32 character text display

[32 character text display]

I couldn't resist having a crack at this after some experiments. This is untested on real hardware but I'm hopeful it will work...It's a bit rough and ready at the moment, I'll clean it up and post the code in the next few days....

 

Screenshot is with phosphor effect enabled in stella:

 

 

I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem to work right on my 6 switch Sears Video Arcade and Harmony cart.

[What are the must-have hacks?]

Don't know where the link is right now, but the Midnight Magic hack that lets you use paddle controllers is definitely a must have hack in my opinion. It's in this forum somewhere.

Is either of the two hacks in this thread the right one?

Hack Midnight Magic to use paddle controllers?

 

The Combat AI hack is a must have if you have no friends/kids around to play combat with.

Are you talking about one of these....

Tank AI

 

Tank AI demos

 

I don't know if there is a newer version or not. Zach Matley referred to these as demos.

[Video Sport by TCR]

I came across this in a lot of Atari items at a garage sale.

 

Here is the other side of the box.

 

The back of the unit has two model numbers.... TCR206 & 7705. It's manufactured by Digitron. I thought it was interesting that it says, "Made exclusively for Internet".

 

The two 9V batteries that were in it had been there so long that it ruined the battery terminals. I don't know why, but the negative wires both came lose.

 

Here is the side with the connector for the light gun and the jack for the "optional AC adapter".

 

Here it is with the light gun plugged in.

 

 

 

 

If anyone has any info about this, I'd be interested to hear about it. I didn't get any instructions and would like to know what voltage and polarity the power supply needs to be, so I can test this out.

 

I hope I haven't broke any rules for this forum. I mainly just read about Atari stuff.

[What kinds of games and concepts would you like to see for the 2600?]

And here's a homebrew whack-a-mole game (couldn't find the thread... ).

 

whack_a_mole.bas_011.bin

Here's the thread.

 

Whack-A-Mole - A cheesy little 2k game

[thinking of starting a online auction site for games]

If you try this, I hope it goes well for you. The last time I read about someone wanting to start their own auction site was here. The only activity I can find on that site today is two wanted ads looking for new members for the same site.

 

Since your site already has some traffic, that would give you an advantage though.

[What kinds of games and concepts would you like to see for the 2600?]

For starters, I think a wack-a-mole game would work.

Have you seen Holey Moley? It uses the Kid's Controller, but a joystick conversion can be found here.

[Someone please make a hack of Circus Atari for little kids]

Nukey Shay's Exidy's Circus hack would be a great starting point for what you're requesting.

Nice idea, but it would take a better hacker than I currently am.

 

I tried that last night, but it would require more than just changing the graphics with Bit Hacker. Here were my results:

When I extended the legs below where that image usually went, it added a head beneath.

 

I think Nukey Shay probably changed something to optimize the code (maybe sharing code between images for less ROM) which makes it harder to just hack the ROM directly. Someone with a skill on hacking the source ASM could probably do it though.

[What are the must-have hacks?]

If you want hacks for kids, check out Changing controller mapping Kid'c Controller (Use joystick).

[Changing controller mapping Kid'c Controller (Use joystick)]

Omegamatrix, thanks for these joystick hacks.

 

I noticed a bug in the Alpha Beam With Ernie hack. If you try to move while beaming a letter to the shuttle, the game gets mixed up.

 

 

I added the code that checks for this from the original back into the hack.

 

 

There is still a bug that appears to be part of the original, but you almost have to try and do this one one purpose. On game 6 (and probably 7 & 8 ), if both players try to beam the same letter to different places on the rocket at the same time, the will succeed. Since it was in the original, I decided it wasn't worth the time it would take me to try fixing.

 

 

 

EDIT: Screenshots and ROM removed because of Atari sending cease and desist letters to Andrew Davie (atari2600.org) and pps (ppsberlin.de). Although a sample apology letter from Atari can be found here, I don't want to take a chance of them coming after me.

[Ature - action adventure cart for the Atari 2600]

Is the ROM available here on AA? I'd like to run through it on my emu and get some screenshots.

I found this. I don't know if it's the final version or not.

[Someone please make a hack of Circus Atari for little kids]

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but about as good as I can do. Instead of the death scene, when you miss the clown, he waves at you as if to say, "You missed me. I'm over here."

 

I also made it so you have unlimited lives.

 

If anyone likes what I did, but can make a better wave, that's fine. I know mine isn't great.

Circus_Atari(Controller_toggle)(waving instead of crashing to death)(unlimited lives).zip

[What are the must-have hacks?]

I second Thomas' Missile Command TB. It's the only way to play the game.

I tried it and my mouse pointer has a hard time lining up with the cursor, so it leaves the game window and I end up clicking outside of the game. I guess you have to play it full screen. Is there a way to temporarily lock the mouse within the Stella window without going full screen?

 

CTRL-G

[Bigger Bitmaps with DPC+]

Funny that the first build worked for dwane413's Harmony but not mine. Something similar happened when I was testing 21 Blue. There may be a particular issue with my SD card or my Harmony. I'll try a different card and if that doesn't help I'll PM batari.

 

(Yes, I had added dpc+.arm)

I just checked and the first build won't work on my Harmony either when using the dpc+.arm that is timestamped May 2nd, 2010. After the first picture fades out, the screen stays black. The dpc+.arm files with timestamps May 10, 2011 and May 11, 2011 both work.

 

So it was probably just that we were using different versions of dpc+.arm.

[I just bought one and have a few thoughts.]

Very nice. I didn't re-read through all the manual tonight, but it looks good.

 

The manual mentions DriveSort, but I don't think there is a link to it. I thought a link might be helpful.

 

One thing that the Harmony cart can do that isn't mentioned is using it to dump ROMs, but since that is an advanced feature that requires extra homemade cables, it might be beyond the scope of your page. I haven't tried making a cable to do that yet, but it sounds like something I'd like to be able to do.

[Bigger Bitmaps with DPC+]

Dwane - I only really meant it as a little tech demo, I could probably make a windows based tool available quite easily if you could run that?

 

Yes, I use Windows, but don't go to too much trouble just for me.

[Bigger Bitmaps with DPC+]

After I added the DPC+.arm part to the beginning of the file, it works fine on my Harmony cart.

 

Great program. I hope some day instructions will be made available on how to add our on pics to this, but either way it is still very cool.

[What are the must-have hacks?]

Pac-Man 8k

Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Misssion (hack of Venture, but so hacked it feels like a new game)

 

More links for Random Terrain:

 

Pac-Man 8k

 

Wolfenstein - The Next Mission

[What are the must-have hacks?]

MissAdventure Revised

Space Invaders Deluxe

River Raid Random

Omega Race-Joystick controller

 

Here are some links. Hope I got them right:

 

Missadventure Revised

 

Space Invaders Deluxe

Space Invaders Deluxe 8k

 

River Raid 4 Rivers Random

 

Omega Race-Joystick controller - I couldn't find the thread, but it is in Atari 2600 Hacks and Homebrews ROM Collection V1.2

Omega Race DC

[What are the must-have hacks?]

Here are three in my opinion:

 

Pac-Man Arcade Enhanced

 

Hack'em!

 

For some reason I like Packrat. Here's the AtariAge page and the cartridge page too. It's just a graphics hack, but I like the way it looks. It's probably not a must-have hack for everyone, but for me it is.

[I just bought one and have a few thoughts.]

I'll be making a test page pretty soon.

Here's the first draft:

 

www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-harmony-cartridge.html

 

Does anything need to be added or changed?

Random Terrain, that looks nice. The only thing I noticed was that there is no link to the Harmony cart home page which has the PDF file.

 

At the very least, the Harmony cart web page could be updated to include a little info about what the cart actually is, rather than having to click through all the links.

The Harmony Cartridge online manual has that info in PDF format. I had been wanting a Cuttle Cart for a few years.... So it didn't take a fancy page to convince me I wanted one, but I guess for a newbie or for someone just casually interested (who would be less motivated to download a manual), it would be nice to have more info on the page.

[Help identifying an Atari 2600 table top arcade.]

Sounds very cool! Sure would like to see what this thing really looks like!

 

Me too. I hope she at least gets me pictures.

 

Any news on this? You've got us curious.

[Pole Position End Label Misspelled]

I have 2 copies of Pole Position in my collection. One of them has this misspelled end label:

 

 

Has anyone else ever noticed this before? I think it's pretty funny. I wonder how many thousands of these got run off before they noticed? Somebody definitely was asleep on the line that day!

 

If it's the same as this one, it's an R4.

 

You can find threads where it has been talked about with this Google search.

[Help me learn to love the Atari 2600!]

Don't forget homebrews. When I taught programming in high school the kids' favorite games were Medieval Mayhem and Man Goes Down.

 

Zach, I don't remember hearing of Man Goes Down before. I tried it and enjoy it very much. It's kind of addictive. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

I wonder if Alex Herbert had worked for Imagic if he would have called one of their games "Kangaroo Goes Up".

 

Quick Step!

 

 

I hope Alex is doing better and will some day complete Man Goes Down.

[starpath compatibility question]

Gotta picture of the glitch?

 

These pics were made with a copy I hacked for this test. I got rid of the 9 extra lives (so the game would end quicker) by changing 1 byte. Here is a result of a DOS fc (file compare) between the original and my hack:

00001106: 09 00

 

(NOTE: The RGB colors on my TV aren't aligned correctly. I don't know if you can tell it in these pics, but wanted to mention it in case that might cause confusion.)

 

Here's a closer pic of the text.

 

Here's what it looks like in Stella 2.4.2.

[My Craigslist purchase]

A garage sale on Craigslist listed an "Atari system with many games". Unfortunately the games had already sold, but I got a Sears Video Arcade for $1.00. No controllers or anything, but still a great deal.

 

Some of the switches didn't work very well, but were better after using some TV tuner cleaner.

 

The right controller port didn't seem to be aligned right, but still worked.

 

Model No. 637.99743

 

 

After testing it with some cheap cartridges, I had to try it with my Harmony cart.

 

Here it is working. The color problem is the TV; not the Atari.

(I love the music on this game.)