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About this blog

Join me on a journey that started in 2007 with batari BASIC.  I've been making games with AtariAge members and Alberts finely crafted physical carts.  I've bought the hardware and saved up pennies to take retro game development full time.  Here we'll go over my failures and success living the dream.  Also, handy tools, techniques and software that makes it happen.  Here we go!

Entries in this blog

 

If it ain't broke..

Spent a good amount of programming time going around in circles dinking with the psueodo random number generator code in my 256x256 screen 256 level test code.   Helpful comments posted in this blog gave me ideas to shorten and/or better my code but everything backfired. All I got is less random output. Not a testament to the quality of advice but rather my own inexperience.   Solved the infinite staircase up -> staircase down warping loop by - wait for it - repositioning the staircases
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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Okay, 256x256 256 Dungeon test Works..

By mixing the worldx, worldy and dungeonlvl variables through bit shifting passes and addition passes it seems to work well enough.   I now have proven to myself that 256 level 256x256 screen dungeons can happen. With the bit shifting and addition passes screen to screen variation is enough. I'm starting to add in room objects such as stairs going up or down. The only glitch so far is some levels will have a stairway up which leads to a stairway down on the next level. You can get stuck in
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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256 x 256 screen maze working.

Had to fight with a weird compiler error. Hopefully the last time I'll see "error: Value in 'cmp #256' must be <$100." Also discovered rand didn't change room types often enough. Seems to work better if I swap bits around in the result. Here's an example of what I'm talkin' about:   changeworldx if worldx = 0 then worldx = 255 rand = worldx mytemp = rand room_type{0} = mytemp{4} room_type{1} = mytemp{1} room_type{2} = mytemp{3} room_type{3} = mytemp{5} room_type{4} = mytemp{7} roo
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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I never want to see another COMBAT cart ever again..

Got a good deal from a local video game shop. 4 boxes full of common to rare 2600 carts. 2 more boxes of duplicate commons. I NEVER WANT TO SEE ANOTHER COMBAT CARTRIDGE AGAIN! Sorting out the duplicates was a messy, time consuming, er, mess.   Plan on shipping the dupes to AtariAge but the store is closed and my wallet is empty. Shipping is gonna be killer.   My programming for the day consisted of digesting Batari's answer to my multi-bank function question and experimenting with rand.
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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Good advice from good folks.

One of my possible game ideas for the next project is a RPG. Apparently this is a herculean task as other have failed. Some have failed hard enough to leave a bad taste in peoples collective mouths. So far I've broached the subject without injury. Just good folks with good advice so far.   Here's what I've learned so far from community members: * Don't announce. Especially in a genre that's had disappointment and failure. * Design and do just for you! Popular style != Incentive to comp
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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A Haitus draws near!

Almost "family vacation" time. Hopefully will be Flea Market hopping for great justice. At night I intend to open up a laptop and code. I'm still torn between starting a simple project (Knightmare clone) or striking ground on a Atari 2600 RPG.   The Knightmare clone project was continuing my trend of releasing simple games to learn Batari BASIC. Maybe I should start learning BB by making the game I want in the first place.   As usual the AtariAge community has been awesome. Even caught
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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Final Fantasy vs. Dragon Quest

Mulling over possibilities for an Atari 2600 RPG. I've got a basic data structure for a password system thought out. I just need to choose between styles of play.   * Phantasy Star Battle layout? * Final Fantasy 1 Battle layout? * Dragon Quest battle Layout?   In Dragon Quest you never see the Player sprite so they could be used elsewhere. However, seeing the character on screen like Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy does seem to connect the game player with their character better. I can
Gemintronic

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Still mulling music. Shipped CandyBar cart to PANIC.

The second Candybar cart shipped out to the PANIC guys who own the box art and trademark for CandyBar. The co-founder actually wanted to pay for his cart but that's just silly. All I'd like is A. A post on their blog with a shout-out to AtariAge and B. find out where they printed those awesome Atari 2600 cart boxes.   Managed to stir up jwierer (developer of VisualbB) and Grand Master Random Terrain about a more evolved music composer/notation module. Mario Paint is the dream but I'll take t
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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Mario Paint + VisualbB = EPIC WIN (just a dream)

My wish is for VisualbB to take the next evolutionary step and grow a music composer like Mario Paint. I've already bugged the VisualbB developer enough so pleading for new features is not cool. Some of by bug reports have been valid but others are just my naivete about the interface.   Effort today went into trying to find a workaround music composer for Batari. The conclusion I came to was a MIDI to easy-to-convert text format was needed. After the MIDI was transformed into text even an
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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I'm on a Cart!

I MADE A CART AND IT'S GOING FAST AND IT'S GOT A CANDYBAR THEME: PANIC INC'S PLAN I'M A HOMEBREWING NERD, MADE A CART LIKE MIYAMOTO IF YOU WANT SOME MORE, THEN YOU'RE SURE OUT OF LUCK, OH GET THE JUNIOR OUT, THIS CART IS REAL!   Ahem.. just got my finished carts from AtariAge. Last steps are shrink wrap and price sticker. Box, insert, cart and manual all are in place.   It's official: I made a real game. Even if the Hamburgler steals it or ET grabs it and throws it in his landfill it
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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Only small progress today..

Got some good vibes from Albert about future homebrew. Fellow AtariAge members gave me the straight scoop on Hozers. accousticguitar really convinced me to steer away.   My carts for CandyBar did get made under the wire before the store close. Albert personally tested each cart. Soon I will have proof that I made a game: a physical box, manual and cart. Somehow making a digital download only PC game doesn't garner the same satisfaction.   TIGSource had a small issue with my entry for th
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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First sprites made. Mulling details..

Well, last night I made the player sprite for my Knightmare clone. Ironically the second iteration I did at lunch had a worse face and better arms and legs. This night I combined both for great justice!   Made the initial title, level and boss screen. The more I delve into it the less I think bank switching is needed. 'Course, I'll eat my own words as the code fills up!   Multi-sprite is still too complicated for me. Maybe next game. In the mean-time I thought of several workarounds.
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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First post! oh, wait, it's my own blog.. :p

This is here for purely my own consumption. Others may make comments and such (please!) but, really, it's all about me.   People right out to-do lists to keep themselves on track. I publicly declare things in order to convince myself to:   A. Make sure things happen and B. Prove that something actually happened.   What's the sound of a tree falling in the forest? Without a blog nothing really happened did it?   Today (Sunday) I became curious about making a Knightmare clone. Some Po
Gemintronic

Gemintronic

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