Zach

Congratulations on finishing a fun game!

I found out that one of the traditional Russian songs used in other implementations of the game is called Korobeiniki. Certainly it seemed old enough to be public domain, but it appears to be trademarked, in the US at least. (See ELORG Company at the bottom of the page.) I'm surprised that a song that someone wrote 150 years ago could be trademarked. The good news is that there is still a lot of public domain Russian music.

I thought it was consensual bondage-play.

Thanks Bob. Hopefully I'll be able to do some coding in the future, but I've got other things to take care of these days. It turns out that even though 2600 programming is difficult, not programming when you've got a good idea is even tougher.

I've been busy making an applet of Catacombs of Mu. Since it's an original game, I thought it would be a good idea to try out the gameplay before doing any 6502 coding. I'm aware that there are bugs, and am not looking for bug reports at this time. Also, I probably will tweak the gameplay. I just wanted to show you what I've been working on: http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/~matleyz/mu/mu.html p.s. The game flickers more on some systems than others. Now I understand why most Java applet games have a small width and height.

While we're on the subject, why do we call LSR a logical shift and ASL an arithmetic shift? AFAIK they both just shift the bits and save the overflow into the carry bit. I've never noticed any difference other than direction.

That's way too many unannounced homebrews. Thanks for your continued interest in Chetiry; it increases the odds of my getting back to it when I can.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm not going to have much time for Atari programming this year. I'm posting the source to the demo, in case anyone wants to pick it up. There are two source codes in the zip. One is playable but uses RAM+ bankswitching (same demo as posted earlier), and the other uses standard memory, but is unplayable. Also one uses PHP and the other uses SHX for clearing VBLANK. There are a few notes provided on the pros and cons of each approach. Maybe I'll get it back to it later, but in case I don't I hereby release this code for other programmers. I trust that if anyone finishes it, they will give credit where it is due. chetiry_source_28Mar07.zip

Wow. You've been busy, Bob!

Thanks John. I must give credit to Fred Quimby for the snow effect in the title screen, and to you, John for the idea of using the multi-sprite trick on the title border.

Sympathy vote for SHX. It is actually likely to end up in my latest project, as soon as I'm convinced it's completely safe. BTW: I like the term bonus much better than illegal.

Thanks for testing. You might have better luck with RAM+ bankswitching (same as Mountain King and other 12K CBS games.) I'm particularly interested in results from the Krok Cart because of trouble I'm having with my own. Maybe I should have used a surge protector with my KC.

That title did cross my mind, but I still like "Chetiry". Note the similarity to the Greek-derived prefix "Tetra". Plus it's easier to fit on a title screen. If there is enough interest in NIRB, I may reconsider my decision.

Four-Play? Wow, thanks! If Four-Play gets on a poll, so should Conquest of Mars.

Seventy downloads so far. Has anyone tried on a Krok Cart yet?

It depends on whether Toyshop Trouble counts as a 2006 or 2007 game.

Reindeer Rescue Hunchy 2 Conquest of Mars LadyBug Toyshop Trouble

There are at least a handful of people in my country who have heard of Modern Talking.

Once you reach the top of a pit and are back on the ground screen, move away from the pit southward. Make sure you are completely clear before letting go of the button.

Welcome aboard! One tip for dealing with the FBI agent: don't go picking up phone parts until you know the location of the three parts, the phone home point, and the landing pad.

Hm, I wonder if eventually someone finds a good use for that. I was just thinking this morning, could you use INC ENAM0 to create a three-pixel long missile? (and would that ever be useful?)

What's even weirder is the behavior of INC and some other opcodes. They seem to change VBLANK twice, first clearing it for a cycle, and then setting it again. See above. I suspect that this behavior has been studied before, based on the fact that both z26 and Stella appear to emulate it accurately.

It's not that I don't like it. I'm just not sure what you mean. Do you mean like the early Atari games? Or like some of the first homebrews? Why would this particular game be a "good candidate"?

Good idea about scrambling, Manuel. Thanks! Thanks to everyone who replied so far. My first motivation for this project came because the other VCS versions of this game are hard to find. Authorized copies are even more elusive. I have the utmost respect for the early homebrewers who came before me, but with the growth in homebrewing knowledge since then, the time seemed ripe for a new version of this game. I have ambitious plans to improve on this demo and make a nice polished game. I am building a dream list of features I want to add, aside from the obvious things like blocking wrap-around, and showing the next piece. Flashing effects for clearing a row, and even flashier effects for clearing four rows (Chetiry!). Lots of sound effects, including maybe the AtariVox. Lots of public domain Russian music. Cutscenes with Russian landmarks and characters. High score recording with the AtariVox or SaveKey. Different game variations. Once again this is an ambitious list. Even getting the demo to work as-is with standard RAM will take a lot of work. Unfortunately I won't have time to get to it all right away. I've put aside a lot of Real Life to work on Four-Play and Toyshop Trouble, and I need to get caught up. Remember that homebrewing is a slow process, and be patient. Please don't be offended if there isn't enough room for everyone's ideas in the project.

Thanks for the idea, Thomas! I did try DEC, and while it did clear VBLANK it seems to do it a cycle earlier than SHX, or even a regular LDA #0, STA VBLANK. I've attached a screenshot on top so you can see what I'm talking about. I don't think I can afford to delay DEC VBLANK for a cycle. I also tried INC, ASL, LSR, ROL, ROR, DCP, and ISB, and all of them seem to change VBLANK early.