Backtab doesn't work. Help!

[carlsson]

Apparently the bin2rom tool supplied with jzintv doesn't know about JLP. It has a flag for Cuttle Cart 3 though, but it doesn't help. I suppose BIN+CFG format is what you need to use for now, and seriously good to know for more complex games that would utilize such functions that ROM might need to be generated in another way (if it at all is possible).

 

Edit: Or rather, if you use the ROM format you need to add the --jlp parameter to jzintv while the BIN+CFG format defines it in the CFG file. On real hardware, the LTO Flash! would have the memory extension built in.

Edited October 13, 2021 by carlsson

[+DZ-Jay]

14 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

I will be definitely adding in enemies.

As for validating the edited level, I would like it to make sure that there is no space that the guy can't get to, like in the screenshot below.

Good point.  I'll give it some thought.

 

14 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

I'll try getting rid of the --jlp flag and see if that helps with the .ROM not working on LTO Flash.

For what it's worth, I tried the original ROM and didn't have any problems, and I wasn't using the "--jlp" flag.  I had the ECS enabled, though.

 

14 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

I wondered whether or not someone would try to do what DZ-Jay did.

I did, and I'm not that clever or evil.  Still, that was an exaggeration to prove a point.  What you do not want is a for the puppy to get stuck in a place where the player can't go.

 

14 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

I thought the puppy would always show up at that spot and the game's score would keep going up and up (until an enemy is touched, once I add them in.)

That's what I was expecting, but apparently the puppy spawned somewhere in the weeds, or could not spawn at all.

 

     -dZ.

[+atari2600land]

I tried this on my LTO Flash and it works good.

savethepuppiesintellivision.rom

[carlsson]

Yes, this latest version works with jzintv without explicitely enabling any expansion. Also it lets the player hold down a direction to move, which I think is a good thing.

 

I kind of expected the puppy to spawn in the only free position, but no puppies for me. ?

Here be puppy though, but once you catched it once, it won't respawn because it can not spawn in the first row apparently and can not spawn in the same place it already is.

This is the smallest maze I can create that lets you catch the puppy and have it respawn once you have moved out of the way.

Edited October 13, 2021 by carlsson

[+DZ-Jay]

16 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Yes, this latest version works with jzintv without explicitely enabling any expansion. Also it lets the player hold down a direction to move, which I think is a good thing.

 

I kind of expected the puppy to spawn in the only free position, but no puppies for me. ?

Here be puppy though, but once you catched it once, it won't respawn because it can not spawn in the first row apparently and can not spawn in the same place it already is.

This is the smallest maze I can create that lets you catch the puppy and have it respawn once you have moved out of the way.

So it seems that the "valid screen" check should at minimum confirm the following:

• That there are at least three contiguous cards in the same axis;
• That every empty, non-block spot is somehow connected to every other -- that is, that there is an open path throughout and no closed up "rooms."

  -dZ.

 

[Zendocon]

3 hours ago, atari2600land said:

OK. I'll quit venting my frustration. Sorry.

I totally know the feeling.  A few of my CS classes in college turned me into a nervous wreck, especially toward the bitter end.  There's more to becoming a proficient developer than the learning curve; there's the emotional curve as well.

 

Since I'm on a soapbox now, I'll throw in three unsolicited life lessons that most developers don't consider:

1. Don't be afraid to weed people out of your life, even if they're only a little toxic.  In this endeavor, an absence of toxic people is essential.  Even then, don't be too surprised at just how many people you need to weed out.  My big turning point happened only a few years ago, shortly after I cut the ropes with just one more former friend, after I'd already jettisoned so many others.
2. For energy, both mental and physical, there's no substitute for fruits & vegetables and an actual home-cooked meal, plus adequate sleep.  A steady diet of energy drinks and all-night LAN parties is cool, if you're between semesters in college or if you're trying to become a Twitch affiliate.  When you're trying to focus on writing code though, you would end up either writing "spaghetti code" or nothing at all.
3. Clean your living quarters, or whatever space you're using to write code, and keep your body clean as well.  Only in movies do you see slovenly obese people with empty pizza boxes and soda cans piled all around the desk with a filthy microwave oven nearby, who happen to get adequate amounts of actual work done.  Part of why I created my own portable development environment is because I had to abandon my "lab" at home, which was not conducive to development at all.  With my schedule being as prohibitive as it was at the time, keeping my house clean became a lost cause.

[carlsson]

3 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said:

That there are at least three contiguous cards in the same axis;

I would say "at least three contiguous cards starting from the second row". You can make a L shaped maze that will work, as long as at least two of those movable locations are in second row or below. I didn't check the code, if it is a mistake that the puppy never may spawn on the top row but it doesn't appear to want to do that right now.

[+atari2600land]

I fixed it so the puppy can now appear on the top row. This allows you to make a one open square maze and the score continaully grows, but sometimes it takes a little bit because there's only a 0.009 chance that the puppy will appear at that one space (if I did my math right)

 

savethepuppiesintellivision.rom