20 replies to this topic

[Ben_Larson]

It has come to my attention that there has been a disturbing lack of Atari holiday cheer 'round these parts in recent years.

To rectify this situation, I have taken the liberty of embarking on a crash homebrew project which I am tentatively calling 'A Very 2600 Christmas'.  Basically I am arranging a bunch of Christmas songs for the Atari 2600 using some of the music code I took out of Panky the Panda as a starting point.

I've got 4 songs done so far, which I am previewing here in this rom.  The songs done so far are:

* Jingle Bells
* Deck the Halls
* Silent Night
* We Three Kings

Use joystick left right to change songs.

There's no visuals yet (literally it's just a black screen ), so I'm open to suggestions (or help!) in that regard.  Let me know what you guys think...

Attached Files

•  very2600xmas.bin   4K   114 downloads

Edited by Ben_Larson, Sun Nov 6, 2011 8:36 PM.

[Brian O]

Very nice.

As far as images/animations, I would start with a main title screen that says "A Very 2600 Christmas" with a 2600 under a tree or a stocking w/ the Atari logo on it.

Moving left or right should take the user to the first song. I think a quick, looping animation should accompany each song:

-- Jingle Bells: An animation of a one-horse open sleigh riding across a snowy backdrop
-- Deck the Halls: Not sure what to use for this one...
-- Silent Night: Perhaps the nativity scene w/ a sparkling star above it
-- We Three Kings: An animation of the 3 wise men on camels walking through the desert following the star

Just my 2 cents

It's a really good start!

-B

[TrekMD]

Very nice idea!  How about an image of a group of carolers singing?

[Ben_Larson]

Ok, added 2 more songs - press joystick left/right to switch songs.  The revised playlist is now:

1 - Jingle Bells
2 - Deck The Halls
3 - Silent Night
4 - We Three Kings
5 - Carol of the Bells
6 - Adeste Fideles

I guess this makes it an EP now. Time to start thinking about the visuals...

Attached Files

•  very2600xmas.bin   8K   84 downloads

[bomberpunk]

one of the animations should be a fireplace. another could be a window view of a snowy landscape with Santa's sleigh flying past in the distance.

other song ideas: Little Drummer Boy, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Frosty the Snowman, Let It Snow, Silver & Gold, etc.

[SpiceWare]

Ben_Larson, on Sun Nov 6, 2011 8:35 PM, said:

It has come to my attention that there has been a disturbing lack of Atari holiday cheer 'round these parts in recent years.

We tried to fix that last year, but had all sorts of issues that were finally resolved while working on Frantic.  Namely we didn't know about the MAM bug which was causing all sorts of random crashing in Chun-Li*.



* of which you can see some screenshots of in the slides from my presentation last weekend.  Check my site.

Edited by SpiceWare, Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:18 PM.

[Ben_Larson]

Here's a new version w/ one more song... and an actual display now.

Attached Files

•  very2600xmas.bin   8K   95 downloads

[sandmountainslim]

This is AWESOME!!   Love it

[TrekMD]

Very nice!  With that visual, you need Let It Snow!  

[atari2600land]

I kept it on Jingle Bells for background music while I work on stuff, and there was a couple of seconds of silence before it switched to Deck The Halls. I like the music, but it seems a bit weird changing octaves and channels like it does.

[Out_of_Gas]

Looking forward to seeing more of this.

[ls650]

Great idea!  I just checked this out with Stella and it seems okay to me...

[Ben_Larson]

atari2600land, on Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:51 PM, said:

I kept it on Jingle Bells for background music while I work on stuff, and there was a couple of seconds of silence before it switched to Deck The Halls. I like the music, but it seems a bit weird changing octaves and channels like it does.

Yea, certain notes are only "in tune" in certain octaves, so some songs work better than others.  Then you have certain songs which aren't doable period because they contain out-of-key notes (i.e. accidentals) - I actually started on What Child (aka Greensleeves), but had to give up on it for this reason.

I've tried to make some of the octave switching not so noticable but some songs work better than others.  We Wish You a Merry Christmas is probably the worst offender so far in this regard...

The silence is on purpose, since it seemed kinda weird going straight into the next song...

[atari2600land]

What I meant is that it should play Jingle Bells until you get tired of it, then you can use the joystick to select another song.

[Ben_Larson]

Ok I told myself when I started in October that December 1 was my deadline, so I think this may be the final version - for this year at least.

Changes since last one:

1. Changed Jingle Bells to start on the verse instead of the chorus
2. Slowed down Adeste Fideles aka O Come All Ye Faithful
3. Added Good King Wenceslas

Here's the final track list:

1 - Jingle Bells
2 - Deck The Halls
3 - Silent Night
4 - We Three Kings
5 - Carol of the Bells
6 - Adeste Fideles
7 - Good King Wenceslas
8 - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Enjoy!

Attached Files

•  very2600xmas.bin   8K   120 downloads

[Brian O]

Sounds great!

Nice job on this.

-B

[TrekMD]

Thanks you!  You did a nice job with this.  

[Legend]

An animated yule log graphic would be nice so you can set it up and play on the tv during dinner or present time Christmas morning.

[atari2600land]

Legend, on Sun Dec 4, 2011 3:10 PM, said:

An animated yule log graphic would be nice so you can set it up and play on the tv during dinner or present time Christmas morning.

That's what Stella's Stocking is for.

[tremoloman2006]

GREAT job on this project!  Now it needs to be on a cart!

[PFL]

Thank you for this.  Have a great Christmas.