Thursday 6 May 2021

Transcode complete; 3 bugs remain (that I know of).

I can now say the transcode is 100% complete in that all routines have been coded and all data transcribed. The only things missing are actual audio output and background stars.

Blue background supported

Sound routines have been coded short of banging hardware to communicate with the audio CPU. Of course on a port those routines will be highly dependent on the audio implementation chosen for that platform. I suspect that will consist of another process playing audio samples.

I fixed a few bugs today including the segmentation fault as I mentioned in the previous post. Three (3) bugs remain that I have seen; some bombs freeze mid-air until you drop a subsequent bomb, some bomb explosions freeze, and occasionally - much less freqently now - there are strips of landscape missing.

Of course my next task is to continue play testing one- and two-player games and finding and fixing these bugs. There's also some minor sprite alignment issues (with bullets for example) that will require some trial-and-error tweaking.

I've got a few build options in the code to facilitate testing such as invincibility, infinite fuel, starting level etc. So I already know playing through and destroying the base starts a new mission just fine.

Once I've fixed the bugs and thoroughly tested I can start on the Neo Geo port...

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