Spellrazor

Spellrazor - a haunted arcade game from 1981 · By Fluttermind

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A topic by Big-E created Feb 18, 2016 Views: 1,128 Replies: 13

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Big-E8 years ago (4 edits)

Hi Dane,

I have a couple questions regarding Spellrazor; I just downloaded it and have some questions.

I plan on adding this to my arcade cabinet for a more "authentic" experience, so giving me some hints regarding the executable would help me out a lot.

Question #1

are there any command line arguments that can be used with the executable? for example, If I want the game to start up in fullscreen could I use C:/>Spellrazor.exe -Fullscreen or something along those lines? A list of commands for command line execution would be really helpful in setting the game up for use on my cabinet.

Question #2

Are there any keyboard shortcuts to exit the game? or will a simple ESC do the job? I need to know this to get the game to close cleanly in my frontend.

Question #3 control panel setup:

I can map all my controls no problem: on my panel I have the following:

Two 8-way arcade joysticks with four microswitches each (movement obviously) and a grand total of 22 buttons (two are mouse click keys; all are mappable and shiftable) so in theory, I could map every key to the software. Oh and a trackball too. any suggestions as to what keys would be essential to map to the game keys? I also have a wireless keyboard (used to play games like Thayer's Quest, as well as for debugging) so there is no shortage of keys.

Looking forward to installing this on my cabinet. All possibility of curses or wild-surges are an acceptable risk for it's users.

Thanks in advance!

-Big-E

FluttermindDeveloper8 years ago (1 edit)

First up, thanks so much for being possibly the most awesome Spellrazor-player ever. The idea of seeing this in a cabinet is just... I'm weeping. Actually weeping manly weeps. You know when people's 'sportsball' teams win? That kind of weep.

(Sniff)

In all seriousness, I had planned to get a Mame cabinet going, so I'd actually be really interested to see your setup. You have to send me pictures.

On to your questions:

1) There are as of about 5 minutes ago. I added them just for you. When you get version 0.9.11, it'll be there waiting as 'fullscreen'. There are no other commands.

2) Esc will take you out of the game at the front end. If you're in the game, Esc takes you back to the front screen AFTER giving you an 'Are you sure' menu. I can add a Shift-ESC option to quit out wherever you are and whatever you're doing. Do you want that?

3) As for actual mappings, I'd suggest you *need* Sword, Arrow, Shield, Bouncer, Homer, Lightning, X-Ray, Warp, Teleport, Companion, Deathtouch, Energybeam, Kiss, Zap, Jump, Quake. Others are great for 'Oh, think you're tough? Have some of this...'

Obviously, the keyboard is needed for hacking...

Lemme know what else you need and I'll do my best to provide.

Thanks,

-Dene

Big-E8 years ago (3 edits)

Okay, on to the reply portion:

1) That's excellent fullscreen on startup will be just fine!

2) Yes, adding a Shift + ESC function would be useful, I could add it as a macro to exit the game in the frontend.

3) Thanks for the suggestions as to keymapping, They would mostly be treated as Hotkeys for important actions from the control panel itself... I would likely have the keyboard handy for everything else, but for quick, arcade plays, button mapping would be a big deal; Implementation of the shift function with my control panel would give users access to all the spells like "secret moves" (for example, holding the P1 "flipper" button would act like a shift key, mapping the other buttons to different spells)

I'll be sure to snap some pics of the cab once it's up and running on my system. Also; I'm using Hyperspin as my front end; I'll be sure to send you my XML configuration files, Xpadder profiles, Hyperspin game theme, and any other artwork (such as bezels, marquee, etc) once they're ready, upon request.

It will probably take me a day or two to get everything humming on my cab; Likely have it implemented by this weekend.

Thanks again! great game by the way!

Update: I snapped some quick photos of my cabinet, Sorry if the pics are not the best:

Arcade Cabinet Photos

Some of the features:

*Slim cabinet with 2-player control panel (Two 8-way joysticks, eight buttons per player not including flipper buttons on sides, 1P and 2P dedicated start buttons two "mouse" buttons on the front. LED lit 2 1/4" arcade trackball)

*Hinged, lockable access door on the front

*Cooling fans in the back of the case, 2.1 stereo Logitech speaker system (with active subwoofer)

*Modular monitor mount with 1080p HD LG 24" LED monitor. Monitor can be rotated (and locked) 90 degrees for vertical or horizontal games. angle is adjustable as well. VESA mount is designed/3D printed by myself. entire monitor assembly is removable for use as a showcase pedestal with a larger HD display.

*Coin door is also 3d printed. available for download from my Thingiverse page for download at http://www.thingiverse.com/Big-E

*System is Intel Core2 Duo based, windows 7 64-bit. Added an Nvidia graphics card and plenty of ram. Currently runs MAME, Daphne (laserdisc emulator) Sega Model 2 and Naomi/Atomiswave and some PC based games (soon to include Spellrazor!) More systems and games to come; I have a 500GB HDD to fill!

Additional accessories include (not pictured):

*GT2 Pro force feedback wheel and pedals (for racing games)

*Custom made IR sensor bar to use Wiimotes in light gun games

*Analog flightstick and throttle for Flight sims.

*Triggerstick adapter for games like Battle Zone, Assault, Cybersled and Virtual On (allows player to move two buttons to the joystick) the triggerstick files are also available on my thingiverse page.

*Wireless Logitech Keyboard with touchpad for debugging and more. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

FluttermindDeveloper8 years ago

New build is up with the things you asked for.

Big-E8 years ago

I just downloaded it; doesn't seem to want to switch to fullscreen by command line execution... Usage?

also tried left shift+ESC and it doesn't seem to want to exit out, brings me to the same "are you sure" screen as if you just hit ESC.

Folder says it's 0.9.11 as well... What am I missing?

Thanks in advance

FluttermindDeveloper8 years ago

Lovely. Thanks so much for the insight into your hardware. As I say - watch out for the next release. The command line is in there now, and I put the exit command on LCTRL+ESC as it seemed less likely to be pressed accidentally. If that won't work for your purposes, let me know.

Big-E8 years ago (2 edits)

LoL, sorry. misread... Tried LCTRL+ESC, on Windows 10, it brings up the start menu and moves app to the background; the arcade cab is running Windows 7 though, so it may work better.

BTW, I installed it in the cab to do a test run; game runs buttery smooth.

Push comes to shove, I can resort to AHK scripting to get it to do what I need it to. Thanks again, Dene!

Edit: I managed to get it to run full screen at startup by making an AutoHotkey Script and compiling it to an executable for testing. The script runs the executable, and enters a tab keystroke to make the window fullscreen, better, but still not as clean as I could get through native fullscreen switch at startup. I still can't figure out the command line switch; I've tried entering the switch several different ways (Spellrazor.exe -fullscreen, /fullscreen, fullscreen, etc. nothing seems to work; It always opens in a window.)

FluttermindDeveloper8 years ago

Let me know how it goes. If you need anything else, just ask.

tartley8 years ago

FWIW, I'm running a pre-release v0.9.13 on Ubuntu, and this works for Me:

love /usr/local/games/spellrazor/Spellrazor.love fullscreen

Starts in fullscreen. Without the final arg it does not.

I don't have access to v0.9.12... hmm... actually, I think I do. Let me try it out...

Yep, that starts in fullscreen too.

Big-E8 years ago (10 edits)

Post has been revised, multiple times, for clarity. Thanks Tartley!

My Cab is running Windows 7 x64. I have not been able to get the fullscreen switch to work at all... Until recently... Up until now I've been doing it through an AutoHotKey script which runs the Executable, and waits for the window to become active (looks for the window title SpellRazor to show up) and then sends "tab" keystroke to the window. This works, but you see a 2nd window (the script) show briefly before the game boots; also, because it waits for the window to become active, game boot time varies, Sometimes it takes 3 or 5 seconds to start with the window hanging in the background. most of the time it starts in one or two seconds, which isn't too bad; I think it's more of a quirk with Love2D than anything.

EDIT: OK, I see what you did there, You're running the LOVE file through an install of the love engine, gotcha. I've hunted around for the .love file of the game and I believe I've found it. Will do some more testing and see what I can do with it.

EDIT_2: Edit again... Holy crap! It worked! Finally! Running it through the Love engine did the trick! Thanks for the assist, Tartley! After some messing around on the command line a few times; I got it to run fullscreen on startup! You're a lifesaver! Just to clarify; you need to run LOVE, calling the spellrazor.love file, and entering the command line switch. the pre-compiled version of SpellRazor in .EXE form will NOT work with the command line switch! +1 for the help :) I will need to update my Hyperspin configuration to incorporate this, but it should work like a charm, and take me about an hour to implement. I will, however, retain my AHK scripts for those who may want to use the SpellRazor executable on their cabinets instead.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Complications aside, I've made some major progress with the game and running it under Hyperspin. Here's what I've done so far:

*Added under the MAME wheel; Shows up with all the arcade games running under MAME (using PCLauncher module) I'll post the XML to add it to the database soon.

*Configurations for PCLauncher module and a Postload config have been made to try to get it to load seamlessly as possible; and Exits immediately on Esc key (do you want to quit screen is bypassed completely)

*The most difficult (and exciting) part of all, the keymapping is complete; game is completely playable (even the console to an extent) via the control panel. The solution I came up with is pretty innovative; an xpadder profile has been created to support this game on an arcade control panel using a joystick and 10 buttons (including the 1P start and flipper/coin button) You can view the Control card I made for the game HERE. It's a great compromise to having 29 buttons or so on the control panel. I still have a keyboard handy for console hacking to make it easier, but actually playing the game on arcade controls now; and it controls nicely!

*Created Wheel art and Game Theme for Hyperspin; Theme uses the Game's trailer as the video.

Video of the cabinet runing SpellRazor, all the features, etc to come soon! I've been having a ball playing this game on this setup!

tartley8 years ago

<cheers!> We're all in awe of what you're doing there. :-)

FluttermindDeveloper8 years ago

Thanks for persevering. Really, really would like to promote your photos of it running on Twitter etc. when you're done, if that's okay? This is just wonderful. Sorry the command line thing didn't work quite as required!

I guess the ultimate test will be if you can get reasonably far in Insane mode using your setup. I can get to 11+ if I'm careful...

Big-E8 years ago (1 edit)

No problem; I don't mind at all. You're more than welcome to use pics/video of it running on my cab. I'll work on getting some stuff together for you to share today.

I've tried to implement the command line on my cabinet, but it seems to take too long to load sometimes, so the game loses focus as Hyperspin times out and Hyperspin doesn't seem to like it running that way, so I've gone back to using the AHK loader I've created with the pre-compiled executable; it seems to give the quickest load up and most consistent performance.

I've so far gotten up to level 5 in normal mode; As I get used to the controls on my cabinet, I keep getting further in the game. it's only a matter of time. Either way, it's a fun addition.

I'll be sure to update this after I get a video / new pics online.

takuroya3 years ago

i have questions why is this now free? ive paid for the game before so i dont need to download again away, just a question

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