Atarius Maximus

I just thought I'd throw in my "Holy !@#$!" too. Amazing work!

It could be useful to add a software section to your list as well. A great place to find pretty much any flavor of DOS you'd like to run is here: WinWorld Operating System Library And of course the MS-DOS software library on Archive.org: MS-DOS Internet Archive I use PCem often: GitHub - PCem WinImage is a nice piece of software to read and create IMG floppy disk images. Great if you've got a Gotek drive. WinImage

Nice, Karl! I've got so many DOS PC's! I'll have to take the time to take some pictures and set a few more up that haven't been used for a while. It'll be fun to document all that and share pictures here once I take the time to do that. The Book 8088's are really cool. I've got two of them, one with CGA (version 1) and one with VGA (Version 2 with serial and parallel), and I added an 8087 to the CGA model. Both have an 8088 rather than the NEC processor. I've done some searching online and there are people who have modded them to use an external keyboard, something I may try to do in the future. There's also a resistor that can be swapped out to increase the brightness of the display. Definitely a cool hobbyist platform.

Here's my current setup for DOS gaming when I'm not using DOSBOX. I've got an IBM PS/1 486 DX2/66, a Compaq Deskpro Pentium II-400Mhz, and a Commodore Colt 8088.

I've found myself wishing in the past that AtariAge had a dedicated forum under Classic Computing for DOS related games and game development. I think it would be a good fit for the user base here as it's from the same era, and I know I would be a contributor to a forum like that. Would you consider that, Al?

RevEng just shared a RMT playback fix that allows for the music that H3xaFli6ht created to be played at the proper PAL speed, this version includes that fix. I also changed the menu system for Drone Bomber once the paddle is activated. After activating the paddle, only the "start" and "exit" options are available, and exiting the game to the Drone Patrol main menu will automatically re-enable the joystick. Spin the paddle to select start or exit. The instructions option is only available when the joystick is active, and of course once you activate the paddle the option to activate it is also removed from the menu. I played Drone Bomber with the paddle for a while again today and it works great. I should have put paddle support in there from the very beginning! drone_patrol_v84_RC5.a78 drone_patrol_v84_RC5.bin

I really appreciate the feedback, thanks for sharing your opinion. At this stage of development it would be very difficult to add that in due to RAM and ROM constraints, as well as how I've balanced the difficulty in the boss battles. At this point the gameplay is set. I'm not going to be making any more changes, I'm just focused on bugfixes now. I mentioned in a previous post that I had relocated the plotsprite4 assembly code and that did in fact cause an issue that I just caught. It only affected the easter egg/hidden game, and it's been fixed. drone_patrol_v82_RC4.a78 drone_patrol_v82_RC4.bin

See the previous post for details on this release. This fixes the issue with trying to switch back and forth between the paddle and joystick within the drone bomber game. In this version, once you select the paddle it's set for that session of drone bomber - deactivating it will reset to the Drone Patrol main menu and automatically revert back to joystick control. drone_patrol_v81_RC3.a78 drone_patrol_v81_RC3.bin

This version makes another difficulty change. On the easy and standard difficulty levels, the second stealth plane that moved from left to right was removed from Boss 8. I also added paddle support to the Drone Bomber game. Playing with a paddle makes the game SO much more fun! On the Drone Bomber menu, you'll see a new option available that displays "activate paddle". Press the fire button on that option and it will change to "paddle active". After the screen displays "paddle active", it will display a message that you must exit the game in order to re-activate the joystick. If you press the paddle button while you're on the "paddle active" menu option, the game will reset to the Drone Patrol main menu and re-enable the joystick (the same as choosing the "exit" option). Once the menu says "paddle active" unplug the joystick and plug in the paddles. The menu will now be navigable by spinning the paddle to get to the different options (start, exit, instructions, and controller selection). Spin it until you see "start game" to start. This unfortunately ruins the game's couch compliance, but it's worth getting up for! Note that the instructions screen itself once loaded is not navigable with the paddle, you'll only be able to view and exit from the first page. Also, the menu option that's visible on-screen is based on the hardware location of the paddle wheel. It might immediately move to a different menu option when you plug in the paddle, and when the game ends the first menu option you see will be based on wherever your paddle is located in its rotation. You might see any of the four options first. When you exit Drone Bomber to the main menu of the game, the joystick is automatically re-enabled. Because of the addition of paddle control the game as it was previously was much too easy. I ramped up the difficulty to accommodate the paddle controls by increasing the speed progression, changing the movement pattern of the enemy mega-drone that drops the bombs, adding two additional levels, and reducing the size of the drones. This makes the game a lot more fun with the paddle, but as a consequence makes it much more difficult with the joystick. Now that it's in-place, I highly recommend playing Drone Bomber with the paddle controller, although you can use either. Drone Bomber been tested on real hardware and works as expected, although it was only about 10 minutes of testing. On the technical side, in order to accommodate paddle control I had to relocate the plotsprite4 code as I was out of space in the 7800basic reserved area. That immediately broke the Music Player, which I've fixed. I'm hoping it didn't mess anything else up, but it shouldn't have. I will need to do some more testing of the main game just to make sure. Edit: The next post has the latest update that fixed I bug I found in this release.

Watching Home Run Baseball on ZPH, it was obvious pretty quick that I had the joystick controls reversed for defense on the 2 Player game. This fixes that. I'd never played on real hardware, and playing with A7800 in emulation it didn't occur to me that it was reversed. home_run_baseball_v0.2.a78 home_run_baseball_v0.2.bin

Thank you! That was my favorite variation too. I didn't create any variations in this version of the game. I just chose the options I liked best, including the pitch that you can control.

Thanks James, but keep in mind that Baseball Dice really isn’t a game yet… you press the fire button, watch the dice roll results, and then see the incorrect results on the screen. That’s about it.

I love baseball. Last summer I started writing another game based on baseball dice. I made some good progress, but the game logic is broken. This game does not work as intended. I thought I'd share it anyway as maybe sharing it will inspire me to continue to work on it. This game is really rather pointless in that you just press the button to roll the dice and see what happens. The screen is intended to simply display what you would otherwise have just written down on paper if you were playing an actual game of baseball dice. It was a fun project that I just never completed. Baseball Dice Rules: baseball_dice_v0.1.a78 baseball_dice_v0.1.bin gfx_bbdice.zip baseball_dice_v0.1.bas

Thanks Guys. This game could be improved and expanded in many different directions, I'm going to have to think about what I might want to do with it. Maybe nothing, I'll just have to wait for some inspiration. I'm going to go ahead and share the source code and graphics for this game as the goal with this one was just to have fun and share the results. gfx_homerun.zip home_run_baseball_v0.1.bas

This game was designed to be similar to Home Run for the 2600. It's not exactly the same but it's pretty close. Why clone a game that was mostly unloved? I played the two player version of this game so much with my Dad as a kid and we loved it. So much fun, so many memories. It makes me smile just seeing it on the screen. I haven't played it enough to make sure everything is perfect, and I know the sound effects need work, but the game is perfectly playable as it is now. You can play against the computer or start a 2 player game. This was a fun side project I started a few weeks ago as I was also finishing up with Drone Patrol. I may work on this some more as time goes on but I thought it would be fun to share it in its current state. v0.2 Fixes the reversed joystick controls in the 2 player game. home_run_baseball_v0.2.a78home_run_baseball_v0.2.bin home_run_baseball_v0.1.a78 home_run_baseball_v0.1.bin

This version fixes the spelling errors in the mission briefing and the high score bug that was identified in the ZPH broadcast. drone_patrol_v0.78_RC2.a78 drone_patrol_v0.78_RC2.bin

Phoenix was also a favorite of mine, one of my friends had the 2600 cart when I was young. It looks great Mike!

Thanks for playing Drone Patrol last night, James! I now know of a few changes that need to be made, and it was great watching someone else play. There are a few spelling errors in the mission briefing and a high score bug in the easter egg mini-game, and those are easy fixes. They'll be corrected in the next update. As promised attached is the ZeroPage Homebrew logo source code and graphics I used for the special version of the game used on the ZPH broadcast. Anyone is welcome to use this for a future project, I just thought it would be cool to add for the show. It won't be in the final release of the game. zeropage_logo.tar zeropage_logo.a78

I'll probably pick one up eventually, but I really don't need one. They are currently $129.99 USD on Amazon. I'd probably jump on one if it ever drops below $80, even if it's just as a display piece.

I just thought I'd clear this up, I found this thread in a search when I was looking for my original post. Drag Race is a graphical hack of Activision's Dragster that I posted on the AA forums in April 2003, the original thread is here. It's otherwise identical to Dragster. I didn't know that it was going to be included. Also, AA User KevinMos3 updated my hack in 2009 and filled in the cars with solid colors. You can find that thread here.

A few minor bugfixes in this version. I'm ready to call this Release Candidate 1. drone_patrol_v77_RC1.a78 drone_patrol_v77_RC1.bin

For anyone that might be struggling a little bit with the game's difficulty, I threw together some gameplay hints and tips based on how I play the game. Minimize your time in the air to clear a level faster Level progression is based on the number of points you score. You reach the first boss after reaching 5,000 points, the second at 10,000 points, and every boss after that in 10,000 point increments. I try and focus the most on the bottom row of enemies as they will give you the most points, and the faster you score points the faster you'll get to the next boss. Minimizing the amount of time you're in the air will increase your chances of clearing the level and getting to the boss, so move fast and target the higher value enemies first. Always know where the medical vehicle is The medical vehicle will appear on all three rows at the bottom, and it changes rows when it reaches the far side of the screen. Know where it is, and focus your attention on the other rows when it's present. Hitting it with your laser quickly depletes your shield. I generally avoid trying to make "close call" shots near it. Focus your attention on key areas of the screen It's a fast paced game and there's a lot going on at once, so knowing where to focus your attention can make a big difference. I rarely look at the status bar or the scrolling text when I'm playing. Having an AtariVox plugged in will help here, as it will notify you when you're low on shield power or laser power. Most of the time I'm only looking at the crosshair and the drone & missiles with my peripheral vision. Time the missiles I will keep track of the missiles and time my up & down movement accordingly. When they pass you in the early levels, for example, you have about 5 seconds to track and shoot enemies before they are a danger again. If you know you have a few seconds of safe time, you can focus purely on placing the crosshair and making accurate shots. Don't scroll too far If you scroll too far to the right, the laser cannon will appear at the top of the city. It has a deadly beam and it's hard to avoid it when you're frantically trying to take out tanks and soldiers. Scroll a bit in other direction until it goes back offscreen. Limit your left and right movement and it will stay safely off-screen. Don't be afraid to take a hit Getting hit head on by a missile can cost you a lot of shield, however getting hit by a falling bomb does much less damage. If you're low on shield power you'll want to be careful to avoid all hits, but if you're doing well, don't worry as much about the bomber plane. Also, there's no harm in finishing a level with very little shield power remaining, you will receive a full shield recharge every time you clear a level and beat that level's boss. Don't forget the smart bomb! Especially in the later levels, you can use the smart bomb to clear all of the enemies at the bottom of the screen AND receive all the points for them as if you'd destroyed them with your laser. If you're really close to the boss and low on shield power, using a bomb can put you over the edge in points to clear the level and get to the boss. That's really what it's intended use is. You only get three per mission, so use them wisely. Activate it with the right fire button. You can quickly view how close you are to the next boss with the progress bar at the top of the screen. Boss Battles Some boss battles have a safe zone that you can hover in and never get hit. Find those spots! A few of the bosses are also designed to require a little patience - constantly swooping in will result in a quick death. Don't rush it! Remember that in boss battles your laser power is unlimited, however your shield cannot be recharged once the battle starts. Some of the bosses also follow pretty predictable patterns, if you find a safe zone and watch for a bit you might find a way to take it out a little easier. Also, in an earlier post I shared some password cheat codes. You can practice or test your skills on each boss with a password, although only on the easy difficulty level. The real challenge awaits you in a full playthrough.

Well, in my last attempt to make a playthrough video I made it up to the eighth boss. I was really close, he only had 7HP left when I bit the dust. I'll try again soon. Here's the latest WIP build. I've made some adjustments to the difficulty to try and balance it out a little more and added a bit more AtariVox speech. I'm done with speech now as I ran out of room in the shared banks. Fixed some typos & sprite issues in the mission briefing area Add "press fire to continue" prompt in drone bomber after losing a drone "bucket" and when the game ends Difficulty Adjustments: Changed Boss 4 battle so the right talons move up the screen more slowly, giving more time to hover and shoot Reduced Boss 4 from 450 HP to 400 HP on Standard Difficulty Reduced boss 7 from 550 HP to 500 HP on Standard Difficulty Reduced boss 8 from 550 HP to 450 HP on Standard Difficulty Adjusted Boss HP to vary based on difficulty level: Boss HP Easy Std Adv Expert Boss 1 250 300 350 400 Boss 2 400 500 550 600 Boss 3 400 450 500 550 Boss 4 300 400 450 500 Boss 5 500 650 700 750 Boss 6 400 500 550 600 Boss 7 400 500 550 600 Boss 8 300 450 500 550 Boss 9 500 600 650 700 Boss 10 800 1000 1100 1200 More speech added: I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that. (When easter egg is found and loaded) Go Ahead, Make my day! (Used in place of "they drew first blood") at beginning of level 7 Password Entry (Used when launching password screen) Mission Briefing (Used when launching mission briefing screen) Thank You (Used when launching credits screen) I've done everything I wanted to do with this game at this point so the next update will likely be a final release candidate. At this point I'm only focusing on squashing bugs and making minor tweaks around difficulty and difficulty progression. I'm still open to any and all feedback. drone_patrol_v76.a78 drone_patrol_v76.bin

I was working this morning on making a full playthrough video and ran into a bug. On the transition to boss 7, something was draining my health while the drone was offscreen and destroyed it before the boss even appeared. I disabled collision detection during the transition screen which should correct it. That's the only change in this version. It looks like it's going to take about an hour of gameplay to get to and beat the final boss, so playing and testing this game is rather time consuming. After playing again this morning I think I might make some adjustments to the fourth boss battle. It's a bit different than the others in that it requires much more patience, there are very limited "safe" times to swoop in and take a shot. It's pretty hard overall for an earlier battle. drone_patrol_v75.a78 drone_patrol_v75.bin

Sorry to hear you've got the flu. Glad you're still well enough to play some games, but don't forget to take some breaks to rest! Thanks for the feedback, glad it's looking & sounding good to you. I'll have to work on another video playthrough myself and hopefully beat the game while I'm recording. Let me know if you think any particular part of the standard game is too difficult or could benefit from a change here or there. I can also share some general gameplay tips, especially on the bosses, after I do another playthrough myself.