rdefabri

Depends on the vendor, but most of the bigger titles came in a nice box. I posted the Aim Software Ambulance box - that was a cassette and I’m pretty sure I have Protector II on cassette - also in a box. Some of the smaller, independent programmers would just sell you a cassette. I recall buying Robert Jaeger’s Chomper at a JACG meeting and that was just a cassette in a case.

I see there is now an Atari Lynx homebrew of IM. I realize that the Lynx has a separate blitter / graphics capability, but it's 6502 based...not that it's any easier than porting the Plus/4 version, but just an added reference point.

I failed miserably at my attempt, I’m just not knowledgeable or capable enough as a programmer to do what others are able to do. On top of that, I was laid off by my employer so I need to focus on securing gainful employment. I’m amazed at the great work and efforts by those that can do this, they get better each year. I have some good ideas, but I need a good “teacher” (books or people) to get me over the line. I’m not a professional coder, so it’s harder for me. Good luck to all the entrants!

This is such a great thread - I was always interested in sound synthesis in days before digital synthesis / sampling was prominent. Bill Williams was a trailblazer with what he could do with POKEY. There’s no doubt that the sounds in Alley Cat are programmed (rather than sampled), and they are amazing. I would consider him an early influence, even though most of my (limited) POKEY experiments are musical rather than sound effects. His story is both tragic yet inspiring, and it brought tears to my eyes. Even better that another Atari legend - Cathryn Mataga - is here. This is such a wonderful community, I’m humbled to interact with people that have (and still have) shaped my life!

Awesome! Thanks for doing this!

Well it’s the original 400 I purchased when I was 12 years old (I’m 55 now), so I’m not looking to get rid of it!

I’m glad my thread inspired @vitoco to create the game - very cool! Now if I could only figure out how to do something similar on my own…

I'm an O.G. Atari 400 owner, purchased BITD. As others have said, immediately upgrade to 48K and a GTIA card if you can find them (I have no idea if any of this stuff is available). I never upgraded my keyboard, but that's always a nice option.

Man would love to see that

If I can get my head out of my bum, and get it wrapped around the Adventure Studio, I have a few ideas similar to this. Would like to see this one finished though!! Is there even a prototype?

Rare I see an Atari game that exists on multiple platforms (C64, ZX Spectrum, Atari 2600) that isn't on the A8 line. Didn't realize Road Runner is ported to nearly all the other platforms BUT the A8. This one came out around 1985 I think, so the "heyday" was over, and certainly a big reason we don't have this one. It's not the greatest game, but kind of sucks since it is an Atari title.

It's in the Compute! book referenced in a post above.

Has anyone actually typed in Front Attack? I can't find it, and if I copy paste the code, you lose the ATASCII characters. I don't see an ATR or BAS file on Atarimania - it's listed as "MISSING".

Yep I know you can't use machine language in 10-Liner, I kind of gave up on that until I can actually program something that works!

I forgot how simultaneously frustrating and enlightening programming could be (although I suck, so it's more frustrating than enlightening). Creating PM graphics in Atari BASIC is simple enough - the POKEs to set up virtually everything, including horizontal movement, are all there. It's obviously vertical movement that becomes an issue, and standard practices yield a much slower moving sprite moving up / down. There are known machine language VBI subroutines, and I can get them to work. However, I have some issues when I determine a collision (in this case, PM0 to playfield) - if I end the program, the PM stays on screen and when I go to run again, the program is corrupted and/or doesn't run. So a few questions - is there a standard way to clear all the memory out and reinitialize? I've tried CLR, and even loops to zero out everything. No dice. The other question I have is that the VBI subroutines I've leveraged (mostly from Atari BASIC programming books) use lengthy DATA statements. Not a big deal per se, but if I were ever to attempt a 10-line BASIC game, it's a non-starter...is there some simplified or smaller machine code subroutine to handle fast vertical movement? I know the simple answer is to use a different BASIC. BASIC XE and Altirra BASIC have built in PM commands that make it easier, but now I'm hellbent on doing this in BASIC. Any advice?