Q-Bert - Fixed Feet/legs

[+MrFish]

Here's another one I've had in mind to work on for a while. In the original version when Q-Bert is going up the stack of blocks, his legs are the wrong lengths. The leg that should appear long is short and the leg that should appear short is long. This looks ridiculous, as he looks like he's crippled or something. Also, his feet should be at a slight angle -- but this is a minor point compared to the former.

 

So this is an attempt to improve his legs and feet, as well as tweaking the sprite itself somewhat. I'll probably continue and tweak a few of the other sprites, and most likely some of the fonts as well.

 

Here's Q-Bert after his leg and foot surgery, for starters:

 

Q-bert (Leg & Foot Fix).rom

 

[Edit: Actually, after having another quick look at the arcade, his feet are kinda messed up there -- as in not equal. But he definitely doesn't look as messed up as P.B. had him here on the Atari. I may revisit the edits, but for now I'm satisfied with it compared to how it was before.]

 

[+MrFish]

Improved a bunch of enemy animations/sprites, improved just about everything on the score/info panel, and fixed another GPRIOR problem that was causing Q*Bert's legs to go behind the disc when he was flying up to the top (another, "what were they thinking?").

 

[Edit: Hold on; a couple quick changes...]

 

[Edit 2: GPRIOR problem is a little deeper than I first thought. It will have to be left as it is for the time being.]

 

Q-bert (Improvements 9-18).rom

 

More to come...

Edited September 18, 2015 by MrFish

[twh/f2]

Fantastic work MrFish!! I always thought, that the 8bit version of Q*Bert looked a bit awkard. Fascinating how a few pixels can make such a difference.

 

Any chance to release an XEX (binary file) version, once you are finished with your modifications?

 

keep on!!

\twh!

Edited September 18, 2015 by twh/f2

[+MrFish]

Thanks. Yes, they'll be an XEX and a 5200 version.

 

Here's a list of current changes in a little more detail btw:

 

1. Just about everything in the info/score panel, including: Q*berts remaining, "Change To" arrows and cube, all fonts.

2. Over half the sprites and animations, including: Q*bert, Coily, Slick/Sam, and the bouncing balls.

 

BTW, if you want to view the animation changes more casually, you can disable P/M collisions in Altirra under the "Cheat" menu.

[+Zeptari]

This is why I need a sd multicart. Comparison pics please.

I love q*bert.. anything that makes it better is ok with me.

the best fix would be the audio noise when he gets pissed off.

[Kyle22]

OK, this is a long shot, but I have to ask. 2 questions, actually:

 

1: How about for the very lucky owners of the 14xx models, pushing random data to the SC-01 V: device as in the arcade game.

and

2: Is there any reasonable way to make PoKey produce similar, or at least acceptable sounds?

 

For example, when Coily falls off the pyramid.

 

This might encourage developers to produce a PBI V: device to enhance this game, and it would be useful in many applications.

 

I have been putting some serious thought into this, and I think it would be fairly easy to add a speech device to the PBI. It gets us one step closer to the 14xx. (we don't need the modem anymore.)

[Level42]

I'm away for the weekend so can't try this yet but fantastic to see improvements on A8 Q*bert !!!

 

I'm lucky enough to actually own the original arcade machine and what I've always found most annoying is that Q*bert has no eyes on the A8. He looks like a ghost, while he should look pretty adorable. I realize this is because he's a single Player on the A8 but would there be a free player/missile to add eyes ?

 

I never realized the 1400 machines speech synth was a SC-01, that's the same as the original arcade machine. Are there schematics of how its interfaced on the A8? Would be awesome to add one to regular XLs.

[+MrFish]

This is why I need a sd multicart. Comparison pics please.

I love q*bert.. anything that makes it better is ok with me.

the best fix would be the audio noise when he gets pissed off.

 

No comparison pics right now, but you can check some screenshots and an updated ROM on the post that follows this one.

 

Yeah, they didn't really put much time into Q*bert's death sounds as they should/could have. It's really beyond the scope of what I'm interested in doing though.

 

 

1: How about for the very lucky owners of the 14xx models, pushing random data to the SC-01 V: device as in the arcade game.

2: Is there any reasonable way to make PoKey produce similar, or at least acceptable sounds?

 

As I mentioned above, this is not where I'm going with this hack. Cool about the SC-01 being the same chip as in Q-bert though; I didn't know that. That being the case -- and having a lot of applications for games -- it'd be nice to see an upgrade available for standard XL's and XE's using one in the future.

 

 

I'm away for the weekend so can't try this yet but fantastic to see improvements on A8 Q*bert !!!

 

I'm lucky enough to actually own the original arcade machine and what I've always found most annoying is that Q*bert has no eyes on the A8. He looks like a ghost, while he should look pretty adorable. I realize this is because he's a single Player on the A8 but would there be a free player/missile to add eyes ?

 

I never realized the 1400 machines speech synth was a SC-01, that's the same as the original arcade machine. Are there schematics of how its interfaced on the A8? Would be awesome to add one to regular XLs.

 

I think Q*bert himself is actually the 5th-Player / 4-Missiles, and there is no multiplexing here. So the code would have to be reworked in order to add more color.

[+MrFish]

A few screenshots of the current state:

 

 

 

 

A few updates reflected in the above pictures:

 

1. Coily has been improved

2. The "Change To" cube has been improved

3. A few other font and positioning changes

 

Q-bert (Improvements 9-19).rom

Edited September 19, 2015 by MrFish

[Shawn Jefferson]

Nice work! I always found the controls in Q-bert frustrating... the joystick control just isn't intuitive, but I guess this is like the arcade? (I never really got much into Q-bert, and after throwing the joystick down after Q-bert jumps into thin air when I just want him to go "up", pretty much soured me on this game.)

[José Pereira]

Mr Fish I think strange that Qbert be the 5th Missiles because if you count colours you'll get that:

-> BAK black;

-> sides colour and the two floor colours;

-> then those circle discs on the two sides has always a green whatever pyramid colours are;

 

From this I would say that it maybe is using ANTIC4 charmode and for simple coding the PF2 and PF3 are the two floors colours, like PF2 then you pass over it and it turns to PF3.

There are other Qbert clones that does this and more, the two sides walls are one PF0 and the other PF1.

Of course that this way you can't use the Missiles for his eyes.

And I have to see but I think that, like you said, there's no multiplexing and they are 4 on screen, Qbert + 3.

Edited September 19, 2015 by José Pereira

[José Pereira]

Got it, run monitor, indeed Qbert is a Player, P3, you can see that he's always behind less priority than the other guys.

But I still can't get and don't have knowledge to go ahead at the monitor to see if it's in bitmap or in charmode.

[+MrFish]

Nice work! I always found the controls in Q-bert frustrating... the joystick control just isn't intuitive, but I guess this is like the arcade? (I never really got much into Q-bert, and after throwing the joystick down after Q-bert jumps into thin air when I just want him to go "up", pretty much soured me on this game.)

 

I think that's a pretty common feeling about the controls. If you look at the manual, they instruct you to hold the joystick as pictured below. This makes controlling Q*bert intuitive -- if a little awkward for being a different than normal way to hold the controller. I'm actually pretty accustomed to using a keyboard with the game, but I'd prefer the controls to be done properly or at least have an option for configuring the controller -- which is what some versions of Q*bert have done on other platforms.

 

 

 

Actually, the best Q*bert clone, hands-down, on the Atari 8-bits is Xagon. The is very well done, has its own twist on the concept, and has the controls done right. Highly recommended.

 

Edited September 19, 2015 by MrFish

[José Pereira]

P.s.- Maybe they change Qbert Player and guy(s) ones numbers according to their position on the pyramid, wich is front or behind...

Edited September 19, 2015 by José Pereira

[+MrFish]

Mr Fish I think strange that Qbert be the 5th Missiles because if you count colours you'll get that:

-> BAK black;

-> sides colour and the two floor colours;

-> then those circle discs on the two sides has always a green whatever pyramid colours are;

 

From this I would say that it maybe is using ANTIC4 charmode and for simple coding the PF2 and PF3 are the two floors colours, like PF2 then you pass over it and it turns to PF3.

There are other Qbert clones that does this and more, the two sides walls are one PF0 and the other PF1.

Of course that this way you can't use the Missiles for his eyes.

And I have to see but I think that, like you said, there's no multiplexing and they are 4 on screen, Qbert + 3.

 

Got it, run monitor, indeed Qbert is a Player, P3, you can see that he's always behind less priority than the other guys.

But I still can't get and don't have knowledge to go ahead at the monitor to see if it's in bitmap or in charmode.

 

Actually I'd checked it already, it's in Antic 4 (except for the last line, "status").

 

You're right though. I'd actually thought of this after I posted the above, as the 5th player will take on the same color as the 5th color in Antic 4. I was thinking that was the case because we have the same color used up above in the score/info panel, but then this color would also have to appear on the lower part of the display, in the cubes. So yeah, I just hadn't thought that all the way through before I posted.

[+MrFish]

P.s.- Maybe they change Qbert Player and guy(s) ones numbers according to their position on the pyramid, wich is front or behind...

 

I doubt this is the case, because they're using the hardware collision registers. So it would never be an issue.

Edited September 19, 2015 by MrFish

[+Stephen]

 

I think that's a pretty common feeling about the controls. If you look at the manual, they instruct you to hold the joystick as pictured below. This makes controlling Q*bert intuitive -- if a little awkward for being a different than normal way to hold the controller. I'm actually pretty accustomed to using a keyboard with the game, but I'd prefer the controls to be done properly or at least have an option for configuring the controller -- which is what some versions of Q*bert have done on other platforms.

 

Untitled-1.png

 

 

Actually, the best Q*bert clone, hands-down, on the Atari 8-bits is Xagon. The is very well done, has its own twist on the concept, and has the controls done right. Highly recommended.

 

xagon.png

Agreed about Xagon. I played that game probably more than any other back when I still was on 300 baud modem. I always hated Q*Bert. It was fun to watch, shit to play.

[+MrFish]

Agreed about Xagon. I played that game probably more than any other back when I still was on 300 baud modem. I always hated Q*Bert. It was fun to watch, shit to play.

 

The A8's actually have quite a few decent Q*bert clones and Q*bert type games. Atarimania even has a separate genre for them: Q*bert Genre Games

 

Of those, I'd say Rainbow Walker and Flip & Flop are two standouts, although Flip & Flop more for being a nice production rather than a particularly good game. It's good enough, but I don't find it as interesting as Rainbow Walker and some of the other more Q*bert-like games.

[FifthPlayer]

I didn't know about Xagon before, so thanks for the pointer. It looks interesting but I couldn't quite figure out how to play. I just googled and Atari Age has a thread on it: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/98003-xagon-how-do-you-play/

 

Rainbow Walker was my pick for best Q*Bert clone from the day. It's one of a class of games, like Blue Max (Zaxxon), Dropzone (Defender), and Yar's Revenge (Star Castle) that take their game mechanics from an arcade original, but have been written to the capabilities of the hardware (in this case, the superb rainbow DLI color effects).

 

I also tried out the official A8 Q*Bert yesterday on my 130XE (My PC isn't accessible ATM to burn your fixed version to an AtariMax cart). I was amazed just how unresponsive the controls are in this game, even when you turn the stick 45 degrees. Half the time the game doesn't register the joystick and Q*Bert dies all the time. I don't have any problems with this controller (a Flashback CX-40 replica joystick) in other games.

Edited September 20, 2015 by FifthPlayer

[kenjennings]

On the subject of Q-bert clones and play-a-likes, there was also Pogo Joe on the Atari.

 

[+MrFish]

I didn't know about Xagon before, so thanks for the pointer. It looks interesting but I couldn't quite figure out how to play. I just googled and Atari Age has a thread on it: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/98003-xagon-how-do-you-play/

 

Yeah, it's not immediately apparent what you're doing in the game exactly, and that you can eject the enemies using your button. Nicely done game though, with solid graphics.

 

 

Rainbow Walker was my pick for best Q*Bert clone from the day. It's one of a class of games, like Blue Max (Zaxxon), Dropzone (Defender), and Yar's Revenge (Star Castle) that take their game mechanics from an arcade original, but have been written to the capabilities of the hardware (in this case, the superb rainbow DLI color effects).

 

Rainbow Walker is great, and definitely makes good use of the Atari's capabilities. It has some of the best graphics on the machine, and nice multicolor sprites. I find some of the graphics a little quirky though, like the color cycling they do when the rainbow scrolls. It's nigh to seizure inducing. I think the game could use a little polish her and there as well, but definitely a great game for the machine.

 

 

I also tried out the official A8 Q*Bert yesterday on my 130XE (My PC isn't accessible ATM to burn your fixed version to an AtariMax cart). I was amazed just how unresponsive the controls are in this game, even when you turn the stick 45 degrees. Half the time the game doesn't register the joystick and Q*Bert dies all the time. I don't have any problems with this controller (a Flashback CX-40 replica joystick) in other games.

 

Strange, I don't have this problem at all.

[+therealbountybob]

Hope to see a file version of these improvements when you are done

[+MrFish]

Hope to see a file version of these improvements when you are done

 

Yes, same as all the others I'm working on; they'll be a ROM, XEX, and 5200 version.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Hey nice updates to this cool game MrFish!

[FifthPlayer]

Strange, I don't have this problem at all.

 

OK, it's me then. I'll dig up a different controller to try.