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Scrolling Game is Rolling Along (Part 5)

I loaded an old version of the program to help guide me, but since variable names changed and how I did things changed, it was twice as hard to convert nybble variables back to regular ones, but I got it done and everything seems to be working. Now that I'm using regular variables again, it will be easier for me to study the code and see if even more variable are unnecessary. I already have 7 free variables, but I might be able to free up a few more.

The program should be more fun to work on from now on. If I can keep crunching down the code and freeing more variables, I may be able to do everything I want to do and not have to use bank switching.



Random Terrain
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A pangram is a sentence that uses every single letter of the alphabet, for example, my favorite: "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." Coming up with a pangram of any length is quite easy, but using every single letter of the alphabet only once, well, that hasn't been done very often. There's "New job: Fix Mr. Gluck's hazy TV PDQ", or, my favorite: "Mr. TV Quiz Ph.D bags few lynx." After struggling for a few hours, mixing letters and writing the alphabet several times scratching out letters and rearranging them, I finally created a half-way decent one. (It's the only one I came up with so far, but it's IMO halfway decent.) Here it is. "Quartz flock, jinx gym BVDs, phew!" Or, in other words, someone wants a flock of quartz to jinx a certain pair of underwear in the gym, and gets exhausted telling it. If I put a period after "BVDs", then it would be two sentences, so it must be a comma. But, there's a...

Okay, it's tax season so I pulled this game to play - Tax Avoiders (shouldn't it be Tax Evaders or at least wouldn't that sound cooler?).

Here's the bottom line - this game is not good. In the main screen you are supposed to collect $ while avoiding government red tape (Oh! that's what that red mis-shapen object is!). You can run and jump (not up but forward) and I don't know how this game "decides" what you touch or collide with but most of the $ goes right by you and does not add to your total. There is an elevator that comes at random and can carry you to the other levels where (I guess) you can earn more $. Eventually you will be taken to a second screen where a man could either be an IRS agent, an investment adviser or something else depending on their color, so you should run from or run too them depending on their color. This is also the screen where you are to invest and put your holdings in a briefcase. I have...

Been away for a bit. Thought I see how different the new blog software is. Not much going on with me Atari-wise. I've done a few small things in pure asm, kind of akin to a artist doodling. If I ever put some of it together it might be interesting enough to post.

I've spent a good bit of time lately playing the C-64 version of Lords of Midnight. I never played it back in the day. It has some interesting ideas.

May as well inflict some more of my musical tastes on you while I'm here. We've got NC's answer to the B-52's, SCOTS & a interesting Japanese take on a King Crimson classic.

Night Driver (Atari VCS, 1980)

First, a look at the arcade game that inspired the home version.

YouTube...

Hi

When I'm playing the sims 3. I made a house but I didn't finnish it. I was expecting to work on this house the next day.

Guess what?

[attachment=155731:Screenshot-209.jpg]

A new family was installed in the house.

Unless I play this family or evinct them, this house will stay unfinished.

Good bye


Robin Gravel

Hello all,

a new Firmware is available for download.

1.11:

- fix write and read bug with 93C46 from manufacturer CSI (S/N: 18 / 54-58 / 64 / 74-xx)
- improve erase count routine for 93C46
- bug fix sometimes red status LED do not switch off after verify failt
- bug fix using green LEDs while verify
- optimize erase and time out routine for erasing Flash Memory

All FlashCards shipped out after 14th March 2010 will be delivered with this Firmware.

Attached you can find the Firmware file and the manual in english and german.

That´s all for today.

Kind Regards

Lynxman

So, remember this?

No?

Well, I didn't expect you to.

Anyway, so here's the entry.

And sorry Dave... it's not about "Top Gear".

However, it is about cars driving really fast. Just without the wacky British humor.

It's about rallying.

Oops... okay, before you leave - those of you in the United States - stick with me a minute. Yes, rallying is pretty-much a non-entity in the U.S., but unlike say... soccer... rallying is actually interesting.

(And before soccer...

I had an excellent Saturday drive out to the country to meet up with a guy who had a ton of Atari goodies. A friend pointed me to this guy's craigslist ad because he knew the seller (who had earlier tried to sell him the stuff), but when I called earlier this week the seller explained that he had already sold most of the goodies through another ad. Bummer. But then he emailed me later and said he had found a box of books and other Atari stuff and I could have it for $20. Just a couple of grainy pictures, but I went for it.

Showed up at about 10 this morning and WOW. First of all, he had a box full of old 400s and a bunch of other nice stuff waiting for the other guy, so I drooled over that and had the evil thought of offering him some cash for some of it but a deal is a deal and I respect other people's hauls. Plus, mine was a pretty good deal too: a bunch of books, a 410 recorder with manual, a few ST programs, 8-bit EPROMS and boards, four 400 replacement keyboards,...

One thing I sold had a deficiency that I didn't know about. The other thing had a deficiency that didn't show up in my testing but showed up when the purchaser tested it. I packed it very well and yet there still must have been shipping damage.

It's discouraging. Not trying to make money off the stuff, just get it into the hands of people who will use it. This ended up costing me money. I'm thinking the stuff I have left that I need to get rid of before I move is going to end up either at Goodwill, in my dumpster, or in Goodwill's dumpster.

Catchy tune. I was surprised to see Bruce Willis in the video.

YouTube

Hi there!

I know you've heard Tainted Love a thousand times before, but I guess some are still in for a surprise with this version (beginning around 2:50). Incredible transmogrification, pure musical genious ahead!

YouTube

Greetings,
Manuel

Okay, so I haven't updated the blog in a couple weeks. The problem is, making it a nightly thing was a poor idea. First, I have a wife, a thesis, a full time job, and a new baby. My ability to make time to both play this game every night, and then to write about it does not exist. I was having to choose to not play anything else at any point, and really, 7800 Donkey Kong is a tough game to try to make into your only gaming experience for an entire year. Add to this the fact that since I started the blog I have been in hotels about 15 nights for work, and you can see exactly how much events decided to conspire against the old schedule. Thus, I have decided to pursue a different schedule, that I think will work better for the blog anyway. I will still be sticking to the same "beat the score in one year" time table, but I will only be posting as I feel it is warranted by milestones being reached or if I find I encounter some idea I feel warrants posting. I'm...

Hi,
just to announce the release of Quick Extract v 0.3. This is a small program that will allow you to easily extract files with just a double click from your desktop. Just
install it as an application to open those zip, rar and other archive files. Everything else is explained in the docs. Have fun!

I was listening to the 60 Minutes podcast and they were doing a segment on the Bloombox, which is based on a fuel cell. The thing which annoys me is they call this "green energy". Umm, folks . . . you're generating electricity by consuming gaseous hydrocarbons (typically natural gas), which isn't green IMHO unless you are capturing bio-methane. And even then you're replacing the power grid with some sort of hydrocarbon delivery system. They also talk about avoiding grid losses, but half of my gas bill is "delivery charges"! Pushing gas down a pipeline ain't free folks!

This is not to say a fuel cell can't be used to generate power, or that it won't have value in some situations. But listening to the segment I couldn't believe the hype and spin which were being presented as fact. (OTOH, it's a good thing it wasn't broadcast with last week's segment on con artists and Ponzi schemes. Bloombox has taken a lot...

Hi people.Tetris was never my favorite stile of game but bombliss variation rules and I enjoyed it alot as a kid.If you never played bombliss, all pieces contain 1 bomb wich explodes if the row is filled.You need 2 or more bombs to explode the row, if the row haven't bombs, nothing happen but it count as "combo". With more lines filed the explosion is bigger. If the explosion touch another bombs, they explodes too. If you put 4 little bombs together, they turns into a big bomb.Well watch the video if you never played it :super bombliss...

From time to time I like to step back and take a look at how my collection is shaping up. It may be that I find holes in my collection where I need to spend more time finding one or more great games for a system. Or it may be that, like earlier this year, I find that there are several games that I just do not play, and I sell those games off.

At any rate, here's the number of CIB games I have for each of the systems for which I collect:

Atari 2600: 87
Atari 5200: 39
Atari 7800: 7
Atari 8-Bit Computer: 124
Atari Jaguar: 11
Atari Lynx: 24
Colecovision: 20
Intellivision: 63
Turbografx-16: 13
NES: 11
SNES: 8
Genesis: 18
PS: 3
PS2: 16

Obviously my A8 games collection is still the largest portion of my overall collection. That's because I've been collecting those the longest. I have previously collected and sold off most of the other systems in the 90s. But not the A8. That software has been with me a long time.

I also have a lot of 2600 carts, but that's probably...

Having the program code underneath the extended banking window is proving such a headache that I've turned my attention - for now - to updating the "Shadow RAM" version of LW with some of the new features intended for the "Pro" version. Such are the changes being made to the standard version, that the Sparta 3.x compatible version will probably have to be started again from scratch (since it's built on the codebase of the current development version). In any case, I'd rather make progress with something that works for now, and the testbed version is working well.Before applying the more ambitious features, I'd already implemented (for the 3.11 update):

• New, Windows-compatible shortcuts for some commands
• "International Lock" mode: a new state for the keyboard which allows single-keystroke entry of alpha control characters
• A couple of cosmetic bug fixes
• ...

Donkey Kong was one of Nintendo's biggest hits in the Arcade, and was equally as successful on home systems. Coleco's versions for the 2600, Intellivision, and most importantly Colecovision, were runaway hits. Though no version managed to have all 4 levels until Atari released a version for their 8-bit computer line, and blew everyone away with it's awesomeness. Granted, the pie factory level wasn't the best, but it was still pretty cool to have here.Gameplay 9.5The gameplay is perfectly executed here, and is much smoother than the 2600 version. In the first level, you must jump over barrels and climb ladders to reach your girlfriend, Pauline. The second level has you dodge fireballs while getting rid of the rivets holding the platforms up, which, when gone, will collapse the whole level and give Kong a nasty fall. The third level forces you to jump across moving platforms to reach Pauline, and is definitely the best stage. The fourth and final level has you dodging...

So Perfect Dark is finally being re-released in March. The game will have all the features of the original N64 release plus updated, HD graphics; online capabilities; GoldenEye weapons available in multi-player; possible DLC in the future; and it now runs at a nice 60fps. I can live with this. Especially with a price of $10.

Trailer