Jack's Odyssey...2

Entry posted by atari2600land August 6, 2021

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Over a decade ago (time sure flies!) I made a game for the Atari 2600 called "Jack and the Beanstalk." Somehow I managed to get an idea in my head over a decade later to attempt to port the game to the Odyssey². If I get to finish the game (sometimes the computer won't let me), I want to make it 8k. I did manage to find out if I put the new Cedar Games intro in the game, I can't have anything else in the bank. So in the Jack game, I need to first make the intro, and then switch over to another bank which will have the title screen. Not a very ideal setup, but apparently I need to do it this way. I say it's not ideal because it wastes a lot of room I could use for other stuff.

So I said to myself, "Self, if I get one screen done, tomorrow I will attempt to put another screen in." Well, I got a screen done, so I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

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This took about a couple hours for me to do. And I tested it on a real Odyssey 2 and it works fine. So the stalk level works like this: Jack needs to climb up. If he's not touching the stalk, he'll begin falling, at which point he can either try to touch the stalk again or fall down to the bottom. Jack will normally not get this high. By this point, the screen will have changed and Jack will begin at the bottom.

So, once Jack climbs the beanstalk, he'll go into the Giant's castle to try to find the goose that lays the golden egg (hidden randomly in the castle) and a key that allows him to enter the Giant's chamber to get the harp the Giant guards.

I think I overworked myself last night trying to do an impossible thing and made my eye hurt again. I went to sleep at about 1 a.m. and woke up several times before finally waking up at 1 p.m. Which is not very good because I have an appointment at 10 a.m. on Sunday. I wonder what this "morning" is people keep talking about. And it never did rain like they said it would. So it's 52 straight days with no rain.

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