User Files for Galaga

(Ported from Legacy Address Set 27) BizHawk Ram Watch file for A7800 Galaga

Used dwangoAC's movie, edited first 2 waves.

The TAS is unimprovable because of the game's probably (guessing an estimate) 120 frames rule on how fast you beat the level.

Vault TAS http://tasvideos.org/2284M.html

This is an 11 frame improvement to my previous submission file. This was all caused by having one shot not hit an enemy; the most recent file I posted (to http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/4013434434096596) to be off by 11 frames.

Judges: My apologies for doing this *again*, but please replace the submission file for http://tasvideos.org/3830S.html with this one. Thanks for your patience!

A.C.

The previous WIPs all contained "calibration" shots prior to the first wave to demonstrate how quickly shots could be fired and how three shots could be displayed on the screen at once. This caused the hits % that appears after the game over screen to show a 94% hit rate. This updated file removes these calibration shots as well as an errant shot I found in the last wave and moves the ship a bit more toward the center of the playfield prior to the final frame of input.

The movie length is unchanged and this file can be considered a direct replacement of the previous movie. Thanks,

A.C.

This is the final WIP which completes the first challenge mode. If someone wants to make an encode of this file that'd be helpful. As before, the game details are currently at: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/3960028627150833

Thanks!

A.C.
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A follow-up to http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/3960028627150833 - this new WIP also completes the first wave of the challenge stage. It isn't much of a difference but I figured I'd upload it anyway. See the earlier WIP for game details.

A.C.
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This completes the Atari 7800 first stage in expert mode. Note that this is effectively a completely different game than the MSX version of Galaga, with unique sound and different enemy patterns (although the same basic concept).

Two shots can be fired at once with a minimum of 5 frames between shots. Shots stop being counted (are returned for use) before they reach the top of the screen and immediately on impact with an enemy. Shooting causes the shot to be registered immediately by the game then two frames later the firing animation occurs.

There are 152 possible horizontal positions with 0 being the far left and 152 being the far right as tracked by the memory addresses below. Note that the first address updates the frame after input and the current ship position updates two frames later. The ship position value jumps by two when moving quickly, but only updates every other frame.

Domain RAM1
SystemID A78
065A	b	u	0	RAM1	Next ship pos.
048F	b	u	0	RAM1	Current ship pos.
060B	b	u	0	RAM1	Shot 1 fired
060C	b	u	0	RAM1	Shot 2 fired

The selection of Expert mode happens as soon as possible (in fact, the word Expert does not get a chance to be displayed). There is a "frame rule" of sorts where the next wave of enemies happens at a set time, even if you eliminated the previous wave long ago. This leads to pauses where nothing happens for a few seconds seconds. I shoot all of the enemy ships at the earliest possible frame anyway, although given the amount of time to play around there's plenty of opportunity for trick shots to mix things up. I'm somewhat concerned that I don't move around enough between waves to keep things entertaining, but there's really only three things you can do: Go left, go right, or stay put. And maybe shoot at thin air.

While it might sound like this is horribly boring, I spent hours playing Galaga on the family Atari 7800 as a kid and making this WIP brought back fond memories. I'm looking forward to doing the rest of the challenge stage sometime soon so I can do a few trick shots and make the run a bit more entertaining. Enjoy and let me know what you think,

A.C.
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