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http://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/CandyKidDemo-SMS

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DESCRIPTION "Candy Kid Demo"
Candy Kid Demo for the Sega Master System 2017 Competition

INTRO
Candy Kid Demo is based on the retro arcade simple maze chase video game Candy Kid.
The goal was simply to port a basic demo to run on real Sega Master System hardware.

INSTRUCTIONS
Move joystick Up / Down / Left / Right to alternate Kid / Adi / Suz / Pro sprites.
Press button 1 to start demo and press button 2 to play random sound effects.
Note: press Pause button the real hardware should pause / resume the demo.

TOOLS
- Programming: devkitSMS
- Languages: C / Z80
- Visual Studio 2008
- Graphics: BMP2Tile
- Music: Mod2PSG2
- Assembler: WLA-DX
- Disassembler: SMS Examine
- Emulators: Fusion / Meka / Emulicious

SOURCE CODE
http://github.com/SteveProXNA/CandyKidDemoSMS

ROM HACKING
You can hack this ROM!
Download and dump CandyKidDemo.sms into Hex Editor, e.g. HxD, and modify bytes:
- 0x0050 Steps to move Kid: 1, 2, 4, 8 pixels.
- 0x0051 Delay for enemy ghosts arm moves.
- 0x0052 Hands for enemy ghosts to toggle.
- 0x0053 Music 0=music play otherwise off.
- 0x0054 Sound 0=sound on otherwise off.
- 0x0055 Paths to test individually 1 thru 8.

CREDITS
Extra special thanks to: sverx for devkitSMS https://github.com/sverx/devkitSMS
Special thanks to:
Maxim, Martin, Ville Helin, Steve Snake, Bock + Emulicious devs
Also, I "borrowed" sound effects from Baluba Balok http://bit.ly/2nnSQJG Thanks!

SOCIAL MEDIA
- You Tube

COMPANY BIO
StevePro Studios is an independent game developer that builds and publishes 80s retro arcade video games!
Founded by Steven Boland "SteveProXNA" (Jan-2007) a "one man team of one" currently based in Dublin, Ireland.
Previous Sega-based retro games published include "Candy Kid" available here:
- iOS http://apple.co/1QcidUk
- Android http://goo.gl/5rWsYO
- Kindle http://amzn.to/1IQPBA4
- PC http://amzn.to/1QiHM9d

CONTACT
- Blog: http://steveproxna.blogspot.com
- Email: steven_boland@hotmail.com
- Twitter: [@SteveProXNA](http://twitter.com/SteveProXNA)

Hey its nice graphics and music fits together very well. Shame its not playable (or does not seems to be) should finish it as could be a nice casual game!!!

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The goal was simply to port a basic demo to run on real Sega Master System hardware.

I'll test this on hardware ASAP, but I expect no troubles :)

sverx wrote

I'll test this on hardware ASAP, but I expect no troubles :)

Cool thanks sverx!

I've been testing this ROM on my setup (I'm using a Master EverDrive on my SMS II fitted with a 50/60Hz switch and connected to a CRT) yesterday evening.
The only (minor) problem I've seen so far is that on my CRT the leftmost column is almost invisible. Fortunately, there's nothing fundamental shown there... I mean, the left part of the trees there doesn't show up but, really, this is not a problem that affects the game.
Anyway there are absolutely no VRAM corruption problems and music/SFX play correctly, so congratulations!

Now you just need to make this an actual game :D

sverx wrote

I've been testing this ROM on my setup (I'm using a Master EverDrive on my SMS II fitted with a 50/60Hz switch and connected to a CRT) yesterday evening.
The only (minor) problem I've seen so far is that on my CRT the leftmost column is almost invisible. Fortunately, there's nothing fundamental shown there... I mean, the left part of the trees there doesn't show up but, really, this is not a problem that affects the game.
Anyway there are absolutely no VRAM corruption problems and music/SFX play correctly, so congratulations!

Now you just need to make this an actual game :D

Thanks sverx for all the positive feedback!

RE: the leftmost column
Ha! I remember this in the "old" days when the only TVs we had were CRT [none of this HDMI stuff] and this was almost always a common problem and always recommended that you never render anything [important!] to pixels 0-7 on the left hand side.

Actually getting an old CRT television is on the shopping list - Having the SMS hooked up to a "newer" TV, naturally I forgot about this so thanks for reminding me...!

As you point out, fortunately in this demo the LHS is only trees, so I can imagine you are seeing the right half of the trees [as they are 16x16 pixels] so you're not missing any important text

PS: actually I read on the Mecha-8 demo thread that you also mention about the 'safe area' so wasn't just me :D

If I may ask, has anyone made any sort of a formal overscan/safe zone map for the Master System?

Myself, I've been assuming that the safest zone, assuming a widescreen TV was cropping the top and bottom borders, was assuming only the 'middle' 232px screen estate, and 172px vertical resolution - assuming the 8 pixels top and bottom would be cropped by any widescreen TV.

Of course, I actually haven't tested this, hence my query regarding this. Having some formal properly documented infographics regarding this would be quite kickass, however.

On a related note, is the video output of the Master System naturally shifted towards the left (ie. leaving a blank border to the right of the screen) in a similar fashion to the Mega Drive?

It depends how far back (in time) you want to go. The left 8 pixels are no go, and anyway the remaining 248 pixels seem well centred. This means the left column blanking is not a big deal and in fact you may as well leave it always blanked, rather than have it come and go, if your game does scrolling.

Older TVs are probably worse, and you should allow another 2-4 tiles' padding to make sure stuff is readable.

It seems like a nice setup for a game - I don't know the reference, but I expect something a little like Pacman. The player will be chased by the three ghostlike creatures? Good music and sound effects lined up. I look forward to the full version! :)

hang-on wrote

It seems like a nice setup for a game - I don't know the reference, but I expect something a little like Pacman. The player will be chased by the three ghostlike creatures? Good music and sound effects lined up. I look forward to the full version! :)

Awesome - thanks hang-on! Actually the original Candy Kid was a "type-in" game written in BASIC for the Sega SC-3000 computer in 1984. Here is the original source code from the September 1984 New Zealand Magazine in which the scans are hosted on the SMS Power! site:
http://www.smspower.org/Scans/SegaComputer-Magazine-Issue02?gallerypage=17
http://www.smspower.org/Scans/SegaComputer-Magazine-Issue02?gallerypage=18

Therefore, this idea for the game was re-written in 2015 as a full version and published for various other platforms:
iOS http://apple.co/1QcidUk
Android http://goo.gl/5rWsYO
Kindle http://amzn.to/1IQPBA4
PC http://amzn.to/1QiHM9d

Unfortunately, didn't have time to fully port this to the Sega Master System this year in time for the Coding Competition :(
However, did have enough time to build this small demo but the goal was to make sure it'd run OK on the real hardware!

Nice - thanks for providing the extended context! I think it is a great idea to convert a type-in game; it does not get more retro than this :) I have now learned about lethal Candy Mamas and Death Trees (!?!).... wow, the world of Candy Kid surely is a trippy trip to a dark, parallel universe!

hang-on wrote

I have now learned about lethal Candy Mamas and Death Trees (!?!).... wow, the world of Candy Kid surely is a trippy trip to a dark, parallel universe!

Awesome - thanks hang-on! I think that is the nicest thing ever said about Candy Kid :P

Very cute taito feel. Want to see more!

psidum wrote

Very cute taito feel. Want to see more!

Awesome - thanks psidum!

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