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Pinacolada

Posted Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:05 am

Sorry, that POKE is bad advice. It trashes an inventory string list. There's some decompression/relocation going on after RUN is issued. If you have a freezer cart or something similar on real hardware, try that POKE after the game gets started. Otherwise, in VICE, you can modify a single memory location with:

Code: Select all

> 6a36 ad
Want to get fancy? You can give memory locations labels!

Code: Select all

al b764 .Strength
and modify your strength with:

Code: Select all

> .Strength +100
for some cheating fun.

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A10001986
1986

Posted Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:40 am

Aaaaah, that takes me back. To countless nights with smon (a monitor tool for the c64) hacking...

Happy times.

I want my Eighties back!

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:54 pm

@Pinacolada you are a freaking WIZARD! Or a Rogue. I'm going to try that soon. Thanks!

And if it works? That's not cheating. That's making the game right. <3

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Pinacolada

Posted Mon Jul 23, 2018 11:40 pm

@intric8: Why, thank you!

It worked for me with a brief period of experimentation - the strength stayed stable at whatever I set it to, decremented when hit by a monster, and you can break into the monitor and set the strength back to whatever you like. I don't know whether 200 is allowable, or 255... heh. :)

Hope it increases your enjoyment of the game!

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:57 am

So the final question - does your character still get hungry with your mod? If the answer is “yes” then I think you really did “fix” it!

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:58 am

I’m going to try this myself after work.

User avatar
Pinacolada

Posted Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:44 pm

I didn't even try to track down the hunger variable, so that modification shouldn't affect it. Do try it and let me know how it works!

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:04 pm

@pinacolada I finally got a chance to try your work on this game. First let me start off by saying this - it's a MAJOR improvement.

I used my Ultimate II cart to enter your POKE command.
IMG_6718.jpg
Right off the bat, I can see that by walking around my STR does NOT deplete itself. MAJOR WIN! Thank you so much for digging into that code. It wasn't until I started to finally get to play this game properly that I actually noticed the bizarre Hit Points (HP) are set to 0.
IMG_6719.jpg
They were like that before your POKE, too. After walking around Level 1 and engaging in a fight (and wielding my mace and armor) did I see it tick up to 1 HP.

No idea what that character stat is for or what it is trying to imply. Your STR effectively seems to work like Hit Points. It did make me wonder if HP was a mislabeling of sorts and really shows your character Level (e.g. Apprentice). But I'm not sure.

Since you're a freaking genius, and what you've done actually works - I'll reach. Think we can make it so our ability to hit and do damage on Level 1 might give us a "fighting chance"? I also notice that just walking around, if I might get greedy, our STR (or HP, whatever that is) should slowly start to tick back up over time, but it doesn't. I tried to Rest at one stage but that didn't fix my situation, either. Basically, if you ever get into a battle - on Level 1 - you're probably not going to survive. Monsters are WAY too hard from the get go.

The only thing I could do to make my STR go back up again was to eat the 1 ration of food we're given when we start the game. It kinda seems to work like a healing potion in a way.

Anyhoo, the game is effectively a mess but your POKE really did improve it. Honestly, if there was a way, ideally the game could be forcibly changed with your fix.

I did notice one new thing today - when I died the screen kind of freaked out. But after a couple of seconds it went back to the start screen, so no biggie.
IMG_6720.jpg

User avatar
Pinacolada

Posted Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:25 pm

intric8 wrote:@pinacolada I finally got a chance to try your work on this game. First let me start off by saying this - it's a MAJOR improvement.
Thanks! Glad it helped. I know there's a long way to go though.
I used my Ultimate II cart to enter your POKE command.
Ooh, now that's something I don't have. I have a HESmon monitor cartridge though. :)
Right off the bat, I can see that by walking around my STR does NOT deplete itself. MAJOR WIN! Thank you so much for digging into that code. It wasn't until I started to finally get to play this game properly that I actually noticed the bizarre Hit Points (HP) are set to 0.
Yay! It all helps. Yeah, the HP thing bugs me, too. There's got to be some bug where the HP (for lack of a better word) is un-initialized at game start.
They were like that before your POKE, too. After walking around Level 1 and engaging in a fight (and wielding my mace and armor) did I see it tick up to 1 HP.
Right, that is weird. And annoying. And buggy!
No idea what that character stat is for or what it is trying to imply. Your STR effectively seems to work like Hit Points. It did make me wonder if HP was a mislabeling of sorts and really shows your character Level (e.g. Apprentice). But I'm not sure.
Probably a bug, yeah. Hmm.
Since you're a freaking genius, and what you've done actually works - I'll reach. Think we can make it so our ability to hit and do damage on Level 1 might give us a "fighting chance"?
Ha, you flatter me. :) But yeah, that would be good if we were able to effectively fight back. Hmm. Will have to dig in code more (maybe I'll just disassemble the whole stupid thing after it gets decrunched into memory)...
I also notice that just walking around, if I might get greedy, our STR (or HP, whatever that is) should slowly start to tick back up over time, but it doesn't.
Hmm, it makes more sense to me for the STR to increase after resting.
I tried to Rest at one stage but that didn't fix my situation, either. Basically, if you ever get into a battle - on Level 1 - you're probably not going to survive. Monsters are WAY too hard from the get go.
Ugh, the more I hear about this game the more messed up it seems. We need equal footing between the monsters and the player character!
The only thing I could do to make my STR go back up again was to eat the 1 ration of food we're given when we start the game. It kinda seems to work like a healing potion in a way. Anyhoo, the game is effectively a mess but your POKE really did improve it. Honestly, if there was a way, ideally the game could be forcibly changed with your fix.
Seems like food is few and far between. Have you found other food items on the level?

Thanks. I think it could be better though. And once I disassemble the whole thing after it's de-crunched in memory, start to document what's what and who's who..... that'll make things easier. I might throw it up on GitHub (https://github.com/Pinacolada64) for funsies.
I did notice one new thing today - when I died the screen kind of freaked out. But after a couple of seconds it went back to the start screen, so no biggie.
Hmm. I'm not sure whether the entire screen is one character set, or if it's using raster splits to change character sets in the middle for the map. It kinda looks like only the map is borked.





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