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Devin

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Posts posted by Devin

  1. Posted · Edited by Devin

    Actually, what might make this game quite different from Po-- ... er... Tennis for Two would be an extra twist.

     

    Why not allow the players to fire a missile at each other during play? The missile would be rather slow-moving and would score a point if they hit the opponent. This way, you have to *hit* the ball and *dodge* the opponent's missile. Clever players would shoot the missile to strike near where their opponent needs to hit the ball.

     

    Just a thought... perhaps a bad one. :)

    post-17256-1203982943_thumb.png

  2. Posted

    And here's the new version!

     

    Paddles support added! All credits to SpiceWare ;)

    And no graphic lost! :cool:

     

    Also, recoded score code, and now this game get a downgrade to 2k :P

     

    Is hard to test this version, I'll try to do some AI, soon.

     

    - Added Paddles support (both players), Tnx to SpiceWare.

    - Some codes changes

    - now it's 2k

     

    Have fun!

     

    It looks good. You have to be a tad careful though. Atari is extremely aggressive to protect the trademark on Pong. There was an excellent game called "Plasma Pong" which was shutdown due to its use of "Pong".

     

    Perhaps it might be wise to rename it - "Ping"?

  4. Posted

    The game doesn't appear on the Atari Age game directory. Other great homebrews are listed. :?

     

    I'm pretty sure the 2007 X-Mas releases will get entries in the DB soon. Al was pretty busy building and shipping things until now :)

     

    Okay. It sounds like business is good!

  6. Posted

    You definitely need to have a level based on the Atari Age logo!

     

    Well, there's a very, very, very, very small chance that less than a dozen of the original levels can be converted properly to the VCS, in which case it would make sense to fill some gaps with custom levels.

     

    You can take the risk and try and design such a level if you really want to straight away, using either the Jumpman - Under Construction tool or the Jumpman Lives! editor. The later can only do basic levels with bullets as obstacles, but is overall easier to use.

     

    Much more challenging would be creating new levels with Jumpman Zero, which requires real programming, but offers fancy 3D effects ;)

     

    Hmmm, I think I distinctly heard a gauntlet being thrown down. :)

     

    I can help with some levels, but I'm quite busy with my goofy-little-homebrew. I'll take a look at those links. It might quite fun to create some levels based on landmarks - perhaps Johannisburg Castle.

  13. Posted

    AtariVox code is pretty compact. I don't remember offhand...oh, I'll just look it up.

     

    ...

     

    Ok, looks like it's about 64 bytes of code to make it speak plus whatever speech data you use plus some miscellaneous setup code - to point the speech pointer at the correct speech data at the right time, etc.

     

    As far as the data, maybe...well, it depends. Maybe figure 4-6 bytes for each phoneme. Took 30 bytes to get "go fish" (g-oh-f-i-sh):

     

    That is incredibly compact. I will definitely look into it. Did you write Go Fish? That is one of my favorite homebrews. Is there any emulator that supports the Vox?

  14. Posted

    101011110101010110101010101110101010101010101010001010100101111010101.

    I'm so tempted to disassemble that... Must.. use... time.. productively...

     

    Well, here it is in ASCII:

     

    1010111  W
1010101  7
0110101  5
0101011  +
1010101  U
0101010  *
1010100  T
0101010  *
0101111  /
0101010  *   (extra 0 added)

     

    So there you go. It says "W75+U*T*/*". It must be that "l33t Speak" I've heard of. :)

  16. Posted · Edited by Devin

    Nice work, and clever use of the ball sprite to color the opponent! There should probably be a limit to the time you can throw a punch as you can simply hold down the buttons at the moment. I also think that AtariVox support would be nice. Bankswitching isn't too hard to implement - there is a Bankswitch HOWTO document, but is is probably easier just to look at the source code for a game that uses bankswitching, e.g. Spiceware's Medieval Mayhem (32K).

     

    I'll definitely look into it. I am still optimistic I can fit everything in 4k. My optimism is most likely unfounded. Thanks for the link.

  18. Posted

    Excellent work! I wouldn't have guessed the 2600 could do a good version of Punch-Out, but you've really pulled it off. Looking forward to more!

     

    As an aside - this would be a great candidate for AtariVox support. Announcing the boxers' names, maybe some crowd cheering/booing.

     

    Perhaps. That would really make the game shine. What is involved in getting AtariVox to work with the game? I would imagine that would push me into the 8k or even 16k realm.

  19. Posted · Edited by Devin

    Nice game! :thumbsup:

    The enemy boxer looks funny, looking forward to see more of this!!

     

    Btw., there was a Punch-Out style game on the C64 before Myke Tyson's Punchout was released, Frank Bruno's Boxing.

     

    Damn, I didn't know about that. If I had that when I was kid, I probably would have lost countless hours! :)

     

    Most of the boxers I will add will be a tad silly. This boxer is the first opponent and is basically nothing more than a punching bag. I think he will make Glass Joe and Gabby Jay look like pros.

  20. Posted · Edited by Devin

    This project is finished! You can get a copy Here

     

    original first post

     

    Hello everyone,

     

    I am announcing that I am in the process of writing my first homebrew Atari 2600 game - K.O. Cruiser.

     

    This game has a bit of a history. Back in 1986, I started programming my first graphical game on the Commodore 64. I was inspired by the arcade version of the Punch-Out. While I was impressed by the graphics of that classic game, I didn't like the simple stick-and-move logic. The version I was working on would allow the players to move around the ring. At first I played around with the idea of a side-view of the boxers, but it didn't allow much flexibility on designing the faces. So, like Punch-Out, I went for a first-person view.

     

    I went as far as to design a total of 15 characters. I also was able to get an early version of the game working. By this time, it was the start of 1987 - and events would discourage me from finishing the project. Later in 1987, Nintendo released "Mike Tyson's Punchout". I realized, sadly, that I couldn't make my Commodore BASIC version look better (and I didn't know how I could). As a result, I abandoned the project and concentrated on knocking out Tyson (which I never did).

     

    Anyway, I was introduced to the idea of writing an Atari 2600 homebrew by Zach. So, why not finish the game I started 20+ years ago? Even though I have a third of the horizontal resolution than I did on Commodore 64 BASIC, I have far more control over the vertical resolution and colors. Not a bad tradeoff. In fact, my Atari 2600 version might have better graphics.

     

    I'm attached a screenshot of the original Commodore 64 version. I've also attached a copy of the Atari 2600 version (still in progress obviously).

     

    Please remember that my Commodore 64 version came before Mike Tyson's Punchout.

     

    Notes:

    • To punch, hold down the button and push either left or right. The button + up/down will block.
       
    • The computer runs off a simple macro-language that I wrote for the game. It controls animation, basic timing, and conditional branching. This will allow each of the boxers to have different styles and behavior. For this early version, the computer simply walks up to the human. There is a 10% chance he will throw a punch for each cycle (flip torso, legs, bob). If he throws a punch, there is an equal chance of a left or right.
       
    • The computer currently doesn't block. I will add this functionality later.
       
    • The ring will not be green in the final version. I was testing the colors read from the background buffer and choose a rather visually-offensive pattern. This will change in the final version - as will the appearance of the ropes.
       
    • The computer moves back slowly when hit. The system will update the speed later.
       
    • I'm updating the color of the computer every two scanlines. I just haven't gotten around to creating some nice shading.

    To Do:

    • Sound.
    • Knockdown logic. Right now both the computer and human are in "god mode with infinite ammo".
    • Health bars. I will probably use a combination of the playfield and missiles.

    Future:

    • I don't plan to write a fancy intro screen. It will probably just be a player0+player1 bitmap.
       
    • I hope to fit 4 or 5 boxers on the final version. However, I might be forced to bank-switch. If so, I should be able to fit far more boxers. I'm not sure how hard it is to implement.
       
    • Since I have a basic "boxing platform", I can add characters by just updating graphics and the macro for each. As a result, I will create several sequels. One will be the "Homebrew Circuit" where everyone here can create their own boxers!

    post-17256-1203375769_thumb.png

    KO_Cruiser___b1.bin

    post-17256-1203375926_thumb.png

    post-17256-1203378725_thumb.png

  24. Posted

    This version does not require to be seeded.

     

    Hm... but only the lowest bit is actually random, or?

     

    It's not a particularly attractive piece of code - I will admit, but it seems to do well enough for a game. I might eventually sit down and create a full linear congruential generator {(aX + C) mod M}. Thankfully, our good friend of the 6502 can do 16bit, 32bit, etc... addition. But that might be overkill.

     

    Anyway, it seems to work well enough given that it is only 8 bits. The INTIM helps break natural cycles and given that the computational time might vary depending on the game logic - it does throw a bit of chaos into what should be the definition of chaos! :)

     

    Actually, in hindsight, it might be better to ASL rather than LSR. If the EOR constant doesn't contain a high bit, only the INTIM could set it (which is unlikely given it usually going to just contain 43...0).

     

    If there is a better approach, I would love to steal.... um... USE it. :)

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