International Karate RC and RCX cartridge conversion - all in one!

[+Fred_M]

4 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I think you can do it in Altirra. Let me have a tinker....

 

Thank you! I was not able to find a kind of converting utility 😞

 

3 hours ago, Philsan said:

Obviously you know it, but game works on multicarts too.

 

I know, but I still have a lot of PCBs and components to make Megacarts. For example Prince of Persia is fantastic as Megacart. I can use Megacart studio to put the original RC and RCX xex-files on a megacart, but this combined (RC+RCX) version would be the best one to put on cartridge. 😉

 

I am using those megacarts to make some homebrew carts for myself 😀

 

For example my Bunny Hop package.

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Fred_M

[Wilheim]

On 6/29/2023 at 11:09 AM, Fred_M said:

 

Thank you! Great job!

 

Is there an easy way to convert it to Megacart? I don't have Atarimax 😞

Sure, there you go.

 

International Karate RCX2 - Megacart.car International Karate RCX2 - Megacart.bin

[flashjazzcat]

Note this also requires 'Hard emulation' to be enabled on SIDE3, since it insists on writing the $FF to $D5FF when disabling the cart.

[Wilheim]

1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said:

Note this also requires 'Hard emulation' to be enabled on SIDE3, since it insists on writing the $FF to $D5FF when disabling the cart.

Ok ok, here is the "SIDE3 friendly" version. Would you please confirm this works better on SIDE3?

International Karate RCX2 - Megacart - SIDE3.car International Karate RCX2 - Megacart - SIDE3.bin

[flashjazzcat]

3 minutes ago, Wilheim said:

Would you please confirm this works better on SIDE3?

Yes: this works a treat - many thanks.  One does not even need to turn off the PBI HDD with this one, let alone lock the configuration registers.

4 minutes ago, Wilheim said:

Ok ok

Not that anyone is under any obligation to do so, but in order to forego the need for 'Hard emulation', one need simply avoid relying on writes to $D5F0-FF in the emulated CCTL space. MegaCart (IIRC) uses data-based banking, so you can write $80 to anywhere between $D500-FF to disable the cart, and with AtariMax (which uses the address bus), any write to the upper half of CCTL will turn off the ROM.

[Wilheim]

5 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

Not that anyone is under any obligation to do so, but in order to forego the need for 'Hard emulation', one need simply avoid relying on writes to $D5F0-FF in the emulated CCTL space. MegaCart (IIRC) uses data-based banking, so you can write $80 to anywhere between $D500-FF to disable the cart, and with AtariMax (which uses the address bus), any write to the upper half of CCTL will turn off the ROM.

Always willing to bring support to these devices! I have u1mb, side3 and incognito. I just have to adjust my libraries to do so and to pay attention to some details.

I even laughed when you noticed the “hard emulation” need, because I forgot to adjust it.

[flashjazzcat]

I (and hopefully others) really appreciate it!

 

[+Fred_M]

3 hours ago, Wilheim said:

Sure, there you go.

 

International Karate RCX2 - Megacart.car 1 MB · 2 downloads International Karate RCX2 - Megacart.bin 1 MB · 2 downloads

 

Oh wow! Thank you so much!!

[_The Doctor__]

so I can take the IKRCX@ side3 bin and put it on an AtariMax 8 megabit cart (1MB)? Or is there versions with the fixes in them already ready to flash? Are there saving features for MaxFlash/AVG/or other such carts?

Edited July 2, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[pseudografx]

 Not sure if DLIs on the background would work but here's an attempt. Also updated the lower part of the top image a bit if anyone wants to run it through RastaConverter. Just 12 colours in total.

 

[Beeblebrox]

9 minutes ago, pseudografx said:

 Not sure if DLIs on the background would work but here's an attempt. Also updated the lower part of the top image a bit if anyone wants to run it through RastaConverter. Just 12 colours in total.

 

Great. This is along the lines (pun intended) I was thinking. Looks amazing! Well done.

 

Basically this really helps to break up the starkness and give a sense of depth and connection between the lower half game space and the backdrop. I'd love to see some more backdrops and lower game screen colours use the same technique - if indeed it actually works in practice.

[José Pereira]

10 minutes ago, pseudografx said:

 Not sure if DLIs on the background would work but here's an attempt. Also updated the lower part of the top image a bit if anyone wants to run it through RastaConverter. Just 12 colours in total.

 

To be honest I don't think lines will go well on IK (whatever 'sort of': single, many or mixed like in here)... Doesn't make sense, in my opinion...

[Beeblebrox]

7 minutes ago, José Pereira said:

To be honest I don't think lines will go well on IK (whatever 'sort of': single, many or mixed like in here)... Doesn't make sense, in my opinion...

Sure, personal preference I guess. What would think if the actual lines weren't there and there was just the gradient banding?

 

eg   but obviously wider banding

Edited July 3, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[pseudografx]

It might work better with interlacing the adjacent lumas, especially on NTSC. It would flicker slightly but not that much. But it has also be considered that adding DLI change to almost every line would eat some valuable CPU time.

Edited July 3, 2023 by pseudografx

[pseudografx]

10 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

Sure, personal preference I guess. What would think if the actual lines weren't there and there was just the gradient banding?

 

eg   but obviously wider banding

I tried that first and the luma steps are too big. Does not look good.

[José Pereira]

7 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

Sure, personal preference I guess. What would think if the actual lines weren't there and there was just the gradient banding?

 

eg   but obviously wider banding

Some gradient I think it could looks Berger like dark to light (top to bottom) with many to less (same perder de reading number of scanlines per each luminance). Could then end at the bottom with a couple of scanlines on a diferentes colour/luminances (single ones)...

Or not?

Maybe is me that am used to the good old looking 😉😀...

 

 

[José Pereira]

5 minutes ago, pseudografx said:

It might work better with interlacing the adjacent lumas, especially on NTSC.

This one is much much better.

[Beeblebrox]

35 minutes ago, José Pereira said:

This one is much much better.

I agree, I like this one. 

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[José Pereira]

@pseudografx have some time to post now so lets begin with the real photo:

And your conversion:

A simple way, keeping as it is, change the ground to grays (the real place also has 'kind of' to A8 gray(s) ground/walkway):

(of course that better is, in some way, have different gfxs in the top part and don't really cut temple/trees part VS playing area. Could you try it with so little space there?)

 

What I think is not good is that the ground (because of the A8/C64 needs for the playing area) totally cut the above image. It's a real horizontally ✂️...

This one is suffering the exactly same problem (and the ground gray is just too too dark VS the white of the temple):

 

Now one that have the same problem as your:

We can clearly see the cut (much more noticeable on the left side).

This one could have, at least be improved, I think, using DLIs (as it'll be following rocks as is on the above walkway, no dither possible on the playing area but will make it better). Something, more or less, like this::

 

Now see others that I think aren't totally ok though not all that bad:

-> The ground cyan (ours colour_9) keep the luminance above on the mountain but have a value or two less dark on the ground (but as @Philsan said the letters (hi-scores, at least) should be darker):

-> Again the ground, for me, is a bit too dark so the same as the previous one (not much, probably is luminace_6? better _8?):

(this one is good on the transition because isn't a total cut horizontally...)

 

Now what makes good ones is when they're have real transitions (with gfxs up and down the horizon with also good colours/luminances choosing):

      

 

To conclude... when is possible don't use a real ✂️

Also some (like China Great Wall), but probably not many, some lines makes sense but most (as we can see on the above good examples) don't make, just imagine adding there lines... all the beauty on them will be lost (with all kind of types of lines).

Just wanted to post my opinion and give you and all others some ideas/examples to think of...

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by José Pereira

[Beeblebrox]

This may have been mentioned at some stage given there are severl International Karate threads on AA (including the IK+ project)

 

I appreciate the IK+ project (AFAIK) is still a WIP, but given the amazing work on these RC/RCX versions of the original (non IK+) game, I was wondering it at any stage there was a plan to incorporate the weapons trials element of IK+ into the 128k RCX version?

 

 

So I apprecaite we can't have the animated backgrounds present in IK+ on the RC/RCX versions. It's just the weapons segments of the IK games across all platforms really adds to the gameplay. (I recall playing those weapons segments on a mate's Amiga BITD). 

[zzip]

On 6/22/2023 at 2:36 AM, Beeblebrox said:

Next we need galactic backdrops!!  IK with planets in the background!! IK on Mars!! 😄

With planet appropriate gravity for the jumps? 

 

[Beeblebrox]

2 hours ago, zzip said:

With planet appropriate gravity for the jumps? 

 

heh heh - couldn't resist: