+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) A simple hack to incorporate the original arcade font into the Atari version. The font replaces the hi-res font in the Atari version. I've also edited the Antic E font (on the end-level info screens only, not the in-level game graphics), but not to look like the arcade font, since it's too low-res to do that. I'm not posting the ROM for obvious reasons (although after 10+ years I'm starting to wonder how long we need to refrain from this; has Fandal gotten his money back yet?). So, I'm posting a partial file that can be used to patch "legitimate" copies. The file data needs to be pasted at offset $011CE0, for the ROM version only. The CAR version would need it pasted 16 bytes higher, at $011CF0. If anyone needs more detailed instructions on how to modify their ROM/CAR, I'll post something later upon request. Edited November 16, 2018 by MrFish 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 I dont think Fandal has gotten even 20% back from what he spent to make this available to the community. Font change looks nice - I have a cart and cant dump it so unfort I cant take advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) I dont think Fandal has gotten even 20% back from what he spent to make this available to the community. What makes you say that? Do you know exactly what deal was made between Lance and Fandal? I was assuming Lance paid him some initial decent amount up front, plus royalties on carts sold (maybe up to a certain number of carts sold only). So, for instance, if he got $1,000 up front, and $5 per each cart sold (this is what Fandal claimed he was getting per cart), they would only need to sell 200 carts for Fandal to recoup his money (he paid $2,000 for it). I don't think it's unrealistic to assume this cart has sold more than 200 copies in 10+ years. This is a great game that many people want own. Edited November 16, 2018 by MrFish 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 I bought this game from V61 Atari Sales many years ago too. Your new font improves the graphics a lot. Please post more detailed instructions. I am using XVI32 but I think I am doing something wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) Please post more detailed instructions. It's pretty simple. 01. Get some decent hex editor, like HxD. 02. Make a copy of your ROM file. 03. Open the ROM file in your hex editor. 04. Extract the patch file from the ZIP archive (in the post above). 05. Open the extracted patch file in your hex editor. 06. Select the entire contents of the patch file using the "Select All" and "Copy" commands in your hex editor. 07. Go to viewing your ROM copy file in the hex editor. 08. Use the "Go To Offset" command and enter "011CE0". 09. From the current spot of the cursor, use the "Paste Write" command, to paste what was copied from the patch file into your ROM. 10. Save the changes. Edited November 16, 2018 by MrFish 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Thank you very much. In fact HxD is better than XVI32. I have followed your instructions with no luck again. Maybe my CAR is different than yours? I dumped the BIN from my cart and then I converted it to CAR with "Atari 8-bit ROM to CAR file conversion" by Robin Edwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Done! I patched my BIN instead of my CAR and now it works. Then I converted BIN to CAR. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) Thank you very much. In fact HxD is better than XVI32. I have followed your instructions with no luck again. Maybe my CAR is different than yours? I dumped the BIN from my cart and then I converted it to CAR with "Atari 8-bit ROM to CAR file conversion" by Robin Edwards. Done! I patched my BIN instead of my CAR and now it works. Then I converted BIN to CAR. Yeah, now that I think about it, I believe CAR files have a checksum in the header; so, it won't work without changing the checksum also. So, easier to just use a ROM and then convert. Edited November 16, 2018 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Knight Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 7 I dont think Fandal has gotten even 20% back from what he spent to make this available to the community. Font change looks nice - I have a cart and cant dump it so unfort I cant take advantage. What makes you say that? Do you know exactly what deal was made between Lance and Fandal? I was assuming Lance paid him some initial decent amount up front, plus royalties on carts sold (maybe up to a certain number of carts sold only). So, for instance, if he got $1,000 up front, and $5 per each cart sold (this is what Fandal claimed he was getting per cart), they would only need to sell 200 carts for Fandal to recoup his money (he paid $2,000 for it). I don't think it's unrealistic to assume this cart has sold more than 200 copies in 10+ years. This is a great game that many people want own. Where can I buy a cart version for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 Where can I buy a cart version for this? Video61: Atari 400/800/XL/XE/XEGS Cartridges Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) Thanks, I’ll try to patch it tonight. I made a copy of my ROM for my Ultimate cart Edited November 16, 2018 by tjlazer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 I think I read somewhere here that he spent something like $3200 on the game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Knight Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Video61: Atari 400/800/XL/XE/XEGS Cartridges Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) I think I read somewhere here that he spent something like $3200 on the game. I watched the auction at the time it happened. I'd remembered to 2,000 part correctly, but I had the currency type wrong. As you can see in this post, it was 2,000€. The exchange rate between € and $ was greater back then though. So, based on the exchange rate back then, it would have been about $2,792. These days it would be a lot less, as about $2,283. Edited November 16, 2018 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) The compufont is only used on story paragraphs and numbers, not on the word Health and of course the word Score doesn't exist in the arcade game... The Compu-Font really needs to be in the base cleared, instruction, and bonus count boxes... (no pictures of hack showing this I'm not sure if that is the case) some screen grabs of those screens would be cool Edited November 16, 2018 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 (edited) I watched the auction at the time it happened. I'd remembered to 2,000 part correctly, but I had the currency type wrong. As you can see in this post, it was 2,000€. The exchange rate between € and $ was greater back then though. So, based on the exchange rate back then, it would have been about $2,792. These days it would be a lot less, as about $2,283. That is just part of the story. The package was stored at the customs office where he had to pay another 400 USD or so. I've recently talked with him about it and so far he only got about half of the money back. So maybe in another 10 years he can finally start making profit! Edited November 16, 2018 by pseudografx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 That is just part of the story. The package was stored at the customs office where he had to pay another 400 USD or so. I've recently talked with him about it and so far he only got about half of the money back. So maybe in another 10 years he can finally start making profit! Ah, yeah, the wonderful folks at customs. Seems they got a nice piece of the pie. OK, so that brings the total to about $3,200, as snicklin said. Thanks for clearing things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 The compufont is only used on story paragraphs and numbers, not on the word Health and of course the word Score doesn't exist in the arcade game... The Compu-Font really needs to be in the base cleared, instruction, and bonus count boxes... (no pictures of hack showing this I'm not sure if that is the case) some screen grabs of those screens would be cool Yeah, I've been checking out the arcade, of course, in getting the font, etc. As I said, it's a simple hack; but it helps to add a little more arcade feel to it. I don't think it's necessary to always copy everything in the arcade in order to have something that looks good. There are a lot of improvements that could be made to the Atari 8-bit version, but (especially considering it's a unreleased proto) it's a pretty nice piece of ware. There are a few other things I'd like to do with it though. For instance, The P/M colors used for the players could be chosen better. Some of the playfield colors on certain deck levels are the same as the P/M colors. There is no great reason to do that. So, I'm inclined to find some P/M colors that will steer clear of the playfield colors, or visa versa. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 17, 2018 Share Posted November 17, 2018 Done! I patched my BIN instead of my CAR and now it works. Then I converted BIN to CAR. I'll have to dump my cart! I've been meaning to try dumping it for use on my The!Cart anyway. What size cart do you set for Maxflash to dump? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 17, 2018 Author Share Posted November 17, 2018 I'll have to dump my cart! I've been meaning to try dumping it for use on my The!Cart anyway. What size cart do you set for Maxflash to dump? It should be a 128K XEGS cart. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted November 17, 2018 Share Posted November 17, 2018 (edited) since you replaced the character set, does it carry over into the info screen for bonus, since that one changes often, or did they hide another set and or use international set area, if thats a no.. then is it really a hard coded graphics display of that text? I like where you're going with this, just remember at the halfway for player 2 colors and screens Edited November 17, 2018 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted November 17, 2018 Share Posted November 17, 2018 That is just part of the story. The package was stored at the customs office where he had to pay another 400 USD or so. I've recently talked with him about it and so far he only got about half of the money back. So maybe in another 10 years he can finally start making profit! What's the agreement with Video 61? Can Fandal put up the ROM for digital downloads? I'd buy it for $10-$15 bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted November 17, 2018 Share Posted November 17, 2018 What's the agreement with Video 61? Can Fandal put up the ROM for digital downloads? I'd buy it for $10-$15 bucks. My understanding is he signed over all rights to V61 so they could distribute the cart to the community. V61 owns the rights at this point and Fandal gets a small %% of the cart cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted November 17, 2018 Share Posted November 17, 2018 Yes, he as no rights to distribute the ROM in any form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 17, 2018 Author Share Posted November 17, 2018 (edited) Yes, he as no rights to distribute the ROM in any form. In truth, nobody has any rights to distribute the ROM, besides those whose names are on the copyrights, including Video61. So, any agreement between them is fantasy, and has nothing to do with any kind of court-presentable legality. Everything the community is doing is out of respect for Fandal putting up the money to save it from rotting in some collectors glass case; and everything Fandal is doing in regards to their agreement is so that he'll continue to get money from Video61. Edited November 17, 2018 by MrFish 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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