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Omegamatrix

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Posts posted by Omegamatrix

  2. Posted

    No need to rush Darrell, I still got lots of other work to do, and I will be slowing down as I will be going back to work soon too.

     

    For right now I am just inserting placeholders where the writes will go and building the kernels around that. I am going to make them at the same cycle all throughout so that nothing sounds off.

     

    I'm no musician, and I'm always amazed when someone can listen to something and pick out what notes it is using. When I did the music for VR it was awful as I had to constantly move music up and down Octaves due to missing notes, and even then I would still have to substitute notes quite often. I actually spent weeks on it tweaking and tweaking trying to get it to sound better. It was quite painful to be honest.

     

    Now though I'm hoping that the different waveform generations (Square, Triangle, Sawtooth, Sine?) will be able to provide a better range of notes. Has the third (channel constructed by combining the volumes of the first two) been fully investigated with how the 2600 combines both channels? When doing three channels I imagine either AUDV0 and AUDV1 would be either updated every line, or AUDV0 would be updated one line, and AUDV1 would be updated on the following line. 

     

    Anyhow, there are more possibilities for sure, and music overall should be a lot better because of it. All the ARM games I've heard had really good music.

  3. Posted

    Darrell, thank you so much for these threads. I've gone through them since yesterday and I got everything compiling now for CDFJ. 

     

    Ironically, I was wondering about a faster clear and that was covered in this latest update. I also like Dionoid's buffer identification so I'm going to use that as well. Right now I have started tinkering by converting one of my balloon kernels from CAA, just to draw a single stationary row.

     

    CircusAtariAge.thumb.png.74c1ec158158a666b7d1c0155f1fa143.png

     

     

    Darrell, there's a missing # on line 516 of collect3.asm. I'm also wondering about the comments on lines 424 to 427 of collect3.asm. Can there be a startup in bank 5 or will CDFJ always start in bank 6?

     

    At this point I am going to go through the Draconian source to learn more about the creating music. From making Venture Reloaded I got a major appreciation of how hard it is to get anything to sound tolerable on the 2600. I'm really looking forward to using the ARM to get better sound.

    • Like 2

  4. Posted

    After several years hiatus I have decided to restart Circus AtariAge in 2020. I am shooting for a WIP release in about 4-6 months for now. Currently I am just pondering whether or not to port it to CDFJ. In any case it needs to re-booted with a re-write from scratch.

    • Like 16

  6. Posted

    The issue is that there is a lot of sequencing in place when Winky does his movement to get the arrow, and each step has different processes built in that get out of step if started early. There are differences in the treasure screen depending on whether it's a new game, life lost, level completed, game over, and high score display. 

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    Hello Chris,

     

    Thank you for enjoying the new version. I hope you keep trying as I would like to see you get all the treasures!

     

    I will consider the firebutton option, but as it stands right now this would be trickier to implement than it seems, and the design of it is actually how I intended it. However, I will consider it more.

  11. Posted

    6 hours ago, keithbk said:

    Well, that would be cool, but WHAT IF this one change brought about the Zombie Apocalypse??? Really, people, think about the consequences of your actions; we don't want to make one programming change that brings about the end of life on this planet as we know it.

    It's all a stack of cards. Change one single bit and it collapses into a black hole...

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    8 hours ago, batari said:

    Hope that music makes it in to the next version. Definitely this is a lot better than what's there now.

    I want to hear from lots of people on the music. I'm had various feedback and I'm truthfully on the fence myself. The choices will be the map music from RC2, or the arcade version I just pointed.

     

    Quote

    One thing that would be cool but totally unnecessary is the ability to shoot on the map screen. The arcade allows this, IIRC, even though nothing on the map screen can actually be shot. I always thought that was kind of neat to shoot the hall monsters just for fun.

    I never played the arcade version so I don't know about this. At this time I'm really at the end of the development cycle and there are other things I would try to squeeze in before this.

     

    Quote

    As for enemy AI, it's more difficult because of the vertical placement restrictions of the enemies, but maybe a dead simple algorithm could fit that enhances the game. That was one of the things that disappointed me when I took the Venture cart home back in the day, as the arcade monsters were smarter and just got smarter while on the 2600 version the monsters were brain-dead. Same with the Colecovision, the monsters seemed to have similar intelligence, as I used to play my friend's CV just for Venture. If you would consider putting it in, I might look at a disassembly of the original and see if it's feasible to squeeze *something* in there.

    This is on my big laundry list of things that I left out due to rom space, cycles available, and so on. This would definitely be handled in an ARM rebuild from scratch which I may or may not do. Nonetheless I do promise I will take a look to see if it is feasible.

     

    Fred, you said you played the Colecovision version. I did myself growing up. It was my first game system. While Venture Reloaded is a hybrid of the Colecovision and Arcade versions (plus my own additions), I am definitely more nostalgic for the Colecovision version. This is actually why I'm on the fence about switching the music too.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    4 hours ago, batari said:

    Excellent hack! I think the graphics are excellent and just where they need to be.

     

    I would improve on the music a little. While the unique song for every room from the arcade would be a lot of work, it would be cool to see the proper tune playing on the map screen. I get that music is difficult, as back in 2004 I made an attempt but it needs some help. A tune or two may be off and the last notes should last longer. I will post it here and use if you wish.

     

    Another thing that would be neat is more intelligent enemies. That is one of the issues I had with the 2600 version, as on the arcade (and Colecovision) the enemies are smart and try to avoid the arrows shot at them and their AI gets better in higher levels. The 2600 version has no AI that I know of, or it is poor, as the enemies seem to just move around randomly and in higher levels they just move faster. Some enemies are really smart, like the trolls on the troll screen (for that matter, does this version do the bridge on the troll screen that goes down after a few moments? That adds a lot of challenge to the arcade game.)

    Thank you for the comments!

     

    The map screen has been by far the most contentious issue. I feel the map music in RC2 is definitely better that it was in RC1, but yeah that song has been horrible to get to sound better. I actually did a version of the Arcade Map music. I will post a rom later so you can have a listen.

     

    If this was homebrew I would definitely made AI for the monsters among other things, but it won't be in this hack.

     

  16. Posted

    On 11/15/2019 at 4:04 AM, Chris2600 said:

    Hi all,

     

    I've got one minor graphics suggestion, I would prefer if the question marks look like this:

     

    490153679_VentureReloaded(RC2)PAL60_1b.thumb.png.cd7f641de708406b1bd1473be1c03c77.png

     

    rather than that, where they seem to be somewhat 'flattned':

     

     

    It is only a matter of personnal preferences, there's no critistism here.

    What is your point of view?

     

    Cheers

     

    Hello Chris,

     

    I will make this change for RC3, which will be a while away. Thank you for the input.

     

     

    On 11/16/2019 at 12:44 PM, H.E.R.O. said:

    Gave it a try and was fun but the controls were a bit sticky for me. I had an issue in the 1st level snake room where left of the top right exit I got caught on the wall. I also got caught on a corner in the 2nd level troll room but that could have been me as I haven't played the 2600 of Venture in decades and am used to hugging the wall to escape if needed. Otherwise, as stated, pretty fun.

     

    I tried it on the current Stella using a Xbox360 controller with the d-pad (using the stick seems to make Winky go wonky).

    With the wall sticking I expect it's something that won't be changeable, however I will take a look.

  18. Posted

    8 hours ago, Albert said:

    We've created two different labels for Galagon, both featuring Dave Dries' beautiful artwork!

     

    galagon_labels.jpg

     

    Which is your favorite?  You'll get to choose in the AtariAge Store next week!

     

     ..Al

    I like the label on the left best. Which one was used for the PRGE releases?

  19. Posted

    6 hours ago, Chris2600 said:

    Hi,

     

    My first test of Venture RC2:

     

    I had a lot of fun with the game, I collected only 19 treasures and found no bugs so far.

     

    The music sounds better now.

     

    I especially loved the Cyclops room special event.

     

    Awesome job!

     

    Hello Chris,

     

    I'm glad you got the cart working. Yes, there will only be a NTSC and PAL60 version of Venture Reloaded.

     

    I'm super happy that you liked the Cyclops special event. That almost didn't make it in, but I made a big effort to free up enough bytes to do so. It's rewarding to know it and the Spider room special event were worth it.

     

  20. Posted

    Release Candidate #2 is now available in the first post. 

     

    If anyone is still up for the challenge, you have until Nov 30 to follow the specific instructions outlined in the first post. Please use RC2 for this going forward, but prior submissions still count.

    • Thanks 2

  21. Posted

    Hello Karl,

     

    I would lean towards reading the tile address directly from tables too. As you've found out the high pointer is a good place to focus on for optimization.

     

    For example if you can just keep at least of 5 of them the same throughout each row for the kernel than you save 25 cycles. However that is really restricted. Likely you would have to have to use different routines for setting pointers that you jump into, and the complexity and overhead for that will quickly kill it.

     

    Another page of ram would have been nice when Atari made the Super Chip. Then it would be problem solved.

    • Thanks 1

  22. Posted

    On 10/30/2019 at 4:14 AM, atarifan88 said:

    Thanks for this much needed upgrade of Venture.  Has anyone tried it on the FB9 yet?

     

    Here's another video review. This one is by Tim's Tiny Arcade. He is playing it on a FB9, and it seems fine in the video.

     

     

     

  23. Posted

    3 hours ago, SS said:

    The Hall Monsters seem to come into the rooms very quickly.  I cannot recall if the original works like this or not but it's almost like you have to do a speed run to get out in time.  I wonder if there is any way to slow this down just a bit?

     

    2 hours ago, Zoyx said:

    Seems fine to me. I keep moving.

     

     

    Thank you all for the feedback. The Hall Monster does appear sooner than the original version. This change was made because:

     

    - Winky's speed has greatly increased from the original, allowing the room to be finished much quicker. 

    - I do want people to see the hall monster on occasion, to add some suspense.

     

    There is a little strategy for choosing room doors. Some room doors do have a trade off between more initial safety, but at a cost of being further in distance from the treasure.

     

    Myself, I rarely see the Hall Monster unless I stop and wait. As you get into the higher levels (7+) the monster speed really increases and you'll have to bolt to survive anyhow. Learning to go quick in the initial stages will help prep you for that! 😀

     

     

    I will still think about this though. In the meantime I have some news. I have changed my mind, and increased the scope for the project once again to add a couple of the special events into RC2. I hope people will be pleased with them.

     

     

    • Like 3

  24. Posted

    5 hours ago, Chris2600 said:

    Hi,

     

    I tried the game (the Pal rom file) with my Pal 7800 and  my Secam 2600 (which requires pal carts) using the Harmony cartridge.

     

    First comment: Thanks a lot for this nice job, the gameplay is awesome!

     

    On the 2600: The display is rendered in b&w as shown below... usually this kind of things occurs when running a NTSC file or files with odd  number of scanlines. But as I said, the problem occurs here when I'am using the pal file.

     

     

    On the 7800: The screen was rolling vertically and I had to adjust the TV vertical alignment but finally I got the game running in colors :D

    Such roll can occurs too when using NTSC roms or when the number of scanlines is odd.

    So I made a comparison using the NTSC version of the file: the picture rolls the same way (which is normal here for a NTSC file) but the colors were different (of course).

     

    I hope these informations will be useful.

     

    I can't wait to see the final version.

    Thanks & Congratulations!

     

     

    Chris

    Hello Chris,

     

    Thank you for your feedback. The file I made was what we call a "PAL60" version. It is meant to play on an international TV. There are several hacks made for PAL60, more can be found on PAL60 roms here:

     

     

    • Like 1
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