Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

Propane13

+AtariAge Subscriber
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    1,884

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by Propane13

  5. Posted

    I tried Marble Craze at the expo, and that sealed the deal. I've now currently got an order going through Hozer. There's some neat stuff in the game. Definitely worth looking at, at the very least. And, it's got some neat programming tricks that had me saying "umm--- how'd ya do that?"

     

    Worth a peek at the least, if not a tiny investment if you can push a bit further. :)

     

    -John K. Harvey

  6. Posted

    Has anyone tried emailing him, or is he not answering that anymore either? It'll be quite hard to dump a game or get video footage when all you really have is doctored pictures. :)

     

    I wonder what would have been put on ebay; most likely a Combat Cart, opened up, with the ROM either damaged, or removed with a replacement EPROM in place that has some random data on it. Then you could claim that "ooh, well, it worked when I sent it to you. Screenshots are evidence. Buyer beware."

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

     

    BTW, this was the most interesting thread I've read EVER. This is one for history :)

  7. Posted

    On reading my post again, I'll clarify: I'm not charging for people to motivate me to talk to the copyright owner-- I'm talking about the cart price being cheap (end product) :)

     

    Ahh, it's great to post some vague gibberish in the mornings.

     

    -John K. Harvey

  8. Posted

    Yeah, I have created a working NTSC version. I believe someone else (Jindroush or Jahfish perhaps?) has created one that works as well. Problem is, I need to negociate (negotiate? I never spell that right...)releasing the fix with the current owner of the copyright. So, someone needs to get me motivated to do that. I would probably only charge cost of development, plus a coupla bucks for effort, so I hope it would be pretty cheap. Would people be interested in actually buying something like this? I know that 7800 fans are a limited target group.

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  9. Posted

    http://www.dragonsword.com/airworld/

     

    Looks like we have some depressing news- "... your copy is bunk." Apparantly, that came straight from Tod himself, though no one is sure, it's not looking too good. I'm going to get this independently verified, but for now - Sorry Folks, the auction and hype are OVER! :) Apologies for the inconvenience. What to do with it now, and where did it come from? Both it's origin and fate may be forever locked in mystery...

     

    Guess I got here too late. Anyone save a copy of the page? It would be neat to see the images, even if they are not legit.

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  11. Posted

    Hmm.. if it's failing on actual hardware (by Cuttle cart), then it could be working or failing because of system used (I know some 6502 derivatives eliminated illegal op-codes). What real hardware has this been verified on?

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  12. Posted

    As a footnote, I've got a theory that the initial configuration of Impossible Mission is based on a the state of a RAM location on the cartridge itself (inside the 8K). I've noticed that my powerup screens tend to stay the same on different 7800s for the same copy of the game, but differ when I swap out the RAM for a different one, or if I use a different cartridge with a different powerup map. Can anyone else with multiple 7800s and multiple copies of Impossible Mission verify?

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  13. Posted

    Hmm... well, Pressure Gauge II got stopped because I hit some walls, and didn't know where to go from here.

     

    I wasn't sure how to make less than 4-player option games. I suppose I could have written some AI, but I didn't really get the chance to do that. The other option was to blank out the other players, but that would still reduce it to at least 2 players.

     

    That, and I couldn't come up with a more exciting opening screen, and a way to really end the game. I got hit with a lot of design constraints :)

     

    There are currently no plans to pick it up, but I suppose if I got interested again, I could put it in a simple finalized state, and make it available through Hozer.

     

    -John K. Harvey

  14. Posted

    So, I've got a dilemma:

    - I like coding in assembly language

    - I enjoy coding games

    - I don't think that an industry satisfying these ideals exists anywhere anymore

     

    I am trying to figure out what industry a retro-programmer should get in to. I've thought about PDA or cell-pone game design, but it's probably primarily in C, C++ or Java. As an alternative, newer game platform systems may need kernal design, which could be in C or assembly, but I believe that it is really hard to get into these jobs (i.e. you either need a contact at the workplace, or you need 2 or 3 games written for a modern system under your belt first). Since I'm not up for freelancing it up in the outside world in order to get 3 modern games under my belt, maybe that is not the industry I should look into.

     

    The only real thing that I can think is even close is compiler design. Compilers will always be around, because in general, people cannot stand assembly, and like to program in a language more native to English. With more processors coming out every day, I figure eventually the assembly-programming jobs will end up only in this field. Agree/disagree?

     

    I can see doing DSP algorithms as an option, since that is tight, MIPS-intensive code, and needs to be done in assembly. Are there other algorithms that need to be tight?

     

    So, that's where I'm stuck. Should I go off and pursue an embedded career in C and Java, or are there other options where my skills could be used that anyone can think of?

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  17. Posted

    Hmm... well, here's a side attempt.

     

    I know you may not be interested in legal battles against Atari, or in dumping the ROM, but you *could* ask that the high bidder release it as part of the bidding contract. That may free you from legal responsibility.

     

    Also, instead of making the ROM publicly releasable, it *is* legal to make a backup copy, if not for distribution. I do know people who have done such a thing in the past, and the ROMs were never released publicly or privately. Basically, one copy for yourself, and one for the historical archives, and that's it. :)

     

    But, I don't want to push my luck. You are entitled to whatever decision you wish to make. However, knowing that a backup copy exists somewhere that's not subject to EPROM bit-rot would make a lot of people on these message boards unbelievably happy, even if they could never see it.

     

    Good luck with your auction. It will be most fun to watch. I place my wager of high bid at $3213.00.

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  18. Posted

    And then there's the pushing the wrong button issue. Accidentally getting rid of the shovel after nuking your parachute because you press the button twice in a mesa makes me want to take up drinkin'. So many horribly frustrating moments in such a small game.

     

    I never figured out how to bribe the sheik to get to the black market. Anyone ever do this successfully?

     

    -John K. Harvey

  19. Posted

    You're quite right about the switch-up of the controllers getting annoying. I know when I'm standing in the map room, and leave to get a sandwich and come back, I sometimes move the wrong controller first, and end up in that dang bog. Stupid Valley of Poison! Gahh!

     

    -John K. Harvey

  20. Posted

    Yeah, but what about playability? A dusty cart that's awesome to play (like a proto Save Mary) is well worth it. You can only look at a box, not do anything with it. I guess it depends if you're going for the museum look, or the experience. Something like Snow White-- if it's no fun, what's the point? Personally, I'd rather spend my money on Thrust and Marble Craze, which are awesome games.

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  21. Posted

    Well, I'm glad to hear that the "floating two" was only a VCR glitch. As for the rolling, well... it should be possible to write to VSYNC every once and awhile to keep the frame still. No exquisite graphics are required, but a blank synched screen would be ok.

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  22. Posted

    It surprises me how someone would be willing to pay $45 for a game that's unplayable, and only 30% complete. I see collecting value, and the box art/manuals were very well done, but for $45, I'd rather spend my money on a well-developed finalized homebrew. Anyhoo, just my 2cents.

    So, if you did buy Snow White, why did you?

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

  23. Posted

    Hello,

     

    I'm probably going to get a little flak for this but, I didn't think it was that cool. Whenever the sound played, the screen lost synch, and this number that displayed on-screen started rolling up the screen. It would have been less noticable if that number had its graphics turned off while sync was lost for the speech-portion. I think it was a neat idea, but it needed a little more programmer testing before I'd buy it. This could have been a result of the TV at the expo, though, and not a problem with the game, but it didn't look that way. Did anyone else notice this, or was it just me?

     

    Incidentally, I do look forward to Kickman.

     

    Thanks,

    -John K. Harvey

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...