malducci

Dynamic tile usually refers to creating addition scrolling layers/effects. I'm not sure what else you mean by it. Moving leaves/grass like in Willow or the Japanese version of Contra? But yeah, the updating it almost always done in vblank. And it requires replacing specific tile data with new data. Whether that data is prerendered or realtime modification, is usually isn't relevant (though it's usually prerendered on such dedicated consoles). The SMS and NES are rather slow at updating a number of tiles in vblank. Neither have a DMA assist to transfer like the Genesis. But the NES has the option of using VROM, in which a mapper can update tiles very fast. It can even update ALL tiles and sprites in a matter of a few cpu cycles, instead of 30,000-100,000 cycles. It's specific to the mapper itself. Some NES games even swap out tiles midscreen, and can do it mid scanline too.

Might not be a matter of "Krikzz" going out of his way to protect them (Pier Solar team), but more a matter of respect in not supporting the special hardware setup that the homebrew developers specifically setup as a security device (among other security steps, from what I've been told), so they can actually sell the game. That is, assuming Everdrive even supports the backend hardware needed to begin with. I'm sure if other developers went out of their way to implement security devices in their homebrew works to be sold, even if they don't extend anything special beyond the stock addressing limit, then he would show the same kind of respect. At least, I would assume.

I had watched Poltergeist premier on HBO back in late '82 (IIRC), it scared the living crap out of me. I had nightmares for days and days (but I loved the movie still!). I was 6 years old, IIRC. When NES came around, no game was ever scary or creepy to me. What was the scariest part of Poltergeist for you? The part with the tree always scared me the most. I, too, saw it as a little kid. I saw it again a few years ago, and laughed at the beginning scene when the parents are smoking pot together in the bedroom. Didn't pick up on that one as a kid! But I digress... Oh, most definitely the tree scene. The tree slowly eating the kid alive; *nom nom nom nom nom*. I had reoccurring nightmares about that part. To this day, I have a thing about trees eating people alive >_> I remember this one time on LSD in my teenage youth, sitting in front of a tree.... oh wait, this is a video game forum. Nevermind

They didn't laugh at all the slowdown??? My friends and I had both the Genesis and the SNES, so we didn't care which system was specifically superior - we just wanted superior games I remember being nicely surprised that Actraiser 2 didn't have much or very little slowdown (from what I recall) for a snes game. But it sucked that it was side view action only. Difficulty didn't matter too much back then. I loved the over head parts of the first game. Was sad to see that go.

I had watched Poltergeist premier on HBO back in late '82 (IIRC), it scared the living crap out of me. I had nightmares for days and days (but I loved the movie still!). I was 6 years old, IIRC. When NES came around, no game was ever scary or creepy to me. But one game from the 16bit era had a slightly creepy part - Splatterhouse for the TG16. The game itself wasn't creepy or scary (just great gore infested fun or cheap parts that made you jump. The mirror stage comes to mind), the part where your girl friend is changed into a monster and you have to fight her. That in and of itself wasn't overly creepy, but through out the fight she changes back (like jekyll/Hyde) and begs you to help her (actually plays a digitized sample of "help me" while she pleads with her hands held together). I was shocked when I first saw that and thought it pretty damn demented of the developers to do that (which was awesome!). So it was unsettling but awesome at the same time. As for a game that actually creep'd me out, was Resident Evil 2 for the PS1. Although an adult by then, I would only play this game around midnight (wife and son asleep, all alone to myself) to get the full effect of the game. It's the only game ever to invoke such suspense and constantly being creep'd/freak'd out.

Link: Keith Courage: BubbleGum Crash/Crisis (related, not directly from the game):

This might have something to do with it: http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=controls:sega_atari_msx_x68000

How can you tell it's a PAL game? And will it work on NTSC machine? I could probably dump the cart myself (I have a 40pin USB reader, I could make a cart port to dip socket converter and dump each setting. I just need to know the pin outs of the cart connector. Wouldn't have to take it apart or anything). I was planning on selling it. That would be one way to test it, since I don't have a real system - I could pack each of the 64 games as individual roms and try them out in an emulator. And at the same time, provide something for the community (assuming something unique on here). Or is this type of talk taboo here? ;>_>

Unfortunately I'm selling off all my retro games/stuff. I have nothing to try it out on. I'll check, but I'm pretty sure none of my friends have anything older than NES for retro systems. So unless you know someone in Tucson that's willing to test it out... Othello is probably "Go" (Japanese game). As a kid, I remember 'Go' being sold under the label "Othello" (for the longest time that's what I thought was the real/only name of that game).

Heh, a little late in getting the pics up online ;>_> Edit: An easier list to read of the game list label:

But your question is confusing. I assume you mean RGB palettes VS YUV palettes? Or HSL palettes? What systems are we talking about here? What's the context? Are you actually talking about systems that have palettes in other native color space other than RGB? Or are you just referring to the same system on two different outputs (RGB vs its YC out)? Your question is too vague.

Funny how many mistook the Nintendo seal of quality on the box to mean they were getting a quality game. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Yeah, but I don't know of a single person that cared or even recognized that seal on NES boxes. We almost always knew what games were gonna be good and which ones sucked. But then again, we rented a lot of random games out of chance - so that's where the worst ones we experienced came from.

Impossimole on the TG16. That game is complete shit. The opening music is ear bleeding bad, the design is lame (as it the main character) and but the gameplay... ugh. Playing the game is an exercise in torture. NES: hmm... way too many to list. SNES: Not really sure. I've played some mediocre games, but none that come off as 'worst' game on the system. Genesis: Hmm... Greendog? Taz? Lot of stinkers on that system. SMS: Dunno. GG: too many to list. Out of 30 games I have for it, maybe 5 are worth playing Lynx: almost everything? J/k Dunno. I've only played a few games and they were stinkers.

Lynx Bubsy. I think it hold many more similarities to Bubsy than Sonic. Your love for Bubsy completely baffles me So... the this is the test binary sent to some reviewer? No source code? What was changed/fixed from that 'test' binary to this release?

The GB-Z80 isn't exactly a z80 ( T cycles are always 4 master cycles or bus cycles, which is why you'll see GBC/GB rated as both 8mhz/4mhz and 2mhz/1mhz). It's missing a few instructions, but gained a few DMA functions. The memory layout (cpu logical address range) is custom to the GB design as well. And there's bank switching hardware (for ram and rom). I'd say you'd need a specific GB C compiler or modify the source code if someone else. I don't particularly remember a C compiler for it BITD, but I could be wrong. Here's the best thing that helped me out back in 1999/2000 when I did some GB/C coding: http://www.pcedev.net/GBZ80/GBCribSheet000129.pdf . This is the last one he released. Every system should have a cribsheet like that

Heh, yeah I singled you out - but specifically because I think you have thick enough skin to take it I only used you as one example (for a single reason I pointed out), not for everything. And definitely nothing personal. I'm a fan of a lot of different systems, though. So are you saying AA is only welcome to Atari hardcore fans (fanboy is a derogatory term)? I get the feeling it's not. I've seen members here on other "system" forums, so.. I do understand the bias of a community or forum. Specialized/specific forums. I understand it and I expect to see it. I don't understand such openly or underlying intense hate for another system/company, to the point were everything is distorted and nothing can be any good of the competitions side (weakness/strengths/aspects/things/etc get over exaggerated). And I'd be lying if I said I hadn't seen it in other forums as well (Nintendo didn't get to be #1 for a period of time, without making some enemies/anti-fans). That's the whole point. I've already read through a lot of those threads in the past. I've been here a number of years, even if I don't post much. I read quite a bit. The guy seemed pretty confident and as well as to have some experience with homebrew. I'm a coder. I rather have a direct technical discussion to someone that knows what they're talking about. Especially if he felt that intensely about the subject. And I actually tried to chose my words carefully in the second paragraph to him. I hadn't realized he'd left. Too bad. That was my point. I don't think the 7800 capabilities are accurately displayed by the library. To be honest, I completely forgot about the system until a few years ago. The 7800 has gained more popularity in the past few years, in that it's showing up in threads/discussions about it in other forums. But to be honest, the only 'technical' VS threads are the ones here. Or any real VS threads. I don't ever recall Nintendo fans making specific VS threads to show off how much 'better the NES is comparison' - blah blah blah. The first VS threads I ever read were the ones here a couple of years ago. I don't remember anyone actively bringing up the 7800 just to bad mouth it in other forums. Then again, I limit myself to just a handful of forums. Atari Joe: Sorry your thread turned into something serious, but these kind always do after a while. Still, I thought the initial post and humor was funny. Sure, in name they couldn't. But the actual development of original or 'cloneish' titles would have been perfectly doable, no? Or am I maybe missing some important piece of information here (I think I am)? Atari software development side was a separate company from Atari that handled the 7800, right? IIRC, it was that the same game couldn't come out on another system if it had already come out on the NES (and.. something about 2 year grace period and it could). If that's the case, why didn't the simply jump ship to support the 7800? Was there more money to be made on the NES system for the games?

Wow, hate Nintendo much? I've seen your posts around the forum. Didn't some Nintendo kids kick the crap out of you as a kid or something? I can understand that there probably was some level of resentment towards Nintendo back then. Atari once a king, brought to its knees and almost forgotten while Nintendo became this incredible success. But that was soooo many years ago. Grown adults spitting bitter words nowadays, for nothing really more than toys of their childhood. This isn't specifically to you (The_Laird for example who can't quite keep himself from making snide remarks for any system he doesn't like, whenever he gets the chance), but quite a few members in general. It just seems by now, most people would have already ventured outside their beloved circle of choice to appreciate games on other systems, since - ... the war is long over with. It's not limited to AA, but man - it's much more intense here (or maybe it just a handful of members with reoccurring posts). It just seems silly to hold such intense resentment. That aside (and the main reason I responded), tell me what's superior about the 7800 over the NES in the context of that generation? I only have a general idea of how the video setup specifics, work. The devil is ALWAYS in the details, which is why I'm asking. What does it have that allows it to adapt beyond the 83/84 arcade era? Both arcade and home console/computer games were making the transition to scrolling detail map(tiles/tilemap) based games. I know it's been said the 7800 strengths lay in its object per screen handling, but what about other video aspects like high background detail and coupled with 8-way scrolling? NES hardware excelled at making it extremely easy handle both these tasks, and color management as well, for software developers. One recent interview with a NES UK developer compared the NES handling of these attributes a lot easier than even the Amiga (of their experience of a range of home computers). Nothing in the library gives any indication of superiority to the NES generations of games (the life cycle of the sytem). Homebrew is looking good, but nothing as of yet that makes NES look inferior or blows it away. Sound wise, I don't see how Pokey is superior to the NES APU. Have you looked at the APU in detail? It's a fairly advanced 8bit sound chip. Kind of incredible when you think that the NES originally came out in 1983.

The interview with Ste Pickford was great Heh, funny how RARE got credit for those games.

I took the 5200 screen capture and messed with the tint, contrast, and saturation. Not much. And then I skewed and gaussan blurred the image: http://www.pcedev.net/pics/vlcsnap-2011-02-28-08h01m35s188_2.png Looks pretty close. The one showing on the TV in the show/video itself, could very well have been post production work (maybe it didn't look right so they replaced it or was never there to begin with). It's pretty common when I did indie work a number of years back.

The Joust box in the shot is the 2600 one, right? The graphics in the game shown on the TV looks like the 5200 version (doesn't look like MAME or the 7800 version). And there's never a clean shot of the console. Here's an HD snapshot: http://www.pcedev.net/pics/vlcsnap-2011-02-28-08h01m35s188.png Yeah, there was some GI Joe stuff in one shot.

In about 1992-1993? Given that PC-Genjin appeared on the Amiga (and NES and GB) in EU as BC-kid, I'm little surprised he didn't get a port to the Lynx.

Just because a game might have some platforming elements, doesn't make it a 'platformer'. There are sub genre names specifically for these type of non 'pure' genre games. Run'n'gun is a very valid term. Bloody Wolf is nothing but an overhead Run'n'gun. Splatterhouse is not the very definition of a platformer. It has very little emphasis on 'platforming'. The game doesn't even scroll up or down, and relative to the huge size of your character and enemies - there are no platforms to jump to (it's not like Downland where there's no scrolling, but it's a platformer game). The relatively few holes you jump over in Splatterhouse, is about as close as you get to anything relative to a platforming game. The game puts almost all emphasis on attacking and dodging and almost nothing 'platforming'. I can't think of a single higher level platform in the game that you have to 'jump' to. The very definition of a platformer, it is not. You have a very simplistic/generalized way of looking at game genres. To the point where you're incorrectly describing their genre types/categories. All the more reason why your original statement is confusing then about the Kisado adapter and JP hucard games. Now we just need a homebrew Zaku inspired game on TG hucard Speaking of which, what system are you moving to next? 65x cpu based?

I thought the 7800 had a better realistic colors per scanline setup than the 5200. Maybe that's because of the higher number of objects doable per scanline? I remember the A8 being pretty limited on a scanline basis and isn't the 5200 pretty much the same thing video wise (what, some port is different locations or such)?

You said "Kisado hucard converter, or just buying a PC Engine to play the 'good' library of Japanese games.", nothing about CD softs. I agree with you about the CD part though. The system moved on to the CD format as the dominate game media fairly early in its life span. Something I don't think I've seen anywhere else gaming history like that. Then again, that was NEC's plan the whole time. PC-Engine by itself was just release as the 'core' system. The CD addon was in development at the same time as the PC-Engine and was planned to be a more complete setup. Bloody Wolf is a top view Run'n'Gun game. In no way is it a platformer. Splatter House is a side view Hack 'n Slash action game. Neither of those are 'platformers'. Bonk series is action-platformer, which is about as close as you'll get on the TG16 library. Actually, JJ & Jeff is a pure platformer. I've never heard anyone refer to Bloody Wolf or Splatter House as shallow. What's shallow about them? The number of arcade ports? Probably not, but there's more than just Raiden for arcade ports: Ninja Spirit Bloody Wolf Side Arms AeroBlasters R-Type Dragon's Spirit Ordyne Tiger Road Fantasy Zone Legend of Hero Tonma Splatterhouse Vigilante Space Harrier Samurai Ghost (Well, it's the sequel to the arcade game. But in the very same fashion/design) You mention arcade ports and Raiden in the same sentence, from my list of game and completely ignore R-Type? R-Type is a fantastic port of the arcade game, and the game itself destroys Raiden (arcade or otherwise) any day If he really knew the TG16 hucard library, I highly doubt he would refer to it as 'weak'. And that was comparative to itself, at that (as in general). Just because it's an opinion, doesn't automatically make it immune to criticism. And an opinion can be formed of ignorance.

Yeah... All the games I listed were Japanese designed/developed games. Looking over the Lynx library, I don't think there's a single Japanese designed game (oh wait, Ninja Gaiden/NG3/Toki. NG arcade version sucks though. The home console series is 100 times better). It's all western style games I guess if that floats your boat (I find them rather generic and stale overall, like most pre and non Japanese arcade games of that era). I guess it shouldn't surprise me that the bias leans that way though. This is an Atari centric forum, with almost all western designed games for all their systems. But to call the TG16 library weak? If all the titles I listed had Lynx ports, I know damn well people would be boosting about them in comparison to the other hand held systems (GB, GBC, NGP, GG). So the games are too good for a small high resolution screen? I'm not sure that really makes any sense. But I'm the opposite, the Lynx low resolution is a hard issue to over come. It's a 160 wide sure, but the LCD it wide itself. Relative scale, the GBC has better resolution than the Lynx. Even the GB. I know it was tech limitations relative to cost, but that aspect about the Lynx was the first thing that immediately stuck out BITD. It looked like a blocky pixelated mess. To get any sort of detail, they had to make the objects bigger. But then you have screen clutter/cramping. I never had that feeling on the GB/GBC (for the record, my friend owned a Lynx and I played a number of games on it). A shame really. I guess coming from the Lynx, playing the TG Express just has too much resolution for some people to handle