johnnywc

Thanks! The "clank" noise (and all of the other sounds and music) were done by Mike Haas aka @iesposta and he did an amazing job! Thanks for the feedback! I believe this bug was found and fixed prior to the full version as it does sound familiar. It was a timing issue with the adding of the HURRY UP sprites/checking collisions. I'm glad you're enjoying the game - it's one of my favorites too! PS GREAT job on Duck Attack! I was just playing my cart version a couple of days ago and it's one of my favorites. I love the sense of adventure and discovering new items/areas, it's similar to the feeling I had as a kid playing Adventure for the first time!

Hello there! Hmmm, we have tested Wizard of Wor Arcade with many controllers, including the Sega Genesis pad, and it worked well in all our tests. Are you seeing any messages on startup that may indicate the issue? We do have auto-detection routines for the QUADTARI (not available yet) that may be causing an issue with Sega Genesis pad detection. Any info is appreciated!

Hello there! Yes, we are planning on selling a retail version of the ROM sometime in the near future on our website (www.champ.games) and/or right here on Atari Age.

We're on it!

Yes! @Nathan Strum has graciously offered to do the artwork for the box/label and manual (in between his 10 or so other projects). We are hoping for a release sometime at the end of summer 2020.

Yes, I do plan on finishing this game up someday! I have about 10 other WIPs that I'm currently bouncing to and from but it will be nice to focus on an assembly-only game to get 'back to my roots' (much like I did with Avalanche) Same here! I have fond memories of playing this for hours at a local fair in Connecticut with my brother Paul @PaulChamp and we make sure to play it on MAME any time we get together.

Thank you! Zoo Keeper was not a game I played "back in the day" (I first played in on MAME a few years ago) and it quickly became one of my 'go to' games, so making a version for the Atari 2600 has been a lot of fun! Thanks for the kind words and the excellent review!

Hi James, Wow - this is a surprise! 😮 I wish the game was a bit more playable than it's current state - it's basically just a POC - but thanks for featuring it on ZPH! Maybe this will inspire me to finish the game someday.. I plan on continuing this one in 100% assembly (give the ol' ARM a rest. ).

Hello there! Like the arcade, you need to jump the cage from a distance so Zeke is high enough to clear it. If you are too close to the cage when you jump, Zeke will rebound backwards. It's a bit tricky but practice makes perfect! Good luck!

Hi Brian, Here is my response from our FB page. Zoo Keeper uses a special banking scheme (CDFJ) and needs the ARM chip to execute properly. Does your app support CDFJ bankswitching and does it emulate the ARM chip? This is done in the latest version of Stella and Stellarator. Any ARM enhanced games (Draconian, Mappy, Scramble, Galagon, etc.) would require this. Do any of these games work on your app? Avalanche is a 4K game that does not require the ARM so it makes sense that would work. Other Champ Games that do not require the ARM chip are Lady Bug and Conquest of Mars. Hope that helps!

Hello all, Here are the updated ROMs for Zoo Keeper (demo #2). The original demo (demo #1) and instructions can be found here. There are numerous bug fixes, game play enhancements and additional bells & whistles. Some of the major updates are: Updated the bonus (escalator) stage to be more like the arcade, including: Updated jump and collision logic with the cage Added in Zeke "triple hop" start level animation (like the arcade) Added in Zelda ❤️ graphic when she's rescued Cages are multi-colored now Updated jump logic to be more like the arcade Added in Zoo rounds 7 - 12, plus additional platform and bonus screens ROUND xx ENDED message displayed for rounds >=10 Added in Savekey support to save high scores and game options (disabled in demo) Added in 2 player (alternating) support (players take turns). (disabled in demo) Added in continue feature that allows the player to continue the current game (with the score reset to 0) up to 3 times. (disabled in demo) Updated the Zoo Keeper title logo to be shorter (same size as the arcade) Updated the platform stage: Updated monkey animation and throwing patterns to be more like the arcade Increased height on the platforms to be more like the arcade Tweaked the platform collision logic fixed the bug where Zelda could not be rescued from the right side of the platform added in platform bonus for jumping on top platform added in sound effect when you land on a platform the "SAVE ME" message is displayed intermittently during the level now (was only displayed at the beginning) Added in the "CAN YOU HOLD IN THE LION?" intermission screen after completing Round 5 (needs music still) Added support to display high scores up to 99,999,999 Updated the zoo stage: Animals will return to the center when captured in a direct path Added in higher frequency sound effects when jumping over more animals Added support to display jump scores up to 30,000,000 Updated the brick fade/wipe animation when completing a level to be more like the arcade fixed a bug where multiple animals could be caught with the net at the same time Added in the Credits screen. We're looking for someone to help with a couple tunes (the lion intermission tune and "NO BONUS" tune when no animals are captured) if anyone is interested! Updated the player score border to be more like the arcade Changed the score color to match the skill level: NOVICE: flashes green/yellow-green STANDARD: flashes turquoise/purple (like the arcade) ADVANCED: flashes red/red-orange On ADVANCED level, the platforms will reverse direction when they are landed on. This is experimental and may be removed or changed to only appear in later levels (it seems to be a tad too difficult) Modified flicker logic so Zeke is more solid. This is very helpful for later zoo levels when there are many animals on the same horizontal area. Changed the difficulty switch actions: LEFT DIFFICULTY controls the location of bonus items on the zoo stage If set to 'B', bonus items are always in the same location as the arcade If set to 'A', bonus items are placed in random locations around the cage RIGHT DIFFICULT controls the brick display pattern on the zoo and bonus stage If set to 'B', the bricks are displayed with vertical lines between bricks (like the arcade). Note the you must enable TV effects in Stella to see this properly. In this mode, the bricks are a bit darker and flicker a little. If set to 'A', the bricks are displayed in a solid pattern with no vertical lines between bricks and no flicker. We estimate the game to be around 98% complete. Nathan Strum has graciously volunteered to do the artwork for the game, and we expect the full version to be available sometime in August of 2020. This is a fully-functional demo, with the following features disabled: Savekey support has been disabled. You can still enter your initials in the high score screen at the end of the game, but scores will not be saved. Additionally, your game options are not saved. Two player (alternating) is disabled (one player only). Continue feature is disabled. In the full version, you are allowed 3 continues once your game ends to start the next game at the current level/screen. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Have fun! John NTSC version: zookeeper_20200308_demo2_NTSC.bin PAL60 version: zookeeper_20200308_demo2_PAL60.bin

Thanks Steve, and thanks for all the game testing too! It looks like it's paid off for you, that's a great score! 😮

I'm a big fan of Tempest and have thought about a 2600 version over the years; I'm not sure if a decent version could be done with the low res playfield though. You're welcome!

I only played the Odyssey 2 back in the day at a friend's house and was always intrigued by it. I don't think I ever played K.C.'s Crazy Chase but I have played Pick Axe Pete a bunch of times and it's one of my favorites! I did start a port of it for the 2600 about 12 years ago and would love to finish it someday so it's a possibility! (it would be 100% assembly too ) You're welcome, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Sounds good Steve! I've always dreamed of a better baseball game for the 2600. Pete Rose Baseball is pretty good IMO as is M-Network baseball, but I was super disappointed with RS and Super Baseball. Homerun I'll always have a soft spot for, mostly because I got it with my Atari back in 78 and played the heck out of it. Being a Red Sox fan, I always pretended the red team were the Red Sox and the blue team were the damn Yankees... I'd love a game that looks and plays more like 5200 version (my favorite baseball game for classic consoles; Earl Weaver BB takes the cake for the PC though!), maybe even with voice!

I do have a very old POC for baseball, actually it's one of the first things I tried way back in 2001 when I was first learning 6502. I love baseball too, so a Champ Sports Baseball is definitely a possibility!

Here's a link to an excellent in-depth review and un-boxing video by Atari Age member @Gray Defender. Thanks for putting in the time to do this review Glenn, I appreciate it!

A few I have mentioned before, like Champ Sports Hockey, Elevator Action, Rip Off! & Mountain Raider (still in design phase). Another one is Archon, but that is just a proof of concept from a few years ago, and the last one I started a POC last week (inspired by the brick pattern in Zoo Keeper), but I'm not sure if I'm going to pursue it yet.

Thanks for clarifying Darrell! And good point about the ARM only being used for at about 20% (still a huge boost though). Yeah, I've had this same issue in almost every game, especially with Mappy. Usually I throw whatever I can at the ARM to see what it can handle and then spend a few months optimizing everything so it can run in one frame since in Stella it always runs in one frame since the ARM processing time is not accurately emulated (it's always 0). I do a Lot of testing on real hardware to make sure there aren't any screen rolls!

If I didn't have 10 or so other 2600 projects I was working on, I would consider it... I think it may be a good exercise to see what kind of Galaga port could be done with the technology of the time, perhaps with 32K, extra RAM (SARA, CBS RAM+, etc.) and with the DPC chip. I already know the formation would be almost identical to what it is now since it's almost identical to the way Atari did it for Galaxian, so the rest would be needed to implement the enemies flying in, the double ship logic, etc.

So at 18 million a cart, it would have been possible (plus the "cart" would have been the size of 2 or so tennis courts)? I'm pretty sure I could still do Galaga for the 2600 with only .8 Gigaflops (vs. .84).

I totally agree TJ! As expected, the difference in capabilities has grown exponentially over the course of 40+ years vs the small (albeit important) improvements by comparison of extra RAM, ROM, the DPC chip etc. If they ever get BUS stuffing working reliably, then we're in real trouble! PS I'm not sure but I thought at some point Darrell said that there is a bug in the ARM chip where the processor only runs at half speed. Still a huge difference, but one worth noting (if it's true). If that issue is ever resolved (if it is even one), that would also give much more time between frames to do calculations which could lead to more complex games too.

Hi there! I agree on all your (and TJ's points), but be assured that you still need to be an expert on 6502 assembly if you plan on making a good 2600 game that pushes the limits, with or without the ARM. The ARM (AKAIK) was not implemented to help developers that aren't experts in 6502/TIA development; it was originally added strictly to emulate the DPC chip originally used in Pitfall 2. Since there are additional resources available with the ARM even after emulating this chip, developers like Chris Walton, Darrell Spice and Fred Quimby (CDF) decided to innovate and exploit these additional resources to help assist the TIA. This led to DPC+, CDF and eventually CDFJ bankswitching schemes that all use the additional RAM and ARM CPU, and even allow code written in C to be executed by the ARM. In the end, however, you are at the mercy of the TIA and it's low res playfield and 5 sprites and 76 cycles per scanline, but the ARM assists greatly of course, mostly with data preparation and reducing the # of cycles it takes to update TIA registers (which in turn leads to the potential of much more complex kernels), as well as being able to execute game logic at a much faster speed during the blanking period. The development time savings is probably the biggest advantage to me; being able to program the game logic in C is not only easier and faster, but it also makes programming these games much more enjoyable, and the innovation keeps this hobby fresh. It's one of the reasons I returned to the scene after a 9 year hiatus after writing the 16K 6502 assembly-only Lady Bug and Conquest of Mars. Anyway, I hope in the end there will still be appreciation for games no matter what technology is used to make them. Games like Amoeba Jump and Aardvark as well as many other non-ARM games can stand proudly along side any of the ARM games IMO. Thanks, John PS . BTW - Al does include the Cartridge type in the store for each game, and ARM games are marked as "32K CDF" (at least mine are). Additionally, I (and many others) have also commented on dozens of AA posts, Youtube videos, FB posts, interviews, etc. to let people know the magic behind any of my ARM games, so I would think that most people that *want* to know how the games are made and how they differ from games "back in the day" either already know or can find out if they want to.

Hi there! We initially ordered 12 Galagon shirts (and 12 WoW shirts) for PRGE to check interest (all the Galagon ones were sold out and there was a problem with the WoW shirts so those are being re-ordered). We are currently trying to figure out the best way to measure interest for shirts before placing another order (to try and reduce costs). We may just end up ordering another 12 Galagon shirts in mixed sizes (along with the previous 12 of Wizard of Wor Arcade) and offer them for sale on our Champ Games website (http://www.champ.games). Apologies in advance as it's a bit lacking in content and needs updating. I'll be sure to post updates as the shirts become available here and on the other Galagon thread (as well as on our Facebook page). Thanks for your interest! John

Hello there! I don't believe the first demo loops back to dungeon 1 after dungeon 8.