_Fandal_ Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Hi all! Well, it took more than one week of hard work, but I've done it!! File version of great game Deflektor is now available for all those Atarians who want to play it on real HW. It's 100% conversion and moreover I fixed two minor bugs from original cart dump. The only limitation is that you need at least 64kB of additional memory (130XE or better) to run it as original brutal bank switching is still there. And how did I do that? It was really simple: I disassembled the whole cart dump (64kB), analysed the source code (300+ kB file, 9000+ lines), made more than 1000 changes and compiled it again... Used tools: Atari800Win PLus 4.0, MADS 1.6.4, RSD 1.5, UltraEdit-32 11.10a+1. Enjoy! F. P.S. Don't tell me I'm crazy. I know that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Well done Fandal... I played in the emulator and its cool! Ive tested in the NTSC system and only I can load in a good way with DOS 2.5 .... Great! Thanks for the work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raster/c.p.u. Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Fandal, It's great! I'm able to imagine it was hard work, because of cart's bankswitching is in $8000-$bfff memory area (two areas / 8 x 8KB banks), but extended memory bankswitching is in $4000-$7fff (one area / 4 x 16KB banks). You are the KING! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 And how did I do that? It was really simple: I disassembled the whole cart dump (64kB), analysed the source code (300+ kB file, 9000+ lines), made more than 1000 changes and compiled it again... Oh, that really *was* simple Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Used tools: Atari800Win PLus 4.0, MADS 1.6.4, RSD 1.5, UltraEdit-32 11.10a+1. P.S. Don't tell me I'm crazy. I know that! Fandal, well done!!! Patching a game requires a lot of experience .. my respects!! btw, what is RSD 1.5? \twh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fandal_ Posted August 22, 2006 Author Share Posted August 22, 2006 (edited) Used tools: Atari800Win PLus 4.0, MADS 1.6.4, RSD 1.5, UltraEdit-32 11.10a+1. P.S. Don't tell me I'm crazy. I know that! Fandal, well done!!! Patching a game requires a lot of experience .. my respects!! btw, what is RSD 1.5? \twh RSD 1.5 is Raster's dissasembler from his great (and secret) PowerToolsPack. It's a pack of Win32 .NET based tools (RSD dissabler, RSA assembler based on MADS, music composer based on RMT and graphics editor similar to G2F but much better - everything with web interface) as well as native A8 applications (for example very fast packer/depacker based on RAR or RS-DOS based on Sparta DOS X). Unfortunately it's available only to C.P.U. group members (and me). BTW, all games/demos which have been released lately (Cubico, Cervi2, Basix or Self Test Demo) were written using PTP... F. Edited August 22, 2006 by _Fandal_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 ehm... i would like to have PTP as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Dont say me FTP utilities is in Czech language...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudografx Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Dont say me FTP utilities is in Czech language...... Oh, translation would be the least serious problem. You can find professional translators on this forum, too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 (edited) This is very cool news. Now, maybe I could sugggest, even plead, that you do the same with Commando? Edited August 22, 2006 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 YES !!! Commando... but I think you are very tired,... take your time... not hurry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fandal_ Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 YES !!! Commando... but I think you are very tired,... take your time... not hurry Yes, Commando would be nice. But it's 128kB cart so any conversion would need Atari with 256kB expansion and converting this one would be suicide for sure. F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Well, looking at your signature, you have the 320XE to do it, and I have the 320XE to play it, so I'm willing for you to consider suicide as long as you finish the file conversion first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Grrr... really we need a Cart2PC cable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 At first: Wow, great work! What about a "Howto convert XEGS-Cartridges to fileversions for dummies". I'd like to have Midimaze filed to, although i have the cartridge. It may be fun played with human opponents. Regards, Beetle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Yes, really this is the ponit. I think its the only multiplayer action game for Atari. (and the first multiplayer in history games) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fandal_ Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 At first: Wow, great work! What about a "Howto convert XEGS-Cartridges to fileversions for dummies". I'd like to have Midimaze filed to, although i have the cartridge. It may be fun played with human opponents. Regards, Beetle How to convert XEGS cartridges to file version? Well, you must disassemble whole cart image to remove all collisions between incompatible cart bank switching (XEGS cart has 8kB banks mapped to $8000-$9FFF) and additional memory bank switching (16kB banks mapped to $4000-$7FFF)... And that's a problem. Big problem. Huge problem. As I said, I had to make almost 1000 changes in source code of Deflektor and it's only 64kB cart with just seven really used banks. MidiMaze is 128kB cart (16 banks) as well as Commando, Crossbow, Crime Buster or Barnyard Blaster. Moreover, Sunmark is still selling MidiMaze and I guess it has copyright on it. BTW: are you able to start MidiMaze in multiplayer mode (on any network type) against humans? I'm not... F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Hmmmmmm - We have a USB cart that at the moment has some limited success with flash sticks........... Maybe a flashstick with a .bin image being passed and run like a cart? I can dream right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allas Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Yes, someday a device will be welcome. Will be cheaper than buy cartridges. Fandal, i was thinking about convert a 128Kb cartridge. Im sure Commando use only 128Kb to get playing a level. In a disk version, every level the game should stop and load the data for the next level. In this way it could be posible to convert a 128 version without extra memory. But, its sure this type of conversion needs more changes in the main code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fandal_ Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 Hmmmmmm - We have a USB cart that at the moment has some limited success with flash sticks........... Maybe a flashstick with a .bin image being passed and run like a cart? I can dream right I have XEGSRAMcart by C.P.U. and it can handle all XEGS cart images I have. It's great HW but not everybody has it (as I know less than 10 pieces was made) so I decided to convert Deflektor to file version. F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fandal_ Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 (edited) Yes, someday a device will be welcome. Will be cheaper than buy cartridges. Fandal, i was thinking about convert a 128Kb cartridge. Im sure Commando use only 128Kb to get playing a level. In a disk version, every level the game should stop and load the data for the next level. In this way it could be posible to convert a 128 version without extra memory. But, its sure this type of conversion needs more changes in the main code. It seems you folks do not fully understand why these conversions are so difficult. All known XEGS cart prototypes (which haven't been filed so far) like Commando, Deflektor, MidiMaze or really released XEGS games like Barnyard Blaster uses bank switching in every VBI! Deflektor, for example, has one bank for sounds and music, another one for display routines and so on and these banks are being switched all the time. If you don't want to rewrite these games totally from scratch, you must accept the way they were originally written and you must adapt them to another type of bank switching. And that's the main problem. XEGS cart banks are smaller and they're mapped to another memory area than banks of any type of expanded memory. F. Edited August 24, 2006 by _Fandal_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndary Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Attached is a ZIP file with the folloing XEGS Cartridges that where converted to files 1. AirBall 2. Barbyard Blaster 3. BugHunt 4. Choplifter XE 5. Crystal Castel 6. David Midnight Magic 2 7. Gato 8. Into The Eagle Nest Some of these games will require 128k extra memory or more in order to run from disk. XEGS.ZIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fandal_ Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 (edited) Attached is a ZIP file with the folloing XEGS Cartridges that where converted to files 1. AirBall 2. Barbyard Blaster 3. BugHunt 4. Choplifter XE 5. Crystal Castel 6. David Midnight Magic 2 7. Gato 8. Into The Eagle Nest Some of these games will require 128k extra memory or more in order to run from disk. Gato isn't a conversion. It was written for 130XE. And Barnyard Blaster doesn't work on real Atari. And Bug Hunt "conversion" is crap one as there is a lot of banks with screen data missing. I've done 100% conversion some time ago. F. Edited August 24, 2006 by _Fandal_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krupkaj Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 I have also seen somewhere Battlezone conversion which does not work on real Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Yes, Barnyard Blaster keeps crashing on real HW. Strange: I can play it on my XL anyway. Everytime it hangs i enter my "Turbo Freezer" and then, without having changed anything, return to the game, which starts to work again at the point it hung. Maybe it is possible to fix it. Getting a XEGSRAM-Cartridge seems to be a good solution. Has somebody info, where to buy it? Or can it be selfmade? Regards, Beetle PS: I was just joking with the "howto", i can imagine the enormous work... Thanks you did it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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