Jari-Matti Rally (Amiga OS3) - Prototype FMV Game for 030 + CanDo Source!

Introduction

In late December 2023, I released MonkeyEye - Even though the date in the game says Dec 2023-Jan 24 - I got as far as I wanted to go with it. Between 25-29th December, I was playing with a Dizzy 1 game prototype (using CanDo) but the collision detection was a pain to get it all perfect, and iron out all the stupid bugs, so I abandoned that demo and moved on to this game instead.

Doug from 10MARC left me a comment on my Lemon Drakken playguide, and I remembered he once made a video about how to make HAM6 and HAM8 videos. So I looked it up, found the guide on his web site, and figured out how to play HAM videos on the Amiga. The video player won't allow any graphics to be put over the top of it. I contacted the author to see if there was any way around this, but no luck.  So I had to figure out a way to make the mechanics of a game run in the background, underneath the video playing on the screen. This meant my idea of a Train Simulator went out of the window, and I remembered I always wanted to make a Rally game!

The idea for the Rally game was originally going to be a wire frame road, with a car sprite, and a copper shaded sky and fields. But by using FMV, the whole idea suddenly looked and sounded infinitely better. So I used Rally Finland, and Finish Hero Jari-Matti Latvala (it's pronounced Yarry!); even though I used unbranded footage of New Zealander Hayden Paddon in the game itself.  Big shout out to my other Rally Hero, Andreas Mikkelsen!!!

The whole game took a week to make, maybe 24 hours.
For Amiga Bill's Review, see below the Assets section.

Requirements

• Any PAL Amiga with Kickstart 3.0+  (does NOT work with KS2 roms).
• 1MB chip ram and at least 2MB of other ram.  2MB Chip and 4MB recommended for HDD installation.
• Any CPU, but 25Mhz 030  is recommended. (Designed for a Stock A3000!)
• 117MB free disk space!
• Optional: A way to copy the files onto a real Amiga hard drive.
• Emulation Users: CPU: 030, approx/exact speed, X8 CPU Freq.,No FPU, No MMU. Full ECS A3000 chipset, both cycle exacts ON!, 2MB Chip ram, 8MB Z2 (slow) ram, Display: PAL (Optional: H/V Centering on?), (Filter:Auto-scaling??).

Features:

• The most authentic video Rally game ever experienced on this planet!!!
• 2 Digitised 64 Col EHB Screens - 1 Title screen and 1 Ending image
• Digitised FMV, Full Motion Video introduction and gameplay
• Digitised Engine Sounds and Co-driver!
• Digitised Sound Effects simultaniously played using 4 channel multiplexing.
• Title music (I tried music and SFX, but this bugged out the video player )
• Live Driver Telemetry and Ratings
• Course Checkpoint Reprogram option
• Two different Cheat modes!!
• Saves High Score to Disk

Install and Loading

Copy the contents of the ZIP or LHA to a suitable (030) Amiga hard drive setup. It doesn't matter where you put it. Then double click the HDDStart icon to run it. This also creates a path to Jari:, and then starts the game.

Playing The Game Instructions

Press Fire on the menu to Start, or pull right to Quit. During the game, pull left or right to take the corners.  Click once! for each deliberate turn of the wheel (strafing is ignored). If you clicked in the correct direction, you'll get an audio ping and some score. If not, or if you were too late, or don't make a decision at all, you'll hear a Bang! as you damage the car, and lose some score.  If you hit most corners correctly, you'll get a 'plus' score, but if you miss most targets, you'll get a minus score. Some corners (like the second corner) have more than one checkpoint.

Assets Used:

CanDo V3.0 from INOVAtronics (Dallas,TX) - from EAB file server.

HAMVIEW - by DANGER_X/TJ Edmister
http://aminet.net/package/gfx/show/hamview

10MARC Doug Instructions for Video Convert.
http://www.10marc.com/p/fun-ham6-and-ham8.html

Music:
Engine Noise.mod by Aquafresh of grid (for chip attack 2)

Video:
Neste Rally Finland 2016 Test Hayden Paddon Hyundai i20 WRC 2272016

And: WRC - Neste Rally Finland 2016 ONBOARD Paddon SS14

Graphics:
https://dirtfish.com/rally/latvala-back-behind-the-wheel-very-soon/
and
https://www.facebook.com/JariMattiLatvala/photos

Amiga Bill Review!! (requires 757MB)

I can't upload this review to YouTube because it keeps getting blocked worldwide, so here is the review as an Amiga HAM6 file. Just download the Review.hv6 file, go to where you installed the game, and copy it to the movies folder. Then go to the place where you installed the game in CLI (e.g. CD Dh0:games/demos/jari). And type:

Hamnew.run movies/review.hv6

Update Log:

Test 1-4 - Four Initial CanDo demos created, in order to work out how to get the videos playing, while accepting commands in the background.   - Sunday 31st Dec 2023

V0.1 - Created a live telemetry tracker, and used it while the video was playing to get an idea of the Left and Right turns on the course. Each telemetry change then became it's own checkpoint, represented by a live timing, and a reference for Left or Right. - Monday 1st Jan 2024 

V0.2 - Started converting the live timings from my practice run into code. Added sound effects when the player hits (correct direction) or misses (goes in the wrong direction, or simply does not react) at a checkpoint. - Monday 1st Jan 2024.

V0.3c - Added intro screen and game over screen. Undecided if there needs to be a third stats screen? - Monday 1st Jan 2024.

V0.4 - Continued converting the live timings into code. Did a practice run to make sure all checkpoints are correct, and in the correct (timed) places for the corners (while playing the video with 030 timings). Re-wrote some of the hit check code, as this was messing up the timings of the game. - Tuesday 2nd Jan 2024.

V0.5c - Changed the colour palette of the title screen when the game starts, to make the telemetry stand out more. Added a game complete screen if players get a good score. Also player rankings. Moved the results panel at Game Over to the bottom left. Removed the Start button from the game complete screen, and added a delay of 9 seconds. - Tuesday 2nd Jan 2024.

V0.6 - Finally completed converting the telemetry to code. All coding now done. - Wednesday 3rd Jan 2024.

V0.6c - Started fine-tuning the hit check points. They will probably be completely wrong if the player has a different config to mine. - Wednesday 3 Jan 2024

V0.7-V0.7g - Tried to find a solution to the timings issue but gave up. Instead I made a Track Checkpoint Remapper, known as ReProg. - Thursday 4th Jan 2024.

V0.8 - Testing of the Reprog routine. Moved all unused buttons off the screen. Added a Restart button if the player gets a low score, otherwise it goes to the end screen after a delay. Re-did the "checkpoint" code using my new remapper. The track now has 41 checkpoints instead of 65. Having less checkpoints means less timing bugs. - Friday 5th Jan

V0.9 - Rewrote the rankings code so that the top rank is now 41 instead of 65. Final testing. - Friday 5th Jan

V1.02.b3 - Initial Release. - Saturday 6th Jan 2024.

Bugs!

The main bug is the timings bug, where the corner checkpoints go out of sync with the video. This is because each time you move the joystick, the game writes down everything you did as words and timings on the screen. The more a player uses the controller, the more this delay causes the timings to become extended, to the point where the final timing comes in after the video has ended. If the player makes too few inputs on their controller, this will mean the timings speed up, and are over before the video has played to the end. If the player is using a fast CPU (040) or a slow one (020), this means the timings are even worse! There is not much I can do about that other than sync the timer to the Amiga Clock somehow?

Due to the Jiffies issue, sometimes the game will register repeated movement commands if holding the controller in a direction. This is not really an issue when playing the game, but often 50% of the Course Remapper codes being generated are duplicates because of this. (see ReProg Mode)

The minutes and seconds are swapped around on the telemetry screen. This was semi-deliberate but I also should have swapped them back.

Reprog Mode, and Editing the Source

Reprog Mode is only for those who want to edit the game with CanDo.  Changing this code DOES NOT! change the game code itself, which is fixed. But for example, if you wanted to change the video to a different one, or if you want to update the checkpoints on this track. You would click the ReProg button with the mouse. The video will play, and each move on the controller will save the time, and Left or Right flags, to a file in the GameCode directory called Course.txt. (You'll have to remove duplicate entries, those which are only 1 second apart).

1) Load up CanDo V3, making sure Setpatch is running.

2) If you are using the HDF, insert it into the disk drive and load up the source using Design Mode, Load.

3) If you are using a HDD install, you must Assign Jari: to the place you installed it first. Either by using CLI, or run the HDD Launcher and then quit the game. Then you can load up the source in Cando with the path set to your HDD.

4) When the file loads, click Edit and Button to look at all of the buttons, or click Routines and a list of routines will appear (double-click them to edit). To switch off the title music, click to go into Browse Mode and click the Quit button in the game (the editor wont quit, this just stops the music).

5) The 'Check' routine handles the checkpoints. Load it up, and choose Clear All from the pull-down menu. Then insert the text from the Jari:GameCode folder called 'Course.txt' which you created. This will be imported without TABs. If you want Tabs, save the new 'check' routine to a new file (within CanDo), and then clear the screen, and insert the file you just made. CanDo will auto-tab all of the code for you.

6)CanDo contains a bug whereby if you try to save the code with Joyport Jiffies active, the editor will crash, and any changes to the code you make will be made to a broken game, and the game will crash. Instead, make sure Controller Jiffies are set to 0 each time you save. And then each time you want to make a final game file, first save a backup (e.g. Rally.Source), change the Joyport Jiffies to 10 (more = slower, and less = faster checkpoint timer speed). Then save it as a new name (e.g.Rally.Game). Do not load up the new game file you just created using the editor. Instead, load up the backup Source file, the one you made before you changed the Jiffies, and then only change the Jiffies again when you want to test the game. 

Guided Walkthru of the Code!

So because 3 people seemed to like my game on Bill's stream, I put together a walkthru tutorial of all of the code in the game, going through what everything does. I made a similar set of videos for my game Holiday, in case you missed those.

FAQ

Is this Prototype game 100% finished? - YES!, although it would be possible to have a full game (maybe 8 stages?) on an 880MB CD, but the timing of the corners per stage is a real nightmare, so I wont be continuing with this demo, it is done.

Which stage is this?? Is this a full rally stage? - NO! The actual stage (WRC Neste Rally Finland 2016 ONBOARD Paddon SS14) can be found on YouTube, and is 11mins in length just for that one stage. WRC drivers have to drive thousands of corners, at full speed, all day long! This is not easy; unlike driving in circles on an F1 circuit.

Why is movement so slow!? - The game will run a bit slowly on 020 CPUs, and I'd say 030 is needed for a nice smooth game. The checkpoints might take a shorter time to reach with an 020, simply due to the Amiga struggling to play the video at full speed.

I'm totally lost!! - You wont see any visual clues on the screen while driving, you'll just have to listen out for them. Just move the controller in the direction of the corners. After each checkpoint, movement is reset. Sometimes you need to turn twice on the same corner, otherwise you will get a penalty. Avoid hammering the controller, just anticipate each corner ahead, click by click.

Are there any hidden secrets? - Not this time. I spent most of my 'secrets' time messing with the course checkpoint remapper.

How Do I Win?? - Follow the correct path, you may need a co-driver to shout these out. The checkpoints can be found in the GameCode folder, as 'check.routine.new.bak' - although changing this file has no effect on the game.

How do I PAUSE or QUIT the videos? - Press the Left mouse button during videos to Quit them. Press the Right mouse button during videos to pause them. If you pause the video, the checkpoint timer will still continue until the video running time is reached. But if you Quit the game footage video, you will get to see the telemetry data coming in, in real time.

Is there a CHEAT mode?? - Yes. It's not hard to see which way the next corner is going by looking ahead. By moving the controller (single tap) before each corner, it is possible to preempt the corner selection process with your built-in multi-tasking skills.

Is there ANOTHER CHEAT mode?? - Yes. If you waggle the controller left and right, the game will often register both Left and Right commands within the same second. This means the checkpoints are always registered as being correct.

Are you planning to make more FMV games? - To be honest, the scope with FMV games is rather huge. After this, I considered digitising one of Senna's On-board laps of Monaco, and making a SuperMon GP game? But the timings per corner would have to be more precise than they are with this game!

Note to myself:

I realise I'm still using bastyplayer for music, even though I now know how to do this using Cando itself. Doing so would cut down the issues with the music not quitting when the game does, so in future I hope to remind myself that I don't need to use Basty anymore.