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Post by Malban on Nov 6, 2019 19:11:45 GMT -5
Hi,
as mentioned in the VectorWar IX, I became quite a fan of Berzerk. Therefor (and because of the wonderfull disassambly of Fred Taft) - I am trying to create an "ultimate" version.
Below you can find the first alpha.
Things done so far: - bonus display bug fixed - shoot thru wall bug fixed - to many shots bug fixed (shots now limited to 32, but more was probably never reached)
- displayes most of the time in 50Hz - no "prisoners" anymore - no "double" draw walls
In order to do the above I did:
- Incorporate all known changes done in Berzerk II and Berzerk debugged.
- added functions, that examine the labyrinth for prisons/double draws, and changed the labyrinth when that happened - shots are internally not an "ever growing" array (including dead shots) anymore, instead a linked list of "active" shots - display of the robots changed to smartlist, before each robot was drawn with 7 (seven!!!) seperate vectorlists, which formed all animation steps, only 8 different "complete" lists are needed for all animations - changed the shot handling. Before shots with a speed of say 5, increased position information 5 times per round (with 1), and 5 times all checkings (hit wall, hit player, hit robot) were done, this was immensely time consuming. The new detection functions handle all high speed detections in one go - seperated the "scroll" display from the static display (scrolling of the labyrinth) - and probably some other changes.
Let me say one other thing.
The programming of Berzerk results in many places in not being very fast. But doing Berzerk in only 4kB was amazing. Very clever (size) optimizations were done. I am very gratefull to Fred Taft for the disassembly, without him, I probably would have given up understanding the code.
Further on my todo list: - more optimizations (speed, I don't care for size, these days) - high score saving - speach support
- more game modes?
Cheers
Malban
PS With each finished level, the oponents shot speed is increased by one. If one plays about 15 levels, the shot is so fast, that you can not escape anymore... Should that be changed?
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Post by limitzer0 on Nov 6, 2019 19:56:06 GMT -5
I'm not familiar with the arcade version but I wish shots were more avoidable in later levels. Especially when entering a new area.
A game mode with robotron controls could be fun. Run and gun with 2 controllers.
Thanks for doing this. Debugged left a little to be desired for me as well.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 6, 2019 20:05:09 GMT -5
I'm not familiar with the arcade version but I wish shots were more avoidable in later levels. Especially when entering a new area. Only for about a split second and that's about it. Robots start shooting right after that. You really owe it to yourself to try out the original on MAME. You're missing out on the change of colors in the robots, indicating their difficulty level increased. Also, the "intruder alert!" from Otto emerging was amazing from back then, being one, if not the very first video game to have voice synthesis. Otto also didn't make a silly sound when he bounced, making him more sinister that way. |
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Post by limitzer0 on Nov 6, 2019 22:58:53 GMT -5
You really owe it to yourself to try out the original on MAME. You're missing out on the change of colors in the robots, indicating their difficulty level increased. Also, the "intruder alert!" from Otto emerging was amazing from back then, being one, if not the very first video game to have voice synthesis. Otto also didn't make a silly sound when he bounced, making him more sinister that way. I have played it before just not at any length. I have a MAME cab so I'll play it a bit this weekend. Maybe the sound should be removed to be more like the arcade? |
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Post by VectorX on Nov 6, 2019 23:16:26 GMT -5
Good point  I've never liked that. It's up to Malban though. |
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Post by Malban on Nov 7, 2019 8:56:17 GMT -5
Changes mainly, that like in the "real" Berzerk, Robot shots can now be shot by player shots.
Also a max robot shot speed of 7.
Starting adding VecFever and DS2431 for saving, but not finished - and I am burned out for today, so I leave it for now :-).
Malban
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Post by D-Type on Nov 7, 2019 12:21:15 GMT -5
Sounds great, I'm looking forward to playing it!
How about a horizontal mode, the diagonal movement and shooting sucks a bit?
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 7, 2019 12:41:18 GMT -5
In order to do the above I did: - Incorporate all known changes done in Berzerk II and Berzerk debugged.
Speaking of Berzerk II, I played Frenzy for the first time recently and was stunned by all the added variables. I played briefly during a marathon arcade visit so didn't spend much time or figure it out, but seeing how dynamic it was, (and knowing how popular Berzerk is), I was surprised to not know of any ports to consoles. But I don't know what Berzerk II is for Vectrex. There's also Verzerk. |
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Post by VectorX on Nov 7, 2019 14:30:44 GMT -5
^Yeah, it was just officially ported to the ColecoVision and I think as a homebrew for the Atari 7800.
I'm still surprised to this day what a bomb Frenzy was originally. I only saw it at one arcade ever.
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Post by D-Type on Nov 7, 2019 17:09:59 GMT -5
I played UA1 tonight, back to back with the original. With respect to UA1:
+
Plays faster from the start, especially when you enter a new maze, robots seem to be more active immediately
No slowdown/smoother gameplay, even when lots of Robots
No full screen wobble like the original
I never got shot through a wall :-)
-
Lines of the maze don't connect as cleanly as the original and the vector end points are brighter
Robots are now a little too bright
Fire button seems less responsive (but could just be my imagination)
Overall, it definitely feels slicker - good upgrade!
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Post by Malban on Nov 7, 2019 19:29:06 GMT -5
Thx for the feedback Phillip - I'll look into the things you mentioned.
Fire/Button ... was not changed at all...
Cheers
Malban
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Post by limitzer0 on Nov 8, 2019 0:17:01 GMT -5
It doesn't work on my VecMulti. It just has a blank screen. It is not that first game I've had issues with. In these instances is it due to the VecMulti using RAM and not clearing it before a game starts?
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Post by VECTREXER on Nov 8, 2019 4:43:48 GMT -5
It doesn't work on my VecMulti. It just has a blank screen. It is not that first game I've had issues with. In these instances is it due to the VecMulti using RAM and not clearing it before a game starts? On the VecMulti micro SD Card, does ROM Patcher utility in the as used on the file clear the issue for you? /Utils/ROM_patcher.exe Note from the ReadMe.txt file: ROM_patcher.exe - tool for fixing games which conflict with the menu |
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Post by limitzer0 on Nov 8, 2019 10:20:21 GMT -5
On the VecMulti micro SD Card, does ROM Patcher utility in the as used on the file clear the issue for you? /Utils/ROM_patcher.exe Note from the ReadMe.txt file: ROM_patcher.exe - tool for fixing games which conflict with the menu Dang! I forgot about the patcher. I'll try it later. |
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Post by Malban on Nov 8, 2019 11:54:18 GMT -5
Hi, just uploaded alpha 3.
This one should probably also work with VecFlash/Multi.
Small changes only: - color (intensity) of robots - robots vectorlist updated, to look more like the original - labyrinth 'may' be drawn more exact
- marginal speed increas - robots now fire not only when DIRECTLY on line with player, but also when only "nearly" in line
(they a) get more firepower, b) not all shots can directly be countered by player shots)
That is also more "arcade" like
- no changes regarding speech and highscore saving yet.
If there are more than ~10 shots on the screen, we hit again the 50Hz barrier. Dunno if I can optimize more though.
I think the game is getting more difficult - but "fair" difficult!
Cheers Malban
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I've never liked that. It's up to Malban though.
