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I fixed Silviana. The FDS core was not setting $4032 bit 1 (disk ready status) correctly.
I am pretty sure my fix is correct, but if anyone interested in FDS games can try some out and make sure there are no regressions I would appreciate it. So far I don't see any though.
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I do agree that this run is trivial in the sense that it does not stand out from unassisted play, but I'm glad for the opportunity to have more clarification on what aspects go into deciding that.
In partiuclar, does performing glitches that don't save time (supposing they are very difficult to perform real time) make the run 'stand out' in the sense we are interested in here? This seems to be a large part of the disagreement here, from what I can see.
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This is fascinating.
I don't know anything about CPU architecture or computer/information security, but I found those remarkably simple to understand (or if not understand, at least get the gist of), it's pretty surprising such inherent flaws went un-detected for so long, and also a little scary.
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I have code in there as a stub, it doesn't actually do anything. I didn't research what was needed since I wasn't that interested and wanted to move on to other things.
So, if someone handed me what I needed to do to get those games to look right, I would implement it, but otherwise no.
The Camerica titles can't have 0x701 be 0, otherwise they won't boot (or will boot incorrectly.)
For dancing block, those 2 addresses cannot both be 0xFF, but I forget exactly why.
The game Cybernoid also relies on un-initialized RAM for several things, the most obvious one being whether or not music is playing at the start, as well as what difficulty is initially selected.
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You'll want to use a Lua script for that. You'll find the Lua interface in the menues under Tools -> Lua Console.
If you are a beginner in Lua, there are many sample scripts included in BizHawk to help get you started. You'll find them in the Lua folder.
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It is stored in the movie header, or do you mean something else?
I just added suport for korean BIOS. I'll try to make region choice a little more clear cut as well going forward.
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I bare the blame here for GB not being very TASable in the most recent release. I do believe the current dev build has returned to being very stable though:
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/zeromus/bizhawk-udexo/build/artifacts
If you need help with anything feel free to pm me.
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Thanks to some speedy work by judges and publishers, we can now cross off 3 more runs from here!
This is further then I expected to have gotten by this time, maybe 2018 can see this wrapped up!
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I fixed a couple bugs in C64, including the exceptions above.
I would encourage anyone interested in C64 to download the dev build and test things out and make sure there are no regressions.
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That's interesting. Based on the comments in those threads, it probably expects un-initialized data to be in a certain form, and BizHawk is probably not doing what it expects. I'll look through and see if this is the case, and set things up properly if needed.
EDIT: the game thinks WRAM initialized with 0 is some kind of valid data. initializing instead to 0xFF does not have any files when the game loads, so this seems to be the solution here. I jus commited a Hash based check to make this the case for this game.
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I don't think the rule (as written) is intended to seperate out games based on triviality. No argument against 'Math Blaster' has been about how trivial the game is or even whether it's a game at all.
I would say the the one word that sums up the current rule and judgement is 'style.' I think the intent of the rule , and certainly the the way it is used in this judgement, would be more clearly stated as:
'Games in the style of educational games or board games are not accepted in the vault.'
Then, at least it's clear that we aren't differentiating games from non-games here, nor trying to define some notion of 'serious game', nor judging the game based strictly on it's content. The style alone is what is at issue. Then you could even use 'math blaster' as an example.
I still wouldn't think this is a good or necessary rule (I think it can be safely scrapped altogether), and 'style' would probably still be contentious, but at least it's clear about what's being judged.
On the notion of triviality, I think that aspect should be re-inforced even more then it is. The current 'Porky's' run for example can be almost exactly reproduced real time with a little practice and only 1/4 chance luck.
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(I replied to this on GitHub but it seemed worth it to put a similar reply here.)
It's actually the background that isn't rendering here, but that's besides the point.
It's not expected, and actually I totally forgot that even happened.
Being able to load GB games in GBC mode in gambatte was a derivative of having BIOS support. Originally Gambatte did not have this capability (I had to load up 1.13.1 to even realize this was the case.)
So, I reverted it so that GB games will not load into GBC mode in Gambatte, they will only load into GB mode.
In the event that a GBCHawk core ever comes into existence, the ability to play GB games in GBC mode will be once again added.
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Interesting. I looked over things quickly, and I don't think there is much room for manipulation here.
SGB deosn't change the relative time between CPU and timer, so I don't think that will help.
As mentioned by Dwedit, double speed mode requires the game to turn it on.
I looked at where this is happening. It takes exactly 2304 (256 * 9) cycles between the time FF04 is read between those two addresses, and interrupts are not enabled at that time. So there really doesn't seem to be anything that would allow difference to be something other then 9.
Too bad, that would have been cool.
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It's actually the other way around, you turned 'arithmetic' into 'arithmetic (school) assignment', there is nothing inherently 'school assignment' about the 'arithmetic' in Math Blatster, or even the form of it. The same arithmetic can be used as a school assignment, but it's also just an everyday life skill.
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Arithmetic isn't just an assignment, heck I know people who haven't gone to school a day in their lives who do arithmetic of that exact form every day.
But it seems all this is un-necessary...
I wish you just said this 2 pages ago.
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That's not an answer.
I'm asking what you see as those specific elements that exist in stage 2 of 'math blaster' that don't exist in 'you have to burn the rope' that transform it into a 'serious' game.