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trent

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Posts posted by trent

  7. Posted

    5 hours ago, Stephen said:

    I've never heard this before.  Any articles to substantiate this claim?

    Fair question, I was basing this off something I remembered reading a long while ago that FPGA lifespan is similar to that of PROMS.  I should have gone looking for the answer before asking here. After some searching I can see 1-5 years is certainly wrong, but will still likely fail before the other chips in my 800 🙂

  9. Posted · Edited by trent

    Was curious to see the quality of these shells so I ordered one off of eBay. My observations:

    • They look to be a very faithful knock off of the second generation (picture label) Atari cartridges, with all the pros and cons (depending on your disposition) of that design. Namely: holes in the label side of the cart and three slight indentations on the end label side, plus all the moving parts associated with the dust cover.
    • I don't like all the moving parts of this particular design, but that's just me.
    • I wonder if making a more or less exact replica of the old cartridge design is the "right" thing to do. I guess you can make authentic looking carts, but I kind of like to be able to distinguish new vs vintage. Maybe just me. I guess ordering a color shell would accomplish that.
    • No branding/logos on the shell, which is a big plus.
    • It fits just fine in all my Atari models (light, heavy and jr). Felt a tad tighter in the heavy than a real 2nd gen Atari cart, but not problematically so.

    Great shell. Wish they were a tad cheaper.

  11. Posted

    What makes a good system goes beyond specs on paper. Intangibles that, IMO, make the 2600 'better' than the three examples you listed

     

    * Better controls. In particular against the Inty/5200/Coleco, the 2600 has much more precise and ergonomic controls.

    * Game library - others have already mentioned this.

    * Reliability. 2600 is a tank.

     

    Then there are things like timing and marketing, which have nothing to do with the system per se.

     

    If you compare 2600 to its true contemporaries (Channel F, O2, Astrocade), its longevity is even more lopsided

    • Like 3

  12. Posted

    Thanks!. i think it took me almost as long to re-learn my old code as it did to write it in the first place. I have been struggling with getting everything to 'work' in the bottom part of the screen where the rover lives, the mountains scroll, missiles launch and debris falls. I've got it down to two artifacts I can live with. The debris is a single color in that zone, and the leftmost playfield pixels are sometimes mangled in the mountains when there is too much going on on the left part of the screen.

  13. Posted · Edited by trent

    In the spirit of Halloween I am raising this project from the dead, so version 8. Was build 6 really April 2012? I don't even know know how to summarize what has changed since then. Basically I've tried to make it feel more like a complete game. Background music that increases speed as the game goes on, wave markers, title screen, you can get hit by debris now. I have a couple minor tweaks that I will make this week before I can call it good, and then finally check this off the bucket list.


    • Like 7

  15. Posted

    Ugh I waited too long. Having to relearn some difficult things - and now I'm remembering where I got stuck. The game play wasn't quite doing it for me. I wanted to enable collisions between the rover and falling debris while keeping the scrolling hills, and I just wasn't finding enough cycles to accomplish it. I may have to lose some more eye candy for the sake of gameplay.

  17. Posted

    Are you wanting to do this with, or without the SD card?

     

    With the SD card you need to name the game to either AUTORUN or AUTOBIN, search this forum for more info on this.

     

    You can also connect the Harmony cartridge to your computer using a USB cable, then use HarmonyCart to load a game without the need for an SD card. I've been using this to test Stay Frosty 2.

     

    attachicon.gifScreen Shot 2013-11-21 at 10.57.10 AM.png

     

    Thanks for the second bit of info, that is cool and will be really useful for testing!

  24. Posted

    I'm still tinkering with it. I agree with most of your suggestions (well, except maybe the title screen - games back in the early days didn't have them :-)). The last update was a bit of a bust IMO, I'll be bringing back wave markers, losing the smartbombs, and enabling collisions between the rover and falling space junk. I'm hoping that ramps up the challenge a bit.

     

    I'm distracted on another project for a couple months (opening a bar/arcade !!), but should return to this in earnest in the fall.

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