simonh
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Posts posted by simonh
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7 hours ago, therealbountybob said:
Pick any game from 2020 or 2021 and post scores along with some comments (the authors may be reading them!) checkout fandal's atari news section for dowloads (click on news archive at the bottom of the page for more) or atarionline.pl for the games. If it's a good HSC game say so and it will be a main game in the tourney, others will score bonus points.
7 hours ago, therealbountybob said:Return of the Fungi
from Simon Hunt programmer of ESC superb Diamonds and Dan Strikes Back!
For ROTF, folks may also want to post which "Wave" they made it to. Remember, if you beat all 20 waves, you'll score bonus points for lives remaining. I'm looking forward to seeing the high scores and screen shots roll in
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~S
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Games from 2020/2021 - selection of new games
see fandal's site for details, also will be a 3 week round.
Betty's Issues looks interesting! https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=8090
ooh a new one from Simon Hunt of ESC's Diamonds and Dan Strikes Back! fame
If you go for Return of the Fungi, make sure to download the updated release from RetroUnite -- zip file: "DD3-Bundle-210922.zip", binary: "ReturnOfTheFungi_ii.xex". This updated version fixes the "load" issues that some folks were experiencing, and also fixes a PAL/Graphics bug.
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I've just spent a little time messing with toggling between PAL and NTSC modes for the Atari emulator in Altirra, and realized what I wanted was a reference chart for "matching" colors between the two palettes. For my next assembler project, I want to write some nifty code that checks the Atari mode (PAL or NTSC), and switches color palette appropriately. The idea being that the colors used are "close enough" the same in either mode.
After carefully capturing all possible colors for both modes (with a little test program), I extracted their RGB values (using a paint program), and wrote a Python program to automatically compute the minimum distances between pairs of colors (think minimum distance between two 3D points in a "color cube" with R, G, B axes -- yay, Pythagorus). The result is a standalone HTML page that gives the closest matches between the NTSC and PAL palettes which can be used to select pairs of Chroma-Luma codes.
Perhaps someone else might find this useful in the future...
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Hi folks!
Thanks for all the detailed detective work that went into root-causing the loading issues that some folks experienced. After reviewing the analyses, I decided to officially modify and re-release the code. I have relocated the custom character set, display lists and interrupt routines to upper memory; the lowest address any segment is now loaded into is 0x2600 -- hopefully this will fix the compatibility woes that were previously experienced.
As @pjedavison mentioned, the new bundle (DD3-Bundle-210922.zip) is available at RetroUnite. The corrected ROTF binary is named ReturnOfTheFungi_ii.xex.
I learned a thing or two this week!
Cheers,
~Simon
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35 minutes ago, Philsan said:
XEX runs on my PAL 800XL from AVGCart (but not from FujiNet and Side3 - but for the latter I do not have the latest firmware).
I have to say, what a total thrill it is to see ROTF running on real hardware!! Thanks for posting the pics!
~Simon-
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10 minutes ago, Philsan said:
Cool news!
I've read
Your emulator (e.g. Altirra, Atari800WinPLus, ...) should be configured as 'Atari 800 OS-B NTSC / 48K'
On Altirra it seems to work with standard configurations too (XL/XE).
I think the same on real hardware, otherwise most people could not run it.
Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. I guess the note should have been something more along the lines of...
"This game has been tested on Altirra configured as 'Atari 800 OS-B NTSC / 48K', but will probably run on similar configurations / emulators / original hardware."
The code doesn't try anything "tricky" -- just your usual Display List Interrupts and Vertical Blank Interrupts. Selecting PAL gives you a slightly different color palette, but plays just as well.
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On 6/19/2008 at 6:30 PM, simonh said:On 6/19/2008 at 4:21 PM, carmel_andrews said:
... hows about an updated version of diamonds/dan strkes back (like a sequel etc)
25 years ago, I was a teenager, single, with time to spare on my hands. These days I'm a working parent with an active social life. Don't hold your breath for a sequel
It took a few years to get here, but, the last installment of the trilogy has finally been created!
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On 5/7/2011 at 9:52 AM, Stephen said:On 5/6/2011 at 1:58 PM, simonh said:On 8/22/2008 at 1:09 PM, ZylonBane said:On 8/22/2008 at 12:54 PM, simonh said:
I don't believe Dan Strikes Back (English Software) was one of them! Does Lance have documentary proof to the contrary?
Did you at any point notice that the conversation you're responding to is nearly three YEARS old?
What can I say? I'm a slow reader!
I see what you did there
Talking of "being slow"... I finally got around to finishing the Digger Dan Trilogy -- it just took me 38 years!
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I am pleased to announce that, after laying dormant in a scrap book for more than three decades, the original idea for my third game in the Digger Dan Trilogy -- Return of the Fungi -- has been dusted off, developed, and has now been released as an Atari 800 48K binary (.xex). You can download the game as part of a Bundle that includes all three games (Diamonds, and Dan Strikes Back being the other two), in addition to full documentation for all three games that you can load into your web browser.
The bundle is being hosted by RetroUnite here: After 35 years, Return of the Fungi finally completes the Digger Dan trilogy
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I don't believe Dan Strikes Back (English Software) was one of them! Does Lance have documentary proof to the contrary?
Did you at any point notice that the conversation you're responding to is nearly three YEARS old?
What can I say? I'm a slow reader!
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Video 61 made lots of "unofficial" carts.
Lance has received permission, though, to legally sell cartridge versions of some games originally released in Europe only on tape/disk. I believe that this is the situation with the upcoming "Barbarian", but will have to ask him again to clarify.
I don't believe Dan Strikes Back (English Software) was one of them! Does Lance have documentary proof to the contrary?
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"Digger Dan strikes back" I have played a lot lot of times... and I would be pleased to have a look into the source code. will you make the sources public?
I will probably release the source code eventually, but I haven't yet decided what form it will take. I'm seriously thinking about documenting the design, complete with illustrations from my original hand written notes, rather than release just the assembler code.
btw. who did the music?The music playing while the title screen is showing was composed by J.S.Bach
It was a little piece I learnt to play on the piano when I was a kid. The music during gameplay was my own composition, written especially for "Dan Strikes Back". -
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My sincere thanks go to Steven Tucker and Cabell Clarke for their part in re-uniting me with the Source Code to both "Diamonds" and "Dan Strikes Back", as well as a number of other unfinished projects. They took the original 5.25" floppies (I kept them for 25 years) and created ATR images from the disks. Fortunately, I had the foresight to make multiple copies of the disks, back in '83/'84, and so we've recovered all the original files (despite some flawed images)
Thanks guys.
The image below shows screenshots I took after loading the souce code and re-assembling those unfinished projects. It's neat to see them again after all these years!
( A ) The directory listing and beginning of src code for "Diamonds"
( B ) The sequel to "Diamonds" and "Dan Strikes Back" (unfinished)
( C ) A Qix-like game (unfinished)
( D ) A "Light-Cycles" game (unfinished)
( E ) A "Writing Software" game (unfinished)
Now, perhaps I'll have to see if I can make workable games out of some of these ideas.
(but don't hold your breath!)
Cheers,
~Simon
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...I still have the 5.25" single-density disks with my assembler source code for the games I wrote. I would love to hear from anyone who is able and willing to create .ATR images from these disks...
I'm in US and can do it.
My grateful thanks to bf2k+ (the first of two very helpful forum members) who earlier today emailed me a zip archive containing ATR images of the disks I sent him.
This afternoon I was able to load, read, assemble and run "Dan Strikes Back" from the source code, on the Atari800Win emulator! What a rush!!
The other disk images contained half finished projects that never saw the light of day
bf2k+ ... once again, a public "Thanks!"
~Simon
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Getting back to Simonh....Are you planning on getting A8 hardwaree anytime soon (like an xl or xe)...Are you programming via the a800win emu...if so...hows about an updated version of diamonds/dan strkes back (like a sequel etc)
25 years ago, I was a teenager, single, with time to spare on my hands. These days I'm a working parent with an active social life. Don't hold your breath for a sequel
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yes I used Atari Assembler editor too, it was so slow and limited. i guess mainly why my coding was held back. I really should have saved and bought Mac65. Was the Synapse assembler commercial or just for in house use? i dont recall seeing itI started off with Atari's Assembler/Editor cartridge...I think it was commercial. See http://www.powow.com/oldatarian/syndx.htm
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Simon...must have been a bit of a trek for you ...
Actually, I was living with my parents in Bedfordshire at the time. Still quite a trek though. Yeah, I remember things being really pricey - can't remember all the individual values now, but I remember spending over a Grand!
I started off with Atari's Assembler/Editor cartridge. But after I established contact with English Software, they gave me a copy of Synapse's Synassembler, which I found much more usable. That's what I finally used to write D & DSB.
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Silica shop was like the 'mecca' for A8 users in London (and the home counties, if you ever went to their sidcup branch)
Silica Shop (Sidcup) was where I bought my Atari 800 and 810 Disk Drive, all those years ago.
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Also Simon...Are you familiar with the game " Diane's Game " which is exactly like Dan Strikes Back except the name...Did you do this game too (also released by english software)
Or was it a re-release/hack by english software
Or did you call Dan Strkes back ....Diane's Game, originally (what's the history...and most importantly WHO was diane...A girfriend, the wife/fianc'e)
I can tell you that "Diane's Game" was an unofficial hack of Dan Strikes Back, and was done without my knowledge. I do not know the origin of it. It certainly wasn't released by English Software.
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Wow! Thanks for the fast responses!
I'm in the Sacramento area (California).
BTW, the two games I had published were "Diamonds" and "Dan Strikes Back".
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Hi There,
Back in the '80s I wrote a couple of games for the Atari-400/800. I am sad to say that I no longer have the hardware. But recently I discovered atari800win and started playing some of the old classics - including my games.
I still have the 5.25" single-density disks with my assembler source code for the games I wrote. I would love to hear from anyone who is able and willing to create .ATR images from these disks.
Cheers,
~Simon
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Atari 8-Bit/5200 Homebrew Games Completed/WIP in 2021
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