For whom it may concern Syndication Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:05:32 +0000 editor@atariage.com (AtariAge Forums) IP.Blog 60 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-7680-paradroid-transfer-game/
I started with the kernel and soon found out, that a simple score mode kernel (color #0 left, color #1 right) won't work here due to the so called "blockers" with the opponent's color. Those are displayed on the "wrong" side. After some experimenting with variable mid-scanline color changes, I found a pretty elegant solution, using mid-scan line score mode changes.

Depending on if and where the blocker has to be displayed (using PF graphics), the kernel is using two switches:
- if the blocker is on the left (color #1), the PF color is set to color #1, score mode is disabled ~cycle 38 and enabled again ~cycle 58 again.
- if the blocker is on the right (color #0), the only change is, that the PF color is set to color #0.
- if there is no blocker, the score mode...]]> Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:42:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-7680-paradroid-transfer-game/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-7275-star-castle-brainstorming/ thread...]]> Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:42:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-7275-star-castle-brainstorming/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6682-elite-like-line-drawing/ this blog entry, I spend spend some time with the line drawing part of Elite.

Since there is no double-buffer (like Elite), I experimented with 3 ways of line drawing:
1. Clearing the whole screen and then drawing all lines.
2. Plotting pixels with XOR, erasing the old and immediately redrawing the new line
one by one.
3. Plotting pixels with XOR, erasing all lines first and then redrawing all new lines.

The constant clearing time in variation 1 slows down the frame rate when there is not much to draw, but would increase it when there are more than ~140 pixel to plot in a frame. The problem is, that unlike in variation 2 and 3, the screen is flickering quite a lot as a whole and not all lines are displayed for the same amount of time.

Variation 2 displays all lines but the one currently redrawn. Unfortunately this leads to a lot of artefacts.

The 3rd variation is a compromise between 1 (all lines displayed the same amount of time) and 3 (less artefacts), which...]]> Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:38:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6682-elite-like-line-drawing/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6674-yello/
YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube]]> Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:08:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6674-yello/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6571-time-flies/ post to the [stella] mailing list.]]> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:03:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6571-time-flies/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6561-atari-2600-homebrewhacks-aa-store-rankings/ Homebrews

• Synthcart
  
• Lady Bug
  
• Thrust+ Platinum
  
• Medieval Mayhem
  
• Star Fire
  
• Seawolf
  
• 2005 Minigame Multicart
  
• Skeleton+
  
• Conquest of Mars
  
• Fall Down
  
• Climber 5
  
• Marble Craze
  
• Go Fish!
  
• Strat-O-Gems Deluxe
  
• Gunfight
  
• Crazy Balloon
  
• Dark Mage
  
• Oystron
  
• SWOOPS!
  
• Testcart
  
• Colony 7
  
• Space Instigators
  
• Hunchy II
  
• A-VCS-tec Challenge
  
• Space Treat Deluxe
  
• This Planet Sucks
  
• Squish 'Em
  
• Gingerbread Man
  
• Elevators Amiss
  
• Sync
  
• Four-Play
  
• Backfire
  
• Toyshop Trouble
  
• Phantom II / Pirate
  
• Space Battle
  
• AStar
  
• Bee-Ball
  
• Jammed
  
• Reindeer Rescue
  
• BLiP Football
  
• Encaved
  
• Euchre
  
• INV+
  
• FlapPing
  
• Warring Worms: The Worm (Re)Turns
  
• Melbourne Tatty
  
• Poker Squares
  
• Ultra SCSIcide
  
• Vault Assault
  
• Rainbow Invaders
  
• Okie Dokie
  
• Crazy Valet
  
• Allia Quest
  
• Amiga Boing! Demo 2.0
  
• Alfred Challenge
  
• StickyNotes Cart
  
• Raster Fahndung
  
• Power Off!
  
• Mental Kombat
  
• Pesco
  
• ...

]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:03:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6561-atari-2600-homebrewhacks-aa-store-rankings/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6521-ti-sento/ YouTube]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:18:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6521-ti-sento/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6197-got-a-netbook/ Bargain! 211 EUR, nice new toy. ]]> Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:49:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6197-got-a-netbook/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6189-when-walls-come-tumbling-down/
Yesterday morning, just a few minutes before I had to get up, I woke up by a loud crack noise followed by a big rumble right beside me.

When I switched on the light, I saw this. Sometimes collecting computer magazines can be dangerous...

EDIT: New picture I made when I cleaned the room. Lock at the crack of the desk standing right besides my head! ]]> Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:18:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-6189-when-walls-come-tumbling-down/ http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-5452-source-code-found-in-roms/ I was a bit bored this weekend, so I had a closer look to some games. A lot of games, especially from Taiwan, contain garbage data, which is unsed by the game itself. Often this garbage contains traces from the game development, sometimes even snippets of source code. In this entry I will post some source code findings. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/144/entry-5452-source-code-found-in-roms/