Cybergoth

Either way, or even a PM on AtariAge is fine. Ok, then I'll continue my adventures here, maybe it helps/motivates other people, too Well, I was trying to draw some upside-down pyramid structure on the screen. What I was trying to do would normally look like: I=1:FOR I TO 20 J=I:FOR J TO 41-I LOCATE J,I:PRINT"X" NEXT J NEXT I (Actually FOR loops as I used to know would normally look like "For I = 1 To 20"..., but I've adopted to stranger syntax before :wink:) Ok, it didn't compile like that. After some more reading and tweaking this'n'that, the only BAS5200 compilable solution I came up was: I=1:FOR I TO 20 A=41:A=A-I J=I:FOR J TO A LOCATE J,I:PRINT"X" NEXT J NEXT I Ok, it compiles... but Hm... I'll try some more... Greetings, Manuel

Ah, that A was only some experimental leftover :-) Hehe, the good news: It's working The bad news: The basic concept behind Atari char graphics totally differs from what I was expecting So... uhm... ANTIC doesn't know a concept like utilizing an extra color RAM assigning individual colors per char, i.e. the colors are global? Hehe, I thought that was two colors per char, so I could do something like: H I assume I'm getting closer to that using ANTIC 4? I don't even need 4 different colors per char, one would already be enough Thanks for these tips, I'll try printing these docs soon! Oh, fine I've a somewhat ambitious project in mind, so on my way I'll probably come back with problems more often :-) Should I better address future issues right here or rather via mail? Greetings, Manuel

It's 8 bit, like any other 65XX CPU used in almost any 8-Bit Atari, Apple or Commodore computer or the NES for example. Only difference of the Ataris 6507 is that the interupt line is missing, which AFAIK made it cheaper back then. Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! Silly me. Can't get the simplest things going on my own. I've a complete & running setup for 5200 BASIC development now, but I'm already stuck a few minutes past "Hello World". Well, I wanted to do some colored program with redefined charset. Since I didn't get from reading the material I googled so far wether I should use ANTIC 2 or ANTIC 4 mode, I was trying to do a little programm demoing me both the colors and the charset. (BTW: Is ANTIC 2 B/W only or what?!?) Here's my first ever 5200 BASIC program in all it's glory: TITLE OFF DEFINE Z,$FF PALETTE 0,$01:PALETTE 3,$01 Z=0:A=0:FOR Z TO 255 PALETTE 2,Z PRINT CHR$(Z):PRINT NEXT Z Well, for reasons that are beyond me, PALETTE 2,Z is not accepted by the 5200BAS compiler. I tried several funny workarounds and tested this'n'that, but since I never ever touched any 8-Bit system or the 5200 or any Atari BASIC before, I probably was doomed to fail... Any help appreciated. Greetings, Manuel

Actually, this already is the complete available RAM of the VCS, inclusive stack If you are really wanting all of their names, you'd have to reverse-engineer the complete game. Greetings, Manuel

Hehe, I thought R.C. Pro Am on the NES was past '84 What I never get, is how crappy most of the current Konami output is. They were the NES gods back then, with every title rated 85+, but now on the GBA they did good Castlevania & ISS so far, but another 65 crap titles... Greetings, Manuel

Well, both Ataris Battlezone and Activisions Robot Tank have proved that the 2600 can do a tank game within a pseudo 3-D environment. The 2600 can't do any vector grafics of that quality, so you'd have to create all the objects with sprites. The VCS only has 2 sprites, so it's certainly not that easy a task. To be more precise, both have 65XX compatible processors. Actually there's a 6507 ticking in the VCS. Try buying books about programming the C64 in assembly. It's driven by a 6510, which is yet another 65XX compatible processor. Greetings, Manuel

Encounter is available from Holme's, so you can easily do the screenshots on your own, using an 8-Bit emulator like atari800 Greetings, Manuel

AFAIK there's only two 3D tank games available on the VCS: Robot Tank & Battlezone Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! While researching about 3D Space shooting games, I found some 30+ available on the C64, but I'm having a hard time to find some for the ol' Ataris. Do you know any of them? So far I found only ports of the "Star Wars" arcade and of course of "Star Fire" itself. Greetings, Manuel

Hi Tim! I just wanted to thank you for selling our games there. If there's anything I can do for you in return, let me know. Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! Aaargh! Anyone of you ever played ANY other version of the game? C64 for example? Greetings, Manuel

Oh My God! And there are people complaining about Donkey Kong or Pac-Man... Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! I just wonder if probably a new Pac-Man game is planned for the GBA. I didn't like the Pac-Man collection that is already out, but I'd love to have a *new* Pac-Man game, i.e. one that is programmed especially for the GBA, just like the recent GBA Space Invaders. I thought that maybe one of you American guys know wether Namco is planing something like that? If not, would someone here recommend the Pac-Man collection anyway? Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! Ok, I finished the screen. This, to all my best knowledge, is, how a Sea Wolf 2 port could actually look like: Note: I borrowed the top section from "Crash Dive". But it'd be cool like that, or? Wow, design process almost done. Any suggestions so far? Well, if there'd be enough interest in such a project, the next steps would be setting up a webpage for the project and then finding some talented programmers who'd help me with that. I'm still somewhat busy with Star Fire, but I'm willing to contribute where I can. We'd need at least 1-2 programmers for these two tasks: - Either reverse-engineering the Horizon of Crash Dive or programming a good looking horizon from scratch. Not to hard a task. Might be done by a beginner. - Programming the main display part. We'd need a pro here. I myself would contribute the score/state display code and maybe additional code where required, tough I'd not like to be the lead programmer. Well, that's it from my side at the moment. Any ideas welcome. Greetings, Manuel

While I didn't enjoy any sports or fighting game on the GBA so far, I can recommend the "X-Men" game as a good side scroller. Admittedly no Golden Axe / Streets of Rage, but good fun, especially if you like the X-Men characters. Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! I started turning the Atari 8-Bit scene into a pixel-perfect "Sea Wolf 2 on the VCS screen", the bottom third already done: You see the players subs adopted to one color per scannline, yet remaining in their 32 pixel resolution. If required by the kernel, their level of detail might drop to 24 or 16 pixels. I made the subs a little cooler looking too, since I didn't like those fat ones from the original. Then you see a display line, showing the # of topedos left for each sub, plus a timer in the middle. Following are the scores for both players. (I had the idea of letting the players choose their initials at the beginning of the game ) If you like it so far, I can continue and complete the VCS screen. Greetings, Manuel

Huhu! *BUMP* Hehe, muss das mal wieder recyceln Also, meine Frage diesmal: Ich habe z.B. ein PAL Q-Bert von Atari(!). Für NTSC gibt es ja nun auch diese Atari Module: (Alle aus dem Bereich CX2614X) DONKEY KONG DONKEY KONG JR. VENTURE MOUSETRAP Sind jene vier von Atari(!) auch in PAL Versionen herausgekommen? Oder gibt es die PAL Versionen hier nur als CBS Varianten? Grüße, Manuel

I think it was Brad Mott who first discovered that unusual TIA behaviour. I'm currently not sure wether any of the classic games do that, but there's certain homebrews like Thrust using this technique. Completely HMOVing the left side certainly is another way, as well as overlaying a black quad-width ball. Or declaring them being 'referees' like in Pele Soccer And thank heavens, the Star Fire background is pitch black anyway Greetings, Manuel

HMOVE lines _can_ be avoided. Search the Stella archives. For example, there's no HMOVE lines in Gunfight although I'm obviously repositioning the sprites after the status display. Greetings, Manuel

Hi Scott! Hehe, well, it's B/W and only for one player Yup. You see those two subs at the bottom of the screenshot I posted? Now that idea is certainly cool! Greetings, Manuel

Now I'm curious - why would you rather go for the original? With "original" you're refering to the B/W arcade? What's wrong with the sequel? As for being easy, you can certainly make this port as complicated as you want. If going the hardest way, you can even try doing the ships exactly as in the screenshot I posted, that is by creating a 32 pixel horizontal resolution for them by partially repeating the the old dragster/dragonfire trick. Since we're not going for the max posible resolution here, even the fancy colors might be doable. From that simplifying, you can choose any easier way you prefer, down to Air/Sea Battle variant 12 Or even simpler when heading for a 1:1 port of the B/W arcade Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! Sea Wolf 2 could've been a great port for the 2600, don't ya think? All the action is vertically separated, so you could probably easy do big multicolored ships crossing the screen. Just imagine an Air/Sea Battle variant 12 remake in Activision quality. I know there is a similar game by Konami (Marine Wars?) but I think it could be done much better. Hm... maybe I should try doing a mock-up screen once myself. Here's a screen of the 8-Bit version. A VCS port should come very close: Any takers? I'd support any serious attempt! Greetings, Manuel

That second try looks actually quite doable. The TIAs ability of displaying multiple copies of sprites surely will help a lot here. Don't forgt about the background color. The playfield would be complete black all the time, you'd only change the background color twice. Greetings, Manuel

Hm... maybe you should just update your MAME version? I never experienced any troubles running it. I have all versions of Star Fire known by me running on emulators, so I can play them all in order to make my port as good as possible. Here's some Star Fire feature I wrote some 2 years ago for the Epyx Shrine: http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/epyx/starfire.html Greetings, Manuel