Propane13

Ok, here's all of the info I could find for world 1. If someone wants to put my crappy ascii art into something artistic (when the next pix come through), please do-- I am not so good with digital artistry, hence this crappy guide. Also, let me know if you understand what the hell I'm taling about. Here we go: General hints: 1) No one ever answers grey doors. Ever. I wish someone did. 2) Magic cans are mostly useless 3) Bombs are sometimes useful, especially on fire hydrant 4) Jump on enemies; don't can-them. You get free stuff that way 5) Always recycle cans (money is good for buying things); I recommend buying up until you hit a multiple of $5 with a few cans left for emergencies ########## World 1-1: ########## $1 is available at the first opening in the fence (by jumping) 3 cans are available at the second opening in the fence (by jumping 3x) ########## World 1-2: ########## scrap1_2.txt ########## World 1-3: ########## scrap1_3.txt On to world 2. Thanks! -John

Top 5 (ones I play most): Midnight Mutants Ninja Golf Ikari Warriors Alien Brigade Double Dragon Bottom 5 (ones I play least): Ace of Aces Jinks Karateka Touchdown Football Super Huey FYI-- Tower Toppler is not too bad... but you need to be willing to invest time (it takes quite a bit of patience). I recommend using the maps to get you through: http://www.atari7800.org/hints/toppler/towertopplermaps.htm To like it, I'd say.... you have to spend at least 4 dedicated hours on it straight-- then you'll beat a tough tower and start to get into it. Incidentally, there's a spot on the Slippery Slide (I think) where you have to jump over 2 floating items and I almost always die. That pisses me off, and is a legitamate complaint. But c'mon-- who doesn't like netting shrimp? -John

Crap, now I need to go home and have fun playing a game tonight. Mord-- this is awesome! I'll start working on the pipes and secrets and stuff too. -John

How do you guys get it to work? I always thought that it was impractical to convert "the other way". I never figured out a good way for it. Let's say that you have a bitmap. It's very small (4 bytes long when converted), and then 8 pixels high. The final representation will be: ORG $F000 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (first line of gfx) ORG $F100 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (second line of gfx) ORG $F200 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (more gfx) ORG $F300 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (more gfx) ORG $F400 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (more gfx) ORG $F500 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (more gfx) ORG $F600 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (more gfx) ORG $F700 dc.b $FF,$FF,$FF,$FF ; (last line of gfx) // Of course, this may be inverted. But, this is wasteful for small graphics-- there's 252 bytes of wasted space per page. I tried to think of if there was a cool way to represent data and then "flip it" during compliation with a smart parser. Something like this: ORG $F000 eightlinebitmap flower.bmp 4, 8 This would translate to something like macro call, bitmap image, length, height Of course, this requires a hell of a smart compiler for code, and some excellent macro processing. Not being able to figure it out, I just went "meh". For big graphics, it just wasn't possible. So, how are you guys getting around that issue? Tons of small graphics tied together for a given line? -John P.S. If I look like I don't know what I'm talking about, please understand the general gist. It's been awhile since I did DLL programming.

Mine is.

I actuallyl had a BASIC program that did the reverse. Input any BIN file, have it dump the info as all graphics. See: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~harvey/7800/diag.html I have a few of the number graphics displayed. That's what makes it so cool-- cuz you can find all sort of weird gfx in the roms. But, back in the day I never posted it cuz I hated hacks with a passion (in those days, it seemed that people would go bananas over someone who hacked combat to make the tanks look like little soldiers or something). These days, I think with better homebrews out there (and better hacks), such things aren't really a problem anymore. I was totally concerned over someone trying to turn the scrapyard dog guy into Mario and then trying to sell it. But, I'm weird with my opinions sometimes. -John

I can understand the secrecy. Back in 2000-2002, I was doing some 7800 programming. I actually had a few demos of things that were working, but I just... lost the drive to work on them. Sometimes that happens to programmers. There's a lot of immense pressure to work on something constantly once it is announced. And, that turns a "fun project" into work... and work sucks. In fact, look at this thread-- it's going to skyrocket like crazy. Everyone is going to beg for hints about it now that it's announced that there's a cat in a bag. And it's a big one. I'll admit I'm curious myself, but I'll just say "I understand". Guess I'll save up $50 for whatever this is, just to be prepared. -John

Does it work with Pitfall 2? I heard that if the cart-connection is too long, PF2 doesn't work. -John

Ok, I just got Phantom/Pirate. And... I like it. I want to review Pirate, so here it is. ############################################### ### NOTE-- SPOILERS/GAMEPLAY TECHNIQUE DISCUSSED BELOW ### ############################################### What's weird is that I find myself liking Pirate. A lot. It's strange-- games are quick, but for some reason, they're fun. It doesn't take a lot of brainpower to play. When I got to the first "ending sequence", I couldn't see the letters (the blue is too dark for my crazy-old TV screen), so I had to turn up the brightness. Then, it all worked out well. Graphic-wise, that's my only complaint-- the blue is a shade too dark. All other graphics/colors are very cool. Gameplay is interesting, but I don't see any startup combination for Pirate that's really unbeatable. 1) Walk around the 7x7 grid, avoid going in the hut or killing any snakes or Leduc. 2) Pick up any items on the way (of course that aren't under snakes) 3) If you get the shovel, find your way to the treasure. If Leduc is there, do another 7x7 search for the shovel, and try again. Don't fight LeDuc. Never fight LeDuc. 4) Find the X first before getting the shovel. Plot a course. If you do that, for 95% of the cases, you'll get the treasure without issue. If the sword ends up under a snake, it doesn't matter unless the shovel is underneath something too. If the shovel ends up under a snake, get the sword, kill all snakes first, and then if you must, kill the woman in the hut. There are only 2 real ways that I can see someone dying-- and that's if the shovel is under the priestess in the hut, and she's got a lot of hit points (and you're unlucky), or if the shovel AND the sword are hidden under a snake or the priestess, and you have to fight the snakes bare-handed. And, these 2 situations don't come up much. I haven't had an item appear under a snake yet, and I see no real reason to ever battle LeDuc (except for fun). There are a few things which would add a ton of replay value: --it would be interesting if bumping into LeDuc when you had no shovel had him take your sword instead. And, if he ever touched you, the snakes would reset (come back to the screen). And, if he touched you when you had nothing, he took away a hit point. Then killing LeDuc would be a more valid goal. I just see LeDuc as an annoyance, and not a real avoidable threat. The penalty of touching him is very small. Yet, even though this game is so very easy in concept... I keep playing it. I don't know why. Maybe this game kind of reminds me of Minesweeper in a way. If I do something stupid, I'll end up on a bomb and go "oh man! That was stupid. I should have known better". And then I'll play again. It's a very quick game that has a nice feel to it, and I like it. So, though this may be a weird review, I do enjoy Pirate overall. I've killed LeDuc and the Voodoo priestess for fun, and that was a nice touch to be able to do. Oddly, I yearn for more. If it got more challenging as I the game went on... wow! I'm sure I'd play this thing till level 70. If there were more "things that you need in order to get other things", that would be cool-- sort of like a strange memory game with disastrous consequences for using the wrong item in the wrong place. Or, if the grid was bigger with more snakes. I'm not sure-- I am hoping for a Pirate II. I would buy it. Note that I don't play games very much anymore, so that should be taken as a huge compliment. -John

I'm not trying to prove anyone "wrong" about anything. But if you were curious, then yeah http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90813 . Hmm--- is the forum searcher on atariage-- not so good? I could swear that I tried "real life" and "space invaders" and got nothing. Yet, they're the title of that thread. Maybe I'm using it wrong? -John

Why does everyone hate Super Pitfall? Granted, Pitfall 2 was my vote (awesome), but Super Pitfall was HARD. I've met few people who knew how to beat it. It took a lot of time to be able to finish it. Did anyone here mange to? -John

I tried searching to see if a thread about this vid actually existed, and I couldn't find it. So, prove me wrong if you've seen it: "Real life space invaders": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JTbJdLwqMo -John

So, to get this thing started, someone should secure a screenshot of the shopkeeper room, and of the piano room. Perhaps a really simple way to start this would be to show what the loot is for a successful tune played in the piano room-- I know in later levels that an extra-life heart appears on one side, but if I'm on the other side, I'll miss it cuz I'll never get there. Should be simple enough. I can look into playing Scrapyard dog 1-1 this week, and see what "secrets" can be found. -John

Yes-- Your agent has to be in one exact spot on a platform in that room (I believe the middle of it), and by pushing left or right you can step to the next platform. Then re-adjust your guy, and repeat. Or was it being right up to an edge? I can't remember exactly-- I think it's starting from the middle. Looks like it'll cost you a life (and 10 in-game minutes) to figure out exactly where the starting point is. Otherwise, the jump always clears two. Knowing this "space walk" limitation helps in other areas too (I think there's a room somewhere with a bunch of really small gaps in it-- you can just walk across them, but if you jump, I think I remember landing on a gap and falling through. So, your character is able to walk over some gaps-- pretty cool to know. -John

Looks like a bunch are shipping today. -John

I'm #125. Just shipped today. -John

Are you always doing the same level? If I had it on random, there is no way I would get anywhere. Some of the robot configurations are just too damn hard. And, if you do it this way, you can write down a whole bunch of passcodes in a notebook for the 2 "code rooms". I recommend spending like 30 minutes doing this-- it's pure torture, but the next time you play, you can get like 5 snoozes in one room in just 3 minutes or so. Highly recommended tactic. Everytime when I lose, I kill power, wait five minutes, and then power back on, so I can start in the configuration that I'm familiar with. Or, at least, that's how I did it when I wanted to beat it really, really badly. -John

I'd be up for contributing too. Esp for Scrapyard Dog. This sort of project has a LOT of pull for being interesting and getting the community involved-- people will get credit for "finding things". I think this would allow people to dig into games like never before to find the secrets. Recognition would be pretty good for such a project. "I found the hidden can on Borregas Avenue behind the fire hydrant". "And I just found a method to get past the bouncing balls on the street by using perfect timing" "OH HOLY SHIZNO-ROCKETS! I just found a warp!" Could be really, really cool. -John

Hello! I'm not sure how computer savvy you are, but I'll go with a super-basic explanation. So, your type of picture is called a jpeg. Unfortunately, old computers that use DOS like to have 3-letter extensions as the end of the file (such as .doc, .txt, or .com). You can see the issue that's presented with a 4-letter file-name-- it has to be shrunk somehow. Some old computer software programs just rename jpegs to .jpe. That's unfortunately weird. Most software these days renames it to .jpg (or, even .jpeg). So, you can just rename one of these files to .jpg at the end, and try uploading again. Just an FYI for the future. -John

That is awesome! How did you do it? -John

Can you post a link to a midi or wav file or something? -John

Is Gorilla Glue tested on actual gorillas? If not, I don't know if I really want to use that product. -John

What would it take to make a map, of say, level 1-1? An emulator with some screenshots stitched together? Or, some sort of capture equpment on my TV? -John

This would be awesome if it could be found. C'mon google-diggers! Unite! I had a strange thought-- Maybe it was a Lynx-version map? While searching, I found a site with Scrapyard dog cheats: http://home.wanadoo.nl/retrogames/lynx_s.htm I doubt any are applicable, right? -John

Anyone ever think of making these? I thought it'd be GREAT for Scrapyard Dog (especially the pipe sequences). -John