10 replies to this topic

[Random Terrain]

Nukey Shay posted a hack that will let you use joysticks or paddles:

http://www.atariage....31#entry1041031

That's a great start. There are two things I'd like to have added to that:


Invincibility

Clowns won't die if you miss. They could either roll or bounce over to the side or bounce up and down a little where the player missed (only high enough so the clown can land on the teeter-totter).



Multicolored Balloons

I've seen all kinds of things that people have done with color on the Atari 2600 (just look at the pretty platforms in Man Goes Down). Making the balloons prettier to look at won't change the gameplay, it will just make it look like they released Circus Atari 2 somewhere between 1982 and 1989.

If you can, feel free to make the clowns multicolored too, so they'll look more like cartoony clowns.



I'd try to do this stuff myself, but I don't know enough about hacking yet.

Edited by Random Terrain, Fri May 13, 2011 8:16 PM.

[dwane413]

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but about as good as I can do. Instead of the death scene, when you miss the clown, he waves at you as if to say, "You missed me. I'm over here."

I also made it so you have unlimited lives.

If anyone likes what I did, but can make a better wave, that's fine. I know mine isn't great.

Attached Files

•  Circus_Atari(Controller_toggle)(waving instead of crashing to death)(unlimited lives).zip   2.68K   38 downloads

[Random Terrain]

dwane413, on Fri May 13, 2011 10:28 PM, said:

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but about as good as I can do. Instead of the death scene, when you miss the clown, he waves at you as if to say, "You missed me. I'm over here."

I also made it so you have unlimited lives.

If anyone likes what I did, but can make a better wave, that's fine. I know mine isn't great.

Thanks. That might be better than what I asked for. Now if we can find somebody who can pretty-up the balloons, it will be perfect. The balloons would go from looking like this:




To looking something like this:

Edited by Random Terrain, Sat May 14, 2011 3:39 AM.

[KevinMos3]

Nukey Shay's Exidy's Circus hack would be a great starting point for what you're requesting.

[BigO]

Random Terrain, on Fri May 13, 2011 8:03 PM, said:

Nukey Shay posted a hack that will let you use joysticks or paddles:

http://www.atariage....31#entry1041031

That's a great start. There are two things I'd like to have added to that:


Invincibility

Clowns won't die if you miss. They could either roll or bounce over to the side or bounce up and down a little where the player missed (only high enough so the clown can land on the teeter-totter).



Multicolored Balloons

I've seen all kinds of things that people have done with color on the Atari 2600 (just look at the pretty platforms in Man Goes Down). Making the balloons prettier to look at won't change the gameplay, it will just make it look like they released Circus Atari 2 somewhere between 1982 and 1989.

If you can, feel free to make the clowns multicolored too, so they'll look more like cartoony clowns.



I'd try to do this stuff myself, but I don't know enough about hacking yet.

I've envisioned a kid friendly version that just slowed down the descent speed of the clowns thus giving the player more time to position the teeterboard: as though the clown were holding an umbrella on the way down.

[dwane413]

KevinMos3, on Sat May 14, 2011 7:21 AM, said:

Nukey Shay's Exidy's Circus hack would be a great starting point for what you're requesting.

Nice idea, but it would take a better hacker than I currently am.

I tried that last night, but it would require more than just changing the graphics with Bit Hacker. Here were my results:

When I extended the legs below where that image usually went, it added a head beneath.

I think Nukey Shay probably changed something to optimize the code (maybe sharing code between images for less ROM) which makes it harder to just hack the ROM directly. Someone with a skill on hacking the source ASM could probably do it though.

[Nukey Shay]

You'd be better off using a fresh disassembly than using the Exidy Circus hack. There's enough free space in the 4k rom to unroll the balloon and clown display loops - that would provide the needed cycles to alter both colors. Also, altering the clown display check to use the skipdraw method (it originally checks TWICE...the first to bump the GFX pointer when reaching the clown's Y co-ordinate...the second to check if the GFX loaded is non-zero).

But why make the game easier? Kids are often better at this game than adults!

[Random Terrain]

Nukey Shay, on Sat May 14, 2011 9:18 AM, said:

But why make the game easier? Kids are often better at this game than adults!

Depends on the age of the kid and if the kid can touch his own nose without poking himself in the eye.

[Chuck D. Head]

Random Terrain, on Sat May 14, 2011 10:13 AM, said:

Nukey Shay, on Sat May 14, 2011 9:18 AM, said:

But why make the game easier? Kids are often better at this game than adults!

Depends on the age of the kid and if the kid can touch his own nose without poking himself in the eye.

Sounds like you are planning to send a copy back through time to five-year-old me!

[PacManPlus]

Hi:

Just offering an additional solution here: Hey RT - do you havea 7800? I did 'Super Circus AtariAge for it, and you can choose the 'easy' difficulty, joystick or paddles, the clowns are multi-colored, and the balloons look like balloons.

The only thing I would have to do is change it so that the 'net' powerup is always in play. (i.e. invincibility)

Sorry about pushing my own game, but it's just an option, if you want it. Screenshots here: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2134022

Bob

[Random Terrain]

PacManPlus, on Sun May 15, 2011 4:56 AM, said:

Just offering an additional solution here: Hey RT - do you havea 7800? I did 'Super Circus AtariAge for it, and you can choose the 'easy' difficulty, joystick or paddles, the clowns are multi-colored, and the balloons look like balloons.

The only thing I would have to do is change it so that the 'net' powerup is always in play. (i.e. invincibility)

Sorry about pushing my own game, but it's just an option, if you want it. Screenshots here: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2134022

Thanks. I have an Atari 7800 in a box somewhere (my atari 2600 games didn't look and sound quite right with it, so I'm using an Atari 2600). After I get a Harmony cartridge for myself to use, I'm eventually going to have an Atari 2600 and a Harmony cartridge out in the living room. I tried your game with an emulator, though. It's probably the fault of the emulator, but I like the 'feel' of the Atari 2600 version better (even when playing with the joystick hack). There's something special about the original Atari 2600 version and if we could get a graphics upgrade without affecting the feel of the game, I'd be very happy.

And don't apologize for pushing your game. The subject is Circus Atari, so why not mention it? There's nothing wrong with things like synergy and cross-pollination.