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Penult RPG (Atari 2600)


Karl G

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15 hours ago, easmith said:

Just played on Stella but the color option looks much nicer .

 

Yeah, I agree. If you play on a real system with a CRT, you will probably find the B&W option will cause much less eyestrain, however. I plan on keeping both options.

 

15 hours ago, easmith said:

The menu screens , choosing name , allocating hit points , etc are a little frustrating .  Seems like I want to move up and down to switch between items, and left and right to change the values, and button when done ( "nextscreen " or entering name letter ) .

I guess it just seems inconsistent.

 

Yeah, the interface on these could use revamping. Character creation is a short part of the game, and what I have works, but I will definitely revamp this to be more intuitive at some point.

 

15 hours ago, easmith said:

Also, sometimes I accidentally pull up the " talk, cast , use" menu and want to just exit out of it . Maybe pulling down could just back out of this menu

 

This will be in the future manual. You can cancel by not selecting any item (when the little triangle is not visible), and hitting the button. Down to cancel is an interesting idea. I'll try adding that as an option and see how it feels.

 

15 hours ago, easmith said:

Also I would consider changing the  name ,  something like " Penult Quest " or "Penult: Terryn's Quest "  , just to make it sound a bit cooler .   I know with Space Game it's kind of ironic and maybe that is part of it , but just a  thought for what it's worth  . 

 

10 hours ago, D Train said:

someone had suggested "Penultima," which I always liked...

 

I'm not intentionally going for a lame name this time.  :P

 

I may add a subtitle of some kind along those lines. While I like the sound of "Penultima", I'm intentionally avoiding having "ultima" be any part of the title.

 

Thank you for the feedback!

 

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A couple of notes on saving: this has been tested both on Stella and on actual hardware, but keep in mind that it's 'young code" before using your own AtariVox or SaveKey, in case there's a bug i haven't found yet.

 

The game writes to the area reserved for Space Game. There was plenty of space left over for Space Game for me to use with Penult without having to request a separate allocation for the latter. If you happen to have the Space Game cart, and want to confirm that saving works for both without any interference, then this would be great, too.

 

To clear a saved game, hold the joystick up at powerup. This will allow you to start a new game, and the progress on your previous game will be lost.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/10/2019 at 10:07 AM, Karl G said:

 

Yeah, I agree. If you play on a real system with a CRT, you will probably find the B&W option will cause much less eyestrain, however. I plan on keeping both options.

 

 

Yeah, the interface on these could use revamping. Character creation is a short part of the game, and what I have works, but I will definitely revamp this to be more intuitive at some point.

 

 

This will be in the future manual. You can cancel by not selecting any item (when the little triangle is not visible), and hitting the button. Down to cancel is an interesting idea. I'll try adding that as an option and see how it feels.

 

 

 

I'm not intentionally going for a lame name this time.  :P

 

I may add a subtitle of some kind along those lines. While I like the sound of "Penultima", I'm intentionally avoiding having "ultima" be any part of the title.

 

Thank you for the feedback!

 

no matter what you call it the project is awesome, though I personally think you should call attention to the large rom size on the label or the box when you finally make physical copies

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On 12/10/2019 at 10:24 AM, Karl G said:

A couple of notes on saving: this has been tested both on Stella and on actual hardware, but keep in mind that it's 'young code" before using your own AtariVox or SaveKey, in case there's a bug i haven't found yet.

 

I finally had a chance to really play this weekend and totally blown away... great job. I have a few notes if you are interested.

 

Regarding saving, when at "HOME", it says it is "saved", but when I pull the game up again, I can never get the "Continue" option selected. None of the joystick moves will move off of New Game and starting over. Is there some trick I do not know about?

 

I love the multi-color tiles, with a quick glance you can see exactly what is going on with the map instead of carefully looking at the pattern of each tile. And the different color of each castle/city is nice.

 

Someone else did mention the menu system. I would only have fire button active on "Done" to move to next page. All other movements are up/down for menu choice and left/right to change setting.

 

I would like to have an option to "run away" from battles (maybe you can incur some type penalty)... but if I am far away from home and very low on hit points, I really donit want to fight multiple battles when trying to get to a healer... ?

 

Anyway, great job on this, it is still hard to believe an Ultima on a 2600

 

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Thank you for the feedback!

 

The saving feature doesn't currently complain if saving fails, but it should work. Do you have an AtariVOX or SaveKey in the right port? Either one should work. Let me know which device you have, and your specific console, and I'll try to recreate the problem.

 

I've tested successfully with the AtariVOX on a 2600 Jr. Has anyone else tested the save/restore feature with this demo?

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We'll be playing Penult LIVE on TOMORROW's (Wednesday) ZeroPage Homebrew stream on Twitch at 11AM PT | 2PM ET | 7PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:
- Peril (2019 WIP Exclusive Update) by Vladimir Zuñiga aka John Von Neumann aka Vhzc
- Penult (2019 WIP Update) by Karl Garrison aka Karl G

 

EDIT: Archive Video of Stream

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

 

Edited by ZeroPage Homebrew
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I missed the show, but James passed along the bug report about the crash when going up in level. This was due to some shuffling around of code when I went to 128K, and me going to the wrong bank.  Anyway, the bug has been fixed now on my end.  The bad news is that my MacBook was sent away for a repair, and the source code for the demo version is on there, so it will be maybe a week before I can upload a fixed version of the demo.

 

The good news is that the saving issue that @MissCommand was having was just a Stella configuration issue, and save/restore appears to be working fine.

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Well, I still don't have my beloved MacBook and therefore the source for the demo back, but the fix for the leveling crash was a one-bite change, so I was able to edit the demo ROM in a hex editor to fix it. Demo 2 is now up, and the only change is a fix for the leveling crash. 

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8 minutes ago, Karl G said:

Well, I still don't have my beloved MacBook and therefore the source for the demo back, but the fix for the leveling crash was a one-bite change, so I was able to edit the demo ROM in a hex editor to fix it. Demo 2 is now up, and the only change is a fix for the leveling crash. 

FYI - updated ROM on first post needs date changed to 2020 not 2019 ;-) 

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1 hour ago, Karl G said:

Well, I still don't have my beloved MacBook and therefore the source for the demo back, but the fix for the leveling crash was a one-bite change, so I was able to edit the demo ROM in a hex editor to fix it. Demo 2 is now up, and the only change is a fix for the leveling crash. 

Thanks so much for the quick fix Karl!

 

We'll be doing a series of episodes on ZeroPage Homebrew starting on February 12, 2020 dedicated to playing through the complete Penult demo.

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58 minutes ago, tradyblix said:

Getting crashes randomly in combat with Demo 2 the whole screen goes black and I have to restart 

Are you playing on Stella or another emulator, or a real console? What version of the emulator, or what console?

 

How often does this happen? Can you think of any common factors, like where you are in combat, actions performed, which enemies, etc?

 

Has anyone else seen any crashes in combat with the demo?

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I'm playing on a real console, it's a light sixer, it does have a composite mod, using harmony encore. I'm able to play the game (using demo 2 above) for at least 5-10 minutes but eventually (and perhaps randomly, but it seems like when starting combat) it will just go to black screen suddenly. 

 

So far it has happened to me twice during a game, on both demos, after I've had several successful fights. 

 

Great game btw, and very playable. 

Edited by tradyblix
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This reminds me of the issue @ZeroPage Homebrew had playing the game on a Harmony Encore. He also had issues with other games that required the Encore specifically (>32K games). James, can you think of another game that you tried that was particularly problematic when played on your Encore as well? I would like to see if this is the same issue, or something different that hasn't been encountered yet.

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I've lost some data this last week due to Apple feeling the need to wipe my hard drive to fix a charging issue, but fortunately I had most of Penult saved on Dropbox. What was missing was my map source files for the Tiled editor that I have been able to recreate from massaging the converted data. Also missing was the source for the demo version, which I have also been able to recreate.

 

Anyway - a new version of the demo is up now with the following changes:

 

  • More intuitive (?) controls for character creation, as requested. Please try this version, and let me know if it seems better. Note that when entering a name, any name less than two letters, or that's all the same letter automatically gets changed to "TERRYN".
  • Saving at the house no longer lies about having saved the game when no AtariVox or SaveKey is detected. Instead, it just offers to let you rest at the house, with no mention of saving.

 

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7 hours ago, Karl G said:

This reminds me of the issue @ZeroPage Homebrew had playing the game on a Harmony Encore. He also had issues with other games that required the Encore specifically (>32K games). James, can you think of another game that you tried that was particularly problematic when played on your Encore as well? I would like to see if this is the same issue, or something different that hasn't been encountered yet.

Heya Karl G, here's the list of games that I was having trouble with on my Harmony Encore.

 

Original Thread: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/290465-does-anyone-have-an-encore-and-a-light-sixer/?do=findComment&comment=4347592

 

1) Penult (EFSC* 64K)

2) Robot Zed (EF* 64K)

3) Distopia (EFSC* 64K)

4) Abyss of Chernobyl (EFSC* 64K)

5) Zippy the Porcupine (EF* 64K)

 

Since then new issues have surfaced in regards to my RGB light-sixer as it had a critical failure that causes it to no longer 'post'. This may or may not be connected to the misbehaviour in Penult and other games but there's not enough power getting to Voltage Regulator. This could have been the problem all along but being shown at a less critical level. Until I fully fix the system and test the above games, I still won't know whether it's A) Bad power B) The combination of the RGB + Harmony Encore C) Something Else?

See this thread for more info on the power issue:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/276956-zeropage-homebrew-twitch-stream/?do=findComment&comment=4425553

 

- James

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Heya Karl G, here's the list of games that I was having trouble with on my Harmony Encore.
 
Original Thread: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/290465-does-anyone-have-an-encore-and-a-light-sixer/?do=findComment&comment=4347592
 
1) Penult (EFSC* 64K)
2) Robot Zed (EF* 64K)
3) Distopia (EFSC* 64K)
4) Abyss of Chernobyl (EFSC* 64K)
5) Zippy the Porcupine (EF* 64K)
 
Since then new issues have surfaced in regards to my RGB light-sixer as it had a critical failure that causes it to no longer 'post'. This may or may not be connected to the misbehaviour in Penult and other games but there's not enough power getting to Voltage Regulator. This could have been the problem all along but being shown at a less critical level. Until I fully fix the system and test the above games, I still won't know whether it's A) Bad power B) The combination of the RGB + Harmony Encore C) Something Else?

See this thread for more info on the power issue:
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/276956-zeropage-homebrew-twitch-stream/?do=findComment&comment=4425553
 
- James
I know I'm off topic but would these games run off an uno cart as well as the encore? I've got a regular harmony and looking to try a uno as well.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

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2 hours ago, Prizrak said:

I know I'm off topic but would these games run off an uno cart as well as the encore? I've got a regular harmony and looking to try a uno as well.

Yes, they should all run on an UNO I believe.

 

Part of the problem I was having was they I wasn't able to load the standard menu on the Uno Cart on my RGB light-sixer, which I believe was also a symptom of poor power to my Voltage Regulator. As soon as it's fixed I'll know what is going on with everything.

Both the Harmony Encore and Uno Cart ran on several unmodded systems without issue.

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On 1/15/2020 at 2:43 PM, tradyblix said:

I'm playing on a real console, it's a light sixer, it does have a composite mod, using harmony encore

Since that's the same setup ZerpPageHomebrew had, and the same issue, I'm wondering if you have tried or have trouble with any of the other games he lists above on your encore?

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Demo 4 has been added to the first post. This one just contains a fix for an issue with saving games after continuing from an existing saved game. 

 

Update: Another day; another demo update. Demo 5 fixes conversations with guards in Acadia, and implements the suggestion for cancelling a menu by pulling the joystick down.

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The latest version has the suggested feature to cancel menus by pulling down on the joystick. If anyone if willing to test it and see how well it works for them I'd appreciate it. I'm interested to know if there are any menus where it doesn't work, or if there are any unintended consequences.

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On 1/18/2020 at 7:14 AM, Karl G said:

Since that's the same setup ZerpPageHomebrew had, and the same issue, I'm wondering if you have tried or have trouble with any of the other games he lists above on your encore?

I don't have any of the games he mentions but I will try them out to see. 

 

Not really had any issue like this one before on other games. Bit of a bummer tho. 

 

I am not having problems powering on my console tho, so I don't know if that's related. 

Edited by tradyblix
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CONGRATULATIONS to Penult for being nominated in the 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards!

 

Be sure to vote for your favourite homebrew games of 2019 with the links below and watch the awards LIVE on February 1, 2020!

 

Awards Show: February 1, 2020 @ 12:00PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT LIVE on the ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch Channel!

 

Atari Homebrew Awards Categories (VOTE IN ALL!!):

1240550998_2019AtariHomebrewAwardsLaurel-Nominated-BestWIPHomebrewAtari2600.jpg.b1044e48eed551c780f945eae287a56e.jpg

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