Space Instigators not working on Harmony encore

[Spector]

This was an interesting homebrew from circa 2003,but while it works on the old Cuttle Cart, it doesn't seem to load properly on the Harmony Encore with a big line down the title page then a missing spaceship sprite at the bottom of the screen. Can't figure out why. Anyone else noticed this?

[+batari]

Can you post the binary you are using? That will help us pinpoint the issue. 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

SI doesn't initialize the zeropage RAM and TIA. It especially relies on TIA registers being cleared at startup. Since the Harmony/Encore menu uses these registers, they are not clear when the game is started. And then you get these artifacts on screen.

[Spector]

Okay thanks for that. Here's the ROM file that was requested anyway. Is it easy to fix? It's a shame because it's a decent Space Invaders clone.

SP-DL.BIN

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Not an easy fix, sorry. Either buy the cart or program your Encore with it.

[Spector]

Okay, ta for the info. I still have a cuttle cart, and it works with it, so if I really wanted to, I could load it through that instead. My main concern was that people would try the bin file and say "it works fine on mine, you must have a fault in your Atari/Harmony Cart."Then there would really be a problem! 

Edited December 22, 2019 by Spector

[+batari]

1 hour ago, Spector said:

Okay, ta for the info. I still have a cuttle cart, and it works with it, so if I really wanted to, I could load it through that instead. My main concern was that people would try the bin file and say "it works fine on mine, you must have a fault in your Atari/Harmony Cart."Then there would really be a problem! 

I agree with you on this, as there are a number of games out there with programming errors like this one and when they don't work properly, the first reaction is to blame the hardware. The best answer is to fix the game itself whenever a programming error like this comes up.

 

I have given this a shot, so let me know how it works.

SP-DL_fix.BIN

[Spector]

20 hours ago, batari said:

I agree with you on this, as there are a number of games out there with programming errors like this one and when they don't work properly, the first reaction is to blame the hardware. The best answer is to fix the game itself whenever a programming error like this comes up.

 

I have given this a shot, so let me know how it works.

SP-DL_fix.BIN 8 kB · 2 downloads

I've just tried it now, and what can I say? It's perfect. You're a star, Mr Batari!?❤️?

[Mr SQL]

On 12/21/2019 at 10:52 AM, Spector said:

This was an interesting homebrew from circa 2003,but while it works on the old Cuttle Cart, it doesn't seem to load properly on the Harmony Encore with a big line down the title page then a missing spaceship sprite at the bottom of the screen. Can't figure out why. Anyone else noticed this?

 

Nice version of Space Invaders! Initially I thought it might be an 8K version of the INV21 homebrew, another great version. Who wrote these ports?

 

On 12/22/2019 at 2:12 PM, batari said:

The best answer is to fix the game itself whenever a programming error like this comes up.

 

 

If  these are "cuttle cart" only games, Harmony emulation can be made more compatible by simply initializing the RAM like the cuttle cart and SuperCharger do; that wouldn't break any existing games just make more of them playable.

 

4K games could be made instantly compatible by using the SuperCharger format for the ROM provided it doesn't hit the hotspot, but why not use architecture with the broadest compatibility?