Gemintronic
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Posts posted by Gemintronic
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@Random Terrain: You, Sir, rock 7 ways that I can't even imagine to describe but nevertheless are totally awesome! Think Metallica arriving at your birthday party with a shopping cart filled with choice translated Japanese RPGs. Also, Lars gets to grind for you until level 99.
The palette is still off in Stella but the point is I can compile again
Thanks for taking the time to solve that mystery for me! And, yes, I will backtrack and study why your compiler options work. Thank you!Whenever I add a playfield with playfield colors Batari does not compile.Check out the kernel_options:
http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#kerneloptions
For example, in one game I'm working on, this is what I need at the beginning of the program:
set kernel_options player1colors no_blank_lines pfcolors
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Just started in VisualbB and Batari so forgive me if this is a stone dumb question. Whenever I add a playfield with playfield colors Batari does not compile. This is a straight drag-and-drop operation too so I'd assume that the code has proper indentation. The pfcolors: label appears in pink for some reason. This is the latest Batari Basic with VisualbB build 550. Any clues?
pfcolors: $0E $1E $2E $3E $4E $5E $6E $7E $8E $9E $0E end playfield: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X............................... X............................... X............................... X............................... X............................... X............................... X............................... X............................... X............................... ................................ end
P.S. VisualbB has come a long way since it's first release. It installs great on both XP and Windows 7. Thanks for all the hard work!
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Apparently, I do mean "Video Game Brain" but a homemade device that gives you two cart slots and allows setting A12 high or low on either slot would also work.Apparently, you're referring to a "Video Game Brain" as "Game Brain" kept showing me an obscure (unreleased?) Atari console.
If I were to hack together a device to work with the Harmony-based cart dumping, would I just need to do a simple Chip Select/Chip Enable to switch between the game cart and Harmony? Or is there something more elaborate inside the Video Game Brain that would be needed?
It would be easy to lay out a board for such a device, and would not require any logic chips. The edge connectors (either through hole, but deep enough to insert a cart, or straddle-mount) might be hard to find for a reasonable price, though.
I'm trying to find information about the "Video Game Brain" but i also just keep pulling up the unreleased Game Brain. Do you think you can link me to the relevant information about it. I just cant seem to find it using Google.
Some relevent links:
https://www.atari2600.com/item--Video-Game-Brain--PROD1546.html
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/102633278
Too rare to count on buying one. But Bataris words are encouraging in that his technique for ROM dumping is not specific to the Video Game Brain.
See, possibilities like this add value that is NOT present in most flash carts. Well worth the extra gold.
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What does this mean?As a bonus the Retrode guy seems to be making some progress on a 2600 adapter so I can legally rip my games.
The Retrode is a device that makes your cartridge appear as just another drive letter in Windows. You can copy-and-paste the ROM data to your PC. Once the cartridge data is copied to your PC you can run an Emulator to play your game.
In my country you must own the game and dump the ROM yourself in order to be covered by "fair-use". Once the Retrode has an adapter for Atari 2600 games I can dump the games I own to the Harmony. No more sifting through piles of games!
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The price is still very fair. I ordered mine today!
What sealed the deal was the progress made using the cart as a co-processor. As Batari is deeply rooted in this thing I'm anticipating he'll add support into Batari Basic. Now, I can target plain-old 2600's and in the future I can use my Batari Basic knowledge to make enhanced games. What's not to love?
As a bonus the Retrode guy seems to be making some progress on a 2600 adapter so I can legally rip my games.
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I wonder if there's a programming equivalent to poop/pee/wiener/butt jokes?
Ever hear of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball? Pretty sure that qualifies if we're talking "Game Design/Programming".
For a purist programming example you'd have to inspect the source code for every game I make
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Thanks for keeping me in the loop with this discussion ^_^
Well, I mostly concur with the first 2 points now (not that you asked me to - just that we both basically agree)
1. Randomness and Replayability
2. No Mindless Enemies
I think the last three could be boiled down to 2
Frustration and Irritation + Fear and Stress = Negative Rewards.
I don't think you can eliminate risk/reward BUT you can eliminate designing a game around it. When a player tries something new and fails they will be disappointed. If that disappointment is supplemented by the aggravation of in-game penalty that is designing within the risk/reward paradigm.
Competition
This is a hard one. The very act of progressing in a game is competition to me. It may not be my caveman instinct to bash male competitors but it IS my instinct to achieve for pleasure. I'm competing against myself to do better. Doesn't matter if it's a boss monster or placing a puzzle piece. I want to win. A game without negative rewards is fine (DOOM with god mode enabled) but a game without rewards defined is just art.
I think a more humble mantra would be to avoid carrot and stick rather than competition within and without. "Breaking" the player of competitive habits may be in itself forcing them into your paradigm instead of providing entertainment.
Maybe this would be a possible refinement of your rule set:
1. Randomness and re-playability built in. Pre-defined areas and storyline are OK but re-playability is a must. Randomness is key to achieving re-playability. Compare level 3 of Adventure to The Legend of Zelda. Zelda remains static and offers the same experience while Adventure can be enjoyed anew with different enemy and item placement.
2. Non-player Characters must feel "alive" and believable. NPC design should focus on intelligent interaction with the player. If an opponent the reaction should be stimulating. If a Bear than the player should feel it's a Bear without label needed.
3. No Negative Rewards. While disappointment cannot be fully vanquished using it as a tool can. Controlling game flow through player reprimand should be non-existent. Think of Grand Theft Auto with invincibility cheat turned on. The player may be disappointed by missing a motorcycle jump off a ramp but will not be punished (by dying) if the jump fails.
4. No Carrot-and-Stick. Pleasure should be self-motivated and achieved. Pre-defined goals are "someone else's" goals and thus "artificially sweet" to the player at best.
I kind of break down at Carrot and Stick
Goals define a game. Competition is present even within yourself! What is Pac-Man without "eat all the pellets"? What is Super Mario Brothers without "I'll do better next time and save the Princess"? -
I just had some other thoughts too. Just my opinion - devils advocate and all that
A game without some risk is a sleeping pill. Anything lost during a game play is irritating, but without risk there is no sense of reward. No matter how smart the enemy is, if there is no risk (the fear, irritation, stress of losing) then it's a meaningless act to beat it. Expert control of risk in the form of fear, stress and irritation is key, but eliminating it deadens gameplay.
Only creating co-op games is fine but people will still compete. Double Dragon is an example where people will play through the entire game just to fight their co-op partner at the end. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games are co-op but 5 out of 6 kids I knew would compete over power-ups and health. Minimizing negative competition may be a worthy goal but reducing competition to zero may seep the life out of the game.
The concept of smart, lifelike enemies is also relative. Games like Symphony of the Night used basic patterns and careful placement of enemies in tandem with excellent animation and graphics to create "lifelike" monsters. At the same time I've seen monster spawn in modern MMOs that feel like they're using "IF MONSTERX > PLAYERX THEN MONSTERX = MONSTERX - 1". Intelligence in level design can beat out AI if used right. The "alive" feel of enemies is not just a question of AI is what I'm getting at.
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What's "healthy" will vary from personality to personality. Letting both the action player and strategy player "win" by allowing both play styles seems to be key. Grand Theft Auto Vice City is an example of a game that caters to action, mission based people and sandbox exploration type people.
Having a safety valve for various play mechanics is good too. In most RPGs you can defeat a boss the developer intended way or experiment with your own tactics or grind until the character is powerful enough. If one direction doesn't work you can always win by different means. God of War is a example of what NOT to do as you can mostly beat a boss on personal flair until forced to ape random key sequences. Those who cannot ape random key presses toss the game aside in frustration.
The ideals you put forth should be tempered with the wisdom that some players crave exactly the opposite! Some love liner gameplay. Some love flying Medusa Heads they can predict and outwit. Some thrive on fear, frustration and success. Cater to both crowds and provide a safety valve for game mechanics that lean too much either way.
Just a few thoughts
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I think someone forgot an "l" at the end of the link
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Thanks for the feedback! As I stated before, I was able to generate a working/compiling project via the Project Wizard so all is well. I just noticed VbB would lock if the sed.exe wasn't found. It should deal with that more gracefully. However, it may just be my kludged setup that produces this behavior.
What would be nice is an unofficial distribution that includes Stella, bB and Visual bB pre-configured. Debugging everyone's configuration is less productive than debugging the program itself
For that matter, an enthusiast could make a VbB example project called "Northwinds Traitors" where one must battle waves of corrupted Access Server Killbots.
EDITED: For clarification.
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This prompted me to take another look at bB. It's a good start! I tried putting the contents of the Stella, bB and VisualbB into a folder called C:\VBB. Next, I had to move sed.exe into the main VBB directory. Emulator field is C:\VBB\Stella.exe and bB compiler field is C:\VBB\Stella.exe The Add bB Environment Variable and Add bB Compiler to system Path check boxes are checked (although I didn't realize they had to be until I tried to compile once or twice). So far no luck on successfully compiling anything in the sample folder from bB. If I use the Project Wizard I am able to cut and paste the examples though. I can settle with that. This is not a cry for help or a complaint - just a bit of insight into the end-user experience
Interestingly, if I make sed.exe unavailable (take it out of the C:\VBB folder) and try to compile, VbB locks. I am running XP SP2.
Again, congrats on a good start! Now the simple folk stumble over user interface and value checking gaffs ^_^
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I got an IDE for Batari installed once.. that's my knowledge of programming in it
That being said, why not think of the Qix monster as 2 sprites. Those 2 sprites would stay within a certain distance of each other and each would have its own collision check. A bullet sprite could traverse the distance between them and kinda sorta resemble a line between the 2 main sprites.
The only trouble I see is making a good fill algorithm for when you complete a line. I don't even have a clue how to fathom that.
EDITED: For spelling and additional description.
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Deadly Towers has already been mentioned a couple of times so I won't go there..
No one seems to remember Super Pitfall for the NES! I heard it was bad (Seanbaby has it in his worst game list) but I still whip it out every now and then. True, the music was repetitive and the gameplay was generic Super Maryo clone caliber.. but, with over 250 some screens of platform fun I still dig it.
Someday I'll collect a Tandy Coco and the cartridge and build a nice shrine
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Sci Fi Quest
in batari Basic
Posted
Looks awesome. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but, I'd like to throw in my vote that you fire first - press and hold to roll. Those damn, dirty robots don't deserve a barrel roll!