+batari Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 (edited) I am working on an adaption of the obscure 1977 Kee/Atari game Super Bug. Not a direct port - in the original game you just drove until time ran out. I plan to add some features, like powerups, obstacles and maybe a multiplayer option. Right now I am using the car sprite from Indy 500. This will be replaced by a VW bug sprite eventually. Right now this a playable demo. A little buggy but it works mostly. If you try it, I recommend messing with the console switches: Left difficulty: A=ice, B=asphalt Right difficulty: A=fast car, B=slow car COLOR/BW: BW=driving controller, COLOR=joystick I recommend both switches on 'A' then try to keep the car on the road! This is the current track (created with Windows Paintbrush): There will be several tracks in the game. Also, the way I set it up, the track is 128x128 graphic saved as a monochrome .bmp file, then I manually stripped off the headers. Eventually I might include a program to allow you to insert your own tracks into the binary. superbug.bin EDIT: Nathan Strum designed a nifty VW Bug sprite for the game... updated binary below. superbug2.bin Edited February 23, 2006 by batari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 I am working on an adaption of the obscure 1977 Kee/Atari game Super Bug. Not a direct port - in the original game you just drove until time ran out. I plan to add some features, like powerups, obstacles and maybe a multiplayer option. Right now I am using the car sprite from Indy 500. This will be replaced by a VW bug sprite eventually. Right now this a playable demo. A little buggy but it works mostly. If you try it, I recommend messing with the console switches: Left difficulty: A=ice, B=asphalt Right difficulty: A=fast car, B=slow car COLOR/BW: BW=driving controller, COLOR=joystick I recommend both switches on 'A' then try to keep the car on the road! This is the current track (created with Windows Paintbrush): There will be several tracks in the game. Also, the way I set it up, the track is 128x128 graphic saved as a monochrome .bmp file, then I manually stripped off the headers. Eventually I might include a program to allow you to insert your own tracks into the binary. 1018686[/snapback] WOW its just like the arcade game that I played at Coney island's arcade place If this was in Black & White then it will be a great old arcade port Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 There can never be too many driving controller games. I can't wait to try this out when I get home from work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 Eventually I might include a program to allow you to insert your own tracks into the binary. That would be very cool. I could imagine spending hours coming up with all sorts of different tracks, and trying them out. I wonder (not having any technical knowledge whatsoever...) if there would be a way to load tracks in via either the AtariVox or a memcard? So if you bought a Superbug cart from AA, you could load custom tracks onto a real 2600 without a Kroko Cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 17, 2006 Author Share Posted February 17, 2006 I wonder (not having any technical knowledge whatsoever...) if there would be a way to load tracks in via either the AtariVox or a memcard? So if you bought a Superbug cart from AA, you could load custom tracks onto a real 2600 without a Kroko Cart. 1020028[/snapback] As the game is right now, it never needs to access more than 15 bytes of track data per frame. Or with additional processing (and wasteful data storage) as little as 6 bytes per frame may be possible. I admit that I haven't played with the memcard yet so I don't know how fast you can get data from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 I admit that I haven't played with the memcard yet so I don't know how fast you can get data from it.1020075[/snapback] If I recall correctly, Strat-O-Gems does a maximum of five bytes' worth of transactions per half-frame. A write operation counts as four transactions plus the number of bytes written; a read counts as six plus the number of bytes read. Since bB doesn't divide non-kernel time into half-frames, you'd probably be limited to around five or six sequential bytes per frame, with a one-frame penalty for random access. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 18, 2006 Author Share Posted February 18, 2006 Since bB doesn't divide non-kernel time into half-frames, It can now. I recently added the ability to put code into vblank as well as overscan. I did so just for this game, as all that scrolling took too much time. you'd probably be limited to around five or six sequential bytes per frame, with a one-frame penalty for random access. 1020115[/snapback] Random access would be required regularly. Does this in itself make memcard use impossible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 Random access would be required regularly. Does this in itself make memcard use impossible? 1020121[/snapback] It would probably necessitate having two copies of the data in the memcard, one row-oriented and one column-oriented. If each bit of data represents two playfield pixels horizontally (so as to produce less non-square pixels than if it only represented one) and the player can move at a maximum speed of two horizontal pixels and/or two double vertical pixels per frame, then your worst-case time would be having to pull up five bytes worth of horizontal data and three bytes worth of vertical data every fourth frame, i.e. four frames' worth of accessing, every fourth frame. If you can take care of the scrolling during the overscan, and if you don't have too many gameplay-related computations to do, I would think the necessary accesses would be feasible. If you needed to make things a little more time-efficient, you could "pair" the rows and columns. If you did this, you would need six bytes of vertical data and ten bytes of horizontal data, every eighth frame. So you'd have eight frames to grab data that would take six frames to fetch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 The scrolling engine is really impressive. I don't think I've seen this kind of scrolling done before on the 2600. I would think it could be used for other games also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 The scrolling engine is really impressive. I don't think I've seen this kind of scrolling done before on the 2600. I would think it could be used for other games also. 1020176[/snapback] Yea say a game like Rally-X? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 Superbug? Bah! Just call it Power Drive Rally 2600! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 This game is really cool Batari! I love how it has the same car sprites as Indy 500 (but I know you want to change it). I couldn't tell if I was travelling in the right direction after a little bit as I took a little cross-country detour. This is going to make a great game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy2600 Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 Superbug? Bah! Just call it Power Drive Rally 2600! 1020324[/snapback] How about Rally-CX?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 How about Rally-CX?? 1020392[/snapback] Thats an awsome name. If it doesn't get used here I hope someone does take advantage of it. Nice call AB2600!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted February 19, 2006 Share Posted February 19, 2006 Thats an awsome name. No it isn't. It sounds like a product ID code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 Nathan Strum designed a nifty VW bug sprite for me, which I put in the game (see first post). I also fixed (some) of the bugs with rendering the track but some more subtle bugs remain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 (edited) Wow! I can't wait to play this game! All the arcade driving games of 1976-77 made me want the Indy 500 cart so badly! Just realized a problem with my CC2 on the 7800. The pause button will not allow me to play with the driving controller! Would you consider flipping the settings on the Color / BW switch? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Edited March 3, 2006 by Rob Mitchell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted May 13, 2006 Share Posted May 13, 2006 Just realized a problem with my CC2 on the 7800. The pause button will not allow me to play with the driving controller! Would you consider flipping the settings on the Color / BW switch? I just tried your updated version for the 7800 which allows for the select of the driving controller with the right difficulty switch. Works great on the CC2/7800! I was using the driving controller! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted May 13, 2006 Author Share Posted May 13, 2006 Just realized a problem with my CC2 on the 7800. The pause button will not allow me to play with the driving controller! Would you consider flipping the settings on the Color / BW switch? I just tried your updated version for the 7800 which allows for the select of the driving controller with the right difficulty switch. Works great on the CC2/7800! I was using the driving controller! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Good to know it works... I've yet to test it myself. BTW, for others, you can get the latest version here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 Any updates on this? That latest version here link does not work any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 Just played around with version 2 a little bit. Looks great, but I think the car needs a bit more traction; I find it is very easy to slide off the track into the grass.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted July 16, 2010 Author Share Posted July 16, 2010 You guys are playing really old versions. Granted, the latest one is old as well (I'll get back to it someday!) I think left controller is joystick and right is driving (recommended.) Superbug (2006) (Fred Quimby) (WIP).bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinMos3 Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 Now that is just impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Yeah, I tried to dig up the latest.. that one is awesome looking. Love the colors and the score area below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Very nice indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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