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jcompton
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 70 |
Release id #188012 : PSI-5 Trading Company +4D
The number keys 1-4 should be able to select a mission, but that doesn't seem to work. |
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jcompton
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 70 |
Quote: a) Okay, there is no more just 4 missions, but I will consider to fix that numbers .)
b) Yes, then - you missed it. It is just a small modification - you can call it 'easter egg' - nothing more.. It is of course no real egg if you are searching for egg. I don't think it must be visible for everyone on first run. So - did you get the cargo into the planete? Or the pirates stopped you? What was your mission to? Renlozen? Play it again and compare it carefully with and without c= key.
Oh yes, I did notice that I arrived on a very different planet, not Renlozen. Forgot that part.
But I have no idea how to unlock the new missions beyond the canonical four that you seem to be hinting at, and it would be nice if you'd help people who genuinely like this game figure out how to do that. |
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ϵʟʞ
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 26 |
Quoting jcomptonOh yes, I did notice that I arrived on a very different planet, not Renlozen.
So you have found an 'easter egg' part..
Quoting jcompton...figure out how to do that.
Use joystick instead of keyboard.. ;) (simply go more down to select the next one..)
I really don't wanna unhide all of my changes for everyone this way. I believe this is not so difficult to imagine how to make it.. There is another secret thing which stays hidden. But I believe that if you really like the game and will not stopping playing with the C= key (which is obviously my secret key) I believe that you will unhide the other secret that this release hides out. |
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ϵʟʞ
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 26 |
Thank you Krill for the great loader! It is the master piece!
Quoting Krill* I use to toy with the idea of adding a patch to SD2IEC firmware, but then always decide against it. =)
Please, if you will do so, don't make upgrade if it could take something out - I mean e.g. size, speed, etc. Then better name it with the different name like 'SD2IEC Krill loader'.
The loader is great as it is - including the on the fly decruncher! |
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Trurl
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 61 |
Quoting ϵʟʞThe loader is great as it is - including the on the fly decruncher!
True, but I wish more people would actually enable the kernal fallback support :P |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982 |
Quoting ϵʟʞThank you Krill for the great loader! It is the master piece! [...] don't make upgrade if it could take something out - I mean e.g. size, speed, etc. Then better name it with the different name like 'SD2IEC Krill loader'. Thanks for the praise! :)
Not sure if i made this clear enough. I meant upgrading SD2IEC-side code to support the loader, not the other way around. SD2IEC already comes with support for a few select fast/IRQ loaders and their custom protocols.
I was musing about adding support for this loader to SD2IEC firmware, without changing anything in the C-64/drive code.
Quoting TrurlTrue, but I wish more people would actually enable the kernal fallback support :P It does come with a fair bit of caveats by having to make ROM calls (including the code not touching associated zeropage/lowmem variables), and making sure that it actually works isn't trivial.
But i think there's also a common misconception that "KERNAL fallback" would actually be the old slow-load we know from an unexpanded machine.
In fact it's using the closest thing to a standard API for loading we have, and any kind of KERNAL enhancement (IDE64 with its DOS, JiffyDOS, ...) would work with it.
That is, you can have fast and even IRQ loading with KERNAL fallback being active, depending on whatever the machine brings in terms of non-standard KERNAL.
Quoting ϵʟʞThe loader is great as it is - including the on the fly decruncher! Thanks again! I'm in fact currently working on a new version. Added some fixes and speed improvements first, now i'm on to adding new decrunchers.
ZX0 and LZSA2 are very promising in both speed and pack ratio: locate Exo3 in this graph https://introspec.retroscene.org/compression/pareto_20210128.png and see how it relates to ZX0, then LZSA2. =D
The next thing on the list would be a (hiscore/savegame) saver plug-in, but not sure if it will make it into next release already or the one after that. |
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DKT
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 99 |
Hi.
The first most important thing was to speed up loading in this game and important was to choose a flexible, most compatible and small enough loader. The game uses almost all c64 memory. As I remember we used some stack space (the only available space after we put loader somewhere under $0400) to implement some translation jumps, so Krill's loader was a perfect choice (with NTSC compatibility enabled). The 3rd opportunity which we found during development was that we are able to put all on one disk side \o/
Saving option for the loader would be really appreciated and would be a gem for all crackers (I'm not the one, but I think the others would be very happy :)
Thanks Krill.
Cheers |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982 |
Quoting DKTSaving option for the loader would be really appreciated and would be a gem for all crackers The saver will probably be rather limited, as in it will probably not be able to create new files.
So i'm thinking of pre-existing hiscore or savegame files.
The saver would then overwrite those existing files with new data, with the overwritten files being as big (same amount of blocks, not necessarily bytes) afterwards as they were before.
The question now is if this would satisfy most or even all the regular saving requirements for games, and if not, what it should be able to do. |
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DKT
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 99 |
I think, overwriting existing file only should be enough in most cases |
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jcompton
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 70 |
The additional mission seems to be a way to smooth out the difficulty curve between missions 2 and 3 (or missions 1/2 from the three-mission version). Risk level was fairly modest throughout (I never saw it go higher than 10, and rarely had more than four ships on the scanner at any one time just by occasionally bouncing between course A and B when I wanted to quiet the fretting navigator). Perhaps useful for players who have been frustrated trying to make the transition to longer missions and just need more time in-flight to get their routines down, although the fact that the risk level stayed so low (it was down in the 0-3 range a surprising amount on course B!) might make it tricky to really push beyond and learn new tricks. |
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ϵʟʞ
Registered: May 2012
Posts: 26 |
Quoting DKTI think, overwriting existing file only should be enough in most cases
Hi my friend! And YES - I can imagine that it will be useful enough.
Reserving space on disk for saves then writing at this place.. It is what I will need to have for our next not yet finished release .) |
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