MegaBall v4.0

[DamienD]

Heya guys,

In HOL this game is wrongly named "Megaball AGA 4.0".

It should really be "MegaBall v4.0"...

You've correctly mentioned that the game runs on AGA / ECS / OCS

The first screen you see regardless of chipset is:



When running on non AGA you see this screen:

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Yes V4.0 there are also versions v.3.3 and v.3.8, the game can be executed AGA and No-AGA (colors change).

1996 Michael P. Welch he did the sequel for PC titled DX-Ball, then again DX-Ball 2 (1998) and Rival Ball (2001).

[DamienD]

Cheers for the information my friend

...so really, the HOL page should be updated to just "MegaBall" and in the notes these versions added:

• v3.3
• v3.8
• v4.0

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Damiano there are also:

• v2.0
• v3.0

[Matt_H]

There was never a 3.3 or 3.8. If those are circulating, they're either mislabeled, leaked betas, or created by hackers. After 3.0 (which was semi-officially called Megaball AGA even though a non-AGA mode was available), the next version was 4.0.

2.1 and 2.0 were the two preceding major releases. The history doc mentions some 1.x versions as well.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

There was never a 3.3 or 3.8. If those are circulating, they're either mislabeled, leaked betas, or created by hackers. After 3.0 (which was semi-officially called Megaball AGA even though a non-AGA mode was available), the next version was 4.0.

2.1 and 2.0 were the two preceding major releases. The history doc mentions some 1.x versions as well.

No, see screenshot (The history Megaballv3.8.guide)

[Matt_H]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

No, see screenshot (The history Megaballv3.8.guide)

That line is absent from the history in the documentation included with 4.0. It's full of spelling and grammar errors and doesn't sound like the authors' style of language. I'm 99% certain it was added by a hacker/pirate for the version he was distributing.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Yes it can be, however it is something to be preserved for history

[Matt_H]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Yes it can be, however it is something to be preserved for history

That's fair. It should just be noted that it is a hacked/pirated/unofficial version.

[James]

Originally Posted by DamienD

You've correctly mentioned that the game runs on AGA / ECS / OCS

It also works on RTG, so I can play it in "AGA mode" on my A1500...

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by James

It also works on RTG, so I can play it in "AGA mode" on my A1500...

It works well RTG preferably performed by dedicated fil "MegaBall4.Gfx.AGA".

On Aminet of Megaball4 there is a Patch that resolves issues with the cd.device. On some systems using IDEFix and/or the atapi.device will prevent Megaball4 from running correctly. It usually fails just after the ingame options. This patch simply prevents the cd.device from being loaded.

MegaBall4-Fix

[DamienD]

Thanks to whichever HOL team member updated the MegaBall v4.0 page

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

1996 Michael P. Welch he did the sequel for PC titled DX-Ball, then again DX-Ball 2 (1998) and Rival Ball (2001).

None of those are "sequels", they are games inspired on Megaball. The screenshot of DX-Ball you posted yourself clearly describes it as such too.

Should NOT be included in HOL info.

[chip]

About the inclusion in HOL, what kind of games are taken in consideration ..... ALL kind ?

I mean, a little game that i can find, for example, in an Assassins game disk compilation, would be considered or refused ?

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Akira

None of those are "sequels", they are games inspired on Megaball. The screenshot of DX-Ball you posted yourself clearly describes it as such too.

Should NOT be included in HOL info.

Akira you are little informed DX-Ball it's a Sequel in all respects, DX-Ball was created on AMiGA, the graphics were made Brilliance 2, also full MOD Music Sound Track was created on AMiGA, HERE and HERE all info.

Quote review

The Amiga computer's tribute to the famed Scorched Earth artillery game is finally coming to the PC

After all these years, Blitwise is still going strong! Its founder and president, Michael P. Welch, is the game developer who created Scorched Tanks for the Amiga, and later DX-Ball and Super DX-Ball for the PC and Mac. In May 2000, at Mike's request, I translated some old 68k assembler code from MegaBall's board editor, just the board-loading function by itself, into the slightly-more-modern C programming language.

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by DamienD

In HOL this game is wrongly named "Megaball AGA 4.0".

It should really be "MegaBall v4.0"...

Thanks for the heads-up Damien!

Originally Posted by DamienD

...so really, the HOL page should be updated to just "MegaBall" and in the notes these versions added:

• v3.3
• v3.8
• v4.0

Not quite. MegaBall V4.0 was commercial, while all previous releases were shareware/PD. MegaBall AGA v3.0 was distinct from MegaBall V1.x/V2.x because it introduced AGA support (along with a name change on top of the OCS/ECS version) and a bunch of other cool features.

I'm tossing up atm whether to add another HOL entry to cover MegaBall V1.x/V2.x (first released as PD before going shareware). Will probably have to meditate some more on that one......

Anyway, for those interested, here's the new HOL entry for MegaBall AGA v3.0. Enjoy!

http://hol.abime.net/6260

[Matt_H]

@ DrBong

Thanks for the update! Still a few issues/comments on the MB 3.0 page:
-3.1 may also be a fake/hacked version (unsure). It is not referenced in the history section of 4.0's documentation. I have a legit registered version of 3.0, which includes the board editor and a separate disk of music.
-The unregistered version of 3.0 is on Aminet: http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/MegaBallAGA .
-Number of max players = 2.
-Screenshot #1 is not the ECS title screen. The font is incorrect and details in the upper right of the screen are missing. It should also say "non-AGA" next to the logo in dark red text. It may be from a hacked version.
-Screenshots #2 and #7 have the same erroneous font.
-Screenshots #6, #8, and #9 are running on systems that are missing MegaBall.font (in which case it falls back to topaz/8).
-Screenshots #3, #11, and #12 are not actually screenshots. They are layouts of the game's graphics that were included in the 4.0 source code release. They may be better suited for the Gamemap or Miscshot tabs under the 4.0 entry (several of the bricks in those graphics were only introduced in 4.0).

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

Thanks for the update! Still a few issues/comments on the MB 3.0 page:

It's still very much a WIP atm and needs a lot more elbow grease (and fact checking!). Don't worry, I'll get to it along with the MegaBall 4 update when I'm not so pressed for time.

-3.1 may also be a fake/hacked version (unsure). It is not referenced in the history section of 4.0's documentation. I have a legit registered version of 3.0, which includes the board editor and a separate disk of music.

Nah, V3.1 looks to be legit. I came across a website where the guy had regged it and he stated that the only difference from V3.0 besides the titlescreen was the inclusion of a 2nd disk in the form of the music disk (which previously had to be regged separately). I'll have to make that clearer in the HOL notes. Incidentally, the V3.0 docs makes it pretty clear that the music disk wasn't part of the game and had to be registered separately for $5 (click "More boards, anyone?" ---> "Yes, I played it...." buttons in the AmigaGuide docs).

-The unregistered version of 3.0 is on Aminet: http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/MegaBallAGA.

Yep, I know. Will add that along with links to the regged versions of V3.x, given that the Mackey brothers made all versions of MegaBall open source/freeware a few years ago.

-Number of max players = 2.
-Screenshot #1 is not the ECS title screen. The font is incorrect and details in the upper right of the screen are missing. It should also say "non-AGA" next to the logo in dark red text. It may be from a hacked version.

Thanks! Yeh, I spotted those errors too and need to fix them. The correct OCS/ECS titlescreen is actually sitting in the same folder as the hacked one on my HD. Need to use separate folders for the different versions of MegaBall methinks.

-Screenshots #2 and #7 have the same erroneous font.
-Screenshots #6, #8, and #9 are running on systems that are missing MegaBall.font (in which case it falls back to topaz/8).

I don't think the font issue is a big deal as it's fairly clear from the docs that the developers were happy for people to customise stuff like music, file requesters, fonts etc. in MegaBall to enhance their gaming experience. The alternate fonts shown in the screenshots aren't outrageously different. Besides, I can't be arsed re-ripping those screens at this point in time (sorry)! TBH I really need to make more screenshots and more varied ones (and have a good look at the board editor!), but I'm a bit time-poor atm.

-Screenshots #3, #11, and #12 are not actually screenshots. They are layouts of the game's graphics that were included in the 4.0 source code release. They may be better suited for the Gamemap or Miscshot tabs under the 4.0 entry (several of the bricks in those graphics were only introduced in 4.0).

Yeh, I right and royally screwed that up and upped the gfx layouts for the wrong version of MegaBall. Yep, I snaffled them from the V4.0 source code archive too. Screenshot #3 would've made a nice AGA loading screen (or alternate titlescreen) IMHO, and I just assumed that it was used in V4.0 since it was in the source code archive. The irony is that I managed to nab an original copy of MegaBall 4 for not much off Ebay a few weeks ago, but I've only had time to give it a quick test boot and haven't actually investigated the game itself yet.

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback! Keep an eye out for more HOL updates of MegaBall in the weeks/months to come.....

[AMIGASYSTEM]

MegaBall v2.0: It is not a new version, the author Ed Mackey a couple of days ago posted on Aminet a complete archive of his famous MegaBall Game v2.0, including some board files that he never distributed, to activate them just press the ALT-L keys on the main screen. These files are not mentioned in the doc because the author did not think to distribute them.

MegaBall v2.0:: Download

[Matt_H]

I was the one who uploaded 2.0
I’ve had the registered version forever but only found the shareware release again yesterday. I thought it needed to be shared for the reasons stated in the upload readme (plus general preservation principles).

Edit: The board files Ed Mackey mentioned were included in later versions. They’re not “new” (although they were new at the time of the original release).