Cafeman

um, what does the light & dark have to do with homebrews?

I wonder how much a 32k 5200 Rom would cost? Or a 16k one? Because ... it might just happen someday. Any guesses, based on 2600 experience?

NE146, you da man! NOT!

I think I have the correct bit set -- bit 5, right? Set Prior = #$24 or #$21 (depending on whether I want bg or player priority). I talked about this earlier in this same thread. I'm running this via the VSS emulator; in fact, I wondered if it was simply an emulator issue. But wouldn't it be noticeable in other games too, since I'm sure many games used this trick? I'll have to try out some roms and see if I notice any pixels missing...

I hail from PA, near Pittsburgh. Been to VA several times. There's got to be enough East Coast gamers since Philly Classic seems well supported.

you know, even with the clc before the loop, the code didn't work. I think it got stuck in the loop when I tried it w/bcc. Does this mean that when it decrements and gets to $00 to $FF that the carry doesn't get set? Anyway, I'm getting a full screen display list now, just using 2 loops, which is fine by me for now. I also will add for the 10th time that although I seem to have done everything correctly, I can't get that 3rd color on my player. Player0 overlays Player1's pixels, so I have ceased attempting it.

Was there ever a version of Rally X for 2600? I imagine a 2600 Crazy Taxi homage playing and looking like that.

Yes, that's all true Ataridude. However, due to the genius of the fractal landscape, sometimes you couldn't see the pilot run up, and then you had to just sit there and wait with your trigger finger ready! Man, that WAS a good game for its day. Knowing what I know of 5200 coding (that is to say, a little), I have no clue as to how they made those visuals.

Ermmm.. here's another great one. No, it's not "Super". Just Mario Brothers!

I will give you a hint at one of the best 5200 games. Here goes:

I'm at work now, Rhindle. If you have them all, its on one of them. It has a lengthy name, almost a silly name for such a simple game. It's tanks, using 3D graphics but simple overhead-style gameplay.

I sent them very indiscernable and nearly incomprehensible, light-saturated (darn flashes!) pix .. always got my patch. Megamania ... Enduro .. Pitfall! [ 09-06-2001: Message edited by: Cafeman ]

There was a quickie Combat homage, a tank game, put on one of last year's ODCM Dreamcast Demo GDROMS. I forget the title of the game, it was quickly whipped up by somebody (was it Digital Eclipse?). However, I was unable to find the fun in this little freebie. I haven't played it since that first week that I got it with the mag, but I just remember it was too simple and dull, or something. Nothing like Combat on 2600, with Tanks with the ricocheting balls and so on!

I HATE ASM!!!! (ahem) thank you! BCC did NOT work. However, you were correct in your assessment of the problem. I actually just made 2 loops to store my dlist now -- the first one stores #$80 values, the second one stores the rest. I've only done 3 lines more so far as a test, but it worked! Very interesting, and yet another 6502 hurdle that I have jumped. HOW MANY MORE ARE THERE!?!?! Tempest, are you reading this?!?!

oh, Yoi! I'm pulling my hair out here! I will try to explain my problem. With my main-game display list, I am using Antic E. I of course have a loop to read each byte and store it at location $1000,x. ;************* Setup Main Game Display list *** ldx #$80 ; 128 bytes = 117 Antic E lines + the other instructions dlloop ;Copy display list to RAM lda dlist,x ;Get byte sta $1000,x ;Copy to RAM dex ;next byte bpl dlloop As seen above, it works. I have 128 bytes (#$80 in hex) in the display list. 117 of these bytes are Antic E lines, the rest are other instructions such as the LMS's and jumps, etc. Like I said, it works fine. However, if I add one more $0E to my display list, and up my counter to store the display list to read 129 bytes (#$81 in hex) .. it totally screws up my screen, like it changes it to another mode or something with the graphics split and spaced out across the screen!! Now, I know that your Display List needs a Jump if it crosses a 1K boundary, but I don't have THAT many bytes in the display list! Also, I have an ORG B000 before my title screen dlist, and immediately after is this main screen dlist. The bytes in these 2 combined lists do NOT add up to 1024 decimal bytes (IE, it crossing a 1K boundary), and as I figure it, my display list is stored from $1000 to $1081 when it goes awry -- again, not a 1K boundary. As I understand it, $1400 is the next 1K boundary and I'm nowhere close to it. Umm... HELP! Any suggestions as to what could be the problem?

Looking here: http://www.futurlec.com/ICEPROM.html I see that 27256 eproms vary in price from $3.50 to $5.50 each. The difference is the nanosecond speed -- 250ns, 200ns, or 150ns. This seems pretty cheap for a re-writable media that I will use over & over agin! Question -- the ns speeds -- does this effect the final speed of the game on the 5200? Could I test a game with the 150ns eprom, and then burn it to a cartridge and the game would run faster/slower than in my eprom tests? Now, I'm not as uninformed as this question implies -- I know the 6502 and ANTIC,etc, will still run at the same speed, but the data will be accessed from the eprom faster/slower, right? Is this anything I would need to be concerned about?

I did some quick searches in Yahoo! under the criteria of "genesis eprom pin" and it seems some carts were 40 pin, others (like Ecco) were 42 pins. I am confused again -- I thought a system's pincount for its carts was static and unchangeable? It can read carts with different pins? I thought the pins were the parts that hooked into the console?

Okay, I'm starting to understand. I need a 32K 28-pin Eprom, plus a cable to plug it into my printer port, plus software to dump my .bin file to the Eprom? I wonder how much all that costs?

Mrs Cafeman likes Space Invaders and Kaboom!

How many pins is a 5200 cart? Would Pocket Programmer work for making 5200 eproms? Is the eprom rewritable or do you only get to burn it once, like a normal CD?

Reading some more on 1k vs 4k boundaries ... It seems that you have problems if your Display List crosses a 1k boundary, or if your Screen Ram crosses a 4k boundary. I've seen no problem if your screen RAM crosses a 1k boundary.

Bump! Still playing, Gunstar?

I remember that Jaggi scaring the crap out of me a few times, too, but on the 8bit version! You sit there as he runs up to your ship's door, and you wait with bated breath for the knock-knock-knock which signals its a friendly pilot who needs help .. the second lasts an eternity ... and then AGHHHHHHHHH!! HE'S ON THE WINDOW! FRY HIM!! FRY HIM!!! At least, that is how I recall it.

Ah, more Berzerk fans! I really feel it is one of the top 5 or so must-have 5200 games. The game plays excellently, and the voice synthesis is freaky! Mrs Cafeman told me that when she heard the voice in Berzerk at her cousin's house, when she was younger, it scared her! I always loved 5200 Pac-Man. I like it more than Ms Pac Man, which plays slower and unfortunately has some flicker issues (in all fairness, it would have been tough NOT to have the flicker). Do you want to know what my favorite thing about 5200 Pac-Man is? The loud arcade-like sound when you eat a blue ghost! It's just so awesome, loud, and satisfying! "BWOOOIIINK!" I haven't actually played my system for a few weeks! Talking about it makes me itchy to play it again though!

Looking forward to your next project!