Chameleon Menu-System public test builds

Wow. This is great.

Good solution.

Working better as at the Ultimate 64 Easyflash Save Feature.

Quote from Tobias

I am surprised now that Gideon doesn't do the same - the solution is pretty obvious once you think about it

Almost all/if not all D81 games have been converted to Easy Flash. And many of them have save features. This means the lack of D81 support on the TC64/TC64 V2 is not a huge deal anymore. Now, that we have this automated easy flash save feature. Will test this weekend. This is just great. Thanks for all your effort

So I tested with the latest menu build. Pirates! easyflash seemed to work fine in both slot 3 and 4. Did saves, exited the game and updated the easyflash. It all seemed to work just fine.

However, when I tried Soul Force easyflash the first problem I encountered was on the game menu. I entered options and changed difficulty to easy and turned on autofire. As soon as I hit exit back to the main menu the game locked up. I think the game is supposed to save the settings at this point. Tried several times. Even resetting my TC64V2. Same thing happened.

Next, I tried the cracked excess easyflash version of soul force. This time it went fine going back to the main menu after changing the above mentioned settings. However, after I finished level 1 the game locked up. Again, it's supposed to save the game progress at this point. For soul force I only tested using slot 4. This is clearly an issue. And at this point I have not tested with more games.

Edit: oh, and if I hit TC64s menu button after soul force locked up it asks if I want to update the image. Naturally, because soul force easyflash locked up at the point where it saves settings or game progress

Quote from Tobias

Does that also happen with the previous test build (or even without it)? And: Did this happen with a .crt that you saved with chameleon?

It did not happen with the previous test build. Haven't tried with a CRT I saved with the chamelon. I did it on the original CRT images.

Quote from Tobias

OK, so the problem must be the changes i did to the EAPI. Will have a look.... Monday

thanks. If you need a copy of soul force for testing, let me know. Right now I'm out of town though. Thanks for the work

update. I found when it freezes, if I hit TC64 menu button and choose to update the CRT easyflash image, then go back to the game then it unfreezes and works fine until the next time it tries to save something. Then I have to do the same procedure again to unfreeze it

Edit: actually it's enough just to go back to TC64 menu without updating the image, then back to the game to unfreeze it. Also, the original easyflash version of soul force did not freeze after the first lvl. Only when doing menu changes. Whilst the excess cracked version did not freeze on menu changes but between each lvl.

So so far the original soul force easyflash version works quite good as it does not freeze between levels. Only when changing stuff in the main menu. Which as mentioned I can unfreeze by hitting TC64 menu button and go back to the game again

I couldn't stop. Played through the whole game 😅 had a blast. So convenient with the 'update easyflash image feature'. hitting TC64 menu button between each level and updating the image. Even the highscore at the end updated with no freezing. So again, only when changing settings in the main menu. Which is easy enough to unfreeze. And the cracked excess version freezes between levels, but can unfreeze the same way.

Quote from Tobias

Ok, i have to ask again: can you reproduce this only with the latest menu? Its a bit odd...

Just to be absolutely sure I flashed the 30.01.2024 menu build again. I first loaded up the original Soul force Easy flash image. Started up the game and went from the games main menu to the games options menu, then back to the games main menu. No freezing. Then I finished the 1st level. No freezing at the point were it saves to easyflash. Tried the same with the cracked excess version. No issues here either.

With the 08.02.2024 menu build: Started up the original easyflash version of soul force. Going from the games main menu to the games option menu, then back to the games main menu will cause it to freeze. Without even changing game settings. Hitting TC64 menu button then going back to the game unfreezes it. And does not freeze between levels. This is a point where it saves game progress to easyflash. For the excess cracked easyflash version of the game, as I said, it does not freeze when going to the games option menu and then back to the games main menu. It will however freeze between each level. But again, can unfreeze it by hitting TC64s menu button and then back to the game again.

Quote from Tobias

OK, that helps to reproduce it, i hope Odd though... wonder what exactly it is doing

I have no clue. I just test and do what you ask of me. You are the wizard. Just be careful so you don't open a wormhole with this stuff and cause a distortion between space and time

Quote from Tobias

So here is a possible fix - please test I still have to find out *why* this fixes it, it doesn't really make sense to me

Clearly you must have done something because the freezing is gone now. In both the original version of soul force easyflash and the cracked excess version Thanks I have not tested Pirates! or Maniac Mansion with this latest menu build. Hopefully it didn't break something else. And there are probably alot more games to test. Will report if I find something. Thanks again for your work

Hi Tobi,

thanks again for another update.

finally I tested it. but this time - bad news.

i tested zak&maniac (one crt version) again. (same crt that I used in your former version of the public update)

after saving a game state (I think this time it takes much longer for this) and pressing f11 for updating the image (everything to this point was fine) and after a reset I reloaded the crt image.

game /crt not start anymore. see attached screen.

sorry

but thanks again for your work!

Greetings

Marcel