Cafeman

Atari70's, I may be wrong but I think you are being perhaps a bit too optimistic about converting PC QBasic to Atari 800 Basic. From what we discussed the other night, and from what I've seen in your game, I already saw a few things that will be implemented very differently from QBasic. For example, I believe QBasic draws a circle for you. I think you need to hand-draw a Circle in Atari Basic (and the resolution will be very different, and lower colors in most modes too!). I think I used to do Sin and Cosine functions with PI to draw circles in Atari 800 Basic, for example. To port it to the 5200 you'd need to use 6502 ASM, which is nothing like Basic. Actually, a seasoned 6502 vet could probably whip up a version of your game with not too much trouble, I am guessing -- use Antic 4's tiles, do a Pitfall/Adventure kind of game with huts/houses that you can enter and get points for. Just some thoughts! Best wishes on your ambitious project!

Hey! I also just recently got my first Intellivision!! And about 11 games for it. It's apples and oranges comparing the 2. Back in the day, Atari 2600 had the better arcade hits by far. BUt if its sports games and adventure games you crave, the Intellivision ones like Golf and Advanced D&D seem way beyond any 2600 game. One problem with the sports game I've seen is that some are 2-player only!! ugh! I never did like the controller. Trying to get Donkey Kong up a ladder and off it is nearly impossible, and Intell's DK visuals and music do NOT seem better than the 2600's. But I still like Golf and AD&D! I'm sure I'll find others.

you have .html in your link, it is actually .htm. Actually, the DP one looks pretty concise to me and looks similar to what I drew, with rectangles and codes. I had arrows though, showing how the underground connected. Believe it or not, I did the map while playing Sega CD Pitfall: the Mayan Adventure, which has a perfect copy of Pitfall hidden in it. It's the same as the Genesis/SNES/Jag/32X versions.

Dead Link, Stan. If I do have it, I know where it'd be -- in one of my 100 Manilla Folders.

Well, Robinett pretty much gave his blessing on the project. He told me via email that he viewed the project as a 'spinoff' but he wouldn't split hairs over definitions...

http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/stra...l?SystemID=2600 http://home.earthlink.net/~intvman/manifes...sto/Pitfall.htm Here's 2 I found via Yahoo!

I can't really help you, but I mapped it all out on paper once. I think there are 255 screens. The screens join as a connected loop and you skip 3 top screens for every underground screen you run through. I had a long line of hand-drawn rectangular screens, with numbers, and had flowchart-like Labels to show where where each shortcut ended up, etc. I never knew what to do with this drawing , I probably don't have it anymore. I never saw this info online, but I'd love to see it if its found.

This subject makes me wonder if our 5200 game will *really* be called Adventure II. I'd hate to get Infogrames mad at me! Even though the word "adventure" is common, there's no doubt our game is an unofficial homage to a licensed Atari 2600 game. And if it gets made into a cart, then dollars will be spent by people to purchase it. Hmmm.. I bet we'd really get in hot water if we named it "Atari and Warren Robbinett's Adventure, part two" ...

It looks like Tempest will soon be owning 'em all...

OldGuru, what game is the music from originally? (the one you are using for Castle Blast).

Thanks for the replies. About Beethoven MP3's .. yeah, I actually did track one down with the allegro from the 6th ... I hated it, it's cheap instruments samples and monotone timing smacked of a Worlitzer organ in the mall. Ugh! Nothing like an orchestra! Last night I figured out most of what I needed on my guitar, so I guess I'll be attempting to do it from scratch. It turns out ole Beethoven isn't too hard to figure out! However, I bet I will have a challenge trying to emulate the vibrato and envelope sounds to get the 5200 to sound more like an instrument than a computer. Once I get something I'll surely share it here, or in a worst case scenario, I'll give up and use one of those SAP tunes.

Alan, I've seen some articles and maybe some downloads (mostly in Basic though) at some Atarimagazines sites that I have bookmarked somewhere. How do you run those programs if you do find them? I guess via AtariWin800 emulator? I never got that one to work, I downloaded it but have had problems with it trying to run any ROM. (I tried to use it for 5200 games).

Earthworld ---------------------- Airworld ------------------------ Pretty close to the original, but on different hardware of course. It's nice to see the first screenshot of this game. I shudder to imagine what programming the mini-games screens is going to be like!

One thing I'm confused about -- exactly what IS the "SAP format" ?? This terminology is new to me! Is it an Atari-only thing, or common in music files on the net or in the recording industry, or what? All I know is I have a CD with Beethoven's Sixth Symphony on it. My solution is to either learn the notes by ear and transcribe them and then figure out the Pokey Register values for this music and type it in, then fine tune it. Of course, I will probably be able to buy the sheet music for this famous piece of music too, but I think I can learn it by ear pretty fast with my incredible transcribing abilites. Is there ANY shortcut to doing this? A music generator of notes to Atari computer binary Pokey format, for example?

All you 'old heads' are really making Tempest and me work extra hard to keep up!!! Argh!

I rarely drink hard liquor. Sometimes I'll mix Seagrams with 7-up, sometimes Rum & coke. But usually, if I am drinking alcoholic beverages, its lager, porters, or beer. About once a month I'll go and get a bottle of wine, usually a Merlot. When I'm feeling aristocratic! (_)3

Yeah, Alan has all the hardware to burn his own 5200 games! I wish I could have also been there. I will definitely try to make the next one!

My spies tell me there were a few adamant Square (not that Japanese company, the main character in Adventure 1!) supporters at NAVA. And several at here at Atari Age have opinions on the matter too. So here's a poll. The Question: In the sequel to the Atari 2600 game Adventure, what should the main character/protagonist/hero look like on the Atari 5200? If you never played Adventure on the Atari 2600 -- SHAME ON YOU! Go download it for use on a 2600 emulator! Note that nothing about Adventure2 has been cast into stone by Alan & myself yet. Your opinion matters to us! It seems that I can't easily do a Poll here on the forum so here are the choices: (a) A Square! (b) A detailed sprite (like Elf or Knight) © Another geometric shape (Circle, Triangle) (d) You really don't care either way. (e) Another -- please specify!! [ 10-21-2001: Message edited by: Cafeman ]

BUMP. OldGuru, that's pretty awesome music there for Castle Blast. It sounds closer to NES/Genesis music than Atari 8bit/5200 music! I'm currently going thru the archive that I downloaded, but I have a question. The music I want to use for my game -- is there any utility/tool for me to compose it into Pokey format? I am prepared to tediously transcribe the notes I want into Pokey values. some of the questions I have unanswered are: how do you imitate vibrato (your castle blast tune's main melody uses it)? Are there any good suggestions on how to emulate drum sounds (again, your CB demo has a nice sounding hihat or something)? For Koffi: Yellow Kopter, I very much want to use a piece from Beethoven's 6th symphony. It is EXACTLY what I imagine Koffi's music to sound like. I want to have 4-voice music on the title screen. Hoo-boy, if I can pull it off, it will be one INCREDIBLY ADDICTING title screen!

Thanks for your reply! Feel free to post even more thoughts on what you would/wouldnt want in Adventure II. Personally, I've not played Indenture. Actually, I tried to download it but it wouldn't work -- it said an error, like it didn't work with my 'version' of DOS or something.

Crossbow, would you rather we put Po from Teletubbies as the main character? UGH! ---------- Okay, seriously now. What is your opinions on the 'flashlight/candle' effect in Adventure2?

Maybe I shouldn't blab this, but we already agreed that the main character will be Barney the DInosaur.

The Sega Genesis and Sega CD game "Eternal Champions". Wow, what a great sci-fi plot for a 2D fighter. The Sega CD game is quite fun too (skip the Genesis one, its an exercise in frustration). The idea is that there is an Eternal Champion, and his dark counterpart, the Dark Champion. The E.C. travels thru time gathering the greatest fighters from all eras -- a Pharoah; a 1900's tough cop; an Atlantean; a futuristic bionic kickboxer; a caveman; etc. If you'd see the Sega CD FMV, you'd know more of what I'm talking about.

I try to be balanced in everything I do. When I spend too much time playing / making / talking about videogames , other aspects of my life suffer. But still, a big chunk of my spare time during my life has been spent holding joysticks and gamepads.

If anyone here at the railroad ever checks how much net access I'm guilty of at work ... I might be job huntin' too. Did I actually just type that at a public forum?