bongomeno

March 4, 2015

Thank you I will have some fun with those links.

February 28, 2015

Thank you! I will download these games after work.

February 28, 2015

Thank you for the reply, it was helpful.

February 28, 2015

I have also been looking for good real time stratrgy games to play on my 1020stfm. Any suggestions? I am a fan of Age of Empires and would enjoy something similar. The following games look fun, but I cannot find dumps. Any help finding them would be appreciated.

Conquest

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-conquest_8978.html

Conquest II The Viking Hordes

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-conquest-ii-the-viking-hordes_28847.html

Biohazard

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-biohazard_8721.html

Dark Side

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-dark-side_9072.html

Dark Sat

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-dark-sat_9074.html

Conquest of Japan

http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-st/conquest-of-japan

While downloading games from Atarimania, I noticed that most of the files are in .stx format. As I understand it, this is some sort of copyright protection for archived files. The only way I know to extract the files to a floppy is with Steem and Pasti. Is there an easier way to achive this? I use the floppies on my 1040stfm. Another issue is that half of the games I download from Atarimania cannot be viewed/extracted with Steem, but are playable. Is this part of the copyright protection?

March 15, 2014

Is there any way I may purchase a cable or adaper for the software, PARCP? (http://joy.sophics.cz/parcp/parcpdoc.htm)

March 14, 2014

Hello, I am looking for information on programming the parallel modem port of the Atari ST.

I would prefer to use GFA BASIC or ST BASIC, but I also have Mark Williams C and ALICE.

My goal is to be able to check for, receive, and send data.

Thank you for any information!

March 9, 2014

With a little digging, I also found this sio to serial cable: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221383887073

Perhaps I could use Qbasic and Atari BASIC to achive my goal of having data I/O between Atari8bix and x86 pc without having to use any old modems and related software?

March 9, 2014

Thank you for your replies! They are very helpful.

Will I have to enter special modem commands for them to communicate directly without a phone #?

March 8, 2014

Hello

Is it possible to connect my x86 pc modem (the one in my old laptop for example) directly to the xm301 modem and use the XE TERM (I have XE TERM and Telelink 1) software to transfer files between the computers. If so, what x86 software should I use? I would prefer DOS sofware.

Are there any decent adapters/cables available to connect the 800xl parallel bus to a pc parallel port or serial port?

How hard would it be to connect a serial port between a x86 pc and an atari 800xl controller port for data transfer? I imagine I could use DOS TCP/IP stack libraries with QBASIC to create slave software that could use a serial port to allow the Atari to make queries to the internet through the x86 pc.This way, i can use a x86 compatable thin client (AMD GEODE) as a medium between the Atari and an Ethernet modem. The advantage to this is that the thin client only consumes 12v and is very small. This could also be used as an external hard drive. My thin client (WYSE terminal) has about 32mb rom and 128mb ram with AMG GEODE processor. It has a parllel port, two serial ports, and 4 usb. I successfully installed msdos and freedos on the thing.

I am considering just buying a sd card/cartridge setup for my 8 bits, but I would still like to employ my xm301 and sx212 for SOMETHING.

Thanks for any info or tips.

January 21, 2014

Ooh I love this! Perfect port, I'd say.

Maybe a sequel with more progression would be neat. Such as crabs following you or something.

January 20, 2014

I am still in awe of this beautiful work.. Probably one of the best port attempts I have ever seen! The good ol VCS really needs this title!

January 20, 2014

I am considering this for the label.

January 15, 2014

Hello everyone.

First of all, I would like to thank bogax for the code modifications and comments posted above. It was very useful in helping me free up ROM! I took a break from working on this game for a while because of school and other projects, but this month I found some time to look at your post more closely and rework my code. I only used the suggestions that I understood fully. I could probably free up more memory, but I have already added all of the features that I planned out.

I have added a fuel meter and a ship that the player was supposed to have arrived in, but may also be used for refueling when in contact with the tank.

This update is a last attempt to get feedback before I comb through the game a few more times to make sure I am not missing any glitches. My intention is to produce 4k carts to sell on my website for $20. On that note, would anyone here be able to inform me of a service that could provide me with decent boxing that could have art printed on it?

August 10, 2013

Thanks for this awesome content!

August 7, 2013

It will take me a few hours to digest that info after I get some much needed sleep.

For now, I have updated the download with my latest version.

August 6, 2013

I will have to take some time to implement your modifications.

Just going from what you said at first, I managed to free quite a bit of memory and eventually even more. At this point I have added more features to fill out the game. I have updated the info and files in the first post.

August 5, 2013

I took your tips into consideration and was able to optimize a lot of the crap out of my routines. This enabled me to add a bunch of elements with memory left over for more stuff! The download link is up to date.

Things I added include:

sound effects

explosion sprite

powerups (explained in first post)

more randomized units

Any examples of how I could further optimize this would be very helpful.

August 5, 2013

This is really cool. I with my supercharger could play 32k games..

August 4, 2013

I have made some updates including code optimization and the addition of simple sound effects. I am now left with 11 bytes.

If anyone has any tips as far as optimizing any of my routines, that would be awesome. If I am going to sell this game, I want it to be respectable. I will comment out the code after I get some sleep (it has been over 2 days now).

August 3, 2013

Thanks for the input! I fixed the crosshair moving off the screen and I randomized the npc/object positions for better replay value.

I will add your shooting suggestion if there is enough room after the sound effects. I am working with 46 bytes at the moment.

I am keeping this at 4k so it will work on my supercharger.

August 3, 2013

Updated: 1/15/14

Download: spctank.zip * includes source, 4k bin, manual, map, and label *

Difficulty settings:

Left switch set to A: more frequent powerups
Left switch set to B: less frequent powerups

Right switch set to A: slower non-player-characters
Right switch set to B: faster non-player-characters

Story:

Two players (or single skilled player) operate a tank that has a command console with four functions (two joysticks). The left joystick moves the tank around and its button brings up the status display when held down. The right joystick moves a crosshair and its button fires the gun at whatever is selected. Their mission is to rescue prisoners of war from an alien planet. The prisoners are high ranking scientists of the players planet. The prisoners are being kept in a cell which can be found on the map included in this distribution. Three keycards must be found to open the cell and free the prisoners. The players tank has limited shielding and ammunition, but more may be found randomly throughout the planet. Players Will also find upgrades for the tank including the bigmissile and autolock. Alien enemies will be encountered most frequently and must be killed in order to find the keycards. Some aliens will require more ammo to kill than others, but the bigmissile upgrade allows for instant kills. The autolock upgrade causes the crosshair to lock on to aliens. Both upgrades have three uses. When the three keycards are found, the players should find the cell and free the prisoners. The players must keep an eye on their fuel level using the status display. If their fuel is running low, they must return the the ship at the starting position to obtain more.

Types of alien enemies:

Infantry
Blade Saucer
Bulldozer

Powerups:

Shield
Ammo
Bigmissile
Autolock

Structures:

Ship (starting position/refueling)

POW Camp

Screenshots:

December 6, 2012

I love the idea! It would also be cool if someone created a cart that is similar to the "Basic Programming" cart of the vcs. It could utilize the Intellivisions controllers in the same way. Something a little more serious than Mr. Basic Meets bits and Bytes (which I have a new boxed copy of!)