Looking to do an Atari Game

[peteym5]

Hello I am Peter, I have been making games on computers for almost 20 years now. I started off with Commodore and Atari 8-bit system and moved onto the PC. Now I was able to retrieve some of my old stuff recently. I was fluent in TurboBasic XL and 6502 assembly. Made a few games in compiled Turbo Basic with Assemble Routines to help drive the graphics. My computer was an Atari 130XE with 128k of ram. I did make a fast moving asteroids clone and improved a Basic Tetris Clone. I will be setting something up on a seperate webpage in the near future.

 

I am considering making a side scroller type game, maybe something between Super Mario Bros and Pitfall II using multicolor PMGs, DLIs, and such to give lots of onscreen colors at once and make the graphics look really good.

 

Now I have been reading up on grahpic upgrades for the Atari Computer, multiple ANTICS, GTIAS, POKEY chips, etc, and even that Video XE board. Wonder if any of those projects are still alive. Since I still retain source code for a few games, maybe I can port them over to take advantage of these upgrades.

Edited February 7, 2007 by peteofborg

[+pboland]

Hello I am Peter, I have been making games on computers for almost 20 years now. I started off with Commodore and Atari 8-bit system and moved onto the PC. Now I was able to retrieve some of my old stuff recently. I was fluent in TurboBasic XL and 6502 assembly. Made a few games in compiled Turbo Basic with Assemble Routines to help drive the graphics. My computer was an Atari 130XE with 128k of ram. I did make a fast moving asteroids clone and improved a Basic Tetris Clone. I will be setting something up on a seperate webpage in the near future.

 

I am considering making a side scroller type game, maybe something between Super Mario Bros and Pitfall II using multicolor PMGs, DLIs, and such to give lots of onscreen colors at once and make the graphics look really good.

 

Now I have been reading up on grahpic upgrades for the Atari Computer, multiple Antics, GTIAS, etc, and even a new seperate board. Wonder if any of those projects are still alive.

 

 

If you are interested in making a Super Mario Bros like game, you might want to check out this topic:

 

Super Mario Bros game stuff

 

Welcome to AtariAge!

[peteym5]

Yes, I have checked out Bros, nice game, however I am looking to have my game scrolling and not 100% exactly like mario. I am looking at using the extended banks (128k, 256k, etc) for the screen file. Years ago I had a vbi routine that fine scrolled around a 16k screen in extended memory. With a DLI to switch the bank at a certain point, I can make the screen as large as there is extended memory. Also considering DLIs to get more onscreen colors. Like I say, the game I am thinking about will have elements of other games like Pitfall, maybe Sonic, etc. Think what you can do if you had like a 256k or 512k you can scroll around in, be really cool. I had ML routines to drive the PM graphics, sound effects, move blocks of graphics on the screen.

 

A good example of a scrolling game on the Atari 8-Bit is BoulderDash, but used a small screen in the main 64k, think their screens used like 4k of redefined characters.

 

If I do decide to get this project going, would not mind having some co-developers, I probably will write the custom ML routines, start the initial design of the graphics, make a screen editor, but let the co-developers do their creative stuff.

 

I am looking to use redefine 4 color characters on a large scrolling screen with the option of having a 5th color for characters 128-255. The Floors will be like every 4 rows with a DLI giving the floor a different set of colors, leaving a different set of colors between each floor. On the Top floor will be ground level, maybe your jungle or forest, do some nice tree graphics. Underground or your cavern, can do a nice cave background. Have Ladders, moving platforms, etc. Between every floor will change the PM graphic registers so we can increase the # of onscreen sprites for the hostile creatures and stuff. This is similar to what is done in Pitfall II, but I am looking to scroll horizontal as well. Thinking about either overlapping 2 players for 3 color sprites or just 4 seperate players. But like I say, if you divide it up with DLIs, you can have alot on the screen at ounce. I have even seen where you can use the 5th player mode that sets all the missiles the same place behind a player for another color. Some other DLI tricks I am looking into is do a couple of hozsync waits and changing the colors part way down a character, where the top of the character can have a different set of colors then the rest. Like have grass on the top to pixel lines and the rest be like the soil and roots in the ground. So many possibilities here. My limitation is time of course, getting a co-programmer with some knowledge on ML and graphics. Basic concept of the game is go around collecting treasures, have the climb ladders, avoid creatures, jump over holes, etc. Maybe have locked doors and you have get keys to open them or do the 'lode runner' thing with the character hanging by his arms above the ground on a rope. Possible be a Compiled TurboBasic XL and ML combo thing.

Edited February 3, 2007 by peteofborg

[Heaven/TQA]

welcome to the world of coding a game...

[analmux]

welcome to the world of coding a game...

 

indeed....welcome.

 

 

I have one question to start with:

 

I know that expanded/decompressed levelmaps are much faster to handle...but then your game will only work on the machines with more extended memory...why do you aim at these machines? A.f.a.i.k. the most standard setting is the 800xl or 65xe (XE GS e.a.)

 

maybe it's an idea to make your game runnable on the 800xl by putting your code into a ROM cartridge and use extended memory that's also on the cartridge...there are some people on these boards that might want to help you with producing cartridges.

 

the extended RAM of the 130xe and higher (rambo) is a 16kB bank at $4000-$7fff and the cartridge can be selected at $8000-$bfff (also 16kB)

 

Imagine a kind of mixed RAM/ROM cartridge with 512 kBytes ROM & 512 kBytes RAM....you can do a lot with it....and it's easy to plug into your standard machine (even the atari 400/800 and 600xl).

 

I wish you luck and wisdom to do this project.

[peteym5]

I have started coding a vbi scroller routine today. Going to do things step by step. Not totally sure how it will behave, but that is why I am going to test things via an emulator first from turbobasic, first going to test the scroller first without any DLIs, then test it with DLI, then finally test with the PM graphics. Also going to start with 16k size screen.

 

I can see a few different applications for this routine once finished.

 

As for coding onto a cartridge is a thought, but going to do this one step at a time.

[peteym5]

What I've created. These are the 2 games I manage to restore from my Atari Programming Days. A Tetris and Asteroids Clone. I did some updating recently, created a new routines in Megaoids to move the Asteroids and PMGs better. The .TUR files are the Turbo Basic Source Code.

PetesGames.zip

Edited February 4, 2007 by peteofborg

[Heaven/TQA]

i can mount your disc but i got error #164 when booting turbobasic first and then try to load the .tur files...

 

what kind of dos did you use?

[peteym5]

I rewrote the DOS files to the ATR image and then re-zipped them. I used MYDOS 4.5. The .TUR files requires you to be in Turbo Basic XL to load and view them.

[mimo]

excuse me for a dumb question, but how do I get these to load on a real 800xl running sio2pc and APE?

[www.atarimania.com]

1. Boot MyDOS first

2. Install Pete's disk in drive 1

3. Load either T*.EXE or M*.EXE with option L

 

--

Atari Frog

http://www.atarimania.com

[mimo]

1. Boot MyDOS first

2. Install Pete's disk in drive 1

3. Load either T*.EXE or M*.EXE with option L

 

--

Atari Frog

http://www.atarimania.com

Thanks, any idea where i can find an image of mydos?

[Gury]

What I've created. These are the 2 games I manage to restore from my Atari Programming Days. A Tetris and Asteroids Clone. I did some updating recently, created a new routines in Megaoids to move the Asteroids and PMGs better. The .TUR files are the Turbo Basic Source Code.

Thank you for the games! And good luck with developing new stuff for Atari 8-bit, we Atarians surely look forward for new products.

 

1. Boot MyDOS first

2. Install Pete's disk in drive 1

3. Load either T*.EXE or M*.EXE with option L

 

--

Atari Frog

http://www.atarimania.com

Thanks, any idea where i can find an image of mydos?

http://www.serious-dial.atari.pl/pliki/sof...MyDOS_v4.53.zip

http://www.retrogames.cl/descargas/Mydos4.5.atr

[mimo]

 

thanks

[Mathy]

Howdy Peter

 

Yes, please write a game that's big enough to fill up more then 64kB. A lot of us have memory extensions. For those with only 64kB you might consider loading stuff from a harddisk (for speed and available disk space).

 

Do you know the Multi-Link (or GameLink II) interface? I'ld love to see a game like you are describing with multi-computer/multi-user support. You can read all about the Multi-Link interface on my special stuff page.

 

Greetings

 

Mathy

[Wrathchild]

Welcome Peter!

 

I'm always keen on ports of titles that didn't make the A8.

 

So for scrolly-types what better the "Paradroid" or

something like "Quedex" from the C64?

 

Also we're missing a (early) "Final Fantasy" or "Pokemon"

style game and those have need of a good scroller (e.g.

as the map in FF3j is run-length encoded and so resolved

as a new bit of area-to-view is required).

 

I could give some degree of support with such work.

 

Regards,

Mark

 

EDIT: see the last post here for some sample graphics

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...iew=getlastpost

Edited February 5, 2007 by Wrathchild

[peteym5]

I got the scrolly thing worked out for the most part without the DLIs. I can scroll around in any direction. When I activated the DLI portion the thing crashes, still working it out. I would imagine It would get some interest once I get it working.

[Wrathchild]

I had a similar problem in a vertical scroller, see this thread:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58060

the DLI was taking too long in certain conditions and

so other DLIs were missed/delayed but I never got

around to fixing it entirely.

[peteym5]

I sorted out the DLI section of it somewhat, guess I was trying to end a DLI routine with a RTS instead of a RTI and was scrambling up the screen. Now have to get it changing where DLIs begin, which palette to use, etc.

[peteym5]

This is what I developed for the scroller routine so far, it scrolls horizontally and vertically perfectly, places the DLIs and sets them up at the desired locations. I have started to do some work on the Player/Missile control ended of it. I am looking to do this with a floor every 4 character rows (32 pixels tall) with ladders, moving platforms, traps, monsters. Right now the screen is alittle jumpy and think its from the Display List being too big. The Source I provided includes the Mac65 code and a turbobasic source that tests the routine.

 

I managed to stabilize it better, seems if your screen gets too tall, it becomes jumpy with the DLIs. I have the chbas point and screen memory pointing to like system area of memory so I have some randomized pixels. Going to start designing a customized font(s) and sprites for future demos'

scrolldemo.zip

Edited February 20, 2007 by peteofborg

[analmux]

This is what I developed for the scroller routine so far, it scrolls horizontally and vertically perfectly, places the DLIs and sets them up at the desired locations. I have started to do some work on the Player/Missile control ended of it. I am looking to do this with a floor every 4 character rows (32 pixels tall) with ladders, moving platforms, traps, monsters. Right now the screen is alittle jumpy and think its from the Display List being too big. The Source I provided includes the Mac65 code and a turbobasic source that tests the routine.

 

I managed to stabilize it better, seems if your screen gets too tall, it becomes jumpy with the DLIs. I have the chbas point and screen memory pointing to like system area of memory so I have some randomized pixels. Going to start designing a customized font(s) and sprites for future demos'

 

...how do I get it started?

 

must I load the .tur file or the .obj files?

 

<EDIT>

 

oh, I see ....I managed to load it.

 

Unfortunately I can't easily read the sourcecode...but when I look into your demo it looks like there are some 'wsyncs' needed. That may cause all the flickering...and don't forget that in an antic 4 (graphics 12) row, you can only do a few ML operations in the first scanline of the charmode. On the other scanlines you can perform more but still limited ML operations. So maybe when you take care of this and do a 'STA wsync' now and then you can reduce the flickering.

 

But, just to let you know, there are a lot of tools nowadays (RMT, G2F, xasm e.a.) to help you developing a piece of software very easily. Why stick to turbobasic? It seems like you are also familiar with Machine Language. In ML you wont need extra memory for laying out a tilemap of a game. You can use realtime decompression algortithms etc.etc.

Edited February 7, 2007 by analmux

[peteym5]

I am planning on using compression routines to quickly expand and compress the tilemap screens and do plan to doing most of the animation done within ML and will take the burden off of doing most of the stuff inside of turbobasic. I was using Turbobasic for years and very familar with it, but plan to only using for setting up and doing floating point arithmetic when needed or other operations that are cumbersome in machine language. Maybe the game will end up being totally machine language, but using Turbobasic is good for testing things in action so I can stop, peek memory locations while things are in progress and see what is going on, etc. Maybe Turbobasic will be just keeping score.

 

I will have to check out some of the tools that have been mentioned. I have tried quick assembler also which runs on the Atari. Would like to get around line numbers. The Machine Language Routines that need to be developed are complex.

Edited February 8, 2007 by peteofborg

[peteym5]

Update....

 

I have updated my scrolling demo and was able to stabilize the 'jumping' screen alot better. I needed a routine that not only can scroll, but can scroll DLI zones with it. I also started looking into the alternate methods mentioned by analmux and did managed to translate my assembly language over to an asm listing. Found out mac65 and xasm (or quick assembler) coding are not 100% the same thing. Took me almost a day to figure out some of the asm equilivents. I still do need some documentation on quick assembler and need to know how to include binary information from like a font file, sprites, sound effects, music, etc. I know its possible to do it with xasm but that right now only runs from the PC and does add some work of sending files back and forth from computers or to and from and atr image for an emulator.

 

I have giving some thought about using graph2font to design some of the background, along with using a good font editor.

 

scrolldemo.zip

Edited February 10, 2007 by peteofborg

[emkay]

Just to mention it.

 

http://www.golem.de/0607/46584.html

 

Someone who makes an A8 playable game of this type, with G2F techiques plus Hardsynth music/FX working together, really has my respect.

 

[Beetle]

I would love to see something which plays like "Linerider" . Could be done in Gr8 and B/W just like the original. Or in Gr15 with some color. You would have to do really giant scrolling maps and an editor for them.

 

Its a firstclass time burner...