155 replies to this topic

[Dragnerok X]

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There's a thread explaning the "extra" characters available here. Generally speaking, you should be able to just plug in the score_graphics.asm file I posted for Deimos Lander. It will reduce your available space by a few bytes, but otherwise it shouldn't have any real effect on your code. You can either look at the Deimos Lander code for an example of how to eliminate numbers (specifically, look at the Level Display) or you can wait until I get a chance to patch your code.

BTW, if you're looking for more programs, might I suggest finishing the calculator?

Almost done, I have one last question, though. It seems with this...

dim blank = score+1

....I am only able to "mask" every other sprite by adding 1. How would I mask the others? Half numbers?

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Fri Sep 1, 2006 9:38 PM, said:

Almost done, I have one last question, though. It seems with this...

dim blank = score+1

....I am only able to "mask" every other sprite by adding 1. How would I mask the others? Half numbers?

BCD encodes each number as 4 bits. Thus you bitwise OR with $AA to mask BOTH numbers, $A0 to mask the left, and $0A to mask the right.

[Dragnerok X]

That's done. Is there anything else that should be added to the GUI or are we good?

 Atari_OS_9206.bin   4K   154 downloads

[atari2600land]

How much room have you got left? I'd like to see one or two more programs, like a drawing program. This is turning out to be kind of a Kindercomp for adults for Atari 2600. I would play Kindercomp for hours on the Commodore 64 back when I was a kid. Great job!

[Dragnerok X]

atari2600land, on Sat Sep 2, 2006 11:23 AM, said:

How much room have you got left? I'd like to see one or two more programs, like a drawing program. This is turning out to be kind of a Kindercomp for adults for Atari 2600. I would play Kindercomp for hours on the Commodore 64 back when I was a kid. Great job!

I'm glad to see you like it . I'm not sure how much space I have actually, probably enough though to at least squeeze in a playfield-based paint program. After that with my 4k rom-space I might be able to fit in 1 more program, but we'll get there when we get there. So I guess It's unanimous that not only we're good on the GUI, but a paint program is in order. Any suggestions?

BTW: here is a quick bug fix where you had to originally play pong once in order for the two middle numbers to dissappear. Now they are automatically gone.

 Atari_OS_9206_v2.bin   4K   152 downloads

Edited by Dragnerok X, Sat Sep 2, 2006 1:19 PM.

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Sat Sep 2, 2006 1:53 PM, said:

After that with my 4k rom-space I might be able to fit in 1 more program, but we'll get there when we get there. So I guess It's unanimous that not only we're good on the GUI, but a paint program is in order. Any suggestions?

How about some sounds for the Pong game? You don't need much, just the sound of the ball bouncing off the paddle, bouncing off the wall, and a "You Scored!" sound. Beyond that, I think you really need a calculator.

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BTW: here is a quick bug fix where you had to originally play pong once in order for the two middle numbers to dissappear. Now they are automatically gone.

Very nice!

[Dragnerok X]

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How about some sounds for the Pong game? You don't need much, just the sound of the ball bouncing off the paddle, bouncing off the wall, and a "You Scored!" sound. Beyond that, I think you really need a calculator.

Easy enough . I'll get to that right away.

[Dragnerok X]

The sound is almost there, here's a sneak peak to see what you think.

 Atari_OS_9206_v3.bin   4K   145 downloads

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Sat Sep 2, 2006 6:00 PM, said:

The sound is almost there, here's a sneak peak to see what you think.

Sounds great! What's with the rolling eyes?

[Dragnerok X]

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Sounds great! What's with the rolling eyes?

I'm not sure actually, it's just for the fun of it. Then again I'm not sure how rolling ones eyes could be fun.

= fun?!?

Whatever. Right now I'm on the hard part. Trying to figure out how to make a noise after each score.
My first guess is to use whatever tells it to pause because of a score and make a sound because of which. How did you do that anyway? For the score sound I'm going for something like freeway's "ding" sound. Any thoughts....

Edited by Dragnerok X, Sun Sep 3, 2006 1:12 PM.

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Sun Sep 3, 2006 1:35 PM, said:

Right now I'm on the hard part. Trying to figure out how to make a noise after each score.
My first guess is to use whatever tells it to pause because of a score and make a sound because of which. How did you do that anyway? For the score sound I'm going for something like freeway's "ding" sound. Any thoughts....

Shore shootin'!

All you need to do is loop on "drawscreen" while the noise plays. The screen elements will stay where they're at, thus giving an apparent "pause". You can either setup a buzzer before you loop, or you can modify the frequencies generated inside the loop for something more complex. Both are very workable solutions. (You can see this sort of thing inside the Deimos Lander code. Look at the Win/Lose screens.)

IIRC, Pong used a simple buzzer (like the quarter-end buzzer in basketball games) to signal a score.

[Dragnerok X]

Phew! That's done. Pong now has sounds . What do you think?

Attached Files

•  Atari_OS_9306.bin   4K   153 downloads

[Dragnerok X]

So.....What do you think!!! Is it good? Bad? Is there anything I should change? Any bugs? What!  

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Mon Sep 4, 2006 11:34 AM, said:

So.....What do you think!!! Is it good? Bad? Is there anything I should change? Any bugs? What!  

It's horrid. That's the worst program for the 2600 I have ever seen!






















Kidding! It's just fine.

Personally, I think Pong would be a lot better with a buzzer, but a "bloop" is acceptable. Other than that, it's working like a charm.  

[Dragnerok X]

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It's horrid. That's the worst program for the 2600 I have ever seen!  






















Kidding! It's just fine.  

Personally, I think Pong would be a lot better with a buzzer, but a "bloop" is acceptable. Other than that, it's working like a charm.

Just wondering. Well I guess this brings me to the question WTH-SWDN. No I'm not insulting the svedish people I'm wondering What The Heck - Should We Do Next. Now that that's done, what is there left to do? I've got 636 bytes left so......any ideas?

Edited by Dragnerok X, Mon Sep 4, 2006 10:59 AM.

[atari2600land]

If you expanded it to 8K, you would have a lot more room left. How about a paint program?

[Dragnerok X]

atari2600land, on Mon Sep 4, 2006 11:14 AM, said:

If you expanded it to 8K, you would have a lot more room left. How about a paint program?

Two problems for 1. my cartridge I'm making is designed to be 4k ( I ordered a 4k chip, it's not like I am doing this because I'm cheap, but because....... ) 2. My source code is MOLDED around batari basic version .35 and if I update, it would be a buggy disaster (trust me, I tried, several times) so, technically, I can't bankswitch. So try to think within the ~600 byte limit.

BTW: I might be able to make a paint program, but with all the small details involved with making it, it would be pretty hard to do/squeeze in.

[Dragnerok X]

Bad news.       It doesn't look like we'll be able to add anymore programs. I've been tinkering for hours and this is the closest I could get...

 Atari_OS_9406.bin   4K   147 downloads

...and even that was horendously buggy. I guess EVERYTHING has it's limits.

Oh well. In lighter news I guess this might give us more room to improve what we have. Screensavers, alternative background colors, and other miscellaneous ideas are now on my "possible" list so throw em' at me.

Cheers!

--Dragnerok X

[MausBoy]

I think you should add "english" and velocity/angles to pong, makes it much more fun.

Keep trying to update to 99c and you'll have a lot more fun. With that it would be cake to add a 'scrolling marquee' or 'flying stars' screensaver, a start menu, or anything else you wanna add.

[Dragnerok X]

MausBoy, on Mon Sep 4, 2006 4:49 PM, said:

I think you should add "english" and velocity/angles to pong, makes it much more fun.

Keep trying to update to 99c and you'll have a lot more fun. With that it would be cake to add a 'scrolling marquee' or 'flying stars' screensaver, a start menu, or anything else you wanna add.

what do you mean by "english"?

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Mon Sep 4, 2006 10:09 PM, said:

what do you mean by "english"?

Linky: English

The proper way to put "English" on the ball in Pong is to change the angle of reflection according to the point at which the ball hits the paddle. As a result, the ball does not follow the normal "angle in == angle out" law of physics. Instead, it returns without any vertical motion when hit by the center of the paddle, and greatly increases its vertical motion the farther from the center of the paddle it hits.

Obviously, this is a lot more complex to code than a simple reversal. It requires not only that you setup regions on the paddle, but it also requires that you program AI capable of using this feature. I've coded it before, but it's something that can be done in a single sitting. (As I did with the Pong game for AtariOS.) Part of the difficulty in making this change is in playtesting the code until it "feels right".

[Dragnerok X]

Just wanted to through around a few of my own ideas to see what you think.

1. using the color b/w switch as a sound/mute switch.

2. use the color b/w switch to toggle the score on the desktop and use it to select a background color with the joystick.

3. add a screensaver with a bouncing atari logo.

4. create a software-controlled control panel in place of the about screen.

5. Digitize mausboy's Avatar and use it as a screensaver! (Just kidding! )

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Mon Sep 4, 2006 11:12 PM, said:

1. using the color b/w switch as a sound/mute switch.

God invented television Mute buttons for a reason. No need to be redundant.

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2. use the color b/w switch to toggle the score on the desktop and use it to select a background color with the joystick.

*shrug* Personally, I don't think the desktop color is that big of a feature. Especially since it will be gone after the next reboot. If you supported the AtariVox (or built in non-volatile memory) it would be a more useful feature.

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3. add a screensaver with a bouncing atari logo.

Could be nice.

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4. create a software-controlled control panel in place of the about screen.

See #2.

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5. Digitize mausboy's Avatar and use it as a screensaver!

Now you're talking!

[Dragnerok X]

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God invented television Mute buttons for a reason. No need to be redundant.

good point....    

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*shrug* Personally, I don't think the desktop color is that big of a feature. Especially since it will be gone after the next reboot. If you supported the AtariVox (or built in non-volatile memory) it would be a more useful feature.

Well what is the color/bw switch going to do then?

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5. Digitize mausboy's Avatar and use it as a screensaver!

Now you're talking!

Who knows! Though I don't like to steal things from people maybe it could be done!  ......  That or do the same thing with the atari logo. Heck, who said the atari couldn't do 3d!!!

Edited by Dragnerok X, Tue Sep 5, 2006 12:57 PM.

[jbanes]

Dragnerok X, on Tue Sep 5, 2006 1:56 PM, said:

Well what is the color/bw switch going to do then?

I don't see why it has to do anything, but if you want to be 7800 compliant, you could use it as a pause for Pong. Make sure you toggle the pause only when then switch is toggled to black and white. Toggling back to color should NOT unpause the game.