8 replies to this topic

[Cliff Friedel]

This is my first Batari Basic program. Basically what it does is reads the joystick port and based on the direction it sees first, displays a team letter. No other direction will be read from this point until the joystick button is pressed by the judge. Once the judge has pressed the button, the program is reset and ready for the next question.

The intended purpose is to use for a quiz competition. Microswitches could be attached to buttons that would be wired to the ground and direction on the joystick port. Up to 4 buttons could be wired this way along with a 5th button for the judge. A diagram for the teams is listed below:

A - Joystick up
B - Joystick down
C - Joystick left
D - Joystick right
Judges/Ready - Joystick button

Check it out and let me know what you think. I am thinking of doing Joystick 1 also so that you could have up to 8 people or could have messages that would display RIGHT or WRONG based on input by the judges. I think the whole system (a 2600, a harmony cart, the microswitches, the arcade buttons, wires/boxes) could be done for about $150-$200. It would also give kids access to the Atari 2600 as a tool they could use to build simple systems like this. Enjoy!

Cliff

Sample Image:


Batari Basic Code:
 default.bas   4.24K   57 downloads

Atari 2600 .BIN file:
 QuizBuzzer.bin   4K   57 downloads

[Cliff Friedel]

Made some improvements. Now added the ability to tell a team that their response was right or wrong. To use this option, you would use joystick 1 left and right and could hook up buttons as described above. Right or wrong will only work after a team has been selected. To go back to the ready prompt, just hit the button on joystick 0, just like before. Below are listed the options:

After a team has been selected with joystick 0:

WRONG - Joystick 1 Left
RIGHT - Joystick 1 Right
Judge/Ready - Joystick 0 Button.

Here is the new code and the new BIN file. Hope to add some sounds as soon as I figure it out =)

Cliff

Batari Basic File:
 default.bas   5.67K   48 downloads

Atari BIN File:
 QuizBuzzerV1_1.bin   4K   50 downloads

[Random Terrain]

See if you like this any better:

 quizbuzzer_2010y_02m_28d_0500t.bas   6.1K   54 downloads

 quizbuzzer_2010y_02m_28d_0500t.bin   4K   57 downloads

[Cliff Friedel]

I actually did that same improvement here. You beat me to the post =). I was hesitant to use no_blank_lines, but since there is no need to have player/missile graphics, I took the plunge. I do think it looks a lot better. I do have a question though. Is there anyway to extend the playfield horizontally or vertically past 11X32? I tried just expanding it in the playfield editor, but it will not show anything past 88 lines. My goal would be to have it use the entire screen. Thanks!

[Random Terrain]

You can use Superchip RAM. Check out the main screen for Cave-In to see what is possible.

Edited by Random Terrain, Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:11 AM.

[Cliff Friedel]

Random Terrain, on Sun Feb 28, 2010 8:28 AM, said:

You can use Superchip RAM. Check out the main screen screen for Cave-In to see what is possible.

Thanks for all the help and info. It is amazing just how much you can get out of the 2600. Never would have imagined stuff this detailed being possible in the 80s.

[Random Terrain]

Check this out too:

Creating your own High Resolution Titlescreens with asm

[RevEng]

Nice work Cliff!

You'd be hard pressed to find a more foolproof solution than a 2600 running this!

[Cliff Friedel]

Ok, here is the new version with sound. It works well, but I think there has to be a better way to time sound than just to run it so many frames. Any suggestions?

Cliff

Atari BIN file
 QuizBuzzer1_3.bin   4K   44 downloads

Batari Basic file
 default.bas   6.32K   47 downloads