Champ Games - Galagon (aka Galaga) 2600

[AW127]

 

"orion1052003" i think, better not lay something like the fire button on a key like "option" when using a MAC. I guess, this could cause some problems in all emulators, not only in STELLA. Better using another key for "fire" button or using a good joystick or gamepad.

 

And maybe some people wonder, why STELLA starts the PAL60 version of "Galaga" with wrong colors out of the box. This is, because the "autodetection" in STELLA thinks, that it is a NTSC-rom (because of 60 fps) and then starts it with NTSC-colors. To change this, the user can mark the rom, then go into "options", "game properties", then "display" and then to the function "format". Here it must be changed from "autodetect" to "PAL60".

 

Sadly, when somebody has alot of PAL60 roms, at the moment this must be done for every single PAL60 rom manually, therefore i made two suggestions back in time here in this thread

 

 

to change this. So that the emu could start all PAL60 roms with the correct colors directly out of the box, without something must be done by the user. Either by

 

- identification by name and then automated use PAL60 colors in "format" function

 

or (cause some people said this could lead to problems)

 

- by integrating the "format" function into a rom-group-function, which means - the user searches for PAL60 in the STELLA search-field, the emulator then lists all files which have PAL60 in their name (this is already possible now) and then the user can change the format for ALL OF THESE FOUND ROMS in one step to PAL60. STELLA then must save this new format for all of the found roms.

 

Maybe something like these things or something similar, will find the way into one of the future versions of STELLA.

Edited June 20, 2019 by AW127

[Galactico]

Hello,

Query, does anyone know why Galaga does not work for me in my ataria 2600? :(, it only sticks to a sound and only colors appear on the screen like the photos I upload.) I use the 2600 with a harmony.

I tried it with Stella for iOS, it works and I loved it. My congratulations for the game.

Sorry for my Google translation :)

Greetings and thanks

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Galactico

[D.A.K.]

Greetings! I just filled out a new account to make this comment! 8)

I had an old account here years ago but I've lost the information & don't know the email used.

Anyhow...

First off, congrats on the ridiculous in quality insanity which is GALAGA for the VCS! 8)

With just a few small tweaks here & there, it will easily be the best home version of the game for any console!

Wow! What an accomplishment!!!

As an avid player of the arcade game (I even own an arcade GALAGA cocktail!) I would like to bring up a small issue.

The firing seems a bit off.

 

For those of us with fast fingers who rapidly tap the button, on the arcade, you can time your shots when you tap.

If you tap quickly twice, two shots very quickly will fire.

The 2600 version fires 2 shots at the exact same rate, as if it expects the user to hold the button down.

I'm sure I'm not describing exactly the issue but all I can say is the firing is off, it's not as fast or responsive.

 

The timing of the firing is crucial in the arcade game, I can't believe no one else has pointed this out.

It would be awesome if in the final version, this could be fixed. Maybe you can have the autofire "hold the button down" style be an

option that can be selected from the main menu? Like have FIRING: ARCADE or AUTOFIRE and if AUTOFIRE is selected, there

should still be a way to control the rate of the firing. I think on arcade games that have the autofire hack, you can set the rate by

basically firing your 2 shots at the rate you wish and then holding the button down. From that point on, it fires at that rate.

Looking forward to having this in my library. I have multiple Atari 2600's, a Colecovision with the 2600 adapter, a Coleco Gemini,

an original Supercharger somewhere and one of the last Cuttle Carts produced. I plan on getting back into things and getting a

Melody cart soon. BTW Mappy is FREAKING AWESOME AS WELL!!! My God that game is beautiful!!!

I can't believe it's the VCS!

 

P.S. - OH YEAH!!! DOES THE BEE TRICK WORK ON THIS?!?!?! IF NOT, IT HAS TO BE INCLUDED!!! 8)

[GALAGA BEE TRICK DESCRIBED HERE]

Edited June 22, 2019 by D.A.K.

[+johnnywc]

8 hours ago, Galactico said:

Hello,

Query, does anyone know why Galaga does not work for me in my ataria 2600? :(, it only sticks to a sound and only colors appear on the screen like the photos I upload.) I use the 2600 with a harmony.

I tried it with Stella for iOS, it works and I loved it. My congratulations for the game.

Sorry for my Google translation :)

Greetings and thanks

Hello there!

 

Galaga requires v1.0.5 of the Harmony BIOS.  Can you check to make sure that is the version you're running?  I think you just select "About" from the Harmony main menu to see the version info.

 

Hope that helps!

Joohn

[+johnnywc]

8 hours ago, D.A.K. said:

Greetings! I just filled out a new account to make this comment!

I had an old account here years ago but I've lost the information & don't know the email used.

Anyhow...

Hello and welcome to Atari Age!

 

8 hours ago, D.A.K. said:

First off, congrats on the ridiculous in quality insanity which is GALAGA for the VCS!

With just a few small tweaks here & there, it will easily be the best home version of the game for any console!

Wow! What an accomplishment!!!

Thank you!

 

8 hours ago, D.A.K. said:

As an avid player of the arcade game (I even own an arcade GALAGA cocktail!) I would like to bring up a small issue.

The firing seems a bit off.

 

For those of us with fast fingers who rapidly tap the button, on the arcade, you can time your shots when you tap.

If you tap quickly twice, two shots very quickly will fire.

The 2600 version fires 2 shots at the exact same rate, as if it expects the user to hold the button down.

I'm sure I'm not describing exactly the issue but all I can say is the firing is off, it's not as fast or responsive.

 

The timing of the firing is crucial in the arcade game, I can't believe no one else has pointed this out.

It would be awesome if in the final version, this could be fixed. Maybe you can have the autofire "hold the button down" style be an

option that can be selected from the main menu? Like have FIRING: ARCADE or AUTOFIRE and if AUTOFIRE is selected, there

should still be a way to control the rate of the firing. I think on arcade games that have the autofire hack, you can set the rate by

basically firing your 2 shots at the rate you wish and then holding the button down. From that point on, it fires at that rate.

 

Thanks for the feedback!  FYI the left and right difficulty switches enable and disable auto fire for player 1 and 2, respectively.  (B = auto fire on, A = auto fire off).  Can you test with auto fire off (diff = A) and let me know if that's better?  

 

8 hours ago, D.A.K. said:

Looking forward to having this in my library. I have multiple Atari 2600's, a Colecovision with the 2600 adapter, a Coleco Gemini,

an original Supercharger somewhere and one of the last Cuttle Carts produced. I plan on getting back into things and getting a

Melody cart soon. BTW Mappy is FREAKING AWESOME AS WELL!!! My God that game is beautiful!!!

I can't believe it's the VCS!

Thanks again - I'm glad you like Mappy too!

8 hours ago, D.A.K. said:

 

P.S. - OH YEAH!!! DOES THE BEE TRICK WORK ON THIS?!?!?! IF NOT, IT HAS TO BE INCLUDED!!!

[GALAGA BEE TRICK DESCRIBED HERE]

No, that bug has not been implemented but we may be able to squeeze it in.  Right now we're pretty short on ROM and I'd rather use that space for more bells/whistles and game features than adding in 'bug', but I'll look into seeing how much space it will take up and see what I can do.

 

Thanks so much for the feedback!

John

 

[+FujiSkunk]

A little late on the reply, but...

 

On 6/18/2019 at 9:41 PM, SpiceWare said:

I use the Spacebar to fire to prevent that. Could do what Nathan says, but I frequently use those OSX shortcuts. 

 

I don't know how true it is still, but it used to be that, depending on your model of keyboard, no more than two simultaneously-pressed keys would register.  This limit didn't apply to "modifier" keys like shift, control, and so on, so a lot of games and emulators default to modifier keys for fire/action buttons.  This was good for when, say, you needed to press two directional keys to go in a diagonal while also firing.  Obviously that wouldn't apply to a game like Galaga, but you get the idea.

 

The limitation wasn't universal across all keyboards even then, so you may not have this issue.

[+Nathan Strum]

14 minutes ago, FujiSkunk said:

I don't know how true it is still, but it used to be that, depending on your model of keyboard, no more than two simultaneously-pressed keys would register.  This limit didn't apply to "modifier" keys like shift, control, and so on, so a lot of games and emulators default to modifier keys for fire/action buttons.  This was good for when, say, you needed to press two directional keys to go in a diagonal while also firing.  Obviously that wouldn't apply to a game like Galaga, but you get the idea.

 

The limitation wasn't universal across all keyboards even then, so you may not have this issue.

 

This is why I posted my suggestion. I had problems with this in MAME and Stella all the time, back-in-the-day. It has to do with multiplexing. I've gotten so used to using modifier keys, I never went back to trying the spacebar after changing keyboards.

 

Plus, I really hate some of Apple's obnoxious default keyboard shortcuts. So the more of those I shut off, the better.

 

(Actually, I'm hating Apple a lot these days. But that's beside the point.)

[Galactico]

On 6/22/2019 at 7:40 AM, johnnywc said:

Hello there!

 

Galaga requires v1.0.5 of the Harmony BIOS.  Can you check to make sure that is the version you're running?  I think you just select "About" from the Harmony main menu to see the version info.

 

Hope that helps!

Joohn 

Thanks John

I will verify the version and update it accordingly, when I do I share detail, hopefully it works.

Thanks and regards

[D.A.K.]

johhnywc:

Oh. Duh. I can't believe I didn't realize the switches toggle autofire!

It seems a bit better but it still seems maybe a bit slow? I dunno but it just seems a tad off for some reason.

The challenge stage is harder than the arcade, it seems more difficult due to the firing but maybe it's just that the screen isn't as tall as the arcade.

That's another thing I was wondering. I know at this stage it would be impossible to implement screen rotation, but has anyone ever done a

2600 game with a rotated screen so that you can have a very tall aspect ratio like many older arcade games?

It's easier to scroll vertically on the VCS, right? If there was an advantage to scrolling horizontally, I'd think making a rotated game would be cool

and maybe able to perform some things that couldn't be done vertically but again, I'm under the assumption vertical is easier so it would actually

be harder to make a rotated game if so as it would be scrolling horizontally. (I realize the star field really doesn't count as "scrolling" but I think you

know what I mean. I mean for other games in the future.)

 

However... As many Galaga players know, on the arcade challenge stages, you can use the HIGH SCORE text at the top of the screen to aim.

Your left fire should pass through the H and your right fire should pass through the S on the 1st challenge stage.

This is described in this article HERE.

Is there any way objects could be placed at the top so we have a way to calibrate our aim like on the arcade?

I especially use the HIGH SCORE for aiming on the 3rd Challenge stage with the weird new aliens in it.

 

Will you be updating the demo with fixes and new implementations of features?

 

Thanks for listening! You're doing an amazing job, can't wait to see the final version but it's fun as Hell to test the demos too!

Edited June 23, 2019 by D.A.K.

[Galactico]

2 hours ago, Galactico said:

Thanks John

I will verify the version and update it accordingly, when I do I share detail, hopefully it works.

Thanks and regards

Hello John

 

Ok, I updated version 1.0.5 and it works perfect. Thanks for the help and for this great game.

 

regards

 

 

but they took it from me ... XD

 

 

[AW127]

"Galactico" i just saw, that your Harmony is white on the upper side where the SD-Card is. Mine is black there, while the rest of it looks exactly like yours. Has the seller changed the colors here, or have you done it? I am asking just for interest.

[D.A.K.]

OP: Is there a reason I can't edit my previous post?

I would like to fix the formatting errors. When I created it, they weren't there.

Thanks!

[+FujiSkunk]

10 minutes ago, D.A.K. said:

OP: Is there a reason I can't edit my previous post?

I would like to fix the formatting errors. When I created it, they weren't there.

Thanks!

 

It's not up to the OP, it's up to the site owner, in this case @Albert.  Members generally have 60 minutes to edit their posts.  If you subscribe, you get 30 days.  Some subforums used to have indefinite editing, and they will again once Albert gets the functionality back in place.  More details here.

[Albert]

18 minutes ago, D.A.K. said:

OP: Is there a reason I can't edit my previous post?

I would like to fix the formatting errors. When I created it, they weren't there.

Thanks!

Due to abuse of the edit feature by multiple users over the years, I had to restrict access to it.  Normally you can only edit a post for 60 minutes.  Subscribers can edit their posts for 30 days.  On the old forum, I had the ability to give permission for people to edit specific posts.  As well as the same for specific forums, where people were able to edit any of their posts in those forums indefinitely.  These were custom modifications I hard-coded into the source code of the old software. 

 

As the current version of the software was rewritten from scratch as of 4.0 (we were on 3.4.8, now we are running 4.4.4), any modifications like this would have to be redone.  The correct way to do modifications to this software is to employ Invision's developer frameworks and to write plugins or applications.  I do not have time to learn these rather complex frameworks at the moment, so I paid someone to write new plugins for me.  This has been done, but there were some issues that had to be fixed. 

 

I'm now waiting for the background content processing tasks to complete before I try installing them again (one of them was interfering with the running of these tasks, so I had to uninstall it earlier today).  Looks like the background tasks will be finished by the time I wake up tomorrow morning.  First thing I'll do is to reinstall these plugins, test them, and if all is good, I can give you permission to edit the above post.

 

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

 ..Al

[cdoty]

What.. the.. fu. Where was this level of gameplay when I was a kid?

 

Amazing job.

[D.A.K.]

FujiSkunk & Albert:

Thanks for the info!!! Good luck fixing it Albert. I love the site btw.

[root42]

In the description it says two player mode and savekey are supported through use of a Quadtari. Where can I get such a device? I googled, but came up with little useful information. 

[+splendidnut]

7 minutes ago, root42 said:

In the description it says two player mode and savekey are supported through use of a Quadtari. Where can I get such a device? I googled, but came up with little useful information. 

It's currently in the process of being developed by Nathan Tolbert... also part of the reason why Wizard of War has been delayed a bit.  If you dig around the forums a bit, you'll find mention of it somewhere.

[Swami]

This is quite a feat. Just amazing game play and the sound is so arcade-like it's stupifying. Just tried it on Stella. Likely my two old Harmony encore may not work and off to 4th activities.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

3 hours ago, root42 said:

In the description it says two player mode and savekey are supported through use of a Quadtari. Where can I get such a device? I googled, but came up with little useful information. 

You can also find a some more information on Nathan's page or if you want to follow along with the hardware development check out this thread.

[Tangentg]

There seems to be a bit of a cool down time between the 2 shots as I realized the shooting speed is a bit different from what I'm used to, and I found that out by pressing fire in quick succession and finding out only 1 shot is fired. I understand this was to make holding down autofire possible in difficulty B, but just wondering if it'd be an option to do no cool down anyway for (difficulty A).

Edited July 15, 2019 by Tangentg

[+johnnywc]

On 6/23/2019 at 3:50 PM, D.A.K. said:

johhnywc:

Oh. Duh. I can't believe I didn't realize the switches toggle autofire!

It seems a bit better but it still seems maybe a bit slow? I dunno but it just seems a tad off for some reason.

The challenge stage is harder than the arcade, it seems more difficult due to the firing but maybe it's just that the screen isn't as tall as the arcade.

Thanks for the feedback!  I did some testing with Autofire off (Diff A) and the repeat rate does seem a bit sluggish, so I've cut the delay in half which seems a lot better.  I am going to keep the same constant rate for Autofire mode (same as it is now) so it's not any easier (I think Autofire is too easy as is), but will see what other people think during testing.

 

The challenge stages are maybe a bit more difficult than the arcade, but I think the update to non-autofire mode may help for those using difficulty A.  We are still tweaking the difficulty to better match the arcade, but due to the different resolution of the arcade screen vs. the 2600 it is a challenge.  Although we are definitely trying to have 2600 Galaga be as close to the arcade game, we are also hoping that the 2600 version has it's own nuances that separate it from the arcade so people can enjoy a different experience and challenge. 

 

On 6/23/2019 at 3:50 PM, D.A.K. said:

That's another thing I was wondering. I know at this stage it would be impossible to implement screen rotation, but has anyone ever done a

2600 game with a rotated screen so that you can have a very tall aspect ratio like many older arcade games?

It's easier to scroll vertically on the VCS, right? If there was an advantage to scrolling horizontally, I'd think making a rotated game would be cool

and maybe able to perform some things that couldn't be done vertically but again, I'm under the assumption vertical is easier so it would actually

be harder to make a rotated game if so as it would be scrolling horizontally. (I realize the star field really doesn't count as "scrolling" but I think you

know what I mean. I mean for other games in the future.)

I think the only game that forces the user to rotate their screen 90 degrees is the homebrew "Merlin's Walls".  Although I think it's a cool idea, I don't think I will be developing games with this requirement as there are a lot of people that play these games on old CRTs and asking them to rotate them 90 degrees to play one game is probably not good for the CRT (and perhaps a bit dangerous   ).

 

On 6/23/2019 at 3:50 PM, D.A.K. said:

However... As many Galaga players know, on the arcade challenge stages, you can use the HIGH SCORE text at the top of the screen to aim.

Your left fire should pass through the H and your right fire should pass through the S on the 1st challenge stage.

This is described in this article HERE.

Is there any way objects could be placed at the top so we have a way to calibrate our aim like on the arcade?

I especially use the HIGH SCORE for aiming on the 3rd Challenge stage with the weird new aliens in it.

I understand what you're saying; for now the only marker you have is the actual score since putting more info up in that area is not possible without introducing more flicker.  We originally were hiding the score when enemies were flying in from the top but changed it back for this very reason.  Hopefully the score on the top and the reserve ships/level indicator on the bottom are enough to help position your ships for the challenge stages.  If not, you can always use the force   

On 6/23/2019 at 3:50 PM, D.A.K. said:

Will you be updating the demo with fixes and new implementations of features?

 

Thanks for listening! You're doing an amazing job, can't wait to see the final version but it's fun as Hell to test the demos too!

I will most likely upload a new demo in the next month or so to get feedback on the changes.  FYI the final version is scheduled for release on October 19th at the Atari Age booth at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in Portland, Oregon.  It will be available in the Atari Age store sometime after that, usually sometime in November (Al usually provides more details as the date approaches).

On 7/14/2019 at 8:16 PM, Tangentg said:

There seems to be a bit of a cool down time between the 2 shots as I realized the shooting speed is a bit different from what I'm used to, and I found that out by pressing fire in quick succession and finding out only 1 shot is fired. I understand this was to make holding down autofire possible in difficulty B, but just wondering if it'd be an option to do no cool down anyway for (difficulty A).

Yes, good observation and good suggestion!  I have implemented this and it's much better now (the delay for difficulty A is now 1/2 the delay for difficulty B when using Autofire).  I will be releasing a new demo soon with this and a few other changes.   Thanks!

[D.A.K.]

Quote

johnnywc said: I think the only game that forces the user to rotate their screen 90 degrees is the homebrew "Merlin's Walls".  Although I think it's a cool idea, I don't think I will be developing games with this requirement as there are a lot of people that play these games on old CRTs and asking them to rotate them 90 degrees to play one game is probably not good for the CRT (and perhaps a bit dangerous   ).

 

johhnywc: Actually... It's not bad on a CRT at all to rotate it so long as you degauss it correctly.

I used to work in the arcade business and I still have a degaussing coil which really worked magically!

When we would change out monitors in arcade games, the same monitor might go in either a vertical or a horizontal game so

we would install it, turn it on, and then run the degaussing coil on it.

Basically, it's a big circle magnet with magnet wire around it.

You plug it in and hold it in front of the monitor. The colors go crazy and you slowly pull away while going in a circular motion.

Voila! When you finish, the monitor will be "magnetized/calibrated" for that rotation and all the colors will be correct!

If you don't do this, when you rotate a CRT monitor, the colors will go weird. I used to do this with my 1084s as well even!

I had a 1084s stuck in my pacman cocktail arcade game for a long time as it's RGB was the exact same as arcade RGB so

I could literately plug it right up and it would work. I was always rotating monitors back in the day!

It even works on regular TV sets. Basically, I've never seen a CRT monitor/tv it doesn't work on. (Rotating then degaussing.)

But I understand... Most people don't wanna do this!

Also, I don't know how the new HDTVs work but I assume they don't need to be degaussed at all as there are many tv

mounts that allow for rotation. I even have one, but haven't hooked it up yet.

To me, it's a dream to be able to rotate my big TV so I can play stuff in the correct aspect ratio.

It's really cool too playing something like the arcade version of GALAGA while standing in a living room and having it

displayed on a TV that's over half your own height!

 

Can't wait for the next demo version! Your work is absolutely magical, I am in awe.

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by D.A.K.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

GALAGON!

Tomorrow on ZeroPage Homebrew!

 

 

LAST MINUTE ADDITION TO TOMORROW'S ZeroPage Homebrew's LIVESTREAM: GALAGON! Yes! ZPH just got the brand new build of 'Galaga' from John Champeau at Champ Games! We'll be playing at the top of the show with tons of updates to the game, including the name!

 

Join us LIVE tomorrow (Wednesday) on the ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch livestream for Galagon and more Atari 2600 Homebrew!

 

Wednesday July 17, 2019 11AM PT | 2PM ET | 6PM GMT

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

Edited July 17, 2019 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[+SpiceWare]

11 hours ago, D.A.K. said:

It's really cool too playing something like the arcade version of GALAGA while standing in a living room and having it

displayed on a TV that's over half your own height! 

 

It's also cool to play Galaga on a display that's taller than you.  This Pac-Man + Galaga system was at last year's Houston Arcade Expo. Has a simultaneous 2-player version of Pac-Man, note the regular Yellow Pac-Man at the bottom-right and the Green Pac-Man in at the upper-left.