Awakening (Completed) batari Basic game

[rsiddall]

6 minutes ago, Random Terrain said:

Have you done a search for all player movement? You might have double stuff in the code. For example, if the old movement code was adding +1 when moving down or right and you didn't remove it, then added the new code, you'll have + 2.

I'll take a look...thanks for the suggestion!

I'd like to at least be able to implement correctly and I can remove the knock_back to give as an option.

 

You've been really good with the suggestions/feedback. Sometime I feel like it's just me and you hashing this out...so thanks for hanging with me. ?

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by rsiddall

[+Random Terrain]

This forum used to be busier. Seems to come and go like the tide.

 

youtu.be/EnDJ6_XpGfo?t=9

 

[rsiddall]

You were correct in additional player movement! Once I got rid of it, Zed was back to his normal speed.

In removing the old code, it introduced some issues with the up, down, right, left movement from screen to screen.

 

New version attached...up/north occasionally glitches. Again, not sure I'm sold on the smooth gliding along the walls at the cost of memory.

 

I will more than likely revert back to previous version (#12) as I think the balance of game play is preferable.

AwakeningRev13-1.bin

[rsiddall]

Forgot to mention I tested Rev12 on the Harmony cart. Worked wonderfully!!

 

Not a fan of the 4:3 ratio (looks too cramped/small). Had to stretch it to 16:9 as I prefer playing the game in that format.

[Prizrak]

Being a CRT fan I much appreciate the 4:3 ratio

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[rsiddall]

1 minute ago, Prizrak said:

Being a CRT fan I much appreciate the 4:3 ratio

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
 

I think it was a little jarring when I played the game on real hardware. I was used to the "fit to screen" or 16:9 ratio the computer and my RetroN 77 were set to. Everything seemed a little too cramped for me.

 

That said, I should have taken the 4:3 ratio into consideration when I started designing the game.

[rsiddall]

I've been working on a way to create a real ending for Zed and the fairies. I've come up with two ways to play the game: 1) Continue playing as originally designed (never-ending) achieve the highest score possible before being overcome by the skeleton hoard 2) Make your way to the fairy king (will give more background in revised manual) and return the lost fairies for a bonus score. This allows for two endings featuring the characters involved.

 

I think this will give the player more reason to explore all the rooms in search of the fairy king. Final room is a point of no return, once entered, you should be ready for the king's arrival.

 

I'd like to keep the game at 8k, so going back to the sticky walls/knockback will allow for more rooms and a slightly harder challenge. Rooms will change color to indicate different areas (ruins, dungeons, etc.) as well.

 

Stay tuned... ?

Edited July 29, 2021 by rsiddall

[rsiddall]

Everything in previous post has been added! ?

 

Have played through and rooms appear to be working (in correct order).

164 bytes left in ROM...I have nothing on my list to add.

 

Enjoy the game and safe journeys!

 

-Rodney (7/31/2021)

 

EDIT: Apologies...I uploaded my test .bin and it probably made for a very short game.

.bin with correct starting room is now attached.

 

 

 

TXT.rtf

AwakeningRev14.bin

Edited August 1, 2021 by rsiddall
re-up .bin apologies

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Awakening on tomorrow's (Fri Aug 6, 2021) stream LIVE on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT!

 

ZPH Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Awakening (2021) by rsiddall @rsiddall
• Memory Game (2021 WIP) by Alberto @jab
• Grizzards (2021 WIP) by Bruce-Robert Pocock @brpocock@star-hope.org

After Dark:

• A-VCS-tec Challenge (2006 Retail | for The 2600 High Score Showdown S5) by Simon Quernhorst @Simon

(SET TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY!)

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I will miss it. On vacation. Again.  

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I will miss it. On vacation. Again.  

Then you are destined to watch it on YouTube later. ? Enjoy your vacation Thomas!

 

- James

[rsiddall]

On 8/5/2021 at 3:40 PM, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Awakening on tomorrow's (Fri Aug 6, 2021) stream LIVE on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT!

 

ZPH Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Awakening (2021) by rsiddall @rsiddall
• Memory Game (2021 WIP) by Alberto @jab
• Grizzards (2021 WIP) by Bruce-Robert Pocock @brpocock@star-hope.org

After Dark:

• A-VCS-tec Challenge (2006 Retail | for The 2600 High Score Showdown S5) by Simon Quernhorst @Simon

 

Just wanted to say 'thank you' for taking the time to play through "Awakening" on your channel yesterday!

 

Would like to touch on few things that came up during the playthrough (wish I could have tuned in for/addressed the live broadcast):

 

1) Adding additional music for the Fairy King room (not enough space). Could be inefficient coding on my part, too. ?

2) I'll have to go back and look at the end screen to see if I can squeeze another one in to help with ambiguity --->  perhaps "Game Over" for skeleton death and keep "The End" for the good ending (reunited with king). As it is now, I'm using the same screen for both endings: A) the appearance of a skeleton on the right shows "bad ending" or death; B) the appearance of the fairy on right denotes the good ending.

3) Not sure about the glitched sound upon reaching the throne room the first time. I've played it on Stella for over two months and never encountered it. Bought a Harmony cart to confirm everything was working correctly but testing was done on my 7800.

I've got the code set to clear, so I need to look into that. It didn't repeat itself when you reached the king the second time...hmmm.

 

For the most part, it looked like you and Darcy enjoyed playing it. I thought your coverage was fair and accurate - thanks for taking the time to include it!

 

-Rodney

 

 

[rsiddall]

THE END

 

Just a little update after the fact...

 

Went back into the rom to see if I could add additional music. Not possible with the amount of memory I have left to work with.

 

Same for an additional end screen, just not enough memory left.

 

Glitched sound may have happened (in the first visit to the throne room) due to Zed walking over a fairy and touching the king at the same time (triggering both fairy music and endgame music).

I believe I have remedied this as it's hard to duplicate.

 

I have removed a warp area that seemed to shorten the game considerably if you happened upon it. I have also made the blue dungeons more maze like to make it a little harder (less straightforward) to reach the cave/throne room.

 

This should be considered the final version of the game.

Awakening-FIN.bin

Edited August 21, 2021 by rsiddall

[sn8k]

?

[LatchKeyKid]

The videos/game looks great but I'm having trouble with it in Stella 6.7.   The startup screen loads fine but when the gameplay starts the picture starts flickering up and down just like in the old days when your vertical sync/hold was off and you had to adjust the knob.   Is something wrong on my end with the Stella settings (I think I'm on default)?  I've tried it with multiple versions posted here in thread from v12 to the final.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

10 minutes ago, LatchKeyKid said:

The videos/game looks great but I'm having trouble with it in Stella 6.7.   The startup screen loads fine but when the gameplay starts the picture starts flickering up and down just like in the old days when your vertical sync/hold was off and you had to adjust the knob.   Is something wrong on my end with the Stella settings (I think I'm on default)?  I've tried it with multiple versions posted here in thread from v12 to the final.

You have enabled Stella's developer settings. If you disable them, Stella ignores certain coding errors.

 

@rsiddall With developer settings enabled, Stella drives unused TIA pins randomly. This may cause the same problem on some consoles and should be fixed. Generally it is a good idea to have developer settings enabled when you are developing a game.

 

I think "inc VSYNC" at $d88e is the culprit. Probably you are doing "inc $00" or "inc CXM0P" here. This reads from CXM0P, which only uses bit 6+7. And then writes back to VSYNC, where bits 0..5 are random by definition. If bit 2 is set, this causes an early VSYNC.

 

Generally you should avoid RMW instructions on TIA registers.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Thomas Jentzsch

[LatchKeyKid]

Thanks!  That fixed it. 

[rsiddall]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

You have enabled Stella's developer settings. If you disable them, Stella ignores certain coding errors.

 

@rsiddall With developer settings enabled, Stella drives unused TIA pins randomly. This may cause the same problem on some consoles and should be fixed. Generally it is a good idea to have developer settings enabled when you are developing a game.

 

I think "inc VSYNC" at $d88e is the culprit. Probably you are doing "inc $00" or "inc CXM0P" here. This reads from CXM0P, which only uses bit 6+7. And then writes back to VSYNC, where bits 0..5 are random by definition. If bit 2 is set, this causes an early VSYNC.

 

Generally you should avoid RMW instructions on TIA registers.

I'll go back and take a look. It's been a while but I bought a Harmony cart specifically to test how well it ran on real hardware - guess this is an emulator issue (go figure).

I trust what you're saying without a doubt and will definitely see about addressing.

[rsiddall]

1 hour ago, LatchKeyKid said:

Thanks!  That fixed it. 

Happy you took a moment to play it!

[+Random Terrain]

3 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

You have enabled Stella's developer settings. If you disable them, Stella ignores certain coding errors.

 

So "Alt + D" switches between the two settings. I'll be sure to use that when working on programs. I should probably mention that on the bB page or something. Maybe the Developer Options will catch if there are any DPC+ batari Basic game problems.

[alex_79]

12 hours ago, rsiddall said:

It's been a while but I bought a Harmony cart specifically to test how well it ran on real hardware - guess this is an emulator issue (go figure)

It's hard to catch that kind of bug on real hardware, because it only shows rarely. That's why it's important to use the developer options.

Bits 0..5 when reading from the TIA are undefined, but they usually returns the last value they were driven with, and the result is consistent enough that you might not notice the bug on most consoles. But this behavior is not stable and can be perturbed by slightly different hardware in the cartridge, or operating condition of the console (e.g. different temperature or interference from nearby electrical appliances) and the fact that the game seems to run fine today, doesn't ensures that it will continue to do so in the future.

 

The developers options randomize those bits on each read, which is an extreme behavior you'll never encounter on real hardware, but makes the bug very noticeable, and allows you to fix it immediately.

 

 

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

10 hours ago, Random Terrain said:

 

So "Alt + D" switches between the two settings. I'll be sure to use that when working on programs. I should probably mention that on the bB page or something. Maybe the Developer Options will catch if there are any DPC+ batari Basic game problems.

Yes. And if you have the info overlay enabled (Alt+L) (which you should during development), it will display an enabled developer mode.