Lord-Chaos

What we need is an artist who can draw pictures on the ATARI 8 Bit in this MCS mode. Converting existing pictures is very difficult if they where made for the C64 for example. A picture made on the ATARI in the MCS mode could take advantage of the ATARI´s hardware. Colors can be placed to create additional colors , dithering could be used , the additional background+player overlay colors could be used - with overlay colors 5 background + 4 player +8 overlay colors = 17 colors per line are possible. We need a special graphics program for this , running on the ATARI,so that an artist can choose the right color-combinations and sees how it looks on the real thing. Programs on the PC have the problem,that PCs are VGA-based and pictures look different than on the real ATARI. The artist should be able to change background and player colors each line or each senond line and p/m positions/player width each xxx lines. Since so many changes are not possible in one scanline , the program should allow a fixed number of changes/line and the artist may choose what to change. Thimo

Hi, I offer the following ATARI XL/XE cartridge games by ATARI. All the games are boxed and new , still factory-sealed in original shrinkwrap. The games are US/English versions , they work on NTSC and PAL systems - there are no PAL-NTSC differences as known on the ATARI 2600. I can ship worldwide : $7 for one game as surface mail "letter" (slow) $9 for one game as air mail "letter" (fast) $14 for a package of up to 15 games as surface mail (slow , 3-8 weeks) $32 for a package of up to 40-45 games as surface mail (slow , 3-6 weeks) $23 for a package of up to 8 games as Air Mail (fast , a few days) $33 for a package of up to 15 games as Air Mail (fast , a few days) $48 for a package of up to 40-45 games as Air Mail (fast , a few days) Europe : 8.20 Euro for a package of up to 15 games 16.50 Euro for a package of up to 40-45 games Please note : Paddles/Joysticks/Keyboard Controllers weigh about 3 times as much as 1 game. I can accept PAYPAL.Cash for very small orders or money orders/checks for bigger orders (because of bank fees). Please note : The XL games in silver boxes - Millipede/Robotron etc. work on all ATARI computers - ATARI 400,800,XL machines,XE machines. The XEGS carts - such as Rescue on Fractalus , Archon etc. require at least 48K of memory , some - like Airball - only work with 64K , so these games may not be compatible with the ATARI 400/800 , but will work on ATARI 800 XL/800 XE , 65 XE/130 XE , 1200 XL and XE Gamesystem and 600XL with 64K memory. List : Ace of Aces $7 Airball $8 Archon $6 Ballblazer $5 Crimebuster $7 Crossbow $3 David´s Midnight Magic $5 Desert Falcon $5 Eastern Front 1941 $7 Final Legacy $5 Gato $5 Hardball $5 Joust $5 Loderunner $7 Millipede (large box) $4 Millipede (small box) $4 Moon Patrol $6 One on One Basketball $5 Pole Position $5 Rescue on Fractalus $8 Robotron 2084 $6 RS Football $7 Star Raiders 2 $6 Thunderfox $5 Tennis $5 Disk : Mickey in the Great Outdoors $3 Microsoft BASIC $10 (heavy box ,weighs as much as 9 cart games) Cassette Scram $4 Touch Typing $5

Hi ! I can offer these boxed+new ATARI 2600/7800 games. I can ship the games worldwide : $14 for a package of up to 15 games as surface mail (slow , 3-8 weeks) $32 for a package of up to 40-45 games as surface mail (slow , 3-6 weeks) $23 for a package of up to 8 games as Air Mail (fast , a few days) $33 for a package of up to 15 games as Air Mail (fast , a few days) $48 for a package of up to 40-45 games as Air Mail (fast , a few days) Europe : 8.20 Euro for a package of up to 15 games 16.50 Euro for a package of up to 40-45 games If you´re interested , please contact me.I also have lots of ATARI XL/XE cartridges. I can accept PAYPAL or money orders/checks. Pictures of the games are available , please ask if you want pictures, List : Acid Drop (Salu,PAL) $6 Adventure on GX-12 (Telegames,PAL) $7 Alpha Beam with Ernie (CCW,PAL,with overlay) $7 Armor Ambush (Telegames,PAL) $5 Astro Blast (Telegames,PAL) $5 Big Bird's Egg (CCW,PAL,with overlay) $4 Bobby geht heim (CCW, PAL,text label) $5 Bogey Blaster (Telegames,PAL , aka Air Raiders) $5 Bump 'n' Jump (Telegames , PAL or NTSC) $5 Chess (Noname , PAL , aka Video Chess) $5 Circus ATARI (ATARI , PAL) $5 Circus (Noname,PAL) $5 Commando (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $7 Concentration (ATARI , PAL , text label) $6 Cookie Monster Munch (CCW,PAL,with overlay) $4 Dancing Plates (BitCorp,PAL , text label) $5 Deadly Discs (Telegames,PAL) $6 Decathlon (Activision/Salu , PAL , picture label) $7 Dice Puzzle (Sancho , PAL) $12 Double Dragon (Activsion/Salu , white label,PAL) $7 E.T. (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC)$5 Fatal Run (ATARI , red box , PAL) $10 Football Super Challenge (Telegames , PAL) $4 Forest (Sancho , PAL) $12 Frostbite (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $6 Galaxian (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC)$5 Ghostbusters 1 (Activision/Salu , white label,PAL) $5 Ghostbusters 2 (Activision/Salu , white label,PAL) $10 H.E.R.O. (Activision/Salu , white label,PAL) $10 International Soccer (Telegames,PAL or NTSC) $5 Jnr Pacman (ATARI , red box , PAL) $6 Jungle Hunt (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC) $5 Keyboard Controllers (Hardware by ATARI,boxed,new) $7 Keystone Kapers (Activision/Salu , PAL,white label) $6 KF Superkicks (Telegames , NTSC or PAL) $5 Kung Fu Master (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $5 Lock 'n' Chase (Telegames , PAL or NTSC) $5 Mission 3000 (BitCorp , PAL , text label) $5 Moon Patrol (ATARI , silver box , NTSC) $6 Mr.Postman (BitCorp , PAL) $5 My Golf (HES , white label , PAL) $5 Oscar's Trash Race (CCW , PAL) $6 Paddles (ATARI CX-30) (Hardware by ATARI) $7 Paddles (Telegames) $7 Phantom Panzer (BitCorp , PAL , text label) $5 Pick 'n' Pile (Salu , PAL , white label) $3 Pitfall (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $10 Pole Position (ATARI,European silver box,NTSC) $5 Quest for Quintana Roo (Telegames , NTSC or PAL) $5 Rampage (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $7 RealSports Football (ATARI , European silver box,NTSC )$4 Realsports Tennis (ATARI , red box , PAL) $4 Realsport Tennis (ATARI,European silver box,NTSC) $4 RealSports Volleyball (ATARI,European silver box,NTSC) $4 River Raid 2 (HES , plastic box , PAL,white label) $10 River Raid 2 (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $10 Snail vs Squirrel (BitCorp , PAL , text label) $5 Sea Monster (Bit Corp,PAL , text label) $5 Sesam oeffne dich (Open Sesame) (BitCorp , PAL , text label) $5 Smurf (CBS , PAL) $7 Space Attack (Telegames , PAL) $5 Super Breakout (ATARI , PAL) $3 Super Challenge Baseball (Telegames , PAL or NTSC) $5 Telegames Joystick (Hardware by Telegames) $5 Tennis (Activision/Salu , PAL , white label) $5 Title Match Pro Wrestling (Absolute , PAL , white label) $5 Tomcat - F14 Fighter (Absolute , PAL , white label) $5 Universal Chaos (Telegames , PAL) $7 Weltraum Tunnel (Space Tunnel) (BitCorp , PAL , text label) $5 Winter Games (Epyx/Salu , PAL , white label) $7 World Championship Baseball (Telegames,PAL) $5 Xenophobe (ATARI , red box , PAL) $7 Zaxxon (CBS , PAL) $8 ATARI 7800 : Ballblazer (PAL) $7 Mat Mania (PAL) $3 Sentinel (PAL) $3

Yes. You may use the boxes and instructions I have for this game.AFAIK it was released as NTSC version in Canada but I don´t know how the original version looked. The original PAL versions had picture labels which look different from yours - but it´s almost impossible to find one in good condition for a scan. Anyway - I think "Open Sesame" would be the most interesting game from Bitcorp since it´s one of the 2 games with speech. I think some people would be interested in a limited run of about 50-60 boxed NTSC carts. If this works fine , I may get some of the Quelle games and do the same with them (although these games usually are pirated games like Black Hole which is Cosmic Ark for example). BTW I think I can offer the 4K games for about $15-$20 , depends on the final price of PCBs and EPROMs , which is not too bad for a boxed+new game. Ghostbusters 2 and My Golf are bigger games , so PCBs and EPROMs are more expensive. I also have Fatal Run , but this PCB is far more complicated and I cannot create it.Since this is the last ATARI game and ATARI only made the PAL version , it would be interesting . Thimo

There are ATARI ST versions , so at least one ATARI system got ports of the Druid games.I have only Warlock the Avenger (Druid 3) , but this game comes together with a remake of Druid 1.Druid 2 should be available ,too ,for the ST , but I only have the AMIGA version which probably is a 1:1 port of the ST game since most AMIGA games of that time were ported from the ST. But the ATARI 800 only got Druid 1 although I read about a Druid 2 port in a 80s magazine.Maybe there is a prototype , some source code or some ported graphics somewhere ,??? Thimo

Did you already create an NTSC Mission 3000 ? I think I have almost 100 boxed/new copies of this game , more than from any other BitCorp game, but at least this is a decent game. There also is Mr.Postman , but I only have 5 of this one and IMO this is the crappiest of the Bitcorp games together with See Monster. Thimo

I´d recommend a graphic-adventure game like "Guild of "Thieves".Pictures are shown in the first 1/2 - 2/3 of the screen and the rest for text window.Maybe convert the original ATARI ST artwork and show how this game should look on the ATARI 8 Bit (The 8 Bit port uses ugly 4-color graphics). Or an action-game limited to 1 screen , something like Donkey Kong or Miner 2049er , Mr Robot etc. etc. Or a role-playing game like "The Bard´s Tale" , which shows pictures of creatures in a window of about 100*100 pixels in size on the AMIGA. Maybe a tile-based rpg similar to Japanese NES/Sega Master System rpgs would work,too or a strategy-game like Shining Force on the Mega Drive/Genesis or the Game Gear Shining Force. I think the ATARI 8 Bit could display graphics similar to NES , Master system or Game Gear. Thimo

I want to make NTSC versions of 8 different Bitcorp and other games. These games are very common in Europe , but the real NTSC versions are quite rare or only released as pirated versions by Zimag (at least 4 Zimag games are hacks of Bitcorp games). Since I have to destroy the label for replacing the PCB I need a new label for the carts. The versions I have are text-label anyway - I´d prefer having picture labels like the first European Bitcorp games or new labels based on the picture on the front of the package. The 8 games are Weltraum Tunnel (aka Cosmic Corridor) Phantom Panzer (aka Tanks but no tanks , Tank Brigade) Tanzende Teller (aka Dishaster) Bobby geht heim Mission 3000 Schnecke gegen Eichhoernchen See Monster Sesam oeffne dich (Zimag´s I want my Mommy is a hack of this without the voice synthesis of the original). I can make about 50 of each game ,so this may be interesting for collectors. I also have several "My Golf" by HES , which I want to make as NTSC version if anyone can make a nice label.I can make about 100 of this. And last but not least : Ghostbusters 2.I can make about 20 only of this one , the original has a black on white text label , but I think of a label based on the picture on the package. Since I cannot print labels with my inkjet printer , I´d pay for someone who could create/print labels for the carts. Please note : Bitcorp games use the same carts as Telegames games.So this is only one label and different from normal ATARI carts. My Golf and Ghostbusters 2 are on bigger SALU carts which won´t fit in 6-switch ATARIs very well , so I can use ATARI cartridges for the NTSC versions. I can scan boxes of games at high resolution. Instructions are no problem since all games have English instructions (some English+German+French). Thimo

Has anyone ever tried to use an ATARI 7800 "Maria" Chip in an ATARI 800 XL ? I´ve read something about it in a newsgroup some time ago , but I don´t know if this is possible. Thimo

The idea is that if I make a game it would certainly be cartridge-based. That means I have lots of memory ,at least 128K if I use an old "Crossbow" cart. Then I would precalculate as much as possible,so that screen-building does not involve any big clculations anymore , software-sprites will be stored pre-shifted and the masked sprites,too. The only thing the CPU must do is copy the stuff to the screen or the buffer and then to the screen. It should be possible to use players for color-enhancement only but missiles for fast-moving objects. Usually a game uses only about 2/3 of the screen and no more than 200 lines to make it NTSC compatible , so there would be plenty of time left for code-self-modifications etc. Games like Zybex are not satisfying,because they use a low resolution and not enough colors.Although the game plays better on the ATARI , the C64 version looks better. I don´t know if they used the blocky resolution because of memory or because of speed - the ATARI should be fast enough for such a game. (An Draconus with its few sprites/screen certainly could have looked like the C64 version with its much superior sprites). Because there are older games which use software sprites , all the Graphics-8-artifacting games like Treshold,Lunar Leeper,Lode Runner / I think Zone Ranger,too and Zone X uses dozens of smooth moving non-flickering colorful sprites. Since Zone X is a 4-way-scrolling game it is possible to use lots of software sprites + scrolling , I suppose the games uses charmode. Thimo

A MOD player must be possible,since an IBM PC speaker can do it (for example Panza Kickboxing,Dungeon Master) ,too and ATARI 2600 music beats PC speaker capabilities. The ATARI 800 can play 4-channel mods , there are at least 3 different .MOD players.They need lot of CPU time,so usually they switch DMA off.But it´s also possible to play music while displaying graphics with slight quality loss. MODs from the AMIGA can be only a few Kbyte , some are over 1 Mbyte , depends on the sample size.The AMIGA uses 8 Bit samples , so if you use only 2 Bit samples you could save memory. Some of the best AMIGA Mods are under 100Kbyte , that means if reduced sample resolution they should be doable on the VCS (the ATARI 800 already can play them). I think that you could not display much on a VCS while having a decent music quality , but hearing a VCS 2600 play long digital tunes would be great. Maybe a sample-based music program using the Keyboard Controllers would be possible.Select a sample and play just like on the AMIGA Protracker where you can play with the keyboard. Thimo

Has anyone tried to something similar to Softsynth on the ATARI 800 on the ATARI 2600 ? I mean the 2600 can play samples so it should be possible to create own waveforms like in softsynth. Or anyone tried to make a .MOD - Player on the 2600 ? .MODs are an AUDIO Format from the AMIGA ,4-channel digital music , divided in song and sample part. Samples are transposed by the AMIGA hardware in the original MODs , but MOD-players on the ATARI ST or the ATARI 8 Bit do this with software. The advantage is,that you need only one sample to play a long digital tune , the disadvantage is,that it takes lots of CPU time away if the computer has no special hardware. I think this could be possible on an ATARI 2600,small mods in 4K or huge ones in bankswitched carts. Thimo

The problem of a scrolling background is,that a software sprite would be scrolled with the screen,too.Players/Missiles are independent from background. The question is : how was this problem solved on machines without sprites (and scrolling) ? There are many games on the Spectrum or the Amstrad CPC and the ATARI ST,computers without any sprites. The ATARI ST has lots of RAM and graphics can be precalculated and the 68000 has mighty copy instructions like movem it allows to copy the whole screen in 1/50 second.So the ST can handle the problem with its hardware power. But is the ATARI XL fast enough for a software-sprite based scrolling game ? Can you precalculate enough to have only copy-operations ? Can self-modifying code or illegal opcodes help ? Is it possible to use the hardware scrolling (the STE in "Wings of Death" uses STE Scrolling and Blitter-Sprites AFAIK) I mean the Amstrad has some games with good software sprites and although it is twice as fast as the ATARI , it´s screen RAM is twice as big (160*200*16,320*200*4,640*200*1). Maybe it would make sense to look how they made certain games on the Amstrad CPC. Thimo

If anyone in Europe/Germany is interested in making homebrewn carts for the ATARI 2600 or the ATARI XL/XE - I have more than 5000 carts , most of them by ATARI and Telegames. The Telegames carts are on 8K EPROMs , so it would be possible to desolder them and erase them. ATARI XL/XE carts usually are 128K XEGS carts (Crossbow) or 16K XL carts (Joust,Millipede,Tennis). The idea is to create PAL versions of homebrewn games and offer them at European events or use my website - there are still some TVs that cannot display NTSC and the colors are wrong,too. I have the domain www.atari2600.de Thimo

Deathbringer - I think this was called "Galdregon´s Domain" as original European version. There was another game called "Deathbringer" ,made in the UK - it was a game similar to "Barbarian 2" , guy with sword had to kill monsters. Thimo

I think that in most cases you won´t need a full 160*192 screen for a game , so you won´t need 8 different charsets. It depends on the game : traditional adventure games with their static graphics could look very good with additional colors by using charmode+DLIs , usually only 2/3 or 1/2 of the screen is used for graphics , rest is text-window. Tile-based action adventures or role-playing games - ULTIMA or console-like games like Final Fantasy (NES) without many moving objects would be possible ,too , with graphics similar to NES. 3D rpgs like "Dungeon Master" would also benefit from the larger number of colors , usually their graphics windows take only 2/3 of the screen and it´s rather static , since objects always appear on the same places and zooming is limited to 3 or 4 distances.I once wrote a "Dungeon Master" 3D graphics routine. puzzle or strategy games usually have a quite static graphics , so this technique could be used. Isometric 3D games are a little bit tricky - look at Last Ninja on the C64 , it isn´t really fast although only 2 moving objects are in most screens. Could be done I think since there is no scrolling , but I never worked with isometric graphics. Vector graphics games usually use only 2 colors , so the best idea would be to use graphics 14 or a similar 2-color mode and a DLI to separate the sky from the ground ... 1-screen games/platform games : Without any scrolling , a platform game with many levels should be possible.Somethink like "Bubble Bobble" , since it has only black background and no complex graphics. Fast action games : Software sprites are no big problem , if the background is not complex - black in a space-shooter for example. But a complex background makes moving a lot of objects difficult , I´d use the missiles for shots or laser beams etc. and software sprites only for bigger objects. You can pre-shift objects , store a lot of data pre-calculated in RAM , especially on a 130XE. Please note that with the memory of a 130XE you can pre-calculate a lot and store it in the extra - RAM , so that you can gain speed.This can be done on a 64K machine,too , if you have a small main program and divide a game into levels that can be loaded from disk. A new game could be made with added 130XE (128K+) support , means smoother animation on 128K machines possible etc. And data on disk can be compressed , many C64 games like load huge level data and decompress it , although a few very impressive games like Wizball are in 64K. Player-Overlays are also possible with normal bitmap graphics , but some colors are lost. And although PAL ATARIs can display up to 240 lines , it´s not recommended to use more than 200 , otherwise such games coul become unplayable on an NTSC machine. And there are computers with no sprites/scrolling at all - Amstrad CPC for examples - that have fast action games.The Amstrad for example is a ca. 4Mhz Z80 machine , but uses a 16K 160*200 16 color screen AFAIK (or 4 colors in 320*200) and this means twice as much as the XL (so it loses the advantage of the twice-as-fat CPU) .But Turrican , Silkworm and other fast action games are available ! BTW.: vertical scrolling is possible with 2 entirely differnt ways - first , by using the scroll register , and second by adding or removing the different "blank" lines in the Dlist.I once wrote a small demo for this , but it´s lost one of my 5.25" disks. Thimo

this was a little mistake - you need 8 charsets for the whole screen of course. The idea is to use a "fixed" character graphics screen , that means , all the characters stay at the same place and after 3*40=120 Bytes , the charset is changed.8*2 = 24 lines , the same as 192 bitmap lines. That means 3 lines ,starting by char 0 - 119. After 3 lines , a DLI changes the charset. It´s now possible to copy bitmap objects into the charsets - the positions of the characters on the screen will not be changed. For example : In bitmap mode,I can set a pixel by setting the bit at the place I want. In character mode , I change this bit in the charset , the one bit in the charcater at the same position. Since each character is used only once , and the charset is changed va DLI every 4th line , only one pixel will appear on the screen. The advantage is , that the screen itself takes only40*24 bytes =960 bytes , this makes the final "whole screen" copy faster when you use double-buffering. The disadvantage is,that it takes additional 8192 bytes for the 8 charsets , but you need only 960 bytes as buffer instead of 7680. And it´s possible to copy all bitmap objects into the charsets - the only difference is , that copying is different. This allows vector-graphics games , too. The important idea is , that the characters on the screen are not manipulated but the charsets itself - 8 charsets if the whole screen is used and objects are copied into the charsets. I think on the C64 some programs used this technique. Thimo

I think that using charmode graphics is better in almost all cases than using Bitmap graphics - the idea is to use the character mode screen with 3 different fonts. Then it´s possible to move bitmap objects in the character graphics screen , set or delete pixels etc. and use - as a bonus - the fast character animation by rotating characters.(please note : we are not limited to 128 chars and use the characters as a different type of bitmap) The only difference is that you have to use other techniques to set/delete pixels - but even vector-graphics games are no problem. This is extremely helpful if you use double buffering , because in the last step you usually copy the whole screen from buffer to the screen - and in a bitmap mode this means 8 times more data = much slower. But it´s important to have 3 character sets,changed with DLIs for a whole screen. Player/Missile overlays are an additional "bonus" , which could be used for adding color in some cases. Another important "bonus" is the 5th color. There are games were such techniques are not useful - text adventures for example , but IMO P/M overlays are great for colorful software sprites to create NES - like graphics on the ATARI , since most classic games suffer from lack of color (usually 5 colors). A software sprite in Antic 4 with one player as overlay can have 8 colors (5 background , the player color + 2 overlay colors) , that´s even better than a C64 sprite. This means at least 4 8-color objects are possible even in BASIC (but very slow) , even more in assembler. The speed of software sprites depends on the complexity of the background /or the masking techniques you use. Thimo

AFAIK this demo was made using the program "Softsynth". It is Public Domain and was available in Germany. But I wonder if it was available in the US or Canada , because there are not many Softsynth tunes , although the program is easy to use (it´s a music programming language). Unfortunately I have all my stuff on real ATARI 5.25" disks and have no access now.It´s possible that the program is in German , but most parts are BASIC , so it could be translated. Thimo

Some of my XL/XE carts , boxed+shrinkwrapped.Shipping is high for one game , but only $14 for up to 15 , maybe 16 games. For example Airball,Lode Runner,Thunderfox,Fractalus,Ballblazer etc. http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View...5&since=-1&rd=1 I also offer a boxed new Fatal Run and Ghostbusters 2 for ATARI 2600. all the auctions are BIN Thimo

Hi, look at Look at : http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View...owpics=1&stab=0 I offer several factory-sealed , new ATARI XEGS/XL carts on ebay , games like Airball , Crystal Castles , Food Fight , Rescue on Fractalus , Thunderfox or XL games like Pengo,Dig Dug , Final Legacy,Moon Patrol etc. All auctions are "buy it now" with low prices ! Thimo

Maybe Video Touch Pad/Keyboard Controller - controls ? Or combination : Joystick in port one , Video Touch Pad in Port 2 ??? Keyboard Controllers/Video Touch Pads are still common ... Thimo

I´m talking of the old MUSE Wolfenstein , which was available for the ATARI 800 (and Apple,PC,C64 AFAIK) , I think released in 1982. It´s graphics was quite simple and such a game should be possible on the ATARI 2600. There also was a sequel calles Beyond Castle Wolfenstein AFAIK. What do you think ? Thimo

I still have several boxed/new ATARI XL/XE carts like Rescue on Fractalus, Airball ,Thunderfox ... on ebay + some ATARI 2600 games like Fatal Run or Ghostbusters 2, ending in a few hours. look at http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View...5&since=-1&rd=1 Thimo

Finding ST games is a lot easier in Europe , especially UK. The ST market was quite big in the UK , France and Germany so you may check European ebays for ST games. Thimo