pixelmischief

Thanks for the advice! I am certain that the material you cite will be a major part of my learning experience! That said, it is not learning how to program the hardware that I am looking for help with. I am hoping to get instruction from someone who actually knows how to develop games on the platform. I want to learn to go from concept to release for a few different classes of simple game. I want help with tools and process, in addition to straight programming education. Really hoping someone will also be interested in teaching and help me.

I should have made it clear that I state this with apology and some embarrassment; neither pride, nor demand.

I am a life-long programmer and professional application developer. I'm looking for a tutor to learn game development on the Atari 8-Bit. I only speak and understand English. I am hoping for an arrangement that includes one or two 1-hour shared desktop sessions each week and assigned coding and reading in-between. I will make myself available at whatever time the tutor can do it. I'll pay by PayPal, Venmo, bank transfer, whatever; fees at my expense, of course. Let's talk and come up with a rate.

Wow! Beautiful! That said, however, it is the arcade "imperfection" of the A8 version that makes me like it better than the arcade. In particular, it feels like the sprites move more smoothly and quickly. This may have been an unattended benefit of finding a middle-ground between PAL and NTSC timings. I don't know. But wow, that 7800 version looks amazing!

Thanks for weighing in Mr. Fish! Tell me. Why do people still adhere to such a, now, unnecessary limitation. I get that it was necessary "back in the day"; to maximize adoption. But there's no need to live with ANY improvable aspect given that there are no commercial concerns and people are doing this for the love of it. I wonder noone has done a disk version that fixes everything. Or a 32K cart. Or something that requires 64K. I can understand loyalty to the original 400/800, but not to the extent that something both excellent and beloved could be made moreso.

Thank you! I read in the article... Now I know.

I was playing Donkey Kong recently. I have always loved the 8-Bit version of Donkey Kong; even better than the arcade original. One thing that I have always wondered, however, is why the developers chose to animate the falling barrels the way they did. When the barrels fall between levels, the outline of the girder is left superimposed on the barrel. They must have known that it would look much better if the barrel was drawn over the girder and so I assume there was a particularly tough technical challenge that required them to leave it as we still see it. Does anyone know what that technical challenge might be and is there any appetite for taking a crack at fixing it? I would support a bounty for this.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

@Karrolls56 I'm afraid not. In the end, I bought two broken Model 1's - one with a bad drive and another with a bad board - and combined them. Yeah. I'm about $250 deep into that thing. I have to say, though, it was totally worth it.

Is there a place where the presentation society lists "wanted" stuff?

BallBlazer Archon Hardball Joust Warlords World Karate Championship M.U.L.E.

Transaction ID 0CR35753LS989394M. Says you should have it by 10/11.

Help sent. God bless you, my man.

I'm in zip code 07666. For pickup or shipped at your expense.

Wow. And I was going to make fun of US hipsters who sit in Starbucks, drink poncey coffee and use Britishisms. There's no winning. Everyone seems to want to be whatever it is that they aren't.

Human interactions are tough. But when someone has what I want and makes me dance a bit to get it...I dance. I even make a game of it; and if I have to play a certain way to win, then I play that way. To paraphrase Jane Austen, "My vanity is in such good order, that I seem to be quite free from it." 😃

I have always LOVED this game. The font on the story crawl, the rotoscoped characters, the floating doorway graphics, the dramatic and inspiring music - they all still really impress me. Even the lag between keypress and character motion became a kind of enjoyable challenge to me. Truly, I loved it. And that "easter egg". Genius.

Morrowind, while as tragically busted and exploitable as everything Bethesda does, is a spectacular game. The quest story is second ONLY to Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. With the modern patches, it holds up very well. If you like an epic RPG with accessible crafting, rich guild culture, and engrossing story, look no further. Elder Scrolls: Morrowind can be life-changing.

Interesting information about M.U.L.E. I fall on the side of those who surveyed it briefly from afar and simply had no interest. The other camp seems to really love it! I think I'll give it a whirl.

Stop everything, find a friend, and play BallBlazer immediately. It is simply awesome fun.

Two player Archon is simply blissful. You are in for a treat.

This is the game shame. In this thread, we will identify three (3) things: 1. The game you are ashamed you never played. 2. The game you are ashamed you love. 3. The game you think everyone else should be ashamed they love. Me first. 1. Star Raiders. Yeah, I know. I have to play it. Somehow I never get around to it. 2. Artworx Strip Poker. I just...yeah. In a world of horrifyingly explicit 4K porn, it's the low-res, late-night, forbidden fruit of my childhood indiscretion that still thrills. 3. Rescue on Fractalus. It's a one trick pony. That first jump scare is kinda cool. Otherwise, it's a tech demo for the procedurally generated terrain renderer. Not sure why it is as celebrated as it is.

I have FINALLY completed my 8-Bit era software collection with Bruce Lee CIB and BallBlazer CIB for the Atari. You will notice a few titles from other systems, but the Atari 8-Bit is my first and truest love of that generation.

Thanks, again, for this incredible software!

Figured it out. Don't use paths with spaces. No quotes fails on first space-separated word. Both single- and double-quotes are useless. Then, for a path that DOESN'T have spaces, don't forget to take off the quotes you previously tried to use on that other path WITH the spaces. .writemem H:\Workbench\charmap.chr $e000 L$400 This worked.