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Flashback Portable: Needed Controller Hacks


doctorclu

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Hey here's one: commonly there are games that have a rainbow stripe in the gameplay. Those mentioned on the compatibility list are:

 

Cosmic Ark

Journey Escape <--- an old favorite of mine and got me to start listening to Journey. :D

16K Wizard of Wor

 

I thought there was more that suffered this, but these two had identical problems. Any idea what could be causing that?

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The early HM save fluke that creates "stars" on actual hardware doesn't work on the portable.

 

EDIT: forgot to mention that at least in my Wizard Of Wor hack, you can get rid of the line by holding T and pushing UP on the D pad. It's still showing the same issues that marred the original game, however (wrong 2nd player score alignment and scanner border glitches) - I'll post an updated one for the portable if I get around to it. Bummer that the Cosmic Ark starfield effect is a no-go on the AFP, tho :(

Edited by Nukey Shay
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Lord of the rings has the problem enduro has with the text running off the bottom of the screen. I just picked up the fbp for $20 at target love it. I may just remap the controls and put a few fixes to my own homebrew for the portable seems the score and titlescreen dont work right and a few other oddities like a double wide sprite being a pixel off to the left, but with the extra on board buttons this little handheld rocks!

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That's right...on an actual console, you can "race the beam" and alter stuff you already know have been displayed - like late CTRLPF writes that happen after the relevant pixels have been sent, and so would then take effect on the next scanline. Not always the case with AFP. CTRLPF in particular...it'll apply changes to stuff that the "beam" has already passed. It's emulation, so it does not have to play by the rules. With sprite positioning, I found that I had to add a cycle before RESP0/1 for the scores to align properly in Wizard Of Wor via trail and error. Take a look at the notes in reply #175.

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Fixes to the 16k Wizard Of Wor:

 

Got nearly all of the stray pixels fixed (there's only one blank I couldn't fix in the scanner...and just one up top if you activate the old style game by holding UP when the boot sequence is running). Stars are deactivated by default.

 

Additional issues:

Sound effect for shooting the wizard needs fixing

Level # display in the scanner has shifted to the left (but still readable).

 

EDIT: Above problems fixed except the sound for shooting the wizard. Large text is also centered properly.

Wow16k(portable).bin

Edited by Nukey Shay
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Nukey - how about the Yahtzee ROM & hack - both ROMs only show 2 of the 5 dice, but the 2 dice that are shown, are repeated across the top of the screen as if the ROMs were running correctly.

 

Yahtzee: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/4374-yahtzee-for-2600/?p=39607

Yahtzee hack: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/4374-yahtzee-for-2600/?p=3334404

 

Thomas' hack: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/4374-yahtzee-for-2600/?p=3335568

Thomas' larger pips: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/4374-yahtzee-for-2600/?p=3335691

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It's using the multi-RESP0 trick and illegal opcodes. Weird, since there was no reason at all to do so (or was there?).

 

Here's a fix to the new random version posted by Thomas Yench...er...Jentzsch.

 

Only the first 112 bytes are affected by changes. You guys can do the legwork of splitting/joining if you want all the roms updated.

Yahtzee(portable).bin

Yahtzee.asm

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It's using the multi-RESP0 trick and illegal opcodes. Weird, since there was no reason at all to do so (or was there?).

 

 

Well maybe he did, or maybe they did know of a way to do it conventionally.

 

Was Russ' original plan to use double or quadruple-size dice? That could explain the goofy display routine. Some kind of two-player thing going on, as well (but only one implemented).

 

So you found two ways in the code but only one was used?

 

Fixes to the 16k Wizard Of Wor:

 

Got nearly all of the stray pixels fixed (there's only one blank I couldn't fix in the scanner...and just one up top if you activate the old style game by holding UP when the boot sequence is running). Stars are deactivated by default.

 

Additional issues:

Sound effect for shooting the wizard needs fixing

Level # display in the scanner has shifted to the left (but still readable).

 

EDIT: Above problems fixed except the sound for shooting the wizard. Large text is also centered properly.

 

Wow, sounds like you did a lot of tinkering on this one. Played it, hooked up to the TV of course, and it looks great.

 

And I was not sure but, yep, you put the original CBS game in there as the boot up option. :) That is cool.

 

Played through the game and managed to kill the Wizard which as you mentioned got the "bbeeeeeeeeeppppp" sound. That is just the Wizard cussing from being shot. ;)

 

Oh, I love how the game comes up in "AFP Mode" instead of "2600 mode". I threw this version of the game in the Harmony cart to see if it would recognize "2600 mode". Doubted it would, how could it? How would a program know a AFP from a real 2600? But the game that played on the Harmony cart was still spot on with an exception of one pixel out of place for the radar box below.

 

-----

 

So is there any chance DK VCS could work on the AFP?

 

I tested this back in November when I got the AFP, found it didn't work and reported what I found. This is what we got back from game author, Joe Musashi.

 

"Interesting. When the game freezes that's usually a sign that the extra SARA RAM is missing (which is used to store Mario's state). Perhaps the F4SC bank switching is not detected correctly.

 

The display glitches are not too surprising. I haven't tried recently, but some time ago Mess and Javatari also had problems.

 

When the source gets released, maybe someone with a flashback might want to try and make a flashback version."

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So you found two ways in the code but only one was used?

There are two score tables set up in RAM and a pointer that selects between them. The pointer is never changed to the other one, tho...but it's present if somebody wanted to hack in a player 2 option. It'll take a lot more code changes to switch between players and such (to say nothing of the display kernel...which is only designed to display one score table).

 

 

I threw this version of the game in the Harmony cart to see if it would recognize "2600 mode". Doubted it would, how could it? How would a program know a AFP from a real 2600?

Both "2600 mode" and "7800 mode" are removed/disabled for this hack. It's a specific build for the AFP due to the strange positioning and playfield errors present in the emulator. In that regard, the AFP should actually be detectable (just do a late PF write that has no effect on real hardware but DOES on the AFP, and check for a sprite collision positioned there). Interesting that it is still playable on a console tho...I didn't expect it to be without a lot of screen garble.

 

 

So is there any chance DK VCS could work on the AFP?

 

I tested this back in November when I got the AFP, found it didn't work and reported what I found. This is what we got back from game author, Joe Musashi.

 

"Interesting. When the game freezes that's usually a sign that the extra SARA RAM is missing (which is used to store Mario's state). Perhaps the F4SC bank switching is not detected correctly.

 

Makes sense...if SARA ram is all zeros in the binary. Should function by changing the first page of each bank to be $FF's so the AFP can detect it.

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Was Russ' original plan to use double or quadruple-size dice? That could explain the goofy display routine. Some kind of two-player thing going on, as well (but only one implemented).

Thomas did hack the original Yahtzee game to make the dice larger. I don't think it was a 2 player game.

Thanks for getting this one to work. :thumbsup:

 

 

DK VCS: as suspected, SARA was zeroed. It's playable...but some minor screen glitches. Text messages are pretty badly skewed. Most-recent NTSC build used.

Is there a reason (or did you happen to notice), why the gameplay of this one is only using the upper half of the screen on the AFP? It's really tiny on there.......

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DK VCS: as suspected, SARA was zeroed. It's playable...but some minor screen glitches. Text messages are pretty badly skewed. Most-recent NTSC build used.

 

Awesome it plays. :o I don't know why I doubt things can be done anymore. :P

 

I like how as I write this Wizard of Wor 16K hack has like 10 downloads and DK VCS has about 27. :) I mean it is probably one of the coolest fan builds in a long time.

 

So the gameplay is fine. As you mentioned, text at the intro and at the "How high can you get" is out of horizontal sync. Seen that on many intro screens while testing on the AFP.

 

And the other interesting thing is how the upper score and timer disappears during gameplay. But hey, if nothing else happens DK VCS works. :D

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Is there a reason (or did you happen to notice), why the gameplay of this one is only using the upper half of the screen on the AFP? It's really tiny on there.......

 

Because normally there is a score and timer at the top.

 

post-4709-0-39034900-1486291880_thumb.png

 

Again, not complaining just stating. I'm glad I can play a half screen of DK VCS verses just getting a no sound intro and then a crash after half drawing the play field.

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Would games programmed with the DPC+ kernel work on this? Prolly not, I'd think.

 

Does Titan Axe work? (32k bankswitching)

 

I love it when I see a game that is 16K and 32K. :D

 

I loaded it, played it for a bit. Not exactly sure how much is working right and not, but I was able to play a game from start to game over.

 

I'll know more when I fire up the 2600 Jr. with the Harmony Cart... that is in the next room where my wife is crashed out. :P

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I love it when I see a game that is 16K and 32K. :D

 

I loaded it, played it for a bit. Not exactly sure how much is working right and not, but I was able to play a game from start to game over.

 

I'll know more when I fire up the 2600 Jr. with the Harmony Cart... that is in the next room where my wife is crashed out. :P

 

Did I do something wrong/stupid again?

 

If you hold the button at the game over screen you will continue based on your difficulty. Easy sends you back a couple of screens. Hard sends you back to a middle point.

 

They game plays very well with a Sega pad, so I thought that it might be easier to play with the portable.

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Did I do something wrong/stupid again?

 

If you hold the button at the game over screen you will continue based on your difficulty. Easy sends you back a couple of screens. Hard sends you back to a middle point.

 

They game plays very well with a Sega pad, so I thought that it might be easier to play with the portable.

 

Wrong or stupid? No. Just need to play the original game to compare.

 

As for the Sega pad, the way the Atari Flashback Portable works, other alternate buttons are used.

 

Like in Star Raiders Difficultly one turned on and off shields, Difficulty two for turning on and off computers, and Color/mono was used for the Galactic Map/Forward View.

 

In Spy Hunter Color/Mono was used to activate weapons like smoke screen and Oil slick.

 

So if you have other button activity going on, assigning to Color/Mono/Difficulty 1, or Difficulty 2 will give the player other buttons to push. ;)

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Thomas did hack the original Yahtzee game to make the dice larger. I don't think it was a 2 player game.

Thanks for getting this one to work.

No, he did one to make the spots bigger on the dice. The two player stuff was unchanged - just a score table and the pointer.

 

But I'm working on the hack below to make bigger dice.

post-222-0-77149000-1486318155_thumb.jpg

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DK VCS: as suspected, SARA was zeroed. It's playable...but some minor screen glitches. Text messages are pretty badly skewed. Most-recent NTSC build used.

The problem with the text display is probably the late/early HMOVE at cycle 74.

 

; Input
;   Y : number of lines - 1
;
; Uses
;   FrameCtr
;
; Parameters
;   {1} : color register (e.g., COLUBK)
;   {2} : color table
;   {3} : character bitmap pointer [12*2]

        MAC BITMAP_96

                lda     #$80
                sta     HMP0
                sta     HMP1

                ; interlace switch

                lda     FrameCtr
                lsr
                bcs     .odd
                sta     WSYNC

                ; draw even columns

.even           lda     {2},y           ; color
                sta     {1}
                lda     ({3}+$10),y     ; column 8
                tax
                lda     ({3}+$00),y     ; column 0
                sta     GRP0
                lda     ({3}+$04),y     ; column 2
                sta     GRP1
                lda     ({3}+$08),y     ; column 4
                sta     GRP0
                lda     ({3}+$0C),y     ; column 6
                sta     GRP1
                stx     GRP0
                lda     ({3}+$14),y     ; column 10
                sta     GRP1

                lda     #$80            ; move +8 pixels
                sta     HMP0
                sta     HMP1

                dey
                bmi     .end

                ; draw odd columns

.odd            sta     WSYNC
                sta     HMOVE

                lda     {2},y           ; color
                sta     {1}
                lda     ({3}+$16),y     ; column 11
                tax
                lda     ({3}+$02),y     ; column 1
                sta     GRP0
                lda     ({3}+$06),y     ; column 3
                sta     GRP1
                lda     ({3}+$0A),y     ; column 5
                sta     GRP0
                lda     ({3}+$0E),y     ; column 7
                sta     GRP1
                lda     ({3}+$12),y     ; column 9
                sta     GRP0
                stx     GRP1

                nop
                nop
                nop
                sta.w   HMCLR
                sta     HMOVE           ; at cycle 74 to move -8 pixels

                dey
                bpl     .even
.end

        ENDM

If that's not supported on the Flashback, a possible solution would be to switch the sprite position not every scanline, but instead only once per frame. That would increase the flickering, but the text would be readable.

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No, he did one to make the spots bigger on the dice. The two player stuff was unchanged - just a score table and the pointer.

 

But I'm working on the hack below to make bigger dice.

Ohhh....old eyes..... I thought when he did the larger pips, it was larger dice. All I know was that it is easier to see, I misunderstood his hack.

Nice work on that upcoming screenshot!

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