Possible to make a Dark Chambers speed hack?

[sloth-machine]

I know nothing about hacking, but I wanted to make a blind request.

 

I play Dark Chambers from time to time only to shut it off after a few levels. I realize one of the problem lies in the VERY slow pace. IF the game played at a faster speed, the action would seem more intense. Is there a way to speed the game up?

[CDS Games]

Yep there is a way. I doubled the speed as part of the Gauntlet hack I'm working on. See here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/238273-dark-chambers-to-gauntlet-conversion/

 

One caveat though--it resulted in a slight issue with the side exits not always being detected. (It didn't matter for my hack because I got rid of side exits). But it would probably be fixable.

 

If I get a spare moment, I'll take a stab at it.

[sloth-machine]

Yep there is a way. I doubled the speed as part of the Gauntlet hack I'm working on. See here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/238273-dark-chambers-to-gauntlet-conversion/

 

One caveat though--it resulted in a slight issue with the side exits not always being detected. (It didn't matter for my hack because I got rid of side exits). But it would probably be fixable.

 

If I get a spare moment, I'll take a stab at it.

 

Much appreciated, btw your Gauntlet hack is awesome, I've been playing it all night.

[CDS Games]

Oh great! Glad you enjoyed it. I'll have another update very soon.

[CDS Games]

Here you go. I haven't playtested it much but it worked ok as far as I went.

 

darkchambersfast.bin

In case anyone wants to know how to do it:

The tables that control horizontal movement are at bank 2, F143ff. Changing the FFs to FE and the 01s to 02 make the characters move 2 pixels instead of 1. Do the same for the vertical tables at F2E9 ff…change the FFs to FE and the 01s to 02. Now the hero and the enemies both move twice as fast--you can fool around with the values in these tables to get various speed combinations.

The up and down playfield scrolling needs to be sped up now to match. That is controlled at FAED and following (still bank 2). At FAED change the LDX #$01 to LDX #$02, and at FAF5 change LDX #$FF to LDX #$FE. Now the playfield scrolls faster, but the screen bounces when the character stands still, so we need to fix that.

At FAE8 change the BEQ LFAED to BNE LFAED (change the hex from F0 03 to D0 03). Honestly, I'm not exactly sure why this works--I changed it on a lark and didn't inquire further.

That's it as far as speed goes, although now we have the side exit problem. You can exit out the right but not the left. The program checks the exits at Bank 2 FF5A (is player horizontal position 01?) and FF60 (is player horizontal position 98?). Note that the left exit is set to an odd number and the right to an even. But since we are moving 2 pixels at a time now, we will be either always even or always odd. Change the CMP #$01 to CMP #$02 and you can now exit out the left side.

It seems to work ok now although if the player happens to start on an odd horizontal value you won't be able to exit at all. If that happens we might have to do a less than/greater than check rather than look for a single number.

[sloth-machine]

Here you go. I haven't playtested it much but it worked ok as far as I went.

 

darkchambersfast.bin

 

In case anyone wants to know how to do it:

 

The tables that control horizontal movement are at bank 2, F143ff. Changing the FFs to FE and the 01s to 02 make the characters move 2 pixels instead of 1. Do the same for the vertical tables at F2E9 ff…change the FFs to FE and the 01s to 02. Now the hero and the enemies both move twice as fast--you can fool around with the values in these tables to get various speed combinations.

 

The up and down playfield scrolling needs to be sped up now to match. That is controlled at FAED and following (still bank 2). At FAED change the LDX #$01 to LDX #$02, and at FAF5 change LDX #$FF to LDX #$FE. Now the playfield scrolls faster, but the screen bounces when the character stands still, so we need to fix that.

 

At FAE8 change the BEQ LFAED to BNE LFAED (change the hex from F0 03 to D0 03). Honestly, I'm not exactly sure why this works--I changed it on a lark and didn't inquire further.

 

That's it as far as speed goes, although now we have the side exit problem. You can exit out the right but not the left. The program checks the exits at Bank 2 FF5A (is player horizontal position 01?) and FF60 (is player horizontal position 98?). Note that the left exit is set to an odd number and the right to an even. But since we are moving 2 pixels at a time now, we will be either always even or always odd. Change the CMP #$01 to CMP #$02 and you can now exit out the left side.

 

It seems to work ok now although if the player happens to start on an odd horizontal value you won't be able to exit at all. If that happens we might have to do a less than/greater than check rather than look for a single number.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your work, this is great I tested it and there seems to be no problems. It makes all the difference. *runs off smiling to play*

[CDS Games]

Hm...this is interesting. It looks like there unused data already coded in for faster movement. Like it was planned as an upgrade but then not implemented (maybe because Adam couldn't fit in a speed potion?).

[eegad]

Thanks for both this hack and the Gauntlet one. I just finally stumbled upon Gauntlet last week and was playing it earlier today. It got me thinking "Dark Chambers could have been much better if it moved more quickly; I wonder if anyone ever hacked it". And here it is!

[CDS Games]

You're very welcome! Glad you enjoyed them!