tep392 Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I was getting frustrated with how fast Dropzone ran on my NTSC machine so I did this little hack to slow the frame rate to PAL's 50hz. Plays much better now. Dropzone_ntsc.xex 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Cool, Personally I play on a Pal machine but it's not permanently set up, so having this will let me play at will on my main NTSC machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Cool, Personally I play on a Pal machine but it's not permanently set up, so having this will let me play at will on my main NTSC machine. perhaps you could see how it compares, then we can play it next season in the HSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 (edited) In theory, it should play identically. The game is timed to the screen refresh rate (vertical blank interrupt) so I simply added some code at the start of the VBI to exit early once every 6 screens. The main code section just sits in a loop waiting for the vertical blank code to run. This effectively pauses the game for 1/60 of a second after every 5 frames so there is only 50 loops through the game code per second. I also fixed a glitch that skips the "dropzone" animation and makes the initial screen look like this on NTSC machines. Edited October 10, 2011 by tep392 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texacala Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Excellent! Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Looks good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I also fixed a glitch that skips the "dropzone" animation and makes the initial screen look like this on NTSC machines. I'm still getting this glitch on my NTSC 130XE. When I get the "Practice Recommended" message and then push the fire button... It then appears on the title screen as shown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 I also fixed a glitch that skips the "dropzone" animation and makes the initial screen look like this on NTSC machines. I'm still getting this glitch on my NTSC 130XE. When I get the "Practice Recommended" message and then push the fire button... It then appears on the title screen as shown. Thanks for catching that. I think this version will fix it. Dropzone_ntsc_ver2.xex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Dang I played the crap out of this game I thought the speed was the way the game was meant to be played... Never thought it was an oversight on the timing since I purchased the game. Now electraglide is one that needs a little timer adjustment..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Then the other great game NTSCers' are missing out on is Zone X Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Dang I played the crap out of this game I thought the speed was the way the game was meant to be played... Never thought it was an oversight on the timing since I purchased the game. Now electraglide is one that needs a little timer adjustment..... Same here, and since I suck at most games, I just assumed I was also no good at this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Is this (Dropzone) now fully playable on NTSC {Thinking of playing it in the High Score Club} Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 I believe it is. I've compared game play in emulation and it seems to run at the same pace as the original in PAL emulation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I remember Maclean said the colors in NTSC were not to his liking. So I turned everything between $10-$8F up one color clock. PAL NTSC $26 --> $36 main ground $2A --> $3A ground accents $78 --> $88 blunder storm $3C --> $4C nmeye $1C --> $2C cloak indicator $78 --> $88 cloak indicator border/ "OUT"/ "IN" $38 --> $48 "MEN:" $38 --> $48 player dark pink $7C --> $8C players remain $76 --> $86 man (main body)/spore (main body) $B8 --> $B8 planter (main body)/nemesite (main body) $38 --> $48 lava spew $38 --> $48 scanner border/bombs remain $76 --> $86 man tumble $76 --> $86 man saved Dropzone_ntsc_vs2_color.zip Dropzone_colors.txt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbking67 Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Dropzone was sold in the US... I remember seeing it demonstrated at some Atarifests... so was this game effectively released unplayable on US systems? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I hope to see more NTSC for other games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I hope to see more NTSC for other games. I hope to see more games made to run at NTSC speeds on PAL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 (edited) Backstory http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-dropzone_1746.html Interesting that he got it to run at a constant 50Hz on PAL. So NTSC dropzone runs at 40Hz? Edited January 25, 2012 by slampam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Interesting that he got it to run at a constant 50Hz on PAL. So NTSC dropzone runs at 40Hz? You think the NTSC frame rate is 40Hz? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 >no, those Hz's are all backwards and wrong. I just noticed the atarimania dropezone box says it runs on 64k. I was thinking it ran on 48k off a disk. Does this mean a 5200 would never be possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 More like 48K. 5200 I'd think possible but would require reverse-engineering and rework of the program - fair bit of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sargie Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Thanks for doing this - game is now playable on an NTSC machine! The speed of the game is now accurate to the PAL version but the scrolling seems a lot jerkier than I remember... I used to play this game a lot back in the day. I could get 4-5 million in a few hours and then get bored Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 The speed of the game is now accurate to the PAL version but the scrolling seems a lot jerkier than I remember... If you'd bother reading the explanation of how he slowed it down, you'd understand why the scrolling isn't as smooth anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 The speed of the game is now accurate to the PAL version but the scrolling seems a lot jerkier than I remember... If you'd bother reading the explanation of how he slowed it down, you'd understand why the scrolling isn't as smooth anymore. Warm and charming as always 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sargie Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 (edited) Yeah - way to roll out the welcome mat BTW: I did read it the beginning of the thread - 4 months ago. I also had no idea that what Tep392 was describing would be the cause of the jerky scrolling as I am not that technical... but then again I didn't give it much thought as all I just wanted to say "Thank-You" for to whoever did this for doing this, offer a friendly observation and not get moaned at by a pedant. Edited January 28, 2012 by sargie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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