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johnnywc

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Posts posted by johnnywc

  1. Posted

    I think we have just found the secret for which games Johnny and Champs Games tackle... the very ones that we claim would be next to impossible for the 2600! Scramble and Galaga (let alone Mappy) show what still can be done, and Galaga is going to be a great addition to the ever growing library! Great job guys... I am so impressed with the quality of this game!

    Thanks so much! Yeah I guess that's a part of it, the challenge, but the big draw for me is whether I have fond memories of the game. :D

     

    Now I contend that Space Taxi is impossible for the 2600! :-D

    :lol: I must admit that I have never heard of or played Space Taxi (I didn't have a C64 back in the day; I owned an 800xl) but I just did a search on YT and watched the long play. Very cool game! Having never played the game, it does appear that a good version could definitely be done on the 2600 for at least some of the levels (looks like there are 24!). I also found a post on the AA forums where it looks like someone has already started a port too! :)

    • Like 3

  2. Posted

    Hello there!

     

    Is there a demo rom of this available yet?

    No, not yet. We are squashing the last remaining bugs and adding a few more bells & whistles, including a really cool and fun co-op mode where both players control a ship when you double-up after a rescue mission!

     

    I anticipate a demo version being released in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned! :D

    • Like 12

  4. Posted

     

    Thanks! I believe the link in this forum is the final version; are the ROMs different for each? It's been a while (13 years lol) but I think if I would have made a change to the final ROM I would have posted it in this thread, but I would have to confirm. Either way, they're probably either the same ROM or 99% the same. :) The *final* ROM is certainly on the carts sold through the AA store. ;)

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    Haven't been about lately but what a pleasant surprise. Was Zoo Keeper put on the back burner in favor of Galaga?

    Galaga was just one of those "I have an idea, let's run with it" type of projects that came together much faster than expected (6 weeks!) thanks to Nathan (graphics & design) & Ross (sounds). We are now turning our focus back to finishing Wizard of Wor Arcade (manual, additional speech, finishing the sound fx, other bells/whistles) for a summer release. Once development is complete we'll pick up Zoo Keeper; that is sure to be a challenging game to finish as it's basically 3 games in 1! :)

    • Like 9

  6. Posted · Edited by johnnywc

    I recall this was to be released in April. That's come and gone. I know pretty much every game gets delayed but was wondering if there's any updated news.

    Hello there!

     

    We are still working on this game and finishing it up as we speak! The manual/box/label is almost complete and we are adding in the final sounds and speech phrases. We have also updated the game to support the latest changes to Nathan Tolbert's QuadTari adapter that will support 2 joysticks in one port, leaving the 2nd port free for the Atarivox and 2 player/voice! :)

     

    EDIT: I forogt to mention; while we were waiting for these things to come together, Nathan Strum and I (with sounds from Ross Keenum) started another game... ;)

    Stay tuned for updates!

     

    Thanks,

    John

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 1

  7. Posted

    Finally took some time to play this one.

     

    Truly amazing job, John.

     

    Keep up the good work!

    Thanks RH!

     

    BTW: that ZeroPage interview was great. Never knew you send in a game concept to Atari back in the day.

    I'm glad you enjoyed the interview! One of these days I need to recruit someone who would be interested in helping me bring Mountain Raider to the Atari! :)

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    Will there be an easter egg for Galaga to change the title screen to Galagon? I bought the full version of that one. Good stuff. I'm excited to see a new version of Galaga on 2600 from the same programmer!

    Thanks for your support with CHAMP Galagon - I'm glad you liked it! :) As for the Easter Egg, we probably won't have the room (we're pretty short on ROM as it is), but we're still debating on the name so Galagon may make it to the title screen one way or another. ;)

  10. Posted

    IMO Lady Bug is still your masterpiece. Love it!

     

    Thanks Thomas - I agree! Lady Bug (and Caverns...ummm I mean CONQUEST of Mars ;) were the two that really got me into developing games for the 2600 and they will always be my most proud accomplishments (Lady Bug especially :D).

     

    Galaga, Mappy, Scramble and Super Cobra aren't too shabby either... :lol:

    • Like 3

  11. Posted

    Hi Dave!

    Very cool. I loved the password unlock during the reveal and the fact the password was distributed among various people. Plus the nod to Wargames.

    Thanks! The password distribution shtick was a little off-the-cuff and impromptu but provided some good drama. ;)

    Pardon my ignorance, but I always heard Galaga would be an enormous challenge on the 2600. Why is that? The number of moving things onscreen? Compared to what I've seen you guys pull off in Ladybug & Mappy I'd think Galaga would be a cakewalk. I'd love to hear some juicy details of some of the clever things you had to invent to make this a reality.


    Galaga was difficult to pull off, especially the in-formation enemies with the scrolling stars, but I had some help with the pattern in-flight engine and pattern data which made it much easier to port this game vs. the others. I 'borrowed' my code from my PC conversion of Galaga that I did back in 1997 which really sped up the development process.

     

    IMO, Mappy was *much* more difficult to convert due to the multiple elements that require precise timing (asymmetrical playfield scrolling, background color changes for the trampolines, etc.) plus Mappy is a much more complex game. Lady Bug was one of my first games so looking back it was very challenging since I had just learned 6507 programming, plus I didn't have extra ROM/RAM/ARM to help. :)

    • Like 4

  13. Posted

    That cool engine seems to allow other space shooters from that time. How about Moon Cresta next?

    Yes, it's a very flexible engine that can definitely support a few other shoot-em up type games. Nathan has a suggestion of one of his favorites that we actually started as a POC and has mocked up some of the graphics also. :D

     

     

    Worked on previously by CHAMP Games Johnny said, and done by Bob DeCrescenzo on the 7800.

    Bob has shared his Astro Blaster enemy data with me. He would probably do the same for Moon Cresta if asked.

    That means the sound is already done as well in TIA (for both)...

    Yup, Moon Cresta was started way back in Spring of 2007 (I actually borrowed the star scrolling code from it for Galaga :)). I had asked Bob back in 2011 when he finished MC for the 7800 and he has already graciously agreed to let me use the sounds and pattern data. Satan's Hollow is also a good one, but it doesn't lend itself nicely to this engine since it would require playfield/background color updates to get the SH look (Galaga does not use the PF at all during the game and the ball is used for the stars).
    • Like 4

  14. Posted · Edited by johnnywc
    updated title

    2019-Aug-3:  Version 2 of the demo ROMs (NTSC and PAL60) have been added to this post.  

     

    Version 1 demo ROMs can be found in this post. 


    Hello all!

    Yesterday, the Champ Games 'secret project' was revealed live on Zero Page Homebrew's Twitch stream:  Galaga for the Atari 2600!
     
    This game was developed over the last 6 weeks by Nathan Strum (graphics, game design), Ross Keenum (music and sound) and myself (design and programming).  It is about 90% complete with just a few bugs to be fixed and bells & whistles to be added.
     
    Here are a few pics of the game in action:
     
    post-30-0-96298500-1558017127.pngpost-30-0-08294300-1558017142.pngpost-30-0-07139100-1558017156.png
     
    post-30-0-91731500-1558017165.pngpost-30-0-95807700-1558017183.pngpost-30-0-94384800-1558017198.png
     
    post-30-0-71240500-1558017226.pngpost-30-0-76487400-1558017214.pngpost-30-0-55388500-1558017238.png
     
    Game features:

    • 1 or 2 players (alternating) with plans to add in a 2 player co-op mode
    • NOVICE, STANDARD and ADVANCED skill levels
    • a special CHALLENGE game mode where you compete with only CHALLENGE stages
    • all enemies from the arcade included (thanks Nathan!)
    • all music and sound from the arcade included (thanks Ross!)
    • High scores for all game modes; will support save to Atarivox/Savekey
    • Will support Nathan Tolbert's multi-tap (QuadTari) for 2 player with Atarivox/Savekey
    • A/B switch to enable/disable auto-fire (A = no auto-fire aka like the arcade; B = auto-fire with button held down)
    • Pause game via Color/BW / Pause (7800) switch
    • Technical details:  the game uses the new CDFJ driver (Stella 6.1 or better) and runs on both the Harmony & Harmony Encore.  It also runs on the latest community build of Stella on the Retron 77 (thanks Nathan for the confirmation!)

    A video of the reveal and the game in action can be viewed on ZPH's Twitch stream archive (link above).
     
    We are planning on releasing a playable demo ROM sometime in the near future once a few bugs are fixed.  A cart release has not been planned yet (I haven't talked directly to Al about it since the reveal) but I'm sure it will be available in the AA store at some point. :)
     
    Thanks to Nathan and Ross for all their hard work in getting this game together in such a short period of time, and special thanks to James & his team at ZPH for taking the time to debut the game on the ZPH Twitch stream.  It was a lot of fun! :D
     
    EDIT: I just realized that the screen shots are super small (not sure why).  I was trying to give Nathan a break from having to do all the work but obviously I should leave this stuff to the experts! :lol:

    galaga_10.png

    galaga_11.png

    galaga_12.png

    galaga_13.png

    galaga_14.png

    galaga_15.png

    galaga_17.png

    galaga_16.png

    galaga_18.png

    • Like 48

  15. Posted

    Does this rom natively support paddles? On my FB9, it only works with a joystick (though I have working paddles through modding). On my Stella emulator, I have to manually select paddles through Game Properties - it defaults to joystick otherwise.

     

    A default paddles version for FB9 would be cool unless it's an FB9 issue. No worries either way, it's still a great port!!

    Hello there!

     

    The final version of Avalanche (ROM not available yet) will only support paddles (joystick support was removed to fit in more important features). Once I have the final version, I will let the Stella team know so they can update their config file and have Avalanche default to paddles on start up.

     

     

    Glad you're enjoying the game!

     

    John

    • Like 4

  17. Posted

    Hello!

     

    I was just watching a game play video of Mappy and if someone told me it was an early NES game I would have believed them. Would it have been possible to make a VCS game like this using the development tools available circa 1980?

    Short answer: no :) I'm using an ARM chip inside the cartridge to do a lot of the heavy lifting, although I am still bound by the limits of the TIA for graphic capabilities, etc. However, I do think a decent version of Mappy could have been made with the tools circa 1990 (extra RAM, 32K ROM, DPC chip used in Pitfall for the music, etc).

    • Like 2

  18. Posted

    Congrats all! I look forward to playing these later when the game is released. :)

     

    Btw, question for Johnny: I realize this isn't the final version, but noticed there isn't much fanfare sound wise when you defeat the Worluk or Wizard... is that something we can look forward to in the final release?

    Yes! Mike Haas (aka iesposta) is working on the sounds now and they will be included in the final version! :D Dave Dries is currently working on the label/box/manual and it's coming out great! Nathan Tolbert is finishing the design on the multi-tap interface (for those who want to play two player with the Atarivox speech/hi score saving) so everything is coming together nicely for a mid-2019 release!

    • Like 5

  19. Posted

    Congratulations to our 3 winners!!!

     

    Thank you again to all the participants, it was really difficult choosing only 3!

     

     

    The Winners:

    devwebcl, Maze 2

    post-30-0-82313600-1552870259.png

    Ferf13, Maze 3

    post-30-0-48192900-1552870265.jpeg

    Machine, Maze 3

    post-30-0-60887700-1552870270.jpg

    I will send a PM out to the winners to get the their info to be included in the official Wizard of Wor Arcade manual!

    Thanks again!

     

    • Like 8

  20. Posted

    Round 2 results - the final 6!

     

    Thanks again to everyone for their entries. The 3 winners will be announced tomorrow! :)

     

     

    devwebcl - Maze 2:

     

    post-30-0-24405800-1552788115.png

     

    Ferf13 - Maze 3:

     

    post-30-0-00034200-1552788122.jpeg

     

    Machine - Maze 3:

     

    post-30-0-05647100-1552788127.jpg

     

    Mountain King - Maze 3:

     

    post-30-0-32314400-1552788132.png

     

    save2600 - Maze 3:

     

    post-30-0-84256400-1552788136.jpg

     

    TheMrVideo - Maze 1:

     

    post-30-0-85143800-1552788142.png

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    UPDATE:

     

    First, thanks to all for your submissions, they are all very creative and fun to play! There were 35 entries and I have trimmed the list down to 12 by picking the best maze from each of the 12 participants, so everyone is still in the running. :)

     

    Since there are so many entries, I am breaking the judging into rounds. The next round I will trim the list down to 6 and will post those results tomorrow.

     

    In the final round I will announce on Sunday the 3 winning mazes that will be included in the final version of the game. :D

     

    Thanks again for everyone who participated!

     

    John

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    I named my levels too. I would be nice to have implemented using one slot on the atarivox.

    Hmmm, maybe I can see about adding that feature if it doesn't take up too much ROM. If I do get it done, once I have the 3 mazes chosen I'll ask the winners what they want to call the mazes (actually I'll do that anyway so we can include them in the manual :)).

     

    Thanks!

    John

  24. Posted

    Thought I'd give this a go, too. :)

    Cool mazes Nathan (and cool namez too! ;)). I actually thought of letting the users name their mazes too (like THE ARENA/ THE PIT, etc) up to 12 characters, but I didn't want to use another save slot on the AtariVox (need to save some of those for other games :)).

     

    (Incidentally, if you're using Stella, you can save your mazes by using Save States.)

    That's cool! I was originally going to have people send me Save States and write a utility to read the mazes from the data, but it'll probably be much quicker to do it by hand once the 3 winners are announced.

     

    18 hours left for anyone who wants to participate! :D

     

    Thanks,

    John

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    Maze design (KC Munchkin) AND disappearing maze pieces as you advance levels (Pick Axe Pete)? The Odyssey 2 influence is strong here...

    Honestly, I didn't even know you could design mazes in KC Munchkin! :o I am a big fan of Pick Axe Pete (I even started a 2600 port way back when that I should finish someday).

     

    I always had an affinity for the Odyssey 2, but I only played it at friend's houses or at retail stores back in the 80's (and most recently on emulation). Maybe one of these days I'll pick up an actual system. :D

    • Like 1
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