Frantic (2600)

[disjaukifa]

Great! This ARM code alignment bug is rather annoying, I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up again in a future build.

 

For now I'll just keep confirming it runs on my 2600 & 7800 before uploading. When it's time for the final ROM I'll make sure you sign off on it as well.

 

It does help that you are making a sequel to favorite Atari 2600 game ever and very quickly becoming my favorite game of all time

[espire8]

The tweaked menu option highlights look improved & the selection is a bit easier now.

 

Update on the robots:-

I got a BERZERK robot model sheet finished today. Took quite awhile to put together, but I figured it was high time to get that priority graphics part done and out the way.

 

I used the taller robot image (15 x 8 pixel size) that you mentioned will be used for the PAL version.

Revised the sheet for 14 x 8 robots instead after Darrell informed me the game was going to be PAL60 - which is better.

There's 31 robot images in all for Up, Down, Left, Right movements and Idle w/ rotating eye.

 

 

This is an enlarged sample animation using the images from the first model sheet before I updated it. There's not much difference in the details of movement.

 

 

I'll work on the Tanks next.

 

-- Btw, I noticed in the last build I played, something was wrong with the score display. The digits sometimes aren't spaced evenly.

In the screen shot below, the number "2" in my score is too far off to the left. This glitch seldom happens, but every so often it shows up.

Edited September 17, 2011 by espire8

[+SpiceWare]

Looks good, but I'd decided to do PAL as PAL 60, so it's going to use the same robots as the NTSC version.

 

That's not a glitch - the "1" digit is only 3 pixels wide vs 7 for all other digits.

[espire8]

Looks good, but I'd decided to do PAL as PAL 60, so it's going to use the same robots as the NTSC version.

 

That's not a glitch - the "1" digit is only 3 pixels wide vs 7 for all other digits.

Okay, I'll update the sheet for the ntsc.

 

I think the "1" is off-centered then -because there are large gaps in the score after the 1's which look very odd to me. Is this score font supposed to look like that?

[raindog]

I think the "1" is off-centered then -because there are large gaps in the score after the 1's which look very odd to me. Is this score font supposed to look like that?

 

That was pretty common in the early 80s. It's similar to multi-segment LED displays, where the 1 is always off to the right. Jeff Minter has done that in most of his games too, in some cases just using a font that looks exactly like a multi-segment LED. I kinda like it, in keeping with the other visual upgrades that make this look more like a C64 or Atari 800 game than a 2600 game.

[espire8]

I just revised the Berzerk model sheet and replaced the first one in the same post here.

 

I'll finish the Tank robot tonight so you can have both robots animated as well as update the humanoid whenever you get around to it.

Edited September 17, 2011 by espire8

[espire8]

SCORPION Robots (aka- Tanks) The colors may be a little off but I'm too tired to check now, anyway, maybe they're ok..

 

Edit: Checked the sheet again this morning and revised it because there were animations that reused some frames. So this sheet has fewer images now (16 instead of 19).

That should help save more space for other graphics.

 

This should be enough for now. It's been a very productive week for this and other projects I'm helping with.

 

Glad to have had these done for when you're ready to use them. Special rooms are next on my list, -- but I'm so wiped out with all the pixel work, I'm going to take a break over the weekend and start fresh next week. See you then.

Edited September 17, 2011 by espire8

[+SpiceWare]

Robot animation in place. They have thrown off the Wall Avoidance routines though, so no need to let me know that the robots are running into the walls more than they should.

 

Also no need to tell me that the Frenzy variation looks odd

 

This'll be the last update for a while as I'm going to revamp some of the routines and it's going to take a bit of time to do so.

 

 

ROM (Stella instructions in 1st post)

frantic_harmony_20110919.bin

[disjaukifa]

I can only do the first room again . . .

[disjaukifa]

Observations and I mean this too be helpful not hurtful because I honestly love this game.

 

1st - the game should freeze or something when you game ends, everything is going so fast that when I die I have no idea what my score was . . . at all.

 

2nd - I haven't been able to play your latest version because of the room problem, but in the build frantic_harmony_20110917slow, I don't I ever saw a robot once colide with a wall, but it looks like their arms are in the wall all the time . . . maybe thats by design.

 

3rd - Sometimes the same robot gets a double shot . . . not sure if I like that or not . . . I know in the 2600 version of the game, that was not the case.

 

Looking forward to your next update either on your blog or on this thread!

Edited September 22, 2011 by disjaukifa

[+SpiceWare]

Worked when I tested it before posting it, but when I tried to play last night I had the same problem with just the first room working. After playing some Chun-Li, I tried Frantic again and it worked fine. So it's almost like the Harmony needed to "warm up". That tells me that when we get to the final build that we'll need to play test with a "cold" as well as a "warm" Harmony.

 

1 - I'd temporarily put the last score on the main menu for that reason, but removed it when I finished the menu. There's going to be a screen that shows the last score + high scores (which can be saved to the AtariVox or SaveKey). I'll add a place holder high-score screen after I finish the bank reorg.

 

2 - did not notice that, but it's not by design. I know the current version has that problem because the animation throws off the wall avoidance routines. The "base robot" is 7 pixels wide, but some of the frames are only 5 which lets it get 1 pixel too close to the wall. I tried a fix of always using a 7 pixel wide image for the test, but that's when I discovered some of the animation frames are 8 pixels wide. It helped except when robots were chasing you to the right side of the screen - that's when I noticed that the "center spot" of the right-facing robot shifts from pixel 4 to pixel 5, which throws things off by a pixel. I've ideas on how to fix it.

 

3 - yep, known issue. They couldn't in the 2600 version as it only supports 1 robot shot at a time.

[disjaukifa]

Interesting . . . I might trying playing some Berzerk first and then see if I'm able to play Frantic. It'll be interesting to see if there is an actually correlation between the two. I'll post my findings.

 

Thanks for the update!

[+SpiceWare]

6507 is all in bank 5, bank 5 graphics now in bank 4. Not done with the changes yet, but a quick test and my Harmony was crashing. Re-arranged ARM and it's not crashing - hopefully you can now play it as well.

 

frantic_harmony_20110922.bin

[disjaukifa]

Spiceware,

 

Just tried it out and I was able to go to 3 rooms no problems, so I think you have it figured out! Thanks for the fix and update!

[+SpiceWare]

No problem, though I don't know what's causing your issue, nor why this last issue we both saw was "temperature related".

 

I'm in the process of consolidating duplicated code now that all the 6507 code is in the same bank. Freed up about 350 bytes so far, but need to resolve some issues caused by the consolidation

[disjaukifa]

Hey Spiceware,

 

I think found a bug . . . or a really cool feature. I'll the pictures describe the issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cebus Capucinis]

This project never fails to completely and utterly AMAZE me with your talent. Looking fabulous and getting so much closer to a PHENOMENAL game! I'm very excited!

[+SpiceWare]

See Monday.

 

Thanks!

[disjaukifa]

We really need a smiley that is a simley smacking their head against a brick wall. Awesome game, almost broke 10K last night. Great game, the robot animation is looking fantastic!

[+SpiceWare]

• Finished merging 6507 banks 4 & 5 into bank 5. Saved 377 bytes by doing this!
  
• updated robot up/down graphics (no more sliding leg)
  
• revised sprite routines to offset the Right-Robot images by 1 pixel
  
• revised wall avoidance routines to work better with animated sprites
  
• new screen which shows last score for a bit, with continue countdown if enabled. Hitting fire on this screen will start a new game, starting level depends on the continue setting
  

 

 

 

There's some quirks with the last score and hitting Game Select on the Atari. No need to tell me as I'm aware of it.

 

 

ROM (Stella instructions in 1st post)

frantic_harmony_20110924.bin

Edited September 24, 2011 by SpiceWare

[ls650]

Sweet - I will check this latest build out on my Harmony today...

[KevinMos3]

It's looking good, but the last couple of builds have been crashing on every Atari I've got. Whenever I try to go to another room, it crashes. It used to work fine on my Jr and only crashed on my heavy sixer.

[+SpiceWare]

I test it on all 3 of my systems before uploading, that's all I can do for now. When the game's done, I'll confirm with you and disjaukifa that it works on your systems before considering the game done.

 

 

 

[disjaukifa]

Yeah unfortunately this latests build is not working on my console either! I'll see if I can do any addition testing to see what is causing this and to see if I can find some weird combination that will allow it to work properly.

[NML32]

I don't have a 2600 but I've been playing it on my 7800 and no crashing so far.

 

Great game, I'm looking forward to getting it on cart.

Edited September 25, 2011 by NML32