Bert

Entry posted by atari2600land August 3, 2020

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So today I got a Kid's Controller at the store for my 2600. I noticed that Ernie, Oscar, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster each have their own game. But who's missing? (And if you say "Elmo" I will scream.) Bert is missing. (Well, so is Grover, but that's a different story.) So I want to rectify the situation by making a Kid's Controller game featuring our ol' buddy Bert. (Just don't tell Sesame Workshop.) I worked and worked and eventually got the Sesame Street theme playing on an Atari 2600 using assembly. Which is no small feat considering how inexperienced I am in it.

bert1.png.c83aa5566c236db3c6f788b6c23cfcb8.png

For some odd reason, it didn't want to work unless I put the life score in the top left. So I made it the same color as the background. And it wasn't displaying correctly anyway. But now I have a problem. What does Bert do in the game? Big Bird catches eggs, Oscar has a "trash race" (don't know what that entails, I haven't played it yet.) It should involve Bert's paperclip collection (or is it bottlecaps?), and pigeons. Lots of pigeons. But I don't know what to do. But the biggest obstacle probably would be making the overlay. It's a different material than Intellivision overlays (not to mention a lot bigger.) So here is what I have so far in the game. It just plays the "Sesame Street" theme over and over again.

I spent a long time trying to get all the notes correct. Big Bird's "Turkey in the Straw" had perfect notes (for some reason, we are talking about the TIA after all.) But I found a perfect key which allows all the notes to be correct (it's B major.) Found the notes by ear. And if anyone has an extra Alpha Beam with Ernie with overlay, PM me. That was the one missing. They had the other 3.

bert1.bin

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carlsson 26,548

Posted August 3, 2020

From what I understand, Bert will collect just about anything that comes his way. Sounds a bit like kleptomania to me, even if it would be taking it one step too far to accuse him for stealing all his paperclips, bottle caps, sponges, erasers etc.

Have you played Donald Duck's Playground on the C64, Amiga etc? In one of the mini games in order to make money, Donald works as a fruit sorter. Various fruits are thrown at him, and he has to catch them and place them in the right container. I would think Bert could do something similar, if he has some 3-4 different things to collect and put away. There might even be a trash bin for the few items he does not collect. Points for every item placed in the right place, minus points or loss of energy if he misplaces the items.