71 replies to this topic

[Godzilla]

Great googamoogah! Will I have to pay for it and wait 16 months! :-) You haven't heard from Jah Fish since November, and I'm -NOT- supposed to worry??? hmmm....

[Tempest]

All I can say is get ready for some very interesting releases this year. At least one for the 2600 and one for the 400/800.

I haven't been quiet this long for nothing!

Tempest

[Snider-man]

<Sniderman rubs his hands together gleefully>

You just know CGE and PhillyClassic will be a homebrew paradise this year! And I think the whole "limited release" concept has officially burned itself out, so we should see all these games available outside of the 'cons. Should be a fun year!

[PeeknPoke]

Tempest said:

All I can say is get ready for some very interesting releases this year.  At least one for the 2600 and one for the 400/800.

I haven't been quiet this long for nothing!    

Tempest

Thats great news!
But I bet some surprises turnup..in the 2600 world they always do

Lee

[JCroniger]

Tempest said:

All I can say is get ready for some very interesting releases this year.  At least one for the 2600 and one for the 400/800.

I haven't been quiet this long for nothing!    

Tempest

Boy, oh boy, oh boy..... I hope Tempest has new proto!!

[Cassidy Nolen]

I know one thing that has not been mentioned....

I will be re-releasing boxed Polo cartridges at the Philly Classic 4 this year. I have had a ton of requests, and these should be very nice copies. Each will be a numbered box complete with manual, box insert, cartridge and full color labels.

There was so much of a positive response, I decided to do it again (don't know what I was thinking?>... ). Currently, I have not burned the eproms yet because I am trying to work on a startup screen for the game (anyone want to help?).

Cassidy

[Tempest]

Quote

Boy, oh boy, oh boy..... I hope Tempest has new proto!!

Maybe...

Trust me, you're going to like these.. All shall be revealed at PC4!

Tempest

[Allan]

Tempest said:

Quote

Boy, oh boy, oh boy..... I hope Tempest has new proto!!

Maybe...

Trust me, you're going to like these.. All shall be revealed at PC4!

Tempest

I hope it's not anything like the 7800 Chuck Norris Missing In Action fiasco!

Allan

[Tempest]

Quote

I hope it's not anything like the 7800 Chuck Norris Missing In Action fiasco!  

Allan

Oh no, nothing like that. Firstly these aren't 7800 protos which no one has tried to mass produce. Secondly I'm not going to be selling anything, just demoing (for now). I'm not going to be getting the protos for a bit yet anyway...

Tempest

[Allan]

Tempest said:

Quote

I hope it's not anything like the 7800 Chuck Norris Missing In Action fiasco!  

Allan

Oh no, nothing like that. Firstly these aren't 7800 protos which no one has tried to mass produce. Secondly I'm not going to be selling anything, just demoing (for now). I'm not going to be getting the protos for a bit yet anyway...

Tempest

Isn't that what happened with 7800 MIA? A demo at Philly Classic and then nothing. Although the people who showed MIA said they were going to be available for purchase and then they never were. I know your not saying that. I hope you can make them availble to everybody in some form eventually. Except if it's an unplayable Sesame Street game or something similar!

Allan

[Tempest]

Quote

Isn't that what happened with 7800 MIA? A demo at Philly Classic and then nothing. Although the people who showed MIA said they were going to be available for purchase and then they never were. I know your not saying that. I hope you can make them availble to everybody in some form eventually. Except if it's an unplayable Sesame Street game or something similar!  

I plan to demo at least one of my protos (hopefully both) and then distribute the rom at a later date. I may make "professional" copies for sale as well, but it all depends on how complete the game is (at this point I have no idea!), and if it's actually something people want to play (don't really know that yet either). Keep in mind that I don't have either of them yet so things may still fall through (although the probability of that is pretty low).

The rom for at the first game will be available after PC4 (assuming all goes well). The second game has some special problems of its own that I have to address first, so it won't be available right away.


Tempest

[Christopher Tumber]

ubersaurus said:

with the nice addition of bonus items to pick up. If the oxygen meter is implemented, that would be nice,

Actually, my idea is that the "bonus items" are the "oxygen". It's an archeaological dig, so you have a budget (or grant). Every relic you find, ups the budget slightly (likely a different amount for different relics) but mounting these expeditions is costly so the funds run down continuously like the oxygen meter in Mr. Driller...

Run out of money and everyone goes home...


I have a serious decision to make with Big Dig that I'm putting off by working on a horiz scrolling shooter. Currently the screen in Big Dig is 7 blocks wide. Using some of what I learned doing Space Instigators I could make the squares smaller and get 9 blocks (By using a RAM routine to do the drawing). But it would mean a complete rewrite pretty much from scratch. (Changing the display kernal and adding the RAM routine is no big deal, but, to make room in RAM would mean completely changing the data structure which holds the block colours and rewriting all the code that deals with removing blocks, dropping blocks, etc...) So I'm putting off deciding whether it's worth starting over at square one or not...

Chris...

[SS]

Cassidy Nolen said:

I will be re-releasing boxed Polo cartridges at the Philly Classic 4 this year.  I have had a ton of requests, and these should be very nice copies.  Each will be a numbered box complete with manual, box insert, cartridge and full color labels.  

Cassidy, that sounds great. I've been disappointed that I didn't pick one up last year.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Don't worry! These should be fantastic. We are going to go with a higher resolution box art, which will eliminate the pixelization; and glossy labels. Hopefully, I will have a prototype of the new ones done by the first of February....

Pics to follow.



Cassidy

[AtariDude]

I would like to see an affordable 2600 portable so that I can play my 2600 games anywhere (and not just through emulation).

[ubersaurus]

Christopher Tumber said:

ubersaurus said:

with the nice addition of bonus items to pick up. If the oxygen meter is implemented, that would be nice,

Actually, my idea is that the "bonus items" are the "oxygen". It's an archeaological dig, so you have a budget (or grant). Every relic you find, ups the budget slightly (likely a different amount for different relics) but mounting these expeditions is costly so the funds run down continuously like the oxygen meter in Mr. Driller...

Run out of money and everyone goes home...


I have a serious decision to make with Big Dig that I'm putting off by working on a horiz scrolling shooter. Currently the screen in Big Dig is 7 blocks wide. Using some of what I learned doing Space Instigators I could make the squares smaller and get 9 blocks (By using a RAM routine to do the drawing). But it would mean a complete rewrite pretty much from scratch. (Changing the display kernal and adding the RAM routine is no big deal, but, to make room in RAM would mean completely changing the data structure which holds the block colours and rewriting all the code that deals with removing blocks, dropping blocks, etc...) So I'm putting off deciding whether it's worth starting over at square one or not...

Chris...

Yeah I read that after I posted that up about the meter, on it, but yeah anything does...otherwise you can sit there all day choosing your next move, and that destroys the sense of urgency ;p As for the blocks, the game is nice as it is..though it could become pleasantly more complex with more blocks in a line, so I dunno.

[raindog]

AtariDude said:

I would like to see an affordable 2600 portable so that I can play my 2600 games anywhere (and not just through emulation).

I gotta think 2600 on a chip will finally come into being in the next two years and you'll get your wish, albeit expensively.

Rob

[Rob Mitchell]

raindog said:

I gotta think 2600 on a chip will finally come into being in the next two years and you'll get your wish, albeit expensively.

If it can be made for <$100 .. you got a killer product.

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Big_Mo]

Albert said:

I also think this will be a good year for homebrews, and not just for the 2600, but also for the 5200 and as Eduardo has mentioned, the ColecoVision as well.

Hmmm. How many guys are programming the Coleco these days? 6 years ago Kevin Horton and I were working on a CV game, but Kevin ultimately lost interest in doing it. Too bad, as I'd designed the mother of all CV games. hahaha

[opcode]

Quote

Hmmm. How many guys are programming the Coleco these days? 6 years ago Kevin Horton and I were working on a CV game, but Kevin ultimately lost interest in doing it. Too bad, as I'd designed the mother of all CV games. hahaha

Really? Do you still have the docs? It would be nice to take a look on it...
Was it the MegaROM game Kevin talked about so much?

[Big_Mo]

opcode said:

Quote

Hmmm. How many guys are programming the Coleco these days? 6 years ago Kevin Horton and I were working on a CV game, but Kevin ultimately lost interest in doing it. Too bad, as I'd designed the mother of all CV games. hahaha

Really? Do you still have the docs? It would be nice to take a look on it...
Was it the MegaROM game Kevin talked about so much?

Yeah, that was the game. It was going to be humongous. The title screen alone was as big as some games hahaha.

I'm kind of loathe to give away all the details, because I would still like to do it someday, and it's a kind of surprising game that's not much like other games out there.

What IS publicly know about it is here: http://www.siggraph.org/publications/newsl.../molyneaux.html

The screen shots are terrible tho...they tuirned perfectly clean GIFs into muddly JPGS.

[doron]

The Starfire demo looks excellent.

What about the gameplay? If I remember correctly the original didn't have much.
Mabe it's a chance to strech out with some A.I.

dor-x

[cwilkson]

Paul Slocum said:

We haven't started on the code yet, but Albert and I have spent some time planning a D&D/Ultima-ish RPG for the 2600.  

Whoa! How'd I miss this!???

What's the format going to be? How big willthe game be (ROM size)?
Will it have realtime battles liek Zelda? Or will they be more like Final
Fantasy? (Sorry...somebody PLEASE send me a copy of Ultima I-IV!
I'll play them, I swear!!!) Which actors have signed on? Will William H.
Macy have a part? How about Famke Janssen? Will there be a car^H^H^H
horse chase?

I WANT 2600 RPGs!!!!!!!!! (well, I'd settle for just 1 at first...)

-Chris

[Paul Slocum]

We're hoping it will fit into 32k if it's optimized well. And we've talked a little about using SARA RAM on it, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.

It will be turn-based so the fighting will not be realtime.

We are trying to get Philip Seymor Hoffman for the main character.

-Paul

[cwilkson]

Paul Slocum said:

We're hoping it will fit into 32k if it's optimized well.  And we've talked a little about using SARA RAM on it, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.

Maybe more realistic than you think. What's your development timeframe?

Quote

We are trying to get Philip Seymor Hoffman for the main character.

Yes! I love him...he's so goofy looking!

Would prefer Famke Janssen though...

-Chris