An early morning heads up for you all, as we've recently been informed that Rob Rafac has released a work in progress version of the upcoming Atari XL/XE to Commodore 64 port of Schreckenstein. As in the words of the creator. "I have been working on a port of the fabulous Atari 800/XL-exclusive game Schreckenstein by Peter Finzel (not to be confused with the several C64 games with similar names) and it's at the point where it is completely playable, so I want to turn it loose on the community here". To coincide with this news, Saberman has provided a video showing the current state of the game.
Here's the latest technical blurb about this release from the info file provided. "This is a work in progress porting of Peter Finzel's Atari 8bit split screen puzzle platform game to the Commodore 64. All levels are playable but somewhat slower than the original due to the difference in clock speeds (1.8 vs 1.0mhz) + the cost of bit hanging the VIC while CPU blitting the map tiles and sprite patterns which is stuff handled easily by the ANTIC. Further optimization is probably possible. Sound effect gating and deconfliction needs work. The original was developed in 1985 by Axis Komputerkunst and published by Ariolasoft, with a plan to release the source coded as a study to reverse engineer Atari-Antic coding".
Very hectic game ...
ReplyDeleteUltra hectic atmosphere !!!
DeleteAuthor of the port R^2 here. It looks like the video is based on the O'Dog/LAXITY crack which is broken. The most obvious defect in the crack is the green player's sprite animation for which the pointers are borked. I didn't look in much detail but saw some things that looked like some of the game engines zeropage stuff could be getting corrupted. I do need playtesting/feedback but preferably from either the free original on github linked here, or wait for a crack that isn't buggy. Have fun (and if you think this is hectic, the original Atari 800 version is around 30% faster!)
ReplyDeleteHi there! I made sure not to source the cracked version only the github, also the discussion as well via lemon. Even though I have no control over his videos, I'll give Saberman the message about the issue and hopefully he can change the video too :D - Nice game dude! Cheers
Deleteand FIXED :) - New Video
DeleteAtari will be faster.. It uses hardware scolling and DLI's.. Dli's allowed the screen to display the same area of the screen in different places.. controlled by a pointer to the display. C64 had the software but Atari had the hardware.. It's a shame it wasn't noticed before!!!
DeleteA quick update for you.. Star Raiders used DLi's for the star field effect at the same time we were playing Space Invaders in the arcades from Taito - 1979. That is how advanced Atari was for the time but people never noticed!!!
DeleteR^2 - Put your name to it and I will help with German- English translation. I hacked the original game!!!
DeleteFor some reason I couldn't get this to work in either VICE or HOX. anyone else?
ReplyDeleteR^2 here again. Thanks for the feedback! In the video I can see an emulation problem (junk appearing in green statusbar when top player YSCROLL=6). This happens in VICE prior to v3.7; 3.7 and 3.8 GTK3 work fine. If I fix it it won't work on a real machine. So far I tested on VICE 3.7, 3.8, RetroDebugger/C64 Debugger, and 5 real machines with different VICs and Kawari. Other emulators I don't know but is sensitive to 1 cycle timing at that statusbar (2 badlines in a row when Y=6, and 7 sprites there!) I can make other timings but would be specific to each emulator (i.e. VICE 3.6 needs +1 cycle) at assembly time.
ReplyDeleteR^2 hopefully final comment: The glitches in the green statusbar mentioned above probably happen with the less accurate (fast) variant of VICE "x64.exe" and not the most accurate variant "x64sc.exe" Thanks to Tobias on for pointing that out on lemon64; I had totally forgotten! Since VICE 3.7, "x64.exe" is not even an option or not in the main /bin directory. You only get the "sc" variant that this is compatible with in recent VICE distros.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that my other post wasn't added - BAD internet.. Source the Atari original game.. As for emulation.. Pop to Cloanto and BUY the Plus edition.. C64 AND Amiga.. NOT cheap but updated often. I purchased Version 8 and had a free update to version 9 for both. Version 10 available now.
DeleteC64 is not on par with Atari 8 bits.. It WILL run slower as Atari had hardware scrolling and also DLI's (Display List Interupts) - Can quite easily split screen for 2 player games with NO loss of speed.. Best thing is to source the original Atari game and get a friend as well.. You need to set rules before starting the game that you promise not to kill each other... It soon goes out the window and it's a free for all!! Great fun.
ReplyDeletePeople bought the Commodore machines due to name. Atari had better computers but people didn't realise it at the time. It's only now through emulation that it is noticed.. I have purchased Amiga/C64 Forever Plus from Cloanto.. Upgrades from Mike and news via e-mail.. problem is that even tho I have the software, I'm using Atari emulators more. Cloanto have done a great job but the games don't have the staying power with me. Cloanto has the best pack for Amiga/C64.. Can't fault them as Workbench and roms needed are included. The games just don't hold my interest now..
You need me.. German to English.. You are doing 1-1 translation.. Trust me. I hacked the original disk many years ago.. .I'm 9 December above.. Do you want help?
ReplyDelete