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kamakazi

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About kamakazi

  • Birthday 05/11/1974

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Moberly, Missouri
  • Interests
    Any type of video gaming hardware, music, programming, web designing.
  • Currently Playing
    Atari XEGS (developing a game)
  • Playing Next
    My game as soon as it is finished!

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  1. Thank you for the prizes. Now that I think about it, replacement shells for the hardware would be cool to see.
  2. That would be nice to see again for those of us that missed out on the originals many years ago.
  3. I actually won something? I never win anything. But I just won a copy of Berzerk. Thank you! Merry Christmas!
  4. The same Rebellion that makes the Sniper Elite series?!?
  5. One game I think the 2600 could handle is Qix. The original 2600 never got Qix and I’ve wondered if the machine could handle it. If for the 7800 portion of the 2600+ a version of Gradius or Life Force would be cool to see.
  6. I know that they are different...was just having a humorous moment. So if I have a program that uses all four player registers then the XL and XE will still have those registers (P0-P3)? And how much memory should I have on an XEGM with BASIC (Keyboard) running and DOS 2.5 loaded? If I'm not mistaking my XEGM "should" have 64K of RAM. All that BASIC is reporting back is 32K and that is using the command: PRINT FRE(0)
  7. I am working on a project (still working out some display and register issues) when it dawned on me. The original 400/800 had four controller ports and each port, in simple terms, had its own player register in PM Graphics (or in the OS). XL and XE machines removed two of the controller ports I assume to cut production costs. Does this mean that the extra player registers were removed as well or are they still intact? I'm asking because my game project is designed on paper to take advantage of all four player registers. I don't want to create something for just a specific line of Atari 8-bits...I want it to be able to play on all of them. Thanks in advance!
  8. I'm posting a little bit late but better late than never. I am really surprised that someone has not thought of a way to convert one of these older disk drives into a CD-ROM drive yet. Why CD-ROM? For a few reasons. Older CD-ROM drives are readily available Every modern PC has a CD-ROM writer now (would make it easier to get games on discs) Discs are cheaper than SD Cards Only the format is digital, signals are still analog to a point Has anyone ever tried to get an Atari 8-bit to try to use a CD-ROM drive? I have plenty of those that are pulls from every PC I've owned. I also have plenty of old-school hard drives that would be nice to see work with an older Atari computer. Just my opinions and thoughts.
  9. That all makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out. It's strange but it works. I'm surprised I haven't noticed it before. So I may have been "poking" character data in the wrong place then. And that might explain why I'm all of a sudden getting a screen full of jargon when I run a sample program. Thanks again.
  10. I am working with a character set in RAM (copied from ROM) using an example program from ANTIC Magazine. In the article it replaces the ampersand symbol (&) and says that it is located at decimal number 6 [CHR$(6)]. But I am on an XE system and I have noticed that the entire ATASCII character set has been rearranged on XL and XE systems compared to the original 400/800 models. Is this the reason for the need of a translator cartridge? I am sure that there are other reasons as well but this might change the way I need to develop any programs for the Atari 8-bits. To make sure that programs written on one machine will work correctly on another, is there a way to POKE somewhere to tell what type of Atari computer a person is using?If not then I will have to let the program ask the user what Atari they are using so the character set can be correctly loaded. Are there any other differences I should be aware of (besides CTIA/GTIA and controller port differences)?
  11. From what I have learned so far, I can have GR. 6 take up say 162 lines and the remaining 30 lines can be GR. 0 for a HUD. I might try to do GR 1 or 2 for the HUD depending on how it looks when it is setup. So far I have not ran across information about the Playfield's Graphics Memory nor its location. I'm still reading ANTIC Magazines (which is why I asked about Playfields here) and have learned a great deal about Display Lists and PM Graphics from that source. I will have to repay a visit to the issue with the Display List how-to again in ANTIC. I love that magazine and I wish they were still around. I also wish that there was an Atari computer club in my area for exchanging such information. Maybe I ought to start one? And, just out of curiosity, which format would Atari computer gamers prefer: Cassette, Disk, or Cartridge? I know that making a cartridge would mean having to build the game in Machine Language only but I have seen many older software ads that offered only Cassette or Disk and some of those games seemed to combine BASIC and Assembly Language routines. Thought I would ask in advance.
  12. To add to ricortes responses it seems that some of your questions are going to be more opinion based than depending on facts. Here are my two cents worth. FACT: The 5200 was advertised as an at-home arcade machine. Only one other console did this and that was SNK's NEO*GEO system. FACT: The 5200 was the first cartridge-based console that could closely-reproduce the "hit" arcade games people wanted to play at home. Check out QIX on the 5200 sometime. FACT: The 5200 was the first system to have a dedicated PAUSE feature. Other consoles required mashing multiple buttons. FACT: The 5200 was the first 4-player system even if only one officially published title took advantage of that feature. The other titles can be found in AA's store. FACT: The 5200 joystick controllers combined two paddle controllers into a single, hand-held controller. It's the first analog controller to use a joystick scheme. The 5200 is a very capable system and was as close as one could get to owning real arcade games at home. The Colecovision was its only true competitor. Both consoles are great but each got titles that the other one didn't. Most Universal and Epyx titles (Pepper II, Looping, Mouse Trap) were on ColecoVision while most Namco and Taito titles (Pole Position, Dig Dug, Pac-Man) were on Atari. Both got games from Parker Bros and few other third-party developers and even Atari brought a few games to the Colecovision. From a hardware standpoint having similar processors found in Atari's home computers, declared as the most powerful computers for their time, gave the 5200 a somewhat advantage. Games on the 8-bits could be brought over to the 5200 requiring only slight modifications for the joysticks and missing components (as mentioned). However, there were some games that made it to the 5200 first before the 400/800 got them where the 5200 port is easily the better port. Again, QIX is a good example of this. So is Space Dungeon. My 5200 is an original 4-port and has lasted since new. The only real issues I have come across are with the controllers. They are what they are but when they work as they should they are some of the best controllers I've come across. I'd rather deal with faulty POTs than worn out 2600 CX-40 pads and that plastic insert. The 5200 does have a learning curve with the analog control scheme on all of its games. Once this curve is learned, however, the 5200 is a very fun system to own. And, yes, the 5200 was my first console ever while my school friends all had 2600 consoles. If you plan on getting a 5200 just for collecting purposes where it will spend most of its life on a shelf then please pass the 5200 up. It is not a system that can sit on shelf for months at a time before being used again. It has to be played often to maintain a good working order and that is mainly because of the joysticks. They wear out more from not being used than actually being used if that makes sense. If you get one, however, and get Centipede and Missile Command then keep an eye out for the Trak-Ball controller.
  13. It's been a while and progress on this 2600 program has been slow. To take a break I have been learning the Atari 8-bits as well (ML routines through BASIC). IF there is enough space on the 2600 the game is planned to have at least 4 different mazes that randomly appear. I have also thought about breaking the maze down into "parts" that can be randomly placed so that each maze would be unique. Still a work in progress though and there are plans in place to have it appear on ALL the Atari 8-bit consoles from the 2600 to the 7800 and computers. I've got a LOT of learning to do so if I don't respond in a while it's because I will be busy hammering out code for the game. I also have two more game ideas on paper that will follow this one. I'm following one of my childhood dreams of wanting to work for Atari, Inc and at 40 years old it's all I have besides my wife and doggie. For some reason, though, the learning process is going slow and I use to be able to pick up on programming languages fairly quick. I blame old age on this one LOL. Hang in there with me...I WILL get 'er done!
  14. Hi everyone! First of all let me explain what I'm trying to do. I have already posted under the 2600 Programming for Newbies section a game idea I'm working on. And without giving too much specifics I managed to create one maze (with no working player graphics yet) on the 2600. I have stopped that one for a bit because the "call" to program on an Atari 8-bit computer was bugging me. So, while that is on hold for a bit, I decided to work the maze out on an Atari 8-bit. In theory I guess you could say that the game is being programmed, side-by-side, on both systems. And while I am doing this in Atari BASIC on the 8-bit I am using PM Graphics for player graphics. And thanks to ANTIC magazine I am understanding this aspect of the Atari computers, and Display Lists too, much better. Since I am using BASIC I understand that the Playfield is not part of PM Graphics. With that being said are there ways to create a maze-like playfield in BASIC using something similar to what would be used in Assembly Language for testing purposes? If it makes a difference I'm on an Atari XEGM with a 810 disk drive and using ATARI DOS 2.5. Thanks In Advance!
  15. I'm responding a little bit late to this thread but my first encounter with any Atari drives was back in 1998. An old consignment store (more like a second-hand store) had an XEGM with 2 XF551 drives, a SX212 Modem, a 1010, and an OkiData color printer. It all worked flawlessly and I never had an issue with the drives. The XEGM was complete with keyboard, all cartridges, and light gun as well. I had a blast with it. Later, not knowing just what I had, I traded it off for another Atari console which I regret to this day. It wouldn't have mattered much since happenings in my life since that trade-off would have ended up with me losing it anyway. I later acquired an 800 but I never got a floppy drive and instead could only afford a 1010 which I did like. I now have another XEGM and, thanks to Lance, I have a 810 drive. Although I am not sure exactly which 810 I have. The casing is cracked due to aging (and possibly a rough trip during shipping) but the mechanism is solid and works flawlessly. I wouldn't part with it for anything. I can deal with the single-side disk issues and I hope to get my hands on a couple of 1050s soon. I don't need them modified. Original works fine for me. I do, however, hope to get an 800 or 800XL as I don't like the XE keyboards.
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