Gemintronic

I personally enjoyed Double Dungeon. Save up for the CD drive. It has the BEST version of Valis 3 and 4. And who could stop headbanging to Final Zone II?

Don't forget Batari has some feedback on using functions in a multi-bank game here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/167538-do-functions-play-nice-with-banks/ I'm thinking about working around the images-in-last-bank by using pfline and pfpixel commands in a different bank. I'm not sure if that's a tip or not.

Oh man, now I hafta make a new label with Panda!

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?

I'd start out with Game Maker. It has a great IDE (Somewhat VisualbB-like) and is very much like BASIC. If you go for the 5.3 version it's free: http://wiki.yoyogames.com/index.php/Old_Game_Maker_Versions Oh, yeah. And the free Game Maker 5.3 is compatible with more video cards, Windows 95 and Linux (via WINE).

Oh man, character idea time? How about a Duckbill Dragon who "punches" with a sword and blocks with a bridge? Rhindle Roundhouse? Easter Egg Uppercut? Knubberrub Knockout? Magnet Mauler? Robinett Rib Rocker?

@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?

Right. You put the 2600 cart into the adapter that goes into the SNES port and use the Retrode as normal. It works. I have it. Stella with a real cart is strangely awesome!

Look deeper into the Interwebs my son. http://www.retrode.org/plug-in-adapters/ The guy who makes these REALLY makes it clear you need fully cleaned carts for it to work. I'm afraid he is right. I mean, squeeky clean time.

Sent out 2 full boxes of commons on Tuesday. For me the cost was about 20 bucks UPS ground per box. For anyone on the edge because of freight it might be less than you expect.

I don't understand the attitude where homebrew and hobbyist snubb beginner efforts. Should all homebrew efforts be Square/Enix quality at first? I would have never learned how to ride a bike if everyone openly derided my newly learned biking style. This is a dead platform. Be thankful new blood is getting enfused. Yes, you did admit GroovyBee got better. Maybe laugh inside at BatariBASIC users efforts but encourage first. Openly displaying attitude means that the next GroovyBee may look elsewhere.

I think the closest to your idea has been Merlins Walls http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=302 That was in hardcore assembler and had to be sideways due to computational power limitations. If you're not doing static playfields it's gonna be a challenge. I'd consider what it would take to make a proper line draw function and then the math needed to deal with Z (depth) values. Then comes dealing with framerate issues. When I was a kid I got a 3D wireframe rendering engine going in QuickBASIC using only basic arithmetic. Perspective distortion was an issue but it worked. Take this in bite-sized chunks. Work on a line draw command and then puzzle over how to deal with depth. temp1 = plotline(startx, starty, endx, endy) Of course, maybe the correct option is to find the best illusion of 3D and mimic it. Peruse your Atari ROMs for inspiration. Crypts of Chaos and all that.

COMFORT ZONE VIOLATED Wow! That was a surprise chuckle! Respect points given and earned! I could just see this kernel example actually being used in 80's "sensitivity" training courses.

Special Moves: FBI Agent - Warrant less tap, Right Hook to Remain Silent, Long Fist of the Law Baker - Stale French Bread Swing, Kitchen Knife Hand, Fruity Punch, One Two Combo Platter Paddle - Ricochet Roundhouse, Blocky Backfist, Hockey Haymaker Thief - Bomb Drop, Family Jewel Swipe, Underhanded Overhand Jumper - Jungle Jab, Harrys Hook The Sarg - Outstanding Uppercut, Navy Cross, Captains Hook Spaceman - Probe Punch, Long Fist Launch, Cosmic Casting Punch

I've had the Flea Market dreams where I find all sorts of rare and never seen carts.. and as I'm shopping I realize it's just a freakin' dream! At least those aren't as bad as when I fall asleep thinking about Demon Attack and I can't win because my brain controls both the player and the monsters.

See, how and why HammR25 buys DLC is the right way. The problem is Microsoft, Sony and Ubisoft want us to cross that line that says it's not our property. They can take it away. They can stop you from playing unless you're online. They can make sure you can't transfer or back up the game.

That's a different gadget. Sony squashed that one lawsuit style. That was a comercial effort to sell a dongle that would allow "backups" and piracy. This is an open effort to allow homebrew to run using commodity parts. See my link in the first post. This is a quote from PSGroovys notes:

You can run unsigned code today with a little code and a USB microcontroller: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/ps3-homebrew-jailbreak-released-into-the-wilds/ Forget the Streisand effect. This is now the Sony Effect. Take away features from a customers bought-and-paid for console and they have an excuse to add it back. Now that Apple lost their Jailbreaking case things like this will happen more often. Can't wait until I can run emulators on my PS3 again.

Hey, I remember selling black & white porn from a 9-pin printer for 10 bucks in school. There's a sucker born every minute.

That demo does a good job of moving from room-to-room but the maze is from the dimension of chaos. You start with the Yellow Castle a room above you. If you move left -> up -> right the room with the castle is replaced with a green room. Instead of separate level data for each direction why not one data statement for the whole dungeon?

The old chart taught me visually how emulator colors really do differ. The numbers weren't in $nn format so I didn't use them. The new stuff is definitely more useful.

Well, as Zeus says in Altered Beast: "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!!" I think the order of my systems goes: Nintendo Sega Master System Atari 7800 It took full adulthood to seek and procure a real 2600. It was always that "other" system people had in their basement with the old TV. Despite the sucky graphics (kids perspective) I was able to deduce 2600 was better in that, unlike Nintendo games, there was never an "end" to Atari. Zelda only had a second quest. SMB had the mushrooms replaced by beetles. Pac Man and Asteroids JUST KEPT GOING. Rock on Chicago! Rock on Atari!

It's not just about the games. Emulation does nothing to replicate, for example, the arcade experience. The arcade experience was going to a packed arcade and talking smack with your friends over who could get a better score. It was about playing games in the way they were designed to be played (e.g. Discs of Tron, Firetruck, Sea Wolf etc.). It was about your parents bitchin' about the noise of an arcade full of video games, electromechanical games, billiards, air hockey and pinball. And meeting girls was the icing on the cake. On the console side, consider that all the games (with the exception of the home brew scene) that were to be released have been released. There's no Pac-Man, Defender or Centipede to look forward to - it's done. And what a better nightcap than a game of Space Invaders on the 2600 after spending hours in the arcade? Aside from the gaming experience itself, there's no new Electronic Games Magazine, Activision or AtariAge newsletters to read. Those are some of things I remember from BITD that made it more than just the game and is something you will not get through emulation. Is that time machine done yet? I think the time machine skidded past my reality. No offence meant My Arcade experience consists of over-priced snacks, the shady stolen goods dealer in back and that fat, smelly guy playing Zangief beating everyone with cheap moves.

Try a different emulator. Also, make sure your disk images aren't set to read-only. The later Wizardry games for DOS had NPC parties that would quest and progress just like your party. I also heard that some had digital sound through the PC speakers.

I thought I saw a comment somewhere that said SWCHA is more reliable for reading "flaky" joysticks. Is this just my neurons firing crooked again?