TailChao

Nah, Ocean State Job Lot. Sure, but I think these consoles already have great libraries which explore the nuances of their respective hardware. While it's always possible to bring something new to a platform, I was hoping there'd be enough interest in the ones that weren't - which is also why we made the game available on Steam, with significant effort behind that. The target was always "a new game which also happens to be available on the for old hardware" rather than "a game which you should buy because it's on old hardware" - We had a few cases where players on Steam finished the game and enjoyed it without knowing it was even on the 7800, that was the point I wanted to make. I've followed Morphcat's work for years and think they did an incredibly good job with Micro Mages. Everything on this, including the game content, Kickstarter campaign, and "educational video" were all tip-top. To be honest, I think they also had a way better product than us. Here's the thing, we weren't defining success based upon the number of cartridges sold - but rather how many copies were moved on Steam. I discussed this a few pages back, but it was completely infeasible to profit exclusively from the cartridge sales unless we were charging several hundred dollars per unit. This was not due to hardware costs, plastics, or packaging - but the investment in the game software. We were trying to offer something competitive with similarly priced titles on Steam. Having the cartridges available through more outlets would probably move tens of units, not thousands. To be blunt : we needed 8,000 - 10,000 full priced downloads before August of this year in order to continue. I don't mean to belittle anyone else's work, but this is the cost of doing software development full time rather than as a hobby and paying your collaborators barely above minimum wage.

Haha, thanks - that's very appreciated. I'm still very proud of what we were able to ship despite it being a massive flop. I'd love to work with most of those. But the Genesis is serious business, 'cause that's the one I actually had

Just a heads up, all orders will start shipping out tomorrow afternoon. It's not necessarily that I'm not making any more games, only that I can't guarantee anything regarding what I'll work on or when it'll be released. If the Steam sales were sufficient and there was demand for another title on the wedge (or X68000, CD-i, or whatever), I could make a promise regarding what we could deliver and when. But that wasn't the case. I did at least finish a draft for new cartridge hardware I'd use for another 7800 title, so that'll at least get released at some point - whether or not another 7800 game happens.

Taco Tuesday is long past, but Foxy Friday is here and Rikki & Vikki for the Atari 7800 is back! Order now through . …wait, is something different in that photo? Yep, we’ve got a fancy new foil label (on the right) and an F.A.Q. to go with it! NEW F.A.Q. Q : So what’s with the new labels? A : The cartridge labels were one of the things I wasn’t satisfied with when we launched back in February. We were able to meet (and I think exceed) the quality of the game boxes from the 7800’s heyday - including the silver color, and I wanted the cartridges to match this. If we were to develop another title for the 7800 a new style label would have been part of it. But since Rikki & Vikki performed poorly and another game isn’t likely, I decided to try and remedy this with the remaining copies. We tried several stocks before the foil paper was recommended to us. This doesn’t match the box color, but I think it looks much cooler - kind of like a hybrid Atari 800 cartridge design! Q : Has anything else changed? A : Nope. Q : Why wasn’t this style of label used at launch? A : It took six months of discussion with different print shops and getting tests made before settling on this new stock, there wasn’t enough time. Q : If I have an old label, can I get it replaced with a new one? A : Not yet. I’d like to allow customers who aren’t satisfied with their old style label to mail in their cartridges if they’d like it “upgraded,” but don’t have a workflow ready for this. I’ll try to set something up early next year. Q : How many copies are left? A : As of writing, 190. Q : Will you manufacture more copies? A : Everything I’ve written in the Original F.A.Q. still holds. This is not intended as a limited run and if there is enough demand I’d like to make more copies available. Q : Anything else? A : There may be some time between submitting your order and when it’s shipped out, please be patient. You’ll get a notification from PayPal when your copy is in transit.

What a TERRIBLE act of convenience! Since most of the bullet points just state library upgrades, here's the details on each : Graphics API (GAPI) abstraction layer and NULL Render Path This is a modular method for drawing graphics, so it's easier to add support for more than just Direct3D 9 and DirectDraw in the future. Y'all want 3dfx glide support for your fancy Voodoo 2's, right? You can also disable the render path if you want to see how much that's affecting performance. Upgraded to BupSystem Core v0.9.6.1 Improved emulation accuracy, I'd like the Windows version of Rikki & Vikki to follow BupSystem's improvements whenever possible. BupSystem's history is available here. Upgraded to JoyFish v0.8.6.1 Much improved controller support, including profiles for all these. Uses a different method to read the keyboard (by default) to better support virtual keyboards and sharing the keyboard over services like Valve's new Remote Play Together. Prompts for when controllers are removed or improperly mapped. Upgraded to FishClip v0.7.1.0 This is just our shim for using Steam's services, there were only a few updates to its diagnostic features. A note regarding updates, since the software is still "living" - the core content of the game will never change. Such that, the experience will be identical if you were to download a copy or buy a cartridge in five years. We did have speedrunners playing the game, and it is important to me that any revisions to the software not affect their experience (or anyone else's).

No worries. If you've purchased the game through Steam the update process is automatic, usually occurring when you select and launch the game from your library. So there's nothing for you to do. For owners of the standalone (Humble Bundle) version, a manual redownload and upgrade is recommended. Not upgrading either version won't cause any adverse effects, the game will always run - you just won't get any of the new features. You can check the current version in the "About" Dialog (Help -> About) or in HTML Help (F1). Atari 7800 users don't have to deal with any of this.

I recommend getting in touch with @-^CrossBow^-.

I cannot, sorry. As a policy I will usually release (under zlib) any tools or hardware, but not game sources or assets.

Official Notice from the Lynx Department We started and shelved several projects for the Lynx in the time since Zaku's release. Ultimately, we went with the Atari 7800 and Microsoft Windows for the release of Rikki & Vikki in December 2018. As I write this there are no plans to return to the Lynx and complete these projects.

There's various captures scattered around the forum, but unfortunately no definitive set. Doing full captures of Maria's render activity has been on my todo list, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to come back to it. I think @kevtris was also working on this some time ago.

...and here's the line counter in VERTICAL SYNC TIMING AND RSYNC. V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V 8 8 | 7 7 | 6 6 | 5 5 | 4 4 | 3 3 | 2 2 | 1 1 | 0 0 B | B | B | B | B | B | B | B | B -----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|----- o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o VRESET o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o VSYNCR o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o VSYNCS o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o VBLANKR o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o VBLANKS 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ----------------- VRESET 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 : 262 VSYNCR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 : 3 VSYNCS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 : 0 VBLANKR 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 : 16 VBLANKS 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 : 258 As above - these are just the matrices' contents, and does not include their attached logic. So the discrepancies between what's here and what's been observed in the actual chip's timing may be caused by this.

My assumption has been the half-filled bubbles ( ◒ ) are transmission gates, so it does look like a current steer controlled by 1A5-1... and the mess that feeds into. But this is all part of the TIA's logic, Maria's drawing seems much more straightforward. Started reading through some of the matrices to try and get definitive numbers out of them. Here's the one from Maria's HORIZONTAL SYNC TIMING page. H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H 8 8 | 7 7 | 6 6 | 5 5 | 4 4 | 3 3 | 2 2 | 1 1 | 0 0 B | B | B | B | B | B | B | B | B -----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|----- o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HRESET o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HBORDERS o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HBORDERR o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HBLANKS o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HBLANKR o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HSYNCS o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HSYNCR o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HLRC o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HRPRST o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HCBURSTS o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o | o HCBURSTR | | | | | o | o | o | o HELRR 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ----------------- HRESET 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 : 452 HBORDERS 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 : 413 HBORDERR 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 : 93 HBLANKS 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 : 440 HBLANKR 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 : 68 HSYNCS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 : 0 HSYNCR 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 : 66 HLRC 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 : 412 HRPRST 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 : 418 HCBURSTS 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 : 38 HCBURSTR 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 : 56 HELRR x x x x x 1 0 1 1 : /16 @ 11

Tomcat - The F-14 Fighter Simulator is very rude. I was going to add support for crashing Sally if Maria's DMA was enabled before the HEN signal was active or her DMA_TEST_A / DMA_TEST_B modes were used. But that caused the game to lock up immediately. During startup it writes $7F, $00, $40 to Maria's CTRL register which briefly enables DMA_TEST_A. Yet the gap between the $00 and $40 is evidently short enough that this doesn't cause any issues.

I wouldn't say it's any more difficult than its contemporaries, particularly the NES - but it's certainly less popular, which means less products.

Rikki & Vikki for Windows v1.0.1.0 is now available. This fall update is best enjoyed with an 8Bitdo M30 and the rich taste of Pumpkin Spice. If you bought the standalone version through our Humble Widget, you'll have to pull down the update manually. Don't forget to copy over Scores.sav and Snapshot.sav from your previous installation! Wow, look at all those uncomfortable joysticks we support! Ah, wait - but this isn't a Windows forum. Which means there's also good news for Atari 7800 owners, the remaining cartridges will be available for purchase before the end of November.

This is excellent info, thanks a ton!

Found an issue while testing Rikki & Vikki's data migration tool, Sally's clock multiplier is pushed in save states. So loading a state (unintentionally) restores your overclocking settings from that session. This was another whoops introduced during the 0.9.5.4 -> 0.9.6.0 transition. It won't affect Rikki & Vikki's fall update, but make sure to keep this in mind if you're using BupSystem.

I've been summoned by the board's new tagging feature. HandyMusic's demo program includes a download over comlynx feature. My workflow was usually to compile a track, download over comlynx, then listen on the hardware - no emulator involved. Regarding MID2SASS, the "multiple notes on the same stem marked with zero" occurs if more than one note on / off is performed in the same MIDI channel. This program was written with the intention of your game's composer writing music with the Lynx hardware limitations in mind - not converting whatever MIDIs you may find online. There's no instrument converter, you have to create your patches by hand. When RushJet1 was doing Rikki & Vikki's music he created a Famitracker -> SASS converter. This was using BupBoop (which is newer and more complex), but something similar is feasible for HandyMusic. Of course, I have not worked on HandyMusic in at least five years and have not done any work with the Lynx in three - the driver is very old and could be significantly improved.

It'll be available again soon. The delay is to ensure the Windows version gets its promised fall update. I'm not sure what you're proposing here. If you're suggesting AtariAge manufacture cartridges for us - this doesn't make sense as we already have the boards, plastics, and labels. If you mean that AtariAge could fund another game by PenguiNet - it's long past the deadline to start another project.

Yeah, I'm not seeing much in common aside from both games featuring two characters. Looks like Rollie is doing fairly well in backer support, though. Everything is still on track for the remaining copies to go on sale before the end of the year, and as usual I'll try to make the wait worthwhile. I've requested SainT increase the capacity of the 7800 SD's SRAM to a megabyte and add support for SOUPER - albeit without BupChip functionality. This would at least allow other developers to use the mapper in new software (and for you to run Rikki & Vikki from a binary, but without music).

It's possible, but usually if a cartridge is causing a supply rail to sag you'll see other symptoms like video issues or instability. The whole input block on the 7800 is extremely fragile - so the TIA, RIOT, and ProLine support circuitry could have been damaged years ago and it's just now that the components are starting to fail.

This definitely sounds like a bad TIA or a really lousy continuity issue. Do you have another TIA to swap in and try?

Yep, always keep in mind that the ProLine has two pulldown resistors inside it which hold the paddle inputs low when nothing is pressed. So whenever you see weird behavior like this just plug ProLines into both ports and leave them there. Nothing wrong with doing so - some units exhibit the quirk but most don't. Just as long as you're aware of it. A problem with the transistors usually manifests as a game running in two-button mode seeing one-button (I4, I5) presses when using a ProLine. They're always suspect since you can short them out by using a one-button controller in a two-button game. Essentially holding down the trigger on a one-button controller in Xenophobe can break your hardware and the game feels no need to tell you otherwise. If you're using Rikki & Vikki with a ProLine and unexpectedly see the "please attach a two-button controller" message, that's a good tip off.

Cross answering with this, just in case anyone else runs into a similar issue. The four paddle inputs (I0 - I3) have indeterminate states without a ProLine (or compatible) joystick attached. Usually they'll stay low, but on certain units they'll drift high after the TIA warms up - or just immediately. This can be interpreted as spurious presses by game software using the two-button input mode, and seems to get worse with age. Xevious starts up in two-button mode, regardless of the left difficulty switch's state. It'll only switch into one-button mode when it detects a VCS style press. So if you're using a ProLine controller and your paddle inputs are hosed - it'll just keep firing. Galaga operates exclusively in one-button mode, so if it's working that at least indicates I4 and I5 could be fine. But it doesn't say anything about I0 - I3. Thing to try... Try using a single button controller with Xevious and see if it works. Check R36, R37, R38, and R39 to make sure they're in spec. Replace the TIA. Replace the 7805.

It's a design quirk that doesn't consistently affect all units, but appears to get worse with age. Essentially the four paddle inputs (I0 - I3) have an indeterminate state without a controller attached. Usually it'll stay low but as ChildOfCv correctly pointed out it can drift high after some time - which can appear as spurious presses to the game software. This is what caused the issue you observed in Xenophobe and Rikki & Vikki. In the case of this unit : if you're seeing spurious presses in Xevious with a two button controller attached into Player 1's port, I'd recommend replacing the TIA. The fact that you didn't see the issue in Galaga makes sense, as this game doesn't use the paddle inputs (it's running in single button mode).