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Everything posted by iesposta
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I expect lots of graphical errors, and since the TIA is doing the graphics and sound, probably bad sound also. The CPU and I/O chips are simple to recreate compared to the TIA which made the system display without using a RAM buffer which led to all kinds of tricks and exploits it wasn't ever designed to do. Even now, the Stella emulator is getting a better TIA implementation in 2017 with Version 5, and sound is to be improved a few point versions later. So simple yet so complex TIA package of timers, dividers... the TIA documentation is scattered all over and sometimes just plain wrong information, I'll be truly impressed if they get to "acceptable" using emulation or FPGA modeling. It can't possibly compare to Stella which has had decades of coding, and Stella emulation isn't as good as real hardware. If it is good enough to ignore its flaws, it should do just fine. I spent the $380 for the XRGB mini Framemeister upscaler for the convenience and future-proofing, and the composite, s-video, RGB upgrade kits and PS2 native RGB or Component, and HDMI-in gives me 480p 720p to 1080p with scan lines or without for every console and Pi emulation I own. Okay the Fairchild VES is RF only, but I have a tuner box with composite out (like a VCR without the recording part) that technically I could run through the Framemeister, but as long as I have working CRT TV's...
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All my existing console systems and emulations do 720p and scan lines via XRGB Framemeister Mini. The Portable will get an inferior Pac-Man 8K. The perfect one we can buy on cartridge here. Oh and the Atari and Genesis Portables have built-in "rechargable" (re-char-ga-ble) batteries. ha ha
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All my existing console systems and emulations do 720p and scan lines via XRGB Framemeister Mini. The Portable will get an inferior Pac-Man 8K. The perfect one we can buy on cartridge here. Oh and the Atari and Genesis Portables have built-in "rechargable" (re-char-ga-ble) batteries. ha ha
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Good to know it will be DINTAR's version. He made a hack so it would run on last year's Flashback Portable. Maybe he sent that version? I can hope they corrected the skewed player output a lot of games showed, so he wouldn't have to use an older hacked version. There is more info up now including the game list in this pdf. Why so many Paddle games!? Kaboom! with a D-pad? Pong, Breakout, Astroblast... Oh and "Forgger"! ha ha ha That must be Frogger without the sound. Forgger. http://www.atgames.net/resources/assets/pdf/2017-Atari-Flashback-Portable.pdf
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Mine always worked fine. I'm talking the combo joystick / paddle, not the Atari paddle lookalikes from Gemini. You need y-splitter to use two paddles in port 1, and another y-splitter for Warlords 4 player. If using Harmony, they will default to paddles unless you hold in the button when powering up. The Atari Paddles range from left 800K ohms down to 0.0 then they go up to about 58 ohms. The Gemini Stick/Paddle go from 950K ohms down to 15K ohms. Looks like if I add a 100K to a 20K ohm resistor the far right will go 0 ohms before it hits the stop. Both "Paddles" operate in only a small section of their entire range, but CircusAtari 7800 is the first game to fail. I like the short throw joysticks better anyway for maze games. The Paddles are not so solid but are easy to clean. And keeping track of a splitter to play 2 or more players isn't fun. I have plenty of Atari Paddles. CircusAtari has 2 player same time, I think, if I read the option screen correct. I wonder how that plays? 2 player same time Centipede 7800 is about as wow as I've seen.
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Coleco shells are white; wasn't King Kong in a blue shell? Okay, Tigervision. Although those are all rarity 5,6 7 and a 9. If I had King Kong and a Jawbreaker... What other old original games had color Atari shells, and were they non-playable enough to repurpose? (For my own fabrication, not a homebrew run - except Wizard of Wor - that better be in a gray CBS shell ).
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I have ordered this, but it still hasn't arrived yet. It does work on Concerto with Pokey. Correction: It does work on Mateos Cart with Pokey. I was playing with a Gemini Video Game System Joystick/Paddle plugged into the right side Port 2. The joystick right is the "button", but that's normal for that controller. I would wire a switch to make the button work, but for one problem: The knob turned full clockwise doesn't put the see-saw all the way to the right. It stops about a player's width from the right. Hopefully I can add resistance. If I have to decrease resistance, any suggestions on how to do that???
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Fall Down is great like that! Way before my time here and I've never seen the 2 color shell for sale used. Wish it were still sold that way. I think all Multi-SD card carts should be translucent. How cool would Harmony be translucent with a see through label also? I spent an insane $40 for practically the last new translucent Vectrex shell (for my VecMulti cart). I love that. It screams, "new technology". (Or at least late 80's when watches, TV's, and other things had clear or translucent plastic. )
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That is a picture of DINTAR816's 4K or 8K game. I was wondering how they'd feature Pac-Man this year with Atari 2600's letdown version. The version pictured is NOT the newest build - which is V7-test (has a more Arcade-like score, the 0 is squished). The newest version is in post #1370 : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/?p=3651813
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Congratulations! Congrats DINTAR816 on getting your Pac-Man on the Flashback Portable 2017! Funny thing is your Pac-Man is SO good, many will think it is like last year's "not 2600 Frogger" (or the "not 2600 Space Invaders") and think it is encoded for the ARM chip and not an actual Atari2600 game! I was to do music for the frog game on last year's, but found out that they wanted original multi-channel tunes. I'm not a composer, but I still found it shocking they shipped that game without sound. If for some reason you didn't allow this, that is definitely your version on the website's box art:
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First post of this thread Millipede says V6: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/243453-atari-2600-trak-ball-games/?p=3338227
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I haven't compared Reactor joystick to Trak-Ball, mostly because I can't stand playing it with the joystick I played Millipede into the 350,000's and didn't notice the inchworm problem, however that could have been a build older than V6. I will try to repeat your reported slowdown.
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Why like home-brew games? Because it lets you see 1981's Pac-Man running on the first cartridge system, released in 1976! It has 64 bytes of RAM to work with (1/2 the RAM in the 2600).
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In English: Collisions are checked after drawscreen. After drawscreen, if the "object" (can be a missile or ball or playfield...) did not collide with "real hardware player1" then skip this whole routine.
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I love the scan line effect, especially for the older consoles. I even use scan line on SD video like Laserdisc (even though all I own are widescreen). The only way I found they look correct is output HDMI at 720p. Then the top two scan line valleys under off/on, the second one being smooth, turn both all the way up to 110, 115. 120. The one above smooth turned up all the way won't show scan lines. Back it down until the dimness between lines is to your liking. Even from the Raspberry Pi setting emulators to their native output values, then the XRGB scaling them to 720p all have perfect scan lines. That also keeps the emulation running fast, the lag time down (be sure to put TV in "game" mode also for the lowest lag time). There was improvement in the last XRGB firmware, so make sure your XRGB is updated. Last update was over a year ago, though. 5-17-2016 ver 2.03a
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I hope not. It would be my go-to AtariVox game along with "Man Goes Down". I haven't done all 70 some speech strings. But I believe there is enough. Who knew it said so much ? Who knew what was said is scripted to what is onscreen, and also which maze you are in? Who could understand or remember more than a few phrases? I don't, and I played the Arcade game a lot. It is also about 2-players at the same time -- which can't have AtariVox. Someone more advanced than CDS or myself needs to hack in the AtariVox speech, and any high score saves, unless it just gets released as a maze and sprite update with no speech.
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Here's the desert combat colors mock up, with what looks like 3 more background color changes if some brilliant hack coder could add them?
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...purple mountain's majesty, above the tar-filled plains! Like my white car, white center lane, improved curve math, purple/green mountains "Pole Position"! http://atariage.com/forums/topic/225033-fixing-pole-position-and-enhanced-source-code/?p=2992264
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It's a sin that I hate almost everything about Atari's Pac-Man. •Every sound is bad, from the start tune, to the twang eating, the pop-wop of the power pellet, to the death of your player. •The colors!? Couldn't get a static blue maze on black right. Ghost monsters have color, but they all appear to be the same color. •The sprites. Pac-Man is double line square blocky, and does not face up or down. Hard to see ghost monsters on a blue colored background. (Berzerk is double line, and the robots and player have DOZENS of animation images. Pac gets 3? Right closed, open, open more... mirror bit for left) •Since Pac is not round with a triangle "mouth", add an ?EYEBALL? that the arcade game left out. That'll make the graphics spectacular. •Gameplay. Barely any, and it isn't smooth and easy, but frustrating, too slow, and clunky. •No fruit / item levels, or indication of mazes cleared. What Atari got right: Pac is yellow. There's an escape tunnel from one side to the other. Four ghost enemies (kinda wish it was 3 so they would show up better). It adds up a score.
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Thank you so much, that really made my day / week / month! I started coming to AtariAge in 2011 when the Basic DPC+ kernel was beginning, so I learned to use that first along with learning all the (limited) things the 2600 system can do. I am much better at art / design / layout / music, so when I was offered help with the game logic it went from a mock-up to a challenging game that I did not have the skill to program. The Arcade game _is_ still much harder. I wish there were less places where you can lose a life, but where you should be safe. You just have to figure out what works, and avoid what ends up killing you. The changing directions mid-jump can help with close barrels. I love finding behavior that wasn't ever programmed. Jumping a fireball over a rivet can trap the fireball, it then sometimes will float up off the screen! I always loved that there was a dad that reprogrammed the Arcade game because his little girl asked why she couldn't play as the girl. It was a simple option to add, and I'm glad that it is there. I regret having to scrap the opening "stomp the girders". If this were all assembly, and the "run, jump, climb, etc." wasn't duplicated in 2 different banks, or there was an option to use more than 32K, the "stomp the girders" would be in there. It really adds to the game having a story line.
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I'm sure I mentioned something about the 2600 Portable Flashback not sounding quite correct. I like tunes / chiptunes done with the 2600. Probably the first thing I ran from SD card was the attached file. The music is for the 7800 game T:me Salvo, but it was so good, I asked for a 2600 file just to show myself it wasn't using a Pokey chip. Later I wasn't sure if it was badly off or the portable volume was just too high. If the small speaker is too loud, the sound will distort. MusicSalvotheme.bin
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I have many CX-10's with some that don't have the top stick indent for the hex disk. I assume those are 1978 CX-10's? Maybe they are user replaced rubber, or rebuilt Frankensticks? I have one hex disk I found stuck to an H6 switch plate, and a chess piece box missing one end flap that I'm proud to display.
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Toki for the 7800 PAL / NTSC Edition Cartridge POLL
iesposta replied to Willard's topic in Atari 7800
Here's the speech samples I added to this hacked Fast Food. -
Toki for the 7800 PAL / NTSC Edition Cartridge POLL
iesposta replied to Willard's topic in Atari 7800
I use a Python script I found in the Blogs here that takes an 8-bit mono 4,000Hz wav file and packs 2 nybble values into one byte. Antic Magazine has a circuit for Atari computers and code to digitize mono audio played into the paddle pins, where the volume voltage translates into a paddle value, which then gets shrunk to the 0-15 value. . Audacity and also a Mac/Linux command line program can make a wav file into 4-bit sound. But you then need to code how to pack / unpack the output and code how to bang on the volume register. I'm sure there are other ways. I searched around a lot, but there's not too much written about 4-bit sound. There's even 1-bit sound, often called "squeakers", which I haven't figured out yet. -
Toki for the 7800 PAL / NTSC Edition Cartridge POLL
iesposta replied to Willard's topic in Atari 7800
A value of $00 to $0F in the Volume register moves the speaker from in = $0 to out = $F. Different values created from "digitizing" sound into one of 16 values, 30 to 60 times each frame, ideally a value every scan line (even in overscan and Vblank) recreates the sound by vibrating the speaker through the volume register.
