Rikki & Vikki

[Hastor]

Didn't Commando also have a Pokey? I never see it brought up. Is it just pricier than Ballblazer? I definitely prefer Ballblazer as a game on the 7800. Commando's a long time favorite, but better versions on tons of things. For Ballblazer, the 7800 is probably my favorite. The 5200 is near identical but a little blockier. Don't care for the NES version at all. The music on the 5200/7800 versions (both pokey) is some of my favorite.

[gambler172]

Hi TC

You wanna make a better game???

Just add the Highscore cart and add a save option.

How about a R and V sequel with new levels????

 

[Hastor]

18 minutes ago, gambler172 said:

Hi TC

You wanna make a better game???

Just add the Highscore cart and add a save option.

How about a R and V sequel with new levels????

 

They've brought up a few times that they are done with this project and it didn't perform as well as hoped, so they are moving on to new things entirely. I guess another game altogether with the same characters for a different system wouldn't be out if the question, but I wouldn't expect anything further from this one.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Hastor

[Theallknowingsause]

55 minutes ago, Hastor said:

For Ballblazer, the 7800 is probably my favorite. The 5200 is near identical but a little blockier.

If I remember correctly, the 7800 version of Ballblazer runs at 60fps rather then the 5200 version which runs at 15 or 30.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, Hastor said:

Didn't Commando also have a Pokey? I never see it brought up. Is it just pricier than Ballblazer? I definitely prefer Ballblazer as a game on the 7800. Commando's a long time favorite, but better versions on tons of things. For Ballblazer, the 7800 is probably my favorite. The 5200 is near identical but a little blockier. Don't care for the NES version at all. The music on the 5200/7800 versions (both pokey) is some of my favorite.

I'm the total opposite. I honestly don't care for Ballblazer. Never knew about the game until I got back into collecting in the very late 90s/early 2000s. Commando I knew about from the arcades and having played other home ports of it back in the day. So for me, I much prefer Commando over Ballblazer any day and wouldn't hesitate in a heartbeat to take the pokey out of a Ballblazer for use in another game I know I'm more likely to play.

 

 

[Jinks]

4 hours ago, Hastor said:

They've brought up a few times that they are done with this project and it didn't perform as well as hoped, so they are moving on to new things entirely. I guess another game altogether with the same characters for a different system wouldn't be out if the question, but I wouldn't expect anything further from this one.

I will never lose faith. Forget these "other" systems. They are the devil!

 

[RushJet1]

10 hours ago, Theallknowingsause said:

That's kinda what I was saying, I think that people should figure out that the 7800 can use more then just the pokey chip for audio, but I think because that's the only special audio clip official 7800 games have used, coding for the pokey chip is much easier then finding a new chip and having to manually map out the new chip and what ever.

I think one day we should all agree to use 1 audio chip to exploit and get at the documentation to create the definitive 7800 audio chip.

Yes instead of the POKEY I would propose to make an enhanced version of what the 7800 has.  Maybe double the channels, increase the bit depth of the pitch registers to include more actual notes, maybe add some extra sounds!

 

Wait that's the POKEY

[TailChao]

On 2/27/2020 at 11:05 PM, RushJet1 said:

Yes instead of the POKEY I would propose to make an enhanced version of what the 7800 has.  Maybe double the channels, increase the bit depth of the pitch registers to include more actual notes, maybe add some extra sounds!

 

Wait that's the POKEY

Hmm... then let's try increasing the divider size again so you don't have to pair channels for them to be in tune, adding direct control of the LFSR taps for even more waveforms, an integrate mode, and better DACs!

 

Oh, it's MIKEY

[haightc]

I have this game on windows and 7800, lot of fun on both platforms.     If the NT mini ever gets a cartridge adapter for the 7800, do you think one could play this game on it?    I know purely hypothetical.

 

[Hastor]

It it can accept and pass analog audio on a pin, that's the only thing this needs that others might not. If BallBlazer works, so should this.

At least that's what I'd think, assuming it's 100% compatible otherwise as well.

[TailChao]

On 3/2/2020 at 9:41 PM, Hastor said:

It it can accept and pass analog audio on a pin, that's the only thing this needs that others might not. If BallBlazer works, so should this.

At least that's what I'd think, assuming it's 100% compatible otherwise as well.

The only other requirement is accurate replication of Maria's timing, in particular how she captures the bus. But there's some wiggle room here, too since all the DLs and DLLs reside in segments of memory which aren't affected by the mapper's address translation.

 

Given who usually works on Analogue's cores, It'll probably be fine.

Edited March 5, 2020 by TailChao

[gollumer]

I bought this a little while ago and just finally fired it up. The colors are all jacked up. I tested half a dozen other 7800 carts (as well as a few 2600 carts) and all work fine. This is an A/V modded 7800. I ran the self test per the first post, and it looks like the checksum *might* be one of the good ones (it's really hard to read). Any ideas?

 

[Jinks]

Looks like another jacked up av mod. Try RF for the best viewing pleasure on this game. 

[Trebor]

Seems like the HDTV being utilized may not display the console's 320 mode(s) properly via the installed mod. 

Do you have the retail game Tower Toppler or the homebrew Dungeon Stalker to test further?

[gollumer]

3 minutes ago, Trebor said:

Seems like the HDTV being utilized may not display the console's 320 mode(s) properly via the installed mod. 

Do you have the retail game Tower Toppler or the homebrew Dungeon Stalker to test further?

I don't, unfortunately. 

[Theallknowingsause]

Woah, that is really cool looking, bad ground connection is my guess? I'm not that knowledged on stuff like that but I've seen videos of signal interference with that for the reasoning

[+-^CrossBow^-]

13 hours ago, gollumer said:

I bought this a little while ago and just finally fired it up. The colors are all jacked up. I tested half a dozen other 7800 carts (as well as a few 2600 carts) and all work fine. This is an A/V modded 7800. I ran the self test per the first post, and it looks like the checksum *might* be one of the good ones (it's really hard to read). Any ideas?

 

Not familiar with which mod you have installed, but most of the simple composite mod kits I've seen, include a 75ohm resistor tied to the ground and signal of the composite output, and that is needed for preventing a washed out look on CRTs, but can cause havoc with modern displays with either really dark picture or other odd similar stuff. So if you can, try opening up your 7800 to see if this is the case. If there is a resistor, then depending on how it is connected, you can probably clip it out of circuit and see what you get at that point. Again I'm just guessing here as it looks a tad dark to me and I've seen similar in the past.

 

 

[gollumer]

1 hour ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Not familiar with which mod you have installed, but most of the simple composite mod kits I've seen, include a 75ohm resistor tied to the ground and signal of the composite output, and that is needed for preventing a washed out look on CRTs, but can cause havoc with modern displays with either really dark picture or other odd similar stuff. So if you can, try opening up your 7800 to see if this is the case. If there is a resistor, then depending on how it is connected, you can probably clip it out of circuit and see what you get at that point. Again I'm just guessing here as it looks a tad dark to me and I've seen similar in the past.

 

 

Thanks for the info. Not sure what I'm looking for exactly, but here's a shot of the inside:

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Hmm... I don't personally have the LHE mod installed in any of my 7800s anymore as I was never happy with the results I got from it. So I can say that I've never tested the game with the LHE. Lift up the mainboard and show me the wiring on the AV jacks. There might be a resistor attached on the composite side there? Or it may just be some issue with the LHE but I'm pretty sure others using this older AV mod have tested the game and it works well.

 

Does it look the same on a CRT by chance and as was suggested earlier, how does the game look through RF since I see you still have that attached.

 

And yes I can make out that your Foxsum is A6A9 which is Rev14 according to the first page.

 

[Hastor]

Now I'm wondering how mine would go. I'm using an RCA modded 7800 with no issues, but on a CRT. Never tried it on a modern display.

If there are issues, what's the best mod for modern displays? Preferably one that would still allow the original analog output to CRTs, such as RCA or Componenet, or an HDMI along with one of those.

[gollumer]

4 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Hmm... I don't personally have the LHE mod installed in any of my 7800s anymore as I was never happy with the results I got from it. So I can say that I've never tested the game with the LHE. Lift up the mainboard and show me the wiring on the AV jacks. There might be a resistor attached on the composite side there? Or it may just be some issue with the LHE but I'm pretty sure others using this older AV mod have tested the game and it works well.

 

Does it look the same on a CRT by chance and as was suggested earlier, how does the game look through RF since I see you still have that attached.

 

And yes I can make out that your Foxsum is A6A9 which is Rev14 according to the first page.

 

Thanks again for the response. I lifted up the mainboard and the wires going to the AV jacks have nothing attached to them...just plain wires. I don't currently have a way to test the RF. I do have a CRT that can take composite and S-Video, but it's pretty buried in the garage. I'll see if I can free it...or, I may just have a different mod put in. I see from your FB page that you do mods for $85. Since I already have the required jacks, would you be willing to do a fix for a little bit less? PM me and we can discuss.

[TailChao]

Already answered some of this in the customer service email, but I'll expand upon it here for others.

 

This looks like a side effect of the luma and chroma getting mixed improperly in your A/V mod - particularly because of the color fringing, the chroma signal may be too strong. Software using any of the high resolution modes is more sensitive to this. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee the game will work correctly through any video modifications as there is a large variety of them and they're not all robust designs. For anyone thinking of installing or designing an A/V or S-Video modification, keep in mind that not all televisions (especially new ones) obey proper signal leveling or termination.

 

Of course, making sure your console is in tip-top shape is also a prerequisite. @-^CrossBow^-'s services have been the Official PenguiNet Recommended option since launch.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 minute ago, TailChao said:

Already answered some of this in the customer service email, but I'll expand upon it here for others.

 

This looks like a side effect of the luma and chroma getting mixed improperly in your A/V mod - particularly because of the color fringing, the chroma signal may be too strong. Software using any of the high resolution modes is more sensitive to this. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee the game will work correctly through any video modifications as there is a large variety of them and they're not all robust designs. For anyone thinking of installing or designing an A/V or S-Video modification, keep in mind that not all televisions (especially new ones) obey proper signal leveling or termination.

 

Of course, making sure your console is in tip-top shape is also a prerequisite. @-^CrossBow^-'s services have been the Official PenguiNet Recommended option since launch.

@TailChao

 

I will need to pull out my LHE board to verify this, but the results pretty much look like what you get when you actually wiring in composite out by tying the chroma and luma together. I almost get something similar with this game when using Magic Knight's s-video only board and doing the same thing to create a composite signal or using a cheap s-video to composite adapter.

 

As you stated, the original chroma is too overdriven to just splice it in there directly and needs to be dropped a bit but I've not played with it enough to really investigate it.

 

[Jinks]

RF FTW    ?

 

I sure like the way the waterfalls look on my old stock 7800s. Great job on this game!!

 

 

[Hastor]

I'm pretty sure my CRT is getting the colors right. I am red/green color deficient like 5% of males, but it only affects certain colors and I can tell when stuff is off. At least playing over RCA to my CRT, things look good to me, not like the screenshot shared earlier for sure! No idea what it would do on my LCD, LED, or OLED sets, but I keep my classic gaming on CRT whenever I can.

 

I should note I did buy this 7800 pre-modded from a random person, so I don't really know what's in it. Was said to have had new caps and an AV mod. Looks good and works so far though!

The seller did include an old unopened RCA cable with SUPER tight grips. Will be good for something else. Using on my 7800, it twisted the washer off the Video RCA jack which broke the solder loose, but it was easy enough to open it up, screw on the washer, and re-solder.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Hastor