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Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 2:22 pm
by rainwarrior
Had not tried with the zapper (I don't have a CRT, and when you said "trigger" i thought you just meant the in-game trigger).

Tried it now. No problems in 1 player mode, but in 2 player mode if I pull the zapper (in port 2) trigger when it's player 1's turn, I get severe graphical corruption. Looks like nametables are messed up kind of randomly, and also the CHR banking gets changed.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 9:38 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
Here's an update to the rom:
RussianRoulette.nes
(288.03 KiB) Downloaded 710 times
The main issue I've noticed now (on my side at least) is that the zapper trigger doesn't always register a trigger pull in-game. Let me know what other issues you run into. Thanks everyone!

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 11:49 pm
by rainwarrior
I don't see any graphical problems with the zapper anymore, but the trigger is really unreliable. I might have to pull it 10 times just to get the shot to fire.

You might take a look at how Duck Hunt or other games read the zapper trigger. There's usually some kinda debounce filter going on.

I wrote some Zapper test ROMs a while ago when I wanted to know what kind of signals you get from the zapper. It's a bit of a mess, really.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 10:57 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
Are those test roms open source?

They seem to work fine:

zapper_light.nes makes a buzz whenever the zapper is aimed at the white space (with precision) and sometimes goes off a little when I wag the lightgun at my bright, flourescent lights

zapper_trigger.nes is very interesting! The buzz goes off when the trigger is partially pulled (there is an audible click in the zapper itself), but the buzz stops when the trigger is completely pulled. (I didn't know the lightgun could do this.) Is this how the test is supposed to work?

Edit: Oh yeah, thanks! :oops: :)

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 12:23 am
by rainwarrior
I can't seem to find the source, but as I recall both ROMs just continually poll either the "light" or the "trigger" bit; if set it flips the value written to $4011 (buzz) and waits until the next NMI to start polling again.

Yes the trigger starts to signal on about halfway into a pull, and it turns off somewhere roughly on the "zap", and there's a lot of bounce/noise at either transition. (Slow pulls are particularly bad.)

There's also no way to distinguish half pull then release from pulling to "zap". Either way counts as a shot, generally.


Edit: I found the source, cleaned it up a little and posted it in that thread.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 7:59 pm
by darryl.revok
Is this going to be a Compo entry? I was thinking so since you linked it from the Compo planning thread.

Just thinking this could be moved into the Compo 2016 subforum.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 8:46 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
darryl.revok wrote:Is this going to be a Compo entry? I was thinking so since you linked it from the Compo planning thread.

Just thinking this could be moved into the Compo 2016 subforum.
Sure, that would be splendid.

Here's the latest update.
RussianRoulette.nes
(288.03 KiB) Downloaded 773 times
I'm getting graphical glitches again; this time horizontal bars in certain tile spaces. Anyone else noticing these?

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 9:33 pm
by thefox
Jedi QuestMaster wrote:I'm getting graphical glitches again; this time horizontal bars in certain tile spaces. Anyone else noticing these?
Where are you running it?

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 9:52 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
thefox wrote:Where are you running it?
On a PowerPak.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 10:02 pm
by thefox
This diagnostic from NDX might be a clue:

Code: Select all

Warning: Writing to $2007 while PPU is rendering (PC = $EBFA)  (further messages suppressed)
(Appears when the DEMO mode starts.)

There was/is a glitch in most PowerPak mappers causing PPU writes during rendering (which signifies a bug in the program 99.9% of the time) to leak through to PowerPak's CHR-RAM chip. Details at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11339.

I worked around the glitch in PowerMappers v23 (at https://kkfos.aspekt.fi/), but naturally this is something that's better fixed in the game itself.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 2:03 am
by calima
ebfa is inside the NMI routine, specifically _flush_vram_update in neslib. The first update which loads the gun writes about 55 bytes to the nametable, which should be well below the 160 bytes recommendation even with the general overhead.

The normal frame code likewise doesn't get even close to overdoing a frame, it stays below 1/5 with occasional spikes to 1/4.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:41 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
thefox wrote:I worked around the glitch in PowerMappers v23 (at https://kkfos.aspekt.fi/), but naturally this is something that's better fixed in the game itself.
I used to have those! :o Okay, thanks. I'll try it out when I have time.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 11:06 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
I tried out the ROM with PowerMappers v23 and don't see graphical glitches anymore.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:04 pm
by Jedi QuestMaster
Is there anyone out there willing to help out solely with the Zapper functions? I'd need someone who knows how to program and has the hardware to test it.

Re: Russian Roulette [Testers Needed]

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:08 pm
by lidnariq
Remind me what exactly it is you need done with the zapper? Just the bit where it's missing the trigger?