DEBRO Posted November 5, 2001 Share Posted November 5, 2001 Back on Sept. 29th Gunstar was talking about 'Qb' being a PAL game Is 8-bit "Qb" a PAL game?. He thought 'Qb' was too good to be limited to emulators for us in the US and I agree with him. I then took on the task of seeing how difficult it would be to convert 'Qb' to NTSC. I originally thought the problem had to do with the number of scanlines being displayed in the playfield. 'Qb' displays roughly 198 scanlines. Glenn Saunders pointed out most NTSC TVs can display 200 scanlines so that couldn't be the issue. The next logical place to look was the VBI. After disassembling the VBI I saw a very intense routine. After switching some routines around we now have an 8-bit 'Qb' we NTSC users can enjoy on the real thing!! I sent this file to Gunstar, Alex, and Albert to test. Gunstar found a problem (system crash) that I fixed last night. I wanted to test this on a real 8-bit before posting but what better way to test it than get multiple hands on it. So I present to the group a 'Qb' for all of us. You can download it from 'Qb' Patch. Tell me what you think. Just so you know I did contact Andrew Davie before doing this and he was okay with this. Enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Ferrante Posted November 14, 2001 Share Posted November 14, 2001 I have upgraded all my XL's and XE with the Antic Pal chip, it will let you run all PAL and NTSC games. You can order this chip at Best Electronics for about $12.00 just pop it in and go. So you can then enjoy all those kool games and demos from europe without trying to patch them all. Atari8Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 14, 2001 Share Posted November 14, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Guy ferrante: I have upgraded all my XL's and XE with the Antic Pal chip, it will let you run all PAL and NTSC games. You can order this chip at Best Electronics for about $12.00 just pop it in and go. So you can then enjoy all those kool games and demos from europe without trying to patch them all. Atari8Man That is fantastic, and thank you for letting us know, but many do not have the electronics skills that you or I do, and not all Antic chips are socketed (mine is soldered in), so it isn't quite as easy as "popping it in." I will be doing the upgrade to my XE, but many can't, so I think it is still a cool idea for someone like DEBRO to do patches. Hey, DEBRO, I know another fantastic game for the 8-bit that I'd love to see a corrected NTSC patch of; It's call JOE BLADE. It is available at just about every 8-bit ftp site, I know the Holmes site hast it...it is playable currently, but does jump a bit like QB and sometimes crashes. This is a TOP NOTCH game and deserves a NTSC patched version. How about taking up the torch for this one? If you have trouble finding it, let me know and I'll e-mail you a copy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted November 15, 2001 Author Share Posted November 15, 2001 I'll try to take a look at it but with my current schedule I don't think it would be any time soon I couldn't find Joe Blade (Holmes' site is down last I looked) but I'll do a search again later before asking for it BTW Guy that sounds like a really cool addition that I need to add to my 130XE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted November 18, 2001 Author Share Posted November 18, 2001 I was informed by Albert that the link I supplied is no longer functioning . Freeservers.com is in the process of going through some changes so I sent the file to Albert to host here on AtariAge. Sorry for the inconvenience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 No problem, I got mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Back on Sept. 29th Gunstar was talking about 'Qb' being a PAL game Is 8-bit "Qb" a PAL game?. He thought 'Qb' was too good to be limited to emulators for us in the US and I agree with him. I then took on the task of seeing how difficult it would be to convert 'Qb' to NTSC. I originally thought the problem had to do with the number of scanlines being displayed in the playfield. 'Qb' displays roughly 198 scanlines. Glenn Saunders pointed out most NTSC TVs can display 200 scanlines so that couldn't be the issue. The next logical place to look was the VBI. After disassembling the VBI I saw a very intense routine. After switching some routines around we now have an 8-bit 'Qb' we NTSC users can enjoy on the real thing!! I sent this file to Gunstar, Alex, and Albert to test. Gunstar found a problem (system crash) that I fixed last night. I wanted to test this on a real 8-bit before posting but what better way to test it than get multiple hands on it. So I present to the group a 'Qb' for all of us. You can download it from 'Qb' Patch. Tell me what you think. Just so you know I did contact Andrew Davie before doing this and he was okay with this. Enjoy I apologise for the necro-bump, but is this patch still available somewhere? The link is broken and I can't find it on any of the usual Atari download sites. Thanks! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 It's interesting that you brought this up. I was just thinking about this last night. I don't know if I still have the hack but I do have some notes on the issue still. I remember I wanted to revisit this because I think the "globe character" would make the screen jump but it was removed accidentally with my hack. I've learned more about coding the 6502 since then and wanted to see if I could reduce the time in the VBI without affecting this. One other thing to point out...we NTSC users have a harder version because it moves faster than the PAL version :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 (edited) This game is one of the reasons I popped a PAL ANTIC into my 1200xl... Now that my (NTSC) 800 has the Incognito installed, it has become my primary machine. I'd like to be able to enjoy Qb on it, as well. Good luck with your hack and please keep us informed! Edited March 13, 2013 by adam242 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I apologise for the necro-bump, but is this patch still available somewhere? The link is broken and I can't find it on any of the usual Atari download sites. Thanks! Awesome - you quoted a post one from the day before I registered Even cooler - DEBRO is still here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 One other thing to point out...we NTSC users have a harder version because it moves faster than the PAL version :-) I have always enjoyed the 2600 version, which I own. It is a remarkably quick game too, in NTSC - I assume for the same reason, that it was ported from its PAL version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 Hi Ron, I have always enjoyed the 2600 version, which I own. It is a remarkably quick game too, in NTSC - I assume for the same reason, that it was ported from its PAL version? I think the 2600 version has the speed adjusted for PAL and NTSC. It's been awhile since I've looked at the source but I'm almost sure of it. Andrew helped me understand NTSC and PAL motion when I was doing Climber 5. The A8 hack I did was a quick hack to get the display from jumping for NTSC. I didn't bother going deeper into looking for fractional positioning. The notes I have looks as if I moved the display list assignments to earlier in the VBI so they were set before scanout and the other work could continue during scanout if needed. I would like to revisit this or find the hack. I remember writing a program (in AtariBASIC) to modify the PAL 'Qb' too just for fun. I've switched PCs since then. I'm sure I have it on an old HD somewhere but I'd have to search for it. Either that or just try to reproduce it...shouldn't be too hard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Qb NTSC: http://www.4shared.com/file/4pVmhFn9/Qb_NTSC.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Where can we download this NTSC version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bit-guy Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Qb Ntsc version, Attached tested with SIO2SD , works myide 1 and 2 works side 2 + ultimate 1mb , lockups after a few screens Qb NTSC.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Qb Ntsc version, Attached tested with SIO2SD , works myide 1 and 2 works side 2 + ultimate 1mb , lockups after a few screens Thanks but I use XEXes more than I use ATRs. Here's a quick reconversion of the 'k' disk back to an XEX. (I hope stripping the ATR header and the 3 boot sectors is all that is needed). Qb_NTSC_xex.zip I'm looking forward to giving Qb a try this weekend. (I need a diversion from all the depressing news coverage of late). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bit-guy Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Thanks but I use XEXes more than I use ATRs. Here's a quick reconversion of the 'k' disk back to an XEX. (I hope stripping the ATR header and the 3 boot sectors is all that is needed). Qb_NTSC_xex.zip I'm looking forward to giving Qb a try this weekend. (I need a diversion from all the depressing news coverage of late). tested, your xex works great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Thanks but I use XEXes more than I use ATRs. Here's a quick reconversion of the 'k' disk back to an XEX. (I hope stripping the ATR header and the 3 boot sectors is all that is needed). Qb_NTSC_xex.zip I'm looking forward to giving Qb a try this weekend. (I need a diversion from all the depressing news coverage of late). It is not a real monolithic binary. But works... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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