Next "arcadify" suggestion: Jungle Hunt to Jungle King :)

[Level42]

With all the fantastic work being done on giving some arcade conversions better (more to the original arcade version) graphics and some other tweaks, I would like to suggest Jungle Hunt as a new candidate.

 

Some of you might not know, but Jungle Hunt started of as a Tarzan themed game called Jungle King.

 

Naturally the copyright owners of Tarzan objected to the game and Taito quickly changed Jungle King into Jungle Hunt.

 

Gone was the sexy (well....I guess, I'm a man ) Tarzan figure and here was this rather "professor" like looking guy wearing a safari suite....some other graphics changed as well.

 

Jungle King/Jungle Hunt/Pirate Pete Arcade:

 

 

The obvious changes would be changing the intro screen title (maybe a nice graphic screen ), changing the Safari suite to Tarzan and maybe trying to match the colors/graphics of the original Jungle King a bit more, where possible. It should be noted that the hair color of Tarzan changes miraculously throughout the scenes on the arcade (from black to blond to red....must be that Jungle light..... )

 

It would be great fun if an "I love you" reward scene could be added. What would be extremely cool though would be including the sampled Tarzan yell at the start of the game (and when he reaches the big rock at the end).

 

Then if those magicians who pull these tricks get really bored they could go try for a "Pirate Pete" version ;)

 

Sadly I can only launch the idea....I hove no idea how all this stuff works

 

 

[Rybags]

I actually made a start on an improved Jungle Hunt. With music provided by Sal (Kjmann) and some coding improvements which help with the slowdown that the NTSC version especially suffers.

 

I investigated adding the sample sounds (Tarzan yell and chimps) - it can be done with a bit of extra work.

On the other hand, changing the hero to being hatless, shirtless with just the loin cloth actually makes the graphics look "cheaper". Though I do agree the game is much better suited to the tarzan theme rather than the great white hunter theme.

 

There was also a third version of the arcade game "Pirate Pete" where the jungle theme was replaced with ships. Someone created a hack of Atari Jungle Hunt to replicate this version (thread about it somewhere).

 

With the improved JH I'm working on, the original plan back about 5 years ago was that it'd be marketed on bigger capacity cart in similar fashion to the other titles like Donkey Kong arcade.

The revised plan I have is wit Sal's permission to retain his music, release the game as a free download.

It's still a work in progress, haven't touched it in a long time and it's got an annoying glitch in the river stage which at the time I was having trouble debugging (this was probably very early days of Altirra which in it's current form would probably have the issue sorted real quick).

 

I'll see about getting a video uploaded tomorrow, have to have a dig around to find the game first.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Rybags

[Rybags]

There was also "Jungle Boy" - an even earlier release and very rare. I think I saw one or two in the day. Pretty much idential to JK otherwise.

 

One thing on the wish list was a nice title screen. I had one partly prepared, and was tossing around whether to use TIP, APAC etc. But the obvious choice now would be to get something done in RastaConverter.

[miker]

Seems it's here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/84570-jungle-king/page-2

[Rybags]

Here's a video of my work in progress. Been a while, last update/assembly was March 2011.

 

[Heaven/TQA]

2 Things which I would change...

 

- set screen to wide mode so no sprites are in border without gfx which look absoluty unprofessional for an Atari game (or mask them out).

 

- debug the flickering of the player Sprite (I mean the black flickering)

 

- include the sample which Jungle King was famous for.

[Level42]

Wow, in-game music !!! I actually thought about that often before and wondered why it wasn't there....probably laziness or cartridge limitations ?

 

But I actually didn't dear to mention it figuring it might be asking for too much :)

 

This sounds very good indeed, damn close to the arcade version, I f-ing love the Pokey !!!

Edited January 6, 2016 by Level42

[Rybags]

The problem with going to widescreen is the details aren't necessarily going to be right. I guess it might be worth a shot.

I doubt there's spare objects ie missiles to perform masking as another alternative.

 

Limitations of the Atari game - fairly sure there's not much spare in the 16K. They used the same DLI for all levels which became a downfall.

That's one of the things I redid - instead of a global DLI that was very CPU inefficient for some of the levels I did seperate DLIs which are tailored and waste less CPU time at the cost of more memory.

The point is though, any enhanced game won't fit in 16K so may as well assume 64K or 128K which means plenty of room for fluff and shiny bits.

 

The black noise in the player - 2 causes. On the vines level I shortened the kernal, you notice if he falls at the lower parts of the screen he'll be all one colour but generally he's hidden by the shrubbery so you barely notice. But the main problem with the black noise is I think that the program will sometimes have the animation out of step with the colour mapping and as such it gets zero thrown into the colour register.

Another thing to be looked at...

 

The operative thing though is I've not even looked at this in a fairly long time and there's work left to get it polished.

You also notice the music is out of step with the goings on - the start game music leaves a pause before you can start jumping (but that means the Tarzan yell could fit in).

The music at the end sequence plays through then starts again - not a problem really as that entire sequence is to be replaced with the "I love you" animation as per the arcade.

[Heaven/TQA]

If you leave 16k anyway then I don't see why these little fixes would not improve the game.... Kernal because of the vines?

Edited January 6, 2016 by Heaven/TQA

[Heaven/TQA]

Aah... Just watched the video again.... Players in the border are a no go.... Crocs in blue border while background not there etc.... Jesus.

[Rybags]

IIRC the problem area for the kernal was mainly the vines. If you play the original in NTSC mode it's really noticable with it's slowdowns.

Part of the fix there is just make the kernal shorter. Also the kernal just wasted cycles at the top of screen where there was colour/font change then just scanlines worth of doing nothing.

Shorter kernal on vine stage means the player doesn't get coloured at bottom of screen, but in that area he's concealed and dead anyway.

[Lynxpro]

I actually made a start on an improved Jungle Hunt. With music provided by Sal (Kjmann) and some coding improvements which help with the slowdown that the NTSC version especially suffers.

 

I investigated adding the sample sounds (Tarzan yell and chimps) - it can be done with a bit of extra work.

On the other hand, changing the hero to being hatless, shirtless with just the loin cloth actually makes the graphics look "cheaper". Though I do agree the game is much better suited to the tarzan theme rather than the great white hunter theme.

 

There was also a third version of the arcade game "Pirate Pete" where the jungle theme was replaced with ships. Someone created a hack of Atari Jungle Hunt to replicate this version (thread about it somewhere).

 

With the improved JH I'm working on, the original plan back about 5 years ago was that it'd be marketed on bigger capacity cart in similar fashion to the other titles like Donkey Kong arcade.

The revised plan I have is wit Sal's permission to retain his music, release the game as a free download.

It's still a work in progress, haven't touched it in a long time and it's got an annoying glitch in the river stage which at the time I was having trouble debugging (this was probably very early days of Altirra which in it's current form would probably have the issue sorted real quick).

 

I'll see about getting a video uploaded tomorrow, have to have a dig around to find the game first.

 

Since Sal did the music, does it support Dual POKEY?

 

How about a 5200 version? I'd have to find the box but I think the commercial 5200 version supports the Trak-Ball. Why one would play the game with that is, well, a choice I guess. I'm all about enabling Trak-Ball support on games where it makes sense…that and dual joysticks, paddles, etc.

[Lynxpro]

One thing I just realized from watching the original versions on YouTube. The folks who years later made the abysmal Mat Mania Challenge on the 7800 recycled some of the sound fx from the A8/5200 version. So that should tell you something if the same effect that was originally done on a POKEY can be replicated by the TIA. Oh how we 7800 owners of the time grew to hate the TIA.

 

Awesome work on the updated version!

[NE146]

Awesome how the music is there now... like Moon Patrol, that was a large part of the atmosphere of the game.

[Rybags]

I just got a reply email from Sal - he's OK with me publicising his musical work which went into this.

 

So, here's the March 2011 build of Jungle Hunt Arcade. Still a fair bit of work needed, some current issues:

- still glitches in player due to the way the rendering can be out of sync with colour map movements.

- annoying delay after initial startup music (this time discrepancy could be used to insert the Tarzan yell).

- end all levels music starts again while end sequence running.

- periodic alligator coloured glitches appear in river level, AFAIK don't cause collision with player.

- breathing sfx persists in river level when you dive.

- some sound effects missing. Short music piece @ end of river level needs to be changed.

- no title screen yet.

- probably plenty more.

 

Extra Improvements (just listing the not so obvious stuff)

- For NTSC especially, the screen kernal improvements mean CPU time freed up so less annoying game slowdown.

- Actual game font ripped from the arcade game and used. I think I got the lower case chrs elsewhere or made them myself (can't remember, might have ripped from an Adventure International game).

 

Press fire to bypass the intro text. Ensure Basic is disabled on your emulation or real machine. 48K Ram required. Should be loadable from Dos.

 

 

Jungle15.xex

Edited January 7, 2016 by Rybags

[+MrFish]

This plays really nice on NTSC with the speedups. Sal did a nice job on the music too. Thanks to you both!

[Level42]

This is awesome, gonna try this ASAP !!!!! THANKS !!!!

 

About dual POKEY: No-no-no-no-NO ! The arcade machine was NOT stereo so please no stereo here too !

[Drummerboy]

Wow.. is amazing!!!.

 

Great Job... congratulations!!

 

And thanks!.

[Rybags]

Re the music - it is what it is and I doubt there'll be much or any change. As such, mono.

But I think I'll investigate putting in stereo detection and replicate the channels.

[Level42]

This did trigger me about what arcade games had two speaker (with separate sounds) or even real-stereo sound/music.

 

The first one to jump into my mind is......Gyruss !!! Parker's A8 conversion is pretty awesome already but in Stereo Pokey that would be a KILLER (I think a lot of the sounds should be possible to replicate closer today by the POKEY wizards....:

 

Nice reference here:

[Lynxpro]

This is awesome, gonna try this ASAP !!!!! THANKS !!!!

 

About dual POKEY: No-no-no-no-NO ! The arcade machine was NOT stereo so please no stereo here too !

 

It's not about making it stereo but giving more voices to it so the audio and sfx can shine.

 

Think about the 7800 version of Commando. The audio sfx duties are punted to the TIA while the POKEY's 4 channels are dedicated exclusively to the music. In a better timeline, Atari Inc - or Corp - would've done that for more releases on that platform…or used Activision's DPC, GCC's GUMBY [had it been created], the AMY, or other chip candidates for those purposes.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Lynxpro

[Bryan]

The first one to jump into my mind is......Gyruss !!! Parker's A8 conversion is pretty awesome already but in Stereo Pokey that would be a KILLER (I think a lot of the sounds should be possible to replicate closer today by the POKEY wizards....:

 

Yep, and here's how they did it! Count the AY-3-8910's!!

 

[Gunstar]

Is there a list somewhere of all the games that have so far been hacked/improved to closer match the arcade versions? Or just changed/improved, even if not closer to the arcade?

[Lynxpro]

 

Yep, and here's how they did it! Count the AY-3-8910's!!

 

 

 

Yup, and by mid-1984, Atari Coin/Games were using a 6502, Dual POKEYs, a YM2151, and a TI Speech Synthesis chip in a lot of their arcade games just to cover sound.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Lynxpro

[Mclaneinc]

As much as me and Sal do not get on I cannot deny the man can make very good music, suits the game...