Kool-Aid Man not working on Stella

there is a problem with Kool-Aid Man on Stella. the Kool-Aid Man just goes back and forth on the top left part of the screen and i can't control him. the only time i can move him is when he becomes big. is there a controller settings problem or something? please help me!

I think I speak for others as well as myself when I ask... what the hell are you talking about?

[wiibrew.org] I guess. Or [wiibrew.org]
If you are using StellaWii I suggest you try Wii2600, which looks like it's in better shape.

Hi scoobydude51. Interesting post about your bug.

A lot of the replies to your original post are because you did not supply a lot of detail for people to reproduce the bug. When you ID a bug and want to solicit help, give us more detail, specifically which app and version are you using, what version of the Wii OS are you using, what type of controller, etc.

I actually checked into your bug last night and found the same issue. Kool-Aid Man would not play correctly--the mini Kool-Aid dude hangs out on the top left of the screen ricocheting around like a madman until you get big/power-up. I know that part of the gameplay in the game is that you lose some control when the Thirsties (the bad guys) bump into you.

I am running:
• Wii2600 ver 0.2 (the latest version of Stella)
• Homebrew Channel 1.08
• Wii System Menu 4.3 US version
• Wiimote Controller ( I need to test it with a Gamecube controller)

Additional things I need to test:
• Gamecube controller
• Changing the A/B swich
• Running the game on the PC/Mac version of Stella

I think the PC version will be most telling in terms of validating what the correct gameplay should be, and be a good starting point for us to narrow down this issue.

Does not work on the PC/Mac either.

Holy shnikys that was the most annoying thing I have ever heard or seen in a emulated game failing to work. Its like salt in your eyes and a pencil in your ear at the same time... okay, maybe not that bad, but it did make me utter expletives and then shut it off immediately.

I spend a lot of time on the AtariAge.com forums--let me dig around there and see what people have to say.

EDIT: I checked out videos of proper gameplay on YouTube, and one of the things that seems to be happening with this bug is that Kool-Aid Man and one of the Thirsties keep knocking into each other up in that corner--so from a gameplay perspective, it is doing what it is supposed to do, so the problem becomes, why does the game always start with you and an enemy on top of each other? I am also surprised that when I run either of the emulators, that the game starts immediately, as opposed to using the "Reset" switch to start the game--though this might be normal behavior for this particular game.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2011 04:09PM by DonsSword.

I just found the fix--there is a known issue with Kool-Aid Man. AtariAge.com forum member Nukey Shay has made a Supercharger Hack that should fix this. I don't know how compatible Wii2600 is with Supercharger games--I can't test it at the office, but I will try later this weekend.

If you want to try it yourself, the thread is here:
[www.atariage.com]

If you dig around AtariAge.com, you'll see that Nukey Shay has some other other really wonderful Hacks--he made a version of Alien, known as Alien 8k that adds sprites of facehuggers and chestbusters to the mix of adult aliens in this Pac-Man clone. The guy is an Atari programming genius, and a heavy contributor to the Atari Homebrew community.

EDIT: It works in Stella for Mac OS X, and for Wii 2600. Here is the direct download link:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_id=138697



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 05:50AM by DonsSword.

Thanks for the props :)

The problem with Koolaid Man is not the emulator's fault, really. Those are written based off the TIA design specs. The collision detection bug is a problem in the original game's program code - it's been described as a "happy accident" that it works at all on actual hardware (even some versions of hardware will not play the game correctly). All that needed to be done to make the romfile compatable with emulators was to clear the collisions at a proper time since it wasn't following the required HMOVE procedure. If anyone is to blame, it's Atari for not sharing their programming guideline docs with 3rd parties.

Anyway, master homebrewer Thomas Jentzsch has written a short binary program that you can execute on any emulator to check if future revisions or hardware in question are able to replicate this "happy accident" and be able to play the unaltered game correctly. If the program from the link below produces a red screen, it's compatable with the system/emulator. If not, you'd need to use the hacked version of the game.

[www.biglist.com]


I should also mention that this hack and others in the AA thread have nothing to do with the Arcadia Supercharger directly. The programs there have just had the memory locations used for bankswitching the Supercharger module have been made inaccessible so that they will not crash the system. The binaries are compatable with anything that can execute programs which use the native rom and ram addressing only (i.e. all of them). They are therefore "Supercharger-compatable", as that unit can execute anything that loads in the initial 4k of memory.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2011 03:21AM by Nukey_Shay.

Quote
Nukey_Shay
The problem with Koolaid Man is not the emulator's fault, really. Those are written based off the TIA design specs. The collision detection bug is a problem in the original game's program code - it's been described as a "happy accident" that it works at all on actual hardware

Then it really is the emulator's fault, since it's supposed to act like the actual hardware...

Which it does... It IS the games fault. Thats a fact...

Nukey_Shay has just said that it works in actual hardware, if you didn't read it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2011 06:38PM by ICEknigh7.

On some versions of the hardware, it does not work correctly.

toss a coin. you are lucky if it goes to head. same thing here. if the game runs on actual hardware, you are lucky. but that is an exception. the game does not run on the original hardware all the time. only sometimes...

Quote
ICEknigh7
Then it really is the emulator's fault, since it's supposed to act like the actual hardware...

Not really. For the program to work as intended, it relies on the system allowing something that it's not supposed to. So an emulator correctly replicating the "accident" would have two options: either allow the faulty programming to work (in which case a LOT of other programs that are properly coded would no longer run properly), or have an exception in place for this specific case (which adds bloat and could cause other programs to perform sluggishly).

This is sort of like expecting an unstable undocumented opcode to yield the same result between two different systems...i.e. it wasn't designed to do that.

From a simpler perspective, it's like spinning someone around and having them jump blindfolded off a tall building...managing to hit the one spot that has an airbag below. Total blind luck. You could replicate the result, but it would probably take a long time and be very messy.

Quote
Nukey_Shay

Quote
ICEknigh7
Then it really is the emulator's fault, since it's supposed to act like the actual hardware...

Not really. For the program to work as intended, it relies on the system allowing something that it's not supposed to. So an emulator correctly replicating the "accident" would have two options: either allow the faulty programming to work (in which case a LOT of other programs that are properly coded would no longer run properly)

If the correct behavior is accurately emulated flaws and all, this game will work and so will all the others, since all of them worked in the original hardware to begin with.

It's part of what's called high-level emulation, if I understand correctly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2012 12:41AM by ICEknigh7.

Not all of the original hardware can do it, tho. So you can either wait for a special "Sunnyvale 6-switch edition" of Stella to be developed...or just use the hacked romfile that addresses the problem directly.

Speaking of romfiles...those aren't "original hardware" anyway ;)

What was that supposed to mean?

You won't see developers trying to emulate the Genesis 3, but rather the original model that had better compatibility, so I don't really get what you're trying to defend.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2012 12:41AM by ICEknigh7.