Game release, Uwol - Quest For Money

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:27 pm

Thanks for the report, Txai, I've just uploaded fixed version (v1.1). It has some other minor improvements as well.

SteveMartin · Post by **SteveMartin** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:58 am

Very cool, this is a great port! I hope you don't stop here, you probably can find many other great games to port

SyX · Post by **SyX** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:22 pm

Shiru wrote:Thanks for the report, Txai, I've just uploaded fixed version (v1.1). It has some other minor improvements as well.

And you forget to tell that LOVELY manual in pdf that you added it!!!

Great Job, and thanks for the greetings!!!

haroldoop · Post by **haroldoop** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 2:21 am

Very nice game! Good job!

tomaitheous · Post by **tomaitheous** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:55 pm

Hey Shiru, just saw in Retrogamer magazine at the store, have your port/version reviewed under homebrew. Got a 91%

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 12:08 am

I know, has been told soon after it was reviewed, and got scan of the page recently from a friend, but thanks anyway. Here is the review:

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:53 am

haha, this is great

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:09 pm

I'm digging up an old thread, but I just recently played Uwol [well, not exactly, but I'll get to that] and wanted to give some feedback.

Shiru may not be aware or it, but his MegaDrive port of Uwol has been hacked and released as "Kolobok: Piramida" by his fellow countrymen. This is how I first found the game. Someone has dumped the cartridge contents [this is how the game box looks like, and yes, there is an actual cartridge in existence] and released the dump as an "unlicensed" game. I took a look at the file, and within it found plain text info on audio track conversions [For example, "UWOL Pyramid.Original by Augusto Ruiz, FM version by Shiru.Converted from WYZ Tracker using WYZ2TFM"]. Plus, the header reads "SEGA MEGA DRIVE MOJON,SHIRU 2010 KOLOBOK PIRAMIDA".

That's how I first tracked the Speccy original and the C64 conversion. Then I saw Shiru's 1.1 version, with some bugs fixed. The hack must be based on some early version, since not only it still has the 9-9 room bug, but also other glitches, like the main character sprite still being visible against the black border, when he goes off screen. The first two screens with developer logo and credits were hacked in the pirated version. The developer logo has been changed to big, green "Kudos" and the credits are replaces with a short story description in Russian. If anyone wants to take a look at this gem, search for "Kolobok (Unl) [Rus].bin".

Now, for the Shiru original port in its 1.1 version. I tried it on original hardware. I ran it on a MegaCart and the Neo Flash MD and tested the game on both a PAL MegaDrive II and a Japanese WonderMega. The game works fine, but there are some minor graphical glitches. I'm not sure what's causing them, but they're there and they're visible. Strangely enough, there's far less of those in the Kolobok hack.

When playing the game on a PAL MegaDrive II, connected to my TV with the RGB cable, I could clearly see some pixels / dots flickering in the upper part of the screen. Here's a photo of how it looks like. They're shifting a bit and flickering as well. On the Japanese console, the whole row of interference moves down a bit, so imagine it moved down one height of itself. In the first level, it covers to top platforms. It's not that annoying, and the game is still playable, but maybe it's worth looking into nonetheless.

I have tested it on two different consoles from two different regions, connected to the TV in different ways [RGB and composite] and on two different flash devices, and the distortion is always there. The only difference being in NTSC, when it appears lower than in PAL.

It's a great game and an amazing port. I'm glad you ported it to MegaDrive of all the consoles, since it's a platform that deserves far more love than it's getting at the moment. Also, the above comments should be viewed as constructive feedback and not complaints! The work you've done is amazing.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:20 pm

That distortion you mention is CRAM writes, and there's not much do to about them, besides writing the colors right when VBL starts so they wouldn't appear in active scan

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 5:15 pm

No one of those who tested the game on the HW reported about these graphical glitches at the time when I worked on the game.

I don't have real console and flash cart, so I can't see and fix the problem. Source code is open, if someone fix the problem and send the fix to me, I'll update files on my website.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 5:40 pm

Shiru wrote:No one of those who tested the game on the HW reported about these graphical glitches at the time when I worked on the game.

Do you know what type of hardware was used to test it [both consoles and cartridges / flash devices]? Custom cartridges and boards aside, there's the Everdrive MD and ToToTek's old carts. I have an old ToToTek cartridge somewhere, but I don't think it would produce different results than MegaCart.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 12:54 am

I don't know. It was tested by few people. That should not matter, actually, because after release it was tested by many people with different consoles and carts, including ones from this forum, who are tech-minded and probably would notice and report the problem right after the release.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:26 am

This would suggest there's something wrong with both of my consoles and both of my flash cartridges, although this is the only game I tested [throughout the years] that does this. I could ask some people to test it on their hardware. Just trying to help to solve a problem, unless it's a problem with my hardware.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:30 am

If problem is actually there but no one reported about it in more than a year since the release, I guess it is not important to fix it. Anyway, I can't fix it by the reasons I've explained above.

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:03 am

Morden wrote:This would suggest there's something wrong with both of my consoles and both of my flash cartridges, although this is the only game I tested [throughout the years] that does this. I could ask some people to test it on their hardware. Just trying to help to solve a problem, unless it's a problem with my hardware.

it happens on all hardware, regardless of flashcarts and MD/Genny models. It also happens in a lot of commercial games, albeit only on overscan.