98 replies to this topic

[Nathan Strum]

lapetino, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:01 AM, said:

Dang, that's a nice mockup! Did you just make this now? Is that look actually achievable on the 2600?

Thanks. I just threw it together last night.

It "should" be doable on the 2600. Not quite sure about the diagonal lines where Tron's aiming cursor travels, however.

Basically, it's just Pong on its side. Except you're throwing at each other, not past each other. As mentioned though, controls would be difficult. Probably the ideal approach would be to just have the player move back and forth only with the joystick, pull back on it for blocking, and aim using a paddle plugged into the right controller port. Aiming up and down to different heights would have to be handled automatically - so the aiming cursor would "know" what level the platforms were at. Of course, you'd still need a trigger-style joystick to play the game this way anyway. Or the Omega Race booster grip.

Otherwise, it'd have to be some sort of move-and-shoot control scheme, like Berzerk.

The controls issue was discussed in a 2600 Arcade Tron thread before, but Discs Of Tron adds even more complexity to the problem.

[Nathan Strum]

Incidentally, Apollo's Racquetball has a pretty good head start on the whole Discs of Tron thing.

[godzillajoe]

Nathan Strum, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:36 PM, said:

lapetino, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:01 AM, said:

Dang, that's a nice mockup! Did you just make this now? Is that look actually achievable on the 2600?

Thanks. I just threw it together last night.

It "should" be doable on the 2600. Not quite sure about the diagonal lines where Tron's aiming cursor travels, however.

Basically, it's just Pong on its side. Except you're throwing at each other, not past each other. As mentioned though, controls would be difficult. Probably the ideal approach would be to just have the player move back and forth only with the joystick, pull back on it for blocking, and aim using a paddle plugged into the right controller port.

Unfortunately that would kill a head to head 2 player game which would probably be the most fun part

[Nathan Strum]

There is no head to head 2 player game in the arcade version. (Although it would have been cool if they could have linked up two cabinets together for that.)

[Jess Ragan]

godzillajoe, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:24 PM, said:

Nathan Strum, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:36 PM, said:

lapetino, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:01 AM, said:

Dang, that's a nice mockup! Did you just make this now? Is that look actually achievable on the 2600?

Thanks. I just threw it together last night.

It "should" be doable on the 2600. Not quite sure about the diagonal lines where Tron's aiming cursor travels, however.

Basically, it's just Pong on its side. Except you're throwing at each other, not past each other. As mentioned though, controls would be difficult. Probably the ideal approach would be to just have the player move back and forth only with the joystick, pull back on it for blocking, and aim using a paddle plugged into the right controller port.

Unfortunately that would kill a head to head 2 player game which would probably be the most fun part

(Frantically points to his Coleco Gemini link)

[DaveD]

I don't know how much fun it would be but you could conceivably implement the control with player movement being controlled by the stick, then ball movement being controlled by the stick while the button is pressed down. Let go of the button and the ball is released. This would leave your guy stationary while throwing but that could conceivably add a new dimension to the game.

[Cybergoth]

DaveD, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:33 PM, said:

I don't know how much fun it would be but you could conceivably implement the control with player movement being controlled by the stick, then ball movement being controlled by the stick while the button is pressed down. Let go of the button and the ball is released. This would leave your guy stationary while throwing but that could conceivably add a new dimension to the game.

It works. The Miggy classic "Grand Monster Slam" did very similar controls with a single button:
http://www.atariage....;showentry=3870

[opeygon]

Nathan Strum, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:45 PM, said:

Incidentally, Apollo's Racquetball has a pretty good head start on the whole Discs of Tron thing.

awesome game!

also, as far as 2600 controls for this game, what if you did a two player team type of game? where one player controls movement and firing with the stick and button, and the other player controls aiming with a paddle or controller in port two. that would be fun

Edited by opeygon, Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:11 PM.

[godzillajoe]

Nathan Strum, on Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:54 PM, said:

There is no head to head 2 player game in the arcade version. (Although it would have been cool if they could have linked up two cabinets together for that.)

Hmmm.... OK never mind I guess. It wasn't one of my favorites in the arcades.

[Godzilla]

wow, that looks great.

re: previous, does anyone know if the 2800 combo paddle/stick can be use as both at the same time, even if it takes custom coding?

[Nukey Shay]

I know that some computers can read the paddle without the wye cable. IIRC, stick(0)+trig(0)+paddle(1) in Atari 8-bit. Perhaps the 2600 is similar.

[lapetino]

Is there any progress on any of these Tron games? Would love to see something happen.

Or just as good/better...a version of Discs of Tron for the 2600!!!!

[TROGDOR]

Tron?

Never heard of it.

But I have been working on a totally unrelated game called Positron: Write Cycles, which is in no way similar to the licensed Disney franchise. My game is loosely based on the early Atari game Surround. Or Snafu, for Intellivision fans out there. The game is posted in my blog if you want to check it out.

Edited by TROGDOR, Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:29 AM.

[thegoldenband]

Sorry, did someone say "Tron"?

 tron-simple-02.bas   1.53K   21 downloads

 tron-simple-02.bas.bin   4K   59 downloads

[Uzumaki]

Speaking of Tron, anyone notice that Kevin Flynn (Jeff) and Alan (Bruce) is going to grace the big screen once again? Tron Legacy (sequel to original movie) is scheduled to appear on big screen December of 2010.

All the more reason to watch for copyright police. Disney can be picky so if anyone successfully develop a good working 2600 version, they'd have to be released under name that won't upset those big eared lawyers.

PS anyone notice there is no Blu Ray version yet? Seems Disney had trouble digitizing all those special effect as they were overlaid masks and glowing materials. As a result, a standard digitizing process produces a very grainy video.

I want a HQ version of Tron. The 20th Anniversary edition is only for old small TV and doesn't look at all like the movie experience I remembered.

[Nathan Strum]

I'm sure there will be a Blu-Ray version of Tron next year, to either coincide with the sequel, or the home video version of it.

I got to see Tron in 70mm a couple of years ago. It's really a breathtaking film. That said, you can see aliasing in the computer graphics at film resolution (and there is considerable grain in some of the computer world shots), and there's really nothing they can do about that. Or at least, there's nothing they should do about it. It's part of the look of the film. If they transfer from the best available negatives, maybe do some scratch and dirt removal, it'll still look amazing.

They're doing a variation of the "video warrior" look in the new movie (or at least in the visual effects test that's been posted). If you look at the faces of the video warriors, they've overlaid a moving, pulsing video texture onto them. It's a nice update to the original.

[lapetino]

Nathan Strum, on Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:50 AM, said:

I'm sure there will be a Blu-Ray version of Tron next year, to either coincide with the sequel, or the home video version of it.

I got to see Tron in 70mm a couple of years ago. It's really a breathtaking film. That said, you can see aliasing in the computer graphics at film resolution (and there is considerable grain in some of the computer world shots), and there's really nothing they can do about that. Or at least, there's nothing they should do about it. It's part of the look of the film. If they transfer from the best available negatives, maybe do some scratch and dirt removal, it'll still look amazing.

They're doing a variation of the "video warrior" look in the new movie (or at least in the visual effects test that's been posted). If you look at the faces of the video warriors, they've overlaid a moving, pulsing video texture onto them. It's a nice update to the original.

Yeah, I actually saw Tron in 70mm converted to 35mm last year @ Chicago's Music Box theatre. It was amazing, and really probably emulated what the movie would look like in hi-def, because the process of converting down to 35mm really condensed all the info into a smaller size, which gave the appearance of a crisp, beautiful print. This print was also very clean, and it looked amazing. I would get a Blu-Ray version in a second. That said, do you all think that Disney would be willing to license the character for a limited release 2600 game? This could be a very cool, small-batch sort of thing, much like was done with Mega Man 9's retro release. I thought that since the company who owns Boulder Dash was going to allow Andrew to license a game, it *might* be possible.

[TROGDOR]

Uzumaki, on Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:23 AM, said:

All the more reason to watch for copyright police. Disney can be picky so if anyone successfully develop a good working 2600 version, they'd have to be released under name that won't upset those big eared lawyers.

That's why the work I'm doing is based on Atari's Surround, and it won't be called Tron.

lapetino, on Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:43 AM, said:

Do you all think that Disney would be willing to license the character for a limited release 2600 game?

Very doubtful. First Star Software, the owners of Boulder Dash, is a small company, and the fact that they allowed a port of their game is the exception to the rule. Disney is a massive company with 150,000 employees. They have a reputation for being very aggressive about copyright enforcement.

For details, see this public service announcement:

Edited by TROGDOR, Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:23 PM.

[nonner242]

I want this still for the 7800...
http://www.atariage....1

[GroovyBee]

nonner242, on Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:02 PM, said:

I want this still for the 7800...
http://www.atariage....1

The 7800 version could look much better than those mockups.

[nonner242]

GroovyBee, on Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:12 PM, said:

nonner242, on Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:02 PM, said:

I want this still for the 7800...
http://www.atariage....1

The 7800 version could look much better than those mockups.

Im sure... I wasnt going to spend more than an hour messing around drawing thim out.
I just thought it might inspire someone.
I just love tron...Almost as much as ALIENS..which also needs a nice game.

[Devin]

TROGDOR, on Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:50 PM, said:

Uzumaki, on Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:23 AM, said:

All the more reason to watch for copyright police. Disney can be picky so if anyone successfully develop a good working 2600 version, they'd have to be released under name that won't upset those big eared lawyers.

That's why the work I'm doing is based on Atari's Surround, and it won't be called Tron.

In the old GWBASIC days, there was a debugging instruction called "Tron" for "TRacking ON". To turn off tracking, you used "TROFF". Perhaps use that name?

[Devin]

Bump!

(since this so epic)

[lapetino]

Yep, this arcade version is so fun that I'm surprised no one has tried this. Perhaps the game could use one paddle set (for the spinner needs) and one joystick together? I could see someone 3D-printing a holder that held the two controllers together to emulate a single arcade controller.