Ryan Witmer
-
Content Count
683 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Ryan Witmer
-
-
10 minutes ago, Giles N said:So, you produce homebrew games for the Atari5200?
I've been known to do that, from time to time.
-
2
-
-
No contest, it's Qix.
It was the first game I ever saw or played on the system and it totally blew my mind. The look, the sound, the gameplay... I was no older than 6 when I first saw it and it's fair to say it changed my life. My obsession with the 5200 springs from this one game. No game impacted me like Qix until the first time I saw Space Harrier on the Sega Master System, but that's a story for another time.
If I'm allowed to include my own games, then RealSports Curling. Ratcatcher was cool because it was my first, but Curling really felt to me like my first truly solid game. I don't really play it, but I still love the fact that I actually made it happen.
-
6
-
-
I can answer this from a technical perspective, since I had to learn how the trak-ball works for my current homebrew project.
The normal Atari joysticks are basically the same as a pair of paddles. You read a position value from each axis. That value in is the range of 0 to about 220 or so. Games typically set boundaries on this range where it decides "that's far enough, you're pushing left now" and react to the values that way.
The trak-ball also reports these numbers when you read it, but in this case the number indicates how fast the ball is spinning in a given direction. The "rest" value varies from trak-ball to trak-ball, and there's a way you can get the rest value from the controller. When the controller is read, the farther the numbers are away from the rest value, the faster the ball is spinning.
The problem is that the values from the trak-ball don't wander very far from the rest value. They will usually be in the zone that a joystick would consider "centered" and you'd have to spin the ball really fast to get the sort of numbers a joystick game is looking for. Because of this, games need slightly different code for handling the two types of controllers.
So, to sum up: For most joystick games, the trak-ball will do next to nothing because you can't spin it fast enough to register as joystick movement. If your particular trak-ball's rest value is really high or really low, you might get some movement in one direction, but not much more.
-
2
-
-
Once that's ready, I'll be posting my stuff there.
-
1
-
-
By what date do you need the ROMs for the demos? I'd like to plan my feature set around how much time I've got.
-
Ah crap, I think I tossed the one from last year. Would you mind making another? Rumor has it that I might have some adoring fans at this year's show and they need some way to recognize me. RealSports Curling cartridges will be signed.
Ryan Witmer
Average Software
Burien, Washington
-
2
-
-
-
1 hour ago, sramirez2008 said:I can’t wait to hear this one too. 😀
It will probably be decent, but I really think they need to find better guests.
-
1
-
-
Thanks for the interview last night, it was a lot of fun. I could have gone on talking for another couple hours, if Bob didn't have to leave.
Can't wait to hear the finished product.
-
3
-
-
We're getting a little ambitious, and got another character ready for the demo.
Frooty
Age: 24
Likes: Candy
Hates: Boredom
Captain of Queen Sugar's royal guard, Frooty is loyal, powerful, hyper, and ever so slightly insane. As the one charged with the defense of Fairy Land, she carries an enormous responsibility as she leads the queen's armies into battle. She also oversees a number of secret research projects in Fairy Land, some of which are finally starting to produce results.
Notes: This is a character that just popped into my head one day, although my artist's design ended up nowhere near what I had in mind. I like his ideas better, so I ran with it. I figure a game about fairies needs a character like Frooty, she's sort of the generic fairy archetype. I love the lollipop weapon, that was entirely my artist's idea.
-
3
-
-
Let's introduce our second hero!
Pork-Chop
Age: 44
Likes: Sewer Fruit
Hates: Sewer Alligators
When he's not working his day job as a city ratcatcher, Pork-Chop likes to spend his time in Fairy Land. How he discovered Fairy Land and the way he reaches it are unknown. His ratcatching partners, Biff and Buzz, know nothing of Pork-Chop's secret double life. If they ever found out, he would die of embarrassment.
Pork-Chop is secretly in love with Queen Sugar and would do anything to protect her. Is his rock-headed bravery enough to stop Zevasha's conquest?
Notes: Pork-Chop is player #3 from Ratcatcher. This design is based on the PC version of the game, which of course had much more detailed characters than the Atari 5200 version, where Pork-Chop is just "the yellow guy." Kind of a comic relief character, he's really a very very deep inside joke from my childhood.
My goal right now is to have a playable demo featuring these two characters ready for PRGE this year. If progress goes well, additional characters might be added to the game before then.
-
5
-
-
Wholly original might be a bit of an overstatement. I'm basically ripping off Twinkle Star Sprites for the Neogeo.
-
1
-
-
Fairy Land is in trouble!
The evil fairy queen Zevasha and her dark minions have their sights set on conquering this peaceful land! Good Queen Sugar rallies her forces and calls her allies to defend sweet Fairy Land from evil! Are you ready to answer the call?
Magical Fairy Force for your Atari 5200 will place YOU in the Fairy Arena! Strap on the wings of one of eight characters and fight to save Fairy Land... or conquer it! Get ready for intense head-to-head trak-ball action! Don't worry, joysticks work too!
While still very early in development, it's time to start showing off some characters. All screenshots are from early development builds and are extremely subject to change.
So, let's meet our first hero!
Pink Barrette
Age: 7
Likes: Justice
Hates: Evil Robots
A superhero from Earth, at least in her imagination, Judy assumes her powers when she puts on her favorite pink barrette. She frequently visits Fairy Land, where she is known as a great hero and defender of justice.
Although usually locked in battle with Dominic, a boy in her neighborhood known for his evil robot creations, Pink has chosen to answer Queen Sugar's call for aid and rushes to the defense of Fairy Land. Will her powers of justice be enough to stop the evil Zevasha?
Notes: Pink is a character I originally came up with for a PC game I was working on. That project kind of fell apart, but I loved the character so much that I really wanted to use her for something, and this game seemed perfect. I still want to put her in her own game someday, hopefully it will happen.
Who is that other person on the character select screen? Stay tuned to this thread to find out!
-
8
-
-
I think 5200 Pole Position is a decent game on its own terms, but not a terribly good port of Pole Position. I very much prefer the 7800 or even the 2600 versions, which just feel better to me.
I also played the crap out of the Intellivision version back in the day, but I don't remember how good that version actually was.
-
OK, I tracked down one of these palette files, and now I think I have all the tools I need for what I want to do. Thanks for the help.
-
I'm trying to convert some color-indexed RGB images for a game I'm working on. I have a utility I wrote that generates the data bytes and color tables in a way I can use, but the color conversion has to be done by hand and my eyesight isn't up to the task.
I was hoping to have some way to convert, if only approximately, the RGB triples to the GTIA color codes. I've stumbled across some of those crazy cylinder formulas, but the principles involved are a complete mystery to me.
Something like this?
Wow, I even posted in that thread. I don't remember that at all. I'll check this out later. Unfortunately, I develop on a Linux machine and this isn't running with Wine. The next time I'm on Windows I'll see if this can help me, thanks.
-
I've been looking for this for some time and haven't had any luck. Is there some kind of formula somewhere that can convert from RGB or HSV color values to NTSC GTIA codes?
Alternatively, if someone has already brute-forced this, a table of color mappings would be quite helpful.
-
Great episode, just got done listening to it.
I own "The Arcade Game" and kind of enjoy it, but your descriptions of Death Star Battle have me really curious. I need to go play this game and see if it's as insane as you guys make it out to be.
-
1
-
-
My current project is a trak-ball game, but the project I have planned next will use the controller coupler.
Don't hold you breath, though. It's a long ways out.
-
3
-
-
I'm only in the market for the games, although I'll take boxes/manuals/overlays if the price is reasonable. Only 10 games missing from my collection, getting harder and harder to track stuff down.
-
I made a picture of the RealSports family welcoming their newest member:
Football is still self-conscious about the lack of "RealSports" on his label.
-
2
-
-
My copy of Blaster showed up in time, so we're spending some quality time together.
-
4
-
-
Just stopping by this thread to say THANK YOU!!! I just received my cart from the store and it's AMAZING. I love curling and the 5200 both and am so happy to have this game. How about some Atari 5200 Pond Hockey next--I'm half-Canadian so this one is really getting me going! Thank you AverageSoftware (love the name) and Al!
Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoy the game!
Be sure to try the 8 player mode if you have a 4-port 5200 and lots of like-minded friends!
-
Don't forget Galaxian. 5200 Galaxian is border-line unplayable for me with the 5200 joysticks, but with that trak-ball... totally different game.
-
1
-
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Which Atari 5200 games means the most to you, and why (these)?
in Atari 5200
Posted
No problem. You'll have to race Bob from the podcast for the first signature though. I'll be there just about all day on Saturday.
I work on a PC using an emulator. I also have an Atarimax cart that I use to test on real hardware.
For graphics, it depends on the nature of the task. Sometimes I just sketch things out on graph paper, other times I use some small programs I wrote to convert images.
Music is kind of tricky. I have a tracker program I downloaded that can do square waves. I like to figure things out using that and then convert to POKEY values by hand. I found a table somewhere for doing that.