Malban
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FYI
I am starting a “builder” page…
It is still unfinished… but I’ll work on it on/off the next days..Cheers Chris
I know David – he also sells Release/Karl Quappe – I have been in contact with him before.
He is welcome to sell Vectorblade – after all, it will be public domain, and everybody can do with it what ever they want.
However – I guess he is not “SOO” interested, since Vectorblade needs a different PCB than the standard games, and as of now he usually uses standard PCBs.Also – the 100 copies I am talking about are more or less finished and I will not hand them over … so … the “initial release” is still on :-).
Another of those questions:
Following I’d like to post on my blog.
More or less what VTK suggested.Any thoughts on that?
I have been pondering on how to sell Vectorblade. Since I limited myself to 100 copies (+ a few spare ones) it just may happen, that not everyone who wants to buy a copy can get a copy.
Some games do not sell well, even if only a few are made available (sadly some of “Der Luchs” games come to mind).
Some other games sell hundreds of copys (Kristof Tuts games e.g.).
My personal expectation actually is, that I could sell more than 100, but as explained many times before – I am not willing to produce more.
I WILL however place everything I did for Vectorblade into the public domain like:
– the artwork of Jacek Selanski (unless he changed his mind)
(box art/overlay)
– instructions/diary
– source code and binaries (for flash PCBs and VecFever)
– Vide project and vectorlists
– EAGLE / gerber files / bom to produce the PCBs
– music and sound pieces done by VTK
– detailed instructions for building everythingSooo – even if you miss out on a copy of Vectorblade from me, you can do your own – or perhaps somebody else will.
Order procedure:
a) write to vide AT malban DOT de, that you would like to buy a copy
b) provide a valid email address
c) provide a “pseudonym” / “alias”
(the alias might be used publically to list who is interested)
d) orders are “open” till August 31 (end of day, Berlin Time)
e) if I don’t get 100 orders, I might “open” for longer
f) if I get more than 100 orders, I will randomly select the people who will receive a copy
g) there are a couple of friends/acquaintances who will receive copies non randomly (about 10-20)
h) every one will receive only one copy max (unless you trick me convincingly)
i) cost: 80€ per copy + whatever postage fee to deliver the game to your country/address
j) after closing the order window, I will write to the recipience an email about the actual costs (including postage)
k) payment will be done via paypal (or if you live near Düsseldorf cash), preferably family/friends (if you don’t trust me – don’t order)
l) once I receive payment, I will send the game within a couple of days
m) I have all materials here beside me, Vectorblade has gone “gold” this week, final testing is being done, if everything goes right I will have 100 complete boxed and finished games next to me within a week!
(I actually only have to flash the proms with the last version and place them on the pcb)
Chris
Save games between different versions can crash.
If this is the only circumstance – I am not worried.
Reason for this is… even if the slightest changes happen to the binary – ROM addresses change. Since I work with pointers to ROM location in RAM, the pointers are nearly NEVER compatible between different versions -> and thus crash.
You can only experience this kind of behavior with VecFever versions, because only in VecFever you “keep” ave games between versions.
Vectorblade_Gold_01.bin – 4th August 2020
and VecFever version:
Vectorblade_Gold_01.V4E – 4th August 2020Latest changes:
The music stuff mentioned above…Otherwise identical to RC6.
I intend to build final cartridges this weekend (unless bugs show up).
From now on bugfixes only. But I honestly hope there are none left :-).
VTK
; hey im right in the middle of moving house at the moment so everything packed away in boxes etc, but just wanted
; to mention that when i tried the previous beta of VB, i noticed when i got a high score, the high score music started
; playing as expected, but then on entry of the high score and then when you are then shown the entire high score table,
; i notice the high score music stopped and it started playing the title music again instead, even though it was still on
; the high score table screen waiting until a fire button press to go to the title menu. this didnt seem right to me, it
; seems to be more expected/common that the high score music should keep playing after entering the name/initials, and then
; the title music should only start playing when we are actually back to the title screenThis is a VecFever “only” thing on the cartridge version, the music just continues.
The memory layout for saving is different in VecFever and the music buffer gets destroyed.To circumvent, I reinitialize the music after I save the highscore – BUT I did initialize it with the wrong music :-).
I fixed that… The highscore music starts all over – but at least it is the highscore music…Cheers
Chris
Bug(?): Shots of the bugs
I don’t remember which level it was, but it was the first level with two bugs shooting straight down three fast bullets. The two bugs appeared on the very right and then they started to shoot. The fast shots went straight down but to my surprise three bullets were on the right, were the two bugs resided while one bullet was in the middle of the screen. Nexts shots looked alright to me. I’m not 100% sure but to me it looked like a minor bug with the shots of bugs.Theoretically this can not happen. (Level 15 by the way)
I played those levels, debugged, entered different positions to shots etc. The code does not allow the shots to appear anywhere else but “near” the bugs.
The only explaination I have – might be the following (happened to me before)…
There was one enemy left from the “normal” aliens. Shots were still flying up and you killed it just as it entered from above (more or less unnoticed). That alien was able to shoot one last desperate shot at you – which happened to be in the middle.
Might that have been the case?
If not – this one is a very strange bug indeed… and I wouldn’t know where to look further… 🙁
Calibration: Rectangle/screen size
When calibrating there is one calibration page to set the total screen size using a rectangle. I’ve reduced the size of the rectangle a bit. When playing, there were some bonuses that I couldn’t catch because they were positioned too much to the right. My assumption was that if calibration is properly that you could catch any bonuses and malus but perhaps my expectations was wrong. So either a minor issue of the calibration or perhaps this is a feature.Sorry in this case a wrong assumption :-O. See instruction manual:
BUT – everything that is catchable – will always be catchable – it might just be that “positions” are off. But beware, also during normal gameplay objects (bonus) far left/right might not be catchable. This is because the fighter can NOT move to the far right/left. (there are technical reasons for that – mainly – this space is the reserve buffer to be able to print the scoopies next to the fighter in all cases, without them being wrapped around)
Calibration: Numbers
We beta testers do the calibration quite often. It might be helpful if each calibration would display a calibration value so you could write down the values once and set them next time without looking too at the graphics at all. Most likely this is an issue for beta testers, only – normal players won’t notice.Hehe – nope, won’t add that. At one time I had something similar to it – but removed it, because the “numbers” are nearly meaningless, especially if you have more than one Vectrex. And you are right… the testing is nearly over… (hopefully)
Calibration: Default values
Currently, all defaults of the calibration are wrong. This might be on purpose but I’d find it useful if calibration values would be o.k. on standard machines. Question is what a standard machine is and behaves like. If calibration values were displayed (see above) we beta testers might exchange our values and find a better default perhaps. Again: This is a really minor issue.Yes, all numbers are wrong. But there is no way to get “sensible” defaults – I tried using my vectri.
The values are totally unpredictable and vary greatly from vectrex to vectrex, especially between buzz/noBuzz systems.Some numbers are slightly positive, some large positives, some negative etc.
To chose one default number might be the worst possibly scenario for the next one – so I would worsen it for others.
The default start value is “0” (zero) – and we go from there positive or negative…Cheers Chris
Vectorblade_RC6.bin – 3rd August 2020
and VecFever version:
Vectorblade_RC6.V4E – 3rd August 2020Latest changes:
done:
Something odd that I noticed: Trophees “Greedy” and “Officer Rank 4” weren’t assigned for some reason I don’t know.
Perhaps it’s because I continued a saved game (but I thought I didn’t use a saved game at that time)?
-> tested, worked for me!done:
What? Prohibition?
That completely disrupts my current playing strategy to quickly get some cash 🙁
At least you could have set it to 18 or 21, as depending on where you live one is legally entitled to buy alcohol from 18 or 21 onwards!
-> drunken after level 21, autofire after level 75done:
No full intro after calibration
Problem persists: There is no full intro after the very first calibration.
-> actually, the original problem WAS fixed – only thing that was left… the
button press and thefollowing recognition of the button was passed on to the title
so if you pressed the button a fraction to long – the button press would be recognized by the title also and
than continue directly to the main screendone:
Statistic screen: Order S-B-R
Currently, in the statistic screen, speed, rate, bullets is displayed. The order of these three values is different to the order in the shop, which is S-B-R.
Suggestion: Use same order for SBR entries in both statistic screen and shop, i.e. S-B-R.
-> rearranged info in pause screendone:
Statistic screen: Order Cash > Lifes
Currently, in the statistic screen, cash is listed before lifes
Suggestion: Life is more important than cash. Therefore I’d suggest to list “lifes” before “cash”.
-> rearranged info in pause screendone:
Statistic screen: More lines per page
Currently, only four lines are displayed in the statistic screens per page. “Shots fired” and “Enemies shot” are split into two pages. The same applies for S-B-R which are also split into two pages.
Suggestion: To me it looks as if there is space for displaying five (or even more lines) per screen. When using five lines per screen, more related entries would be one one page.
-> there is not time enough to display more lines “wobble free”
The shots/fired are now on the same page.not done:
Level title: Display duration
Currently, the level title appears only for a very short time.
Suggestion: Display the level title a little bit longer so that the user has the chance to read the level title before fighting on.
-> I don’t won’t to slow down the “level transition”, the level transition now
takes exactly as long as before introducing the title.
Actually the titles are displayed a quarter of a second “too long” already!Am really ready to call it quits :-).
Apreciate “last” tests 🙂
Cheers
Chris
@Peer:
I like the drunken 21 suggestion :-).@Helmut:
Trophies, I will test that out again… but hopefully you used a saved game. There was nothing changed in the vicinity.Also – I am sure the damn title screen worked correctly last week – must look if I messed something up again. To get all the flash/VecFever savings correct is a quit messy, and that was something I did change again last week
Lines per page on the statistic screen – this is limited by the vectrex speed. More lines and it shakes, I might reorder … but not sure – since also the order (number of letters) influences the screen refresh, I have to experiment, but next wekend at earlierst :-).
Thx for testing again :-).
Cheers
Chris
Vectorblade_RC5.bin – 24th July 2020
and VecFever version:
Vectorblade_RC5.V4E – 24th July 2020Latest changes.
Last update for a while, since I am “on the road again”.I spent quite a lot of time reimplementing the “save game and record movement” feature again.
I wanted to have that in the code base and working – “just in case”. As it happened after the last crash bug I removed the code and thought I’d never need it again.
Not that I need it now – but NOW it is properly in the code base and I can just switch it on with a “DEFINE”. Gives me a better feeling. Some internal stuff changed to have that feature available – but I think I tested it thru.Additional changes:
Candle sound: Version 3 from VTK.
done: shop selected NOT brighter yet
-> is brighter nowdone: bullet in shop?= Ok, with Save this is 9 (one shorter)
-> bullet stuff in shop revisted…done: caught “equip” in wheel, wheel was not MAX_PLAYERSHOT_OBJECTS but MAX_SHOT_OBJECTS,
therefor it was calculed wrong, add bullets in shop – does not add
bullets also not displayed with the correct hight
bullets are obviousely full!
-> correcteddone: no title in BOSS level
-> fixeddone: crash could happen when entering “EXTRA” – wheel, stack was not initialized, entered with “sound” jingle of EXTRA
-> fixeddone: achievement minestorm backwards – not earned?
drunken was decreased in meinstorm result loop!
-> fixeddone: diamond storm result “shake”
-> fixed, but must be testedidea? some bomnus drop onyl from level X onward?
yes ->
cash double only above level 25
diamond bomb only above level 50
drunken only above level 75idea? possibility to downgrade a weapon? WITHOUT shoup?
no ->
-> VERY rare MALUS Bonus
no space left, to lazy to optimize
good place tooptimize is everything related to string printing
workaround – get tripple shot bonus drop, with that you can downgrade “always”I would have liked a MALUS to completely downgrade a weapon – but as of now I don’t have the space (I tried) – and I am not willing to go thru another optimizing round (and introduce new bugs)
Reason why I wanted that:
In Hardcore mode, once you have the laser (and immunity), since there is no shop, it is nearly impossible to downgrade a weapon. Once you have the laser – you are STUCK with it, and laser is not in all situations the best weapon.
The only way right now to downgrade, is to enable the Tripple-Shot bonus drop. And than catch a tripple shot.I guess I must think about this some more.
Cheers
Chris
So the others know what we are talking about:
I appreciate your ideas – but I probably will not change anything.
(unless you start an absolute hype amongst all beta testers and each and everyone says this is a must, without it vectorblade can not be shipped)Reasoning:
a) mostly technically, the shop is “drawing wise” at its limit.
(when the lengthiest strings are displayed, the lengthiest “conversions” are made … etc)
More or less: for each line I add, I must remove another.
Remove as in NOT NEEDED (just making a line invisible does not count as removal)b) – actually – I don’t want to really change anything anymore.
Cheers
Chris
I think I discovered another CRASH bug.
Following circumstances – everyone try to reproduce it (“Muahh hahaha”).a) try to collect EXTRA in the correct order.
b) collect the last “A” after the level finished
c) collect the “A” while the WARP is ongoing (the stars go up and degenerate to lines)
d) do the spinning wheel
f) when you “go back” from the spinning wheel, a crash MAY occur
(The “return” from the spinning wheel is done to the normal game loop not anywhere else. While the WARP is onging,
memory layout is different from “in game” – so where usually aliens are handled, now some weird stars reside and
may lead to a crash)Tststs (*shaking head and throwing arms in the air*), you all – why didn’t you find that???
Cheers
Chris
