Space Harrier Released

[GroovyBee]

That could be very interesting on a 7800 with enough RAM

 

The soon to be available 7800 XM (eXpansion Module) has 128K of RAM and a POKEY too (amongst other things).

[Tursi]

Just had a watch of the video - that's super impressive! I never would have expected that out of the 8-bit!

[emkay]

And now,

 

for something completely different, err, off-topic. Can the engine of SH be used for other games, e.g. "Afterburner" or something like that ?!?

 

-Andreas Koch.

 

 

I've said here some Months ago that those Sega Arcade Shoots are real good ones to try...

Driving ones like OutRun or Hang-on probably Flicker would not look good.

 

 

Sheddy chosed to use flicker in Space Harrier.

Other games may not necessarily take usage of this. Particular racing games could be build using PM overlay.

[snicklin]

Sheddy, thank you for all of your efforts in producing what I believe to be (technically at least) the best game on the Atari 8 bits.

 

Now, I'd like to ask, as I believe that you must have some due to the difficulty of this game - do you have any built-in cheats? (extra lives or level jump etc)

 

If so, I wouldn't expect you to announce any of these now, because it has only just been released and I'm sure you don't want to spoil the game for anyone. If you do though, will you be sharing these in the future?

 

p.s. +1 vote for 'colour'

Edited July 6, 2011 by snicklin

[niknice]

Got to say guys being a Space Harrier nut, this conversion is simply stunning Plays great on my Wii using the WiiXL emu.

[+Stephen]

Just had a watch of the video - that's super impressive! I never would have expected that out of the 8-bit!

If you can, try it on real hardware, it looks much better than the YouTube video suggests!

 

Sheddy chosed to use flicker in Space Harrier.

Other games may not necessarily take usage of this. Particular racing games could be build using PM overlay.

I never noticed this - I guess that is the main advantage of the s-vid to VGA convertor I use. I get a free flicker-fixer The downside is that Flicker-Term characters do not properly line up, and LCDs look like ass compared to CRTs with these old machines, and light pens don't work, etc.

 

P.S.

Another vote for colour (and I wish we weren't the last country on earth to not switch to the SI measurement system )

[oky2000]

Ah OK thought it would be for something to do with the screen tricks used. When I say dark I mean things like the tree and other 'enemies' have very dark green brown purple etc. And it is colour, despite what google chrome seems to think it should be

 

This game is proof that 1 or 2 people working hard can eventually produce something quite interesting indeed. Any project being seen through to the end is to be congratulated too, most people give up.

[Sheddy]

 

Now, I'd like to ask, as I believe that you must have some due to the difficulty of this game - do you have any built-in cheats? (extra lives or level jump etc)

 

If so, I wouldn't expect you to announce any of these now, because it has only just been released and I'm sure you don't want to spoil the game for anyone. If you do though, will you be sharing these in the future

 

Believe it or not, there aren't any cheats. That is what the "easy" and 5 men options are for . You get 1 continue straight off when its on "easy". Once you get past a bonus stage you get another continue added, plus you can then start from that stage if you want. (BTW those features were only available as cheats on other home versions).

 

A tip: go round in circles to avoid the alien missiles - they always aim at your current position when launched - so don't go back on yourself.

[GoodByteXL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-_6-RuJR0&feature=feedu

 

Sal was a bit quicker with the video than I thought

 

I didn't think the day would come, but I've decided to stop messing about with the game and just release it. Hopefully there aren't too many problems with it...

 

It's suitable for all XL/XE machines with at least 64K RAM. In the .zip is a MaxFlash cartridge image suitable for emulators. Of course you can also use the cartridge image to program a real 8Mbit MaxFlash cartridge to run on a real machine.

 

sharrier.zip

great job - will it be available as file version for large drives -> PBI IDE ?

[+Cafeman]

Sheddy - this looks amazing. I downloaded Altirra just to be able to try it. (the ROM doesn't work for me using A800win). I got the title screen, but haven't figured out how to start yet - must not have set my Altirra correctly.

 

It flickers in the emulator, but I turned on Frame Blending in the Video option and now its rock solid. I can't wait to try it out, once I get Altirra set up.

 

A question - I searched your site but didn't find this, did you ever reveal how you make use of the Atari's players, missiles, and bg graphics to create the game? It truly looks 3D, I can see images in front of others, the scaling competes with 16-bit Genesis/Mega drive game faux-scaling, so impressive is everything! I am very curious of the technical feats.

[Heaven/TQA]

I think PMs are for the Player, Shoots & objects are plain gfx while background is graphics, too spiced up with DLIs and PMs (clouds)?

[Faicuai]

UPDATE!

 

 

Well, just burned my AtariMax cart. with the provided 1MB image and fired it up!!!... just to encounter a continuous/systematic LOCK-UP right at the intro-screen (at a given point, the image will FREEZE with clear outlined shapes, but half-baked colors/solid areas without the usual details like the waving hand, the cyclop-blinking eye, etc... except for some patches of green, etc.)

 

I immediately recalled the strange, almost inexplicable LOCK-UPs that I have been getting for some time, while firing some titles with AtariMax, being Stealth one notorious example... with similar lock-ups (very little or no garbage left on the image, just a frozen, partially drawn frame). It truly smelled like some bad/unrecoverable timing problem.

 

After a complete dissassambly of my 800XL (RevC, completely socketed), and testing as many traces to and from the cart-socket, back into every possible place I could check), reseating MMU and all surrounding compadres... I then went straight to ANTIC and 6502-Sally and BANG! It turns out that I had a DYING 6502-Sally, which I replaced from my fresh stock of parts/chipsets.

 

Fired it up again and my game-playing skills got me to the end of Level-1... but in easy mode... :)

 

In summary: ABSOLUTELY GREAT conversion (considering the host machine capabilities), and GREAT debugging/testing tool! It finally allowed me to get rid of those P.O.S. lock-ups that I could not eradicate!

 

 

THANKS!

[+remowilliams]

Just fired it up on flashcart... I'm stunned at how amazingly brilliant this is, I never would have thought it possible on the A8!

 

Huge thanks for all the work and the release!

 

One other thing I'll add - NTSC support is wonderful. I'm always bummed about not being able to run so much of the incredible stuff that has come out for the A8 on real hardware...

[Heaven/TQA]

unbelievable how long it took... but Kudos to Chris for finally finishing it...

[+Stephen]

 

Fired it up again and my game-playing skills got me to the end of Level-1... but in easy mode... :)

 

THANKS!

So far, that's as far as I am able to make it. I don't see myself ever finishing this game.

[+remowilliams]

Fired it up again and my game-playing skills got me to the end of Level-1... but in easy mode... :)

 

I just tried easy. I think I got to level 5 before I lost my first life.

[MEtalGuy66]

UPDATE!

 

 

Well, just burned my AtariMax cart. with the provided 1MB image and fired it up!!!... just to encounter a continuous/systematic LOCK-UP right at the intro-screen (at a given point, the image will FREEZE with clear outlined shapes, but half-baked colors/solid areas without the usual details like the waving hand, the cyclop-blinking eye, etc... except for some patches of green, etc.)

 

I immediately recalled the strange, almost inexplicable LOCK-UPs that I have been getting for some time, while firing some titles with AtariMax, being Stealth one notorious example... with similar lock-ups (very little or no garbage left on the image, just a frozen, partially drawn frame). It truly smelled like some bad/unrecoverable timing problem.

 

After a complete dissassambly of my 800XL (RevC, completely socketed), and testing as many traces to and from the cart-socket, back into every possible place I could check), reseating MMU and all surrounding compadres... I then went straight to ANTIC and 6502-Sally and BANG! It turns out that I had a DYING 6502-Sally, which I replaced from my fresh stock of parts/chipsets.

 

Fired it up again and my game-playing skills got me to the end of Level-1... but in easy mode... :)

 

In summary: ABSOLUTELY GREAT conversion (considering the host machine capabilities), and GREAT debugging/testing tool! It finally allowed me to get rid of those P.O.S. lock-ups that I could not eradicate!

 

 

THANKS!

 

Thats not a "dying 6502C" its just one that happens to have slightly different PHI2 generation characteristics than what your Flash cart happens to "like"...

 

The more crap you add on the data bus of the machine, the more critical PHI-2 to bus timing becomes.. And the more flakey your machine will become if said timing is not exactly the way it needs to be..

 

THere have been countless pages of shit written about this.. Its the most common stability related problem on the atari.

[snicklin]

Believe it or not, there aren't any cheats. That is what the "easy" and 5 men options are for . You get 1 continue straight off when its on "easy". Once you get past a bonus stage you get another continue added, plus you can then start from that stage if you want. (BTW those features were only available as cheats on other home versions).

 

A tip: go round in circles to avoid the alien missiles - they always aim at your current position when launched - so don't go back on yourself.

 

Strangely enough, I haven't tried the easy mode yet, I'll do that next time I fire it up.

 

You must be a great player of this to have tested the higher levels! I assumed that you must have had some cheats for testing purposes!

 

Thanks for the circle tip, I try not to stay still for too long. The great thing is, playing this game isn't swallowing my 30p like the original game did, and I used to lose my games very quickly on the arcade game!

 

How about demoing your game here, http://www.replayexpo.com/ ?? You'd show all the other 8 bitters just what the Atari can do!

[frogstar_robot]

I just wanted to note that Atari800 will load the cart image of this game just fine. That is Atari800 NOT Atari800Win which is basically unmaintained and based on a much earlier version of the Atari800 codebase.

 

Atari++ 1.60 will run the 1M bin file provided after the first download; mount it as a cart and choose the Flash cartridge type.

Edited July 7, 2011 by frogstar_robot

[José Pereira]

I think PMs are for the Player, Shoots & objects are plain gfx while background is graphics, too spiced up with DLIs and PMs (clouds)?

 

PM0&1 for Player as it seems that, probably,... 10pixels wide is enough.

Or not...

 

I was reading this right now and don't even bother to open another Window, but probably the ten or so pixels of the guy are probably two Multicolour Players.

And I am now saying this because the screen isn't a Normal 32/40/48bytes wide (if I remember it right).

Like that and because Sheddy is using a Bitmap Mode then the 5th Player enabled with four Missiles (two left and two right) with PF3-Black Mask side Borders.

 

 

But even this there's another thing:

If this is working in a 'Flicker between two Palletes' then there's (PF0,PF1,PF2) x 2 (I think I read it that the Flicker is two Palletes) then you'll see/study and there's more than two Palletes of these (PF0,PF1,PF2).

Why?

Because it seems a it exists a third Pallete: The shoots 'Dark greenwish'

There are two 'Flicker' palletes than changes colour/luminances according to gfxs./levels but the shoots are always that 'greenwish'.

 

 

 

The 'common colour' it's Backgr. register and there's only one, what 'Flickers'/more than one Pallete are the PFs.

That's why the Ground aren't 'Chess Board' nd just Lines line the Sky, all these Lines are Backgr. Register DLIs.

And this is another possible win of cycles? Bitmap Masking over (00) and just 16cycles ?

 

 

Just some Thoughts of a 'Non coder'

José Pereira.

Edited July 7, 2011 by José Pereira

[Faicuai]

UPDATE!

 

 

Well, just burned my AtariMax cart. with the provided 1MB image and fired it up!!!... just to encounter a continuous/systematic LOCK-UP right at the intro-screen (at a given point, the image will FREEZE with clear outlined shapes, but half-baked colors/solid areas without the usual details like the waving hand, the cyclop-blinking eye, etc... except for some patches of green, etc.)

 

I immediately recalled the strange, almost inexplicable LOCK-UPs that I have been getting for some time, while firing some titles with AtariMax, being Stealth one notorious example... with similar lock-ups (very little or no garbage left on the image, just a frozen, partially drawn frame). It truly smelled like some bad/unrecoverable timing problem.

 

After a complete dissassambly of my 800XL (RevC, completely socketed), and testing as many traces to and from the cart-socket, back into every possible place I could check), reseating MMU and all surrounding compadres... I then went straight to ANTIC and 6502-Sally and BANG! It turns out that I had a DYING 6502-Sally, which I replaced from my fresh stock of parts/chipsets.

 

Fired it up again and my game-playing skills got me to the end of Level-1... but in easy mode... :)

 

In summary: ABSOLUTELY GREAT conversion (considering the host machine capabilities), and GREAT debugging/testing tool! It finally allowed me to get rid of those P.O.S. lock-ups that I could not eradicate!

 

 

THANKS!

 

Thats not a "dying 6502C" its just one that happens to have slightly different PHI2 generation characteristics than what your Flash cart happens to "like"...

 

The more crap you add on the data bus of the machine, the more critical PHI-2 to bus timing becomes.. And the more flakey your machine will become if said timing is not exactly the way it needs to be..

 

THere have been countless pages of shit written about this.. Its the most common stability related problem on the atari.

 

 

VERY interesting insight. In fact, I had already come in contact with this info. (before) here in AtariAge.

 

The only problem here is that my machine is "virgin": absolutely NO MODS and never had any, whatsoever... and, on top of that, when loading this 6502 offender on my alternate 800XL (which is also mods-free and has never been touched) it craps out, too.

 

It could still be related to your diagnostics, though.

 

 

Based on your expertise: Any way I can fire-up these machines, side-by-side, and see the PHI-2 signal in a dual-channel Scope? Anything that I could play with? Which pin should I hook up the probes? I just want to put my just-purchased Fluke into a good use (so I can finally emerge out of the obscurantism I have been part of for that last two decades... ) :)

 

 

F.

[TMR]

How about demoing your game here, http://www.replayexpo.com/ ??

 

i'll be in the Replay competition hall with a stock 800XL (along with a few other machines and hopefully a small collection of brand new 8-bit games to release over the course of the weekend) so if someone fancies bringing a cartridge along...

[Sheddy]

[quote name='snicklin' timestamp='1310062168'

 

You must be a great player of this to have tested the higher levels! I assumed that you must have had some cheats for testing purposes

 

 

Nah, just had the assembler set up so that it was easy to a build different versions that only start from a particular stage rather than 1

[GoodByteXL]

UPDATE!

 

 

Well, just burned my AtariMax cart. with the provided 1MB image and fired it up!!!... just to encounter a continuous/systematic LOCK-UP right at the intro-screen (at a given point, the image will FREEZE with clear outlined shapes, but half-baked colors/solid areas without the usual details like the waving hand, the cyclop-blinking eye, etc... except for some patches of green, etc.)

 

I immediately recalled the strange, almost inexplicable LOCK-UPs that I have been getting for some time, while firing some titles with AtariMax, being Stealth one notorious example... with similar lock-ups (very little or no garbage left on the image, just a frozen, partially drawn frame). It truly smelled like some bad/unrecoverable timing problem.

 

After a complete dissassambly of my 800XL (RevC, completely socketed), and testing as many traces to and from the cart-socket, back into every possible place I could check), reseating MMU and all surrounding compadres... I then went straight to ANTIC and 6502-Sally and BANG! It turns out that I had a DYING 6502-Sally, which I replaced from my fresh stock of parts/chipsets.

 

Fired it up again and my game-playing skills got me to the end of Level-1... but in easy mode... :)

 

In summary: ABSOLUTELY GREAT conversion (considering the host machine capabilities), and GREAT debugging/testing tool! It finally allowed me to get rid of those P.O.S. lock-ups that I could not eradicate!

 

 

THANKS!

 

Thats not a "dying 6502C" its just one that happens to have slightly different PHI2 generation characteristics than what your Flash cart happens to "like"...

 

The more crap you add on the data bus of the machine, the more critical PHI-2 to bus timing becomes.. And the more flakey your machine will become if said timing is not exactly the way it needs to be..

 

THere have been countless pages of shit written about this.. Its the most common stability related problem on the atari.

The older versions of Atarimax flashcarts (mine is first series from 2003) "drain" the PHI2 signal that much, it might lock-up your A8. I fixed my XL/XE machines with the old trick from Bob Puff (http://nleaudio.com/css/Files.htm). In fact this is a dirty hack and newer devices like the KMK/JZ IDE V2 Plus or Bernd's cartridges cover this problem. If somebody likes to fix this more professionally, here is a solution: http://www.abbuc.de/~bernd/tipps/phi2.html

Edited July 8, 2011 by GoodByteXL

[snicklin]

How about demoing your game here, http://www.replayexpo.com/ ??

 

i'll be in the Replay competition hall with a stock 800XL (along with a few other machines and hopefully a small collection of brand new 8-bit games to release over the course of the weekend) so if someone fancies bringing a cartridge along...

 

Woo! I'll be there.