playsoft

It's a bit tricky to fix as I can't reproduce it. However I've done a couple of things which may/may not help. I applied the same changes to the original A8 version and in my clear screen hook I clear the P/M area too in case the program decides not to for some reason. Yes, I used Maxflash Cartridge Studio to make a Maxflash 1mbit .CAR image containing both versions. PopeyeArcadeV5.zip

If you end up doing something in GTIA 10 and think it might be useful, I have a sprite sheet importer which made it quick to pull in the animations for SGB. Yes, you would think the A8 could do something like that. Or perhaps one of those 2600 style SMB mock ups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOsu9i0_0H4 - to me the blockiness looks quite stylish.

That sounds similar to the palette used on Strictly Gone Bananas, but with yellows instead of greens (the banana had to look ripe!). This won't be of direct use since it's GTIA++ pixels, but I think we ended up with a good mix of different sprite designs all using a single palette. The .ani files in the animations2 folder can be loaded with the editor here: http://www.playsoft.co.uk/animate/editor.html Note that the "TSP0" green is transparent. I don't think there's any significance to the order of the palette, that's just how it ended up. SGB.zip

I'm not sure the Ultimate SD is all that good at detecting 2-chip images. If you turn it into a 32K image (load up the 16K image in Altirra and do a .writemem <filename> $4000 l$8000 in the debugger) it runs fine from a Ultimate SD. The font looks very nice by the way. Centipepe (5200 Namco Font) 32K.bin

The way to get a good score is to keep picking them off where they are bunched and not worry too much when you are being bombarded.

ballyalley - thank you for your kind words! To answer some of your questions... I submitted the game to Page 6 and never knew it was published in ANALOG until a few years ago when I became interested in Atari again and was searching to see if any of my old source code was out there. I'm certain I never knew because I always brought and have kept every magazine I had something published in. I don't have ANALOG #69 and don't recognise it at all. Also I would not have been very happy with it being given to ANALOG since they never paid the prize money for winning the ST programming competition. Page 6 did have a similar program exchange in place with ANTIC at one time. My "Doing the Impossible" from Page 6 #21 May/June 1986 was reprinted as "Graphics Impossible" in ANTIC Vol. 4 #6 October 1987. I don't remember being paid for the reprint, but I did know about it as I have the magazine! Looking at both texts there are some phrases which I recognise as mine but there is other stuff which is definitely not from me. I think it was AMAC that I used, but last year I ported it to the 5200: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/225413-page-6-type-in-star-rider/?p=2990534 In doing so I converted the source to ca65 and added symbols for the h/w locations so that it was easy to change them for the 5200. The source for the 5200 version you can get from the link above, the source for the (ca65) A8 version is attached. source.zip

I don't know who ported Archon but if you break where it reads TRIG1 it just throws it away: AEDC: AD 10 C0 LDA TRIG0 <--- reads trigger port 1 AEDF: 8D 84 02 STA $0284 <--- stores it in STRIG0 AEE2: 8D 7C 02 STA $027C <--- stores it in PTRIG0 AEE5: AD 11 C0 LDA TRIG1 <--- reads trigger port 2 AEE8: A5 0A LDA PCOLR2 <--- reads something else AEEA: F0 15 BEQ $AF01 I did a quick hack, replacing the LDA TRIG1 with a JSR to a routine to read it and store it in STRIG1/PTRIG1 and it seems to be ok. archon_hack.bin

Thanks! Looks like I need to average the calibration and do it more often, but my divide by 4 was ok.

For what it's worth here's a port of Slime which will play with a joystick in port 1 and optionally the trak-ball in port 2. Controls are: start = start pause = pause reset = reset * = select option # = change value 1 = port 1 joystick control 2 = port 2 trak-ball control 9 = adjust trak-ball sensitivity Note that you can only select the trak-ball if one was present in port 2 when the game started. Also when you do switch between joystick and trak-ball, the keypad switches instantly, e.g. you press 2 on the joystick keypad to select the trak-ball, you then press start on the trak-ball keypad to begin. In this game the cursor is restricted to character sized movements, 4 pixels horizontally and 8 pixels vertically, so trak-ball control is not as fluid as it would be otherwise. I couldn't quite make my mind up about the sensitivity and there are two settings you can switch between by pressing 9. You probably won't notice much difference, I am not sure I do now. Two interesting things from the port. The OS B restriction comes from using an interrupt service routine in the OS B ROM which comprises a single rti instruction. There was also a bug in one of the count down timer routines, which returned with a rti instead of a pla/rts. While the stack is ok the rti doesn't quite return to the same place a rts would, amazing it gets away with this on the A8. That's me all trak-balled out for now but I would like to see Dan Kramer's notes if you can post them. slime.bin source.zip

Here is the previous Ultimate SD version of Bug Hunt modified for Trak-Ball control in port 2. You still need the joystick in port 1 to load it from the menu, but once running all control is via the Trak-Ball. In calibration mode I get values of $72 and $75 for the two pots. When I release calibration mode and leave the ball stationary, I get readings of $6F..$70 and $72..$73 respectively. In the code here I take a pot reading, subtract the calibration value and divide by 4 to get the delta. This seems to work OK, it appears responsive and accurate enough when moving, stable when not. When I have some time I will study what the other 5200 trak-ball games do. bughuntball.zip source.zip

It arrived today. I had high expectations and it doesn't disappoint at all. The trak-ball itself is really nice and the keypads feel solid and positive and work! Also the eBay Global Shipping programme worked well for me. That the import duty is taken care of means I didn't have to pay any "handling fees" and I thought it was quick and cheap, certainly compared to what it cost me recently to send a package abroad via the Post Office/Parcel Force.

Ideally I'd like two please. Paul

Here's Savage Pond, it is a 1-chip image. spond.bin source.zip

If this is of any use, I've put together a couple of PC Command Prompt programs: aa2s will convert from AtariArtist to Pilot II SLOAD/SAVE and s2aa does the reverse. convert.zip

I have no balls TRAK-BALLs that is I have taken the plunge and ordered a CX-53 off ebay. When I brought the 5200 a couple of years ago, its journey over the Atlantic took 8 weeks and it arrived with two broken screws rattling around inside and required a little repair work. The shipping on the CX-53 is a couple of weeks and it looks a sturdy bit of kit, so hopefully I can play around with it next month.

Yes, the first 4 bytes seem to be a header, of which the second byte is the Pilot MODE. I'm not sure what the other 3 bytes are. After the header it looks like a straight screen memory dump. I did a SSAVE in MODE 8 and copied an ANTIC F image into it, simply overwriting the 7680 bytes after the header - and that SLOADs back OK. FACE.zip

The main issue with the light gun is that the input is not hooked up on the 5200: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/84254-crossbow-for-the-5200/?p=1025787 Bryan suggested reading the gun manually: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/84254-crossbow-for-the-5200/?p=1028207 And that works, although you only get a resolution of about 20 positions horizontally as the 6502 is slow at counting compared to the speed of the electron beam. I modified Bug Hunt and disguised the horizontal coarseness a little by adding a small random offset. The result is OK, I didn't feel too frustrated by the inaccuracy but my ratings are consistently down compared to playing on the XEGS. Really the game needs modifying to be a bit more forgiving or, as you suggest, use a Trak-Ball instead.

Ignoring Trak-Ball support, Slime looks like it should be an easy port as it's a 16K cart and runs on a 16K machine. I would opt for a 32K image and use the extra 16K to provide the A8 functionality it requires. From what I've been able to find out, programming the CX-53 is completely different to the CX-22. The A8 Trak-Ball connects to the joystick directional pins and for each axis you get two bits; one indicates the direction, the other toggles as the Trak-Ball moves and you have to monitor very closely so you don't miss anything. The 5200 Trak-Ball connects to the pots and it appears the value indicates both the direction and how fast it is moving. I may be wrong (I have neither) but that sounds like the 5200 Trak-Ball will have a lower cpu overhead. I'm not going to attempt any Trak-Ball programming until I have one. If Best had them I'd order one today, but I'm reluctant to take a punt on eBay until I see one described as working.

It is only around 4K of code in total, the rest is all graphics data. It ported ok, turning it into an analogue joystick version. This for real hardware/Atarimax Ultimate SD only, it will not run under emulation (unzip bughuntjoy.zip to bughuntjoy.hyb and copy that to the SD card). bughuntjoy.zip source.zip

But it needs 48K and reads data into RAM from disk... so you'd probably still need an Atarimax Ultimate SD if it was possible to port it.

I've not tried it on a real machine but the Bug Hunt cart seems to run on Altirra with just 16K RAM configured, which is promising for 5200 conversion. It's a 64K XEGS cart which means it contains 8 x 8K banks. Banks 0..6 are switchable in $8000..$9FFF and bank 7 permanently resides in $A000..$BFFF. The Atarimax Ultimate SD cart does not support this banking scheme exactly, but it does allow for switchable 16K banks in $4000..$7FFF and a permanent one in $8000..$BFFF. A quick look at the cart image and it appears that all the code is in bank 7 with the other banks containing data (although I've only checked a couple of them). The code looks really neat and tidy. So I think there is a good chance of being able to convert Bug Hunt but it will require an Atarimax Ultimate SD cart, a cable to connect the light gun up to the 5200 and a CRT display for the light gun to work properly. Edit: unfortunately the light pen input is not connected: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/84254-crossbow-for-the-5200/?p=1025787

Received mine today, what a wonderful surprise thank you.

The original does that with Start but not Select or Option, so my reading the keypad caused the last two (which become Pause and * on the 5200). I agree it doesn't affect game play but here is an updated version which now processes the keys on their release. Edit: updated attached file for reset key too. sc.bin

My PAL 130XE seems fine but I see the same issue on my NTSC 1200XL. After a long power off, if I select Spelunker then I get a black screen. Then, if I quickly switch the power off and on it loads ok!

This seems to be working on my 4-port/Ultimate SD - it's a 1-chip image and uses * for difficulty. sc.bin source.zip