EricDeLee Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 I'll give the reset a try. i noticed that not all cards are automatically going to the "ace" piles when they pop up from the draw pile or are the bottom cards in the other piles. is that by default or is it not checking each pile after every play or card being turned over? is there any notification that you earned a coin? perhaps some type of instant gratification would be nice. this version is alot less 'choppy' when moving from pile to pile. looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 Ran into something recently with a few games of Klondike: Notice the draw pile? if it is the last card of the draw pile, it seems to act a bit strange. It offsets itself as seen in the picture. But worst of all: it won't let you select the card if it goes to this 'offset' temper tantrum. If it is a playable card you need, you simply won't be able to use it. I "BELIEVE" it was on Klondike 3 when I spotted this. I do recall one moment where I needed the card in order to advance my playing (so i can uncover one of the pile by moving cards over). However it would not allow me to do so. Yes, that happened to me once, as well. And come to think of it, I believe it was the five of spades also. On mine, it was needed for the spade pile on the right (I had ace through four). After trying unsuccesfully to select it for a couple minutes, I eventually stopped hitting buttons, and the offset card on the far left would disappear and reappear. After a few "cycles" of this, I was finally able to select it and put it on the pile. Only happened once out of 15 or so games. Cheers, Smeg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 i noticed that not all cards are automatically going to the "ace" piles when they pop up from the draw pile or are the bottom cards in the other piles. is that by default or is it not checking each pile after every play or card being turned over? Karri explained it to me once. It won't be automatically placed if there's another spot (or another perceived spot) for that card. Let's say you draw the five of spades, but your ace pile only goes to three. You will either have a red six on one of the seven piles below, or you still have a red six out there. The game seems a bit intuitive like that. I've found that more often than not, if it doesn't automatically play the card, it's best not to play it manually... you'll end up needing it later. Since you can't remove a card from the ace pile once you play it, I've had a few games that I couldn't complete because I played it too soon. is there any notification that you earned a coin? perhaps some type of instant gratification would be nice. I'm with you on that - a noise or something. I was wondering if Karri planned on putting any sound effects in this game. I was also hoping for a on-screen score, so we would know how our points are counting down. I realize the screen is too full, but I wonder if it's possible to show the score in, say, pause mode. Might be too much trouble, especially this late in the "game." Isn't it fun being an official play tester? I'm enjoying this! Cheers, Smeg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricDeLee Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 is there any notification that you earned a coin? perhaps some type of instant gratification would be nice. I'm with you on that - a noise or something. I was wondering if Karri planned on putting any sound effects in this game. I was also hoping for a on-screen score, so we would know how our points are counting down. I realize the screen is too full, but I wonder if it's possible to show the score in, say, pause mode. Might be too much trouble, especially this late in the "game." Isn't it fun being an official play tester? I'm enjoying this! Cheers, Smeg It is a lot of fun being a play tester. I've enjoyed it quite a bit. It is cool to know that you helped to find a few bugs to make a great Lynx game even better. That's what is really cool about it. Question though: Being that all of this is in a public forum, will the final release have something different than what everyone can already download and play for free? Thanks for the clarification on the automatic placement of cards. Makes sense to me now that you put it in that perspective. When you win a coin or something I think it would be a great addition to the game to include some kind of notification. I look at Lynxopoly and think mainly about the IRS Agent card that pops up and shows a signature being scrawled across it. I think something like that popping up and showing a Lynx Coin and saying "You have won!" or something would be cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 is there any notification that you earned a coin? perhaps some type of instant gratification would be nice. ... I was wondering if Karri planned on putting any sound effects in this game. I will try to code in some trumpet fanfare, fireworks and big jackpot sounds while the coin is being dropped in the Lynx. All this is of course limited to the few extra bytes still hanging around in the cart image. I still don't understand the exact mechanism for the flaw with the top card of the pile. What puzzles me is that the erronous card is visible correctly in the background. Still the zoomed card is in the wrong place. Hmm... -- Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricDeLee Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 (edited) Noticed another hiccup I think I had this issue before in the past. If I am playing Klondike, I noticed that I was able to 'cheat' in my current game. I picked up the top card of the Draw pile. it was a 7 of Spades. I really did not have a play for it at all, and then just pushed A to drop it back in the draw pile. (I did it while hovering over a row of cards). While it (the computer) cycled through... it noticed that card was gone from the draw pile and flipped a new one over which was an Ace of Diamonds. So the ace went to its spot above the rows of cards and my 7 of spades went back to the top of the draw pile. But by doing this, I effectively cheated by using a card I had not really uncovered yet. Not a HUGE deal in klondike. But would be big time cheating in Klondike 3. I will try to duplicate this to see if it will do it again. (I did get a new high score... without cheating) (Is it possible that I may have pushed B, a new card showed up and it already put that 7 back into the draw pile before that Ace? But being that the ace automatically goes to the slot above the cards, it 'appeared' as though I skipped the card?) Edited August 30, 2009 by EricDeLee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 Thank you for all support and playtesting. As all good projects also this project comes to an end. I am happy to release the Lynx 20 years Anniversary release of Solitaire. The final cart image solitaire.zip The final manual Atari Lynx Solitaire Game Manual v1.0.pdf And last but not least. The complete sources for wannabee developers to study solitaire-src.zip -- Long live the Lynx! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 (edited) Thank you for all support and playtesting. As all good projects also this project comes to an end. I am happy to release the Lynx 20 years Anniversary release of Solitaire. The final cart image solitaire.zip The final manual Atari Lynx Solitaire Game Manual v1.0.pdf And last but not least. The complete sources for wannabee developers to study solitaire-src.zip -- Long live the Lynx! Ninjabba just squeezed in a new score in the Klondike 3 cathegory a few minutes before the deadline. So I decided to update the official Solitaire binary. solitaire.zip But now the competition is closed. -- Happy Birthday Lynx Edited August 31, 2009 by karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjabba Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Great! I really worked hard to get that score, even though it sucked And big thanks for the source code! _O_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 (edited) Great! I really worked hard to get that score, even though it sucked And big thanks for the source code! _O_ Enjoy the sources. While reading through them there may be some problems in understanding what is in memory and when. The part called "resident" is always in memory. The main routine is called aaresident.c. The two 'a' letters are there to be sure that it is the first routine on the mandatory executable on the cart. RAM: start = $9d38, size = $2108, define = yes, file = %O; The part called "abcmusic" is also always in memory. ABCMUSIC_B: start = $8ac3, size = $1275, define = yes, file = %O; The part called "music" has a permanent segment in memory all the time. But only one tune will by occupying it at any given time. TUNE0_B: start = $722c, size = $1897, define = yes, file = %O; TUNE1_B: start = $722c, size = $1897, define = yes, file = %O; TUNE2_B: start = $722c, size = $1897, define = yes, file = %O; TUNE3_B: start = $722c, size = $1897, define = yes, file = %O; TUNE4_B: start = $722c, size = $1897, define = yes, file = %O; The part called "cards" is in memory when you play klondike, freecell or spider. This contains the routines for the dealer, the deck, piles and cards. It also contains the pictures for all the cards. CARDS_B: start = $2ceb, size = $40f2, define = yes, file = %O; CARDS00: start = $6ddd, size = $044f, define = yes, file = %O; CARDS01: start = $6ddd, size = $044f, define = yes, file = %O; ... CARDS7D: start = $6ddd, size = $044f, define = yes, file = %O; The part called "intro" is in memory when you are in the main screens. The "intro" needs no "cards" so it occupies the same space with it. The strange start address is because at startup the title sprite is at 2400 so the intro does not fit between 400 and 2400. So I placed it after the title sprite. INTRO_B: start = $3600, size = $4142, define = yes, file = %O; All games start at the beginning of the memory. KLONDIKE_B: start = $400, size = $2ff5, define = yes, file = %O; FREECELL_B: start = $400, size = $2ff5, define = yes, file = %O; SPIDER_B: start = $400, size = $2ff5, define = yes, file = %O; The screen handling is really difficult to understand by reading the code. So I try to ease it a little. SCREEN: start = $BE40, size = $3FC0; // Actually two screen buffers "screen 0" and "screen 1" Because the cards take up more space than there is RAM available I have to read in every card when I need it. This means that I must have some other mechanism to speed up the game. The Lynx has place for two screens at a time. In this game I decided to render a complete table in screen 0. But screen 0 will never be visible. It is my background only. For the display I always copy the background to screen 1 and then I render the big cards on screen 1. Every time you place a card somewhere I need to re-render the background. The visible screen is screen 1 only. This is not the usual way of programming games. The usual one is how I deal with the screen in the "intro" segment. There it is double-buffered the usual way. The screen is updated at 75 Hz. There is an VBL interrupt that does the switch in the "resident" segment. So what would be the possible improvements to the game? The first thing is that the music sucks. Sorry guys. I had to pull all the 5 tunes from my hat in one afternoon. In "Johnny B Goode" the drums are a bit dull. char tune03[] = { STR_DRUMS TEMPO "z22z/" "|568:^F,,/:" }; Pause for 22.5 beats followed by 568 single drum beats. The base is not much better. A small intro and 3 choruses A + B. char tune02[] = { STR_BASS TEMPO "z8" "^Dz3C,z3" "D,2^C,2C,z/G,,z/C,,/z/" "|3:" "F,D,C,A,,F,,A,,C,D," "F,D,C,A,,F,,A,,C,F,," "^A,,F,,D,,F,,^A,,,D,,F,,^A,," "F,,A,,C,D,F,D,C,A,," "C,G,,E,,G,,C,,E,,G,,C," "F,,A,,C,D,F,D,C,A,," "F,,D,,C,,D,,F,,A,,C,A,," "F,,D,,C,,D,,F,,A,,C,F,," "^A,,,D,,F,,^G,,^A,,^G,,F,,C,," "E,,G,,^A,,C,E,C,C,A,," "C,G,,E,,G,,C,,E,,G,,C," "F,,A,,C,A,,F,,E,,D,,C,," ":" }; If we had a 512k ROM then we could add hundreds of nice tunes. And "nice" needs a little more musical talents than what I show off here. All the tunes use 2 or 3 channels only. In this cart I did not have space for more instruments (or time to code in music properly). But of course you are free to improve on the cart. Perhaps a service pack should be made at some point? Like Microsoft does -- Karri Q: What is the difference between a Blues musician and a Jazz musician?? A: A Blues musician plays 3 chords in front of 1000 people. A Jazz musician plays 1000 chords in front of 3 people. Enjoy the blues on the cart. Edited September 1, 2009 by karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rygar Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Besides being a big programmer you are a generous programmer which shares its work! The sources of your game are incredible and very useful to study Congratulation to celebrate so well the birthday of our Lynx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 As all good projects also this project comes to an end. I am happy to release the Lynx 20 years Anniversary release of Solitaire. Happy Birthday Lynx Hi Karri, Thanks for programming this game and thanks for allowing me to help by writing the manual, the 20th anniversary text and play test. You've done a great job here, and it's a wonderful service you've performed for the Lynx community, to offer us a free release, and source code as well! To everyone else, have fun with this game! If you have a few minutes to kill, or you're (like me) watching a Tigers baseball game and want something to play that's not too involved, this is what you need. Thanks again, Karri! Cheers, Randy "Smeg" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Nice work, Karri! Thanks for releasing the source code too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted September 4, 2009 Author Share Posted September 4, 2009 Just a small note to people who might want to make a real cart out of Solitaire. This is a free game so you are allowed to do it. In a week or so there will be a new realease of the cc65 compiler tools. I have compiled Solitaire with it and it is a bit faster. So I intend to upgrade the binary with an faster version after the new cc65 compiler is out. If there are other requests for changes I could do them at the same time. (I already did a small change that cleans the screen before showing the Lynx coin if you beat the high score. But there are no known bugs afaik in the current release.) -- Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 These little card games are brilliant. If this had been a cartridge 18 years ago, my brother and I would have had even more trouble keeping our mom from stealing our machines (she became a complete Shanghai junkie). And forget service packs, I'm eagerly awaiting Solitaire volume 2 (Eight-Off anyone?). And if anyone starts working on other card games, e.g. Crazy Eights, Gin, Rummy (i.e. non-solitaire games not already in the Casino cartridge), please let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricDeLee Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 Hearts... spades... I can go for those games! Hell.. even a long game of WAR... or black jack (vegas style) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Just wondering where the faster version is, and if anyone would like to make me a cart of this when it's finished, i would definitely pay for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricDeLee Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 I think there is talk about it being made into one. I'm not sure what the deal is though. Hopefully there is a small run of these. If not, we may need to beg for some red carts to be made for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 Just wondering where the faster version is, and if anyone would like to make me a cart of this when it's finished, i would definitely pay for this. Once the release candidate of cc65 is out (should be this week) I make the faster version. It is also a lot smaller which would allow me to add something more there. Hmm... -- Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 All Lynx dependent parts seem to be at their final stage already. They are only talking about C64 kernals etc. So I can as well put the code here. This is then our ServicePack with speeded up interruptor code. The game is the same. solitaire-2009-09-28.zip -- Enjoy, Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 I just wanted to bump this thread to see if anyone would still (other than me ) be interested in talking about having this on an actual cartridge. I saw Rygar looks like he's getting close to releasing his competition ROM on cartridges, so I thought now might be a good time to see about doing the same for Karri's Solitaire Games! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynx remnant Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 I'd like to have it on an actual cartridge to play Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricDeLee Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 yeppers... always interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom-Lynx Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Yes! Cartridge! Cartridge! Cartridge! (maybe we can try the obnoxious approach?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Me wantee Solitaire cartridge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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