Version 1.02

I made a few bug fixes, and released version 1.02.

Changes include:

• The save filename was changed from anguna.sav (which conflicts with the R4's autosave feature) to anguna.dat
• Rearranged where graphics data was stored, to see if it makes a difference in the nasty unreproducible bug where occasionally the main character sprite becomes a giant solid-colored square.
• Fixed a few sections of the overworld map where edges between rooms didn't transition nicely, allowing the player to get stuck.

Thanks to everyone that submitted bugs about these things!

If you update versions, your old save file will still work, but your character's location will be reset to the first overworld room, outside the prison dungeon.

Version 1.01

Sverx reported a couple bugs, so I've posted an updated version (AngunaDS version 1.01).

There was an effect in the main theme xm file that LibXM7 didn't support, so I changed that. Also, there'd been a bug for awhile where occasionally the main character could get covered by a big solid-colored square after you continued from dying. It had been reported before, but I haven't been able to find out how to reproduce it. I finally got enough details from Sverx that, although I still can't reproduce it, I have a pretty good theory about what was causing it, and, if that's the case, I can prevented it from occuring again. Let's see if that holds true...if anyone happens to see that behavior in this 1.01 release, please let me know!

AngunaDS v 1.0

Ok, I'm proud to announce AngunaDS version 1.01. (edit: because I updated to a 1.01 version, I'm changing this link for now to point to the updated version)

Thanks go out to:

Artwork:
Chris Hildenbrand (Daydream)

Music:
Jessie Tracer (Electric Keet),
Fred Scalliet (Magic Fred /TFL-TDV)

Audio Engine:
LibXM7 by Sverx (version 0.59 beta)

DS Hardware for testing donated by:
Electrobee
Tim Dudek

Also thanks to:

Refmap project
Additional art

Jasper Vijn (Cearn)
Usenti, Tonc,
Code samples, and general awesomeness

And all you testers:
12th&Saturn,Chris Lomaka, Mukunda Johnson, Sverx, Tim Dudek
Jong Lee, Dennis Tseng, Irashtar,
Eric Chiz, Max Neweklowsky, Stevan Baird, Eric Wells,
Alphanoob, another world, Jeremy Gunkel, John Seabaugh, Spiridow


Unfortunately, there were a few features/fixes that I ended up cutting at the end:

• You can't use the touchscreen to navigate subscreen menus
• Sleep mode when closing the lid only partially turns things off, and thus still drains the battery faster than it should
• The main theme song (Hurtless by Magic Fred) is using a few XM effects that LibXM7 doesn't yet support.
  
• I didn't add a cool stairs animation like I would have liked

Anyway, as there are most likely still some bugs floating through it, please email me (nathantolbert at google's mail service) if you find any problems.

Enjoy, and thanks for following along!

Everything seems to be working

Ok, back to the content that I originally started to post before I realized that my audio wasn't working on hardware. Which is: I think I'm pretty much done! (again...didn't I say that before?)

Turns out (for those of you interested in the details) that something somewhere was sending some dummy messages over the IPC FIFO (the mechanism by which the arm9 and arm7 processor communicate). Because the only messages that I send over it were instructions to play songs, I assumed any messages received were instructions to play songs, and it was trying to play a nonexistent song. Better sanity checking on the commands coming through IPC fixed that.

So now I've made a test build. I'll sanity check it over the next day or two, then send it out to anyone interested in helping test. Then call this thing done!

Still working on audio

Well, I finally gave up (for now, at least) waiting on eKid's audio library, and instead used a new library (LIBXM7) that sverx from the gbadev forums recently released. And it works perfectly -- well, on the emulator. I thought it worked right on hardware, but turns out I was using the wrong build. So there's more work to do -- either waiting on eKid, or getting this LIBXM7 to work right on hardware....

Title screen graphics

I promised a screenshot of the amazing new title screen that Chris made. Of course, the screenshot doesn't capture the alpha-blend fade or anything, but it still looks cool:

Hurry up and Wait

I was on such a roll for awhile, but now everything has slowed down, unfortunately. I added the power-saving features that I mentioned last time, and debugged a whole bunch of minor issues that testers had found for me.

Chris (the artist) sent me an amazing new title screen, which I just finished adding, completely with a cool alpha-blend fade-in of the title. (Which I'd show a picture of, except I forgot to check in one of the source files into subversion, so I can't build it from this computer right now).

Now, I'm just left with replacing the audio engine. One of the people testing for me (ekid) told me he's finishing up a new audio engine that's supposed to be pretty good. Based on one of his test builds, it actually properly plays all 3 of my songs from Anguna (where my current solution completely fails on one of them, and butchers a few notes from one of the others). Hopefully he'll finish that soon, and I can pull it in easily.

So I'm still advancing, slowly. But doing a bit of waiting at this point.