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Plague (Atari 2600)


MemberAtarian

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very cool addition.

i went back and watched a bit more of the game play.

i REALLY like the obstacle of the Hangman's Dance!

 

the bass line motif gets really tiresome.

 

any way you could leave any music motif out and put the focus into sound design and sound effects?

:)

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very cool addition.

 

i went back and watched a bit more of the game play.

i REALLY like the obstacle of the Hangman's Dance!

 

the bass line motif gets really tiresome.

 

any way you could leave any music motif out and put the focus into sound design and sound effects?

:)

Actually yes, now if you set the B/W switch to B/W, the music stops. ;)

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Yes needs color.

For what this game is meant to be about, I feel like the less color it has, the better it get's the theme across. The mushroom bit with all the colors works, due to the hallucinogenic properties of the mushroom. Most of the game should be kept "dark" to go along with the overall tone of the game. Spies in the Night was a Homebrew that was B&W only and it pulls it off amazingly. I feel like this game has the same potential.

 

MemberAtarian, Keep doing what you're doing .Make the game the way YOU want to make it. The direction you are going in is working great so far, don't let any of us steer you off course.

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DOES NOT NEED COLOR.

 

The stark brutality and the bleak void of a dead landscape is what draws me in.

 

Like listening to COIL's "Music To Play in the Dark" or some SUNN o))) or Ulver.

 

I really like that you are only using colour as a special effect.

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Actually yes, now if you set the B/W switch to B/W, the music stops. ;)

 

One thing to be aware of is the 7800 repurposed the TV Type switch as the PAUSE button, and instead of a toggle it's now a momentary switch. 2600 games will detect it as B&W only when PAUSE is being held down.

 

The 2600/7800 pause routine topic has routines for detecting 2600 vs 7800 as well as pausing the game. Just change the "paused" check to turn off the music instead of pausing the game

 

Or even better, considering using TV Type for pause and put the music on/off on a difficulty switch. A number of homebrews already use Right Difficult A for this.

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One thing to be aware of is the 7800 repurposed the TV Type switch as the PAUSE button, and instead of a toggle it's now a momentary switch. 2600 games will detect it as B&W only when PAUSE is being held down.

 

The 2600/7800 pause routine topic has routines for detecting 2600 vs 7800 as well as pausing the game. Just change the "paused" check to turn off the music instead of pausing the game

 

Or even better, considering using TV Type for pause and put the music on/off on a difficulty switch. A number of homebrews already use Right Difficult A for this.

True, so I made the right difficulty switch turn down the music. That is also on the 7800.

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Hi guys, I need your help. :) I tested all the versions of the game, but I need you help for fixing screen issues.

Somehow after I changed the title screen, it does not work with Stella, only with z26 emulator (Stella slows down the game and flickers the screen).

 

1. NTSC

 

I used z26 as mentioned. It looks okay in emulator, but I would like to ask you for testing it on the real NTSC hardware and television.

 

2. PAL

 

On my tv, it's perfect, except the mushroom trip part, there the screen starts to roll as the playfield gets reoriented. If I put there a variable and slow it down to third speed, it seems barely tolerable (with the screen shaking). But with my DVD recorder, that decodes the RF signal for my Easycap, de screen rolls except the title screen. Can I do anything besides putting the "tv type pal" in the code?

 

3. PAL60

It's the same on my recorder and my tv, it's nearly 35 years old, so it's perfect for old consoles. The screen keeps reorienting because of the PAL <<>> PAL60 difference, it does the same with the NTSC version, because it has 525 scanlines as well.

PlagueNTSC.bas.bin

PlaguePAL50Test.bas.bin

PlaguePAL60.bas.bin

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With all respect, these days, if something doesn't work in Stella but does in z26, I would probably be looking at the ROM in question instead. Stella has seen constant development particularly in the past few years, and z26 hasn't be updated in 5+ years. So while it's possible that Stella has a problem, when compared to z26 I would very much doubt it.

 

That being said, I can test this ROM on a real console when I get home from work today.

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I noticed your game do not continuously generate frames with 262 (60Hz/ntsc) or 312 (50Hz/pal) scanlines.

In the game its 292, then 14 (ntsc). 342, 10, 4 (pal).

Moving the character also adds and removes scanlines.

 

The title-screen seems OK, generating 262 or 312 lines/frame.

Some frames, with sound have 1 scanline more.

 

Having more or less scanlines each frame, will setup tv's and the latest stella.

So I guess, you need to focus on getting the scanlines/frame in order.

 

Grtz,

Sijmen.

Edited by mr-atari
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With all respect, these days, if something doesn't work in Stella but does in z26, I would probably be looking at the ROM in question instead. Stella has seen constant development particularly in the past few years, and z26 hasn't be updated in 5+ years. So while it's possible that Stella has a problem, when compared to z26 I would very much doubt it.

 

That being said, I can test this ROM on a real console when I get home from work today.

I was amazed as well, but Stella does not play the older version it used to play correctly after I updated the title screen. (if you compile, it inserts the most up to date titlescreen.asm.

 

 

I noticed your game do not continuously generate frames with 262 (60Hz/ntsc) or 312 (50Hz/pal) scanlines.

In the game its 292, then 14 (ntsc). 342, 10, 4 (pal).

Moving the character also adds and removes scanlines.

 

The title-screen seems OK, generating 262 or 312 lines/frame.

Some frames, with sound have 1 scanline more.

 

Having more or less scanlines each frame, will setup tv's and the latest stella.

So I guess, you need to focus on getting the scanlines/frame in order.

 

Grtz,

Sijmen.

Hi, how did you count the scanlines? :D I only use Batari Basic, so I don't know how to make the scanline numbers correct, I thought that the program calculates them every single time.

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The ROM exhibits the same issues in Stellerator and Javatari as it does in Stella. So this points to the ROM. But I will look into it on a real console later.

 

As for counting scanlines, in Stella press Alt-L, and it will display this info in the upper-left corner of the window.

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