Pixelboy Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Hello ColecoVision aficionados! I do believe it's time to post some quick news regarding what's happening with Team Pixelboy. So let's get to it. ABOUT THE SPRING RELEASES First of all, I updated the project status sections of the upcoming games on teampixelboy.com, namely for Uridium, QBIQS, Multiverse, Booming Boy and The Cure. They are still on track for release at the end of this month, assuming all goes as planned between now and then. For Arcomage, however, the story is different. I am now forced to postpone the release of that game until later this year. There are a few things that explain this delay: First of all, back in early February I accidentally inserted the test PCB of Arcomage backwards in the cartridge slot of my ColecoVision. This fried the PCB when I turned on the console, and it took a few weeks for me to get a replacement. Secondly, once I received the replacement PCB, some testing revealed a small issue which required a fix. This fix turned out to be more trouble than expected for the game's programmer, which means that the game will need an additional round of beta-testing once I receive a new release candidate. I don't have time to perform this testing between now and the end of the month, so it's best to just put the game on ice for now. The last thing I want is a general recall of all Arcomage carts later down the road. For the record, aside from the small issue I found, the rest of the game plays very well, and I'm almost done preparing the manual. OTHER GAMES You'll surely be happy to learn that the MSX ports of 1942, Ghost and Bomber King have been completed, and they are now in the beta-testing phase. The most interesting of these is Bomber King, as Mystery Man altered the software (at my request) so that the items can be directly selected via the controller keypad, instead of picking them in the inventory screen with a cursor (which is a bit more tedious, as you can imagine). This implies that a custom controller overlay will be included with each copy of Bomber King. THE KNIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE I was recently contacted by a customer who was having trouble with his Knightmare cartridge. He sent it to me by snail mail, and after testing his cartridge, I was able to confirm the problem. My plan was to send him the cartridge from my own CIB copy of the game, but just to make sure everything was okay, I tried my own cartridge and to my dismay, the same problem exists! The problem is that the game crashes during the fight with the boss of stage 2. From what I could see, the crash seems to happen when I get hit from behind by the boss' projectiles, but I can't confirm this to be a fact, as the crash happens very suddenly. I'd like to request the help of other people here who happen to own Knightmare. Could you guys play the game up to the boss of Stage 2 and let me know if the game crashes? If the problem turns out to be widespread, I'll see what I can do about it. Thanks in advance for any help with this. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Great news as always! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Thanks for the update! Always a pleasure to read these! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killersquirel Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 I will try Knightmare tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks for the update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmack36 Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Is the issue with Knightmare only on the cart, or does it appear when run from the atarimax with the rom you posted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 Is the issue with Knightmare only on the cart, or does it appear when run from the atarimax with the rom you posted? So far, I haven't tested it on the AtariMax SD multicart, just real cartridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Is this with the old version of the game or the fixed version of the game? I know I've beaten the boss many times and I don't recall ever dying to the 2nd round boss. I do remember it didn't crash in the 2nd level boss current fixed version. Maybe I should die on purpose to see if the bug will occur. I know in the old version, it tend to crash in level 4,5 due to stack overflow as opcode stated if I recalled. I will try it out tonight on the Colecovision tonight. I also need to try my other 2 games I completed for the Colecovision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 (edited) Is this with the old version of the game or the fixed version of the game? It's the new fixed version, as I don't think I kept any cartridge copies of the old version. I could be wrong about that, but I'd be surprised if that's the case. You don't need to die against the second boss to make the crash happen. The crash happened in mid-battle when I tried it. Edited April 15, 2019 by Pixelboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 It's the new fixed version, as I don't think I kept any cartridge copies of the old version. I could be wrong about that, but I'd be surprised if that's the case. You don't need to die against the second boss to make the crash happen. The crash happened in mid-battle when I tried it. Does it matter what the difficulty setting is to replicate the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 (edited) Does it matter what the difficulty setting is to replicate the problem? Nope, I made it crash in "easy" mode. Edited April 15, 2019 by Pixelboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Nope, I made it crash in "easy" mode. Well I just tried several times to get to the Level 2 boss on Easy and I'm so useless I can't even get there to see if it crashes I think I was close - but not close enough. I'll try again but I'm getting hand cramps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 Well I just tried several times to get to the Level 2 boss on Easy and I'm so useless I can't even get there to see if it crashes I think I was close - but not close enough. I'll try again but I'm getting hand cramps. One thing to remember is that there's a secret warp exit in Stage 1 that makes you skip ahead to Stage 2, but this warp exit is only present if you finished Stage 1 in a previous game session. The warp exit in Stage 1 is located very near the left side of the screen, just below a river. You have to fire a crazy amount of times into it before it will open up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 (edited) One thing to remember is that there's a secret warp exit in Stage 1 that makes you skip ahead to Stage 2, but this warp exit is only present if you finished Stage 1 in a previous game session. The warp exit in Stage 1 is located very near the left side of the screen, just below a river. You have to fire a crazy amount of times into it before it will open up. Found it - thanks Okay, got to the Level 2 boss with three lives (easy mode). Got hit from behind (died) three times and the game didn't crash. Edited April 15, 2019 by Ikrananka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 Last attempt tonight. Got to the boss again and stayed at the bottom to avoid being hit from behind. Got some good hits on the boss (face went yellow?) but I lost both of my lives getting hit in the side. Again, did not crash. I'll try some more tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 Thanks Ikrananka. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted April 15, 2019 Share Posted April 15, 2019 I could be mistaken but I could of sworn years ago this game was having issues with freezing and we were able to send the carts back for a fix ?? My memory is cloudy but I could of sworn once the game froze on me during the first board out of nowhere . I guess I could fire it up this week and see if anything happens . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killersquirel Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 I could be mistaken but I could of sworn years ago this game was having issues with freezing and we were able to send the carts back for a fix ?? My memory is cloudy but I could of sworn once the game froze on me during the first board out of nowhere . I guess I could fire it up this week and see if anything happens . There was a fix for this cartridge. I can't remember what the fix was for, but there was a fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 Maybe this is related, http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279134-risky-rick-in-dangerous-traps-june-25th/?p=4215148. Try other SGM only megacart games and see if it cause problems or not. Try the Ultimate SD with the fixed patch version.There was a fixed version. The game used to crash when things get really busy, like multiple magician on screens on Stage 5 and later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 17, 2019 Author Share Posted April 17, 2019 Wait, what happened to the reply I posted??? Argh!! Now I have to rewrite the whole reply from memory. Anyway, yes, there was a Knightmare cartridge recall a few years ago, for a similar crashing problem. However, not all people returned their carts (some said they were going to do it but never did) so there's a relatively small number of Knightmare carts out there with the old version of the software on them. The guy who returned his Knightmare cartridge did not originally buy it directly from me, so this implies two possibilities: 1) My personal copy of Knightmare contains the old version and I never got around to fixing it, and so perhaps both myself and the guy who returned his cartridge have cartridges with the buggy original software. 2) The fixed version of the cartridge still has crashing problems. From Ikranaka's tests, point #1 above is starting to look more likely. I wish at least one or two other people would test their fixed Knightmare carts to make sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sega_SHARK Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 Ill kick the tires on Knightmare tonight for a while and see if I can replicate the glitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 17, 2019 Author Share Posted April 17, 2019 Ill kick the tires on Knightmare tonight for a while and see if I can replicate the glitch. Thanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 FWIW, mine is one of the fixed Knightmare carts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 I have one of the fixed carts and I will play it Friday . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Was playing it today and couldn't even get to the second boss Will try again tomorrow . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 Rather bad news to report here. I received a brand new PCB of Knightmare from my usual supplier (hi Harvey!) and I got the game to crash at the second boss just like I did with the other carts I tried previously. I can get it to crash consistently if I let one of the boss' white projectiles hit me from behind. So to anyone who tries this, you have to get hit on purpose, or else you may not encounter the crashing bug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.