Moon Cresta updates

[rdefabri]

Never tried this before - via Altirra.

 

Took me a short while to find the right settings:

 

800XL

 

LLE Kernal

 

64K

 

NTSC

VBXE

VBXE memory

No Artifacting

Standard Video

 

Amazing conversion - seems 100% authentic. I did play the coin-op a lot, so it appears the same, even though I've only played one game and didn't get that far.

I guess this is the only way we'll ever see Galaga running. Must have been a lot of work to get this Moon Cresta up and running?

 

Yea, it's really well done. I watched a YouTube of the original - I remember it when new, but it's been so long since I played it...this is a very accurate version.

 

Have to say, I'm not loving Altirra though. I can't map the keys right on some games, and some I can't play. I much prefer the Atari800WinPlus, but obviously without VBXE, I couldn't play Moon Cresta.

[+Stephen]

 

Yea, it's really well done. I watched a YouTube of the original - I remember it when new, but it's been so long since I played it...this is a very accurate version.

 

Have to say, I'm not loving Altirra though. I can't map the keys right on some games, and some I can't play. I much prefer the Atari800WinPlus, but obviously without VBXE, I couldn't play Moon Cresta.

Stick with Altirra. It takes a while to get used to some things which are done differently than Atari800Win+, but once you start figuring those out, you'll never switch back. The key mapping should be 100% configurable, and I'm not aware of a single game that doesn't work on it.

[+davidcalgary29]

Was a XEGS patch ever made?

[miker]

And this:

+1 for non-VBXE version (may be on pure hi-res mode)

 

No chances for standard banking and ordinary Gr.8?

[+Stephen]

On 2/9/2012 at 12:09 PM, sloopy said:

Tonight, I will test this... As I am sure people would appreciate it if i tested their VBXE's before shipping :'D

 

 

sloopy.

Had to LOL here.  Still waiting on that shipment (among others).  Only been 2,827 days since this post though, guess I should be patient.

[chevymad]

Not sure if I have a software or hardware issue. I've been trying to play Moon Cresta, but either end up with a black screen or corrupted star field. I have a PAL 1088XEL. I finally found a setting that works. Stock memory and OS B Pal. If I change OS to Altirra, XEGS, or XL the game won't play correctly. Is this the way it's supposed to work? or are there pal versions of the other OS?

[Rybags]

The intention was for it to work on >= 64K and not care about type of expansion.  My 800XL has U1Meg.

But I've not touched the game in probably 8 years.  It's entirely possible some configs might get a problem.

[patjomki]

It's a pity it never got finished.

 

I played Moon Cresta at the arcade quite often but also could't get it to run properly on my vbxe equipped XL.

[+DrVenkman]

7 hours ago, Rybags said:

The intention was for it to work on >= 64K and not care about type of expansion.  My 800XL has U1Meg.

But I've not touched the game in probably 8 years.  It's entirely possible some configs might get a problem.

I play the VBXE version and discovered that the game does not run correctly UNLESS I set the system RAM to 64K in my U1MB settings. 

[chevymad]

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

I play the VBXE version and discovered that the game does not run correctly UNLESS I set the system RAM to 64K in my U1MB settings. 

But what OS? Mine won't work even with stock ram, unless I select OS B Pal. 

[+DrVenkman]

6 minutes ago, chevymad said:

But what OS? Mine won't work even with stock ram, unless I select OS B Pal. 

I was running it with a standard XL OS with an NTSC system. I have since converted my 1088XLD to PAL but I can’t recall if I have specifically played Moon Cresta since the conversion. 

[+DrVenkman]

Okay, following up on my post this morning, I just ran Moon Cresta again. My specific U1MB BIOS settings for playing as stock 64K RAM, XL OS, BASIC state disabled, VBXE base set to 0xD640, and PBI BIOS enabled (which is what allows me to disable internal BASIC). Perhaps that part is the missing link? After all, OS B doesn't support the PBI BIOS and therefore can't disable BASIC automatically.

[chevymad]

Thanks, I'll try that again to make sure. PBI bios is one of the things I was wondering about. With it enabled, my U1Mb sometimes becomes corrupted. Screen turns red and the letters get large and blurred. I've tried reflashing and that seems to work for awhile. It may be i've abused this U1mb too much. I might swap one from another machine to try too. 

[chevymad]

And i've tried that combination.. and my machine doesn't work. So I have hardware issues. That combo gives me a black screen with a single broken red line at the top. 

[_The Doctor__]

kinda figures there are issues when enabling PBI causes glitches etc... I'd retrace everything and compare before installing another one...

Edited February 13, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[chevymad]

Mistakes were made on previous hardware installs. So i'm not surprised it's having issues. But good to confirm it's not working correctly, because some stuff seems to run just fine.

[chevymad]

U1mb swapped and it now works on XL OS. 

 

[_The Doctor__]

So the U1M itself is damaged...

 

[chevymad]

Yes, I had my suspicions. I can't remember what upgrade I was doing but got things swapped around. After that it didn't work at all until I reflashed the JED. This is an original black Candle board too. Not so sure my VBXE is good either. Though it seems to play most stuff. But there are a few demo's that don't seem to work yet. Not positive I've got the right settings for them though, and they may be NTSC too. 

 

Oh and also I've been fighting poor connections on my headers and even chip sockets. Requiring a deoxit spray and reseat to get things going. Not sure wth is going on with that. The pin headers are especially troublesome.

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by chevymad

[+DrVenkman]

1 hour ago, chevymad said:

Yes, I had my suspicions. I can't remember what upgrade I was doing but got things swapped around. After that it didn't work at all until I reflashed the JED. This is an original black Candle board too. Not so sure my VBXE is good either. Though it seems to play most stuff. But there are a few demo's that don't seem to work yet. Not positive I've got the right settings for them though, and they may be NTSC too. 

 

Oh and also I've been fighting poor connections on my headers and even chip sockets. Requiring a deoxit spray and reseat to get things going. Not sure wth is going on with that. The pin headers are especially troublesome.

 

I don't think there are any NTSC-only VBXE demos but I might be wrong. Which ones are giving you issues?

 

As for the header connections, what are you using for your jumper wires? Did you crimp your own Dupont connectors, or do you use pre-made jumpers? It sounds like maybe your cables could have a problem. Is this on a vintage Atari or an XEL/XLD? If it's the latter, you could also reflow the header pin solder joints.

[chevymad]

My XEL, and premade cables. Slide the cable off and on the pins and it works again.  The XEL was very dependable before the VBXE install and Pal swap. But the extra cabling seems to cause issues. Come to think of it, the XLD was problematic with this VBXE installed as well. It's pretty solid now with the sophia. Flatshading and Insane at Nordlight. I get gibberish video with crunchy sound on the Flatshading, Nordlight I get a black screen with good audio. 

 

Not sure if you remember, but I made the mistake when installing sophia of removing the vbxe and plugging sophia into that slot.. not the gtia slot. After that is when the candle u1mb needed the jed reflash. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by chevymad

[+DrVenkman]

17 minutes ago, chevymad said:

Flatshading and Insane at Nordlight. I get gibberish video with crunchy sound on the Flatshading, Nordlight I get a black screen with good audio.

I just tried both of those on my PAL XLD and they both run just fine. I do note that both will crash and produce "crunchy" audio with any keyboard input. Not sure if that is related to your problems or not; probably not, as even when they freeze/crash, they don't produce any weird or corrupted video - they just stop running. 

[BIGHMW]

I have both the 7800 and a Concerto multicart so I get to play Moon Cresta on it but I also would like to see a version for both my non-VBXE (non-modded) XEGS (at least the 8-bit including the XEGS) and the 5200 as well, and I swear I read someone posting about an 8-bit Galaga on this thread (I believe it was @kiwilove who mentioned something about getting a port of Galaga up and running).

 

Now I hope Paul Lay @playsoft won't kill me for this, since he is now retired at least from what he told me, as he has put away his 8-bit and 5200 tools, but here is both his unfinished 5200 version of Galaga and also his great port of @Thelen's Yar's Strike in which I would love to see ported back to 8-bit, he told me that Homesoft already re-ported YS back to the 8-bit but from what I see on it it's just not the same as on Paul's version as there is no moving galaxy of stars in which among other wrinkles IMO made Paul's version of Yar's Strike unique.

Galaga.bin Yar's Strike.bin

Edited February 15, 2021 by BIGHMW
credits

[ALEXANDER]

On 2/15/2021 at 1:46 AM, BIGHMW said:

I have both the 7800 and a Concerto multicart so I get to play Moon Cresta on it but I also would like to see a version for both my non-VBXE (non-modded) XEGS (at least the 8-bit including the XEGS) and the 5200 as well, and I swear I read someone posting about an 8-bit Galaga on this thread (I believe it was @kiwilove who mentioned something about getting a port of Galaga up and running).

 

Now I hope Paul Lay @playsoft won't kill me for this, since he is now retired at least from what he told me, as he has put away his 8-bit and 5200 tools, but here is both his unfinished 5200 version of Galaga and also his great port of @Thelen's Yar's Strike in which I would love to see ported back to 8-bit, he told me that Homesoft already re-ported YS back to the 8-bit but from what I see on it it's just not the same as on Paul's version as there is no moving galaxy of stars in which among other wrinkles IMO made Paul's version of Yar's Strike unique.

Galaga.bin 32 kB · 15 downloads Yar's Strike.bin 8 kB · 16 downloads

Dear Bighmw, thanks for the files.I tried to play Galaga but the ship goes directly to screen right side. I can´t play anything. Please, could you tell me what should I press to start demo? Thanks in advance.

[BIGHMW]

I found an unfinished clone of Moon Cresta in my Homesoft Collection called Galactic Cresta. If anyone wants to correct the here-and-there missing collision dtection (sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't) I have the 8-bit port from 1987 right here.

 

 

Galactic Cresta.xex