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Converted GX4000 .cpr - The topic (repository link in first post)

Started by remax, 22:14, 04 May 15

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CyrilAmstrad

Quote from: iXien on 14:47, 05 September 20
Fabulous ! To complete this great upgrade, can you provide another version with the intro border corrected but without unlimited lives ?  8)
@Ixien , Yep of course ;)
Please find  SwitchBlade Normal Version GX4000 - Grey version patched - with Intro border Corrected Only.
Cyrille Ayor61
Amstradiens Facebook Group
AMSTRAD CPC/ _+ /GX4000
Amstradiens Channel

iXien

Quote from: CyrilAmstrad on 15:20, 05 September 20
@Ixien , Yep of course ;)
Please find  SwitchBlade Normal Version GX4000 - Grey version patched - with Intro border Corrected Only.
Cyrille Ayor61
Good work! And of course many thanks again to GOB that indeed already made the big part of the job in 2017.

This version of one of the best CPC games could definitely be called Ultimate Switchblade, clearly one of the best games on GX-4000 now with the right colours and pokes.
http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

Urusergi

<<<<< BOUNTY BOB STRIKES BACK >>>>>

Joy1 left: left.
Joy1 right: right.
Joy1 up: up.
Joy1 down: down.
Joy1 fire1: jump.
Joy1 fire2: activate lift.
Pause button: pause.

With trainer (infinite lives & time).

iXien

Quote from: Urusergi on 16:58, 05 September 20
<<<<< BOUNTY BOB STRIKES BACK >>>>>

With trainer (infinite lives & time).
A nice one.

What about Archon I & II ? there are not a lot of things to patch if I saw correctly (pause and quit)


If you're not really interested (while these are very nice), what do you think about Basil, Thing On A Spring or Thing Bounces Back" from Gremlin ?
http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

iXien

Quote from: XeNoMoRPH on 07:40, 05 September 20

https://youtu.be/po4UxQ1KvcY

by @CyrilAmstrad & @Devilmarkus
A very good work that saves the original graphics, colours were really awful  :P  Sadly, this doesn't save a game with very bad level design and a so small play area.
http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

zeropolis79

If Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Coin Op was converted, would linking the music files (on the disc images) to the actual game be possible?

dragon

but i think that the real reason is similar to the zx spectrum version, the music player take a lot of CPU, you can hear how during the select controls screen the music sound slower, during the game would destroy all the playability.

And in plus using sound dma?.(winape is a plus emulator)



And in plus using sound dma?.(winape is a plus emulator)

You would need to understand the music player perfectly to convert it at a CPC+ DMA song list... It's possible, but it's so boring and time consuming




You would need to understand the music player perfectly to convert it at a CPC+ DMA song list... It's possible, but it's so boring and time consuming


Yes and you must understand the copper code too, and you need a lot of memory in addition. Better: Use a good player! Me? Got no time!



https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/hidden-music-in-'teenage-mutant-hero-turtles-the-coin-op'-'shadow-dancer'/25/

zeropolis79

Thanks - I suspected slowdown might be the case and I'll admit I dont understand a lot about machine code stuff but thought no harm in asking if it's possible.

Carnivius

I asked Batman_Group on Twitter about it back in January.  They don't believe it's a speed issue and a reply said that SyX was asked and something about the tracker used to play the tunes. I've private messaged @SyX on here the other day (a Turtles coin op comparison video on Youtube reminded me).  Hopefully they can provide a clear explanation. :)


Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

zeropolis79

I've seey Xyphoe's video playthrough with the music dubbed over and it looks/sounds very good..

dragon

Quote from: Carnivius on 12:13, 08 September 20
I asked Batman_Group on Twitter about it back in January.  They don't believe it's a speed issue and a reply said that SyX was asked and something about the tracker used to play the tunes. I've private messaged @SyX on here the other day (a Turtles coin op comparison video on Youtube reminded me).  Hopefully they can provide a clear explanation. :)


I'm not sure I think maybe he simply extract the player from the game + music and add the menu.


But problably he not fit in the 64k ram with the game.


So anyway you need a music player that can run from the cartridge..


Or atleast made the music player load the music from cartridge.




Phantomz

Just watched @chinnyhill10 latest youtube video, so thought would convert the game. :D


RESCUE ON FRACTALUS


Updated version on page 114

iXien

Quote from: Phantomz on 20:57, 11 September 20
Just watched @chinnyhill10 latest youtube video, so thought would convert the game. :D

RESCUE ON FRACTALUS

You will need 2 Joypads to play the game.

It might not be a smooth as the Atari version, but hopefully you will enjoy it on the GX4000  8)

Yeah ! A really underrated game on CPC, a really wonderful one that has been acclaim on Atari systems. Of course, it's sad that it needs the use of the second controller but I think it's unavoidable. The only console system you can play this game officially is the Atari 5200 on which controllers offer a numeric keypad.

Well done, it will be a pleasure to discover this one again on GX-4000. Even if the CPC version isn't as smooth as the Atari version, it's a really descent conversion.

Now, as you begun to convert a Lucasfilm Games product, you are now forced to convert THE EIDOLON and BALLBLAZER too, isn't it  :P ? These three games launched at the same time by Lucasfilm Games are really connected. With the help of the second controller, it's possible to convert THE EIDOLON, the remaining problem is to find a plain file CPC version. For BALLBLAZER, I'm not sure it is possible as it needs 3 buttons to be played and the second controller has to remain free for the multiplayer mode, so each player needs 3 buttons if I remember well.
http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

Phantomz

@Novabug might like this one, he enjoyed it on his latest youtube live game testing vid.  ;D


MR FREEZE


Use Joypad 1 to Play, Button 1 to Jump, Button 2 to Fire.


Console Pause Button to Pause, Joypad 1 Button 2 to unpause.


Joypad 2 Button 2 to Turn Music off, Joypad 2 Button 1 to Turn Music on.


Joypad 1 Button 2 to leave Demo Mode.


I've included a poked version with infinite lives.

zeropolis79

Thanks for that one - I love Mr Freeze.. Going to enjoy that one later.

Phantomz

THING ON A SPRING

The game is now Joypad only.

Joypad 1 Button 2 to Pause
Joypad 1 Button 1 to Unpause
Console Pause Button to turn Music On / Off
Joypad 2 Button 1 to Quit

Joypad 1 Button 1 to Enter to Pass Highscore Table
Joypad 1 Button 2 is Delete, so you could use the console Pause Button to enter P for Player 1, PP for Player 2 etc.

* CHEAT MODE (Infinite Oil):
Press Joypad 1 Button 2 on the main menu; the border will turn black.
The "Oil" bar will drop once in the alert zone, it will rise as if by a miracle.

Phantomz

THING BOUNCES BACK

Joypad 1 Button 2 to Pause / Unpause
Console Pause Button to Quit Current Screen

The game comes with a Trainer.

iXien

http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

SyX

Quote from: Carnivius on 12:13, 08 September 20
I asked Batman_Group on Twitter about it back in January.  They don't believe it's a speed issue and a reply said that SyX was asked and something about the tracker used to play the tunes. I've private messaged @SyX on here the other day (a Turtles coin op comparison video on Youtube reminded me).  Hopefully they can provide a clear explanation. :)
Sorry, but I only visit the wiki those days during eclipses or similar things :P I ripped those songs ten years ago or before, then my memories could not be the best ones about this. But basically, the problem for the recovering the music in the Turtles is triple.

First, you need to find the memory for putting the song and the music player, because the game only has in memory the songs during the menu and the song data format was very inefficient, near 16 KBs for all the songs (if you give to McKlain a quarter of that he would be super happy :P ). Of course, if you want to be lazy, you could load the songs in the extra 64 KBs and only use the songs in 128 KBs machines. With more effort, ripping every song individually and the player, maybe it could be possible to have the song in 64 KBs machines, but I don't remember now if there is some free memory during the game itself in 64 KBs machines.

Second, the music player takes a lot of cpu time during the music play. Again we have two options, the lazy one is if you don't mind to lost some framerate during the game, although because the game was frameskip 5 or 6, then you should don't feel any difference in the gameplay. The NOT lazy way would be to improve the music player and then reduce the use of cpu.
Third, and this is the one that makes very hard to put the songs in the game. For playing music, you need to call to the play routine with regular frequency, usually at 50 Hz. For doing that, the programmer usually call to the music player from inside his/her interrupt routine. Well, the problem is that the game runs with interrupts disabled, that it is nothing strange for old cpc games, but it means that you need to patch the game for being able to use interrupts. That can be easy or really hard, I don't remember if I took a look, but in other games that I made that fix, it was not trivial.

Carnivius

Thank you, Syx!  Yeah that does sound complicated. :)


Quote from: SyX on 03:25, 22 September 20Of course, if you want to be lazy, you could load the songs in the extra 64 KBs and only use the songs in 128 KBs machines. 
I don't think anyone expects the music on a 464 (would be nice but asking far too much as many CPC games only had music in 128k) but if it was possible on the 128ks, I think we'd all be pretty happy. :D
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

norecess464

Some requests
::)

- would it be possible to try converting the Pacman emulator from @SyX and @TotO for the GX-4000 ? https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=7270
- please have a look on the GB TETRIS EMULATOR released yesterday by @40Crisis (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/gb-tetris-emulator-temu-for-amstrad-cpc-6128()/msg192497/#msg192497). When final version will be released (the one with a new layout as suggested by @TotO ) that would be so nice to get a GX-4000 version of it, with complete support of the GX-4000 gamepad controller! :)

:pray:
My personal website: https://norecess.cpcscene.net
My current project is Sonic GX, a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog for the awesome Amstrad GX-4000 game console!

SyX

Quote from: norecess on 13:12, 22 September 20
- would it be possible to try converting the Pacman emulator from @SyX and @TotO for the GX-4000 ? https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=7270
The funny thing is that after we released the emulator, TotO redesigned all the graphics for a CPC+ version and some code was started for adding a few nice CPC+ improvements starting by using hardware sprites for the main sprites, the raster interrupt for coloring the scores in white, replacing the joystick third fire button for a key (this is not an improvement at all :P) and I don't know if I started to think about using the audio DMA.

At the same time, I took a look to Ms. Pacman and Pengo, both games run in the same arcade board, but they need an improved memory paging (the PCW or MSX one where you can choose with ram page goes in every page in the z80 address space) that it would make those games only possible in CPC+ machines using a cartridge. But for that we need to make a cartridge for CPC+ and that it was not easy those days.




Then we though that it would be better if we gave support to all CPC machines, not only the CPC+ cartridge ones... even if it would be impossible to release a physical cartridge with those games, because Sega and Namco lawyers would love us :P.

And it is in exactly this moment when TotO started his travel for learning and designing NEW hardware for the CPC. And we launched the 16 KBs ROM competition with the idea of releasing the best games in a 512 KBs cartridge as the big prize surprise... but with only 4 entries (magnificent games that I love until today), the competition was a big failure and not enough energy and motivation for working in the expensive and time consuming process of getting the plastic injection molds for the expansion case and the cartridge cases (a few people got the original cartridge system prototype, that it was a fusion of all the expansions that TotO has been released as separated units along those years).
Maybe we got too early or were too ambitious, but after that we focus in bringing cheap and innovative hardware expansions to the CPC and Pacman+ Emulator was forgotten in a folder in the HD, maybe some day I have enough energy and time for finishing the excellent work of TotO.



iXien

OMG, it would be so nice to be able to play on CPC Ms. Pac-Man and Pengo ! Sad that it of course needs 128K RAM as it automatically disqualifies our lovely GX-4000, but that in no way removes the fun of the experience !  8)
http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

SyX

Quote from: iXien on 19:35, 22 September 20
OMG, it would be so nice to be able to play on CPC Ms. Pac-Man and Pengo ! Sad that it of course needs 128K RAM as it automatically disqualifies our lovely GX-4000, but that in no way removes the fun of the experience !  8)
Sorry, if I didn't explain well.

What I wanted to say is that both games, Ms Pacman and Pengo, can only run from a cartridge in any CPC+ machine (464+, 6128+ or GX4000), because it is not a RAM problem (in fact Pacman can be recoded for running in 64 KBs machines by using the usual ROM board as X-MEM). The problem is the CPC RAM paging system, because those games make visible to the z80 new code pages in $8000 instead in $4000. And this feature is only possible in CPC+ cartridges for the first 128 KBs or something like that.

The only way of running those games in classic CPCs is by using the TotO Cartridge Expansion or CTC-AY:


And only because one of extra features in CTC-AY was an improved CPC standard RAM/ROM paging system for being able to put any page RAM/ROM in any place in the z80 address space.

iXien

Oh, ok you're right, I didn't understand that you were talking about rom files adapted to run only on cartridges and that the problem was not to execute it on 64kb systems but on standard CPCs. Sorry for that.


So, can we expect you reactivate this project in a near future  :)  ?
http://homebrew.amstradtoday.com, the only website dedicated to CPC homebrew games.

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