will be releasing a new demo soon with this and a few other changes. Thanks!

The current plan is to release the full version on Saturday, October 19th at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, available at the Atari Age booth. Al will most likely add it to the AA store a few weeks after that. It will be available in both NTSC and PAL60.

Okay, now I'm following you. I didn't realize that there is a multiplexer IN the Genesis controller which what was confusing me. I did two tests: 1. Straight pass thru of all 9 wires (1:1, 2:2, 3:3, etc) with a Genesis pad. No interference seen. 2. All pins connected but pins 5 and 7 swapped as you suggested. The interference line was really bad (very bright white) and the controller was acting very wonky. Hope that helps! I am going to build the circuit that has no chips (except for an inverter or decoder to select) since that seems to have no interference either; we just need to resolve the issue where one player can control the other when the buttons are held down (also, the Genesis pad doesn't work either). I'll post my results here. Thanks! John

The 5 prizes are each worth a different amount, and for each consecutive pair of prizes that you pick up, the score multiplier increases (2x, 3x ... 6x). The values for each item are: Radio - 100 points TV - 200 pints Computer - 300 points Painting - 400 points Safe - 500 points So, if you pick up the two radios, followed by the two TV's ... and collect the 2 safes last, you will get 7000 points total: 2x100 + 3x200 + 4x300 + 5x400 + 6x500 Of course, it's very difficult and challenging to do this, especially in the later levels, but if you can at least save the higher point items (painting, safe) for last you can earn a good portion of that 7000 (depending on how many consecutive pairs you collect beforehand). You need to pop all 15 red balloons for a total of 3,000 points (200 points each), including the last 'Goro' balloon which is worth 2,000 points = 5,000 points. Popping all 15 balloons will also give you an additional 5,000 points for 10,000 points! NOTE: You may notice that when you pop the Goro balloon, Goro escapes and moves up the screen more and more after each challenge stage. At some point you will not have enough time to pop all 15 balloons by yourself but if Goro moves high enough he may pop a balloon for you. Hope this helps!

I'm glad ou're enjoying the game! Great score, and you made it up to level 12 - awesome! I've only made it up to level 9 myself lol. Yes, the slamming doors is key, especially in later levels, plus timing the jumps off the trampolines. Your score seems pretty low for level 12 though; I usually score about 90K in 9 levels. Are you collecting the prizes in order? If so, that's up to 7000 points per level! Good luck!

Yes, that last version made available has both sound and music. I just tried it with 6.0.1 and I'm getting both sound and music on my side... I'm not sure what might be the issue.

The Genesis controller gives no interference or sparkles when hooked up directly to the Atari. When it's hooked up to the multiplexer with or without pin 5 wired up, the interference/sparkles are the same as with a regular joystick connected. Hope that makes sense!

I had a few minutes and tried some more tests. First off, if I disconnect the select line the interference goes away completely, but of course only one of the joysticks work. Second, I swapped out the inverter for the 2x4 decoder and it had similar results (same type of interference). Thirdly, I hooked up a diode between the select line going to the Atari and that didn't seem to reduce the interference at all. Some other observations: The white line interference on the bottom is most prevalent when pressing left, which happens to be hooked up to INPT1 since left from the atari is being used as a select line.

Hmm, I probably didn't describe it well in my previous posts, but when I configure my test program so that it does not switch (the select pin is always 0 or 1 depending on the position of the left difficulty switch), the interference drops considerably, most notably the white line on the bottom of the screen goes away. However, the sparkling periodic static does not go away; this is the same whether or not the select line is constant or alternates from 0 to 1 twice a frame. It seems that there the situation you described where perhaps both chips are active while the inverter goes from 0 to 1 and vice versa may be true. My design did not have the genesis button 2 hooked up (pin 5) but did have pin 7 hooked up. As expected, the Genesis pad behaved the same since pin 5 wasn't hooked up. I did try a revised design that routes the 2nd genesis button (pin 5) to INPT0 and the static/interference seems to be the same. I'm pretty sure it's not the software that is causing the issue since I also tried with Nathan's updated design that didn't use any chips (it just activates ground for the active joysitck as suggested above by Stephen) and there is virtually no static at all. The issue with that design is that (1) it seems that it does not work if you have a Genesis controller hooked up, even if pin 5 isn't wired up and (2) if you hold down both buttons, player 1 movements are mimicked for the player 2, and vice-versa. Nathan describes more about what he's seeing in his above post. I think my next step may be to build Nathan's circuit without the octal buffers and see if I can resolve either of the two issues (Genesis controllers not working and being able to control the other player).

Hello there! No, the full ROM for Mappy has not been released yet. I need to coordinate with Al; I know he's pretty busy with the forum upgrade. I will post to this thread when it is available.

Great job! Yup, the demo only has the first 8 levels; the full version will have 99. Thanks! Yes, Novice starts with double ships. The arcade did not do this; STANDARD or ADVANCED are meant to be more like the arcade. The NOVICE mode is more for beginners.

You're welcome - it's much deserved! No - you have not and apologies if I implied that you did! I'm probably a bit oversensitive when I read some of the comments that suggest that we're somehow tainting or negatively altering the landscape of the homebrew community with our games. 'Champ Games' development is just me spending my free time doing something I love to do and hoping to bring some games people like to play to my favorite game system so I tend to take those comments probably a bit more personal than I should. Agreed. My 'boundary' has evolved over time, but I will admit that it was quite a challenge and a lot of fun re-visiting and finishing Avalanche earlier this year (a 4K game) with a ton of help from TJ. Again, it's all about what inspires us as developers at a particular time since this is a part-time 'for the love of it' hobby. That would be interesting to see! Certainly one of the big advantages of the ARM with Galaga is that I can run all of the movement and collision code every frame so the game is very smooth and controls are tight. Of course there are a bunch of extras that I can do also, like the overlaid text during game play, the scrolling stars, etc. that would most likely require multiple frames to execute if not for the ARM. Good luck and I hope you decide to someday return to Atari 2600 development! If you do decide to go down the 'dark path of the ARM' ;), I would be more than happy to teach you the ways of the force! Darrell has some great tutorials as well! Thanks, John

Hello and welcome to Atari Age! Thank you! Thanks for the feedback! FYI the left and right difficulty switches enable and disable auto fire for player 1 and 2, respectively. (B = auto fire on, A = auto fire off). Can you test with auto fire off (diff = A) and let me know if that's better? Thanks again - I'm glad you like Mappy too! No, that bug has not been implemented but we may be able to squeeze it in. Right now we're pretty short on ROM and I'd rather use that space for more bells/whistles and game features than adding in 'bug', but I'll look into seeing how much space it will take up and see what I can do. Thanks so much for the feedback! John

Hello there! Galaga requires v1.0.5 of the Harmony BIOS. Can you check to make sure that is the version you're running? I think you just select "About" from the Harmony main menu to see the version info. Hope that helps! Joohn

Wow - this is really sad to hear. I love both Dungeon games and I hope you make a 3rd, and it should be done the way *you* want to make it, be it with bB, assembly, DPC+, BUS stuffing, or whatever makes you happy making it. If it's a good game people will appreciate it; there's always going to be one or two people that get under your skin but in my experience they are the vocal minority. For every "you're cheating using the ARM" post I read, there are many more "thanks for making a fun game" posts to keep me inspired. I'm sure it's the same for you with the Dungeon games!