Zombie Incident 1.2

Zombie Incident, the platform game that won the MSXdev'11 competition, has received an update and a new version has been released. As could be seen in this thread on MRC there has been a lot of discussion the past few weeks, mostly with regard to the compatibility tests that were performed by MSX user sd_snatcher from Brazil. Developer nenefranz has been actively participating in this discussion and patching the game. The new 1.2 release now passes these tests, enabling all MSX computers to safely run the game. The updated version can be downloaded from the MSXdev'11 page.

Relevant link: Zombie Incident 1.2

Reacties (15)

Van sd_snatcher

Prophet (3501)

23-05-2013, 05:34

Thanks again, Nenefranz! Keep your gems coming!

Van vanfanel

Champion (446)

28-05-2013, 20:44

Have you guys tried this game on an 1ChipMSX machine?
"romload incident.rom /S" doesn't work and it just hangs the machine. Using /R to force reboot after loading the ROM hangs the machine on reboot.
"odo incident.rom" works only to the tittle screen. Keeping CTRL pushed to force a reset doesn't help.

Is this game 1ChipMSX incompatible or the other way around?

Van ARTRAG

Enlighted (6828)

28-05-2013, 22:06

humm ... was the previous version working ?

Van nenefranz

Resident (43)

29-05-2013, 00:45

Thanks vanfanel for the warning.
I'm sorry, I haven't an 1chipMSX. Can someone else test the rom in an 1chip?
Could be the problem the 48KB size? Have you tested other 48KB rom?
Have you tested the previous versions of the ROM? Does it works any previous version?

Van sd_snatcher

Prophet (3501)

29-05-2013, 04:59

My wild guess is that romload doesn't support 48KB ROMs. In fact, a lot of ROM loaders for real MSX hardware don't support 48KB plainroms very well.

Van vanfanel

Champion (446)

29-05-2013, 14:16

@nenefranz: previous versions (I wanted to put my teeth on this one since I saw it moving years ago) didn't work, either. They loaded with ODO, but they were directly stuck on a sound test menu instead of going into the game. This one at lesast shows tittle screen

Van vanfanel

Champion (446)

29-05-2013, 15:22

I've seen people recommends EXECROM.COM for 48KB games. 1ChipMSX can be configured to have MegaRAM, so I tried EXECROM. It loads the game but all I get is a blue screen of death after that.

Van nenefranz

Resident (43)

31-05-2013, 00:17

The first released version of game was tested in real machines and worked. This latest version isn't tested in real MSX, although I think it might works ok. I will try to check again in real machines. I don't remember what kind of device was used to load the game. I will request information.

Van vanfanel

Champion (446)

31-05-2013, 03:14

nenefranz: just in case, I read 1ChipMSX memory is organised (distributed or configured) as in a TurboR machine.

Van nenefranz

Resident (43)

04-06-2013, 00:37

Hello again,

I have made little changes and more tests with real machines. The game works OK with a Megaflash SCC+ SD. No need to use /L parameter to force mapper.
But on the other hand, with ODO the game don't run ok (after title screen the game freezes). The last fix to initialize the sp register don't work when you use ODO. But if I initialize sp reg with (ld sp, $f380) the game works ok with ODO. It seems that the correct initilization of sp register is only valid to ROMs.
I need to do some more tests.

Van nenefranz

Resident (43)

14-06-2013, 20:25

It's available the latest version!! No differences with previous version, but now the rom works well in turboR (I hope that with 1ChipMSX too) and you can load the game with MegaFlash and ODO. Download is available on the msxdev web.

Van sd_snatcher

Prophet (3501)

15-06-2013, 00:05

Nice! dloading it again.

But tell us, what had to be fixed?

Van nenefranz

Resident (43)

15-06-2013, 01:38

I changed the sp initialization again . The correct initialization (ld sp, [himem]) seems only valid to ROMs, but not to a ROM loaded from RAM . I talked with SapphiRe (programmer of QBIQS) to know how he initialize his roms. And finally I used a similar solution to that he used to use. I put the stack in a regular zone of RAM (for example: $C100, 16KB RAM needed) instead of put it in a extreme zone, but more efficient as $F380 or [HIMEM]. So in the same RAM zone of memory that holds variables and buffers for the game, I reserve a zone to hold the stack. With this way of work the game seems to work in ROM and RAM (odo, etc.) . I don't know if it's the best way to program, but now it works.

Also I added a message to warn if game is running in a 8KB RAM msx machine (sorry only 16KB RAM machines)

Van ARTRAG

Enlighted (6828)

15-06-2013, 08:57

Just a question: why do you want to set up manually SP at the rom boot ?
If the rom has booted from a cart, the bios should have already set SP in a valid position, if the rom is loaded in ram by a dos tool, SP should be valid due to the msxdos, so, why moving it manually ?
Try leaving it where it is.

Van nenefranz

Resident (43)

15-06-2013, 11:08

@artrag: All my msx coding skills are thanks to look samples and code snippets. In most cases, the initialization code of a ROM includes a initialization of the stack, so I always assumed that it was necessary this initialization. This is the only reason. But all that you say seems logical. I will do some test.

Share

Related content

Reacties (15)