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Dodonpachi Campaign Ver.

bagheera369 said:
So it doesn't look like NullObject has been tweaking this at all, for the past year or so.....

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade-Cave_MiSTer

Perhaps it's time for a AP member who can program to revisit this core and make some mods to it, so we can get the menu implemented in Mister?
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Yeah, I supported his Patreon for ages even when he ghosted everyone and went dark. He did a ton of good work and I was happy to support.

It became clear at a certain point that he was just done though. Which is fine. I eventually canceled my payments.

I need to go check now though, because even though his core does *not* have the test button stuff in the menus, I thought you could map it to access it in the ROM now, like you would on a real cab. Am I making that up?
 
Aurich said:
Yeah, I supported his Patreon for ages even when he ghosted everyone and went dark. He did a ton of good work and I was happy to support.

It became clear at a certain point that he was just done though. Which is fine. I eventually canceled my payments.

I need to go check now though, because even though his core does *not* have the test button stuff in the menus, I thought you could map it to access it in the ROM now, like you would on a real cab. Am I making that up?
Click to expand...

I honestly dont know. Haven't experimented with it. My arcade space is NOT in a functional state, and there's no space for me to get in and test stuff like that at the moment. :(
 
BULLETS

ZBL-NAI did an interview with the ddp devs in 1998, and to save you a click they talk about bullet count...

1702917846769.png


This is nightmare fuel for a project like this. Why? Remapping RAM is awful without source code, and adding bullets would require remapping it. It's so bad I was not even going to deliver this feature originally.

I can't think of a great analogy so here's my best shot. Think of RAM as a bookshelf. Books are the objects. You like books in sets, so your 26 encyclopedia are all the same size as each other, your 27 Fullmetal Alchemist manga are all another size, but still the same as each other, etc. and they're all next to each other. And your bookshelf is full. That's like objects in memory. Bullets are 0x40 size. Rewards (stars/pow/1up) are 0x20. etc.

If someone wanted to just all of a sudden add 3 more encyclopedia, you'd have to move all your other books over so they could sit next to each other. But the shelf is full already! RAM is like that, end even if your shelf wasn't full, it would take a lot of effort. While ddp does have a little free space in RAM, moving every other object in the game to accommodate it is simply not an option for me.

So instead, I shrunk the necessary memory space for each bullet, sort of like reducing the font in the encyclopedia and reprinting the full set so it's thinner.
Now I can fit an extra 70 bullets into the same space as previously allocated.
So my version, also has 315 bullets.

Here's boss 1, loop 2, trying to do his spin move.
Left is 245 bullets, Right is 315.
giphy.gif
giphy.gif

Without the extra bullet space, he actually doesn't fire the whole way around. See the sad little gap on each side? Pay attention to the turrets right at the end of their spin, when they slow down. They should be firing until they completely stop spinning. On the left, they don't. Can't have that; this is bullet hell! On the right (with 315 bullets!) they keep firing like they should.

So, 315 bullets. You're welcome.
 
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ekorz said:
[coming soon, below]
Bonus Features
Bosses
Download & Patching Instructions
Click to expand...

phew, we're getting pretty close here... only Bonus Features and Bosses to go really.
Maybe it's time for a little teaser for the faithful who have been following along?

0142.png


No just the important bit...

12_22 - Copy.png


enhance

12_22_closer.png


ENHANCE!!!

12_22_closest.png
 
Bonus Features

One of the original design goals on this project was to faithfully recreate the original campaign mode, down to every last provable change. Thankfully a second design goal was to do whatever the hell I wanted to do to make it fun and rewarding for me. When the two came into conflict, I would just ask "What would IKD do?" But that guy never responded once, so instead I built all the shit I wanted and buried it all in Test Mode! Here are your bonus features:


C_button.png

C Button Full-Auto: This is a 3 button game, through and through. Why not make it default? You did anyway. So did they! So did I!


source.gif
giphy.gif

Faster Legal Screen: Hold any button down; your time is valuable. Purist? Leave the buttons alone then!


hyper_on.png

Hyper SFX ON/OFF: Listen, they put out Campaign Version with NO SOUND EFFECT WHEN YOU HYPER'D. What is that? A mistake. I just picked my favorite sfx and added it in. If you don't like it, turn it off in test mode! But I do think the extra auditory oomph makes the hyper experience a little more epic.


giphy.gif

Add Yourself to the Legal Screen: They personalized the PCB for ZBL-NAI when he won the original Saturn Scoring Competition (a.k.a. the Campaign). But this one's not for him, it's for you. Make it your own! Changes save directly to NVRAM, so they'll stay in this configuration even when you turn the game off. YEAH!!!!


OG_scoreboard.png
OLI_in_scoreboard.png

OLI in High Scores: Ok, I actually do know who scored 4th place even though it's not on that WTN video. So, sorry MRV. Olifante contributed a ton of his notes and research, and provided some great advice in a couple spots especially regarding the boss4 bugfix. So, he earned a spot on the scoreboard. Thanks again OLI! (As a side note, I'm becoming a little bit nervous about seeing this up on ebay/yaj trying to be passed off as original. So you can't change this, and it'll serve as one easy way to tell mine apart from the original. Also, there's another way to tell mine from the original too, but I'll keep that to myself for now. Honestly if ZBL-NAI isn't the seller, it's not the real deal. Seriously. And tell your friends this is happening so they know about it!)


freeplay.png

Free Play: the one, the only @Hatsune Mike built a Free Play patch for ddonpach (international version) years ago, and while he asked me to make it 100% clear he's not involved in this project, he did give me permission to use his Free Play patch in this project. All I had to do was convert it to work with ddonpachj (Japan), which is what this project is based on. So that'd done! If you're familiar with his Free Play functionality, then you'll feel right at home enabling this. (thanks for the idea @nem)
 
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Ekorz, I don't know what you look like in real life, but I'm picturing a jolly fella with a white beard about now.
 
I can't believe this is happening. The only pachi game I like out of all of them and all the attention is going to this game. Hype, hype, hype man!!!
 
Wow, I'm not proficient enough at this game to know the differences as well as others, but bravo for your efforts for the community!
 
ekorz said:
Add Yourself to the Legal Screen: They personalized the PCB for ZBL-NAI when he won the original Saturn Scoring Competition (a.k.a. the Campaign). But this one's not for him, it's for you. Make it your own! Changes save directly to NVRAM, so they'll stay in this configuration even when you turn the game off. YEAH!!!!
Click to expand...
This is somehow the most minor and yet coolest part of the whole thing. What a brilliant little hack.
 
Aurich said:
Yeah, I supported his Patreon for ages even when he ghosted everyone and went dark. He did a ton of good work and I was happy to support.

It became clear at a certain point that he was just done though. Which is fine. I eventually canceled my payments.

I need to go check now though, because even though his core does *not* have the test button stuff in the menus, I thought you could map it to access it in the ROM now, like you would on a real cab. Am I making that up?
Click to expand...
also @bagheera369 I just tried MiSTer and you can get into service mode with a keyboard (F12, then select service mode), then navigate around. I also think you can save settings by selecting 'service mode' in that menu. So we could be fine here. This was just with the ddonpach rom though, so I'll test everything one more time with Campaign Ver. when it's all wrapped.

It would certainly be cool to be able to map the service button, but at least there's a way.
 
ekorz said:
giphy.gif

Add Yourself to the Legal Screen: They personalized the PCB for ZBL-NAI when he won the original Saturn Scoring Competition (a.k.a. the Campaign). But this one's not for him, it's for you. Make it your own! Changes save directly to NVRAM, so they'll stay in this configuration even when you turn the game off. YEAH!!!!
Click to expand...
So cool, reminds me of the street food truck name in Alien Storm.

1703024740190.png


Now I have plenty of naughty ideas for that campaign version :evil:
 

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ekorz said:
But that guy never responded once
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The fact that you have super player level insight from someone who has actually played the original is super freaking cool.

Even if IKD can’t respond (maybe conflict of interests / legal reasons) - you’ve shown his input isn’t really needed and it’s exceedingly epic how much thought and attention to detail you have put into this. Honestly I doubt IKD even remembers the finer details you have caught already.
 
kuze said:
The fact that you have super player level insight from someone who has actually played the original is super freaking cool.

Even if IKD can’t respond (maybe conflict of interests / legal reasons) - you’ve shown his input isn’t really needed and it’s exceedingly epic how much thought and attention to detail you have put into this. Honestly I doubt IKD even remembers the finer details you have caught already.
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Oh I didn’t actually write to him, I’m just joking around ;)

The superplays and the accompanying flyers/notes helped considerably. I do wish I had more footage from worse players though. Sometimes it’s tough to tell the finer details (like movement patterns or bullet patterns) because the enemies die so quickly.
 
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I doubt there is any other footage, it’s kind of amazing that there is any to begin with given the time period and nature of the “release”. But I hear you, it’s a whole different beast seeing super player capture vs us normal humans haha
 
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