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Andrew Davie

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Posts posted by Andrew Davie

    Movie Cart

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    3 hours ago, groundtrooper said:

    If this is an official list then mark me as interested in one also. If not, just ignore me and everyone before me. ;)

     

    Third option: you didn't make the cut and there are only enough units for everyone before you.

    • Haha 1

    Trade: Wen Hop prototype for agency - sorted, TY.

    in Buy, Sell, and Trade

    Posted

    I want to buy myself a calculator (https://www.numworks.com/buy/) but they do not ship to Australia. I'm looking for someone reliable who would be interested in a trade. The proposal is that that person acts as my "agent" - I would purchase the calculator and have it shipped to you in the USA. You then pack/post to me here in Oz.  In return for this service/agency, I am offering one of my "Wen Hop" prototype boards. There were 10 made; I would pay the postage of that prototype to you; you pay the postage of the calculator to me (which as a rough estimate would be US$25 give or take).  So, for that amount and your time, you'd be effectively trading for one of the prototypes.

    Prototype is a functioning version of Wen Hop which, although "playable" is really just a proof of concept showing the game engine working on actual hardware.  You plug it in, it runs, you get to see the title screen and play a few levels that demonstrate the technology in operation.  Naturally for this to work you need to live in the USA and have a good community reputation.
    See 

     

    • Like 1

    Constants in vcs.h

    in General

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Nostalgic said:

     

    I'm curious as to why these, or something similar, hasn't been adopted in the files that come with DASM.  Or if there are constants that are widely used, what are they?

     

     

    No particular reason, except perhaps the register names were set in stone by original documentation, but names for the bit fields were not necessarily so.

    Improvements/updates welcome.  It's a good idea that would make code more readable.

    • Like 1

    Built in Atarivox possible?

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    22 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

    Not to mention that since the Atarivox' volume can be adjusted manually, there is a fair amount of wiggle room on the resistor value.

     

    Obviously, every machine is going to be different - but in the example of my 7800 that @-^CrossBow^- referred to, the audio output's going through a 6.8KΩ resistor.  It was pretty easy to dial in at that resistance to get a good audio mix between the TIA and the Atarivox, but other values may be preferable.  Starting with 10KΩ and descending from there is a good idea.

     

    The programmer in me would do a binary search on that ideal resistor value :) 

    • Like 2

    Which bankswitching should I use?

    in Atari 2600 Programming

    Posted

    1 hour ago, bent_pin said:

    The only tiny drawback that I see to using any non-ZP RAM is that store register takes 4 clocks. My kernel depends on ZP write speeds to modify itself each scanline. So, it still has to run from ZP. However, I can move all of my variables out of ZP and leave a minimum of 15 bytes for the stack. Since the read/load from non-ZP RAM is the same as a ROM read/load, I think that will work perfectly.

     

    Consider using the macros presented in the 3E+ discussion linked above, which provide "local" variables and reuse of zero-page through an automated "overlay" system. I found it most useful in some of my coding. Takes a little to get your head around it, but it guarantees no overlap in usage (=crashes) and also makes your zero page seem HUGE.  :). Just sayin.

    • Thanks 1

    RAM Defragmenter

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    2 hours ago, stepho said:

    I'm a bit late to the party - oh well...
    @Andrew Davie's bit twiddling reminds me of DEC's radix50 method to pack 3 characters (selected from a set of 40) in 16 bits. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_RADIX_50
    Relies on cheap multiplication to pack them and cheap division to unpack them.
    Packed format was essentially char*40*40+char2*40+char3
    Each character takes log(40)/log(2) = 5.32 bits.
    I used it on an ARM project a couple of years ago where I had to send text in very small radio packets between 2 devices. The reduced character set was adequate for my purposes.

     

    Yes, essentially the same thing. But instead of requiring ALL digits to be selected from 40 values, my implementation allowed (say) the first digit to be selected from 10 (using log(2)10 bits, and the second to be selected from (say) 17 (using log(2)17 bits), etc.  So the packing is. char1 * 17 * 10 + char * 10 + char3.  That is, "mixed radix".  Same basic principle though. For some time I thought I'd "invented" it. But in any case I look back on it and think "hey, that was pretty smart". Doubt I could come up with something like that these days :)

     

    Wen hop? The Search for Planet X

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    Literally an hour or so ago, I got an unexpected package from @batari.  I had asked a while ago for some test/prototype boards to be burned with a WenHop binary, just to confirm it works on actual hardware and to have myself a small batch of "the real thing".  Well, they arrived... and they work.  Not only that, but they look absolutely gorgeous runnning on my TV.  There are 10 boards; I thought I'd get extra because I don't know why. Just seemed like a good idea. You can just see "proto" and the date of binary at the bottom of the title screen. The video doesn't really do it justice; to the eye this looks way way better, with none of the flicker or shimmmer. Almost a solid colour screen.  Did I say way better than I'd imagined/hoped?  Way better; almost perfect. Anyway, am inspired enough to post the video, although I am not working on this game at the moment. The video shows the occasional screen roll glitch, and it's not a complete game of course. But it works. And it's gorgeous.  I'm very happy.

    PS: The board has "AtariAge" stencilled on, but is actually nothing to do with Al or AtariAge. I'll scrub the stencil off, probably. They were just spare boards that were lying around when manufactured.

     

    PPS: This binary was from before I implemented the smoother rock movement/falling. Maybe I should do another "run" to represent the "final" version; it's sufficiently improved.
     

     

    • Like 16

    slower-paced or strategy Atari 2600 games?

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    On 1/23/2023 at 12:18 PM, bigmessowires said:

    What are some good examples of slower-paced Atari 2600 games, ones that mostly emphasize strategy and planning over fast joystick reflexes? Adventure is the first one that jumps to my mind. Yes you'll need to race to fight the dragons and avoid the bat, but most of the game is exploration, mapping, and working out clues. Any kind of puzzle game would certainly fit in this category too. I would love to see something in the spirit of Civilization or SimCity for the 2600. What slower-paced Atari games have you enjoyed?


    My own game, 'Qb' could be classified as an action/puzzler. It does involve some rudimentary strategy to play it well, and definitely doesn't need fast joystick reflexes. Just some solid planning/thinking, in a simple sort of way that's not taxing on the brain.

    • Like 1

    Store publisher profile page

    in AtariAge Store Discussion

    Posted

    Just now, bent_pin said:

    It's going in my collection and eventually my museum. I'll just have to wait until December of next year for more carts. Do you sell you work as ROMs? I just purchased an Encore.

     

    All of my work has so far been released as free binaries.  Except for the tentative "Boulder Dash 2", which has IP belonging to BBG Entertainment.  You'll find binaries of my work in the various threads I have posted in-progress versions.  I don't anticipate adding to what's available now. Not for a while, anyway and even then in some different form where I retain some control over my work.

    • Like 1

    ebay BD/scalpers

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    15 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

    You seem to be finding a way forward though.  Developing your own titles and working with AtariAge who can publish basically on demand (keeping the flippers at bay).

     

    Until recently, true enough. Nowadays I'm just really down about the whole situation, as I perceive it, in our community. 

    • Like 1

    INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: David Paige (Atari VCS Marketing and Development) & Bob DeCrescenzo (Atari 7800 Developer)

    in Discussion

    Posted

    16 hours ago, Nathan Strum said:

     

    You'll find a lot of skeptics amongst Atari fans. I'm one of them. Atari has been badly mismanaged repeatedly over the decades, and has in many cases caused irreparable harm to their reputation and damaged relationships with those fans that grew up buying and playing Atari games. What has changed? What makes the current management at Atari better than what came before, and what are Atari's plans moving forward, that should make fans and skeptics alike believe that this iteration of Atari is any different? 

     

    I am reminded of my interaction with Atari's legal people some years ago regarding my (ex) domain 'atari2600.org'.
    I'm one of those skeptics. Big time.

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