Princess Rescue Now Available!

[Andromeda Stardust]

I finally beat 2-4 Bowser today on my first try, so I got to try World 3-1 for the first time. Man, those falling Spineys are relentless! I long jump onto a platform on 3-3 and the spiney drops from midair and I die, so I time my jump shorter and the spiney falls in a different spot and still hits me! Game Over... Anyway my final score was 079700 on 3-3 without continues, starting from World 1-1 with 5 lives. I have my system paused on the Game Over screen and will definitely be picking up where I left off. Still not bad considering world 3 was a blind run for me.

 

BTW, I encountered the dead stop ceiling bug for the first time today on my 4-switch Atari. In world 3-1 or 3-2 I can't remember which, there's a place where you have to jump over to clear a hurdle and my forward momentum stopped as I hit ceiling. Some people had issues with this bug on World 2-something but I've played through World 2 many times and never encountered until world 3. The appearance of the bug may be random based on RAM or timings as some people have suggested.

[Nognir]

For all who are interested:

Our article about Princess Rescue is online including a little Background, Review, Video Review and a Interview with Sprybug.

The article itself is in german, but we added also the original version of the Interview in english.

Enjoy!

 

http://www.nexgam.de/Atari2600/Homebrew-Reviews-Teil-1-Princess-Rescue.html

[Sprybug]

I finally beat 2-4 Bowser today on my first try, so I got to try World 3-1 for the first time. Man, those falling Spineys are relentless! I long jump onto a platform on 3-3 and the spiney drops from midair and I die, so I time my jump shorter and the spiney falls in a different spot and still hits me! Game Over... Anyway my final score was 079700 on 3-3 without continues, starting from World 1-1 with 5 lives. I have my system paused on the Game Over screen and will definitely be picking up where I left off. Still not bad considering world 3 was a blind run for me.

 

BTW, I encountered the dead stop ceiling bug for the first time today on my 4-switch Atari. In world 3-1 or 3-2 I can't remember which, there's a place where you have to jump over to clear a hurdle and my forward momentum stopped as I hit ceiling. Some people had issues with this bug on World 2-something but I've played through World 2 many times and never encountered until world 3. The appearance of the bug may be random based on RAM or timings as some people have suggested.

The second part of 3-1 (or 3-2, I can't quite remember either) does have an upper obstacle, but if you jump in the right spot you won't hit it and if you do, if you continue to the right you'll still make the jump. 3-3 is probably one of the hardest levels, You just have to be cautious, take it slow, and know when the right times are to gun it.

[Andromeda Stardust]

The second part of 3-1 (or 3-2, I can't quite remember either) does have an upper obstacle, but if you jump in the right spot you won't hit it and if you do, if you continue to the right you'll still make the jump. 3-3 is probably one of the hardest levels, You just have to be cautious, take it slow, and know when the right times are to gun it.

 

Stooopid red Koopa blocks the exit on 3-3... Also bring an umbrella: it's raining Spineys!!!

LOL

Edited October 1, 2013 by stardust4ever

[AtariLynx Lover]

It's not available for sale anymore... Shame... I was hoping to get it for Christmas...

[joelm]

 

It's not available for sale anymore... Shame... I was hoping to get it for Christmas...

Agreed, I have a bit of disposable income right now and was searching around the store for it... bupkis. Hopefully another run will be made at some point.

[Necron99]

Agreed, I have a bit of disposable income right now and was searching around the store for it... bupkis. Hopefully another run will be made at some point.

it might come back as another game, but Princess Rescue as it is will not be made again. AtariAge was handed a Cease and Desist order from Nintendo in case you haven't heard.

[Dan Iacovelli]

you can still the d/l the rom to play on harmony or stella

[Hyperboy]

Disregard

 

Edited October 6, 2013 by Hyperboy

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Disregard

do a search it right in these forums...........

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I really gotta get around to playing this..........

[MrMaddog]

it might come back as another game, but Princess Rescue as it is will not be made again. AtariAge was handed a Cease and Desist order from Nintendo in case you haven't heard.

Too bad... I guess the character graphics and music need to be changed to something completely different. That's what they had to do for Super Stario Land on the ST.

[LidLikesIntellivision]

First time I rescued the Princess twice with a real cartridge!

[Andromeda Stardust]

do a search it right in these forums...........

Google Search "Princess Rescue Binaries Released"

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww&ei=CFdSUo_cAfSpsQSggoGIBw&ved=0CBgQ1S4#hl=en&q=princess+rescue+binaries+released&safe=off

Click on first link. D/L link is in first post.

[Andromeda Stardust]

In other news (after leaving the Atari running for several days on the World 4-1 continue screen), I rescued the princess for the first time tonight!!!

 

 

Thank you Sprybug; the game was awesome and totally worth it!

 

I only wish you could have included the complete "rescue the princess" melody. Space limitations, I assume...

 

First time I rescued the Princess twice with a real cartridge!

So, you only "rescued the princess" once on the original NES game? I've done that like 100s of times!

Edited October 7, 2013 by stardust4ever

[LidLikesIntellivision]

(...)

So, you only "rescued the princess" once on the original NES game? I've done that like 100s of times!

Now you're saying, I don't remember the second quest in the NES SMB...

Even Castlevania III, which I loved, I'm not sure I finished the second quest too.

 

Second quests are the opposite of 'cheating' for having many lives.

If you live twice (or more) then save the world twice!

[Andromeda Stardust]

Now you're saying, I don't remember the second quest in the NES SMB...

Even Castlevania III, which I loved, I'm not sure I finished the second quest too.

 

Second quests are the opposite of 'cheating' for having many lives.

If you live twice (or more) then save the world twice!

At least on Super Mario Brothers, it lets you choose any level you want on the second quest. One time, I beat the game, started on 8-1, and somehow rescued the princess without taking damage. I even killed King Koopa with fireballs, hooray! That was when I knew I'd owned Super Mario Brothers. Honestly though, I typically would just stop after the first rescue, since hard mode really didn't do that much in the original. Much like Super Mario Brothers, in Princess Rescue, Goombas turn into Beetles, while Beetles, Koopas, and bills travel faster, and the platforms are shorter. Pretty much the same as Super Mario Brothers, except that you can't choose to start on any level. BJ also requires more hits in hard mode as well. I played around for a bit and got to the 2-4 boss before I GAME OVER'd, and I finally turned my Atari off after having run PR constantly for over a week. Time to free it up for other games, LOL! I just wish there was a level select cheat. Somebody please invent a Game Genie for Atari...

[+stephena]

I just wish there was a level select cheat. Somebody please invent a Game Genie for Atari...

 

You can play around with the debugger in Stella, and create a 'cheatcode' as well. The current level must be stored somewhere in RAM; it would just be a matter of finding it.

[dwane413]

You can play around with the debugger in Stella, and create a 'cheatcode' as well.

Here's the cheatcode I've been using to always have four lives:

 

e104

 

 

The current level must be stored somewhere in RAM; it would just be a matter of finding it.

Here's that info:

 

The world is stored in EB and the level is in EC.

 

It sometimes acts strange after changing the level. If you die, things seem to reset to normal on the new level.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Here's the cheatcode I've been using to always have four lives:

 

e104

 

 

Here's that info:

 

The world is stored in EB and the level is in EC.

 

It sometimes acts strange after changing the level. If you die, things seem to reset to normal on the new level.

I prefer to run actual hardware. Does anyone know if the new harmony cart will support cheats? I don't know if it's possible to modify RAM addresses from the cartridge interface, but the Game Genie on NES works by comparing a byte in the ROM to a known value. If the byte matches, the returned value is replaced by a new "cheat" value. That system would work well with bank-switched ROMs. Most typical "infinite lives" codes replace a "decrement X" code, where "X" is the number of lives, with a no-op.

 

My idea for an Atari Game Genie would be simple: It would be shaped like a double-ender, but you plug the Atari cart on top of the genie. A 5-digit hex code would work for 4k games (a 4k address space can be expressed in three nibbles with two nibbles for the byte to be swapped) and a 7-digit hex code (three nibbles for the 4k address, two nibbles for the compare value, and 2 nibbles for the replace value) would work on most bankswitched games.

Edited October 8, 2013 by stardust4ever

[+Gemintronic]

Sorry to interrupt. I just have to say dwane413's avatar reminds me JUST HOW MUCH I'm still excited to own a Harmony cart.

 

..that is all

[Andromeda Stardust]

Harmony Rox. 'Nuff said!

[Dan Iacovelli]

I agree love my harmony

[Sprybug]

In other news (after leaving the Atari running for several days on the World 4-1 continue screen), I rescued the princess for the first time tonight!!!

 

I beat Princess Rescue.JPG

 

Thank you Sprybug; the game was awesome and totally worth it!

 

I only wish you could have included the complete "rescue the princess" melody. Space limitations, I assume...

 

So, you only "rescued the princess" once on the original NES game? I've done that like 100s of times!

I initially tried to get the rescued princess song in there, but just didn't have enough ROM left. I think I was about 100-200 bytes shy of being able to do it, which is why it is replaced by a simple and quick little thing that I wrote in about 10 seconds.

[Sprybug]

Well, if you wanna cheat, I can provide you what variable (RAM locations) hold what and cross-reference it with Batari's memory map.

The program will set a lot (if not all) of these to zero when starting up the game, so if you can alter the RAM after that point then it could be quite useful.

Here's where things are. It's kind of interesting that you can "Game Genie" in a way on a Harmony cart:

 

a ($D6) - Animation Timer - Probably useless to change because in constant flux

b ($D7) - Level Data Pointer - You can set it at a higher number to probably start further up in a level. Keep the number even.

c ($D8) - Coin Counter - Set it to 31 so you're one away from an extra man.

d ($D9) - Player data Flags (See Below) - Bit operations

e ($DA) - Level Timer / Boss Life - Wanter a tougher boss or a shorter amount of time to finish the level, set the value higher

f ($DB) - extra bits (bit 0 for Genesis Controller. Bit 7 for 2nd quest) - So a 128 & higher will put you at the beginning of the 2nd quest

g ($DC) - Extra Bit Flags (See Below)

h ($DD)- Object Scroll In data - Another constantly changing variable, might do something weird if not set to 0 when you start playing

i ($DE) - Enemy Type - Player1's sprite attribute. This changes when an enemy spawns, so it'll probably be useless.

j - ($DF) - Enemy Momentum - How fast an enemy is moving (north/south or east/west depending on enemy type).

k ($E0) - Star Invincibility Timer - Set above 0 and your invncible until it reaches 255.

l ($E1) - lives Counter. -Here's your lives right here. 1-255 for your amount of lives.

m ($E2) - Momentum left & right - How fast you're going (by pixel) across the screen

n ($E3) - n - Momentum up & down - Falling & Jumping momentum

o ($E4) - Farthest Traveled on Level - Marks how far you've gotten in the level so it won't respawn yellow blocks up to that point. Set high initially for no chance at coins & power-ups. Fun.

p ($E5) - Music Duration

q ($E6) - Music data

r ($E7)- Music data

s ($E8) - Moving Shell X coordinate - Set to have the moving koopa shell on screen at this playfield X location

t ($E9) - Moving Shell Y Coordinate - Set to have the moving koopa shell on screen at this playfield Y location

u ($EA)- Miscellaneous

v - ($EB)- World - Here's your World Variable. Set from 1-4 to start on x-1

w - ($EC) - Level - Here's your Level Variable. Set from 1-4 to start on 1-x. Set v&w to start anywhere you'd like x-x

x,y,z - miscellaneous

rem ....

rem D Flags (Bits)

rem 0 - Player Facing Direction (0-right 1-left)

rem 1 - Jumping Flag

rem 2 - Fire Button Pressed Flag

rem 3 - Power = Super Mario

rem 4 - Power = Firey Mario

rem 5 - Ducking Flag

rem 6 - No Power (Regular Mario)

rem 7 - Mario Invincibility Flag

rem ....

rem G Flags (Bits)

rem 0 - Mario Fireball Going down & enabled if set

rem 1 - Mario Fireball Going up & enabled if set

rem 2 - Mario Fireball Direction (0-left 1-right)

rem 3 - Enemy Direction (0-left 1-right)

rem 4 - Enemy Dead Flag

rem 5 - Moving Turtle Shell Direction (0-left 1-right)

rem 6 - Checkpoint Flag

rem 7 - Mario Sprite on-off flag for invincibility