Hi, thanks for the detailed report, your setup info really helped.
I couldn't reproduce it in emulators, but I think I know what's happening. The game is 4 MB and also uses save memory for high scores and options. On some flash carts, the save memory can end up covering the second half of the ROM, which is exactly where all the level graphics live. That gives a fine title screen and a white, glitchy screen as soon as the game starts.
Could you try the test build I added (It's v1.7 with saving turned off (no high scores or options kept after power-off).
Two quick questions too:
Does the white screen appear when the first level starts (right after the menu or the intro)?
Did v1.6 behave the same way for you?
If the test build plays fine, I'll know exactly what to fix, and the real update will keep saving. Thanks!
The third secret spot is a stack of two hidden walls in the left face of the gold brick wall. The top one (which you are showing) is empty. The healing item is in the bottom one.
The natural place to attack from is the small floating block to the left. Attacking from there hits only the top wall. After 5 hits it opens and gives nothing.
After that, nothing reaches the bottom wall: not a crouching attack on the block, not dropping off it, not jumping and attacking from the floor below. A few attacks while falling past the stack did hit the bottom wall once each.
Im saying I use AI - not hiding it, it’s in the text, its in the disclosure. Not sure where the issue is TBH. I’m not trying to compete with anyone or say I’m better than anyone. You do everything yourself? Good for you, I really respect it. At the same time, I know there are ppl that want this porta (me being one of them) so what’s wrong with providing them? I don’t see me being disingenuous if I am stating I am using it. FWIW it’s worth I did not say with “some” help of AI. You said it. I said “with the help of AI”
At the end of the day, this is not a competition for who is the best coder/ porter. I don’t claim I am and have no issue stating that, without AI, I would not be able to do this. If you are looking for a pure humanly made port, this ain’t it.
My philosophy is less about the process and more about the outcome. I am trying to get games from my childhood available on the console of my childhood, in a form that is (hopefully) as true as possible to what it would look and feel like back then (so no weird mash ups or things like that) and adding as many new features as possible. As part of that, I’m trying to make ‘home’ modes as unique and interesting as possible. I also enjoy the interaction with the community, who is catching issues neither I or the AI caught and making the port more ‘human’.
At the end of the day I’m not here to convince anyone this is good or bad. If you enjoy it, you are welcome. If you don’t, I respect it and there are many options out there.
thanks man, great article and appreciate your comments. Although AI is a great tool, this is not a one shot type of deal. A ton of human work and attention to detail went into this port. One thing most ppl won’t notice is, for example, how a couple of levels have parallax scrolling, that was not in the arcade and something I added. Another example is the addition of the ‘lvl7 jump assist ‘ - this is an internet meme and an objectively almost broken point in the game (it’s doable but incredibly tricky) - I added that option bc I know and love this game inside and out. In general AI is just a tool but I hope the human love and care for the product still comes through…
Those ports were horrendous but a lot of it had to do with the time, tooling and level of sophistication of the devs at the time. I’m confident all of those could have been much better with modern development comfort and no pressure to develop a product in a few weeks/ months as a small (sometimes 1 person!) team
It depends on what you mean by 'decent'… Would it be playable and fun? I believe so. Visually it would be limited. Even the Genesis struggled with getting all the enemies and animations and you might notice some slow downs in busy stretches. The SMS version would for sure reduce the number of enemies and will be sparser. But I believe it is possible. My phiosophy on this was a) making a game I loved available on the console I loved 2) Making something I felt 'could have happened back then’
No issue disclosing AI was used here. My only hesitation in releasing the code is copyright issues? Maybe I'm overthinking not exactly sure how this works
