Berzerk Enhanced Edition issues

[SS]

I got a $50 gift card from work, so I decided to spend it on the new Berzerk Enhanced Edition.  I was hoping to rip it in order to put on my Harmony but no luck thus far.  I am using an AtariMax USB Programmer and I thought that I had done it by ripping the BIN as a 32K Atari bankswitched cartridge.  It starts up in Stella seemingly fine but then resets on the second screen when you hit the fire button every time.  Hopefully I can find a workaround.  

 

More interesting, though, is how the cartridge itself works on my consoles.  On BOTH of my 7800s, the Berzerk screen jumps (not *quite* rolls but kind of like that) as soon as the game starts up and doesn't stop, making the game unplayable.  I wondered if it was the RF feed onto my modern(ish) TV that was causing the effect but it did exactly the same thing on my A/V modded 7800.  So I dug out my A/V modded 2600 expecting the worst.  Kind of surprisingly, the game plays perfectly on this system.  I've got an un-modded 6-switcher and a Jr in the back porch storage closet but didn't want to brave the cold rain tonight to try them out; maybe I'll dig them out this weekend.  The old Berzerk VE hack does not cause these effects on my 7800s, BTW, it works great on both machines.

  

The Berzerk Enhanced Edition box definitely says that it is compatible with a 7800 but my experience was definitely different.  Has anyone else gotten this game and had similar results?  I am very curious.  Plus, does anyone know who did the programming/hacking of this for Atari?  I was wondering if it was possibly someone here on the forum because they might be able to offer some insight.  

 

As for the gameplay itself, I really liked the addition of the diagonal shots for the robots.  It was definitely extra challenging and fun.  Does the old hack say "Got the intruder, got the chicken" like this one does?  My brain is old and mushy but I liked that too.  

[DEBRO]

Hi there,

12 hours ago, SS said:

Plus, does anyone know who did the programming/hacking of this for Atari?  I was wondering if it was possibly someone here on the forum because they might be able to offer some insight.

Yes, that would be me. I guess I can talk about this now. I'll add some history too. I may miss somethings so I might come back to fill in.

 

Let's start with playing digitized samples from the 2600. Back in 1997, Eckhard Stolberg posted a demo to the [stellalist] of playing digitized speech from the 2600. This same technique was used in Quadrun to get the game to repeat the game title when the game cart was started. I'll stay out of the particulars for this thread.

 

Now fast forward 7 years!

 

I reverse engineered Berzerk and posted it to the [stellalist] at the end of 2004. When I reverse engineered the game I noticed that the data for having the robots fire diagonally was in the ROM code however the mechanism to activate the diagonal firing was not present. You'll find some old threads here on AA discussing this and even a hack to enable the diagonal fire. In that hack there was also some graphical changes as well.

 

Now enters Mike Mika...

 

Mike had the bright idea to give Berzerk speech to simulate the arcade experience. He took my reverse engineering code and the demo posted by Eckhard and married them together. This resulted in the the Berzerk: Voice Enhanced cartridge that is currently being sold in the AtariAge store. This is a 16K cartridge. It does not have the robots firing diagonally or the graphical changes however it does have a title screen and includes the voice samples..."INTRUDER, ALERT! INTRUDER, ALERT!", "CHICKEN, FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT!", and "HUMANOID MUST NOT ESCAPE!".

 

This is where some things might get cloudy...

 

In March 2023, Atari acquired the rights to a dozen arcade games from the Stern library which included Berzerk and Frenzy. I'm not sure if I reached out to Mike Mika saying how cool it would be to have his speech enhanced Berzerk released by Atari or if I reached out to Atari to discuss Mike's work. Either way, some how (and I can't remember the details) we all got connected.

 

I was asked by Atari if I could get the diagonal hack in a speech enhanced cartridge. Being that I already had the code and items plugged in I responded with yes and it should be fairly simple and easy to do. To do this though, I needed the speech source code from Mike. Mike looked through his archive of source code (which I would love to see someday) and couldn't find it. Time continued to progress. It just so happens that I was upgrading to a new computer during this time too. I was going through old HD looking for data I needed to transfer and guess what turned up? I found the source to BerzerkVE on one of my old HDs! Now the work begins...

 

I started using Mike's samples and combined my hacks to produce a ROM. This was doing the summer of 2023. Atari would ask how things were progressing and I would respond all was well since I had the source to BerzerkVE. Here is where things get interesting. Keep in mind, I'm not a game developer by trade. I have a regular position for another company and do Atari code and reverse engineering as a hobby. Atari on the other hand is a game corporation with deadlines to meet on their projects.

 

I continued to work on the game off and on...more off than on because again...it was the summer of 2023. I kept saying to myself, I need to finish this work for Atari and it won't take long. I took a vacation with my family (again...summer) with intentions to spend time finishing Berzerk for Atari. Well...family fun got the best of me and I didn't touch that work all week. When I returned from vacation, I had a message in my inbox from Atari saying they needed Berzerk so they could submit it for ESRB ratings. Again...game corporation with deadlines. I wish I had known about this deadline when I started because we wouldn't be where we are now if I had.

 

I responded that I could get something to them but it wouldn't be the complete game or complete as I saw it. Atari told me that would be fine. They could submit what I had to the ESRB and release the updated finished game on the cart. What I (we) submitted to the ESRB was a 32K ROM with...

• modified graphics to look more inline with the arcade
• robots firing diagonally
• extra life bug corrected
  • original Berzerk would end the game if you got more than 127 lives
• startup bug corrected
  • there was an issue on some 2600s with the original Berzerk when it started it making it unplayable
  • BerzerkVE has a bankswitching issue that may prevent it from starting up
• the following digital samples
  • GOT THE INTRUDER! GOT THE CHICKEN!
  • HUMANOID MUST NOT ESCAPE
  • CHICKEN, FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT

Some keen AA users will notice that this doesn't have all the speech from BerzerkVE...and you would be correct.

 

To save a few bytes of ROM, I changed the routine to produce the digitized speech. In doing so, that meant I needed to modify the speech data slightly. This why it didn't make the ESRB build and the final cart.

 

For the final build we had the additional samples of..."GOT THE HUMANIOID! GOT THE CHICKEN!", "GOT THE HUMANOID! GOT THE INTRUDER!", and "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!". The samples would alternate based on how the player escaped the previous maze. So if the player exited the previous maze without destroying all the robots then "...GOT THE CHICKEN!" would play when the player lost a life. If the player exited the previous maze destroying all the robots then "...GOT THE INTRUDER!" would play when the player lost a life. Also, to mix up the speech slightly so it wouldn't get too monotonous..."INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" would play occasionally as you exited the maze. As an added "bonus" the final build also contained a way for the player to disable the digitized speech if they tired of hearing it. This was controlled by the left difficulty switch. The samples would play when the player had the left difficulty set to PRO or A. The samples would be disabled when the player had the left difficulty set to AMATEUR or B.

 

I also, want to add that I reached out to Bob DeCrescenzo @PacManPlus for more digitized samples and he promptly filled the request. Bob used these samples for his excellent 7800 port of Frenzy in the AA store. I had to compress these samples to fit within the ROM limits of the 2600. 

 

A title screen was planned with an easy way to chose game selections too but I ran out of time. Again, referencing hobbyist have no deadlines however corporations do. 

 

Also, each build delivery contained ROMS for NTSC, PAL60, and PAL50. I know some would want to know.

 

This was a lot, I know but hopefully it will give some history as to how this came about.

 

I'm not sure why you are having issues with this game on your 7800. It is a standard 32K Atari ROM. Anyone else having issues with this and their 7800?

Edited December 28, 2023 by DEBRO

[JetmanUK]

4 hours ago, DEBRO said:

Hi there,

Yes, that would be me. I guess I can talk about this now. I'll add some history too. I may miss somethings so I might come back to fill in.

 

Let's start with playing digitized samples from the 2600. Back in 1997, Eckhard Stolberg posted a demo to the [stellalist] of playing digitized speech from the 2600. This same technique was used in Quadrun to get the game to repeat the game title when the game cart was started. I'll stay out of the particulars for this thread.

 

Now fast forward 7 years!

 

I reverse engineered Berzerk and posted it to the [stellalist] at the end of 2004. When I reverse engineered the game I noticed that the data for having the robots fire diagonally was in the ROM code however the mechanism to activate the diagonal firing was not present. You'll find some old threads here on AA discussing this and even a hack to enable the diagonal fire. In that hack there was also some graphical changes as well.

 

Now enters Mike Mika...

 

Mike had the bright idea to give Berzerk speech to simulate the arcade experience. He took my reverse engineering code and the demo posted by Eckhard and married them together. This resulted in the the Berzerk: Voice Enhanced cartridge that is currently being sold in the AtariAge store. This is a 16K cartridge. It does not have the robots firing diagonally or the graphical changes however it does have a title screen and includes the voice samples..."INTRUDER, ALERT! INTRUDER, ALERT!", "CHICKEN, FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT!", and "HUMANOID MUST NOT ESCAPE!".

 

This is where some things might get cloudy...

 

In March 2023, Atari acquired the rights to a dozen arcade games from the Stern library which included Berzerk and Frenzy. I'm not sure if I reached out to Mike Mika saying how cool it would be to have his speech enhanced Berzerk released by Atari or if I reached out to Atari to discuss Mike's work. Either way, some how (and I can't remember the details) we all got connected.

 

I was asked by Atari if I could get the diagonal hack in a speech enhanced cartridge. Being that I already had the code and items plugged in I responded with yes and it should be fairly simple and easy to do. To do this though, I needed the speech source code from Mike. Mike looked through his archive of source code (which I would love to see someday) and couldn't find it. Time continued to progress. It just so happens that I was upgrading to a new computer during this time too. I was going through old HD looking for data I needed to transfer and guess what turned up? I found the source to BerzerkVE on one of my old HDs! Now the work begins...

 

I started using Mike's samples and combined my hacks to produce a ROM. This was doing the summer of 2023. Atari would ask how things were progressing and I would respond all was well since I had the source to BerzerkVE. Here is where things get interesting. Keep in mind, I'm not a game developer by trade. I have a regular position for another company and do Atari code and reverse engineering as a hobby. Atari on the other hand is a game corporation with deadlines to meet on their projects.

 

I continued to work on the game off and on...more off than on because again...it was the summer of 2023. I kept saying to myself, I need to finish this work for Atari and it won't take long. I took a vacation with my family (again...summer) with intentions to spend time finishing Berzerk for Atari. Well...family fun got the best of me and I didn't touch that work all week. When I returned from vacation, I had a message in my inbox from Atari saying they needed Berzerk so they could submit it for ESRB ratings. Again...game corporation with deadlines. I wish I had known about this deadline when I started because we wouldn't be where we are now if I had.

 

I responded that I could get something to them but it wouldn't be the complete game or complete as I saw it. Atari told me that would be fine. They could submit what I had to the ESRB and release the updated finished game on the cart. What I (we) submitted to the ESRB was a 32K ROM with...

• modified graphics to look more inline with the arcade
• robots firing diagonally
• extra life bug corrected
  • original Berzerk would end the game if you got more than 127 lives
• startup bug corrected
  • there was an issue on some 2600s with the original Berzerk when it started it making it unplayable
  • BerzerkVE has a bankswitching issue that may prevent it from starting up
• the following digital samples
  • GOT THE INTRUDER! GOT THE CHICKEN!
  • HUMANOID MUST NOT ESCAPE
  • CHICKEN, FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT

Some keen AA users will notice that this doesn't have all the speech from BerzerkVE...and you would be correct.

 

To save a few bytes of ROM, I changed the routine to produce the digitized speech. In doing so, that meant I needed to modify the speech data slightly. This why it didn't make the ESRB build and the final cart.

 

For the final build we had the additional samples of..."GOT THE HUMANIOID! GOT THE CHICKEN!", "GOT THE HUMANOID! GOT THE INTRUDER!", and "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!". The samples would alternate based on how the player escaped the previous maze. So if the player exited the previous maze without destroying all the robots then "...GOT THE CHICKEN!" would play when the player lost a life. If the player exited the previous maze destroying all the robots then "...GOT THE INTRUDER!" would play when the player lost a life. Also, to mix up the speech slightly so it wouldn't get too monotonous..."INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" would play occasionally as you exited the maze. As an added "bonus" the final build also contained a way for the player to disable the digitized speech if they tired of hearing it. This was controlled by the left difficulty switch. The samples would play when the player had the left difficulty set to PRO or A. The samples would be disabled when the player had the left difficulty set to AMATEUR or B.

 

I also, want to add that I reached out to Bob DeCrescenzo @PacManPlus for more digitized samples and he promptly filled the request. Bob used these samples for his excellent 7800 port of Frenzy in the AA store. I had to compress these samples to fit within the ROM limits of the 2600. 

 

A title screen was planned with an easy way to chose game selections too but I ran out of time. Again, referencing hobbyist have no deadlines however corporations do. 

 

Also, each build delivery contained ROMS for NTSC, PAL60, and PAL50. I know some would want to know.

 

This was a lot, I know but hopefully it will give some history as to how this came about.

 

I'm not sure why you are having issues with this game on your 7800. It is a standard 32K Atari ROM. Anyone else having issues with this and their 7800?

@DEBRO

 

Thanks for this information and the game too. It's a good update to the original game. 

 

It is a shame that the full enhancements haven't seen the light of day. Perhaps all is not lost, if Atari release another multi cart with dip switches down the line, an enhanced enhanced edition could be included on it. Let's keep this in mind @Ben from Plaion

Edited December 28, 2023 by JetmanUK

[Thran]

It does run on my 7800, but I don't get any voices.  

 

My 7800 is modded, I have the UAV boards (mount and actual UAV board) installed and I had to do the timing circuit mod (removing capacitor at c64) since I really wanted to play Robot Tank.

[SS]

30 minutes ago, Thran said:

It does run on my 7800, but I don't get any voices. 

This is what happens with the game on my modded 2600 when I run it through the RetroTINK.  Game runs fine but no voice effects.  Everything works perfectly though when I use the normal A/V input on my television.  

[Ben from Plaion]

2 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

It is a shame that the full enhancements haven't seen the light of day. Perhaps all is not lost, if Atari release another multi cart with dip switches down the line, an enhanced enhanced edition could be included on it. Let's keep this in mind @Ben from Plaion

Any change to the code of a game for a subsequent manufacture build requires a re-certification with Age Ratings bodies and the relative high cost of this makes it prohibitive.

[JetmanUK]

7 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said:

Any change to the code of a game for a subsequent manufacture build requires a re-certification with Age Ratings bodies and the relative high cost of this makes it prohibitive.

Well that's a shame. 

 

Perhaps a finished ROM could sneak out somewhere. 😬🤣 

Edited December 28, 2023 by JetmanUK

[SS]

6 hours ago, DEBRO said:

I'm not sure why you are having issues with this game on your 7800. It is a standard 32K Atari ROM. Anyone else having issues with this and their 7800?

I also posted this on the AA Facebook page.  A member there reported, "My copy works on my 4 switch but makes a tone and triangles on my light sixer. That's all I have to try it on." and another member said, "Doesn’t work at all on my unmodded 7800 but works great on my 4 switch 2600. I have heard others say it works on their 7800 so maybe it is works on particular models."  So I am at least not alone with this issue.  I still need to dig my Telegames 6-switcher and 2600 Jr out of storage to see how it acts with them.  I am pretty sure that I have a 3rd 7800 packed in with them too, so I need to try it out as well.  The two 7800s that the game hasn't worked with are both expansion port models; I think that the other one is a later revision.

 

The other mystery here is that I DID try to rip the BIN as a standard 32K Atari ROM but did not have any luck with it in Stella; it looks as if it's running correctly but then resets itself every time on screen #2.  Weird.  I didn't even bother trying it on the 2600 via Harmony because of this issue but it looks like I need to give it another look to see if my issue is replicated there as well.  @DEBRO, I have to assume that on your end the ROM runs correctly on Stella.  I wonder what my issue could be?  I will report back once I try putting it on the Harmony.  

[JetSetIlly]

20 minutes ago, SS said:

The other mystery here is that I DID try to rip the BIN as a standard 32K Atari ROM but did not have any luck with it in Stella; it looks as if it's running correctly but then resets itself every time on screen #2.  Weird.  I didn't even bother trying it on the 2600 via Harmony because of this issue but it looks like I need to give it another look to see if my issue is replicated there as well.  @DEBRO, I have to assume that on your end the ROM runs correctly on Stella.  I wonder what my issue could be?  I will report back once I try putting it on the Harmony.  

Out of interest, do you have copies of the other new Atari cartridges? Have you tried ripping them?

[+remowilliams]

The game works fine on both my real 2600 and 7800 - both are UAV modded, both go through my RetroTINK-5X Pro via s-video.

  

38 minutes ago, SS said:

This is what happens with the game on my modded 2600 when I run it through the RetroTINK.  Game runs fine but no voice effects.  Everything works perfectly though when I use the normal A/V input on my television.  

 

When the voice samples play on the 2600/7800 the video goes blank and there is a video resync on the RetroTINK-5X.  You can see it in the video when the display comes back, is briefly B/W, and then returns to color.

 

What model of RetroTINK are you using, perhaps the video loss/resync is not fast enough and you are missing the window the voice samples play in?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thran]

1 hour ago, SS said:

This is what happens with the game on my modded 2600 when I run it through the RetroTINK.  Game runs fine but no voice effects.  Everything works perfectly though when I use the normal A/V input on my television.  

I'll have to try that.  The direct composite looks awful on my tv though.

 

Edit:  I'm using a Retrotink 2X pro.

Edited December 28, 2023 by Thran

[SS]

Some updates.  Bezerk Enhanced Edition works good on my 2600 Jr.  I still haven't been able to get the 6-switcher out of storage, so no new info there.  I tried dumping the game again as a standard 32K Atari game.  It will load via the Harmony but still crashes.  Strangely, via the Harmony, the game will start out normal on the 7800 without the jumping effect.  However, when the player gets killed the game totally crashes just as the voice effect tries to start.  It does this on the 7800, the 2600s, and the Stella emulator.  

 

Here's what I am seeing.  The first video is how the game looks on my 7800s.  The screen jumps and makes the game unplayable.

 

The second video is how the crash happens when attempting to play the game through the Harmony Cart.

[SS]

3 hours ago, remowilliams said:

What model of RetroTINK are you using, perhaps the video loss/resync is not fast enough and you are missing the window the voice samples play in?

I am using a RetroTINK 2X-MINI.  I think that you are probably right about it not resyncing fast enough.  

[SS]

3 hours ago, JetSetIlly said:

Out of interest, do you have copies of the other new Atari cartridges? Have you tried ripping them?

I have successfully ripped some 7800 homebrews and A8 carts with my AtariMAX device but none of the other new official Atari products.  

[JetSetIlly]

1 hour ago, SS said:

Some updates.  Bezerk Enhanced Edition works good on my 2600 Jr.  I still haven't been able to get the 6-switcher out of storage, so no new info there.  I tried dumping the game again as a standard 32K Atari game.  It will load via the Harmony but still crashes.  Strangely, via the Harmony, the game will start out normal on the 7800 without the jumping effect.  However, when the player gets killed the game totally crashes just as the voice effect tries to start.  It does this on the 7800, the 2600s, and the Stella emulator. 

Interesting. Can you show what it looks like when run on Stella? Can you also include what the Stella "console info" shows. Toggled with the Alt+L key combo

[DEBRO]

Hi there,

 

On 12/28/2023 at 4:11 PM, Ben from Plaion said:

Any change to the code of a game for a subsequent manufacture build requires a re-certification with Age Ratings bodies and the relative high cost of this makes it prohibitive.

This was news to me as a hobbyist. I never thought or imagined that game companies had to re-certify their updates but it makes sense. And to Ben's point, the changes are not substantial enough to warrant the cost.

 

On 12/28/2023 at 4:13 PM, JetmanUK said:

Perhaps a finished ROM could sneak out somewhere.

Not likely...this is owned by Atari so I can't release it and again, not enough to warrant the release.

 

On 12/28/2023 at 8:34 PM, SS said:

Here's what I am seeing.  The first video is how the game looks on my 7800s.  The screen jumps and makes the game unplayable.

 

The second video is how the crash happens when attempting to play the game through the Harmony Cart.

Seeing this helps. I'll see if I can take a look at this release to see if I can find anything that might cause this. I don't have the source for this release any longer so I'll have to dive into the ROM to reconstruct it. This will take some time. Thank you for sharing the screen captures.

[+remowilliams]

 

On 12/28/2023 at 8:34 PM, SS said:

Strangely, via the Harmony, the game will start out normal on the 7800 without the jumping effect.  However, when the player gets killed the game totally crashes just as the voice effect tries to start.  It does this on the 7800, the 2600s, and the Stella emulator.  

 

That looks like you have a bad dump with the sample data missing/corrupted.

[ChrisKewl]

2 hours ago, DEBRO said:

Not likely...this is owned by Atari so I can't release it and again, not enough to warrant the release.

You could possibly make a patch, so if someone has the BIN file (they legally obtained of course) you could patch the new stuff into it. Not sure how Atari would feel about that though.

[SS]

1 hour ago, remowilliams said:

That looks like you have a bad dump with the sample data missing/corrupted.

It looks as if you are right.  I updated the AtariMax firmware and gave all of the contacts on everything a good scrubbing.  I had to give it three more tries but it looks like the third time was the charm and that I finally got a good dump.  At least it seems so thus far after about 20 minutes of testing.

 

This newest dump actually runs OK on my 7800 via Harmony Cart.  The original cartridge continues to produce the same screen jumping effects.  Now I am wondering what the difference could be that the Harmony makes to the 7800 for running the game?