Wizard of Wor 2: The Arena

[Nukey Shay]

The mode display was messed up too. That'll teach me to hack instead of sleep.

Wow8k-test.bin

[+save2600]

I won't consider Bunkers of Wor complete, until you can play as either Archie or Edith.

[BrianC]

I tried the latest version on real hardware. I love the additions. The screen rolls for me at times, though. I'm using a CRT TV.

[CDS Games]

Fine, but no Meathead. Dang hippies!

[CDS Games]

No need to do sprites (unless Claudio requests help there), I only need speech data which neither of us can do. But the sprite shapes are layed out in memory exactly how they appear onscreen (although upside-down)...16 bytes high. Everything uses 2 frames of animation (via flipping to an adjacent page). An enemy dying uses bytes $FC00-$FC0F for it's first frame, and $FD00-$FD0F for the next (for example).

 

Currently, each pair of lines in the sprite is actually in reverse order. So if you're drawing a sprite with lines 1-16, it'd need to be entered: 2,1,4,3,6,5,8,7, etc. I wasn't sure if there was a reason for that so I just went with it.

 

I wouldn't mind sprite help actually. The worrior is drawn now, but all the enemies still need to be done.

 

In the meantime, I really should concentrate on getting those last few dungeons finished.

[Nukey Shay]

That's not how it was supposed to be. Looks like I busted it It's also bouncing around in the last one (sometimes only showing every other byte for 2 scanlines).

 

Back to the drawing board...

[CDS Games]

Not a huge deal....it works well enough if you ask me.

[Nukey Shay]

It kinda is, because the reserve life loop uses the same gfx (so that would be shown all mixed up).

 

Corrected (and more space saved):

 

EDIT: game over loop kept playing when cycling though mazes.

WoW8k-test.bin

Edited May 4, 2013 by Nukey Shay

[+iesposta]

Nice! Lots of mazes.

A bit unstable jumpy screen on H6er with real TV.

Is Double Score supposed to be one long note?

Game Over plays the chords, then changes mazes and plays the chords, then changes mazes and plays the chords, etc.

I have got to set some time to listen to the original and make some speech!

[+johnnywc]

Wow this is looking great! Looks like I can cross off Wizard of Wor Arcade from my to-do list

 

Not sure if this will help, but I did take some time way back when isolating all the sound and speech from the arcade version into separate WAV files - I've attached them if you think you'll need them.

 

Also - my original inspiration for doing WoW Arcade was to implement a multi-plexing algorithm for the monsters (similar to what I did in Lady Bug) because the flicker is terrible in the original. Are there any plans to try to implement this for this version?

 

Good luck!

wow_sounds.zip

[CDS Games]

Thanks johnnywc! No plans that I know of; it's way beyond me anyway. Can't be sure what anyone else has in the ol' noggin.

 

Nukey: Ah, I see. Thanks a bunch for the corrections. This will make the graphics hacking go smoother--I'll redo the Worrior and reupload hopefully tonight.

Edited May 4, 2013 by CDS Games

[+iesposta]

Nukey,

Here is a text file with the Vox data for saying "The Wizard of Wor."

 

The Wizard of Wor Vox Data.txt

 

Make that 5th number 134 (not 133) - better uh in Th"UH"

 

P.S. Thanks JohnnyWC!

Edited May 5, 2013 by iesposta

[CDS Games]

Here is the latest version with a revised worrior.

 

WoW8k-gfx.bin

 

There are two different shooting sprites but here they are both drawn the same, so that is an area we could save some extra room if necessary.

[+iesposta]

Here is the game sample:

wow_wizardofwor.wav

 

Here is AtariVox+:

AtariVox2Wizard.wav

 

Great Worrior! Love the single line resolution!

[roryjr]

I haven't programmed since 130XE over 25 years ago, but I will chime in anyway. The Genesis has the same plug as the 2600. EA came out with a block that plugged into both pad ports to expand to 4 players for their sports games. I thing someone else (Hudson Mega Bomberman?) did 2 single splitters. The 3 button Genesis controller was split. I'm not getting why it cannot be done with port one on the 2600. Anyone?

 

Edit: Love the game btw.

Edited May 21, 2013 by roryjr

[BrianC]

I like the new Warrior too. I'm still getting some screen flipping in the latest build, though.

[CDS Games]

Whew! Finally had time to wrap up the last six dungeons.

 

MagicofWor.bin

WorldofWor.bin

DepthsofWor.bin

 

Nukey, do you want me to add these into your latest version? Let me know if so, and in what order...I have some time this weekend.

[CDS Games]

Alright, so to take stock, here is the complete Wizard of Wor Expansion Pack. Eleven 4k games (plus the original CBS release), which brings us up to the full 24 dungeons of the arcade game.

 

WizardofWorExpansionPack.zip

 

All of these files were posted earlier in the thread, except that there was one pixel corrected in Columns of Wor (thanks Nukey!). Some files were also renamed.

 

This will be mostly superseded once the 8k Arcade version is finished, but it might be useful to practice a dungeon or if you have a particular fondness for the original 2600 release.

[BrianC]

Any more news on this? Last build still had some screen rolls.

[roryjr]

Alright, so to take stock, here is the complete Wizard of Wor Expansion Pack. Eleven 4k games (plus the original CBS release), which brings us up to the full 24 dungeons of the arcade game.

 

WizardofWorExpansionPack.zip

 

All of these files were posted earlier in the thread, except that there was one pixel corrected in Columns of Wor (thanks Nukey!). Some files were also renamed.

 

This will be mostly superseded once the 8k Arcade version is finished, but it might be useful to practice a dungeon or if you have a particular fondness for the original 2600 release.

 

I'm a little confused. I have the last 8k version with many dungeons. If I unzip this onto my Harmony cart, will all the dungeons work? Or do I have to wait for a cart release to get it all together? I'd be happy to purchase the cart. And has anyone given any thought to my splitter idea from the Genesis?

[CDS Games]

Brian C: No news. There's not much more I personally can do with it, except tweak the graphics and add the new screens.

 

roryjr: There are a bunch of dungeons missing in the last 8k version. The room is there for them, so anyone could just hack them in, but the game code would still have to be rewritten to cycle through them properly. I'd love to help get a cart release together, but I'm at the limit of what I can do on the 8k Arcade version. If there is any interest in putting one or more of the 4k "expansion pack" versions on carts, that I can look into.

[BrianC]

Brian C: No news. There's not much more I personally can do with it, except tweak the graphics and add the new screens.

 

oh. That's a bit disappointing since I was hoping for the stability to be improved. I use a harmony cart. The rolling is better in your latest build compared to Nukey's last build, but it still rolls more than I would like. I love the work done with it, but the screen rolling is a major issue that I would like to see squashed.

[roryjr]

Brian C: No news. There's not much more I personally can do with it, except tweak the graphics and add the new screens.

 

roryjr: There are a bunch of dungeons missing in the last 8k version. The room is there for them, so anyone could just hack them in, but the game code would still have to be rewritten to cycle through them properly. I'd love to help get a cart release together, but I'm at the limit of what I can do on the 8k Arcade version. If there is any interest in putting one or more of the 4k "expansion pack" versions on carts, that I can look into.

 

So, would all the dungeons fit in 32k? If so, is there anyone who would be willing to do it? Anyone? Please. I'd certainly buy it. I loved the original 2600 game and with all the dungeons, this should be a top seller. Anyone that would buy it, chime in.

[CDS Games]

oh. That's a bit disappointing since I was hoping for the stability to be improved. I use a harmony cart. The rolling is better in your latest build compared to Nukey's last build, but it still rolls more than I would like. I love the work done with it, but the screen rolling is a major issue that I would like to see squashed.

 

My "build" should be just Nukey's with changed graphics. I don't know enough to fix rolling.

 

I love the work done with it too--it's a really fantastic version and of course much better than playing 12 different 2-dungeon games.

[+iesposta]

I am trying to find time to make AtariVox speech strings for Wizard of Wor.

I am sure Nukey is trying to find time to put all the maze data and speech in one rom file.

Things like this just take time, usually more time than you would think they should.

Vanguard should get this treatment next.

I like Wizard of Wor more, but I just searched and found Vanguard Black and if I were to buy a cart, I would probably wait until speech was added and graphics were improved.

Harmony cart is good enough to play Vanguard Black. The black background makes a BIG difference. People have commented that the PAL colors look nicer than the NTSC colors. Much work to be done.