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KevinMos3

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Posts posted by KevinMos3

  5. Posted

    StanJr did the hard work of mapping out the game and writing a guide. They are hosted on his site that he linked to earlier in the thread. I put the two together into a Microsoft Word *.doc file so you can print it out and have the guide and images handy if you like.

     

    Please note that this is Stan's work. I just put the two together to make referencing the guide and maps a little more convenient.

     

    Private Eye guide.zip

  6. Posted · Edited by KevinMos3

    Woah, nice map. I think this might make you the second person to beat the game after me, assuming you did beat the game and didn't disassemble the code (which is probably be harder than just beating the game anyway :) )

    Thanks! Yeah, I played it through, but not on real hardware so I did have save-states for hard spots. I'm not skilled enough yet to disassemble. The map will need prettied up at some point. I was hesitant to post and glad you approve.

     

    P.S.

    We finally have a game for the Atari with the missing element that would have kept the company alive.

  7. Posted · Edited by KevinMos3

    PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT PREVIOUS VERSION. ;)

    Too late! So where can I apply for a refund? I'd like my attention back please.

     

    P.S.

    I love the new death animation.

     

    edit: I made a map of the game. It's zipped so if people don't want to see it, they won't have to. This map exposes hidden places and areas affected by items. I don't know if there are more hidden areas, but all the ones needed to complete the game are shown. It does not tell you in what order you need to find the keys or items, so a little figuring out is left to the player. I also don't tell you which items you need to use to activate certain things. That's easy enough to figure out and I didn't want to completely ruin the experience. If you don't mind some spoilers, then download, unzip, and enjoy the map. If you want to find your own way around the game, then by all means DO NOT open this map.

     

    Items shown on the map:

    • Winged boots
    • Cleated boots
    • Whistle (or would that be a recorder or flute?)
    • Candle
    • Bible
    • All Keys

    Panky the Panda map.zip

  8. Posted

    I'm not sure exactly how to describe this, but I've had a problem with controllers since I first started using Stella, (back when it was still at 3.0), up till now with version 3.1.2.

     

    It's not my particular controller, because I've used 4 different ones with the same result, (a digital Propad 8, and 3 digital-analog combos -- one by Thrustmaster, one by GameElements, and one by Logitech). The only combo controller that works right is the Logitech because you can turn off the analog part. If the D-Pad is seen as a "Hat", the control wants to see only one direction at a time making moving up/down while moving left/right impossible. However, this isn't the issue I'm posting about.

     

    The issue I'm referring to is hard to explain because it happens so fast I'm never quite sure what I'm doing that triggers it. I see it all the time when I play Double Dragon because of the way I move around with a lot of diagonals and direction changes. I can be going in a direction (maybe up or down) and then try to move Left or Right and the character will just stand in place, but the walking animation will still happen, (like the player character is just walking in place). When this happens I can continue to hold in the given direction all I want and the character will just stand there "place walking." If I then press Up or Down in addition to Left or Right, the character will move Up or Down, but still not Left or Right. When this happens, I have to move in the opposite direction of what I'm trying to go (Left or Right), and then I can continue to play as normal until this happens again. This is not a problem with the game because it does not do this on other emulators or on real hardware. It does this whether I'm using the digital controller or the Logitech combo with analog mode turned off.

     

    I hope that wasn't too confusing. I wish I could make a video of when it happens, but I don't have software for that.

  10. Posted

    You're right AJ, they all should be in the Hacks & Homebrews collection, but like Nukey said, they aren't always the latest versions. Also, like Cybergoth Galaxian, sometimes there are updates or alternate hacks by someone else that you might like a bit better. A good example of this is the hack called "Mr. Pac-Man" in the database. It's an update by El Destructo to "A Better Pac-Man" by Rob.

     

    If you're looking for an "Arcade" hack of Galaxian, you can try the one I uploaded the other day. I believe the colors are a little closer to the arcade version and the animation is a bit smoother than the hacks that widened the enemies. Of course the colors look vastly different depending on what emulator you use or if you play on real hardware. I had MAME running for comparison while working on that and tried to match up colors based on the pallete in Stella. I probably could have gotten it a bit closer, but went by what I thought would look decent on a TV (I didn't want to use colors that were too dark). For a more arcade looking player ship, it would be nice to hack in a color table (if that would even be possible). That way you could have a red top portion instead of how the sprite just uses a single byte for color description now (the player ship shares the same color as the attacking flagship by the way). Nukey, if I'm saying that wrong, feel free to correct me. I'm just describing it as best I know how.

     

    As for Space Invaders, you can't get any better than Nukey Shay's Space Invaders Deluxe 8K hack. The most recent version in the thread is not what's in the download section of the site unless it's been updated recently. I never even liked Space Invaders (at all), but I really enjoy Nukey's hack and play it often which I think says a lot.

  11. Posted

    I just wanted to say that I love this hack of Pac-Man. I find myself playing it often. I've always preferred the Atari 2600 version over the arcade just because it's the only Pac-Man I knew growing up. I love how this version keeps the feel of the original, but improves the visuals and audio.

     

    Thanks Nukey for a great hack!

  14. Posted

    I was unable to play the latest bin posted here. I mean, I tried, but couldn't get anywhere with it. So, on my 24k (max) dialup, I downloaded the youtube video to check it out and see what I was doing wrong. That video is about how I played. I would definitely suggest doing something to make the game easier.

     

    Update: After previously being able to only score about 100 pts, I just scored 1,160 pts. (I wanted to try one more time before I posted a complaint about the difficulty). Once I get to about 50 pts, the playfield gets smaller, but after that it stayed the same until I died at 1,160. When do you get to another level?

  15. Posted

    I just wanted to say that I was blown away by this game. You did an excellent job! I haven't gotten very far yet, but I'm looking forward to spending more time with it and maybe mapping it out. It's definitely one of my favorite bB games.

  16. Posted

    When I first played it, I couldn't get anything to happen when returning the chalice to the castle... then I just now realized you have to hold the key over the gate to get it to fully open before sticking the chalice in there.

  17. Posted

    I love the game, but my GOODNESS it's hard. I'm glad you changed that one screen in the orange area because I had completely given up. I had a save-state right at that spot, but could never make the jump no matter how I tried.

     

    I've found the winged? boots that make you jump high, the boots with cleats (not sure what these do yet), and a flute (not sure what that does yet either). I need to spend more time with it and maybe even map it out. Ah, the good ole days of mapping games like Pitfall and Secret Quest. The other day I found a map I was drawing of Bubble Trouble for the Lynx.

     

    Thanks for making such an amazing game and thanks for removing the sub-name from the title screen. That really left a bad taste in my mouth. eww. ...not literally.

  18. Posted

    Congratulations!

     

    I too just got my first Heavy Sixer (a few weeks ago) and I absolutely love it. I have two 2600 Jr's and several 4-switch and 6-switch models, but never one of these. It's so rock solid. I love everything about it.

     

    I got mine at a local gaming store where the owner has plenty of classic stuff -- usually at pretty good prices. This one came complete from a lady who kept it boxed and even had the Combat cart kept in plastic with a fresh-pack. She kept all the documentation individually bagged with cardboard backing to keep anything from getting wrinkled. Needless to say, it's in great shape, but the bezel still has much of the orange stripe rubbed off. I may try to find an orange paint-pen at a hobby store.

     

    I don't know that I got a good deal on it, but I don't feel completely ripped off either. The way I see it, I've purchased a great system that I've always loved. I did so for my own enjoyment of playing games, NOT as some kind of investment.

     

    I hope you enjoy yours even 1/2 as much as I've already enjoyed mine.

  19. Posted · Edited by KevinMos3

    1 or 2 are fine modifications of that screen. Nice job. I also like your new project...Galaxian. :)

    Thank you for the feedback. I sincerely appreciate it!

     

    I should probably give a list of changes to DD since the last release, but I honestly don't remember them all. So here goes what I do remember:

    • made the player's life-bar blue instead of blue-violet
    • made player 1's score color light blue instead of light blue-violet
    • changed the 2nd screen in Mission 2
    • made the boxes brown in the 3rd screen of Mission 2 (unsure if I like this on real hardware)
    • changed the light Abobo's skin color and gave him more shading
    • made slight changes to the blue sky color behind the forest screens
    • changed the cliff screen in Mission 3B (the olive color from beta3 looked horrible on real hardware, so I went back to gray and made the doors black to offset the blandness of too much gray). I think this screen now looks good on real hardware
    • gave the green Abobos a black mowhawk
    • added some detail to the door on the 1st screen of Mission 4
    • added detail to the podiums and gargoyle heads on the 2nd screen of Mission 4 (these would be the gargoyle statues with spears in the arcade)
    • gave the Shadow Boss a black beard (unsure if I like this)

    An explanation of the screen in the new poll question:

    I like the symmetry of the full coverage I-beams from Option 1, but it looks a bit TOO vivid when compared to the 1st & 3rd screens. It's a bit of an eye shock when playing through the game.

    Since Option 2 leaves out that one line of black between the I-beams and pulls the top beam a little closer to the front, it looks a bit more subdued. Another option might be to just extend the red of that top beam to the top of the green chain-link fence. That would restore the symmetry, but it changes the illusion of perspective a bit (makes it look a little more top-down). However, if I did that it would actually be closer to the perspective of the beams in the arcade.

     

    All in all, I've come to the conclusion that when playing on real hardware, this is a game (original or hack) where you need to adjust the color of your TV to suit. After playing the hack on my 2600 Jr and 7800, I was so discouraged by the colors that I wanted to throw the hack out. I recently got a heavy sixer and the colors looked MUCH better on that system for some reason. They were still far off from Stella, but with a bit of brightness and color saturation adjustment, they look much much better. If you try this hack on your harmony cart and it looks horrible, just play with the color settings of your TV a bit. The rest of my games still look fine after playing with my TV's color settings.

  20. Posted

    Since I've had a bit of free time the past couple of days, I spent some time working on the Double Dragon hack and a couple other hacks as well. Check the first post for updated and new binaries.

     

    Double Dragon Arcade:

    There is a new poll question regarding the 2nd screen in Mission 2. I'm pretty settled on the "Option 2" unless I get feedback preferring one of the other choices. Here's a pic of screenshots showing the choices.

    post-9364-127727120218_thumb.png

     

    Galaxian Arcade:

    One of the new hacks is a Galaxian Arcade hack. I know Galaxian has already been hacked several times, but I wasn't completely satisfied so here's my take on it. Note, the hack done by Cybergoth is good, but the wider enemies gave them a more choppy side-to-side movement. This is because the positioning of the narrower sprites is used for some of the sideways motion. I started with the stock NTSC binary and:

    • changed the enemy colors & gave them slight sprite alterations
    • altered the player ship sprite (not sure I'm totally happy with it though)
    • made new enemy and player explosion animations
    • changed other colors and sprites to more closely reflect the arcade
    • removed the border

    There are 3 versions: one for Stella (or other emus), one identical to the 1st but with a namco logo, and one for real hardware (which just has a different purple for the enemies because the shade that looks good in Stella looks too red on real hardware. The Stella and namco logo versions are pictured below:

    post-9364-127727339587_thumb.png post-9364-127727341048_thumb.png

     

    *** It would be really great if someone could add a color table for the player ship instead of just using a single byte for the color. That way it could have a red top and white bottom more like the arcade.

     

    Galaxian Vector:

    Also, neotokeo2001 started a Galaxian Vector hack back in 2004 but left a few things for others to finish. I just found his thread the other day and took him up on that offer.

    • I changed the ship a little bit (the other was one pixel too tall)
    • added the new explosions from my "Arcade" hack
    • made everything green that wasn't before -- including enemy shots
    • left the original title screen logo but changed the colors to shades of green

    post-9364-127727342223_thumb.png

  21. Posted

    Well, since I just got a Harmony Cart, I finally had the chance to play these hacks on real hardware. I am a bit disappointed. Pretty much every type of Brown looks like Red or Orange on both my TV (which is a nice CRT) and my brother's (which is an LCD).

     

    It looks like I may have to call the versions already posted "emu" versions and redo the colors for "real hardware" versions. Once I get the s-video/composite mod done, I'll make a decision on that.

     

    If there's any silver lining on my day today, it's that after receiving some VERY BAD news today, I may have a lot more free-time soon, (which I've not had since the semester started). I'd much rather not have the free time than swallow the news though. :sad:

  22. Posted

    I have a similar problem with my 2600 Jr, except it's the second controller port that's bad.

     

    It went bad in the early 90's. I tried re-flowing the solder on the port, but that didn't help. I've not tried replacing the port itself. Most games still play fine with only one player, but it has bugged me for a long time that I can't play two players. Also, there are some games that are not playable at all because of this.

     

    If the port turns out to not be the problem, what might I be able to replace to fix it?

  23. Posted

    Bought some goodies from Chris. He was very fair to deal with and had good communication. Items took a long time to arrive, but that was the fault of the post office, not Chris. I'd be happy to buy from him again. Thanks Chris! :thumbsup:

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    I haven't actually installed mine yet, but I'm planning to stick all the jacks into a little project box from Radio Shack, (about a 2"x3" box), and have a single cable coming out the back of the Jr. It'll be like a dongle, but that way I won't have to carve up my case to install everything. I really don't like the idea of cables coming out the side of the case anyway.

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