Frantic (2600)

[+SpiceWare]

 

One thing about the Special Objects in the Arcade version of Frenzy...they are always in the same quadrant, 4th over and 2nd down. I like the idea of being able to play either variation...Fixed locations as in Arcade or random slots (including the four corners)

 

So they do, hadn't noticed that before.

 

I'm not worried about "arcade exact" else I wouldn't have added Homing Missiles, or used multi-colored objects.

 

I plan to keep the special object location random, though I do plan to redo the routines so that they always appear in the same location for a given room. Currently, if you die, the special object might move to a new location when the room is re-initialized and I find that to be odd. The arcade version of Frenzy puts you into a new room if you die, I always found that jarring which is why I leave you in the same room.

[+SpiceWare]

• LumaBoost in place, currently controlled by TV Type. LumaBoost will increase the brightness of flickering objects to compensate for the flicker
• Special Room Objects now appear in the same location for a give room
• wall types (destructive vs reflective) that surround a Special Room Objects are now drawn based on the object.
• Priority increased for Hit Special Object sound effect
• Halved the speed of Homing Missiles
• If the robot was standing next to a wall and the wall was to its right, if the robot was destroyed the explosion would bleed thru the wall. This has been fixed.

Controls

• TV Type = LumaBoost control: B&W = Off, Color = On
• RESET = start game
• SELECT = return to menu
• Left Difficulty, Frenzy Special Room Test¹: B = Off, A = On
• Right Difficulty, Stress Test Mode²: B = Off, A = On

¹Frenzy Special Room Test will always put a special object in the room.

²Stress Test Mode is infinite lives and max robots. Score will be red when active.

 

I'm still seeing occasional sprite size changes so that 2x glitch is still present. I suspect the C Stack and Variable space are colliding. Once I can resolve the problem with compiling Stella 3.9.3, I'm going to try to add something to Stella's debugger which will let me see the state of the extra RAM, which should confirm or deny that suspicion.

 

 

ROM

frantic20140227.bin

[+SpiceWare]

Yesterday I got my changes to Stella to the point where I can now see the state of the extra RAM. Based on what I saw, it's entirely possible that the C Stack and Variable RAM spaces were colliding. Since I can only see the state after, but not during, the execution of C code there's no way to know for sure if that is the source of the resizing sprite glitch, I only know that it could be.

 

I've increased the memory allocation for C usage, which eliminated the appearance of RAM collision. Please play this new binary and let me know if you see any occurances of sprites being resized when they shouldn't. If they do, then the problem was something else.

 

NOTE: slightly newer build can be found in my blog, includes a version for the Harmony Encore.

 

ROM

frantic20140305.bin

 

Menu Options

 

Topmost option is style of game, Berzerk:

 

Frenzy:

 

Selecting Frenzy enables 2 extra options:

• Homing - The select number(1-3) denotes how many times a tank shot (square in shape) can change directions to home in on the humanoid. X means tank shots cannot change directions.
• Wall Flicker - how fast reflective walls will flicker, the topmost option will change its flicker rate to show you how it looks without having to start a game. Non-flickering walls are destructible in the Frenzy version of the game.

Options for both versions:

• Robot Shots - maximum number of concurrent shots
• Stealth - invisible robots. You can briefly see all the robots when the round starts and when you shoot one. You will also briefly see any robot that shots at you
• Lives - Start the game with 1, 3 or 5 lives
• Bonus Live - earn an extra life every 1000, 2000, 5000 points, or not at all if X is selected

Difficulty Switches:

• Left controls Frenzy Special Room Test, A=On B=Off. If On every room in the Frenzy version will contain a special object. Switch has no effect on the Berzerk version.
• Right controls Stress Test, A=On B=Off. If On you'll have infinite lives and max robots in every room. Score will be red when active.

Edited January 6, 2019 by SpiceWare

[WildBillTX]

Very nice. I'm playing this on Stella 3.9.3 and noticed some slowdown here and there. Also has anyone else ran up the score in Frenzy mode by nailing Otto over and over again?

[+SpiceWare]

Thanks!

 

How fast is your system? It's possible it's not fast enough for Frantic's heavy use of the ARM chip.

 

My To Do list includes some revisions for Otto, such as requiring multiple hits before respawning and being faster after the respawn.

[WildBillTX]

Thanks!

 

How fast is your system? It's possible it's not fast enough for Frantic's heavy use of the ARM chip.

 

My To Do list includes some revisions for Otto, such as requiring multiple hits before respawning and being faster after the respawn.

 

It's very easy to stand in a area free of robots and just keep knocking off Otto over and over. Kind of like what we used to do playing Asteroids.

 

My system is running Windows 7 Pro on a AMD Phenom II X4 695 CPU running at 3.40 mhz - with 16 gigs of ram and a Nividia GForce GT 640. It's not the most powerful, and I've been thinking about building a new Intel-based system for HD 1080p video editing. But that should be enough for Stella? This is the first time I've heard of a 2600 emulator putting a heavy load on a computer! And playing it again, It's a very minor slowdown on the (near impossible to clear) high level screens full of robots. Otherwise this is a fantastic game.

Edited March 7, 2014 by WildBillTX

[+SpiceWare]

It's very easy to stand in a area free of robots and just keep knocking off Otto over and over. Kind of like what we used to do playing Asteroids.

I know - it just takes time to implement everything. The current Otto routines are the ones for the Berzerk variation. In Frenzy Otto works a bit differently, but I haven't gotten around to writing those routines yet so the Frenzy version is using the Berzerk routines.

 

My system is running Windows 7 Pro on a AMD Phenom II X4 695 CPU running at 3.40 mhz - with 16 gigs of ram and a Nividia GForce GT 640. It's not the most powerful, and I've been thinking about building a new Intel-based system for HD 1080p video editing.

I would think that's fast enough considering my Mac Book Pro's only a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, but then again I do my stress-testing on real hardware so I can watch for screen jitter/rolls. Stella doesn't currently emulate the time it takes to run ARM code (ie: the 6507 thinks anything run in ARM code takes 0 cycles of processor time) so ARM code that takes too long to run won't show up as a problem in Stella.

 

But that should be enough for Stella? This is the first time I've heard of a 2600 emulator putting a heavy load on a computer! And playing it again, It's a very minor slowdown on the (near impossible to clear) high level screens full of robots. Otherwise this is a fantastic game.

Stay Frosty 2, Space Rocks and Frantic all use the 70 MHz ARM processor that's in the Harmony/Melody cart to do the game calculations, so when playing those games not only is Stella emulating the 2600, it's also emulating an ARM chip. Beyond getting the ARM emulator to work, I don't think we've spent much time on the performance of ARM support.

 

Just did a quick test of Stella's CPU usage when playing different games:

• 6.8% - Asteroids
• 6.5% - Berzerk
• 6.4% - Space Invaders
• 12.8% - Space Rocks
• 13.5% - Stay Frosty 2
• 18.4% - Frantic

Asteroids possibly takes more CPU because it's a bankswitched game, so besides the 2600 hardware Stella has to also emulate that extra cartridge hardware. Anyway I'm not worried about performance issues in Stella, only performance issues on real hardware. Edited March 7, 2014 by SpiceWare

[Arenafoot]

I know - it just takes time to implement everything.

 

Now that we got a long awaited update to Dintar's Pac-Man 8k........ could there be an update to Frantic, Darrell?

[+SpiceWare]

Now that we got a long awaited update to Dintar's Pac-Man 8k........ could there be an update to Frantic, Darrell?

Someday, but it's going to be a while.

[Shannon]

I'm just curious.. which version would you recommend as the most stable/playable in emulation? The last one available?

[+SpiceWare]

I would probably go with the last one available, though some of the early builds do have speech.

If all goes well this will be finished next year. One thing I'm going to look into is the Melody's support of 128K of flash as the speech in Draconian had to be reduced in quality quite a bit in order to fit the 5K I had left (after code, graphics, etc.) of the Melody's stock 32K. I'd have looked into using 128K for Draconian, but I don't currently have a way to test games that large on my hardware. I'll be looking to acquire a Harmony Encore.

[Yosikuma]

Your Otto is actually kind of creepy looking! I just got to try this last night and enjoyed it!

 

Also, 128K for Draconian? Is 64K not an option in this case?

[+SpiceWare]

The graphics are the work of espire8.

 

The page for Melody has:

 

Additionally, Melody boards can be built with a 128K Flash chip, replacing the Melody's standard 32K of Flash memory. And if 8K of RAM isn't enough for you, up to 64K of RAM can be added instead. This allows for a Melody board containing 128K of Flash memory and 64K of RAM. And if that's not enough, the Melody can be fitted with an optional EEPROM chip up to 4MB in size!

so as far as I can tell the options would be:

• 32K ROM, 8K RAM
• 32K ROM, 64K RAM
• 128K ROM, 8K RAM
• 128K ROM, 64K RAM

And each of those with or without an EEPROM chip. As I recall, the ARM cannot directly access data stored in the EEPROM. It must be loaded into RAM first, which takes some time. So the EEPROM would be useful for things like level data, but not so much for audio data, graphics, code, etc.

[DGMMX]

Has anyone ever thought about adapting the code in order to make a fully-fledged version of Frenzy on the Atari 2600?

 

O O

--|-- (-*-) /=\

^ / | \ =

^

[+SpiceWare]

Has anyone ever thought about adapting the code in order to make a fully-fledged version of Frenzy on the Atari 2600?

The game contains both Berzerk and Frenzy, controlled by the maze type option as shown in reply 353. That determines the enemy type(s) and whether or not the special rooms for Frenzy come into play. I did add 2 new features - homing shots for Frenzy's tanks, and stealth mode for both versions. Those are both user selectable, so turn them off for original arcade gameplay.

 

Frantic was bumped to the back burner as I became more interested in other projects (Space Rocks, Stay Frosty 2, bus stuffing, Draconian, Champ games, etc). I'm now working on SpiceC with plans to reboot Frantic using it once I'm far enough along - no ETA, though I'm hopeful the reboot will occur early next year.

[DGMMX]

The game contains both Berzerk and Frenzy, controlled by the maze type option as shown in reply 353. That determines the enemy type(s) and whether or not the special rooms for Frenzy come into play. I did add 2 new features - homing shots for Frenzy's tanks, and stealth mode for both versions. Those are both user selectable, so turn them off for original arcade gameplay.

 

Frantic was bumped to the back burner as I became more interested in other projects (Space Rocks, Stay Frosty 2, bus stuffing, Draconian, Champ games, etc). I'm now working on SpiceC with plans to reboot Frantic using it once I'm far enough along - no ETA, though I'm hopeful the reboot will occur early next year.

No, I meant to add features not present in this version of Frenzy (i.e. requiring 3 shots to kill Evil Otto), and to also make it graphically similar to the arcade version

[+SpiceWare]

This version's still under development, things like 3 shots to kill Evil Otto are still on the To Do list.

 

Arcade graphics are a possibility, similar to Space Rocks where you can choose Vector or Solid graphics as well as color to match the arcade version. That does depend upon there being enough free space to implement it, though is unlikely if I add back the digitized arcade voice samples.

[DGMMX]

This version's still under development, things like 3 shots to kill Evil Otto are still on the To Do list.

 

Arcade graphics are a possibility, similar to Space Rocks where you can choose Vector or Solid graphics as well as color to match the arcade version. That does depend upon there being enough free space to implement it, though is unlikely if I add back the digitized arcade voice samples.

Also, in this version, the reflector walls and "dots" can electrocute you, while in the arcade version, this feature is not present.

[+SpiceWare]

Correct. This is a WIP, work in progress, which means there's a list of things I've yet to implement. Since the project is on the back burner, worrying about what's on that list is currently a waste of time.

[keebz]

This version's still under development, things like 3 shots to kill Evil Otto are still on the To Do list.

 

Arcade graphics are a possibility, similar to Space Rocks where you can choose Vector or Solid graphics as well as color to match the arcade version. That does depend upon there being enough free space to implement it, though is unlikely if I add back the digitized arcade voice samples.

 

I just got done playing this build for the first time. It's fantastic! Everything about this game is a blast. My 2 cents, if it's between a berzerk graphics switch and voice samples... I'd rather have melody voice samples.

[+SpiceWare]

If you're trying to play this with a Harmony Encore then you'll want the Encore patched ROM found in this blog entry.

[easmith]

just discovered this and am blown away. I am playing with keyboard, and have noticed that it is difficult to get the up + left diagonal shot to fire.

[+sramirez2008]

If you're trying to play this with a Harmony Encore then you'll want the Encore patched ROM found in this blog entry.

 

Wow This is great! Please tell me your going to finish this some day.

[+SpiceWare]

just discovered this and am blown away. I am playing with keyboard, and have noticed that it is difficult to get the up + left diagonal shot to fire.

 

It's possible you're encountering a rollover issue. If you're using SPACE to fire try using LEFT-CONTROL instead (and vice-versa).

 

 

Wow This is great! Please tell me your going to finish this some day.

Yes. I wiped my Mac Pro just before the holidays and need to get my development environment set back up.

 

Once done I'll resume work on SpiceC with a remake of Space War as the initial test project.

 

After that I'll be rebooting Frantic and Timmy! to use SpiceC as the second and third SpiceC test projects.

[+sramirez2008]

After that I'll be rebooting Frantic and Timmy! to use SpiceC as the second and third SpiceC test projects.

 

Sweet! Does the Timmy! BIN work with Harmony/Harmony Encore?