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FYI - Found a game that doesn't work...


tkarner

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Meteoroid

 

This is the Asteroids clone prototype from Starpath before it got lawyer-proofed and released as Suicide Mission (which works fine btw). The bin file is available on the Stella Gets a New Brain CD (METEROID.BIN).

 

It loads fine on Harmony but crashes once you hit Reset to start a game. The same file works fine in emulation and on the Supercharger.

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Meteoroid

 

This is the Asteroids clone prototype from Starpath before it got lawyer-proofed and released as Suicide Mission (which works fine btw). The bin file is available on the Stella Gets a New Brain CD (METEROID.BIN).

 

It loads fine on Harmony but crashes once you hit Reset to start a game. The same file works fine in emulation and on the Supercharger.

I noticed this myself just a few days ago. I've investigated and apparently a bug was introduced along with the fix for the evil 7800s that don't like Superchargers.

 

Here is a hack that makes it work with Harmony for now. I'll see what I can do about supporting the original.

Meteroid_Hack.BIN

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I've noticed another Supercharger game that doesn't quite work right. Stellar Doomsday Interceptor.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/73350-stellar-doomsday-interceptor-1k-minigame/

 

I can't see the missiles or any explosions. But the game is still tracking the missiles. You can tell because the planetary shield gets damaged when the invisible missiles hit it.

 

Thanks for the Meteroids patch, by the way. I was going to mention that one too, but tkarner beat me :P

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Can anybody test those on other carts, e.g. CC or KrokoCart? I would guess it is a programming error which is not emulated correctly.

And if it is determined to be an emulation problem, I'd like to get a description of it so I can fix Stella.

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I've noticed another Supercharger game that doesn't quite work right. Stellar Doomsday Interceptor.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/73350-stellar-doomsday-interceptor-1k-minigame/

 

I can't see the missiles or any explosions. But the game is still tracking the missiles. You can tell because the planetary shield gets damaged when the invisible missiles hit it.

 

Thanks for the Meteroids patch, by the way. I was going to mention that one too, but tkarner beat me :P

The problem with SDI is that it does Supercharger RAM writes while running code from RIOT RAM, which isn't supported at the moment. I can probably fix it, however.

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The 6k binary?

 

 

Yes. It crashes as soon as it loads.

It's probably because it's 6k, and Harmony expects Supercharger games to be a multiple of 8488 bytes.

 

I can't seem to find the binary, so can someone post it, and I'll pad it to the proper size and see if it works?

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The 6k binary?

 

 

Yes. It crashes as soon as it loads.

It's probably because it's 6k, and Harmony expects Supercharger games to be a multiple of 8488 bytes.

 

I can't seem to find the binary, so can someone post it, and I'll pad it to the proper size and see if it works?

There's a bit more than padding involved (or at least, you're not padding with just zeros). Have a look at src/emucore/CartAR.cxx in Stella for a fix for this (I added 6K AR support in 3.0).

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The 6k binary?

 

 

Yes. It crashes as soon as it loads.

It's probably because it's 6k, and Harmony expects Supercharger games to be a multiple of 8488 bytes.

 

I can't seem to find the binary, so can someone post it, and I'll pad it to the proper size and see if it works?

There's a bit more than padding involved (or at least, you're not padding with just zeros). Have a look at src/emucore/CartAR.cxx in Stella for a fix for this (I added 6K AR support in 3.0).

Thanks. I have patched the binary. I'm not sure if we're going to add 6k AR support as the way you had to support it in Stella doesn't seem to be a good fit for Harmony.

 

EDIT: Cubis binary removed per request.

 

However, here is a patch to fix Cubis for Harmony - download this file, go to DOS and type:

 

copy /b Cubis_6k.bin+6k_AR_patch.bin Cubisfix.bin

 

This isn't specific to Cubis (and contains no Cubis code) and should work for other 6k Supercharger files (if there are any.)

6k_AR_patch.bin

Edited by batari
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Thanks. I have patched the binary. I'm not sure if we're going to add 6k AR support as the way you had to support it in Stella doesn't seem to be a good fit for Harmony.

Sure, I was just pointing you to the 256 byte header.

 

EDIT: Also, I removed the original BIN. I wasn't thinking before I posted it :?

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Please remove the Cubis binaries from the thread. IIRC Eckhard doesn't want them to be released to avoid legal problems.

I posted a patch instead that allows those who have the binary already to fix it.

 

I don't think there are any legal issues with this (the binary contains 2k of zeros plus the 256-byte header from Stella source.)

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I just received my Harmony and was trying out Phasor Patrol. It seemed to play fine (What a great 2600 game, BTW) but there appears to be a graphic/color issue with the shields. If anyone is not familiar with it, when you toggle the Color/BW switch, the shields visually open or close, a very nice effect taking maybe 5 seconds or so. When shields are engaged, the view will be muted grey, not black.

When playing, there was no difference during normal play (the view was always black) except for the line of pixels on the left edge. If the screen is changing colors (when you are hit by an ememy missle, or warp) the shields show correctly, and if hit when opening or closing, they also will animate. (also you can tell if the shields are up or down by watching the speed that the energy depletes. If you turn off the shields, it will deplete fast until they are fully open, then you will see it slow down)

 

I was playing on an unmodified 2600 Jr. I can test on a 4 switch if needed. I have 2 x 4 switch, (1 black, 1 wood) a Jr. and a 7800. The 7800 is useless for play without the Color/BW switch, but it might work for testing.

Edited by Pioneer4x4
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I just received my Harmony and was trying out Phasor Patrol. It seemed to play fine (What a great 2600 game, BTW) but there appears to be a graphic/color issue with the shields. If anyone is not familiar with it, when you toggle the Color/BW switch, the shields visually open or close, a very nice effect taking maybe 5 seconds or so. When shields are engaged, the view will be muted grey, not black.

When playing, there was no difference during normal play (the view was always black) except for the line of pixels on the left edge. If the screen is changing colors (when you are hit by an ememy missle, or warp) the shields show correctly, and if hit when opening or closing, they also will animate. (also you can tell if the shields are up or down by watching the speed that the energy depletes. If you turn off the shields, it will deplete fast until they are fully open, then you will see it slow down)

 

I was playing on an unmodified 2600 Jr. I can test on a 4 switch if needed. I have 2 x 4 switch, (1 black, 1 wood) a Jr. and a 7800. The 7800 is useless for play without the Color/BW switch, but it might work for testing.

I just tried this, and the shields are very dark on my TV, but visible. It could be that your TV just displays those dark grays as black.

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