atari_400 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 It's also a lot different from Birmingham where I grew up :-) However we do have canals here but they are to keep the swamps from returning not for transportation LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Lol...Birmingham...You poor sod Mind you, your canal come with some mean critters 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 The version of Millipede as supplied, has been modified to have unlimited lives. Please let's make sure we don't provide badly hacked versions of games, and try to stay with the games as released (unless the trainer is visible and options can be toggled) -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditto Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 A) This is awesome. Great work. I love being able to flip through the games and see the screenshots for stuff I had forgotten or whose name I couldn't remember. B) I am curious what is the difference between a "cheat version" of a game and the real version? I'd like to know how to identify that within my own archives. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 The version of Millipede as supplied, has been modified to have unlimited lives. Please let's make sure we don't provide badly hacked versions of games, and try to stay with the games as released (unless the trainer is visible and options can be toggled) -Thom Yep, the whole plan has been that I go through all the titles and weed out hacks (not choice trainers), configure titles that are euro to 50Hz and plainly test the whole lot, sadly as people know my daughter is extremely unwell in hospital and has been there a long time so all my free time has been based around her. Also poor old Starwindz has been all over the world and not home in South Korea so work sort of stopped due to the pair of us being busy BUT, its not finished, Starwindz is preparing to get back into it and I'm going to get some free time and it WILL be tested and sorted I know we keep saying this but we will be back on board asap...But yes, the whole set needs to be checked, normally its myself or Starwindz that add the titles but as we happily take requests and suggestions from others it can happen that a hack slips in which isn't a problem as long as its replaced with a proper version. And yes the NTSC Hires stuff WILL be added.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 A) This is awesome. Great work. I love being able to flip through the games and see the screenshots for stuff I had forgotten or whose name I couldn't remember. B) I am curious what is the difference between a "cheat version" of a game and the real version? I'd like to know how to identify that within my own archives. Thank you. Yes to A, I often go through Mark Hardnman wonderful gamebase for the 8 bit and just look at the screen shots incase it triggers a memory. And incase you wonder what the difference in game bases are, Marks is a full on attempt to add ALL atari 8bit games while our Gamepack is a 'best of' as voted by us and you guys. As for cheat versions, these come in 2 versions, the first is a hack where normally the amount of lives you have is made to never go down, the hacks don't give you a choice in playing it normally and then there's the trainer menu versions where you DO get a choice of various cheats so the game can be played either way. Sadly the hacks are hard to spot because it needs you to sit and play all your games and see if you die or lose lives etc.. Those versions will be removed from the game pack and replaced with either normal versions or a trainer choice, the temptation is to just have normal versions so that people play the game properly but its up to you guys if you want a choce of trainer menu versions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Righty, I've now started to do the complete image check to weed out incorrect settings, bad versions and hacks, I'll also supply Starwindz with any new versions or the wanted Hires stuff for NTSC users.. Game Name Fix Need 180 Set to PAL Alien Swarm Hacked Remove it from set Android Attack Enable Basic Astro - Droid Swap for supplied ATR Aztec Swap for supplied ATR Next batch, asap.. Remember I'm sitting and playing every game for a bit so its not a 2 second job Starwindz, here's the needed files for replacement... Downloads.rar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwindz Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 (edited) The development would be resumed again in this weekend. Today I am going to re-install all development tools and data for the stable development environment, and I have to read all posts in this topic again since the last update released. Edited April 2, 2015 by starwindz 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 The versions of software on this page: http://www.atarimania.com/atari-vapi.html Should be considered canonical, as they are dumps of the original disks, with copy protection retained. These VAPI driven disks can be read either by Atari800Win or Altirra, and represent non-cracked, working versions of the games listed. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Topper has a glitch where the last life never goes away, would need to look at code to be sure. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Small update, I'm still doing the one by one test but I got to a game called Balz, everything seemed fine and then 4hrs later I was in agony from my arthritis in my neck, that one game hooked me for 4hrs, once my pain goes I'll get back to the test Thanks for the heads up on Topper, I'll weed it out as part of the test. Vapi's / Pro images have pluses and minuses, normally I'd expect the Vapi image to be as close as possible to the original but unless certain SIO command lines have been set up then it will either not boot or boot with the copy protection activated leading to all sorts of wrong. There's also lots of Vapi's out there that are rogue, I've even found cracked game versions (what made a person create that?). What I'll do is go through the list getting rid of hacks and making fixes and then once that is done I'll go through the Atarimania list of VAPI's and create a list for Starwindz with all the needed commands set to replace them if people want them, I say that because some people like a trained option version. And on that note what do people think about having trainer menu versions in the game pack, too much of a pull to the dark side or have we got better will power? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 A few more Game Name Fix needed Ballblazer Replace both versions with full intro version supplied Battlezone Needs 128K BC's Quest for Tires Replace with image supplied (others are pre trained) Bellum Set to PAL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwindz Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 @Mclaneinc Could you please update your one-by-one check results into this attached excel file? This is my idea for more efficient work. to_do_list_for_1.3.0_150405.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Ok, will do Also forgot to attach the updated images for yesterday.. Downloads.rar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Still going...Its a slow old process so if there's anything you need to do Starwindz then carry on. Just about to hit the D's... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwindz Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Still going...Its a slow old process so if there's anything you need to do Starwindz then carry on. Just about to hit the D's... Yes. I will clean up a lot of useless and test code in the source code of game pack. Also I will take a look at the new features of Altirra 2.6.0 for new implementation of the next game pack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 I also noticed there's multiple versions of the same game in most of the zips, in 99.9% of cases its the same crack, any reason? Might be worth tidying those up down to a single version, your choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pusakat Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Is the source code for the best game pack UI/launcher available somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 No... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Sorry, had a terrible time around my daughter regarding suicide etc so I'll be dealing with items based upon priority at the moment.. Sorry to be like this but that is how it must be at this second... Paul, who feels like the worst dad in the world at the moment.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+S.D.W. Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Sorry to hear that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwindz Posted April 9, 2015 Author Share Posted April 9, 2015 Sorry, had a terrible time around my daughter regarding suicide etc so I'll be dealing with items based upon priority at the moment.. Sorry to be like this but that is how it must be at this second... Paul, who feels like the worst dad in the world at the moment.. I'm really sorry about what has happened. I can't imagine how you must feel right now and I don't know what to say. I am just praying to God now for you and your family from here Korea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Thank you, Yesterday was very traumatic, I was just just so upset when I typed the above but the reality is that I don't have any control of the situation so I'll still be working on the gamepack as I really need to have something to occupy my time and take my mind off things but when my daughter needs my time she will get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 (edited) Back on the gamepack, not going as fast as I'd like because there are so many alternate versions of games in the zips, deffo need to weed them out to un-confuse the player and shrink the DB down, ideal issue is one of every title only. Unfortunately there's been X number of some games added when the difference is actually a few bytes on the disk and in most cases exactly the same crack by via a different loader or hacked adjustments to the loader that make no difference.. I'll most likely do a quick restart and ask Starwindz to remove all but one version that I choose., as I'm not that far in it won't take long... So far found some real howlers and one that needs me to design a script of sorts to make it instantly open to the player. See, told you its not a five minute job but it really is needed Once its done I'll vet the suggested content so to make sure its not pretrained or faulty, its so easy to add a bad version simply by accident... Just to make it clear, you will see in a lot of the titles V3, V4, V5 etc, you need to understand that the V's etc isn't a different version of the game, its simply a different version of the disk that went around at the time that does not match the same MD5 or CRC so its given a different version number, the game in 99.9999999% is exactly the same version of the game hence we really should remove the numerous different v versions of the games in the zips, they merely confuse the person playing thinking that the latest V version is the best version when it may not be and could be for the most parts exactly the same as other version bar a few bytes with the actual game EXACTLY the same.. Edited April 13, 2015 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 (edited) Disaster... Despite my silence I've been working on the gampack, not as much as I'd have liked but my daughter is just in the final stages of leaving hospital after months in there so its been rather busy, but yesterday disaster stuck, I had a HD crash and after the repair the XLSL file was gone, tried a recover but every bit of software failed to find it. I would not mind but I'd just finished the T's so was pretty near done. I had a sudden flash of inspiration, I thought that MS Office normally keeps a temp saved version but when I ran MS Office I got a message saying the software wasn't able to be ran by this user, I researched this and found that after recent updates others were suffering the same problem. So now I'm rather stuffed, I don't want to hold up the gamepack any more as I'll have to restart the one by one from fresh so I'm suggesting that any proposed additions that people wanted get added and anything Starwindz has updated gets released and I'll start afresh on the new version rather than have it held back. The last 10 months have been pretty horrible with my daughters illness but to also have all the work on the gampack just get lost in 2 quirks of fate is soul destroying, the ganepack has been my 'sanity' with all the hospital stuff going on so to see it screwed really annoys with the additional fact that the backed up version also has gone. Feeling ever so slightly cursed, apologies to Starwindz and all who follow the gamepack, I feel terrible but this man is not for quitting... Edited May 22, 2015 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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