Enhanced IK

[pavros]

Here is an enhanced version of good old International Karate. 128k of RAM is recommended. Please try HELP for more info (available on 128k).

ikee2014.xex

Edited December 24, 2014 by pavros

[Yautja]

Glad to see we finally have London in the A8 version. Nice work!

[Drummerboy]

Nice!.

 

This just will work with 128K, or work on 64k too?

[Heaven/TQA]

Nice

[pavros]

The game works on 64k but most of new features are not available then. I will provide a list of features available for 64k and 128k soon.

[Heaven/TQA]

so great music

Edited December 24, 2014 by Heaven/TQA

[Tezz]

Cool! I'm going to check this out now.

[Tezz]

It's perfect Pavros, well done

[bfollett]

A quick try in Altirra and it looks like the program adjust speed for PAL/NTSC, but not colors. The colors all seem a bit off for NTSC and, the display looks like it has too many scan lines for standard NTSC... the text at the bottom is chopped off. Still the hard work is truly appreciated.

 

Bob

Edited December 24, 2014 by bfollett

[tjlazer]

Nice job, wasn't aware of the London stage. The C64 version has it? I never seen it on the c64 port, which I use to play a lot.

Edited December 24, 2014 by tjlazer

[+Stephen]

The new background are cool. I could swear that the backgrounds were animated on a version I played as a kid - the sun would shimmer in the lake. Am I imagining this?

[bfollett]

The new background are cool. I could swear that the backgrounds were animated on a version I played as a kid - the sun would shimmer in the lake. Am I imagining this?

See attached, not sure if it was the latest:

ikp_0270.xex

[Yautja]

No animations in the original IK. BTW, does anybody know how to counter attack the objects?

 

[Wrathchild]

Nice work!

Any news on the next phase for IK+ ?

[fandenivoldsk]

Awesome update!

[pavros]

@bfollet: Neither the colors nor the position of text at the bottom have changed compared to the original version for NTSC - World Karate Championship. Well, except the Sydney's sky color. That's why I think it should look good on real NTSC hardware. BTW, please try View/Overscan Mode/Extended in Altirra.

 

@tjlazer: Yes, The C64 version had 8 backdrops where London was the one missing in A8 version.

 

@Wrathchild: No :-)

[Level42]

Nice !!

[Level42]

Animations started on Atari ST version (and I guess Amiga).

 

too bad T doesn't drop trousers .......

[pavros]

Screenshots I should have added in first post.

Edited December 29, 2014 by pavros

[pavros]

List of changes against the original

 

128k:

• One-on-one game modes for one and two players. The game may be unlimited or limited to selected number of rounds. If rounds limit is set then the winner is the one who collects more points from all rounds in total. The rounds limit cannot be set at bonus round, e.g. 4, 9, 13, 18, etc. After reaching rounds limit the final round is finished with MATCH OVER message followed by WHITE WINS or RED WINS depending on the winner (except draw state). The limit setting is visible in one-on-one mode only but it may be changed in any game mode.

• Weapon dodging mode. Meant for a practice. Three attempts - first on highest difficulty level, second on medium level and third on lowest level. The highest level attempt requires 10 successful dodges, the medium - 6 and the lowest - 3. CONTROL-C key combination turns collision detection off. The sequence of directions of flying weapon is immutable and symmetric for white and red fighter. That's why there is a possibility to practise with both white and red. While regular game in first bonus round with flying weapon there is a lowest difficulty level applied - 3 successful dodges required and 300 points to collect, in second bonus round - medium difficulty level and 600 points to collect, in third and all next bonus rounds - highest difficulty level and 1000 points to collect. In the original there were only two difficulty levels. In lower level 15 successful dodges were required, in higher level - 20. In both cases 2000 points were to be collected.

• Draw when some points are collected is signalized with DRAW message. If no points have been collected the message is not displayed.

• Draw while one player tournament (a basic mode existing yet in the original) does not cause game ending.

• Help (HELP key). The help text comes partially (joystick control and scoring) from a cover of the original. While displaying help screens sound settings may be changed. Help screens may be entered at any time.

• Additional background - London - coming from C64 version (having 8 backgrounds). The picture requires 8 DLIs while each of 7 existing backgrounds required only 3. Perhaps that's why it was not added to the original. Adding this picture caused a need to modify several existing DLI handlers.

• The Sydney picture is slightly different than in the original. It's more close to the one from C64 version as well as the one from the IK demo for Atari (the one without any sound and having 3 backgrounds switched with OPTION).

• Background pictures are stored in memory in crunched form and so there is no need to load them from the drive during game.

• Changing current location to the next one (N key) or any one (B key plus numeric key for backround number). The change may be forced at anytime during demo or in course of fight during game.

• Freezing current location - blocking possibility to change it automatically or manually.

• Pause at anytime. During pause all the game settings (except background) may be changed as well as help screens may be entered.

• Displaying ranking table at anytime during demo (R key).

• Sound modes (switched with M key):

  0 - stereo

  1 - mono

  2 - dual mono (mono on two POKEYs)

  3 - dual mono music + stereo sfx

  4 - stereo music + dual mono sfx

  CONTROL-M key combination restores default mode which is stereo (0) in case of two POKEYs and mono (1) in case of one POKEY.

  Stereo sfx means that the effect is louder audible at the same side the fighter finds himself on screen. There are 5 screen areas differing in stereo channels balance.

• The music is not interrupted while changing background.

• Bass channel (16-bit) is not interrupted while playing sfx samples.

• Bass channel (16-bit) has been moved from POKEY channels 1 and 2 to channels 3 and 4 as compared to the original. It was necessary in order to allow simultanous playing sfx samples (of playing rate set in POKEY channel 1) and music bass channel. The sfx samples are played on POKEY channels 1, 2 and 3.

• Improved music player routine. In first bars of the music the channels 1 and 2 are playing exactly the same. In the original their phases are not fixed which gives randomly a loud square wave or no sound at all or triangle wave as a sum of two square waves shifted of 90 degrees in phase against each other or all intermediate effects. In the improved player routine the channels 1 and 2 are always shifted of 90 degrees in phase against each other which gives triangle wave. The effect is audible in mono mode only.

• Turning music on or off is remembered and taken into consideration at each starting the game, no matter if other keys have been pressed in the meantime.

• TV system is detected and some settings dependent on it (timer speed, music player speed, animation speed, sfx sample playing rate) are adjusted accordingly.

• Several fixes related to background change and fighter animation synchronization against VBL frame and garbage showing up sometime on screen.

• Several fixes related to playing sfx samples.

• Several fixes related to problems arising from random blocking NMI by IRQ.

64k:

• One-on-one game modes for one and two players. The game is unlimited.

• While regular game in first bonus round with flying weapon there is a lowest difficulty level applied - 3 successful dodges required and 300 points to collect, in second bonus round - medium difficulty level and 600 points to collect, in third and all next bonus rounds - highest difficulty level and 1000 points to collect. In the original there were only two difficulty levels. In lower level 15 successful dodges were required, in higher level - 20. In both cases 2000 points were to be collected.

• Draw when some points are collected is signalized with DRAW message. If no points have been collected the message is not displayed.

• Draw while one player tournament (a basic mode existing yet in the original) does not cause game ending.

• The Sydney picture is slightly different than in the original. It's more close to the one from C64 version as well as the one from the IK demo for Atari (the one without any sound and having 3 backgrounds switched with OPTION).

• Background pictures are stored in memory in crunched form and so there is no need to load them from the drive during game.

• Changing current location to the next one (N key). The change may be forced in course of fight only.

• Freezing current location - blocking possibility to change it automatically or manually.

• Pause - in course of fight only.

• The music is not interrupted while changing background.

• Wykrywany jest system TV i ustawienia zależne od niego są odpowiednio korygowane (prędkość odmierzania czasu, odtwarzania muzyki, animacji, częstotliwość sampli).

• TV system is detected and some settings dependent on it (timer speed, music player speed, animation speed, sfx sample playing rate) are adjusted accordingly.

• Several fixes related to background change and fighter animation synchronization against VBL frame and garbage showing up sometime on screen.

• Several fixes related to playing sfx samples.

• Several fixes related to problems arising from random blocking NMI by IRQ.

• The game stops loading when all the data needed for operation on 64k is in memory. Last 6.5k of data in xex file is ignored.

[Heaven/TQA]

wow..... i wasn't aware of the sound fx fixes... need to check that out!

 

and this game imho is far more impressive of Archer's work than Dropzone (which is imho some kind of "out of the box").

Edited December 29, 2014 by Heaven/TQA

[Level42]

Funny. I had the pleasure to meet Archer a few years ago and I thanked him and complimented him for Dropzone as it was (and is !) one of my favorite games on the A8.

 

He laughed and said...."Wow, you're about the first one to mention Dropzone and not IK". He clearly was glad about it

 

Dropzone out of the box ????? I'm not saying this easily, as I usually respect others' opinions but......are you nuts ??

 

Maybe you should read up a bit: http://web.archive.org/web/20070221212042/http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2007/01/the_making_of_d_1.php

Edited December 29, 2014 by Level42

[Heaven/TQA]

well... as coder I say yes... Dropzone is out of the box on A8... neverless I love Dropzone and played it til death... but for me most impressive was the fast pace and scrolling and the explosion

 

but... it has nothing special "tricks" or do I miss something? players used for the clouds and the player plus missles for the shoots... no overscan used.. .charbased sprites (which are not masked when they overlap). If my memories do not fool me... do the players not cross the borders while background are clipped?

 

so... I stay to my "out of the box" statement... I love the LMS tricks for the Dropzone Logo and using PMs to do the colors in the letters but it could be done better... and the death sound plus animation... but that's it...

 

now to IK...

 

big C64 like sprites... colorful background... fast paced action far better than Way of the Exploding fist... nice copyprotection (I removed that so I know it as it was EOR etc encoded)... rob hubbard pokey classic music (Dropzone?).... no gfx glitches... sound samples while playing... no slow downs...etc etc etc... Yes... from programming point of view... I appreciate his work more on IK than Dropzone (standard Defender Clone).

 

ps. I put my 800 XL on the floor to hit SPACE with feet while going for highscore... best played with competition pro of course...

Edited December 29, 2014 by Heaven/TQA

[emkay]

IK looks better. But Drop Zone has the "much more" game mechanics... people underestimate when "more" moving objects appear, compared to "some big objects". Only "RGB" is beating Drop Zone...

[Heaven/TQA]

Me not underestimating the work under the hood..... But I tell you something... I bet it does not move more than 32 chars per frame....