gorgh

yeah forever ABBUC, I'm trying to convince some of my friends to attend next year's contest

Our game The Rescue Expedition is an arcade- platformer with a unique system of using the rope to move freely between platforms and closed areas. It also features dynamic colouring of the playfield, highlighting the area where the main character is located. It is also something new on Atari. There are 48 locations, two kinds of weapon ( a pistol and a whip), 3 kinds of enemies ( the spider, mummy and a skeleton). There are powerups as well as coins set all around the locations. The main character can jump and climb. A few other features are also included. The promo video should be released some time soon.

here's the similar topic I started some time ago, I came to conclusion after reading people's responses that the estimated number would be around 4000. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/281472-number-of-atari-8-bit-users-in-the-given-countries/?hl=%2Bestimated&do=findComment&comment=4084445

nothing "offence", just pointless

sorry for the offtopic, but I really love to play Galaga PET

that's a very interesting topic

You are right folks. But please don't pretend you are going to finish it when you don't have such skills. One finished but mediocre game is better that 10 unfinished but brilliant projects. Its just the matter of honour and one's dignity:) But yes I like the unfinished projects by Pr0be for example- but his intention was to test Atari possibilities, clearly stating that its just proof of concept. But when I see a project published with the mare intention to impress someone its a clear sign for me that one is not a serious "player". Not that I have no respect to that person anymore but it somewhat shows that he's not a serious guy.

Solo: you tend to disagree with me very often, I presume it's your hobby. Besides it was you who told me to focus on one project, wasn't it? Seems like a contradiction in what you are saying. You can do whatever you want as long as you don't post it on internet- otherwise it's just a sign of narcisism. What I mean is that one shouldn't publish stuff just to show off with no intention of finishing it whatsoever. There are many examples of that, couple weeks ago some folk on aol published side scroller demo based on Shadow of the Beast- clearly with intention to show how good coder he is. When people started to insist he should finish it he dissapeared:) Leszek Miller, polish polititian said " you recognise a man not by the way he starts but by the way he ends".

True that

I can agree with Emkay, people should estimate the efford needed to accomplish project wisely...starting a project and not finishing it is a waste of time and giving false hope.

The site has some issues since couple of weeks, it works only on some browsers, lotharek asked ppl to test the site on FB and in most cases it didn't work. Long story short Lotharek is working on it.

Last couple of weeks I've been studying the architectures of different 8 bit machines including zx spectrum, msx, gameboy, amstrad etc. and after that I really admire a genious of Atari designers... They designed this computer in the late seventies! And the Atari architecture is far superior than most of the later 8 bit machines from 82, 84, 86 and so on. Take this example- screen management- most of the computers have non linear video memory or/and the screen memory place is unchangeable or subdue to certain memory boundaries like on c64 where screen memory can be placed on 8kb block iirc. Display List is a genious invention that lets you decide where the video ram is placed but also how many cycles antic will steal from cpu. On Amstrad CPC the cycles are stolen during the execution of cpu instructions itself and on ZX Spectrum the ula steals cycles similar to Atari but also there are places in the RAM that are vunerable to stealing cycles with every instruction. In my opinion the three best designed computers of 8 bit era are 1. Atari and on second place ex equo Zx Spectrum and Amstrad, the first one because of the simplicity and second one because of having all the hardware registers outside of RAM which gives possibility to use whole 64 kb area.

impressive, would be even better if the sprites also moved diagonally

All of my recent games work on NTSC machines, that's my priority. They are: -Hot & Cold Adventure (2017) -New Atari Game (2017) -The Rescue Expedition (not released yet) -Kowalsky's Fury (not released yet)

I just gave it a try, awesome game Jon! thank you. I like the oldskool look and sounds, the difficulty is well balanced, some say it's too easy (RetroBorsuk, who finished game in one go), but I only managed to get to the second level, definitely will play this game more. IMO one of the best games this year.

I gave it a try couple minutes ago, very addictive game, although a bit too hard, but that's not coders' fault

Level42: if I understood you correctly you are complaining about no access to files- the files are available for ABBUC members since 4th August on a dedicated site- check out asc 2018 topic on this forum and one of the latest posts by freetz

Budget version of Yoomp:) Very nice considering time spent on it

Oh boy, surely I love this game... Great pick for a conversion...looks like a faithful port

Great job therealbountbob! P.s. the critical bugs can be pain in the back, I hate when it happens. Good luck in the compo!

here you go

Last but not least: facebook group "atari 8 bit home computers" has over 4000 (sic!) members, and that's just facebook

If I were in that position I would seriously consider quitting after all that critique. They are just doing their job, without personal interest, it's the abbuc which established the contest in a first place, and it's their rules. What's so hard to understand here? I feel honored that I can make a software that will be awarded with the valuable prizes. It's the gratitude that should motivate us, not the critique. End of topic from me. Maybe I shouldn't join the discussion in the first place but i have this psychological trait of respect to authorities.

I feel pity for freetz and the crew, that's just their extra activity in a spare time

thank you, much improved gameplay, great game, but yes it's essentially the same