Zach

The short answer is, why not? The long answer is I wanted to set up a framework for future games, and more games are played on a 7x7 board than 7x6. One interesting result is a change in the advantage for red. On a 7x6 board, it has been shown that with perfect play, red can force a win. For 7x7, red can only force a draw. Source. Note that making unbeatable AI is beyond the scope of the project.

Here's a hint. It's impossible to get a horizontal or diagonal win without a piece in the center column.

That's a surprise. I have played both the multicart and the stand-alone version on my four-switch many times, and I did not see any shifting. Who else has played this on a console?

Of course you can put aside a little bit of money each month for a few years and make an offer for a used copy.

Nice work, Dave! I promise to be patient waiting for screenshots.

Pretty cool. An Atari game clock that is non-playable and only displays animation? Why does that sounds familiar?

How was your flight home, Chris? It has been my experience that jet-lag is more severe flying east than west.

The method for checking for 4 in a row is straightforward. A 49 byte block of RAM represents the board with one byte for each cell. Every time a new piece falls in, the computer scans the row, column, and two diagonal lines that intersect the piece's position. Of course it keeps a count of the number of pieces in a row it finds. Scanning the column is fastest because it only needs to check the 3 pieces immediately underneath. You're right about the vertical sync. I've seen z26 report 48 and 999 line frames, and the picture jumps badly on my TV. The 265 line frames are not bad; in fact Video Chess displays the same number of lines during its thinking state.

The graphics are impressive, Manuel. If this had come out in 1982, people would have been skeptical that it was an Atari 2600 game. They would have figured Intellivison or something.

I just got my copy of the 2005 Minigame Multicart, along with the maunal. You did a great job with it, especially under the time constraints.

Of course there is likely to be a lull in your online orders until we hear more.

Of course. So every fourth position would be a missile instead of an 8. I guess you'd have to use the multi-sprite trick on the missiles too to get the correct spacing. It's nice that whoever decides to program Sudoku has options.

As always, I appreciate the comments. I realize the similarities to a popular maze game, yet there are enough differences to make this more than a knock-off. If I design it right, you won't be able to collect all the crystals within the time limit, and the challenge will be to pick up as many as you can. Also the worms will behave differently from enemies in other game. They will be invincible and non-lethal. Instead of chasing you, they will wander the maze on their own, and will just get in the way. Nice observation about Dune, Chris. I hadn't noticed any similarities before. The worms were inspired by the ubiquitous snake game. Yes, the bodies of the worms will be drawn wih a quad-width sprite, and working out the shapes will be the most challenging part of the kernel. Blacking out rows after the crystals are picked up would indeed add an extra challenge, but I figure Jack will be able to see just fine since he is carrying energy crystals. I've already got the design of this game worked out. In fact Catacombs of Mu is based on a DOS game I did a few years ago. I can post it when I get a chance to borrow a computer with a disk drive.

We could use the missiles for (thin) vertical lines and the playfield for horizontal lines. 971308[/snapback] I had considered that, but wouldn't the PF that covers part of the 8's also cover missiles?

That was fun to watch, Thomas. I might have learned something from it too.

Just a kernel demo, written in a short amount of time. I hope it is not hard to imagine what the player does. I edited the first post to make it more clear that the kernel doesn't do much.

You're not alone. Given a starting position, you could basically play Sudoku on this demo as-is. The trouble though is how to draw a grid. As great as Supercat's demo is, I think Robert M.'s 13 character display is better suited for Sudoku.

Very clever, John. [applause]

Marble Jumper is now available from AtariAge as part of the 2005 Minigame Multicart. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank cd-w, batari, and vdub-bobby for allowing this game to be included.

Glad you were able to come to Philadelphia for your holiday. Wow, your employer paid for part of the expenses? Those are some nice benefits. Or were you able to justify it as business? I can imagine the feeling of watching kids playing Hunchy II. That is truly the greatest reward of homebrewing - to watch someone enjoy your work.

mine too.

Don't worry. I totally understand the restrictions of a 1K game. It wasn't hard to picture Hunchy reuniting with Esmeralda in my head. Nice. As can be seen in the events forum, at least one person bought the 2005 Minigame Multicart and Hunchy II.

Hey cd-w, I've been having a lot of fun with Hunchy. After about four hours of effort, I finally found a way to clear the final level with the rope and two missiles.

As stated elsewhere, Marble Jumper is now finished and has been submitted to the 2005 Minigame Competition. It was also given the honor of a place in the 2005 Minigame Multicart along side such excellent games as Hunchy, Jetman, Nightrider, Rocket Command, Zirconium, and M4. It will be available for purchase from AtariAge at vgXpo Philadelphia this weekend, and online shortly thereafter. I've been programming for the VCS since early 2003, and this is my first published homebrew. Naturally, I'm excited.

Thanks for looking. Does the original Threshold work on your emulator? It takes a few moments for the sprites to appear after you press reset. If they still don't appear after that, try pressing reset a second time.