Atari 2600 - denial '77 release notes

[Wally 2109]

denial '77 - the first product of my retro programming project is (almost?) done.

denial77NTSC.bin

denial77PAL.bin

denial77PAL60.bin

The game is loosely modelled on Space Zap, an arcade game from 1980.

setup

Left player difficulty sets game difficulty

Right player difficulty sets starting level (1 or 14)

Reset or joystick button to start.

gameplay

You're protecting the base in the centre, move the joystick in the direction you want to fire.

The base heats up when you fire, changing colour and expanding. The base firing rate slows as the base heats up.

The base also heats up when hit. It's game over if the base hit when it is overheated.

The level number is the only scoring mechanism.

scores

If anyone tries it out I would be interested to know what level you attain - and whether it was using an emulator or real hardware, easy or hard, 60Hz or 50Hz.

waffle

This was always intended to be my warm-up game as I returned to Atari 2600 programming after a 14 year hiatus (the unfinished Laseresal).

It is lacking some polish generally found in modern 2600 games (separate title screen, option screen, more detailed scoring, game over screen, multiple chances etc.). Maybe it's more like a quick and dirty cash-in game from 1978

Part of me wants to go back and make it "the best it can be" and fix some of the "naive coding choices", but another part of me says I have other games I want to do on the 2600 and the Atari 8 bit (and other platforms) so this is probably it for this game.

 

[lucifershalo]

seems fun , I will try it soon on real hardware

[KevinMos3]

Welcome back! Nice "warm-up". This is pretty cool. Gameplay is simple and fun. Kinda reminds me of Cosmic Ark. I went to level 21 on my first run playing on a keyboard in Stella with default difficulty. I'll have to try it with a joystick.

[Wally 2109]

Welcome back! Nice "warm-up". This is pretty cool. Gameplay is simple and fun. Kinda reminds me of Cosmic Ark. I went to level 21 on my first run playing on a keyboard in Stella with default difficulty. I'll have to try it with a joystick.

Thanks for the feedback.

It's hard to tune the difficulty for a game like this. Make a minor change and it's too easy, change in the other direction it's too hard.

I tuned the difficulties so that I (someone who has been playing video games since Pong) could play easy mode as long as I concentrated - it resets to slow at level 255 - although I didn't test for that long

Hard level is still possible but now beyond my skill level (at 52 my reactions are slower than during my Defender years). My best 60Hz hard level score is about 26.