Pitkat By Mashdy Games Release Notes ----------------- R2 2020-10-16 1. Addition of Speedrun mode (Accessible by holding select when game powers on) 2. Addition of message indicating mirror mode has been activated, shown during the "Ready" screen. 3. Elimination of roll on screen transitions and password functions.(Found by: Everyone) 4. Elimination of roll during play and rewind. It would occasionally occur in some situatons.(Found by: Jamtex, Andrew Davie) 5. Fix improperly moving into menu options when up/down is held down whilst pressing fire.(Found by: Jamtex) 6. Fix animation cutting out if fire button pressed during a turn.(Found by: Jamtex) 7. Fix garbage on screen for one frame when entering Level Select screen. [Previous Releases] R1 2020-07-10 Release Notes 1. Fixed random screen roll on Stella Developer mode (Found by: OmegaMatrix) 2. Fixed Break on Stella Developer mode (Found by: OmegaMatrix) 3. Fixed random wrong colours in Password screens on Stella Developer mode (Found by: Jamtex) 4. Improvement of screen roll and sync during screen transitions. (Found by: Everyone) 5. Increase visibility of cursor flashing on level select screen (Found by: Andrew Davie) Contents 0 - Contact Us 1 - Epilepsy Warnings 2 - Copyright 3 - Distribution 4 - PAL60 Version 5 - Thanks 6 - Known issues 7 - Retron 77 8 - Cartridge version 0. Contact Us ------------- If you wish to contact us then send an email to pitkat2600@gmail.com Remember to put in the subject line why you are contacting us (i.e. Bug Report, Thanks, Donation, Praise, etc.) otherwise your email may get ignored as spam. 1. Epilepsy Warnings -------------------- Some people may have seizures or blackouts triggered by light flashes or patterns, and this may occur playing video games, even if they have never had a seizure before. Anyone who has had a seizure, loss of awareness, or other symptom linked to an epileptic condition should consult a doctor before playing this game. IMMEDIATELY STOP PLAY and consult your doctor before resuming gameplay, if you or the player experience any of the following symptoms or health problems: Seizures Dizziness Altered vision Eye or muscle twitches Loss of awareness Disorientation Convulsions It is recommended that the game is played In a well lit room. At least 5ft away from the screen. The screen takes up less then half the field of vision of the player. When the player is not tired or sleepy. If you play the game for long periods of time, take a break of about 10 to 15 minutes after every hour or so. 2. Copyright ------------ This game is based on Pitman (Catrap in North America) written by Yutaka Isokawa for the Nintendo® Game Boy®. Originally published by Kodansha (as Asmik / ASK Kodansha) in 1990. The original PITMAN game was originally a type in program for the Sharp MZ-700 computer in the Japanese Oh! MZ magazine in the August 1985 issue. Written by Yutaka Isokawa. It appeared in the west in the French Sharp Users Club magazine Sharpentiers in the November 1985 issue. The Atari 2600 version is written as a fan project and is offered as Freeware. Atari code, Manual and Artwork ©2020 Mashdy Games. 3. Distribution --------------- The game is offered as freeware as a soft distribution to be freely distributed free of charge. It must however be kept as zip file called PITKAT.ZIP This file must contain the follow files README.TXT - This readme file. PITKAT.PDF - The 18 page manual PDF. PITKATNTS.BIN - NTSC version of the game. PITKATPAL.BIN - PAL version of the game. PITKATP60.BIN - PAL 60Hz version of the game. The PITKAT.ZIP file can be freely downloaded from https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308669-pitkat/ The files and game must not be sold in any form. Including but not limited to Cartridge versions, SD Cards, USB Memory sticks, preloaded onto emulation boxes (including Raspberry Pi devices) or download. A cartridge version will be available but the game will not be sold, the cost will be for the cost of the cartridge, labour and printing of label. They can be freely played on emulators such as Stella (which we recommend) or on the Harmony cartridge on a real console or expansion module. 4. PAL60 version ---------------- The PAL60 version of the game (PITKAT60.BIN) is a version that will run on a PAL consoles and display a full screen picture at 60Hz (as opposed to a slightly smaller version at 50Hz of the normal PAL version) to match the NTSC version. You can play it in an emulator but you must force PAL60 otherwise it may detect it as an NTSC cartridge and the colours will be wrong. In Stella, in the game select screen, you can highlight the file by clicking on it, clicking options, click game properties, click display and click the pull down menu in Format and change it to PAL60 then click OK. Although most modern CRT type TVs and some modern LCD TVs will display a 60HZ PAL signal fine, not all TVs can display it correctly. If the screen is black and white or you get a black screen then you may need to force the TV to display a PAL 60Hz signal, some TVs allow you to force the video system as PAL, PAL 60 or NTSC 4.43. If the screen rolls then try the above to force the video system or adjust the vertical hold. Consult your TV manual on how to adjust the video system or vertical hold. You adjust your TV and use this game at your own risk, Mashdy games do not take responsibility for any damage that may be cause by adjustments to the TV or the use of the game. If you try all these, then the TV may not be compatible, use the normal PAL version of the game (PITKATPAL.BIN) or try another TV. 5. Acknowledgement / Thanks --------------------------- Mashdy Games Programming, Music re-arrangement, Sound, Graphics: Marco Johannes Bug finder general, Manual, Label and Box Design, Additional Graphics, Producer: Dyfed Hitchings Cover Art, Manual Art: Sharemhel Decir https://www.deviantart.com/shakiechan Additional Thanks to the following for their programs which helped in the development of this game. TIATracker: Andre Wichmann https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67648 Stella: Bradford Mott, Stephen Anthony, Thomas Jentzsch, Christian Speckner and the rest of the Stella team! https://stella-emu.github.io/) playerpal: Kirk Israel https://alienbill.com/2600/playerpalnext.html DASM: The DASM team https://dasm-assembler.github.io/ Notepad++: Dan Ho https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ TIA Colour Charts: Duane Alan Hahn https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html Additional thanks to Yutaka Isokawa - We made this game in your honour. Masao Asakawa - For your beautiful music. Our wives - For putting up with us when we were working on this. Atariage - Shoutout to Albert. Fantastic Atari website for everything to do with Atari. Additional Testing - James "ZPH" O’Brien, Lee "Keebz" Kebler, Andrew Davie, Jeff "Omegamatrix" Johnson Zeropage Homebrew Show - Shoutout to James and Tanya, Darcy and Aerlan. Thank you for showcasing Pitkat. 6. Known Issues --------------- 1. Blank tiles appear when the round scrolls down when the round is over - Not a bug, the room is collapsing and the kats are escaping. 2. Time is not 100% accurate, however it will only be a few seconds after a very long period of time which is acceptable. 3. For a reason still unknown, Pitkat crashes after a while on some real systems. It seems to happen currently with the Harmony cartridge (as one person reported it worked on the Pluscart but had issues with the Harmony). It occurs in a random place after the system has warmed up. It prevents loading up until cooled down. Has been reported by two different people so far. It is recommended you have the 1.06 firmware version for the Harmony. Visit https://atariage.com/forums/topic/156500-latest-harmony-cart-software/ for more information. 7. Retron 77 ------------ The Hyperkin Retron 77 is not compatible with a number of Atari 2600 cartridges including the Melody and Harmony cartridges by Atariage so you can not play a cartridge version of Pitkat on the Retron 77. You can play it via the SD card via the Stella emulator on the Retron 77. For information on how to copy files to the SD and running games from the SD card please see the Hyperkin Retron 77 manual. https://www.hyperkin.com/product-manual\ We recommend the NTSC version for the Retron 77, this is the PITKATNTS.BIN file. We do recommend upgrading the Stella emulator on the Retron 77 to the latest version. For more information visit. https://github.com/DirtyHairy/r77-firmware-ng/releases/tag/stella-6.1.0-rc1 8. Cartridge Version -------------------- If you wish to own a cartridge version then send an email to pitkat2600@gmail.com With the subject line Pitkat Cartridge With the form below filled in. -------------------------------- FORM -------------------------------- Name - Email - Country - Version (NTSC, PAL, PAL 60) - Box / Manual Wanted (YES, NO) - -------------------------------- FORM -------------------------------- You will be sent information on how to obtain the game.