r_type2600

I have a couple of ideas, hope at least some make sense / are practical: - the addition of paddles and their layout is neat. Would it be possible to offer different sizes for each player as a handicap / game progress feature? - is it possible to have different sized balls for each player? The idea then would be to shrink the ball when a player paddle misses the ball. I think that could be more challenging and exciting than changing the ball speed. Perhaps a combination of both? - I really like the idea of different color schemes, but it remains pretty much unmotivated atm, doesn't it? Suggestion: how about an ambiance effect with the colors gradually and smoothly changing during gameplay. That would be quite atmospheric and fit the game well, imo. Whenever I look at the screenshots/ play the game, I can't help think of Ying Yang and get some esoteric vibe

And the music is fantastic for the 2600. Intriguing and catchy. As memorable as MULE or Ballblazer on the 8-bit line. Sound effects also are spot on. One sound that should be added is for when the frog swallows the spider.

second that! The addition of the frog is great and (the timing of) his animation amazing. One suggestion: red, poisonous, flies to be avoided Would force the player to remain attentive. Perhaps it is possible to have 2 flies on the screen at once, one black, one red? Extra challenge for the player then to catch the black while avoiding hitting the red. Life at a pond is tough!

Thanks for the clarification - I understand your intention with the score reset now, and sure the max score on one try approach is a valid (and tried) path. Certainly is also motivating. But why give the player 3 tries in the same game? What does he gain from that? Just let him have this one try and it's game over right away then. The gamer can just start a new game if he wants to try another round. Much clearer and intuitive that way imo. Thanks for considering the greening the branch suggestion. A pity though that it was at the expense of the original two-colored flies - they had a lot of charm. Hmm, is it necessary to have a trunk to allude to the tree setting? Perhaps you could just extend the brown of the branch to one edge of the screen, and turn the current bottom green into a darker blue to evoke a "branch over pond" setting? And thus allow the return of the two-colored flies in the light blue "sky" area. Maybe worth a try?

I didn't see this yet brought up anywhere else in the forum, and it's exciting news if it turns true, so I hope it's ok to replicate below facebook posting here:

Really fun little game - smooth, fast, challenging, and addictive. Love the theme of the game too, indeed 'poetic' in its way. Would make for a great Spring season game! Title screen and music are perfect already. The game itself offers solid and entertaining gameplay, but has potential for much more long-term appeal imo. Perhaps I didn't get far enough to see enough of the game, but one could for instance think of different bugs with different behavior (speed, movement direction and motion, etc.). Some could be poisonous, others provide some bonus or short-lived power-ups. Perhaps there could be raindrops or such to bring some vertical challenge. Also, it's challenging, but a bit brutal I find. That the score gets set back to 0 if a bug manages to escape is harsh! 🙂 Aesthetically some green leaves on the sides of the branch would spice up the screen, and effectively allude to the intended scenery. It's not evident now that the brown area is supposed to represent a branch. I'd also suggest to switch back to the title screen after 10 seconds or so of the Game Over screen. Just some ad-hoc ideas. Really a lovely little game for now.

Great interview, love the commitment to get it right and capture the real Atari feeling. Also the (I understand) intention to only release games with new (or at least enhanced) content. Want: wireless controllers 🙂 an adaptation of the VCS (the 2019 PC-based console) wireless joystick would be a perfect fit for the 2600+ Very low priority: a 5200/8-bit adapter. Love the Atari 400/800/5200 line, one of the gaming platforms with the highest creative output ever, but let the 2600 (+) carry on and evolve its own iconic profile. No good and point turning it into a mish-mash emulate-all platform, with lessening profile and consequently relevance. The 2600 community will be much better served if Atari focuses its resources on new, good, games and additional controller options.

Ben, maybe you could add the update (and instructions) to your first post, as that's where most will check for it and your initial (and this) posting of the update will easily be overlooked within all the thread pages and you'll then continue to get requests for it. Cheers, and thanks for your and your team's work and commitment to continue optimizing the 2600+ experience.

Great to see so many newcomers to the scene, passionate about the right and full 2600 experience. It may have got lost somewhere in this (or another) long thread, but I believe Ben from Plaion has already acknowledged the manual issue, and indicated that one will be included with all future 2600+ game releases from Atari.

I would be thrilled to see 2600 demakes/downports of "memorable" (in their specific way) Atari Jaguar originals such as Kasumi Ninja or Crescent Galaxy. With the emphasis on 'ports as I think in the right hands (e.g. some of the proven homebrew programmer, graphic and sound artists of this forum) and with sleeker and better gameplay, these could easily be converted into actual fun games. Give their silly settings and graphics a more appropriate home on the VCS!

StellaGate

How about "Stellactic" or "Stellaxy" or "Stellaga" - sure would be fitting this project's impact 🙂

I don't think that in practice this would really affect many people. Newcomers to the classic games scene would not own / have easy access to 7800 carts anyway, so that issue would hardly give them headaches. Retrogamers such as us would already have the necessary controllers to be able to play 7800 games. (unless you're solely collecting for the shelf and didn't get hold of 7800 controllers before, but then it wouldn't bother you anyway that you can not play the games.) So I think it is a bit exaggerating to conceive this as an issue. However what Atari could and should do is to release a "CX-78+ bundle" packing an Atari 2-button joypad with a combi-cart sporting 2-4 of its 7800 games, akin to the Paddle-bundle. That would warrant that newcomers could get the full 7800 experience, and longtime collectors easier availability of an Atari joypad.

Confirm that this also worked for me just now.

The new artwork is another step in the right direction. Of course the original Outlaw artwork remains a classic, but if Atari wants to regain some identity in the 2020 decade, they definitely have to push for some new looks. And not only new looks but also some noteworthy new content (such as Omegamatrix' beautiful menus, AI for one player games, and perhaps some new game variations). That would really make such purchases justifiable then. In the long run, they should really also strive to come up with a distinct new general box design for all-new original games, but I don't mind them picking up on the silver box look for such "collectors" reissues. A dozen or so such XP games, with Bill Butcher cover and added content sure would find its audience then. And yes, it would be better if they would add the XP moniker to the official title to distinguish them better from the original release: Outlaw XP, Super Breakout XP, Indy 500 XP, etc..

This really. That would give so much more credibility to their current practice of just rehashing the very same old games. Take Outlaw for example - I hope that they are aware of Omegamatrix' fantastic work on menu updates, and coordinate with him to use his version for that new XP Outlaw release.

It's a huge shame that the advent of this marvelous new game for the 2600 has been torpedoed by some despicable rat(s). I trust that genuine 2600 aficionados will still purchase the game anyway (especially as a physical release) in support of the programmer, but the true economic potential of the game has likely already be compromised by this theft. Hopefully Atari finds an adequate remedy to this very annoying issue. Maybe they could then relaunch it with a substantial amount of additional levels (perhaps 10, 20) so to give enough incentive for most, casual, gamers to still buy it.

Unless the game programs themselves have any added value, the whole promotion remains a collector milking exercise, unfortunately. If they'd beef up the roms a bit and include an in-game menu (like the great omegamatrix ones) or some trivia on-cart (programmer credit, game history or such) there would at least be some superficial novelty to these re-releases.

Little known early (1990) Techno-Rap song from Falco made heavy use of the Mega ST in the album production and its official video: Falco - Data de Groove

Has anyone ever seen any other 84 variation box than Joust? I've seen (demo/proto?) carts for several of the early games with a fitting label (Centipede and Galaga come to mind) but so far only the Joust box with this cool design.

Hadn't noticed this one before. Great that you have picked it up again - it looks really promising. I love the tank chains animation, but wonder if you could shorten the main tank body by one line on each side, so that the chains would stand out a bit? That could reduce the current overall square appearance of the sprites. I'm also impressed that all 4 sprites seem to be horizontally bi-colored! Where do you want to push this gameplay-wise? A port/interpretation of one of those early tank battle arcade games (such as Tank Battalion on No Man's Land) would be great, but one could also see the potential for a 4 player game using Quadtari :)

Delete.

Very cool effect. It is those, seemingly unnecessary, "fun bits" that add personality to a game and playing it an experience. ?

Thanks for posting the video. Really original and nice colors scheme, and the parallax scrolling is cool, and smart.

On the Phantom Gardener animation: I love it, like most, and I also find its pace quite natural and fitting. On the other hand the break does indeed disrupt from the gameplay flow. But I think there's a simple solution to this dilemma, which actually might even turn it into an additional gameplay feature: Let Tober start his rush down in parallel to the Gardener's animation, with the fence gate opening from the side the gardener enters the screen. Shall Tober be able to reach the pumpkins area before the Gardener finished the watering, two possible effects: either the gardener then just quickly finishes his job and rushes off. Or, even better, Tober gets a chance to catch the gardener for bonus points. An additional twist then (but not sure if technically possible) would be to have any yet unwatered hole grow a special, more powerful legume. A purple pumpkin, or carot, or whatever fitting with the Halloween theme. That special legume would distinguish itself from the regular orange pumpkin by the ability to hit several enemies in a row before busting.