Champ Games - Wizard of Wor Arcade - 2600

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

For those interested in purchasing the full ROM of Wizard of Wor Arcade, Champ Games has relaunched our website and added a store to do just that!   For now, we are offering full ROMs for sale of Galagon, Wizard of Wor Arcade and Mappy, with plans to add more in the near future.

 

If you have previously purchased the cartridge for these games and are interested in purchasing the ROM, we have partnered with AtariAge to offer a 50% discount on ROM purchases with proof-of-purchase of the cart version.

 

We have also posted updated demo ROMs for most of our games, including the latest demos of RobotWar: 2684, Gorf Arcade and Lady Bug Arcade.  

 

Have fun!

[atarifan88]

15 hours ago, johnnywc said:

Hello all,

 

For those interested in purchasing the full ROM of Wizard of Wor Arcade, Champ Games has relaunched our website and added a store to do just that!   For now, we are offering full ROMs for sale of Galagon, Wizard of Wor Arcade and Mappy, with plans to add more in the near future.

 

If you have previously purchased the cartridge for these games and are interested in purchasing the ROM, we have partnered with AtariAge to offer a 50% discount on ROM purchases with proof-of-purchase of the cart version.

 

We have also posted updated demo ROMs for most of our games, including the latest demos of RobotWar: 2684, Gorf Arcade and Lady Bug Arcade.  

 

Have fun!

I'm glad Champ Games has decided to go this route as I no longer have a working Atari 2600 and have since purchased a Retron 77 and updated it to the community build.  Champ Games have always been #1 on my list when it comes to playing arcade accurate games with advanced graphics.  Thanks for all you do and making some of my favorite arcade games come to life on the Atari!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

5 hours ago, atarifan88 said:

I'm glad Champ Games has decided to go this route as I no longer have a working Atari 2600 and have since purchased a Retron 77 and updated it to the community build.

It is cool that you like Stella and the R77 that much. As of now, this combination plays almost everything. But the R77 performance is on the edge for many of the ARM based games. Therefore games e.g. written for the UnoCart (which is more than twice as fast as the currently used ARM) may not work at full speed on this combination.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

/deleted

Edited May 12, 2021 by Thomas Jentzsch

[BrianC]

I have AtariVox now. Speech and high score saving make this port even more incredible. 

[Hydro Thunder]

Got my cart yesterday, tried it out today.  Just an amazing port, feels so like the arcade.  Absolutely terrific work

Love the box art too!

[KnightNZ]

Anyone know if the ROM will work 100% on the Harmony cart? 

[+johnnywc]

3 hours ago, KnightNZ said:

Anyone know if the ROM will work 100% on the Harmony cart? 

Hi there!  In our testing, we have found that Wizard of Wor Arcade is 100% compatible with both the Harmony and Harmony Encore carts and have not had any complaints from other users.  To be sure if it's compatible, feel free to download the latest demo version from our website.

 

Hope this helps!

John

 

[Mortui]

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, but it relates to Wizard of Wor - Arcade.

 

At least two Champ games seem to have problems with joystick / controller input when running under emulation with (any version of) Stella, on any platform.

 

The two games that have failed so far are:

 

- Wizard of Wor (Arcade)

- Galagon

 

They both work fine running from cartridge on a real Atari VCS/2600 Jr, and any Atari/Commodore 8-bit joystick/controller connected.

 

They both utterly fail to recognise any directional input whatsoever when running under Stella (any version from 2.x to 6.x) on Mac, Windows or Batocera, rendering them unplayable.

 

Every other (non-Champ) game emulated in exactly the same environments with exactly the same controllers, work perfectly.

 

I don't think it's a bank-switching issue (eg when trying to use bank-switched cartridges on a Retron77), as Aardvark runs just fine in all circumstances.

 

Is this a known bug / problem, or is there something weird going on?

 

Cheers!

Chris

Canberra, Australia

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

This could be caused by double auto-detection (Stella and the ROMs themselves). Stella checks the ROM which controller options it supports and then emulates them. The games also auto detect the supported controllers. In these cases, Stella detects that the ROM supports the QuadTari and enables support for it. This causes the games to detect that a QuadTari is attached, even if you only attach a simple joystick. 

 

Please check the game properties of the game and adjust them if necessary.

 

BTW: What controller are you using?

[coach41]

On 12/8/2021 at 7:09 PM, Mortui said:

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, but it relates to Wizard of Wor - Arcade.

 

At least two Champ games seem to have problems with joystick / controller input when running under emulation with (any version of) Stella, on any platform.

 

The two games that have failed so far are:

 

- Wizard of Wor (Arcade)

- Galagon

 

They both work fine running from cartridge on a real Atari VCS/2600 Jr, and any Atari/Commodore 8-bit joystick/controller connected.

 

They both utterly fail to recognise any directional input whatsoever when running under Stella (any version from 2.x to 6.x) on Mac, Windows or Batocera, rendering them unplayable.

 

Every other (non-Champ) game emulated in exactly the same environments with exactly the same controllers, work perfectly.

 

I don't think it's a bank-switching issue (eg when trying to use bank-switched cartridges on a Retron77), as Aardvark runs just fine in all circumstances.

 

Is this a known bug / problem, or is there something weird going on?

 

Cheers!

Chris

Canberra, Australia

 

 

I'm a late comer to this thread.  i have a Kinhank Super Console X2 and been trying out the demo ROM's for Champ.  Love Galaga and decided to try out the Galagon demo and I couldn't play the game on the console.   But I can get it to work on a PC so seems like there is an issue...I noticed someone posted this in 2021:

 

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/12467

 

But I don't know if anything has been done.  Would be nice to play Galagon on the console on my TV.  But if I have to play it on my computer that's fine.

 

 

 

[+johnnywc]

12 hours ago, coach41 said:

 

I'm a late comer to this thread.  i have a Kinhank Super Console X2 and been trying out the demo ROM's for Champ.  Love Galaga and decided to try out the Galagon demo and I couldn't play the game on the console.   But I can get it to work on a PC so seems like there is an issue...I noticed someone posted this in 2021:

 

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/12467

 

But I don't know if anything has been done.  Would be nice to play Galagon on the console on my TV.  But if I have to play it on my computer that's fine.

 

Hi there!

 

Can you tell me what type of controller is detected when you start Galagon or WoW?  Both games will display the controller detected on the splash screen.  As TJ mentioned above, Stella may be detecting a QuadTari since both games support it, but you should be able to override the Stella autodetection and force it to recognize a joystick in the left port (and SaveKey in the right if you want to save high scores).

 

Hope that helps!

John

[coach41]

2 hours ago, johnnywc said:

Hi there!

 

Can you tell me what type of controller is detected when you start Galagon or WoW?  Both games will display the controller detected on the splash screen.  As TJ mentioned above, Stella may be detecting a QuadTari since both games support it, but you should be able to override the Stella autodetection and force it to recognize a joystick in the left port (and SaveKey in the right if you want to save high scores).

 

Hope that helps!

John

 

Hi John, 

 

Saw your email but posting here in case there's something new we learn.  So the Kinhank Super X2 Console comes with two generic PS2 wireless lookalike controllers.   The console comes with a wirelss dongle that is plugged into one of the USB ports on the console.  One dongle can support both controllers though I only have one that is in use (the other has no battery).  

 

When I boot the game up, it notes that (2) "Twin USB Joystick" is configured in port 1 and port 2 and that Savekey is detected.  The select and start buttons work but the keypad and the joysticks on the controller work.    I've tried to configure the controllers in different ways but no luck.  

 

Just to test something else out, I downloaded the Robotwar demo and used on the X2 console.  I get the same message that both controllers are detected.  The difference?  The controllers work in Robotwar and I can play the same.  So not sure if there is a difference in how the two games were programmed to detect the controllers?  

 

For people's information, the Super X2 Console is like a front end to a bunch of emulators.  It has arcade games, 2600 gams, 5200 games, among many other things.  I see Stella is installed.  The version listed is:  7.0_pre 41150cd205.  Is EMULEC (RetroArch) a front end as it's prominently displayed when the console is booted.  

 

I did try to find how to configure Stella but not sure how to do it from a UI.  

 

So hope this info helps.  Would love to see how to get Galagon working on the console.  

 

Thanks.  

 

[+johnnywc]

23 minutes ago, coach41 said:

 

 

Saw your email but posting here in case there's something new we learn.  So the Kinhank Super X2 Console comes with two generic PS2 wireless lookalike controllers.   The console comes with a wirelss dongle that is plugged into one of the USB ports on the console.  One dongle can support both controllers though I only have one that is in use (the other has no battery).  

 

When I boot the game up, it notes that (2) "Twin USB Joystick" is configured in port 1 and port 2 and that Savekey is detected.  The select and start buttons work but the keypad and the joysticks on the controller work.    I've tried to configure the controllers in different ways but no luck.  

Thanks for the info!  So the "SAVEKEY DETECTED" message is displayed on the GALAGON splash screen, correct?  Galagon doesn't display "Twin USB Joystick" so I assume this is displayed by the console firmware/launcher app?   It sounds like the QUADTARI FOUND message is not displayed, correct?  It would display after SAVEKEY FOUND while still on the splash screen.  You can disable QUADTARI detection by holding down the SELECT switch (not sure how that is mapped on the controllers) when booting up the game.

23 minutes ago, coach41 said:

Just to test something else out, I downloaded the Robotwar demo and used on the X2 console.  I get the same message that both controllers are detected.  The difference?  The controllers work in Robotwar and I can play the same.  So not sure if there is a difference in how the two games were programmed to detect the controllers?  

RobotWar detection is a bit different than Galagon as it needs to check both ports for a QuadTari so it can support twin sticks for both players in co-op mode.  I'll take a closer look at the code to see if there is something else that is different. 👀 

 

[coach41]

33 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

Thanks for the info!  So the "SAVEKEY DETECTED" message is displayed on the GALAGON splash screen, correct?  Galagon doesn't display "Twin USB Joystick" so I assume this is displayed by the console firmware/launcher app?   It sounds like the QUADTARI FOUND message is not displayed, correct?  It would display after SAVEKEY FOUND while still on the splash screen.  You can disable QUADTARI detection by holding down the SELECT switch (not sure how that is mapped on the controllers) when booting up the game.

RobotWar detection is a bit different than Galagon as it needs to check both ports for a QuadTari so it can support twin sticks for both players in co-op mode.  I'll take a closer look at the code to see if there is something else that is different. 👀 

 

Yes the Twin USB Joystick message is from the console.  There was no Quadtari message displayed after the SAVEKEY DETECTED message.   The "Select" switch seems to be mapped to the select button on the PS2 lookalike controllers.  I tried holding down the switch key when booting the game but no luck.  It seems like the only buttons that are working by default is the select / start buttons.   I can re-map the functions for those buttons to other buttons and they will work fine.  But the functions of game play / firing simply do not work by default or even when I remap them to other buttons.  

 

So I am not really sure what the actual issue is.   The other 2600 games that are on the console plus the Pac-Man 8K ROM I added all work fine.  Galagon is the one exception that the controllers are not working  

 

Be curious what you see in the code.  

[Thomas Jentzsch]

What controllers are detected by Stella? Are there settings where you can check them?

[coach41]

3 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

What controllers are detected by Stella? Are there settings where you can check them?

I can check them.  But the configuration is no different than the other games on the console.  The controllers are just generic PS2 like wireless controllers.  Work fine on a few of the standard 2600 games plus the 8K Pac-Man ROM I downloaded.  

 

Not sure why Galagon specifically seems to be having problems. 

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

21 minutes ago, coach41 said:

I can check them.  But the configuration is no different than the other games on the console. 

Stella does not detect the controllers you use, but which the code supports.

[coach41]

20 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Stella does not detect the controllers you use, but which the code supports.

Ok - the message I got was what I wrote earlier (Twin Joysticks or something).  John did do something and got things to work.  I'll let him explain later what he thinks may be the issue.  Forget if he explained before.

[coach41]

I posted another message in another thread last night, but I'll share again here.  I grew up in the 1980's playing arcade games but had an Apple IIe and an Atari 5200.   Of course, I knew about the 2600 but never really played many games on it.   But I somehow stumbled upon the Kinhank Super X2 Console which I got for the 5200 library (doesn't work great, but its ok) and Space Dungeon.  But I realized I could try the 2600 games too so that's why I was test driving Galagon.   I would have never expected to enjoy the 2600 Galagon (and Pac Man 8K) as much as I did considering I have various packages on my modern systems.  But technology is great and so thanks to John for the help and the Stella team for putting the emulator together.   As someone who loves retro, I enjoy looking back a lot.  

[+johnnywc]

20 minutes ago, coach41 said:

Ok - the message I got was what I wrote earlier (Twin Joysticks or something).  John did do something and got things to work.  I'll let him explain later what he thinks may be the issue.  Forget if he explained before.

Glad it worked!   

 

I basically commented out the QuadTari detection code in Galagon (that checks for a 1 on the high bit of INPT0 and a 0 on the high bit of INPT1).  I also blanked out the QUADTARI FOUND message text (I think that's how Stella detects QT?).  My guess is that Stella is detecting a QT but the game itself is not which is causing the joystick reads to fail (although I may be wrong).  I suspect that if I put the QT detect code back in but kept the "QUADTARI" text commented out it would still work.   

11 minutes ago, coach41 said:

I posted another message in another thread last night, but I'll share again here.  I grew up in the 1980's playing arcade games but had an Apple IIe and an Atari 5200.   Of course, I knew about the 2600 but never really played many games on it.   But I somehow stumbled upon the Kinhank Super X2 Console which I got for the 5200 library (doesn't work great, but its ok) and Space Dungeon.  But I realized I could try the 2600 games too so that's why I was test driving Galagon.   I would have never expected to enjoy the 2600 Galagon (and Pac Man 8K) as much as I did considering I have various packages on my modern systems.  But technology is great and so thanks to John for the help and the Stella team for putting the emulator together.   As someone who loves retro, I enjoy looking back a lot.  

Thanks so much for the kind words and I'm glad you're enjoying the 2600 Homebrew scene!  There are tons of amazing homebrews that have been made in the last 20 years or so, you have a lot to look forward to!  

[Thomas Jentzsch]

3 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

I also blanked out the QUADTARI FOUND message text (I think that's how Stella detects QT?). 

Stella looks for "QUADTARI".  

[coach41]

1 hour ago, johnnywc said:

Glad it worked!   

 

I basically commented out the QuadTari detection code in Galagon (that checks for a 1 on the high bit of INPT0 and a 0 on the high bit of INPT1).  I also blanked out the QUADTARI FOUND message text (I think that's how Stella detects QT?).  My guess is that Stella is detecting a QT but the game itself is not which is causing the joystick reads to fail (although I may be wrong).  I suspect that if I put the QT detect code back in but kept the "QUADTARI" text commented out it would still work.   

Thanks so much for the kind words and I'm glad you're enjoying the 2600 Homebrew scene!  There are tons of amazing homebrews that have been made in the last 20 years or so, you have a lot to look forward to!  

I just grabbed a few freely available 2600 ROM's that people worked on.  Also played a few 5200 games after figuring how to navigate the 5200 keypad with my generic controller......fun times. 

[coach41]

8 hours ago, coach41 said:

I just grabbed a few freely available 2600 ROM's that people worked on.  Also played a few 5200 games after figuring how to navigate the 5200 keypad with my generic controller......fun times. 

Man - nice to play Galagon on a big TV.   I remembered why that's cool.  Being an Apple IIe user for all of my childhood, all I ever heard was the Apple II graphics and sound capabilities didn't match the Atari 400 / 800 and Commodore 64 machines.  Now there was truth to it.  But that still didn't stop developers from making good looking / sounding games.  For Atari fans, the Apple II versions of Robotron 2084 and Mario Bros came out pretty well.  The C64 version of Robotron didn't look or sound that good from what I saw online.  Mario Bros on the 5200 played fine by the graphics were blah for some reason.  The Apple II Mario Bros seemed more colorful.  And you feel proud to have some decent looking games.  So I could understand why people are happy the 2600 (even after ALL these years) can play some of these legendary arcade games that are literally close to arcade like.  

 

Cheers to all the people out there making games for these old machines.  I bought some new games for my Apple II to support the developers.  Now that I have my X2 console, I may delve into the 2600 scene a little bit more too.  

[+johnnywc]

15 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Stella looks for "QUADTARI".  

Thanks TJ!  For some reason, in @coach41's case on his system, it seems that when Stella detects a QT, Galagon (and possibly WoW Arcade) are not detecting a QT on startup.  So Stella thinks there is a QT but the game does not.  This is causing some issue reading the joysticks so that J0 and J1 Stella inputs are always low (probably because they're being stored in QT ports J2 and J3).

 

Anyway, regarding the solution above where I removed QuadTari detection and the text, I stepped back a bit and re-enabled QT detection in Galagon and changed the text to "MULTITAP".  In this way @coach41 can use the ROM on his emulator system since Stella will not detect a QT, and also on Harmony with a QT since I re-enabled the QT detection code.  I would like to delve in a bit further at some point to figure out why the joystick isn't being read properly, even if Stella detects a QT and the game does not (in theory it should work).