Color hacking question

[Color hacking question]

Hi again...

 

I'm working on a hack of Berzerk right now and I'm using the Distella/Hex technique and I've gotten the graphics done but I'm having a hard time spotting color hex values (I think that's how you put it).

 

I'm using a TIA colorchart that Andrew Davie posted on his 2600 for Newbies tutorials and it SEEMS that all the colors seem to be marked "#$00." I found what I think is the color of the player character labeled as "#$FF" (that strange pinkish color) but I'm not really sure. Is there an easy way to spot the color hexs? The above seem to be sporadically laid out.

[Stupid question]

Cool! Thanks for the info!

[Stupid question]

I couldn't find it on this board, at least the last few pages, so I'll ask... is there a way to disassemble games using distella that are more then 4k? Or is there another way? I tried to do Tapper but when I got the source file I got back a brief line saying that it had to be either 2048 or 4096. I just wanted to look at Tapper's code and there's no way, that I know of, that'll allow you to hack colors using Showgfx and editgfx.

 

Thanks.

[Outlaw hack: Ninja Cowboy Duelist Gunmen... or something]

This is my first hack ever and I'm interested to see what you guys think. Its a hack of Outlaw. I've attempted to make the bitmap Clint Eastwoods look vaguely like bitmap Toshiro Mifune's and also changed the score table to EXTREMELY crude kanji... this is my first attempt at hacking anything and I thought this specifc game would be a good first try since I like it so much.

 

I tried to give it a more "eastern" theme but I had a hard time spotting the cacti and wagon so I left that untouched. In some ways I like that... it reminds me a bit of Rising Zan Samurai Gunman for the old PSX.

 

I'm not sure what to call it. I thought maybe "Ronin", "Samurai Gunfolk", "Ninja Cowboy Duelist Gunmen", or "Outlaw Samurai." "Once Upon a Time in the West in Japan" comes to mind.

 

If I want to submit this to AtariAge's hack sites can I just post it here, or does it need to be emailed to editors?

samurai.zip

[Game Idea: bobobo bobobobobo]

I feel stupid asking these questions but...

 

If I have the enemies be player sprites can I have the players control the ball sprite?

 

I think I figured out what I meant myself when I said "all that Jazz" Pitfall Harry... you talk about having copies of sprites skipping scanlines to create 6 moveable sprites onscreen... would I only be worrying about the 192 scanlines that make the TV screen? Or would I have to change the scanlines that control vertical blank and overscan and horizontal scanning? I hope I just made sense.

 

I really appreciate everybody helping me... I think I've learned more about the 2600 and programming and game design the last week or so with these forums then I've known my entire life... which wouldn't be much before all this actually.

[Game Idea: bobobo bobobobobo]

That's actually a great pic! It looks just about what me and my friend have been sketching out the last week or so.

 

Would it still be possible to have two players control each nosehair if this is done with just one ball sprite? Also are the enemies their own sprites or is this a sort of example of what Pitfall Harry was talking of... writing to the registers to create copies multiple copies of one sprite?

[Game Idea: bobobo bobobobobo]

AH. I got a better idea now. I really appreciate the help so far.

[Game Idea: bobobo bobobobobo]

You've only got two player sprites to work with when programming for the Atari 2600.  Each player sprite is independent, 8-bits wide, and as tall as you want to make it (up to the limit of the screen height of 192 scanlines).  Eight bits doesn't give you much room to make your sprites very wide, but there are tricks you can pull to stretch them out.  By writing certain values to the NUSIZ0 and NUSIZ1 registers, you can horizontally stretch your sprites to double-size (16 color clocks) or even quadruple-size (32 color clocks), however you are still limited to 8-bit resolution per sprite.  The same two registers may also be set up to generate 1, 2 or three copies of each player sprite.  So if you're crafty with your coding, you can have as many as 6 movable sprites onscreen at a time.  

 

If you want more sprites than six, you can double the figure to 12, but you'll have to display your per-screen limit of 6 on all odd numbered frames and then update them and re-display the 6 sprites on the even numbered frames.  The disadvantage to displaying sprites on alternating frames is you subject the player to flicker.  You could even go nuts by displaying 18 sprites on three different frames, but the flicker it induces might throw your prospective players into fits of epilepsy.

 

The PS2 Bobobo game was pretty epilepsy-rrifc so I may actually want to take a chance on that... maybe.

 

I can SORT of understand what you're talking about... I'm a newbie at this, I'm just glad I got the thing to compile Andrew's kernal, but I think I got an idea general idea of how to program this.

 

 

NUSIZ0 (NUSIZ1)

These addresses control the number and size of players and

missiles.

 

Missile Size D5 D4 Width

0 0 1 clock

0 1 2 clocks

1 0 4 clocks

1 1 8 clocks

 

Player-Missile number & player size

 

1/2 television line (80 clocks)

8 clocks per square

 

 

Earlier in the guide it says you can effect the size and number of copies by writing to the D0, D1, and D2 registers. I'm about to sounding stupid but were are those? Can I just write a number that would correspond with whatever size I want into the size register? Like if I want the nose hair or the "baldness Empire" thugs to be 8 pixels high could I write an 8? That was actually pretty moronic what I just said there I think....

 

If I were to write to that to make multiple sprites do I have to worry about other factors like horizontal or vertical postioning and the kernal and all that jazz?

 

On another note, I think, is there a way I can get the playfield to display in more then one color? From what I gather in the stella guide the Playfield is limited to one color.

[Game Idea: bobobo bobobobobo]

Hi. I'm new to the forums... sort of a long time reader first time poster.

 

A friend of mine and I are sort of in the planning stages of an attempt at an Atari 2600/VCS game but we need some help and/or suggestions if possible.

 

Our idea is a bit bizarre... sort of. We're basing the game on a Japanese Manga called bobobo bobobobobo. The manga stars the title character who sports a giant afro and whips around nose hairs to fight the "baldness empire" (an example can be found at http://groups.msn.com/RasterDisplay/bobobobobo.msnw).

 

The premise of our game is much like that of the manga: Bobobo defends all that is right and good by using his powerful nosehairs to thwart villainy.

 

Our game document is incredibly simple (we think): bobobo stands stationary in the middle of the screen and each of two players controls one of his nosehairs with the paddle controller. Movement would be limited to 180 degrees for both players and the object of the game is to work together to fight off hordes of mindless enemies. Holding the fire button would extend the nosehairs (my friend suggested a sort of "timing" thing that would allow the nosehairs to extend further the longer you hold the fire button while swinging away). We debated also having a certain point in play were the enemies bumrush in a large full screen horde ala Robotron. Or something.

 

I've been reading up on 6502 assembly (working at a library helps a lot when it comes to old computer books...) and I've been following Andrew Davie's SUPERB tutorial (I had no idea what I was doing until I started following them), but we're both still encountering issues.

 

Is there a way we can find source code for games that used the paddles? Warlords trickles to mind as it used 4 players.

 

With the paddles being to to a port and the VCS limited to 2 players on screen, is it feasible to have both nosehairs declared as one player sprite and have them function independently? I thought since character movement would be limited to 180 degrees on both I thought there might be a way to sort of have both nosehairs as one player and "split" the movement. An example being player one can move 180 degrees on the left side while player two moves 180 degrees on the right. Or do you have to have both function as sperate players?

 

Are there any tutorials or source code that'll allow you to "cheat" and produce multiple sprites on screen? Our "enemy AI" would consist of just hordes running at the stationary bobobo and the nosehairs. Is there a way we can declare ALL the enemies as just one player sprite or missile or ball graphic but have the enemies move randomly on the screen?

 

I'm still working through the tutorials so I may actually encounter some of these answers but if anybody is willing to give me and my friend any suggestions and opinions we'll gladly take it all in.

 

Sorry if I sound a bit confusing. I'm new to all this.