[Maybe yet another C Compiler for 6502 programming...]

On 4/24/2020 at 3:27 PM, splendidnut said:

After seeing how quickly @johnnywc and cohorts brought Galaga to fruition (which was partially attributed to the use of C on the ARM/Melody platform) 

Hi Philip!

 

Wow - this seems really cool!  I agree; one of the things that attracted to me to the ARM development was being able to use C for the game logic.  Not only does it speed up development, but it makes it so the game development is more fun than frustrating (to me).  As far as Galaga is concerned, certainly writing the logic in C helped a lot, but the main reason we were able to get a playable game done so quickly was because I had done a port of Galaga for the PC back in 1997 (in C, nonetheless) so I was able to use a good portion of the game logic, patterns, etc. to get things working quickly.  Add to the fact that I have a pretty good SDK that handles all of the monotonous boring stuff like UI, high score tables, etc. and a playable prototype can be done fairly quickly.   For other games, like Zoo Keeper, the development has been slower (I started it in October of 2018) but writing logic in C has been extremely helpful.

 

Good luck and I will be interested to see how this goes!   

[Mappy (Champ Games)]

Thank you so much for your review of Mappy, I'm so glad that you are enjoying playing the game as much as we had making it!   

[Mappy Makes Me Happy]

I'm glad you're enjoying Mappy! I hope to get a chance to play it someday soon lol... I usually don't get to enjoy my own games until long after they're done and I've given myself enough time to recuperate.

 

Wizard of Wor Arcade is coming along nicely and we hope to have it released by the end of Spring if all the pieces come together (Dave Dries is doing an amazing job on the manual/label/box, Mike Haas is finishing up a couple sounds, Nathan is helping refine the graphics, Nathan Tolbert is finalizing his design on the multi-tap (needed for 2 player with voice), and of course I'm working on polishing up the game by adding a few more bells and whistles.

 

There will be another Champ Games release soon also. Thomas and I spent a couple weeks polishing up Avalanche!, a 4K game that I started way back in 2007. TJ was able to find a bunch of ROM and had many good suggestions so the game is really solid now. I'll be coordinating with Al to have a label contest soon.

 

Finally, once WoW is finished, I'll turn my focus back to finishing Zoo Keeper. The target date is October 20th 2019 (Portland Retro Gaming Expo), but I'll know more once I get farther along in development. It's a pretty complicated game - almost like 3 games in one!

 

Thanks again for the support!

 

John

[Escalator Action]

Excellent work! Elevator Action was always one of my favorite arcade games, and I was also very intrigued by the EA prototype (I even bought the boxed version at CGE back in 2001), though I believe the 95% done claim was a little generous; I would call it about 50% done.

Since then, I have had several attempts at bringing a playable EA to the 2600:

- in 2005 or so, I worked with Dennis Debro on labeling the source code to try to finish the prototype. We were able to label a good portion of the code but I didn't make much progress on any fixes.
- in 2015, I started a version from scratch using DPC+. It features 2 single-line resolution players, single-line resolution asymmetrical playfield with one PF color change. Dev stalled when I started Scramble and progress was about 20%
- in 2016 I restarted a version from scratch using the experimental BUS driver (at the time, I was not aware of compatibility issues with certain models. This version features two-single resolution players, two missiles, the ball, asymmetrical PF and up to 7 background color changes. I estimate this version is about 50% done; I hope to finish it someday if the BUS issues can be resolved (they are making progress!).

 

Here are some pics:

 

[The Peanuts Movie - Spoiler-free movie review]

Hey Nathan - thanks for the review! I took my son to see it opening weekend and we loved it! Very tasteful, they didn't mess with the formula, and we were both smiling throughout.

[Star Castle Developments]

Hey TJ - just wanted to chime in and say the mines look great! Also the siren really adds a nice touch too - very much like the arcade.

 

Thanks for taking the time to finish this one - can't wait!

[Top 30 Vertical Shooters for the Atari 2600 Wrap-up]

Hey Stan - just wanted to say thanks for this feature - I really enjoyed the countdown! Oh - and thanks to you I'm now addicted to Millipede, which admittedly before this blog I hadn't play all that much. Just got my newest high score today of 169,782.

 

Thanks again - looking forward to the next countdown!

[Star Castle RC1]

Hey Chris,

 

Still playing the latest BIN and having a blast - thanks!

 

One quick suggestion...

 

In between levels you show the status screen that dislays the score/wave and then after a few seconds the score/lives. If you press the button during any of this time it jumps to the game (good!); unfortunately I'm too impatient to have it display the score/lives so I find myself guessing how many lives I have left. Any chance you could change it so the button press while it's displaying the score/wave will jump to the score/lives display? Pressing the button during the score/lives display would jump to the game play as it does now. Basically, after a level it would be nice to be able to press the button twice to quickly see score/wave, score/lives and jump to the gameplay.

 

Hope that makes sense!

 

Thanks,

John

[Star Castle RC1]

Just wanted to comment on how much fun this is to play! Great job - I actually like it better than the arcade! Amazing title screen (great job Nathan) and arcade feel, great graphics and sounds. Haven't played Atari in a long time but played this one for an hour solid. Managed to get to Wave 8 and 13,200 pts - very challenging and addicting... great job!

 

Can't wait to buy this one on cart - great job cd-w!

[Number 2 with a bullet (a space bullet...)]

Thanks guys for your comments about Lady Bug...

 

Zach - glad you like Conquest. I'm not sure which one I prefer - they are both very different in terms of what types of games they are, but my nod would most likely go towards LB...

 

Avalanche may be published one day - still waiting for a possible release on an FB2-related product (that's why it was originally written).

 

Take care & thanks again,

 

John

[Seek ye the grail...]

This is looking really good! I was finally able to find the princess and defeat the demon (with 1 HP to spare! ...

 

One possible bug: yesterday I was playing a game and the passage to the cave was on the same spot as the stairs going down to the next level. In this instance, I could not finish the game since I could only re-enter the cave and not descend to the next level (hope that makes sense!). Otherwise, the game played very well.

 

Suggestions:

 

- Any way you can put in a animated swing of you player's sword when you attack? (similar to the animated attacks of your foes)

 

 

That's all for now... great job!

[Dungeon v11 (now with docs)]

Wow - this looks great! I've been playing for the last couple of days and must say I'm really impressed...

 

I did manage to find the demon (he killed me pretty easily...) and I was able to remove the Sword from the stone (not sure what the prereq is though). Haven't found the princess yet.

 

The battle system is awesome - very intutive. I really like the open chest sequence - really cool!

 

Some ideas:

 

- would be nice to have an indicator as to what level your character has reached.

- an indicator of experience points would be cool (kind of a score for incentive)

- an indicator as to what floor you're on (easy to get lost)

- the up/down stair icons are confusing (i'm not sure which is which, and not knowing what floor i'm on i never really know if i've gone up or down)

- more mosters/treasures/items would be cool

 

Overall a great job!!!

[Homebreviews - part 8]

Thanks Nathan for such positive, unbiased reviews on CoM & Lady Bug, and thanks mostly for the great artwork you supplied for them. It's your graphic work & Bob's sounds that really pushed Lady Bug to the level where it's at.

 

Thomas/Cybergoth/supercat - your praise for the games certainly means a lot to me. Thrust, Star Fire, Strat-o-gems - they all were great inspirations that helped me believe as a developer that what may seem impossible for the 2600 actually is possible with enough ingenunity.

 

Agreed. IMHO, it's the first game to really challenge THRUST+ for being the best 2600 game ever.

Looks like Johnny and I should meet for a duel.

 

That's very nice of you to say, but my vote still goes for Thrust... And a duel sounds great to me! One thing is for sure - the 2600 community would certainly love to see another game by TJ!

 

Thanks again guys...