Sikor Posted February 14, 2021 Author Share Posted February 14, 2021 I try both (Bomb Jack and Pang) on Altira in NTSC Mode (i have not any XL/XE in NTSC Mode, on stock 1200XL/800/400 will be not working ;P), and...: 1. Pang - detect NTSC, but when you have many balls on screen game lack of synchro and crashed. I think - write to TeBe to repair that (because game finded NTSC computers). I think, that if some peoples play with minimal balls it will be work property 2. Bomb Jack works on 320Kb, wchich memory upgrade you have? Maybe with it is problem? Oh, yes - occasionally games lost synchro, but only for while It is possible, that You have two reason of bad working BJ: 1. Wrong memory upgrade schema 2. TV or monitor with lack of few lines for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: It's a choice in the games options.. I don't see any on-screen option listed for it in Bomb Jack; but I was able to mash some keys until I found. I never knew about it. It's fine with me, because I'm not a big fan of the music anyway; and the sound effects are still there. I guess I've been missing out all these years. Thanks! My initial statement was about the full game working (with music), though; and it doesn't. Edit: Anyway, back on subject here... Edited February 14, 2021 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 (edited) The Full game of PANG works, just press O or P to turn on/off the sound.... I was just playing it a few seconds ago at 192k... on the Peterson...(you made me dig some stuff out) Bomb Jack I'll search for... Your full version of PANG is what rev? Edited February 14, 2021 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schnurrikowski Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 (edited) Top notch msx and gfx ... and the game is finished Edited February 14, 2021 by Schnurrikowski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Absolutely gorgeous game on my PAL 1088XLD, but it won't lead via FujiNet. However, it loaded up fine from the CF card via the XEL-CF Loader in the BIOS. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Here we go again... another game that would probably run just fine on a NSTC-50 (PAL ANTIC swapped) machine, but the software checks $D014 and aborts. Very frustrating. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starfighter Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Fantastic job of the authors, many thanks to them for making a real game! Runs flawlessly on my 130XE (PAL) with Side2 and with Ultimate1MB as well. This is really something to show off on the Atari. Graphics like this could have been a game changer in the 80s... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Bomb Jack - M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 The most impressive stuff to me is still the very nice "parallax" DLI scrolling, and now the protagonist. And, btw, the protagonist in the game looks 100% like wearing glasses, but not in the title neither in the status bar. It's some "design bug" and might be adjusted ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevymad Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Awesome game! Very fluid and colorful. Plays fine on my pal, vbxe, u1mb, 1088xel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugarland Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Wow!! It certainly looks like an Amiga game. The sprites are astounding. Looks very playable. Kindly and respectfully requesting an NTSC version also, please. I know how it is to put a lot of work into a free release so please don't interpret the following as a complaint. It would be nice, please, if the gameplay had more dynamics than picking up the static diamonds like a pac-man platformer. For example giving him a whip or big hammer to strike the foes? Or quick elevators to go up and down? Or maybe powerups? Maybe a way to shake the diamonds off higher platforms? Or maybe ways to crush the foes with gates that close? Just trying to brainstorm ideas to make the gameplay more engaging. Looks like Albert is already 64K and these would add more RAM requirements, so maybe a base 64K version and then an enhanced 128K one? Also the music could use a change on levels 2 and 3 please. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 ????? This would have beat the pants off of Nintendo back in the day! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Looks fantastic on my 20" PVM! Boy it sure it difficult though (my suckage level as gamer is 110% though). It even loads from SDX, via HDD, very quickly. Great work all around - I will put in some time with this, for sure. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 3 hours ago, adam242 said: Here we go again... another game that would probably run just fine on a NSTC-50 (PAL ANTIC swapped) machine, but the software checks $D014 and aborts. Very frustrating. Omg...again?? I have a PAL ANTIC and this kind of stuff irks me. Maybe we can get a patch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, TheNameOfTheGame said: Omg...again?? I have a PAL ANTIC and this kind of stuff irks me. Maybe we can get a patch. Here's a modified version which bypasses the PAL flag check. Not tested on real hardware yet, but works fine in Altirra (both NTSC-50 and straight NTSC). Fantastic game! No disrespect to original programmers. Albert (no PAL check).xex Edited February 15, 2021 by adam242 4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 28 minutes ago, adam242 said: Not tested on real hardware yet I just checked it on my 576NUC+ beta board and it seems to run fine. Even better, this version loads properly on my FujiNet, whereas the original would not. I also verified that it will load on a 1200XL with U1MB providing the expanded memory. EDIT: Well, there appears to be some corruption of the gem graphics in this hacked version; when you jump up to gather them, sometimes they turn into what look like tiny little lowercase "hk" letters (perhaps the originals are a custom character set?). They will sometimes clear up and disappear, sometimes not. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) 38 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: I just checked it on my 576NUC+ beta board and it seems to run fine. Even better, this version loads properly on my FujiNet, whereas the original would not. I also verified that it will load on a 1200XL with U1MB providing the expanded memory. EDIT: Well, there appears to be some corruption of the gem graphics in this hacked version; when you jump up to gather them, sometimes they turn into what look like tiny little lowercase "hk" letters (perhaps the originals are a custom character set?). They will sometimes clear up and disappear, sometimes not. You are correct, I was a bit hasty. The gem graphics sometimes get corrupted under NTSC but not NTSC-50. I did not attempt to modify any game code, only bypass the PAL flag check so the game could at least TRY to run on non-PAL machines. The $D014 check "No game for you!" approach irks me greatly. The 'hack' was very simple. I merely replaced all (three) instances of LDA $D014 with LDA #$00. Same technique I used in this thread. Edited February 15, 2021 by adam242 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHMW Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I'll try to see if she works on my non-modded NTSC XEGS and see what she looks like, BTW @MrFish, thanks for the title correction on Gunpowder Charlie, and yes I too, would like to see a fully-working NTSC version of Bomb Jack as well as an 8-bit version of 5200 Tempest and Haunted House II, Combat 2: Advanced, and Castle Blast available for 8-bit as well, at least as ROMs and/or on cartridge Tempest has been available only for 5200 owners for almost 10 years it's about time to lobby to @Albert and @CPUWIZ to make them available for the A4/A8/XL/XE/XEGS systems too, you can always program it to move the stick up or down to activate the Superzapper on Tempest much like the 2600 version does. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNameOfTheGame Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 1 hour ago, adam242 said: Here's a modified version which bypasses the PAL flag check. Not tested on real hardware yet, but works fine in Altirra (both NTSC-50 and straight NTSC). Fantastic game! No disrespect to original programmers. Albert (no PAL check).xex 103.86 kB · 9 downloads Thank you! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHMW Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) 6 hours ago, mytek said: ????? This would have beat the pants off of Nintendo back in the day! The anti-Super Mario for sure, this game plays in some ways like it, BTW this game does work on my non-modded XEGS with my Ultimate Cart, as soon as I'm able to figure her out, I just might review it on The Atari Report after this nasty scar (a zit I picked at because I couldn't pop it due to its location) on my face near my nose goes away, I just can't be seen on camera with it, bummer! Edited February 15, 2021 by BIGHMW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 This looks awesome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHMW Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Super Mario Bros. vs. Albert, boy I would want to see this comparison during their day (NES vs. XEGS, this game plus the fact that all 2600 controllers and all 8-bit games also work only on XEGS would've put it over the top) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 12 minutes ago, BIGHMW said: The anti-Super Mario for sure, this game plays in some ways like it, BTW this game does work on my non-modded XEGS with my Ultimate Cart, as soon as I'm able to figure her out, I just might review it on The Atari Report after this nasty scar (a zit I picked at because I couldn't pop it due to its location) on my face near my nose goes away, I just can't be seen on camera with it, bummer! It works now, without the PAL checks being done; but it doesn't work the way it should. There are various slowdowns/glitches -- typical of PAL-specific developed games. If the music could be turned off, then it might play without slowdowns/glitches (like what happens when turning off the music in Bomb Jack). Also, the colors aren't correct when played on NTSC; although that's a minor issue compared with the other problems. Hopefully the author of the game will be interested in making at least some small accommodations for NTSC users. If not, it's still a great game that can be played on PAL hardware or emulation. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) as stated before the pal/ntsc check is supposed to be used to allow the coder to adjust for the very slight differences needed between the two... like color numbers, and deferred versus direct vbi related code, as well as yanking a scan line from some insignificant line on the screen... lets not forget that ntsc has more frames in a given time period.... but that's another story... the only stuff that should be impossible to convert should be PAL-60 modified machines that are crammed up tight with code Edited February 15, 2021 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHMW Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) 13 minutes ago, MrFish said: It works now, without the PAL checks being done; but it doesn't work the way it should. There are various slowdowns/glitches -- typical of PAL-specific developed games. If the music could be turned off, then it might play without slowdowns/glitches (like what happens when turning off the music in Bomb Jack). Also, the colors aren't correct when played on NTSC; although that's a minor issue compared with the other problems. Hopefully the author of the game will be interested in making at least some small accommodations for NTSC users. If not, it's still a great game that can be played on PAL hardware or emulation. Yeah but still ANY port of it is great this clearly would've destroyed Super Mario or at least have given the XEGS a significant advantage having this as a pack-in game or at least market it as formidable competition for Super Mario Bros., then how would Nintendo counter THAT??? This could've very easily set up a serious XEGS vs. NES rivalry for sure, and unlike the old 5200 vs. ColecoVision rivalry from back in my days in 1983, Atari would've won HANDS DOWN!!! Edited February 15, 2021 by BIGHMW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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