disjaukifa Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Max headroom stutters and repeats words. The current speech is just a test of the digital sample routines. Need to have most of the game code done so I'll know how much space I have left for samples. How little? The robots in the first room don't shoot. Hey Spiceware, mine keeps on crashing after the first room no matter which difficulty. I can upload a video of it happening if that would help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 No need. I'll test it on my 7800 before I upload the next build. I suspect if it works there your problem will clear up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legend Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Max headroom stutters and repeats words. The current speech is just a test of the digital sample routines. Need to have most of the game code done so I'll know how much space I have left for samples. How little? The robots in the first room don't shoot. lol. never made it past the first room last night when I checked it out. I died a couple times by otto or shrapnel then figured if they weren't going to shoot at me, why bother. Sorry. I should have been more thorough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinMos3 Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 never made it past the first room last night when I checked it out. I died a couple times by otto or shrapnel then figured if they weren't going to shoot at me, why bother. Sorry. I should have been more thorough. Hehe. Yeah the robots in the first room of both Berzerk and Frenzy don't shoot. That goes for every version I've played and I'm glad this one keeps that tradition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legend Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Hehe. Yeah the robots in the first room of both Berzerk and Frenzy don't shoot. That goes for every version I've played and I'm glad this one keeps that tradition. It's probably been a decade since I played berzerk. Never played frenzy. Didn't realize it was supposed to be that way. Plus the robots moved so slow I figured if they were going to be that slow and not shoot, it wouldn't be that fun. I'll give it another try later tonight and actually leave the first room this time. The graphics look amazing. What's the difference in the frenzy variation going to be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 What's the difference in the frenzy variation going to be? The biggest differences in Frenzy that I remember were destructible walls and shots bouncing off of walls, but according to Wikipedia it sounds like a bigger leap than from Pac-Man to Ms. Pac-Man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenzy_%28video_game%29#Differences_from_Berzerk I'm guessing I never made it to the fourth level to see the giant Evil Otto, because I would have remembered that. I also never tried to kill Evil Otto, not realizing it was no longer impossible. Lot to squeeze in there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disjaukifa Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 I'm looking forward to the next build! Spiceware I promise this time I will throughly test out Frantic instead of spending hours upon hours playing Berzerk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinMos3 Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 What's the difference in the frenzy variation going to be? Frenzy had several new features. I never took the time to play it until this past spring. I always thought it was Coleco's knock-off of Berzerk until I took the time to read the manual and finally play it. It's now one of my favorite games on the Coleco and I play it regularly. All those years, just collecting dust. :-( One new feature is the ability to shoot out parts of walls. Other walls will ricochet shots. There are really nice tunes that play in many rooms (I really hope Spiceware is able to recreate these on the 2600. It just wouldn't be Frenzy without them). Some rooms have robot factories (they will keep producing more robots until you shoot them, after which, the robots' movement will freeze but they can still shoot). There is a variety of enemies. You can kill evil otto with 3 shots. Some rooms contain a giant evil otto (you cannot harm him by shooting him, but if you shoot the normal evil otto, the giant will be very upset and make you pay! If you die on one of these screens the giant otto smiles). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianC Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Frenzy had several new features. I never took the time to play it until this past spring. I always thought it was Coleco's knock-off of Berzerk until I took the time to read the manual and finally play it. It's now one of my favorite games on the Coleco and I play it regularly. All those years, just collecting dust. :-( Frenzy was in arcades first and is the official sequel to Berzerk (both made by Stern). The music was exclusive to the Colecovision version and actually came from another game. The arcade version has voice similar to Berzerk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinMos3 Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 I never took the time to play it until this past spring. I always thought it was Coleco's knock-off of Berzerk until I took the time to read the manual... It's now one of my favorite games on the Coleco and I play it regularly.Frenzy was in arcades first and is the official sequel to Berzerk (both made by Stern). Right, which is why I should have read that manual 16 years ago. Read the manuals kids! The music was exclusive to the Colecovision version and actually came from another game. The arcade version has voice similar to Berzerk. I was unaware that the arcade lacked the music. Those tunes are actually my favorite thing about Frenzy on the Coleco. They really add to the whole feel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 Got back from San Antonio last night and worked on Frantic a few hours, but didn't have any luck getting the 7800 to run it. Berzerk rooms start with 8 posts in the middle of the room. In single wall going either up, down, left or right is drawn from each post. In Frenzy the room starts with 15 posts. In Berzerk the walls are electrified and will kill you or the robots upon contact. In Frenzy the walls are safe to touch, and are either reflective to shots or destructible. In the ROM from this blog entry you can test out the wall routines using the difficulty switch to select the berzerk or frenzy maze, and for the frenzy maze you can select between "flicker" or "animate" for differentiating between the 2 types of walls. I have no inclination to add background music, for one it would conflict with the speech, for another I've not played the Coleco home version. One difference I plan to add to the Frenzy variation is the Tanks will shoot homing missiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 (edited) Last version that ran on my 7800 was from the 27th. It appears that the alignment of some data in the Display Data bank was triggering the problems I was seeing. By moving 1 variable that was added on the 29th for sound effect support, I was able to make the stutter and screen rolls stop. At that point I could play the first room, but it crashed upon exit. I rearranged some functions in the C code until the crashing cleared up. This ROM works on both my light sixer and 7800. Let me know if it works on y'alls real hardware so I can continue work on the game, as I'm not adding new features until this is resolved. frantic_harmony_20110906.bin Edited September 6, 2011 by SpiceWare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Even if there would have to be fewer mushrooms, I'd still like to see it. No problem....See pic below! (Sorry couldn't help myself.) Really wanted to chime in and say that Frantic is shaping up to be an excellent looking game! I tried it out on Stella using the PC keyboard, this is one I'm going to have to break out my USB Atari stick for! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 7, 2011 Author Share Posted September 7, 2011 Thanks! I plan to work on the menu system next whenever disjaukifa and KevinMos3 report back on the last build. I need the menu system in place before I can start work on the Frenzy variation. Of course, it's back to the drawing board if it still crashes on their Atari systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disjaukifa Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Thanks! I plan to work on the menu system next whenever disjaukifa and KevinMos3 report back on the last build. I need the menu system in place before I can start work on the Frenzy variation. Of course, it's back to the drawing board if it still crashes on their Atari systems. I'm still not able to go to another room after the first, now I just get a black screen. I really don't know whats going on. I'll double check again when I get home, knowing all the mistakes I was making last night from exhaustion, I might have been loading the .bin but I'm pretty sure it was the right one because Evil Otto was animated and stealth was there as well, it seems like all the latest features were in the game . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianC Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Thanks! I plan to work on the menu system next whenever disjaukifa and KevinMos3 report back on the last build. I need the menu system in place before I can start work on the Frenzy variation. Of course, it's back to the drawing board if it still crashes on their Atari systems. I'm still not able to go to another room after the first, now I just get a black screen. I really don't know whats going on. I'll double check again when I get home, knowing all the mistakes I was making last night from exhaustion, I might have been loading the .bin but I'm pretty sure it was the right one because Evil Otto was animated and stealth was there as well, it seems like all the latest features were in the game . . . I just got my Harmony Cart. I tried the last version of Frantic before the Frenzy test rom and I got the same thing when I tried it on my Sears light sixer. It works fine on my 7800. My 7800 is a China model and plays Dark Chambers, Robot Tank, Decathlon, and the Supercharger games. Edited September 10, 2011 by BrianC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 I've hooked up my 3rd Atari and it works fine there too, so I'm at a loss as to what's going on. There's probably a slight timing difference or something that's causing the problem, similar to what I see with my 7800 sometimes not liking Frantic while the 2600 does. For now I've decided to continue moving forward and hope that the problem clears up on its own as I revise the routines to work with the Frenzy variation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 Main Menu is now in place; and yes, you can now start the game with your joystick. Controls: Up/Down to select option to change. Left/Right/Fire to change an option. Only Fire works on the Start option, and it starts the game when Fire is released. Options: Maze Type (berzerk style on the left, frenzy style on the right) Homing - tank robots shoot homing missiles (frenzy only) Wall Flicker - controls how the reflective walls are drawn (frenzy only). The frenzy maze at the top of the menu will flicker at the select rate as well. Robot Shots - maximum shots the robots can shoot at 1 time. Stealth - invisible robots Lives - 1/3/5 lives Bonus Life - when bonus lives are awarded. X/1K/2K/5K Continue - lets you continue the game on the last level you played with score reset to 0. With the exception of Homing and Continue, all menu options should have an affect on the game. Let me know if something doesn't work correctly. While you can select it, the Frenzy maze isn't playable yet. You can shoot the robots, you can't leave the first room. ROM (Stella instructions in 1st post) frantic_harmony_20110915.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Joe Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Wow I just saw this and realized this wasnt the Coleco version! This is 2600? WAYY COOL! :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disjaukifa Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Spiceware. I downloaded the rom, but I'll check it out tomorrow, I just finished played a 150 minute game of Berzerk and I'm beat. The menu looks awesome, way to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espire8 Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Found some bugs in the menu. - After selecting "X" for HOMING in Frenzy mode, and then changing the Maze mode back to Berzerk, the Homing option is no longer greyed out when it should be. - The selections cycle a bit too quickly and continuously when I hold down the fire button or hold Left or Right. It takes me some effort to stop the selection where I want it. - The highlighting for the START option has a much better contrast than the highlighting of the rest of the list. Can they be adjusted to match? The Title really stand out much better with the spacing and under scoring lines. Great work so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 This is 2600? WAYY COOL! :thumbsup: Yep - even I'm amazed at what just 2 sprites can do The menu looks awesome, way to go! Thanks! espire8 did most of the graphics in the menu. the Homing option is no longer greyed out when it should be. ... The selections cycle a bit too quickly and continuously when I hold down the fire button or hold Left or Right. did a quick update during lunch to address these, it's posted in the blog. The highlighting for the START option has a much better contrast than the highlighting of the rest of the list. Can they be adjusted to match? I did a bit of space savings there by using the disabled grey color table to blink the selected option. I don't want to change the maze type color as that's the in-game color and making it brighter will affect the Wall Flicker example. I also think it would be odd if the other options were a different color. Maybe it would make more sense to change the disabled grey from 4 to 2 I'd really like to make the Evil Ottos bounce when Start is selected, like a dog excited that you're taking it for a walk, instead of the color flash. I've not done it yet due to space concerns as it'll require the START graphics to be padded at the top to compensate for the height of the bouncing ottos. The Title really stand out much better with the spacing and under scoring lines. Great work so far. That it does, you ran with my idea quite well there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 The highlighting for the START option has a much better contrast than the highlighting of the rest of the list. Can they be adjusted to match? I did a bit of space savings there by using the disabled grey color table to blink the selected option. I don't want to change the maze type color as that's the in-game color and making it brighter will affect the Wall Flicker example. I also think it would be odd if the other options were a different color. Maybe it would make more sense to change the disabled grey from 4 to 2 New ROM in blog with darker grey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disjaukifa Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 The highlighting for the START option has a much better contrast than the highlighting of the rest of the list. Can they be adjusted to match? I did a bit of space savings there by using the disabled grey color table to blink the selected option. I don't want to change the maze type color as that's the in-game color and making it brighter will affect the Wall Flicker example. I also think it would be odd if the other options were a different color. Maybe it would make more sense to change the disabled grey from 4 to 2 New ROM in blog with darker grey. Spiceware, I grabbed the latest rom of your blog and guess what!!!! I can go to multiple rooms now!!!! Best build yet, look forward to playing it later tonight! Still kind of hoping you do a limited boxed release and the whole nine yards, that would be fantastic! Regardless, once your done I want to buy this game on a cartridge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 Great! This ARM code alignment bug is rather annoying, I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up again in a future build. For now I'll just keep confirming it runs on my 2600 & 7800 before uploading. When it's time for the final ROM I'll make sure you sign off on it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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