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1K Atomchess for Atari VCS/2600


nanochess

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Hi everyone.

 

It came to my knowledge the Hackaday 1K challenge where some fellow Atariagers made entries (Dominant Amber by Wickeycolumbus, Cave 1K, Splatform and Robot City by Thomas Jentzsch)

 

I had my Toledo Atomchess game that plays pretty basic chess with AI so I ported it to 6502 and added a kernel for board display and interface, it came out very well.

 

So now I'm also in the contest :) https://hackaday.io/project/19270-toledo-atomchess-for-atari-vcs2600 not expecting to win or something but already feeling good of challenging the challenge :grin:

 

It works right away with Stella, for real Atari you need to pad it to 2K for Harmony.

 

Find annex the latest version (also in Github)

 

Small usage guide:

 

* Computer plays legal basic chess movements :)

* Move with joystick, push button to select, push button to drop.

* Promotion of pawns only to queen.

* No castling

* No enpassant

* No move validation (if you push button in the wrong square... well you can imagine it)

 

Now video with comment (don't put attention on my attempt to speak English :P)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Du4krvIl7o

toledo_atomchess_6502.bin

toledo_atomchess_6502.asm

toledo_atomchess_6502.lst

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Just found an interesting emulator online that works right away! :)

 

Open the toledo_atomchess_6502.asm file and select all the source code, press Ctrl+C, the go to http://8bitworkshop.com and click on left side, press Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+V and it assembles right away the game and runs it! :grin:

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I figured out that hitting the little box on the lower-right of the 2600 display will shrink the 2600 display, making it fully visible:

post-3056-0-54954200-1483800503_thumb.png

 

You can also touch the switches to change them. Player 2 expert mode:

post-3056-0-58877200-1483800524_thumb.png

 

TV Type B&W:

post-3056-0-00386600-1483800529_thumb.png

 

but there doesn't appear to be a way to emulate the joystick. And yes, I've tried my Steelseries Nimbus gamepad :)

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Just confirmed this game works with the Atari Flashback Portable.

 

Rename it to something starting with an uppercase letter followed by lowercase letters and finished with ".bin"

there were reports of screen flicker on the AFP - has this been fixed?

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  • 1 month later...

:idea: Use the Windows command line and then:

 

copy /b toledo_atomchess_6502.bin+toledo_atomchess_6502.bin toledo_atomchess_2k.bin

OK. if I'm using Android, this doesn't help. Even if I were using my Windows laptop, I haven't used the command line in probably 15 years, so.... I'm guessing if I try this on Windows, I would need to replace "/b" with the drive letter where the file was located?

 

OK, I tried it, first time I tried I used "/b" and got "The system cannot find the file specified."

I tried again using "/c" and got " The syntax of the command is incorrect."

I have the file on my desktop, now what?

 

Nevermind. I got it. It's just been so long since I used the command line that I had forgotten how to use it correctly. Thanks! :-D

Edited by RamrodHare
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In this case, /B means you are copying binary files so it doesn't pad out lines with carriage returns or encode text in some crazy fashion. In a Linux shell, I don't think there is a such possible conversion so you could cp or perhaps use dd without switches.

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In this case, /B means you are copying binary files so it doesn't pad out lines with carriage returns or encode text in some crazy fashion. In a Linux shell, I don't think there is a such possible conversion so you could cp or perhaps use dd without switches.

I hooked up my Windows laptop and got it working. It's just been so many years since I used the command line that I had forgotten how to do anything. :)

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In this case, /B means you are copying binary files so it doesn't pad out lines with carriage returns or encode text in some crazy fashion. In a Linux shell, I don't think there is a such possible conversion so you could cp or perhaps use dd without switches.

In linux it would be (if memory bits serves :ponder:):

 

cat atomchess1k.bin atomchess1k.bin >atomchess2k.bin

 

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Just updated the Github repository with a version using venetian blinds to show the chessboard, it's rock solid on TV.

 

Also includes support for Supercharger (not using FFF8) and cursor wraparound (less code and eases navigation)

 

Caveat: now it doesn't work in Atari Flashback Portable. It depends on the TIA hiding players till 160 clocks have passed, I don't see an easy way to clear GRP0 and GRP1 for Portable.

 

post-30245-0-68570900-1499615640_thumb.png

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Just updated the Github repository with a version using venetian blinds to show the chessboard, it's rock solid on TV.

 

Also includes support for Supercharger (not using FFF8) and cursor wraparound (less code and eases navigation)

 

Caveat: now it doesn't work in Atari Flashback Portable. It depends on the TIA hiding players till 160 clocks have passed, I don't see an easy way to clear GRP0 and GRP1 for Portable.

 

attachicon.giftoledo_atomchess_6502_f455a84e.png

 

Damn portable! I still think they are great to have but they just have so many emulation issues... You might want to try and enlist some help on the Flashback Portable Controller Fix thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/259166-flashback-portable-needed-controller-hacks/

Edited by Neuronic
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The game is working great on the Harmony cart. I really like it without flicker, but even with the flicker, it was good. I think you've done a great job on this. :thumbsup:

My only suggestion would be to add move validation, since I find myself trying to cheat way too often! :twisted:

Of course that's not the game's fault, that's all me.. :P

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Just updated the Github repository with a version using venetian blinds to show the chessboard, it's rock solid on TV.

 

Also includes support for Supercharger (not using FFF8) and cursor wraparound (less code and eases navigation)

 

Caveat: now it doesn't work in Atari Flashback Portable. It depends on the TIA hiding players till 160 clocks have passed, I don't see an easy way to clear GRP0 and GRP1 for Portable.

Excellent update!!

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  • 2 years later...
On 7/9/2017 at 11:54 AM, nanochess said:

Just updated the Github repository with a version using venetian blinds to show the chessboard, it's rock solid on TV.

 

Also includes support for Supercharger (not using FFF8) and cursor wraparound (less code and eases navigation)

 

Caveat: now it doesn't work in Atari Flashback Portable. It depends on the TIA hiding players till 160 clocks have passed, I don't see an easy way to clear GRP0 and GRP1 for Portable.

 

post-30245-0-68570900-1499615640_thumb.png

Awesome NanoChess! :) 

I just saw this version linked from Andrews thread last night and I played a game on the SuperCharger -

 

Feedback:

 

Amazingly impressive engine for 1K with a rocking display!

 

The orange is solid on my CRT, the white flickers a bit but is tolerable - you could lower the flicker further with a grey further to the left on RT's NTSC color chart for the white pieces.

 

I would love to see what you could do just filling the remaining 4K or 6K for the SuperCharger with one of your more powerful Chess Engines - I think that you could beat the engine in Video Chess and still stay within 4K ?

 

I like the black screen between moves - CRT shows a true black (and true sunlight) where other displays fail and this is creatively refreshing like the colorful mood ring effect in Video Chess and Andrews colorful Chess language effects for Chess fighters.

 

I love Chess and this implementation is tremendously inspiring - I've created a Chess folder on my Ipod for the SuperCharger and on my Harmony cart to hold multiple Atari Chess games, like the Defender and Pacmen genre folders where the fun is multiplied by the number of versions and creative implementations available for Players :)

 

Github Note: Github is confusing even for some old programmers (like me) - I had trouble navigating to find the SuperCharger version with the venetian blinds; Github presents an older version I didn't want when I opened the page initially and I had to go back and drill down.

 

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One question. I took a small piece of atomic material home with me today from the nuclear power plant in which i work. But where to plug it in the Atari console, that this game runs then? ? Can anyone help, i could not find it out by myself so far? ?

Edited by AW127
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