Posted By
Emu
on 2016-08-17
20:01:36
|  Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Download link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xbn8fs13ot6d8k/Pentagram120.zip?dl=0
Pentagram C+4 Release Version 1.20
Based on the Atari 800 source code by Mariusz.
Hi everyone, we hope you like this Plus4 version of Pentagram.
Pentagram was the third and last Filmation V1 game released in 1986 by Ultimate on the Spectrum.
Mariusz did an excellent job of converting and optimising the original Z80 code to run on the 6502 for his Atari 800 conversion and I used his optimised 6502 source code and converted it to run on the C64/128 and now the Plus4.
The source code is included and you will notice the Z80, Atari, C64 & Plus4 code is all in there.
There are two versions included, standard TED sound version and a SID card version.
Use $FD40 with C64 clock for the SID card version. SID sounds are by Saul Cross.
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Posted By
KiCHY
on 2016-08-18
02:25:08
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Cool!
I also converted both earlier versions of this game to +4, bu I found bugs around the RNG and didn't release it. Good to see that Rod And Emu made a +4 version next to the C64 one  You made nice improvements since the previous versions.
I can't download the source from the site, somebody please fix it.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2016-08-18
02:37:18
 | Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Aaah you guys have just beaten us on time!  Some months ago I've informed KiCHY about this source code release, and he promptly did the conversion also fixing some bugs present in the previous sources, asking to me about some TED jingles and sfx. At that point, I've slowed down him, because it appeared clearly that the best choice for a good optimization would have been TEDzakker, a tool I (yes is a shame) didn't seriously tested yet (I've been into Knaecketracker for too much time, see The Lands Of Zador); moreover, we were quite taken by Crackers' Demo 5 at that time, and this game has been put on a short time hiatus.
Ported by the original supplier, is the best option btw, noone than Emu itself could have been able to port the perfectly debugged and optimized version, and the SID/TED double release, with the TED one playing a TEDzakker conversion of the original sound and the extra sfx by Saul Cross, has been a winning choice, truly congrats!
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Posted By
Emu
on 2016-08-18
07:45:12
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Thanks for your comments.
I'm sorry for not getting this release out sooner as I had it working on the plus4 some time ago, but I've just been too busy!
The bug with the rune generation was caused by the game writing a zero into one of the rune location co-ordinates after activating a well. This was fixed a while ago.
Anyway, I enjoyed making the plus4 version (it's the first time I've worked on the plus4) and thanks to Mariusz for his great 6502/Atari conversion and source code that made it possible. And thanks to Saul for the great SID sounds.
Thanks to whoever uploaded the game to this site but I've also got another download link if the dropbox one isn't working for you:
https://storage-eu.gmx.co.uk/qx/gmx_com/?locale=en&guestToken=1e1PRa1wQp2wV6WALANEBQ&loginName=rodandemu@gmx.com
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Posted By
Luca
on 2016-08-18
11:42:11
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Pretty nice work Emu, indeed! I've finished the game in order to see the ending, have to say it's a quite nice classic isometric game. On the Facebook's counterpart of Plus/4 World, you also gained some very kind and well desered words from Pigmy, who is one of the legendary game converting masters in the 90ies 
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Posted By
Emu
on 2016-08-18
13:47:44
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Thanks for the head's up re Pigmy's facebook post. He is correct of course, the Atari to C64 conversion took longer than the C64 to Plus4 conversion. As you would expect the two CBM machines are a lot closer to each other - in fact the display and blit code is almost identical between the two CBM machines.
I'm impressed you managed to complete the game so quickly! It took me a while to complete it even with cheats.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2016-08-18
16:58:34
 | Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
AAah, a very nice game! These were a very specific game type on Speccy, run very well. For a long time I think only Head Over Heels was the only one from this genre, but this one started to close the gap.
The release is very nice, and the intro music went for 15 minutes in the background, it was so relaxing.
While on C64 it is known that these isometric games typically to run slower than on Speccy, I think Plus/4 is up to the speed requirement. Because of my age, I even feel it a little too fast , but I am surely not an expert gamer.
BTW: maybe it is only me, but I feel that the TED intro music is ~50% faster, than the SID version.
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Posted By
Emu
on 2016-08-18
17:27:52
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
I don't think it was ever the case that the 6502 was too slow to run these type of games, the problem was that a lot of them were coded for the Z80 first and then quickly converted to the 6502 almost putting the 6502 into "Z80 emulation mode" rather than code it in a way the 6502 likes.
As this Atari/C64/Plus4 version of Pentagram proves, if programed correctly the 6502 was well up to the job.
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Posted By
Gaia
on 2016-08-18
19:11:02
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
wow, this is really really neat! And like most Spectrum games, bloody difficult
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Posted By
Mad
on 2016-08-19
14:47:06
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Awesome game.. I wonder how this fits into 64k .. Must be a very very good conversion since the performance is also very nice..
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Posted By
Luca
on 2016-08-20
07:53:15
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
I've just added the ending to the Pentagram's page.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2016-08-20
16:26:25
| Re: Pentagram (Ultimate Filmation Game) now available for Plus4
Semigod mode rocks
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