Game Programming Forums

Graphics 12.11 under Atari800Win

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:08:12 +0000

I have a question ...

I have been playing around with Graphics 12.11 (Graphics 12 with POKE 623,192) and I have noticed that for some reason, the range of characters between CHR$(0) and CHR$(31) seem not to display correctly in the emulator, nor do the lower case letters. Instead, it seems this mode only displays CHR$(32) through CHR$(95) ... a range of 64 characters.

I don't have a real Atari to double check, but is this actual behaviour on a real Atari under this mode, or is this just a bug in Atari800Win? Can anyone with access to a real Atari double check this for me?

UltraEdit+Textpad

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:40:37 +0000

Good day,

I know some people use UltraEdit and Textpad to code Atari 2600. Could anyone give me detailed instructions on how to set up both to use DASM, compile, run in the Stella Emulator, and debug, breakpoints and all that good stuff. Thanks for any info.

Dino Names

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:57:35 +0000

Hi guys,

If you have been reading my blog lately, you would of known thati am creating a dino racing game similar to this. The problem is i need names for the dinosours who will be competing against each other. Names must be original and No Inappropriate names!(ex. Iam Fartsworth). the two names i choose will be used as the names of the dinos in the game.

Sincerely,

Dino Dash Derby

tryin to learn something

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:57:16 +0000

ok, i sorta want to make something for the atari and it all looks complicated. is there anything that i can use to make it more understandable, or if there is a site that tells me whats going on instead of telling me to $1110hfjjjsdfjaj or whatever? i just want to make a.. simple something... (mabe a picture that shows up on the screen).

ive heard that the 2600 is the hardest machine to program, so is there anything i can use that is for someone with no experience with this stuff?

Tr3vor

The Wave of Turbo Grafx/PC Engine Homebrew Has Gun

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:53:44 +0000

Not sure how many people here are aware, but homebrew development for the Turbo Grafx 16 / PC Engine has really began to pick up lately. Late last month, the first indie game for the system in five years was released, called Insanity by Aetherbyte Studios. It's also the first game since 2001 on the system to be professionally replicated instead of duplicated so it runs flawlessly on TGCD/Duo hardware. The big feature about the game itself is that it utilizes a new PSG player the creator wrote for it, creating quality PSG for the first time in PCE dev history!

Starting last week, another independent Turbo game by a different developer launched it's pre-order: Mysterious Song. This is the long awaited RPG that's been in development since 2005, complete with hand drawn cinemas and voice acting just like the old TGCD and Sega CD games used to have. Development is expected to be finished by the end of this year and is slated to be out of pressing and released on March 1st, 2010.

Insanity and Mysterious Song are only the beginning. MindRec, the developers of the first two homebrew games on the Turbo, are working on two highly anticipated games: Xymati, a classic vertical shooter inspired by games like the Star Soldier and Raiden series, and PC Gunjin, a run n' gunner in the vein of Contra, a genre the Turbo severely lacks. Frozen Utopia also has three projects deep into development (two of which will be revealed with the release of Mysterious Song) and Aetherbyte is currently working on a classic arcade compilation featuring wild remakes of games like Joust (called "Joustaroo", featuring kangaroos with jetpacks), Pitfall, and Jungle Hunt.

The future is bright, I'm excited!

2600tris

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:23:21 +0000

I'm posting this here to get wider exposure. In case you don't read the bB forums, I have been working on a game called 2600tris. I want to make this game as good as possible, so I need criticism/complements, just any feedback would be appreciated. At the title screen, press the right difficulty switch to A to activate a 2-player mode.

2600tris_11182009v2.bin (32K)
: 13

New developer

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:31:20 +0000

Hey folks.

I'm going to try my hand at this. After about 3 days I have gone through Kirk Israel's tutorial (thanks!), and I have a program that does, well, something, but not very interesting yet. My big question right now is: why did they make the electron beam so fast?

Just wanted to say hi. Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff before long.

The question about the electron beam was a joke.

Pm underlays for gr. 7 and 15

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:17:55 +0000

Are there settings for the pmg that allow a pixel of pmg to be the same size as a pixel of one ( or both ) of these resolutions?

NESHLA is now 65HLA

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:23:57 +0000

I am now officially renaming NESHLA to be 65HLA. The goal is to refactor and abstract the NES-specific code in NESHLA so that we can add in Lynx-specific code and make 65HLA support both systems/processors. I forked my neshla repo to a new repo for 65HLA: http://www.bitbucket.org/wookie/65hla.

I have some people who have volunteered to help work on 65hla to add Lynx support. If you would like to help, you are welcome to. You can clone the repo and send me patches or you can set up a bitbucket account and I'll add you as a writer to the repo. Either way, your help would be greatly appreciated, no matter how small a contribution it is.

I'm currently looking for people to test the build process on Mac OS X and Windows/cygwin. If you test it out, please post your results here or send me a private message.

--Wookie

virtual display area

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:48:31 +0000

Karri informed me that I can use the full range (16-bit) for the virtual display where you place the sprites in. However, glancing through the lynx docs I see an example that mentions that only the first 9 bits (512) are available for use. Can someone clarify this suzy related question for me?

Project Odball

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:55:04 +0000

Hello, all. It's coming down to it, so this is the official thread for my Magnavox Odyssey homebrew game, tentatively title "Project Odball." Yes, this is for the original Odyssey, not the Odyssey 2. I'll use this thread to post information and updates about the project.

This is the first time I've ever made a homebrew. I am really doing it as a thank you to the retro game community and fellow collectors. I love collecting, I love the scene, and this is my chance to give something back.

I am planning a pre-Christmas release, and will begin taking preorders by month's end. At that time, I'll post a new thread in the Marketplace. I won't be taking preorders until I have an actual final product that's ready to ship. I want to be able to show y'all what you're buying before you buy it.

The game will ship with the following items:

An all-new Game Card
A scaled down Odyssey box
A scaled down screen overlay
A custom note pad for keeping score
A sand timer to start a new round
Instruction page in the style of classic Odyssey games
A hand numbered certificate of purchase

Here are some basic FAQs to get started, but I'll answer questions as they come.

What is the plot of the game?

One player is defending a mystical castle floating in the sky from an attack by the Odball, and the other player is the attacker. Rounds will be determined by a sand timer.

How long will the rounds last?

The sand timers are 15 seconds. I think this lends to a faster paced game. Although I am considering using 30 second timers. I still need to to more play testing.

How is score determined?

The attacker must hit the Sky Castle from its one vulnerable spot, above it. Rounds will continue and players will alternate between attacker and defender until one player has successfully hit the opponents Sky Castle 11 times from above. At that point, the castle is destroyed and the game is over.

How does the game play?

There is a vertical line on the screen to the left. Players can set the position of this line using the controls on the console. The ball does bounce off of this line. The screen overlay containing the Sky Castle is placed on the TV. The attacker will attempt to hit the defender's Sky Castle from above. This is done by bouncing the ball off of the vertical line. Once the ball is over the castle, then the player hits the Reset button on the controller to cause it to plunge downward for a hit. The defender's job is to deflect the Odball projectile.

How far along is the project?

It's pretty much done. I am using an artist for original artwork for the Sky Castle. The artwork should be delivered within two weeks, at which point I'll print the boxes and overlays. Then I'll post pics here, and open it up to preordering. Some of the PCBs are already printed and I've got them here. More can be ordered based on demand.

Why are you using scaled-down overlays and boxes?

I wanted to be as authentic as possible and use actual size boxes and overlays. The reality is that this would've made each game cost a ridiculous amount of money. By using smaller boxes and overlays, I can keep the cost down. The overlay element doesn't need to fit to the screen, anyways. It's just one object, the Sky Castle, that can be placed on the screen. I think this also helps with the problem of people having different sized TV screens.

How much will the game cost?

I am not 100% sure because I am not certain of the exact printing costs, but approximately $65. That includes the costs of the PCB, materials, printing, and things like that. I'm not looking to make money, and I am no expecting to sell a great deal.

What Game Card is used with the game?

The game will ship with Game Card #11.

Why did you use Game Card #11?

Game Card #11 is previously unreleased. It's one of those mystery items. I wanted to see what it did differently from other Game Cards. Game Card #11 was originally intended for use with Basketball, but to save money Magnavox reused Game Card instead.

While Game Cards #8 and #11 are similar, there is a key difference that "Project Odball" takes advantage of, making it essential to game play. It's also easy to imagine how the Basketball game could've been.

Has there ever been a homebrew for Magnavox Odyssey?

No, I don't believe so. I think this will be the first Odyssey game in 34 years.

When can I pre-order the game? When will it be released?

Pre-orders will begin within a few weeks, and the game will be released by year's end. 2009 marks the 35th anniversary of the Odyssey's release, and this game will be released this year. Update: I am setting a deadline for release of December 1, 2009.

Batari Pong Clone To Asm

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:17:45 +0000

About a year ago, i wrote pong in batari basic using only 2k of rom space which was submitted to the miniagame comp 2008. I was thinking "Hey wouldn't it be neat to rewrite my pong game in assembly language"? Well i would like to gather everyones opnion on weither i should do this or not. I think that if i'm able to "squeeze" my code as much as possible, i should be able to add a few things that i wasn't able to before due to batari basic's limitations. Please let me know what you guys think about this.

Sincerely,

???

The bB Music and Sound Data Creation Toy

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:18:43 +0000

This page was made to help batari Basic users find the right note or sound and get the data as quickly and easily as possible for their bB programs.

Warning: To avoid a heart attack or damaged hearing, start with your volume turned down, then turn it up until it sounds right.

Let me know if you have any problems with it or find a mistake:

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-music-toy.html

Thanks.

AtariLAN

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:19:49 +0000

Question:
How much can the up/down/left/right/fire pins on the 2600 joystick port drive? If there was a direct connection from Pin 1 on VCS 1 to pin 2 on VCS 2... could VCS 1 set its ports for Output, VCS 2 for Input, and then they could transmit data?

Since there are five digital lines, it makes sense that we could use a dumb cable to link 5 VCSs together by simply tying each set of five digital pins together in one big star. If I rigged a cable which tied Pin 1 on five jacks together, is it conceivable that VCS 1 could successfully drive VCS 2-5 inputs... or is some kind of repeater necessary (not a problem as there is 5v available which could theoretically drive amplifier logic chips, but still...?)

I'm currently planning a 16k cart of minigames for use on 2 to 5 linked Ataris ("AtariLAN Party!", patent pending patent pending), but I need to nail down the technical issues on the link cable first before I get in too deep.

Ports, Trademarks, and Originals

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:20:01 +0000

This may be awkward timing to start this topic, considering that I've been plugging Juno First every chance I get, but I was reading the topic in the Colecovision forum that pushed the idea that it ONLY makes sense to do arcade ports, and it kind of ticked me off. So I really want to bust open this issue because it's been gnawing at me for a long time.

It's my opinion that the hobby has kind of lost sight of the creative process of making new game designs, and is almost exclusively concerned with either porting coinop games or adapting trademarked properties from movies, TV, comic books, etc.. (usually with hacks).

Now, I don't think ports are necessarily a bad idea. On the Vectrex for instance, the official library left huge gaps just waiting to be filled, and homebrews have done just that. I also like the technical challenges of porting coinop games to the 2600. Juno First with all of the moving objects is a good example. Prince of Persia is hopefully going to be another example.

But I think when the inevitable topic of "what would you like to see next for a homebrew" the assumption is that we're talking about which PORT would you like to see next. The idea that someone would come up with a totally original game, like Oystron which I hold up as the gold standard, is not even considered. And in the Coleco thread people are making a justification why originals are a bad idea that sounds like the marketing department of Infogrames! "Sorry, new ideas are too risky. Known properties will sell better." Is this what the hobby has turned into?

And I'm not sure this way of thinking is a homebrew thing. This is true of all entertainment in general, where everything seems to be a remake, a reboot, or a "port" from one medium to another (superheroes and graphic novels being the big thing right now).

Now most if not all of us have MAME and if we want the perfect arcade experience we can have it. And so many of these games have been played to death already, I'm wondering how much true play value some of them offer rather than just getting put on the shelf as a collector's item? But remember when you brought home that new Activision game and popped it in for the first time? That was a new experience. A new play mechanic. A new theme. That has value and I just don't see a lot of appreciation for that in the homebrew scene these days.

When I was interviewing Tod Frye, paraphrasing him, he said that management at Atari Inc., after the success of Space Invaders, went from thinking that coinop ports were a good thing to do, to thinking that they were the ONLY thing to do. And while this was lucrative, it was not very creative. Activision on the other hand tried to avoid ports, and while Kaboom was inspired by Avalanche, Megamania by Astro Blaster, and Dragster from Drag Race, none were advertised as direct ports. As such I think the Activision catalog stands by itself more as a creative body of work.

So I'm not saying ports are bad, but I really would like to see more passion for new game ideas. It's so easy to take that creative short-cut and start from a preexisting idea. That's something that you really have to resist because once you go down the port route, there is almost an endless number of ideas to cop if you count everything that's come and gone in the industry. You have to make a commitment to start from a blank slate and I don't see a lot of people doing that, nor do I see many people other than myself even clamoring for that. So it's a self-reinforcing thing.

My feeling is that homebrewing becomes too routine or (dare I say, corporate?) if it's only about "what do we port next".

What is the status of Handy on Linux?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:59:35 +0000

I've never used the Handy emulator before and I want to use it to test out some of my code. What is the status of Handy on Linux? I was greping the internet earlier and found an old SDL/Handy and the latest and greatest Handy seems to be Win32 only. Is there an active Handy on Linux project still around?

--Wookie

What homebrew for what system?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:59:02 +0000

I saw a post somewhere else either here at atariage or another site. Either way, I don't seem to be able to find it again. It poses the question of what homebrew you would like to see and for what system?

Personally I'd love to see a 16-bit port/new Bionic Commando game for either the Genesis or Snes.

TV Simulation

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:06:43 +0000

tokumaru, on Tue Nov 3, 2009 7:58 PM, said:

I think Stella's filters are a poor approximation of what the video from a 2600 actually looks like on a TV. These filters that just screw up the image in random ways are quite obsolete now that we have Blargg's NTSC Libraries, which faithfully simulate the artifacts of NTSC signals.

I'm so addicted to these filters that I can't seem to play the pixel-perfect crispy versions anymore. Hopefully the next version of Stella will have actual NTSC emulation.

That library does look pretty sweet, but I think it is based around processing a single image at a time - so it wouldn't do anything for the phospher effect that is often used on the VCS. It would be great if someone could integrate it with the work that has already been done, but I don't think that would be a particularly easy task.

I haven't seen a VCS on a CRT for quite a while but I didn't think the new functions in Stella made that bad an approximation if it - I definitely think it's a lot better than just having the alt-p option for phospher effect which I think pretty much just merges two frames.

Test cart (especially RAM) ? Bad graphics/colors

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:22:27 +0000

Hi,

I just got a european CBS Colecovision which I'm trying to fix. For those who don't know, this outputs RGB video which should be crystal clear unlike RF. The problem is, I get buggy colors and graphics. When this happens, alterations are stable, they never change randomly.
I tested two carts: Mr Do! & World Games.
Mr Do! seems to work almost without trouble, but somtimes during the "Player 1 Get Ready" screen, I get two or three stable sprites on the left. I couldn't make this happen again but testing World Games shows the real thing... See screenshots below.
I suspect the video RAM to have something bad but I'm not sure. It could also be the TI VDP chip or maybe the cartridge connector.

To see what I'm talking about, I made a quick html page with several screenshots.
It's at http://www.pong-story.com/cv/cv.htm

Any help appreciated. Thanks !!!

David.

PM 1.5

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:15:28 +0000

Hi.. better late than never

Small post, technical explanations tomorrow..
Use Altirra emulator 1.3 or 1.4, probably real hardware, not Atari800Win..

The raycast engine base is there. Right now is only rotations, I need to add some tables and code to move the player. There is going to be a cost associated to moving.. probably will lose another 5 fps or more, but I have at least 3 optimizations to test yet, so is not that bad.. the real problem should be memory because I'm very near of the limit. I can do a very good version in a 130XE, but I want to do something with 64K

Keys:
- I: interactive mode On/Off (when "Off" you can rotate with the left and right arrows)
- R: rotation speed: 2, 4 or 6 degrees per frame
- TAB: change camera position (between 4 predefined points)
- M: music On/Off (maybe to gain some fps)

Many thanks to Miker for his great song (as always).
Also to Tebe (mads), Raster (RMT) and Phaeron (for his great emulator, Altirra).

PM_1_5 PAL.zip (17.99K)
: 85

I know lets make a FORTRAN Programming Cartridge

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:37 +0000

So I am wondering, what are some of the worst Homebrew Ideas that have ever been suggested.

The worst thing I could think of is to resurrect the Basic Programming idea originally done by Atari, but to pick another more ideosyncratic language. Although I guess it could have been worse I've dabbled into older versions of COBOL and find them to be even worse.

So what is the worst idea you've heard or seen on the forums?

Create own/replacement paper box for Atari 2600 games?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:51:09 +0000

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to get hold of the tutorial that shows you how to make your own Atari 2600 replacement paper boxes. Unfortunatly, googling for it has come up with nothing at all. Can someone please provide me and anyone else who wonders where to find it with a link? Thank you in advance!

My First Kernel

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:03:37 +0000

I've been lurking around these 2600 forums for nearly 2 years, learning what I can about VCS programming. I've been an Atari 8-bit programmer since 1980, but never tried the 2600, mainly because the TIA documentation wasn't available to me back then. But in these excellent forums you can find almost anything you need!

I've been working on my first kernel all this year, and I hope it will become the basis for a game I'm designing. It's been developed and tested only on the PC, using Stella 2.6.1 and some other tools, but not DASM. Stella, with its nice debugger, makes it so easy.

It's almost ready for posting, though it's still far from a complete game.

7800 - Happy Halloween!

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:30:47 +0000

Here are some screenshots of a game I had hoped to get finished by today :-

Its still a WIP and will see binary releases for testing in a week or two. Many thanks to sh3-rg for lots of fantastic graphics .

The backstory :-

You play Van Allensings (pronounced Van Halen Sings geddit? ) the long lost and distant cousin to Van Helsing. You find yourself trapped in a spooky castle. The only way to escape is to collect the parts to the magic talisman. Sounds simple, apart from the fact that each talisman piece is guarded by none other than Dracula, Frankenstein and a Werewolf.

As you wander around the creepy old castle the spirits within have their fun by opening and closing doors in your path. The nastier spirits will manifest themselves in the room and charge at you. Luckily you have an infinite supply of throwing knives at your disposal.

You'll need to collect the keys, weapons and food to stay alive!

Now on to the technical stuff :-

This is another game developed using my 7800 "C" development system. After learning about the limitations of MARIA while getting Wasp! onto cart I realised the first version of the library wasn't going to be as flexible as I'd hoped . After a bit of a rethink I put more of MARIA's control into the game developers hands instead of my library. This game is the result. It was supposed to be a "mini game" but it soon spiralled into a much bigger game.

The game's engine is capable of displaying graphics with up to 64 colours on screen at once. Not a colour bar in sight! So no accusing me of cheating mmmmkay! That's the myth of the 7800 only being able to display 25 colours at once out of the window .

I know there are wasps as monsters but I just needed some "get me going" graphics. The first binary available will have all new monster graphics.

I'm hoping to get the game finished by the end of November and I'll be offering boxed and loose cart versions. I'm also hoping to add SaveKey support for the high scores.

Scrolling single playfield rows

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:34:15 +0000

I'm trying to create a parallax graveyard for a Halloween display. How would I go about only scrolling one row of playfield data at a time? I want it to wrap, so that the column that scrolls off of the left side of the screen reappears on the right side of the screen. I've tried a few different things, but nothing has worked so far.

By the way, I'm using the Superchip and a pfres of 30.