BladeJunker

Well I like the octagonal stalk in the Trooper II since it's a good compromise of grip and shape form, never really liked the original hexagonal shaft. Just a veneer sticker but I like the faux wood panel. Haven't seen inside, does it use the same blister contacts or are there micro switches inside? Be nice to have a fire button on top of the stalk, while twin-stick games often skip fire buttons there are game controls like Battlezone arcade or games like Raiders of the Lost Ark that work poorly since you can't really press fire on the joystick bases while operating two sticks at the same time. I kind of like the second button on the base but much like past multi-button examples it's function redundant Ie. Fire & Fire. Seen some new C64 controllers that allow joystick inputs to transfer over to buttons like Up as a Jump button for example. Same can said of Down too since some games only use Left & Right inputs to move Egs. Space Invaders, Wonder Boy. I still think the vertical orientation of the grip isn't necessary for left/right hand preference. Try turning your CX40 joystick 90 degrees left or right, this puts the button and joystick on either side/hand in a horizontal arcade orientation. The only thing missing is a mode switch to change the inputs around like the Gravis Gamepad had for this very type of functionality. I was kind of hoping companies like Hyperkin might try upgrading the standard a little while they try to replicate them. Been working on plans towards something like I described but I can't produce at the speed and quantity like these big companies can.

Looks great, seems to be the best way to do isometric 2D well on the 2600, produce diagonal color changes. Basically the gross Q*bert way from bitd but more advanced in implementations. Other than getting it to flicker fast enough I'm impressed by the color mixing, finding the right balance between two colors to make that third faux dither color actually good.

Can't go wrong with Kevin Mosley enhancements. ? Yeah been keeping my eye on NC2600, shaping up to be a good fighter with excellent controls. Was speculating myself about Karate Champ since we now have a lot more 2600 twin-stick options around, still not sure why the KC NES port didn't have the option Smash TV had since KC basically doesn't work at all single-stick. ? Tough call on ROM size now, so many options, I've had ideas that might fit into 2K and others that simply won't heh. Everything is a factor, basically game option menus double the size and gives me a greater appreciation for the console switch matrix.

Very nice, like seeing this upswing in fighting games on the 2600. Control reminds me of Chuck Norris, managed to find a cart of that so I've been playing it again. I'll try KFCR some more on my TV, now that my Harmony cart arrived. ? The shared colors approach worked well between the fighters and the mixing of objects, you managed to have very little conflict among scanlines even when the players squat or stand, plus they're extending in width very well too which is tough on 2600. Heard some say that genre isn't for the 2600 but I think they're wrong, always hoped more martial arts or melee combat games would come so better late than never.

Well gave it try, things kind of bunch up into the bottom right corner but I guess it's still early coding at this stage. Keep at it, been thinking of trying some Basic myself this year. ? I like the shapes and different sizes in the sprites. Heard of Baroque but didn't know there was a shooter based on it, cool.

Oh the PP thing didn't come up the first time around, but it did now, order went through. Anyway look forward to trying it out.

I'd like to be on the list please. Also burgundy and fully loaded please.

So the frame rate was better, it was the same performance level on both platforms for PO'ed according to the developer, different gains and drawbacks per hardware but the same average frame rate. Maybe the smaller more interior level design of KT helps. Yeah that is true about the 3DO, it was quite adept at various pixel resolutions and color depths while the PS1 is much more rigid and formatted for texture maps. I definitely would have ended up getting KT more so if it was on PS1 bitd. There's a 3DO copy at my local shop but I tend to spread out my purchases for that platform since they don't come cheap or boxed usually. ?Heard about the PC port a few years ago and nice to see it get out of exclusive digital download and onto Steam and GOG too.

Thanks for the pictures, heard about that halo effect but didn't know what it looked like. Wish I knew how to fix that, looking into S-Video mods myself to go as smooth as possible heh. Appreciate the look at the steps involved, I think the 2600 is worth going up to S-Video for as it's really good for text.?

Yeah probably should have said 3bpp-ish to 4bpp-ish heh. Still it looks easier to go above 2bpp than it is on NES with all the flicker that causes. Regardless it's more involved that I thought, I've mostly just stuck to 2bpp for pixel art much like my C64 tinkering. Definitely think more 7800 flash carts has stimulated some homebrew growth, in particular getting down to perfected terms with the visual and audio properties of the hardware which I don't the OG developers ever got to do imo with all the market constraints bitd. Emulation is awesome but there's something to be said for running it on the console on a nice CRT.

Looking good TSH. Pretty neat this mode breakdown stuff, didn't realize there was so much graphical variance on 7800. Interesting how sprite width and aspect ratio change and how color depth can actually rise from 2bpp up to like 3bpp in some places. See the almost procedural nature of Atari hardware is till there even in the third home console.

I just bought some carts today, I got a Harmony on the way but I'll mostly use it for my least favorite games and games just too darn expensive to own anymore which are sometimes good and bad heh.

Not just Atari, there are a ton of forgotten arcade games that were never ported. Was just thinking much of the joystick+spinner games would work on 2600 and or 7800 like Tron Arcade, Mad Planets, Krull Arcade. Need a flightstick joystick rather than a CX40 to reach the fire button but...there is a paddle or a driving controller there that can go in Port2. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/277009-mad-planets-cabaret-build/ I think Crazy Climber on 2600 could have been handled better on 2600 besides the weird release method, as it's a single player arcade game that uses two joysticks, but uses one on 2600, which itself has two joystick ports so...? Guess a lack of dual-brackets didn't help. I quite liked the Battlezone hack Thomas did for two joystick control but again flightsticks are better for that. Idk I think a lot of meat was left on the bone as far as two joystick port use and single player games.? Some of the matter is hardware related whether an arcade port can even control well or not Egs. does a peripheral exist, can it adapt with a bracket or some duct tape heh, how many people even have that peripheral? Little premature to announce anything yet but I'm focusing on such things in 2021. ? Okay a little preview, was thinking Toobin' would be nice to have on 2600 or 7800 but not many of us have a T&F controller so maybe something new is in order that handle button mashing games. https://atariage.com/controller_list.php?SystemID=2600

Totally know what you mean. The VCS scrolls vertically very well, the vertical sprite stacking, the era of the original audience played a lot of pinball, the fact that one of the sprite objects is called a Playfield lol. I tinker with some pinball graphics once and a while for the 2600 but I'm no coder and there isn't a Pinball Construction Kit around.

Hey cool to see any kind of Bomber on the 7800. Noticed you went larger for detail sake I'm guessing but with the tradeoff of 10 tiles per row instead of 16. Did a quickie conversion of what I could find in case you want some more arena room. The explosion debris stuff isn't great, not very good at that heh. I know it's early in development but have you thought about the upcoming QuadTari for some 4-Player matches?

Just saw the ZPH video last night and that is a tremendous improvement, you had two people thoroughly engaged in a game they're not a big fan of.? Even from watching you can see just how much faster and tighter the controls are, I'd forgot how oddly stiff the enemy movement was in the PB one. You'd make a lot of people happy if you whitened those eyes but I know what a hair pulling task it is to do that. I've been speculating on a bunch of setups but the only foolproof way to stop color overlaps or conflicts on a 2600 is greyscale heh.?

Thanks for the update, went to get a couple Voxes and hadn't noticed there wasn't any heh. Keep on making them, bought Wizard of Wor today and it's going to be not so chatty unless I get a Vox.

Well just ordered a Harmony Encore but I guess there's a lot less Concertos in existence at the moment so I'll keep trying to reserve.

Looking good, appreciate the sample, helps me understand the UI better.

Oh, thank you that helps a lot. Ah the color selection process confused me, the whole Ro/BG/FG. I can't seem to change the Playfield color away from black no matter what I select but I did color two Background lines differently. Getting closer heh. Was thinking a good Background tool would be a gradient fill, like a purely vertical plotter where you adjust height and position of a box and fill with a gradient of selected colors Ie. # of colors divided by # of scanlines. Well I have been looking for something that can plot interrupts in scanline rendering of the Playfield. Iirc BMX Airmaster, Robot Tank, and Strat-O-Gems have examples of three color wide Playfields. https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=337 https://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=415 https://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=37 As it was explained to me it can occur at 3 color clock increments. It's costly to performance but I think one or two interrupts plus the center SCORE bit used wouldn't be unreasonable(Application wise but perhaps not platform performance wise.) for an editor environment. Yeah I know it's not very "standard" 2600 graphical behavior. Is there anyway to flicker a couple Playfield layers, again not great 2600 performance but good for an editor to try different things? I know there's kind of gap between editing and having a 2600 software engine that actually does that, guess anything works in an editor though. Just spit-balling tools to application ideas. Great tool so far, the closer the PF gets to something like a paint program the more user friendly it gets and the more people can learn to craft Playfield graphics. Circle tool is sweet.

Yeah it needs some balls, blazing balls.

Lol and I'm trying to turn that novelty into a standard, like how Sega had stock 3-button and then 6-button controllers when fighting games became popular. I know a lot of arcade ports struggled with one button on many platforms Egs. VIC-20 and C64 have the same pinout and same porting limitations from it. Promise I'll shut up in a second lol but it's amazing how still after all the years away I've been from AA such platforms like 2600 continue to leave two paddle pins unconnected in the joysticks with not many homebrews adopting the Omega Race protocol. It's like one button is a Commandment or something when other solutions exist. ? Don't get me wrong though, I think your one button controls are great, played a lot of handheld ports and Famicom pirate fighters but they don't usually control as smoothly as what you've got here.

Oh good to hear about the progress, you're definitely the closest I've seen to getting a fighting game working well on the 2600. I know it technically takes more space but only on an Atari will you find people fighting against adding options lol. The one button option for all would still be there and I wouldn't make a game myself without it. ? It's nothing that didn't exist already in 1983, the 2600 wasn't without peripherals ijs. A Coleco controller works apparently too. https://atariage.com/controller_list.php?SystemID=2600 http://arcarc.xmission.com/Web Archives/Deathskull (May-2006)/games/tech/2600cont.html Here's some details on how it works, it's the basis for some controllers I intend to build next year, nothing too radical, Fire1, Fire2, & Start/Pause/Menu.

I tried looking at the manual PDF but I can't figure out how to input or paint the vertical gradient of the Background layer. On the other matter, so that function can't be incorporated into a PF editor?

I tried it out not long ago and I think it's an excellent start. For one thing I can do a fireball move, the number of Famiclone fighters where you can't do that is staggering lol. Have you thought about supporting the Omega Race protocol of paddles into buttons? retrogameboyz sells some ready made options. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Omega-Race-Atari-2600-Controller-Gamepad-Control-Pad-Joystick/264338016887 Not saying a one button mode isn't warranted but why do so few ever want to do what Omega Race did?