Andreatari

Thank you @MrFish 🙂 I think that my Atari version of Space Taxi is really a very good port but it's a port... if a jury had to evaluate just the difficulties to replicate the C64 game, the effort to convert all levels different logics, the final result compared to the original, etc. maybe the position of Space Taxi could have been better. The FujiCup had just a single category and they have to judge also original idea, creativity, playability... I accept their vote and I'm absolutely glad of my position and proud to be part of a contest where there were so many excellent programmers, as Amarok, Popmilo, Lars Langhans, Fandal, Miker, Tebe, the Italian Fabrizio Caruso and all others 😎 I take the chanche to congratulate with @amarok for his awesome Time Wizard... you absolutely deserved the 1 prize in ABBUC Software Contest, in FujiCup and in the Atari Homebrew Awards. 💪 Time Wizard is a milestone for all Atarians 😍

Hi friend, I know that there is a WIP for a 2600 version but for Atari 8bit Home Computer it already exists... you can find Space Taxi for any Atari with at least 48K (128kb are requested for speech sinthesys) here: https://www.santellocco.com/atari/spacetaxi.htm The game has just won the ZeroPage Homebrew Award 2024 in the Atari 8BIT/5200 Port category 😎

Hi, I would like to have one Sophia 2 for an XE machine I'm from Italy Thank you

Hi @lotharek, I've already bought your incredible JIL SAM`mer MIDI interface and it's really amazing! 💪🔝 Now I'm interested also in your SD DRIVE MINI device and I have a questiojn about it: What kind of file you can load with it? I've seen in your video that It's possible to map and boot XEX files on different virtual drives but it works also with ATR? Thank you in advance Andrea

Just received today from this sale... I'm very satisfied for shipment time and excited discovering all SUB CART functionalities! The product is excellent... 💪 I think that I'll order also the PBI cable to use the cart with my Atari XL 😎 A possible improvement could be to have a good, complete documentation to guide the new users during the first setup/configuration and to get the best from the SUB CART. Thank you!

What are the plans about an important resource to new games support like ZeroPage Homebrew?

I hope you enjoyd it 🤗 I really would have been there, at Fujiama meeting but honestly this year was impossible for me... anyway, the more ABBUC magazine issues we have, the better 💪 🤣 My target is to reach Beta 99,9 😜 Joking aside, apart from bug fixes 2.5 was already complete and there will be no versions with particular additions or new features. As I already told, I really would like to have a cartridge version but it's not easy to reorganize the program to fit 8K memory banks.

Hi all, This is a short post but with an important message... During the fantastic @ZeroPage Homebrew Live yesterday, James experienced a problem with the joystick fire button moving from the title to the selection menu. I really thank him and his ability to find bugs because it was not easy to catch it 😜 Obviously I tested the game with several hardware configurations and devices and all was working fine but finally, using a TAC-2 joystick, I have been able to replicate the problem... and to solve it 😎 For this reason I have just released a 2.6 version absolutely identical to the previous one, except for a minor fine tuning in the fire button reading routine. May be it was already working perfectly for you or maybe not but, in anycase, you can find the new version 2.6 in @Philsan website: https://www.santellocco.com/atari/spacetaxi.htm Thank you all as usual... Andrea

Hi Patjomki, I really appreciate your challenging spirit in facing the game 💪 I am sure you will get through Taxi Pong in a short time... just to give you a little help, this is my strategy in that level: I keep my Taxi in a safe zone just above the Pad and with the landing gear already open, I wait for the ball to move away. As soon as the ball moves away, I descend to land. By doing so, I have time to take off again after picking up or delivering the customer.

Thank you @TIX 😊 I've tried to redo Space Taxi from scratch to get it as similar as possible to the original Kutcher's C64 version I have been working on this port for a long time and currently the only possible development for the future might be the release of a cartridge version. Anyway, I had a look at your link and I can say that you are an excellent creator of sprites and graphics!!! 🔝

Thank you all for your reactions and feedback... if you want to give a look to any level out of 25 available, you can see this longplay video of the full 24H shift 😎 Space Taxi A8 - Full 24H Shift - Ver. 2.5 PAL

Here we are... 👍 After several weeks of hard and hot (up to 39° celsius in Italy 🥵 ) work, I can finally release version 2.5 of Space Taxi for Atari 8 Bit. 🚕 This could really be considered a kind of "final" version, if we don't want to think about a possible cartridge version. As usual, You can find Space Taxi 2.5 in the @Philsan's great website (Grazie Filippo!): https://www.santellocco.com/atari/spacetaxi.htm I have fixed several bugs or uncorrected behaviors, but more importantly, I have introduced some important features and new features. You can read the full changelog in the version history text file included in the downloadable zip but, as a brief summary, these are the main new features: 24/08/2023 - Space Taxi 2.5 - 130K disk version 💪 - Most of the files have been compressed with a simple custom routine that fits the program perfectly. - The boot program has been modified by adding a decompression routine stored in low memory. - New voices! All phrases have been resampled using a TTS engine for better quality and splitting words to save space. - Classic voices saved for the nostalgic... I prepared an identical copy, but using the original samples. It could be a perfect "Side B" of the floppy - Added "Hey" phrase when the cab hits the customer - Added phrase "Hey Taxi" when the cab lands on a different pad than the one the customer is on - Added new phrase "Game Over" at the end of the game - Added the phrase "Pad + No." when the cab takes the customer to the wrong pad. The ride bonus is also reset in this case - Added level name to the menu in cheat mode for easier choice - Added music for the high score writing screen when the player earns more than $50 and reaches one of the top ten positions 👍 - Added music for hi-score table 👍 - Fixed flickering of rainbow bar colors in Level 20 - Fast Break during jingles and during speech synthesis As always, also for this version I have tried to follow your suggestions and have taken your comments into great consideration... in the end, I achieved almost all possible goals (better quality of samples, the game fits into a 130k disk, sounds and music completed) and the game is stable, but eventual bugs are always possible... for the future I will only work on any major bugs and in a possible (but not easy) cartridge version. I really hope you enjoy the game and I am sorry that it is not perfect but, after all, nobody is 😎 Thank you all for your support Andrea

Hi all and thanks for your feedbacks 😊 Honestly I'm open to any solution and I understand the reasons why could be convenient to follow other ways... As I told, I would like to release a DD disk 'final version' about mid August and it would be very interesting to have a couple of alternatives to the current voice synthesis. Currently I'm working on new samples using Narakeet Mike voice with american accent as suggested by @miker but I could also try to use SAM as proposed by @Irgendwer and @Jacques. The problem with SAM is that I absolutely have no experience with this system so I'd have some question: - Does it exist a stand alone SAM routine able to speak the phrases that could be easily fitted in one (or two) 4K memory bank with all the necessary data? - Does SAM need any HW device or special feature or it works on a simple, standard XL/XE machine? - During SAM speech, could we see the screen with DLIs and a short VBI (in 1 level) working or we could have a sort of 'black screen'? - In the example proposed by Irgendwer I don't understand the second word... are we sure that the SAM quality would be really so better? 🤔 Remember also that in any case the voice would be available only in expanded machines because I' really have no other free memory anymore 😕 Ciao Andrea

Hi All, Just an update about the Space Taxi work in progress. Let's start with the bad news... I don't see many solution about the quality of the samples 😕 I made some testings with VICE 64 exported WAV files but, despite a better starting quality of the file, the final result after the resampling and preparation for the game, is more or less the same. Just to be sure, I tried with a brand new recording and the result is completely different. Here attached you can hear 3 WAVs: 1 - C64 exported WAV, just as you can hear from C64 - NOT resampled - 124K C64Pad1.wav 2 - A8 WAV resampled at 3889 Hz, ready to be imported in the game - 5K 8BPad1.wav 3 - My voice recorded with a smartphone and resampled at 3889 Hz, ready to be imported in the game - 5K NewPad1.wav I know that my voice is not the best and it's not good for the game and it's obviously different from the original, but it helps to understand how the quality could be increased. So now we have a couple of options... to keep the current voices with lower quality but closer to the original (my preferred choice) or record some good new voices and get a better quality. What's your opinion? And now some good news 😎 I'm applying minor changes and bug corrections (solved the bad "not-existing destination Pad" bug) but the main news is that - I've made several changes to save RAM - Ive compressed almost all files with a custom routine, simple but fitting the program structure perfectly - I've changed the loader and I've added a small routine to expand data, so... currently the whole game fits in 130k DD disk readable by any standard 1050 drive 👍 Before the middle of August I'll release this 2.5 version and I'll try to understand if it wil be possible to prepare also a cartridge version of the game (thanks @Wrathchild for your help 🤗... I've other questions for you 😬) That's all at the moment Ciao Andrea

Hi @Jacques and @MrFish, I used a .sid file containing all sounds and a sid player but probably the digital output of WinVice could give better results... the phrases are reproduced at different pitches and I need all sound at the same pitch (than I can change the speed in the program to get different tones just like Kutcher did in the original game). I'll make some testings with WinVice outputs... thanks for your suggestion 👍 Hi @miker using the original sounds we lose quality, it's true... also because the phrases from the original game have been already sampled and, despite the quality of the wav file, I have to resample it to 3889Hz, convert it to encoding-unsigned 8 bit PCM and clean the header with an hex editor before using the procedures suggested by Janusz 😬 A possible solution could be to use some text-to-speech procedure to get an inital better quality, however I think it's very important to keep the same 'feelings' of the original Space Taxi rather than equipping it with a brand new voice... Maybe I'm wrong but the testings I made with new recordings were definitely unsatisfactory and a bit strange 😝 By the way... I'm working on custom, simple compression routines in my Atari version. The target is a real 130k disk and the first results are going in the right direction 😎