PAL60 ROMS

[bataais]

As for the playfield, the value is #$86 at adress A19, there's a BNE LFA23 that skips the #$50.

[alex_79]

I tried the PAL60 conversion of Tapper posted by Omegamatrix on real hardware and I got a flickering screen on my TV. By looking at the stella debugger, I noticed that, every other frame, VSYNC is turned off at cycle 41 instead of the beginning of the scanline (cycle 3) and apparently the TV set I use for gaming doesn't like that.
To fix it I moved the instruction "stx WSYNC" at address $F91D in bank 2 to address $F928, so it happens just before VSYNC is turned off.
Tapper (PAL60) fixed.bin
tp60fix.asm

Also I converted Gremlings some time ago. Here it is if someone is interested.
Gremlins (Gargoyle) (1984) (Atari) (PAL60 Conversion).bin

gremlins.asm

[alex_79]

BTW after looking more closely, the original NTSC version of Tapper seems to purposely enable and disable VSYNC on cycle 41 every other frame. Storing to VSYNC register takes 3 cycles, so the operation starts at cycle 38 which is exactly in the middle of a scanline. This could indicate that the programmer intention was to generate an interlaced signal, albeit the scanline count was wrong and the resulting "fields" had 261.5 scanlines each instead of 262.5 which should be the NTSC standard.

Edited November 22, 2013 by alex_79

[maiki]

Thanks batais. Your help is invaluable. So, here are all the changes I made and a possibly correct PAL 60 conversion:

 

Jetman 1k PAL 60 Hack v1

================================

red PLAYER 1

A9 42 85 07

42 replaced with 62

================================

blue PLAYFIELD

A9 86

86 replaced with D6

================================

pink PLAYFIELD (spacecraft filled up and leaves the screen)

A9 50 85 08

50 replaced with 80

================================

pink PLAYFIELD (fuel collected - portion of spacecraft filled)

address A82 (FA82?)

A2 50

50 replaced with 80

================================

green BACKGROUND (bottom of the screen)

A9 C6 85 09

C6 replaced with 56

================================

shading BACKGROUND (top of the screen) - seems to change every 2 stages - colors table

address ADF (LFADF?)

1F 2F 4F 5F 6F 7F 8F CF

replaced with

2F 4f 6F 8F AF CF DF 5F

note: 2F - 4F replacement estimated by me; conversion tool suggests 2F - 2F meaning no change in tone in PAL

================================

additional questions:

I don't understand what is going on here but replacing the #$50 with 80 works. This is when fuel item is collected and part of the spacecraft filled with pink.

address A82 (FA82?):

LDX #$50

CPY ram_D0

BCC LFA89

jumps to

AA2:

BEQ LFA97 '--> PLAYFIELD turn pink...

Jet Man 1k PAL60 v1.bin

[bataais]

well done, maiki.

 

I think there's a bug in the stella debugger, it shouldn't jump to AA2. PC is shown correctly.

The tricky part is here:

with your #$80 in X

 

FA86 BCC LFA89 90 01 <-- jumps to LFA89, this is 86 08 (STX COLUPF)

FA88 BIT ram_86|$800 2C 86 08

[alex_79]

A few more quick conversions:

 

Extra Terrestrials (PAL60).bin

Video Life (PAL60).bin

Wizard (PAL60).bin

 

[maiki]

Many thanks for the Video Life. It is on my list.

[alex_79]

maiki, I see you have "Man goes down" in your list, but that game has NTSC, PAL and PAL60 support built in. In the title screen press SELECT to change the TV format. If you have an AtariVox or a Savekey plugged in the right controller port the game will use the default TV format stored in the eeprom header, else it will start in NTSC mode.

[maiki]

Good to know. I like that OSD effect when you switch.

 

 

 

Here is Lander PAL 60 (Lander by Bastian Framke from 2008). It was rather easy, only 3 fixed colors used I think. Simple but addictive game. Reminds me of Jupiter Lander on the Commodore 64.

 

address 5B8 - yellow playfield (1E - 2E); address 663 - pink player 0 (saucer) (5A - 8A); address 667 - green player 1 (landing ground) (CE - 5E)

address 4E8 - does not seem to be used (player 1); address 4EC - the same (playfield) - I did not change these 2

Lander PAL 60 v1.bin

Edited November 24, 2013 by maiki

[maiki]

As for the Lander, there should probably be a starting screen that does not show up in Stella but on a real TV it pops up for a short moment and then a blank screen... It might be related to why there are the other colors set at 4E8 and 4EC (?). I will try to have a look at it later.

Edited November 25, 2013 by maiki

[maiki]

Can somebody please tell me where Home Run gets the color codes, and where does it store them into RAM? I am trying to understand things a bit more.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-home-run_18209.html

[alex_79]

BW palette:
$f6f4 P0
$f6f5 P1
$f6f6 PF
$f6f7 BK

Color palette:
$f6f8 P0
$f6f9 P1
$f6fa PF
$f6fb BK

Those values are then stored in ram $A6 - $A9

The BW palette is masked with the value #$0F (with the "AND #$0F" instruction at $f37c), so you always get greyscale because only the luma part is used. You can change that by replacing $0F with $FF at location $f37d.

[bataais]

Some time ago, 'Secret Quest' was on a wish list. I did start a PAL60 conversion then but did't post the rom.

The ingame works at 262 scanlines (NTSC speed & fullscreen), while the game menu screen is still in PAL (50hz).

 

Secret Quest_PAL60.bin

[Omegamatrix]

Here is Tomarc the Barbarian. I spent a lot of time fixing the erratic scanline count, but it should be good now. I gave it a real good color conversion taking care of the color scrolling on the title screen and color scrolling on the victory background flash. I'm also including an NTSC version here with the scanline count fixed.

 

TomarcTheBarbarian(re).zip

 

 

For those that are interested in using Sega Genesis controllers here is the 2 button hack I just posted:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/158430-rom-hacks-to-support-2-buttons-with-genesis-controllers/?p=2876944

[maiki]

Many many thanks. I am about to investigate Home Run and try Tomarc The Barbarian. Thank you Omegamatrix. Thank you Batais.

[Gurner]

These are awesome.

 

Any future PAL 60 conversions will be gratefully downloaded.

[Gurner]

Just been playing the 2600 PAL version of the classic Mr Do! – it's slow to the point of being unplayable after playing the arcade version and the music really drags its feet at 50hz.

 

A great game when in a Dig Dug kind of mood.

[maiki]

OK, here is a quick and blind color hack of a newly discovered gem by John W. Champeau: Avalanche. It might need someone to check my work as it is possible I did something not needed, wrong or missed something.

 

 

Here is the original NTSC version:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=81342

 

 

Here is my PAL 60 version:

 

changed values at address F9C (86, C6, 40 and 80) ???

changed values at address F8A (A6, AA, 36, 3A, 18, 1C) ???

changed value at address 6F1 (36)

changed values at addresses 705 and 790 (86)

 

I was in a dilemma of shading of the rocks because on a LCD screen in Stella the colors are always displayed quite wrong off compared to real CRT TV and there was hardly any difference between A6/AA - 36/3A color shades in PAL. But I checked on the real thing and it looks pretty much how the author wanted it to be I guess (meaning yellow - "orange red" - "cyan blue"). Too bad I haven't got paddles yet so cannot enjoy the game on my 2600 right now.

Avalanche PAL 60 v1.bin

[Gurner]

Bump

 

Was wondering if anyone with the skills is interested in creating some more PAL 60 ROMs?

 

I've been playing the ones I have endlessly!

[davyK]

Was looking to get back into this and was going to look at Super Breakout. However I have the PAL cartridge and it looks like the PAL version may be superior to the NTSC version. The display area is noticeably bigger and there doesn't seem to be any reduction in speed. I thought at first that maybe the initial slower ball speed was a bit slower in PAL than in NTSC - but after running a few games alternating betwen versions (using Romhunters NTSC ROM on my Harmony) I don't think that is the case - and maybe the PAL slow ball feels a tiny bit slower because the display is larger. I cannot detect any difference in speed between versions once the ball speeds up.

 

I thought I read something about a bug in the PAL version when sometimes the ball jumps off the bat in a strange fashion - but maybe that was on the original Breakout cartridge? I certainly haven't spotted it after playing several games with my PAL cartridge.

 

Anyone know if Super Breakout was officially given PAL optimisation? Seems to be the way as far as I can see from playing it.

Edited March 31, 2014 by davyK

[Gurner]

Would be awesome if you did look at some more of these, good onya!

 

 

Was looking to get back into this and was going to look at Super Breakout. However I have the PAL cartridge and it looks like the PAL version may be superior to the NTSC version. The display area is noticeably bigger and there doesn't seem to be any reduction in speed. I thought at first that maybe the initial slower ball speed was a bit slower in PAL than in NTSC - but after running a few games alternating betwen versions (using Romhunters NTSC ROM on my Harmony) I don't think that is the case - and maybe the PAL slow ball feels a tiny bit slower because the display is larger. I cannot detect any difference in speed between versions once the ball speeds up.

 

I thought I read something about a bug in the PAL version when sometimes the ball jumps off the bat in a strange fashion - but maybe that was on the original Breakout cartridge? I certainly haven't spotted it after playing several games with my PAL cartridge.

 

Anyone know if Super Breakout was officially given PAL optimisation? Seems to be the way as far as I can see from playing it.

[Gurner]

Does anyone know of a PAL 60 ROM of Millipede?

 

Great game, but I only play Centipede (PAL 60) as it has full speed and full screen height!

[davyK]

Need to "warm up" again to this....have been PHP coding this last few months.

 

Anyhow before I would tackle something that might be tough like Centipede I thought I would do some of my favourite paddle games to get me back into using the tools again (had forgot how to get into the Stella debugger!!!)

 

Here's PAL60 Breakout. The display isn't any bigger but the speed difference is significant. This was pretty easy to do as the brick colours are located just where I thought they would be - a little series of bytes in the data section at the end of the disassembly. Usual drill - de-assemble it using DiStella, - id the colour values using Stella and then use - randomterrain's colour conversion to get the replacement values to type into the ASM - and there we go - a nice and snappy version of PAL Breakout.. I like this version because of the 2 vs 2 team variations. Pity Atari didn't include that option in Super Breakout.

 

http://www.davykelly.com/BreakoutPAL60.bin

 

 

Not sure if Super Breakout is worth doing next as I'm not sure there is a speed increase - in fact the PAL version might be superior as it has a larger display (see my post above). Might do it anyhow. Also have Solar Storm in my sights which is one of my favourites - but of course it will probably take longer as it's an Imagic game and their great use of colour means lots of values to be identified!! Haven't spotted a PAL60 version of Circus Atari around either - may tackle that one next.

 

Thumbs up to the developer of Avalanche and whoever was kind enough to post a PAL60 version. Really nice game.

Edited May 12, 2014 by davyK

[Gurner]

Nice one Davy, any PAL 60s you make are hugely appreciated

 

Centipede is available as PAL 60, but not Millipede.

[Rab]

Hi Gurner,

 

Where can I find the pal 60 version of Centipede mate? Thanks for your help ;0)

 

Sockboy

 

Scotland