Aloan

wow that was an amazing revelation for me because I don't know how to work with the debugger much, lol! thanks a ton!

so if I understood correctly one line for each at their corresponding 0,0 coordinate! if a "sprite" moves up or down, so does its line! But Dang! I decided to cut from it (it was going to give me some headaches) so i just used 144 color clocks (black borders on both sides to "cover up") just uploaded it! another thing if I may: This is atari cube: I've only enabled its playfield! Look ma! 3 colors in one scanline!!!! how did they do that?

Updated screenshots above to include code lines (forgot to include them) as i am using the full 160 color clocks! some code lines need to be shown and it adds to the realism of playing a real Atari 2600 game! I have noticed most games actually display on a 144 "res" instead of the full 160 in order to hide those lines! I'll make sure to either show them on all my faithful tries and include this note on my teaching page as well as note to the people that it is good to have a 1280x768 resolution on the monitor (with black lines on the border) to further enhance the full screen resize of the game! time permitting I will update the game itself to also include the lines!

oh ok! I guess you answered my question without realizing it! the stretch happens only horizontally, so you can indeed tweak how many scanlines (change aspect ratio) of its height! what I thought was that the player would get proportionally stretched (all stretches are horizontal only then) If I still don't make sense: Notice that the horizontal clocks are the same for the house! this isn't so for its vertical scanlines! If the house was drawn inside the 8 bit (8 color clocks limit, which it was indeed) then I thought that when stretching it, it would be so both horizontally (like it is now) and vertically... So I guess the developer is free to do how he pleases with bringing the size down vertically as you can use up to the max of 192 scanlines total! This can be done with the playfield, but it is the first time I see it being done with a player! Btw, my Pigeon pooper take on an "faithful" Atari-esque game (I guess it's actually a demo) has been updated just now!: http://aloan.site90.net/PgPooper.zip Windows Exe format only! Just like in Stella, F2 restarts the game! Arrow moves, Ctrl shoots!

Howdy friends! According to Stella's debug, this is a double stretched player0 - all fine, yes, but how does it have some fine vertical tuning/narrowing/cropping? I know you can do that with the Playfield, but you can also do it with a player? I will assume it is possible? please let me know if it really is! (see the lower roof part with one scanline adjustment) Btw, My hats off to the developer(s) of the Atari 2600's Smurfs, as cool techniques were programmed into the 8k game, such as: stretched sprite (Smurf's house) double sprite (cloud) animated playfield (water) 1st double jump game?! multi-colored convincing smurf characters (even yellow hair for Smurfette) varying songs (including the real Smurf's theme) high res graphics (grass, using the narrowing trick discussed in this thread's question) smooth animations

All simple gameplay is done for now: Hit the darn pooping pigeon 3 times to kill it, but don't let it poop on you too much or you'll loose the pooping battle! aloan.site90.net/PgPooper.zip Control = jumps (no use yet) arrows = run left or right shift = throws your poop at pigeons: only one at a time! Esc = quits game Enter = restarts game This game was made using Multimedia Fusion 2 and is not playable on a real Atari 2600 (only on a windows pc)! it is in an .exe format. and so I made this simple game in just a night without any programming.. to know how to do the same head over to my teachings here! (and let it rain Atari 2600 games, just like before the crash - heheh) http://aloan.site90.net/atari_graphics_simplified.html btw I am having trouble trying to get the java version to work on a browser.. so.. exe only... sorry...

That raven had a rare case of unstoppable human poop syndrome!

oh, well... (I have to tell my secret) .. it is because it was made in Multimedia Fusion... and it "only" allows me to export it to an exe! well it also allows me to export to either Java internet aplet or java start - but I don't know which one is the easiest one for me to make it playable on a browser! what do you think? which one of the two?

Got it! updated pants! and made a so so playable executable aloan.site90.net/PgPooper.zip Control jumps = no use yet arrows = run left or right shift = throws poop at pigeons: only 2 poops at a time game does not have a score yet and no ending, neither any damage to you or the darn (one pigeon only) enemy to include soon = energy bar = 3 hits you're too pooped! (death) 3 pigeons attacking at different intervals: 3 human poop hits kill pigeon, falls down when killed!

This is Pigeon Pooper... a faithful drawing of an yet non-existing Atari 2600 game! This guy has had enough with pigeons pooping on his head! Now he's out for revenge! Question is, pigeons are using missiles as their poop and player is using a ball. Can the ball poop be substituted by a player poop? if so I can make that square poop more like real revenge (if you know what I mean) like so: Update: display is now 144 color clocks wide to "hide" the black code lines

thank you for the juicy info!!! I was also looking at Sneak and peek and was marveled at what they accomplished there too! they used missiles to make the house's rooftop look high resolution - but what puzzles me is they used on of the players to create the smoke!!! and the pathway which strays off to the side more than the allowable 8 bits! I am guessing it is the same trick they did to make the chainsaw of the very first pic above! - Sneak and peek has some amazing graphics for the intro!

well just as I thought I was done, along comes 2 flabbergasting games and their trickery: Congo Bongo's amazing playfield and Crossbow's different colors per scan line!!! In Congo Bongo as I disabled everything (the players, the missiles and the ball) and kept the playfield, and it still was left as a complex drawing and had all these colors to it! how was that done? and in Crossbow, it had the cloning player trickery but on the same scanline it has different colors! how did they do that?

LOL - I knew there was something fishy about my pedal to the medal - lovely screenshot!!!

dumb question from an excited player: I pressed the arrow keys to move but nothing happens, how do we move the mechanical thing below (lol, I don't know how to call it) - or does it only work with a pedal controller?!!

oh that is a fabulous improvement!!!

I see!

haha, amazing trick! thank youss another easy question about multiple players on the same scan lines I've noticed that Player0 can have 2 more clones to its right as long as there is a gap (its own width) in between! the question is: Are 3 Player0s the max for each of the vertical scan lines it occupies? (as I understand down its feet we can create more clones) (thanks for the speeding answers)

in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the char is bigger than the allowable width of 8 bits (8 color clocks) - but the extra are on his chainsaw. how did they do it? when I press Alt + Z player0 becomes invisible, meaning it is its whole sprite!!? I've seen this also on another game (I don't remember which one now)

Amazing is a small word for it! but I could not go without saying that a port of Konami's Ye Ar Kung Fu would be awesome too! (Idk if I spelled correctly) author of: http://aloan.site90.net/atari_graphics_simplified.html

I see the mistake now, thanks for pointing it out! I had split the middle of the tree's middle block at the 80 pixel mark! then mirrored that to the right! So what I should have done is have that whole block towards before the 80 pixel mark, then mirror that to the right! I will correct it! I am very grateful! and have updated the screenshots! I've updated my page at: http://aloan.site90.net/atari_graphics_simplified.html

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Well, today I went and created a program from scratch that can do what I am saying... txt instructions are in the download as well! The ability to do the background will have to wait, but meanwhile, black background will do! I will be working on bringing mirrored, repeated and asymmetrical capability and post the upload (that's for sure)! here is the program: http://aloan.site90.net/pfmaker.zip If you have MMF2 or Fusion 2.5, and would like to jump in to help sort it out, my PF app maker file is here: http://aloan.site90.net/pfmaker.mfa The company behind the app: http://www.clickteam.com/clickteam-fusion-2-5 This program is made so it is easier for game makers to visualize their PF and Player art before writing them into code! It only supports 7 PF and 7 Player colors, but more colors can be added later using the Pain.net program This is a new screenshot of a first serious mirrored playfield art with a player1 on it (to mirror and add a background, I used Paint.net)

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I personally love the blocky LEGO graphics of the Atari 2600!!! It is its charm! if it were high res, it wouldn't feel the same! http://aloan.site90.net/atari_graphics_simplified.html