Ghostbusters - Development Diary

[+OLD CS1]

I will not have hands on real iron until next weekend.  Will try in Classic99, however.

[TheMole]

For those that are interested, I've uploaded the source code to github: https://github.com/themole-ti/ghostbusters

Probably doesn't build out of the box on Windows, since my build system uses a few shell scripts, but it should be easy enough to get up and running if you have WSL installed.

 

 

[retrodroid]

On 12/2/2023 at 8:22 AM, TheMole said:

If anyone plays it on real hardware and doesn't mind recording their session, please let me know. Dying to know what it looks and sounds like on real hardware!

I can try to record it playing via MiSTer on with my CRT arcade monitor. It's not going to show the RF interference effects but should look pretty nice.  

[Asmusr]

On 11/7/2023 at 2:24 PM, TheMole said:

Please do share the recording, would love to see how it looks running on the real thing!

Here is some handheld footage recorded with my phone while playing with a TI joystick - not an easy task.

[Serafini Lapo]

I had the opportunity to try it on real iron and the game start screen can be seen as in the photo. in the other photo my configuration on where the game runs. maybe it only does it on my iron.. For the rest, beautiful! I had fun playing it and I didn't get any errors. the gameplay is wonderful, the graphics are even more so. Well done, my compliments for the work done👍🏻

 

[TheMole]

9 hours ago, Serafini Lapo said:

I had the opportunity to try it on real iron and the game start screen can be seen as in the photo.

 

Thanks for the kind words! That's a weird bug, that screen doesn't do anything that the other screens don't do... can you tell me a little bit about your hardware? Is it an unmodified console, or does it have an F18A (I'm guessing it's an F18A, because some of the color combinations I think I can see cannot be reproduced on a real 9918a)? Are you using a FinalGrom, or did you burn a cartridge? It looks like the screen mode hasn't been set correctly, but the text at the bottom indicates that at least some of the data in VRAM is correct.

 

There is perhaps one thing you can try for me, which is to hold the fire button while starting up the game (until you see the themole logo), that should bypass the F18A detection mechanism.

 

Has anyone else tried it on real hardware with or without an F18A?

 

[JasonACT]

Unmodified NTSC console:

 

[Asmusr]

1 hour ago, TheMole said:

 

Thanks for the kind words! That's a weird bug, that screen doesn't do anything that the other screens don't do... can you tell me a little bit about your hardware? Is it an unmodified console, or does it have an F18A (I'm guessing it's an F18A, because some of the color combinations I think I can see cannot be reproduced on a real 9918a)? Are you using a FinalGrom, or did you burn a cartridge? It looks like the screen mode hasn't been set correctly, but the text at the bottom indicates that at least some of the data in VRAM is correct.

 

There is perhaps one thing you can try for me, which is to hold the fire button while starting up the game (until you see the themole logo), that should bypass the F18A detection mechanism.

 

Has anyone else tried it on real hardware with or without an F18A?

 

My recording was from an unmodifed NTSC console, but I can try again tonight with F18A.

[Asmusr]

It works fine on my F18A console, and those sprites that flicker on 9918A look very nice. Unrelated to the type of VDP, I find it very difficult to enter a haunted building from the map. I often don't manage to do it until the ghost is gone. I try to move into the building from various directions while pressing fire. What am I supposed to do?

 

[Serafini Lapo]

13 hours ago, TheMole said:

 

Grazie per le gentili parole! È un bug strano, quello schermo non fa nulla che gli altri schermi non facciano... puoi parlarmi un po' del tuo hardware? È una console non modificata o ha un F18A (immagino sia un F18A, perché alcune delle combinazioni di colori che penso di vedere non possono essere riprodotte su un vero 9918a)? Stai usando un FinalGrom o hai bruciato una cartuccia? Sembra che la modalità schermo non sia stata impostata correttamente, ma il testo in basso indica che almeno alcuni dati nella VRAM sono corretti.

 

Forse c'è una cosa che puoi provare per me, ovvero tenere premuto il pulsante di fuoco durante l'avvio del gioco (finché non vedi il logo della talpa), che dovrebbe bypassare il meccanismo di rilevamento F18A.

 

Qualcun altro l'ha provato su hardware reale con o senza F18A?

 

Forgive me, I forgot to point out that my ti99 is without F-18, you can't see it from the photo, I use a finalgrom to read .bin files. thanks for the advice, as soon as possible I will try the mechanism to avoid the control of a possible F-18 installed👍🏻 I thank you for the answer.

 

 

 

Lapo.

[JasonACT]

12 hours ago, Serafini Lapo said:

I forgot to point out that my ti99 is without F-18

PAL console?

[TheMole]

1 hour ago, JasonACT said:

PAL console?

Thought that as well, but I just tried it in Mame while emulating a PAL console (ti99_4ae), and it doesn't have this issue. Would be good if someone could try it on another PAL console though.

Edited December 7, 2023 by TheMole

[TheMole]

13 hours ago, Asmusr said:

It works fine on my F18A console, and those sprites that flicker on 9918A look very nice. Unrelated to the type of VDP, I find it very difficult to enter a haunted building from the map. I often don't manage to do it until the ghost is gone. I try to move into the building from various directions while pressing fire. What am I supposed to do?

 

Entering a building can be done by being on the street either below or above the building, holding the joystick up or down (pointing towards the building you want to drive to) and pressing fire. It doesn't work from the sides. Some versions of the game allow that as well, but I chose not to implement it because it feels "cleaner" to me. Supporting left/right would make it less obvious that the buildings on the sides of the screen can't be reached...

 

I'm open to changing this though, if it's a big issue.

 

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, TheMole said:

I'm open to changing this though, if it's a big issue.

IMNSHO, if you are modeling after the Commodore 64 version, this behavior should stay.

[retrodroid]

So tried testing the latest release on the TI-99_4A core on my MiSTer.  Unfortunately, the ROM graphics are all scrambled, and the sound is messed up as well.

 

UPDATE>> I've gotten the larger carts to work on MiSTer.  In the MiSTer TI-99_4A core config menu I had to select "Cart Type:  Paged378", now the graphics load correctly (vs "Cart Type:  Normal").

 

TheMole title screen:

 

Main title screen:

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by retrodroid

[Serafini Lapo]

On 7/12/2023 at 06:49, JasonACT said:

Console PAL?

this is what you see behind the Ti99. Assembled in USA.

[Asmusr]

The game froze for me two times today (real iron, F18A). Both times touching a ghost with a ray. The music also froze (continued to play the same note).

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Asmusr

[+OLD CS1]

I did not have a spare second to play anything this week, so this weekend I will put this on my real iron and stream a game or two.

[Asmusr]

I think there is a problem with the sprite flicker routine on the city map. On a 9918A console you either see the white outline or the green inside of the ghosts, but not both. On an F18A console the ghosts flicker between the outside and the inside, which is what I would have expected on the 9918A. 

[+save2600]

Finally had a chance to play the latest version for a bit on my TI-99/4A w/ 32K external and holy cow! The jaw dropping levels of detail that went into this is truly off the charts. All the "little" to major stuff and everything in between such as the stylish opening animation upon startup, graphics and color choices (of absolutely everything ...but esp. buildings, cars, ghosts, equipment, title screen, etc), full version of the hit song that elegantly fades before repeating, and the sampled speech which is extremely clear and integrates perfectly. Haven't followed the super quick progress as much as I would have liked, but it's obvious that such care, love and expertise was put into this game. Almost unbelievable what machine we're enjoying it on.  😎

 

So far, the game hasn't crashed on me. Only thing I noticed that's hardly worth mentioning, is how it can be a little tough to navigate streets (mostly horizontal?) while in map mode. By that I mean the cornering can be a little sticky and requires exacting precision before you find the entry. Only talking map mode of course, so no big deal if it is what it is. Edit - I see the cornering comment/trick SteveB mentioned and will give that a try next time I boot it up. 
 

Will be spending more time with this in the coming weeks, but as of now - looks to be my favorite version of the game! Such a treat, and easily among the very best of the best TI games I've ever had the pleasure to play. Thank you @TheMole and everyone else that had a hand with feedback and in developing!!  😀

[TheMole]

On 12/8/2023 at 2:41 AM, retrodroid said:

UPDATE>> I've gotten the larger carts to work on MiSTer.  In the MiSTer TI-99_4A core config menu I had to select "Cart Type:  Paged378", now the graphics load correctly (vs "Cart Type:  Normal").

Excellent, thanks for reporting back!

[TheMole]

9 hours ago, Asmusr said:

The game froze for me two times today (real iron, F18A). Both times touching a ghost with a ray. The music also froze (continued to play the same note).

 

Hmmm, the ghost-beam collission detection routine is not the sort of code that you would think could lead to a crash:

// If we're about to hit one of the beams, bounce the ghost off of the beam
// in the opposite direction
if (ghost.y > 16)	// Make sure spook is not higher than streams
{
	if (abs((ghost.x + ghost.hdir) - beam1_x) < (BEAM_BOUNCE + 1))
	{
		if ((ghost.x + ghost.hdir) > beam1_x)
			ghost.x += BEAM_BOUNCE;
		else
			ghost.x -= BEAM_BOUNCE;
	}
	else if (abs((ghost.x + ghost.hdir) - beam2_x) < (BEAM_BOUNCE + 1))
	{
		if ((ghost.x + ghost.hdir) > beam2_x)
			ghost.x += BEAM_BOUNCE;
		else
			ghost.x -= BEAM_BOUNCE;
	}
	else
	{
		ghost.x += ghost.hdir;
		ghost.y += ghost.vdir;
	}
}

 

It's a hell of a coincidence though. I'm not sure what to think of this...

I'll be flying back to Europe around christmas, where I can test on real hardware myself. I have an F18A console and two NTSC consoles I can try on. I'll also try reproducing it in any emulator I can get my hands on here.

 

 

[TheMole]

7 hours ago, Asmusr said:

I think there is a problem with the sprite flicker routine on the city map. On a 9918A console you either see the white outline or the green inside of the ghosts, but not both. On an F18A console the ghosts flicker between the outside and the inside, which is what I would have expected on the 9918A. 

I'm not sure I understand 100% what you're describing, but the algorithm is intended to work in the way you described for the 9918A (alternating between white outline and green inside). When the game detects an F18A at startup, it will unlock it, ensure that the 4-sprites-per-line limit is set, and lock it again. The rest of the code just assumes an 9918A, so it shouldn't really look different unless the F18A has a slightly different behavior somehow?

[TheMole]

6 hours ago, save2600 said:

So far, the game hasn't crashed on me. Only thing I noticed that's hardly worth mentioning, is how it can be a little tough to navigate streets (mostly horizontal?) while in map mode. By that I mean the cornering can be a little sticky and requires exacting precision before you find the entry. Only talking map mode of course, so no big deal if it is what it is. Edit - I see the cornering comment/trick SteveB mentioned and will give that a try next time I boot it up.
 

Will be spending more time with this in the coming weeks, but as of now - looks to be my favorite version of the game! Such a treat, and easily among the very best of the best TI games I've ever had the pleasure to play. Thank you @TheMole and everyone else that had a hand with feedback and in developing!!  😀

 

First, thank you very much for the kind words! Of course I code for the joy of coding and my love for the platform, but I would be lying if I said this type of feedback doesn't motivate me do create more games :).

 

Regarding the navigation, indeed... the street targets are very small, basically one pixel. So trying to turn at exactly the right time is going to be very difficult, so use the diagonals. If you're going in a given direction and add in the diagonal, the game will always prioritize the new input for you, making it (hopefully) extremely easy to make the corners.

[Asmusr]

4 hours ago, TheMole said:

I'm not sure I understand 100% what you're describing, but the algorithm is intended to work in the way you described for the 9918A (alternating between white outline and green inside). When the game detects an F18A at startup, it will unlock it, ensure that the 4-sprites-per-line limit is set, and lock it again. The rest of the code just assumes an 9918A, so it shouldn't really look different unless the F18A has a slightly different behavior somehow?

What I mean is that on the 9918A it's not alternating - you either see just the outline or just the interior. Could be something with my TV, I guess, if it's only showing half of the frames.