AtariBrian Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) I was playing sector 3 and I killed all 4 of the enemies and it said bonus ? I missed with 1 shot though . I just got my personal high score of 31,210 ... I think I still had a guy left but I ran out of fuel and my game ended . It seems like I kept getting secret bonuses on quite a few boards, especially sector 4 . Btw how many warps do you get and can you earn extra ones ? Edited January 17, 2014 by AtariBrian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 The latest build seems to have broken the "sonar" sound during docking. Asteroids make no explosion sound when shot.These were related. I was trying to remedy the 'crackling' sound heard during the enemy drone on the real thing. I've removed the changes. Compared to how spot-on the rest of the sounds are, the enemy firing sound seems really "crunchy" and out of place. Listening to the arcade version, it seems like the enemy firing sound is supposed to kind of sound like the player firing sound in reverse.Hmmm... I hear something different (I've been comparing to Version 3 of the arcade). I hear a different sound altogether than the player shot. I had thought I got fairly close with what I came up with... Is there any way to get TIA to approximate the deep rumble sound during the asteroid phase?I'll give that a shot and see what I can come up with. Also, I noticed that the player can still fire after getting killed, while the explosion is playing. The arcade version doesn't allow that.Fixed. I actually purposely put that in there, as I was watching the 'demo' on the arcade and noticed that the demo can still shoot while the death animation was happening. I now see that during an actual game, this is not the case. I was playing sector 3 and I killed all 4 of the enemies and it said bonus ? I missed with 1 shot though . I just got my personal high score of 31,210 ...Congrats on your high score I am now unable to get any secret bonuses that aren't supposed to be... If it happens to you again, please let me know which bonus it was and what squadron of sector 4 it was. I think I still had a guy left but I ran out of fuel and my game ended . It seems like I kept getting secret bonuses on quite a few boards, especially sector 4 . Btw how many warps do you get and can you earn extra ones ?Yep - once you run out of fuel, the game ends no matter how many ships you have in reserve. You get one warp per ship, or per sector. Updated BIN here, but not an RC until I work on the Asteroid Rumble. Thanks! Bob AstBlstr.A78 AstBlstr.bin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) Hmmm... I hear something different (I've been comparing to Version 3 of the arcade). I hear a different sound altogether than the player shot. Nevermind, I loaded the MAME sounds up in an editor and my previous statement was completely wrong. They're both high-to-low transitions, with the enemy shot sound being higher-pitched than the player shot sound. It seems at the very least the 7800 version should use the same distortion setting for both effects. sfx-enemy bullet.wav sfx-player bullet.wav Edited January 17, 2014 by ZylonBane 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Nice sound captures ZB... I previously had media player set to "repeat", which helps with hearing the differences having the continous playback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Nice sound captures ZB... I didn't capture them. As noted, they're just files from the MAME audio pack for Astro Blaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I didn't capture them. As noted, they're just files from the MAME audio pack for Astro Blaster. Ah...I thought when you posted, "I loaded the MAME sounds up in an editor" you were referring to playback of emulated sounds vs. playback of captured sound files. Still, appreciate the post, ZB. If anyone else is interested in some captured arcade sound files utilized by MAME, there is a nice list here: http://samples.mameworld.info/Current%20Samples.htm Most of MAME's music/sound files are emulated. For those that have not been due to protection or other factors, MAME utilizes the above set of files during its emulation of that game. Sure enough, Astro Blaster is on the list; partial though, as some of the sound effects evidently have been emulated without the need of external files. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 Will look at over this weekend. Have lots of packing to do as I finally got my closing date! Thanks - I appreciate the feedback. (Every time I use the word feedback, I think of the beginning of "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles) Bob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 A couple things I was wondering about TIA sound, not Astro Blaster specifically-- It seems most sound drivers only run during VBLANK, meaning sound can't update any faster than 60Hz, which in turn means that rapid sliding/oscillation effects just can't be done accurately. Would it be practical on the 7800 (or even possible) to have a driver that also updated in the middle of the screen, boosting the update rate to 120Hz? The way the enemy and player shot sounds step on each other in Astro Blaster, got me thinking how it would sound if enemy shot sounds only played on even frames, and player shot sounds only played on odd frames. Has any 2600/7800 game ever tried this "arpeggio" approach, time-splitting a single channel to get two virtual interlaced channels? It would have a distinct sound, that's for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 That's funny; I had tried updating virtual 'channels' every other frame some time ago, and the result was *not* pretty. I was just looking for my example, but it looks like I don't have it any more. It was kind of like sprite multiplexing on the 2600, but for audio instead. Yes, you can update the sound driver more than once on a screen (with a DLI) but the more DLIs, the more CPU time it takes away from game logic for each frame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Yeah, I'd considered the CPU overhead. A sound driver could pre-compute the next values for the sound registers and stash this data somewhere, so the DLI only has to load, store, and return. With certain limitations in place (like only pitch changes, or only one channel allowed to be updated), the CPU hit from a scheme like this should be miniscule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 Hi All! Here is RC5: - Made the player and enemy shots use the same distortion value, except at different pitches. - Added the asteroid field rumble AtariBrian - I checked sector 4, and couldn't get an issue when the secret bonus appeared undeservedly. Please let me know if you run into it again, which bonus it gave you, and which squadron it was within sector 4. Thanks guys! Bob AstBlstr.A78 AstBlstr.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriel Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) This is the first new version I've been able to play in about a week. Not sure if this is a problem or not. I had a massive fail and couldn't kill all the enemies on Easy Sector 3 Wave 1 before one of them got off the bottom of the screen. Then when it wrapped back around to the top, it was all four enemies again. Is it normal for the whole wave to respawn like that? Since there have been a lot of sound touch ups since last time I played (the rumble during the asteroid field helps a lot), isn't there supposed to be a sound that plays while the fuel unloads for the bonus? Edit: Quick note. During the end of Sector 2, the asteroid rumble didn't stop during the docking sequence, although it ended after docking was completed. This hasn't been happening regularly. When it did occur, I had died shortly before the end of the asteroid sequence. I had also been bouncing in and out of the emulator window (pausing the game) during play, so that might have had something to do with it too. Edited January 18, 2014 by Gabriel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 Hey Gabriel: Yes, the waves with 4 enemies respawn completely if you die, or miss any. Don't know how I missed the sound when the fuel unloads. I'll add it. I've put code in to make sure the Asteroid rumble sound stops no matter what after the stage is completed. So that shouldn't happen any more. I'll post a bin once I get the 'fuel unload' sound in. Thanks, Bob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 This appears to be heading towards instant classic status as we've come to expect of you Bob, particularly because of your willingness to listen to feedback. You good sir are a genius. I can't remember if I've said so in this thread yet, but I'm in as always for a copy. Has Marc put together a box yet? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIKON Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 I have said before and I will say it again WE HAVE ASTROBLASTER!!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 This appears to be heading towards instant classic status as we've come to expect of you Bob, particularly because of your willingness to listen to feedback. You good sir are a genius. I can't remember if I've said so in this thread yet, but I'm in as always for a copy. Has Marc put together a box yet? Yes. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/375/entry-10728-astro-blaster-atari-7800/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 Thanks, iesposta for the link. Here is RC6, with the fuel unload sound added. Enjoy! AstBlstr.A78 AstBlstr.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Don't know how I missed the sound when the fuel unloads. I'll add it. I'd noticed that sound missing but assumed you'd left it out on purpose. What about the sound that plays between enemy waves? About the shot noises, I was thinking you were going to make the enemy shots sound more like the player shot, instead of the other way around. I rather liked the old player shot sound, it didn't sound nearly as grating as the enemy shots. But, your call of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Bob... The 'LASER TEMP CRITICAL' message does not clear prior to the 'PREPARE TO DOCK' message appears on screen: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Yes. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/375/entry-10728-astro-blaster-atari-7800/ Excellent, thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 (edited) Dockal.. it will be viral like pwnd.. In fact I said it three times so it is so Edited January 19, 2014 by Jinks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 It has this French twang to it heh... la prepare to dockal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 - Ok. I found out that the "squadron over" sound (i,e, the sound that plays between squadrons) is the same as the enemy shot sound with a stuttering repeat. Added. - Put back the original player shot sound. It already was the highest frequency for that distortion, so I couldn't make the enemy shot sound the same distortion but higher. I did change the distortion from $07 to $01. Hopefully it sounds better. - Fixed 'La prepare' RC7 attached. AstBlstr.A78 AstBlstr.bin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeguychicago Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I've never seen or played the arcade game but tried one of the recent builds on the ProSystem emulator and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is going to be another must-buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmervine Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I downloaded and a have been playing RC7 on Prosystem...this game is destined to become a 7800 classic! Bob, my only comment is that you could shorten up the warning for the laser temp so that it doesn't stay on the screen as long. This is really a nit....awesome game!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.