Omega Fury

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:51 am

Cool, nice to see it getting some use!
(How do you fire?)

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:28 am

The numeric pad "0" is JarVIC's FIRE button. I guess the better answer would be to include that tidbit on it's web page, eh?

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:33 pm

The recent optimization to the VIC Software Sprite Stack allowed me to enhance the graphics and animation. Warp in signature change; enemy ships now round the corners; when hit, they may cruise just a bit faster to change the pace; and the AI to pelt the center objective is a bit more just.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:15 am

I've noticed a problem (at least in Vice PAL/NTSC +32K with both 1.22 and 2.1.16 beta versions).

Sometimes when you push the fire button or hit F1 from the title screen to start the game it crashes, emulation bug ?

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:59 pm

Odd, I ran into the same issue on occasion. I may have screwed up my project source, or posted a corrupt binary. Nonetheless, after some minor code cleanups today, I cannot reproduce the new game startup crash.

I re-posted the PRG and ZIP archive again. If anyone runs into this new game startup crash, please PM me. Thanks.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:34 pm

--=) Trick or Treat (=--

I re-posted the game source and binaries -again- and can not reproduce the inconsistent game start crash bug (I believe it may have been a buffer overflow issue).

Other potentially good news: I believe I found a tiny flaw in the fast-flip logic within the core software sprite -- unlike Quikman, Omega Fury needs this deterministic feature to keep its speed up. Well, after a few 'watch memory' sessions within M.E.S.S., looks like it was being TOO pessimistic -- the result was that a lot of unnecessary frames were getting dropped. With a fix in place, I believe this version now strikes a fairly good representation of booth smooth play and game speed.

Please give it another whirl, if you like a space-shooter, I think you might find this rendition much improved.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:43 pm

rhurst wrote: --=) Trick or Treat (=--

Here are the candies.

I just watched 'Nightmare before Christmas' on Blu-Ray.

I re-posted the game source and binaries -again- and can not reproduce the inconsistent game start crash bug (I believe it may have been a buffer overflow issue).

In yesterdays version, I hammered at f1 in the intro screen to look whether the bug would show up - which didn't - but I ended up in the easter egg ... thanks for this.

Cheers,

Michael

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:43 am

Thank you, Mike, for your testing and feedback over the past year.

BTW, I was still able to get the game to abort, so I re-sequenced events and stress-tested:

After the fly-by, you can hit any Function-key or press FIRE (takes as F1). At any time, you can hit the STOP button to reset the game. So, I was hitting STOP, waiting for fly-by, hitting a random Function key, game starts, press STOP to reset, waiting for fly-by ... zzz ... zzz ... no aborts in dozens of tries now.

Anyways, for those interested in this 'fix', the binary and source are posted again. I took the time to re-animate the entire death / game over sequence, too. I think it's fun. Thanks and enjoy!

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:01 pm

DOH! I think I figured out the "random" startup crash -- it looks like it could be coming from this block of code to generate a bunch of random numbers (0-99) at the start of each level:

Code: Select all

		JSR $E094		; rnd: perform BASIC RND
		JSR $DAE2		; mul10: Multiply FAC#1 by 10
		JSR $DAE2		; mul10: Multiply FAC#1 by 10
		JSR $D1AA		; facinx: FAC#1 to Integer in (AC/YR)

... with the REAL culprit of this is probably from the initial seed value which causes the above code block to stop with a BASIC "OVERFLOW ERROR". This RANDOMIZE routine only gets called once at the start of a new game, otherwise I suspect this could fail in-between game levels, and that has not occurred to me yet:

Code: Select all

;*********************************************************************
; Seed the random number generator
;
RANDOM = $033C
RNDSEED = $8B			; BASIC RND seed value
RSEED = $92
RANDOMIZE:
		LDA #$00
		STA RSEED
		LDA $9124
		STA RNDSEED
		LDA $9125
		STA RNDSEED+1
		LDA $9004
		STA RNDSEED+2
		LDA $9003
		STA RNDSEED+3
		RTS

Anyone got a better way to legitimately provide BASIC with a starting seed value (or at least normalize the seed with a valid number)?

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:12 pm

Ok, after disassembling BASIC ROM to discover the REAL entry point for mov2f -- my soft copy of VIC 20 Programmer's Reference Guide says it is at $DBC7 when it is at $DBD7, I came up with this simpler randomize routine:

Code: Select all

;*********************************************************************
; Seed the random number generator
;
RANDOM = $033C
RNDSEED = $8B			; BASIC RND seed value
RSEED = $92
RANDOMIZE:
		LDA #$00
		STA RSEED
		LDA $9124
		LDY $9125
		JSR $D391		; givayf: Convert Integer in (AC/YR) to Flpt
		LDX #$8B
		LDY #$00
		JSR $DBD7		; mov2f: Store FAC#1 in Memory
		RTS

After a few restarts and tests, it seems sufficiently randomized to me. And more importantly, no OVERFLOW ERROR encountered (yet).

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:33 am

Last 1st November version (Halloween version ?) works just fine for me.

I was able to execute the easter eggs too

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 7:36 pm

Yeah, November 1st is the last version. I'm glad it finally feels like it is done. I believe there may be two very obscure bugs, not catastrophic, and probably not worth the time to hunt down. At least for the next 24 years ...

I find it curiously interesting that Quikman (yet another Pac-Man clone) got such an outpouring of attention, downloads, etc., whereas I posted this link to this final update to a few retro sites, and Omega Fury got maybe 10 downloads for the week. I would have thought that a sequel to Omega Race, a favorite among many VIC 20 users, might have attracted a larger audience. Funny how that works.

As I read this, I certainly don't want this post to come off in a negative light and leave the wrong impression. I am personally gratified with producing a quality space-shooter for a primitive machine. Another young man's dream come true... always imagined it could be possible, now it is a reality, and I have proven to myself that is possible. And it was nice to get a respected name in retro-gaming emulation to post his comment:

Just played a couple of stages. Very, very cool. Great classic feeling and the gameplay is tuned perfectly IMO. A true 6502 tour de force.
- R. Belmont

It's been fun, getting ideas and inputs from a variety of VIC enthusiasts, and personally rewarding, particularly with Quikman getting integrated with a great catalog of games for a terrific electronics project in Mega-Cart.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:01 am

Good Job Robert !

Time for a new project, Vic Le Mans ?

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:39 am

nbla000 wrote:Time for a new project, Vic Le Mans ?

You are the eternal lobbyist!

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:57 am

I know that there is much more interest in Quikman than Omega Fury. I think that's more to do with historical interest than a slur on OF. When you first started posting about Quikman you furnished us with a decades long history of the game and that nostalgia factor goes a long way in a community full of old gits stuck in the 1980's!! Also, the fact that it's an incredibly refined build of a classic arcade game helps.

.

I have to say, though, that as much as I enjoy Quikman I genuinely believe Omega Fury to be one of the best games ever produced for the Vic. It is slick and sophisticated and feels like a real leap forward in the development of games (along with ROQ) on the mighty Vic.

I love this game and I don't mean in that "It's a great game for an old 8 bit relic" kind of way. I mean that this game is a great play regardless of platform.

Thankyou.