Nukey Shay Posted September 3, 2004 Author Share Posted September 3, 2004 Damn...jitters in that one. How about having them reverse at seperate intervals... hack_em_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI TROLL Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 I have been gone for a while Nukey but I have to say what surprises are next. that is an awesome animated title screen!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 4, 2004 Share Posted September 4, 2004 Again no issues to report aside from Super-Pac being cut in half at the end of the 1st intermission. I did note that Super-Pac now looks a whole lot cleaner now, though. Also the life-counters at the bottom left are much improved as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atwwong Posted September 4, 2004 Share Posted September 4, 2004 Okay, I found how to reproduce the jitter on z26 and StellaX for WinXp. I switched to a P4 3.0GHz computer to try it out and it still happens. On the second level or after you die once in Hack'Em (not Hangly Man), once the level starts, immediately travel left into the tunnel. When you emerge on the right side, immediately travel down the next passage. A quick screen flip or jitter happens everytime for me. I think it happens because all the characters are lined up, but this doesn't explain why it doesn't happen on your first life on the first level. The jitter is very brief and I suspect most people will not try this. I couldn't find jitters anywhere else (it's sort of like an easter egg). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 4, 2004 Share Posted September 4, 2004 On the second level or after you die once in Hack'Em (not Hangly Man), once the level starts, immediately travel left into the tunnel. When you emerge on the right side, immediately travel down the next passage. A quick screen flip or jitter happens everytime for me. I'll be damned! Following that pattern, I saw it too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 5, 2004 Author Share Posted September 5, 2004 Thanks for the info!! It was Inky's fault. His "release time" differed from all the rest that it was due to happen on a player movement frame. So more lines of code were executed on the very frame that it was being bumped out of the center box. It doesn't happen the first time, because the music playing ends up with a different value sitting in the frame counter (which is then later used to bump the monsters out of the box). Give this one a try. Here, all of the monsters are given different bit patterns in the release table. I also changed the score font a bit...does this look better or worse? hack_em_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 Give this one a try. Here, all of the monsters are given different bit patterns in the release table. Works fine. The jump is gone. It does change the new screen patterns. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing but I had noticed that previously there were some definite patterns that the monsters followed at the beginning of each new screen depending on where the player first moved. Those are negated now. Whether there will now be new patterns to find remains to be seen, I guess. I also changed the score font a bit...does this look better or worse? It looks OK. I can't say that I have strong feelings about the font one way or another. Both are fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 The unexpected ghost double-backs are screwing up my game play too! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 5, 2004 Author Share Posted September 5, 2004 Nothing is ever "random"...everything that happens differently between frames will affect the monster's AI in some way. Sorry about messing up the existing patterns that you might have been using, but new ones will also be definately possible to make (this includes the monster double-back routine). I've been thinking about adding a slower movement for the monsters on early levels, so that the difficulty ramps up a bit. And changing the smart/random movement ratios. The way that the smart mode currently works is that the monster's box release time is compared against the frame counter (just as it does for bumping the monster out of the box)...except that it is also used to determine when the monster will chase and when it will move randomly. By subtracting the level number (or a formula of it) from this value, I can change the random/smart ratio a bit between levels. The problem is time...as adding pretty much anything now will cause a cycle overrun in "worst case scenarios" - frames that would be running the longest stretches of routines, where most of the branches have not been taken. Gotta tighten up things a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 Sorry about messing up the existing patterns that you might have been using No worries! I am still loving the game! I am guessing that there'll be no more 8th keys for me for a while though. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 5, 2004 Author Share Posted September 5, 2004 Here's a personality range test. The way that it works is that the current level (multiplied by 4) is subtracted from a given value for each monster (it's "smart ratio"). In addition, the current number of dots left (divided by 2) is also thrown into that comparison...so the monsters get more aggresive as more of each board is cleared. As in the arcade, Inky gets the lowest ratio. Changes to the program... Motion_Loop_Init: lda #$9B ;2 number of dots+1 sbc DotCount ;3 subtract how many are left lsr ;2 divide by 2 sta TempL ;3 store temp. (range $00-$4D) lda Level ;3 and #$1F ;2 trim off bits not used for level asl ;2 asl ;2 multiply by 4 adc TempL ;3 add in the previous value ;new range = $00 to $A1 sta TempL ;3 save for smart mode ratio sub. ldx #$03 ;2 do all monsters... ;later... Check_release_value: lda SmartRatio,x ;4 Load monster's smart ratio sec ;2 sbc TempL ;3 subtract the temp cmp FrameCounter ;3 compare to current time bcs Move_Randomly;2 if higher, move random ;chase the player here ;data SmartRatio: .byte $A5; $FC80 Blinky .byte $B7; $FC81 Pinky .byte $CB; $FC82 Clyde ;bitmap Year1: .byte $EE; |XXX XXX | $FC83 (shared) Inky hack_em_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildBillTX Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 I like the older counter font better - the new one looks OK on my 17' PC monitor but might be hard to read on a TV. Idea: I was messing around with the "Hack-Em(Fast!).bin" that you posted last week. How about making the fire button work also as a "turbo" speed-up button for Pac-Man? This could become the biggest selling AtariAge cart ever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 5, 2004 Author Share Posted September 5, 2004 Good point about the score. I changed it a bit here. Since I had 30 extra bytes in bank1, I also fixed the missing pixel in Hangly Man's empty board. About using the button as a toggle...this would have worked if I was still updating the player sprite once every frame (i.e. not using double adjustments every other frame). The player begins on an even-numbered horizontal position and in fast mode the program expects that it's always an even-numbered horizontal position. In one of the earliest builds I discovered the problems with this (when the difficulty switches could be changed in a running game)...that the player could overshoot walls and dots. The way to correct it would be to drop off the low bit of both the horizontal and vertical position when fast mode is selected. But that introduces a new problem that the player's speed wouldn't be consistant when toggling the mode. Besides that, each branch that handles each direction would need to be checking for the button in addition to the difficulty switch (so cycle overruns might be a possibility). But I'll look at it again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 5, 2004 Author Share Posted September 5, 2004 Oops...forgot to attach it... hack_em_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 5, 2004 Author Share Posted September 5, 2004 Toggle version here...I had to remove the "beats" from the intermission music (which I wasn't too crazy about anyway). 12 bytes free hack_em__toggle.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 5, 2004 Share Posted September 5, 2004 Toggle version here...I had to remove the "beats" from the intermission music (which I wasn't too crazy about anyway). 12 bytes free The intermission sounds fine with the slight adjustment. The button toggle works well too. However, if it's inclusion means a loss of the automatically fast version, then I'm against it. I'd be all for it if the speed burst option was added to the slow-player game but I like playing the fast version w/o having to hold down a button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 I agree...and that's why I posted it with a seperate name No other console switches that I can use to handle it...unless I devoted it to the B&W switch (which would not be available to CC2/7800 users)...so it won't be part of the "official" build. That turnaround was happening a bit too often...interfering with the AI. So I reduced it to happen half as often. In addition, eyes and vulnerable monsters don't use it. Trying to find a good "scream" sound when monsters are eaten. How does this sound...? hack_em_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic George 2K3 Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 How's it sound? Perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetset Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 Trying to find a good "scream" sound when monsters are eaten. How does this sound...? I hate to only post saying something negative....but I don't like the latest "scream". Too loud or something...more like a spaceship taking a laser strike... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 Too loud or something... I have to concur. It sounds OK but is a bit loud in comparison to the other sound effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breakpack Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 Wow,awesome work!!I like it.Damn ,I wish I was that good at it I noticed in Hack'Em Plus,the ghost eyes take off while the point counter during eating is still on screen.And the eating sound sounds good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 I noticed in Hack'Em Plus,the ghost eyes take off while the point counter during eating is still on screen. That is intentional (it's also in the regular mode). As in the arcade, the eyes still move even when everything else is paused momentarily. One problem that is currently attached to that is that the monster currently being eaten is not supposed to change to eyes until this pause is over. Dunno if I can get that fixed. As far as the monster sound being too loud, that is also intentional (the arcade is very loud when a monster is eaten). Getting the proper sound is the hard part...and I agree that this still isn't it. The dot sound cannot be done using this sound routine, and everything else sounds close enough...just this last one I'd like to correct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breakpack Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 I noticed in Hack'Em Plus,the ghost eyes take off while the point counter during eating is still on screen. That is intentional (it's also in the regular mode). As in the arcade, the eyes still move even when everything else is paused momentarily. One problem that is currently attached to that is that the monster currently being eaten is not supposed to change to eyes until this pause is over. Dunno if I can get that fixed. As far as the monster sound being too loud, that is also intentional (the arcade is very loud when a monster is eaten). Getting the proper sound is the hard part...and I agree that this still isn't it. The dot sound cannot be done using this sound routine, and everything else sounds close enough...just this last one I'd like to correct Loud???Now the 5200 version,THAT'S loud,lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted September 6, 2004 Author Share Posted September 6, 2004 Still trying to get a good sound. This one seems closer...but still not quite close enough. Different scream, different wokka... hack_em_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted September 6, 2004 Share Posted September 6, 2004 This one seems closer...but still not quite close enough. Different scream, different wokka... The scream is better. The wokka, however! I see where you're trying to go with it but I like the older, gentler one better. It’s OK on the slow setting but on a fast game it one sounds like an abusive typewriter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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