Tezz Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Hi all,This is my new remake of Shahid Ahmad's classic game Chimera for the Atari XL XE.Chimera+ is a complete rewrite of the game from the ground up to create an enhanced version with the goal of optimising performance for faster gameplay, changing the controls and, adding the features missing in the original Atari release. The new version works on both PAL and NTSC machines with a minimum of 48k.Here's a summary of the new features:The Spaceman (yes it's not a robot!) is now a masked hardware sprite procedure which means it's also independently coloured from the backgrounds.The room sprites are now drawn and updated dirty rectangleThe game now has directional joystick movement like the c64 version rather than rotate and walk as the original Atari version hadThe gameplay maintains a consistant speed regardless of the size of the room or what is occurring within it.The rooms all have a new colour scheme designed instead of the ubiquitous shades of the same colour monochrome originalThe vocal samples are now featured including the famous scream.I disassembled and ported Rob Hubbard's c64 music player procedures which I'm playing via Święty/Saint's Pokey SID emulation procedures for the title music and game completion music.There's a new title screen which is a mix of the c64 and original Atari versionThe sound effects have been tweaked and there's no longer a clash of effects during gameplay. The walking and life support ECG sound effect have been changed.The gameplay screen is slightly larger than the original versionThanks to Popmilo and Phaeron for their support.Phaeron has kindly tested the game on various hardware configurations for me. With one 800xl equiped with Ultimate1Mb there was a lockup during the sample playback which wasn't reproduced on other machines or under emulation so that might be due to the Pokey installed in that particular machine. Please let me know if this occurs with anyone elses machine. To fit all the new features in and keep the game within 48k I've removed the broken Kettle of Fish game. My original intention was to retain Chimera+ running under the OS rom so the new game would be compatible with 48k 400/800 machines. The OS VBL takes up too much time however so the title screen with sid music fell down under ntsc and I needed full control for the sample playback so it was pointless in the end working around the OS rom and memory restriction. Here's a brief YouTube video. If you're using the Chrome browser you can view the video at 1080 50fps I'll add a packed version with the loading picture here at some point.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgWk6ZCfEjo chimera+.xex 36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Brilliant....Instantly more playable and given the extra love it needed.. Thanks Tezz and all involved for the excellent work.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powersoft Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Will test it soon... Loved this game these times back. Got here in my collection the original tape version. Which got a really cool unusual tape box. Thanks tezz, this will surly bring memories back with a new view onto today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 (edited) Thanks Tezz and good to see you managed to finish / release it. Just watchted the video... it is so faster than the slow original... I am so used to the stumping sound from the old days... that it sounds like "fast forward" which SID-routine did you use? Edited February 13, 2015 by Heaven/TQA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R4ngerM4n Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Good old memories ... excellent enhancements! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotek_style Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Thanks a lot! Are there more enhanced games planned? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Thank you for that, Tezz! And keeping fingers crossed for Manic Miner... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 That is SUPERB - awesome work! sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Thanks to all for the kind words. I hope many will play it to completion without Googling the solution or cheating which SID-routine did you use? I'm using Święty/Saint's Pokey SID emulation procedures. Thank you for that, Tezz! And keeping fingers crossed for Manic Miner... MM is up next on the list. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 What to say? Chimera has finally become a game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 (edited) Tezz, Thank you so much. And as Emkay has said, it has finally become a game! I found the original (with respect to Shahid as technically it is an amazing game) too slow to play and this has now come good. Thanks for all of your time. Now I will ask the question I usually ask when someone has worked on something for a long time, is the code open enough to be adaptable to a similar but brand new game? And thanks for the better control method, it is appreciated! Good luck with MM! Appreciative Steve. Edited February 13, 2015 by snicklin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastRobPlus Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 The main sprite is a major improvement! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 WOW! Awesome job. Using the Pm with masking is such a great idea here. I never played much, but I tried hard with Chimera back then. The slow movement was really annoying, but even more annyoing were some bugs that made the game crash or impossible to complete. Did you also find/fix those? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 You've even made it onto Wikipedia... feel free to update it if you need to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28video_game%29#Sequel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHA Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Sweet! Bonus point for correctly detecting PAL/NTSC on my 'chimera' 800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Tezz... I ment which of the 2 SID play routines? I got public 2 sources... At least at atari source code archive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 This got me thinking - what other games would we like to see improved/updated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 ...is the code open enough to be adaptable to a similar but brand new game? Thanks Steve, yes absolutely I was considering creating a new game from the basis of the new procedures which is adaptable and can be extended for a host of new ideas. WOW! Awesome job. Using the Pm with masking is such a great idea here. I never played much, but I tried hard with Chimera back then. The slow movement was really annoying, but even more annyoing were some bugs that made the game crash or impossible to complete. Did you also find/fix those? Thanks Peter, yes there were several bugs here and there that I noticed. It's almost all rewritten, there's not too much recycled from the original procedures so hopefully I've not missed something and replicated an existing flaw. I've played the game through to completion several times whilst testing. One thing to mention for anyone unfamiliar with the original game, when you arm the warheads in the blue rooms you must be facing the exit or else you'll be killed. Tezz... I ment which of the 2 SID play routines? I got public 2 sources... At least at atari source code archive Oh sorry it was the first version that he released that I'm using Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Wow! How fast does he go now! Superb graphics, though I did kinda like the gruelling turn and move controls but I'll get used to the freedom. Are the layouts and items in the same locations as the original? Will be playing this one a lot. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Hi all, This is my new remake of Shahid Ahmad's classic game Chimera for the Atari XL XE... Wow, you did it ! Awesome work Tezz! Congratulations! Looks like a great start for this year! Hope doing business with you again soon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Are the layouts and items in the same locations as the original? Hi, yes all the rooms and items are in the same locations Will be playing this one a lot. Thank you Great! Let us know how you get on with it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Wow, you did it ! Awesome work Tezz! Congratulations! Thanks Vladimir, I'm happy to get it completed although I'll miss working on this now as it was enjoyable to do. I'm looking forward to your new Monk game progressing too, it will be something that hasn't been done before on the A8 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Thanks Steve, yes absolutely I was considering creating a new game from the basis of the new procedures which is adaptable and can be extended for a host of new ideas. Ooh, well, that leaves some options open for the future...! I like it when people design their software for potential future expansion / refinements / changes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Pop.... Yes, me waiting for Monk, too... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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