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Flashback Portable: Needed Controller Hacks


doctorclu

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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)

 

So got to test this out on the Harmony as well, looks like it works pretty close on the AFP.

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Here is Nukey's Berzerk AFP fix applied to one of my favorite Berzerk hacks: West World.

The original hack was a bit too dark (F0), making the walls hard to see on the Flashback Portable, so I lightened it a shade (F2). Also darkened the red of the score and tweaked the shooting sprite.

post-9364-0-65341600-1486363997_thumb.png

WestWorld(portable).bin

 

And here it is with the turbo hack applied:

WestWorld Turbo(portable).bin

 

And the normal Berzerk hack with turbo applied (and green player color):

Berzerk Turbo(portable).bin

Edited by KevinMos3
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So two of the questions I'm currently wondering is:

 

1) Why do voice games crash?

 

What are the programs calling for that the AFP doesn't recognize?

 

2) Why won't Supercharger games work?

 

The AFP can handle extra ram and works basically as a PAL unit (I say that because of how it handles the demos I tried out.) So ram isn't the issue. There for a while I just accepted that the super charger carts were a lost cause with the AFP. After seeing how the Harmony cart can load a Super charger image I find myself asking what is actually missing?

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So two of the questions I'm currently wondering is:

 

1) Why do voice games crash?

 

[snip]y ?

Do they crash?

Some emulation updates the sound once per frame of ~262 scan lines.

Voice is changing the Volume register onece every scan line (or every other scan line).

 

Due to the fact that sample playback can be done without a kernel drawing the display, many demos and games don't bother.

In my Berzerk to Dr. Who, Omegamatrix wrote the sample playback in a 262 line kernel so TV's would not roll and modern displays would not lose synch going back into the game.

Still the AFP does not handle that proper way 100% correctly but parts of samples are playing in Dr. Who vs. Daliks.

So maybe it is still some vertical blank or overscan thing.

Also newer builds use cycle 74 HMOVE to remove the black lines on the left that are in the original so AFP has that problem also.

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In my Berzerk to Dr. Who, Omegamatrix wrote the sample playback in a 262 line kernel so TV's would not roll and modern displays would not lose synch going back into the game.

Still the AFP does not handle that proper way 100% correctly but parts of samples are playing in Dr. Who vs. Daliks...

 

Speaking of... Any chance of getting the alignment issue fixed in that hack so that it's completely playable on the AFP?

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Yahtzee with big dice added to Supercharger-compatibility thread:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/65897-supercharger-conversion-hacks/page-9?do=findComment&comment=3689320

 

Works for this handheld too.

Thanks Nukey! Awesome work again!

 

BTW have you looked into why Halo 2600 does not work to the right beyond the first 3 rooms?

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No idea from looking at the source...nothing stands out at the moment. But on the unrelated question of the Supercharger games, keep in mind that its hotspot trigger also controls whether to rewrite subsequent addresses. Different from other added ram schemes in that regard...instead of a dedicated section of read-only and write-only addresses, any part of the entire addressable area can be overwritten with new data depending upon the timing of hotspot access (from what I understand). So this ability would need to be present within the emulator core for it to work. If it's not present in the emulator, it puts these games in the same boat as the DPC stuff (SS NoChance).

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Hello, I'm the author of two of the homebrew games that are actually included on the Flashback 'Shield Shifter' and 'Strip-Off'. The emulation on the Atari Flashback 5, 6, 7, and the Portable... they all have that same annoying 6 digit score bug where the first digit mirrors the 3rd. If I read correctly Nukey (profound respect sent your way) found and corrected for this in another game. Is there any chance these two can be looked into?

 

Ultimately, I'd like everyone to experience them as they were meant to be... ;-)

 

I have attached the copies I have for download on my web site if you can get around to them.

 

http://tacticalneuronics.com/downloads/Reders_StripOff_12.zip

 

http://tacticalneuronics.com/downloads/Reders_ShieldShifter_14.zip

 

Thanks!

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Early HMOVEs and illegals...tsk. Not much I can do about the DCP's, but the other ones (LAXs, NOP $s, and ASRs) are replaced with regular code. The DCP's don't look to be causing much of a problem, tho. Enemy bombs and missiles are shifted over a bit as a result, but the game is still playable. So many cycles being wasted, there was no reason at all to use illegals for the other code.

 

First things first: HMOVEs moved to the proper spot at cycle 0. Early writes to players moved to the correct scanlines.

 

Score fixed by hitting RESP's 2 cycles earlier, and shifting both HM's 2 pixels left.

 

Reserve players under an HMOVE line now...so I moved those over +2 cycles so the top of the leftmost one wasn't clipped. Portable had an issue with HMP1, so this is moved 2 pixels right (will be incorrect on an actual machine).

 

You might have posted a source...geez, 85 .cfg lines in this one! Got one for Strip Off to save me the hassle?

 

 

Update: Yahtzee didn't look too clear on the portable's little screen, so I'm posting a newer one in the Supercharger thread.

 

 

 

EDIT: forgot some more illegal NOPs...missiles look to be a little closer to where they should be now.

Shieldshifter(portable).bin

Edited by Nukey Shay
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Stripoff: Same positioning solution as the above. There's a nasty framejump between rounds present in the original game, tho (should have been fixed with a blank drawscreen when setting up the next rounds).

 

Might have to start keeping a list of the illegals that the portable doesn't take issue with! (DCP and SBX working fine here).

Stripoff(portable).bin

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Could Scramble be ported to the Portable?

What about Gingerbread Man?

Scramble uses DPC (no dice), Gingerbread Man uses UA bankswitching (would need a conversion).

 

NOTE: I notice that people seem to be getting a bit off track from what this thread is intended for...or what I thought it was - fixing the classic game library to work with the handheld. If homebrew programmers wanted their games to be playable on it, they should be able to release their own. Hey, I'm only a hacker! Also, an updated, more-accurate emulator in the next version of the AFP (it's possible) could make all of this work obsolete.

Edited by Nukey Shay
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True true... In that case I won't ask about Thomas Jentzsch and Chris Walton's Star Castle or Thomas Jentzsch's Thrust. :P

 

(Still happy with DK VCS) :D

 

No this thread has helped bring about some awesome games into the form factor of the AFP (Star Raiders, Spy Hunter, Raiders of the Lost Ark), helped find the exact technical limitations of the AFP emulator (Hey Atgames, I hope you've been taking notes from what Nukey's been sharing!) And yes we have had homebrew developers chime in to help find solutions. Afterall, homebrew developers want their game enjoyed by as many as possible but might not understand the incomplete emulation of the AFP.

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Scramble uses DPC (no dice), Gingerbread Man uses UA bankswitching (would need a conversion).

 

NOTE: I notice that people seem to be getting a bit off track from what this thread is intended for...or what I thought it was - fixing the classic game library to work with the handheld. If homebrew programmers wanted their games to be playable on it, they should be able to release their own. Hey, I'm only a hacker! Also, an updated, more-accurate emulator in the next version of the AFP (it's possible) could make all of this work obsolete.

 

You are a VERY TALENTED hacker! And we are very grateful for your efforts. :) We cannot thank you enough!!!

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I'm getting pretty close to completing the portable edition of Virtual World BASIC, but this is perplexing - binaries for small programs break on the portable unless ballast code is put in place; not sure what the ballast code is triggering but if I remove it, the binary doesn't run on the portable.

 

In this case the ballast code is just game code from a working game that doesn't get executed but still needs to be present in gameloop and gameloop2 respectively.

 

Nukey, any idea why this is happening?

cbstest2.asm

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