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Dante Retro Dev

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A member registered Jun 08, 2021 · View creator page →

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It does. You must start it with the controller already plugged in.

Hi, the config file is located at CastlevaniaAGA_Win64\FS-UAE\Configurations\Default.fs-uae   ...  open it with Notepad or similar, so you can edit. By default, the FS-UAE embedded emulator runs at 960x540.

So, I don't own a 4K monitor to test but I'd assume that you need to add these lines in that file:

fullscreen_width = 3840

fullscreen_height = 2160

4K displays are 3840 x 2160 resolution. Source and more video options to try: https://fs-uae.net/video-options

Thanks for your words, JTB81. :) 

Any new game will most likely have an Amiga version down the road.

Are you playing it in forced NTSC/60Hz?  That may make it overspeed. Other than that, maybe some adjusts here and there but in general it's already being criticized for being too easy so as a general rule it'll keep the pace. Which is more or less aligned with more modern takes on CV like the recent Haunted Castle remake by Konami itself.

Thanks for the interest!

It's nearly done content-wise (except for the soundtrack), but I also plan to port it to latest 2024 version of the engine (it's currently on a late 2023 version). That may help with remaining issues, such as when attacking while moving upstairs/downstairs.

I am also working in original game(s), which I may plan to announce in the future. That's heavily requested. :)

Muito legal, até comentei lá no video quando saiu, valeu! :)  De lá pra cá já resolvi aquele problema do boneco as vezes não cair da borda da tela embaixo quando cai na água, entre outras coisinhas. Grande abraço!

Danke fürs Spielen! :-)

Thank you very much!

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Interesting bit about more RAM. There was a similar post some comments below, and it succeeds by using the HDF image file, following a quick guide (pic) that I did. 

Also I'd say that the WHDLoad one is the recommended version for easy of use. 

WHDLoad version:  WinUAE RAM tab should be 2MB chip and 1MB Z2 fast (or anything actually, up to 8MB there, as you wish).  If that still won't go, try the Castlevania AGA HDF, which is a hard disk image with the game pre-installed. Following the guide below on how to use this type of hard disk image.

Soundtrack is incomplete at the moment, only Vampire Killer, Stalker and Wicked Child are final versions (pending possibly some optimization to reduce memory size).

Thank you very much, loved it and left a commentary, a like and a subscribe there. :)

Thanks, and yes, it's purposely on the easy side at this point so the people can see that it already has beginning, middle and end.

Thanks. Btw, I just updated it this morning, fixing a number of reported issues. The bottom edge of screen ("tiles") issue might be fixed now. About the music, there's also the musician that did the tunes for my version of Green Beret (Rush'n Attack) who is also very skilled. The problem is that skilled musicians are always busy with professional/paid projects. They are hard to allocate to fan games and hobby projects. But let's cross our fingers!

Thanks for playing and for the detailed feedback. The ones that you marked as "purposeful choice", indeed, they are, to keep this brief.

The ones that are the hardest to fix (perhaps impossible given the current conditions):

- "There are some leftover tiles in certain places under the view port, which result in sometimes the player falling and just awkwardly standing there." << not tiles, there are no tiles under screen edge (map size ends at edge), it just doesn't want to go full offscreen in some places (in my tests, it's on certain key locations, so it was left low on priority since it's an issue that  even benefits the player in some situations).

- "When climbing the stairs and stopping, the player still does his walk animation for a few milliseconds." << this one is very frustrating, wish I'd go with the SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT approach where it simply doesn't has an animation for stairs (would bring back so many days of my life).

- "...more work to be more distinct from Chronicles" << most of the tiles are actually from Rondo of Blood/TurboGrafx-16/highly reworked with even some SOTN here and there (such as mansion/world 1). Most enemies are from Chronicles, though (which may be the issue here).

- "There seems to be some screen warping on certain lines."  << Emulator issue/FS-UAE, that doesn't seem to happen on real Amiga.

If you are moving downstairs and starts attacking with whip/chain, it may still keep going downstairs instead of stop and the resulting attack is unreliable/janky (hit detection on that nearest candle will probably miss). You're probably referring to this as an 'overall janky' bit.  On FS-UAE, the button mapping isn't "native", it's a mapping on top of a mapping, so you may be losing a few milliseconds at each attack button press that probably won't happen on real Amiga ( I don't know much about FS-UAE and I just provided a solution for people wanting a simple way to play it, but I'm aware that it isn't the best solution regarding input response times).

As for the music, Vampire Killer, Stalker, boss fight and Wicked Child are done by a professional musician. The rest is a (desperate) attempt by me (no proper musician) to have at least a placeholder so the level will not be silent or "it has the wrong music" (as it happened before).

And lastly, bear in mind that I'm a "generalist", I do a bit of everything, on spare time, so there'll be always loose ends here and there if you can't afford a team of full time "specialists" in each area like Konami did in their glory Castlevania days. 

Have a great weekend.

Great to hear it's better with PUA 2021 core!  I've made it throw it instantly at button press (shoulder button on CD32 pad) instead of waiting the last frame of animation (for best possible responsiveness: gameplay first).

You'll thank me after you try a version that throws the knife only at the last frame, believe me, it gets in the way! :D  I might do only one frame, though, that would work too. Thanks for playing!

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Added a WHDLoad version among the downloads (the 3rd one). Just open its folder and double click in the CastlevaniaAGA icon. Thanks!  P.S.: it'd need some other RAM, or FastRAM, as usual for WHDLoad.

Hi, if the emulator is WinUAE, you can go to WinUAE's folder, then Configurations > Host. There's a couple of files there that you can edit (opening on Notepad: Fullscreen.uae), where gfx_display=0, you can alter to 1 or other values. Save, test, try values of 1 or 2 until it displays on your correct screen. 

If you're on the FS-UAE one (the Win64 build), then you may also download the FS-UAE launcher  that has the launcher window (the little button at the corner let you choose the screen):

Thanks for your words. I hope so, it's worth saying that I have a CD32 too. :)

Thank you for your words and thank you very much for including it in the February 2024 video. Cheers!

Thanks for your feedback.  Your complaints are easy things to fix, just reducing frequency of candles flashing and things like that. It's all part of polishing, which is next project phase. As a rather big project for a solo dev, specially on a retro system, priority was to attempt to fit all levels and bosses before losing energy and motivation (solo devs tend to lose motivation before all levels are in place, you can see many stalled projects with about 1 to 3 stages at max). By the way, nice avatar! I really liked Another World / Out of this World and sometimes it figures in my top 10 games of all time (not just Amiga). And thanks again for playing Castlevania AGA to the end!

Awesome! Glad to hear that it's working now. Yeah, XML seems to be very temperamental.

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Thanks for the information, and I'm sorry, I'm a bit in the dark regarding this. But try the one in the image. Bear in mind that the scorpion_dev.lha file in the mini's stick should be renamed to CastlevaniaAGA.lha too. And this assumes that it's the only CastlevaniaAGA currently in your mini (like it's in mine). As a wild guess, I'd say that it's conflicting with previous version and causing all the headache.

Did it ever worked with the default xml text?  Without any attempt of rename?  That's the 1st thing (to check if it's working AT ALL). If it is, then we could mess around with screen names.

Question: did it works if you leave everything default? Like unchanged scorpion_dev as name and also filename?  I'm a bit in the dark at the moment but a wild guess looking at your pics is that it may not be accepting brackets or parentheses ( ) and I'd also avoid spaces as a general rule in computing (that's why text is usually connected by the underscore _ character).

Hi! Both are correct, the right is the working one so keep it safe as backup. I mean, as a rule of thumb, any name you type inside the quotes (" ") that you highlighted in yellow, will be the screen name that will appear when you browse the games list on the mini. In theory, it can be anything you type, like "Castlevania AGA latest version" or the like.  Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback! Game is entering Beta soon, having all the stages and bosses as well as the ending but that's the phase of polishing issues here and there, like this one.

Thanks for the video as always, Saberman! Much appreciated.

Thanks for the video and thanks for playing! Much appreciated.

Thanks, much appreciated. And thanks for playing! :)

Great to hear! Yeah the flicker in the score bar is only present in the mini and we're hoping for a fix. Try Lionheart or Aladdin on the mini, they got even more noticeable flicker. That's because they're all games that use the copper (coprocessor of the Amiga's chipset) a lot, which apparently brings the Amiberry implementation to its knees. It runs flicker-free in other devices or in the real Amiga, though.

Don't forget that you have to drop the scorpion_dev.lha from inside the compressed file downloaded here, into your mini. Not the whole actual file obtained here. :)

Please make a backup of the contents of your USB stick, to your PC hard disk. So, next time you will be able to recover. This stuff is like walking on thin ice.

The mini stuff is kinda tricky indeed, I'm very sorry about that. I'd suggest not editing the xml file and just accept it as it is (scorpion_dev file name), browse to that file and run it. Don't forget that it's the red button in the controller to *select it* and the *HOME* button to actually play it.

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Try downloading it again (Win64), I might have fixed its config now. I'm also testing with the USB Xbox 360 , start the game with the controller already plugged. The controller setup can be changed by editing Default.fs-uae inside FS-UAE\Configurations.

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Edit: it might work now, as follows (Xbox360 pad): green attacks, red jumps, blue or right shoulder fires secondary. This can be changed by editing Default.fs-uae inside FS-UAE\Configurations. Start the game (through Run Game.bat) with the controller already plugged.

Thank you very much for this report. I did a quick fix for the bug. Download again and now it'll probably stop losing lives after the timeout. Thanks again!

In terms of levels, yes. But it's missing items and secrets, many songs are still placeholders, final boss doesn't has its map screen yet, and need to balance the boss fights. Final push to finish a game is tough, like being tired at the final part of a marathon so it's the hardest part.

Hi! Yes, they're for WinUAE. But that issue should be corrected now regardless of the emulator settings since I've re-uploaded all the builds with a fix. Thanks for playing and Happy Holidays!

Thank you very much!