Venture Reloaded

[+batari]

Excellent hack! I think the graphics are excellent and just where they need to be.

 

I would improve on the music a little. While the unique song for every room from the arcade would be a lot of work, it would be cool to see the proper tune playing on the map screen. I get that music is difficult, as back in 2004 I made an attempt but it needs some help. A tune or two may be off and the last notes should last longer. I will post it here and use if you wish.

 

Another thing that would be neat is more intelligent enemies. That is one of the issues I had with the 2600 version, as on the arcade (and Colecovision) the enemies are smart and try to avoid the arrows shot at them and their AI gets better in higher levels. The 2600 version has no AI that I know of, or it is poor, as the enemies seem to just move around randomly and in higher levels they just move faster. Some enemies are really smart, like the trolls on the troll screen (for that matter, does this version do the bridge on the troll screen that goes down after a few moments? That adds a lot of challenge to the arcade game.)

 

Interestingly, the original arcade game of this uses a 6502. That makes me wonder if any of the actual AI code from the arcade game could be used or adapted? That would be cool.

 

 

VENTSND.bin

[iesposta]

3 hours ago, batari said:

 

Interestingly, the original arcade game of this uses a 6502. That makes me wonder if any of the actual AI code from the arcade game could be used or adapted? That would be cool.

Something similar is being done on a Vectrex multi-cart where the actual arcade ROM is emulated on the multi-cart co-processor, and the console is using its sound and graphics routines to display the game. You need to provide the arcade ROM yourself. 

 

While this is very much “cheating” to the max, in the case of the Vectrex, getting arcade play on a less powered home console feels amazing. It would be nice to see someone talented enough to try this on the 2600.

 

This involves writing an emulator on the multi-cart’s ARM chip, writing the 2600’s display routines, sound effects, and joystick interaction using the game ROM’s emulated input / output while staying within the limitations of the 2600. 

[Omegamatrix]

On 11/15/2019 at 4:04 AM, Chris2600 said:

Hi all,

 

I've got one minor graphics suggestion, I would prefer if the question marks look like this:

 

 

rather than that, where they seem to be somewhat 'flattned':

 

 

It is only a matter of personnal preferences, there's no critistism here.

What is your point of view?

 

Cheers

 

Hello Chris,

 

I will make this change for RC3, which will be a while away. Thank you for the input.

 

 

On 11/16/2019 at 12:44 PM, H.E.R.O. said:

Gave it a try and was fun but the controls were a bit sticky for me. I had an issue in the 1st level snake room where left of the top right exit I got caught on the wall. I also got caught on a corner in the 2nd level troll room but that could have been me as I haven't played the 2600 of Venture in decades and am used to hugging the wall to escape if needed. Otherwise, as stated, pretty fun.

 

I tried it on the current Stella using a Xbox360 controller with the d-pad (using the stick seems to make Winky go wonky).

With the wall sticking I expect it's something that won't be changeable, however I will take a look.

[Omegamatrix]

4 hours ago, batari said:

Excellent hack! I think the graphics are excellent and just where they need to be.

 

I would improve on the music a little. While the unique song for every room from the arcade would be a lot of work, it would be cool to see the proper tune playing on the map screen. I get that music is difficult, as back in 2004 I made an attempt but it needs some help. A tune or two may be off and the last notes should last longer. I will post it here and use if you wish.

 

Another thing that would be neat is more intelligent enemies. That is one of the issues I had with the 2600 version, as on the arcade (and Colecovision) the enemies are smart and try to avoid the arrows shot at them and their AI gets better in higher levels. The 2600 version has no AI that I know of, or it is poor, as the enemies seem to just move around randomly and in higher levels they just move faster. Some enemies are really smart, like the trolls on the troll screen (for that matter, does this version do the bridge on the troll screen that goes down after a few moments? That adds a lot of challenge to the arcade game.)

Thank you for the comments!

 

The map screen has been by far the most contentious issue. I feel the map music in RC2 is definitely better that it was in RC1, but yeah that song has been horrible to get to sound better. I actually did a version of the Arcade Map music. I will post a rom later so you can have a listen.

 

If this was homebrew I would definitely made AI for the monsters among other things, but it won't be in this hack.

 

[Omegamatrix]

Here is the Arcade map room music I made before.

 

 

 

VentureArcadeMusic.bin

[Omegamatrix]

Another video review, this time by The New Retro Show.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faxvIFhrFtI

 

He is playing RC1, and one of the times he dies is a cheap death from the Hall Monster outside the Skeleton Room. That Hall Monster was moved in RC2.

[+batari]

On 11/19/2019 at 8:41 PM, Omegamatrix said:

Here is the Arcade map room music I made before.

 

 

 

VentureArcadeMusic.bin 2 kB · 5 downloads

Hope that music makes it in to the next version. Definitely this is a lot better than what's there now.

 

One thing that would be cool but totally unnecessary is the ability to shoot on the map screen. The arcade allows this, IIRC, even though nothing on the map screen can actually be shot. I always thought that was kind of neat to shoot the hall monsters just for fun.

 

As for enemy AI, it's more difficult because of the vertical placement restrictions of the enemies, but maybe a dead simple algorithm could fit that enhances the game. That was one of the things that disappointed me when I took the Venture cart home back in the day, as the arcade monsters were smarter and just got smarter while on the 2600 version the monsters were brain-dead. Same with the Colecovision, the monsters seemed to have similar intelligence, as I used to play my friend's CV just for Venture. If you would consider putting it in, I might look at a disassembly of the original and see if it's feasible to squeeze *something* in there.

[keithbk]

2 hours ago, batari said:

One thing that would be cool but totally unnecessary is the ability to shoot on the map screen.

Well, that would be cool, but WHAT IF this one change brought about the Zombie Apocalypse??? Really, people, think about the consequences of your actions; we don't want to make one programming change that brings about the end of life on this planet as we know it.

[+save2600]

I like the flee/avoid dynamic of the map screen, but thought it might be cool if the fire button provided a speed up boost while running. 

[Omegamatrix]

8 hours ago, batari said:

Hope that music makes it in to the next version. Definitely this is a lot better than what's there now.

I want to hear from lots of people on the music. I'm had various feedback and I'm truthfully on the fence myself. The choices will be the map music from RC2, or the arcade version I just pointed.

 

Quote

One thing that would be cool but totally unnecessary is the ability to shoot on the map screen. The arcade allows this, IIRC, even though nothing on the map screen can actually be shot. I always thought that was kind of neat to shoot the hall monsters just for fun.

I never played the arcade version so I don't know about this. At this time I'm really at the end of the development cycle and there are other things I would try to squeeze in before this.

 

Quote

As for enemy AI, it's more difficult because of the vertical placement restrictions of the enemies, but maybe a dead simple algorithm could fit that enhances the game. That was one of the things that disappointed me when I took the Venture cart home back in the day, as the arcade monsters were smarter and just got smarter while on the 2600 version the monsters were brain-dead. Same with the Colecovision, the monsters seemed to have similar intelligence, as I used to play my friend's CV just for Venture. If you would consider putting it in, I might look at a disassembly of the original and see if it's feasible to squeeze *something* in there.

This is on my big laundry list of things that I left out due to rom space, cycles available, and so on. This would definitely be handled in an ARM rebuild from scratch which I may or may not do. Nonetheless I do promise I will take a look to see if it is feasible.

 

Fred, you said you played the Colecovision version. I did myself growing up. It was my first game system. While Venture Reloaded is a hybrid of the Colecovision and Arcade versions (plus my own additions), I am definitely more nostalgic for the Colecovision version. This is actually why I'm on the fence about switching the music too.

[Omegamatrix]

6 hours ago, keithbk said:

Well, that would be cool, but WHAT IF this one change brought about the Zombie Apocalypse??? Really, people, think about the consequences of your actions; we don't want to make one programming change that brings about the end of life on this planet as we know it.

It's all a stack of cards. Change one single bit and it collapses into a black hole...

[Glenn Main]

Pure sweet fun game. Well done.

[keithbk]

With the basic overland/dungeon work completed, it seems to me that it would not be a far stretch do some other Atari games based on classic fantasy games:

 

1) Dungeons and Dragons (as it appeared on the Intellivision system)

2) Gateway or Temple of Apshai

3) Ultima

 

 

[Arenafoot]

10 hours ago, keithbk said:

With the basic overland/dungeon work completed, it seems to me that it would not be a far stretch do some other Atari games based on classic fantasy games:

 

1) Dungeons and Dragons (as it appeared on the Intellivision system)

2) Gateway or Temple of Apshai

3) Ultima

 

 

#2 and #3 have already been done

 

 

 

[atarifan88]

11 hours ago, Arenafoot said:

#2 and #3 have already been done

 

 

 

Do you have a link for #2?

[keithbk]

Wow, I missed both; yes, would love links!

[Arenafoot]

On 11/24/2019 at 8:29 AM, atarifan88 said:

Do you have a link for #2?

 

17 hours ago, keithbk said:

Wow, I missed both; yes, would love links!

Whenever you need links for any homebrews and/or hacks, use my "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." https://1drv.ms/x/s!ArXu52QZivTrgVbQayev1Wc1QprN  and I have the link in my AA forums signature line. Every game title is hyperlinked to where it can be found online.

 

Justin Gibson's Apshai (aka Lost Dunjonquest Apshai) ROM can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wwdwc91zjrt70rr/apshai.rar?dl=0

 

Enjoy!

 

[Raiu]

Unfortunately, I think I like the RC2 map screen music even less than the original, which is a little more jarring because the rest of the music in the game is so great, and I like the 2600 rendition of the arcade map music much better.

 

... and I only mention that because I have nothing else to mention.  This is fantastic.  I haven't enjoyed playing an Atari 2600 game like this in a long time.

[NostAlgae37]

6 hours ago, Raiu said:

This is fantastic.  I haven't enjoyed playing an Atari 2600 game like this in a long time.

Agreed 100%!  Here is my high score on RC2 so far:

 

 

I'd be curious to see how far others have gotten to know just how bad of a player I am. 

[+sramirez2008]

13 minutes ago, NostAlgae37 said:

Agreed 100%!  Here is my high score on RC2 so far:

 

 

I'd be curious to see how far others have gotten to know just how bad of a player I am. 

Hmm. ?

[Raiu]

I got this last night...

[Tavi]

 

Just squeeked this in under the wire!

..but it was a cold and snowy day, so it was an excellent day to sit down and perfect my Venture Reloaded gameplay.

I certainly had a blast with playing this hack, it is wonderfully done!


 

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Tavi
Trying to unsucessfully mark image as 'Spoiler'

[KevinMos3]

I hadn't messed with the FBP in a while, but since I picked up one of the 2019 woodgrain ones yesterday, It piqued my interest again.  I tried this game expecting that it wouldn't load at all and was surprised with a properly rendered title screen... then instead of starting a game, it repeats the title screen.  Oh well... got further than I expected, but it would be nice if a FBP compatible version was eventually available.

[Nukey Shay]

Mentioned earlier in the thread, the portable is not detecting that this game uses extended Ram for some reason (even after filling it with $FF's).

This is one of the easier issues to spot when looking for portable glitches...just hack the game to use a byte of extended Ram as something noticeable like the background color and keep increasing it.  If the screen color is not shifting, the bankswitch mode was not detected.

[Omegamatrix]

Resolved. Thank you Nukey.