Wizard Of Wor fresh sprite set

[_The Doctor__]

Wizard of War had protections on some of the disk versions

as did Gorf... High scores saved on Gorf and the same was planned for WOW

[_The Doctor__]

On 11/23/2020 at 4:40 AM, TIX said:

Hey,

 

It turns out the version I was trying to hack was compressed..

After @MrFish's heads-up, I found the .rom version from Atarimania !

that allowed me to locate the playfield sprites in Omnivore,

and then painstakingly edit them in Hack-o-matic ?

So long story short, all creatures have been modeled after their arcade counterparts, also added a colorful explosion !

Another one crossed off my list, very happy with the end result  ?

 

 

enjoy ->  Wizard of Wor (refreshed rev3).rom

 

I have yet to edit the hero and hero's explosion (they are sprites)..  next revision.

 

 

 

How's the hero and his explosion doing?

[rdefabri]

Man if ever a game disappointed me on the Atari, it would be this one.  I loved playing this in the arcade, particularly when the volume was set high, it just worked for me.  The Atari 800 version is just blah, the graphics are too blocky and not detailed.  Even the music is wrong - it sounds "happy", like it's in a major key rather than a minor key, and loses the dark nature of the original.

 

By comparison, the C64 version is awesome.  The Champ Games version for the 2600 is damn incredible, blows away the Atari 8-bit computer version.  I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but this one is a sore spot for me.

[+MrFish]

8 hours ago, rdefabri said:

The Champ Games version for the 2600 is damn incredible, blows away the Atari 8-bit computer version.

Champ game comparisons (for any title) are rather irrelevant, as they're leveraging power from a processor on the cartridge. Otherwise, we might as well compare a Champ game to something that could be done on the XL/XE's with a VBXE installed.

 

[+Larry]

My absolute favorite game for my then-new 800!  I got to "The Pit" many times!  I still have my original disk, but was trying out the ATR and discovered that WOW doesn't like the XL/XE OS when using the ATR.  On most attempts to boot it from APE, I get the "Remove Cartridge and Reboot" message, even when holding down the Option key or using the Reverse Basic OS.  I switched to the Omniview 800 OS, and it boots and plays fine.  It certainly makes sense since WOW was an early game before the XL's. 

[rdefabri]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:19 AM, MrFish said:

Champ game comparisons (for any title) are rather irrelevant, as they're leveraging power from a processor on the cartridge. Otherwise, we might as well compare a Champ game to something that could be done on the XL/XE's with a VBXE installed.

 

Fair enough, I'm just referring more to the aesthetics and sound but point taken.  I'm certain the Atari 8-bit could do better than the final result.  Actually, back in the day, I thought it was fun to play, but the graphics were a bummer.  It's more recently that I've realized how much it was off the mark, after seeing it on other 8-bit platforms (notably the C64).

Edited April 1, 2022 by rdefabri

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, rdefabri said:

Fair enough, I'm just referring more to the aesthetics and sound but point taken.  I'm certain the Atari 8-bit could do better than the final result.  Actually, back in the day, I thought it was fun to play, but the graphics were a bummer.  It's more recently that I've realized how much it was off the mark, after seeing it on other 8-bit platforms (notably the C64).

Yeah, it could use some help; but, as in most cases, starting over from scratch is probably the only way to have an appropriate version for the system. On the other hand, a decent hacking can at least provide some satisfaction over the version that exists, without all the work of a rewrite.

 

[twh/f2]

On 3/30/2022 at 9:19 AM, MrFish said:

Champ game comparisons (for any title) are rather irrelevant, as they're leveraging power from a processor on the cartridge. Otherwise, we might as well compare a Champ game to something that could be done on the XL/XE's with a VBXE installed.

 

 

What is "Champ Games"?

[+MrFish]

4 minutes ago, twh/f2 said:

 

What is "Champ Games"?

 

Champ Games

 

They do high-quality, modern homebrews for the 2600 -- with a focus on a lot of the arcade classics.

 

[+Larry]

Does anyone know what kind of hardware Champ uses in the cartridges?

[+Philsan]

53 minutes ago, Larry said:

Does anyone know what kind of hardware Champ uses in the cartridges?

1984 awesome Pitfall II game cartridge for VCS had the DPC coprocessor which sped up common display kernel routines and generated the values to play 3 voice music via TIA.

 

The Atari VCS multicart Harmony emulates that coprocessor (to run Pitfall II) as well as newer custom coprocessor designs such as DPC+.

 

Harmony multicart is by far the most popular (99.99% compatible) multicart for the VCS since 10+ years therefore the user base is wide.

Even people who programs with batariBasic could make games that support DPC+. In fact with batariBasic DPC+ kernel you have a lot of multicolor sprites and it's easy to programs games.

Thanks to Melody boards it is possible to make and sell DPC+ games.

 

Champ Games is among the best developers, for example Robotwar: 2864 moves 100+ objects on screen. I like Mappy very much.

 

 

[+Larry]

Has there been a port of the 5200 version?  It was a 32K cart?  The graphics look quite similar to the 8-bit version in the comparison video. The 8-bit versions are very playable, even if the graphics are a bit "chunky."

[rdefabri]

Never realized how awesome the Bally Astrocade version sounds - they nailed the music and sound effects.  Makes sense as I believe the Astrocade had the same sound chip used in the arcade version of WoW (although I could be wrong on that).

[Lynxpro]

If RAM weren't an issue [for stock 16K A8s], couldn't the A8 run larger software sprites to match the arcade original? Or a combination of hardware and software sprites?

 

Of course, if the game surpassed 48K, then it would be difficult to back port it to the 5200. A larger ROM and lots of bank switching.

 

Now had the 1400XL and 1450XLD been released and they released an enhanced A8 version for them, then they could've ported the code for the speech synthesis since the arcade and the 1400 series both had Votrax speech synthesizers. The modern AtariVox could be used for that purpose at least on the 2600 or 7800... haven't heard that being used on A8s/5200s but it's used on Vectrexes....

 

 

[twh/f2]

Today I had the opportunity to play the C64 version of Wizard of Wor. Until now I always thought that the C64 version was in all aspects much better than the Atari400/800 version, mainly because of the graphics. But to my surprise I was very disillusioned after a few rounds. Yes the C64 hi-res graphics are clearly better, but the overall atmosphere is much more immersive on the 400/800 for me. Even the pokey sound is much more intense and the many color effects are just super good on the Atari.

 

What is missing is the resolution.

 

So I wonder, if we ever would have a XL/XE WOW hack that would increase the resolution while all other 400/800 aspects remain.