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Flashback Portable: Needed Controller Hacks


doctorclu

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I know I'm a bit late to this party, but I have a request if you're still accepting them.

 

I'm a big fan of Activision's Space Shuttle, and I can live with the graphical glitches, but the way it uses the color/mono switch makes it awkward to play on the portable since you have to hold the button down to keep it in Mono mode. The game is already designed to use the left difficulty switch for the same functions, but only if the color/mono switch is in mono mode.

 

An effective fix would be to hardcode any check to the color/mono switch to zero. Distella won't disassemble an 8k ROM, and I don't know enough about disassemblers in general to attempt this myself. Does this sound feasible at all?

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Here is an updated Pacman4K for the Flashback Portable.

 

The unit has an issue with me hitting HMOVE at cycle 74. I did this because I was planning to expand this at one time to do variable flicker. Since I never did this there was no need to avoid the HMOVE lines.

 

Enjoy...

 

 

 

I have never played that version. Thanks!

 

The only bug I noticed is that Pac-Man moves faster vertically than horizontally. Is there any way he could move as slow vertically as he does horizontally?

 

By the way, I'm playing this game on a Harmony and an Atari 2600 Jr. Maybe that bug only appears on original hardware.

 

For now, I'm keeping both versions: with slow and fast monsters. If it were not for that bug I would only keep the fast version. It is more challenging and the monsters' AI is closer to the arcade version.

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The only bug I noticed is that Pac-Man moves faster vertically than horizontally. Is there any way he could move as slow vertically as he does horizontally?p the fast version. It is more challenging and the monsters' AI is closer to the arcade version.

That's not a bug, it's just a side effect of porting the game to fill a 4:3 screen (instead of sideways 3:4), where the maze is wider than it should be.

 

Hmm...speaking of which, I wonder, since the Portable can easily be flipped sideways, if anyone is crazy enough to make homebrew arcade ports in their native aspect ratio... @_@

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Not a -controller- hack, or specifically a Portable hack, but could anyone hack Millipede so that the grey area at the bottom is black like the rest of the screen, like in Centipede?

 

Or better yet, point me in the direction of info and utils so I can hack it myself.

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Not a -controller- hack, or specifically a Portable hack, but could anyone hack Millipede so that the grey area at the bottom is black like the rest of the screen, like in Centipede?

 

Or better yet, point me in the direction of info and utils so I can hack it myself.

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but I find this one fun- http://atariage.com/forums/topic/126588-millipede-hack-has-this-been-done/?p=1530353

In this hack, you can move anywhere on the screen not just the grey area.

 

I don't have an all black Millipede hack. But it should be an easy one - just changing the color code of the grey area to black.

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Tac-scan:

 

I was reluctant to post this because it's not perfect. The game only gives you 5 directions to move, so it seemed like it should be easy for a joystick version just to throw 5 different values into the INPT timer counter when you move. Not so! For some odd reason, the stars don't always follow your direction, and moving right might not be possible without moving left first. But it's otherwise playable.

Tacscan(portable).bin

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I'm still tinkering around with Millipede...I have to change a 02 (or two) to ram_DA into a 00 somewhere...but where??

 

I did find a hidden message in the ROM, though:

 

DAVE STAUGAS LOVES BEATRICE HABLIG
Cute :)

 

Edit: Figured it out!

 

The initial load of 02 (grey) is at 0x318C, and the screen flash of 40 02 is at 0x3762 (the 40 is red).

 

Now I can finally add Atari 2600 to the list of consoles I've hacked around with B)

 

post-10621-0-19040200-1498378748.png

 

 

Edit 2: Ehhhh, the FBP must have some special programming to make this game run though, because any changes to it cause it to stop working :D

Edited by Asaki
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Fill the Ram area with FF's so Superchip is recognized. It's the first 256 bytes in each 4k block. It's easier to use a bithacker to do this, but not impossible in Stella: force 16k Standard as the bankswitch mode in your hacks profile, and you'll be able to edit the areas. Change it back to 16k Superchip after you save the edited Rom.

Edited by Nukey Shay
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Ooh, okay. It's working now =) Didn't know you could hack inside of Stella, I'm just using a hex editor.

 

FWIW, I tried changing the CRC on the ROM to match the working file, and it didn't help. I don't know if it's because this particular program I used adds four bytes to the end of the file or not...there's another program that will let you put the four bytes anywhere you want in the file, but you have to compile it yourself, and I am lazy (and have no environments set up).

 

Now that I know that possibly wasn't the problem, I might have to try it out on some different games.

 

 

We're okay to post the full ROM here, right?

Cxb8 Millipede (no grey).bin

Edited by Asaki
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Much better gameplay for me! Love it!

I didn't touch the gameplay though, I just turned the ugly grey box into a black box. It always "bugged" me B)

 

So much so, that I almost never play the game. Now I've been playing it and it's actually a fine game.

 

I made a similar hack for the Famicom port of the game, but I haven't released it yet.

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I didn't touch the gameplay though, I just turned the ugly grey box into a black box. It always "bugged" me B)

 

I meant it as, its better to play the game with a completely black background. And I actually scored better than usual, on your hack.

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Kinda weird to revert what is actually an improvement over Centipede.

To me, the grey box is ugly, it's an eyesore that makes me want to turn off the game and play Centipede instead. I already know full well the travel area I am restricted to, what other purpose does it serve? To make it a little easier to count mushrooms?

 

I made this hack for me. If other people like it, that's cool, and if people prefer the grey box, that's cool too.

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Both to count a mushroom and so that you won't keep moving up and suddenly be stopped dead in your tracks without warning and get killed that way. I have this problem (very prominently) with the Galaxian hacks that remove the screen border. Never was a big fan of Centipede as it was pretty much just Space Invaders except they moved down a row faster than SI. Millipede improved every aspect of Centipede by removing the Centipede trap exploit, adding different enemies that all interact with the game (and aren't there to solely kill you) that gives it a lot of depth, and power-ups, making it the best arcade and 2600 title for me. Plus you get a better sense of progression.

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Both to count a mushroom and so that you won't keep moving up and suddenly be stopped dead in your tracks without warning and get killed that way.

I always get killed because I usually forget to leave the very bottom of the screen, I'm too busy looking at what I'm shooting and not paying attention to my own...moth?

 

Also, on the FBP, that grey box is out of focus between (my) two eyes, due to the odd screen; this hack eliminates the eye strain on this game.

Yeah, that's a nice bonus. I'm thinking about popping mine open this weekend and checking to see if there are any horizontally oriented replacement screens on eBay.

Edited by Asaki
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I always get killed because I usually forget to leave the very bottom of the screen, I'm too busy looking at what I'm shooting and not paying attention to my own...moth? ...

I'm fairly certain both Centipede and Millipede games refer to your player as "an archer", but I like "moth" also!

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I'm fairly certain both Centipede and Millipede games refer to your player as "an archer", but I like "moth" also!

Yeah, I know the home ports of the games added some weird storyline, I think in Centipede you're an elf with a magic wand? I'll have to read Millipede's manual.

 

I noticed the USA NES release of Millipede changes the moth into a space ship for some reason.

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Yeah, I know the home ports of the games added some weird storyline, I think in Centipede you're an elf with a magic wand? I'll have to read Millipede's manual.

 

I noticed the USA NES release of Millipede changes the moth into a space ship for some reason.

 

Nope, the Millipede Arcade introduced the archer:

 

post-29575-0-20280300-1498872076_thumb.jpg

 

Centipede has a full grasshopper animation in the ROM test that was never used in the game.

Knowing about it and then seeing it when I ran the Arcade at Chuck E. Cheese was a memorable day!

 

post-29575-0-27274400-1498872425.png

 

I also set all the games to max lives and easiest skill.

They made a lot of profit off Pizza, so why shouldn't the kids get the most for their tokens?

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Centipede had an elf in the comics but it was a garden gnome in some of the arcade promotional posters (which is used in the current Atari website remake). I always thought the original looked like a snake's head but it could be influence from Strategy Wiki.

 

Millipede arcade had the archer but I think the 2600 home port didn't make it so clear what you are. One home port even had the player as the Atari logo.

 

As for moth, that's what I always considered you to be in War of the Bugs, a clone of Centipede.

 

war-of-the-bugs_marquee.jpg

 

1181242185200.png

tumblr_o4kcamVb9J1sxn2jfo3_r1_1280.png

 

(my own version thrown in last for comparison)

Edited by Tangentg
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