I have a habit of checking out the 2600 programming forums every week or so, and two weeks ago I started commenting on the topic Advanced sound techniques: how do they work? My interest in this topic was mostly in sample playback. I've been messing with digital sound samples since 1990, and I was very impressed when I found out a couple years ago that the 2600 was capable of playing back decent quality sound samples. My only exposure to this was the Berzerk Voice-Enhanced, which is a thing of
I was sitting down to do some more development on Stellar Fortress tonight and decided is was time that I check the current ROM and RAM usage. Not good. ROM only had one page left (256 bytes), and RAM only had 16 bytes left, and that's including the space reserved for the stack.
So I was forced to postpone development and instead start code optimization. A quick check of the code showed that 50% of the ROM is currently used for logic, and the other half is data tables. Fortunately I made
This is the first release of the game that is minimally playable. You can actually sink the ships now.
Mission Accomplished
tbom21.zip
New Features:
tbom18.asm 8/3/08
- Removed HMOVE artifact from title screen using cycle 73 HMOVE.
- Time-based high-res physics engine for Zero.
- AI to control Zero flight patterns. (preliminary)
- Crash animation and sound Fx for Zero.
- Multiple vectors for AA fire.
- Detects a hole in the ship, and when the ship has been sunk.
- Added preli
With the Atari movie coming up, I've had some motivation to do more coding. I took another look at The Battle of Midway this weekend, and here are the results.
More entitlement.
tbom17.zip
New Features:
tbom16.asm 7/13/08
- Removed unnecessary procedural subroutines, freeing up some ROM and cycles.
- Expanded the ROM out to 8k. VSync and Overscan are in bank1, Kernels are in bank2.
- Displays title with fade-in effect and player's plane.
- Integrated include files into the main
Features:
tbom14.asm
- Added Akagi aircraft carrier. The left difficulty switch determines which ship is displayed. A=Yamato B=Akagi. Press reset to see the selected ship.
- Fixed bomb loop error. When the bomb is droped, an offset is added to the X position. On the right side of the screen, this can result in a value larger than 160. I was checking for X=160 to wrap. Now I'm checking for X>=160.
- Multiplexed machinegun fire in with explosion sounds.
- Added shorter and higher pi
After another 12 hours of development, here's version 0.13:
Features:
tbom11.asm 6/15/06
- Added machine gun sound, multiplexed in with engine and bomb sounds.
- Fixed bullet code to prevent Gorf-style bullet retrieval.
tbom12.asm 6/16/06
- Added gun overheat. If the machine gun is fired continuously without allowing time to cool, the gun will overheat. If the gun overheats, it will be inoperable for 4 seconds while it cools down.
- Bomb can now be dropped to the left or the rig
Hi all,
I haven't posted in a while, but I've been doing some work behind the scenes.
I got bogged down in the Stellar Fortress code, working on more kernel tweaks and hacking at the AI. Normally I enjoy AI coding, but implementing AI on an 8 bit system with a few bytes of RAM left is painful. So I decided to take a break from that game and revisit The Battle of Midway.
The first thing to point out is that after using it for 2 years, I've finally bid a fond farewell to PCAEWin
Now that I've spent the last month emersing myself in Atari coding, I'm ready to take up development on The Battle of Midway again. Here's the current state of the game.Features:- Battleship displayed using asynchronous playfield.- Kernel supports both players, both missles, and ball. But it needs to be reworked.- Joystick control: left and right to rotate, down to drop a bomb, button to fire guns.- Sound FX: Engine speed based on angle of flight. Falling bomb whistle.Known Issues:- It's 256
Given Al's recent overhaul of the AtariAge website, this seemed like a good time to post the facelift I did for Stellar Overlord.
The new look
so95.zip
New Features:
- Completely redid the font graphics from scratch. Wider is better.
- Shrunk the planets in the Galactic Display to make them look more like round planets, and less like footballs. (besides,
)- There is a new sound effect for the victory at the end of the game. It's based on an idea posted by thegoldenband.
Back in 2004 I wrote a game called Master of Arcturus for the 2004 minicomp. It was never productized to the point that I could release it on cartridge.
Exploring the Galaxy
so90.zip
Known Bugs to Fix:
- If you are pressing left when the game should end, the victory conditions are not registered correctly.
- Streamline the combining of fleets when attacking a world. Two groups of 120 should combine seamlessly into a fleet of 240 ships that attack simultaneously.
- If the game end
Entitlement.
sf23.zip
New Features:
sf22.asm 3/2/08
- Added preliminary title music.
- Reorganized bank data. All kernels will now live in bank 2. Bank 1 contains the VBlank and Overscan.
sf23.asm 5/24/08
- Changed cannon graphics. Uses lower vertical resolution. Cannon is larger. Now has 16 rotational animation positions instead of 8.
- Added Title Screen mode. Press the fire button to begin the game.
- Added Title graphics.
To Do:
- Rewrite the kernel to squeeze out m
The targeting computer for the Plasma Cannon is now online:
Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station.
sf21.zip
New Features:
sf21.asm 1/15/08
- Added support for all four quadrants, so the Plasma Cannon can now fire in all 64 directions.
- Implemented targeting computer for the Plasma Cannon. The cannon tracks the player's ship and will shoot at it with reasonable accuracy.
- Implemented delayed cannon rotation. The cannon now rotates toward t
To placate my critics, here is another update for Stellar Fortress, as promised.
I'm hit! I'm hit!
sf20.zip
New Features:
sf20.asm 1/10/08
- Major improvements to shield collision detection. Now uses a combination of coordinate checking and collision registers. Allows player to fly closer to the cannon, making the game feel less claustrophobic.
- Added 16-bit trig table for linear shots. This is now used for the Plasma ball. It imitates 16-bit motion with proper trig ratios, w
I always have extra free time around Christmas, and this inevitably leads to more Atari development. In a renewed effort to actually get another game completed, I've gone back to working on Stellar Fortress.
The rings are more, um, ring-like.
sf19.zip
New Features:
sf18.asm 12/28/07
- Optimized ROM usage. Opened up another 1k of free space.
- Fixed bug in ship-to-shield collision detection. Detection code was only running once every 4 frames. Changed to every frame.
- Fixed
There is an old adage that says "It's not a video game until you can shoot something." Well, now you can shoot something.
New Features:
v0.16:
- Added thrust soundfx.
- Added shot to shield collision detection. Sections of the shield can now be destroyed by the player's Ion Pulse Cannon.
v0.17:
- Added Ion Pulse Cannon soundfx.
- Implemented BCD score addition routine.
- Added scoring for destroying shield blocks.
- Implemented supression of leading zeros in score.
- Added
Hi all,I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy coding. I spent about 12 hours over the past week tweaking the hell out of the kernel. Version .09 was a sanity revision that still needed cleanup. Version .10 is a cleaned up demo of the new kernel.lynxflyer199112html.zipNew Features:- The kernel is now 2-scanlines per pass. But it can still do high-resolution (single scanline) graphics for both player sprites, plus it handles both player missles, the asymetric playfield shield, and a v
New Features:- Shield collision detection.- Ricochet physics.To Do:- Add player photon cannon and enemy DASMs (Diatomic Anti-Starcraft Missles).- Add sound FX for thrust and shield collision.
The graphics are the same, so no screen shot this time. However, there are some major new features:New Features:- Added joystick support. Press left and right to rotate the ship. There are 16 rotation positions, but there are currently only 8 animation sprites. The final game will have 16 animation sprites. Press up to fire thrusters.- Added 16-bit physics engine with trig tables to determine position, velocity, and acceleration.To Do:- Collision detection against the shield.- Add player ph
New Features:- Updated kernel to display player ship on any scanline.- Added horizontal placement routine.To Do:- Add joystick support.- Create physics engine.
New Features:- Added Interceptor-Class Battlecruiser (player ship) with 8 rotation sprites.To Do:- Update kernel so player ship can be displayed at any scanline.- Add joystick control.
newsf.zipNew Features:- Added the dreaded anti-matter pulse cannon. - GP placement code to position the cannon.- 8 sprites to animate the cannon rotation. In this demo, the cannon rotates counter-clockwise. I may add more sprite positions in the future if extra ROM space is available.- The kernel has been updated to handle player graphics and dynamic background at the same time.To Do:- Add the player's ship.
cdk1.zipNew Features:- 5 rotating shield rows implemented.To Do:- Add the player ship and enemy cannon.The shield code is complete. This was challenging and quite fun to work on. The shield consists of 14 rows, with 4 pixels per row. There are 14 columns per row. There are now 5 rings to the shield, and each ring rotates in the opposite direction of its neighbors. The rotation requires a lot of bit shifting. At first I tried to brute-force it, but the code was getting ugly. In the end I u
The visuals are similar, so no screenshot.colecovision_price_liet.zipNew Features:- Joystick fire button support.- 2 mutli-frame player shots, using Missle 0. Currently only shoots to the right.- Shot delay counter to prevent player shots from appearing right on top of each other.Todo:- Support for firing in all directions.- 16-bit engine for player shots.- 16 animation postions for player ship.- More sound FX.- Score and re-enforcements (extra ships) display.Development Note: I don't like but
I'm an avid fan of robotic technologies. Over the past several years I've been following the progress of advances in robotics, including mechanical dexterity, sensor implementation, and software AI. I'd like to share these advances with the AA community and discuss their implications. I think the robotic industry is on the verge of a profoundly significant break through, where robots will start to become ubiquitous in our lives. (As I am typing this post, there are two robots cleaning my kit
I was getting concerned that I didn't have enough half-finished Atari projects, so I started another one. Just to be safe.
Vista Operating System has chosen you to serve on the game grid.
positron08.zip
Features:
- High-resolution light trace display with pseudo 3D effect, synchronized with the player's cycle.
- Fluid cycle motion, one pixel per frame.
- Uses standard 128 bytes of RAM.
- 8LK displays 2 sprites anywhere in the game grid with no skipped scanlines.
- Two songs e
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