19 replies to this topic

[atari2600land]

OK, I had no idea that this trick even existed, so if it did, my apologies. It looks like when you're using pfcolors, no blank lines and background, you can actually pick what color you want the playfield blocks to be by putting it first in the pfcolor table. Using this, I made a Pitfall!-type screen. How cool is that. You learn something every day.

Attached Files

•  pratfall.bas   1.04K   65 downloads
•  pratfall.bas.bin   4K   64 downloads

Edited by atari2600land, Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:16 AM.

[SeaGtGruff]

atari2600land, on Fri May 13, 2011 12:31 PM, said:

OK, I had no idea that this trick even existed, so if it did, my apologies. It looks like when you're using pfcolors, no blank lines and background, you can actually pick what color you want the playfield blocks to be by putting it first in the pfcolor table. Using this, I made a Pitfall!-type screen. How cool is that. You learn something every day.

Can you post a screenshot?

Michael

[atari2600land]

Sure.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Random Terrain]

Maybe I'm not understanding, but it doesn't look like you're doing anything different than what is described on the bB page:

www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#kernop_background

[atari2600land]

The only time I call the color $F2 is in the pfcolors table, which is actually the background. This is actually the wrong background since $F2 is on the top of the chart, you'd think the top background would be $F2, but it's not, it's the playfield block that is colored $F2.

[Random Terrain]

atari2600land, on Fri May 13, 2011 4:35 PM, said:

The only time I call the color $F2 is in the pfcolors table, which is actually the background. This is actually the wrong background since $F2 is on the top of the chart, you'd think the top background would be $F2, but it's not, it's the playfield block that is colored $F2.

OK, now I get it. If you don't use COLUPF, the first pfcolors: number changes the color of the foreground playfield pixels instead of the top background row. The second pfcolors: number in the list changes the color of the top background row.

I wonder if it was always like that or if it changed in one of the updates over the years?

[PAC-MAN-RED]

atari2600land, on Fri May 13, 2011 12:31 PM, said:

OK, I had no idea that this trick even existed, so if it did, my apologies. It looks like when you're using pfcolors, no blank lines and background, you can actually pick what color you want the playfield blocks to be by putting it first in the pfcolor table. Using this, I made a Pitfall!-type screen. How cool is that. You learn something every day.

I stumbled across this technique while trying to make a Simon Says like game, but I'm sad to say that it has fallen by the wayside. One difference is that I'm not using no_blank_lines.



 simon_8.bas   7.71K   45 downloads

[yuppicide]

I tried to make a Simon Says, but I can't figure out how to make the program remember the sequence.

PAC-MAN-RED, on Fri May 13, 2011 9:21 PM, said:

atari2600land, on Fri May 13, 2011 12:31 PM, said:

OK, I had no idea that this trick even existed, so if it did, my apologies. It looks like when you're using pfcolors, no blank lines and background, you can actually pick what color you want the playfield blocks to be by putting it first in the pfcolor table. Using this, I made a Pitfall!-type screen. How cool is that. You learn something every day.

I stumbled across this technique while trying to make a Simon Says like game, but I'm sad to say that it has fallen by the wayside. One difference is that I'm not using no_blank_lines.



 simon_8.bas   7.71K   45 downloads

[ScumSoft]

I would just predefine sequences in a table and randomly select a starting position in that table.

Edited by ScumSoft, Fri May 13, 2011 9:38 PM.

[RevEng]

yuppi, maybe with a forum search *cough* you could find an answer to your simon problem... just a hunch.

[ScumSoft]

I didn't know bB could do that pretty cool and much better than repetitive tables.

[theloon]

PAC-MAN-RED, on Fri May 13, 2011 9:21 PM, said:

atari2600land, on Fri May 13, 2011 12:31 PM, said:

OK, I had no idea that this trick even existed, so if it did, my apologies. It looks like when you're using pfcolors, no blank lines and background, you can actually pick what color you want the playfield blocks to be by putting it first in the pfcolor table. Using this, I made a Pitfall!-type screen. How cool is that. You learn something every day.

I stumbled across this technique while trying to make a Simon Says like game, but I'm sad to say that it has fallen by the wayside. One difference is that I'm not using no_blank_lines.



 simon_8.bas   7.71K   45 downloads

So, the pratfall image just looks like your regular 1 color for background and 1 color for pixels.. BUT, the Simon Says image has at times 4 *different* colors per row!! I just don't understand!

When I look at the simon_8 code I see just two sections with pfcolor commands.. How are we getting 4 colors per line?

[grafixbmp]

theloon, on Mon May 16, 2011 11:02 PM, said:

PAC-MAN-RED, on Fri May 13, 2011 9:21 PM, said:

atari2600land, on Fri May 13, 2011 12:31 PM, said:

OK, I had no idea that this trick even existed, so if it did, my apologies. It looks like when you're using pfcolors, no blank lines and background, you can actually pick what color you want the playfield blocks to be by putting it first in the pfcolor table. Using this, I made a Pitfall!-type screen. How cool is that. You learn something every day.

I stumbled across this technique while trying to make a Simon Says like game, but I'm sad to say that it has fallen by the wayside. One difference is that I'm not using no_blank_lines.



 simon_8.bas   7.71K   45 downloads

So, the pratfall image just looks like your regular 1 color for background and 1 color for pixels.. BUT, the Simon Says image has at times 4 *different* colors per row!! I just don't understand!

When I look at the simon_8 code I see just two sections with pfcolor commands.. How are we getting 4 colors per line?

There are after all 4 color registers in the TIA. background, playfield, player0 and player1. So as the image shows, the backbround changes purple colors while the playfield stays grey. One of the player graphics is green then chages to blue while the other player graphic is red and changes to yellow. And finally both players are set to quad size. easy peasy.

Edited by grafixbmp, Mon May 16, 2011 11:45 PM.

[PAC-MAN-RED]

In other words, I cheated... again.

But now that I look again at the picture, I can see green grass with a dark blue sky background, a gray Castle with Red and Green flags at the top, a Blue tapestry resting against the outer wall, and a Yellow gate at the entrance.

Illya

[grafixbmp]

That what I LOVE so about atari as compared to modern systems. Its like reading a book compared to going to the movies. One has every part of the story done with high detail leaving nothing to the imagination. The other gives just enough so that it sparks the mind to fill in the gaps and immersion can take to the skies.

[pitfall_jerry]

grafixbmp, on Tue May 17, 2011 9:49 AM, said:

That what I LOVE so about atari as compared to modern systems. Its like reading a book compared to going to the movies. One has every part of the story done with high detail leaving nothing to the imagination. The other gives just enough so that it sparks the mind to fill in the gaps and immersion can take to the skies.

I totally agree and have been showing my 23yo gaming neighbor some of the great games that we used to play.

[atari2600land]

I was keeping this a secret, but I might as well let you in on it. Of course, this is subject to change and I could go in any other possible direction, but I just want to see if you guys like what I have so far.

Attached Files

•  aliengreed5july282011.bas.bin   8K   41 downloads

[ScumSoft]

I like it so far however I get to a screen with a black hole on the right and it doesn't change after that. Did I win?

[atari2600land]

I ditched the old title screen and made a new one. Do you like it?

Attached Files

•  aliengreed5november182011.bas.bin   8K   42 downloads
•  aliengreed5november182011.bas   10.38K   15 downloads

[atari2600land]

Hi. Is anyone who knows assembly interested in making the background look like the same as the original Pitfall? You can put in assembly code in a batari Basic program by adding an "asm" to make sure it knows it's assembly and not batarI Basic. I haven't altered the code in any way since the last post (yet), so you can just grab the code I've made so far above.