Lord-Chaos
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Posts posted by Lord-Chaos
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I know that most (I think all) of the Telegames carts use EPROMs and some SALU carts also have EPROMs inside , but Salu carts usually have ROMs inside , only a few are on EPROMs.
I´ve never seen ATARI or Activision carts with EPROMs.
I ask this because EPROMs may loose data - but this only happened with one of my C64 Final Cartridges , never with an ATARI cart.
I´ve heard that many games by Bomb don´t work any more - did they use EPROMs ?
Thimo
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This is one of my favourite ATARI 800 XL games.
But how good is the ATARI 2600 version ? I´ve never seen an original cartridge , it is quite rare in Europe I think.
Can you compare it to the ATARI 800 version (or the C64 , Coleco and PC versions ) ???
Thimo
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I have lots of boxed ATARI 2600 games , most are PAL versions ,but work on NTSC systems with a TV that supports 50Hz.
I also have lots of ATARI 400/800 XL/XE/XEGS carts , these games are NTSC and PAL compatible and with English manuals.ATARI only made one version of these games and sold them worldwide.
Some of the XE games require 64K , for example "Airball".
My auctions can be found here :
http://cgi6.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewS...sort=3&since=-1
(this is ebay.de , but bidding is allowed worldwide , prices are in Euro / 1 Euro is a little more than $1)
Please write an email to [email protected] if you want the complete ATARI 2600/7800 lists or the ATARI 800 XL/XE/XEGS list.
Thimo
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We had several magazines in the 80s which had ATARI 8 Bit listings.
Magazines like "Computronic" - which had only listings for several 8 Bit systems (ATARI , C64,Apple II,VC20,C16,Spectrum,Amstrad,TI 99/4A).
They had a great Boulder Dash clone for ATARI , a game similar to H.E.R.O. (called Into Deep) and many more games.Although the games in the first issues were BASIC with maybe some Assembler , the games became more and more professional , in the last issues (1987) most games were written in Assembler and some better than "full price" games.
They also had a "Smurf" Clone , a good Jump n Run called "Butterflies" , some space - action - games and some platform games.
Another magazine was the "ATARI Magazine" , they had some good games and programs like "S.A.M." + utilities (S.A.M. is some sort of GUI , similar to ST Desktop).
Good games were for example "Mad Marble Maze" (Marble Madness clone) or Ataroid (Arkanoid Clone).
There also was the "Computer Kontakt" , which had listings for ATARI,C64,Spectrum and TI 99/4A.
And the "Happy Computer" , they published the "Turbo BASIC" and had some games for the ATARI sometimes , but this magazine was more "pro-Commodore".But they made 2 special ATARI magazines (Happy Computer Sonderheft).
There were some other magazines , but I don´t remember the names.
But some of the programs and games in the magazines mentioned were quite good.Most of the programs should be found on emulator sites , but I still have most of them (I have typed in all the listings for ATARI only).
BTW : although these magazines are German , most games and programs are in English .
Thimo
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Are there any games on the 8 Bit or did anyone try this :
Using software sprites in character mode , gives you 4 colors.
If you use player 1 or 2 as "overlay" , you can get up to 3 "new" colors with GPRIOR (623) set to 0.
That means 7-colored objects with some limitations.
It´s even possible to use the 5th character mode color in parts of the software sprite (inverted character).
Players 3 and 4 can add 2 colors as "overlay".
It should be possible to use this to create some smaller , maybe 16*16 software sprites with lots of colors even without DLIs.
There are some limitations :
- player resolution is only 8 pixels , but if you cleverly build the sprite , it should be possible to use 16 pixel players (wide *2) or it should be possible to use DLIs to change horizontal player position.
- the "new" colors cannot be chosen 100% , but if you choose the right colors , this is not a big problem.
- DLIs that change background colors also change software sprite colors...
- this needs masking , because the background must be cleared for this new software sprite.That means it costs some CPU time.
I think it should be possible to move some 16*16 sprites in a VBI , but I´m trying to optimize my routines - they´re too slow now.
The biggest problem is positioning the sprite , because the background must be cleared and the sprite must be shifted - placing the player - overlays is much simpler.
So the program routine doing this must be as fast as possible.Maybe using tables could solve the problem - or some of the illegal opcodes.
I will only use the 4 players and the missiles can be used for lasers or arrows or other small and fast moving objects.
It´s also possible to use software sprites without shifting for really fast objects - maybe in a space - shoot ´em up game.
This should also work on the ATARI 5200.
But it should be possible to make games with at least 5 background colors + 10 added colors =15 colors without using DLIs , with some limitations.
It´s also possible to use to DLIs for adding colors to the players (or to the background , if you choose for example the 5th color as background only so that no sprite will be affected).
With good drawn graphics /right "color managment" games on the ATARI 800 XL/XE could look like Sega Master System or NES games.
Thimo
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Can anybody tell me what is the problem with Jah Fish now ?Did he try to sell the game and did not send it or did he not send the footpedals ?
Don't worry, the problem are not your footpedals, but the whole set.
Fish has collected the money more than 9 months ago from about 50 people (~$70) and has yet only delivered about 20 sets, the last ones in December. Since then he refuses to reply to my mails (so I have stopped mainling him) and since January he doesn't even reply here on the board. He doesn't care at all!
He also didn't pay back the 700EUR I lend him ("for 6-8 weeks") for accelerating the whole process. And he also owes some people additional stuff. All this accumultates to at least $2500.
I don´t understand this.He bought lots of games from me (ebay) and I never had problems with him.
He also bought lots of footpedals and empty cassette cases from me - no problems , too.
Can´t understand that he refuses to answer to emails.
But he hasn´t bought items from my auctions the last 6 months ...
Thimo
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There´s a room with a computer and you have to use a disk to open some sort of force field.
Is there a bug in the game or is there something different in the ATARI version ?
Password is SLARTIBARDFAST and the game is know to be buggy. There's a corrected version out there, though.
Yes,this is the password from the ID card and it works fine on the Spectrum.
But on the ATARI , you cannot enter anything , the game locks , you can only reset the computer.
Mastertronic´s quality control for ATARI products must have been very bad.I don´t think that the programmers made an unplayable game - they made a better graphics (compared to Spectrum) , use software sprites quite well and then their game is unplayable - a bug at the beginning of the game ???
Were can I find a corrected version / or which bytes must be changed ? And is this the only bug ??
Thimo
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Anyone ever made such a program - just as a demo ?
The math behind the standard fractal is very simple (the formula is f(x)=x*x+c) and you´d need only +/- and *.
I think it should be possible to use the "colorview" technique to create some sort of "bitmap".
The only real problem is that this is not possible with 128 Bytes memory , because the computer/the VCS has to generate the fractal and the data must be saved somewhere.
With 128 bytes it would be only possible to create a very small fractal ...
But it would be a nice demo ...
Thimo
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Never really liked it.I think it's because of the shape of the cart.
Allways hated those things.
Can't stack em and you get the domino effect when you stand em up.
(Looks to sky)...DAMN YOU MATTEL!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a Telegames version of Lock n Chase , too , the cart is a normal Telegames cart , usually with an Eprom inside.
Thimo
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Phantasie III; my game keeps crashing whenever I enter one particular cave.Maybe a problem with the disk or does this happen with all Phantasie III ?
BTW. I had a problem with Phantasie 3 on the ATARI ST.It always crashed when I entered a building in the city.
Maybe it was a bug , maybe it was because I have an 1040STE which is not 100% compatible to old STs.
Did not happen on the AMIGA (the AMIGA version is an 1:1 port of the ST version)
Thimo
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I claim the Last V8 is buggy since I NEVER could get into shelter before dieing of Radiation posioning!Yes , this may be possible.I never finished the game,too.
But it was possible on the C64 - I think the ATARI version is a really crappy conversion of the C64 original.
Thimo
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Some games I know with nasty bugs :
- Universal Hero , game crashes , is unplayable
- Feud : cannot pick up one herb for lighning spell
- Colony : graphic bugs , if you activate the second robot
- Rogue : my version was unplayble , not possible to fight monsters
All games are from Mastertronic , seems that their quality control was bad.
Anyone know more games with serious bugs ?
Thimo
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I haven't played this game but do remember reading in the magazine Page 6 / New Atari User that the game contains a bug that doesn't allow you to finish the game.Could this be the start of a thread - hideous bugs in atari software? One that bothered me was in Fued, again published by Mastertronic, that didn't allow you to pick up a certain herb, meaing you couldn't cast one of the spells.
Avram
I think it is a bug , because the Sinclair Spectrum version is playable , you can enter the password.
The ATARI versions seems to crash when you insert the disk.
I know the problem with "Feud" , too.Not possible to cast the "Lightning" Spell , because you cannot pick up one herb.
I think this is not the case in other versions (C64,Amstrad,16 Bit...)
But you can still finish "Feud" , so it is not unplayable -fastest way is too create a zombie somewhere in the path of your enemy.The AI is not good , so he will not avaoid your zombie and die quickly.
Thimo
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There was a PC game called "Catacomb Abyss" that was released by Apogee before Wolfenstein 3D was released... Catacomb Abyss was actually done in EGA graphics.Was Midi Maze full 3D? Games that snap to 90-degree turns like Dungeon Master don't count. In any case, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are what rocketed FPS games into primetime.
--Zero
Yes, this was full 3D graphics , vector graphics without textures.
The game can be found on various emulator sites and be played with one of the ST emulator.
Thimo
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This is an old action-adventure game by Mastertronic , I think it was released in 1987 on tape.
But I have a problem with the ATARI version.
There´s a room with a computer and you have to use a disk to open some sort of force field.
In the next room there is the rocket ship fuel you need for your spaceship.
This works fine on the Sinclair Spectrum - you can use the disk and enter the password.
But the ATARI versions seems to lock , you cannot enter the password , the name from the ID card you find somewhere.
Is there a bug in the game or is there something different in the ATARI version ?
Thimo
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Can anybody tell me what is the problem with Jah Fish now ?
I´m the one who sold him the footpedals some months ago and he told me that someone wants to make a game for these footpedals.
He bought about 100 and paid for them , but I haven´t heard of him since then / he did not win any of my auctions on ebay.
Did he try to sell the game and did not send it or did he not send the footpedals ?
Thimo
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Midi Maze on the ATARI ST was some kind of FPS and it was possible to connect up to 16 STs with MIDI cables and play some kind of deathmatch.
It´s a 3D game and all players are huge smilies.
It was released in 1988.
Thimo
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One of the biggest problems of the 2600 is that it has only 128 Bytes of memory - this makes it difficult to write games that have to keep a lot of changes - maybe for the playfield , position of sprites , etc.
A good example is Boulder Dash - in such a game you´d have to keep every change in the playfield , made by the player , or falling rocks , enemies , amoebas etc.
So the question is - do emulators support more RAM - I know that some games have extra RAM on the carts.
And how much RAM is possible ?
I´d say 256 Byte would be enough for me , but more RAM is always better.
Is it possible to create carts with extra RAM or replace the ROMs on such carts to play them on the real thing or would this be impossible ?
Thimo
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Hardest part will be finding a good printer that works with the ST - otherwise it can do those tasks easily. Word Perfect 4.2 is available (though tough from floppy) or the Timeworks Word Processor is good also (has inline spell checking which was a first!)I use my Mega STE since 1994 for my business , still with its original 48Mbyte HD.
The ST is a great computer for word processing , or even DTP with Calamus.There are lots of text editors and some word processing programs , I use for example Tempus Word and some others.
I use an Epson Stylus Color 800 for my ST , this is an inkjet printer that emulates all the 9/24 Epson printers and works fine with an ST - without any drivers.
This printer even works with the ATARI 800 without any drivers.
Thimo
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Has anyone created cheap ATARI 8 Bit PCBs that can be used in old XL cart cases like Pole Position ?
I think these are better that the XE-style carts and it´s possible to get these in large qts.
If ATARIAGE starts to make 800 XL/XE games , this would be interesting.
For small games that work on all ATARIs , 16K-64K would be enough.
Such carts should be cheaper - and since many homebrewn (or even old commercial) games aren´t that big , such carts would be ok for most of the games.
For bigger games , PCBs with up to 1Mbyte would be interesting , so that it would be possible to create large games that would take 2 disks or more on a cart.
Most of the bigger games probably need 48K oder 64K.
My game "Ufo Battle" for example is rather small and should fit on a 16K cart and work on all ATARIs , 400 - 130XE.
Thimo
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Anyone knows the "Turbo BASIC" ? This was released in a German magazine in 1985 or 86 and was far better than ATARI BASIC , was used for many programs.
The "Keypress"-problem was easy to solve here - just write GET X , and the computer waits until you press a key.
And then X has the number of the key pressed.
Another advantage of Turbo BASIC is,that it has more free RAM with a disk-drive (34000+ bytes) and is faster.
it´s easy to find today.
Thimo
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Back in the 80s/early 90s I´ve written some games for the ATARI 800 XL.
Maybe I could improve some of these games and release them on cartridges (if they´re Assembler-programs) or ATARIAGE can offer them.
I remember these games :
- Ufo-Battle : This was a 2-player game with 2 UFOs fighting each other in a starfield with some extras , I think shield etc. , don´t remember everything.
It was written in Assembler,but it´s loaded from DATAs in BASIC and uses a BASIC title screen.
I may create a Deluxe version of this game and can release it on cartridge , it wasn´t really big.
Maybe someone could port it to the 5200 , but there´s no source code , since I´ve coded this one without Assembler.
- Desert Race : A small racing game , also Assembler+BASIC combination.May also make a Deluxe version with better graphics etc.
- Labyrinth of Death : This was some kind of role-playing-game.Ít´s a 3D-labyrinth game , you have to find the exit , but you must find the key first and fight monsters on the ways.
It was written in Turbo-BASIC with some Assembler,had a small Intro.
I may improve the wireframe-3D graphics with Bitmap or character graphics and add some new features to this one.
- Jewels : This was a board game for 2 players , but I think similar games are already available for the ATARI 800 XL.
Maybe interesting to port to the 2600 , because the game itself is quite simple.
- Land of Mystery : Another role-playing-game , this time 2D HiRes graphics , it was never 100% completed.This game was written in Turbo BASIC , but I could try to make an Assembler version of this game and give it a real story.
- another nameless rpg which was never finished after my 130XE died - and this game only worked with 128K.It uses 128 color pictures ripped from various AMIGA rpgs (Bard´s Tale for example) and sampled sound , 3D graphics but required 128K.
I may try to create a 64K version of this one , this would be a quite big game (at least 1 360K disk).
I had also written several small trading-simulations , but these games were quite bad.Also some demos and other stuff that might be used for games , some game-routines , but that were never used.
Maybe I´ll find some other old games in my collection ,
Thimo
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how ever much of an Atari fan you are, you've got to admire the C64 for its sprites (sooo much better than player/missiles), SID for music and the color ram on the "character" modes.
I don´t understand why ATARI did not improve the P/M graphics in the XL models - more multicolor players - something like the AMIGA´s sprites (they are quite similar to ATARI´s players).
But P/M graphics isn´t really bad , it´s only a problem to convert games from other systems (C64,NES,Sega Master...) - better than no sprites at all (as Spectrum or Amstrad).
Thimo
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Being a cheater, I like it for the system-freezing cartridges (like Final Cart 3) that were made. Not aware of any cartridges for the Atari that give you the ability to "break out of" any commercial program.And for games that were never released for Atari, of course.
There was the Turbo Freezer , but it was made in Germany and I don´t know if it was distributed outside of Europe.
But with this hardware , it was easy to cheat or to make copies of games etc.
It´s quite rare now and expensive on ebay (ebay.de).
There were far more freezer carts on the C64 (several Action Replay versions, several Final Cartridge versions , Nordic Power , Magic Formel etc. etc.)
Thimo
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Max. NTSC resolution of ATARI 8 Bit and 2600 ?
in Programming
Posted
I´m working on a PAL ATARI 800 XL.
On a PAL TV , it´s possible to display up to 239 lines , on my TV.
If you use more than 239 lines,the TV will produce strange effects ...
Now how many lines can be displayed on an NTSC TV - how much overscan can I use without making a game unplayble for NTSC users ?
The max. horizontal resolution seems to be 344 pixels on my system , it may be more with other monitors/TVs ...
Anyone knows about ATARI 2600 resolution on PAL or NTSC systems ?
NTSC games seem to look the same on my console,except the wrong colors (blue instead of green etc.).
Thimo