+MrFish Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 -5-bit samples with higher sample rate I thought I noticed the samples being better when I was playing it yesterday. They sound it great. -More continues allowed Much appreciated addition. -Saves Stage unlocking back to Cart A Welcome addition as well. Changes since 2011 release, in no particular order: -RastaConverter based title screen -Object shadows -5-bit samples with higher sample rate -More continues allowed -Boss names show on stage 18 -Fix crash/corruption that can happen if a bullet homing onto a ground robot bounces down off hitting indestructible scenery -Updated WiWi Jumbo end boss graphics -Saves Stage unlocking back to Cart -Start key works as start(!) -Cheat Easter egg I thought I also noticed an additional, taller explosion graphic added? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Is there anyway we can get a .bin version of the download? Or is there a CARtoBIN program some one can point me to that I can use? (I thought I had one but after searching no-joy) My Maxflash cartridge studio won't accept the .car file for programming. I have a 2011 .bin version I've been using, the .car version of that wouldn't work either. I can use the .car file with my THE!CART, but as I said before, I have a custom 8Mb Maxflash cart for it I want to use: Edited October 17, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Just strip off the first 16 bytes of the CAR file and it's a ROM/BIN. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Just strip off the first 16 bytes of the CAR file and it's a ROM/BIN. Sounds easy, but I've no clue how to do that. I'm at home with a soldering iron tinkering with hardware. but am totally ignorant when it comes to stripping bytes off a file. I intend to change this, and have collected the tools and books to start learning programming and hacking on my Atari, and dealing with program files, and eproms, etc. Edited October 17, 2018 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 1. Open the file up in any Hex Editor (here's a good one: HxD). 2. Select the first 16 bytes. 3. Hit the delete key. 4. Save, and change the 3 character file extension to ROM or BIN. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Thanks! I'm on it! ...done, and done! Here is what the title screen looks like on my PAL 1200XL w/SV 2.1 & S-video2VGA converter on my LCD TV/monitor. Brightness 45, Contrast 75. The color in this Android phone picture is pretty darn close, but the image is of course much sharper in real life than the camera focus is... Thanks to MrFish for teaching a man to fish, instead of feeding him fish for a day! space-harrier(64K).bin Edited October 17, 2018 by Gunstar 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheddy Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 I thought I also noticed an additional, taller explosion graphic added? Oh yeah, forgot to mention the giant nuke explosions 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheddy Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 Beautiful!!! Now console-keys work as pause! Not sure if you have noticed, but the rendering of black-point throughout the intro, game, etc. is NOT Atari's true black... it is about one or two shades above it. Could you try setting background color to real / true zero? This will provide a very welcome boost of perceived contrast, without touching anything else on the game... This was deliberate to try and reduce flicker between the black and brighter colours 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Just lower brightness and raise contrast until the gray becomes black, like I do anyway, because "true black" on the Atari still isn't true black, which can be seen on an LCD wide screen in 4:3 mode compared to the monitor's "true black" on the side bars. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 1. Open the file up in any Hex Editor (here's a good one: HxD). 2. Select the first 16 bytes. 3. Hit the delete key. 4. Save, and change the 3 character file extension to ROM or BIN. HxD version 2.0 is now available at website. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Just lower brightness and raise contrast until the gray becomes black, like I do anyway, because "true black" on the Atari still isn't true black, which can be seen on an LCD wide screen in 4:3 mode compared to the monitor's "true black" on the side bars. Absolutely!... But here's the catch: Monitor's black-point itself MUST be calibrated for standard NTSC signal: You need colorimeter, or SMPTE pattern displayed from a source via SAME video interface of Atari (either Y/C or Composite), and then adjust Brig/Contr., to make sure your blacks are as black as they can be, without killing dynamic range. This requires understanding how the Contrast function is applied by your monitor, as well as the Brightness: Do you see highlights AND shadows boosted up? Do you see brighter highlights and darker shadows? Row #0 of (Atari) ColorMap utility shows a 16-shade gray-scale, starting with #0 as being "black". A preliminary step (not mentioned on my previous related post) is about Atari's own BLACK-POINT calibration: Patch #0 of Row #0 is set to match Monitor's BLACK-level (e.g. patch # 0 should NOT be visible ABOVE the monitor's own black, as set in step #1, or at least, should be VERY close). This is VERY important to naturally maximize contrast and potentially improve gamma response, too. It turns out that I had already done the above, and STILL see Space Harrier's "black-levels" not being true to calibrated levels. In other words, anything else I do at this point will corrupt the (correct) black-level derived from above adjustment. In any case, I would still like to see Space Harrier's set to Atari's true (or nominal) black-level, as shown on Patch #0 , Row #0, in ColorMap matrix. I wonder how bothersome the flicker would be, as I can't see ANY flicker through DVDO iScan HD engine, except when displaying the Dragon's segmented body. Edited October 17, 2018 by Faicuai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) HxD version 2.0 is now available at website. Wow, first updates in 9 years. He's actually got version 2.1 already; there's quite a few changes to the new versions too; good to see he's back to working on it. I'll have to update my website with the latest version. Edited October 17, 2018 by MrFish 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Uhh....this probably won't load in any format from an Sdrive-max right ? I've plaid it....did I run it from MyIDE II or The!Cart ?!?!? Can't remember ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Absolutely!... But here's the catch: Monitor's black-point itself MUST be calibrated for standard NTSC signal: You need colorimeter, or SMPTE pattern displayed from a source via SAME video interface of Atari (either Y/C or Composite), and then adjust Brig/Contr., to make sure your blacks are as black as they can be, without killing dynamic range. This requires understanding how the Contrast function is applied by your monitor, as well as the Brightness: Do you see highlights AND shadows boosted up? Do you see brighter highlights and darker shadows? Row #0 of (Atari) ColorMap utility shows a 16-shade gray-scale, starting with #0 as being "black". A preliminary step (not mentioned on my previous related post) is about Atari's own BLACK-POINT calibration: Patch #0 of Row #0 is set to match Monitor's BLACK-level (e.g. patch # 0 should NOT be visible ABOVE the monitor's own black, as set in step #1, or at least, should be VERY close). This is VERY important to naturally maximize contrast and potentially improve gamma response, too. It turns out that I had already done the above, and STILL see Space Harrier's "black-levels" not being true to calibrated levels. In other words, anything else I do at this point will corrupt the (correct) black-level derived from above adjustment. In any case, I would still like to see Space Harrier's set to Atari's true (or nominal) black-level, as shown on Patch #0 , Row #0, in ColorMap matrix. I wonder how bothersome the flicker would be, as I can't see ANY flicker through DVDO iScan HD engine, except when displaying the Dragon's segmented body. yeah, I'm not that picky about it, brightness and contrast adjust are good enough for me...after all, true black still hasn't been reached on any TV/monitor technology that I've heard about yet (not that I keep up on the stuff, so I could certainly be wrong), that's why marketing and technical specs are still highlighting how deep the blacks are, and how amazing the contrast ratio is with each new product. Edited October 17, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Uhh....this probably won't load in any format from an Sdrive-max right ? I've plaid it....did I run it from MyIDE II or The!Cart ?!?!? Can't remember ! MyIDE 2 doesn't have enough sram available for it, it had to be THE!CART. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 MyIDE 2 doesn't have enough sram available for it, it had to be THE!CART. Ah OK....damn.... I haven't used a Mac to A8 connection since ages....In fact....where did I put that Lotharek USB to SIO connector ?!?!? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Ah OK....damn.... I haven't used a Mac to A8 connection since ages....In fact....where did I put that Lotharek USB to SIO connector ?!?!? That's why I got the Maxflash 8Mb cart, it's the only Atarimax cart that can handle Space Harrier or Atari!Blast. So I bought a pre-programmed one with label and case from Paul Westphal at 8-bitfix. Later I bought the Atarimax programmer cart and started using it for both games until I got THE!CART and programmed it. Now I have Atariblast! on THE!CART so I don't have to reprogam my Space Harrier cart anymore after this last update. Everything else from 8K to XEGS 256K carts (patched versions) on the MyIDE II. Until THE!CART; now it's my cartridge game cart and MyIDE II I just use the FAT32 for .xex's (it's easier than the convoluted way THE!CART handles .xex's, it's a LOT easier to copy games to my CF card on the PC than have to incrementally reprogram THE!CART) Edited October 17, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) I can load AtariBlast from Sdrive-Max. There's a version called AB1088 or something like that on my SD card which I must have downloaded a little while ago....It sure takes a bit of time to load though.... So this could be done with Space Harrier too I guess ? The!cart is great, IMHO still the fastest and nicest user interface for loading stuff, but the update process on the A8 simply cripples it IMHO.... Edited October 17, 2018 by Level42 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) The!CART AVG CART ATARIMAX 8mb type(1)and(2) Ultimate Cart no drives of any-kind It might be overly difficult to change it back to disk format, Sheddy has done an incredibly tight and nice job getting it to cartridge and relies on the cartridge for some things to happen just as he wants it to. That being said. I am all for a hard drive/fast floppy based version. Edited October 17, 2018 by _The Doctor__ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) Yeah.....dying to get an AVG cart for months now..... Just ran the "old" version of SH from The!Cart....the immediate loading -is- very nice... Edited October 17, 2018 by Level42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) I can load AtariBlast from Sdrive-Max. There's a version called AB1088 or something like that on my SD card which I must have downloaded a little while ago....It sure takes a bit of time to load though.... So this could be done with Space Harrier too I guess ? The!cart is great, IMHO still the fastest and nicest user interface for loading stuff, but the update process on the A8 simply cripples it IMHO.... I thought AB1088 was made for 1088K (U1MB) upgraded computers (1024K extended + 64K base memory), to load it all into ram. How much ram does your Atari have? As to Space Harrier doing the same thing, I don't know if anything but a 1MB rom version was ever released except early betas. I could be mistaken. Atari!Blast and Space Harrier .car/bin/rom versions both require 1 megabyte of cartridge space, but Atari!blast will run on a 16K Atari 400 or 600XL if it's off of a cartridge. Space Harrier cartridge still requires 64K of ram on the computer. But if you have AB1088 running off SDrive Max on a 64K Atari that surprises me. Edited October 17, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Yeah I have a U1MB of course.....who can live without one And yes AtariBlast runs just fine on my 600XL->64KB->U1MB machine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 I accidentally converted the first .car file with the console crash bug. Here is the .bin of the fixed version. space-harrier(64K).bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheddy Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 More orange Mammoth version in NTSC. Looks a bit sunburnt in PAL though. space-harrier(64K).zip 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) More orange Mammoth version in NTSC. Looks a bit sunburnt in PAL though. Before and After (NTSC) comparison: Seems like a summer-Mammoth species (not sure how it survived, though)… Edited October 17, 2018 by Faicuai 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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