SpiceWare's Blog

Nice work - the tune is definitely a good fit to the theme of the game. The PAL version does sound a bit too slow to me. My preference is definitely for a PAL60 version. There is a slight stutter in the music when the game changes between the menu and attract mode, but this could be an emulator artifact? The wrap-around bug appears to be fixed now.

 

Chris

It fits very well - thanks for bringing it to my attention!

 

The stutter was bothering me too but I couldn't track it down so I decided to sleep on it. When I woke up I remembered the RoundInit routine resets all the sound registers to 0.

Does sound very nice! Good job.

The stutter was bothering me too but I couldn't track it down so I decided to sleep on it. When I woke up I remembered the RoundInit routine resets all the sound registers to 0.

 

Some problems are best solved by the subconcious

That's very true!

 

I added a new PAL version to the blog entry. It's still PAL50 but the music should play at a better speed.

Is there any way to get rid of the flicker of the DEMO text? Maybe you could move the text down to the score area instead? Or maybe drop out the fireballs in the zone where DEMO is displayed, and only when it's currently displayed (not when blinked out)?

The flicker isn't bad on a real TV, in the emulators it's not so hot looking.

 

It flickers because the HMOVE bars from the dragon routines(which are also used to display trophies and messages) were causing the fireball to totally disappear on the left edge of the screen when the DEMO message was not flickering.

 

I don't want to move it to the score area as the score displayed is that of the last game. I also think it's more noticable that it's in demo mode with the message mid-screen.

 

When I revamp the dragon routines with the new animation sequence I'll see if I can split out a new routine that will allow DEMO to be flicker free. There may be ROM constraints that prevent that from happening.

Maybe have the word DEMO scroll in and out of the score area sort of like how the Activision logo does it in some games.

 

Also, have you given any thought to using the AtariVox?

Any problem with changing the background color for the "DEMO" message (so as to put it on a full-width "banner")? That would justify having the sprites disappear, and you could probably if desired use the 48-pixel routine from the main menu to draw the "Demo" text.

Scrolling may be an option. I'll have to think on it.

 

I'd love to use an AtariVox(I have one), but that conflicts with 4 player.

 

Background color could work - though the dragon sprite routine covers a rather large section of the middle in relation to the size of the text. To make it smaller requires splitting out another routine, which I'll be evaluating anyway when I work on the revised dragon this weekend.

 

48 pixel-routine reuses the RAM for castle one's wall, so it can't be used in-game.