Laser Squad plus Expansion Pack restored | MSX Resource Center (Página 2/6)

Prophet (2435)

06-06-2016, 22:35

That game can't be converted to .CAS, that format does not support the Spectrum encoding on this game (unless rewriting the loading / saving code).

A ROM version could indeed be made. SLotman disk version is already quite good, the main issue I saw on it is that it does not support saves.

Por Wild_Penguin

Hero (644)

06-06-2016, 23:01

I tried the first extra level (forgot the name) in 1 player mode, and there were some glitched enemies / squares in the game, and majority of the red walls could be walked trough - spending 0AP while walking! So in addition to non-functioning AI, there are glitches in the level (or, maybe the Spectrum AI code - of course not working as intented on an MSX - overwrite part(s) of the level?). Also when an AI got "fire of opportunity", there was explosions in totally unrelated areas of the map, as if the enemy had thrown a grenade there.

Por sd_snatcher

Prophet (3608)

06-06-2016, 23:05

@Louthrax

I made an enhanced intro screen for this game. It's included in this pack. If you're interested, feel free to include it in this release.

Por Louthrax

Prophet (2435)

06-06-2016, 23:02

The Speccy version is calling, reading and writing at "offseted" memory locations, so anything can happen. It's already quite suprising that the game does not crash immediately on CPU turn

Por Louthrax

Prophet (2435)

06-06-2016, 23:09

sd_snatcher wrote:

@Louthrax
I made an enhanced intro screen for this game. If you're interested, I can send it to you to be included in this release.

Hi Snatcher,

Yes, please send it to me! I guess it's in MSX 1 screen mode ?

I would tend to do a new disk version first, the same way the Gauntlet disk version has been made (re-routing the cassette IO to a disk function that would be hidden in a mapper page). The game save option could also work this way.

The more tricky / boring stuff will be to fix the Speccy extra levels and add new menu entries...

Por sd_snatcher

Prophet (3608)

07-06-2016, 01:23

I edited my message quickly after I posted, but probably you couldn't see it in time.

The screen is available inside this package.

Por sd_snatcher

Prophet (3608)

07-06-2016, 04:14

Quote:

Yes, please send it to me! I guess it's in MSX 1 screen mode ?

Yes, it's in screen-2. I hope you like it.

As a bonus, it has an embedded TMS-like palette for the V99x8, so you can do a COLOR=RESTORE on MSX>=2 models and see it with the proper colors even on the V99x8.

As a comparison, this was the original loading screen. Definitely not up to the MSX1 standards.

This is my enhanced loading screen on an MSX1:

I tried to be as faithful as possible the original box art colors:

Por ARTRAG

Enlighted (6914)

07-06-2016, 10:01

http://www.laser-squad.co.uk/2010/03/spectrum-mission-downlo...

Other missions from the spectrum version

Por Louthrax

Prophet (2435)

07-06-2016, 13:18

Good news, my little auto-conversion tool seems to work

You can now test the 2 Spectrum stages with this package: Laser_Squad_plus_expansion_pack_beta

Note that map "07 - Laser platoon" has to be loaded with menu #2 ("Moonbase assault").

Did not perform too much tests but the CPU seems to move.

If you have time to play with the 2 new maps and do some SQA at the time, let me know of your results. It could be intersting to check the different endings / victory conditions and all differents scenario paths.

Por Louthrax

Prophet (2435)

07-06-2016, 13:35

ARTRAG wrote:

http://www.laser-squad.co.uk/2010/03/spectrum-mission-downloads/

Other missions from the spectrum version

Thanks Artrag, with some luck those map could be converted too with my tool. I only need to figure out how to convert those .Z80 files to .TZX (seems like they are dump of the whole Z80 memory. The TZX files are loaded at 0B600H by the loader).