raindog

While Superchargers aren't as common as they once were, they're still cheap and available. They were the only mass-produced homebrew-friendly RAM cart ever made for the VCS. You should try that, at least for your 4k (or Supercharger) projects, until the next hobbyist decides to make a couple hundred awesome RAM carts and then discontinue them.

If you just want to make games for a lot of people to play, I'd suggest getting Flash. If you really want to make games for an old console, maybe Batari BASIC for the 2600 is the way to go.

Skeleton is impressive and is a fun game, but I see it as being more like a simplified Apple II era 3D dungeon crawl than a FPS. My lowest threshold for a FPS is probably something more along the lines of Nether or MOOD, both for the unmodified C64 (granted it's still only 1MHz, but it did have 64K of RAM....) I guess looking at something like Wolf5K might be instructive too (speaking as someone who has no clue about raycasting), because I think it qualifies too, though I imagine it relies a lot upon the web browser's capabilities to do its thing and so can't really be considered low-end.

A Geode system would be kinda big and suck those dual 9-volt batteries like a Charms Blow Pop, but you get the idea. A 5 dollar ARM chip would be way, way overkill for such a project. A PIC should be fine for doing the kind of stuff the original MB programmers did, I guess, but I still think it'd be funny to have something like a first person shooter in 16x16 pixels.

Well, there are "how to program the Vectrex" documents out there, but they're pretty much aimed at intermediate to expert programmers. You're gonna need to learn how to write code first, and then how to write code for the 6809 (the CPU in the Vectrex). If you have no coding experience at all, I don't think I would start with 6809 assembler, but I also wouldn't suggest an object-oriented language like VB, Java or Actionscript/Javascript. Maybe have a look at Batari BASIC... I know you're more interested in the Vectrex, but you need to have experience in an environment that isn't event driven, but relies on really tight timing. In some ways it's even more important on the Vectrex than the 2600. Writing games in C, Pascal or assembler for DOS (not Windows or Linux or anything else that multitasks) should also help you prepare for the kind of coding you'll do for older video game platforms. When you finally do get to the Vectrex, realize that programming it is pretty different than programming other consoles of the era, because you're constantly drawing to avoid flicker. (You're almost constantly drawing on the 2600 as well, but it's really different because on the 2600, you're struggling to just keep up with the TV's scan rate, whereas on the Vectrex you have more leeway but much more opportunity to mess up and introduce eye-torturing flicker.... or damage the Vectrex by leaving the electron gun switched on in one place for too long or make it scan outside the screen area, though I gather this can be avoided if you use its BIOS to handle the gun.) Anyway, I don't mean to say this to discourage you, just to get you to realize there's a long way from having no coding experience to writing a working Vectrex game.

Those graphics make me think you could do (a simplistic) Bump'n'Jump as well.... if I could figure out how to make the gigantic player sprite used when you jump

I realize the game was meant for a tournament, but I hope there's a way to remove the 5 minute cap and make it a survival thing. What made games like Pac-Man (and Space Invaders before it) pivotal was the draw of being able to play all afternoon on one quarter if you got good enough, I think, and putting a time limit on it pushes it back down into the realm of "minigame" in my book. It sure does look nice, though, and sounds like it plays even better... maybe the most inspired Pac-Man sequel to date.

Wow, I didn't know there'd been any O2 homebrews since the first one (which I think was John Dondzila's "Amok!") That really opened my eyes to how cool the O2 could have been if Magnavox/Philips had a clue.... but I guess that's a recurring theme with Philips' flirtations with the gaming market.

I would imagine it's collectors who care if a physical cart got made, and developers who are just interested in whether anyone's written games for the system. I definitely fall into the latter category myself. Maybe this information could be better presented in a table (assuming you can make one of those on IPB.)

I, too, have more women than I know what to do with, but (1) I am speaking literally and (2) I'm pretty sure it has nothing at all to do with my Pac-Man label.

I don't know if the format really matters.... consider the Astrocade or any of the tape-based methods on the 2600. Wasn't the Studio II just a Chip8 system anyway? It seems to me any number of hobbyist Chip8 games could be considered Studio II games, assuming they fit in its teeny resources. Edit: I see now from looking at the Studio II specs page that they are similar, but incompatible.

Might as well start a second list with the Odyssey called "Consoles that will never have homebrew", since it doesn't have a CPU or RAM and the "cartridges" are just little circuit boards with jumpers in them to select different built-in games. Seems unlikely, though not impossible, that someone will do a Microvision homebrew as well, seeing as how the cartridge itself contains the CPU. But I guess CPUs are a lot cheaper and homebrew-accessible nowadays. It'd be funny to throw a Geode or something in there and make a full 3D game on that 16x16 bilevel display. As far as traditional consoles go, what about the Channel F? I can't find any evidence of homebrew for that one. I think the Coleco Telstar Arcade was in the same category as the Microvision, but I can't find any homebrew for that either.

You may be able to get Kinko's to print your design in color on a full-page label, but that would just be the start of the process. I think it would be pretty tedious if you sold more than a handful of carts, but here is what I did for my original "Better Pac-Man" hack: 1. Design logo, keeping in mind the size of the cart's label area, in a suitable program. At the time (1999) I used Adobe InDesign. You probably want more than one copy per page. I did 2, but you could probably do 6 or 8. 2. After some test prints, print your design on full-page inkjet (or laser, if you have a color laser or are at Kinko's) label stock. 3. Use self-stick laminating sheets (I used 3M) to laminate the labels, still with their protective backing on. 4. Cut and trim the individual labels out. Don't forget to round the corners if that's important to you. It was to me. 5. Apply the label to each cart. Despite the lousy HP inkjet that I had at the time, the Pac-Man label has stood up very well and is water and oil resistant too. But it's still a bit heavier than the labels AtariAge uses, so if you want the closest possible thing to authentic, you should either use them or find out what they do and copy them. I don't even remember if AtariAge existed yet when I made my hack, but I was just trying to make my label look better than the ones Hozer Video used back then. (Not to mention that dumb tiki head or whatever it's supposed to be.... freak.) If you're not shooting for authenticity, you could always go the "RARE PROTO!!!" route and just use a self-stick hand labeler.

You can play games either off of the CD that came with it, or off of any USB flash key. It works either way. It's worked on the 3 or 4 random ROMs I tried, at least....

1890-4030-1121 Rob Halifax My town has peaches. Sadly, I'll be without wifi access for most of the next 5 days, but I'll be looking if I get to a coffee shop or something while I'm visiting my parents

Oh yeah, the "cartridge-shaped box" thing. That brings back some more memories. My mom eventually got wise, and started putting cartridges (and CD's, and videos) in well-padded, nondescript shirt boxes. In fact, that's how I wrap most gifts for other people nowadays....

Oh, mine came with a CD full of roms as well, not a USB key. But you can use any USB mass storage device with it, which is a new and mind-blowing feature I've never seen in any other portable player or game device (well, I haven't tried a 200gb drive in a USB to IDE cradle yet, but I'm gonna. Now that's what I call a jukebox )

Electronic Quarterback was THE one to have here. I still have my original one (less the battery cover) but I'm pretty sure I bought a recreation of it a few years ago that instead of a 9-volt battery driving bright red LED's, had two AA's driving a dimly backlit red LCD. I wouldn't think that would translate very well to a videogame anyway. I do notice a trend though... if I understand correctly, the guys that made the new (heinous) Coleco stuff were also the ones the BSR went with for the Intellivision PnP's and the laughable Intellivision-branded generic handheld LCD games. It's becoming a "warning, cynical cash-in ahead" scenario.

Yeah, I let my subscription run out because I was waiting for a Twilight Princess promotion (I dunno, maybe "Ocarina of Time: Mirror mode" this time? ) but then they pushed Twilight Princess back and I'm stuck hitting the newsstand every month.... haven't even finished last month's yet

7" portable DVD players with pretty decent screens are all over the place in the $99-129 range. That was the route I took, and so far I'm pretty happy with it.

It's an "Orbit" brand portable DVD player. The one I got is described thusly on ebay: PORTABLE 4-IN-1 7" DVD+VCD+MP3+MP4 PLAYER+TV+*300 GAMES Oh yeah, forgot to mention it plays divx/xvid as well. But there's also an 8" tablet version and there are some cheaper Orbits that don't have the NES on a chip or USB port. I have a daily search set up on "portable orbit" so that the next time I need a techie gift for someone I'll be prepared

I guess I'll have to be on the lookout for one of these. The same hacked ROMs probably came with the Chinese portable DVD player I bought off of ebay that plays NES games off of a USB key, but all I've gotten of the "Maxx" series at Wal-Mart was a measly 15-in-1. I think it's almost as significant as Emerson's original strategy, which was "clone existing games without paying royalties"... and when the first vendor/manufacturer gets sued (in Emerson's case it was Magnavox over K.C. Munchkin) all of a sudden these things will dry up and it'll be back to Little Korea to find 'em.

Oddly enough, I don't remember the xmas when I got my Colecovision. I remember getting Looping my following birthday and playing it obsessively. On the other hand, I can vividly remember getting the Odyssey2 and K.C. Munchkin one xmas, and the Voice and K.C.'s Crazy Chase and Pick Axe Pete the next year. Definitely a "drag us away from the TV" experience.

Damn, I was hoping to be the first Odyssey 1 poster. Anyway, we had that, and then we had some Sears pong game that was "in color", meaning there was this rainbow effect going down the screen that looked like it was being degaussed.... and then my own first console was the Odyssey 2. (Yep, there was still just the one TV dealer in town, and they were a Magnavox shop.) KC Munchkin, still better than Atari Pac-Man after all these years. I can't imagine how Atari won that suit back then when nowadays the web's flooded with Tetris and Bejeweled clones. "The dots run away from you" should have been a foolproof defense.

Oops, guess that's why I was able to get it for 10 bucks (never actually broke the shrinkwrap.) Well, PMW2 on the Gamecube had some nice unlockables, so maybe PMW3 DS will too.