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Tech and Homebrew => Turbo/PCE Game/Tool Development => Topic started by: nodtveidt on January 29, 2011, 07:45:42 PM
Title: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on January 29, 2011, 07:45:42 PM
We're going to be giving away two copies of the game for free in this little promo/contest. To enter, here's what you've got to do...
Design and record a unique warning track.
You all know the drill... track 1 of almost every PCE CD game is an audio track that warns about it being a disc with computer data that isn't for audio use, blah blah blah. So the deal is this... make one of your own. The winning entry will score two free sealed copies of the game and have their track used in the official pressing, as well as their name in the credits. To enter, simply record your own track and send it in uncompressed WAV format to david AT eponasoft DOT com along with the name you'd like to have appear in the credits.
The legal fine print is as follows (no one reads this stuff anyways): The winning entry will become the property of Frozen Utopia; all non-winning entries will remain property of their respective authors. We reserve the right to reject any entry for any reason. Winning this contest does not grant the winner royalties or any other benefits outside of what is stated above. The recorded audio must be original or properly licensed; the use of unlicensed copyrighted material will result in an immediate disqualification of the entry. Participants may submit multiple entries. Group efforts are allowed but the specified physical prizes are not duplicable to multiple winning participants. By submitting an entry, you agree to and are bound by these rules without exception. Frozen Utopia reserves the right to modify these rules at any time.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on January 30, 2011, 12:14:44 AM
I'll assume you'll want these in english? Or do you want some Japanese samples as well?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on January 30, 2011, 01:17:33 AM
Can we be vulgar and obnoxious or is that not gonna result in a win.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on January 30, 2011, 01:53:26 AM
English only since there's no Japanese translation. And keep it clean. :P
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arjak on January 30, 2011, 04:54:05 AM
I have an idea for a humorous warning track, but to record it, I'll need to know how many tracks there are on the CD, and which ones are music and which are data. Would that be OK, Old Rover?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheOldMan on January 30, 2011, 06:12:00 AM
I *think* all the cd's are laid out the same: track 1 is warning, track 2 is data, tracks 3+ are music. How many tracks there will be I couldn't tell you, but I'm pretty sure music will start at track 3......
And rover: You didn't like the warning on insanity? Arkhan wouldn't let me do the one I had in mind.....Maybe I'll find it and send it to you, just for laughs....
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arjak on January 30, 2011, 06:16:45 AM
Some CDs have more than one data track, which are mixed in with the music tracks. That's why I ask.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on January 30, 2011, 06:17:04 AM
As of right now, it's unknown how many tracks will be audio, as there is still no word on alternate language cutscenes. There is only one data track though, which is track 2. There will either be 25 or 29 audio tracks aside from track 1; if there are to be alternate language audio, two of each language will be redbook and the rest will be streaming ADPCM.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on January 30, 2011, 06:17:37 AM
Oh, and I didn't listen to the one on Insanity yet. I'll throw it in right now and check it out. :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on January 30, 2011, 08:53:29 AM
Aw man! I gotta hurry & come up with some ideas so I can win this!! :lol:
Thanks for reminding me! I had forgotten about this :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on February 28, 2011, 04:52:39 PM
Entry submitted! Still technically February!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on February 28, 2011, 05:01:19 PM
mine didn't come out too well, so no submission here.. I have an alternate plan to get me some MSR :P
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 01, 2011, 07:14:09 AM
It's no longer February anywhere in the world so the compo is now finished. I'll be announcing the winner here shortly. There were 8 entries total so this might take awhile to decide. :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 01, 2011, 07:48:24 AM
And the winner is...
vestcoat
As a bonus, the second place entry will receive a single free copy, though we're still deciding on a second place track. Some of these are hilarious, and some are just plain lame. Right now it's kind of a tossup between two entries in particular.
Vestcoat's entry wins because not only is it a nod to the original track used by Hudson back in the day, but it's very professional-sounding and is recorded in the three languages the game comes in.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on March 01, 2011, 08:33:32 AM
Thanks so much. I'm glad I could be a part of this and look forward to playing the game!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 01, 2011, 10:10:39 AM
It was really close... there was a definite quality comparison between the submissions of Arjak and TwistedMind. However, in the end, I made the choice based on overall spirit of the submission. Thus, the second-place winner is:
Arjak
who wins one free copy of the game. Of course, the track won't be used in the production, but hey, a freebie is a freebie is a freebie. :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: bernielindell on March 01, 2011, 10:13:36 AM
Congrats to the winners! Guess this gets us one step closer to the release!! :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 01, 2011, 02:10:44 PM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheClash603 on March 01, 2011, 02:14:56 PM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: _joshuaTurbo on March 02, 2011, 02:59:40 AM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: incrediblehark on March 02, 2011, 03:59:58 AM
Sounds like its almost finished - can't wait for this game to be released! :mrgreen: Hope my preorder still counts from over a year ago.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 02, 2011, 04:17:14 AM
Whoever paid for a pre-order is still in the order list. :dance:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arjak on March 02, 2011, 08:57:48 AM
It was really close... there was a definite quality comparison between the submissions of Arjak and TwistedMind. However, in the end, I made the choice based on overall spirit of the submission. Thus, the second-place winner is:
Arjak
who wins one free copy of the game. Of course, the track won't be used in the production, but hey, a freebie is a freebie is a freebie. :D
I was a little disappointed that I didn't win 1st Place, but I'm so happy to have gotten 2nd as well as getting my own copy of this game for free, that I feel great now. Besides, there's always next time. :wink:
Congrats Vestcoat! I can't wait to hear your track! :clap:
Old Rover, let me know when you'll need my address so I can send you a PM.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Tatsujin on March 02, 2011, 12:02:14 PM
Paul will win!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 02, 2011, 12:41:06 PM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
MOOOoooooo!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: _joshuaTurbo on March 03, 2011, 04:55:33 AM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
MOOOoooooo!
Shooooooooe!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 03, 2011, 06:21:28 PM
Saturday isn't going to happen, by the way... I discovered that there's still one major detail that hasn't been completed yet, and that's the inclusion of the French script. It was included into one area, but has to be included everywhere... however, because adding the French script exceeds the 8KB limitation on near data, it has to be added as far data, which involves a partial code rewrite in many areas of the game. This takes awhile, because the dialogue has to be copied into a new external script file, control codes have to be added to it, and then it has to be run through my binary script parser, which also produces a guide file which is used to reference the exact location in the far data of each text string. It takes no less than six hours to re-implement an entire area's dialogue. Another issue with the French script is that the font had to be expanded to make room for all the special characters that aren't present in English or Spanish... I had to move parts of the UI into the extended space and do some minor code tweaks to accommodate.
Also, I was taking a look through some of the documentation for huc/pceas... just for the hell of it... and discovered an interesting flaw in pceas... it offers no method of procedure optimization, so procs often get padded with huge amounts of dead codespace. This becomes especially apparent when using HuC, since C coders are very used to just writing functions that sit just about anywhere with no real need for concern about their placement in the source. This changes everything; as a test, I reorganized the battle program, which was 240KB before the change, and managed to reduce it to 224KB just by grouping the smallest functions together. That's two entire banks worth of dead code eliminated from the game. That is EXTREMELY significant. With this in mind, I am going to write a small utility to calculate the size of each proc and organize them as optimally as possible to reduce codespace waste. Of course, such a utility will no doubt take awhile to write, so I'm going to wait until MSR is in final beta before attempting it. One thing's for sure though... it will most certainly help with Project MONOLITH, as the test program for that shot to 240KB with no understandable reason why... but now the reason is crystal clear and I bet I can wipe out four or more dead code banks just by reorganizing the function order. :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 03, 2011, 06:36:01 PM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
MOOOoooooo!
Shooooooooe!
GOOOoooooooooooooooo!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 03, 2011, 06:39:41 PM
Just to test it... I went into Monolith's demo code and moved just a few smaller functions to the bottom of the source in the hopes that they would fill a single bank. The overlay size dropped from 240KB to 216KB. Holy hell what a difference. :) There's three banks with minimal effort... any wagers on getting a fourth one shot down? :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mishran on March 03, 2011, 06:54:05 PM
Are preorders still up for this game? If so how can I get myself a piece of the action. I have been checking on the status of this game on your site every now and then for a while. Really looking forward too it just like everyone else here. BTW Rover frozen utopia has been throwing up a red flag with my McAfee antivirus here recently. Says to take extreme caution when navigating the site? Trying to steal my identity? Trust me when Isay you do NOT want it...
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 03, 2011, 07:14:23 PM
That's odd... can you give me more details of what it says? And no, the site isn't out to steal anyone's identity... it's a simplistic, pure HTML site with absolutely no active scripting aside from the forum, which is always kept up-to-date. I'm checking .htaccess right now and it's 100% fine. A check of all relevant HTML files indicates no issues.
Preorders are not going to be put back up until we're up to the release candidate, which will come after the final beta test.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 04, 2011, 03:43:23 AM
Take extreme caution on our site! It'll blow up your computer and impregnate your dog!
No seriously... frozenutopia.com is on a shared IP, and there was probably a problem with one of the other accounts on the same server at some point. Nothing to worry about.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheOldMan on March 04, 2011, 04:46:47 AM
Quote
moved just a few smaller functions to the bottom of the source in the hopes that they would fill a single bank. The overlay size dropped from 240KB to 216KB.
Yeah, touko and I were talking about that a few months ago on aetherbyte. Seems pceas doesn't do any kind of attempt to fit code into already 'filled' banks. I lopped about 40K from pyramind plunder by moving 2 functions.... Your best approach is a knap-sack solution: put the biggest function in first, then keep adding the 'next-largest' until the bank is almost full. When you get real close to full (1K or so), start throwing in as many smaller functions as possible. Repeat for next bank.
I do seem to remember from long ago days that trying to actually get an optimal solution to the problem takes major amounts of processor time, so I would suggest an A* search. It won't be optimal, but it will be really close. That is, if you're going to try and automate it (though I'm not sure how you would... You'd need to work with the text version of the assembly, or re-write pceas. If you decide to go re-write pceas, let me know :-)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 04, 2011, 04:55:14 AM
Another quick update... the French script was implemented into Fawna, and instead of increasing in size, it *dropped* in size by 2 whole banks because of the vast reduction in the number of function calls. It was at 184KB with two languages, then grew to 192KB when I started adding French, but violating the near data size limitation forced the use of the far data scripting method, which considerably cuts down the amount of function calls anyways... it's dropped down to 176KB now.
Further function reduction can take place later on when we're sure that all three language scripts are 100% accurate, which will likely reduce the code even further in size and might free up yet another bank.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 04, 2011, 05:00:53 AM
Yeah, touko and I were talking about that a few months ago on aetherbyte. Seems pceas doesn't do any kind of attempt to fit code into already 'filled' banks. I lopped about 40K from pyramind plunder by moving 2 functions.... Your best approach is a knap-sack solution: put the biggest function in first, then keep adding the 'next-largest' until the bank is almost full. When you get real close to full (1K or so), start throwing in as many smaller functions as possible. Repeat for next bank.
I do seem to remember from long ago days that trying to actually get an optimal solution to the problem takes major amounts of processor time, so I would suggest an A* search. It won't be optimal, but it will be really close. That is, if you're going to try and automate it (though I'm not sure how you would... You'd need to work with the text version of the assembly, or re-write pceas. If you decide to go re-write pceas, let me know :-)
I don't have any intentions of rewriting pceas :lol: man that thing's confusing. My intention is to write a post-compiler/pre-assembler (if using huc, it will run between huc and pceas) that gauges the size of each function and then organizes them in the most optimal way possible. It's alright if this uses a lot of CPU time... it's worth it. In the meantime, the knapsack method sounds like it'll work well. :D Of course, since this game is done almost entirely in HuC, it can be hard to tell how large a function will be as an assembly proc.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 04, 2011, 05:15:52 AM
Take extreme caution on our site! It'll blow up your computer and impregnate your dog!
No seriously... frozenutopia.com is on a shared IP, and there was probably a problem with one of the other accounts on the same server at some point. Nothing to worry about.
Oh, it's wierd, after the last time I logged into frozenutopia, all of a sudden I've been getting large payments on my bills! My car is paid off, a couple credit cards, & a significant amount of my mortgage! Thanks Nod, & thank you frozenutopia, you rock!! :lol:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheOldMan on March 04, 2011, 07:09:44 AM
Quote
I don't have any intentions of rewriting pceas.... My intention is to write a post-compiler/pre-assembler...
I'll have to think about that...I hate doing file i/o and string handling in C. But it does seem that we could use the .s file huc produces. Since we can figure out how big the macros it uses are (in bytes), we could come pretty close to the actual size in bytes for reach .proc/.endproc setup. Then we could re-order as needed.....
I think I'll play around with the idea after I finish figuring out wtf's wrong with the psg player code....
Question for you: What's after Mysterious Song? Right now I'm looking at starting Jungle-Hunt yet again, but I usually end up working on two or three things at a time. I found a bunch of old floppies the other day, and was thinking about maybe porting Apshai....
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: esteban on March 04, 2011, 07:47:55 AM
I'll have to think about that...I hate doing file i/o and string handling in C. But it does seem that we could use the .s file huc produces. Since we can figure out how big the macros it uses are (in bytes), we could come pretty close to the actual size in bytes for reach .proc/.endproc setup. Then we could re-order as needed.....
Oh, I wasn't planning on writing the tool in C. :) I hate doing string handling in C as well, so I'm going to write it in fbc instead... excellent string handling functions there, so moving string data around is a snap.
Question for you: What's after Mysterious Song? Right now I'm looking at starting Jungle-Hunt yet again, but I usually end up working on two or three things at a time. I found a bunch of old floppies the other day, and was thinking about maybe porting Apshai....
After MSR, I have Project MONOLITH for Eponasoft and Jungle Bros for Frozen Utopia. And both will be excellent candidates for the proc optimizer. :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Keranu on March 04, 2011, 08:45:54 AM
Saturday is the expected release of the final beta; my daughter's been sick so I've had to stop working to take care of her but now that she's doing better, I'm back to work on this. Friday will be the final audio cuts, which will lead to the inclusion of the last cutscenes. The next two days will be dedicated to completing the special extended game mode... going very smoothly so far.
Woooooo!
HOOOoooooo!
MOOOoooooo!
Shooooooooe!
GOOOoooooooooooooooo!
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on March 06, 2011, 05:12:39 PM
Quote
Question for you: What's after Mysterious Song? Right now I'm looking at starting Jungle-Hunt yet again, but I usually end up working on two or three things at a time. I found a bunch of old floppies the other day, and was thinking about maybe porting Apshai....
Which Apshai?! Way to keep me out of the loop on that one. :D
Gateway, Temple 1, 2 or 3?
the whole trilogy?!
Either way, yeah. I'm game. :) I have Gateway memorized...:)
BUT FIRST WE NEED TO FINISH RETROCADE.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 07, 2011, 07:04:19 PM
These are your orders oldman, finish Retrocade!?!?!?!!!!! :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on March 08, 2011, 07:00:38 AM
Is that an order or a question?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 08, 2011, 02:41:53 PM
frozenutopia.com once orders are open again, but we won't be opening preorders until we're at the release candidate, which will likely be the end of March.
Yes. It was recently reworked to be 100% compatible with Magic Engine without sacrificing function on proper emulators or the real thing.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on March 13, 2011, 11:31:07 AM
Here's a request when you get to the replication: could you please have it manufactured with a BLACK cd tray in honor of the Grafx/Duo instead of going PCE-style on us like Insanity and the Mindrec games? Thnx. yr pal, -vestcoat
P.S. Don't go bringing up Valis II and Final Zone; they're abominations.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: lord_cack on March 13, 2011, 01:00:05 PM
Here's a request when you get to the replication: could you please have it manufactured with a BLACK cd tray in honor of the Grafx/Duo instead of going PCE-style on us like Insanity and the Mindrec games? Thnx. yr pal, -vestcoat
P.S. Don't go bringing up Valis II and Final Zone; they're abominations.
Don't forget Ys Book I & II and Gate of Thunder for the Turbo Duo pack in..... so there are some precedence
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheClash603 on March 13, 2011, 04:18:26 PM
I hope that the limited edition item has something to do with Mysterious Dong.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on March 13, 2011, 06:32:03 PM
Don't forget Ys Book I & II and Gate of Thunder for the Turbo Duo pack in..... so there are some precedence
I wrote the book on this unsightly business! http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=3237.msg44059#msg44059
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 13, 2011, 10:07:36 PM
Just for you, we'll make the cd tray's plaid! :D Kidding, ofcoarse.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Necromancer on March 14, 2011, 04:51:13 AM
Go with a clear tray and a double sided liner. Woo-hoo, more artwork!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: anRPGlegend on March 14, 2011, 08:26:34 PM
Thanks for the info guys. I will wait till its out to buy it, I want it asap after buying it :(
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 15, 2011, 06:21:57 AM
A quick lil update here... the extended game is wrapping up nicely, though it was delayed a few days because of a very odd glitch that couldn't be solved and was chalked up to a compiler fault. If not for that, it'd be done already. :) Anyways, just a few more days until final beta.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: mrhaboobi on March 16, 2011, 10:48:16 PM
looking forwaard to this, glad my duo didnt die during our 2nd earthquake ;).. at least thats something positive, cant shit in my own bathroom but looking foward to getting this :)..
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on March 17, 2011, 11:17:34 AM
Here's a request when you get to the replication: could you please have it manufactured with a BLACK cd tray in honor of the Grafx/Duo instead of going PCE-style on us like Insanity and the Mindrec games? Thnx. yr pal, -vestcoat
RACIST.
:D
Just for that, Ultima ][ will be in a f*cking CLEAR tray.
what now. :D lol
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mishran on March 18, 2011, 05:50:42 PM
Here's a request when you get to the replication: could you please have it manufactured with a BLACK cd tray in honor of the Grafx/Duo instead of going PCE-style on us like Insanity and the Mindrec games? Thnx. yr pal, -vestcoat
RACIST.
:D
Just for that, Ultima ][ will be in a f*cking CLEAR tray.
what now. :D lol
That better mean your porting it to turbo... otherwise I'm calling a hitman. Ultima is no joking matter bro! :P
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on March 18, 2011, 09:07:41 PM
Yeah, I brought it up and Arkhan keeps dangling the possibility over my head. (My avatar, btw, is a magician from Ultima Quest of the Avatar on the NES.) Arkhan - You make Ultima II for the Turbo and I don't care what else you do. You can wrap it in chewed gum, hair, and teeth and I'll worship the packaging.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mishran on March 18, 2011, 10:56:06 PM
Yeah, I brought it up and Arkhan keeps dangling the possibility over my head. (My avatar, btw, is a magician from Ultima Quest of the Avatar on the NES.) Arkhan - You make Ultima II for the Turbo and I don't care what else you do. You can wrap it in chewed gum, hair, and teeth and I'll worship the packaging.
Rover, THIS man deserves two free copies of MSR! :dance:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on March 19, 2011, 07:59:21 AM
Yeah Ark has been threatening us with Ultima for awhile, & it seems like there's some other old PC series he's threatened us with, Exile maybe?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheOldMan on March 19, 2011, 11:31:07 AM
Quote
Arkhan - You make Ultima II for the Turbo ...
Was that available for the commodore 64? Would make portage a lot easier if most of it was for the same cpu....
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on March 19, 2011, 12:38:57 PM
Was that available for the commodore 64? Would make portage a lot easier if most of it was for the same cpu....
The Ultima in question (Ultima II) was, but I don't want to port it.
I want to fix the game. Ultima II in every form ever, has been very empty. It lacks alot of things.
Also the way C64 does video/sound stuff will make a majority of the code pretty useless. It'd be just as simple to start over. The game's not exactly that big/complex. It needs meat.
The towers/dungeons are completely optional, there are no quests, theres hardly any interaction with the townsfolk. It is almost an arcade game. That needs fixed, severely.
That will probably become my pet project after Retrocade.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on March 19, 2011, 12:47:17 PM
Was that available for the commodore 64? Would make portage a lot easier if most of it was for the same cpu....
The Ultima in question (Ultima II) was, but I don't want to port it.
I want to fix the game. Ultima II in every form ever, has been very empty. It lacks alot of things.
Also the way C64 does video/sound stuff will make a majority of the code pretty useless. It'd be just as simple to start over. The game's not exactly that big/complex. It needs meat.
The towers/dungeons are completely optional, there are no quests, theres hardly any interaction with the townsfolk. It is almost an arcade game. That needs fixed, severely.
That will probably become my pet project after Retrocade.
You've piqued my interest... I know I've got Ultima 1-4 on the old atari 800, might have to pull em out.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mishran on March 19, 2011, 01:06:46 PM
Got a better idea... FM Towns version of Ultima 6 with full speech and mouse support ported to Turbo. I believe there are working U6 engine source codes out there that people made. Definitely be a good push in the right direction. Man, that would be so cool. I'd help out in any way i can if that would happen. Heck I'd be happy to help people out any way I can NOW if asked to help support the cause. O:)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on March 19, 2011, 03:25:03 PM
Ultima VI is already perfect on the PC and doesn't really need to be fixed up. The point of the doing the Ultima II thing is because the game needs fixed. Its a great story, but a busted game.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: vestcoat on March 19, 2011, 04:02:00 PM
[Ultima II] will probably become my pet project after Retrocade.
:pray: I'm no programmer, but let me know if, for some reason, you need any assistance in the audio department (engineering, editing, sound effects, or creepy ambient industrial sound design).
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 27, 2011, 01:16:38 PM
Quick lil MSR update: the game itself is now at 100% completion! All that's missing now is some cutscene audio and some bonus content. The final beta test will begin once the audio is completed... the bonus content will be added during the final beta phase, which includes the completion of the alternate languages as well as a super-secret on-disc bonus that I won't go into right now. :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheClash603 on March 27, 2011, 03:10:19 PM
Ohhh yeah! Can't wait!
What do you anticipate a ship date will be now?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on March 27, 2011, 06:14:35 PM
Probably May. Ran a little behind due to there being more work than I expected. Final beta should start up in just a couple of days... that is, if I get the chance to do the audio. That's the only thing keeping it back right now.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Necromancer on March 28, 2011, 04:12:43 AM
No more estimated completion dates! You'll jinx it!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on April 11, 2011, 10:12:19 AM
Just a quick heads-up... the CDRs arrived today, and they are of extremely high quality. Thus, the hardware test has begun! Nine issues have been found so far, one of which has been corrected, leaving eight issues to fix so far. They're mostly relatively minor issues... but a couple will take some real work to correct. In any event, with these CDRs, the game plays as it would play with real pressed discs, so one of the things I've been testing for is load speed... I'm happy to report that it's not all that long... except when it has to reseek, which doesn't happen often but it does happen. It's less than 3 seconds per load, but if there's a seek problem it becomes about 10 seconds or so. This happens with pressed discs sometimes too so it's more an issue of the hardware itself than the media it's running. Obviously pressed discs are more robust than CDRs, so the chance of reseek is going to be even lower then. Anyways, one of the issues that is going to take some tweaking is the palette snow issue... it doesn't happen during fades but it's happening right before the fades, which indicates to me that even *reading* the palette registers at the wrong time causes palette snow. This is really odd...
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: ParanoiaDragon on April 11, 2011, 02:11:37 PM
When you say pallete snow, if it's what I think it is, it seems like a really common problem. It'd be cool if it can be eliminated.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on April 11, 2011, 02:25:30 PM
Palette snow is when you do a palette operation at the wrong time and it produces stray, random pixels on the screen.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheOldMan on April 11, 2011, 04:54:16 PM
Quote
When you say pallete snow, if it's what I think it is, it seems like a really common problem. It'd be cool if it can be eliminated.
Quote
Palette snow is when you do a palette operation at the wrong time and it produces stray, random pixels on the screen.
Yeah, same thing happens if you access VRAM while screen is being displayed; you get random pixels and/or streaks of color. Best solution is probably to mark palette/vram buffer area as needing updated, and then doing the actual update immediately after a vsync. You have a few blanks lines there where it won't affect the display.
If you're really good, and can time things to the scanline; there's a small period at the end of each scanline where you can get away with updates, too. But timing updates then is really tricky...
BTDT. PITA.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on April 11, 2011, 07:38:15 PM
PITA indeed :D hehe
The sourcecode for MSR is pretty archaic nowadays... I did a lot of things back then that make me cringe now. One of the things I did notice is that there is no wait for vsync before accessing the palette, even for just a read, so that could be contributing to the snow effect. I've altered the source now, but I only have a few discs left so I'm gonna wait till more changes are made before doing another test burn. Tons of other things got fixed in the meantime though. :D And the one area which I feared was going to be loaded with snow issues... ended up being crystal clear despite the blatant palette abuse. :D I guess I got the timing right. :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Bonknuts on April 11, 2011, 08:14:15 PM
Quote
Yeah, same thing happens if you access VRAM while screen is being displayed; you get random pixels and/or streaks of color. Best solution is probably to mark palette/vram buffer area as needing updated, and then doing the actual update immediately after a vsync. You have a few blanks lines there where it won't affect the display.
Accessing vram during active display isn't going to get you snow or stretched pixels. You might get 'tearing' effect akin to early PC animation if the beam is somewhere in the area you're updating. If you're writing to the BAT, that's a different story. There's an 8 pixel dot clock the VDC divides access to for fetching BAT, tile planes, and cpu access (read/write). There's a dummy BAT read in there (marked as ??? in the docs). If you happen to change that BAT entry before it re-reads it (while it's onscreen), then you'll get a weird 8 tile pixel line with alternate colors. Other than that, you should be fine.
It's always better to chase the scanline/beam rather than race it anyways. Unless you're double buffering or writing to the BAT for offscreen areas, then it doesn't matter.
Quote
If you're really good, and can time things to the scanline; there's a small period at the end of each scanline where you can get away with updates, too. But timing updates then is really tricky...
If you're using your own clean hsync interrupt code, you can easily change up to 3 colors per line. Possibly 4 with a slight fringe on the overscan area of the left edge (clip it to 248 pixels wide and you'll be alright). Else, all other writes to VCE regs (color updates or not), cause the VCE not to read the VDC pixel bus and you get pixel stretching (last color on the VDC output) : . Might be something you want to do with timed code for an effect, or just want to avoid all together. Using cpu opcodes causes interesting jitter like in that video. But you can draw solid lines if you use the Txx instructions. Laser sprites and such ;)
An area of hblank is off limited to vram read/writes as it's fetching all the sprite pixels for that line. It's fairly short amount of time though. Accessing VDC regs are fine, but touching the data port (read or write) will halt the cpu for about 10+ cycles during this time.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on April 12, 2011, 04:00:15 PM
RACE THE BEAM. ATARI 2600 MODE ACTIVATE. GO GO GO.
Hey Rover, why didn't you just get CDRWs, lol. Just curious.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on April 12, 2011, 04:02:48 PM
Because CDRWs don't work for shit in the US Duo. Even my regular CDRs failed to work properly on this machine. Had it been an original TG-CD setup, then CDRWs might have worked... besides, the thing has enough reseek issues as it is, I don't need it causing more.
Of course, this is when you chime in with the "no no it works fine, everything is great, I do it all the time" bit. :P :lol:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on April 14, 2011, 11:13:37 AM
Well, I do use CDRWs, but in my Duo-R, lol. That thing could probably read a frigging brick if you managed to burn an image to it and spin it fast enough.
My TG-CD wouldn't read those for shit though.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Senshi on May 13, 2011, 08:52:45 AM
Is MSR still going to be made? I hope nothing bad happened. :(
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on May 13, 2011, 09:54:05 AM
Of course. The last audio cut went south though so we're still trying to get the opportunity to re-record, or to find someone willing to take up the task. If there's anyone around here who'd be willing to do professional voice-overs for a couple of characters, this is your chance.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on May 13, 2011, 11:37:38 AM
Of course. The last audio cut went south though so we're still trying to get the opportunity to re-record, or to find someone willing to take up the task. If there's anyone around here who'd be willing to do professional voice-overs for a couple of characters, this is your chance.
does screaming into a webcam mic count?
also, in all srsness, PM me the deetz sucka.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arjak on May 13, 2011, 01:29:30 PM
I'd be willing to give it a shot, too. I've done voice acting for games a couple times before, though the only project that is still on track for a release is SamIAm's LoX2 fandub. Send me a PM; I'll see what I can do.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on May 14, 2011, 09:01:19 AM
Messages sent. :dance:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on May 14, 2011, 09:08:02 AM
Workin on some voice now :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on May 17, 2011, 06:50:23 AM
Well, the voices are literally the only thing left to add. After they're mixed in and the cutscenes are assembled, the game's officially complete. :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Senshi on May 17, 2011, 11:11:01 AM
Sweet. :dance: If you decide you need more help than has been offered please let know.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: TheClash603 on May 18, 2011, 04:39:50 PM
Me too! I'd love to hear my voice in the game.
I used to do radio... so that must count for something.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on May 18, 2011, 04:42:29 PM
If I cant get my voice to fit this character just right, we might have to hit one or both of you up :P
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mathius on May 18, 2011, 05:33:59 PM
If I cant get my voice to fit this character just right, we might have to hit one or both of you up :P
What kind of character vocal are you looking for?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on May 24, 2011, 10:48:33 AM
Anyone have any luck with this yet? :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on May 24, 2011, 10:58:32 AM
I've got some stuff but Im not satisfied with it yet. Ill send you a sampling this week!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: DragonmasterDan on May 25, 2011, 02:46:19 AM
Old: If there's any you might need to re-dub PM me the details.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: _joshuaTurbo on May 25, 2011, 05:03:39 AM
maybe ask this fat idiot. He seems to do voices for a living:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on June 02, 2011, 04:14:51 AM
i'M STLL BUGGING MY FRIEND ABOUT IT
IM ALSO CAPSLOCK, LOL
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlueBMW on June 02, 2011, 04:46:06 AM
My voice sucks lol. I see the pic of the guy and I listen to my voice for him... yeah its just not feeling right. I've got a few more things to try though.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on June 02, 2011, 04:47:48 AM
Too bad Macho Man died.
he'd do it.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on June 19, 2011, 05:22:26 PM
A working Tiger voice was submitted and a working Ellia voice is on its way in early July so the roles have been filled. Thanks again to everyone who tried out for this. :)
Audio master 4 is now completed, only 4 left to finish. Masters 5, 6, and 8 will be completed this week, and 7 will be completed in July. Master 4 will be exported tomorrow, which will allow me to put it into the project and assemble the fourth cutscene. Once all 8 are assembled, that's it... the game is finished. :) All that remains past that is the translations, which are just a matter of inserting the scripts into the conversion utility, which takes all of 10 minutes so it doesn't even count as "work", hehe. :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: KingDrool on June 22, 2011, 04:37:33 AM
f*ckin' A! I'm glad that this game is going to be finished at last. Can't wait to play it!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on June 22, 2011, 10:59:12 AM
There definitely won't be any more games after this that take so long to complete, simply because now we have a solid, cohesive team with a common goal, and we've all refined our skills... and we have no plans to make any more RPGs anytime soon. :P
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: turbogrfxfan on June 22, 2011, 11:59:23 AM
when is this game comming out again?
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on June 22, 2011, 03:27:45 PM
I dare not set a date or it will just get changed again. We're just waiting on the last bit of audio now.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: turbogrfxfan on June 23, 2011, 09:23:25 AM
That's awesome. Can't wait to play it
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: BlackandBlue on July 01, 2011, 07:40:02 AM
Woo! Been looking forward to playing this for a looong time!
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on July 11, 2011, 05:00:42 PM
The final audio samples have been received; the final audio master is almost finished. All that remains is the final cutscene assembly, which will take approximately a week to bring to a close. After that's finished, we go to final beta, during which time the additional translations and remaining bonus content is added. We're going to test the hell out of this to bring it up to RC status. A conservative estimate is approximately one month from this moment to get to Gold status, though it may be a little longer depending on free time. Bottom line: aside from the remaining French translation (to which Armen is extremely fast and reliable for, so there's no worry), there are no more external resources required to bring this to a close... it all rests on myself and the beta testers now.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mathius on July 11, 2011, 05:21:19 PM
Counting the seconds Rovie! :D
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on July 11, 2011, 06:57:25 PM
Seven of the eight audio masters are now complete... the remaining one is for scene 5, which isn't complex or anything but it does have a lot of individual samples and requires some unique background music and structure so it'll take a few hours to finish. I'll be assembling the cutscenes this week, and with any luck, the game will be off to the beta team by Saturday.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nat on July 11, 2011, 07:11:25 PM
This is good news, this means we should see the game before the end of 2013.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on July 11, 2011, 07:36:20 PM
Finished master 5 long before the expected finish time... this means that all eight masters are now complete. Cutscene assembly... here I come. :)
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: nodtveidt on July 14, 2011, 12:08:54 AM
Just a quick heads-up... cutscene assembly is moving smoothly forward. Half of them are already done, working on the final scene right now. Prior scenes are more complex so I'm saving them for last. With any luck, the scenes will be finished by Saturday, or Monday at latest.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on July 14, 2011, 04:25:29 PM
This is good news, this means we should see the game before the end of 2013.
weve only got til 2012 and then the world blows the f*ck up!!! =O
HURRY IT UP GUYS
Oh man, he's right! I'll never beat the game in time! #-o Seriously though, take your time and get it perfect guys. Don't wanna have to slap in the disc for the first time and jump online with my Duo and find out I have to download a required update... :wink:
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on July 14, 2011, 05:24:06 PM
This is good news, this means we should see the game before the end of 2013.
weve only got til 2012 and then the world blows the f*ck up!!! =O
HURRY IT UP GUYS
Oh man, he's right! I'll never beat the game in time! #-o Seriously though, take your time and get it perfect guys. Don't wanna have to slap in the disc for the first time and jump online with my Duo and find out I have to download a required update... :wink:
YOUVE GOT BROADBAND MODEM AND PCE-NET CDROM?
LUCKY.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mishran on July 14, 2011, 06:07:00 PM
This is good news, this means we should see the game before the end of 2013.
weve only got til 2012 and then the world blows the f*ck up!!! =O
HURRY IT UP GUYS
Oh man, he's right! I'll never beat the game in time! #-o Seriously though, take your time and get it perfect guys. Don't wanna have to slap in the disc for the first time and jump online with my Duo and find out I have to download a required update... :wink:
YOUVE GOT BROADBAND MODEM AND PCE-NET CDROM?
LUCKY.
You don't? And you call yourself a PCE fan. [-X
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Arkhan on July 14, 2011, 06:44:12 PM
well I do have the Digitize Ray-30
so I can blast myself into the games themselves. I blasted myself into China Warrior earlier. We downed some Oolong tea and punched some sticks.
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Mathius on July 14, 2011, 06:48:43 PM
<<<Watches line form in front of Ark's house for Cosmic Fantasy 2 shower scene>>>
Title: Re: Win yourself 2 free copies of Mysterious Song :) Details inside...
Post by: Senshi on July 15, 2011, 07:58:41 AM