iesposta

It's all good. What made it believable was starting with "a few days ago" making me think it was unrelated to April 1. What wasn't believable was the part about the carts appeared to be the same assembly code? Meaning they were new? NOS systems would have NOS Incredible Wizard if the console would be sold with a game. I knew of one planned spectacular joke, but it kinda died last October. Maybe next year? One other thing I disagree is stating Bally Professional Arcade is more prone to failure. I don't disagree that's a false statement, but rather if any version that worked and didn't quickly die, and the original owners spent lots of money on extra controllers and more games than the amount that can fit into the top slots, like mine, and you can see it was used quite a bit and for quite some time, it is as solid as any other working well system. Apart from aging caps and regulators like any old tech, a good working unit should be refurbished as preventive maintenance to keep the functioning unit running. My large capacitor on the front right was a bit leaky / crusty, and changing a few caps and the regulators (that I could understand) made the RF output (no switch box) even better. Though now it has an S-Video swapped in. Proper heat sinks, I believe, are a must. Especially on the most failed custom data chip. It is the known part that fails due to heat, so why not add what should have been added instead of that kluge of an ingot attached to the shield? I sawed open a 2600 adapter and replaced those caps. That's a future Bally project as those hot wall transformers have to be hell on any capacitors sealed up in it.

How so?Background can change color every scan line just the same as playfield. PF0 would be black just like PF1 & PF2.

Thomas, I think I understand. Do you mean not using players will make games much MORE restricted? (Much less restrictions means you can do more.) You are saying because this engine uses playfield for walls, the smoothing would have to be both missiles making invisible (black) P0 & P1? Mindmaster is inverse, so the ball and one missile smooth leaving a free player and its missile? Gip-Gip, Would it be too much work to invert, making the walls background, and the ceiling, floor Playfield? To me that seems like a more simple kernel, but again I don't know assembly so I can only ask and suggest. If too much work, continue on as you have. Amazing progress! (No pun intended)

That looks great! Find some time to use the Ball and Missile1 set to the "appropriate" color to do the "Mindmaster Smooth." Doorways are made with the Player object, changing the width as you move closer. Just suggestions. Wow that means the background color is the walls and the Playfield is the ceiling, floor and side passages. P.S. That chart should be built into Stella. Remind me to suggest that.

Amazing! unbe-freakin-lievable! This will also make Frantic spectacular. Then we should collaborate on Astro Blaster 2600 -- it's a "talkie" where speech in-game is more important than Bosconian -- because I have permission to take Bob's 7800 movement routines (which equal the Arcade but need tweaked for 2600 screen compensation, as was done for the 7800 amounting to only one divide by 2), and the TIA audio is already there (like Scramble 7800 to 2600). I myself could do a decent batari Basic DPC+ kernel Astro Blaster using AtariVox+, but CDF with samples and less canned kernel constraints would be so much better. Also, like DK Arcade 2600, I can do the Graphics, Sound, Speech Samples, Layout, but game logic and C programming are out of my wheelhouse. If only we could all be as productive and fast as Bob DeCrescenzo was!

The latest Harmony Programming Tool is now on GitHub, in that post that you linked, but here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/156500-latest-harmony-cart-software/?p=3663844 As for "more stable BIOS", the one in the GitHub program/asm folder is only labeled hbios_NTSC.bin but it is hbios_105_NTSC.bin, there are also betas and a final of hbios_106_NTSC.bin Do you know which BIOS version you used?

Don't remember it was years ago and I used 2 scrap resistors in series right off the 5V regulator. LED was also scrap, so I didn't know needed Voltage. The picture of it lit was a 1.5V button battery and that was dim.

You are ballyalley. If this is an April Fool's joke, shame on you! You're the maintainer of all info Bally / Astrocade. If true, I eagerly await more info.

Great idea using a color changing LED! I put a mini blue IN the 2600 power switch. It's too bright, and if the console is in front of you as intended (12-15 ft RF cable!) the switch angle shines right in your eyes! So I should add more resistance?

Suggestion. Take a look at Starpath Escape From The Mindmaster in Stella's debug colors. I love the way it uses sliding diagonal missiles and/or ball set to the background (invisible) to smooth the tops and bottoms of the walls out. And a floating rectangle that enlarges the closer you get makes the "doors" to the "rooms". Worth investigating for that less blocky polish, although I like the wide PF pixels also. Gip, did you make that Raycasting demo with the multi-colored Playfield I asked about here? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229083-ray-casting-engine-demo/?p=3731023

Also, even having the same rate of flicker, colors and how bright the objects of background, playfield and sprites affect flicker perceived as okay or terrible. Some combinations are less noticeable, and some really seem to strobe terribly. Complimentary colors & darker it is less noticeable. Contrasting colors and brightness are more annoying. If you want flicker to be less noticeable, when the sprites flicker make them one step brighter. That goes against what I wrote above, but sometimes it is better to not have the darkening / dimming. A flickered value $44 is darker than a solid value $44.

Anyone know who programmed this Raycasting demo? The YouTuber just says, "He.." At 6:56 min mark!

Awesome alex_79! Just like Kosmic Stardust's video of the TIA test, where the 3rd column Star Trek Transporter materializes.

Regarding Froggie. I don't know if both TIA and POKEY versions will be done, but I have been trying to help with the TIA Froggie music . I did this quick SID to TIA conversion to show there doesn't need to be horrible out-of-tune notes. Schmutzpuppy has made some changes that sound much better, but it is all him. Some problems are that we speak different languages, and I know 2600 and nothing about 7800. I can not change and test his code. I don't have his source code anyway. I tried to stress the main tune and the Level Clear tune are most memorable. This 2600 music shows how it could sound. After the 3rd tune it gets weird. As I said this was a quick conversion to demonstrate. The TIA is far from POKEY, but good enough if used carefully. frogger_TIA_Sound4_NTSC.bin

Actually the Japanese Arcade Donkey Kong will not drop a barrel on you if you are at the top of the ladder. Another thing the American version changed. P.S. Byte Knight and I made a 4 screen DK Arcade 2600 also. Link is in my signature. Play "E"asy Demo. ( Ends after 4 screens, Japanese order), then play "H"ard Demo for the next 4 screens. I've been polishing it over the last year and a half. Still it is my 2nd (almost) completed game. I learned a lot. There are more than a few duplicated code sections that really bug me because if it were not duplicated I could probably put back in the opening "stomp the girders", but I am not up for such a big rewrite. It may cause overcycle / screen roll as we have pushed it past the limit and hacked it so it doesn't overcycle. I still would like to add at least a high score while you play. And I should squeeze in there the Reset switch should work anywhere, not just at Game Over. I did add the Fire Button restart at Game Over, but that's not in this demo.

Building a DPC+ game with " const noscore = 1 " results in 251 scan lines, not 262.

Maybe because there have only been 15 systems added there since it was last updated September 2015? Where is the list in this thread, and is it newer than September 2015? If this list is "dead" there is no harm in cross posting the same data in the current official thread. The person who maintains those spreadsheets on Post #1 over there last visited AtariAge February 14, 2017.

Remember this is not the CURRENT THREAD. It was taken over by the thread started in 2011. The person updating the list has a thread here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/186498-the-official-atari-2600-heavy-6-switch-list/page-1

I would suggest you not use Flashback1 because the case / buttons are different? I just wanted to restate that to use an AtariVox+ takes another device. And does the USB to TTL have software for the ARM CPU? You can't just plug it into Stelladapter port 2. The Emulator Stella can drive the AtariVox+. What's needed is a USB to AtariVox+ device. A small amount were made for developers, but it is a fairly common thing. There are settings in Stella for AtariVox and com port. The adapter just changes the USB to TTL signals and the software makes a com port. The "driver"software is already in Mac OS X, and can be downloaded for Win/Linux. I don't see anything about Raspberry Pi under the VCP virtual com port drivers, but the Direct Device Drivers do mention the Raspberry Pi. Also there is open-source libFTDI.

Can you buy chrome switches anywhere? Anyway, I have my set of 6. I'll probably put them in one of my heavy sixers, just not the lowest Serial Number one. I'll keep that for show. The RGB mod also has S-Video and Composite, and the RGB can be changed to Y Pb Pr with an adapter they also sell. Why a heavy sixer? Because the RGB mod allows power on with the pallet switch held to bypass the mod altogether leaving RF working!

The Australian that sells the 2600 RGB board recommends replacing the white connectors with regular 'dual wipe' black ones. I guess that means it contacts on both sides of the pins? Plus the replacement allows thicker pins.

AtariBrian, Here is a nice color-corrected, photoshopped version. I hope you like...

Pinball Arcade Plus app recently added Doctor Who Pinball. That's another way to experience playing it. I have this first one, but they have this one also:

Oh darn you found you had some! I see an eBay BIN with chrome switches they don't know they have. I want the usually unwanted CX22 with the black bottom that does not have true Trak-Ball mode. The rest of the items are dups crap.