I've managed to speed up the scrolling of Green Beret through various code optimizations.
It's still slow, but less painful to watch I guess. My timing show the following results, measured from offsets 23E8h and 2450h (beginning & end of scrolling routine) :
regular version : 1589 milliseconds
overhauled version : 836 milliseconds.
Results vary depending on number of enemies on screen, tiles set to move, and whatnot.
I had to sacrifice the music to gain a few cycles.You can set it back by pressing ESC to pause, then M.
It will still be turned off during scrolling though.
You can use a 2 buttons joystick by pressing FIRE2 on the main menu.
Merry Christmas!
Oh! It's actually rather respectable now!
With a graphic restyling and non-retractable scrolling it could even become a decent game! ;D
Seriously, great job indeed! Happy Christmas! :-*
Really great job.
The game is much more playable now!
oh wow i was playing the original the other night..i forgot how bad it was!...
this looks like quite the speedup! good job!
Was really disappointed by the original after having played the msx version first...
Well done! This has made it quite playable. Since this is a Kevin Wilson game, can Yie Ar Kung Fu get similar treatment next :D
Thank you, good job !
Thank you all for your enthusiasm! I've managed to find a few more optimization. Nothing breathtaking though : it still scrolls between 830/850 milliseconds.
Quote from: ukmarkh on 16:02, 26 December 22Since this is a Kevin Wilson game, can Yie Ar Kung Fu get similar treatment next
There's nothing wrong with Yie Ar Kung Fu.;D It would be a desecration!
I'd like to see a faster
OutRun, but that's more that I can chew. And it would still be ugly anyway...
Quote from: Jean-Marie on 19:26, 26 December 22Thank you all for your enthusiasm! I've managed to find a few more optimization. Nothing breathtaking though : it still scrolls between 830/850 milliseconds.
Quote from: ukmarkh on 16:02, 26 December 22Since this is a Kevin Wilson game, can Yie Ar Kung Fu get similar treatment next
There's nothing wrong with Yie Ar Kung Fu.;D It would be a desecration!
I'd like to see a faster OutRun, but that's more that I can chew. And it would still be ugly anyway...
At this rate, before the new year you will have it scrolling :laugh:
Can we get this one working in .CPR format?
Quote from: ukmarkh on 21:28, 26 December 22Can we get this one working in .CPR format?
I've used NOCART to carry out the conversion. I tested quickly under Caprice64 and it's looking good.
Remember to press FIRE2 on the main menu to use the second button.
However, GX4000 users will be stuck on the high score table after a game over I guess:/
I'll see if I can work this out...
This is a specific release for GX4000 which skips the high-score table after a game over.
Quote from: Jean-Marie on 23:20, 27 December 22This is a specific release for GX4000 which skips the high-score table after a game over.
Impressive upgrade :o
Many thanks for the GX4000 users. What would be perfect would be to move the pause mode to the P key (corresponding to the Pause button) and that we can activate the music when pressing the fire button 2 on joypad while the game is in pause. Ultimately, a wait for fire to skip the title screen would be great too as on cartridge the loading is very fast 8) There the game would be 100% GX4000 friendly !
Once again, well done for this performance!
Congrats on the improvements!
Quote from: iXien on 11:34, 28 December 22What would be perfect would be to move the pause mode to the P key and that we can activate the music when pressing the fire button 2 on joypad while the game is in pause.
What is the usage of the fire 1 button during the pause? Resume the game?
Quote from: TotO on 15:28, 28 December 22Quote from: iXien on 11:34, 28 December 22What would be perfect would be to move the pause mode to the P key and that we can activate the music when pressing the fire button 2 on joypad while the game is in pause.
What is the usage of the fire 1 button during the pause? Resume the game?
Indeed, it would be a nice opportunity to resume game. And in that case Pause button while in pause mode could replace DEL to quit game rather than resuming it if
@Jean-Marie is ok for this kind of modification ;)
You're welcome! This version changes the
Pause button from
ESC to
P.
During the pause, pressing
FIRE2 will turn the music on/off. The drawback is that it will also fire the flamethrower if you've got one ;D.
Quote from: iXien on 11:34, 28 December 22a wait for fire to skip the title screen would be great too
You can skip the loading screen entirely by zeroing the 3 bytes displayed on the enclosed snapshot.
As for waiting for a keypress, I'll see if I can add up a patch-routine, but I'm getting low on memory!
Presently, I'm working on a patch which would allow you to enter your name in the high-score table.
But I promise you nothing :).
By the way, fell free to modify this version as you see fit. There is a few RAM left at 2743H, and 1BABH.
Quote from: Jean-Marie on 19:26, 26 December 22Thank you all for your enthusiasm! I've managed to find a few more optimization. Nothing breathtaking though : it still scrolls between 830/850 milliseconds.
Quote from: ukmarkh on 16:02, 26 December 22Since this is a Kevin Wilson game, can Yie Ar Kung Fu get similar treatment next
There's nothing wrong with Yie Ar Kung Fu.;D It would be a desecration!
I'd like to see a faster OutRun, but that's more that I can chew. And it would still be ugly anyway...
I agree, but more speed would be interesting and less of a pause after contact would be a good thing. Outrun isn't ugly, just moves ugly. With speed, things would play out much better impo. But seriously, great work. Green Beret is now one of my favourite CPC games.
I still kinda hate this game but it's a bit more bearable here. Thanks!
Improved version for GX4000! Names can now be entered in the high-score table. Use directional keys to scroll the blue letter on the bottom, then FIRE1 to validate chosen letter. Use FIRE2 to exit.
A bit cheap-looking, but that's all I could do with a minimum memory !
Also, on the main menu, FIRE1 starts the game, and FIRE2 shows up the high-score table.
Whaoooo, it's a very nice version :D
If I dared :P All that is missing imo would be to replace all these useless informations on main menu just by :
FIRE1... START GAME
FIRE2... SEE HI-SCORES
And it would be P E R F E C T 8)
I'l see what I can do ;)
Success ! 8)
Well done ! You just granted the GX4000 of an evolved version of Green Beret imo as clean as if Ocean itself wanted to publish the game on the console 8)
Are you ok if I spread the news on the topic dedicated to GX4000 converted game, with a full instructions file including infos about all the work you made to upgrade the game?
Quote from: iXien on 07:07, 30 December 22Are you ok if I spread the news on the topic dedicated to GX4000 converted game, with a full instructions file including infos about all the work you made to upgrade the game?
No problem! I'm glad I could help GX4000 users.
Quote from: iXien on 07:07, 30 December 22Well done ! You just granted the GX4000 of an evolved version of Green Beret imo as clean as if Ocean itself wanted to publish the game on the console 8)
Are you ok if I spread the news on the topic dedicated to GX4000 converted game, with a full instructions file including infos about all the work you made to upgrade the game?
Green Beret would actually be ideal for a GX game. It only needs two fire buttons, the characters probably all fit in a couple of hardware sprites each. Nothing particularly complicated about the background scrolling, could easily be silky smooth...
Quote from: andycadley on 15:37, 30 December 22Quote from: iXien on 07:07, 30 December 22Well done ! You just granted the GX4000 of an evolved version of Green Beret imo as clean as if Ocean itself wanted to publish the game on the console 8)
Are you ok if I spread the news on the topic dedicated to GX4000 converted game, with a full instructions file including infos about all the work you made to upgrade the game?
Green Beret would actually be ideal for a GX game. It only needs two fire buttons, the characters probably all fit in a couple of hardware sprites each. Nothing particularly complicated about the background scrolling, could easily be silky smooth...
Lots of CPC titles would make great games to upgrade using the specific capabilities of the GX4000/PLUS range of computers ;)
But here we're just talking about this great CPC scrolling upgrade of Green Beret that
@Jean-Marie kindly patched to work perfectly on GX4000, even modifying the texts to hide the CPC origins of the game.
Quote from: iXien on 15:50, 30 December 22Quote from: andycadley on 15:37, 30 December 22Quote from: iXien on 07:07, 30 December 22Well done ! You just granted the GX4000 of an evolved version of Green Beret imo as clean as if Ocean itself wanted to publish the game on the console 8)
Are you ok if I spread the news on the topic dedicated to GX4000 converted game, with a full instructions file including infos about all the work you made to upgrade the game?
Green Beret would actually be ideal for a GX game. It only needs two fire buttons, the characters probably all fit in a couple of hardware sprites each. Nothing particularly complicated about the background scrolling, could easily be silky smooth...
Lots of CPC titles would make great games to upgrade using the specific capabilities of the GX4000/PLUS range of computers ;)
But here we're just talking about this great CPC scrolling upgrade of Green Beret that @Jean-Marie kindly patched to work perfectly on GX4000, even modifying the texts to hide the CPC origins of the game.
Indeed and it's great work. I'm just getting tempted... :laugh:
Quote from: Jean-Marie on 01:08, 30 December 22Success ! 8)
I've put quite a few hours into this new Green Beret, only to find out that it keeps getting better. Eternally grateful for all your hard work. I appreciate people will still complain about the lack of scroll, but once you get into the swing of things, you somehow manage to put it to the back of your mind. If the sprites could be improved, that would be marvellous.
This looks very nice. If we are talking about improvements, the biggest improvement the original needed IMO was to bump the enemies chasing you forward by a few extra pixels every second so that they gradually catch up to you like they are supposed to.
Hmm, even if you were to bump them forward by one step every time it hit the push scroll, it might be just enough to fix the gameplay problem without being unduly jerky and noticeable. Even as a kid it bothered me that you could just run away and they couldn't catch you.
Apart from that and the slow scroll, it's always been a fun game with nice big sprites.
maybe I deviated from the original post, but recently they have released a new version of Green Beret for MSX2, with a fabulous scroll !!!
Hm it's moving in small chunks like a lot of CPC games.
The Ruskies aren't using the ladders, though...
This isn't very smooth really, like
@Carnivius said. But on the whole I love it.
Quote from: Gryzor on 13:37, 01 February 23This isn't very smooth really, like @Carnivius said. But on the whole I love it.
Yeah, I wasn't so much criticising it, but saying more like that looks very possible on CPC. :)
Quote from: ukmarkh on 20:07, 26 December 22
I love the accent of the guy in the video, just like Scott Adkins - with the rising tone at the end of sentences...