Hard 'n' Heavy improved, final update

[AtariZoll]

http://atari.8bitchip.info/SCRSH/hardnh.html
Floppy and more HD versions here:
http://atari.8bitchip.info/TestMe/HNH/HnH.html

Thanx to AtariCript for testing and finding smaller bug in STE scroll v. But recommended one is blitter based .
I did lot of new solutions in all it, including manual displaying on Atari. Yet, some other things pulled much more attention here
Would be good if someone could test it on TT.

[Atarieterno]

I tested in the TT the version containing the programs "RunmeBlt.TOS" and "RunmeOrg.TOS".
RUNMEBLT: loads the initial image and the music sounds for a few seconds, then 2 bombs.
RUNMEORG: black screen.

I have also tried the alternative version "HHLAU.TOS": after the menu with "Unlimited Life" and others options, black screen.

TT030 with 4 Mby ST-RAM and 256 Mby TT-RAM, CosmosEx with SD 4 Gby and HDDriver.

[AtariZoll]

Thanx for your tests. It is interesting - so on TT even music play at title screen works not. Then main game also stuck (with black screen) . While on Falcon it works well. Without TT will be very hard to trace down the cause.
Btw. you can't use blitter version on TT - it has no blitter chip. In case of Giana there is special TT version, with pure CPU scroll, because CPU is enough fast, Could be done with this game too, but first must make game to start on TT. Maybe I should look better music playback code ...

[Marakatti]

Excellent work once again! Many thanks

[Ragstaff]

Agreed, cool stuff yet again from you! I know it must take such a long time to disassemble, document the code to turn it back into some kind of "source code" and make these changes.

I have to confess I find all the different versions a little fractured. My thoughts (for you to ignore as you wish!) to reduce number of versions:

• I know you put work into doing the separate STE version but if the ST blitter fine scroll works on the STE, for us end users the result is the same, it's just the "how" is different. So is there a need to have separate STE versions available for download if the ST fine scroll version works?
  Or am I wrong and this version can't work so easily on Falcon, Mega STE etc?
• These days with internet speeds, hard drive sizes etc maybe you don't need the HD version without intro? Just have the one HD version with intro included
• For STE versions (which I questioned above, but if you need them) the STE is so easy to upgrade the RAM. I think I remember reading a survey in ST Format in the last years, even all the way back then something like 70% of STE owners had 4MB and 90% more than 1MB. So I don't think you need to worry about 512k version for the STE

[AtariCrypt]

Excellent work yet again Peter!!! This is 100000x better than the original game

[AtariZoll]

...
I have to confess I find all the different versions a little fractured. My thoughts (for you to ignore as you wish!) to reduce number of versions:

• I know you put work into doing the separate STE version but if the ST blitter fine scroll works on the STE, for us end users the result is the same, it's just the "how" is different. So is there a need to have separate STE versions available for download if the ST fine scroll version works?
  Or am I wrong and this version can't work so easily on Falcon, Mega STE etc?
• These days with internet speeds, hard drive sizes etc maybe you don't need the HD version without intro? Just have the one HD version with intro included
• For STE versions (which I questioned above, but if you need them) the STE is so easy to upgrade the RAM. I think I remember reading a survey in ST Format in the last years, even all the way back then something like 70% of STE owners had 4MB and 90% more than 1MB. So I don't think you need to worry about 512k version for the STE

Short answer would be: it is in TestMe section . I made different versions to be able to see what way is better for specific HW, to practice some coding.

Longer answer: I made first STE HW scroll version because it seemed as natural choice. But because upper part of screen is static it needed some extra coding to assure stable screen in all cases. STE HW scroll is not flexible - it works best for whole screen, and doing partial scroll of horizontal line is practically impossible with it. Doing part of screen vertically needs very good usage of Timer-B, and it makes some smaller slowdown.
Much later, months after STE HW scroll v. was done, I realized that for this game (and for Giana) blitter can be used, and that will not need any extra code for partial screen scroll.
Those diverse versions can remain in TestMe section. In main game (hard disk adaptations) section are only blitter scroll and non scrolling versions.
It was really not hard to make STE version to work with 512KB RAM - using system what I already developed earlier, so why not ? Actually, I just used code what done for non scroll version - and that works on ST too, of course.
Intro is special case. I prefer to have exact original game version always when it is possible. Intro, some extra music in game will be always as extra release.

Thanx for your thoughts, I think that you can understand now better my approach.

[Estrayk]

HNHSHD It WORKS in MegaSTE and Falcon perfectly. thx Peter.

[Eero Tamminen]

Would be good if someone could test it on TT.

Does it already work with Hatari's TT emulation, so that only testing on real HW is needed?

-> If something doesn't work on real HW, but works on Hatari, that should be reported to Hatari devs, so that it can be fixed.

[AtariZoll]

Does it already work with Hatari's TT emulation, so that only testing on real HW is needed?
-> If something doesn't work on real HW, but works on Hatari, that should be reported to Hatari devs, so that it can be fixed.

It works not in Hatari 2.0 TT emulation mode. The funny thing is that when I set CPU to 8 MHz, it immediately throws 2 bombs, screen remains white.
At 32 MHz screen becomes black, there is short disk access (probably HISCORE load), and then freezes.

[Eero Tamminen]

Hatari 2.0 had a bug in 68030 instruction cache emulation when using prefetch/CE mode. It would be better to test latest Hatari snapshot. Or with 2.0, try whether disabling cycle-exact / prefetch mode helps.

[AtariZoll]

I was able to find what causes game not working on TT, with help of Hatari 2.0.0 with console debugger. Some really weird, and I dare to say stupid PSG coding. Fix was easy - only that I needed some time to come back from shock
Here is simple v., may run from hard drive on TT, it is complete game, of course with fine scroll :

HNH_TT.ZIP

HAGA v. for TT very soon ... Just please test this on real TT .

[mrbombermillzy]

Hi Peter,

I tested the game on my real TT (4mb ST RAM) with and without cache as requested in the readme.

Cache on: works fine. Scrolling is very smooth and no problems.

Cache off: Apart from the expected slower pace, the lower ~2 bricks screen level and below would every second or two 'shudder' and the main character every now and then (2-3 seconds) seems to 'shimmer' (a bit like how old school games would have a blank frame every other frame to simulate transparency).

Hope this helps!

[AtariZoll]

Hi Peter,
I tested the game on my real TT (4mb ST RAM) with and without cache as requested in the readme.
Cache on: works fine. Scrolling is very smooth and no problems.
Cache off: Apart from the expected slower pace, the lower ~2 bricks screen level and below would every second or two 'shudder' and the main character every now and then (2-3 seconds) seems to 'shimmer' (a bit like how old school games would have a blank frame every other frame to simulate transparency).
Hope this helps!

Indeed helps. Thanx for testing. In Hatari, cache is not emulated much accurately (and that would be really very hard), so I did not notice that shimmering.
The reason is for sure slower draw, and then lower part of screen is not updated yet, while program switches that buffer to visible, so at low is old content, before last movement phase. Need to add some better syncing with V-blank. Or better just run it with caches on - if will be too fast may add some delays. Most important is that it finally works on real TT.

[Atarieterno]

Great job.
Thanks.