LS_Dracon

Here : http://atarihq.com/danb/o2.shtml Download PDF O2 Tech Manual, it's the "Stella Manual" equivalent for Odyssey 2. Get the assembler and have fun! Oh, the Söeren Guts page is really helpful, you access it via internet archive... HERE There is a explanation for every bits of the hardware with codes.

The 4 bits used for hmove are in the left nibble. Helps if you write in hexadecimal (#$): LDA #1 STA CTRLPF LDA #$10 ;%00010000 STA HMBL ;Ball Speed Remember, once you write a HMOVE value, it keeps until you set HMCLR (hmove clear) I set HMCLR every frame, so I aways know the frame starts with all HMOVE as 0.

Recently I've decided to start another project (there aren't many to take care, only my biggest Odyssey2 project ever, and save 2 Atari 2600 games in development hell, other side projects involving sprite drawing and many more games I want to start to code...) Anyway I already talked about in my older blogs. It's a fan game that re-creates the canceled Sonic Xtreme originally planned for Sega Saturn (and PCs) in 1996. The game was very interesting in many ways, mostly because the perspective know as fish eye lens, which makes the game revolutionary for the time. I did a Sonic model in 3ds max (yes, I used to 3d modeling ages ago) trying to match the original sonic model, in order to make new animations for the AXSX project. It seems I'm making some progress, here's the result. The first image is a my model (a old version, I have a better model now), the middle image is original model, for reference. And the last is the comparison between the original sprite and the new one. If you think make the model is difficult, it was not, makes the color, lighting and camera angle almost close to original took me days! Well, it's what I'm doing for now, all my others retro projects is on hold.

Colecovision shell would be great for ZK3 because the front slot for the future cartridge adaptors. You should talk with Kevtris about it.

Here is, the top is how it scrolls now, 4 pixels every 8 frames, so if the bomb is on top of target at frame 7, its scrolls 4 pixels next frame and you think you miss the target. But at bottom you see how it would smooth scrolls (a pixel every frame). The target shift 1 pixel to left every frame and you don't have the illusion it would hit. The problem is the illusion of 4 pixels scrolls (PF) vs 1 pixel smooth scroll (bomb) which let to mistakes. That's why I think if the bomb moves according the PF (and not the player) this would reduce this illusion. This is not a really big problem BTW.

The point is you miss that shoot. In a smooth scrolling, that bomb will miss the target anyway. My suggestion is about better feeling on the bomb trajectory. There's others ways to reduce the oddity, if the screen scrolls every 8 frames, you don't need to move the bomb 4 pixels every 8 frames, to tie with scrolling, you can move the bomb 2 pixels every 4 frames, in a way to reduce the discrepancy of 4 pixels PF shift. I don't know if going to work, it's just a suggestion.

Technically you would miss that target, because the playfield scrolling is delayed by 8 (?) frames. The problem is the illusion it would hit. I think the bomb horizontal movement need to be tied with playfield scrolling, even if it means "choppy" trajectory.

Note on tv picture (cart) the background is light blue, (just like the title screen?) Perhaps the source is not the final revision. Arkyology and now Birthday Mania, what a great year, how many games are out there just waiting to be re-discovered?

So cool Waggie, thank you man!

Thank you for supporting the homebrew scene The cart version will support Voice Module and G7400 (Odyssey 3) graphics, see the image.

Yes, by PackRat games. We still working in the manual, I'll post here when everything is finished. Here's the artwork preview :

It's funny when people know "hmove" bars exist but have no clue how it works But based on a picture I think it's accurate. I would remove the "projectile" when hit the candle, as it is the standard on most atari 2600 games.

Cool! I was following the progress on this one (and Rhea for Saturn). This is for the first PS model, to plug on parallel connector back on the console.

The sound is odd, like the TIA volume registers is not working and this is weird. Note the "ping" sound from the flying mines is just an annoying beep. Perhaps it's related to A/V mod?

I'm not making progress on this, but basically I'm trying to put more objects on screen. Theoretically I can add more text lines or redraw the sprites without a blank area on screen. A good code would use all 4 sprites and draw a bitmap image with 32 pixels wide by many scanlines I want. How to load the code on odyssey? You can check the C7051 flash cart, I don't know where you can buy, BTW.

Perhaps with the upcoming "Bus Stuffing" support...

I'm testing a kernel like the Atari 2600, where we can update graphics on the fly while electron beam is drawing the image. Unlike on Atari 2600, on Odyssey 2 we can't change the graphics while the video chip is "on", only at vblank time. The trick here is disable the chip before Hblank and enable when the scanline starts, then uses hblank time to made the changes. The processor is really slow, I can change only 1 register every scanline, but this is much better than nothing. I'm still testing, the image shows background color changes (black is the "hblank" area). The difficult here is keep the picture stable, which I did. I can't use whole screen, so the game screen must to stay between two grid lines, that's a "safe area" for display the graphics. If it works like I'm thinking, the possibilities are endless...

Just found these videos among others (robotron arcade) on GDC youtube channel, for convenience : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2e4mYbwSTbbiX2uwspn0xiYb8_P_cTAr

As for cartridges adaptors, is possible to plug them by a cable? Like an external HD? So you can plug them each other, see the image :

Thanks for the answers. This is going to be a great tool for homebrew programmers, because we can keep this console to test the game on "real hardware" besides emulation, sometimes we need to do a quick test in the code and turning on/off many times in a short period of time reduce the life of old consoles. Also I don't want to have a Colecovision, but I would like to have one or another game/homebrew for this system, then I could play on this machine. I mean, we don't need to be a collector to buy games for others consoles, this certainly will help the community as a whole. Can we use it as a combo? I mean, for a Intellivision, use the controle for directional and buttons and keyboard for the numpad? I think NeoGeo will be a great addiction, because we don't have a affordable alternative for AES, just the consolized mvs (still more expensive than your project goal). Good luck!

This is very interesting. I have some questions: 1 - Will it support keyboard for old computers/ Odyssey 2 systems? (from usb port) 2 - Have you plans for add G7400 (a.k.a. Odyssey 3) support? 3 - Will it be "upgradeable" if you finish another fpga system, once the console is out?

Really cool!

The problem is not when ET retract his neck, it's when you walk, his feet downs one scanline and touches the pit. So when you press up to exit the pit, you still pressing up when the playfield changes and ET walks up. This was fixed by me year ago but I not made the rom public because it's based on "ET fixed" hack and it's not my work. Anyway here's the hack, I don't want any credits for it. ET_feet_fix.bin

There is a code to generate a random number on bios, but you can code it by yourself, not a big deal, also the random number code is missing on G7400 bios (european Odyssey 3) because they needed the rom space for other stuffs. So it's not a good idea to use this code else the game will not work properly on Videopac 7400. Berzerk would be perfect on this system, there is the homebrew Amok, but it uses the running man from the alphabet, which doesn't looks good as the robots.

They never said that was "in game graphics". Unlike modern game trailers that shows enhanced graphics and downgrade when it's released just to fool you.