Dragon's Cache - Vs. Puzzle Drop Game - Now Available for Purchase!!!

[Revontuli]

8 hours ago, Trebor said:

Anyhow, it's working just fine for all modes.  After selecting number of players I am presented with the Game Mode option screen.  All game modes are working beautifully.

Great to hear - I'm happy that it was a false alarm   Thank you for help, testing is a tough but necessary part of game development, and it's good to have folks playing!

[AW127]

On 10/25/2020 at 6:04 AM, Revontuli said:

With a lot of help from RevEng we've found a possible workaround - there seems to be an issue when the game tries to detect external hardware for saving scores when in BupSystem - telling the ROM there's no high score device seems to get around the crash.  I'm uploading a cartridge version and a "BupSystem compatible" version for those who want to try either

 

 

Good work Revontuli, this seems to fix the issue! I tried both of these new versions and the BupSystem-version seems to run perfect in the emulator now, while the other version does not.

 

I have not tried all gaming-modes of "Dragon's Cache" so far, but at least the highscore-problem is fixed in the BupSystem-version of the ROM. The game goes into the score-screen, all colors are visible there (which is a good sign) and then it goes back to the main-menue without a problem. And also when i play one game, then this score can be seen correctly in the score-screen and i can play the next game.

 

Looks good, thanks for finally fixing the game for this emulator. In next days, i will play all gaming-modes of "Dragon's Cache" in the BupSystem emulator and when i find something like a bug, i will report here.

Edited October 27, 2020 by AW127

[Albert]

Dragon's Cache is now available for purchase in the AtariAge Store:

 

 

https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1238

[7800Knight]

I just may grab this.  The 7800 lacks puzzle games while the NES got all the good stuff like Tetris and Dr. Mario.

[SlidellMan]

I tip my hat towards the completion of your game, Revontuli.

[electronicsibley]

I just placed an order for this game yesterday. Looking forward to playing it!

[+Muddyfunster]

Congrats @Revontuli!  ?️

[Revontuli]

Thank you for the nomination!  I'll add that this game is in amazing company and competition for the award...

 

 

You can vote for the awards (and see all the other amazing games) here: 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Revontuli

[+DrVenkman]

I've been really enjoying this game - very Zen and relaxing way to let my brain unwind.

I've been playing on my Concerto Cart and it has seemed to work perfectly until a few days ago when - seemingly out of the blue - the game becomes non-responsive to the controller buttons at the end of game rather than taking me to the high score page. At this point, I can't reset or start a new game, or get to the menu/title screen. Oddly, the Pause button will turn the screen B&W and then back to color, but I still can't start a new game without power-cycling the system. So I deleted .A78 from my SD card, downloaded it again, and tried another game but it made no difference. So problem confirmed?

 

But then after seemingly confirming this last night, I restarted and played another game and suddenly all was working as expected. I played several games in row and the high score screen worked each time. But tonight, I've played two games and each time it has frozen after the game ends. 

 

At this point I don't know if this is an issue with the Concerto Cart's beta firmware, an obscure bug in the game, or what exactly. But I just wanted to post to see if any other Concerto owners have run into it. 

[Trebor]

55 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I just wanted to post to see if any other Concerto owners have run into it. 

It just did for me. 

 

3300+ Level 9 first game default 1 Player, Score game.  Went to high score screen.  Entered initials.  "Retry" selected.

 

Second game just went for the quick death after scoring 246 points Level 0.  Game Over.  No button response neither controller or console for 'Select' and 'Reset'.  Same deal with Pause/B&W working though.

 

*Edit:  Powered off system after the above.  Powered back on - load game to Concerto again.  Same default 1 Player, Score Game, real quick death after 9 points.  Same freeze.

[Trebor]

Next testing under the same console. 

 

Took the same ROM image used on the Concerto, stripped the header, and placed on the MCP DevCart.  Played six quick games in a row.  No freeze. 

 

Power off console - power back on played 3 games in a row, then power off and power back on again, until I went though 3 sets of 3 games.  Not one freeze with the MCP DevCart.

 

Went back the the Concerto cart.  Played six quick games in a row. No freeze.

Power off console - power back on played 1 game - froze at game over.

 

Appears to be an issue with the Concerto, and perhaps something along the same lines of what happens with BupSystem.

[+batari]

3 hours ago, Trebor said:

Next testing under the same console. 

 

Took the same ROM image used on the Concerto, stripped the header, and placed on the MCP DevCart.  Played six quick games in a row.  No freeze. 

 

Power off console - power back on played 3 games in a row, then power off and power back on again, until I went though 3 sets of 3 games.  Not one freeze with the MCP DevCart.

 

Went back the the Concerto cart.  Played six quick games in a row. No freeze.

Power off console - power back on played 1 game - froze at game over.

 

Appears to be an issue with the Concerto, and perhaps something along the same lines of what happens with BupSystem.

On that link you posted, there is a version that fixes the same issue with BupSystem. Just curious if it also fixes the issue with Concerto?

 

 

 

 

[Trebor]

4 hours ago, batari said:

On that link you posted, there is a version that fixes the same issue with BupSystem. Just curious if it also fixes the issue with Concerto?

?

Ran out of time last night.  I will be trying it tonight.

[Trebor]

I performed an additional two groups of test:

 

1. Concerto Cart.  'Standard/Normal' Dragon Cache build.  This time with a SaveKey compatible device attached (AtariVox+).  Played six consecutive games, default settings, 1 Player, Score without issue.  Powered off console.  Powered console back on.  Loaded the game up, after the first game completed/game over, it went back to the previously mentioned freeze of buttons and lockup taking place.

 

2. Concerto Cart. 'BupSystem' Dragon Cache build.  No SaveKey compatible device attached.  Played six consecutive games without issue.  Powered off and then back on console, and went on to play 3 sets of 3 games without issue.  After each set of 3 games, powered off and then back on the console and loaded the game right up under the Concerto.  Worked flawlessly every time for every game.

[Revontuli]

Whew - sorry about the late posting - a busy two weeks for me as the year starts in earnest!

23 hours ago, batari said:

On that link you posted, there is a version that fixes the same issue with BupSystem. Just curious if it also fixes the issue with Concerto?

8 hours ago, Trebor said:

I performed an additional two groups of test:

 

1. Concerto Cart.  'Standard/Normal' Dragon Cache build.  This time with a SaveKey compatible device attached (AtariVox+).  Played six consecutive games, default settings, 1 Player, Score without issue.  Powered off console.  Powered console back on.  Loaded the game up, after the first game completed/game over, it went back to the previously mentioned freeze of buttons and lockup taking place.

 

2. Concerto Cart. 'BupSystem' Dragon Cache build.  No SaveKey compatible device attached.  Played six consecutive games without issue.  Powered off and then back on console, and went on to play 3 sets of 3 games without issue.  After each set of 3 games, powered off and then back on the console and loaded the game right up under the Concerto.  Worked flawlessly every time for every game.

Just reiterating how I "fixed" the game for the BupSystem (because I can't remember if I posted the specifics here) - For the BupSystem fix I set hsdevice = 0 (i.e. assume there's no save device attached), and that seems to keep BupSystem from crashing.  Of course, it also keeps you from saving your high scores - not a huge deal if you're using BupSystem for a quick game on your desktop, but might be an issue is someone wants an AtariVox playing nice with a Concerto.  

 

In short, if it's the same bug, it looks like an issue of an emulator detecting hardware (and the BupSystem crash was intermittent as well - it worked fine on my machine much of the time, until it didn't  ).  I'd also allow that it could be something I did as I was tweaking the high score code - this situation is an odd overlap of emulation and hardware.  I'll try to pay more attention to this thread again, as the BupSystem debugging uncovered a few other glitches that I thankfully (hopefully) fixed.

 

Many thanks to you all for testing - I managed to pick up a Concerto, and ordered an AtariVox, so I might be able to do some more specific tests on my end.  If nothing else this can help me moving forward (as I've a few other games in the pipeline  ).  I'm glad folks enjoy the game, even if there's the odd freeze now and then!

[+batari]

Sounds like the Bupsystem issue is also present on Concerto. Certainly people would like to use a Savekey with Concerto to save high scores.

 

If the problem is related to the code that checks for the presence of a SaveKey, it makes me wonder, what exactly does this code do (and what memory locations does it read/write from, etc?) Does it just check for SaveKey, or does it also check for HSC or another device I am not aware of?

[CPUWIZ]

SaveKey is a bit bang I2C protocol (serial EEPROM), port 2 only (by design), the source is posted somewhere, my PC isn't on right now.

 

EDIT: If you don't have one, I am sure Al can send you one, all the ones I have sitting around are naked but functional, if you want one of those.  No shrinkwrap or keychain.

[RevEng]

7 hours ago, batari said:

Sounds like the Bupsystem issue is also present on Concerto. Certainly people would like to use a Savekey with Concerto to save high scores.

 

If the problem is related to the code that checks for the presence of a SaveKey, it makes me wonder, what exactly does this code do (and what memory locations does it read/write from, etc?) Does it just check for SaveKey, or does it also check for HSC or another device I am not aware of?

It checks for the HSC too. 7800basic uses a unified HSC/SaveKey driver.

 

The issue doesn't seem to manifest on real hardware with CC2 or MPC DevCart, and it's the same routine that's been used in a number of released carts. Not saying the problem isn't fixable in the driver end here, just that I don't see it manifesting anywhere except bupsystem (which is closed source and has no debugger) and now Concerto on real hardware. (which is equally difficulty to extract internal state info from)

 

In BupSystem, the issue is also triggered by the Save Dev Test, though interestingly it reports no device detected before the freeze. This may be a quicker way to replicate the issue in Concerto. Save Dev Test is also in Trebor's Propack, so you may already have it.

[+batari]

11 hours ago, RevEng said:

It checks for the HSC too. 7800basic uses a unified HSC/SaveKey driver.

 

The issue doesn't seem to manifest on real hardware with CC2 or MPC DevCart, and it's the same routine that's been used in a number of released carts. Not saying the problem isn't fixable in the driver end here, just that I don't see it manifesting anywhere except bupsystem (which is closed source and has no debugger) and now Concerto on real hardware. (which is equally difficulty to extract internal state info from)

 

In BupSystem, the issue is also triggered by the Save Dev Test, though interestingly it reports no device detected before the freeze. This may be a quicker way to replicate the issue in Concerto. Save Dev Test is also in Trebor's Propack, so you may already have it.

Save Dev Test was in the Propack. I tried the Save Dev Test on a Concerto. All I see is a tiny face sprite that you can move around the screen, and do not see the test screens. Am I doing something wrong?

[Trebor]

10 minutes ago, batari said:

Save Dev Test was in the Propack. I tried the Save Dev Test on a Concerto. All I see is a tiny face sprite that you can move around the screen, and do not see the test screens. Am I doing something wrong?

That's the "SaveKey Test (20190214).a78" file.  

 

The one that should be tried is "Save Dev Test (20201206).a78".

 

Results of what should be seen can be viewed here:

 

 

 

[CPUWIZ]

The one I use is a 2600 ROM, which I've had since the beginning of SaveKey, well actually since before I named it SaveKey.  Richard wrote that, I think.

 

Displays two checkmarks or XX, green / red, a read/write success display.

[AW127]

On 1/28/2021 at 8:14 AM, Revontuli said:

Just reiterating how I "fixed" the game for the BupSystem (because I can't remember if I posted the specifics here) - For the BupSystem fix I set hsdevice = 0 (i.e. assume there's no save device attached), and that seems to keep BupSystem from crashing.  Of course, it also keeps you from saving your high scores - not a huge deal if you're using BupSystem for a quick game on your desktop, but might be an issue is someone wants an AtariVox playing nice with a Concerto.

 

 

"Revontuli", how exactly you mean the sentence "it also keeps you from saving your high score" (in BupSystem)" Saving the score works in BupSystem, the scores are all shown in the highscore-screen. At least as long, as the user has the game running continuously. Only when player ends the game and then start it again, all highscores are gone. But that happens on the real console too, i thought? Or the game-modul has something like a battery integrated? I am not familiar with the "Concerto". Is it possible with this hardware, to save the highscores of "Dragon's Cache" permanently, so that they are still present, when the user switch off the Atari-7800 console and play the game again later?

Edited February 3, 2021 by AW127

[Revontuli]

3 hours ago, AW127 said:

Is it possible with this hardware, to save the highscores of "Dragon's Cache" permanently, so that they are still present, when the user switch off the Atari-7800 console and play the game again later?

Yes - not with the Concerto itself, but hardware like the AtariVox and the SaveKey can save your scores and will load them back into the game when you power on the 7800 later.  

Edited February 3, 2021 by Revontuli

[+DrVenkman]

On 2/3/2021 at 4:44 AM, Revontuli said:

Yes - not with the Concerto itself, but hardware like the AtariVox and the SaveKey can save your scores and will load them back into the game when you power on the 7800 later.  

I think the plan is eventually for Concerto to include High Score Cart functionality - there's a setting for it in the Concerto menu but it is not yet enabled in the current firmware. 

[Revontuli]

The Homebrew Award Show was awesome!  It felt incredible to be nominated with that crowd!!

 

And now some last second fixes, after watching some of the previous streams...

 

Now that I'm able to play on hardware, some things become obvious that weren't on an emulator - This build should honor the console "reset" button:

 

DragonsCache_2_7_2021.bas.a78

DragonsCache_2_7_2021.bas.bin

 

If anyone can check to make sure the score saving still works on the SaveKey/AtariVox/etc. I would be grateful.  It *should* be fine, but I've made some silly mistakes with small fixes in the past.  The carts are being assembled, and I *hope* this ROM image (or one in the next day or two) will be the final build to "print."

Edited February 7, 2021 by Revontuli