LS_Dracon

If you're going to pursuit it I think the best is looks for a cart mold.

You have 64 tiles 8x8 pixels per screen, only 8 on same scanline. You stack them to make a "meta sprite". Mario uses 8 tiles (2x4) for each layer = 32 tiles, you can have 2 sprites like that on same screen. Actually my original plans was draw the princes on top of the tower, but I ran out of space for sprite graphic data (I would need a RAM cart for that). 64 tile limit is not really a problem for an 8 bit machine like NES, the problem is processor speed to set all sprites registers (X,Y position, graphics, collision check). This is why you have slowdown when too much sprites is on screen, you ran out of time to set all sprite registers at 60 fps.

Another way to do it is laser cutting acrylic boards. But will be a nightmare to assembly and glue together all the parts... Perhaps, you can use acrylic just for the cover? Edit : Inject mold is not less than 3k last time I research about. Not to mention the expensive initial batch, like minimum 1k pieces to start.

Yes, I know. But they never did a 12 color sprite Thanks for creating an animated gif.

It was an April fools... Sorta. The rom really displays a 16 bit looking sprite, but the DMA thing was BS. I've stacked 4 sprite layers, each layer with 3 colors, to get all 12 colors you see. The problem is I'm using all the NES resource just to show that sprite, I can't display anything more on same horizontal area. Here's the sprite sheet, showing the process of creation.

I'm studying NES hardware these days, and find something really interesting. Using OAM DMA with NMI to plot sprite pixels, I can draw a 16 bit looking graphics on a stock NES hardware! It is really difficult to get the timing, but the result is really good! Don't believe me? Download the rom below and test it on your favorite NES emulator! I've designed this sprite specially for this new technique. How cool would be a Megaman or Castlevania game with sprites like this? Oh, and I'm not cheating, this is the basic mapper, CHR ROM (no cart RAM) and no co-processor. Tell me your thoughts. mario16.nes

Some levels are too easy. Try to add sokoban stuffs on all the levels. The flying enemies (bats?) are too easy, try make them twice as fast. How about sokoban keys? Do not pick them, push them into the doors. This make the levels more longer.

I bought a SNES in xmas 92 just because this game. Played everyday for like 2 years, but never was a good player. My Snes is long gone, but I still have the cart here. I remember trying to finish the game at difficulty Level 3 for watch the ending scene, lower than that, you have only text. Good memories.

Thanks

Last year I did my first demo for the NES, which was some sprites from The Simpsons cartoon. What you don't know I was slowly making tons of Simpsons sprites, just for fun. I decided to revamp my previous demo to show not 4 but 18 characters, with a proper background. Actually I have here 22 characters done, but this is more I can fit in a NES PPU RAM (Sprite RAM). Yes, I could reload the sprites on RAM, but I got bored of this demo actually. The sprites moves left and right on screen, and every time one exit, a new character is generated randomly. I'll not tell what characters are in this demo. Some are very rare to appear. This demo is the proof that NES can handle a good Simpsons looking game. Run on your fav NES emulator. Some good news : I'm working on another sprite demo, this time is something you don't expect to see on NES hardware. One of my best sprite work so far and many people will not believe it's running on NES. Stay alive!

That's great! The lamp made by 2x sprites, wide spacing, was very clever! I wish I thought that The car sprite is missing, I had some ideas for it, perhaps you could implement on your work. I'm afraid BUS stuffing will not work, because several TIA revisions, anyway you don't need to set any doors as red, you could select 1 for left and 1 for the right, that's fine. I mean, you don't need to change the PF color for all doors, only 1 for each side of the elevator. That's perhaps is enough to make the game run on DPC+? Can I be one of the beta testers? I would like to see the progress of your game.

Thanks, at first I didn't liked the proto, but after my try, I learn how complex this game is and how far they went. EDIT : Added new rom with some color changes.

I never cared to play Elevator Action (proto) on 2600. Too much unfinished (and ugly) to be minimally fun. For years I had an idea how to implement this game on 2600, but I never had intention to port it by myself. I actually did the concept proof kernel for another project and it worked, so finally now I decide to give a shoot at Elevator Action. Well, the game is too much complex, and now I'm very surprised how far the prototype is. They managed to make a moving elevator with both players in "high res". Definitely a good programming work there. My kernel looks better, but I'm cheating, not drawing the sprites saves a lot of processing time for the color changes. The doors are multi colored just to proof I can set blue and red doors at will. On proto there's a sprite making the red door, which flickers, my kernel shoud be flicker free. Problem, even using 2 scanlines, I think I can't draw the sprites and missiles. I would need a 3 scanlines kernel for that (even more cheating). I did 2 spites in high res on my previous attempt, but I was changing the background color, not the playfield color like here. I need the playfield color change to be able to shoot at the lamp and makes it fall using ball, but then, I can't draw this object either. Everything can be done with DPC+ but it is out of my scope. As you can see, I didn't find a good solution for the escalator, I can paint it as grey or other color, but all the few cycles saved for the sprites will be gone. And the doors can't be red at escalator floors. Multiple elevators are possible, the problem is to code all this stuff. I don't have plans to code the game, I don't know if I ever will add the sprites, anyway, here's the rom for you test. Move the elevator pressing up or down.

An inversed tower defense, you're already inside the building and must run away while the army is shooting at you. Every new level you have points to shield up the civilian (or boost the speed or fight back) while the AI have more units to add on the map.

Yes, with a button to adjust the sensitivity. For Dragster, set a high sensitivity, thus requiring a small tap to the direction for the input. Not to mention this controller will "never fail", as there no micro switches and stuffs like that.

Ben, can you build a frictionless, hall sensor based Atari 2600 joystick?

Well, here is Enjoy!

This is a new batch of minimalist box covers using SMS style art, because is fun to do it. Drawings from internet.

Slow but improving my NES programming skills. Today (well, yesterday) I did a code to create a sprite "block" (don't know how to call it). This is something new to me, on Atari 2600 and Odyssey2 each sprite is a single object. On NES the sprites is a little tile, 8x8 pixels. Naturally to display large images you need to use more than a single tile, and make them move together is a bit tricky. But I find a way to do it, so I can create many combinations using only a single Y and X variables for each "sprite block". The NES rom attached is and exemple of few sprite blocks moving. The colors and graphics flickers because a bug I left just because it makes an interesting effect. But you can see the shape of each "sprite block" never change. Usually you need square or rectangle shapes, but my code is optimized and does not waste more cycles to create unusual shapes.

Send him an email

Thanks. By Odyssey you mean Odyssey "2"? (not the original Odyssey) Yes, the Odyssey2 is the NTSC version (the cart works fine on both regions, anyway). VideoPac is the European PAL release. Marc is selling both versions. VideopacBelgium will be the unique place to buy this game.

The more is better? I've tweaked the sprite to resembles more the original source. I could draw her hair taller and so on, I'm just testing with NES hardware. Anyway the ROM was updated with Krusty, Marge and Milhouse sprites.

I was playing Simpsons - Bart vs Space Mutants for NES and I was disappointed by the game graphics. Actually none of the versions for other systems have good graphics. I played the Master System version back in the day, and I never pass the first level. Anyway, back to the NES, Here's my redemptions of the sprites, using the same sizes. I've spent more time on Bart, that's why it is more detailed. You can compare with the original (also Moe). One would think it's not possible to make such graphics on NES because the color limit. On NES you have 3 colors for each sprite tile, and you have up to 4 color palettes, total of 12 colors for sprites You can use one palette for each tile (not need to stick with 1 palette for all the sprite), that's what I did on Bart Sprite. Do not believe? Download the ROM (zip file) and test on NES emulator! It's my first sprite test I'm releasing on internet. Yes, I'm coding for NES now. Bart moves from left to right and that's all. EDIT : Added Krusty, Milhouse and Marge sprites on NES ROM. Note Marge sprite is not the best of the bunch, but it is colorful as the original. I'm surprised how many sprites NES can handle, I've used 40out 64, there's plenty of sprites to use yet.

I'm using a 12v-1A for mine. AC Adapter plug from Ebay link seems not fit the Odyssey 2.