Changing Zone/Tunnel in Vanguard (Atari 5200 conversion)

[Sardonyx]

Is it possible to change the starting Zone and Tunnel in the 5200 conversion of Vanguard? 

 

The player count and fire type are mapped to Option/Select, but I couldn't find a key or key combo to change the Zone and Tunnel.

 

This was one of my favorite 5200 games, so it's great to see a conversion on the 8-bit computers ? 

[Mclaneinc]

Ask in this link, this is the 8 bit computer forum, better chance on answer in that forum I've linked..

 

https://atariage.com/forums/forum/51-atari-5200-8-bit-programming/

[EddyFree]

On 8/6/2022 at 10:35 PM, Sardonyx said:

Is it possible to change the starting Zone and Tunnel in the 5200 conversion of Vanguard? 

 

The player count and fire type are mapped to Option/Select, but I couldn't find a key or key combo to change the Zone and Tunnel.

 

This was one of my favorite 5200 games, so it's great to see a conversion on the 8-bit computers ? 

I decided to take a look at this but it's been a busy month for me. After looking at the original 5200 cartridge code and comparing it to the Atari Computer "conversion" code, I can tell you that they match very closely. I can also tell you that the code is actually there in the "conversion" to allow changing the starting "Zone" and "Tunnel" at the "Options Screen". The problem is, it appears the keyboard reading routine was disabled and/or drowned by an "interrupt" scheme.

 

I wasn't going to dig too far into all of that. But I did notice that the Joystick input was constantly available. So after a bit of "head scratching", I came up with a small CODE PATCH that allows the Tunnels and Zones to be changed by moving the Joystick left and right at the "Options Screen".

 

And, since I was going to "patch" this "executable" for functionality reasons, I decided to add my latest "Cheater" to it also. You can access the "Cheater" by having the Joystick Button(Player 1) held down when the game finishes loading.

 

Enjoy folks! And let me know if there's any "strange issues" with it as I've only briefly tested it. I would also be interested in knowing if it's working well on "real hardware" as I've only tested it with "emulators".

 

 

Vanguard [EFPatched].zip

[+x=usr(1536)]

7 hours ago, EddyFree said:

I would also be interested in knowing if it's working well on "real hardware" as I've only tested it with "emulators".

Tested on a 600XL with 64K internal RAM, loaded via FujiNet.  Seems to play fine.  Thank you

[Sardonyx]

On 8/25/2022 at 12:23 AM, EddyFree said:

And, since I was going to "patch" this "executable" for functionality reasons, I decided to add my latest "Cheater" to it also. You can access the "Cheater" by having the Joystick Button(Player 1) held down when the game finishes loading.

 

Enjoy folks! And let me know if there's any "strange issues" with it as I've only briefly tested it. I would also be interested in knowing if it's working well on "real hardware" as I've only tested it with "emulators".

 

 

Vanguard [EFPatched].zip 14.57 kB · 11 downloads

Thanks for taking a look at it and for making the patch!  I'll give it a shot on my 800XL.

[Sardonyx]

On 8/25/2022 at 12:23 AM, EddyFree said:

Enjoy folks! And let me know if there's any "strange issues" with it as I've only briefly tested it. I would also be interested in knowing if it's working well on "real hardware" as I've only tested it with "emulators".

Works great on Atari 800XL.  I played through the Novice Tunnel and then First through Fourth tunnels.  That's working well.  I didn't notice any glitches or anything odd.

 

I only tried one of the cheats - the extended energy pods.  That worked fine too.

 

Thanks again for making the patch!