I disassembled and fixed Super Cobra

[Captain Cozmos]

I will post the source as soon as I resolve 3 more tables but I really don't have the time at the moment.

 

I know that sounds like a cheesy excuse but instead of this fixed rom being buried in another post I decided to give it it's own thread so the title is advertised.

 

In response to another thread that was started by Colecofan1981 I went the go ahead and finished a disassembly of Super Cobra I did awhile back while working on Centipede.

I rewrote the controller routine, changed some memory conflict addresses and a few other things.

So here is the released binary.

It should now work on the ADAM using the Super Action Controllers as well as the Standard ones.
The binary had to go past 8k so I padded it to 9.

Now this is not the 80's and chips are not expensive like back then so there is no reason to hone this to 8k in order to fit on a single 8k prom for release.  So there is no reason to whittle it down.
On the other hand, there is lots of room for improvement.

The game may have some decent scrolling routines but it looks like it was done by an amateur that had zero documentation on Colecovision programing guidelines hence you had all the conflicts.

In the long run I can see a title screen telling you to get ready, press fire to begin?  Better sounds, Two players?
I tested it on a real ADAM with real SA Controllers and it all works.  I can not claim that it works on any machine outside of the Coleco environment.

 

Either way, this version is ready to go.

Like always, share, like subscribe, be kind to each other and yourselves.  Don't forget to rewind your video tape before returning to Block Buster.
If you find another issue with it or my patch doesn't work you can always post it here or PM me.


CPT Cozmos
 

Super Cobra (SAC Patched).rom

 

 

edit:

I just tested this on the DINA through MAME and it works as it should.
As far as I know, MAME is the closest to hardware without the hardware.
If someone out there with a physical DINA can test this out and give feedback then that would be great news.
That goes for any other compatible Coleco hardware.

 

Peace...

Edited November 14, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[Tempest]

Anything unused in the code?

[Captain Cozmos]

16 minutes ago, Tempest said:

Anything unused in the code?

No unused code.

The thing is only 8k and by the looks of it, they were shooting for a one prom solution so space was tight.

The lack of features is usually an indication of they didn't care.

 

From my point of view, just fixing this routine took me a few bytes over.  Adding a simple press fire to begin would have been nothing.  This would have still been within 9k.

 

So they would have had to go to 3 4k chips or 2 8k chips.

I am not sure on the 8k+4k route.  It sounds great mathematically but does that work with address lines?

Not to get into those weeds.  They would have a lot of wasted space or fill it with content.

 

As far as the other games, Montezuma's Revenge has similar issues despite being honed to Triple A status.

The difference is, they put MR in the $7000 memory space but it suffers from the same issues in other respects.

I'm sure I can fix that as well but I have other pressing matters at hand.

Maybe this weekend if I have time.

 

I don't think anyone is holding their breath or biting nails for these repairs in this day and age.
It is nice to have bug free versions but it's not like you can't fine something to run these games on.

Not a lot of people have or care about the SA Controllers anyway.

 

But I will take a look at it sooner or later.

 

[Captain Cozmos]

BTW.

I would like to rename this from SAC Patched to something like Super Cobra fixed, debugged, Super Cobra v2.0 or something to that nature.
 

This deal was updated and debugged.  It should work on all Coleco Compatible systems.  Not just SA Controllers

 

When they updated Skyrim they did not rename the thing to Skyrim with wide screen patch.  No, it was Skyrim v359.7 or some deal.

[ColecoFan1981]

3 hours ago, Captain Cozmos said:

No unused code.

The thing is only 8k and by the looks of it, they were shooting for a one prom solution so space was tight.

The lack of features is usually an indication of they didn't care.

 

From my point of view, just fixing this routine took me a few bytes over.  Adding a simple press fire to begin would have been nothing.  This would have still been within 9k.

 

So they would have had to go to 3 4k chips or 2 8k chips.

I am not sure on the 8k+4k route.  It sounds great mathematically but does that work with address lines?

Not to get into those weeds.  They would have a lot of wasted space or fill it with content.

 

As far as the other games, Montezuma's Revenge has similar issues despite being honed to Triple A status.

The difference is, they put MR in the $7000 memory space but it suffers from the same issues in other respects.

I'm sure I can fix that as well but I have other pressing matters at hand.

Maybe this weekend if I have time.

 

I don't think anyone is holding their breath or biting nails for these repairs in this day and age.
It is nice to have bug free versions but it's not like you can't fine something to run these games on.

Not a lot of people have or care about the SA Controllers anyway.

 

But I will take a look at it sooner or later.

 

The CV Montezuma's Revenge is also infamous for the glitched-out scenes (I don't know if they really are glitchy) during the treasure chamber bonus round (you have a limited amount of time to collect the bonus jewels here), and whenever you have the time, to please try to look into that.

 

~Ben

Edited November 15, 2023 by ColecoFan1981

[Captain Cozmos]

42 minutes ago, ColecoFan1981 said:

The CV Montezuma's Revenge is also infamous for the glitched-out scenes (I don't know if they really are glitchy) during the treasure chamber bonus round (you have a limited amount of time to collect the bonus jewels here), and whenever you have the time, to please try to look into that.

 

~Ben

I always thought you have a limited amount of time so you are not hanging about.



Either way, MR uses the same coding practices as Super Cobra.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[Captain Cozmos]

BTW....
I have discovered through my disassembling of Parker Brothers games a really fantastic way of putting data to the screens by using the stack pointer.

Quite interesting if you think about it.
The stack pointer is faster than using registers and manipulating data.

Montezuma also uses the Stack Pointer to send audio data to the Out Port at the highest rate of speed.

The downfall, in my opinion, is that instead of sending that fast video data directly through OUT, it sends it to PUTVRAM
So any speed gained is lost because they were still using the BIOS.  Super Cobra uses a similar setup.
 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Captain Cozmos

[ColecoFan1981]

8 minutes ago, Captain Cozmos said:

BTW....
I have discovered through my disassembling of Parker Brothers games a really fantastic way of putting data to the screens by using the stack pointer.

Quite interesting if you think about it.
The stack pointer is faster than using registers and manipulating data.

Montezuma also uses the Stack Pointer to send audio data to the Out Port at the highest rate of speed.

The downfall, in my opinion, is that instead of sending that fast video data directly through OUT, it sends it to PUTVRAM
So any speed gained is lost because they were still using the BIOS.  Super Cobra uses a similar setup.
 

I praise you for all your hard work thus far... it's no wonder that glitches here and there were one of the causes of the 1983 video game crash.

 

~Ben

[ColecoFan1981]

13 minutes ago, Captain Cozmos said:

I always thought you have a limited amount of time so you are not hanging about.



Either way, MR uses the same coding practices as Super Cobra.

I do need to take this back about the treasure chamber scene... I watched the gameplay videos for the Atari XL and Commodore 64 ports of MR and they are drawn similarly.

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

Ben (ColecoFan1981)

[Northcoastgamer]

I've played Montezumas for years that is the way the treasure room is. You only have so much time to grab the jewels. Over a million on both the CV  and 5200 versions great game. Gonna checkout the Super Cobra with a super action controller on my Atarimax. Thank you for you effort Captain!

[Captain Cozmos]

11 minutes ago, Northcoastgamer said:

I've played Montezumas for years that is the way the treasure room is. You only have so much time to grab the jewels. Over a million on both the CV  and 5200 versions great game. Gonna checkout the Super Cobra with a super action controller on my Atarimax. Thank you for you effort Captain!

Let me know if you run into issues.  Don't be shy.  That is the only way I can fix them.

[Northcoastgamer]

I can confirm the Super Action controller CCSAC2023 patch works great! I haven't noticed anything only played a bit tho.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Northcoastgamer

[Captain Cozmos]

For &&&ts and giggles I just tried Montezuma's Revenge on the ADAM with the SAC and it does not even recognized the level select buttons.

 

[Aking]

thanks!

[zyzzle]

21 hours ago, Captain Cozmos said:

BTW....
I have discovered through my disassembling of Parker Brothers games a really fantastic way of putting data to the screens by using the stack pointer.
 

If I may kindly request a disassembly of one of my favorites, Popeye, for your next project, I'd be most obliged. Always wondered how that worked, is so compact at only 16k, being probably the "best" conversion of the title.

[Captain Cozmos]

1 hour ago, zyzzle said:

If I may kindly request a disassembly of one of my favorites, Popeye, for your next project, I'd be most obliged. Always wondered how that worked, is so compact at only 16k, being probably the "best" conversion of the title.

All the colecovision titles are on my todo list.  Parker Brothers games are the ones I am going through.

My issue is that these are taking away from my other obligations.
I pretty much finished Montezuma's Revenge just so I can fix the issues with ADAM.
I have discovered that, yes it does use the same access as Super Cobra but there are other features that incorporate around their routines.

Montezuma has Jumping, Jumping left and right, climbing ladders as well as an opening animation of the main character climbing down into the underground on a rope.
That is nothing more than a table that takes over what would be left, right, up, down and jump.

 

So, in order to fix this I would have to update every single one of those values which means I don't have the time right now to do it.
Also, I aint gettin paid fer it either.  So it goes to the back of the bus and waits it's turn while I take 5 and do something I really want to like CP/M 3.

But, I will get to Popeye as soon as I can.

pinky promise.
 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Captain Cozmos