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My 8-bit Games Porting to 7800 in the works


peteym5

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As we all know these games are currently a work in progress. Programming is far from being completed and still do not have all graphic Images. Still going to need to port the images for the treasures. I am currently working on actual monster image, colors, and starting positions for each level right now. For those screen shots, I had to manually set them for each level.

 

Now I am focusing on the basic game set up for Venture that is based on what I did for the Arcade. Some people asked if I can make it more arcade like and I can tell you that I am looking into it. Like have Winky do some animations on that screen in the intermission before the level starts, or that adding the bonus score display.

 

Here are a few more screen shots.

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post-14332-0-51047900-1514213110.jpg

Edited by peteym5
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The thing that I like BEST about your A8 version is that there is no direction change delay like in the arcade and Colecovision versions. I think that it would be a shame to lose this feature.

I could put that in as an option. The A8 and 5200 version are instant, which makes the game more enjoyable. From what I understand, that delay had something to do with the hardware of the arcade CPU and IO chips.

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Now I am focusing on the basic game set up for Venture that is based on what I did for the Arcade. Some people asked if I can make it more arcade like and I can tell you that I am looking into it. Like have Winky do some animations on that screen in the intermission before the level starts, or that adding the bonus score display.

 

One significant feature from the Arcade original that is missing from the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Atari 8-bit port, but present with the Intellivision version of the game, is the creature decaying sprite animation after being shot and undo of such decay every time it is shot again during the sequence. The former just keeps the same shot sprite on the screen throughout the duration, without a clear visual indicator of how much longer the sprite will remain.

 

Seeing this visual cue transpire may be vital during gameplay if surrounded/blocked by dead creature corpses and trying to determine the quickest escape path. A split second or two can make the difference whether avoiding or being caught by a Hallmonster.

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I had the monsters for the 8-bit version remain awhile, then fade to black because the Atari has 8 or 16 luminescence levels of each color. Problem is that the sprite image is store in ROM, and generating a dissolving sprite image may require some RAM to make it possible. Will have to see what is available after I get more of the game completed.

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I wonder if the music could be arcade perfect. The coleco version is lacking and repetitive. Never tried the a8 version.

Your a8 computer version sounds the best of all arcade coleco etc. So forget my arcade is cool statement.

The only thing thats cool is the stairs animantion, the sprite death decay, and the zoom feature.

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I am glad for your supporting compliments. I have a Work-in-Progress video up on Youtube for Venture 7800. Most of the rooms with just monsters have their positions set properly. The Wall Rooms and Fireball Rooms just have the sprites set at a diagonal for now since these require some separate programming to move position and move those things around.

 

 

Here are more static screen shots.

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Edited by peteym5
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Nicely done! I like the look of the treasures, too, but when are we going to see the corpse in the spider room? That one always *kills* me as a choice for a ‘treasure’. :)

With the 8-bit Venture, it was based on Coleco version that had 12 treasures, repeated them for each level. When I added extra rooms for Challenger Mode, I took 4 of the treasures, and just changed their colors. I see the Arcade has 36 treasures and was not sure about using all of them for treasures. It does take me some time to redraw the images used for the treasure sprites and I have been spending much of my spare time figuring out how to port this from the 8-bit version. However I am using 4 treasures based on the Arcade version for the Challenger Mode on the 7800. I have not decided on using all 36 Treasures for the 7800 at this time as this is a Work-in-Progress.

Edited by peteym5
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  • 4 weeks later...

OK, to bring everyone up to date with what is going on. I have some issues with my personal life and needed to take on a full time job. So I may not be spending as much time working on these games. I did some work with porting Venture over and getting Winky to shoot arrows, and I am working on collision detection so he can collide with walls. From what I can see, I can port all my games that fit onto a 16K or 32K ROM on the Atari 8-bit and port them over to fit inside a 32K cartridge on the 7800. Video61 has hundreds of the 32K boards in stock right now, so lets make a few games for him.

 

I have also been side tracked fixing some Atari 8-bit games and make sure the 8-bit versions games work on those cartridge. I am glad things stay more positive in the 5200 and 7800 forums.

Edited by peteym5
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OK, to bring everyone up to date with what is going on. I have some issues with my personal life and needed to take on a full time job. So I may not be spending as much time working on these games. I did some work with porting Venture over and getting Winky to shoot arrows, and I am working on collision detection so he can collide with walls. From what I can see, I can port all my games that fit onto a 16K or 32K ROM on the Atari 8-bit and port them over to fit inside a 32K cartridge on the 7800. Video61 has hundreds of the 32K boards in stock right now, so lets make a few games for him.

 

I have also been side tracked fixing some Atari 8-bit games and make sure the 8-bit versions games work on those cartridge. I am glad things stay more positive in the 5200 and 7800 forums.

 

This is the AtariAge forum not video61. Lance is great and all but Albert has tons of boards of all sizes as well. Albert producing and selling games support this site that you are using by having him involved. I would consider talking to him about these games seeing as you are using this forum as a vessel for your product. That is unless you are on some Video61 forum talking about getting AtageAge to produce games to be sold as well. If so, game on. Just a thought and point of view.

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This is an open and free forum, and so is Atari.IO, and other Atari related forums. I am sure both Albert and Lance are both capable of producing quality cartridges and compensate the programmers with a fair royalty. My past associate KJMANN has approached Albert in the past and he did not want to spend time producing a game cartridge that was already being sold by someone else, or on other media like floppies or digital downloads. I know Albert at times is involved with doing several different games at once and may take awhile for someone to see their game on the market. I just have a good working relationship with Lance, and providing satisfactory royalties. If one guy is too busy, taking too long, or is not capable of producing your game, you can always talk to the other. That gives Retro Programmers a choice.

 

It will be awhile before I have one working 7800 game that will serve as a template for others. I still need to figure out these things as I am putting these games together.

Edited by peteym5
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  • 2 months later...

Hello everyone, I am still around. What is going on in my personal life is that I had to take a full time job and been working some over time there. Also myself and Video61 have several other game cartridges on other Atari platforms we want finish and put on the market before going forward with other projects before coming back to this one. (8-bit and 5200) games.

 

I am hoping to get back to the 7800 porting as soon this other stuff is out of the way. These games will be for stock 7800 hardware only, most likely not going to support the XM module. I do not own a 7800 myself. Can only see what is going on through emulation. I am not sure about emulators simulating the XM module properly. 7800 Basic currently does not support it. I know it can be supported through assembly code and I would need time to go through programming information and specs. I would need to make some inquiries about the 7800 module also.

 

It does gives some time to see if any new updates for the 7800 Basic and other programming resources.

 

I am going to develop the simpler games first that fit onto a 32K or 48K cartridges first before tackling anything that will required more complicated graphics that would need to simulate a line drawing bit-mapped graphics mode.

Edited by peteym5
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

 

Here is my work in progress so far for Venture. Right now I am figuring out how to make one of my games work with the 7800 and use it as a template for the rest of the games I want to port over later. Also get one game out on cartridge to see how it sells before deciding on more games. The other games on the list include Delta Space Arena, Laser Blast X, Tile Smashers, Putt 18 Miniature Golf, Animal Keeper, and Secretum Labyrinth.

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Next Work in Progress video for Venture on the Atari 7800. Have a few more things going on with this update. Showing the two wall rooms. I know the fireball room needs work. I am using the 7800 Basic and Assembly Code that I copied over from the 8-bit version. Rewriting code as I go. I may add more screens for the 7800 version, have some different style modes.

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