Translations: Dynamic-Designs Releases Mystic Ark!

[Bongo`]

Not sure how big a deal it is, if they're going to make a patch that works on more accurate emulators/console (it appears the VWF only works in ZSNES), but anyways...

Typo when looking at the window in the shack at the start of the pirate cat world:
"a spyglass is lying on the window sill." Should be capitalized.

The "accurate" version you speak of is already done so to say. We haven't released it that way because of this games nastiness ( code ) and an apparent memory issue when using the correct routine to display text. I Can send you the patch but it's unstable and random with the instability.

  You are a coder so you will understand this next part.

The coders allocated 0x0880 bytes of ram for functions to perform during NMI such as...

Draw Sprites
Draw Map
Play Sound
Draw Text Character
etc...

  Each entry takes 0x11 bytes. If it reaches 0x0880 then the buffer resets.
Although the VWF routine is handling the text correctly and a bit faster than the released version, a memory leak is occurring somewhere. Try chasing that gremlin. The released version is much more stable than the accurate version. Also a possible timing issue. Who knows. I added code to the VWF routine and that may have caused my headache. With that said, I hope you understand why you have not seen the "accurate" patch yet. Better off releasing a "inaccurate" patch which plays with no to less random crashes then an accurate version which more likely will crash at some point. We have seen the crashes. 

[Nightcrawler]

Why didn't you just hold off on the release altogether than release one that that will, seemingly from this topic, cause confusion when people try it on different emulators?

And if this was a known issue prior to release, why isn't it mentioned in the readme?

The above logic does not compute! 

[Draken]

I actually had no idea before the release... Personally (only speaking for myself... Not the rest of the team.  They probably feel the complete opposite of me), if it works totally fine on one emulator, but not on others, I really don't care...  I just tell people to play it on zsnes...  However, I do wish that someone had caught this mistake before it was released.

I believe the "released version" Bongo is talking about is the experimental copier/snes9x version that is up on the board (Edit:  Err.. Not on the board).  This is NOT the official release that I submitted.

[noneother]

I'm a bit confused. Was this Secret Project 1? A few days ago you had an update saying that Mystic Ark had seen some progress AND that "as for Secret Project #1, Beta testing is moving along smoothly".

In any case, it's great news, and I expect to be playing this very soon.

[Draken]

You're dead-on!  We used lots of misdirection to try and confuse people.

[Red Soul]

And it has worked very well, that it has.

[Gideon Zhi]

You're dead-on!  We used lots of misdirection to try and confuse people.

I call poor sportsmanship

[Bongo`]

Why didn't you just hold off on the release altogether than release one that that will, seemingly from this topic, cause confusion when people try it on different emulators?

And if this was a known issue prior to release, why isn't it mentioned in the readme?

The above logic does not compute! 

Nah, it was not a known issue. We discovered it when someone told us that the game didn't work on copiers and "accurate" emulators. I just code and never think that it would matter THAT much that it work on a copier or accurate emulator. Oh well... I guess some people are funny that way that they won't play the game unless it plays on an accurate emulator.

[I.S.T.]

*shrug* some accurate emulators get sound/etc right that other emulators don't. That's my reasoning for using Regen/kega fusion/bsnes/Nestopia. You can see why others would as well, correct?

[heratio]

I have been using SNES9x and I have not run into any problems.  I am at the third world right now and the patch seems to work great.

Thanks to those that worked so hard on the patch, I appreciate all your hard work.

[SargeSmash]

Personally, I have no issue with it.  I'm just really stoked that this finally got a release.  I remember when this was announced by Magic Destiny.  Man, I feel old now.  I had just started college then.

[Red Soul]

This project has seen many of us age, believe me, but its finally done so we appreciate
the recognition and hope you enjoy playing it.

[heratio]

Seeing as how you surprised so many people with secret project 1, does that mean you are really going to shock us with secret project 2 also?  I for one was completely thrown off by your announcement page when it sounded like Mystic Ark and SP1 were 2 separate games and because Mystic Ark already had a project page.  That means SP2 could be anything 

[I.S.T.]

Watch, it's an updated MA patch!

[Nightcrawler]

Why didn't you just hold off on the release altogether than release one that that will, seemingly from this topic, cause confusion when people try it on different emulators?

And if this was a known issue prior to release, why isn't it mentioned in the readme?

The above logic does not compute! 

Nah, it was not a known issue. We discovered it when someone told us that the game didn't work on copiers and "accurate" emulators. I just code and never think that it would matter THAT much that it work on a copier or accurate emulator. Oh well... I guess some people are funny that way that they won't play the game unless it plays on an accurate emulator.

So, what we should we note in the patch description? What does it work in? So far, we know SNES9x and ZSNES? Do we know of anything else? If your target is copier or accurate emulator, it will likely work on all emulators. And for any it wouldn't, it will in the future, unless they become dead.

[yuka]

Why didn't you just hold off on the release altogether than release one that that will, seemingly from this topic, cause confusion when people try it on different emulators?

And if this was a known issue prior to release, why isn't it mentioned in the readme?

The above logic does not compute! 

Nah, it was not a known issue. We discovered it when someone told us that the game didn't work on copiers and "accurate" emulators. I just code and never think that it would matter THAT much that it work on a copier or accurate emulator. Oh well... I guess some people are funny that way that they won't play the game unless it plays on an accurate emulator.

So, what we should we note in the patch description? What does it work in? So far, we know SNES9x and ZSNES? Do we know of anything else? If your target is copier or accurate emulator, it will likely work on all emulators. And for any it wouldn't, it will in the future, unless they become dead.

To reply that one and another post above, it works perfectly on PSP, the emulator is Snes9xTYL 0.4.2. No freeze, crash or display issues so far (I'm not too far into the game yet, though, about 3 hours) Personally, I am more of a handheld player than a PC or console player.   

[Killa B]

Doesn't work in Snes9x 1.51 for me.

[Bongo`]

Doesn't work in Snes9x 1.51 for me.

 I can make it accurate ready with no bugs but the text is slow. The way I'm talking about simply adds a VBlank routine for every character drawn. Now optimal at all. Slow and jerky at best. 

 My girlfriend won't give me time to work on ity today so I'm screwed. But the fixed version is working bt I am trying to see why the memory errors are happening when all I did was add / change a few  lines of code...

Code: [Select]

_TransferToVram_:
ldy #$3180
sty $3080
jsr _DMATransfer_

;---------------------------;
; Transfer the data to VRAM ;
; Bottom portion of the font; 
;---------------------------;
ldy #$31A0
sty $3080
rep #$20
lda.b $00
clc
adc.w #$0100
sta.b $00
jsr _DMATransfer_
;----------

Was changed to this...

Code: [Select]

rep #$20

;------------------
lda.b $00 ; Get the Vram location
sta.w $7E3080

lda.w #_DMATransfer_
sta.b $1C

lda.w #_DMATransfer_>>16
sta.b $1E

;--------------------
jsl $C23431 ; Use the game's routine


But this change is killing things. This is all that was changed.

[KingMike]

Why didn't you just hold off on the release altogether than release one that that will, seemingly from this topic, cause confusion when people try it on different emulators?

And if this was a known issue prior to release, why isn't it mentioned in the readme?

The above logic does not compute! 

Nah, it was not a known issue. We discovered it when someone told us that the game didn't work on copiers and "accurate" emulators. I just code and never think that it would matter THAT much that it work on a copier or accurate emulator. Oh well... I guess some people are funny that way that they won't play the game unless it plays on an accurate emulator.

So, what we should we note in the patch description? What does it work in? So far, we know SNES9x and ZSNES? Do we know of anything else? If your target is copier or accurate emulator, it will likely work on all emulators. And for any it wouldn't, it will in the future, unless they become dead.

It works in ZSNES 1.51 and SNESGT .0218. Doesn't work in SNES9X 1.51 or bsnes.

[Red Soul]

To reply that one and another post above, it works perfectly on PSP, the emulator is Snes9xTYL 0.4.2. No freeze, crash or display issues so far (I'm not too far into the game yet, though, about 3 hours) Personally, I am more of a handheld player than a PC or console player.   

That question was from me, thank you for the accurate feedback Yuka.