Champ Games - Wizard of Wor Arcade - 2600

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Spelling error on the box: "agaist"

Edited August 24, 2019 by Thomas Jentzsch

[phattyboombatty]

I picked up my copy at the AtariAge booth at PRGE 2019 a few days ago. This is one of the finest Atari 2600 works ever to be produced! All the arcade sounds and gameplay are properly represented here. No flicker on my LED tv screen. Phenomenal title screen. Superb use of the AtariVox. I’ve been more into the 7800 lately, but this really knocks it out of the park for the 2600, and it will be stuck in the cartridge slot for a good long while! 

This is a great game, and I just wanted to say thank you Mr. Champeau, Mr. Strum, and the entire team for engineering and producing this incredible port that preserves a true arcade classic for all to experience. Excellent work!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 8/15/2019 at 3:53 PM, groundtrooper said:

Vox+ is playing voices for me. I played up to 2-3 levels without the Vox+ starting to glitch. I didn't have time to play longer. But the Vox works fine on my Harmony Encore via 7800 & Vox+ on the 20190812 version of the rom. 

Sadly the my Avox+ on my 7800 glitches within just a few phrases on the first dungeon each and every time. Sometimes after the first phrase I will hear the three tone reset on the Avox+ kick in. I need to see about removing the PIC to make it just an Avox only and hopefully get that working properly. I noticed at PRGE that only standard AVox and not the + version was being used.

 

Also, I've found a few non game breaking bugs that occur. I'm going to send John a separate PM about it in case these were known already.

 

[AW127]

 

On 10/22/2019 at 6:28 AM, phattyboombatty said:

I picked up my copy at the AtariAge booth at PRGE 2019 a few days ago.

 

 

Is the final version already buyable as an image download somewhere? Here in the thread the latest ROMS are still demoversions (betas), right? I just ask, because "picked up my copy" sounds like full version was out. Have i missed anything?

Edited November 8, 2019 by AW127

[Albert]

Wizard of Wor Arcade is now available for purchase in the AtariAge Store!

 

https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1204

 

 

Included with the game is a poster featuring Dave Dries' beautiful artwork!

 

 

The AtariVox+ is also back in stock, which is highly recommended for Wizard of Wor Arcade given the extensive use of speech from the arcade game! 

 

 ..Al

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I'm so glad this finally came out.. A must buy!!! Congrats to the team involved!

[MarcusFrom1982]

I had to make the hard choice out of all the games. I got this and Atarivox.  I have to admit that the great art on the box influenced my decision. 

[AtariBrian]

If my memory is correct, wasn't this game coming in a CBS shell?

[Albert]

8 minutes ago, AtariBrian said:

If my memory is correct, wasn't this game coming in a CBS shell?

No, what you're thinking of is a Wizard of Wor hack called Wizard of Wor 2: The Arena. I'd still like to see that completed someday. I have a large number of CBS carts I've been acquiring over the past few years for this.

 

 ..Al

[Arenafoot]

9 minutes ago, Albert said:

No, what you're thinking of is a Wizard of Wor hack called Wizard of Wor 2: The Arena. I'd still like to see that completed someday. I have a large number of CBS carts I've been acquiring over the past few years for this.

 

 ..Al

This one I want!!!!

 

 

 

[AW127]

On 12/8/2019 at 10:45 PM, Albert said:

Wizard of Wor Arcade is now available for purchase in the AtariAge Store!

 

https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1204

 

 

One highlight follows the other. First "Galaga (Galagon)" came out, now this great game here.

 

One question to this. The last versions of this game here in the thread, was this one from this entry here, right?

 

 

But there is still written "demo" in these downloadable files. Are the versions, which were on the modul now, different to this? Cause they are the full-versions and these downloadable files named demo-versions?

 

 

And by the way - also this label looks superb!

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by AW127

[mmervine]

Just received my Atarivox + and a copy of Wizard of War Arcade...this is an addicting game!

[+save2600]

I too just received my copy (love it!!) and the second game in, something strange happened: 

 

In the Arena, a Garwor and Thorwor were coming at me at once and squeezed me into the upper left corner of the maze. As soon as that happened, I disappeared, but could hear myself still firing. Thought I was still walking around, but noticed a pattern of white starfield dots in the middle of the screen instead. Had to reset the game as it was just stuck in that mode. Couldn't see myself nor my shots. Here's a vid:

 

 Umm... it's not showing. Taken from my iPad and it's a .mov file. Not compatible with the forum software? Apple's own browser. 

 

 

[VectorGamer]

18 minutes ago, save2600 said:

I too just received my copy (love it!!) and the second game in, something strange happened: 

 

In the Arena, a Garwor and Thorwor were coming at me at once and squeezed me into the upper left corner of the maze. As soon as that happened, I disappeared, but could hear myself still firing. Thought I was still walking around, but noticed a pattern of white starfield dots in the middle of the screen instead. Had to reset the game as it was just stuck in that mode. Couldn't see myself nor my shots. Here's a vid:

 

 Umm... it's not showing. Taken from my iPad and it's a .mov file. Not compatible with the forum software? 

 

 

 

I can see it

[+save2600]

14 minutes ago, VectorGamer said:

I can see it

Friggin' Safari! I can see it now with Firefox.  sigh

[+johnnywc]

2 hours ago, save2600 said:

I too just received my copy (love it!!) and the second game in, something strange happened: 

 

In the Arena, a Garwor and Thorwor were coming at me at once and squeezed me into the upper left corner of the maze. As soon as that happened, I disappeared, but could hear myself still firing. Thought I was still walking around, but noticed a pattern of white starfield dots in the middle of the screen instead. Had to reset the game as it was just stuck in that mode. Couldn't see myself nor my shots. Here's a vid:

 

 Umm... it's not showing. Taken from my iPad and it's a .mov file. Not compatible with the forum software? Apple's own browser. 

 

 

 

bug.mov 1.78 MB · 3 downloads

Hmm, that's really strange! ? I have never seen that happen after hours of testing but since it happened the second game in maybe it's something that's easily reproducible?  It looks like you were playing Standard difficultly, correct?  I'll take a look at the code and see if I can make it happen on my end.  Can you tell me what kind of system you're playing on?  (4-switch, jr, 7800, etc.)?  Any info is appreciated - thanks! 

[+save2600]

4 hours ago, johnnywc said:

Hmm, that's really strange! ? I have never seen that happen after hours of testing but since it happened the second game in maybe it's something that's easily reproducible?  It looks like you were playing Standard difficultly, correct?  I'll take a look at the code and see if I can make it happen on my end.  Can you tell me what kind of system you're playing on?  (4-switch, jr, 7800, etc.)?  Any info is appreciated - thanks! 

Yes, was playing the standard difficulty level on a 7800. Single-player game. Both difficulty switches set to 'B' and joystick was a CX-40. AtariVox plugged into the second port. 

 

Also hear "My magic is stranger than your weapon"... shouldn't that be stronger?  ha

 

Ran into another interesting scenario on the same system (no Quadtari, just the AVox plugged into the right port)... when selecting a two player game, static blue guy on left with running yellow guy on right, I control both players. This does not happen with the AVox unplugged. 

 

Sorry for the bad angle, it's the only place I have to set my iPad. 

 

 

 

 

[+Nathan Strum]

Do you have a non-7800 to test on?

[+save2600]

On 12/28/2019 at 4:09 PM, Nathan Strum said:

Do you have a non-7800 to test on?

Of course.    Just that a 7800 is my main Atari right now. I can check on a 6-switch sometime soon.  

 

-edit-

 

Okay, it happened again on my 7800. This time I was near the top-center of the maze, when my Worrior disappeared. All I was doing was following behind, running/bumping into an enemy repeatedly and then I vanished.  lol   This time though, there was no extra pattern of stars in the middle of the screen afterwards. Only when I was bum-rushed by enemies below and to the right of me in the upper left corner, did the starfield pattern movement thing happen in the center of the screen. 

 

[+discotronic]

9 hours ago, save2600 said:

I too just received my copy (love it!!) and the second game in, something strange happened: 

 

In the Arena, a Garwor and Thorwor were coming at me at once and squeezed me into the upper left corner of the maze. As soon as that happened, I disappeared, but could hear myself still firing. Thought I was still walking around, but noticed a pattern of white starfield dots in the middle of the screen instead. Had to reset the game as it was just stuck in that mode. Couldn't see myself nor my shots. Here's a vid:

 

 Umm... it's not showing. Taken from my iPad and it's a .mov file. Not compatible with the forum software? Apple's own browser. 

 

 

 

bug.mov 1.78 MB · 8 downloads

This happened to me as well. I thought I was in the upper right hand side but could be mistaken. Pretty sure it was the second or third stage in. Def not the fourth. I just disappeared. When pressing the fire button I could hear it firing but nothing else. Actually let it run for a few minutes to see if some find of collision happened but nothing. Had to reset the game. Wish I could give more info on what I was doing and all that but it was just one of those things that happened so quickly and then haven't seen it again. I will try and play the game some more to see if it can be replicated. 

 

I thought about doing a video but figured it was a one off thing. If it happens again I will take a video. 

 

This was running on a light sixer 2600. No Atarivox. Standard difficulty. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by discotronic

[+johnnywc]

On 12/28/2019 at 2:10 PM, save2600 said:

Yes, was playing the standard difficulty level on a 7800. Single-player game. Both difficulty switches set to 'B' and joystick was a CX-40. AtariVox plugged into the second port. 

Thanks for the info.  This is the exact setup that I test with (modded 7800) but I cannot reproduce this issue.  Can you tell me a bit more about what was happening at the time; i.e. was your worrior killed, were you shooting, were you bumping into the monsters, etc.? 

On 12/28/2019 at 2:10 PM, save2600 said:

Also hear "My magic is stranger than your weapon"... shouldn't that be stronger?  ha

Hmmm, I'll have to pass that along to my sound guy @iesposta  

On 12/28/2019 at 2:10 PM, save2600 said:

Ran into another interesting scenario on the same system (no Quadtari, just the AVox plugged into the right port)... when selecting a two player game, static blue guy on left with running yellow guy on right, I control both players. This does not happen with the AVox unplugged. 

I just ran through a bunch of tests with and without the Atarivox (and with/without the QuadTari) and everything worked as expected.  Can you reproduce this consistently? 

On 12/28/2019 at 2:10 PM, save2600 said:

Sorry for the bad angle, it's the only place I have to set my iPad. 

 

958.MOV 6.59 MB · 3 downloads  

 

 

 

Thanks for the feedback and apologies for the issues you're having!   

 

 

[+johnnywc]

On 12/28/2019 at 2:10 PM, save2600 said:

Ran into another interesting scenario on the same system (no Quadtari, just the AVox plugged into the right port)... when selecting a two player game, static blue guy on left with running yellow guy on right, I control both players. This does not happen with the AVox unplugged. 

 

Upon closer inspection of the video, it looks like you were in the middle of a game, and then perhaps pressed select to return to the title screen and immediately started a new game?  You can see right before it resets that the blue player starts to move on the title screen indicating that somehow it managed to get into 2 player mode with an Atarivox connected (which should not be possible unless you have a QuadTari connected).  This is most likely a bug, but a harmless one (we'll call it an Easter Egg  ) that allows you to control both players with one joystick.   Can you recreate this one each time or is it a special sequence of events?  I was not able to recreate it on my end.

 

 

[+save2600]

19 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

Upon closer inspection of the video, it looks like you were in the middle of a game, and then perhaps pressed select to return to the title screen and immediately started a new game?  You can see right before it resets that the blue player starts to move on the title screen indicating that somehow it managed to get into 2 player mode with an Atarivox connected (which should not be possible unless you have a QuadTari connected).  This is most likely a bug, but a harmless one (we'll call it an Easter Egg  ) that allows you to control both players with one joystick.   Can you recreate this one each time or is it a special sequence of events?  I was not able to recreate it on my end.

 

Just tried again and no, I was not able to reproduce being able to control both players with a single joystick. 

 

Quote

Can you tell me a bit more about what was happening at the time; i.e. was your worrior killed, were you shooting, were you bumping into the monsters, etc.? 

 

When I disappeared the first time, I was being rushed by two enemies that forced/bumped me into the upper left corner. Yes, I was firing at the time, trying to get one of them. The Worrior was not killed as I could still hear myself firing AND the game never produced another Worrior, even though I had lives left. I had to reset the game to resume play. 

 

Oh yeah, remembered something else... there was a time when I was purposely following and ramming into an enemy, when I was bumped clear across the other side of an adjacent wall. Though that behavior seems like it would be fairly "normal" considering. Or maybe you'd expect that sort of thing to happen if you're just screwing around.   

[+johnnywc]

4 hours ago, save2600 said:

 

Just tried again and no, I was not able to reproduce being able to control both players with a single joystick. 

Okay, thx - it must be a weird bug that only occurs under certain uncommon circumstances.

4 hours ago, save2600 said:

 

When I disappeared the first time, I was being rushed by two enemies that forced/bumped me into the upper left corner. Yes, I was firing at the time, trying to get one of them. The Worrior was not killed as I could still hear myself firing AND the game never produced another Worrior, even though I had lives left. I had to reset the game to resume play. 

Hmm I wondering if you're causing the Worrior to be 'bumped' to a parallel dimension  ... but seriously, maybe under certain circumstances when you're in the top row you may get 'bumped' to the row above which is undefined.  Your Worrior would still be 'alive' but not able to re-enter the maze, but still fire.  I'll take a look at the code and see if this is a possibility.   I wrote that code over a year ago and have played for hundreds of hours and never saw something like that but it may be your playing style that is triggering this to happen. ?

4 hours ago, save2600 said:

 

Oh yeah, remembered something else... there was a time when I was purposely following and ramming into an enemy, when I was bumped clear across the other side of an adjacent wall. Though that behavior seems like it would be fairly "normal" considering. Or maybe you'd expect that sort of thing to happen if you're just screwing around.   

Yes, I have seen that happen and it is considered 'normal' although very unlikely.  This, however, may be related to the issue above.  

 

Thanks for the info, you have been very helpful!   

 

 

[+save2600]

That 2-player deal where I control both players just happened to me upon startup again, but this time I noticed that it said "Quadtari Found" (must have the first time, just didn't see it) before it showed the main screen with the two player option. Running yellow Worrior on the right/static blue Worrior on the left. Obviously, the game thinks I have a Quadtari when I don't. I do have an extension cable running to my AVox though... so wondering now if maybe the extra resistance or capacitance from the cable is tricking the program somehow? Guess I should try bypassing the extension cable next...