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Christmas Carol - Calling for Beta Testers!


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ATTENTION! ACHTUNG! ATTENTION! ACHTUNG! ATTENTION! ACHTUNG!

 

Development of the Christmas Carol video game for Intellivision is going strong and it has reached an important milestone: All levels are finished and playable, and ready for testing.

 

I am looking for volunteers and hereby inviting anybody who is interested in participating as beta testers for the game.

 

What you'll need:

  • An emulator in which to play Intellivision ROMs.
  • A Cuttle Cart 3 is preferred for actual hardware testing, but not required.
  • Some free time, lots of it.
  • A critical eye to catch, identify, and report bugs.
  • A high tolerance to buggy software that tends to do weird things while you're trying to have fun. :)

 

What you'll get:

  • Access to early, pre-release ROMs of the upcoming game.
  • The thrill of dealing with bugs and other annoyances that get in the way of a fun afternoon.
  • The satisfaction and joy of participating on a really cool project.
  • A chance to have your feedback actually influence the development of a game (to some extent!)
  • And of course, my everlasting gratitude and thanks.

 

About the actual state of the game:

The game is rather stable at this point, but is unfinished. The main parts and all playable sections are completed. Game-play is stable and production ready; what's missing at this point is mostly "polish" and other "fluff."

 

If you are interested, just send me a private message. I have prepared a private mailing list for beta testers' discussions and will be inviting all volunteers as I receive requests. I'm trying very hard to finish the game as soon as possible, so please, I'd appreciate if only those seriously interested in actual testing request it.

 

Cheers!

-dZ.

Edited by DZ-Jay
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https://forums.atariage.com/topic/187221-christmas-carol-calling-for-beta-testers/
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I would but i dont know how to play ROM games.

 

I can help you set up an emulator. Do you have a Windows or Macintosh computer?

 

-dZ.

 

I have Windows XP.

 

OK, I have prepared a package that should run the game in Windows XP. It contains the jzIntv emulator (the one I use), all necessary libraries, and a test ROM. It also contains a batch file that starts the whole thing automagically for you.

 

Please, give it a go, and tell me if it works or not. We'll go from there. Below are some simple instructions on how to get it going. I don't know how well you know your way around the computer, so please feel free to let me know if you need additional help on any of the steps. I apologize in advance if they seem a bit obtuse or confusing.

 

  1. Download the attachment.
  2. Look for the file you downloaded ("xmas_carol-win.zip") and double-click it to "unzip" it.

 

Once it is "unzipped" you should have a folder called "xmas_carol-win."

 

  1. Copy this folder to wherever you want to "install" the game. Or just leave it in the Desktop or wherever it is. There is no real installation the emulator will run from wherever you put it.
  2. Open the new "xmas_carol-win" folder.
  3. Inside you should see a file called "START.BAT" or maybe just "START," depending on whether your computer is set to hide file extensions or not. This is the batch file to start the game.

 

Whenever you are ready to play Christmas Carol, just double click the "START.BAT" file and it should execute the emulator with the game automatically.

 

Now, for this test, I did not include the game, just a sample ROM. You should see the following message:

post-27318-0-76436400-1315050274_thumb.gif

 

It should also play the theme song ("Carol Of The Bells"). If you see this screen and hear the music, you're good to go! If not, please let me know and we'll see what went wrong and how to fix it.

 

To stop the emulation at any time, just press the "F-1" key in your keyboard. This will also work for the game ROM when you get it.

 

-dZ.

xmas_carol-win.zip

i give up, it says i cant run it. and i have to go to internet to download some program......

 

Wait, don't give up! I must have messed something up, since the whole thing should have been self contained. You shouldn't need to download anything.

 

If we get this to work, you'll not only play my test ROMs, but you'll be able to play any Inty ROM! It's worth it.

 

-dZ.

i give up, it says i cant run it. and i have to go to internet to download some program......

 

OK, that's what I get for doing this in my Mac blindly. I prepared the attached package on Windows XP and I am include some very detailed instructions, along with screenshots of what to do:

 

 

Step #1: Download Attachment

First of all, download the file attached to this message and save it in your Desktop or Downloads folder, or wherever you want to "install" it. There is no real installation, we just download it, extract the ZIP file, and run it.

post-27318-0-82008600-1315138633_thumb.png

 

 

Step #2: Select ZIP File

Find the downloaded "ZIP" file and right click on it and select Extract All...

post-27318-0-90356000-1315138634_thumb.png

 

 

Step #3: Extraction Wizard

From the Extraction Wizard, just leave it is as is and click Next.

post-27318-0-12497300-1315138636_thumb.png

 

 

Step #4: Extracting Files

Just let the Extraction Wizard do its thing and again click Next all the way to the end.

post-27318-0-51546000-1315138637_thumb.png

 

 

Step #5: Finish Extraction

When the Extraction Wizard completes, just click Finished. You should see a new folder called "xmas_carol-win" on your Desktop, or from wherever you started.

 

Note that if you check the box "Show extracted files" it will open up the folder that we just extracted.

post-27318-0-99890300-1315138638_thumb.png

 

Step #6: Start Emulation

If you ticked the box "Show extracted files" in the Extraction Wizard, the folder with the emulator should have opened automatically. If not, just look for the new "xmas_carol-win" folder and open it.

 

Within the folder, look for an icon with a "gear" called START.BAT and double-click it to run the emulator.

post-27318-0-07813400-1315138640_thumb.png

 

 

Step #7: Play ROM

Double-clicking the START.BAT should have started the emulator automatically with the test ROM. In this case, the ROM should display a sample Intellivision screen and play the Christmas Carol theme music and credits.

post-27318-0-05342400-1315138641_thumb.png

 

If any of these steps failed, please let me know which one and what happened and we'll deal with it. If everything went well, you should have the emulator ready to run! Testing the game (or any other ROM) is then just a matter of replacing the ROM file within the folder called "game."

 

Cheers!

-dZ.

xmas_carol-win.zip

Edited by DZ-Jay

By the way, the emulator included in that archive is Joe Zbiciak's excellent jzIntv for Windows. I just packaged it with a batch file that runs the emulator and my ROM directly.

 

For information on jzIntv or to get support or updated version, visit Joe's web page.

 

-dZ.

Music plays nice and clear here on Mac OSX and jzIntvWii.

 

That was just a sample test for the emulator. If you want to volunteer to be a beta tester just send me a PM and I'll send you an invitation to the private mailing list.

 

Thanks,

-dZ.

  • 4 weeks later...

Rev,

 

I never received a response from you. Perhaps you're busy or perhaps you got tired of trying with no success. Let me know if I can help.

 

I know he's been out of town a lot the last while, I'm guessing that's why you haven't heard from him. I've got to order a CC3 so I can try this on hardware. :(

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