New interpretation of Pitfall! for PAL Vic + 16K

[Boray]

It's also a lot easier to take a photo or film a LCD/LED TV. Everything I've posted for the last month is taken from the TV and a real Vic. Sorry for the OT.

[Ivanhoe76]

Thank you Victragic, you developed the best version of pitfall ever, obviously there are some little bugs, but it's great!!!! graphically is even better than excellent atari 2600 version!!!

[Spectrum]

A modern LED/LCD TV beats any PAL CRT monitor in my opinion. Because of the 50 Hz flickering. If you get used to a LED/LCD TV and then watch something on a PAL CRT you go HEY how could I ever watch this?

I do not agree. I have a LED tv and an old 14" CRT that I use on my ZX Spectrum and on my Vic20, and it's wonderful, a true pleasure for the eyes. Of course I am connecting the Vic to the CRT using the composite cable, on RF it would look awful.
On a LED or LCD tv the image looks even more chunky than usual, and it's the same on the Vic, speccy, C64 and so on. I will test this awesome version of Pitfall! on the real hardware tonight and I will take photos of it on my CRT. To take pictures from a CRT isn't easy (I am a very bad photographer) but I will try.

[tokra]

This game was tested in the recent issue of Retro Gamer (#122) and garnered a very nice 80%. There is also mention of "some mind-boggling, Atari 2600-style programming tricks going on that allow Harry and his adversaries to move smoothly around with barely a hint of colour-clash."

[Victragic]

Retro Gamer is my favourite magazine, but it seems to be getting harder to find around here now.. I do like the home-brew section, it's fairly sensible in it's reviews, and the Vic gets an appropriate level of coverage (overshadowed by Spectrum and C64 of course)

I'll take the 80%, I think it's a fair assessment -- like I've said, it's not as good as the original Atari VCS version, and it's not my game.

I've attempted to change the jump distances for the crocs in this game, but no solution has been obvious or to my satisfaction - so it will probably stay as it is.

I'd like to attempt a new Vic game from scratch using similar effects, so I'm not bound to the limitations inherent in converting a game across machines - time willing, of course.

[Mayhem]

Retro Gamer is my favourite magazine, but it seems to be getting harder to find around here now.. I do like the home-brew section, it's fairly sensible in it's reviews, and the Vic gets an appropriate level of coverage (overshadowed by Spectrum and C64 of course)

The guy who writes the homebrew section (TMR) does pop his head in here from time to time

(which is probably one reason why he is aware of Vic20 homebrew)

[TMR]

Retro Gamer is my favourite magazine, but it seems to be getting harder to find around here now.. I do like the home-brew section, it's fairly sensible in it's reviews, and the Vic gets an appropriate level of coverage (overshadowed by Spectrum and C64 of course)

The guy who writes the homebrew section (TMR) does pop his head in here from time to time

[Waves =-]

(First time i've been called "fairly sensible" though...!)

[commodorefree]

Hi
Sorry just curious if this game is still being developed; I tired contacting the developer by PM but so far haven’t had any response. I am going to review the game in an issue of Commodore Free Magazine (don’t groan)

Anyway I wanted to review the “final version” rather than a “development version” Just so its a fair and accurate review Maybe TMR would like to work with me
Should anyone feel compelled to help me with the review can you please PM me
Thanks

[eslapion]

This says PAL only??

(inspired by a specific C64 game from Epyx with speech synthesis)

No! Noo! NOOOOO!

[craftsman1234]

This says PAL only??

(inspired by a specific C64 game from Epyx with speech synthesis)

No! Noo! NOOOOO!

Agreed, Nooooooo!!

Tried it just hoping it would run but...

[Mike]

This says PAL only?? [...]

Glen already stated the reasons for this in this thread:

An identical NTSC version isn't really possible - *every* [cycle] is used in a raster line, with no branching. To write this for NTSC would mean dropping the dynamic colouring for the main character.

and

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for me with this game was realising I couldn't do what I wanted to do with NTSC machines. The problem was lack of cycle time left after the raster lines had all been drawn. I attempted to code a parallel version which didn't use fancy raster effects, but it just looks/looked dreadful next to the PAL version, even if it was running about 17.5% faster. While my version is still nowhere as good as the Atari original, I didn't want it to end up looking like a Spectrum game, for example.

Tried it just hoping it would run but ...

We're talking about cycle-exact code here executed on each raster-line.

PAL has 71 cycles/line, NTSC only 65 cycles/line. The horizontal splitting of the background register takes place as the background is being drawn, that would take the same time on PAL and NTSC - each character corresponds to 2 cycles. However during the horizontal flyback, the remaining cycles are used for dynamic colouring of the player character and the enemies. And this just doesn't work as intended when you are missing the 6 cycles.

The other differences (312 vs 262 raster lines, and ~1.10 MHz vs ~1.03 MHz) are of minor importance here. In many other cases where such code is executed, the PAL version doesn't use up all cycles of a line, and merely executes 6 or more idle cycles so it's possible to derive a version of the code that runs on NTSC machines. But this is not the case here.

[Victragic]

This says PAL only??

(inspired by a specific C64 game from Epyx with speech synthesis)

No! Noo! NOOOOO!

He he - memories of Frogger '07..

Which game was that, btw? Impossible Mission?

[Peter]

You're famous now! Great article in the new Retro Gamer.

My kids play Pitfall! on a real VIC20. They love it and hate it. But they keep playing! Thanks for making this gem!

[Victragic]

You're famous now! Great article in the new Retro Gamer.

My kids play Pitfall! on a real VIC20. They love it and hate it. But they keep playing! Thanks for making this gem!

Thanks Peter! It's a thrill to hear your kids love (and hate) it

[mingle]

I know it's well over two years since the last post in this thread, but I have to congratulate you on this game - simply superb!

The programming is par excellence, really neatly done.

Now I just need you to get started on a couple more Activison conversions - Pitfall II and H.E.R.O!

Cheers,

Mike.