Blue Azure

Not to worry guys, this is a video game blog and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You can't ruffle my feathers as I have very few remaining... I surround myself with kids that love "junk" bins. They always say, "Show me the damage," and so I do. I showed them this and they laughed. Perhaps one person's trash is another person's treasure - rarely though. This "game" is damaged and admittedly has no where to go. I've accumulated tons of code and plan to do something with it some day...eventually. I doubt I'll exactly follow Bob's footsteps, however. Who could? My complete 7800 collection spans over 5GB in full documentation including Bins and A78s, board schematics, chip specs, source lists, disassemblies, hardware and software whacks and hacks, sprite development, artwork, and photos and videos, and obscure analyses you can't imagine. There's very little missing. So there's little doubt where my head's been at in recent time. Sadly, it's no wonder my dog forgot my name. He doesn't see me much when I'm working all the time. But we will have a whale of a Christmas. I did investigate the Mario lives decrement, after the fact. 404 City. Perhaps an increment is used to do the "decrement" so we'd have to chase increment codes E6,F6,EE,FE, or there are other ways to manipulate the data. I searched for Player 1 decrement of lives… C6 A1…nothing found D6 A1…nothing found CE 14 18…nothing found DE 14 18…nothing found I searched for Player 2 decrement of lives… C6 B2…nothing found D6 B2…nothing found CE 15 18…nothing found DE 15 18…nothing found So some other method must have been employed, or my computer is lying to me. Sorry, no bingo! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Patience is a virtue, and virtues are well worth beholding. BGGO> Be Good & Game On. ///Blue Azure///

Bob says I like to make games that I can't die. That's normally true. This game you must die so you can see where you're going. Sadly, playing this version will improve your Mario game. Try it and you'll see. MARIO BROS player 1 start number of lives is at address $B903. In after-hours hacking, I found $B907 is player 2 lives, but this change is not included in this game. Replace $A9$03 with $A9$61 for 98 lives. Replace $A9$03 with $A9$FF for 256 lives. As homework, try loading $A9$0E @ $B903 as maximum lives displayed without totally obliterating your screen. For the purposes of demonstration, I show 98 and 256 here… NTSC MARIO BROS, emulator, 98 lives (actually, I think it's 97 but who's counting?) MarioBros98.a78 NTSC MARIO BROS, emulator, 256 lives for those who have the patience MarioBros256.a78 Some of the most important discoveries occur at 2am. This probably wasn't one of them. >>>AZURE>>>

The board is a beauty! CPUWIZ ROX! I just wish it had a POKEY slot on it so I don't have to carry my XM around with me. In fact, make it a dual POKEY with dual bankswitch and NVRAM. That should keep the 7800 busy & warm, but not hot. Code Blue

The fun continues...from the game genius to the game genie...we bring you METEOR BATH, a mod to Bob's METEOR SHOWER (2011). Will you take a bath on this one? Probably not. I never played this game much but then came across the source list to find the hidden magic that I love to find. The game is chock full of hooks to change the game, so I just had to do it. The original blog is here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/182308-meteor-shower/ The manual is on page 8 of this blog. Before, the boulders hit your ship and you die. Now, the boulders hit your ship and you don't die. Also, that really cool spinner UFO thingy dingy used to come down and hit the ground and BOOM you die. Now, the spinner UFO comes down and hits the ground and BOOM you DON'T die. Interesting effect, indeed. The game also offers a way to add more boulders but I haven't done that yet. The speeds can be increased, and I tried it, but it didn't really add much to the game. However, the background colors have been changed. I used bold red green and blue colors, although the black is my favorite. Black is the color that the game now transitions to at 100,000pts. The color changes at 200,000 and then again at 500,000. The game appears to progressively get faster until 1,000,000 points. For those who get there, the score rolls over at 1,000,000 points and then the gameplay is slower than snails on a dry day. It's funny to watch. The original game appears to transition to upgraded difficulty at 20,000/50,000/100,000 points so the next thing I did was to change the original start points EASY=0pts, NORMAL=5,000pts, HARD=50,000pts to EASY=20,000pts, NORMAL=50,000pts, HARD=99,900pts. This immediately adds more interest to the game. Another neat feature of this game is you lose points for everything that hits the ground. Accuracy counts! I'd like to change the game to add a feature that when you fire and miss the boulders you lose points as well. But not there yet. Also note, hit the joystick down and you can beam cross the screen much quicker. Also, two-player simultaneous is an option in this game. Truly great fun!!! I made some obvious changes to the title screen graphics. What's interesting with this game is the bottom 16 lines are carried through to the game, so whatever you see in the title screen you see throughout the game. Interesting effect. So here it is... NTSC METEOR BATH, binary MeteorBath_RC2_12122013_2944.bin NTSC METEOR BATH, emulator MeteorBath_RC2_12122013_16K.a78 To purchase the original METEOR SHOWER game, it's here: http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1008 ENJOY ALL, >>>AZURE>>>

Probably wasn't done for the JAG since it would have been too costly and too time consuming for one title to be produced using the archaic tools of yesteryear. Even with today's tools it takes years to do the new FINDING NEMO movie. FINDING DORY is due to be released 17 June 2016 and we're not even into 2014 yet!

This holiday bin from last year was a fine piece of work by Mark et al. Mark's back on the XM right now, so who's doing the XMas 2013 version? Here's the text from last year which blessed us 7800ers & Jaguarers for a great year this year...it could easily be replaced with this year's commentary which could bless us with a great next year...it's all in ASCII and the new text just needs to be typed in... rip $ECFB .MERRY CHRISTMAS..AND A..HAPPY NEW YEAR..ATARIAGE..FROM..GROOVYBEE..NONNER242..PG.SEASONS GREETINGS TO NONNER242, ESPIRE8, PAC-MAN-RED, SH3-RG AND MIKER. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP CREATING XM GAME GRAPHICS AND MUSIC. A BIG THANKS TO CURT FOR HAVING THE XM VISION AND ALSO TO ALBERT FOR NOT BANNING THE LOT OF US TOO. A BIG HO, HO, HO TO SH3-RG, NONNER242 (THERES A PATTERN HERE) AND LINKOVITCH FOR JAGUAR GAME GRAPHICS AND SOUND ENGINES. NOT FORGETTING THE INVALUABLE HELP OF DRACISBACK, HAMMR25, JAYBIRD3RD, NONNER242, MIKER, ANDYM00, TMR, SH3-RG, CYRANOJ, OMF, SHAMUS, SAURON, REMOWILLIAMS, LINKOVITCH, GAZTEE AND SAMWISE FOR BETA TESTING. ALL THE BEST TO THE ORGANISERS OF THE HOMEBREW EVENTS AT THE LASS, AC2012, PLAY EXPO AND EJAGFEST. THEY WERE AN ABSOLUTE BLAST! GREETINGS TO ZEROSQUARE, LUCIFERSHALO, TMR, TEZZ, SNICKLIN, NUY, DR DO, BMX, THORSTEN, 108 STARS, MATTHIAS AND EVERYBODY ELSE THAT ATTENDED. ERM.... WELL... MAYBE NOT TMR'S GROUPIE. LOL! BEST WISHES TO EVERYBODY OVER AT REBOOT, FORMATWAR, ATARI-FORUM, STARDOT, JAGWARE, NEXGAM AND YARONET. HAPPY BACON DAY! TO REVOLUTIONIKA, CMART604, INTVNUT AND THE REST OF THE INTELLIVISION FORUM'S GUYS AND GIRLS. GOOD LUCK TO ANYBODY WORKING ON NEW GAMES AND HARDWARE PROJECTS. 2013 WILL BE A GOOD YEAR FOR BOTH THE 7800 AND THE JAGUAR. .ROLL ON 2013!. end $F229 $F23F:$A9$FC >>>AZURE>>>

No problem, "friendly" suggestions are always welcomed. You like our games or you don't, it's OK. We put them out there which is better than not putting them out there, IMHO. How's about SPACE DEBRIS or SPACE BASURA? But these doesn't easily fit the pre-existing title screen graphics template. And they sound boring. I looked at the other SPACE JUNK and it is what it says it is. By the by, I prefer FIREFOX on the 7800 using the laser disc interface which is already installed (on some machines)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzYKcjwCUvM >>>AZURE>>>

Here it is…as previously advertised…the swashbuckling "asteroids-style" game, brought to you by GAMBLER172 and BLUE AZURE. The game idea spawned in early November just a couple of weeks after I uncovered the "rock-invincibility" in Asteroids3D. I plugged it into Bob's SPACE DUEL to find out how great Bob's game really was. I was really excited by his game to the point where I was yelling out "Look at all this SPACE JUNK." And the name stuck. I called my trusty 7800 stamp collector, W_Gambler, and we were off to the races for a holiday release. We spent about a month of back-and-forth e-mails to achieve the final product. Maybe even Bob will play it [once or twice]. It's obviously a hack of the original SPACE DUEL game, including everything except the kitchen sink. Airplanes, Buses, Submarines, Firetrucks, Locomotives, Snowmobiles, Hot Air Balloons, and stuff I don't even know what it is. You name it, it's in here. All the SPACE JUNK that makes outer space so crowded. Some of the game is "alphabet soup." Will you find your initials in there? I think the "B" that happens to be blue in color must stand for AZURE, and the "G" must be for Gambler. What else will you find? FEATURES: * FAST action shooter. * Player 1 "rock" invincibility - only the UFOs can zap you. * Player 2 FULL invincibility - nothing will stop you now. * "Asteroids" speed-up algorithm. It's really too fast for you, or is it? * Player 1 starts with 10 lives. The game is really streaky - when the UFOs "lock" on you, it could cost you 3 or 4 lives very quickly. You will need to play around 250,000 points to see all the space junk you will ever need to see. TITLESCREEN FIRETRUCKS & SUBMARINES and, G, look what else? LOCOMOTIVES & Spacedome train car thing * * * The ULTIMATE question is…when you lose…WHO WINS? * * * You'll have to play it and see. Available only at Atariage.com NTSC SPACEJUNK, FAST, binary SPACEJUNK_12082013_81EA.bin NTSC SPACEJUNK, FAST, emulator SpaceJunk_12082013_32K.a78 Enjoy all & happy holidays for you all, G172 & >>>AZURE>>>

Try this simple program. 01 Buy a 5200 to 7800 hardware adapter (if you can find one) 02 Plug in 5200 QIX Cart 03 Power on the 7800 and enjoy the game that belongs *only* on the 5200 04 GOTO 01 The only thing we need to do with QIX is to QIX it off the 7800 line-up. Next... >>>AZURE>>>

We never hear anything about this game, nor other sports games on the 7800, since there aren't many. I drafted a few things together, just for reference. I would like to make my goalie "like wall" to see how the computer would get frustrated not being able to score. NTSC HATTRICK, raw disassy, and I mean raw. It's fully uncommented. It looks like 48 thousand million bytes and at one time I'm sure it all made sense. Now I wonder if we can find the originator to fill in the blanks...his name is apparently Jack Sandberg Sr. HATTRICK_3EC3_Disassy.rtf NTSC HATTRICK, commented and so forth, so to speak. HATTRICK_3EC3_Hockey_SML.rtf Good luck with this one. ///Blueman///

It's OK LynxPro, we just store these ideas away until we have time to do something with them. We've got another SPACE DUEL swashbuckler game version coming out this coming Monday. We spent a month on the details of this one. I just have to work out the PAL details and we're good to go. Keep an eye out for this one. >>>AZURE>>>

Hmmm, interesting input on the proposed BLASTEROIDS78 Mr. LynxPro. Yes, that must have been BJ at the Roach Coach. No, there's only one prototype I know of, and it's here: http://benheck.com/06-18-2008/atari-7800-portable Sorry to disappoint. >>>AZURE>>>

BAM!BAM!BAM! BAM! BAM! BLUE AZURE MONDAY BAM! BAM! BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM! I admit one day last week things were at the slow at the Roach Coach meal-on-wheels truck. Yawn. The people all looked the same. The food all looked the same, probably because it was. Who buys that stuff anyways? Then someone pulled out their trusty portable 7800 with the batteries and LCD screen and started playing ASTEROIDS3D. They were happy, whooping it up and so on. "Isn't this great?" the pioneer with the tired and worn out game asked. "NO," I answered emphatically. "No, why not?" the pioneer asked. "Your portable 7800 looks great, but the game is too slow," I replied, yawning. I went home that night thinking and dreaming of what could be done. I want ASTEROIDS on STEROIDS, and I was dreaming of what the title screen would look like. Something like this was what I was dreaming: But, no, as soon as I put the filename STEROIDS on my computer, the FBI came knocking down my door, asking "Where's the Steroids?" I told them, "Right here," and popped on my ProSystem Emulator. The FBI agent said, "Oh," and turned and walked out the door. "Hey what about the door you kicked down?" Then I woke up, oh, that was a dream I was having, or more like a nightmare. The next morning I was asking myself the math question, what is ASTEROIDS + FAST = ?????????? Oh, that's simple: How FAST is FASTeroids? So FAST it turned the Atari copyright upside-down. Features: * Speed-up technology to revive the good ole ASTEROIDS3D. * Rock Invincibility - no rock, big or small can kill Player 1 or 2. * Player 2 complete invincibility - the UFOs can do nothing to kill you. * Player 1 starts with 10 lives instead of the original 3 lives, to ensure you rack up some big scores. * Random dying when returning from hyperspace has been deleted. I always hated that. So did Andy Rooney. NTSC FASTEROIDS, binary FASTEROIDS_2075.bin NTSC FASTEROIDS, emulator FASTeroids_16K.a78 PAL FASTEROIDS/PALBIOS, binary (THIS IS NOT AN EXTERNAL CARTRIDGE) This is the PAL/BIOS with FASTEROIDS installed instead of the original ASTEROIDS3D. Pull your EPROM off the motherboard and replace it with this. The assumption is if the original PALBIOS works on PAL and NTSC, then this PAL version of NTSC must work on PAL. If this sounds like "Chrissy" on 3's company, then I must be doing a good job. FASTEROIDS_PALBIOS_2FE4.bin Now all we need is a copy of BLASTEROIDS on the 7800. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbmeX64041s ENJOY ALL, >>>AZURE>>>

You're welcome. However, IMHO, it's not really "my game" as much as a tribute to the work that Bob DeCrescenzo (et al) does for the 7800 family of games.

OK fans, here we go again. Yet another game variation, blah blah blah. But I just had to do it. This is Bob's SPACE DUEL stuck in bouncy-bounce mode. I made it just bad enough that you'd have to buy the real thing to retain sanity. The concept is you start in the box and you never leave it. Your shots rebound off the sides of the box and your ship shots don't actually kill your ship. You can face the walls and shoot the walls and the rebound actually passes through your ship and kills the unsuspecting space rocks behind you. And the double rebounds in the corner are kind of fun as well. Haven't seen "balls" bouncing off walls like this since PONG. Hence the name of the game. The game is a bit glitchy and if I had found an easy way to fix it, I would have. I traced most of the problem to the positioning of the space rocks within the game. If I could move them 1 pixel to the left and 1 pixel up, then this would have been a much better game. Try it today, if you must... The title screen has been slightly altered to add to the amusement. With 16 lines available for graphics, this is what I was able to do. All that's left to do is to animate the boxes by spinning them on their center axis (horizontal or vertical, I'm not sure which). If you like ASTEROIDS-style games and bouncing off walls, this game is for you. SPACEPONG available only here at Atariage.com NTSC SPACEPONG, binary SPACEPONG_PMP_E8E7.bin NTSC SPACEPONG, emulator SpacePong_PMP_32K.a78 If you like REAL games that actually do something, go here: http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=876 Enjoy it! And happy holidays to all. Now back to the next game... and the next game... and the next game. >>>AZURE>>>