What's so fun about Adventure after beating it?

[awace]

If only the maps changed every time you play it...

 

Maybe Trogdor needs to be pushed to finish Hunt The Wumpus.

I tried that once it takes to long to type in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rik]

I say Atari made THE BEST adventures,Raiders Of The Lost Ark,yes E.T.,Superman,etc.Sure,the graphics were considered a little crude,but the games were complex,full of surprises.Adventure always has suprises in store,for me anyway.I still have not discovered all its little secrets,one of the BEST games for the 2600 period!!!!

[accousticguitar]

Where did you learn all this stuff anyway?

 

Right here, basically. Anyway, the gist of it is to insure that screen and sprite bitmaps do not stretch over from any address $xxFF to $xx00, because the display kernal would burn an extra cycle when it happens for that scanline...an extra cycle that the kernal doesn't have to spare in many cases. Some people just use the ALIGN 256 command to instruct Dasm will fill up the current page with unused bytes. I prefer to use ORG's (set up consecutive page ORG commands and dump a lotta stuff between 'em). If Dasm reports an error, it will also report how many bytes attempted to cross the page (so take a table or group of tables consisting of that many bytes and move it someplace else).

 

 

 

 

In answer to your other question...what comes after $1FF8...the answer for an F8 binary ROM is:

 

$xFF8/$xFF9 = Bankswitch hotspots. Any access whatsoever to these addresses will cause one of the two 4k blocks of ROM to be "seen" by the hardware just as if you physically removed one 4k cartridge and plugged in another. Care must be taken that the program instructions intended to follow exist immediately after the bankswitch instruction's address in the other bank. $xFF8 will activate the first 4k block, $xFF9 will activate the second. Because the 2600 is in an unknown state when powering up, the console is capable of a cold start in either bank...so the boot code (where the start vector points at) must anticipate this.

 

$xFFA/$xFFB = NMI vector (unused in the 2600).

 

$xFFC/#xFFD = Cold start vector (address to jump to when powering up).

 

$xFFE/$xFFF = BRK interrupt vector (address of the subroutine to use when a BRK opcode is encountered).

 

Nothing follows $xFFF (because the contents of a bank can only exist from $x000 to $xFFF - exactly 4096 bytes, the maximum that the 2600 can "see").

 

 

Because the hardware vectors and bankswitch hotspots must exist right at the end of the binary, what I usually do is place an ending ORG there (hence the ORG $xFF8), place another ORG above it (ORG $xF00), dump a lotta junk between them, and edit it down if Dasm reports an error. If more data tables remain, I repeat with the previous page - place an ORG $xE00 above ORG $xF00 and move stuff in - and so on. Cuts down on wasted space, with cycles only being burned wherever it's unavoidable (as in the RoomDataTable matrix)

I was working on this today and I think I actually got it to work. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

 

Edit: Maybe I spoke too soon. It seems the binary is 104KB.

Edited September 18, 2008 by accousticguitar

[ulij20]

This seemed like an interesting question, so I decided to make a slight change to the original game which keeps the seed value selectable (it's bumped up upon revisiting the "number" screen only)...and started mapping out the starting locations. NOTE: this hack does not alter game logic in any way...it just uses a previously-unused ram location to keep track of the random seed (instead of using the framecounter). The ram location used for this is $EA...and it's bumped after it's been used (so Stella's debugger will show a value of seed+1).

 

When I reached seed value $0D, the yellow key was placed inside the yellow castle. However, seed value $0F will place both the yellow and white keys inside the black castle, with the black key inside the yellow castle! In fact, most of the other objects are also inside the castles as well (the magnet is outside the black castle, and the bat is outside the white - confirming the one ulij20 experienced). Clearly, there are more unwinnable scenarios than the programmer figured (and probably more initial game setups as well...since none of the first 16 are repeats).

 

Here's the variation map I'd begun:

seed | $A4-RD | $A9-YD | $AE-GD | $B3-Mg | $B6-Sw | $B9-Ch | $BC-Br | $BF-YK | $C2-WK | $C5-BK | $CB-Bt |
-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
$00 |  $04   |  $02   |  $06   |  $04   |  $07   |  $13   |  $06   |  $05   |  $04   |  $03   |  $04   |
$01 |  $02   |  $0B   |  $09   |  $02   |  $08   |  $13   |  $07   |  $06   |  $05   |  $04   |  $0B   |
$02 |  $05   |  $0A   |  $03   |  $03   |  $09   |  $13   |  $08   |  $03   |  $06   |  $05   |  $03   |
$03 |  $0F   |  $0C   |  $0B   |  $04   |  $0A   |  $13   |  $09   |  $08   |  $07   |  $06   |  $08   |
$04 |  $0E   |  $0D   |  $0C   |  $05   |  $0B   |  $13   |  $0A   |  $09   |  $08   |  $07   |  $02   |
$05 |  $10   |  $0D   |  $0F   |  $06   |  $0C   |  $13   |  $0B   |  $0A   |  $09   |  $08   |  $06   |
$06 |  $08   |  $10   |  $0C   |  $07   |  $0D   |  $13   |  $0C   |  $0B   |  $0A   |  $09   |  $08   |
$07 |  $05   |  $03   |  $10   |  $08   |  $0E   |  $13   |  $0D   |  $0C   |  $1C   |  $0A   |  $1C   |
$08 |  $12   |  $11   |  $10   |  $09   |  $0F   |  $13   |  $0E   |  $0D   |  $0C   |  $0B   |  $09   |
$09 |  $14   |  $12   |  $05   |  $0A   |  $10   |  $14   |  $0F   |  $0E   |  $0D   |  $0C   |  $0A   |
$0A |  $15   |  $15   |  $12   |  $0B   |  $11   |  $15   |  $10   |  $0F   |  $0E   |  $0D   |  $0A   |
$0B |  $16   |  $16   |  $14   |  $0C   |  $12   |  $16   |  $11   |  $10   |  $0F   |  $0F   |  $0F   |
$0C |  $13   |  $16   |  $15   |  $0D   |  $13   |  $17   |  $12   |  $11   |  $10   |  $0D   |  $0D   |
$0D |  $18   |  $15   |  $13   |  $0E   |  $14   |  $18   |  $13   |  $12   |  $11   |  $10   |  $09   |
$0E |  $19   |  $19   |  $14   |  $0F   |  $15   |  $19   |  $14   |  $13   |  $12   |  $11   |  $11   |
$0F |  $1A   |  $1A   |  $1A   |  $10   |  $16   |  $1A   |  $15   |  $14   |  $13   |  $12   |  $0F   |

 

 

...and the game hack used:

So, did you, by chance, find out where the bridge, sword, and dragons are placed in the game I experienced?

[Nukey Shay]

Where you could only find the bat carrying the magnet? Yes, if the framecounter happens to be $0F when leading into the random routine...that would always cause this to happen. With the original unaltered game, you can accomplish this in Stella by setting a breakpoint at the start of the random routine ($F412), editing the framecounter to be that value when Stella reaches it (#$0F -> $E5), then clearing the breakpoint and continuing. Take a look at the data above...nearly everything is locked inside castles for that seed value. There may be other values that do this, I never mapped out the remaining 192 seeds.

 

Anybody figure out why Adventure's random routine yields different results when running on a different machine (see page 4)? It should have been the same, since no 16-bit mathematics is involved.

[cosmosiss]

What kept me going was that blinking black line blocking the far end of that room. I always wondered what was behind it and used to try the bridge on random locations hoping to appear on the other side.

 

I didn't know about the hidden dot, but I wondered why the blinking in that room. To this day, I've never done the easter egg thing. Maybe it's time to pick it up again.

[accousticguitar]

I don't bother with it anymore, but it's worth doing once.

[ulij20]

Where you could only find the bat carrying the magnet? Yes, if the framecounter happens to be $0F when leading into the random routine...that would always cause this to happen. With the original unaltered game, you can accomplish this in Stella by setting a breakpoint at the start of the random routine ($F412), editing the framecounter to be that value when Stella reaches it (#$0F -> $E5), then clearing the breakpoint and continuing. Take a look at the data above...nearly everything is locked inside castles for that seed value. There may be other values that do this, I never mapped out the remaining 192 seeds.

 

Anybody figure out why Adventure's random routine yields different results when running on a different machine (see page 4)? It should have been the same, since no 16-bit mathematics is involved.

I'm assuming that those codes ($1A) and so forth) represent rooms in the game. If so, what rooms are $16 (the location of the sword), $15 (bridge) and $1A (where all three dragons are apparently guarding the chalice, likely in the Black Castle)? And, while we're at it, which was room $10 (where the magnet was originally placed, since the Bat apparently was carrying nothing early in the game and found the magnet)?

[Nukey Shay]

Room $16 (sword) = the first dark room inside the black castle. $15 (bridge) = the dot's room in the black castle. The 2 other dark rooms there are the locations of the yellow and white keys...with the black key placed inside the yellow castle. $1A (chalise and all the dragons) = the first room inside the white castle.

 

Room $10 (magnet) is the outside of the black castle. Because the bat begins at room $0F - outside the white castle - with a diagonal Southeast flightpath...it only takes a few screens for it to reach the magnet and pick it up. You have no chance of getting to the black castle before the bat does (moving beyond the Southern wall of room $1D links to the black castle).

[ulij20]

Room $16 (sword) = the first dark room inside the black castle. $15 (bridge) = the dot's room in the black castle. The 2 other dark rooms there are the locations of the yellow and white keys...with the black key placed inside the yellow castle. $1A (chalise and all the dragons) = the first room inside the white castle.

 

Room $10 (magnet) is the outside of the black castle. Because the bat begins at room $0F - outside the white castle - with a diagonal Southeast flightpath...it only takes a few screens for it to reach the magnet and pick it up. You have no chance of getting to the black castle before the bat does (moving beyond the Southern wall of room $1D links to the black castle).

OK, thanks. So the bat gets to the Black Castle either via room $1D or $0E, since the latter is accessible via the side walls and is feasible if the bat continues its southeast flightpath after grabbing the magnet.

 

And I believe this would be the only game in which all three dragons are guarding the chalice inside the White Castle. In fact, there is only one I've seen with them all guarding the chalice (from the beginning of the game), in Room 14 of the Black Castle (the same room as the Yellow Key in the Bat/Magnet game).

 

I may have said this in another topic, but I always thought that it would be neat if there was some sort of bomb or something in which you could blast open one castle of your choice in these unsolvable games.

[EarthQuake]

Easiest way to fix it is to take the source code and modify the object location range values so the keys are never placed inside their corresponding castle. This might interfere with the total possible outcomes and overall difficulty of the game, but it's a relatively easy thing to change, and furthermore, no more unsolvable games.

 

Personally, I always thought the game was more fun not knowing whether a particular game was going to be solvable or not.

[yoshilime]

i always think its fun to get that rainbow screen, and timing myself to see how fast i can do it.

[atwwong]

You can make a gazillion hacks of out it...

[Sayton]

There is seriously so much to do in Adventure if you really stop to think about it. And it's a very buggy game. I've got quite a few videos showcasing the unique features and glitches in Adventure. To be honest, I feel there are still more. I've found so much in that game and I LOVE IT! There is yet more to be done!

[ulij20]

There is seriously so much to do in Adventure if you really stop to think about it. And it's a very buggy game. I've got quite a few videos showcasing the unique features and glitches in Adventure. To be honest, I feel there are still more. I've found so much in that game and I LOVE IT! There is yet more to be done!

One of the more interesting scenarios in Adventure is one I discussed in another topic about Adventure - the one where both the chalice and the bridge are hidden in the "secret room" inside the White Castle. Since you need the bridge to get into that room, the only way to win that game is to find the bat and have him retrieve the chalice for you.

 

I think I also experienced a game almost like the infamous "Bat/Magnet" game. I'm not sure exactly, but it was one of these two scenarios:

 

The White Key was found in the outer world, the Yellow Key was inside the White Castle, the Black Key was inside the Gold Castle, and the Chalice was in the Black Castle.

 

or

 

The Black Key was found in the outer world, the White Key was inside the Black Castle and the Gold Key was in the White Castle. I think the Chalice was in the Black Castle.

 

For several reasons, I think the latter of the two was the one I remember.