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CDS Games

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Posts posted by CDS Games

  1. Posted · Edited by CDS Games

    Thanks CPUWIZ! :)

     

    Al, for labels, I wonder if Activision stock would work. Width looks right on or close to it. Height is hard to tell with the wraparound, but there might be 1/16"-1/8" difference between the two.

     

    But I hear ya, it sounds like if these can be made to work they'll be more like a special offering and not a regular store feature. I'd imagine the new board alone is a bit of an undertaking.

  5. Posted

    Thanks! Learning how to bank switch is on my wish list, but I'm not there yet. Lots of other folks could do it easily I'm sure.

     

    Best thing about that is if you mashed the original and this version onto an 8k cart, you could get rid of one of the kernels and have loads of extra room to add a moving elevator like batari's and redo the stationary platforms to look more like the arcade.

  7. Posted · Edited by CDS Games

    Donkey Kong 2: Lost Levels


    This is a hack of Garry Kitchen's Donkey Kong. The ramp and rivet screens of the original have been converted into the elevator and conveyor screens respectively:

     

    post-31389-0-76178000-1411136129_thumb.pngpost-31389-0-47851900-1411136136_thumb.png

    donkeykong2lostlevels.bin

    So why even bother with a 4k Donkey Kong hack, now that we have such great looking homebrew versions out there? Because I always liked Garry's port, notwithstanding the missing screens. Garry said in an interview he would have done all four levels if Coleco had given him more time and an 8k cart. In any case, he put out a great version of DK within the framework he was given, and I hope this will be a fitting tribute to his accomplishment. I was also inspired by batari's great work on this thread; without his disassembly and example none of this would have been possible.

    There are still a few remaining bugs. The elevators have no platforms, the conveyors will take you right off the screen, and the whole game often crashes completely after restart. But it's playable straight through, so this is a good time to open it up for testing and feedback. Just bear in mind that I still have only 4k to work with.

     

    _____________________

     

    Edit 10/18/2014

     

    Nukey combined the above hack and the original game into a playable 4-level Donkey Kong. The sequence goes: ramps, rivets, elevators, and conveyors, and then repeats.

     

    The latest version of the 4 level game can be found here:

     

     

    • Like 20
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  8. Posted · Edited by CDS Games

    AtariVox+ will be available again soon. This looks like a damn cool hack! It would be nice to make it available in the store.

     

    ..Al

     

    Nice! That's great news. I wonder how many people like me who don't have the AtariVox would consider getting it for this game. And if a bundle would be worthwhile.

     

    I don't know why I keep putting off making speech strings.

    Maybe because there are so many, and I am only 1/3 done?

    Maybe it is because I have a Mac and I have to fight with VMware Windows to hear AtariVox speak ?

     

    It IS getting easier because the more I do, the more words I can reuse because they are already done.

    I am thinking this will be a "must have" for AtariVox+ owners!

     

    I wish I could help as well. Don't get me started on the Mac problem! Been Mac since the late 80s and I've just about had it.

     

    Looking ahead, if we can get a final push going on the AtariVox then it'd be good to move forward on the label. And a manual and whatever else Al needs to get this in the store. I'll post what I have when I get the chance.

  9. Posted

    Here is a quick hack of Coleco's DK into Falcon's Crazy Kong. See this link for more information about the original: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Crazy_Kong

    post-31389-0-57907900-1394888328_thumb.jpgpost-31389-0-24216900-1394888335_thumb.jpg

     

    crazykong.bin

    What's been changed from DK:

    * color scheme
    * new sounds & music
    * minor graphics modification (probably unnecessary) of Kong
    * firefoxes changed to fireballs
    * decreased jump hang time slightly

    I'm also working on a version with increased speed for the barrels and fireballs, though it's buggy and the screen rolls. The arcade version isn't this fast, but the extra speed does seem to add a new dimension to game play and make you come up with new strategies like the original apparently did. And hey--it's Crazy Kong after all.

    crazykongfast.bin

    • Like 3
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  10. Posted

    RJP do you have Stella by the way? With that you can really see exactly what's going on with all the registers and go step by step through the code.

     

    Plus no need to compile...changing that value to black is a one second fix. :)

  11. Posted

    The closest match to COLUBK by word search was COLUP0. It's an array? What follows is my approach to this like a kindergartener calling natural phenomena Mr. this and Mrs. that.

    So if I got this straight, COLUP0 is the color array, whose 10th slot is the background color, which is loaded from a vector named LF7C3, whose values are defined in a backwards counting do-while loop named LF02B?

     

    I'm not a programmer so I'm a little lost with your phrasing :D ...Rybags or Nukey can answer you better. But here's my rudimentary understanding: X is counting down from 3. The first loop through, it is grabbing the value at F7C3+X...so F7C6. Then it stores it in $06(COLUP)+X = $09 (COLUBK). Then it decrements X by 1 and puts the data in F7C5 in $08 and so on. The data table is in forward order $06-$09, but the program assigns the values in backwards order $09-$06.

     

    COLUP0 is not actually an array, it is just a single starting location where the data table is writing to.

     

    COLUP0 = $06 ;Color-lum Player 0

    COLUP1 = $07 ;Color-lum Player 1

    COLUPF = $08 ;Color-lum playfield

    COLUBK = $09 ;Color-lum background

     

    I guess it's sorta behaving similarly to an array because the program writing to COLUP0(+x), but I'm not sure if "array" is even a valid concept as far as assembly language is concerned. Can any programmers expound on that?

  12. Posted

    This one's tricky. There's no obvious COLUBK because the program writes to it on the sly. The game background color is written at F071 STA COLUP0, X. Adding X (which starts at 3) to COLUP0 ($06) gets us to $09, the COLUBK register.

     

    But anyway as far as your hack goes, the background color value is being loaded from line F7C6. All you need to do is change F7C6 from D0 to 00 to get your black background.

  14. Posted

    Thanks Nukey! Gonna take some time and study this...it'll take a while to sink in. :)

     

    Meanwhile, I've been able to patch in snippets of code to your 8k Superman and it's been going remarkably well. Just find some free space, add a JMP and then JMP right back again. I can definitely see how it would make troubleshooting a real pain though...luckily I don't anticipating having to do a lot of it.

  15. Posted

    Thank you both, that's very helpful!

     

    Nukey, the seabed being less blocky sounds like a fantastic deal. I've made one of the cities a large dome--but then that forces me to have the playfield be the same on that entire level, which is pretty limiting.

     

    Maybe this would be a good opportunity for me to learn bankswitching rather than trying to squeeze more out of 4k, as I'd like to have separate color and other data for the different kinds of enemy ships, and I have to add some extra features to the dome and guns.

     

    Is there a good bankswitching tutorial somewhere?

  16. Posted

    Hmm, I see. Yeah, a few bytes I can sometimes scrounge here or there, and I've also been NOP'ing out routines I don't need, but when I need the existing routines then I get stuck. :)

     

    I'm shoehorning an old game idea into Atlantis as a long-term project, and luckily I found a PAL hack/disassembly which helps enormously. With that I can sorta piece together what I need to do, it's just a matter of finding the room.

  18. Posted

    Sorta stymied here.

     

    I've been hacking in Stella because it's quick and easy (no need to compile, etc.). It's worked really well for changing things that are already in place.

     

    But now I'm finding myself needing to free up space and move code around by deleting/moving lines.

     

    I can't do that in Stella, can I?

     

    And just generally, how does one go about moving subroutines around? Does deleting, say, a couple of lines at F100 and moving everything up break all the subsequent JMPs, JSRs and immediate addresses, so then you have to go back and fix everything? Or does the compiler have a way of fixing that automatically?

     

    Trying to be as low-impact with code as possible as I don't really know what I'm doing. :)

  20. Posted

    I wonder if anybody noticed that the Pit screen was garbled for the past month or so (lol!)

     

    Ha! I haven't seen the Pit for months. :)

     

    Every time I think you're wrapping up, out comes another truckload of awesome. Love the dungeon counter especially.

     

    IMHO stars up/down and level select l/r is pretty natural.

  22. Posted

    The more variations the better as far as I'm concerned, provided it's not too difficult to implement. Though I think the game is still crazy hard as is, so I doubt I'd use it . :)

     

    According to Wikipedia, you get a bonus worrior before the Arena and the pit. I take it that means you don't get one at preassigned point values? I guess this one should mirror the arcade as close as we can...although man, maybe I just stink but I have to keep "topping up" my lives in Stella to get anywhere near the Pit.

     

    Here's something interesting: in the 5200 version you have the option of starting with 3, 5, or 7 worriors.

     

    http://www.atarihq.com/5200/manuals/wow.html

  23. Posted

    Yeah, I went with a different approach. It boils down to what is more visually annoying: squashing the body, or shrinking the head/hood?

     

    I went with the former because the hood is the most visually recognizable part of the wizard and it wasn't sitting right with me having it flip back and forth between small and large. Whereas I thought the body squashing was less noticeable. Well, less noticeable to me, anyway. :)

     

    But point taken, and let's see if anyone else chimes in on it.

  24. Posted · Edited by CDS Games

    How about discounts for sending in Wizard of Wor?

    The new hack still has the original game so you would get the orig and enhanced back.

     

    I have three carts of two boxed and one variation.

    I could send 2 carts in, get some money off, and buy one back.

    One for one exchanges could be less money off.

     

    Great idea! I probably will still want to keep my original and add this to it, but I'd guess folks would jump at your option.

     

    Starting to play around with label designs as well. CBS's own carts are pretty dull generally, though I do like this lettering.

     

    c_WizardOfWor_end.jpg

     

    But how about taking a cue from the titles CBS released in Europe, which retained that great arcade-style Coleco design:

    c_DonkeyKong_CBS_UKColor_end.jpg

     

    c_Venture_CBS_GermanColor_end.jpg

     

    Seems like an appropriate way to go for this title, with the original cabinet's lettering and "Arcade' in a Bauhaus-style lettering that recalls the CBS 2600 release:

     

    post-31389-0-94078600-1388147034_thumb.jpg

    post-31389-0-47408500-1388143551_thumb.jpg

     

    Maybe some label art from the cabinet as well.

    • Like 3
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