BoneCruncher: a resurrection tale

[ross]

Hi folk, a 'new' old game ported to new life:



All begin in this thread http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=50538
Bonecruncher is not really famous but can be very challenging and has his fans

An original is unavailable and it could no longer be foundable.
The existing versions are bad/malfunctioning/incomplete.

So I collected the various parts available and I completely rebuilt the game.
Logically now is working on all Amigas and contain a decent trainer mode.
Technicality of what I've done is on mentioned thread (I've rewritten a ton of code )



At intro picture use:
- joy button for a normal start;
- left mouse button for trainer;
- right mouse button toggle pal/ntsc.

If trainer option is selected, the followings are active:
- in password requester (F1), you can select start level number;
- Bono infinite lives;
- Bono's friend infinite lives;
- F9 skip level.

Normal keys during game:
- F3 restart game
- F5 kill Bono
- F7 pause



Works from KS1.2 512KB and up, download from the Zone! and Enjoy!
Thanks to Retroplay for the betatest and to phx for a PhxAsm collateral effect
And thanks to all supporters, friends, geezer and old farts from this fabolous board

[Galahad/FLT]

Nothing else to say

[Asman]

Yeaaaaah
Thanks a lot.

[DamienD]

Nice one as always my friend

...now, when are you going to fix "Shadow Warriors"? Pretty please; with sugar on top

[ross]

Originally Posted by DamienD

...now, when are you going to fix "Shadow Warriors"?

mmh, "Shadow Warriors"? I do not remember .. what is this game?

Well, seriously, this deserve a precise response.
The real challenge in this game was the dynamic loader that is a nightmare to transpose to ADF.
Many failed in the past (see all versions existing) or simply reverted to an MFM format.
Practically the game is no more fluid but 'stutter' sometime (I do not go into too much detail, but it is due to the fact that the tracks are not divided into sectors in the original, loading format is streamed and packed, and there is no chip memory left).
There is also a bad interaction between IRQs and video refresh, so sometime music handler can fail and 'desync'.

When with some acrobatics I solved the problem(s), I relaxed and I thought about building a cracktro/intro around it, even using graphics taken from the arcade
(I also had in mind how to do it and the effects to use).
The rest is history: I did other things, I forgot, I postponed, I forgot, I completed something else, I forgot ...
And write a cracktro is time consuming...which unfortunately, for the many commitments, I do not have (I'd still like to be sixteen ).

I should go and get the situation back, hoping to remember something
I only know that I had created a hybrid test environment, which used WHDLoad as a basis for system management and then load the various data from floppies
(yes, I know, it seems a contradiction, WHDLoad should do the exact opposite, but everything worked just fine).

Practically what was left to do was bring the 'system handler' on floppy.
Also the trainer, for what I remember, it seemed to me almost complete. I'm sure because I've tested and played the game through the end

[Nova]

thanks a lot @ross, brings back childhood memories

[Crown]

HI Ross,

Thanks for all you do for the Amiga community.

I am sure that Yragael (Denis) would be more than happy to help you with the cracktro. He's a master at it.

Take care

[Superman]

Brings back memories of my BBC Micro.

[malko]

and respect

[Retroplay]

Stellar work.

[Aladin]

Thanks, good job

[4pLaY]

Congrats and thanks for taking the time .

[TjLaZer]

Your game seems to hit the hardware hard! When I try it on a PAL A1200 and try to force the screen to NTSC, it refuses and boots to PAL. Works fine on native NTSC hardware though, so thanks for that!

[ross]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Your game seems to hit the hardware hard! When I try it on a PAL A1200 and try to force the screen to NTSC, it refuses and boots to PAL. Works fine on native NTSC hardware though, so thanks for that!

Yes, I chose to be decision-making


I take this opportunity to thank everyone for the support and appreciation!

[TjLaZer]

Is there a reason your game forces the machine into PAL? Can the game just boot to it's native mode that way if we want it to be NTSC or PAL just boot into the mode? If machine has ECS+ it always boots into PAL, even on NTSC machines. On my OCS 1000, it does boot into NTSC (cuz it can't do PAL)

[ross]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Is there a reason your game forces the machine into PAL? Can the game just boot to it's native mode that way if we want it to be NTSC or PAL just boot into the mode? If machine has ECS+ it always boots into PAL, even on NTSC machines. On my OCS 1000, it does boot into NTSC (cuz it can't do PAL)

You will have noticed that the loader recognizes perfectly if it is in a PAL or NTSC machine (my stamp is aligned on right low corner in every case).
But the game was programmed for PAL territories and the speed of game and music with this 'tempo' in mind.
So I added the option to switch to NTSC but only by a deliberated choice, by right mouse button in intro (all the 'tempo' in game are changed and it's not as it was meant).
Yes, this require an ECS AMIGA, but anyway you can play on OCS NTSC (by the only HW available option, the same forced choice as OCS PAL).

Ok ok, I was a bit despotic

[TjLaZer]

Made a WHDload of this, in the zone! Tested on A600 Vampire and A3000 NTSC 030. Works well. Even the switching from PAL to NTSC.

[ross]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Made a WHDload of this, in the zone! Tested on A600 Vampire and A3000 NTSC 030. Works well. Even the switching from PAL to NTSC.

A few days ago this very rare game as being released to the community by DrBong (Thanks ), and as Retroplay noted the original suffers anyway of some annoying glitches
https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=32

So the interesting thing is that this version is the only fully working, like probably the original programmer wanted

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

Made a WHDload of this, in the zone! Tested on A600 Vampire and A3000 NTSC 030. Works well.

Works beautifully on A1200/030, but crapped out on an 040 machine here when I tried it a while back.....which suggests that it needs an official WHDLoad patch with a dedicated slave to work under all Amiga configurations.

Ross (), do you have time to make an official WHDLoad patch for the game please? You said in post #5 that you used WHDLoad in the making/testing of your Bone Cruncher rebuild release, so I'm hoping that it won't be too much time and effort to create a proper WHD patch (with the trainer options, if possible). Hai tempo per favore?

Originally Posted by ross

A few days ago this very rare game as being released to the community by DrBong (Thanks ), and as Retroplay noted the original suffers anyway of some annoying glitches
https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=32

So the interesting thing is that this version is the only fully working, like probably the original programmer wanted

Sure he did, but the original coder also appeared to me in a dream and told me that he wanted an official WHD patch that works on all Amiga configs too for completeness!

[ross]

Originally Posted by DrBong

Sure he did, but the original coder also appeared to me in a dream and told me that he wanted an official WHD patch that works on all Amiga configs too for completeness!

Well, I hope I still have all the test bench I used, I have a little bit of confusion between my files..

And then I have to finish other things otherwise they lynch me