Nukey Shay Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 (edited) Seeing how I'm having such a difficult time getting those 2 remaining bugs corrected, I decided to look around at other things I could be doing with the hack. Playing around with the kernal, I was able to eliminate nearly 1k of level-specific code...with a slight catch** Here's a quick demo...quick = all night working on it There's a bug in the open level that displays "ghost walls"...this must be related to a bad branching instruction. I'll track it down eventually. ** The catch mentioned earlier is that I came up 2 cycles short right at the frickin' END of the indirect jump...so the monsters occasionally wear "halos". I'm not sure yet if this can be corrected Kind of stuck together, so I've still got some trimming to do. But on the upside, BOTH games are now in one 8k rom. Use the color/b&w switch to select them...and you can still play either game in plus mode by using reset. The auto-start feature has been dropped to use the switch. This is a BIG advantage if this ever gets around to being finished Future updates to happen in this thread. Stay tuned Edit...click here for latest version made. hack_em_hanglyman.zip Edited June 18, 2010 by Nukey Shay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 absolutely wonderful! Now all it needs is to be finished and placed in a happy little cart for me to purchase! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI TROLL Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Strap that baby in a cart....I will buy one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 6, 2004 Author Share Posted August 6, 2004 Something else which you probably noticed is that the game no longer uses seperate dot patterns for the 3 boards (tho the open maze has a few lines to eliminate the 6 dots in the block areas on it's bottom border). This can be put back in as I find more space. The assembly has changed quite a lot since I last posted one, but you can look at it here hack_em_source.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Use the color/b&w switch to select them... AAACK! Because the B&W switch is actually the PAUSE button on a 7800 this actually makes "Hangly Man" unplayable with a CC2! Is there any way to toggle the change with each flick of the switch rather than having them set to a set up or down position? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Just remember that you are alienating the 7800 users by using the Color/B&W switch for game options. Unless I can find something heavy to set on the switch just right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 6, 2004 Author Share Posted August 6, 2004 Use the color/b&w switch to select them... AAACK! Because the B&W switch is actually the PAUSE button on a 7800 this actually makes "Hangly Man" unplayable with a CC2! Is there any way to toggle the change with each flick of the switch rather than having them set to a set up or down position? Oops...I hadn't considered that! Yeah, there is a way. I'll need to use a different bit to hold the game mode status eventually (but there might also be differences that this game has when playing between the 2 consoles...like why the timing is supposedly off when playing on a 7800). I'll probably assign it to happen when reset is pressed as well. Or maybe when the right joystick button is pressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Or maybe when the right joystick button is pressed. Thanks, that would probably be a good solution. Off to give "Hack 'Em" a couple of run-throughs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 6, 2004 Author Share Posted August 6, 2004 Doesn't really matter in the above binary, since the Hangly Man version is kind of messed up anyway with that flickering maze and all Thanks for the reminder about that blasted pause feature on the 7800 tho. Why couldn't Atari have just added a different button??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atwwong Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 This will be great if you can figure out that cycle problem with the | 's (and the button for 7800 users). Great job, as always! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 8, 2004 Author Share Posted August 8, 2004 I fixed the ghost walls...and the halos are now just a small dot (which is really the dot color...by eliminating that line, it gave me the 2 cycles I needed). The dots are only temporary...I hope. The game mode still hasn't been rewritten to move the Hangly Man option off of the B&W switch (I need to move some more code to do this)...but you can still test out the regular game on a CC2. The glitches will happen in that one just as (in)frequently as in Hangly Man. By adding in another indirect jump, I eliminated the special coding done right after the score display...so the program will only glitch as often as the seperate binaries now! Still not acceptable...but getting there At least it's not worse than it already was (aside from the dot)! hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 8, 2004 Author Share Posted August 8, 2004 A little closer... When reset is pressed, it's supposed to cycle thru the game selections. This part works, but when you play the second maze of Hangly, it flips back to being regular Zero bytes free in bank 2 :x I gotta free up some stuff hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 8, 2004 Author Share Posted August 8, 2004 Got it patched together a bit... I robbed a bit of space from the intermission GFX. Hopefully, that won't screw up the timing...which is already running a bit higher than it should, due to reusing a leftover bit in the level counter to hold the status of the game mode flip. Should work on a CC2 now...but as stated, the screen roll glitch is still in there someplace (as with all of the hacks of this game thus far). hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 8, 2004 Author Share Posted August 8, 2004 Also, I noticed that the game flips to the Hangly Man version on the first reset press...this will be corrected eventually. Right now, it runs Hack'em -> Hangly Man+ -> Hangly Man -> Hack'em+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 Order corrected Also, I finally fixed the "²" symbol :) hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 Such a smart piece of machinery and a wreck like me trying to run it... Damn...now the levels get messed up in the regular game...changing to the Hangly Man maze every 3rd and 4th one!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 That part is fixed. I saved a bit more space, so I put the autostart feature back in (sorry 7800 users...no way to play that way on that console). Also, the intermissions were now using a bit more time (since I had to trim the control bits off the level counter)...causing it to alternate between 262 and 263 scanlines. This still hasn't been corrected...but I removed one of the blanks, that should keep it from running over anyway (now alternating between 261 and 262). hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 Now Hangly Man has a seperate dot pattern for the open maze. It's still 150 dots + 4 energizers. hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 ...and 4 logos that appear at the end of the game hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 Hm...since the 7800's B&W switch is the pause feature, and the game can also "pause" on the start of a board depending on the state of it on a 2600 console...I could just switch the order and have it autostart when COLOR is selected. < Done. Facing to the left (B&W) = pause...facing to the right (color) = autostart. hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 9, 2004 Author Share Posted August 9, 2004 Extra pixels almost gone! Corrected a bug that kept the intermissions from showing up in alternate game modes (I forgot to trim off the top bits when doing the level compare). Also altered the intermission music slightly (it still sux). I also expanded the board select up to the 6th key...so that the hardest level can be started on with both boards of the Hangly Man mode. Damn near at zero bytes left in both banks. Fixing this thing is going to take a miracle hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI TROLL Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 plays perfect Nukey! Nice work on removing the lines etc.....looks and plays awesome....Have you thought of a 5th ghost yet?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 10, 2004 Author Share Posted August 10, 2004 5th ghost? BTW something I forgot about is that the game will reset whenever the status of SWCHB is changed...so trying to use pause on the 7800 won't work. I'll need to alter the code so that the boards don't reset if only the Color/B&W switch changes (so you can change it at any point of the game). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted August 10, 2004 Share Posted August 10, 2004 This may well be the coolest 2600 hack of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted August 10, 2004 Author Share Posted August 10, 2004 I had to rob a little more space...so what I did was place the fruit color table in the low nybble of PF0 maze data. Because I only had 4 bits, the fruits no longer shift brightness between boards...but it's no big deal (since they don't change brightness in the real game anyway). The upshot is that you can change the color switch at any time...and when B&W is selected the game will pause between boards (or even during a board in the 7800 I guess...I dunno how the 7800's pause works really). I also cut out an additional eventuality of the random pixels appearing (they still do...but really infrequently now). Still no headway on getting that screen glitch out...or solving the roaming monster problem hack_em_hanglyman.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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