Turrican (128K)

[flolore]

Great Job JMB. Thank you so much for all your passion and dedication to improving the games you do ! 

Mr. DVG : Works perfectly with caprice32 by Colin Pitrat, too.

[Mr. DVG]

Have you tried using the "Modified lower ROM for CPC6128" ? It solves many problems as far as I understand.
Also, are you using the latest firmware version (2.0.8 )?
Regarding emulators, I tested the game successfully with Caprice64, AmSpirit and ACE-DL.
You just need to copy the PARADOS rom file in the ROM folder of the emulator, and configure ROM slot 7 with Parados.

 For emulators I understood what I have to do, but for the M4 I think I have big problems, as I have never interacted with any options and various configurations... I'll try to explain better...

I load the games from an internal interface that reads the contents of the folders and starts with the command RUN "M4". The firmware seems to be ok, but I don't understand what to do when you say "Modified lower ROM for CPC6128"...

[Jean-Marie]

@Mr. DVG , first you should make sure to use the latest firmware version, which is 2.0.8. 
type |VERSION and tell us what you see.

[Jean-Marie]

I noticed the same code, thus the same bug, is repeated in the second level with the giant fist.
I've applied the same fix, so here is Version 4 already!

[OneVision]

Hey! Yea I managed to play through the entire game last night all the way to the end - including the ending sequence (which is great already)!

You can catch up with it the stream as a normal/public YouTube video here - https://www.youtube.com/live/JO3oryZ3to4


There is a bug, which is present in the original game anyway, with the World 4 Stage 1 boss - which you can see watching from the 2:26:30 mark .... if you sit using the laser, when he does a crush attack the programmer implement a 'screen shake' which unfortunately shifts the screen up but doesn't reset it down, moving the player sprite........ and yea - see what happens! I don't know if you can fix that or not? 

Thanks for featuring the game on your stream !

Best !

[Jean-Marie]

OneVision notified me that musics from levels 3.2 and 3.3 were inverted.
This one was easy to fix. It seems to be a mistake from Sir Guillaumin's website.
So here is Version 5.

[mooniac]

Just some feedback from myself as I have not seen anyone reporting using the game with the ULIFAC. I could start the game (mass storage / file version) without any issues. I have not played far into the game but it seems to work just fine. Merci beaucoup, Jean-Marie !

[Jean-Marie]

And finally, an AMSDOS version spread on 2 regular DSK files. Glory !
Simply flip side when you see the border turn to White.

[OneVision]

Does anybody here know how to use 2 disk faces on M4 ? I'm still unable to play it on real hardware.

[VincentGR]

Use the "files" version

[OneVision]

Use the "files" version

Unfortunately, doesn't work either.

[OneVision]

Featured on IndieRetroNews : https://www.indieretronews.com/2025/06/check-out-this-awesome-turrican-128k.html?spref=tw

[OneVision]

[dmuscat]

OneVision notified me that musics from levels 3.2 and 3.3 were inverted.
This one was easy to fix. It seems to be a mistake from Sir Guillaumin's website.
So here is Version 5.

Looking forward to trying this tonight. I assume it works fine with a real 464 running a DDi5?

[Jean-Marie]

Thanks! I see no reason why it wouldn't work with DDI5, but I'm clearly not an expert of all those modern devices!

[Koren Lesthe]

OneVision notified me that musics from levels 3.2 and 3.3 were inverted.
This one was easy to fix. It seems to be a mistake from Sir Guillaumin's website.
So here is Version 5.

Amazing !

I noticed during Xyphoe's stream that the track used in 5.1 and 5.2 are also inverted.

Thanks for this amazing version of Turrican 1 anyway !

[Jean-Marie]

Now, that is quite strange!
I just checked the Atari ST longplay, and it appears that the musics from those levels (5.1 and 5.2) are inverted when compared with the Amiga ones
Soooo, I don't know what to do ! Should I match the ST or Amiga design? You decide folks!

[lmimmfn]

Now, that is quite strange!
I just checked the Atari ST longplay, and it appears that the musics from those levels (5.1 and 5.2) are inverted when compared with the Amiga ones
Soooo, I don't know what to do ! Should I match the ST or Amiga design? You decide folks!

The Amiga was the lead platform for the 16 bits, so the order should be from that.

The overall lead platform was the C64 and by Manfred Trentz, but I don't think the music matches, not sure though.

[Jean-Marie]

Yeah, that makes sense I guess.
So Version 6 it is!

[Koren Lesthe]

Yeah, that makes sense I guess.
So Version 6 it is!

So cool, thanks !
I tried the "non ParaDOS" version on CPCEC and it now runs great, as long as I choose the 6128 ROM (not the CPC+ as it launches with a corrupted image).
Then I set the overclock CPU option to 2x and it's very, very, very smooth ! Now with the much better centered scrolling, it feels so good !

The only downside is that the lightning effect during the storm in 1.2 is very hard on the eyes but that was also in the original version with the same result if the CPU is set to 2x, the flashes occurs a lot more than before because of the speed going much higher. If you are epilepsy sensitive, do not overclock your CPC during the second level (including in the original version of Turrican 1 !).

My only wish is for a much slower timer because even without any overclock, the CPC version of Turrican 1 timer is way, way too fast ^^.

[Jean-Marie]

I just had a look at that Timer, and there's something amiss indeed 🤔
Looking at the Atari video, it should be decremented every second, but it's a bit faster on the CPC.
For some unknown reason, Daren White didn't rely on Interrupts to clock the Timer. This would have given the best precision, since there are 300 interrupts per second. You just need to set a value to 300, decrement it on every interrupt, and decrement the Timer when that value reaches 0.
I might have a look into that, thanks for reporting it.

Code Select Expand

org &04c8
ld a,(&dea0)        ;;counter
and &07
jp nz,l04de
ld a,&03            ;;number of digits to display
ld bc,&c50f         ;;Timer string offset in VRAM
ld de,&01           ;;decrement step
ld hl,&ded8         ;;Timer value (24 bit)
call &c622          ;;Decrement function

[cwpab]

I just noticed something about Turrican (1989)... It was really influenced by Metroid (1986), right? I think both games share the turning into a ball feature.

But I suspect Turrican plays a bit differently... and maybe it offers some new mechanics of its own?

[Jean-Marie]

Yeah, Metroid and Psycho-Nich Oscar from what I've read. Maybe Galivan too?

[andycadley]

I just noticed something about Turrican (1989)... It was really influenced by Metroid (1986), right? I think both games share the turning into a ball feature.

But I suspect Turrican plays a bit differently... and maybe it offers some new mechanics of its own?

Turrican plays like a game someone wrote after seeing screenshots of Metroid. It's superficially similar, with things like the ball mechanic, but doesn't really play in the same way.

[Koren Lesthe]

I just noticed something about Turrican (1989)... It was really influenced by Metroid (1986), right? I think both games share the turning into a ball feature.

But I suspect Turrican plays a bit differently... and maybe it offers some new mechanics of its own?

I just noticed something about Turrican (1989)... It was really influenced by Metroid (1986), right? I think both games share the turning into a ball feature.

But I suspect Turrican plays a bit differently... and maybe it offers some new mechanics of its own?

Turrican plays like a game someone wrote after seeing screenshots of Metroid. It's superficially similar, with things like the ball mechanic, but doesn't really play in the same way.

Manfred Trenz, who coded the original C64 game, was indeed inspired by Psycho Nics Oscar (for the futuristic armor & weapons) & Metroid (for its vast levels and of course the morh ball) but also the Super Mario Bros. games for the ease of control, which can already be seen in The Great Giana Sisters game he worked on in 1987, a Mario rippoff (still fun in its own, I loved the DS game -now playable on Steam-).

Fun fact : despite getting a notice from Nintendo to demand Rainbow Arts to pull The Great Giana Sisters from stores, they later agreed to get a new, much improved reboot of the game on the Nintendo DS with a ton of levels, including... the entirety of the original levels.