Captain Cozmos Posted September 15, 2023 Share Posted September 15, 2023 (edited) I am digging deeply on this one, I know it has been a fan request. When I looked at the other source code I worked on, it was the 24k version and in 2022. So, I decided to work on the 16k which has the Pascal entries removed. If someone can fill me in, did the 24k have a hidden level or was that just the Super Game version? So far, I have seriously broken this thing down. I have the scoring, timer, Objects, Sound Table, NPC Movement table, screen setup, NMI. So far I thing Centipede is my best work, this may top it. My beef with it now is that I want to release in a way that if you change anything around that it will still run after assembling. Right now, 98% is done and as soon as it is I will release the code. This is how a portion of the Elevator Object looks like. dw ELEVATOR_PATTERNS dw ELEVATOR_01 dw ELEVATOR_02 dw ELEVATOR_03 dw ELEVATOR_04 dw ELEVATOR_05 dw ELEVATOR_06 dw ELEVATOR_07 dw ELEVATOR_08 dw ELEVATOR_09 dw ELEVATOR_10 dw ELEVATOR_11 dw ELEVATOR_12 dw ELEVATOR_13 ELEVATOR_01: ; 2X WIDE 2X HEIGHT 4 PATTERNS db 002,002 db 49h, 4Eh db 6Ch, 6Ch ELEVATOR_02: db 002,002 db 6Dh, 6Eh db 6Fh, 70h ELEVATOR_03: db 002,002 db 71h, 72h db 73h, 74h ELEVATOR_04: db 002,002 db 75h, 76h db 77h, 78h ELEVATOR_05: db 002,002 db 6Ch, 6Ch db 49h, 4Eh ELEVATOR_06: ; 2X WIDE 1X HEIGHT 2 PATTERNS db 002,001 db 6Ch, 6Ch ELEVATOR_07: db 002,001 db 75h, 76h ELEVATOR_08: db 002,001 db 71h, 72h ELEVATOR_09: db 002,001 db 6Dh, 6Eh ELEVATOR_10: db 002,001 db 6Fh, 70h ELEVATOR_11: db 002,001 db 73h, 74h ELEVATOR_12: db 002,001 db 77h, 78h ELEVATOR_13: db 002,001 db 49h, 4Eh As you can see by the comment. An object table is set up with how wide in patterns by the height in patterns Then the pattern themselves points to the relevant pattern in the VRAM As in a row of 1x6 A's would look like db 65,65,65,65,65,65 Like anyone else, I have always done this manually. But, using the BIOS routines, once you have the tables set up then you should be able to place the patterns anywhere on screen. When I did this with my pattern examples I had to do all that work by hand as well as explain to the system how and where to display it. We will see if the BIOS is better but once we figure out how to do this I hope it can finally be entered into the official record because I can find zero examples of how to do any of this very well. Here is the Donkey Kong table db 1Fh ; Something I omitted in the Elevator object. db 18h dw DONKEY_KONG_PATTERNS dw D_KONG_CENTER dw D_KONG_LEFT dw D_KONG_RIGHT D_KONG_CENTER: db 006,004 db 1Fh, 20h, 21h, 22h, 23h, 1Fh db 24h, 25h, 26h, 27h, 28h, 29h db 1Fh, 2Ah, 2Bh, 2Ch, 2Dh, 1Fh db 2Eh, 2Fh, 30h, 31h, 32h, 33h D_KONG_LEFT: db 006,004 db 34h, 35h, 36h, 37h, 1Fh, 1Fh db 38h, 39h, 3Ah, 3Bh, 1Fh, 1Fh db 3Ch, 3Dh, 3Eh, 3Fh, 40h, 1Fh db 41h, 42h, 43h, 44h, 45h, 1Fh D_KONG_RIGHT: db 006,004 db 7Bh, 7Bh, 93h, 92h, 91h, 90h db 7Bh, 7Bh, 97h, 96h, 95h, 94h db 7Bh, 9Ch, 9Bh, 9Ah, 99h, 98h The first two numbers, 1fh,18h, is the address where the object is placed on the screen The object routine automatically wraps the next line directly under the last for alignment. 03 Cozmos Edited September 15, 2023 by Captain Cozmos 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 On 9/14/2023 at 7:52 PM, Captain Cozmos said: I am digging deeply on this one, I know it has been a fan request. When I looked at the other source code I worked on, it was the 24k version and in 2022. So, I decided to work on the 16k which has the Pascal entries removed. If someone can fill me in, did the 24k have a hidden level or was that just the Super Game version? So far, I have seriously broken this thing down. I have the scoring, timer, Objects, Sound Table, NPC Movement table, screen setup, NMI. So far I thing Centipede is my best work, this may top it. My beef with it now is that I want to release in a way that if you change anything around that it will still run after assembling. Right now, 98% is done and as soon as it is I will release the code. This is how a portion of the Elevator Object looks like. dw ELEVATOR_PATTERNS dw ELEVATOR_01 dw ELEVATOR_02 dw ELEVATOR_03 dw ELEVATOR_04 dw ELEVATOR_05 dw ELEVATOR_06 dw ELEVATOR_07 dw ELEVATOR_08 dw ELEVATOR_09 dw ELEVATOR_10 dw ELEVATOR_11 dw ELEVATOR_12 dw ELEVATOR_13 ELEVATOR_01: ; 2X WIDE 2X HEIGHT 4 PATTERNS db 002,002 db 49h, 4Eh db 6Ch, 6Ch ELEVATOR_02: db 002,002 db 6Dh, 6Eh db 6Fh, 70h ELEVATOR_03: db 002,002 db 71h, 72h db 73h, 74h ELEVATOR_04: db 002,002 db 75h, 76h db 77h, 78h ELEVATOR_05: db 002,002 db 6Ch, 6Ch db 49h, 4Eh ELEVATOR_06: ; 2X WIDE 1X HEIGHT 2 PATTERNS db 002,001 db 6Ch, 6Ch ELEVATOR_07: db 002,001 db 75h, 76h ELEVATOR_08: db 002,001 db 71h, 72h ELEVATOR_09: db 002,001 db 6Dh, 6Eh ELEVATOR_10: db 002,001 db 6Fh, 70h ELEVATOR_11: db 002,001 db 73h, 74h ELEVATOR_12: db 002,001 db 77h, 78h ELEVATOR_13: db 002,001 db 49h, 4Eh As you can see by the comment. An object table is set up with how wide in patterns by the height in patterns Then the pattern themselves points to the relevant pattern in the VRAM As in a row of 1x6 A's would look like db 65,65,65,65,65,65 Like anyone else, I have always done this manually. But, using the BIOS routines, once you have the tables set up then you should be able to place the patterns anywhere on screen. When I did this with my pattern examples I had to do all that work by hand as well as explain to the system how and where to display it. We will see if the BIOS is better but once we figure out how to do this I hope it can finally be entered into the official record because I can find zero examples of how to do any of this very well. Here is the Donkey Kong table db 1Fh ; Something I omitted in the Elevator object. db 18h dw DONKEY_KONG_PATTERNS dw D_KONG_CENTER dw D_KONG_LEFT dw D_KONG_RIGHT D_KONG_CENTER: db 006,004 db 1Fh, 20h, 21h, 22h, 23h, 1Fh db 24h, 25h, 26h, 27h, 28h, 29h db 1Fh, 2Ah, 2Bh, 2Ch, 2Dh, 1Fh db 2Eh, 2Fh, 30h, 31h, 32h, 33h D_KONG_LEFT: db 006,004 db 34h, 35h, 36h, 37h, 1Fh, 1Fh db 38h, 39h, 3Ah, 3Bh, 1Fh, 1Fh db 3Ch, 3Dh, 3Eh, 3Fh, 40h, 1Fh db 41h, 42h, 43h, 44h, 45h, 1Fh D_KONG_RIGHT: db 006,004 db 7Bh, 7Bh, 93h, 92h, 91h, 90h db 7Bh, 7Bh, 97h, 96h, 95h, 94h db 7Bh, 9Ch, 9Bh, 9Ah, 99h, 98h The first two numbers, 1fh,18h, is the address where the object is placed on the screen The object routine automatically wraps the next line directly under the last for alignment. 03 Cozmos For those who aren't following, I am also working on researching the OS7 Graphics package. @Captain Cozmos, can you please send me what you have in the disassembly? I am trying to debug mobile object handling (I have semi-mobile object handling working, as I have been able to plot 10 pre-shifted targ riders across the screen with minimal effort) -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamshaft Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 If you are intending to release your research to the public, let me know. I'll post the code on my site for everyone to learn. And if you do intend on releasing the code, do you have comments added in there? Good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 56 minutes ago, Kamshaft said: If you are intending to release your research to the public, let me know. I'll post the code on my site for everyone to learn. And if you do intend on releasing the code, do you have comments added in there? Good work! You can see the os7lib here in github, for z88dk: https://github.com/tschak909/os7lib -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamshaft Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 29 minutes ago, tschak909 said: You can see the os7lib here in github, for z88dk: https://github.com/tschak909/os7lib -Thom I was talking about the games themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Cozmos Posted September 18, 2023 Author Share Posted September 18, 2023 I have been going through Frenzy and DK to correspond parts of the manual. The goal is to document the routine and the Data and show exactly how the routine works as a guide. I have run into a snag because Frenzy uses Mode 1 according to what I can tell. All the documentation out there says there is an error using the PUT_MOBILE routine in Mode 1 It then gives instruction to use part of the routine in your program and gives a listing to put in your code. In the case of Frenzy, that code is not present in it's listing so I am suspecting that they discovered the error "after" Frenzy was written and released. If that is the case then how did they get around the bug. Mystery's, Mystery's, Mystery's 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 You are not reading close enough. Read the paragraph after the code. You only need it in certain situations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 (edited) Since I know you're still working on this, may I please present this info? 1. The elevators in the CV Donkey Kong -- be it 24K or 16K -- go at the same speed regardless of the skill level selected. For the original arcade DK (and the Coleco Adam DDP port), the elevators went at 25 percent of full speed for the first level, then 50 percent for level 2, 75 percent for level 3 and then normal speed for level 4 and up. Hence, could you please try to tweak the speed for the CV port to match up with the level? 2. The arcade DK also had the background music cut out when the timer warning plays (last 10 seconds), but on both CV ports the BGM continues while this occurs (at 0900 for 24K, and 01000 for 16K). ~Ben Edited October 23, 2023 by ColecoFan1981 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Cozmos Posted October 29, 2023 Author Share Posted October 29, 2023 I will release this soon enough but I have a couple of other projects in the works. The good news is that I am now including Sound Reference tables which will make accessing the sound data more easily. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) Hi Coz, In the future, please try to look into disassembling DK's sequel, Donkey Kong Junior. ~Ben Edited December 14, 2023 by ColecoFan1981 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 3 minutes ago, ColecoFan1981 said: Hi Coz, In the future, please try to look into disassembling DK's sequel, Donkey Kong Junior. I am wondering if the CV port of the sequel also has any unused PASCAL calls in it? ~Ben No. It didn't. This is precisely why I did my analysis tool, and video: -Thom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Cozmos Posted December 14, 2023 Author Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) At the end of the day I did not see any benefit to using the PASCAL statements which were nothing more than a way to pass register variables. I suspect that was their way to find programmers that did not know assembly? But, there was no speed gain or performance of any kind when I removed all the pascal stuff from Smurf Rescue. Maybe it started out like a good idea but everything that 909 found is all there is that I could confirm. After the holidays I may get back into the disassembles. Personally I would like to know what they actually changed from the 24k to the 16 DK. Pascal statements alone will not account for the 8k diff. As with the two Smurf variants I know of. The proto did much the same but the programing itself was more honed and both have the pascal. If I had to make a business decision, I would rather have a 16k two chip game rather than a 3 chip 24k any day of the week. Especially when it is a pack in game that every console comes with. The 1st version was to get the system out the door for 1982 Christmas then have the original programmer make it more compact. As long as the 24k version worked, no one cared about how honed it was. Edited December 14, 2023 by Captain Cozmos 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Captain Cozmos said: At the end of the day I did not see any benefit to using the PASCAL statements which were nothing more than a way to pass register variables. I suspect that was their way to find programmers that did not know assembly? But, there was no speed gain or performance of any kind when I removed all the pascal stuff from Smurf Rescue. Maybe it started out like a good idea but everything that 909 found is all there is that I could confirm. After the holidays I may get back into the disassembles. Personally I would like to know what they actually changed from the 24k to the 16 DK. Pascal statements alone will not account for the 8k diff. As with the two Smurf variants I know of. The proto did much the same but the programing itself was more honed and both have the pascal. If I had to make a business decision, I would rather have a 16k two chip game rather than a 3 chip 24k any day of the week. Especially when it is a pack in game that every console comes with. The 1st version was to get the system out the door for 1982 Christmas then have the original programmer make it more compact. As long as the 24k version worked, no one cared about how honed it was. Coz, The main differences I found in the newer 16K ROM version of DK were: * Bonus timer is five digits long and goes all the way up to 99,000... but it also rolls over to 00,000 (100,000), and you don't die because of it, either. * BGM stops whenever Mario dies (falling; collision with enemies; collision with DK on boards 2 and 4; time up), same as in the arcade original. * The "black hole" glitch on board 1 actually takes you to board 2 instantly (points for time remaining are added to the score), instead of (in the 24K version) having to wait 12 seconds until Mario appears on the topmost girder by DK. * On boards 3 and 5, Mario no longer falls through the left elevator when jumping onto it from his starting position. ~Ben Edited December 14, 2023 by ColecoFan1981 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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