36 replies to this topic

[Bountybob]

I was thinking it might be possible to port all the early simple arcade games homebrew onto the 2600.
Even obscure games like Uniwars and Mayday ?

[tz101]

I like this idea. A must-have title would be Williams' Make Trax.

[raindog]

I'd be happy with just Moon Cresta (and have contemplated doing it myself.)

Who am I kidding, I'd just find a different old game to obsess about after I got it going.

[Bountybob]

tz101, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:10 PM, said:

I like this idea. A must-have title would be Williams' Make Trax.

Yeah good choice you do realise that Williams didn't create Make Trax it was a Third Party development
like Moon Patrol.Apparently a Korean company Kural Samno created it.Williams just had the license for it.

[homerwannabee]

Bountybob, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:54 PM, said:

tz101, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:10 PM, said:

I like this idea. A must-have title would be Williams' Make Trax.

Yeah good choice you do realise that Williams didn't create Make Trax it was a Third Party development
like Moon Patrol.Apparently a Korean company Kural Samno created it.Williams just had the license for it.

So a Korean company created Moon Patrol? Hmm, aren't the Moonies founded, and run by a Korean? It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

[NE146]

Yeah.. Moon Patrol, Make Trax, Kangaroo, Arabian, etc. All those games were originally done by asian companies then Atari & Williams bought a license for them. The thing is, you just gotta look at those games and they obviously aren't anything close to the U.S. programmed ones

[raindog]

NE146, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:31 PM, said:

Yeah.. Moon Patrol, Make Trax, Kangaroo, Arabian, etc. All those games were originally done by asian companies then Atari & Williams bought a license for them. The thing is, you just gotta look at those games and they obviously aren't anything close to the U.S. programmed ones

Or the Japanese ones that they were ripoffs of, in the case of Make Trax and the incredibly rancid Kangaroo (which may be one of the rare examples of an arcade game whose 2600 conversion was actually less awful).

[almightytodd]

Take a look at the attached screenshot of Atari Fire Truck...

The game came out in 1978 - soon after the introduction of the 2600 VCS. It uses gray-scale graphics, but look at the level of detail. The images look much more sharp and well-defined than anything the 2600 can generate. Plus, the entire playfield scrolls smoothly underneath the pivoting fire truck image. Add the fact that this is one of many games of that era that used a portrait-oriented monitor (rotated 90 degrees), and the final result is that any attempt to do a port would likely be disappointing. Ports and hacks of games like "Galaxians" and "Pac Man" are interesting because they show how far the 2600 hardware can be pushed - although no one ever expects the resulting games to ever really duplicate the arcade versions they are inspired by. Doing ports of more primitive games loses the appeal.

Personally, I'd like to see something like what the Legacy Engineering guys did for the Taco Bell CD ROMs, but in a plug-n-play unit that could generate a 720p digital signal that you could hook up to your HDTV. Maybe market it as a "Classic Atari Flashback virtual arcade". That would be a way to enjoy the nostalgia of late 70's/early 80's technology, reproduced on a 21st century display. It would be novel and interesting, as I don't think anyone has done a digital plug-and-play unit. There could also be a "retro" and "enhanced" version of each game similar to the Taco Bell games - adding enhanced graphics and sound, but keeping the original game-play. Unfortunately, it probably would not be profitable to sell such a unit for under $50, at which point it probably wouldn't sell; easier to just publish an Atari games CD ROM for XBox, PS3, PC and Mac similar to the Namco Museum.

Attached Thumbnails

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[retrorussell]

Bountybob, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:54 PM, said:

tz101, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:10 PM, said:

I like this idea. A must-have title would be Williams' Make Trax.

Yeah good choice you do realise that Williams didn't create Make Trax it was a Third Party development
like Moon Patrol.Apparently a Korean company Kural Samno created it.Williams just had the license for it.

And it was originally called "Crush Roller". I guess it was licensed to Exidy as well, who kept the name "Crush Roller", while Williams called it "Make Trax". Of all these versions, I only saw Make Trax, and at a lot of different arcades.

[Bountybob]

NE146, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:31 PM, said:

Yeah.. Moon Patrol, Make Trax, Kangaroo, Arabian, etc. All those games were originally done by asian companies then Atari & Williams bought a license for them. The thing is, you just gotta look at those games and they obviously aren't anything close to the U.S. programmed ones

Absolutely compare Defender and Robotron to Maketrax and Moon Patrol they are in a different league.

[Bountybob]

retrorussell, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:44 AM, said:

And it was originally called "Crush Roller". I guess it was licensed to Exidy as well, who kept the name "Crush Roller", while Williams called it "Make Trax". Of all these versions, I only saw Make Trax, and at a lot of different arcades.

I remember seeing Make Trax / Crush Roller in the arcades back in the day never really interested me.Played Amidar and Pepper 2 though
which where kind of similar.

[CRV]

Mr. Galaxian, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:57 PM, said:

So a Korean company created Moon Patrol? Hmm, aren't the Moonies founded, and run by a Korean? It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

Moon Patrol was by Irem.

[raindog]

almightytodd, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 10:43 PM, said:

Take a look at the attached screenshot of Atari Fire Truck...

The game came out in 1978 - soon after the introduction of the 2600 VCS. It uses gray-scale graphics, but look at the level of detail. The images look much more sharp and well-defined than anything the 2600 can generate. Plus, the entire playfield scrolls smoothly underneath the pivoting fire truck image. Add the fact that this is one of many games of that era that used a portrait-oriented monitor (rotated 90 degrees), and the final result is that any attempt to do a port would likely be disappointing. Ports and hacks of games like "Galaxians" and "Pac Man" are interesting because they show how far the 2600 hardware can be pushed - although no one ever expects the resulting games to ever really duplicate the arcade versions they are inspired by. Doing ports of more primitive games loses the appeal.

Space Invaders also came out in 1978, and plenty of people have done ports and hacks of that. I think it comes down to name recognition, nostalgia and the hacker's passion, and there just aren't a lot of hackers who remember (or care about) games like Fire Truck compared to stuff like Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

Even so, there have been homebrew projects of Sea Wolf and Death Race (renamed Death Derby).... both of which came out in 1976.

Edited by raindog, Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:54 AM.

[Bountybob]

CRV, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:39 AM, said:

Mr. Galaxian, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:57 PM, said:

So a Korean company created Moon Patrol? Hmm, aren't the Moonies founded, and run by a Korean? It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

Moon Patrol was by Irem.

Yes I just realised Moon Patrol was the first game to feature Parallax scrolling, maybe thats what caught Williams attention
It was a nice looking game and a nice 2600 port also.

[yuppicide]

I like Make Trax also.

tz101, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:10 PM, said:

I like this idea. A must-have title would be Williams' Make Trax.

[yuppicide]

I've been playing Moon Patrol lately with my Harmony Cart. Great port! I think everything about it is pretty good looking. I can get pretty far, but I can't get to the end. In the arcade I believe I could continue with more quarters so I was able to eventually get past it.

Bountybob, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:01 AM, said:

CRV, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:39 AM, said:

Mr. Galaxian, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:57 PM, said:

So a Korean company created Moon Patrol? Hmm, aren't the Moonies founded, and run by a Korean? It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

Moon Patrol was by Irem.

Yes I just realised Moon Patrol was the first game to feature Parallax scrolling, maybe thats what caught Williams attention
It was a nice looking game and a nice 2600 port also.

[yuppicide]

I am really waiting for someone to make a Kangaroo II or as I call it Kangatwo with more different screens.

[save2600]

I'd still love to see a 2600 Galaga as well as these:

Astro Invader
Donkey Kong III
Mappy
Turtles
Zoo Keeper

...and whatever arcade Intv's Loco-Motion was modeled after.

[Bountybob]

save2600, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:06 AM, said:

...and whatever arcade Intv's Loco-Motion was modeled after.

Konami/Centuri Loco-motion 1982 Played it once I thought it was monochrome though
unless there was an earlier version ?
http://www.klov.com/...hp?game_id=8439

Edited by Bountybob, Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:45 AM.

[yuppicide]

I wish someone could do Mappy.

Zoo Keeper sound and animation was found.. now all we need is the game itself.

Dig Dug II would be nice. A better port of Mr. Do! would be nice. Would be nice to see Do! Run Run or Mr. Do!'s Wildride.

Edited by yuppicide, Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:40 AM.

[save2600]

Bountybob, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:33 AM, said:

Funny you should mention that I once came across that old arcade game at the back of a seaside arcade in Ireland
As far as I can remember it was monochrome.It was really just a variant on the game where the liquid is flowing
through the pipe and you have to put the pipeline together.Another variant was Taito's Steel Worker.

Thankfully, there's a bunch of those types of games for the Amiga, C64, (ST I'm sure) and 8-bit Nintendo - just be nice to have for the 2600. Locomotion with its theme, sounds, graphics and great gameplay though... man, wish I had an INTV some days.

[raindog]

save2600, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:06 AM, said:

I'd still love to see a 2600 Galaga as well as these:
Astro Invader

I was interested in doing this myself years ago, and actually got as far as starting on a kernel to display the "tubes" and as many invaders as I could inside them. I think I got it displaying 10 invaders (well, featureless players) across after messing with Thomas Jentzsch's "11 Invaders" code, but then realized I wouldn't have any cycles left to do the UFOs. I think flickering would have been OK when the UFOs came onscreen though. Maybe someday, in my copious free time.

save2600, on Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:06 AM, said:

Mappy

This was my favorite arcade game, but I never seriously thought of doing it on the 2600 because it's so incredibly horizontally oriented. Maybe you could use a technique like Mountain King's for the playfield, but oh my god the flicker. I think it would be tough on the Colecovision, never mind the 2600.

[Goochman]

almightytodd, on Wed Mar 17, 2010 10:43 PM, said:

Take a look at the attached screenshot of Atari Fire Truck...

The game came out in 1978 - soon after the introduction of the 2600 VCS. It uses gray-scale graphics, but look at the level of detail. The images look much more sharp and well-defined than anything the 2600 can generate. Plus, the entire playfield scrolls smoothly underneath the pivoting fire truck image. Add the fact that this is one of many games of that era that used a portrait-oriented monitor (rotated 90 degrees), and the final result is that any attempt to do a port would likely be disappointing. Ports and hacks of games like "Galaxians" and "Pac Man" are interesting because they show how far the 2600 hardware can be pushed - although no one ever expects the resulting games to ever really duplicate the arcade versions they are inspired by. Doing ports of more primitive games loses the appeal.

Personally, I'd like to see something like what the Legacy Engineering guys did for the Taco Bell CD ROMs, but in a plug-n-play unit that could generate a 720p digital signal that you could hook up to your HDTV. Maybe market it as a "Classic Atari Flashback virtual arcade". That would be a way to enjoy the nostalgia of late 70's/early 80's technology, reproduced on a 21st century display. It would be novel and interesting, as I don't think anyone has done a digital plug-and-play unit. There could also be a "retro" and "enhanced" version of each game similar to the Taco Bell games - adding enhanced graphics and sound, but keeping the original game-play. Unfortunately, it probably would not be profitable to sell such a unit for under $50, at which point it probably wouldn't sell; easier to just publish an Atari games CD ROM for XBox, PS3, PC and Mac similar to the Namco Museum.

I remember that Fire Truck game - you could play 2 players IIRC - one could control the back ladder - that was fun at the time

[Bountybob]

Isn't better to concentrate on porting earlier games pre 1982 and play to the Atari 2600's strengths ?
The likes of Astro Invader, Astro Fighter, and Cosmic Guerilla.These are great games and are Atari 2600
era which also makes them nicer to port.

[Bountybob]

raindog, on Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:10 PM, said:

I'd be happy with just Moon Cresta (and have contemplated doing it myself.)

Moon Cresta is an excellent sugestion.

Edited by Bountybob, Thu Mar 18, 2010 3:31 PM.