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iesposta

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Posts posted by iesposta

  1. Posted

    You lost me a little bit on this part. You mean, They explained how they were still... or that they gave you a unit to play test and you explained your findings of the system...

     

    How long ago was this?

    It was back when the guy from Retron posted here, I emailed him asking to be a beta tester, saying how I use Atari 2600 and what this community creates and that I have carts from 2K to 64K, that I know how the real hardware operates, oh and also the 10 or so games that got real Trak-Ball control added.

     

    His reply email confirmed I would be a good candidate to test, and he would tell the hardware team that the ports should work with Trak-Ball controllers.

     

    No other emails followed. No hardware was ever sent.

    And as most of this thread says, no new information since that Retron guy made 2 posts here (as far as I know).

  2. Posted

    I was contacted after expressing a desire to play test.

    I explained how we are still pushing the system way beyond its intended use with techniques like illegal opcodes, Bus Stuffing, DPC+ Hardware assist, Cart RAM, larger ROM banks, etc.

     

    Unless they use around Stella 3.9.3 or newer, DPC+ games will not work.

     

    That one email reply was the last I heard from Retron77.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    I was 16 when Dragon's Lair was put in the bowling lanes we went to once a week ,(parents were in Leagues).

    First time I saw the end, rescuing the Princess and seeing her soft-core porn see-through top was a thrill.

     

    My brothers and I got so good we chose places to die like the riding all the way down the platform elevator shaft and splat!

    Why did we "choose to die"?

    Because there's a score! To get a High Score you have to play a perfect game and use all but your final player.

    Dying makes the next life go through scenes again, adding more to your score.

     

    Fun fact is the emulation of the arcade game can use a real attached red number segment led display to show the score. The emulation also has a software score that can be overlaid on the animation. The $35 Raspberry Pi 2 or Pi 3 plays the emulator Daphne perfectly.

    I had the DVD "game" version, and that can be used as a key to download the animation frame files for Daphne and they are nicer than the Laser Disk and the DVD.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Also, a list of STANDARD kernel commands that DO NOT WORK under DPC+ would be much appreciated, if someone can point me to one. That could be my problem as well.

    I learned bB DPC+ first as I joined when it was the latest new version.

    So even though I went back to a the older non-DPC+ Multi Sprite kernel for my 4K FLAPPY game, I really can't help with older "commands".

     

    It is easier to keep track of your program because of the constraints and coding in 4K banks.

    I would always got lost programming in Atari 800XL Basic because you can do much more and end up with "spaghetti code" where you are totally lost.

     

    I found it better to learn what the hardware can do and loosely how it does things.

    You don't have to know the "machine code" because bBasic does the heavy lifting.

    Then I think of code to do what I know the hardware can do.

     

    I don't code in sharing data tables.

    Object data tables in DPC+ are copied from ROM to RAM for the ARM computer running the DPC+ bankswitch kernel scheme.

    "Objects" being 2 Player sprites, more than 2 is using the real Player1 for "Player 1 through Player 9".

    If I need Player3 through Player7 to be the same graphic for a formation attack, you can code data for all of them at once:

    Player3-7:

    %00110011

    %00110011

    ...

    end

  6. Posted

    I just listened to your music "Sky Land" again.

    I like how it is in tune (as far Atari 2600 can get), with no sour, or really off key notes.

    If you like the buzzy notes, just stop reading.. It is certainly a style of which you can be proud.

     

    I just think there are more regular notes in between so that you could use pure and not buzzy tones.

    When I first do a tune, and the Visual batari Basic keyboard has say 2 missing values between F sharp and A and you need the missing G or G sharp, try one or both of the "missing" values. Sometimes it's a perfect fit.

    They are no missing values, the frequency goes from 0/1 to 31 for all channels. They are not shown on the keyboard view because they were determined to be so far off the keyboard key that it is skipped.

     

    If you can play the intended note on a keyboard or phone app, go to the Advanced tab and see if there is a pure tone of channel 4 or 12 that matches. If it's unpleasant or way off then of course go to the buzzy tone.

     

    I can do this whole complicated run in only Channel 4 and 12, so I think most tones are there and acceptable.

    01 songEndingFinal.bas.bin

     

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    Thanks for those extra images! Looks much better. I wonder how the red/gold vs green issue is presenting itself? From the colors.xex program shown above, red is red, gold is gold, green is green. It would make sense to stop the BallBlazer intro in an emulator, see what colour the background register is set to, since it all has to be shades of a single colour.

    It probably is that last row. Color $Fx.

     

    I made my Kong that $F4 around there which should be brown. On one 2600 machine I saw a green Kong!

    Since then I use a dark orange for brown.

     

    The above picture shows dark yellow as a shade of brown. That could be the camera ? as dark yellow is still quite yellow in my experience.

  8. Posted

    So, I am an idiot when it comes to these things...

     

    I have six games that I have built with the DPC+ kernel. If I wanted someone make a physical cartridge of one or all of these, would I need to use Melody boards?

     

    Thanks in advance for any information... I have been searching about the internet, but like I said, I am pretty thick... and I don't understand most of this stuff. ;)

     

    Here in the AtariAge Store.

    You want to order a custom, one-off cart.

     

    https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=949

     

    Just follow the steps. Order and pay, then email the bin and the artwork files.

    You will have to select Melody for DPC+ games.

    That's $30 per game with your label design, unless you are a member - then you save $1.50 per cart.

    post-29575-0-38591100-1504704269.jpg

    post-29575-0-11244200-1504704314_thumb.png

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

     

     

    These 2 vcs use different pins on the 4050, theres 6 buffers in it, we were not using the right pins for luma lines and sync. The pins are marked on the board, just needed to go through every one until we found somewhere to jumper them to the appropriate pin on the 4050 socket.

     

    Thanks for your posts.

    I have recently acquired a PAL Jr here in the US and need this mod for at least Composite as I have a set that shows PAL sometimes trying to lock in Composite.

    (I don't think I want to import any PAL tuners.)

    I'll use it to run those great audio/video demos that are usually PAL.

    It came with a few boxed games, 3 unopened, including my favorite Millipede in the maroon red-style box that late PAL releases came in.

    post-29575-0-38047500-1504306764_thumb.jpg

  12. Posted

    Homebrew programmers are slowly finishing the Coleco catalog.

    Turbo is available as a prototype and also includes a more complete version added by homebrew.

    Ladybug as you said come to us a different way.

     

    I think there's a good chance we'll see Cosmic Avenger sometime soon - since it is very close to what Scramble does.

     

     

    post-29575-0-69868500-1504235813_thumb.png

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

     

    There's no evidence that an ST-compatible CX80 ever existed. And it's unlikely that atari would have changed the protocol without indication of that on the box and the controller itself. I believe that the very few units out there that were reported to be St compatible, were modified by end users or local shop/distributors.

     

    CX22 and other trackballs can easily be modified for ST as well, so you never know what you'll end up with when buying one, altough probably chances of finding a modified unit are low.

    Agreed.

    It's safe to assume in this case the CX80's are the same as CX22's.

    Very, very few operate otherwise, and those were probably modded by users.

     

    That's why the file names were changed.

    Any real AA carts will auto-detect the trackball type.

  14. Posted

    I have a Commodore mouse.

    Why doesn't that work?

     

    It works as a joystick on Atari if you hold down the 2nd button at startup.

    It doesn't work as a trackball, or maybe it is like a CX22 or CX80 and I only tried it with the Amiga mouse version?

  15. Posted

     

    I assumed it worked this way, but not having a CX22 trakball and hence having never tried it, I couldn't say for sure.

     

    I played the latest Millipede TB with the latest Stella on Mac OSX using the 2600-daptor II in so-called "mouse" setting (really just the Trak-Ball output) with a CX22 Trak-Ball.

    Everything worked just fine.

     

    Remember I did have problems with the developer USB device to AtariVox device due to thinking I needed the latest FTDI driver. It failed to work until I removed the driver. Mac OSX has it built-in, and that works.

  16. Posted

    Apologies to Bryan for inadvertently starting the argument of what is the Ballblazer start color!

     

    I only intended to praise how good his video mod my 800XL looked on my wall across the room at 80 inches projection taken with my cell phone camera. I wasn't screen capturing every gradient or worried about the true color on a warmed up machine!

     

    Nobody agreed or thanked or said they were impressed with the clarity of this gigantic upscaled projection, which says to me how fantastic this Video Mod Board is.

     

    I can upscale the RF output if anyone wants a comparison.

     

    Hello!

    post-29575-0-48937100-1503927498_thumb.jpg

     

    P. S. This is the XE Cart, 800XL, UAV rD S-Video out, Framemeister upscale to 720P w/scanlines on, DLP w/RGB LED light source at 80 inches diagonal.

    • Like 6

  18. Posted · Edited by iesposta

    Amazing 2600 "firsts" in Draconian:

    • First game with speech samples during game play (not samples with the screen black).

    • First game to potentially score 99 million points? (One point under 100 million?)

    • Additional technical programming "firsts" like new bank switching type CDF - stuff not as amazing as the first 2 points.

     

    (Please correct me if I'm wrong :) )

     

    post-29575-0-19495500-1503847241_thumb.jpg

     

    Thanks for the update SpiceWare!

     

    Thanks! Other than lack of sleep and power outages, I've fared well so far. Storm's moving slowly though, so we're seeing massive flooding all over. From here, posted this morning, I live where the X is so we're looking at another 2 feet or more of rain in the next few days:

    post-29575-0-49292100-1503848227_thumb.jpg

    It's also spinning up tornadoes, one touched down 2-3 miles from my home in the neighborhood across the highway.


    For those wondering about cd-w's mockup - blog posts last week saw the initial implementation of the spy ship as well as a reduction in the logo size which freed up 1.5 KB of ROM for the digital audio samples. I'd hoped to finish up the spy ship and post new builds here this weekend, but along came Harvey.

    Looks good, but won't work. The entire menu's drawn using the 2-color 48 pixel kernel, the players are black, the 2 colors are the background and playfield. Looks like Nathan took some inspiration from that flyer though, as this is what it currently looks like:
    attachicon.gifdraconian.png

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    I played a couple of quick games of the new Millipede build because I wanted to test out my Trak-Ball with the Stelladapter-II "mouse mode" (true trackball output). I used the newest Mac Stella build.

    I wish I had more time to fully play test it, but no, so I don't have any feedback at the moment.

  20. Posted

    The most important green "chicklet" capacitor is the one pictured, next to the voltage regulator.

    That's the one that will cause "snow" immediately, or after a warm-up.

    The other one at the top I've replaced, but noticed no difference. If the bottom one was bad, then the top probably is also.

    The older systems had .1uF, but I recently read somewhere to always use .22uF, but both values will work.

    post-29575-0-39626700-1503549572.jpg

     

     

    The same part, but "newer", looks like a beige rectangle box.

    I've used these without problem from this pictured "kit".

    Until mojo returns, get all pictured below, plus thermal paste for $9.95 US.

    post-29575-0-78888900-1503549570.jpg

     

     

    Lost a spring in Reset or Select? Quick temporary fix! (Not my system, but cool nonetheless.)

    post-29575-0-58496500-1503549571.jpg

  21. Posted

    Good information! Thanks, man!

     

    If I was to start this game over, I'd make so many game design decisions differently. I jumped right in and everything kind of got duct taped on. Hahaha. I know there are sooo many things I could optimize if I wasn't so lazy.

     

    I don't know what game this thread is for.

    The bombing game?

  22. Posted

    In DPC+, is compiling for PAL systems as simple as changing "set tv ntsc" to "set tv pal"? Both versions of my game seem to run fine in Stella, but I cannot test on a PAL system. Are there any PAL users with a Harmony cartridge that might be interested in testing a ROM for me?

     

    Also, I have an explosion sound effect on channel 0 that seems to be affecting the volume level of channel 1. I don't know if it is just my hardware... or? It's probably my code, but I have been through it a few times and cannot see what I have done. It works as expected in Stella.

     

    There are 2 kinds of PAL, actually more, but in regard to 2600 games - 2 kinds.

    •Traditionally, PAL-B used in Europe and Australia displays at 50Hz, and has more scan lines than NTSC. This is what bB will make if you "set TV to PAL".

    •Modern PAL displays are capable of 60Hz, and nearly the same as NTSC except it uses the same PAL color palette. If you just changed game colors to use the PAL palette that would be PAL-60.

     

    I have Harmony, Harmony Encore, & Harmony Concerto, and I just got a PAL Atari and have a PAL capable display ( Crosley Retro LCD TV ) but the Atari needs Composite modded because the TV lacks a PAL channel 2/3 tuner.

    • Like 1
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