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If the console is opened, is there a way to “see” whether it is a buzz or a non-buzz vectrex? Some difference in the hardware configuration?
The reasons why I am asking is the following:
My two “buzz consoles” do have the clearly noticable buzzing sound once they are turned on. One of my “no-buzz consoles” is “completely” quiet, except for the sounds generated by the sound chip of course, but no buzzing at all. The other one, which I also think of as a “no-buzz console”, is “almost” quiet. Only if I really pay attention and get my ear very close to the console, then I can hear the typical “buzzing” sound, but only very faint and low in volume. Still, it is there.
Can you elaborate on why no-buzz consoles need a different fine tuning than buzz ones (if I got that right)?
Additional questions: What types of different console versions are out there in terms of (no) buzzing and bios versions? Is there a relation between bios version and buzz version?
Excellent analysis and write-up, thanks!
I will run the WeirdTest binary on all my consoles, just out of curiosity. I will also ask one of my former students, who has a Vectrex of his own, to test on his machine.
Hey Helmut, welcome! Great to see you here as well 🙂
Don’t worry. The upgrades and downgrades lottery initially was confusing for me too, but I very quickly learned about it the hard way. I am still prone to accidently catching all the downgrade stuff, but that is part of the fun / challenge.
Regarding your #1: At one point in time I had that on one of my machines, but not on the others. I do not recall which beta version it was, and it was gone in the next beta. I think I saw it again in yet another beta, but by then I was focussing on the VIA stuff and did not pay any closer attention. Will do so now. This is probably console specific.
Regarding your #3: On some consoles I manage to get the small symbol “closed”, i.e. the endpoints of the outline meet, on others I cannot get it “closed”, the endpoints will never meet.
And now for something completely different:
Got to level 25 yesterday 🙂
I was playing beta 11. Here are a a few minor things I noticed.
Some of the triple pointed mines of the Mine Storm part showed what looked like the infamous vector gaps that appear when using scale factors different than (n*7 – 1). This is in no way a big deal, and I am only mentioning this because I know that you are a perfectionist. I can only guess that the original vector lists of the Mine Storm rom are used here, so there is propbaly no other way of having these mines displayed in exactly those sizes?
Also, twice while getting killed during the Mine Storm part I had the impression that the collision detection might be a bit too strict. It really looked like there would definitely be enough space to squeeze through between some mines, but my ship exploded anyway. In other words, it really did not look like the ship would even be remotely touching anything. I will pay more attention to this in future runs and see if I can reproduce this or narrow it down to a certain situation or to a certain type of mine.
And I probably need some help in understanding the “minor havoc” interlude. Either the graphics are partly wrong, or I am not getting an important part here. There is a circle drawn partly around Vec T. Rex, and I do not get its meaning. Also it looks like Vec T. Rex is sometimes running through air (space? vacuum?) and sometimes standing on or bouncing off invisible ground or obstacles. The directions are free, yet he cannot move there. Or he is standing on no ground and yet not falling down. It looks like the tile map does not match the displayed tiles? I still always get a “mission succeded”, but I have to admit that I don’t know why it succeded 😉
Level 25: the first time I saw the queen, I had what I thought of as quite some good fire power, but she killed my instantly, as I was standing right in the middle of the screen. I still had 5 lives left then, but my weapons reduced to only a one-shot at rate 5 or 6 at a not-too-fast speed. It was easy to figure out how to avoid the queen, but I tried for about 10(?) minutes, shooting until my fingers hurt. There was no way to get shots through all those enemies to the queen. At some point I just gave up and concluded that there is no way to beat this level with the given configuration of my ship. Is this true? Are there levels that cannot be beat unless you have reached at least a certain configuration? That would be ok, but it is rather unfortunate, if you reach such a level with an appropriate configuration, then get killed, and now your configuration is reduced to a point, where success is not possible anymore (no way to power up your configuration again). And I am talking about “not possible”, not about “very hard” or “unlikely” or “improbable”, but “100% impossible”. That would mean whatever lives you have left at that point, they are wasted. Well, I will certainly try again tonight 😉
Since I find it rather unlikely that I damaged VIA-b in such a way that only PB6 is affected and everything else still works, here is another wild theory:
Could it be that in fact all my VIAs are essentially fine and working, but that in certain combinations “specific VIA-model vs. specific logic board model” the PB6 thing does not work as VectorBlade or certain Multi-carts need it to work?
As far as I know, whatever parts were cheapest or were most easily available at that point of time were used when the consoles were manufactured back in the eighties. To my understanding, the PB6 functionality was never official or intended? The manufacturers would not have cared if the specifications of VIA type or board type would not have matched in that regard. That could explain why today on certain consoles certain multi-carts (and VectorBlade) do not work, but on the vast majority do.
I am not sure if I really want to do this, but one experiment would be trying all combinations of my 4 consoles and the VIAs I have at hand, including those deemed “damaged”…
Ok, “hacked” myself into the post office, fetched the packet, and did the tests. I like the outcome, and they probably shed some more light on this.
Short version: VectorBlade now works on all my 4 consoles.
Long version:
Just to be sure, I initially checked Mine Storm and VectorBlade an both my no-buzz consoles as they were. As before, Mine Storm works on both, Vectorblade does not work on the trouble maker, but on the other console.
Removed VIA-a from my no-buzz lab console (the trouble maker) and tested the new VIA that Chris sent me in it: VectorBlade now works, Mine Storm works 🙂
Removed VIA-b from my no-buzz home console and tested VIA-a in it as a cross-check. As expected, VectorBlade does not work, Mine Storm works. Conclusion: there is some PB6 issue with VIA-a.
Removed VIA-a and re-inserted VIA-b in my no-buzz home console. Mine Storm still works, but VectorBlade does not work anymore 🙁
Removed and re-inserted VIA-b several times. No change 🙁 Theory? Well, I freely admit that I probably suck at hardware stuff. I tried to be as careful as possible while doing this. Nevertheless, I might have damaged VIA-b in the process???
As this was unsatisfying, I tried once more removing VIA-c from the broken, non-working spare-part console I still have in my lab, until I finally succeeded. Then I inserted VIA-c in my no-buzz home console. Mine Storm works, and now VectorBlade does work agin 🙂
Summary:
I strongly guess that the reason of Vectorblade not working was due to either a single faulty VIA, or due to a specific VIA model, on which PB6 does not work. Here is some data:
VIA-a, the non-working one from the trouble maker:
top side reads “8251 SY6522”, bottom side reads “3040/251 KOREA”
If we find some other machine that uses this model, and on which VectorBlade works, then we could conclude that my issue was due a single faulty chip. If we find other machines that use this model, and on which VectorBlade does not work, then this could hint to a problem of this specific model.VIA-b, the one working before, and then not anymore:
top side reads “R6522AP R6522-33 8330”, bottom side reads “R6522K MEXICO 0951-1″
Ok, I probably damaged that one…VIA-c, the old working spare one:
top side reads ” R6522AP R652233 8322″, bottom side reads “R6522 K1 0898 KOREA”
If we find some other machine that uses this model, and on which VectorBlade does not work, then that would most likely be due to a single faulty chip.Does that make sense?
Anyhow, either way this should not discourage you or prevent you from going on with VectorBlade development, as putting in a new VIA (e.g. of the model you sent me) seems to solve the problem. And because VectorBlade is a great game!
Yes, will start VIA testing as soon as possible and report the results.
Yesterday, we had an open door day at the university (Science Night), and I have been teaching two workshops the whole afternoon and the whole evening. Good thing: got a note that your packet / VIA has arrived (thanks!). Bad thing: it is still at the university’s central post office and has not yet been delivered to my personal post box. Today is a public holiday, but I will see if I can drive out there and get entry to the post office. Another good thing: the busiest part of the semester of over now, and there will definitly be more time for “vectrexing” from now on.
Ok, this is not much, but worth saying anyway:
I finally came around to playing some more rounds of VectorBlade. Not much, only got up to level 13 again. But so far the difficulty (easy) seems right to me. I am certainly not yet a good player, and I still have to learn about the add-ons and achievements. For me, the first levels of the game are right now still difficult enough to be challenging and to keep me hooked. Turned out that I am apparantly quite good at the Mine Storm stages though 🙂 Not yet good at avoiding the one-shot or other down-grading drops.
I am using original Vectrex controllers only (do not have any others), which adds a bit to the difficulty as they are quite worn und thus control is sometimes a bit fuzzy.
Love the music! Have been listening to it many times during all those debugging experiments, and still like to hear it 🙂
@vtk:
Thanks for the link! I will now wait for the VIA Malban sent me and try that first. Will let you know about the result.
Darn, I am running out of thank yous! It was my turn to send you something, not the other way around 😉
Great, thanks a lot for the VIA!!! Let me know how I can compensate you. I will try the new VIA on the trouble maker and let you know what happens.
Actually, I am also very happy if that is the explanation 🙂
a) There is nothing wrong with Vectorblade. And I am really glad about this!
b) I learned quite a couple of things about Vectrex stuff that I had not known before.
c) Everything else on my machine seems to work perfectly fine, and we do not need any PB6 stuff in the course.
d) Out of pure curiosity, I will still try to exchange the VIA, just to see what happens. I failed to remove the one from my other machine (seems stuck in the socket and I did not want to apply too much force), so I might come back to your offer.
e) I can now go back to actually playing and enjoying Vectorblade 🙂And also from my side thanks again to you for all your investigations and all the effort you put in trying to analyze this!
Just tested the alpha5 64K binary with the VecFever. Same phenomenon. The game crashes / freezes when trying to enter calibration. Other binaries on this VecFever work, but I tested only a few and only for a short time.
