Galaxian

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I just did some Hacking the Hack, with Jess Ragans recently submitted improved Galaxian. In the thread back then, when it was released, several people stated, how cool it'd be, if the border was removed.

 

Well, I just did that

 

Look here:

 

If it's Ok by Jess to team-up, this version might replace his current one offered here.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Albert]

I like the version without the border much better. I don't know why Atari felt they needed to add the border in the first place. Here is a screenshot of Jess' hack, which contains the original borders Atari used in their version:

 

 

..Al

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Welcome Manuel, finally another "advanced" hacker.

[Paul Slocum]

It seems silly, but removing the border really makes it a LOT better! I'm going to have to make a cartridge of that one.

 

Now you just need to add the stars in the background.

 

-Paul

[Cybergoth]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Thomas Jentzsch:

Welcome Manuel, finally another "advanced" hacker.

---

 

Oh, I don't know, if I do it again. I was only researching about the Galaxian/Galaga/Gaplus series a while ago, when I stumbled accross the thread about Jess' nice hack.

Removing the border seemed to be an easy job, so I put it on my ToDo list :-)

 

Unfortunately it wasn't as easy as I thought. Since Distalla produced just crap, I ended up doing everything with Hexworks32 and an opcode table.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[NE146]

I DIG IT!!!!!!!1

 

Very very nice. Yes it was that border that threw me off a long time ago. It was like playing in box instead of in space. Now THIS really feels like arcade galaxian "2600 style"

 

Now I wonder how hard/possible it would be to put in some kind of star background....

[Adrian M]

Very nice! I like it alot! If you decide to release this as a Hozer cart, I will buy a copy.

 

Atari may have added the border as sort of a visual cue to indicate to the player that they were letterboxing the screen to take on a more arcade-like aspect ratio. Why they chose such a garish color is beyond me...eerily reminiscent of the hideous sky colors they used on Missile Command in the later levels.

[Cybergoth]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Adrian M:

Very nice! I like it alot! If you decide to release this as a Hozer cart, I will buy a copy.

---

 

Well, I have no chance to test it on the real thing at all. And if it'll now crash on the 6th wave, I wouldn't know.

 

But if it's running fine for you on SC or CC, and you're really wanting it on cartridge (at your own risk!), go ahead and post Randy the BIN, so he can make you one. it's royalty free, of course. (That's from my side, I don't know if Jess Ragan originally charged anything. Don't think so...)

 

Maybe some of the cracks here can CC playtest it a while to see if changing the code introduced any negative side-effects.

 

I really wouldn't want anyone to have his money wasted on a corrupt hack, so uhm... try before you buy

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Paul Slocum]

I'll burn it on an EPROM tonight and play test it a bit. What will it be called? "Galaxian plus"?

 

-Paul

[+johnnywc]

Great job guys! I remember when I first played this game about 10 years ago the border really made me say *yuck*!!!

 

Any chance the colors could be changed to be more "arcade like"? The green guys at the bottom should be blue and the white guys up top should be yellow. Here's a pic from klov.com that shows what they should be:

 

 

Not sure how difficult this is, but I'm sure it would give it even more of an "arcade" feel.

 

Thanks again!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

---

Originally posted by JohnnyWC:

Any chance the colors could be changed to be more "arcade like"?

 

Not sure how difficult this is, but I'm sure it would give it even more of an "arcade" feel.

---

I think that's very easy for Manuel, isn't it?

[Cybergoth]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Thomas Jentzsch:

Originally posted by JohnnyWC:

[qb]Any chance the colors could be changed to be more "arcade like"?

 

Not sure how difficult this is, but I'm sure it would give it even more of an "arcade" feel.

---

I think that's very easy for Manuel, isn't it?   [/QB]

 

Hm... I'll try and take a look soon. I'm just too tired tonight. *yawn*

 

Are there any different color schemes in higher waves or other playmodes? I'm not too familiar with the game, since I don't have it on cartridge yet.

 

BTW: Adding stars would be as impossible as different eye-colors, I'm sorry.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[+johnnywc]

Manuel -

 

FYI - the colors for Galaxian do not change with new levels. They're always the same.

 

Thanks for the effort!

[Jess Ragan]

Actually, I prefer it without the border myself.

Sure, go ahead and distribute the ROM. I wouldn't suggest that Albert get rid of the first hack, but he should offer the new one on AtariAge as well to give 2600 fans a choice.

 

JR

 

P.S. Anyone want to add stars to the background?

[Jess Ragan]

That reminds me... Randy wanted me to come up with a label for that game, and I never did. Do you have any ideas for either Galaxian or my other hack, Kabul!?

 

JR

[Paul Slocum]

I played it some tonight on a Cuttle Cart. It seems pretty solid to me.

 

-Paul

[Raccoon Lad]

I wonder if a DLI could be used to give the players ship more colors? If it could, it'd definitely look more like the arcade version.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Hit reload! Scroll to the top.

 

I'm not sure if it really is an improvement though...

 

You can try finding better colors yourself,

they're located as follows:

 

FD2C: 6 values for enemy head colors

FD32: 6 values for enemy feet colors

 

For enemy belt colors replace all 8 "A2 FC" combinations with "A2 XX", where XX is the desired color. (All belts onscreen have the same color as it is hardcoded once in the kernel and not variable per enemy line)

 

FD38: 4 values for own ship color

FD3C: 4 values for enemy ship color1

FD40: 4 values for enemy ship color2

FD44: 4 values for enemy ship color3

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[slapdash]

Galaxian label?

 

How about the bug from the side art:

 

side art pic from KLOV

 

combined with the marquee logo:

 

marquee pic from KLOV

 

As to Kabul!, a simple hack would be just to take the Kaboom label and change the screen shot to a Kabul! screenshot, and then the text.

[ubersaurus]

I almost feel bad for Russ, he lives where Acen is held every year ;p

Back on topic, I really like the color hack, now its arcade galaxians!

[ubersaurus]

hmm, the binary you still have up there seems to not have the new colors.

[Cybergoth]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ubersaurus:

hmm, the binary you still have up there seems to not have the new colors.

---

 

Hm... maybe it was still in your Browsers cache? Anyway, I uploaded it again, just in case.

 

Glenn: You are using the WIN32 version of StellaX, right? Do you generally experience timing problems with it on your system?

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[ubersaurus]

It's good now, so whatever you did worked ;p

[slapdash]

Acen?

[FeLiX dA kAt]

If you want the arcade version come to my house But seriously, use this pic for a label diagonally or soemthing if you make a cart.