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Posted By

indi
on 2005-12-20
10:29:34
 Game Cracks

I have found a couple of games that refuse to run on real hardware, but run fine under emulation. I take it cracks tend to use undocumented instructions that "might" not be there on the real machine.

Can anyone else confirm that Commando for the C16, and Twin Kingdom valley work okay on their systems.

Although I do realise that its machine dependent.....

Posted By

Ulysses777
on 2005-12-20
12:25:38
 Re: Game Cracks

They work fine if transferred over by disk, but not with the uploader proggy.

About Twin Kingdom Valley, I presume you were referring to Crown's version, as the original worked both ways for me. (Except for the border on the original,which is left as the boot.prg flashing effect leaves it)

Posted By

indi
on 2005-12-21
14:51:06
 Re: Game Cracks

Yes, its crowns one.

Yeah... the thing is, I copied the loading code from Minus4 (where it works) to the uploader, and it doesn't

Although, there is a bug in the P4 side which I have since fixed (still doesn't work).

All Minus4 does is sets basic start/stop and fills the keyboard buffer with "run". The uploader does exactly the same thing.

Posted By

Lavina
on 2005-12-22
04:43:07
 Re: Game Cracks

Unfortunately Crown's version of TKV has a major disadvantage. When a non-player-character leaves the room, the program forgets to inform you about his direction. So you cannot chase effectively wounded enemies... So I completed the game without pics...

Posted By

Crown
on 2005-12-22
06:53:14
 Re: Game Cracks

Mike, what is not working exactly? Does it uncompress? Does the intro not working, or does the game not working?
There is no illegal codes in that code, my guess is that something is not initialized at the zero page after downloading, what the decompressor expects to be, and effectively screws up the code.
If it decompresses and the intro is running, than the other issue there might be, is that some programs do use the BRK instruction for custom functions. I don't remember if TKW was one of them, but I definitely encountered a couple program where BRK was used for special purposes, usually function parameters are right after the BRK code, I remember one case when it was used for custom text printing. Zero terminated text was located right after the BRK instruction, execution continued right after the string from returning the BRK instruction.
I assume, these type of programs would have problems with your debugger, but probably not with the downloader.

Posted By

indi
on 2005-12-22
11:43:56
 Re: Game Cracks

Its not the debugger, but the downloader that struggles with it. (I can't edbug this kind of thing just yet).

It fails to decrunch. The only thing I can think of is that the Z-Page locations I use to send data need to be zero or something. ($d0-$db). These are normally usable, but perhaps they have to be zero before decrunching...? Aside from that, Basic start is set to $1001, basic stop to the end of the program, and basic vars etc. set to end of the program too. These are identical to Minus4's loading - and it works.

Its interesting that theres no illegal (undocumented) instructions in there... that means that either the program hasn't transfered correctly (unlikely now), that a zero page member hasn't been set up (probably), or.....something else I guess happy

I'll step through it with Minus4, and see if theres anything obvious.

Posted By

Lavina
on 2005-12-27
04:43:19
 Re: Game Cracks

Crown, why Your version misses this simple info about the movement of enemy characters? Is it a bug? The text-only version tells me exactly in which direction the enemy left the room so I can chase and knock him down.

Posted By

Crown
on 2005-12-27
07:39:30
 Re: Game Cracks

No it is not a bug, the original C64 version did not tell you where the avatars went.
That was only added later to the code when they did the C16 conversion.

I actually have an original C64 Tape, so to be sure I will double check.

Posted By

Lavina
on 2005-12-28
03:22:15
 Re: Game Cracks

It's virtually impossible to finish da game without this small feature... You almost kill an avatar, then it leaves the room, you try to find him, but it manages to get away from you for several steps, it gains health, you find him, and he manages to kill you. :-/

Posted By

Crown
on 2005-12-29
07:00:16
 Re: Game Cracks

Well there is the lake with the healing powers, if you swim in it, it heals you, but you can also fill up a jug with its water and can drink that during a fight to replenish health, or if you are really low, you can retreat back to the lake...

It is not impossible to fight all the avatars, I did that back when I was playing with it.

Posted By

Lavina
on 2006-01-03
05:24:10
 Re: Game Cracks

I also completed the game, but only with the text-only version. I remember, it was a great fun to get all the t**** back to the c**** wink

But I also remember, it is much easier to fight when you know thje direction of the escape of your opponent. happy

Once I was so tired in battle, that everything fell off my hands during the fight. In the end, I was finishing off a godzilla with a small key. LOL

This game is REALLY FUN to play, I think I will try finishing it again. happy



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