pojr

Alright, here's a good question, will Batari Basic help me learn Assembly in the end? Because whether or not I learn Batari Basic, I think I will eventually try out Assembly.

Hmm, yeah I think I know what you mean. No point in getting frustrated over something when you can make your work easier with the same end result. Just wondering, about the homebrew Atari games that exist right now, those were all made using Assembly?

Man, I don't know what I want to do now. Using Batari Basic would be like using Dreamweaver instead of learning HTML. Tough decision. I feel like I would be taking the lazy way out.

I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question, but am I buying a prototype or a reproduction?

I wouldn't pay more than $30 for a Sega Dreamcast. Like everyone else said in this topic, they're easy to come by and cheap as dirt.

For the second question, I meant whether or not there is a limited amount of playfield pixels you can use in a scanline.

While I'm still here, might I ask the difference between the background and playfield? Is there only a limited amount of time you can use playfield pixels?

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but which specific version of DASM do I download? I have a 64-bit Windows 7, but it seems like this program is only for Mac platforms. I'm guessing there's something I'm missing.

pojr is now jealous of Cebus Capucinis

I have Windows 7 here, so I'll be downloading right away. I'll refer to this topic when I have questions, and I say "when" very tightly, haha.

The following games are only on Flashback 2 Pitfall! River Raid Wizard Caverns of Mars (developed specifically for FB2) Atari Climber (homebrew) The following games are only on Flashback 2+ Realsports Boxing Realsports Soccer Super Baseball Super Football Double Dunk As far as I know, this list is complete. Therefore, they have the same amount of games. All of the unreleased games still remain on FB2+. In my opinion, I prefer FB2 because I could easily do without the sports games. Regardless of which one you buy, you will still be satisfied. For the record, I own Flashback 2 but not Flashback 2+, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I took the game list from Wikipedia. As for the questions regarding modding, I have no idea, sorry.

Good luck bomber. Maybe we can team up and make a game of our own some time. Also, I never realized how famous AtariAge was. I was playing Atari Anthology and it mentioned you guys. I was like AWESOME!

It was on Flashback 2. I wish I owned the actual game.

I've been pondering what console I wanted to begin programming games for, and after reading the FAQs on AtariAge, I decided the extremely unappreciated Atari 2600. But however, I need baby steps on where to start. I was looking through the tutorials, but I can't seem to understand either one. They go too fast, and they assume that I already know basic programming. I've been programming in PHP, but that's apples and oranges. PHP and video game programming are apparently nothing alike. I have trouble understanding simple things like why Assemblers are necessary, why there are so many different files for one simple game, and other aspects that might be simple to you guys. I read the first few parts of Andrew Davie's tutorial, and I fell apart by the time I made it to the actual programming part. I can't explain in detail exactly what I don't understand because I don't understand any of it. However, here's what I DO understand: There can only be two 8-bit objects on the screen at once, which I guess means sprites that use smaller pixels. There are missels (not sure what they are), players (not sure what these are either), sprites, a ball (I guess the ball from pong), and a playfield (the background). I know the Genesis has two playfields which are used for parallax scrolling, however the Atari and most early consoles only have one. The playfield pixels are horizontal lines, so they're shaped funny. Sprites can be duplicated, the copied sprite doesn't contribute to flickering. You can also pick how far to the right the copied sprite is from the real sprite. There's only 4K of memory (unless you stash more in the cartridge). I could be wrong about this, but the Atari 2600 can scroll up and down, but not left and right (unless you resort to certain methods like stop motion). The 2600 plays like a pong console with paddles, a ball and a playfield that keeps score. All the games manipulate the 2600 in clever ways to allow several fun and exciting games. I got most of this information from here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/178563-why-cant-the-atari-2600-display-better-graphics/ What I'm asking is where to start. How do I make this possible? I'm the worst learner on the planet, but as soon as I understand the basics, I should be able to learn fast. Sorry if I sound bland.

I read every post. So from what I understand: The more sprites that line up horizontally, the more flickering since the Atari scans horizontally. If sprites line up vertically, they don't flicker? Sprites can make copies, but they have to be a certain length apart. The sprite copies don't contribute to flickering? Background pixels are extremely wide, but are not very tall, which is why backgrounds can make narrow horizontal lines. I have no ideas what missiles and "the ball" are.