Release of Mighty Jill Off (rc6)

[pps]

sorry for dp... Can't find edit here on smartphone version of aa.

 

If you really are going on tape only and it has no turbo, then you have to go for 'The Happy Turtle'. It's a tool for faster loading. A 15 block header programme and then the rest is loading at about double speed as normal. Better than nothing.

 

Best option for faster tape is building one of those Turbo 2000 etc. addons. Speed is at least as fast as a normal C64 discdrive then

[fernando marrin]

ntsc version wanted...

[Bubeloid]

Can you send us your pre wav file please. Maybe it's just a small patch for it to load correct.

Here what I got from XEX2CAS http://www.pavel-lagutin.com/mjo.cas - it`s a big time waster just forger it.

I thought that tape versions are pretty popular since there is a not so expensive Atari XE/XL on Ebay with tape recorders. But it`s seems like all atari users are using more advanced and modern methods to load their software.

[pps]

Here what I got from XEX2CAS http://www.pavel-lagutin.com/mjo.cas - it`s a big time waster just forger it.

I thought that tape versions are pretty popular since there is a not so expensive Atari XE/XL on Ebay with tape recorders. But it`s seems like all atari users are using more advanced and modern methods to load their software.

Ok, I´ll check out tomorrow, if I can help you loading mjo via cassette player.

 

The issue on atari and cassette is/was not only the speed - even the loading errors, because atari only uses half of a tape, so you can have the other channel (of stereo) to have music etc, when loading - nearly no one used that feature back in the days, but it exists.

 

Atari's loading algorithm even prevents you if you get loading error, from simply turning back some rounds and reload the wrong part - you just have to load from the beginning

 

Every disc drive on ATARI is a lot faster and doesn´t have that loading errors, so no one really wanted to use tape for a long time. On C64 and others like Spectrum, etc. tapes didn`t have such speed differences and even less errors, than on ATARI. A unmodded disc drive for C64 is slow as if you load from tape, when you know what a 1050 boots up.

 

Back in the days I knew no one, who hadn't modded his "Commy drive" with C64, but a lot of people who use a standard 1050 or XF 551 together with their ATARI.

[xxl]

because atari only uses half of a tape, so you can have the other channel (of stereo) to have music etc, when loading - nearly no one used that feature back in the days, but it exists.

 

 

music during loading from floppy is easy:

[pps]

xxl I mentioned about tape loading and the ATARI way of having one of the stereo channels free for playing 'real' music during loading.

 

Bubeloid, sorry I need more time for watching your problem.

[Creature XL]

Here it is, RC7

 

As mentioned somewhere in this forum I fixed the bug in my lib that I encountered while doing "HAR'em".

In short: I acknowledged the NMI AFTER the ISR. However the correct way is to acknowledge it at the beginning.

so it happened that some DLI's weren't triggered when the VBI took too much time. This was visible sometimes when the colors or the charset were wrong for a brief amount of time.

 

2nd fix, is the counter in the torture room. It was exactly as was said by StefanD. The fixing was quickly done as I comment the "adc #0 ; sta zp+1" out. For what ever reason I do not know anymore. However, erasing the the comment markers fixed it. It COULD be that I comment it out to save some cycles, but I tested it two times and there was no visible bug.

 

 

It's still an "release candidate" and not "final" as I want to fix the loading screen. It loads from perfect from the QMeg-fileloader when I set the speed to "Normal" but it does not load with "Fast". As was mentioned that is mabye the problem of the VBI/DLIs. So I want to try later to measure the time needed for loading the first segment and decide then if I enable the VBI/DLIs or not. I don#t want to discard the loading-screen right away, because I really like it and it would be a shame for Exin's work on it.

 

 

And I am sorry to say, that an NTSC version is not possible. i need all the CPU power in the PAL-VBlank.

mjo_rc7.xex

[+therealbountybob]

Played MJO rc7 on 800XL, was a bit rusty so just played first round through with no problems.

 

Got stuck in this section for a while too long:

note: the excellent shadow effects in this game - especially in the light grey section.

 

I know this game is tough but it's really slick and well worth persevering, hope we'll see some different layouts one day or even random changes to platforms/gaps etc on each load/go

 

Keep up the good work Creature XL

[Marius]

Is the progress bar gone?

 

I thought this was a new feature in the game, so I downloaded RC7, but i do not see it on my Atari 800XE PAL.

 

Do I need to press a key to enable it?

[matosimi]

hi,

it took me 33 minutes to finish rc7

 

i havent played MJO since abbuc version, as i remember well, those yellow "ghosts" were not moving in abbuc version, right? Also that jumpy countdown at the end was missing back then.

 

one passage was incredibly hard, in grayscale background where i had to jump from left edge of screen to right edge repeatedly... with 2 ghosts near each platform. it also made some glicthes, bugs at that position. especially when 4 ghosts were hunting me and i dropped down, so those 4 ghosts went out of screen. When I came back up to those ghosts, there were incorrectly redrawn one over each other and they also left some characters of them at position when i scrolled to them.

 

nice game. do you really enjoy working still on it year after release? (I could not stand watching into RR code after we released abbuc version, now when final version v RR is released, i consider it closed,sealed, hopefully never seen in future )

 

Martin

[+therealbountybob]

Is the progress bar gone?

 

I thought this was a new feature in the game, so I downloaded RC7, but i do not see it on my Atari 800XE PAL.

 

Do I need to press a key to enable it?

You get this after the first round, then a 2nd version (I think)

 

p.s. the abbuc version had that killer bit where you had to be pixel perfect, the later versions are a bit easier but still challenging. Great game would love to see another release with different layouts

[Jacques]

RC7 is great, superb playability, GFX and intro, wow! However it doesn't load with in 3x SIO speed, probably due to animated "LOADYNK" letters (it's hanging and trying to load again and again on this screen)

Anyway, loads without any problem with 1x SIO speed or SIDE

[Creature XL]

Oh finally some comments about MJO

 

First, the progress bar SHOULD appear. However, it's hard to debug. I didn't bother debugging as I thought not much guys were playing it.

There are two types of progress bar. The first should appear if you finish it under 30 minutes. Then the progress bar shows you whre you are in the tower. More specific, how far you got. So when you fall down, it displays the former maximum.

The 2nd type should appear when you finish the game in under 15 (or 12?) minutes. This progress bar shows additionally where you were at the same time (in 30 second steps) in your best run.

Both bar should give you a bit of motivation to improve your skills. I am able to finish it in under 8 minutes IIRC

But is awesome addictive. Some month ago I just tested it on the Pandora... the short test evolved in two complete play-troughs

 

If there is indeed interest, I will see what I can do. However, I am in the middle of developing the engine for the next game, which will be awesome IFF all my ideas are really do able on the A8.

Coming to Matosimi's post. There are some minor glitches with the moving enemies. I might have an idea how to fix that. Here the same as above applies. It's not an easy fix as the ones I made from RC6 -> RC7.

But it seems it is of interest, so I might do it when I hit a wall in the current game a need a distraction.

Enjoying working on MJO? As the code isn't as clean as the code of "HAR'em" or my current stuff - no I don't But fixing the mentioned bugs would mean it is "final", so that motivates a bit.

 

As for more levels. I will definitely don't make them. We looked into the 2nd level from the original game there are some rooms with lot's of sprites, however, if those were left out it would be possible. And it is a bit harder

If anyone wants to do it - or any other new level - just ask. The one should be familiar with CharPad as the level is a simple map (16*1071 2x2 tiles IIRC).

To include more levels I would "just" load them into extended RAM. To use them I guess I would just have to copy/depack them in the same place I have them now. So not much work for me.

 

 

Oh yeah. The issues with loading from some loaders and/or hi-speed is known. The hi-speed problems are of course due to the animated "loadynk"-screen which I like and will not remove.

As state above, I even added a pause for emulator users so they can enjoy it The main program will only start when 3 seconds has passed from starting the loading screen

 

The problems with some loaders because of the RAM areas I use. (in fact I use all the RAM there is ) However, I guess with some rearrangements (that is the big plus when using the CC65-linker) it should be doable.

 

We were planing a hi-score list on our web-site. However, OSon has really no time for Atari-stuff at all, so this won't happen soon

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hi there !

 

I would like to see a final (RC8) version of MJO, so whenever you find the time...

 

And as you already know, I would not mind if this final version gets released as a fullgame version (with all intros) and also as a maingame-only version (without any intros)...

 

Greetings, Andreas Koch.

Edited January 21, 2013 by CharlieChaplin

[Creature XL]

 

And as you already know, I would not mind if this final version gets released as a fullgame version (with all intros) and also as a maingame-only version (without any intros)...

 

Crap! I remembered our conversation about a "mini version", however, not the details

I think I promised such a version when I fixed the stuff for RC7. Hmm.. sorry. Now oyu have to wait till I make RC8/"final"

[Mathy]

Hello Creature XL

 

NOMAM 2013 will be held from the 5th until the 7th of April. That's a lot of time for coding.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[Defender II]

Looks nice, another reason need to get the PAL mod. Maybe I can find my 600XL PAL, misplaced during move,

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hello Creature XL,

 

was there ever an update of MJO with the last mentioned bugs fixed aka RC-8 ?

 

And err, what about a "game-only-version" without any intros or pictures ?!?

 

Greetings, Andreas Koch.

 

 

 

Coming to Matosimi's post. There are some minor glitches with the moving enemies. I might have an idea how to fix that. Here the same as above applies. It's not an easy fix as the ones I made from RC6 -> RC7.
But it seems it is of interest, so I might do it when I hit a wall in the current game a need a distraction.
Enjoying working on MJO? As the code isn't as clean as the code of "HAR'em" or my current stuff - no I don't But fixing the mentioned bugs would mean it is "final", so that motivates a bit.

Edited March 18, 2014 by CharlieChaplin