Zach

I'm pleased to report that Malagai arrived today, and I will be leaving positive feedback for James. I hope others get a chance to buy Malagai for less than an Xbox 360.

I consulted with Nathan about the worth of four extra pixels before doing the work. It's easy to appreciate the extra width the first time you see it on a TV. It'll be unlike anything you've seen before on a 2600. Furthermore, remember that an 8K and 32K game cost the same to publish, so in a sense, ROM is cheap.

I would have enjoyed hearing that. How did the audience react? Were most of them aware of homebrewing already?

I don't remember all the details, but I did study the BMP structure at one time. I remember that there is header data, pallette data, and finally graphics data. Clearly the pallette data will be longer for a 16 bit color image than an 8 bit one.

That's clever, supercat. Good thing I left it to your imagination before explaining the technique I used. If time permits, I'll make the logo a little wider.

I think I understand what you are saying. The technique you describe is for a bigger Four-Play logo, but not for a generalized 56-pixel bitmap. Correct?

Anyway, here is how the 52 pixel bitmap works. Supercat's description is pretty close; the missing detail is that you can use a combination of ENAM0, HMM0, and NUSIZ0 to create a two-pixel sprite with a missile. In order to free enough cycles to update all those registers, I use immediate addressing to load the data. That means that there is a separate block of code for each line. The 52nd pixel takes a lot of overhead, but if you are already bankswitching and don't need a full 32K, you've got the space for it. Note that the immediate addressing also means the shape and colors are static. The other issue Thomas brought up is what to do with the playfield. I use transposed symmetry, and leave a gap of 13 playfield blocks. The PF looks like this: 0000|00011111|11000000|0000|00011111|11000000 COLUBK is then changed twice per line. Here is an example of one line of code: ;Line 39 sta HMOVE lda #2 sta ENAM0 sta ENAM1 lda #0 sta ENABL lda #%00000011 sta NUSIZ0 lda #%00010000 ; player sprite 2 sta GRP1 lda #%10001001 ; player sprite 3 sta GRP0 lda #$1e sta COLUBK lda #%00011100 ; player sprite 4 ldy #%11100010 ; player sprite 5 ldx #%01100010 ; player sprite 6 sta GRP1 sty GRP0 stx GRP1 sta GRP0 lda #$00 sta COLUBK lda #0 sta HMM0 lda #%01100000 ; player sprite 1 sta GRP0 sta WSYNC I wrote a quick C program that converts a BMP file to ASM code. I'll post it after cleaning it up a bit.

How should that work? I think he's referring to the fact that the BL is a different color from the PF in "score" mode. One of Stella's more obscure quirks.

Uihjah... So did you just start playing video games after the NES heyday or did you skip it on purpose? I think my brother and I own/ed every popular video game system available in Germany We had an Atari 2600, but once my family bought an Atari 800, they didn't buy a dedicated game console again. Like today, I spent more time programming for fun than on games. Of course I could do both on the 800. I finally broke the trend in 2001 when I bought a Dreamcast.

You mean quad-width missiles, right? So on either side you could have a row of 4 pixels or no pixels. If I understand correctly, that would limit the shape of a 56-pixel bitmap.

Nice work, DanBoris. Have you tried Millipede yet?

I've never owned an NES, but I hear Metroid is popular. Nice work!

My bad, I thought the ICE, TGV, and other high-speed trains in Europe used magnetic leviation.

Düsseldorf and Berlin are on opposite sides of the country, right? Good thing you've got those magnetic trains over there. (Green with envy)

Someone's been reading about peak-oil. Yeah it crossed my mind that The Road Warrior is more realistic than generally regarded. You know it's serious when Bush, who has strong ties to the oil industry finally admits we're "addicted to oil". This is a man who six years ago criticized Al Gore for wanting to give tax breaks for hybrid vehicles. Seeing that people are becoming aware of the problem, I have hope that we can find a way out of this mess. (BTW let's avoid getting addicted to nuclear power in the process.)

I've rearranged the list so that Four-Play is back at #1. I also intend to post a to-do list for finishing up Four-Play. Kirk's idea for a chess variant is pretty good. I'm considering moving chess up on the list.

Same here. What did you think of Mad Max? I like it, but the sequel is superior.

You're right, of course. I'm glad someone has heard of this movie. I could watch Jennifer Connelly sing "Sway" all day. Not many actresses will influence my decision to see a film, but she does. (Li Gong is another.)

Thanks, Fred. That's what I'm trying to prevent. Unfortunately the roll is more than slight on my TV. It's quite egregious.

This takes some skill as it's an 8K SARA chip (extended memory) game.

You just like hearing them shout "hard!", don't you? I watched a fair amount of curling when I was in Canada, but I still don't know the rules. With those brooms, it's the closest thing we've got to Quidditch. Nathan's Four-Play label is looking great, everyone. I'll probably ask him to debut it when the software is nearly finished, sometime before the summer. But if you have been following Nathan's blog, you can get a good idea what it looks like.

Thanks, Fred. I haven't had a reason to pull out the driving controller in a while. I just tried it on a Krokodile Cart. I tried all four difficulty switch positions. The fast car is difficult to control, and the slow car is very easy. Otherwise, no problems. And kudos to Kroko for making the KC multicart menu compatible with the driving controller.

After months of unemployment, I just started a new job with the California Center for Innovative Transportation, so I get to help research better ways to get from point A to point B, something we all care about.

Has anyone ever told you you're too smart for your own good?

I was surprised by that. Pleasantly surprised.