Problem with Chicken Challenge game

[fgasking]

Hi all,

I've just been preserving a game called Chicken Challenge, which seems to have backed up fine and the game plays - but the controls don't seem to work at all (either Keyboard or Joystick). Tested in Vice 2.4.

Here are 4 backups that i've made: http://home.retrogaming64.com/dumps/chi ... llenge.zip

Works perfectly fine on the real thing - so is there possibly a bug with the emulator or some kind of adjustment that needs to be made to the TAP image?

[beamrider]

If you write out the TAP file(s) back to a new tape, does it still work on the real thing?

[fgasking]

I haven't, but i'll try and give that a go quickly a bit later.

[Mayhem]

I don't recall my dump having this issue. Could be VICE perhaps. I'll have to fire her up and check again.

[groepaz]

wth are you supposed to do anyways? :=)

[Mayhem]

It's a Frogger clone, so should be fairly evidently I think

[Mayhem]

Just tried your dumps Frank. Work perfectly for me in my VICE 2.4 here. You HAVE stopped the virtual tape deck as it asks on the screen, correct?

[groepaz]

It's a Frogger clone, so should be fairly evidently I think

i figured that much.... however there doesnt seem to be any form of "player sprite" that i can control.... *shrug*

is there a "cracked" (as in single file .prg) version of this game to compare with?

[fgasking]

Just tried your dumps Frank. Work perfectly for me in my VICE 2.4 here. You HAVE stopped the virtual tape deck as it asks on the screen, correct?

Yes! The music was playing fine, and the game objects were moving - but using the keyboard or joystick controls were completely non-responsive for moving the red chickens in the bottom left corner.

Thing is - tried it again this afternoon, and its all working all of a sudden The only thing I changed was switch the speed to 100% from 200% that it was accidentally left on, but even switching that back and it still works.

All I can say is apologies for wasting peoples time!

[Mayhem]

i figured that much.... however there doesnt seem to be any form of "player sprite" that i can control.... *shrug*

The controllable chicken is there... as part of the group in the bottom left corner. Moving the joystick up will reveal the chicken on the road. Dodge the cars, you have to land on the ducks in the river, and then AVOID the moving objects in the third section. The home bays are the green areas. You have to get all five bays filled to move to the next stage, otherwise it's game over once you dock your last surviving chicken.

[groepaz]

funky - there indeed seems to be some problem (tested in recent SVN version, ie VICE2.4.29 r31536) - when the game is being started with "true drive emulation" enabled (which is the default in recent VICE) then the joystick or keyboard will not work. disabling it makes it work. WEIRD. (could someone cross check that on 2.4 - and most importantly on a real vic20?)... could be a bug, or could be just what happens

[fgasking]

Cheers Groepaz - Makes for a logical explanation to why it was working suddenly for me - I likely disabled it whilst button mashing to try and get a response from the game

I'll test tomorrow evening on the real thing with a 1541-II attached (test on and off) and see how it behaves.

[fgasking]

Tested on real hardware with a 1541-II connected and switched on. Confirmed that it disables the joystick and keyboard controls when the drive is switched on. Switch it off, and suddenly it works fine.

Might be a side effect of the Stop Tape routine perhaps? Anyway, cool to know what it is - and not an emulator issue.