Baldies

[OmegaMax]

That's unfortunate as I played the dos version after trying this version and I really like the game.Even though there isn't really any game play against the cpu I did have some fun with this beta.

[OmegaMax]

Had a look through the code as I couldn't use the spade and now I know why.When it says not enough baldies to use the spade it has nothing to do with how many baldies you actually have.It checks how many enemies are active and then increases a counter,you need to leave a minimum of 3 enemies alive in order to get access to the spade.

 cmp.w #2,_nmeactivecount 
 bgt SpadeCheckContinue
 rts
SpadeCheckContinue:
 add.l #1,_spadeInactivecounter
 tst.w _spadeactiveflag
 bne MoreCode
 cmp.l #5000,_spadeInactivecounter
 blt MoreCode
 move.w #1,_spadeactiveflag

[OmegaMax]

Seems the amiga version is the most cut down version of the game,every other version had added extras to it.Interesting the amiga (Jaguar version?) has the baldies only moving in four directions as the other versions move the baldies in eight directions.I'm asuming the amiga version was only four directions as it was the earliest version of the game and the extra movement code was added to console version later.Because I really like the game I'll keep documenting the code and see what else I find interesting compared to other versions.

;------------------------------------
;State Baldie On Land (Baldie State 0)
;------------------------------------
BaldieState0: 
 sub.w #1,btimer(a0)            
 bpl Do_ControlBaldieMovement 
 cmp.w #70,bIdletimer(a0)           
 blt BaldieIdle
;------------------------------------
; Set Baldie New Movement
;------------------------------------  
 move.l #300,d7
 move.w d7,btimer(a0)         
 move.l #4,d7
 jsr Do_RandomNumber
 and.b #$3,d7
 move.b d7,_bDirection(a0)            
 move.b #0,_bAnimation(a0)
 move.b #8,d7
 jsr Do_RandomNumber
 move.w #$ff,d7
 jsr Do_RandomNumber
 bra BaldieState0
BaldieIdle:  
 bra BaldieIdleCont 
//Baldie Movement Directions


// _bDirection 0 = BaldieWalkingUp
// _bDirection 1 = BaldieWalkingRight
// _bDirection 2 = BaldieWalkingDown
// _bDirection 3 = BaldieWalkingLeft         
;------------------------------------
; Baldie Movement Control
;------------------------------------ 
Do_ControlBaldieMovement: 
 move.b _bDirection(a0),d0             
 beq BaldieWalkingUp    
 cmp.b #2,d0
 blt BaldieWalkingRight  
 beq BaldieWalkingDown   
 bra BaldieWalkingLeft   
;------------------------------------
; Baldie Walking Up (dir = 0)
;------------------------------------  

;Check Map Grid

BaldieWalkingUp: 
 move.w _bXPosition(a0),d0             ;Baldie X Position
 move.w _bYPosition(a0),d1             ;Baldie Y Position
 add.w #8,d0                           ;_bXPosition+=8;   
 add.w #14,d1                          ;_bYPosition+=14;
 lsr.w #4,d0                           ;_bXPosition/16 
 add.w d0,d0
 lsr.w #4,d1                           ;_bYPosition/16 
 lsl.w #2,d1           
 lea.l MapRowsAddressArray,a1                   
 movea.l (a1,d1.w),a1                  ;d1 = Map Row
 move.w (a1,d0.w),d2                   ;d0 is Column,d2 = MapTile 
 cmp.w #$b4,d2                          
 blt BaldieMovementUp                  ;If MapTile < Collison Tiles Data  
 cmp.w #WaterTile0,d2                   
 bge BaldieChangeDirection             ;Collison With Map Water Tiles Data
 movea.l a0,a1                         ;Baldie Linked list a0 -> a1
 move.w _bXPosition(a0),d0             ;Baldie X Position
 move.w _bYPosition(a0),d1             ;Baldie Y Position
 add.w #8,d2                           ;_bXPosition+=8;  
 add.w #14,d3                          ;_bYPosition+=14; 
 bsr Do_CollisionCheck                 ;Houses,Trees,Traps 
 cmp.b #1,d0                           
 blt BaldieMovementUp 






;--------------------------
BaldieChangeDirection:
 add.b #1,_bDirection(a0)       
 and.b #3,_bDirection(a0)

[OmegaMax]

If anybody knows a atari jaguar emulator with debugger support that could help me(I want to document that code).

Pixel art assets from the game would help,maptapper guys could help here.

[nujack]

It's really sad that the full version of that games was never released for Amiga. I had contact to the developer some years ago via ebay and he told me that the CD32 version was completed. He sold a Development-board there and I asked him some questions about that piece of hardware. I tried to contact him several times but he never replied.

[OmegaMax]

Thanks for the post nujack,some info you shared I did not know.I'm reverse engineering the code to recreate the engine for amiga.I'd like to look at the 68000 code from the jaguar.Do you know if the amiga CD32 version was the same as the Jaguar version?

[CodyJarrett]

Here's are the map tiles and map.

[OmegaMax]

Thank you Cody,very much appreciated

[OmegaMax]

I edit my post because most people are not interested in programming and games in this genre are very advanced.Thanks to Cody I can now start on a engine reimplementation with real assets.Stay tuned ..

[Reynolds]

Wonder how things are going on this one...?

[gimbal]

Recently I stumbled onto a Youtube channel "Accursed Farms" which does humorous but honest reviews of games that other channels don't necessarily touch, and lo and behold Baldies was among the games. I quite enjoyed watching this:

[ Show youtube player ]

If you check the comments, apparently one Larry Bundy Jr. bought the system that Baldies was developed on.

[Reynolds]

Maybe he has something remained from the game, like assets or source?

[nujack]

Originally Posted by gimbal

If you check the comments, apparently one Larry Bundy Jr. bought the system that Baldies was developed on.

I can remember that eBay-auction and didn’t purchased the item. But I was able to ask the seller what he was developing during that time on the dev-kit and he replied „Baldies“. He also told me that the game was finished for Amiga but never released. He still owns the complete game and might be release it some day. He never answered my questions again when I tried to motivate him to release it for the Amiga-community via eBay.

[nujack]

Attached is an Interview with the developer and Amiga-screenshots of the game. All I know is that the game was completed for CD32 but never released. I still have the conversation saved with the seller who seems to be Dave Wightman personally at this time.

[utri007]

Baldies seems interesting. Most of these kind of "not released" games are interesting only a historical point of view, as a game they are usually not so good.

Baldies is different, at least I think so.

[OmegaMax]

Firstly,Thank you to CodyJarrett for the map and assets,I could recreate the demo because of you're help and it helped me with the collision because I could view the dimensions of the assets and compare with the code.Your contribution was extremely helpful Thank you Cody.

Originally Posted by Reynolds

Wonder how things are going on this one...?

You're interested in this game as I am,I also like the game,it's different then other strategy games.I know how all the amiga demo is coded but that's not even close to the full version of the game.I've literally three choices,one I mentioned early on,reverse engineer the jaguar version(it was programmed in 68000),this would be my preferred way but it's impossible given the status of Jaguar emulation. Reverse engineer the dos version(I own a copy of this) this is not impossible but it's not the route I would choose to go(I'm not comfortable in programming in dos,we're talking 6 months+ to gain that knowledge and then the task of reverse engineer the game).Study as best I can the game logic by view (dos/jaguar) again not the route I really want but might have no choice.


Not exactly encouraging I know,but I'm going to list what we know about the game that I documented code wise.This might be encouraging to you.





1:We know how the logic(movement) of baldies/AI is coded and it visually looks the same on jaguar
2:We know how all collision is handled(baldies,and all structures and how they react to structures"trees,houses,water tiles,picked up by player,dropped by player,mover by player,dropped into a house,dropped into a tree,dropped into water, ect..)
3:we know how map tiles(water,ect..) are animated
4:We know how the hud logic works(choosing baldies,spade,ect)
5:we know how the trees logic works(baldies in trees,how their animated,ect)
6:we know how house structures works(baldies in houses,how their animated,how the move from room to room,ect)
7:We know how the spade can remove tiles and add tiles and which tiles should be added to the ram map so they can be animated.
8:we know how traps are spawned from the player and AI
9:we know all traps collision code
10:we know how structures advance(house upgrades,breeder houses,military houses,scientist house)
11:we know how many baldies per structure it takes to advance and how long(Continued from 10)
12:we know how AI builds houses(structures) and the criteria to build them

[OmegaMax]

Merry Christmas!

[OmegaMax]

Three months into my dos reverse engineer

[dlfrsilver]

Cool !!!!

[utri007]

Originally Posted by OmegaMax

Three months into my dos reverse engineer

Any change to release version or beta test?