Moon Patrol - Arcade Sprite Hack (Call for Moon Buggy drivers!)

[urborg]

WANTED - An ATR of Moon Patrol with better sound.

 

I've been told that the ATR version used in these hacks has bad sound/music. If a better ATR can be found I will add these hacks to that ATR going forward.

 

-------------------------

 

Last night two new ATRs were uploaded. This version:

Screen Shot 2018-09-27 at 10.40.23 PM.png

Moon Patrol-n02c.atr

 

(Was created just before EnderDude made the three wheeled rover design so we'll add that in a later revision.)

 

And this version:

Screen Shot 2018-09-28 at 12.44.34 AM.png

Moon Patrol-a01c.atr

 

(Inspired by EnderDude's three wheel design, strove for another interpretation of the arcade buggy.)

 

I 've been testing this version a01c. I think that front gun barrel is too slim. Bullets fired are much more thick. The barrel should be thicker and located in lower position, because now during shot bullets appear not in front of it, but few lines below.

[EnderDude]

Someone else noticed our hacks :

[kiwilove]

OK... looking at the video clip - if you can get access to changing the explosion animation frames - it would be nice if improved explosion graphics were added.

Say the explosion in the air and your moon buggy explosions? That would help improve the look of the game overall...

 

Harvey

[EnderDude]

Conveniently, my ROM map that I've made lists where the explosion pm's are . Keep in mind that there are different explosion frames for different objects/players.

Edited October 3, 2018 by EnderDude

[kiwilove]

You'll always have the video clip as a reference - in which you can freeze frame the explosions - and should be able to separate the individual frames - though a tedious process to sort them out within the program...

But putting in better frames will not cure the problem of - having too few frames, nor the speed at which they are displayed. Typically they are on screen too short a time - in which they may be running too fast.

 

This is something to keep in mind those doing conversions of arcade titles. That the arcade title may not have very effective explosions - and the person doing the conversion does accurately reproduce the original explosion(s). But I'd say - if you have the opportunity to provide better animation frames - do so - and help improve upon the original...

 

Harvey

[FifthPlayer]

I must say I do like the buggy with tank treads shown in that slicked-up YouTube video. It takes a weakness of Ataris PM graphics and turns it into a strength by rendering the double-wide pixels as tank treads. Its my vote for the final sprite look.

[manterola]

I must say I do like the buggy with tank treads shown in that slicked-up YouTube video. It takes a weakness of Ataris PM graphics and turns it into a strength by rendering the double-wide pixels as tank treads. Its my vote for the final sprite look.

I agree. However, I still think the buggy front is weird. it looks like there are a missing part in the front.

The colors are not right in my opinion. I already posted the screenshot from a real NTSC 600xl with UAV. If I "unadjust" the color pot I got a very close original colors. But If I do the calibration with the super salt colorbars, I get very similar colors to the ones from Altirra NTSC in which the lunar soil is greenish and the mountains like fluorescent .

I must say that all this work is amazing. Just yesterday I was checking these common comparison videos for moon patrol in youtube, and the atari 8bit implementation was already great when compared with other computers. Now is even better.

[FifthPlayer]

Minor detail - There is a small icon of the moon buggy at the far right side of the score panel. It would be sweet to update that icon to match the main buggy sprite.

 

I agree the colors are still off in that YouTube vid.

[EnderDude]

An explosion palette byte is at 199D. I changed it from 98 (light blue) to 32 (dark red). There is also another explosion palette byte which has a value of A8, but I have yet to find that one...

Edited October 3, 2018 by EnderDude

[+doctorclu]

 

I 've been testing this version a01c. I think that front gun barrel is too slim. Bullets fired are much more thick. The barrel should be thicker and located in lower position, because now during shot bullets appear not in front of it, but few lines below.

 

See if you like this better...

Moon Patrol-a02c.atr

[Gunstar]

What is the latest .bin file version of this? Besides the hovercraft one? I'm getting mixed up with all the different versions and formats.

 

I do like this 3-wheel/tank track version, but it seems to short or low to the ground, and I think the front gun still looks ugly and too long. Can't black be used for it too, like the top gun? Shorter and black. Didn't the arcade buggy have a black front gun with some overlap on the purple?(i'd have to go back a page to see it now) Is there no way to make it look like tank tracks or three wheels that are bigger like the two-wheel versions? Or maybe it's just the purple part is to short and squashed in the main body on this one above.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Gunstar

[EnderDude]

What is the latest .bin file version of this? Besides the hovercraft one? I'm getting mixed up with all the different versions and formats.

 

I do like this 3-wheel/tank track version, but it seems to short or low to the ground, and I think the front gun still looks ugly and too long. Can't black be used for it too, like the top gun? Shorter and black. Didn't the arcade buggy have a black front gun with some overlap on the purple?(i'd have to go back a page to see it now) Is there no way to make it look like tank tracks or three wheels that are bigger like the two-wheel versions? Or maybe it's just the purple part is to short and squashed in the main body on this one above.

I think the most recent version is decided by personal preference now. 😂

[+doctorclu]

I think the most recent version is decided by personal preference now. 😂

 

Which is what we almost encourage over in the Moon Patrol hack area. Either best arcade interpretation or custom job. Now that we know where the sprites are, and the way to change the colors, a lot is possible.

 

What is the latest .bin file version of this? Besides the hovercraft one? I'm getting mixed up with all the different versions and formats.

 

I do like this 3-wheel/tank track version, but it seems to short or low to the ground, and I think the front gun still looks ugly and too long. Can't black be used for it too, like the top gun? Shorter and black. Didn't the arcade buggy have a black front gun with some overlap on the purple?(i'd have to go back a page to see it now) Is there no way to make it look like tank tracks or three wheels that are bigger like the two-wheel versions? Or maybe it's just the purple part is to short and squashed in the main body on this one above.

 

So I hear you. I liked the last arcade version I did, but I realized that yes, the gun was firing below the front cannon. And then looking at the version I did and the arcade, my version was too tall. So I made this...

 

 

With this one the front gun is thicker (as requested), and fires at the level of the shots.

 

The window is right above that. The back gun stands taller than the front window.

 

In truth, this is more in proportion to the arcade. At least as best as the pixel will work.

 

The black area starts at the end of the gun to the window. So adding black to the front window is not possible.

 

Then again, I tried tinkering with things a little bit...

Moon Patrol-a03c.atr

 

Moon Patrol-a04c.atr

[tjlazer]

first one for sure!

 

This crashes hard on Atari800WinPLus 4.1, but runs on Altirra.

Edited October 4, 2018 by tjlazer

[tjlazer]

Can you make the vehicle taller? Looks too short. Also when the wheels tuck up when it jumps up. Also if you can make the wheels more round, that will help.

[EnderDude]

An explosion palette byte is at 199D. I changed it from 98 (light blue) to 32 (dark red). There is also another explosion palette byte which has a value of A8, but I have yet to find that one...

Actually, I would like to know if anyone has a strategy of finding the palette data in this ROM, because I've been doing the find function for A8 in Hxd, replaced them with 32, and I still didn't find anything. The closest that I got to my goal was when another color (the color of the the smoke) turned red, but there were many illegal instructions, and I didn't change the color I wanted to change, as I'm trying to turn the center of the explosion, which has a color A8, to 32.

Edited October 4, 2018 by EnderDude

[Gunstar]

I think a03c is the best interpretation yet of the arcade buggy. I like this version, and the bin with the arcade colors and the "cricket" moon buggy, one that tries it's best to be the arcade buggy, and one that doesn't but looks very cool.

[urborg]

Version a03c looks really good, and plays well. Good iteration of the arcade vehicle, so good that I started toi thinking if it is possible to make it better . I have tried to move few pixels . Is it possible to make buggy looks like that? Buggy looks more rounded. I added few pixels at back, and one in front under the front gun barrel. I also remove one black pixel near the gun and lowered by one pixel the horizontal bar on the vertical barrel. For me if I narrow my eyes the vehicles on left and right look almost the same

Edited October 4, 2018 by urborg

[+Philsan]

Thank you for all the work.

 

Considered pixels size, in my opinion the top gun seems a cross.

I would decrease its height and remove left and right pixels.

[urborg]

Thank you for all the work.

 

Considered pixels size, in my opinion the top gun seems a cross.

I would decrease its height and remove left and right pixels.

Ok! here is a mockup how it would look like. Buggy wihout the cross and gun barrel shorter by 2 pixels.

[+doctorclu]

Glad a lot of you are liking the Arcade 03 version.

 

Ok, some tinkering and the results...

 

So here we remove the cross...

 

Here we remove the black dot that I gave for definition...

 

And I see we liked a bit more in the back in one of the above, so here we have that one, and the download...

 

Moon Patrol-a05c.atr

[FifthPlayer]

I'm sorry, the latest round of sprite jobs that try to replicate the arcade shape all look terrible to me.

 

I would like to see one eventual winner, mostly because there are likely to be other enhancements (sound for instance) and it would be nice to avoid a version explosion of different sprite looks - some with enhancements and others not.

Edited October 4, 2018 by FifthPlayer

[José Pereira]

Hi.

For what it seems the buggy is using 2Players expanded double width where:

-> Black starts 1pixel to the left;

-> Lilac starts 1pixels to the right;

So even if there will not be Missiles of these two in use like in original game we can still have Oring in Multicolour PMGs mode and this can be in the glass but also on the gaps inside the wheel/gear that is more like though it can't never be like the arcade version.

 

Like this my proposal using one of the current/last remake we can then have the 2Players at the same xPos but:

-> Instead of Black (00) use a darker gray (04);

-> I choose a Lilac (68);

-> Then Oring/Multicolour will be a lighter (6C);

(Of course that having this method other design(s) of the buggy are possible but now will always have the 3rd colour, at least for the window glass)

 

What do you say?

 

 

[+doctorclu]

I'm sorry, the latest round of sprite jobs that try to replicate the arcade shape all look terrible to me.

 

I would like to see one eventual winner, mostly because there are likely to be other enhancements (sound for instance) and it would be nice to avoid a version explosion of different sprite looks - some with enhancements and others not.

 

The enhancements are there, such as the background color modification, and others are planned. The buggy is a matter of preference, so whatever buggy version you go with, we still have TIX's enemy upgrades, my color upgrades, and EnderDude's wheel upgrades.

 

We've given instructions where a player could go in and hack their own buggy if they choose. And other variants would be interesting to see.

 

 

Hi.

For what it seems the buggy is using 2Players expanded double width where:

-> Black starts 1pixel to the left;

-> Lilac starts 1pixels to the right;

So even if there will not be Missiles of these two in use like in original game we can still have Oring in Multicolour PMGs mode and this can be in the glass but also on the gaps inside the wheel/gear that is more like though it can't never be like the arcade version.

 

Like this my proposal using one of the current/last remake we can then have the 2Players at the same xPos but:

-> Instead of Black (00) use a darker gray (04);

-> I choose a Lilac (68);

-> Then Oring/Multicolour will be a lighter (6C);

BUGGY on A8 by JosePereira _G2F.png

(Of course that having this method other design(s) of the buggy are possible but now will always have the 3rd colour, at least for the window glass)

 

What do you say?

 

 

 

We've looked briefly into the 3rd color idea and turning on the mode to have the colors overlap to make other colors. No real luck there so far. But to have a third color it would need to be for example as we saw in Miner 2049er Red overlapped blue = green hat.

[urborg]

Glad a lot of you are liking the Arcade 03 version.

 

Ok, some tinkering and the results...

 

So here we remove the cross...

Screen Shot 2018-10-04 at 9.44.49 AM.png

 

Here we remove the black dot that I gave for definition...

Screen Shot 2018-10-04 at 9.45.23 AM.png

 

And I see we liked a bit more in the back in one of the above, so here we have that one, and the download...

Screen Shot 2018-10-04 at 9.45.23 AM.png

 

Moon Patrol-a05c.at

 

Version a05c looks best so far. Collision detection is somewhat tricky. Vehicle is shorter so when bomb is dropped just before it the vehicle will be destroyed.

 

I see that you are using just 5200 file version so sound and music is corrupted.

 

Here is version with correct sound:

http://atarionline.pl/arch/M/Moon%20Patrol%20%28Atari%29/Moon%20Patrol%20%281982%29%28Atari%29%28US%29%5B5200%5D%5Bk-file%5D.atr