SlamCD32Pad

[BippyM]

Hey guys

As alot of you know i've been learning asm, and here is my first program (Well I say first, as Stingray helped me with a heck of a lot)..

This program allows the player to use a CD32 joypad with Slamtilt and works on the main menu and in game.

There are still limitations that I am working on fixing (No support for >1 player, not able to quit tables), but the point is to get some feedback on what is done so far

Instructions are included inside the lha archive, and it also includes what I plan to add

Thanks to Stingray is an absolute must as he has helped me with most of it, and helped me overcome and understand asm better

Thanks must also got Andre Barton. This program is based on his Slamtilt CD32 Pad patch, which unfortunately doesn't support the menu, so the game cannot be started.

Anyway test away, and i'd appreciate if someone could test on a standard cd32, and give me some feedback..

Thanks

Here is the readme

SlamCD32PAD v0.1b ©2007 Bippym & Stingray

This patch allows the use of a CD32 pad with slamtilt and is currently in its beta stage.
I will not be held responsible for any damage this program might cause to
you, your amiga or anything else. You use it at your own risk.


Currently the menu is patched and most of the game keys are patched to pad buttons, but there are a couple of keys that are not yet
patched.

The following keys are patched:

Main Menu:
----------

Up --> Joypad up
Down --> Joypad down
Select --> Red Button



In Game:
--------

Left Flipper - (Left Alt) - Left Shoulder Button
Right Flipper - (Right Alt) - Right Shoulder Button
Nudge - (Space) - Up on Pad
Left Nudge - (Left Amiga) - Left on Pad
Right Nudge - (Right Amiga) - Right on Pad
Special 1 - (Left Shift) - Yellow Button
Special 2 - (Right Shift) - Green Button
Pause - (P) - Play button
Launch Ball - (Return) - Down on Pad
Lores/Hires - (Del/Help) - Toggles Lores Hires - Red Button
1 Player - (F1) - Blue on Pad

Currently selecting more than 1 player and escaping out of a table is not supported
but is being worked on.


Instructions:
-------------

Simply copy the SlamCD32pad program into the same directory as Slamtilt
(The file GAME.EXE should be there)

To launch from WB copy the SlamtiltCD32, SlamtiltCD32.info and SlamCD32Pad into the
slamtilt directory and double click the icon from the game dir.

Please email all bug reports,suggestions to: Bippym@gmail.com giving me as much
information as possible (Amiga/CD32 specs)

Ensure that the game hasn't got an options file within its directory. If it
has then delete it. That is the prefs file to say the keys have been reconfigured, and will interfere
with this patch.


Todo:
-----

* Add support for >1 player
* Add Escape so we can quit a table (perhaps left mouse)
* Find an alternative to the requester, keeping mem to a minimum (shell/cli output)
* Make it WBStart (run from an icon aswell as cli)
* Have the game ignore the options file if it exists (patch loading to just rts) maybe
* Fix game problems when starting from a non-native display (waittof)
* Make it configuarble, so player can decide what buttons do what

Greetz & Thanks:
----------------

Thanks to Stingray, whom without his support and help would have meant this
wouldn't have happened.

Thanks to Andre Barton for his program SlamTiltExtraButtons which is where
the idea for my patch came from. Andre's patch only patched the ingame
keys, not the menu, meaning it was a pointless patch for CD32 users.

Thanks to anyone who beta tests this

[BippyM]

removed file.. found a serious(ish) bug

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by bippym

removed file.. found a serious(ish) bug

which one? haha

was pretty good to play once you sorted out the Pinball Illusions pad-layout Bipster.


regarding highscore entries: i am wondering what you or anyone else thinks is a good idea.

the best i can think, is that there is a "pre-set" name which is auto-entered on the highscore (read from a config file or something) - for example... "HH " - and then the red-button would be mapped to "enter" for that particualr moment, but a keyboard could be used (if its there) should someone want to change it.

building a "letter cycling" highscore entry sounds (to me) like a massive task.

oh, but lastly... any chance of saving to the NV ram?


thanks Bippy, this is going to make my mum really happy when its finished

[Zetr0]

you know thinking about this, I think you have touched on something thats a really good idea...

IF you had a joyprefs program that you can configure though say a gadtools frontend, where people can assign key / button presses to many events..

is it possible to have a generic model and an extended for certain games, like put in with the WHD packs?... imagine not only slave prefs but a joyprefs file to load and then one can easly edit the vaules.?

sounds cool bipstah... i look forward to seeing what asm mischeif you have mystically put-together..

i can see it now in leet forums across the web...

"yeah... yeah... but to realy appreciate it.... and ya score count... you need to use the bippy-standard"

hmmm..... looks like you plans for world domination is on track m8y

[BippyM]

For WHDLoad the patch needs doing from within the slave!

But there is no reason why a generic program could be created to do more games (tho it'd have to be system friendly games)..

If WHDload slaves supported the pad, then i'm sure a gadtools frontend could be written to edit a prefs file that the slave would load!

[Hungry Horace]

in the case of Slamtilt, might the simpliest way to add this to the slave, be simply to have the slave updated to support the cd32 patched version?

rather than updating the slave itself to do the cd32 mapping


i dunno, just guessing here!

[BippyM]

The slave does stuff that my patch doesn't (access faults etc) so the slave would need supporting or rewriting to accomodate my patch

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by bippym

The slave does stuff that my patch doesn't (access faults etc) so the slave would need supporting or rewriting to accomodate my patch

yip, thats what i was thinking. i would guess it would be easier to do that than re-do all the cd32 pad stuff in whdload as well... ("guess" is the important word here!)

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

yip, thats what i was thinking. i would guess it would be easier to do that than re-do all the cd32 pad stuff in whdload as well... ("guess" is the important word here!)

Well mosty the work is done, so it'd just be a case of adapting the slave for the code that is already tested (and nearly working )

[PaperMario21]

nice, keep us posted.
did anyone figured out how to play Slamtilt on non-expanded cd-32 yet?

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by PaperMario21

nice, keep us posted.
did anyone figured out how to play Slamtilt on non-expanded cd-32 yet?

i dont see any reason why this patched version, with the original HD installer, played from CD, shouldnt work.

I am guessing such a "disk" is the final aim of Bippys work here

im sure you could use the HD version from CD, but using an a4000 keyboard already.... never tried it myself though!

[BippyM]

My aim is to give Whitesnake a working cd32 pad emulation for Slam Tilt like he asked me 4 months ago

[killergorilla]

Nice work bip

Next up WHDLoad coding!

Oh and you'll probably wait another 4 months for Whitesnake to say thanks

[Hungry Horace]

i thought next up was Pinball Dreams CD32?

[BippyM]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bippym/ASM/SlamCD32Pad.lha

Bug I found fixed by Stingray.. I'll work on this again soon, i'm tired atm now i'm back in work!

[Hungry Horace]

most of this has been covered in private conv's etc. but hey, sometimes its nice to have a full list to "check off".

these are sort of strange mixture of bugs / feature-requests.


- "autofire" triggering on in-game controls (tapping any "nudge" button leads to near-instant TILT, whilst flippers make a really annoying buzz sound!)

- semi-unresponsive controls on menu

- space or LMB mapped to Red/start on title/intro screens

- needs patch for Pinball Illusions style pad layout, instead of the Thomas the Tank Engine Pinball layout! (pretty please)

- ESC key mapped to start whilst table is on demo mode (or similar) .... and y/n keys to red/any-other whilst it asks

- highscore name entry & "return" key conundrum to be solved (poss. solution above)

- Save / Load highscores (at least, if not options too) from NV ram

- option to output the splashscreen to lines of text for CLI usage. (there is unlikely to be a mouse plugged into the CD32 if the game is being run on standard machine with pads only... well - if my mum is playing anyway!)




hope you still know i love what you are doing though Bip

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

most of this has been covered in private conv's etc. but hey, sometimes its nice to have a full list to "check off".

- semi-unresponsive controls on menu

What exactly do you mean here? A slow down?

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

- needs patch for Pinball Illusions style pad layout, instead of the Thomas the Tank Engine Pinball layout! (pretty please)

Can you post the configuration for that very layout?

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

- Save / Load highscores (at least, if not options too) from NV ram

I'm sorry, but what has this to do with a CD32 pad patch? Emphasis on pad.

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by StingRay

What exactly do you mean here? A slow down?

exactly as i say... it is un-responsive.

sometimes you tap up/down and it doesnt move. maybe 85% of the time it works fine.

its the same on real a1200 and on winuae.

Can you post the configuration for that very layout?

Bippy has it, and already compiled the last version with mentioned layout. it was imho 200 times better than the Thomas the Tank Engine layout!

if you *insist* on knowing it....

Originally Posted by Horace on IRC, getting the layout as close to Pinball Illusions as possible

Left Flipper - (Left Alt) - Left on pad
Right Flipper - (Right Alt) - Blue Button

Nudge - (Space) - Red Button
Left Nudge - (Left Amiga) - Reverse Button
Right Nudge - (Right Amiga) - Forward Button

Special 1 - (Left Shift) - Up on pad
Special 2 - (Right Shift) - Yellow Button

Pause - (P) - Play button
Launch Ball - (Return) - Green Button
Lores/Hires - (Del/Help) - Toggles Lores Hires - Right on pad
1 Player - (F1) - Down on Pad

Originally Posted by StingRay

I'm sorry, but what has this to do with a CD32 pad patch? Emphasis on pad.

you can never have too much good stuff - remember; "contentment is the enemy of invention"

the point is, if you are going to bother patching the pad, so SlamTilt can run on a bog-standard cd32, you are going to want to save/load your highscores too.... ok, its not a "pad mapping" feature, but you cant argue its not related.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

exactly as i say... it is un-responsive.

sometimes you tap up/down and it doesnt move. maybe 85% of the time it works fine.

its the same on real a1200 and on winuae.

Ok, is there any chance to trigger that bug on purpose? Or does it happen randomly?

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

Bippy has it, and already compiled the last version with mentioned layout. it was imho 200 times better than the Thomas the Tank Engine layout!

if you *insist* on knowing it....

Hehe ok, didn't know there already was a version with that layout.

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

you can never have too much good stuff - remember; "contentment is the enemy of invention"

the point is, if you are going to bother patching the pad, so SlamTilt can run on a bog-standard cd32, you are going to want to save/load your highscores too.... ok, its not a "pad mapping" feature, but you cant argue its not related.

Point taken! Strictly speaking though, it's a completely different kind of patch. Adding this shouldn't be much of a problem.

[Hungry Horace]

unfortunately the menu bug isnt really reproduceable, although as far as i can tell.... it is happening all the time so shouldnt be too hard to notice if you just keep tapping up / down a fair bit.

seems more obvious on a joypad... i can imagine (though cant be sure) that with a keyboard map (hmm... winuae keyboard mapping to emulate a cd32 pad, which is patched to do keyboard commands... ) on winuae might not make it so easy to notice.


i also dont doubt that between you & bip, that you two have the skills to eliminate any problem i can find, or related-request i make!