Gemintronic

Looks like a good beginning tech demo. The legs seem to need a little work. Also, variable jump would be very nice. One thing that steers me away from flicker is that, even if your audience uses real Atari 2600, their TVs are all LCD, DLP or plasma - no phosphor burn-in. The kiddies that didn't grow up with the 2600 are all using emulators where the phosphor burn feature is optional (if present at all.) Still, I always wondered what flickering different colors would look like on a playfield. Now I know it's strictly for old TVs. Dat flicker effect would kill an epileptic It looks like you're using both player0 and player1 sprites to create a multi-colored Mario. I'm curious as to how 'yer gonna include enemy sprites with both players used (if that's your technique)

Yeah, thanks for the lead! Seen it. Got it to work er, maybe never. Random Terrain got it down with the info. And one can make do with VisualbB's keyboard in a pinch. What is needed is something where you can slap notes on the screen and play them back until you've adusted the composition properly like Mario Paint. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Paint

Did I see Sol Feace? I have that and still haven't played it. That's on my list of fecal suggestive games including "Eliminate Down" Hope the Melatonin works. Stuff is awesome for me on Sundays when I have to get my sleep schedule back on track.

My wish is for VisualbB to take the next evolutionary step and grow a music composer like Mario Paint. I've already bugged the VisualbB developer enough so pleading for new features is not cool. Some of by bug reports have been valid but others are just my naivete about the interface. Effort today went into trying to find a workaround music composer for Batari. The conclusion I came to was a MIDI to easy-to-convert text format was needed. After the MIDI was transformed into text even an amateur like me could write a converter to Batari data statements. Check out my findings in this post: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/166815-midi-to-batari-basic-conversion/

VisualbB has gotten me by in a pinch for music. I thank jwiewer for that. However, the dream is Mario Paint Composer for VisualbB/Batari. http://www.unfungames.com/mariopaint/ A first step may be to avoid VisualbB and use a standard MIDI composer. Of course, this means conversion of the output from MIDI (.MID) to Batari data. Dead end? Maybe not! MIDICSV has a command line tool to convert MIDI files to CSV (Comma-Separated Value) http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/midicsv/#Download MIDI2RTTL Converts MIDI to Nokia ring-tone format http://www.gnmidi.com/gnfreeen.htm Both options convert MIDI files to easily readable (and thus easily convertable) text files. Please note these utils are command line only. All it would take is programming yet another converter from CSV or RTTL to Batari data. Needless to say I'm mulling things over. Thought this might spark some interest!

Sounds like the no posting .asm files is a limitation of the web board software. I'm cool with that. No reason for a human to veto .asm files as Windows cannot execute them and a small text file shouldn't pose any storage threat. Not like AtariAge members trade score_graphics.asm files like Pokemon.

I've had 2 XBunk 360s fry so far. PS3 makes loud fan noises but still works as I bought it (until I'm forced to upgrade to the no Linux bull). I don't understand, really. Back in the day the Atari and Intellivision would literally melt the shag carpet before quitting.

I MADE A CART AND IT'S GOING FAST AND IT'S GOT A CANDYBAR THEME: PANIC INC'S PLAN I'M A HOMEBREWING NERD, MADE A CART LIKE MIYAMOTO IF YOU WANT SOME MORE, THEN YOU'RE SURE OUT OF LUCK, OH GET THE JUNIOR OUT, THIS CART IS REAL! Ahem.. just got my finished carts from AtariAge. Last steps are shrink wrap and price sticker. Box, insert, cart and manual all are in place. It's official: I made a real game. Even if the Hamburgler steals it or ET grabs it and throws it in his landfill it happened. I can thank my family and AtariAge for support since the gameplay ain't proper compensation Rock on Atari! Rock on Chicago!

How do people feel about works in progress topics? If you announce first people more excited by hearing the progress but risk appointment if the developer fails to produce. If you announce when version 1 comes out one must keep tight lipped and not share the joy. I personally find myself feeding off of community support and excitement during development. But, I also understand failing to deliver makes one look like an arse bandit. Any thoughts fellas? UPDATE: Don't want to hijack the newest topic with a bump. I'll just say thanks for the input so far. Seems announce close to release is the way to go. You get feedback. It gets finished. You just have to suck it up when changes effect a whole lotta other stuff.

Couldn't SeaGtGruffs technique of gosub'ing inline assembly work? @jwierer: Thanks for sharing the awesome ImgtoCode tool! The redraw in VisualbB really sucks on my workstation. I think I'll try using a paint program for sprite and playfields with this!

Still, the original poster asked WHY .asm files are blacklisted. Seems to me score_graphics.asm isn't going to infect my Windows PC with Win Anti Boingo Frothy 2010.

Got some good vibes from Albert about future homebrew. Fellow AtariAge members gave me the straight scoop on Hozers. accousticguitar really convinced me to steer away. My carts for CandyBar did get made under the wire before the store close. Albert personally tested each cart. Soon I will have proof that I made a game: a physical box, manual and cart. Somehow making a digital download only PC game doesn't garner the same satisfaction. TIGSource had a small issue with my entry for their AGBIC Compo. Thankfully I received Moderator and community help and the issue was fixed. The hunt for a local source of cartridge boxes began! May break down and buy cases online. Only found cheap card carriers and flash card boxes so far. Hope this non-progress day is a fluke. Wednesday seems more open for programming time.

It worked! Random Terrain might and to update his awesome pages. Batari to the rescue!! I have to say, I get the feeling that one of the original intentions of Batari BASIC was to ease people into assembly. My initial reaction is that, if BASIC is a better, more understandable tool then assembly is unnecessary. My new view is that assembly doesn't always have to be incomprehensible or incompatible with BASIC. Batari and people making mini kernels like RevEng are slowly broadening my horizons on the subject.

SeaGtGruff tried to explain how different assembly kernels can be use via gosub and inline asm code. As an experiment I tried to gosub an asm example on Random Terrains web-site and it will not go. What is poor, confused TheLoon doing wrong? rem Compiler options set smartbranching on set kernel_options no_blank_lines rem Declare constants playfield: ................................ .XXX..XX..X..X.XX..X.X.XXX.X..X. .X..X.X.X.X..X.X.X.XX..X...XX.X. .X..X.XX..X..X.X.X.X.X.XX..X.XX. .XXXX.X.X..XX..X.X.X.X.XXX.X..X. ................................ ...XXX...XX...XX..XXX..XXX.XX... ...X..X.X..X.X..X.X..X.X...X.X.. ...XXX..X..X.X..X.XXX..XX..XX... ...X.....XX...XX..X....XXX.X.X.. ................................ end draw_title drawscreen if joy0fire then gosub pfclear goto draw_title pfclear asm ldx #47 lda #0 playfieldclear sta playfield,x dex bne playfieldclear end return

I've dabbled with the ARAnyM program a few times with a little success. Mostly dealing with my own lack of Atari ST/TOS experience and a few lock-ups. Has anyone had more experience with ARAnyM? In particular, could one build a PC and use ARAnyM as the primary OS? It would make a fast, cheap Atari ST system if possible. http://aranym.sourceforge.net/

Well, all in all if it's under $1000 for a complete alternative PC they're doing pretty good. Take a look at the other options for an alternative PC: $911.18 for a SAM Flex Complete System. 733Mhz PowerPC Amiga OS 4 Pros: Amiga software is nice. Cons: Will be left in the dust after X10000 comes out. $300 Used Mac Mini 1.4ghz PPC + $144.53 MorphOS license Pros: FAST. Cheap. Cons: MorphOS purchasing and registration sucks. License tied to machine. For a real Atari ST system that can run real software FireBee seems pretty good.

Everything but "7800 Expansion Module" is a little murky. When I think enhancement (besides male) I think that it will enhance EXISTING games.

Personally, I bought the game and never found all the cables to hook up my 5200 Having a demo binary means I can take Adventure II on the go via PSP and, er, actually play the thing Many thanks!

2 things: A. Hope this encourages someone to package up the development environment in a Mac emulator. B. Too bad this was accomplished in the era of DMCA. Trip or whoever owns the IP nowadays could smack this down even though it's hard earned honest reverse engineering.

Well, last night I made the player sprite for my Knightmare clone. Ironically the second iteration I did at lunch had a worse face and better arms and legs. This night I combined both for great justice! Made the initial title, level and boss screen. The more I delve into it the less I think bank switching is needed. 'Course, I'll eat my own words as the code fills up! Multi-sprite is still too complicated for me. Maybe next game. In the mean-time I thought of several workarounds. One is to make a car sprite using the ball as a body and 2 missiles as tires. Also, since the sprites can be pretty tall I thought of just putting several sprite graphics on one sprite. I stuffed 3 "sprites" onto one 8x24 sprite with an okay result. It's also handy to have taught myself that you can use playfield pixels as additional colors in your sprite as seen in the CandyBar Chef. The trade-off is movement becomes too quick and jerky sometimes. THINGS TO CONSIDER NEXT: * Start coding the initial skeleton, er, code! * See how pfscrolling looks. * See how inserting the boss screen looks after scrolling the level graphics. * Start mulling over AI for bullets and enemies.

Do some searches here... you'll see his name pops up quite often, usually not in a good way. 5-11under ..uuuuh, oh. That's 40 pages of bad blood! I haven't found anything related to his actual custom cart service though. Only that his customers (and possibly himself) sell repos as a scam. With this much bad blood though.. may be a last resort if the other suggestions don't pan out. Thanks for the heads up!

Wow! Looks like I *just* got in under the wire. I see the AtariAge store closed until August. Hope that doesn't mean my order is also going on vacation with 'em. I'd like to see my cart on the PANIC INC. blog (along with a nice link/free advertisement for AtariAge). These PANIC guys were the first choice to develop iTunes. http://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/ Anyhoo the Hozer guy sent me an email response same day. He can do up to 16k with SuperChip RAM. The one thumbs down in the topic is definitely something to think about though.

Thanks once again for putting up with my ignorance. What is that not NTCS or PAL color table anyway? Are they a special table safe for NTSC and PAL colors?

One thing that catches me off guard is that when you start a new sprite the default palette isn't NTSC or PAL. I end up having to edit the colors manually in code. Is there any way get NTSC or PAL as a setting in settings? Oh, yeah, and have the sprite editor use that default palette?

See? You seeded Random Terrain with a loaded question and that's the output you get! While we're waiting for Batari to add in Harmony features let's make a Batari Suite. One install will get you Batari, VisualbB and Stella. All source and examples posted stashed in a sub-folder. All custom kernels and score mini-kernels in another sub-folder. Those extra score fonts would be cool too. Don't forget to include Tone Toy. Lastly, maybe a community code library with useful routines. I could contribute my playfield score print routine (from CandyBar) with a little polishing up.