30 replies to this topic

[tep392]

I was getting frustrated with how fast Dropzone ran on my NTSC machine so I did this little hack to slow the frame rate to PAL's 50hz. Plays much better now.

Attached Files

•  Dropzone_ntsc.xex   34.73K   69 downloads

[orpheuswaking]

Cool, Personally I play on a Pal machine but it's not permanently set up, so having this will let me play at will on my main NTSC machine.

[therealbountybob]

orpheuswaking, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 3:40 PM, said:

Cool, Personally I play on a Pal machine but it's not permanently set up, so having this will let me play at will on my main NTSC machine.

perhaps you could see how it compares, then we can play it next season in the HSC

[tep392]

In theory, it should play identically. The game is timed to the screen refresh rate (vertical blank interrupt) so I simply added some code at the start of the VBI to exit early once every 6 screens. The main code section just sits in a loop waiting for the vertical blank code to run. This effectively pauses the game for 1/60 of a second after every 5 frames so there is only 50 loops through the game code per second.

I also fixed a glitch that skips the "dropzone" animation and makes the initial screen look like this on NTSC machines.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by tep392, Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:06 AM.

[texacala]

Excellent! Thank you.

[orpheuswaking]

Looks good!

[MrFish]

tep392, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:04 AM, said:

I also fixed a glitch that skips the "dropzone" animation and makes the initial screen look like this on NTSC machines.

I'm still getting this glitch on my NTSC 130XE. When I get the "Practice Recommended" message and then push the fire button... It then appears on the title screen as shown.

[tep392]

MrFish, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:15 PM, said:

tep392, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:04 AM, said:

I also fixed a glitch that skips the "dropzone" animation and makes the initial screen look like this on NTSC machines.

I'm still getting this glitch on my NTSC 130XE. When I get the "Practice Recommended" message and then push the fire button... It then appears on the title screen as shown.

Thanks for catching that. I think this version will fix it.

Attached Files

•  Dropzone_ntsc_ver2.xex   34.73K   64 downloads

[_The Doctor__]

Dang I played the crap out of this game I thought the speed was the way the game was meant to be played... Never thought it was an oversight on the timing since I purchased the game. Now electraglide is one that needs a little timer adjustment.....

[therealbountybob]

Then the other great game NTSCers' are missing out on is Zone X

[Stephen]

_The Doctor__, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:46 PM, said:

Dang I played the crap out of this game I thought the speed was the way the game was meant to be played... Never thought it was an oversight on the timing since I purchased the game. Now electraglide is one that needs a little timer adjustment.....

Same here, and since I suck at most games, I just assumed I was also no good at this

[therealbountybob]

Is this (Dropzone) now fully playable on NTSC {Thinking of playing it in the High Score Club}

[tep392]

I believe it is. I've compared game play in emulation and it seems to run at the same pace as the original in PAL emulation.

[slampam]

I remember Maclean said the colors in NTSC were not to his liking.
So I turned everything between $10-$8F up one color clock.

PAL NTSC
$26 --> $36 main ground
$2A --> $3A ground accents
$78 --> $88 blunder storm
$3C --> $4C nmeye
$1C --> $2C cloak indicator
$78 --> $88 cloak indicator border/ "OUT"/ "IN"
$38 --> $48 "MEN:"
$38 --> $48 player dark pink
$7C --> $8C players remain
$76 --> $86 man (main body)/spore (main body)
$B8 --> $B8 planter (main body)/nemesite (main body)
$38 --> $48 lava spew
$38 --> $48 scanner border/bombs remain
$76 --> $86 man tumble
$76 --> $86 man saved

Attached Files

•  Dropzone_ntsc_vs2_color.zip   20.82K   27 downloads
•  Dropzone_colors.txt   2.77K   13 downloads

[bbking67]

Dropzone was sold in the US... I remember seeing it demonstrated at some Atarifests... so was this game effectively released unplayable on US systems?

[walter_J64bit]

I hope to see more NTSC for other games.

[therealbountybob]

walter_J64bit, on Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:19 AM, said:

I hope to see more NTSC for other games.

I hope to see more games made to run at NTSC speeds on PAL

[slampam]

Backstory http://www.atarimani...pzone_1746.html

Interesting that he got it to run at a constant 50Hz on PAL. So NTSC dropzone runs at 40Hz?

Edited by slampam, Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:44 PM.

[ZylonBane]

slampam, on Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:43 PM, said:

Interesting that he got it to run at a constant 50Hz on PAL. So NTSC dropzone runs at 40Hz?

You think the NTSC frame rate is 40Hz?

[slampam]

>no, those Hz's are all backwards and wrong.

I just noticed the atarimania dropezone box says it runs on 64k. I was thinking it ran on 48k off a disk.
Does this mean a 5200 would never be possible?

[Rybags]

More like 48K. 5200 I'd think possible but would require reverse-engineering and rework of the program - fair bit of work.

[sargie]

Thanks for doing this - game is now playable on an NTSC machine! The speed of the game is now accurate to the PAL version but the scrolling seems a lot jerkier than I remember... I used to play this game a lot back in the day. I could get 4-5 million in a few hours and then get bored

[ZylonBane]

sargie, on Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:33 AM, said:

The speed of the game is now accurate to the PAL version but the scrolling seems a lot jerkier than I remember...

If you'd bother reading the explanation of how he slowed it down, you'd understand why the scrolling isn't as smooth anymore.

[Stephen]

ZylonBane, on Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:07 PM, said:

sargie, on Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:33 AM, said:

The speed of the game is now accurate to the PAL version but the scrolling seems a lot jerkier than I remember...

If you'd bother reading the explanation of how he slowed it down, you'd understand why the scrolling isn't as smooth anymore.

Warm and charming as always

[sargie]

Yeah - way to roll out the welcome mat

BTW: I did read it the beginning of the thread - 4 months ago. I also had no idea that what Tep392 was describing would be the cause of the jerky scrolling as I am not that technical... but then again I didn't give it much thought as all I just wanted to say "Thank-You" for to whoever did this for doing this, offer a friendly observation and not get moaned at by a pedant.

Edited by sargie, Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:51 PM.