Moonstone - WHDLoad

[ztronzo]

This was is my first WHDload.slave compile attempt to add some missing features from the original Moonstone game

I have downloaded the original slave source code and I am manipulating it to add the extra features

1. 4-player adapter support
   1. The original game used a joystick in port 1 for each player turn in hot-seat mode, and required a 2nd joystick in port 0 only when 2 human knights battled each other. The defending player had to use the 2nd joystick (port 0/mouse) and attacking player had to use the main joystick (port 1).
   
   The idea for this patch is to allow 4 players to play using their dedicated port via a 4-player parallel port adapter to control only their own knight, so there is no longer need for controller port switching during knight duels and no player can interfere with an other player's control when its not their turn (as it happens during the map movement since there is no cut-scene during player switch).
   
   
2. Disable illegal controller movements (up+down, left+right etc.)
   Players using emulation or custom controllers, can easily send movements that a normal joystick would not be able to send, as example up+down.
   This would cause unpredictable effects to each game. In Moonstone it causes the player to move outside the playfield or warp speed.
   
   While most non-Amiga emulators have options to counter for this, the Amiga emulators do not (assuming because of required mouse inputs).
   

[ztronzo]

My assembly knowledge is at its infancy, but despite this I managed to patch most of the game and we did play a tournament online with 4 players using my compiled version of a pre-mature slave patch (which is already available in AmigaLive)... it worked out well, but now its time to counter all bugs by creating a better code and continue this project to completion so that it can also be shared and run on real hardware.

I may just need a few pointers from capable 68k Assembly coders, therefore created this thread to see if anyone is able to give me a helping push whenever I get stuck due to lack of knowledge.. issues arise to me that are probably common knowledge to the everyday ASM coder. (I often lose days every time I get stuck due to improper use of syntax code and experimentation) I use Barfly 2.0 as a compiler.

[jotd]

create a mantis issue on whdload.mantis.de and attach your source. Someone will merge it into an official release of the slave.

[ztronzo]

Originally Posted by jotd

create a mantis issue on whdload.mantis.de and attach your source. Someone will merge it into an official release of the slave.

it is my first touch in assembly compiling, a real coder will be disappointed in the way I started working on it.. I am learned from my mistakes though...

I can submit but its far from ready, actually broke it with some last changes/tests and it is still a work in progress... although the main features of the code could be useful if I can collaborate with someone knowledgeable to continue on it..

[ztronzo]

I will submit once I have it in a better state :-)