+Ryan Witmer Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Hello, long time fan of this site (and store customer)! I've been interested in the Atari homebrew scene for a long time, and a few years ago I came up with a project suitable for the Atari 5200. I chose the 5200 because it always had a legendary status in my mind from when I was a kid. I never had one myself, but knew a few people that did and it never ceased to blow me away. I finally bought my own 5200 a few years ago and began collecting games. As a long-time game programmer, I wanted to try my hand at 5200 development. Attending one of David Crane's talks at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo inspired something I've called Ratcatcher. It's a 1-3 player game featuring sewer workers running around a dangerous sewer collecting rats while avoiding alligators and other hazards. The game was simultaneously developed for the 5200 and a number of PC platforms. I've licensed the project under the GPL3, so all of the source code is included. This is my first 6502 project, so the code is probably awful, but I still hope it might help someone out. It's currently in beta, I expect to make a few gameplay tweaks. There are no known bugs, but I can't rule those out, of course. I have a project page on my website with download links and screenshots for both the PC and Atari versions. All downloads include the full source tree for all versions. If anyone wants to bang on the 5200 version, feel free. I'm not really accepting gameplay suggestions or anything like that, the game is what it is and it served its purpose (teaching me Atari 5200 programming). It really isn't very good, but I have some much better projects in mind for the future. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Cool. I'll give it a play on my 5200. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aking Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 (edited) NICE , more fresh HOMEBREW to come ... Edited May 30, 2016 by Aking 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Simultaneous 3-player? Sweet! Uh oh…working joystick shortage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Cool, I love seeing original homebrews. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Thanks for sharing your game with the community. I'll give it a spin on my 5200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted May 31, 2016 Author Share Posted May 31, 2016 Simultaneous 3-player? Sweet! Uh oh…working joystick shortage! Those third and fourth controller ports are way underutilized. I realized that nobody really makes three-player games, so I figured I'd fill that gap. The next project I have in mind will use all four! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Atari 5200 *and* Haiku? <high five> I'm an old BeOS fan... miss it so much 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 Atari 5200 *and* Haiku? <high five> I'm an old BeOS fan... miss it so much I've never actually used BeOS, but I remember it being discussed quite a bit back when Apple was thinking of buying it. Haiku is just so much fun to develop for. Sadly, it won't run directly on my hardware anymore, so I have to work in a VM, which isn't the most ideal way to work. You have to love a system that provides an "is_computer_on()" function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 (edited) Atari 5200 *and* Haiku? <high five> I'm an old BeOS fan... miss it so much Keithen Hayenga wrote Tempest for the 5200. He also worked on MacOS/BeOS/PalmOS 6/webOS. How's that for coincidence? Edited June 2, 2016 by Lynxpro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DamonicFury Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 I got to play this on my 5200 over the weekend. It is a very fun game with a nice arcade feel to it. Thanks so much for creating this and sharing it with us all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 7, 2016 Author Share Posted June 7, 2016 I got to play this on my 5200 over the weekend. It is a very fun game with a nice arcade feel to it. Thanks so much for creating this and sharing it with us all! No problem, glad you enjoyed it. I just posted a second beta. I found a graphical glitch in the 5200 version, and a crash in the Windows version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 No problem, glad you enjoyed it. I just posted a second beta. I found a graphical glitch in the 5200 version, and a crash in the Windows version. Is there any way we will see a 5200 cart version made for fans? Like the game alot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 7, 2016 Author Share Posted June 7, 2016 Is there any way we will see a 5200 cart version made for fans? Like the game alot. I'm certainly going to have a few made for myself, if nothing else. I'd love to get it in the store, I need to figure out who to talk to about that. Part of "the dream" is to go to this year's Portland expo and see it there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DamonicFury Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 I'm certainly going to have a few made for myself, if nothing else. I'd love to get it in the store, I need to figure out who to talk to about that. Send a PM to Albert, he's definitely the guy to talk to about getting this great game into the store http://atariage.com/forums/user/3-albert/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 Wow, just realized that I left some debug code in the latest build, and the game starts on stage 4! Going to fix that as soon as possible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 Wow, just realized that I left some debug code in the latest build, and the game starts on stage 4! Going to fix that as soon as possible! Also on a side note, would love to see this game at the Cowltiz Gamers for Kids Expo this next year. It is on April 1st. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 12, 2016 Author Share Posted June 12, 2016 I have a new build posted that removes the debug code and addresses a couple of issues. The random seed that controls creature spawns wasn't being retained correctly when the game was paused. I also added a blink effect when the water pressure gauge gets full to provide a better visual warning. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Neat game. Any interest in doing an Atari 8-bit computer version? It and the 5200 are very closely related systems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Looks great..if there is a cart left.....I would buy one greetings Walter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 12, 2016 Author Share Posted June 12, 2016 Neat game. Any interest in doing an Atari 8-bit computer version? It and the 5200 are very closely related systems. I personally have no interest in porting it, but the code is open-source so anyone that wants to try is free to do it. I would of course answer any questions about my awful code. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I personally have no interest in porting it, but the code is open-source so anyone that wants to try is free to do it. I would of course answer any questions about my awful code. Alright. Converting 5200 games to work on the 8-bit computers is usually fairly trivial without the source code -- for someone experienced with it. So I imagine someone might be interested since having the source code available should make it that much more simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Looks good... now all we need is a Youtube video showing how to play it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ryan Witmer Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 Looks good... now all we need is a Youtube video showing how to play it. I'm hard at work on a manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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