Jump to content
IGNORED

Alex Kidd on Miracle Island - Playable Demo


TheMole

Recommended Posts

Nice! Yeah, your purple one kind-of reminds me of how some of the original games were done with the game's stylized logo on the purple or red background. I did that in the original yellow font for some of my 4Anoid label mock-ups.

 

The black one I did was more of a mock-up, but I can work up a full proper quality one. I have a GIMP template I made for all of these, but I do not think I have the dimensions quite right for printing and cutting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@OLD CS1, your labels work fine--I just expand the borders for printing and cutting. I've done it with every label I've had printed so far, so I've got that process pretty much down pat. I like your Black label too, although it does need the Texas Instruments line to make it look more like the originals. . .but it looks nice without it too, so that is actually a difficult choice!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I was wondering if this game will be later ported to Zilog Z80 systems with the same VDP such as the Colecovision.

The Super Game Module provides some better audio and memory on the Colecovision now if you wished to toy with that.

Again, AFTER this is working and out, i was just wondering.

Possibly. I'll need to figure out how the Colecovision does its bankswitching, and how well SDCC will be able to handle the source code. I'd actually thought of doing a Master System port first, which also uses SDCC but has a different VDP. Maybe the Colecovision could be a nice step in between.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a doc on how I do Coleco bankswitching, there's not a lot else out there:

 

http://www.harmlesslion.com/software/switching

 

SDCC is pretty compatible, it has a couple of unusual memory features that impact recursion but they are usually not a problem, just have a quick read through the manual before you start.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The Arcade Board or the combination of the Mockingboard and EZ Color/Graphics Interface would give you a TMS9918 and AY8910 (or two) on an Apple ][ which might be useful for porting this there too.

 

*runs*

As long as the platform has a capable C compiler, I wouldn't rule anything out :). I need to get the TI version finished first though, before thinking about other platforms...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I finally got Alex Kidd game on cartridge :)

 

just a little problem, i updated my F18A to v1.7 firmware version and the game start always without F18A features...

maybe i should do something for turn on the advanced features ?

 

It appears to be checking for for the firmware version as part of the F18A detection and fails if it's not 1.6. It doesn't work in JS99er either where I'm returning 1.7 as the version, but if I change to 1.6 it works. The Mole will have to fix this.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

It appears to be checking for for the firmware version as part of the F18A detection and fails if it's not 1.6. It doesn't work in JS99er either where I'm returning 1.7 as the version, but if I change to 1.6 it works. The Mole will have to fix this.

 

I tried to patch the ROM image, but it's checking for the 1.6 Firmware in several places.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Ok, after much delay, I've uploaded a new version that fixes the firmware detection issue, as well as a screen tearing issue that was originally reported by Rasmus last year. Now I can get back to the fun parts (adding new stuff!).

 

Thanks for fixing the screen tearing issue. Does that mean you have hardware available for testing now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Thanks for fixing the screen tearing issue. Does that mean you have hardware available for testing now?

 

Unfortunately not, my home office still isn't back in order, so I'm restricted to emulation only at this point. So I probably should say that I hope the issue is fixed :). Before this change, the game logic and scrolling function used some of the same variables, and that limited where I could perform the scroll in the game loop (so I ended up scrolling after music and some game logic had been taken care off, which made the register change happen somewhere mid-frame), I split decoupled those functions and put the register update right after vblank occurs, so at least in theory that should fix the screen tearing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Unfortunately not, my home office still isn't back in order, so I'm restricted to emulation only at this point. So I probably should say that I hope the issue is fixed :). Before this change, the game logic and scrolling function used some of the same variables, and that limited where I could perform the scroll in the game loop (so I ended up scrolling after music and some game logic had been taken care off, which made the register change happen somewhere mid-frame), I split decoupled those functions and put the register update right after vblank occurs, so at least in theory that should fix the screen tearing.

 

I have tried it on the real iron and it's working well - no trace of screen tearing left. Only problem was that because the image does not have headers in all banks the cart didn't work with the first 378 chip I tried.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I have tried it on the real iron and it's working well - no trace of screen tearing left. Only problem was that because the image does not have headers in all banks the cart didn't work with the first 378 chip I tried.

 

Cool, good to hear it works, and thanks for testing!

 

Yeah, I only have headers in banks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 64 (all banks that contain code, and the last bank). I might look at this later on, but for now you need a cart that starts in one of those banks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll have some 512K cartridge boards that have a guaranteed start in bank 1 shortly. They will be otherwise fully compatible with Red board images, but they won't have as many different EPROM size options (there is only one jumper on this board).

Edited by Ksarul
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I finally got around to playing this on FinalGrom99 and it works... But I had to hold the fire button while starting, otherwise I get corrupted graphics and a lockup after the music plays for a few seconds. Was that ever fixed for 9918A console? (with no F18A) Plays great, and am glad that you added J2 Fire for Jump. Would you consider adding it to FinalGrom99 software thread in the TI 99 Computers Forum?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Huh... that's strange, never heard that before. Just to make sure I understand what's happening: you need to force the game into 9918a mode, because f18a mode crashes the computer? Or, it incorrectly detects an F18A in your system and that's what crashes the TI?

 

Awesome to hear that it works in the FinalGrom though, thanks for testing and for the kind words! I really hope I can get back to this at some point, I'd love to finish the friggin' thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I think that "F18A incorrectly detected when not actually present" what is causing the crash. Or I guess it could also be the detection code itself leaves the system in an unstable state even if the F18A in not detected. I do know that holding the fire button to bypass the detection does work, although it then skips past the lovely title screen too quickly.

 

Level 2 is hard!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...