Tyrant
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Posts posted by Tyrant
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I thought someone had already done this a while back?
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As a general rule the 68k is a fine chip for running the kind of routines that only happen a few times per frame, the game logic, AI, stuff like that. Things which do batch processes over every pixel, like rendering walls or effects, should naturally be done on the GPU.
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It should be possible, but would just require someone with some skill and plenty of free time.
The original cart rom can be dumped and disassembled easily enough. Control will probably be done on the 68k which should make disassembly marginally easier. Then it's just a case of inserting a jump to some empty space, inserting an improved routine, then jumping back into the main code. The modified rom could then be loaded into alpine, flash or skunkboard and enjoyed, and if people are worried about copyright, only the modifications need be sent as a patch file, it's pretty trivial to dump roms, so people could do it themselves (or pirate their own copy out of channel).
The tricky part comes from understanding the disassembly and working out a better way to control the car.
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You have some very interesting items in your Jaguar collection. Can you explain what each item is in the photo with the two copies of Worms?
Ok, from left to write, back to front:
Back Row: JagLink network device, two worms tournament prizes from JagFestUK (3rd place in 2005, 1st place in 2007), a "Jaguar Authorised Dealer" window sticker, and a Tempest 3000 (nuon) 2nd place prize certificate from JagFestUK 2004.
Next row: 2 JagLink2 devices, an original Jaguar MIDI card, Ticket from a Retrovision, Visitors passes from various JagFestUK events.
Next row: "D-Pad is Dead" badge*, plus two blanks. Atari Prototype "Stereo Headphone Adaptor", BJL Adaptor, Original Jaguar Keyfob, Unofficial Jaguar Keyfob, two original Atari belt buckles, and an official Jaguar Pin Badge (which fell over and is upside down there).
* I made those for the first ever JagFestUK, to promote my Rotary Controllers.
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Ok, here goes... my collection for those who are interested.
Starting with the other consoles:
Megadrive, Dreamcast, 3DO, DS
Wii, Game Cube, N64, Nuon
Jaguar Library:
Cartridges
CD Games, Various Bits
Finally the consoles and vertical "desk" space:
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Sorry I am not getting into a bidding war over the headband I don't have the money to.
Understandable lol. I'm not expecting epic amounts of money to come from this, but since several people seem to want it, it seems only reasonable to ask them what it's worth to them.
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Ok, I've had several PM's asking for Kasumi Ninja postage to the states, plus The_Laird wanting just the headband.
Postage to the USA looks like being £4, with postage to the UK coming in at £2.
Since there is significant interest already, make me your best offers people, highest bidder wins.
Also nobody so far seems interested in the Brutal Sports box.
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When sorting out my collection, I found I have two duplicate boxes with no games, so I'm offering them here if anyone has a need for them.
The first is Kasumi Ninja: box, white insert, manual, fliers, and headband, but no cartridge.
As you can see, it is all in very good condition, but the box does have a sticker on the bottom from a dealer. I have not tried to remove it.
Next up is a box (only) for Brutal Sports Football. Also in very good condition but only including the box and white insert as pictured.
If anyone can give a good home to either of these boxes, let me know. Naturally I would ask you to pay for postage, plus whatever you think they are worth.
P.s. I also found a duplicate complete copy of AvP, which I'll probably put on ebay later tonight unless anyone wants to make me an offer I can't refuse for it.
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I've managed to work out all the wad assets, but will be ignoring the midi as it too much of a cludge, when a remake comes out it won't be using that.
Have you had a read of the fulsyn (sound and music) docs? That is one massive kludge, but does use midi data, heavily pre-processed. It's possible they were just using that (I believe iD never wrote their own sound code, and regretted it afterwards). I'll attach the pdf to this post. Edit: oops, max size 2mb, shout if you need it
Some stuff is hard coded into the source, like sprite animations, but they can be changed if you want to hack with the source.
I believe sprite animations always were hard coded, now I think about it. On the PC one would use a tool called DeHacked, which edited all the vast tables of data in the back of the doom executable.
The compression used in Jaguar Doom wad is a version of LZSS compression, the depack rout is in the source. There is no 100% compatible pack rout atm so, as before it won't be used in a remake.
Compression is a Good Thingtm. It shouldn't be hard to write a suitable packer, or else replace the unpack rout with a new one.
The more people that have a go at hacking levels, the more they will learn about what the Jaguar can and can't do with levels. ID simplified most of the Doom maps so they would work on the Jag, if they had to do it then they knew the engine wasn't up to the task.
It was probably not a case of incapable, but quicker/cheaper. They started off porting it to the 68k, then moving one rout at a time onto the riscs until it ran fast enough. They could have got a lot more out of the Jag if they'd continued that process longer. I suspect they reached a point where they could say "Look, we've got it 90% working but this stuff will take another 2 months" and decided to just cut stuff rather than delay the project for extra polish.
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Just read through all of these, they're really excellent.
You certainly seem to have the map format sorted. Have you done much digging with the other game assets, sprites, animation data, sound, etc?
Also have you worked out what kind of compression they're using?
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A really good read, thanks.
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Not reallymost controllers use one common or 'ground' plane, the jag uses four of them, which complicates things no end
It uses X/Y encoding scheme, which is common when there are a lot of buttons. Otherwise, the joypad connector would have needed a lot more wires.
I was simplifying slightly. As you said, it uses a scheme with 4 rows of 6 columns each, for 24 button inputs, further enhanced by the possibility of bank switching, and of course up to four controllers on a single socket.
If I'd have to venture a guess, I'd say that something is wrong with the reset circuitry.
I'd have to agree. After performing the remote reset mod to my alpine, when turning the Jaguar on with the alpine cabled up, it will remain locked into a reset cycle until I actively reset it (pushing the pin or via software).
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I'm sure he'll make more, right Tyrant?
I'm afraid not, or at least it's not very likely. I did find a few new controllers I could modify, but only a few (like 5 or 6) and as far as I can tell, they've stopped selling the encoders I used to use, so I would have to find a new source of them. In short it's possible, but unlikely.
It would be awesome if somehow I could get a micro-controller programmed to make it work with an original Xbox and its MAME emulator, CoinOps. Currently, you have to use the R/L trigger buttons to simulate the spinner movement.
Hmm... The shoulder buttons on an xbox pad (which connects via usb) I believe transmits some kind of encoded analogue value. Your best bet would be to get the maintainer of your emulator to write an option to use the original mame grey-code drivers on one of the digital button inputs, then just hack up an xbox pad. You would probably have to modify the jag rotary too though which would be awkward (most controllers use one common or 'ground' plane, the jag uses four of them, which complicates things no end).
Also, are there any flash carts available? I would like to get one for homebrew or games that are too expensive to buy, like Battlesphere.
or just use the "BJL" system. Also there is the new "ULS" system which can put a single load binary on a CD and burn it readily encrypted, one game per CD though.
I am not sure if ROM/ABS files can run through the ULS CD systemBoth BJL and ULS (as well as the ancient JaguarServer and jugs systems) only allow games to run which are limited to running entirely in RAM. To play cartridge games, you must use something that emulates a cartridge and provides the two or four megabytes of storage it should have. The Atari Flash cart, an alpine board, skunkboard, ethernet card, or cf cart will all do the job, if you can get hold of one. I believe Battlesphere is a 4Mb game though, so a 2Mb alpine wouldn't be able to hold it.
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I also won your rotary controller, which I broke the bank on. It worked great this afternoon when I briefly had Tempest up and running....
Any other ideas?
I'm afraid not, the only other issues I've had with jaguars doing that involve dev kits and power running the wrong way into the system, which isn't the case with your system obviously.
Congratulations on winning the rotary, I hope you get a working Jaguar soon to be able to use it with.
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So, I'm guessing those wires and transistors aren't a normal variation for the Jaguar?
One of my Jaguars has those mods, and I'm pretty certain they're done by Atari, as the Jag in question came with my alpine. Similarly, it's an early model (K series), and has the ADC chips. I'm not sure why the caps are over the ram like that, or why they're only over one bank of it. I believe my stub-jag also has the small fixup wire, but without opening it up I can't be sure.
As for your black-screen issue, could it be as simple as the A/V cable not making contact properly? You didn't mention what you're using, but I sometimes get the same kind of intermittent video-loss with my scart cable, when the edge connector isn't properly secured (or there is stress pulling it to an angle). While Jaguar's RF modulators are notoriously bad, if the problem is fixed by using RF, you might want to look into cleaning the A/V contacts.
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Try this site: http://stos.atari.st/stf.htm
Ah ha! Thanks!
Now if I could only remember what it was I wanted to play...
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There is a new rotary out there which is exactly like he described it...
Who would do such a thing? and why?
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I did pick up a rotary but the dpad is a fire button on that one, so i dont think it counts =P
The D-Pad is a Fire button?
The
D-Pad
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Fire button
!?!?!
What the proverbial?!
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Is it just about the feel for you guys (I agree re: the D-pad, much nicer) or do you find yourself using the extra buttons much?
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It's about time this thread got bumped again... with some photos of a few of my controllers.
Note: these were just the ones I had laying around, not in their boxes. I've got a pile of (mostly empty) boxes elsewhere, but no minty-fresh ones left.
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While sorting through my Jag stuff today, getting ready to move house, I came across my Pro Controller, and it occurs to me that most of the time I don't use it. I've got quite a lot of Jaguar pads kicking around, and most of the time when I want to play something, I just grab the nearest one, usually then realise it's a Rotary and grab another one for normal games, but my Pro tends to stay in hidden away most of the time.
This got me wondering about how many people use Pro Controllers, and how many prefer the original (or have no preference). Personally I do like the Pro's D-Pad, but find the buttons less pleasant to use than the original controller. Also, how many games actually support the extra buttons (i.e. they do useful functions, rather than just arbitrary stuff), and are there any games for which a Pro Controller is a major boon. Do any of the fighting games make proper use of it?
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Wow! The surprises just keep on coming!
Can you tell us how much of the game is complete?
This is the first version, before they had to scrap it and start from scratch, right?
Very exciting news.
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I am seriously going to sign up at esnipe.com after this dissapointment, I should won this and was willing to pay 150 pounds.
Wow, the fact that you're willing to pay that much for them means it's time more were made. I'll see what can be done =)
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Wow!
I have to say, I'm a little surprised, I've never had one go for quite that much before.
Please! make another one Tyrant!, I'll send you a brand new boxed Jaguar controller.
I'm in the process of moving house right now, but once I get everything sorted out at the other end I'll certainly look into the possibility of making more. I'm pretty certain I've run out of controllers, and I know I'm out of the rotary encoders I used to use (they even stopped selling them a while back), but given that there seems to be demand for them still, I'll definitely look into it.
P.s. Who keeps editing my ebay links? There was nothing wrong with them, surely?
P.p.s. I also have another mystery project I'm thinking about/planning, details to follow when I work out if it'll be viable.
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Unencrypted loader...?
in Atari Jaguar
Posted
No harm in a little duplication of effort, and it's not exactly a whole lot of effort. You could just take your existing ULS loader, load up the BLJ-based CD Bypass image, then a call to CD_Swap, wait for the new disk to be inserted, then launch the bypass image. All that's needed extra is the call to CD_Swap and the waiting for a new disc, all the rest of the code has been written already.