Mr. Do to Dig-Dug 1.5

[Mr. Do to Dig-Dug 1.5]

game logic would have to change... pump pump pump pop

 

Don't forget that Taizo uses a jackhammer in Dig Dug part 2, so why not use a ball in part 1.5

[Mr. Do to Dig-Dug 1.5]

Yes another Mr. Do hack

 

Inspired by MrFish's hack, I'm trying to turn this old time favorite to some sort of sequel of Dig-Dug (my all time favorite !)

The target is to change all the moving graphics to something out of the Dig-Dug universe !

The main character and the letter monster are easy enough, as they are sprites clearly separated in the rom.

The problem is with the rival monsters as they are made of soft-sprites..

I'm currently struggling to find my way through omnivore and other exotic editors and tools so that I can edit the damn things..

 

In the meantime while I'm waiting for help from more experienced hackers,

I have drawn all the Dig-Dug critters in Mr Do's dimensions and colors:

 

Enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr. Do - Graphical Improvements]

 

The character display doesn't matter; we're looking at the Bitmap Display, since these are the custom bitmaps for the Antic 4

characters. So, in the Bitmap Display, you want to set it to view as Antic E; this will give you the proper shaped pixels for

Antic 4 character bitmaps.

 

 

ok so far so good !

 

I have identified all the pieces I want to edit,

Now how can I edit them ?!?

I have not been able to found an edit option in Omnivore, so I searched by Hex Address 4b70 (for my example critter) in hackomatic.. again nothing recognizable..

Also how to you change the color in Omnivore ?

 

hmmm according to omnivore's help: there is a bitmap editor included but currently is little more than an image viewer

So the question is, does a bitmap editor exist out there ? Or You have to dig into hex editing....

[Mr. Do - Graphical Improvements]

ok so far so good !

 

I have identified all the pieces I want to edit,

Now how can I edit them ?!?

I have not been able to found an edit option in Omnivore, so I searched by Hex Address 4b70 (for my example critter) in hackomatic.. again nothing recognizable..

Also how to you change the color in Omnivore ?

[Mr. Do - Graphical Improvements]

YEAH that's it, I finally saw the first piece that make sense !

It's this little critter

 

I will mess with this a little and probably be back for more...

Thanks a lot man, you have been a ton of help !!

 

[A new Mr. Robot...]

Following what I said here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/287319-a-more-robotic-mr-robot/?p=4204994

And still waiting anyone of the coding side to contact me (via P.M. please ) I made some improvements on the gfxs and some more ideas for gameplay came into my mind.

Here's a screen with most of the original 'type of' gfxs remade:

 

 

 

Looking great so far ! couple of questions:

 

dimensions and frames for the robots are the same as the original ?

mr and misses Robot will share the same sprite set ?

[Mr. Do - Graphical Improvements]

TIX sent me a PM asking some more questions about hacking softsprites. I'm sure others

will be interested in hearing the answers; so I'm bringing his question into the thread to

give my answer.

 

 

Since Do's playfield is done in character mode, you have to look for everything to be in 4 x 8 chunks (Antic 4 sized characters).

 

So, when I'm scanning, I'm just looking for small chunks of data that seem to have some pattern.

 

Here's where the first incarnation (bit placement) of the apple is. After I've found it, then I can change the colors in Omnivore, to help

pick out all the other shifts of the apple.

 

Thanks, maybe its too complicated for me.. but I failed to find the apple even with your example..

I believe its a mental block I had the same difficulty at first, trying to understand what I was seeing in Hack-o-matic

 

So one more time: in Omnivore -> View -> Character Display -> Antic 4 and View -> Bitmap Display -> what ?

[Moon Patrol body shop !]

Only thing I can think, is that you must load the game with BASIC disabled..

[Mr. Do - Graphical Improvements]

 

..No special tools, just Omnivore and Bit Hacker. I was using Disk Explorer before Omnivore came out.

 

Please bear with me a little, I really want to get this right ..

Since I searched in Hackomatic/Bithacker and found only the main character and the letter monster sprites, I assume all the rest are software..

So in Omnivore I flip through bitmap display modes until I recognize something, then I note the address and go back to Hackomatic to edit ??

 

Thanks in advance.

[Mr. Do - Graphical Improvements]

Great job MrFish ! Cant wait for a work in progress download !

 

What tool are you using to edit character-based soft-sprites ?

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

I need help

 

I found the monsters, but I can't figure out how they work,

they span from 02B2 to 03CB and seem to be multi segmented, multi layered sprites with some missiles thrown in..

I delete/add some pieces here and there but I cant make sense of the logic..

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

Hey guys,

 

Here is the full Bender mode version !

all frames have been redrawn, including the ladder and blown up frames..

The walking animation has been tweaked to perfection

 

Now where are those critters ?!? I cant find them @#$

Mr Robot and His Robot Factory (Bender full).xex

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

Great idea, I am always in favor of two player games, especially cooperative !!

AND I can't wait to draw a lady robot

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

Humm... If any coder here is interested I have been thinking in doing a new Mr Robot type of game with the original idea but with more things, gfxs, gameplay,...

I would like to have the game done for this year ABBUC Contest and will also need TIX if he's interested to be a part ot the team .

 

I'm interested

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

got it ! thanks,

it was a silly idea anyway ,

I wanted to give Bender a crown during the invisibility period, to transform him into Super King !!

 

 

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

No way to have shield blend/OR robot.

The rule is always P0 Oring P1 and P2 Oring P3.

 

Hey Jose thanks for the tips and ideas !

I meant if it is possible for the shield to overlap bender, as to cover him... if I make any sense

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

Change P2/P3 color in Altirra:

 

e 4e8b $34

File location: $95f0 (38384)

 

mr-robot-shield-34.xex

mr-robot-shield-36.xex

mr-robot-shield-ec.xex

mr-robot-shield-ee.xex

 

Unix command to create all of these different versions without manual hex editing:

 

for f in 34 36 ec ee; do perl -p -0777 -e 'substr($_,0x95f0,1)=chr 0x'$f < Mr\ Robot\ and\ His\ Robot\ Factory\ \(Bender\ hack\).xex > mr-robot-shield-$f.xex; done

 

Thanks for the helping hand man !!

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

I didn't play the game for years but now I get where it's using P2 and P3 that is on the surrounding lines:

surrounding lines.png

I would suggest you change that cyan P2 and P3 to a red (34) or (36) or even a yellow (EC) or (EE) to have it different than the robot helmet.

 

YES, I meant to ask you or Xuel to change the color of the shield to yellow..

 

edit: also is it possible for the shield sprite to overlap Bender sprite ?

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

yeah,

I left it like this for comparison

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

sorry I uploaded the wrong (no Bender) xex..

here you go !

Mr Robot and His Robot Factory (Bender hack).xex

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

ok after Xuel's tweak (enabling Multicolored mode),

here is my attempt on a Bender hack ,

I have 3 colors available for the head and 1 for the body, so I went with Dark Blue, Light Grey, Light Blue combination..

the walking cycle has been tweaked, and minor changes applied !

At a later stage I'll try to edit the buddies and other details to something out of Futurama !!

 

Check out the work in progress below (going left is my original design, going right is Bender)

 

Enjoy

 

 

Mr Robot and His Robot Factory (Bender hack).xex

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

Unfortunately the second color layer is only available in the head sprite, so the new 3 colors only benefits the helmet..

The body is strictly monochrome

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

You can change the robot's secondary color in Altirra with the following command:

 

e 4164 94

You can make this permanent by changing location $1e93 (7827) in the .XEX file.

 

Likewise, to enable 3-color PMGs:

 

e 419d 31

.XEX: $1ecc (7884)

 

Unfortunately, you cannot have two shades of gray and a color with OR'ed PMGs due to the ordering of the palette.

 

The way 3-color PMG's works is that each pixel's color is the OR of player #1's and player #2's colors at that pixel, where the player's color is either transparent or some color depending on whether that pixel's bit is set in the PMG bitmap. So, to take Jose's example where P1's color is $C and P2's color is $94, then the possible colors are as follows:

 

 

 

Great examples ! thanks man !

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

So if Jose (or someone else) work his magic, we will have 3 colors available in the entire sprite ?

If true, then we can have something like this (ok maybe the colors are wrong, but anyway you get the idea)

Now bender have smaller feet and a bounce !!

 

 

 

 

[A more robotic mr. robot !]

From one of your design:

post-65-0-29204600-1548008392.gif

-> P0 that is white (0E) turn to lightest gray (0C);

-> P1 that is cyan (96) turn to a darker one (94);

-> Now enabling Multicolour mode Oring these two gives the 3rd colour that is a light cyan (9C);

So the light part is where the two are overlaping and we'll get this (on one of the frames):

post-65-0-29204600-1548008392 png.png

 

Jose you seem to know your way around, it would be great if you want to chip in