Cybearg

Ahh. Now that you explain how the radar works, it makes sense, and I think it's a great idea!

Thanks for the information! In my experience from testing, the game seems to run fine with set tv pal and the colors adjusted. That is, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable gameplay hit or major speed difference, though I may well simply not be noticing. I certainly didn't go through the math like you did. I could do the PAL60 idea, though doesn't that run the risk of limiting things if the PAL television in question doesn't support that timing? How large of the audience would be cut out by doing so?

Game's drawing closer and closer to completion. I was thinking--I suppose I should make a PAL version. Is there anything more to it than just selecting other colors? I know that PAL has more scanlines and, in a test I did with a PAL version of the game in the past, it makes everything on screen seem down further, though that's probably just due to the extra space. I suppose I just need to add in more lines for blocks in the playfield or something? Or should I just leave it as is and only adjust colors?

Alright, that makes sense. Thank you! The driving controller sounds closer to what I'm looking for in my game, then. How common was that peripheral? I've looked up a picture and it appears almost identical to a paddle, but how many folks can be expected to actually own one?

Hm. Maybe it's just me, but in my first attempt at playing the latest version, the first boss came up and hugged the left side of the screen, so it was impossible to shoot him.

Awesome! Looks pretty great to me! Did you make the music yourself? Have you been testing it with the Harmony? How does it play on a real 2600?

I found this lovely thread, which answers many of my questions about the paddle. However, there are still a few questions left unanswered: 1. What is the "idle" state of a paddle? That is, what is its resting position? Apparently its values can be 0 - 76, but which value does it rest at? 2. What happens when one twists the knob the other direction? Paddles, if I'm not mistaken, can be twisted both directions, so what happens if one twists it the other way? Does the value decrease from its "center" position towards 0 then, upon hitting 0, it returns to 76? 3. How are paddles meant to react? Does turning it clockwise typically denote moving something right in a game, or does turning counterclockwise denote right?

I'm not sure if no one has seen this or if it's just bugged. A day later, 0 views? That's hard to believe, so maybe there's just some bug here. Still needing help, particularly from anyone who has been blessed with being able to afford a Harmony cartridge! EDIT: 107 views, there we go.

Thanks for the recommendation, though I went with something fairly simple. rem cooldown is used to manage the speed of the ball if cooldown > 9 then cooldown = 0 rem x motion table data xmtbl 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 255, 255, 255 end rem y motion table data ymtbl 1, 1, 0, 255, 255, 255, 0, 1 end rem separate out cardinal from diagonal directions if anglevar & 1 then goto diagonalMove rem movement values for cardinal (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees) directions -- applies a cooldown to ensure that cardinal directions do not move too fast on difficulty goto card0 card1 ballMove card0 if cooldown = 3 goto collisionDetect card1 if cooldown = 7 goto collisionDetect goto ballMove diagonalMove rem movements for diagonal directions (45, 125, 225, 315) -- applies a cooldown to ensure that diagonals do not move too fast on difficulty goto diag0 diag1 diag2 diag0 if cooldown = 1 goto collisionDetect diag1 if cooldown = 5 goto collisionDetect diag2 if cooldown = 3 goto collisionDetect ballMove player1x = player1x + xmtbl[anglevar]: player1y = player1y + ymtbl[anglevar]

Alright, I gave it another try now. I'm not sure what was suggested about the CTRL + P thing, because that didn't really seem to do much at all except make some of the background colors a bit lighter. For me, all the colors were kind of flicking between white, red, and maybe yellow, and that applies to pretty much everything, from the players to enemies to buildings, etc. Though that may well be intended. The player sprites were flickering between a horizontal line and a vertical line, which I think must be intended based on the screenshots above--to imply the shape of a plane. So I'm not sure if that's right or wrong, but it struck me as strange. As for the game itself, it was fun! I think that you have great level progression, and the enemies seem better now. Maybe I just got lucky before, but it seemed like the last time I tried, the line of 4 monsters would die even if you shot between them, but now you definitely need a collision hit. I liked how the movements became faster and more erratic and I can definitely see how a second player would be necessary, which is a good thing. I was a little confused by the boss, since when I hit him, he tends to teleport around, often bouncing forward and onto my sprite, though that may have been intentional. Occasionally, he'd get "stuck" for a while off-screen, so I could hear him moving and firing, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. With that said, I like how the bosses become faster and their movements more complicated. When I lost the game after about 5 minutes of play, I really, really liked the effect you used of the city exploding, then the explosion turning into the Gave Over message. No idea how you did that, but it was very impressive! So, overall, it's fun and there's a lot of good here, but some things seem like they're not intended, though that may just be me. Great job, in any case!

I have a homebrew game called Heartbreak that is nearing completion, but I still need help with a few things: 1. I'd like to have some title music, though space is getting a bit short, so we're talking between 250 and 300 bytes to work with. If anyone is musically talented enough to make something nice out of the bleeps and bloops of the Atari 2600, I'd very much like to discuss a theme. 2. I'd like the game to have a decent-looking label, though unfortunately my drawing skills are nil. I have a basic idea for what the label could look like, though I require the talents and advice of a proper artist to help make it look great. 3. I'd like the game to play correctly on a joystick, gamepad, and paddle, but I don't own a Harmony cartridge, so it would be great if someone who DOES own a Harmony cartridge and some of the mentioned peripherals was willing to help me with the beta testing on a real 2600. Is anyone available to help me out?

As a side note, there's got to be something wrong with rand16. This is the second level of Heartbreak and the two colors (red and yellow) should have a 50/50 chance of showing up (technically a 128/128). Compare the color locations without rand16 (first) then with rand16 (later in the video): http://youtu.be/i9Zn5Lfjnc0

I assume you can use more than one. I've been using optimization speed and optimization inlinerand with Heartbreak. Maybe one of them isn't doing anything as a result, but I don't get any errors, anyway.

Well, I'm currently at the third release candidate with testers, so the attached version is likely pretty close to the final. The zip includes all .asm, .inc, .bas, and .bin files for the release candidate, plus a .asm version of Heartbreak sans the include, in case you want to compare the raw game against how it looks once Omega's new kernel gets plugged in. Heartbreak.zip

It's a 4k cart, as it so happens. Thanks for all the links and advice, folks.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a{0} and a[0]. a[0] is an "array" of 26 variables that spans from a[0] to a[25] (a to z), but a{0} is a bitwise operation that has 8 bits from 0 to 7. So to create a bitwise operation for a[0] you'd have to do something like this: temp1 = a[0] if temp1{0} then ... And unfortunately, so far as I am aware there is currently no way to do bit operations using a variable index. You can do this: a[index] But you can't do this: temp1{index}

But still, out of curiosity, if one was going to make their own cartridges, how could it be done?

I have a couple old soldering irons and maybe even some solder, back when I was (for a very short time) into electronics as a hobby. I still should have the equipment for 'em, though, and I am fairly confident that I can solder joints and desolder old ones. I may even have some braid left.

As my first 2600 game is entering the testing phase, I'm hoping to have a number of cartridges made. I know that there's the option to have a custom cartridge made just like that and, while very tempting, I would like a number of cartridges made and it is sadly outside of my price range. So I was hoping to do so myself, as much as possible. Is there any explanation of what all is involved? From what I have heard, one would want plenty of existing games with little value which can be stripped down so their cartridges and boards may be used. It's all about needing a new EPROM, which are cheap to buy but must be burned with a pricey EPROM burner. So, my questions: 1. Is there any resource to explain how to make a custom cartridge oneself? If so, where? 2. How much can be salvaged from existing games? 3. What kind of EPROMs are required and where can they be purchased? 4. Is there anyone who already has an EPROM burner who would be willing to burn EPROMs for me on a pay-per-EPROM basis (with me paying for the EPROM, any shipping, as well as for the good individual's trouble)? Bulk orders in mind, here. 5. Is there anything else I should know about all this so I don't waste a lot of time and money on a wild goose chase? I'd very much appreciate any information folks can offer. Thanks!

I listen to the Super Meat Boy soundtrack, personally.

I think that what he did for me was pretty specific to my particular needs. Everything is set around drawing the ring, or so it seems to me from glancing at the kernel. How bad is it, Omega? Is it off-center and high enough to seem cheap?

Agreed, it's just that it currently uses the full grid, if I recall, and I assumed that difficulty increased by adding more blocks or something like that.

Well I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback! If you're willing, please test it with as many controllers as you've got as I want to know how it feels for different systems. Definitely let me know how the difficulty progression feels (if it's too difficult at first or gets too easy after a while, etc.) and how all the controls feel and such. Would be much appreciated! By the way, do folks think it'd be worthwhile to make a PAL version of the game? I just have to set it to PAL and swap some colors, right?

Sweet, you have a Harmony? What kinds of controllers do you own?

That was intended, Omega. Your kernel makes the score disappear if it's at the title screen and = 0, but I assumed maybe someone would be done with the game but wouldn't want to die, so they could just reset, see their score, then hand the controller over to someone else, wherein the score would reset to 0 once the new game began. I could set the score to 0, which would make it disappear, but I figured folks would want to see how much they had when they quit. I could increase shot speed, certainly, though I don't want it to become unfair. We'll see what the playtesters think. By the way, do you know anyone with a Harmony cartridge who could participate in testing?