Gdash

[BadDog73]

My father is sending me our old Atari 800XL, so I hope soon to record some gameplay and original sounds. If I'm able I'll upload gameplay of certain caves so that we can make some comparisons with Gdash.

Just wanted to post this as it's the reason I haven't recorded any sounds yet - I'm going to fool around with trying this, but it's possible I may have to go back to an emulator to get good sound. We'll see.

-Ben

[cirix]

Well, we did the recordings of C64 sounds in an emulator, not on a real C64 (I used VICE, and the standalone resid).

I don't know if there is any atari emulator out there, which has a good emulation of sounds. Personally I don't like the sound atari800 produces, but I don't know (!!!) if the original was like that or not. I think we can say that the resid C64 sound emulator is so good that you have to have good ears to tell it apart from a real c64 - if there is any software for the atari voices, it may be easier to use that.

[BadDog73]

Yes, it's possibly correct that the emulator sound is incorrect. I have been fooling around with the freeware "Atari800emu" emulator, and the end-of-cave sound is not what I remember from the original. Once I get the old computer, I'll be able to verify any emulator's correctness.

-Ben

[Dustin]

Hi,
I noted a new problem on my win computer. When playing a game, I get an application error nearly every time when there comes an intermission next, and Gdash is immediately closed. . Does anyone else have the same problem?

[cirix]

I noted a new problem on my win computer. When playing a game, I get an application error nearly every time when there comes an intermission next, and Gdash is immediately closed. . Does anyone else have the same problem?

How to exactly recreate? Which game, which level does it crash on? At the starting of the level, at the and, when counting bonus score, when switching level, when covering... etc.

[Dustin]

I checked the problem a bit and found out that the error is due to the reduced cave size. The error comes, for example, when I play my Rock Fort 1 game and the next level going to come is an intermission. While Gdash loads the intermission, the error comes:
"Application error- The instruction at 0*00425318 referenced memory at 0*0007004f. The memory could not be read."

The error does not come when I test the int in the editor, but only when I play the game as a whole and an int should come as next level.
The earlier versions of Gdash definitely didn't have this problem (at least not the one from 11/08, when I finished RF1).

Now I changed the size of the intermissions from 20 12 0 0 19 11 to 40 22 0 0 19 11 and the problem is gone.The classical games that also use the latter size for intermissions don't cause any problems on my PC, either.
@everyone: Do you have the same problems?

[Dustin]

I forgot to mention that the same problem occurs when I lose my last life and the Game over screen should appear. That's independant of the game, it's always the same.

[Sendy]

I checked the problem a bit and found out that the error is due to the reduced cave size. The error comes, for example, when I play my Rock Fort 1 game and the next level going to come is an intermission. While Gdash loads the intermission, the error comes:
"Application error- The instruction at 0*00425318 referenced memory at 0*0007004f. The memory could not be read."

The error does not come when I test the int in the editor, but only when I play the game as a whole and an int should come as next level.
The earlier versions of Gdash definitely didn't have this problem (at least not the one from 11/08, when I finished RF1).

Now I changed the size of the intermissions from 20 12 0 0 19 11 to 40 22 0 0 19 11 and the problem is gone.The classical games that also use the latter size for intermissions don't cause any problems on my PC, either.
@everyone: Do you have the same problems?

Actually I'm getting the same problem, upon completion of Rock Fort Cave 4, but only in Gdash, NOT in the C64-like version.

It goes to draw the next intermission and gets caught up in the burbling noise, then crashes out with no specific error message.

Maybe it's something to do with the scroll bars, or something related, which are absent in the C64-like version.

[BadDog73]

A small bug: I really like the new scrolling function, but at cave start a problem can appear. If the game is paused with the screen on the opposite side of the cave as the "start", Rockford will hatch offscreen before the scrolling catches up to him. Allowing a fast scroll at cave start - until hatch would fix it.

Thanks,
Ben

PS The original title screens are really cool: thanks!

[RTADash]

On Windows Vista, I have the Game Over screen problem, but transitioning to the Rockfort Intermissions works fine.

[BadDog73]

I've had the end-of-game crash, but not the intermission bug.

Some small feature requests from my dad:

- Keeping track of recent games could be improved. Ideally it would show the last (some number of) cavesets loaded, with the most recent at the top of the list. As it is now, nothing ever goes away, and the most recent is not at the top.

- Volume control would be nice. I have to turn down my system sound every time I boot the game to get a good sound volume.


Thanks,
Ben



Ack, one more small bug. The "set to default value" button next to "speed (ms)" in cave creator resets all boxes to "200" even though it starts out as 180,160,140,120,120.

[cirix]

hi i uploaded a new one to fix the problems, 20090113.

- cave resizing crash
- end of game crash
- new elements: replicator, conveyor belt, expanding steel walls, dragonflies, dirt ball, loose dirt
- sendydash 3 cave 2 amoeba bug fixed
- mega stone - nitro conversion by magic wall
- recent chooser max 10 & sorted by most recently used

by

[RTADash]

When I go to add a different theme, it says that it must be 8 cells across and 46 down, but the provided C64 gfx.png and my altered one are both only 45 cells down. Is something missing?

[cirix]

oops sorry, updated. (also updated the boulder rush theme.)

[RTADash]

that's better, but now my image file doesn't have an alpha channel. It had one before.