Baby Berks 2020 (32KB)

[Nojeee]

I converted Baby Berks to the A8 a couple of years ago and have just finished a 5200 version. I made a few improvements so thought I'd also upload an updated A8 version here.

 

The first A8 version may have been missed as it was uploaded in the middle of a thread about the original release. The game first appeared as a magazine type-in for the Commodore C16 and then came out on a budget label. It's a very basic game with simple graphics and limited sound effects... I had to keep the size down as much as possible so the enemy movements etc are a little clunky!

 

This version has improvements to the missile firing; the weapon now fires double missiles so it's less frustrating trying to line up enemies. There are tweaks to the NTSC/PAL balancing, extra lives are now based on skill level and high scores are kept for each starting skill setting. The game now continues to get harder after Master level. 

 

Jon

 

Baby_Berks_2020.xex

[Mclaneinc]

As always, thanks Jon...You are an isolating star!

[TGB1718]

Running in Altirra with U1M enabled , says Memory conflict even if i launch with "X babyberk.xex"

 

disabled U1M and re-boot, loaded and just get a black screen

 

not tried on real hardware

[Nojeee]

15 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

Running in Altirra with U1M enabled , says Memory conflict even if i launch with "X babyberk.xex"

 

disabled U1M and re-boot, loaded and just get a black screen

 

not tried on real hardware

That's strange ... I've tested it in the latest version of Altirra on PAL and NTSC and it works fine here. I've also checked it on my 130XE via SIO2PC and 'Boot Executable' ... again, it works fine.

 

I'd be interested to hear if anybody else is having a problem running it.

 

[+Philsan]

Tested on PAL 800XL+U1MB (stock, 320K, 1088K) with AVGCart and SIO2PC-USB and it works.

[Faicuai]

3 hours ago, Nojeee said:

I converted Baby Berks to the A8 a couple of years ago and have just finished a 5200 version. I made a few improvements so thought I'd also upload an updated A8 version here.

 

The first A8 version may have been missed as it was uploaded in the middle of a thread about the original release. The game first appeared as a magazine type-in for the Commodore C16 and then came out on a budget label. It's a very basic game with simple graphics and limited sound effects... I had to keep the size down as much as possible so the enemy movements etc are a little clunky!

 

This version has improvements to the missile firing; the weapon now fires double missiles so it's less frustrating trying to line up enemies. There are tweaks to the NTSC/PAL balancing, extra lives are now based on skill level and high scores are kept for each starting skill setting. The game now continues to get harder after Master level. 

 

Jon

 

Baby_Berks_2020.xex 11.66 kB · 33 downloads

This requires Qmeg 4.04 to launch properly (Tested from Nuxx SDrive).

 

Tested on real A800 / Incognito.

 

[Nojeee]

1 hour ago, Philsan said:

Tested on PAL 800XL+U1MB (stock, 320K, 1088K) with AVGCart and SIO2PC-USB and it works.

 

32 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

This requires Qmeg 4.04 to launch properly (Tested from Nuxx SDrive).

 

Tested on real A800 / Incognito.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback on this - it's good to know it's working.

 

I always check that my code works in Altirra and on my real PAL 800 and 1300XE - is there a checklist of popular hardware / emulator setups that I could be checking against? 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Nojeee

[_The Doctor__]

real 800, 800 incognito, 130XE, and any of the ultimate 1 meg rigs, lastly XEGS or any of the rev 4 OS's

 

for drives etc... the standard 810,happy, 1050, usdoubler, SIO2SD, SdriveMaxx for the SIO world...

for the PBI/pseudoPBI side of things... MIO, BB, uno, side/AVG carts (the carts can expose either hard drive, cartridge, or atr/xex loader)

and for straight up muti carts.... Ultimate, SIC,  and

 

[+Philsan]

I don't think there's a loading device problem because it works with SIO2PC-USB and AVGCart; I could test other loading devices but I think they will surely load the game.

 

Works on my PAL 800XL (stock and with U1MB) and Jon's PAL 800 (or 800XL?) and 130XE.

 

At the moment the only real hardware problem reported is Faicuai 800 (I think NTSC) with Incognito.

[Faicuai]

1 hour ago, Philsan said:

I don't think there's a loading device problem because it works with SIO2PC-USB and AVGCart; I could test other loading devices but I think they will surely load the game.

 

Works on my PAL 800XL (stock and with U1MB) and Jon's PAL 800 (or 800XL?) and 130XE.

 

At the moment the only real hardware problem reported is Faicuai 800 (I think NTSC) with Incognito.

Ok, so here's the whole summary (I already smelled what was wrong, and it looks like I nay be correct):

 

1. Tested on my Ultimate-1MB's 800XLs, booting from NUXX Drive, and it WORKS on XLXE-r03 and XLXE-r04 Atari OS loads.

2. Tested on my A800 / Incognito, and... well, mixed emotions:

    a. DOES NOT work on XLXE-r03/04 Atari OS loads.

    b. DOES work on Qmeg 4.04, latest version of Altirra XLXE OS, and ALSO on Colleen (OS/B, OSN).

 

For those who are REALLY experienced with A800 / Incognito, the above is a (classical) pattern that suggests INCOGNITO's XL/XE-mode incompatibility as the root cause (e.g.reading and expecting literal "0" or "1" out of $D013 register, when, in reality, it will ALWAYS reads floating-bus data on Incognito's XL/XE mode, outputting a wide range of data when Antic DMA-operation is active).

 

To verify this, I would need to look for CPU [reads & writes] of this specific HW register on the attached executable and patch the code accordingly, but, since Incognito has been declared "proudly impaired", I will, of course, will not spend an IOTA of time confirming this, and will run it with any OS load that does not scare it.

 

Enjoy!

Edited April 22, 2020 by Faicuai

[Nojeee]

@TGB1718 You can try this version to see if it solves your problem.

 

Thanks to @Faicuai for the information on the A800 + Incognito issue with XL/XE OS and help testing this version. I've adjusted the initialization code to get around the compatibility quirk.

 

Thanks,

Jon

 

Baby_Berks_2020_V2.xex

[TGB1718]

Thanks for the update, just tried again, still the same result

 

with U1M Error:  179 Memory Conflict

without U1M : Black screen

[Nojeee]

Very strange ... I'll send you a PM for some more information.

 

[Faicuai]

7 hours ago, Nojeee said:

@TGB1718 You can try this version to see if it solves your problem.

 

Thanks to @Faicuai for the information on the A800 + Incognito issue with XL/XE OS and help testing this version. I've adjusted the initialization code to get around the compatibility quirk.

 

Thanks,

Jon

 

Baby_Berks_2020_V2.xex 11.67 kB · 13 downloads

NICE job! 

 

Thanks to your responsive and no-nonsense diligence, the problem was positively identified as INCOGNITO's DINTLK / TRIG3 bogus floating-bus data (specifically being flown back to GINTLK), while a "0" was supposed to be there, but never was / could.

 

In short, your original code was just fine, and THANKS for this latest version! BTW, love the challenging gameplay!

 

[_The Doctor__]

have you tried different memory configs using the u1m?