Nukey Shay Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 A couple of cosmetic changes... I tried to simulate the spinning missiles seen in the arcade game, simply by using a rising brightness. It seems to look fairly well. Also, the UFO that appears will "throb" in brightness. If you can score high enough (at least 4000), red mystery ships will appear. They aren't worth any more than regular ones just yet, but they are a bit harder to hit. Observation: The way that the program is written, rainbow bonuses should be possible to put in (with much less fanfare, of course). Getting the dozen or so free bytes...that's the hard part ------------------------------- Current update's list of changes: Cosmetic: - Six invader styles reduced to 3 - UFO style increased to 2 (regular and mystery) - Colors matched to arcade version - 6 color bars used for invader color, invaders change color as they decend - Ground area reduced to a thin strip of land - Explosion animations eliminated, 1 frame only (per arcade) - Strip of land covers entire width of the screen - End-of-movement markers corrected...line up better to bases - Ground shifts color at the end of the game Program: - "Rainbow" bonuses active on every column (lowest worth 1000 or 500) - Difficulty switches altered...left B/A=size of both cannons, right B/A=missiles double/single for both players - Sounds altered (still needs work) - Point values for UFO's changed to match arcade...500 for mystery, 50-300 for regular - Mystery ships impossible to hit when it disappears - # of invaders/UFO's hit counted. Counter rolls at 16 hits. Mystery ship will appear instead of regular UFO if counter is at 0...and hitting it starts the count back at 1. Shots themselves are not counted, nor invaders hit when UFO's are onscreen. Counter begins at 1 upon game reset, and not cleared between boards...so some strategy is required to keep mystery ship appearances constant (as in arcade). - "Invisible invaders" games corrected. 22 big ol' bytes free + 5 free bytes of ram Bugs, known issues: - Rainbow bonuses are not true to the arcade (where 1000 pts. is only obtainable from the lower-left invader, 500 from the rest of the lowest invaders). - Shots are not counted as in arcade, invaders hit used instead. - Color band info will skip a line. This is only noticable on the center invaders - the tips of their antenna will have the color of the invader above. - Game selections 110-112 will not display correctly (the last digit is garbled). No cause found for this yet. Current binary: sideluxe.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 OOOOOOO, your gonna go to jail for posting the rom BTW: great hack, and really looks like the arcade. And the good thing about hacking space invaders is you still have all 112 variations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Excellent that you're working on this. With the limitations of this 2600 game in mind there are probably a couple of minor things that would be great if they could be incorporated into the game.. stuff like bringing in the 'mystery' point value for the UFO for example. Hmmmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Not really doing anything with it...I just happened to notice that the effects could be added easily Didn't mean to get your hopes up. But yeah, whatever conditions that need to be met in order to generate the mystery ship could also be used to alter the point value when you hit it. Since I know virtually nothing about the ram locations used, I just used the high byte of player 1's score as a stand-in. I also have seen how the aliens are tallied into the score. Since the lowest line of aliens use a specific value, you could just check for that value when the screen is completed (which would mean that you hit a low alien last...generating the first "leg" of the rainbow...500 pts.). Cross-referencing that with the alien row position (in relation to the player's) would give you the other 500. In order to create a special display a LOT of extra code would need to go into it, but just to get the basics in wouldn't take all that much. More than I can discover at the moment tho...which is why I didn't bother doing it. The Space Invaders program looks to be pretty crampt...you can tell that a LOT of programming time must have gone into it (No wonder...Atari's first "big name" title, and they wanted to do it right). Why the HELL did they change the characters then?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Hold it a minute...I just figured out how a special display could be done! If anyone has messed around with the graphics, you might know that the first section of data (past the program) is a blank area used to clear off aliens hit. If you have graphics located there, that would be sent instead (which would make all those dead aliens visible). Therefore, if you wanted to create a display that had a ! character in each of the alien positions, you could just change the pointer when the bonus is reached...to point to another bitmap that contains that explaination point instead of that blank area. Badabing...you get a bonus, and the screen fills with !'s I hope somebody's taking notes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 I got it! I was going to leave this be...but I just couldn't put it down! It's really difficult to pull off in the 2600 version, so I altered it a bit. If the last alien is one from the bottom in ANY column, you get 1000 clams. If the last one is second-from-bottom in ANY column, you get 500. The 2600 version has a much shorter path for the aliens to walk, so it shouldn't be any easier than it is on the arcade I suggest hitting the reset key as soon as you boot the rom, so you'll get double-shots to try this out. I haven't been able to score the 1000 myself yet...but it should work. Program changes... Original routine... LF3FB: LDA LFD2B,X;4 load point value STA.wy $00F6,Y;5 save to the score adder LDA #$02 ;2 JSR LFE7E ;6 DEC $91 ;5 check alien counter BNE LF414 ;2 branch if aliens still left Replacement routine... LF3FB: LDA LFD2B,X;4 load point value STA.wy $00F6,Y;5 save to score adder PHA ;3 ...save to the stack for a sec. LDA #$02 ;2 JSR LFE7E ;6 PLA ;4 get back the point value DEC $91 ;5 check alien counter BNE LF414 ;2 branch if aliens still left ;all aliens hit CMP #$11 ;2 lowest aliens hit (5/10 pts)? BCS LF410 ;2 jump if higher EOR #$15 ;2 flip 5/10 to be 1000/500 STA $F4,y ;4 save bonus to adder high byte ;no bonus LF410: I had to dig up 10 bytes to do this, so I robbed a few SEC and CLC instructions used for arithmatic. I hope this doesn't cause a bug (I didn't notice any). Don't expect fanfare...it just gives you the bonus with no flashy stuff Mystery ship is also still in when you score 4k...and still has no additional points yet. BTW Albert...NE146's version in the Hacks section is 4098 bytes! Oops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Works like a beaut Just scored 500 extra in the first round for hitting the 2nd invader, and 1000 extra in the 2nd round for hitting the 1st. Mind you, I was using the double-shot cheat The game still has $FFF8/9 free, so it should work on unmodded Superchargers as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saikyo Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 please stop making a parody of my worry as im only posting IPS anyway! (Sheesh! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 OK...I rearranged a few things and cleared up a dozen more bytes. This version has everything the previous version did, -plus- The regular pulsing ships are worth 200 (100 in competition play...games 33-48 ). When the mystery ships appear, you are given either 100 or 500 randomly (100 or 200 in competition play)...with odds on the lower value. I still need to free up more space to put a better randomizer in, the mystery ships still appear after when you've broken 4k Oh well...it's something. Another thing that I'd like to put in is that the double shots are selectable on the opposite difficulty. So few bytes I also used NE146's bitmaps. No offense Rob, but they look more authentic I staggered them tho...so that each one is at least looking unique during each beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Another masterpiece from Nukey Shay. Very Cool. Keep up the good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 I know this is a nitpick, but when your ship gets hit and explodes, the graphic doesn't match up too well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotokeo2001 Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 After scoring 5700+ points, I lost my next to last cannon. When the last cannon came up on screen, the sound cut off and the cannon would not fire. The Invaders still moved and I could move the cannon left and right. Has anyone else had the same problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Yup...I've been concentrating on the program itself. I'd also like to do a better explosion sound. That "balloon rub" just doesn't cut it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saikyo Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 I hope my hack isn't like that too Nukey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 After scoring 5700+ points, I lost my next to last cannon. When the last cannon came up on screen, the sound cut off and the cannon would not fire. The Invaders still moved and I could move the cannon left and right. Has anyone else had the same problem? Are you sure the game wasn't over? This hack won't shift into attract mode colors...so it's hard to tell (of course, the next time you get hit, the player base will just be flashing). That reminds me...I need to get the bonus player in there too Thanks for the info though...checking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Looking GREAT Nukester. Let me know when its final and in the can, and I'll add it to the Hack Spring Hack Update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotokeo2001 Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 After scoring 5700+ points, I lost my next to last cannon. When the last cannon came up on screen, the sound cut off and the cannon would not fire. The Invaders still moved and I could move the cannon left and right. Has anyone else had the same problem? Are you sure the game wasn't over? This hack won't shift into attract mode colors...so it's hard to tell (of course, the next time you get hit, the player base will just be flashing). That reminds me...I need to get the bonus player in there too Thanks for the info though...checking... You can ignore my previous post. I forgot that the Cannon was controllable without starting a new game. So my game was over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI TROLL Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Freaking love it! Saikyo () & Ebert give it two thumbs up! :thumbsup: Cheers @ Saikyo: had to throw that in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 How about a name? It's been nearly worn out already...but how does Deluxe Invaders sound? (I don't believe that name is copyrighted...a number of clones used it). j/k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saikyo Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 uhh nukey the name Deluxe Invaders as far as my knowlegde yes it is copyrighted as one of the many "Official" sequels hmm it was on the game boy color as Space Invaders Deluxe or Space Invaders DX if you want my advice dont use it! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 That was a joke The rom itself is copyrighted. BTW I just found the area that holds the invader bitmap offsets. Since 3 of the invaders are just clones of the other 3, I can eliminate half of the space dedicated to those bitmaps. And here I was trying to save 5 cents on a lemon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Hmmm....A name. That's a tough one... How about Nuke Shavaders? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saikyo Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 What about Foriegn Tissue From Outer Space? Or is Foriegn Tissue copyrighted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Or Space Saikyos? BTW I'm having a hard time judging what the proper "green" color should be. The one in Rob's game looked really dull in Z26, but bright (correct) in Stella. I changed it, and now it looks bright in Z26, but dull in Stella () Can anyone tell me which looks closer to the arcade? Here's a pic of the current one... (I changed player 2's color to yellow...I figured there might as well be a seperate color for that) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Here's the current rom. I changed both UFO's to be red (the first still pulses, the second flashes) The mystery ship flashes a bit slower to make it harder to hit...and it includes all values from 100 to 500. Also, the difficulty switches have been changed. The left one changes the base size for both players, and the right toggles double-shots for bothplayers. Players can't use double-shots in competetive games 33-48. Toggling the right difficulty while pressing the button might have no effect...so don't press it while changing the switch. I also added a strip of ground to the game. It kinda "pulsates" as the invaders march Sort of like the ground shaking. Bug report: -Player 2's stick could alter player 1's color! This has been fixed. -Points were somehow being missed when double-shots were active. Hopefully, this is straightened out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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