Elansar & Yopaz IceStar, 2 new games available for Jaguar CD !

[racerx]

Yopaz IceStar

 

My copy is working great with my JagCD unit. I booted it a number of times and it did not fail a single time. I rarely have issues with my CD unit so I don't know if it is related to the sensitivity of a particular unit or if I just got lucky.

 

I've tried with three different CD units, and mine will read every kind of cheap CD-R I've ever thrown at them, so it doesn't look to be a sensitivity issue.

[+BitJag]

Recieved both games today. Wanted to quickly report what I have experienced with my purchase from Console 5, so far.

 

Elansar CD

 

I have played through it completely, and the only issue I ran into, was the intro video. About 5 seconds in, it would pause, the audio would continue, and then, right before the fade out at the end of the video, it would continue.

 

Could the pause in the video be a bit-rate issue. From what I understand, and please correct me if I am wrong, the read speed on the Jaguar CD is topped out at 300 KB/s. So, could it be that the bit-rate of the video exceeds that 300 KB/s limit, temporarily, causing the video stream to stop for that portion of the video? (I am not sure what kind of behavior an exceeded bit-rate would have on the hardware). That doesn't quite explain why the audio would still be playing though, unless the Jaguar is handling both streams separately, on the fly. Maybe a bad video conversion?

 

Playing it through this time has been much more gratifying. I appreciate the work that went into this game, and it would be awesome to see more games like it in the future. Personally preference of course

 

Yopaz Ice Star

 

Works great. Played through a bunch of levels, no problems.

______________________

 

Regardless, thanks Orion_ for another set of great releases. Keep'em coming!

[ovalbugmann]

Not that I know what's going on with the Elansar cd intro, but yes video will black out/freeze if the bitrate is too high. Dont have any idea if thats whats happening here tho. I haven't done any cinepak cds in years and forgot the details of the proceedure,(was thinking of doing some more for jagfans lol) but I do remember the max aspect ratio & bitrate and it is: 320x240 @ 352.8kbps but I used to keep it to about 320x200 and 310-330kbps. I'd like to start making some videos again, keep them on the new megaupload site for everybody, lol, jagmod updated his converter last year too. I could also re-release the three cinepaks that I did for the now defunct, jaguarsector site too.

Edited August 17, 2014 by ovalbugmann

[Orion_]

If found this video on a german forum, prooving that Yopaz is working:

So it's not a mastering problem, or a data problem.

 

My Jaguar is fixed (thanks to a friend of mine), it will come back to my home next week, then I will start to test All my remaining Yopaz CD.

Two possible scenario:

-Some CD won't boot on my JagCD, so I will keep only the ones that boot correctly and send these to people with defective Yopaz CD.

-All the CDs will boot correctly on my JagCD, and then I just can't say if my JagCD is super tolerent, or if all your JagCD units are not cool with me, or a bios problem ? or murphy's playing with my nerves, idk..

 

In any case, CD-R for JagCD is a no !

I even wonder If I will ever try to make another game with pressed CD. I might, but this adventure has really put me off.

Edited August 17, 2014 by Orion_

[Orion_]

Also, about Elansar video problem, I once had this "freeze" during development, and it was a too high bitrate, the CD couldn't keep with the speed.

So I lowered the bitrate, but since the camera in the video is moving a lot, and the island is very detailed, the video stream contains a lot of data, so the JagCD must really don't have any read error, else it will freeze to sync to another part of the video later.

The only other video is the Ending video.

About the image quality, it's difficult to see those on a small CRT screen, since the cartridge version is using JPEG like compression, you almost won't notice the difference.

The CD version use full raw data, with a nice 16bits dithering on color gradients such as the sky, (where as the cartridge version was flat and blocky on the color gradients)

About the easter egg, it's a new addition to the CD version (the cartridge version don't have it to save rom space)

It's a reference to the classic point & click game Monkey Island 1

Edited August 17, 2014 by Orion_

[Hyper_Eye]

About the easter egg, it's a new addition to the CD version (the cartridge version don't have it to save rom space)

It's a reference to the classic point & click game Monkey Island 1

 

Aha! I should be ashamed. I knew I didn't see it in the cartridge version but I wasn't sure if it was because I didn't trigger it. Nice little tidbit there!

[82-T/A]

I even wonder If I will ever try to make another game with pressed CD. I might, but this adventure has really put me off.

 

 

Yeah, I can imagine how something like this would suck. I really hope it hasn't been too discouraging... your games are excellent, and we all really appreciate the effort. I know it's a labor of love, rather than for $$$ (or €), and we appreciate that.

[+save2600]

Yeah Orion, please don't let any hiccups like this sour you too much. You're one of the finest Jaguar developers we've ever had. Through experiences like these, things will only get better!

[sh3-rg]

So could that be a 50Hz vs 60Hz issue potentially? At 50Hz the bitrate of the video is just under the threshold, at 60Hz it craps out?

 

 

Also, about Elansar video problem, I once had this "freeze" during development, and it was a too high bitrate, the CD couldn't keep with the speed.

So I lowered the bitrate, but since the camera in the video is moving a lot, and the island is very detailed, the video stream contains a lot of data, so the JagCD must really don't have any read error, else it will freeze to sync to another part of the video later.

The only other video is the Ending video.

About the image quality, it's difficult to see those on a small CRT screen, since the cartridge version is using JPEG like compression, you almost won't notice the difference.

The CD version use full raw data, with a nice 16bits dithering on color gradients such as the sky, (where as the cartridge version was flat and blocky on the color gradients)

About the easter egg, it's a new addition to the CD version (the cartridge version don't have it to save rom space)

It's a reference to the classic point & click game Monkey Island 1

[Orion_]

the video should play at the given FPS no matter the Hz of the screen

[omf]

Not that I know what's going on with the Elansar cd intro, but yes video will black out/freeze if the bitrate is too high. Dont have any idea if thats whats happening here tho. I haven't done any cinepak cds in years and forgot the details of the proceedure,(was thinking of doing some more for jagfans lol) but I do remember the max aspect ratio & bitrate and it is: 320x240 @ 352.8kbps but I used to keep it to about 320x200 and 310-330kbps. I'd like to start making some videos again, keep them on the new megaupload site for everybody, lol, jagmod updated his converter last year too. I could also re-release the three cinepaks that I did for the now defunct, jaguarsector site too.

i may have some information still on this, i remember talking to you about the process. i don't recall if it was here or js2 though, obviously if it was js2 its gone

[Orion_]

ok so, I got my fixed Jaguar today and I could do some test.
It's not a CD problem as I thought (since the encryption test of the bios pass each time)
It's just a nasty bug in my program, I just don't understand because I never had it before.
It seems that when I clear the entire memory, the program might not boot (sometimes it does !)
But it's really a random behavior.

So, here is a little fix you can try:
Put your Memory Track cartridge in the JagCD slot with the Yopaz in the CD tray.
Start your jaguar while holding the "option" button, so it will start the Memory Track manager
Once you are on the Memory track manager screen, shut down your Jaguar, and quickly start it again.
Yopaz might boot now ...
I hope this will fix the issue, I'm really sorry about that.
Else you can try booting with a game cartridge, shut down the jaguar, remove the cartridge and start it again.
Please let me now if it fix the issue, thank you.

For the tech people, the only difference at boot between Yopaz and Elansar/Philia, is this little routine I'm calling, and I used this one a lot before, and it always worked so ...

	clr.w	NextOPlistSize
	clr.w	CurOPlistSize
	move.l	#StopObject,d0
	swap	d0
	move.l	d0,OLP

Edited August 21, 2014 by Orion_

[masematte]

ill try both solution , but i didn´t start sorry for that....

[+CyranoJ]

maybe #StopObject isn't phrase aligned?

 

	clr.w	NextOPlistSize
	clr.w	CurOPlistSize
	move.l	#StopObject,d0
	swap	d0
	move.l	d0,OLP

[Orion_]

well, in fact, the StopObject was in data segment before, and I moved it to BSS segment, so I call this code before the stopobject is initialised to dc.l 0,4

now depending on the data in this part of memory, the OP might trash some memory and that's why it won't start.

now, I'm really wondering why this always worked on my jaguar...

I will try to make new disk with this problem fixed

[+CyranoJ]

Because BJL disables VI, but the BIOS doesn't. So you get an interrupt and it kills the system.

[Orion_]

ok after multiples test, I think I fixed the problem, I will produce new CD and will send them to people who ordered me Yopaz

[masematte]

Wow sounds great

[Hyper_Eye]

well, in fact, the StopObject was in data segment before, and I moved it to BSS segment, so I call this code before the stopobject is initialised to dc.l 0,4

now depending on the data in this part of memory, the OP might trash some memory and that's why it won't start.

now, I'm really wondering why this always worked on my jaguar...

I will try to make new disk with this problem fixed

That is very interesting! I wonder why it worked on my Jag. I have a view Jags. I should try them all and see if it works with them all and, if not, what the difference between them is.

[Hyper_Eye]

It boots on my K model. It does not boot on my M models.

[+Sargon]

ok after multiples test, I think I fixed the problem, I will produce new CD and will send them to people who ordered me Yopaz

 

That is good news. Will the "fixed" version go back up for sale for new orders?

[Zerosquare]

There are two different boot ROMs, one for the K model and the other for the M model. There are some differences in how they initialize the video registers, and probably other things too:

http://www.jagware.org/index.php?showtopic=1012

[TrekMD]

ok after multiples test, I think I fixed the problem, I will produce new CD and will send them to people who ordered me Yopaz

It's good to see you've found a solution for the problem, Orion. I have a question. I got my Yopaz through Console 5. I'm testing it this weekend to see if it works properly. How can I get a replacement CD should I have a problem with my Yopaz CD?

[FABombjoy]

Once I have replacements, I will ship to my customers and reopen the remaining stock for sale.

 

Orion, if you want to send them all in one lot, I'd be happy to send replacements to your other US-based orders too, assuming you are OK with that. Would probably save you quite a bit in postage costs.

[PlaysWithWolves]

What a bummer, Orion. I'll let you in on a little secret, if you promise you won't tell anyone: Protector: Resurgence almost got produced with a major save game bug because it wasn't showing up in the emulator (which made it easier for testing), and easily-missed on the hardware. Thankfully, Carl caught it in time.

 

I'm glad you figured it out.