Downloadable Vectorblade versions

[Malban]

I just finished a test game with cartridge number #31 -and I discovered a bug!

Cartridges 1-31 will be version 1.00 and anything forward (till the next fix) will be 1.01.
The bug is soooo small, that I will not change the already finished versions. I will explain:

After playing the game “thru” 1 time (mode easy) after the first 100 levels, you get the achievement Blademaster 5.

Clearing the first 100 levels also rewards the player with “Immunity  1”, that is immunity to be downgraded by a “shot 1” bonus drop.

The second time “thru” (mode normal) – or after 200 levels, gives you “Immunity 2”, that is immunity to be downgraded by a “shot 2” bonus drop.

There is ONE other way to gain “Immunity 2” – when you collect EXTRA in the correct order, spin the wheel and “hit” the immunity field. That field grants you immediately “Immunity 1” and “Immunity 2”.

The BUG I just found is the following:

• get immunity 1+2 thru the wheel, within the first 100 levels
• finishing easy than gives you “Immunity 1” (only!) and thus downgrading the already “collected” immunity to “Immunity 1” (and resets the “Immunity 2”)

That should not happen!

Nonetheless – I deem the “bug” so “non important” that it will be fixed, but I will – as said – not exchange versions in already build cards.

Cheers

Chris

 

[hcmffm]

Hello Chris,

thank you for your detailed bug report. This is indeed a very minor bug and I much doubt that more than a handful people will ever experience it. I even think that you should stick to VB v1.00 for all other copies #32-#100. Otherwise, 31 players might have a small disadvantage when playing Vectorblade in a tournament like the Vector War. 😉

Just my 2 cents…

Best regards,

Helmut

[Peer]

I even think that you should stick to VB v1.00 for all other copies #32-#100.

Na, collector’s value! Think of it this way: Of the 100 lucky Vectorblade owners, only a minority of 31 even luckier guys will have the rare and special v1.00 version, while the others just get the ordinary bugfree (fingers crossed!) v1.01 version.

Every true Vectrex game must hide at least one infamous bug! A good developer’s choice is level 13, but why not after a couple of hundred levels? 😉

… players might have a small disadvantage when playing Vectorblade in a tournament like the Vector War…

Hehe, in last year’s Vector War, Vec-Man was flamed for being a long-run game. I am looking forward to seeing the Vectorblade marathons 🙂

Cheers,
Peer

[Malban]

I don’t think Vectorblade can be played “endlessly”.

With the last adjustments to difficulty I have not been able to play past about 280 levels. It’s not impossible – but you have to “learn” the new boss behaviour, and this takes time (or you can use the save game feature).

I doubt that any “sane” player will notice the difference between 1.00 and 1.01.
Besides, the version string is not displayed – its only “visible” when doing a hex dump :-).

So if you want to know – you must either hexdump or recreate the “bug” situation – good luck!

(If I remember right, Helmut has not finished easy yet?)

Cheers

Chris

PS
Besides that – what would the criteria be after which a Vectorblade highscore in Vector War would be judged.

Played levels?
Reached high score?

Scores up to a certain point might be “random”.

E.g. If you get a “Diamond storm” in the first level – and collect a times 5 in the level after and finish with it.
Than the following “Diamond” bonus will be multiplied by 5 – so at the beginning of level 3, you can already have 500000 points.
Or you can play 50 levels and not reach 500000…

It “evens out” after a certain time.. so when you start having 2-3 million points… that surely is a sign you played well… but immensly good luck can earn you a good score very early on :-).

Cheers

Chris

[Malban]

Nico, George…

I still need your addresses.

Please answer via eMail – otherwise I must assume you are not interested in Vectorblade anymore.

Thx

Chris

[Peer]

Honestly, I am really looking forward to seeing people play Vectorblade!

I don’t think Vectorblade can be played “endlessly”.

Sorry, if that might have come across the wrong way. I certainly do not think that Vectorblade can be played endlessly. On the contrary. I think that the difficulty and the ramping up of the difficulty by now are really well designed, and that the game poses a true challenge to any player, regardless of how skilled they are.

I am always in awe when you guys write about how many hundreds of levels and how many hours you played. I am still having trouble at many stages of the game. So when I used the term marathon I was more trying to be a bit ironic. Meaning: I strongly believe that neither the sane nor the insane players will ever stumble across this bug.

So if you want to know – you must either hexdump or recreate the “bug” situation – good luck!

Haha, if it wasn’t for the labelling of the cartridges, that would make it even more mysterious. Just knowing that there are 31 special cartridges among the 100, but not knowing which ones…

Cheers,
Peer

PS:

I don’t think Vectorblade can be played “endlessly”.

Take an educated guess about Vec-Man… 😉

[nic_lobo]

Hi Christopher,

I’d really love to get a physical copy 🙂 Already sent a mail on 6.8.2020.

will send another mail

Cheers

[nic_lobo]

please let me know if you got my email

[Malban]

For your info:

Vectorblade order information

Also – I have as of now 201 “orders”.
Regards

Chris

PS

Today I sent your copies of VB!
(George, I didn’t send yours, since I await address confirmation… but the time runs out!)

 

[Malban]

Discovered another bug.

No crash, but it can influence scoring significantly. But it is nearly as “obscure” as the last found bug.

This time I won’t tell what it is, since it is exploitable…

So…. the PD version will be at least V1.02.

[Peer]

Today I sent your copies of VB!

What a thing of beauty!!! Yesterday, I returned from my trip to Munich and finally opened your packet which my neighbours had kept meanwhile. In reality, the whole box, cartridge, overlay and diary look even better than on the pictures you posted.

Many thanks for this, and for letting me be a part in this endeavor!

I am surely going to miss the updates and discussions we all had here…

Hope you are all well and safe! Have a great time!

I am off now, playing…

🙂

[Malban]

For your information.

A new bug was discovered, that can lead to Vectorblade crashing!
It is not catastrophic, but I certainly would have prefered it not to have happened.

The “Star Wars” boss – CRASHES (always) if the scale of the game is less than 128 (positive).

For some reason or another, in the pretty old boss 4 code, I made a hard reference to the scale and I check it for being positive or negative. If positive – it “endless loops” and overwrites the STACK.

I will fix this bug, but I am not certain how to handle all shiped vectorblades.
I actually THINK a warning not to set the scale to a value smaller than 128 should suffice.

Regards

Chris

[Malban]

I have updated Vectorblade to V1.07.

Following changes for v1.07 have been implemented:
(The button layout is not open for discussion!)

; DB “VERSION 1.07”
; fixed: player dead and level clear at the same time, leads to endless loop

; fixed: a small bug in secret display, if an achievement in the same byte had been gotten
; but no secret yet, a “no secret yet” message was not displayed!

; changed: each level allows now at least ONE attack pattern
; this way it is not possible to completely ignore enemies in mode easy,
; when positioned “correctly”

; added: additional “INPUT” option, hidden (due to not having any space left
; in the config menu go to the top, going pushing up, than “toggles” the input method
; toggle between joystick (default, not changed) and buttons, button mapping as follows
; button in title:
; 1 Start game
; 2 options
; 3 high score
; 4 achievement
; help not available
;
; button minestorm
; 1 throttle speed
; 4 increase speed
; button 2/3 x movements
; no help available
;
; button highscore edit
; 1 keep initial
; 4 shoot
; button 2/3 letter scrolling
; no help available
;
; button highscore shown
; 1 help
; 2 switch mode
; 4 exit
;
; button achievments
; 1 help
; 2/3 scroll
; 4 exit
;
; button config
; 1 help
; 2/3 scroll up/down
; 4 execute
; you can not do horizontal settings (level edit)
;
; scroll to the top/top – to toggle input method (not visible)
;
; buttons in game
; button 1 super bomb
; button 2/3 x movement
; button 4 shot
; all 4 buttons pressed = pause
;
; buttons in pause
; button 1 help
; button 2/3 y movement
; button 4 exit

If you have time and are willing you can give this one a try.

The changes have been larger than anticipated:
These parts of the sources had to be touched:

; done config up down not workin
; done drunk mode not working
; done crash in demo level 95 -> main1 was over the 7ff0 range, UFO crashed in draw!
; done pause not good on left/right
; done achievement display “tick is wrongly placed”
; done fire button unrespronsive
; done switch on / off
; done level 24/94
; done pause
; done High Score entry
; done Minestorm
; done demo mode “remap”
; done high score buttons
; done Achievements
; done desktop
; done Shop
; done game

Also I had memory problems, so additionally I had to change/optimize some stuff.

I played it with the VecFever and from Flash, both with buttons and joystick, I think it is ok. But experience tells us never to be sure…

The sources and the binaries can now be publically found on github:

https://github.com/malbanGit/Vectorblade

VecFever: https://github.com/malbanGit/Vectorblade/blob/master/VectorbladeV1.07.V4E

Flash: https://github.com/malbanGit/Vectorblade/blob/master/VectorbladeV1.07.bin

Thx

Malban

PS Feedback, if there is any, either as a ticket with GitHub or via eMail.

 

 

 

 

 

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