451 replies to this topic

[Nukey Shay]

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.

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.76K   879 downloads

Edited by Nukey Shay, Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:43 PM.

[StanJr]

absolutely wonderful! Now all it needs is to be finished and placed in a happy little cart for me to purchase!

[ATARI TROLL]

Strap that baby in a cart....I will buy one!

[Nukey Shay]

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

Attached Files

•  hack_em_source.zip   29.05K   421 downloads

[SS]

Nukey Shay said:

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?

[bjk7382]

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

[Nukey Shay]

SS said:

Nukey Shay said:

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.

[SS]

Nukey Shay said:

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.

[Nukey Shay]

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???

[atwwong]

This will be great if you can figure out that cycle problem with the |style_emoticons/atariage/icon_innocent.gif 's (and the button for 7800 users). Great job, as always!

[Nukey Shay]

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)!

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.77K   429 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

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

I gotta free up some stuff

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.78K   372 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

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).

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.79K   414 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

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+

[Nukey Shay]

Order corrected
Also, I finally fixed the "²" symbol

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.78K   386 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

Dr. Marian Lazarus said:

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!!

[Nukey Shay]

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).

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.79K   356 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

Now Hangly Man has a seperate dot pattern for the open maze. It's still 150 dots + 4 energizers.

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.82K   407 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

...and 4 logos that appear at the end of the game

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.88K   377 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

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.

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.88K   358 downloads

[Nukey Shay]

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

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.89K   398 downloads

[ATARI TROLL]

plays perfect Nukey! Nice work on removing the lines etc.....looks and plays awesome....Have you thought of a 5th ghost yet??

[Nukey Shay]

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).

[NovaXpress]

This may well be the coolest 2600 hack of all time.

[Nukey Shay]

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

Attached Files

•  hack_em_hanglyman.zip   4.91K   434 downloads