Posted By
MikeDX
on 2015-07-13
19:14:49
|  Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
I'm having some (possibly rose tinted) memories of exorcist being somewhat easier to control than it is currently.
Using the exorcist prg from this site (the first link) - and choosing level 1 and Keyboard controls, the game becomes a complete mess of frustration as your up down left right keys randomly move in the wrong directions.
For instance, moving to the lower left corner approaching from the right, and pressing up expecting to go UP, you actually go LEFT!
Anybody else?
..
anybody?
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2015-07-13
21:25:46
 | Re: Games - Not as I remember it!
Maybe the thread should be retitled "Games - Not as I remember it!"
I personally always found Exorcist not to be the easiest games anyway. But I remember Dork's Dilemma feeling slightly easier 30 years ago. Today, occasionally when I enter a new screen, I am automatically hemmed in by 2 creatures with no possible route of escape leading to my untimely death of all my remaining lives. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2015-07-13
23:57:13
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
I remember having Plus/4 cursor key issues with Exorcist when the game was new-ish...
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Posted By
MIK
on 2015-07-14
06:28:30
 | Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
On a Commodore 16 you would have issues with the cursor keys... 
I just tested it in Yape on cursor keys and it plays fine.
Here's the trick, as with most Pac Man games the secret is to direct the character to change direction in advanced and not when on top of the corner. Try that any way as I finished a couple of screens fine.
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Posted By
MikeDX
on 2015-07-14
07:32:46
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
Changing direction too early seems to make the problem even worse
As a child in the 80s I could easily clear 80%+ of level 1 and don't recall having such awful control problems
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2015-07-14
08:58:03
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
It's been some years for me as well for this one, but I tried it just now. I cleared the first level easily (died twice, but it was because the ghosts trapped me fair-and-square). It was in YAPE on a fairly fast PC. I'm guessing this all has to do with the "rhythm", perhaps if you practice a bit more, you'll get into it once again.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2015-07-14
17:44:21
 | Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
The age and the reflexes. There is some correlation. I know, I am at age 42, my boy at year 8 have better lap records in Forza4 than me (with my best efforts). 
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Posted By
MIK
on 2015-07-15
07:16:10
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
MikeDX,
I just had a closer look at Yape and have managed to recreate the problem your getting and I'm sure Csabo will get the same thing... It's a fault with the game.
Looking at the "Input" settings of what I had yesterday I had Joy1 mapped to "Cursor keys" and Joy2 mapped to "None", when I selected keyboard controls with-in the game it's self it played perfectly.
As soon as both Joy1&2 are set to "None" it then starts messing around, like Up might go Left sometimes or Down might go Right now and then ect... It's not you but the game, just as people have noticed in the past.
I just double checked on a real Plus/4 and yeah the problem on cursor keys is there too...
Maybe you can patch your emulator for that one game to set joy1 to use cursor keys & joy2 to use none. I might work ok then like Yape can be tricked to do it.
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Posted By
MikeDX
on 2015-07-15
15:37:11
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
MIK - Thanks for your help on tis to try to resolve it, I'm glad it is not just y tired old eyes and slower than cat like reflexes..
so I did a little experimentation of my own:
I tried the game again, in the emulator, but the only difference was to press "J" instead of "K" at the start game screen:
the result of that game is here
Exorcist playback 1
Now, as you can see, this game played fairly well.
HOWEVER!
IF I change the recorded input, and force a virtual K instead of a J - what do you think happens?
I would expect it to cause the control issues. However, it did not!
So now, I'm none the wiser. Is there an issue? Is it just a bug in exorcist that nobody really understands?
The mystery continues!
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Posted By
MIK
on 2015-07-15
16:15:28
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
One thing I'm sure we can say for sure is that the game was NOT coded on a C16 else the keyboard controls would not be mapped is such a strange way.
Just guessing from what we know...
I see Harbour Attack again from 1984 which is also by Greg Duddle is joystick only, so is Treasure Island. Maybe it's a bug he never found and later ignored, or he had a 232 at the time as Treasure Island is 32k. Maybe a Plus/4 handles the cursor keys differently from a 232?? His 1987 game Aliens is fine on keyboard though...
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Posted By
Sidney
on 2015-07-16
11:34:12
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
I always play this with a joystick as with keys it drives you bonkers. Great little game though.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2015-07-16
13:20:01
| Re: Exorcist - Not as I remember it!
Yeah most people did back in the day in the UK as it came bundled with Plus/4's which thankfully also came with a joystick haha! None the wiser until now.
Indeed a classic and the music is very catchy too. If you look on the Exorcist page about half way down your find an MP3 remix that Csabo did of the tune, it's very cool.
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