Looking for good image of Meteor Run

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:43 am

Recently, I was asked to put Meteor Run in one of the Ultimate 32k expanders I make for the VIC.

Since the image for this game on Zimmer's is PAL only compatible, I ran it in VICE (my real VIC is NTSC) only to realise it was not working well at all.

Does anyone anywhere have a good image of Meteor Run?

Please PM me if you do.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:48 am

Try this:

http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/misc/Meteor%20Run.zip

Seems to work okay in NTSC in Vice (unlike the CRT which do seem to be PAL only).

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:49 am

Thank you Mayhem,
I will investigate.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:51 pm

Unfortunately, this is not a cartridge version.

At this point, nobody seems to have a working dump for the cartridge version of Meteor Run. The one on Zimmer's is faulty.

If you have Meteor Run as a cartridge, please send me a dump of it's content.

Thank you all.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:11 am

Try http://www.bjlyons.com/cbm/vic20/carts/meteorrun.zip

Note, I have not tested this.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:03 am

I think that's the same PAL image as elsewhere, but will let Eslapion try it out and see.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:37 pm

The file on Zimmers is an 8K cartridge, while the Zip archive contains two files, for a total of 16K. On Zimmers there is also a version for +8K expanded VIC.

Perhaps VICE emulation is lying to me, but as far as I can see, the cartridge version can be made to run somewhat under NTSC by making these small changes:

$A009: Replace $08 $26 with $01 $19 (screen coordinates)

$B024: Replace LDA #$0C with LDA #$05 (horizontal startup)
$B029: Replace LDA #$26 with LDA #$19 (vertical startup)

The NTSC values are based on the default screen coordinates and the hack (see below). You may want to tweak these to best performance on a real NTSC machine. Yes, it will run slower and the leftmost border won't be visible, but then again few PAL VIC-20s are setup with monitors capable of displaying a such wide screen as VICE does.

Edit: Very interesting. The file that loads to block 3 ($6000) is exactly 369 bytes long, plus padding up to 4096 bytes. Then it is repeated again (at $7000), which indicates it was dumped from a 2K/4K ROM. What it does is to display the title screen at NTSC coordinates, but then makes a call into the main program at $A020 which restores screen to PAL none the less... That extra file in block 3 looks like a half finished hack which can be ignored.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:07 pm

I'm sorry to have to say this Carlsson but I think you don't understand my problem at all...

I am NOT trying to RUN Meteor Run on an NTSC VIC. What I AM saying is that the cartridge version of Meteor Run available on Zimmer's will not work properly on ANY VIC. The problem has NOTHING to do with screen size.

It is here: http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/ ... %20Run.prg

The tape version which requires a 8k expander does seem to work fine in VICE in PAL mode.

It is here:
http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/ ... %20Run.prg

As for the Zip archive containing 16k, it suffers EXACTLY the same problem as the archive on Zimmer's. The screen gradually fills with garbage. This is most obvious when you set VICE to "warp" mode.

I realized the cart version didn't work fine when a european customer asked me to put in one of my expander as a ROM option. European means PAL, not NTSC.

My conclusion remains the same. The cartridge version of Meteor is not available to the public at large right now.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:59 am

Is it just BLK5? If no one has done it by the time I get around to moving and unpacking, I'll dump my cartridge using the hardware I acquired recently. Then comes the fun part to put it together as a PRG or CRT

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:14 pm

Ah, I didn't play it long enough to detect any garbage.

It wasn't mentioned in this thread until now.

By garbage, you refer to the red stuff that jitters in place? I thought it was part of the design, to make the game more difficult. But you're right, the tape/disk version plays different, including the player ship is pointed in the other direction!

The tape/disk and cartridge versions are quite similar though (duh! it basically is the same game!) so it might be possible to either fix the cartridge dump or retro-port it back to a form runnable from ROM.

If you want REALLY buggy, try this:

1. Load the tape/disk (referred to as RAM) version.
2. Load the cartridge version (i.e. with block 5 RAM enabled).
3. Press RESTORE.

Suddently the game starts from cartridge version. The purple aliens are invisible, the red aliens are still stuck in one corner. The ship points in the same direction as the RAM version, at least until you press RESTORE and start again. The ship direction is random between right and left, and after a couple of restarts, the purple aliens begin to appear, shooting yellow mush. Once in a while, you end up with a READY prompt.. Buggy indeed, but maybe it tells us a bit how much these two versions have in common.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:58 pm

carlsson wrote:Ah, I didn't play it long enough to detect any garbage. It wasn't mentioned in this thread until now.

By garbage, you refer to the red stuff that jitters in place? I thought it was part of the design, to make the game more difficult. But you're right, the tape/disk version plays different, including the player ship is pointed in the other direction!

The tape/disk and cartridge versions are quite similar though (duh! it basically is the same game!) so it might be possible to either fix the cartridge dump or retro-port it back to a form runnable from ROM.

Mayhem said he has the original cart... I am still waiting for a dump.