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kat5200 (new 5200 emulator) Version 0.2.3 released


eegt97

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This is a maintenance release for version 0.2 of the new Atari5200 emulator. It contains the following changes from Version 0.2:

 

* Internal font file load fixed

* Vertical axis controller fix

* Added Stick Deadzone parameter to GUI (fix for Paranoid)

* Input Menu labeling fix

* ALT-F4 exits program (Trebor request)

* Added Sound Freq and Sound Samples to GUI

* Pitfall II top button crash fix (No IRQ during WSYNC, Trebor found problem)

* Football video timing fix (Increase DLI wait time by 1 cycle)

* Fix Castle Crises CRC in car5200.xml

* Added Beamrider to 16K one chip list in cart loading

 

If you are only updating, you simply need to copy the executable to the directory where you have kat5200 installed.

 

For the update of the Castle Crises CRC, you will need to copy over the cart5200.xml. If you already have Cart List parameters you don't want changed, update your cart5200.xml file yourself with the updated CRC. Sorry about that.

 

I added the Sound parameters with the hope they might, but I can't find a combination that helps it. It is the focus of the next release.

 

As always, please let me know of any bugs or suggestions, and thanks for your feedback (especially Trebor and Paranoid).

 

http://home.cfl.rr.com/jberlin/kat5200/index.html

 

Thanks,

Brian

Edited by eegt97
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Excellent, Brian! Thank you for the new release. I can't wait to try it out. Special thanks for adding the ALT-F4 exiting. I appreciate it.

 

 

UPDATE: Wow! Holy improved sound Batman...lol! *Much* better sounds. Extremely noticable in Pac-Man. Sounds great now. Only thing that still sounds incorrect is the eating of the ghost. The noise still sounds very "scratchy". Nonethless, fantastic release! ALT-F4 works perfectly...Thanks again.

 

-Trebor

Edited by Trebor
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Bug Found: In Gorf, your ship jumps to only three positions: far left, center, or far right.

Trebor,

Are you sure that's a bug, or does GORF JUST SUCK!

 

About that scratching sound in Pac-Man. I'm wondering if maybe I implemented voice (VOLUME ONLY) sound incorrectly, as it sounds louder than it should. I will be looking at it in the future, and to be honest I'm suprised the changes I made helped with sound.

 

Thanks,

Brian

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Trebor,

Are you sure that's a bug, or does GORF JUST SUCK!

 

About that scratching sound in Pac-Man. I'm wondering if maybe I implemented voice (VOLUME ONLY) sound incorrectly, as it sounds louder than it should. I will be looking at it in the future, and to be honest I'm suprised the changes I made helped with sound.

 

Thanks,

Brian

 

My Bad. I never owned (Or even actual played) Gorf on the Atari 5200. I just could not imagine the controls being *that* horrible. Sure enough, I read some reviews and it *is* that bad. Jeez, how the heck did that every get passed "quality control" at Atari? I may have to try the game using the Axis controls instead, and fiddle with the Dead-Zone settings to see if that changes the controls (even slightly) for the better (As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I use the D-Pad normally).

 

In respects to the sound, right from the start I set the Frequency to 44100. Additionally, what I noticed affects the output greatly for me is the Sound Sample Rate. I tried at first bumping it up to 8192, and it sounded too distorted (Tempo/Pitch too Fast). Dropped it all the way down to 512 it still sounded a little 'off' (Tempo/Pitch a little too slow). I set it back to the default (1024) and it sounds "just right" (That will teach me to not always modify the default settings...lol). Every game sounds much better now. Again, thanks a lot for this release. Kat5200 is my official Atari 5200 emulator. It is so nice to have Atari 5200 emulator the works perfect in XP, great compatibility, control mapping, command line support, and is the first and prime intent of the emulator, and not an after thought or something just tacked on to an Atari 400/800 emulator.

 

I know it is still relatively early in development but just as a 'heads up', kat5200 does crash when trying to run the diagnostic test with the Atari 5200 Diagnostic Cartridge.

 

-Trebor

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Gorf has true Analog stick support - therefore if you are not using a true 5200 stick or perfect emulation of it then you get 3 positions as noted.

 

I have a Wico stick for the 5200 and Gorf is one of the few games that it doesnt work with.

 

Gorf is unfort behaving properly.

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Gorf has true Analog stick support - therefore if you are not using a true 5200 stick or perfect emulation of it then you get 3 positions as noted.

 

I have a Wico stick for the 5200 and Gorf is one of the few games that it doesnt work with.

 

Gorf is unfort behaving properly.

 

You do get more control with an analog stick in the emulator, but it is way too sensitive to me. And Gorf wants a stick that is non-self-centering as you implied, which makes it that much more difficult using normal PC controls. I thought I remembered it being very difficult on the real thing too, but I'll have to fire it up tonight and see. Maybe Gorf doesn't suck quite as bad as I thought...

 

-Brian

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Gorf on the real thing is a little bit better, not quite as sensitive and since the controller doesn't self-center it improves the gameplay. Which doesn't say much for me as I can't stand to play this game for more than 5 minutes. I think I must have sub-consciously erased this from my memory. I need to try to do that again!

 

Trebor, with Missle Command, it's the same sort of thing. You must play with an analog stick. Super Breakout is the same way as well. What I find works best with *trackball* games like these (and Centipede) is to setup these games in the cart list to use the mouse as the controller. The emulated 5200 sees the mouse as a trackball and it gives a much better experience for me. :)

 

It seems the analog control in the emulator is still a bit sensitive (although there may not be much that can be done with self-centering joysticks). I'll be looking at that in the future.

 

-Brian

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Trebor, with Missle Command, it's the same sort of thing. You must play with an analog stick. Super Breakout is the same way as well. What I find works best with *trackball* games like these (and Centipede) is to setup these games in the cart list to use the mouse as the controller. The emulated 5200 sees the mouse as a trackball and it gives a much better experience for me. :)

 

It seems the analog control in the emulator is still a bit sensitive (although there may not be much that can be done with self-centering joysticks). I'll be looking at that in the future.

 

-Brian

 

Centipede and Millipede both work great (And I use the D-Pad - Hat Switch mapping). Indeed, Super Breakout, Missile Command, and Gorf experience the "jumping effect". Nonethless, it is true that all those games were truly meant for trackball or/and analog control support. I just wish the latter three titles controlled as smoothly as the former two with the D-Pad - Hat Switch Mapping. Adding a sensitivity adjustment setting would be fantastic. In any event, thank you for your continued work on kat5200. I'm looking forward to future releases :)

 

-Trebor

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OK...new angle on the issue at hand. I'm at work now, so I can't really find or try this out. I know there was a hack made of Missile Command called Missile Comman TB for the 5200. However, I can't seem to find it. Reason being why I want to find that hack is because I do not believe the issue if with trackball games, but as Goochman states earlier, "true analog stick" games.

 

It would explain why Centipede and Millipede (trackball supported games), work great (Even with D-Pad - Hat Switch mapping), while Gorf, Super Breakout and Missile Command ("True" analog stick games (?)), do not. Again, if I could find and test Missile Command TB it would really prove if my above explanation is the problem. Anyhow, just a thought I wanted to pass along.

 

-Trebor

Edited by Trebor
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Yes, the issue is whether or not the game took advantage of the analog non-self-centering nature of the 5200 controller. Trackball support is totally seperate, in fact, the game developers would have to write code specifically for the trackball. Sorry if I was confusing above, I guess I was just trying to make the point that the mouse works best with trackball games and Missle Command is one of those games.

 

I seem to remember one called Missle Command+, I'll have to see if I can find that as well.

 

-Brian

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Sounds like Pac-Man farts when he eats a blue ghost.

 

Yeah, the sound still needs some tweaking. For the most part Kat5200 sounds great. Down the road hopefully the few remaining sound issues will be addressed (Megamania and Montezuma's Revenge also has a couple of samples that don't sound quite right). Nonetheless, Brian has done a fantastic job thus far.

 

-Trebor

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Sounds like Pac-Man farts when he eats a blue ghost.

 

My best guess right now is that I didn't implement voice quite right, but thanks, now I have an excuse for why it doesn't work right ... spicy ghosts!

 

The sound issues are my top priority for next release, thanks, and whatever other samples you guys find are obviously wrong, I would be interested to know.

 

-Brian

Edited by eegt97
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Sound Issues:

Montezuma's Revenge - Game start tune (Same tune as) Pick up items - Creates Scratchy/Tinny sounds.

Megamania - Your ships missile collision/enemy being destroyed sounds choppy.

Popeye - Popeye walking creates Scratchy/Tinny sounds

 

Video Issue:

Pitfall II - When the screen scrolls vertically, the Activision logo on the bottom right becomes a little "scrambled"

 

-Trebor

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Sound Issues:

Montezuma's Revenge - Game start tune (Same tune as) Pick up items - Creates Scratchy/Tinny sounds.

Megamania - Your ships missile collision/enemy being destroyed sounds choppy.

Popeye - Popeye walking creates Scratchy/Tinny sounds

 

Video Issue:

Pitfall II - When the screen scrolls vertically, the Activision logo on the bottom right becomes a little "scrambled"

 

-Trebor

 

On my list, thanks.

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Great job on the emulator!

 

I immediately did an "acid test" and loaded up Gyruss and Mr. Do's Castle, and they both worked, which is impressive!

 

IIIRC, Gorf needs "Pengo mode" analog control. Basically, you adjust the analog range to half or third of what is usually is (so instead of using an analog range of 21 to 222 (or whatever it is), you use a smaller range around the midpoint (eg: 71 to 192 or something similar), thus halving or thirding the sensitivity.

 

Why these games behave differently I don't know. Perhaps it's because the joystick counters are only being reset every 2nd or third frame or something.

 

If you need code for "Pengo mode" control or trackball control, I'll be happy to contribute.

 

- Jum

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Just for the record, and to have a definitive list:

 

Gorf, Missile Command, Star Wars, and Super Breakout could use "Pengo mode" adjustments.

 

However, Centipede and Millipede work great! No adjustments needed for those games (IMHO).

 

@jum: LOL...Mr. Do's Castle is my test for Atari 5200 emulation too.

 

-Trebor

Edited by Trebor
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Great job on the emulator!

 

I immediately did an "acid test" and loaded up Gyruss and Mr. Do's Castle, and they both worked, which is impressive!

 

IIIRC, Gorf needs "Pengo mode" analog control. Basically, you adjust the analog range to half or third of what is usually is (so instead of using an analog range of 21 to 222 (or whatever it is), you use a smaller range around the midpoint (eg: 71 to 192 or something similar), thus halving or thirding the sensitivity.

 

Why these games behave differently I don't know. Perhaps it's because the joystick counters are only being reset every 2nd or third frame or something.

 

If you need code for "Pengo mode" control or trackball control, I'll be happy to contribute.

 

- Jum

 

Thanks for your comments and tips! :D I have seen where you and Dan had "Pengo Mode" but to be honest I never really knew what it was. Now I do! I will be taking a good look at that and implementing it in some way in the next release.

 

I do have trackball control, it's implemented when you use the mouse as the controller. It should also kick in when you use an actual PC trackball, but I don't have one, so I haven't tested it yet.

 

Thanks again,

Brian

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Just for the record, and to have a definitive list:

 

Gorf, Missile Command, Star Wars, and Super Breakout could use "Pengo mode" adjustments.

 

However, Centipede and Millipede work great! No adjustments needed for those games (IMHO).

 

@jum: LOL...Mr. Do's Castle is my test for Atari 5200 emulation too.

 

-Trebor

 

I am going to be doing some thinking on how best to implement this, either have a per game setting or per control mode setting. Of course, it would be preferable to fix it inside the emulation by understanding the cause better, but don't know if that's even possible.

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