I don't care at all for the default colors used by jEdit:
The main thing I don't like is how the white background overpowers the colors. So I change it to black by doing the following:
Select Utilities menu
Select Global Options... menu option
In the jEdit section select Text Area
Change the Text color from black to white
Change the Background color from white to black
Click OK
From here I like to chan
Here's a video demo of a caller to 64-Net, my BBS software for the Commodore 64. Net-64.mp4
My BBS worked best when called using MusicTerm, my custom terminal program. It added the ability of music, character redefinition & animation, sprites w/animation and joystick control. There was also a 128 version of the BBS(great for the faster drive speed), but the term only worked on a 64 or on a 128 running in 64 mode.
This was back in the day of 300 baud(1200 if you were lucky)
This tutorial covers the writing of a 2K game for the Atari 2600. Since it's a tutorial, I put significantly more comments in the source code than I normally would. So be sure to download the source and read it along with each blog entry.
The tutorial does assume you have some understanding of 6502 assembly language. If you don't then check out the Easy 6502 tutorial before starting this tutorial - don't worry, it's not a difficult processor to learn*
Let's Make a Game!
goals for
Ran across my Playstation CDs last week and wondered if I could get them to work with OpenEMU. So I took a look at the OpenEmu User-Guide and found the section on CD based games. I thought it was odd that the instructions for a Mac only emulator only listed Windows only tools for converting your CD to use with OpenEMU.
After reviewing the guide it looked like you only needed 2 things:
Rips from the CD. The CD will consist of one or more tracks. For data tracks create ISO files, for audi
A while back, Nathan posted some well thought out mockups detailing how to do Bosconian on the Atari 2600. There was a bit of discussion, including a suggestion by supercat for drawing the stations using players instead of the playfield. But nothing came of it - until today.
Two weeks ago I approached Nathan about possibly using the routines from Space Rocks to implement his ideas. Those routines seemed ideal as they support objects with unique colors as well as the ability to set th
Hit Reset to get start the "game". Select returns to the rainbow screen.
Hit Fire to advance levels. The starting number of asteroids will be the first 1-2 digits of score(leading 0 is blanked out). This can be from 4-12.
Every 2 seconds an asteroid will break into two asteroids. This will occur until all the asteroids are small. The middle 2 digits of the score will be how many asteroids are flying around.
Push joystick in any direction to speed things up and
Let's review the TIA Timing diagram from last time:
We used that to determine when we could safely update the playfield data in order to draw the score and timer. For moveable objects(player0, player1, missile0, missile1 and ball) if you update their graphics during the Visible Screen (cycles 23-76) you run the risk of shearing. For something that's moving fast, like the snowball in Stay Frosty 2, shearing may be an acceptable design compromise:
That snowball
As mentioned in the December Savings entry, That '70s Show is now being broadcast in HD. I found an episode I have in both HD and SD and took some comparison screenshots:
SD opening scene
HD opening scene. Much clearer picture, additional content on the sides (not zoomed and cropped)
SD title sequence
HD title sequence. Additional picture detail on sides, new cityscape and updated graphics (text no longer looks like it's laying on the dashboard, the holly images are d
Time for another rescan! 7 channels have been added since my last rescan.
COZI, another classic TV channel, has appeared on 57.5. TV Guide doesn't know about it yet so I can't schedule any recordings for it. Lassie's on at the moment:
Unlike the other classic channels, COZI has original programming. I suspect that's why they're broadcasting a 16:9 signal.
The forthcoming Movies! channel has a placeholder on 20.2. Per wiki they'll be launching next week on Memorial Day (the 27
First things first - head over to MiniDig - best of stella and download the Stella Programmer's Guide from the docs page. I've also attached it to this blog entry, but you should still check out what's available over at MiniDig.
Also, for this tutorial you'll need to have DASM to compile the code as well as Stella and/or a real 2600 with a Harmony cart to run your code.
The heart of the Atari is TIA, the Television Interface Adaptor. It's the video chip, sound generator, and also handl
The mini's working just fine with the HDMI to Component Video adaptor:
Before I plugged everything together I made sure to set up my mini for Screen Sharing. I did this as the HDMI to Component converter supports 1080p, but my TV only supports 1080i, and I expected the Mac to default to the "best resolution" it's been told about - which it did. By remoting in I was able to change Display Preferences:
The Underscan
Here's a few videos and a few photos from this year's parade to whet your appetite. 300+ photos can be found here.
Mr Green is a walking machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTW6Tz_VbAI
B & B DoubleHeader Art Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL3yLoFFFCY
The Car With Ping Pong Balls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJGs2-tRe4A
While getting ROMs together for Nathan for his RetroN 77 contribution to the Stella-thon 12 Hour Gaming Marathon Fundraiser! event I realized I've yet to publish the final ROM for Draconian.
ROM:
draconian_20171020_RC8.bin
NOTE: newer versions of the Harmony Cartridge use a different chip that does not work with the above ROM. batari posted this patched version of the final ROM in this topic where he explains why the patch was needed:
Draconian_Harmony_fix.bin
The Houston Art Car Parade started in April 1988, with 40 cars and a crowd of about 2,000. The parade now consists of over 250 cars from all over the country (and Canada), and is estimated to have been seen by 250,000 people!
Even though I moved to Houston in 87, this is the first year that I've made it out to see the parade. I had a blast and plan to watch it each year from now on.
Some of my favorites:
Bunny Slippers
The Crapper Car
Peep Mobile (yep, Peeps! Check ou
I know people are anxious for me to get back to work on Frantic, but I'm not quite ready to jump back into a major project yet.
I have started to dabble though, so I think the burnout is nearly over. I've also been researching ADPCM to compress the digital samples even more than packing did, though it's currently making my head spin. I've had an idea though and will be experimenting with that soon.
So why, some might ask, did I experience a bout of burnout? Well namely
After getting a stable display, I like to implement the routines for displaying the score. You can see that in the first builds of Frantic, Medieval Mayhem, and Space Rocks. Even though we're not ready to show the player's score, the display is very useful for showing diagnostic information - such as this build of Frantic which uses it to show which sprites are colliding with the player.
To draw the score we're going to use the playfield graphics. The playfield pattern is comprised of 20 bi
NOTE: If you're not familiar with 6502 assembly language, take some time to check out the Easy 6502 tutorial.
For my Atari 2600 Homebrew presentation I've been giving a rundown of the challenges involved in writing an Atari game, namely the limited resources and capabilities of the hardware, as well as the tools (DASM, bB, Stella, Harmony, etc) and resources(AtariAge, Mini Dig, etc) that are available to help you.
I've been updating the presentation for each time I give it. On the most
AtariVox Speech Synthesizer, by Richard Hutchinson
5/5
When the Atari reigned supreme, there was something other systems had that it didn't - voice synthesis in the form of The Voice for the Odyssey 2 and Intellivoice for Intellivision. With digitized sound, kids today can't imagine what it was like when arcade games first added speech, and to have that ability at home was ubercool. After these many years, Richard Hutchinson rectified this in the form of the AtariVox.
The AtariVox uti
And yes, those are air quotes
Inside the Atari (and computers in general), there's no such thing as a Random Number. We can, however, simulate random numbers by using a Linear Feedback Shift Register. The LFSR we're going to use was posted by batari, it's a rather slick bit of code in that it can be either an 8-bit or 16-bit LFSR.
Random:
lda Rand8
lsr
ifconst Rand16
rol Rand16 ; this command is only used if Rand16 has been defined
endif
In Step 1 I used loops of sta WSYNC commands to delay the program so that Vertical Blank and OverScan would last for the proper duration. That method works fine when all we want to do is generate a static display, but as soon as we start to add game logic that won't work out so well.
The problem with the game logic is there will be so many different paths the code can take that it is nearly impossible for us to know how long the code ran, and thus we won't know how many scanlines we
With my prior DPC+ kernels, I used an Event Datastream that would tell the kernel to jump out of its normal loop. After that, the 6507 would spent a lot of CPU time deciding if it was supposed to reposition player 0, reposition player 1, or if it was all done drawing the game display.
I got to thinking and came up with a way were the 6507 no longer has to make any kernel decisions - instead of having an Event Datastream, just have a Jump Datastream. Every entry in the Jump Datastream
I saw in Random Terrain's recent blog post that his hand cramps up when holding a pen or pencil.
Around 1980 I noticed a friend who held her pencil in an odd looking way so I asked her about it. It was the way they taught her to hold it at a school she used to attend before moving to McHenry, Illinois.
Always open to new things, I decided to try it out for a week. While it felt odd, I'm glad I gave it a week as my hand stopped cramping up when doing homework. I've never switched back t
Due to RL, I wasn't able to finish Chun-Li in time so it's been placed onto the back burner. I also got a little burnt out on Atari projects, so Frantic has joined it for a bit.
I recently acquired a ColecoVision (CV) and have decided to spend some time getting to know it better. I never had one growing up as I'd already switched to computers before it was released (I got my Vic 20 in 81). I did get to play one at a friend's house though. I've ordered an Ultimate SD Cartridge (like a
I built a special version of Space Rocks for a tournament to be held at the Classic Game Fest next weekend.
The menu is gone, it's been replaced with this:
And every round starts out with 12 large asteroids
Left Difficulty controls a game timer: A = ON, B = OFF
Right Difficulty controls how long, A = 2:00, B = 5:00
Status of the timer will show up in the scroller:
If on, the timer will display on the right side:
Dad heads back to Nigeria in a few weeks so we're celebrating "Merry Thanksgiving". I gave Mason the new Hot Wheels Car Maker and it's been a big hit with the nephews.
The machine heats up wax sticks that are used to make the car body. The wax is not like a crayon, but instead like a plastic. The body is then snapped onto a car base which has the wheels. The body can easily be popped off and put onto another base.
It takes 20-30 minutes to make a car. The unit needs to h
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