5200 port of Scorch

[pirx]

On 9/29/2023 at 3:29 AM, gambler172 said:

Which port came first ?  XL or 5200 ?

XL. Porting to 5200 was extremely difficult because we wanted all functionalities as in the XL game. We were carving byte by byte. Right now the 5200 version has got exactly ZERO free-to-use bytes in ROM. One NOP and the game would not compile. It also required a rewrite of RMT player. The side effect is that the game works also on atari 400/800 with 48KiB.

Overall it took us about 6 months to have a version running on 5200. 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew presents...

 

Sun Dec 17, 2023 @ 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT
WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/

 

On Sunday December 17, 2023 ZeroPage Homebrew will be interviewing the developers of every single new physical release coming to the AtariAge store! Join us LIVE on Twitch while we unbox all the new Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar and Lynx games and talk with the incredibly talented Atari community members about their games! Get your questions ready for the devs and following along in the Twitch chat as we pop in each of the 22 new releases into our Atari consoles!

 

NEW GAME RELEASES

 

Atari 2600: Berry Fun!, Bot&Tom, Caramujo, ElectroBall, Game of the Bear 2 Much To Bear, Immunity!, Penult, Quantum Tunnel, Robot Zed

Atari 5200: Scorch

Atari 7800: A.R.T.I., Death Merchant, E.X.O., Harpy's Curse, Millie and Molly, Oozy the Goo - Gaiden, Plumb Luck DX

Atari Jaguar: Defender of the Crown, Novagen Volume 1, Rocket Ranger
Atari Lynx: Growing Ties Deluxe, Odynexus

[RB5200]

Here is one of @Atariboy2600's little paper scorch tanks. Thanks for making up the art for this John, they are pretty neat.

[Atariboy2600]

2 hours ago, RB5200 said:

Here is one of @Atariboy2600's little paper scorch tanks. Thanks for making up the art for this John, they are pretty neat.

Awesome^_^

[+-^CrossBow^-]

So I have what might be a stupid question on this game. I purchased Scorch for the 5200 during this past PRGE. It is an excellent game and I've been playing it a bunch since this past Sunday. But I noticed both in screen shots I've found as well as the screen shots in the manual, that they present a much more colorful game screen than what I see?

 

All I get is a greyscale looking screen and the only other time I've seen the ground be any other color than grey is sometimes it would have brown terrain. But pretty much 90% just grey? Is there some mode to switch into the more colorful appearance or is that something that was removed in the 5200 version? I also downloaded what I assume to be the latest public release of the game for the 8-bit and it too looked exactly the same?

 

Here is a screen shot of the 8-bit version in Altirra which, shows the exact same thing as I see on my 5200?

 

 

[RB5200]

22 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

So I have what might be a stupid question on this game. I purchased Scorch for the 5200 during this past PRGE. It is an excellent game and I've been playing it a bunch since this past Sunday. But I noticed both in screen shots I've found as well as the screen shots in the manual, that they present a much more colorful game screen than what I see?

 

All I get is a greyscale looking screen and the only other time I've seen the ground be any other color than grey is sometimes it would have brown terrain. But pretty much 90% just grey? Is there some mode to switch into the more colorful appearance or is that something that was removed in the 5200 version? I also downloaded what I assume to be the latest public release of the game for the 8-bit and it too looked exactly the same?

 

 

Ok, from the main select screen, with the cursor on the (players) option, press the 5 button, you will see the changes at the bottom little pict. There are 3 color options.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Just now, RB5200 said:

Ok, from the main select screen, with the cursor on the (players) option, press the 5 button, you will see the changes at the bottom little pict. There are 3 color options.

Okay... I will see about that. Does it mention this in the manual at all? 

 

[RB5200]

5 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Does it mention this in the manual at all? 

Had to go look, lol

Yes on page 10 it says how to do it.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

2 minutes ago, RB5200 said:

Had to go look, lol

Yes on page 10 it says how to do it.

Yes I see that now and it does work. I guess I skipped page 10 because all the options are explained on the previous page so I didn't see it prior. Odd that the grey almost monochrome look is the default though?

 

[RB5200]

8 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Odd that the grey almost monochrome look is the default though?

Yeah, v1.37 is that way, which is how the carts come, but v1.50 the newest version of the game has the color screen as the default, I reprogrammed my cart with v1.50, it has even more funny stuff in it, I think they come as 1.37 cause at the time that was gonna be the last upgrade, and the manuals were made to reflect that, so if they came with the 1.5 version then the manuals wouldn't cover everything anymore.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

8 minutes ago, RB5200 said:

Yeah, v1.37 is that way, which is how the carts come, but v1.50 the newest version of the game has the color screen as the default, I reprogrammed my cart with v1.50, it has even more funny stuff in it, I think they come as 1.37 cause at the time that was gonna be the last upgrade, and the manuals were made to reflect that, so if they came with the 1.5 version then the manuals wouldn't cover everything anymore.

How can you reprogram the game? I don't remember which version is on my cart. Pretty sure thought it is just the same version that was released last year at PRGE for the 5200.

[RB5200]

9 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Pretty sure thought it is just the same version that was released last year at PRGE for the 5200.

If you look at that main screen up top you will see the ver.# and it should say (welcome to scorch v 1.37).

 

9 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

How can you reprogram the game

Open it up, erase the game that's on it, and reprogram with the newest ver.

Edited October 9 by RB5200

[+-^CrossBow^-]

11 minutes ago, RB5200 said:

If you look at that main screen up top you will see the ver.# and it should say (welcome to scorch v 1.37).

 

Open it up, erase the game that's on it, and reprogram with the newest ver.

I';ve not opened the cart. Is it just a standard eprom? Has to be desolderd off the board I assume? If I can find access to a chip programmer I might see about updating mine at some point as I don't own a chip programmer. Not something I've needed too often.

 

[RB5200]

18 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Is it just a standard eprom?

27C256 (32k) I would say for these carts, yes it is pretty standard.

 

21 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Has to be desolderd off the board I assume

That's how I did it.

 

24 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

If I can find access to a chip programmer I might see about updating mine at some point as I don't own a chip programmer

You can pm me about it if interested, happy to help.

[Bill Loguidice]

So I guess this means that even those of us who ordered from the store and have to wait some time for the boxed cartridge to arrive, we'll still get 1.37? Kind of disappointing.

[Albert]

6 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

So I guess this means that even those of us who ordered from the store and have to wait some time for the boxed cartridge to arrive, we'll still get 1.37? Kind of disappointing.

No, I will be using the current version of the game for any new carts produced.

 

 ..Al

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 10/8/2024 at 9:35 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

So I guess this means that even those of us who ordered from the store and have to wait some time for the boxed cartridge to arrive, we'll still get 1.37? Kind of disappointing.

I don't know about that. I mean with the exception that the game defaults to the more monochrome looking terrain as the default, I don't think there is that much fundamentally different between the 1.37 and newer 1.50? Then again, I'm not aware of all the changes that might exist in 1.50. 

 

Now if they added in the random weather effects like the original PC game had with lightning strikes and meteors then, that might be worth it. But if the added changes are just additional smack talk phrases from the enemy tanks, then I don't think that is a big enough deal to warrant changing it out. Especially when those phrases are only shown for a second or two it seems. I usually don't have enough time to read them anyway before the CPU fires their shots. 

 

Now, I do think it would nice if a section had been added in the manual to specifically state the differences in the color options vs just saying it is there. The default is a more monochrome terrain but with uniquely colored tanks.

 

*The colorful rainbow terrain mode is just that, but now the tank colors follow the color of the line they happen to sit on so basically they match the terrain color. So only in the status section at the top do the individual colors remain unique. * - I misspoke on this as I looked again when playing last night and found that the base of the tanks still have their unique color, it is the gun turrets/barrels that match the color of the terrain they are sitting on at that time.

 

The last option I guess you would call the High contrast option? It has an all white terrain field with no gradient in the terrain levels and the tanks having their unique colors again. 

 

So the more colorful screen is nicer to look at, but it can also be trickier to know and follow which tank is which since their individual colors can't be seen anymore on that mode. You only see their names when they place their shots. So at the beginning of a round I don't know which one I am until it is my turn to fire.