Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store

Cafeman

+AtariAge Subscriber
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    9,148

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Cafeman

  1. Cafeman
    I just got back from 10 Cloverfield Lane , and it didn't disappoint. The first section is a spoiler-free review, followed by a spoiler-hidden additional thoughts.



    Spoiler-free Review:

    "After getting in a car accident, a woman is held in a shelter with two men, who claim the outside world is affected by a widespread chemical attack." - IMDB's description.

    I didn't really expect the film to be a direct sequel to the original Cloverfield, with that monster stomping around - but I wasn't sure. I've read how it was originally called The Cellar, and perhaps somebody recognized a quality that justified giving it the Cloverfield title. Just like Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits - an Anthology series of films. I think this is actually a great idea, because I really liked Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane, even though they are totally different types of films. Bring on another Cloverfield title!



    Getting back to 10CL, the film surprised me a number of times. Three people are trapped in Howard's (a doomsday prepper and conspiracy advocate played by John Goodman) bunker. Howard claims that there has been an attack on the USA. They don't know who exactly, but he has a few theories. John Goodman's acting was particularly excellent! You don't really know a lot about him, you try (as the main female character does) to figure him out. So he was at times sinister and very frightening, even when he was being calm. Is he a madman or the only guy who knows whats going on? There is strong evidence both ways. The film is a slow build of intense and then lighter scenes, slowly revealing more details about Howard and the situation at hand. The intensity always returns and it comes with Goodman's character, even when he's not in the scene but just heard coming down the hall.



    After seeing the film, I went back and watched the trailer and the released stills. More is shown in those stills than you might think. Certain items in the still pictures have an important purpose, but you'd never know until watching - the perfect type of oblivious / hidden "spoiler" material to put into a trailer. Heh.

    As with the original Cloverfield film, where seeing blood splatter against a screen is shocking because it is done realistically and you know what horrible thing just happened back behind the screen, in 10CL the slow burn gets to you and just one loud event can startle you and make you jump. There are a few times I "felt the impact" of a scene and my heart raced for a minute. All of the film's questions or mysteries are not exactly answered, but the big questions are answered, and I felt very satisfied by the ending.

    Finally, I found the lead character Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to be smart. Right from the start, she's figuring stuff out. There is only one scene, one action of hers, that strained credulity just a bit - and it reminded me of another film with a similar scene - but nothing that ruins the overall film's quality.



    I would rate 10 Cloverfield Lane, a claustrophobic and suspenseful thriller with a simple story line yet filmed in a satisfyingly complex manner, with an A-.

    Spoilers part of the Review:

  2. Cafeman
    2022 was a busy year for me.  I didn't have free time or  mental energy to do much homebrewing on Atari XE or 5200,  which I had wanted to.    On the personal real-life front, 2022 took everything I had.    Full-time job.  Family obligations, of course.  After a year of searching and looking at houses,  I successfully found and bought what we wanted  (many other properties I was outbid on,  or the property sold before I had a chance to make an offer. The real estate market was crazy in 2021-2022 ).     I had to coordinate and hire contractors for various home improvement projects before moving into the house in April.    All the projects were more expensive and took more time than expected, all had snafu's.  Remember the worldwide shipping problems last winter?  But also, can't people do their jobs accurately?   Can't companies ship what I ordered and not some other thing that I will have to ship back and wait more weeks?     I also did some light repairs and sold the old house, which sold in 1 day.  We had lived there for over 25 years but due to ever-increasing traffic and noise and more houses being built where trees used to be - we got out of that location.     Then the wife and I spent the last half of the year organizing, going through boxes,  and pitching/selling lots of our stuff from the old house.    
     
    I had surgeries on both hands, one in May and one in November.    My left hand was most recent and I'm still not fully recovered from that.  The right hand was worse though, it took months before I didn't notice aches in it.  You'd be surprised at how much typing and using a mouse , or using a pen, uses your hand.  When your hand still aches, you realize even typing can hurt.  But, I needed these surgeries and it appears I no longer have to suffer from serious numbness from carpal tunnel syndrome.  Which is good!  
     
    HOMEBREW 2022!  Reviewing my notes, I had time in February and then a bit in the 4th quarter, that's all.   Oh, I did have free time in the evenings, but those are not peak brain cell usage hours for me.   Only in the past month have I returned to organizing, brushing up on ASM / Antic / Pokey skills, and started to tinker again.  I took a few scans and pictures of older notebooks just so I can return here in the future and remember.  I have about a dozen different folders for ideas.  One idea I've held onto is an attempt at how I'd do a 2600 Knight Rider game. It may be too much hard work.   
     
    Ok, now it is picture time! Pic-ture tiiiime! 
     
    Atari 5200/XE project folders and a sample of Adventure II XE testing notes from around 2020. 
     

     
    My most active project is for Detective Powers.  Next in line, I made a 2-player simultaneous 5200 version of Koffi: Yellow Kopter, but it isn't playable yet.   Then in time I really need to sit down and make common 64K 5200 and A8 engines so I can develop for both at the same time.   
     
    Concerning DP,   @Thelen made a wonderful new Antic4 tool called Mode4 in Feb 2022, which is pretty nice to use on a windows laptop.   Here is a preview of what I got going so far for country manors which Holmes must visit.   I am not a skilled artist, but using the tool I'm trying to see what I can accomplish. It is a lot of trial and error. 
     

     
     
    Looking at project notebooks, I am reminded that my goal in hand writing notes is speed, not neatness.  I used my i-phone's Notes app and its Document Scan feature for these pictures.  Not sure these are any better than just taking a picture of the page though. 
     

     
    I was always recording Memory Checks.  It is easy to fill up.  

     

     
    2022 was the '20th anniversary' for the Atari 5200, but I wasn't able to complete anything this year.   Bring on 2023.   
     
    c(_) 
     
     
     
     
  3. Cafeman

    2023 comes to an end, HB updates

    By Cafeman,


    Homebrew
    I'm over 50, thus I have 1 deceased parent (from year 2000), 1 elderly mom and her elderly husband (of 21 years) , my stepfather. This year I spent a lot of days in support of my 2 elderly parents. My stepfather's health deteriorated a lot in particular, and thus there were many trips to hospitals, caregiving, then in-home hospice, then his death in December at age 84.  Now my mom is a widow again.  The first time she was widowed in 2000, she was only a few years older than I am now. 
     
    So, things like Atari, and homebrewing, well there wasn't much time or energy for that. 
     
    But I did make some progress on these:  
     
    Koffi Redux.  I've been reworking the OG 2002 game in the same 32K memory space. Got some new tweaked graphics like more colors and more interesting backgrounds, a  2-player simultaneous gameplay, and plans for a more pinball-game inspired style of gameplay. But I did all this in the 1st part of 2023 with little progress in the tail end of 2023.  I want to include things like appearing bumpers and targets (on the clouds and tree edges) for Koffi to hit and earn you points as you play.  I'd like to release whatever I can accomplish in 32K as a demo, then bump it up to bank-switched 64K for a more fleshed-out follow up. 
     
    Adventure II 5200 2023. I applied bug-fixes, minor gameplay tweaks,  and engine improvements to the OG 2007 5200 game, still 32K as well. These improvements were based on what I did on Adventure II XE in the 2010's. I don't have much ROM space left.   I was trying to make a new 'base' version of Adventure II 5200 that I could then modify for future DLC ROMs which would have fresh new things for folks to play.  The changes significantly improve the efficiency of the sprite engine. The only problem is that these fixes introduced an old bug.  I could put in a simple plug to identify if the bug happened and fix it on the next frame -   but I really would like to solve the root problem that causes it. I put in an error trap , played in Altirra until the bug happened, then investigated memory.  But I haven't really solved it as I haven't had time the past few months.  
     
    Very little progress of another long-running 5200 Homebrew "Detective Powers". 
     
    Going forward in 2024, after this end-of-year period where I'm really slacking, drinking, and just playing games and watching movies - I hope to get back into the rewarding creativity of homebrewing games for 5200 and A8. 
  4. Cafeman

    7800 Dungeon Stalker

    By Cafeman,

    I posted this in the AA store, too.

    Dungeon Stalker snuck up on me. I wasn't prepared for its amalgamation of excellent gaming ideas! At first glance, it looked like a simple 7800 port of INTV Night Stalker. But I feel that DS is more interesting and more fun than the original Night Stalker. DS is a static maze shooter with gameplay tweaks that evoke fond memories of Berzerk, Wizard of Wor, and even INTV AD&D. You can get the usual AtariAge high-quality box , manual and artwork with it .

    There is a clever mix of unique creatures. Some enemies aren't deadly but temporarily stun you. Some shoot. Some creatures' shots disappear mid-screen if you kill them; but other creatures' shots keep going even if they are vanquished. Some are faster than others. The Spiders don't shoot, they are easy to hit. But they will stop and build little webs in the maze, which can significantly impede your ability to quickly traverse the maze and reach a safe corner! On the other hand, The Bats are tiny, your shots can miss them if you don't aim dead-center. These kinds of gameplay mechanics give the game endless chances at strategy and fun. The game even provides opportunities for extra treasure, lives, and invincibility if you can grab them. Fun stuff.

    I enjoy how your shots are actually arrows, and you have to refill your quiver periodically. The creates even more judgment calls in gameplay. Should you spend 4 of your arrows to break up a spider web? Or just fight your way through the web (or take another maze path) to reach safety? If you play on Novice, you have no webs and unlimited arrows. That's fun for a while too, but you are missing a lot of the real game so I play on Standard or higher. My end-of-game rankings are getting better with each try!

    Finally, I will mention the AtariVox. If you don't have it, you'll still enjoy Dungeon Stalker. The default game sounds create a suspenseful mood, with the "heart beat" sound increasing in volume when you run out of arrows. But include the AtariVox and you will be in retro gaming HEAVEN. Seriously! "Now Entering THEEE DUNGEON" the Vox announces at the beginning, and I get that goofy grin that only a (grown?) kid with a new game can get. Much work was put into the variety and amount of Vox voice phrases that you hear. Plus, the Vox saves your high scores which is awesome. The AtariVox makes Dungeon Stalker, a fun and fresh maze shooter, into an undeniably must-own experience!




    To my initial surprise, the AtariVox plugs into Joystick 2 and needs its own speaker. I used a 1/8-to-RCA and plugged that cable into my TV . The 7800 sounds (like all my games) are fed directly into my Onkyo Sound system. Works and sounds great!

    I rated 7800 Dungeon Stalker 5/5 stars.

  5. Cafeman
    I got the new Rankings logic typed in and I hope debugged. Because I doubled the number of rankings from 5200's 7 , to XE version's 14 Rankings, and I doubled the lines of code for the actual 'rules' , I blew out the main ROM memory bank $4000-$6FFF. So I moved some of the new rankings logic down to $7000-$7FFF and the code now fits.


  6. Cafeman
    I am rewriting parts of the sprite collision routines . I thought I could get them to work , but the timing is too different from the original 5200 version, and the Collision routines make certain assumptions that are not true 100% of the time in-game.

    Here is a quickie video I made to share what the problem is.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHe-yjXFceY&t=2s
  7. Cafeman
    I've been going through and making tweaks to a laundry list of subtle and minor things.  I'm using the CONSOLE keys more than before so that you can play the game on an XEGS without needing the optional keyboard.    START  resets you back to Game Over / Rankings screen,   SELECT  Revives you to a Checkpoint,   and OPTION is Pause.    If you play on a computer like the 800XL etc, you can also rely on the  SpaceBar for Pause, "R" for Revive.     You can also Revive after getting eaten by just pressing the Fire Button on the joystick which is really the only time I ever use Revive when I play the game. 
     
    Why Revive if you aren't eaten? Well, just in case you play as a bigger alt icon and get stuck in a bush , or the Troll steals your bridge and you are stuck ....  the revive is a safeguard - it takes you back to the last checkpoint. Or players might use it as a shortcut back to the checkpoint screen when they are deep in a castle and don't want to manually find their way out.  You have the option to do that.  But you don't bring any carried items with you back to the checkpoint screen. That would be cheating!!!
     
    There have been approximately 1,000 changes made to the Atari 5200 Adventure II base code, give or take a hundred. 
     
    So, the last 2 changes I made were:    
     
    Bridge Building -  when you drag a wood plank to either of the 2 island screens, you can build a walkable bridge.  I opened up the path more so that all icons can cross over to the left-screen island area now. That wasn't possible on the 5200 unless you build the path AND used the bridge sprite.   
     
    You build bridges to reach items, but you might also find a secret bat egg that way too. 
     

     
    More Rankings tweaking -  I had been noticing wrong rankings.  One statistic that the game tracks is Time Played.  The game gives you 10 minutes for Small mazes, 15 minutes for Mediums, and 20 minutes for Vast mazes. If you exceed those limits,  the game will reduce your final ranking.   But even on some games where I exceeded those limits, I was getting great rankings. WHY WHY WHY??   So, I found the problem, I was using Hexadecimal $10, $15, and $20 and not Decimal 10, 15, 20.   Thus, the game was checking 16 minutes for Small mazes, 21 minutes for Mediums, and 32 minutes for Vasts!  I fixed that.   You can play a level for that long, especially if things just go wrong.  I've played some games from 45 minutes.    On the other hand, I've beaten small levels in under 4 minutes as the Square, and under 2 minutes playing as the Bat. 
     
    Adventure II XE shows which statistics are considered bad by marking those with a little "x".   If you quit out of the game, are eaten too much, didn't kill any dragons, excessively Revived, or took longer than the Time budget ... you'll get dinged on those categories and it affects your final ranking. 
     
    All in all, the rankings are more complicated and robust than the original 5200 Adventure II , and the actual rankings are different with the exception of one which I kept.  There are unique rankings for the Bat, Crab, and Knights. 
     

     
    The game won't be published for many months because of the AtariAge store workload ... so I'll tweak a few more things in the meantime until I consider it done.   That !@#$ Troll sometimes seems to BAMF! around, like X-men Nightcrawler, so I'll look into that next.  And I'm still playing around with some new sounds.   I have the ROM space for some new sounds and music, but I don't want to overload the game with repetitive music.  The silence is golden ... and when a sound does occur, it can add suspense. 
     
    (_)3  
  8. Cafeman
    Still running down my laundry list of more minor tweaks.  The past few things I've done are: 
     
    - WSYNC  screen color changes tweaking. I can't believe it, but on several screens I had the WSYNC on the DLI  *after* the actual color register change, not *before*. Thus in the 5200 version there are a few screens where you can see a color change mid-scanline.  I tested 5200 AdvII on a 27" CRT so it probably didn't concern me , or I didn't notice it back in 2007.  So, I  fixed a handful of those screens for the XEGS version, and those screens are more rock-solid looking now.     See the before and after screen shots - look carefully along the logs and you'll see blue water color on the before pic . 
    -  Minotaur Freeze State. I never got to put this into the 5200 version but always wanted to have some way you could take out the Minotaur, even if just for a short while.  In the XE version, the Blue Key will freeze the Minotaur in his tracks until you remove the key from that screen.  
     
    - I also finally located a bit of code that needed some gentle massaging (either that or more Hard Work* ) to stop the Troll from BAMF-ing **  around at times. Fixed!   
     
    * obscure AA reference
    ** BAMF is the comic book sound effect in X-men comics when Nightcrawler would teleport. BAMF! 
     
    Al is going to have a recent version at the PRGE show , running on an XEGS machine.   See prior blogs for other recent tweaks to Adventure II XE. 
     

  9. Cafeman
    Background info:

    If I ever suspected I'd need to come back to Adventure II's code the way I have, I'd have never compressed and re-coded so many memory-saving schemes into the original 32K 5200 version! One of the things I was proudest of in 5200 Adventure II was that I fit so much into 32K.

    As has been stated in the forums many times, the game had to use bank switching for the Atari XE version because the Atari 8bits can't address 32K memory, they instead address in 16K . And you can break up those into varying 4K banks which you load as needed.

    So for example, many of the game's screens are stored in the 8K bank from $8000-$9FFF. Other stuff is stored in the next 4K bank $A000-$AFFF. Because XE carts and AtariMax carts use differing bank-switching schemes, Tep392 put in logic to do it both ways when I compile the game.

    The Abend

    I made a little change last week, something that has long been on my to-do list. I was testing the game's Vast levels, and the game crashed ("Abended") trying to load some screens. Oh No!!!!!!!!

    As I tested more, slowly relearning variable and memory addresses that I had forgotten since 2007 , I saw that not only Fire Castle screens, but also some Vast Ice Castle screens were also crashing the game. Oh No!!!!!!!!!

    For a few days I was really all thumbs, not being able to understand why my stupid little tweak had caused the problem. But I got busy with work and had to put it aside during the week. Thankfully this worked to my advantage. It's interesting how your brain works - give a problem the day off, and you'll likely come up with a fix tomorrow or the next day.

    The Cause of the problem found!

    I spent 2 hours this morning using the process of elimination to find clues to the game crashes. I found that there were actually 3 screens that would cause a crash. What did they have in common? And what was different about them compared to all the other (similar) internal castle maps??

    After investigating more,and writing down the internal hex numbers for these screens, I spotted the clue that all 3 screens used the same "map" data and were in the same bank! When I looked at the source file for that memory bank, this map screen is at the end of the bank. Clearly it was now corrupted and any attempt to use this screen caused a crash. Then my mind put all the clues together.

    Since 2013, I have slightly added changes and fresh details to a few Kingdom1 screens. Then in early December 2015, I made the final Kingdom 1 screen changes, to 4 different screens. These map changes - and not the more recent 'tweak' that I mistakenly thought was the problem - caused the problem. They weren't being compressed quite as efficiently as before, and thus incrementally used more and more bytes. I had pushed a bank over its limit. I had exceeded the 4K memory available from $8000-$BFFF. The only thing affected was the last thing in the bank - that screen map which caused the crashes! It only happened in Vast castle mazes, so I didn't notice it because I usually don't test using the huge Vast variations.

    So, every time I visited a certain Fire Castle screen, or one of 2 Ice Castle screens (I change the colors though, so they don't look identical), the program would try to load the glitched map. Every time I tried to load one of those 3 screens, using the compressed include file "Y3.INC" - it crashed the game.

    Happy times!

    I moved some memory around and solved the problem! Happy Day! Because, I HATE HATE HATE trying to fix bugs! Especially when the game is 99% finished!

    And now I leave to go see Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens! Happy Happy , Joy Joy !

    (_)3

  10. Cafeman
    It always irks me when I see the out-of-place tile on the original 5200 Adventure II - on the first castle at the top. I finally fixed it, for the XE version.



    As you can see, Sir Square is almost dead in this picture. He's got a big bite taken out of him and the dragon is about to complete his meal.

    This was the first time I have recompiled and recompressed an Adventure II screen since I got a Windows 64-bit laptop, running win8.1 It's a lot more hassle now. I have to use DosBox to run the Antic4 utility and bin2inc utility (both by Jeffry Johnston) because they don't run natively in win8.1's CMD: prompt.

    But TASM and PUCRUNCH do run in CMD: prompt - DosBox can't seem to run TASM. It's old, I know. But that's what we started using for compile AdvII code and I just stick with that for AdvII XE.

    ---------------




  11. Cafeman
    I've spent some hours recently going through all the game variations and double-checking that the more complex hiding spot rules work, and that the game's hiding routines don't create an unwinnable game.

    I did run into one scenario in the beginner difficulty where the bridge was hidden in a locked castle , the magnet was blocked off by logs so you couldn't reach it, and the key to enter that castle was unreachable without either magnet or bridge. So I will tweak the logic to not hide the bridge inside locked castles, simple and best solution. I think this situation could only happen in the 3 Beginner levels, because in those the Troll doesn't active steal and re-hide items. In Intermediate levels for example, you could hang around that blocked-off magnet and Troll would eventually show up and grab it, rehiding it in a reachable location.

    Another time I thought I spotted an error - the Chalice was in the Green Hedges in a small maze game variation. I though it was always hidden inside the Green Castle and that a bug existed. But after reviewing the code, I noticed that in 2013 I put in an extra bit of randomness - sometimes the Gold Key is hidden inside the Castle 2 and the Chalice is out in the hedges. You still need to open the Green Castle to get the Gold Key (and open the Seashore Kingdom Castle ) and thus beat win the game. So ... no bug.

    When I start up a game of Adventure II XE in an emulator, I hit F8 (Atari800win4) and look at zero page memory to see the screens and (X,Y) locations for all the items and the 3 hidden dots. I can read those hexadecimal values like Tank reads the Matrix code.



    There are a bunch of unique hiding spots for the 3 hidden dots, and no two game variations have the same 3 hiding spots. So I have also been playing and making sure its possible to "see" the dots and grab them. You need the bridge to reach many of them. When screens get busy with items or creatures , a hidden dot will change color from default black to the color of one of the creatures - easier to spot. Maybe you can see the dot in this next screenshot.



    Just like in the 5200 version, when you grab a dot, it gives you some FLIGHT power (you literally turn into a bat for a while).



    Once I am satisfied that my revised hiding-spot rules function correctly, I'll move onto fixing the laundry list of small corrections and minor tweaks so that the game can be finished and released soon. Most of the tweaks are graphical and sound tweaks. Experimenting in 2013, I added a new sound that has become INCREDIBLY ANNOYING to me and it plays too often. I can't wait to get rid of that.

    (_)3
  12. Cafeman

    AdvII XE and alt icons

    By Cafeman,

    in 2007's 5200 homebrew Adventure II, you could get Alternate Icons to play with, other than Sir Square, if you entered a secret code on the title screen. In the 5200 version, they played exactly like using the Square. The problem with this was that some of these Alt Icons (namely the big animated Knight) were a bit too big for some of the paths. You could get around this by using the Magnet more. But it made the game a bit more frustrating.

    Of course these icons are still in the XE version, but I added Special Abilities for each.

    The Bat differs in that he never gets the "SPEED" powerup like Square does. When the troll steals an item from Square (except in Beginner levels where he doesn't steal, just makes you drop the item), you gain SPEED as a 'trade' . You also get SPEED when you kill a dragon. The bat not only gets SPEED, he also earns FLIGHT. You can fly overtop any background until it wears off.



    The Crab can slowly crawl over any background item -- plants, rocks, hedges, over water, or castle walls. This way you can cheat in the mazes - but since this slows you down, you run more risk of a creature catching up to you.

    The Knight and Knight Helmet icons are VERY STRONG. You can take a lot more bites before you are eaten. Sometimes a dragon hurts itself biting you and runs away!

    The Hand icon's special ability is his Grip. The Troll has more trouble stealing from you . He might just make you drop the item and run off-screen like he does in the Beginner levels.

    Here are some instructional images I created: Adventure II XE Basics:





    (_)3
  13. Cafeman
    I spent some time in January reviewing the sprite drawing & erasing routines, and the collision routines. I discovered a couple areas I could optimize the code. Maybe this is prep for working on a 2600 game next, counting cycles so much. With 5200 programming, although I did optimize, I didn't really analyze the cycles as much (I didn't need to!) as I did this month. I've heard it said among more experienced [Atari 2600] homebrewers than myself, that there's always another byte you can save, and you can always reduce another cycle. You just have to hunt for them!



    I was doing this to prevent a collision glitch in the game. When there are 2 creatures on screen, and also several items, near the top 1/4 of the screen there is a section where the collision would get confused. See my previously posted YT video for evidence of that.

    I was able to reduce many cycles from the Player (Atari hardware's version of a "sprite") Draw & Erase loops! These routines are performed in the Vertical Blank Interrupt, when the monitor's electron beam resets from bottom-screen to top-screen again. Because Adventure II's creatures can sink beyond the bg-graphics overscan area (which I like), I can't change the logic to start before Vertical blank. I do some Pre-Processing in on-screen time, but certain logic needs to be in the VBI.

    Results: I immediately noticed a good side-effect of the optimization. Gone was another minor visual glitch that I'd previously see sometimes on busy screens - where the DLI color changes would not get activated in time and the top of certain screens could have the wrong color. This problem appears to have been 100% remedied by my January optimizations.



    On the above screen, there are two dragons and 4 items (although I could only capture 2 of them due to the flickering). The screen's background colors are always rock solid now. The same thing on the Castle Ramparts screen (where I actually had 3 creatures on that screen for a few seconds) - rock solid colors and no more DLI color errors on busy sprite screens.

    Well unfortunately, I didn't totally eliminate that busy-screen collision glitch. But the affected area has moved higher on the screen; but it can still occur. I still have more time before end of January and I hope to totally eliminate the bug by end-of-month.

    Thanks to RUSH , always great music to code to!

    c(_)



  14. Cafeman
    Today I worked on my to-do list of minor tweaks, including the Alternate Icons logic.

    In the 5200 version of Adventure II, you could pick from various icons but they would not play any differently from using the default Sir Square. I started changing that in for Adventure II XE back in 2013, and gave the Crab and Bat special abilities, both can crawl over / fly over background graphics. Today I finished all of the icons' abilities and tested them.



    - Knight Helmet and Blue Knight - I gave them more health and a percentage change that any dragon biting you will injure itself and flee off the screen. So you can kind of plow through the dragons a lot more using these guys. The game gives a +1 health point (up to your max) every time you enter a new screen,so if you keep on the move with the Knights, its harder to get eaten.

    - Shield Alt Icon - I removed this from the Title Screen selection. You can only become the shield if you earn it as a temporary powerup.

    - 3D Wire-frame Cube - couldn't think of anything so just changed his color for variety.



    - Hand / Glove - this one has "Grip Powers" which affect the Troll's stealing. For every screen you enter, the game determines if Troll will successfully be able to steal a carried item from your grip, or not. It gives you just a little bit more advantage in the game. Of course, if you play a beginner level 1,2,or 3, the Troll is never able to steal from you , so this would be noticeable in Medium, Advanced, and Special games.
  15. Cafeman

    AdvII XE testing

    By Cafeman,

    I'm putting the final touches on this long delayed project., so here is the first summer '19 status report. I tested on my real XEGS hardware to ensure no game-ruining bugs!     Didn't find any!  Although that ranking seems too high based on how many times I got devoured and how many minutes I took to beat it ...  
     
    I take notes of which variation I play , the end stats, and the ranking given. I'll review them after a few weeks and see if I need to tweak the rankings logic. It's not a big deal, but you don't want to see the same ranking all the time regardless of how well your game went, right? 
     
    I made the game a bit more joystick-driven than it had been.  You can pick all the options on the Title Screen using the joystick and button now, and when you are eaten, you can revive by pressing the Joystick button.  Previously I had mapped the "R" key to the revive/respawn function,  but I was tired of getting up from my reclining sofa and using the clunky XEGS clip-on keyboard all the time! So now I can sit back and play Adventure II XE for hours and not need to get up.  To Pause ore reset completely, you still gotta use the keyboard or console buttons though.    That is one huge advantage of 5200 gaming, you have all the needed commands at your fingertips using the CX52 controller.  
     
    I also experimented with some color changes. Some have complained that the Gold Key and the Green Key are hard to distinguish from one another. This is true, depending on what color is the background image that each key is sitting overtop.  Plus, the keys are tiny so color bleed on the overall image is worse than with the bigger images like the Chalice.   But my eyes can still distinguish the difference.   I tried different hues and luminosity settings but I was reminded once again WHY I chose those colors in the original 5200 version -- the items need to be bright and a different hue from the many background graphics across 4 kingdoms.  Changing colors started to bring back the old "blending-in" issue .    
     
    But I did decide to tweak some background screen colors.  I tested my new colors and they looked great on a real TV; now I have to change them for the proper screens in-code and recompile everything. Some of these include files, like the ADV2COLR.TXT one with the screen colors, I haven't changed since about 2006!  The thing is, these are compressed into INCLUDE files which are decompressed into RAM at boot-up. I forgot the compression steps completely, had to search out old notes to re-learn it.   
     
    Thanks for reading, 
    c(_) 




  16. Cafeman
    Scene spoilers! Beware if you care and haven't watched the film yet!!!

    Here are my original and mostly non-spoiler thoughts after the first watch a week ago: http://atariage.com/forums/blog/618/entry-12817-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-league-spoiler-free-review/

    For my 2nd viewing of Batman v Superman, my son and I went to a higher quality Cinemark theater. The screen was much bigger, brighter, and I saw details I missed watching the 1st viewing elsewhere. I caught more clues this time, explaining stuff. The sound was also so LOUD it gave me a slight headache by the end. In fact, overall I enjoyed the film about the same as the first time, not more or less. But this time I really felt exhausted by the end of it. Come to think of it - both times I was feeling fatigued before the film was even over. My son , who is 21 years old, said he thought the film wasn't bad (he HATED Man of Steel and still does).

    I'm feeling done with BvS now. I doubt I'll buy it on Blu-ray. I can't see myself watching it over & over. I enjoyed it, but it isn't a hugely enjoyable experience. By way of comparison, I can rewatch most of the Marvel films over & over and love 'em.

    My rating of Man of Steel: C- on first watch, C+ after multiple watches.
    My rating of Batman v Superman: B-

    My top 3 favorite scenes:
    1. The fight between Batman and Superman. It was pretty good.
    2. Batman rescuing Martha, taking down all the armed criminals and their leader, the "KGBeast" dude. Quoth the KGBeast, "I'll kill her", and Bat says "I believe you". Then ... BOOM takes him out. All great stuff.
    3. The Senate bomb. Best twist of the film to me.

    Least 3 favorite scenes:
    1. The scene where Lois and Superman are depressed, and Lois says "I don't know if you can love me being who you are blah blah blah". Emo / dull. Who cares? You know, Vicki Vale said something quite similar in Bruce in 1989's Batman the Movie.
    2. Doomsday . Although WW is great and there's lots of action in the battle, overall it shouldn't have been tacked on to the end of this already too-long film. Plus, just how Doomsday was created and *why*, by Lex, makes little sense to me.
    3. Lex's trailer-quoted dialogue, "Clark Kent meets Bruce Wayne! I love bringing people together! Do not pick a fight with this person!"
    ==> EDIT: wait a minute. Isn't the film showing the Lex already figured out who Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent were? So in this scene, its like he is breaking the 4th wall and winking at the audience. still don't like it.


    I found the Injustice comics series online and read through most of the first 3 years worth recently. In this series (a prequel of sorts to the video game Injustice), Superman suffers the death of Lois and her unborn child , then decides its okay to kill and be more active stopping wars, governments, and criminals. Then Superman turns the world into a police state, basically. Just about all the Justice League support him except for a few with Batman. The rest of the series, its Superman vs Batman along with the supporting characters. You can read the entire series (I grew tired of it after a while, it goes on & on & on and despite a few bright humor spots with Harley and Oliver Queen, the repeated fighting gets old ) at http://readcomiconline.com/for free (not sure how long that will last).

    I wonder if the writers and Zack Snyder were fans of this story? Because its a little bit off-putting , just like BvS. Also similar scenes (maybe from other comics too - I haven't read many Superman books so I don't know). The way Superman takes Doomsday into outer space; the visions showing a violent Superman willing to kill and clearly HATING Batman are also found in Injustice. I grew tired of Injustice, mostly because it has several years worth of comics, all with a killing and more despot Superman, which lasted too long. Similarly, Bvs lasted too long for me as a film w/the heroes mostly in conflict with each other.

    Its pretty obvious that The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel was an influence too. Several scenes plus the nature of the conflict are right out of that comic. I was waiting to see a Kryptonite arrow in BvS ! But it was changed to something else for the film version. The cover scene of the comic, with a lightning bolt behind the thick Batman outline, found its way into BvS too.

    This is curious to me, as The Dark Knight Rises film was also strongly influenced by The Dark Knight Returns with Batman being older & out of action for years, plus certain scenes like young & old Gotham cops seeing Batman on his returning night ("Son, you're in for a treat tonight!").

    Finally, I thought it poor taste in the funeral scene that a bagpipes version of Amazing Grace was used. That was Spock's funeral music! (Wrath of Kahn).

    (_)3


  17. Cafeman
    I watched Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The first section is a spoiler-free review (I assume you watched the trailers), followed by a spoiler-hidden additional thoughts.

    Based on the Rotten Tomatoes low aggregate score of about 30%, and the complaints, I went in with low expectations. I didn't particularly like the trailers. But to my surprise, I enjoyed the film and would give it "thumbs up". So this review is going to have a positive slant. Also, in my audience there was a lot of clapping going on at various scenes - mostly kids. They were loving it.

    This film is complex. A first watch yields some confusion because of the bizarre editing of some (unexplained) scenes. I think after 2nd watch, more will be understandable, especially to fans of the comics and animated series episodes.
    Perhaps the most disturbing thing I read before seeing the film was a comment that Batman now uses guns and kills people. This is not exactly true. Or is it? In the theatrical versions of Batman, his vehicles have always had firepower, and this doesn't change. In many scenes he grabs rifles and smacks bad guys around with the butt end, and he fires the rifles a few times - which could be simply wounding them, putting them down, but not executing Punisher-style. But the big guns of his Batmobile had to slaughter anything that got hit! The thing is - the film doesn't really show Batman killing. So I won't dwell on it. This Batman is older and fed up, doubting his more righteous path because , as he says, "criminals are like weeds. Pull one up, another grows in its place". Overall I felt this Batman is satisfactorily fair to the character in my eyes and was EASILY the best part of the the film. Some of Batman's (and Alfred's) scenes are stuff we've never seen before in on film, and its always exciting and fun to watch. I enjoyed the nice early focus on Bruce's detective work and planning.



    BvS is an amalgamation of at least 3 films' worth of Superman and Justice League concepts and stories. It has to introduce the new Batman and Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor, and allow story #1 to play out, and allow enough time for story #2 to play out. The end result is the film has been heavily cut and edited and yet still has far too many disjointed scenes; also it is too long. I was disappointed that the writers and directer tried to cover so, so many scenes in one film. No wonder it was originally 3+ hours. I don't think it is a spoiler to reveal this - as the trailer did - that a version of Doomsday and
    storyline is incorporated into this film. This is seriously the worst part of the film. You get your money's worth in spectacle; but its so much less interesting than the first half of the film. Which is par for the course with Zak Snyder's direction, I think; it's the exact same problem I have with Man of Steel. I loved the first half of MoS, but by the ending I felt very dissatisfied. But I've come to enjoy MoS on subsequent Blu-Ray viewings; I suspect that will be true here too. Wait a minute! Didn't Superman Returns also have a super depressing final act? Sorry, but I like the jubilant feeling I used to feel walking out after watching the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films. Or Spider-Man 1 or 2. Also Batman Begins and The Dark Knight! On any of these films, I would walk out of the theater with a spring in my step. But with BvS, the best feeling I could muster was 'that wasn't as bad as I'd feared...".

    Jesse Eisenberg plays Lex Luther. I hated him in the trailers. But surprise! At least in my opinion, his version of Luthor is a good one. He is intelligent, crafty, merciless, and he plays the long game and he is behind all of the attacks against our super friends. Yes, I found Eisenberg to be a formidable Luthor. It doesn't bother me that they've tried a fresh angle to the character. It's unfortunate that his wry and bizarre little speeches such as "the red capes are coming!" was the focus -- out of context -- in the trailers. In the film, he's being weird like that on purpose to certain characters. Luthor's ruthlessness is shown in one especially surprising turn of events mid-film; and his disregard for human life is shown in his maniacal long range plan.

    Negatives? I didn't really enjoy or understand the multiple visions and dream sequences. It reminded me of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor's trip to the pool -- confusing , a change in thematic tone, and evidently just setting up future stuff in the Justice League films. These scenes play out, then there is no explanation and then the normal real-time storyline resumes. Huh?? But after some thought (and googling for answers), I think most of us will understand and grow used to why these sequences are there. Snyder is also playing the long game and planting seeds. However, these scenes hurt the film, and I wish they'd been cut, and better moments not cut. The end of the film mimics Man of Steel's destruction and not-really-very-fun spectacle; dour and a sobering/ depressing mood. Little kids were BAWLING out loud in the audience. Now that is what I call an effectively upsetting ending-- but the rest of us (adults) just watched in silence until a glimmer of hope did finally rise.

    I give the film a B-. Compared to how I felt after Man of Steel, X-men 3, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Green Lantern, or Superman III (all disappointing to me of varying degrees), BvS compares more favorably.



    Spoiler Comments Next:





  18. Cafeman

    Bike Riding

    By Cafeman,

    I'm tired of buying junk. In 2009 I went yard sale shopping and got 2 used bikes. One was for Mrs Cafeman, who since decided biking isn't for her, so I ditched it years back. The other bike, and I don't recall the brand, was for my oldest son who was like 15 at the time - wouldn't you know we still have it, it's older but the frame and wheels never bent, the brakes still work, and it didn't rust out. You can tell this was a quality bike back in the day, whatever year it was sold.

    Contrast that with the pretty but horrible piece of Huffy junk I bought at Kmart or Walmart (can't remember which store) a year later, which I recently discarded on Craigslist for $15. That Huffy bike was heavy, wasn't built properly - brakes stuck, the chain would come off if you switched to certain gears, the foot pedal broke from my weight (over 200) TWICE, and when I stood and pedaled, the frame of that adult-sized 'mountain bike' would buckle, activating the brakes! The front tire of this "mountain bike" eventually warped as well. Junk. The buyer on Craigslist like my cheap price and said he could fix it and get some use for it.

    So I still have that $25 bike - it has a nice stiff frame, the only problem is I have to add air to the tires every 2 days. I just got a decent deal on a Trek bike on Craigslist - what a difference in ride and quality! The bike was super clean and I can tell it had been well cared for.

    I've been checking out the better bikes for a year now in local premium biking stores - but have been too cheap to fork over the $400+ that they sell for - Canondales, Treks, Giants, Specialized, etc. So I checked out Craigslist and found this 19.5" Trek mountain bike for $80. My 2 sons and I are all around 6' or so (I'm the shortest of the 3, at 5'11" , and I think I've lost some height since my teenage years...). So we'll see how the Trek fits us. For a few sample short rides, it felt nice.

    If you are a bike rider, what do you like? Mountain bikes? Hybrids? Any more affordable recommendations?
  19. Cafeman
    https://web.archive.org/web/20010720152157/http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com:80/
     
    I found a 2001 version of my old site (Well, some of it) on the internet Archive. This site was a part time project of mine, mostly about 2D games on the Saturn. It was created with hand-coded HTML and MS Paint between 1998 and 2001, and it was basically my introduction to web pages and picture formats, early on.
     
    The site is still there but my Atari 5200 stuff took it all over eventually...
    Http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com/atari/atari5200.html
     
    I can't remember if I purposely deleted the original Sega stuff, or accidentally. But I thought it was gone forever, so it was a treat to search and rediscover it.
     
    Check it out, you might be mildly entertained.
     

     
    Edit - ha! I found another view with some additional, more Dreamcast oriented pages! I don't remember writing all these, too long ago.
     
    https://web.archive.org/web/20020302213934/http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com:80/index.html
  20. Cafeman
    I tend to save information forever. I've had various notebooks and folders in my garage's filing cabinet , the info is all from 2001 through 2011.  Today I decided to dig out the folders , keep what might still be useful, and pitch the rest. All of the paper had a slight musty smell.   All these were in the top drawer of the file cabinet;  the bottom draw has all my guitar tablature magazines, some from the 80's (remember Guitar for the Practicing Musician anybody?). I'll be going through those mags next to see if I can de-clutter. 
     
    ANYWAY ... I pitched all my work-in-progress notes for 2002's Koffi: Yellow Kopter, plus work-in-progress notes and folders about 2007's Adventure II.  I kept the notes of various other homebrew ideas I had. Who knows?   
     
    Look at all the work I had to do to code Raccoon Lad's sprites! 1's and 0's, yes indeedy. 
     

     
    Then I found these notes ... I remember an original idea for Adventure II when it was just Alan and myself, was to have different colors of Armor.  The Bat turned into our Troll.  Some wanted to see the Wizard, but frankly I vetoed that idea for a few reasons, primarily that Robinette didn't have a Wizard in 2600 Adventure! It was an invention of the manual writers.  Plus I had my hands full with the rest of the programming.  If you want a Wizard, there are 2600 homebrews where the author put him in. And homebrew games where the wizard returned! 
     
    Yeah though, I remember our idea to find Blue Armor to help you cross over water.  Adventure II changed that idea, instead you can build bridges from wood planks, over the water. Or fly across the water if you get that power-up.  I see that we also intended there to be an Inventory system , but that was simplified to be more Adventure 2600-ish - carry 1 thing at a time, bub.  These hand-written notes are from 2001 or so.  I took a picture, then pitched them. 
     

     
     
    I don't know what this simple maze design was for - but it was never used. You want it? 
     

     
    Finally, I also pitched my work-in-progress Koffi notes, I don't want to see those any more, after all the code itself explains how the game works better than those notebooks. But I found this doodle of a Homebrew Patch idea or two ... I like the idea for patches.   I'm not sure if anybody has done them for an AA homebrew?  I think I did see something on ZPH about earning a patch but I can't remember which game(s). 
     

     
    That's all. I filled an entire large-size garbage bag with notebooks , manilla folders, and pages.  Next I have to go through those guitar tab magazines. 
     
  21. Cafeman

    DASM and ASL LSR ROL compile errors

    By Cafeman,


    Homebrew
    I got my first clean compile in DASM for Detective Powers 5200.   I had started it a while back using the 6502 assembler called TASM, which is what I used for 5200 / XE Adventure II.  But I wanted to start using the most recent DASM 6502 compiler.   Many of the code formatting changes were straight forward to see the problem and easily change, but I spent some time trying to figure out why I kept getting unresolved symbols on "A" and "a".  I'm not sure if DASM can be configured to show me the line in question causing the error. Instead it basically produces a summary of all the labels / subroutines / variables that are referenced but don't exist.   
     
    The TASM assembler allows , or requires you can use the accumulator ("A") with these:   "ASL A", or "LSR A", or "ROL A".   These were the statements causing DASM to complain, but DASM just says that "A" or "a" aren't recognized, so I had to spend some time before I got it.  There were several statements that needed the accumulator removed, but it just gives 1 error. That also confused me.  
     

     
    Next step is to be able to go from a simple Title Screen , allow Start to be pressed, and load a London city Antic4 screen, without abending. 
     

     
    (_)3
  22. Cafeman
    I bought an inexpensive new copy of the Japanese Daytona USA Circuit Edition recently. I've played a lot of versions of Daytona USA over the years - the coin-op original, the Saturn launch Daytona USA (which I lost and no longer own), the North American Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition (CCE) on Saturn, and the Dreamcast Daytona USA. I guess I'm a real sucker for Daytona USA.

    Searching online for differences between the original CCE and the later import CE, I found some claims that the handling was improved on the import CE edition. On first play , I really couldn't tell a difference. So I decided to play the 2 versions back to back for a week and see what I could glean. Here are the results.

    Well, there is definitely a difference in feel between CCE and CE. In fact, it is a little bit annoying to switch between versions because of the different feel! I would say that the CE version is easier to control your car around curves and in power slides, and I prefer the CE version's handling. The difference feels like tweaked control, not rewritten control, so frankly its difficult for me to describe it, or to recommend one version over the other. In both CCE and CE, even with analog steering I still have to 'tap and release' the analog NiGHTS stick to steer,because the steering is pretty sensitive. I can't get my thumb to finely control the analog wand and move a micrometer's worth of distance; so I find my self doing soft analog thrusts left/right and quickly letting go, else I'd oversteer. I don't have a Saturn driving wheel so can't compare.

    In my fun test sessions of CE, I mostly drove the Hornet. I held X, or Y, or Z a few times (as the game loads) to see the dusk/night/morning color changes. This is a valueless "extra" in my opinion; I prefer the normal original colors. I bumped up the difficulty to HARD and played the Grand Prix 20 laps on Three Sevens - I came in 2nd place and it was a fantastic race! But the same is true of the American CCE version.

    So, what it all boils down to is that the CE version has slightly different control - I'm not sure if either is 'superior'. CE has alternate colors by pressing X or Y or Z (which, well, who really cares - I guess night is fun for a change). CE also has slightly quicker menu loads. And CE has slightly better draw distance, slightly less noticeable pop-up of polygons in the distance. Both versions aren't bad at all in this regard though. Remember , even the coin-op version had some draw-in in the distance.

    The single best thing which CE does have over CCE, and why I play only the CE version now, is the music! Doo-doo, doo-doo,doo-doo, doo-doo, doooo-doooooo. Daytonnnnnnah! CE has the original Daytona USA songs! I enjoy them much more than the remix versions. The NA CCE Daytona USA doesn't have the original songs - how strange! First thing I did was set King of Speed (original) to the Three Seven Speedway. Same goes for the tracks for Dinosaur Canyon (Let's Go Away) and the Seaside Galaxy (Blue, Blue Skies).

    I also noted that the two versions share the same save file; changes to music selections in one will carry forward to the other one, but since there are fewer songs in CCE, the song that carries forward is not the one I wanted. So I'd have to fix it each time I swapped CD's.

    Both versions are pretty good versions of Daytona, very playable (I've been playing the Saturn Daytonas for 20 years and still find it fun). Next I want to hook up the Dreamcast and play DC Daytona USA again, to compare while the Saturn games are still fresh in my memory.

    What do you think of the different versions of Daytona USA?

    c(_)


  23. Cafeman
    Just like smelling the roses in the garden, it's nice to have time to Watch the Replay. After a race. I've always loved doing it , to soak in the graphics which , during a race, you can't. And also just to watch myself racing around the track , from the 3rd person vantage point. So right now I'm typing this while half-watching a Mermaid Lake replay where I came in 3rd place, using the Lightning Car with Medium-Soft tires. Today is 9/9/15 - the 16th anniversary of the USA Dreamcast console release, so I am playing DC tonight. Tonight's beverage is Samuel Adams Cream Stout.

    As I view the replay, I see billboards with "Tide Table" and "Unique" and "Ken Ken 21" scribbled on them. What do they mean? I will never know! But I salute you, SEGA artists of 2000! I see RV's parked in the lot around the track. I see the frankly gorgeous Mermaid Lake's aqua blues and tints of green highlights. There is a blimp floating around with "Dreamcast" written on it too! After playing the Sega Saturn versions of Daytona USA, it was a real treat to play the DC version when 2001 rolled around, with its enhanced visual detail, performance, and (for the time) clarity. But the point I am thinking about is that, even after having played Daytona USA in the arcade and on Saturn and on Dreamcast for years, and after picking the car with the fastest speed and acceleration, I still could only come in 3rd place, and I fought for that. It makes me want to play another round. I hate when games have no challenge. You need to learn how to take the curves (the racing line), and maybe draft off other cars when you can, or you ain't gonna get 1st place.




    Over the past week, I've reacquainted myself with this game. There is nothing more drenched with SEGA nostalgia than than playing Three Seven Speedway with the Hornet car and hearing that track's music. If you master the Sonic Mountain Curve without slowing down too much, even if you only do it once, it is a great great feeling. After coming in 1st place, I bumped up the # of cars from 20 to 30, and then to 40 cars per race. 40 cars on one looping oval track means you are constantly getting out of the way of the slower pack. You can change the # of cars on any of Daytona USA 2001's tracks, also you can race in reverse or mirrored. This is a game you can play for a night or for a week and be happy with it, put it away for a while until you get the itch again. That's my kind of game; I don't have the free time to unlock all the stuff and earn all the licenses in a game like Gran Turismo.

    I snapped some pictures and even included my white lava lamp in 2 of them. The pictures are Dreamcast hooked up to a Panasonic 42" Plasma TV by the RCA cables. I used to love using S-video, but my TV doesn't support it, but it still looks quite good to me.

     

  24. Cafeman
    Ecco the Dolphin was released for the SEGA Genesis in August 1992. This was a time when I felt SEGA could do no wrong. I had rented Ecco for a day or two then, but I didn't play all of it until March of 1993, when much of the USA got hit with the winter "Storm of the Century", as it came to be called. I had purchased Ecco on Friday, and we got snowed-in over the weekend. Fortunately for me, we never lost our electricity, because I had nothing else to do except play my new game Ecco on my Genesis all day Saturday and Sunday. I got aggravated that I couldn't figure out one level, or get over a wall in another, but I persevered, and I was hooked on the Ecco experience. I really enjoyed the theme, level design, and the puzzles. I eventually did beat the game. I will never forget the DIFFICULTY of the alien levels , including "Welcome to the machine"!

    Yes, fortunately for me we didn't lose electricity with the blizzard. It was unfortunate for the wife, because Ecco's shrill sonar sound drove her crazy , and to this day I don't dare play Ecco in her presence without the implied threat of extreme duress.

    Later, I played Ecco the Dolphin CD , which had some new levels , some FMV (the cool kind - CG graphics video, which was similar to the game's style, and well within the SEGA CD's color and resolution limitations), and a very atmospheric new CD soundtrack. Pumping through my old-school Fisher stereo system w/15" woofer speaker cabinets, SEGA games really sounded sweet.

    So when the Dreamcast debuted, I eagerly picked up the new version of Ecco the Dolphin in 2000, and lately I've been replaying it in 2015. On the first night I played for a while, but only reached the 2nd area, which actually has one of the most exciting parts of the entire game - Ecco vs a Great White Shark.

    The plot goes on to involve things we'd seen in the 2D Ecco games, like time travel and the aliens and trying to jump from water bubbles up in the sky (similar to Ecco Tides of Time). Atari Age member Maurice Molyneaux (Big Mo) scripted some of the plot, as I recall. I beat it back in the day, but I can't recall the ending. I'll have to beat Ecco: DotF again this fall as time allows.

    Concerning the game itself - my opinion of it hasn't changed since I first played in in 2000/2001. The game's goals are often obtuse and the gameplay is too difficult. I didn't mind it back when the game was new, but it is now annoying trying to enjoy some levels in a more limited time frame. It takes me at least an hour to familiarize myself with the level, its objectives, to hunt for Vitalis thingies, and to stop getting turned around and lost. I guess I should check out a FAQ or Guide. Mind you, the Genesis Ecco games were also just like this - obtuse goals and high difficulty. But they were in left-right-up-down 2D and hence not as hard to make progress as in this version. In stage 1, I spent at least 10 minutes just trying to line-up Ecco and then forcefully jump out of the water to grab a floating Vitalit. I could see it! But in the 3D space, the game engine is merciless and will not guide you towards the Vitalit, not even a few pixels (erm, Polygons...). Imagine playing Mario 64 and you had to spend 10 minutes trying to jump up and grab a Star that was just above you.

    It is interesting to observe how developers take a historically 2D game series and make a 3D-movement sequel. For example, much praise has been written about how perfectly Nintendo translated 2D Mario into 3D Super Mario 64. I agree with that. What a well-crafted game, Mario 64. It had far higher quality and was more accessible and enjoyable in its nature than any of the other 3D-space platformers that were around back then. I could also mention the phenomenal job that Retro Studios did with Gamecube Metroid Prime, converting 2D gameplay into not only 3D, but also into a first-person-perspective game.! Awesome job with Nintendo's trademark quality control and playability.

    To a lesser degree perhaps, but I was also impressed with SEGA's attempt to bring Sonic into 3D with the Sonic action stages of Sonic Adventure, on the Dreamcast. The design and artwork in Sonic's action stages was a perfect translation of 2D Genesis games to 3D Dreamcast stages; but the execution wasn't perfect. You'd fight the camera, you couldn't easily control Sonic's direction at fast speeds, sometimes you'd fall through the 'floor' and die.

    Getting back to Ecco: DotF, I am very impressed by the 3D engine and the translation of the 2D gameplay mechanics into this 3D world. The design here seems very well thought-out and apt, the visuals are often stunning and beautiful, and the game is exciting and scary a lot of times. You can really have fun just exploring each level.

    But the execution has problems when it comes to gameplay. The biggest problem is how easily it can be to get 'turned around' and lose what direction you are facing. The sonar map is not very helpful in this version. I have read that the PS2 port of Ecco had an improved sonar map, so the developers must agree with me! Even in stage one, I often can't tell which dolpin is the master and which are the players, and I get turned around and can't tell where to go. If you think it's bad there, wait until you have to travel through pitch dark caverns with deadly puffer fish attacking from left and right, and in your urge to escape, you inadvertently turn around and end up at the opening of the cave again. Or, get stuck against the cave wall and get killed.

    My comments serve only as a warning to you, if you want to try out Ecco on Dreamcast. Know what you are getting into. If you enjoyed the Ed Annunziata Ecco games on Genesis, you will likely have a big smile on your face each time a new stage loads! Whether the smile lasts depends on if you have the time to invest to gain the familiarity and skills to progress to the end of the game.

    Also check out my 'review' of the game for a Digital Press contest, back in 2002... sorry for using the word 'retard' in it, I was quoting somebody from Sling Blade you see ....

    http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/ecco.htm

  25. Cafeman
    I decided to re-watch Rogue One, then Episode IV: A New Hope immediately after.  I have never done this before!   Rogue One is a 2016 film, but a prequel to 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope.    I know the original Star Wars film like the back of my hand, but I wonder, how will the experience change after having just watched its prequel?   Rogue One ends with Princess Leia having just escaped the Imperials and Darth Vader, with the plans to the Death Star.    Star Wars began with Princess Leia storing those plans in a certain little R2 unit, before being captured by Darth Vader. 

    Will it feel natural? Rogue One is the story of the individuals,  rebels,  who just battled and sacrificed their lives to accomplish getting those Death Star weapon plans.  It also explains, in a satisfactory way,  why this huge battle station has a critical security flaw that farmboy Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance will later exploit.    Rogue One was created nearly 40 years later, thus it likely has much more believable special effects and production values. Right? 

    Watching Rogue One .... 

    From Rogue One's first moments, I enjoyed the fresh direction and mood that is set.  There is no verbiage screen crawl here, instead the film starts quickly with a great-looking scene of  an Imperial shuttle descending past a planet's rings and down to its surface.  RO avoids the 2000's-era CGI look of the prequel films  and feels very different from them.     I don't dislike the prequel films, but they do seem to exist in their own bubble, with a very different in feel from the Original Trilogy or any other Star Wars films.    Rogue One seems to fit naturally with the feel of ANH.  Care must have been taken to purposely do this. 
    Having just watched EpIII:  Revenge of the Sith, I enjoyed seeing Jimmy Smits appear in Rogue One as Bail Organa, appearing without notice from the shadows at the Rebel base.   Unfortunately, he informs Mon Mothma that he is heading back to Alderaan ... and we all know what is going to happen to Alderaan soon. 

    Now ... rewatching the OT films.  

    Over the weekend I watched the DVD special editions of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.   I just didn't have the patience to dig out my VHS versions and watch them in crappy resolution, so I tolerated a few of the extra S.E. goodies... more on those later on.  I need to hunt down the de-Specialized versions. 

    First of all, I did feel that Rogue One led naturally to Ep4 A New Hope, not much else to say.    Good job RO people!

    Watching ANH,  I was reminded what a great film that is.  It doesn't waste a moment.  Many scenes are not hurried and are left to breathe a bit, but even so the film is tightly edited and never lost my attention.   TESB was also a fantastic and complex story line of course.  TESB was the first Star Wars film I watched back in the day -  around 6th grade  I think - since I had not been taken to see the original Star Wars in '77.   So, I will always be partial to TESB as a film, yet I still can't find any reasons to disagree about TESB  geing the absolute  best of all the Star Wars shows.    It was even more fantastic BITD when we learned that Vader is Luke's father, and Yoda says "there is another" hope.   Well, we wondered for 3 years, who is it?  And was Vader lying? You cant trust a thing that a Sith says, and that seems to make Obi-Wan into a big fibber.  Which we learned later, is true.  From a certain point of view.    

    I  feel like a hypocrite after complaining about forced C-3PO humor in Attack of the Clones, because there are a TON of 3PO "funny quips" in TESB too.  One quip that I really did enjoy was when 3PO didn't quite get through the Hoth rebel base door following after Solo and Leia; it closes on him, and 3PO turns away and mutters "typical!".    I laughed. Then Han opens the door again and pulls 3PO into safety.  
     
    Watching ROTJ, I found myself feeling impatient with Jabba's palace scenes for some reason.  The Special Edition "improvements" are at their most intrusive here, with CGI alien singers and extra music that was not needed.   If this is the first time a person watched it, I guess it is fine, but to me, these extras are intrusive.   You have to remember, this film introduced Jabba the Hut (mentioned but not shown in the prior films,  before the Special Editions added him to one ANH scene at Mos Eisley).   He was introduced and he is magnificent here - gross, slimy, shrewd, cruel. A real gangster.   The puppet work on Jabba is fantastic - his eyes narrlow pupils focus and you can read his emotions when he laughs or is angered;   and his tail and hands are moving independently in a natural way.  Jabba is deservedly strangled to death by Leia in a gruesome tail-twitching scene. 
    After seeing a CGI Yoda in the prequel trilogy films,  I was reminded at just how well the puppet Yoda (TESB/ ROTJ) works! Such an expressive little character.  When he died in ROTJ from extreme old age  (when 900 years you reach, look as good you will not!), it is a heart wrenching scene.  Slow-motion is used both in TESB's Dark Side cave and in ROTJ when Yoda vanishes after dying, his cloth clothing slowly folding in its own emptiness.  Love that stuff. 

    I really enjoyed the OT films again and I think I may rewatch them all again before Episode IX!    They are far and away still the best of Star Wars.   ROTJ is the lesser of the 3 OT films to me, despite it having absolutely fantastic and iconic scenes and a satisfying ending -  there is a little bit of 'seen this all before' with the Death Star, and personally I get impatient watching some of Jabba's palace and the Ewok village scenes.    

    My rankings of the films I've seen so far on this watch (man this is hard, ranking them) is:     Ep5  >  Ep4 > Ep6  > Ep3 > Ep1 > Ep2.  

     I'm not sure where the side-stories of Solo and Rogue One fit in.   But to me, RO > Solo.    It seems wrong to put them ahead of any of George Lucas' work, like comparing apples to oranges.   I'll think about it and rank them all after I've also rewatched Ep7 and Ep8.  
     
    Star Wars! 
     

     

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2023 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...