PacManPlus Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) 51 minutes ago, Defender_2600 said: Hey Bob, I've just started looking at the graphics and was thinking maybe you could get a nice result using both palettes for the player's spaceship with two stacked sprites... Hey! I'm actually using both palettes for each player (to be able to tell them apart when player simultaneous mode). The player two's ship looks very close to your 'updated' one, except they have a blue nose instead of a red one. Also, I'm reusing the first two enemy DL entries for each players ship, and that would be two less enemies that can attack the players (making it only up to 4 enemies at a time) Edited January 18, 2021 by PacManPlus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 14 hours ago, CPUWIZ said: A ROM sale could also be an option, locked to a SD cart feature, that can be detected and utitilized. If the resource is not available to use, the ROM is useless, unless someone spends a bunch of time, trying to refactor critical elements of the code and replace them. It would also be pretty easy to make a tool, that runs code injection on a final ROM and makes them all unique, with unique signatures. I think some of the Jaguar dudes are doing something similar. The Concerto has some ID bytes that were added for the XM to use for cart identification. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 This is looking amazing on my CRT! I spent some time playing with my Concerto and it really is fantastic. One of the things that always bothered me with the 400/800 version was how they utilized the full width of the screen, making the enemies look like they were floating across the screen. I'm glad you kept the proper aspect ratio of the game. I couldn't get Synthpopalooza's sound samples to play on the Concerto. They would just crash. I was testing the @450 versions. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 2 minutes ago, tep392 said: I couldn't get Synthpopalooza's sound samples to play on the Concerto. They would just crash. I was testing the @450 versions. I don't think any sound demos I've yet tried have played on my Concerto, whether POKEY is at 0450 or 4000. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 This is looking good. No more “new level bug”. Normal diff is too easy and Hard seems...well, hard. I like it. Haven’t tried Easy. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Yes, one of the things I need to do is tweak the difficulty (among other things). ...In the meantime, I need to find the piece of code that detects a Pokey... I know I had it at one point... ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Playing last night's beta, which is really great Seems to run fine off of the Concerto at firmware 0.95 - no freezes, levels seem to progress correctly (I think I made it to level 8 or 9; more on that below), and the game in general is coming along really nicely. Two things stick out: The level indicator flags in the bottom-right corner of the screen aren't implemented, and I don't believe that I saw discussion as to whether or not they would be. Even if it's just a digital indicator reading 'Level: XXX' or similar, this would be a nice touch, but also appreciated for testing - past a certain point, it's hard to keep track of which level you're actually playing. One behaviour I noticed that might or might not be a bug: starting from level 1 (though it does happen on subsequent levels as well), two of the red aliens will occasionally drop down from the swarm in the same pattern they'd use if they were escorting a boss Galaxian, but there is no boss Galaxian in tow. What's interesting is that on subsequent passes when a boss Galaxian is in tow, one of the red aliens will break off from escorting it as if it had left the swarm by itself. Again, not sure if a bug or not, but I didn't see either the Namco or Midway versions in MAME show that behaviour. BTW: that score advance table looks really nice ? Edited January 19, 2021 by x=usr(1536) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Trebor Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 1 hour ago, tep392 said: I couldn't get Synthpopalooza's sound samples to play on the Concerto. They would just crash. I was testing the @450 versions. 1 hour ago, DrVenkman said: I don't think any sound demos I've yet tried have played on my Concerto, whether POKEY is at 0450 or 4000. For the MCP DevCart that I am utilizing to playback the samples, it takes binary files only, and POKEY has to be set @$450 to work, which are working fine. The header (*.a78) versions posted though, have all the headers set for POKEY@$4000. These will of course make a future PROPack release with the corrected header, but below are the POKEY@$450 now with proper headers. See if these work any better with Concerto: Galaxian Alien Death 2 Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Alien Death 2a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Coin Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Explosion Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Extra Life Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Hum 1a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Hum 2a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Hum 3a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Hum 4a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Hum 5a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Hum 6a Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Shot Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Start Sound (450) (20210118).a78Galaxian Alien Death 1 Sound (450) (20210118).a78 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Think I may have just found a reproducible scoring glitch: Start a new game, verify score is at 0 Don't shoot anything until a boss Galaxian comes down with two red aliens escorting it Shoot only both red aliens, then let the boss Galaxian collide with your ship Note that your score is now 350 points 100 points are (correctly) awarded for the red aliens, but only 150 points are awarded for colliding with the boss Galaxian, when 800 was the expected value Doing this twice in a row will result in a score of 700. Lives decrement correctly when colliding with the boss Galaxian. Expected behaviour: score increment should have been 1000 points for killing both red aliens plus colliding with the boss Galaxian in both instances. MAME confirms. I haven't tried this on levels higher than the first one yet, but given that scores seemed somewhat off on higher levels, suspect it's not confined to just level 1. Edited January 19, 2021 by x=usr(1536) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender_2600 Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 2 hours ago, PacManPlus said: Hey! I'm actually using both palettes for each player (to be able to tell them apart when player simultaneous mode). The player two's ship looks very close to your 'updated' one, except they have a blue nose instead of a red one. Also, I'm reusing the first two enemy DL entries for each players ship, and that would be two less enemies that can attack the players (making it only up to 4 enemies at a time) Thanks for the explanation Bob, I like the blue spaceship. It would be nice and appreciated if, in the single player game, it was possible to select the color of the spaceship (yellow or blue) with the difficulty switch. I was also thinking that maybe a less intense yellow color (like gold color that gives more a metal feeling) could be overall a little less intrusive and more balanced, even for the legs of the enemies and for the score. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 BTW: it just occurred to me that Galaxian is using the same high score display routine as UniWarS - i.e., showing the high score on its own dedicated screen. Galaxian doesn't do this and instead just writes it to the top-of-screen display. Eliminating that routine could squeeze out a few more bytes, though I'm not sure how tight on memory you might be so can't say if it's worth the effort or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) Hey! Thanks for the feedback! Regarding your points: - Yes, the level indicator is not present yet (I did mention I needed to put that in) ...although it will most likely have to be at the top (along with the score) as if I extend the tiles at the bottom the enemies will 'disappear' when they reach that zone due to running out of maria time. - I've fixed the 'No boss Galaxian in tow'. That one was at least easy to take care of. - I don't seem to be getting this: It is correct that the boss Galaxian is currently only worth 150, as I haven't implemented the alternate scoring yet. I *do* get 350 as a score, from killing both red aliens (for 100 points each) and slamming into the boss Galaxian for 150 (giving 350) Are you sure that's not what is happening? Also, I need the top line for 1 and 2 player scores, along with the lives displays (and possibly the level counter).. That's why the high score isn't displayed there Edited January 19, 2021 by PacManPlus 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 4 minutes ago, Defender_2600 said: Thanks for the explanation Bob, I like the blue spaceship. It would be nice and appreciated if, in the single player game, it was possible to select the color of the spaceship (yellow or blue) with the difficulty switch. I was also thinking that maybe a less intense yellow color (like gold color that gives more a metal feeling) could be overall a little less intrusive and more balanced, even for the legs of the enemies and for the score. Thank you! I'll give gold a shot, and see about allowing the color of the ship to be selectable (but that one will be when some of the other stuff is done) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 37 minutes ago, Trebor said: See if these work any better with Concerto: Not for me, sadly. Like most/all of the POKEY demos from your ProPack collection with POKEY sound at $450, these .A78 files just give me a solid white screen but no audio at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) ...can't get the pokey to work right (trying the intro music). That only uses two tune entries, right? or am I missing something else? *EDIT - Nevermind - got it working *EDIT 2 - Gold looks MUCH better than yellow - thanks Defender_2600 Edited January 19, 2021 by PacManPlus 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Trebor Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 15 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: Not for me, sadly. Like most/all of the POKEY demos from your ProPack collection with POKEY sound at $450, these .A78 files just give me a solid white screen but no audio at all. 16K ROM with POKEY is likely not supported (yet). The smallest full games with POKEY are 32K; Ballblazer from retail and Super Circus AtariAge from homebrews. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 11 minutes ago, PacManPlus said: - Yes, the level indicator is not present yet (I did mention I needed to put that in) ...although it will most likely have to be at the top (along with the score) as if I extend the tiles at the bottom the enemies will 'disappear' when they reach that zone due to running out of maria time. Ah, OK. Guess I missed that one in going through the thread, and totally understood re: MARIA time. Makes sense. 11 minutes ago, PacManPlus said: - I've fixed the 'No boss Galaxian in tow'. That one was at least easy to take care of. Cool! Thanks ? 11 minutes ago, PacManPlus said: - I don't seem to be getting this: It is correct that the boss Galaxian is currently only worth 150, as I haven't implemented the alternate scoring yet. I *do* get 350 as a score, from killing both red aliens (for 100 points each) and slamming into the boss Galaxian for 150 (giving 350) Are you sure that's not what is happening? Nope, that's exactly what's happening. I just didn't understand that the alternate scores weren't implemented yet. My bad 11 minutes ago, PacManPlus said: Also, I need the top line for 1 and 2 player scores, along with the lives displays (and possibly the level counter).. That's why the high score isn't displayed there Gotcha. No worries; just thought I'd mention it. Thinking about it, lives and levels don't need to be displayed on the attract mode screen... So maybe the high score could be shown there along with the last game's scores for P1 and P2 rather than in-game. Something like P1 on the left, P2 on the right, and the high score in the middle? I really have nothing against the UniWarS high-score screen - and if it's not worth the effort to change it, I am not going to be upset in the least 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Galaxian swoops They play on first channel using $Cx @1.79 ... the gliding is kinda rough because of the limited pitch resolution in this mode. I can retry this in $2x to see if we get any improvement but I don't think we will. Would be better if I could use 16-bit mode here, but it is what it is ... First one is the beginning of the swoop. Second one is the looped sound that happens after the swoop. These play in ProSystem (and JS7800), but sound grainy. Real HW will be better of course. galaxian-endswoop.A78 galaxian-endswoop.asm galaxian-endswoop.bin galaxian-endswoop-450.A78 galaxian-endswoop-450.asm galaxian-endswoop-450.bin galaxian-swoop.A78 galaxian-swoop.asm galaxian-swoop.bin galaxian-swoop-450.A78 galaxian-swoop-450.asm galaxian-swoop-450.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 I wish we could vote for the Lifetime Achievement Award. I want Bob to win! 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Updated player shot. galaxian-shot.A78 galaxian-shot.asm galaxian-shot.bin galaxian-shot-450.A78 galaxian-shot-450.asm galaxian-shot-450.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Just now, tep392 said: I wish we could vote for the Lifetime Achievement Award. I want Bob to win! Hell yes! I'm putting together a specific "PacManPlus" folder on my Concerto for JUST his completed games and WIPs. Is there a "canonical list" of all the stuff he's done? 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 I lengthened the explosion If these sound ok to everyone we can call the sounds finished! galaxian-explosion.A78 galaxian-explosion.asm galaxian-explosion.bin galaxian-explosion-450.A78 galaxian-explosion-450.asm galaxian-explosion-450.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) 11 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: Hell yes! I'm putting together a specific "PacManPlus" folder on my Concerto for JUST his completed games and WIPs. Is there a "canonical list" of all the stuff he's done? I've been working off of this one recently, but can't vouch for how complete it is re: Bob's stuff: This is stuff I'd really like to see included in something like Trebor's pack, but broken out under a WIP directory. I've been putting that together as I go along (with 2600 and 7800 directories under the WIP directory), but haven't been doing it in any sort of organised manner. One other thing I would really like to see (and have been doing some moving about of stuff) is breaking the 2600 and 7800 titles out into PAL and NTSC releases - possibly even SECAM if there are SECAM-specific titles. For doing testing, it'd be really nice to not have to worry about titles that aren't TV system compatible rather than stumbling over them when going to test. Edited January 19, 2021 by x=usr(1536) 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender_2600 Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) 54 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said: I've been working off of this one recently, but can't vouch for how complete it is re: Bob's stuff: It is a "complete" list beyond any doubt, Trebor does an absolutely extraordinary job and if something is not included it is only because it has not yet been publicly shared but rest assured that Trebor already has it in his private hard disk... Back to Bob's amazing stuff, if anyone were a little lazy to browse that topic... PacManPlus Adventure III: The Race For The Chalice | Aug 29, 2016 | Dormant Armor Attack II* | Apr 16, 2013 | Done Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe* | Oct 14, 2007 | Done Asteroids (Vector Edition Hack)* | Jul 24, 2005 | Done Astro Blaster* | Feb 01, 2014 | Done Astro Fighter* | Jul 26, 2015 | Done Battlezone | Feb 08, 2016 | Dormant Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest¹ | Dec 20, 2015 | Done BMP7800 (Utility) | May 23, 2016 | Dormant Clean Sweep | Feb 08, 2016 | Dormant Crazy Brix* | Apr 27, 2016 | Done Crazy Otto (Hack)* | Jan 12, 2010 | Done Dark Tower (Demo) | May 06, 2013 | Dormant Defender | Feb 08, 2016 | Dormant DLLTemplate (DL & DLL Template) | Jul 23, 2008 | Done Dual Pac-Man (Hack)* | Sep 02, 2005 | Done FailSafe* | Feb 27, 2010 | Done Frenzy (w/Berzerk)* | Dec 17, 2013 | Done Galaxian | Jan 17, 2021 | Development Hangly-Man (Hack)* | May, 31, 2005 | Done Jr. Pac-Man* | Sep 24, 2012 | Done KC Munchkin | Apr 08, 2014 | KC Munchkin (Alt Movement) Apr 09, 2017 | Done Meteor Shower* | Feb 18, 2012 | Done Moon Cresta* | Nov 13, 2011 | Done Ms. Pac-Attack (Hack)* | May 31, 2005 | Done Ms. Pac-Man (Fast Hack)* | Mar 04, 2006 | Done Ms. Pac-Man (Hack)* | May 01, 2009 | Done Ms. Pac-Man 320*¹ | Aug 08, 2011 | Done Ms. Pac-Man Twin* | Feb 08, 2016 | Dormant Pac Pollux (Hack)* | Mar 05, 2006 | Done Pac-Man (Hack)* | May 30, 2005 | Done Pac-Man 320*¹ | Aug 10, 2011 | Done Pac-Man Collection*¹ | Updated Monsters | May 31, 2015 | Done Pac-Man Collection - 40th Anniversary Edition*³ / (Forced TIA) | Jan 03, 2021 | Done Pac-Man Plus 320¹ | Jun 25, 2019 | Done Pac-Man Plus (Hack)* | Jun 02, 2005 | Done PinOut | Jan 29, 2011 | Dormant Plutos (XM Required Version) | Jun 27, 2020 | Done ReZolve | Feb 08, 2016 | Dormant Rip-Off* | May 02, 2012 | Done Scramble* | Feb 18, 2012 | Done Sirius (XM Required Version) | Jun 27, 2020 | Done Source Code List | Sep 30, 2012 | Done Space Duel* | Oct 14, 2007 | Done Space Invaders 7800* | Aug 01, 2008 | Done Super Circus AtariAge (POKEY 0450)*¹ / (POKEY 4000) | Jun 11, 2017 | Done Super Pac-Man* | Oct 10, 2008 | Done Ultra Pac-Man (Hack)* | Jun 19, 2005 | Done UniWarS* | Jan 14, 2021 | Development PacManPlus / Kurt_Woloch Baby Pac-Man | Feb 08, 2019 | Done Edited January 19, 2021 by Defender_2600 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 That is a crazy long list. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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