Randy California Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 What little-known game do you particularly enjoy? I really like Alien Swarm by Inhome Software. Graphics are awful and sound effects minimal but I love the game! It offers nice playability and some interesting strategy elements for a shooter. ++ RC ++ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Caves of Kafka (spelling) Buried Bucks (obscure, maybe not) H2O - just found this one - pretty fun Escape from Vulcan Isle (and Nightmare the Haunted House version) Atom Smasher Im sure Ill think of a few others I enjoyed back in the day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Black Hawk. It's like Blue Max with a helicopter. Good stuff. I've attached the game, it requires a translator disk/cart for XL/XE's. blckhwk.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Hi, Quite an odd co-incidence this question popping up now. I've just today finished correcting 'Attack at EP-CYG-4' so that it works on the XL/XE machines. ROM/ATR and EXE attached. The problem was only that the text was corrupting due to Romox using 4 bytes from the OS to alter the text byte put to the screen. The offending pattern was (in hex) 40, 00, 20, 60. In OS.B this is located at $FEF6 and in the XL its located at $FB49. To fix it, I placed these bytes at an unused area of the ROM ($A0A2) and changed the reference of the ORA instruction at $97EA. I think 'Shamus I' may have been fixed already, but I'm going to have a look into that one too tonight. Any other requests for fixing non-XL games? Mark attackatepcyg4.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Oh, forgot to say... both Alien Swarm and Buried Bucks I use to play alot! Kid Grid was another favourite. Hmm, I see a pattern... aren't these all 16K games? :wink: Regards, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Hi, Quite an odd co-incidence this question popping up now. I've just today finished correcting 'Attack at EP-CYG-4' so that it works on the XL/XE machines. ROM/ATR and EXE attached. The problem was only that the text was corrupting due to Romox using 4 bytes from the OS to alter the text byte put to the screen. The offending pattern was (in hex) 40, 00, 20, 60. In OS.B this is located at $FEF6 and in the XL its located at $FB49. To fix it, I placed these bytes at an unused area of the ROM ($A0A2) and changed the reference of the ORA instruction at $97EA. I think 'Shamus I' may have been fixed already, but I'm going to have a look into that one too tonight. Any other requests for fixing non-XL games? Mark Fix Slime and Gorf for the XL/XE series - Slime was another great game - Add Cavelord to that list also! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 The Terminator. It's an excellent platformer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Fix Slime and Gorf for the XL/XE series - Slime was another great game - Add Cavelord to that list also! I've seen Slime mentioned alot so I might do that. Just fixed Black Hawk It had a direct jump to $E7AE instead of going through SYSVBV! All for the sake of saving a few cycles... Anyhow, I take it all the flashing in this game is because your crashing? Shamus next... Mark blackhawk.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Fix Slime and Gorf for the XL/XE series - Slime was another great game - Add Cavelord to that list also! I've seen Slime mentioned alot so I might do that. Just fixed Black Hawk It had a direct jump to $E7AE instead of going through SYSVBV! All for the sake of saving a few cycles... Anyhow, I take it all the flashing in this game is because your crashing? Shamus next... Mark Very cool stuff. Thanks for doing these. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Fix Slime and Gorf for the XL/XE series - Slime was another great game - Add Cavelord to that list also! I've seen Slime mentioned alot so I might do that. Just fixed Black Hawk It had a direct jump to $E7AE instead of going through SYSVBV! All for the sake of saving a few cycles... Anyhow, I take it all the flashing in this game is because your crashing? Shamus next... Mark Thanks for the fix! now I can load it straight away without the translator! the flashing is exactly the same as Blue Max, it's to let you know that your getting VERY close to the ground and if you don't pull up, you may crash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Hi again, Not a bad day today, fixed a few client issues at work and now this... yep, Shamus has been tamed! This was a pain to debug, but here's the explaination. During the title screen the music is played via a timer interrupt. This is located at $63A and looks like: PHA TXA PHA TYA PHA LDA #3 STA SKCTL LDA #0 STA AUDCTL JSR sub_0_69B STA CDTMV1 PLA TAY PLA TAX RTI Being vectored through CDTMA1 ($226), this is supposed to close with an RTS, not an RTI. However... In OS.B this returns to a legitimate instruction (INX) and so the program continues oblivious to the mess-ups. On the XL/XE the RTI isn't so lucky and hits an illegal op-code. I've replaced the RTI with a PLA,RTS - which meant shifting a small part of the code back a byte and then correcting the LDA for the loading of $226 from $3A to $39. Anyway, you don't need to worry about that, just download the new executable and enjoy!! Mark shamusfixed.zip 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Oops, double posted, can you delete this?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analmux Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 ...Being vectored through CDTMA1 ($226), this is supposed to close with an RTS, not an RTI. However... No way dude. It must be closed with PLA,RTI !!!, when you're using the OS IRQ servicing routine. When the IRQ occurs, the first thing the IRQ handler does is PHA. So after an IRQ it must be pulled off (PLA), then RTI. Although, as far as I remember, there might be trouble with the BRK-flag, because it forces the CPU in an IRQ-loop. (I had that experience with playing digital sound) By the way. It's very weird to play music synchronised by a Timer IRQ. It uses one of the soundchannels. ----- mux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analmux Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 !!whoops!! I didn't read carefully (sorry for that). Off course, the Countdown Timers (VBlank) should be closed with the RTS. Then it makes sense to me. ----- mux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Apology accepted The trick to it working previosuly was that RTI restores the status (P) register. Actually they were popping the first PHA into P! Then, upon return, the popped X is incremented. As the game loop is simply sitting waiting for some console key to be pressed, nothing gets upset (except he should have put an SEI/CLI around the check). Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Pattern emerging in the Synapse games... Slime had the identical RTI problem as Shamus! Here's the patched up ATR. GORF next... slime.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 GORF next... I found this using XL Search and seems to work fine on A800Win? What was the issue? ftp://ftp.spudster.org//pub/atari/cth/gam.../atr/g/gorf.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy California Posted August 29, 2003 Author Share Posted August 29, 2003 I think there are two versions of the game: disk (the one above, supposed to save high scores) and cartridge (which needs the old OS). ++ RC ++ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Pattern emerging in the Synapse games...Slime had the identical RTI problem as Shamus! Here's the patched up ATR. GORF next... You da man! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Back on topic here...I liked most of the ANTIC magazine type-ins: Warrior 3000, Minigolf, Rebound, Thief, many others... Panther by Mastertronic is good too- but what defines "obscure"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 It has come to my attention, by playing the game myself yesterday, that the version of Black Hawk I posted, and presumeably the one fixed by Wrathchild, is a Kilroy hack that apparently makes the player invulnerable. This to me, ruins the game, as I find no fun in playing a game you can't lose! I haven't yet found the version I've played before that is normal. if anyone tracks it down before I do, please post it. I'm searching my PC right now, as I know I have it someplace... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Pattern emerging in the Synapse games...Slime had the identical RTI problem as Shamus! Here's the patched up ATR. GORF next... Was there ever a fixed copy of Nautilus? -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylama Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Step aside, make way for the Master Of Obscurity I love this one purely for nostalgic reasons--it's an utter POS. "Mar Tesoro" by Ted Clawges, Syncro Software. It was written in BASIC, but it really was a commercial release. It was the first game I bought with my 800, many many years ago. Basically, it's a "sim" type of game where you rent a ship and crew, then explore a map around an island, salvaging shipwrecks and collecting valuables in a desperate attempt to recoup your investment. Good idea, but the execution was SO primitive, and the odds were programmed too high--you almost always go broke and lose. I'd attach the ATR, but I'm at work and it's not handy. Not that you'd want to play it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Mars T is awesome! I wasted alot of time playing this game - Here is an ATR This is great on an emu since you dont have to wait long for the world to build martesoro.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 Was there ever a fixed copy of Nautilus? Not sure, but could soon be The problem is the RTI again, however, the loading routine is a bit clever. The game code/data is interspersed on the disk with the value 1, but the distance to the next '1' varies. Hence, if you change any byte then the data gets loaded incorrectly I'm away over the weekend, so I'll have a go on Sunday night. Take care, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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