2600 Moon Patrol -Arcade

[espire8]

This is a graphic and audio hack; --should be a real treat for those who still enjoy this old classic.

Here's what's new:

1.) Moon buggy animation w/ bouncy tires when hit.

2.) Moon buggy color now look more arcade accurate.

3.) All enemy sprites/colors updated.

4.) New play field color palette.

5.) Music has been adjusted to play better than what it was. (set diff sw to 'A' for music)

6.) New MP arcade title screen.

MOONPATROL_ARCADE__hack_by_espire8_.BINNote: the latest binary release of this hack can be found by following this link.

 

I just need to change the phantom car's color to black to call this done.

I wanted to post a complete finished hack but I elected to post it now so any of you who are good at this game can play it in stella and post here a screen shot of that phantom car's original color so I can locate it and finish the color change. Thanks and have fun!

 

Edited June 21, 2009 by espire8

[TrekMD]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

[Bakasama]

Nice but I got one nitpick. Moon Patrol wasn't made by Williams, it was licensed from a company called IREM. I think.

[NE146]

Nice but I got one nitpick. Moon Patrol wasn't made by Williams, it was licensed from a company called IREM. I think.

 

Well... people in the states only saw the licensed version from Williams, just as they only saw the licensed version of Space Invaders / Pacman from Midway, and Kangaroo from Atari(!) .

 

I say it's fine. Nice hack by the way

[awace]

Nice but I got one nitpick. Moon Patrol wasn't made by Williams, it was licensed from a company called IREM. I think.

Did you know i was playing Moon patrol at arcade once and the Deco cassette with the music tape ate it self wilst i was playing and it locked up the whole game I told arcade operator and he said ''aw crap'' then proceded to open game to show me the lame cassette tape witch he had to splice i forget weather rom loaded from tape witch i dont think it did but i think it was for the game music anyway he said he hated it I think the tape thing was DECO irem i forget I did however get a buntch of credits and tokens that day.... also Jacks to open pinball machine uses same tape for music and can get stuck too!!!

Edited July 19, 2010 by awace

[Lord Helmet]

I don't think that Moon Patrol was a DECO game...I've also never heard of a Deco game playing music via tape...it was the program that was on the tape that was loaded into eprom. Also, did anyone use DECO besides Data East?

Edited June 11, 2009 by Lord Helmet

[Crazy Climber]

Nice but I got one nitpick. Moon Patrol wasn't made by Williams, it was licensed from a company called IREM. I think.

Did you know i was playing Moon patrol at arcade once and the Deco cassette with the music tape ate it self wilst i was playing and it locked up the whole game I told arcade operator and he said ''fuck'' then proceded to open game to show me the lame cassette tape witch he had to splice i forget weather rom loaded from tape witch i dont think it did but i think it was for the game music anyway he said he hated it I think the tape thing was DECO irem i forget I did however get a buntch of credits and tokens that day.... also Jacks to open pinball machine uses same tape for music and can get stuck too!!!

That is one long ass sentence man

[jboypacman]

Arcade Moon Patrol on the Atari 2600....

[gambler172]

Hi Espire

Very impressive.

greetings Walter

[VectorGamer]

Q: Are the sound effects in the 2600 port of Moon Patrol similar to that of the arcade version? I don't recall ever playing the arcade version of this game so I would not know.

 

If they are not similar, it may be worth giving them a shot of testosterone. If I never played this game before and I only heard the sound effects I would think it is a Sesame Street game or another in that genre.

[espire8]

Nice but I got one nitpick. Moon Patrol wasn't made by Williams, it was licensed from a company called IREM. I think.

I haven't done any research before but you're right, this was made in Japan by IREM. I still kind of like how the William's logo came out so I'm going to keep it.

Q: Are the sound effects in the 2600 port of Moon Patrol similar to that of the arcade version? I don't recall ever playing the arcade version of this game so I would not know.

The sound f/x is close enough, I think. I've not played the arcade version for eons but he music is what made it memorable. In this hack, I were lucky to find how to tweak it to play a few more notes.

 

Okay, I made a few more changes listed below and I think this hack is about done.

- Marquee style game title

- Improved rover animation

- Enemy ships color/sprites refined for arcade accuracy

- Black color enemy hover craft.

- New digital score display font. inspired from one of RevEng's Batari font packs

MOONPATROL_ARCADE_hack_v2.bin

NOTE: Set both Left and Right difficulty to 'A' for music and 3-speed side scrolling control. -Enjoy!

[nems]

I really enjoy this hack. There is also a nice hack of this hack which supports a 2 fire buttons and can be found here

Edited August 11, 2010 by nems

[Hydro Thunder]

This is a graphic and audio hack; --should be a real treat for those who still enjoy this old classic.

Here's what's new:

1.) Moon buggy animation w/ bouncy tires when hit.

2.) Moon buggy color now look more arcade accurate.

3.) All enemy sprites/colors updated.

4.) New play field color palette.

5.) Music has been adjusted to play better than what it was. (set diff sw to 'A' for music)

6.) New MP arcade title screen.

MOONPATROL_ARCADE__hack_by_espire8_.BINNote: the latest binary release of this hack can be found by following this link.

 

I just need to change the phantom car's color to black to call this done.

I wanted to post a complete finished hack but I elected to post it now so any of you who are good at this game can play it in stella and post here a screen shot of that phantom car's original color so I can locate it and finish the color change. Thanks and have fun!

 

 

 

This is an absolutely awesome version, you got the bouncing three tires just right. I can't imagine a better Moon Patron on the 2600 - Nice work!!

[+stephena]

I notice that you're using an old version of Stella for the snapshot of this ROM (version 2.3). If this is the version you used to develop it, I highly suggest upgrading to the very latest version (3.1.2). There were some improvements in version 3.0 that fixed graphical glitches in Moon Patrol.

[KevinMos3]

I notice that you're using an old version of Stella for the snapshot of this ROM (version 2.3).

That snapshot is from a little over a year ago. I hate it when people just quote a whole post. It makes a mess, especially when there are pictures involved. It's even more needless when the reply doesn't require a quote in the first place. I'd like to see some discipline about that issue on these boards, but maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine that no one else shares.

 

 

NOTE: Set both Left and Right difficulty to 'A' for music and 3-speed side scrolling control. -Enjoy!

I don't get the "3-speed side scrolling control." I've tried it with the right difficulty switch in both positions and didn't notice a difference. What am I missing? What exactly is different in position A?

 

I agree that this is the definitive version of Moon Patrol for the 2600. I'd love to replace the ROM on my cart with this.

[awace]

I know I was tired sorry I also editied the swearing..

Any way mabie the game just locked up I cant remember but I do remember seeing a tape player inside and the operator said crap it ate the tape I thought what a crappy game system...

Edited July 19, 2010 by awace

[awace]

Cool you did a really good job on hacking a 2600 game witch I tought was really lame at 1st but now I might play it now..

ALso It reminds me of a way to get demo mode in atari800 you push up left and fire at same time and then push 1 then it starts a demo mode.. I havent done it in a long time though..

[+stephena]

I notice that you're using an old version of Stella for the snapshot of this ROM (version 2.3).

That snapshot is from a little over a year ago. I hate it when people just quote a whole post. It makes a mess, especially when there are pictures involved. It's even more needless when the reply doesn't require a quote in the first place. I'd like to see some discipline about that issue on these boards, but maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine that no one else shares.

I don't know what you mean by this. My reply didn't include a quote at all. just a comment that the snapshot was from a very old version of Stella. Seeing how Moon Patrol was one of the ROMs fixed in the later versions, I thought it was helpful to point this out (as this thread is about a Moon Patrol hack).

[Nukey Shay]

I don't think that he was referring to you specifically (although you just did it again...imbedded a quote within a quote to reply to his comment). The gist was rather than do this:

 

(imbedded quote x ~n)

(stuff not replying to)

(the actual question or statement replying to)

(more irrelevant stuff)

(reply)

 

 

 

...do this:

(the actual question or statement replying to)

(reply)

 

 

And I agree. IMO the forum should automatically remove or disallow imbedded quotes for a start

Edited July 19, 2010 by Nukey Shay

[+stephena]

I don't think that he was referring to you specifically (although you just did it again...imbedded a quote within a quote to reply to his comment).

OK, I'm including this quote, since otherwise how does anyone know who I'm responding to.

 

As for including quotes within the another one, it's the same thing as in email with multiple quote levels. If you only include the innermost quote, someone who is later reading it won't have the context without reading the entire thread. And besides, I didn't quote the whole thing, just my comment 'the snapshot is old', and the response 'it's from over a year ago'.

 

Finally, my original post didn't include any quoting at all; I just added a response! So I don't understand his original 'peeve' about quoting an entire post, when I didn't quote anything!

 

In any event, this is much more typing that I ever intended. I was simply pointing out that Moon Patrol works better in newer versions of Stella. If I'd known it would cause this much trouble, I'd have never bothered to respond at all.

[Nukey Shay]

(sigh)

 

Your original message was in response to a picture that had been quoted by Curious Sofa. A picture that was a year old. I believe that his statement "I hate it when..." was referring to Curious Sofa's post, not yours.

 

Reference to "imbedded quotes" came directly from me regarding post #18. Fair point about context...but IMO it becomes a very big problem as a thread grows and nobody trims their responses.

 

Hi

What?

I said "Hi"

Oh, I thought that you were interrupted

Interrupted by who?

How should I know?

You're the one that said it

 

Now increase the size of each quote to a paragraph or two, and you can see what I was getting at.

 

If somebody quotes me and I quote them back, the context is clear enough without quoting myself in the response.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Nukey Shay

[awace]

I

did have a pasting error when replying to a old post witch I tried fix it I appoligize..!!

I like what Nukey did to Moon patrol I like the new version it looks really cool

[NE146]

(sigh)

 

Your original message was in response to a picture that had been quoted by Curious Sofa. A picture that was a year old. I believe that his statement "I hate it when..." was referring to Curious Sofa's post, not yours.

 

Reference to "imbedded quotes" came directly from me regarding post #18. Fair point about context...but IMO it becomes a very big problem as a thread grows and nobody trims their responses.

 

Hi

What?

I said "Hi"

Oh, I thought that you were interrupted

Interrupted by who?

How should I know?

You're the one that said it

 

Now increase the size of each quote to a paragraph or two, and you can see what I was getting at.

 

If somebody quotes me and I quote them back, the context is clear enough without quoting myself in the response.

 

I friggin love this hack.. good job man!

[Hydro Thunder]

That snapshot is from a little over a year ago. I hate it when people just quote a whole post. It makes a mess, especially when there are pictures involved. It's even more needless when the reply doesn't require a quote in the first place. I'd like to see some discipline about that issue on these boards, but maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine that no one else shares.

 

 

My bad! I'm new to these forums, but I'll get better, I promise! Sorry it caused the confusion; the pic in my stupid post was the pic from the original post from way back when. Correct procedure noted!! Apologies sincerely offered.

[KevinMos3]

@ Stephana - I was referring to the post made by Curious Sofa. I didn't have a problem with anything you said. I only brought up the quoting issue because it was this very thing that I thought probably confused you about that screenshot in the first place.

 

@ Curious Sofa - Welcome to the forums. It's no problem. There are many veterans here who do the same thing. There's no rule against it, but it can make an otherwise simple thread very very long. You see it all the time. Just look at the post directly above your last post to see what I'm talking about. I hope that NE146 was just doing that to get my goat. Unfortunately that post is common practice by many.

 

@ Nukey - Thanks for stepping in there to clarify. I did not intend to offend Stephana and I'm glad you were willing and able to help.