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Vectorblade_b47_normal.bin – 25th April 2020
Vectorblade_b47_stack2larger.bin – 25th April 2020
Vectorblade_b47_stack2smaller_danger.bin – 25th April 2020 (for Peer experiments!)
and the same as VecFever variants:
Vectorblade_b47_normal.V4E – 25th April 2020
Vectorblade_b47_stack2larger.V4E – 25th April 2020
Vectorblade_b47_stack2smaller_danger.V4E – 25th April 2020 (for Peer experiments!)
Preferable the “normal” one should work.
If have not found THE bug yet. But changed many things… so your are all welcome to try again.
If “normal” crashes – please try the stack2larger variant (although I can’t imagine why it should work better).I haven’t had a crash in a long time – but that doesn’t mean much.
Due to time constraints and an upcoming holiday, I could not really “finalize” this version – but I hope it will be all right.
Following changes (in my own strange notation) have been implemented (and partially removed).
; done: Wheel spin adjusted for hardcore, added "TIME" / "SCORE" instead of "LOCK" / "LIVES" ; done: adjustment to mothership for hardcore ; done: bonus drop adjustment for hardwcore (no cash, no cashbomb) ; done: after game over sequence, bonus structure was not initialized, due to reuse by black hole, this could cause a crash! ; done: free 3 bytes of RAM ; done: EXTRA letter to "short" ; done: shots were not correctly initialized for boss fight - dangerous! ; done: multi shots with swarm boss were not behaving... ; done: perhaps Biggies can be hit by scoopies AND main - default is only ONE shot hits... ; done: can a scoopy on the utter right side hit by a shot on the utter left side??? (yes, could happen!) ; done: difficulty inscription in pause == in option! ; done: pause text a little bit further left (so high officer ranks are more fully displayed) ; done: Very high timer values - get not "translated" correctly to ascii? (> 655 $7fff...) ; done: demo not working? No Not working! (if statement was not working as intended) ; done: Level 75 pattern moved down ; done: shop moved down ; done: bug "range" moved down ; done: moved HS and EXTRA down to the side ; done: Moved saucer and mothership ; done: shop is unscalable ; done: desktop scale corrected ; done: calibration scale corrected ; done: if screen is smaller - than desktop icons are not correvtly placed! - shop dito ; done: gameover reinitiates $80 gamescale? ; done: to add "size" value to size calibration, and limits, also allow grow ; done: hardcore mode -> no shop? No cash ; done: star wars boss further down ; done: highscore skill replace ; done: Secrets->no secrets found yet message ; done: laser rank missing ( achievment list) ; done: keeping, is cool! scoopyshield activated -> also for scoopy caught aftwer??? -> wrong! ; done: officer rank OOB -> message, no free positions to next rank! ; done: achievements title -> lower (overlay) ; done: help for mode missing ; done: ? or bug Saucer can NOT drop rank? could happen if xPos == 0 ; done: biggy could not drop rank: can still happen if 2 biggies are destroyed in the same round -> only 1 bonus spawn possible per round! ; done: super diamonds - small diamonds look "crooked!? ; done: CRANKY STUFF - VecFever test ; done: Spin the wheel success message out of bounds! (secret)only non vecfever? or only faulty vectrex? ; done: Desfription of Achievements still name "old" level modes! ; done: in shop playerMaxShotInAir can reach "B" on a real vectrex ; this is due to starting with 10 bullets in test, and the NMI restriction to only have 8 ; done: yes can ...warp failur on hard -> can not kill enemies? ; done: Boss test -> whole game! ; done for cranky VIA: ; done: minestorm diamonds look bad ; done: final boss explosion looks bad ; done: superbomb looks bad ; (new calibration "size" not done for crabky via!) ; done: calibration: box around the BUZZ no BUzz - in emulator also ; done: Pause mode - Pause first line not shown - not in emulator ; done: in game, left right not working (only when button pressed!) - not in emulator ; done: in between levels not working at all - not in emulator ; done: in shop total money not in correct place ; done: up and down in calibration not working ; done: after minestorm crash - enemies can not be hit anymore? - Shots not "created anymore?) ; done: in minestorm not at all working ; done: in minestorm asteroids not shown- in emulator also
Chris
Hi guys!
Lots of very interesting stuff happened here lately! Between COVID and real life problems, I have to run to catch up with the latest news.
About voting…
I have to 100% agree with @Peer. “Major” is a very nice game characterized by some unique gameplay back in the day, combining both adventure and shooting features and you, Chistopher,you’ve done a terrific job on it… but better to go for a standalone release. I love Vectorblade the way it is, as a pure 100% old school shooter.
..and again…Excellent work so far Chris!
@Chris
In the VecFever (MKII) whatever the beta 47 version I get the message: “Flash Not Found – Default Options used -saving disabled”.
is it normal?
Ah shit …
yes – to much hectic to day.
It’ll work but not save anything.
I forgot to switch the VecFever flag. This is actually the Flash version. It runs – but does not persist anything…
Sorry – can’t change it now, I’m on my way already…
Chris
I hate you!
😏
Any more information?
Did you have scoopies? Picking up something?
As said … I didn’t have a crash in a long time…
well – anyway … vectorblade is on hold for a week now…
@Chris: i am so sorry to get a crash. Honestly it was a total surprise; i had the triple shot, no scoopies; the ship moved from the left to the right side of the screen. There were bonuses to pick up but i do not remember to pick up one of them when the crash occured.
This crash appeared quickly. So i will play again and again to measures precisely its frequency and the conditions of the occurence. I will let you know all the informations i can get.
I am going to test intensely the stack2larger variant too: if there is a difference we have to investigate why..
What I would like to know:
How exactly does the crash manifest? Sudden blank screen? Weird drawings and flashes? Sound garbled, or cut off?
Also, how long has your console been operating until the crash occurred? Not how far you got into the game, but how long since you switched the console on and started playing the first game? Switching off between games just for a few seconds doesn’t count.
Sorry can’t explain, no time right now.
@GeoAnas: Great to see you again! Sorry for the long silence. Played around with the great C64 stuff you sent me, but never got around to dig deeper into it so far, unfortunately. Always life, the universe and everything interfering…Cheers to you all,
PeerThe symptoms of the crash are always the same: a sudden black screen and a continuous sound (it seems the symptoms are exactly the same for Chris). There is nothing to do, i have to switch off the Vectrex.
i never got a crash like this one whatever the game i played (classic or modern Vectrex games). Only with Vectorblade. I do not know if it can explain something but the square for the calibration is not perfectly centered on my Vectrex (but slightly shifted to the right side of the screen). The console was switched “on” about 15-20 minutes until the crash occured.
I do not know if it is a begining of explanation but i found something tonight: i got 2 more crashes (easy mode – stack2larger version on VF) ; to get them i needed to have the speed and the bullets at their max level. Then using the double shots (pushing constantly the button 4) and moving widely the ship from the left to the right and from the right to the left without interruption i got the crashes. Another point i calibrated the square over the limits of the screen.
Oops! Mine just crashed too. I am using “Vectorblade_b47_normal.bin ” on a “buzz” machine together with Malban’s special test cart. Crash happened during demo, right after “Kamikaze” demoing level. Symptoms are black screen and garbled noise on background.
A black screen with a continuous sound (same frequency, no modulation) could be a hint so an unintended endless loop (no update of the sound routine, no screen update). If, for example, the sync-to-50Hz-mechnism (waiting for timer-2 to expire) for some reason would not receive the information that the timer-2 counter has counted down to zero, then such a thing would happen. I was chasing down this road, but I just cannot see how this specific timer-2 scenario could ever be possible due to some VB software bug???
@GeoAnas: Just for the sake of completeness, how long has your console been up until the crash? Another very unlikely theory is some thermal effect in a VIA latch, causing the latch not to update anymore. But having experienced crashes on four different console makes such a hardware-issue even more unlikely than very unlikely…I understand. I had just switched it on. Vectrex was still cool (5 to 10 min max). Crash is exactly like you said, an unintended endless loop.
While screen remains black, a hiss, garbled sound keeps playing with some flashy graphics instantly appear and vanish over and over like being in a loop…
@GeoAnas: Great, thanks! With flashy graphics appearing it is definitely not an endless wait-for-timer2-loop. A loop yes, but we can rule of the timer-2 thing. Which is at least one more insight.
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