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Rally - WIP


Ed Fries

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I just tried this on real hardware via Harmony. Works great and is just a fantastic work, though a few things were noticed.

  • The enemy cars become very difficult to see when two or more (or so, just going off what I believe the numbers were) are on screen or with a rock due to the flicker. Perhaps make the enemies a darker color or background lighter to be seen better?
  • After death from anything, the screen rolls once while drawing the screen. It's a bit bothersome could be gotten used to after a while.
  • The second track is a little hard to see with the red and orange, along with the flickering enemies. Again, perhaps lighter background or darker walls?

Just what I found, note that I am no programmer. WIll be checking back for updates!

 

Thanks for the feedback, this is really helpful. I'm running on a heavy sixer hooked up to a CRT and the colors seem okay but I need to try some other setups. What type of TV and Atari are you using? Colors are easy to change. I just need to find the right combination that works best for people.

 

As long as I'm posting, I'll give a quick status update on the project. I found the 100 bytes I need to add map #3 and have a few left over to fix some bugs. I have a request into Namco through a friend to get their official blessing for this project. It's always risky to ask a question like this but it will be good if they say yes. I hope to have a new version out later this week.

 

-EdF

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  • 2 weeks later...

Really good port Ed! Came across this on Facebook and didn't know you were working on this title. I originally d/l-ed the first bin file you posted on page 1 (way too fast to handle/blinking screen - hard on the eyes) .....then I read thru the post and d/l-ed what looks like the latest update (140109.bin?) .....awesome job! Hopefully it will be out by the time the Houston Arcade Expo rolls around in November!

 

Let me throw it out now.....your next title to port...........the obvivous.........

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Rally-X

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This is awesome! Love that it's happening. Great work.

 

Not sure if this has been said already, but when I use this on the Harmony with my woody 4-switch, it seems like the screen is jumping occasionally. I can't tell if it's only when a new flag first appears onscreen, but it's doing it pretty consistently.

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Here's the latest version with a new name (!), the third map, and several bug fixes. It should work on a 7800. The screen shouldn't roll or jump (but it might... if it does, please let me know). I'm still hoping to squeeze in a few more flag patterns if I can somehow find the bytes.

 

As for PAL,When I'm done I'm hoping that someone will offer to do the port. I haven't done one before.

 

As usual, if you see any problems with this build, please let me know. I've been squeezing bytes out of the code and it's pretty easy to accidentally introduce bugs when doing that.

 

-EdF

Rally 140219.bin

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As for PAL,When I'm done I'm hoping that someone will offer to do the port. I haven't done one before.

 

Just do a PAL60 version, then the only thing you have to worry about is the colors. I use constants in my games like this:

; COMPILE_VERSION
;       Set to NTSC or PAL to select color constants

NTSC            = 0
PAL             = 1
COMPILE_VERSION = NTSC

 IF COMPILE_VERSION = NTSC
 ; robot colors
GREY            = $00
YELLOW          = $10
ORANGE          = $20
RED             = $40
PURPLE          = $60
BLUE            = $80
CYAN            = $B0
GREEN           = $C0

WALL_COLOR      = $86
HAIR            = $F4
FACE            = $4E
OTTO_CIRCLE     = $88
OTTO_DETAIL     = $58
WHITE           = $0F
POWERBALL       = $F6
CPU_TOP         = $D6
 ELSE
 ; robot colors
GREY            = $00
YELLOW          = $20
ORANGE          = $40
RED             = $60
PURPLE          = $C0
BLUE            = $D0
CYAN            = $70
GREEN           = $50

WALL_COLOR      = $D6
HAIR            = $42
FACE            = $6E
OTTO_CIRCLE     = $D8
OTTO_DETAIL     = $88
WHITE           = $0E 
POWERBALL       = $26
CPU_TOP         = $56
 ENDIF 

; example color usage in data:
HumanoidColorDown0:
        .byte HAIR	;  1
        .byte FACE	;  2
        .byte FACE	;  3
        .byte RED+2	;  4
        .byte WHITE	;  5
        .byte WHITE	;  6
        .byte GREY+8	;  7
        .byte GREY+4	;  8
        .byte RED+4	;  9
        .byte WHITE-2	; 10
        .byte WHITE-2	; 11
        .byte WHITE-2	; 12
        .byte RED	; 13
        .byte RED+2	; 14
        .byte RED+4	; 15
        .byte RED+6	; 16

; example color usage in code:
        ldx #WALL_COLOR
        stx COLUPF

 

To build a PAL version, just change one line from this:

COMPILE_VERSION = NTSC
to this:

COMPILE_VERSION = PAL
and recompile.
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Very nice! With more memory that would be very cool to have music as well.

 

I've been doing alot of artwork for early '80s Midway games (think Galagas, Pac family, etc.) for custom applications on arcade machines and could certainly help out with the labels should you have these cartridges produced (I would certainly buy myself a NTSC copy).

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Just do a PAL60 version, then the only thing you have to worry about is the colors. I use constants in my games like this:

 

Ah, okay. I thought I had to worry about scanline count, etc. I already have all the colors pulled out as constants so it should be easy to do.

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Very nice! With more memory that would be very cool to have music as well.

 

I've been doing alot of artwork for early '80s Midway games (think Galagas, Pac family, etc.) for custom applications on arcade machines and could certainly help out with the labels should you have these cartridges produced (I would certainly buy myself a NTSC copy).

 

As far as I know, no one has created a label yet so go for it! The official name is "Rally-X" now and should include an 80's style "namco" trademark somewhere on the label.

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The different screen size is fairly easy to deal with, just have VB_DELAY and OS_DELAY constants (assigned where you set the color constants) with the proper values for NTSC or PAL, then use

  lda #VB_DELAY
  sta TIM64T

Where it gets tricky is the speed of gameplay, especially if you're just moving by 1 pixel per frame like I do in Frantic. For games like that, PAL60 is the easy way out.

 

For Medieval Mayhem I used fractional movement, with a large table that controlled the fireball speeds. I had separate tables for PAL and NTSC that were compiled in using the IF ELSE ENDIF like was done for the color constants. I have a snippet of that at the bottom of my Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM page.

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Here's the latest version with a new name (!), the third map, and several bug fixes. It should work on a 7800. The screen shouldn't roll or jump (but it might... if it does, please let me know). I'm still hoping to squeeze in a few more flag patterns if I can somehow find the bytes.

 

As usual, if you see any problems with this build, please let me know. I've been squeezing bytes out of the code and it's pretty easy to accidentally introduce bugs when doing that.

 

I'm having a problem sometimes when I get down to one flag left. My car will slow down to almost no movement, and I of course die before getting the last flag. I know it's happened at least twice since I've been testing builds, and happened once so far on the latest. I'm using Stella 3.9 with Windows 7.

Edited by MrFish
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I'm having a problem sometimes when I get down to one flag left. My car will slow down to almost no movement, and I of course die before getting the last flag. I know it's happened at least twice since I've been testing builds, and happened once so far on the latest. I'm using Stella 3.9 with Windows 7.

 

Doesn't that just mean you ran out of gas?

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