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Gemintronic

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Posts posted by Gemintronic

  2. Posted

    The new life display is great! It's kinda one of those things most players expect. And, yes, when I'm home, tipsy and playing Atari it IS hard to count 0-3. :P

     

    You ever consider wrasslin' with VisualbB's music editor? People don't expect it in an Atari 2600 game but it's always cool. 'Specially in a title screen.

  3. Posted

    I remember games like Dragon Wars for the PC had story text in the manual. I suppose this was for 2 reasons:

     

    1. Storage space constraints.

     

    2. Pirated copies don't come with manual.

     

    With homebrew the second concern doesn't really count. Although a real manual with a function besides instructions may add value to the game.

     

    Any thoughts regarding in-manual flavortext? Is it a valid technique for storage/graphics limited systems?

  4. Posted

    I'm on a big prune juice kick so Passthrough keeps sounding better and better! I never commented on how the gem stone really added to the game. Er, well, now I am!

     

    Just like the title of the game keeping it simple is the key. Passthrough for the win!

  5. Posted

    Some RPGs for other systems used the manual for flavortext like the PCs Dragon Wars. I could see where this technique would be useful in storage constrained systems such as the 2600. Might add value to owning the game over a ROM.

     

    Any thoughts about games that make you refer to the manual for flavortext?

  8. Posted

    . . . and liberally adding comments to explain what things do. There have been instances where I have had to go back through my code 3 or 4 years later to correct something and those comments were a lifesaver!

    I wish I was better at that. It's hard to explain what I did when I don't know what I did. I have no idea what I'm doing. I just keep messing around until it works. If you don't know how or why it works, how do you explain it?

     

    You can't :P I remember coding a 4 way scrolling engine in QuickBASIC as a teen. Plain old MODE 13 in QB didn't have a backbuffer. I changed the palette around so that half the colors were black and then XOR'ed the playable area to the top-left hand side of the screen.

    It was slow. It wasted screen real estate. And a month later I had no clue as to how I did it!

     

    Coding, writing and drawing are all things I do as I go. It's been a real challenge to remember comments and detailing how my functions work.

  9. Posted · Edited by theloon

    It's better than seeing Atari Joe slash fanfiction on the site.

     

    That gives me an idea..... ;)

    I'd like to hear the idea.

     

    Atari Joe was the man to know for classic gaming hints.



    He had 2600 tips for 2600 addicts and these I couldn't miss:

    "Son, don't Riverraid while drinking rum"

    "Don't Breakout the Bicardi too"

    "if you get Astrosmashed it's asteriods you'll spew!"

    I never learned hence the shag got burned

    with sticky cartdridges all across the room

    Listen to Atari Joe or it could happen to you!

    • Like 2

  11. Posted · Edited by theloon

    I guess this is where hard-to-find and rarity have differences. Rarity also adds collector demand into the equation. I'm not sure if there is much. The one man I could think of that would know is the awesome developer newcoleco.

     

    Disclaimer: Not saying the ADAM isn't 'bout it 'bout it. It's been in my DO WANT list since I was an early teen :P

  12. Posted · Edited by theloon

    The controls/jumping are much improved! The arrows are a VERY nice touch. I think an important aspect of Atari games is the pick-up-and-play factor. With indicators like the arrow this game improved that factor exponentially.

     

    Jumping and physics always seems to be a sticking point in all the Batari examples I've seen. If you can't share the source code could you whip up a stripped version with just yer awesome jumping code? I'd really like to learn how you got it so smooth.

     

    P.S. The label rocks too! Claymation for the win! :)

  20. Posted

    Seems like publicity is a chicken/egg scenario.

     

    As an extension to the ideas in my previous post, why don't we start a code bounty for better 7800 development tools? Specifically ramping up to a full BatariBASIC/VisualbB suite?

  23. Posted · Edited by theloon

    @Lord Tharg: Blanket statements about Batari BASIC newbie releases sounded like a Troll. But, you explained yourself and actually you seem to support just the opposite. I hope I get to enjoy your constructive criticism in the future :) Sorry about the misunderstanding.

     

    Back on track someone started a Coleco BASIC project and had to halt. Could he be found and convinced to switch to 7800? What about the 5200BAS guy?

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