ZeroPage Homebrew

Thanks so much Darrell! I did my best to represent the community and the great things going here on their podcast. 🙂 - James EDIT: Thanks for posting the podcast! Things have been so hectic this week with the special stream with Audacity Games coming up this Friday that I completely forgot to post it here!

You're correct, I did mean Atari 2600 old-school. 🙂 Somebody who developed an Atari 2600 game during the original run of the Atari 2600, 1977-1992. - James

As far as I can tell Halo 2600 is Ed Fries' first Atari 2600 game and if Bob Smith hasn't released a new game yet then so far no one that made Atari 2600 games back in the day has made a new game, this will be the first! - James

Interesting! Do you have the name(s) of old school programmers that have released new games? I've put out this question before but people could only name programmers who completed old prototypes, but never a full new game. - James

If you have any questions for David Crane, Garry Kitchen or Dan Kitchen about Audacity Games, Circus Convoy, the tech behind the new cartridge or anything else you might want to know, make sure you head on over to this thread so I can ask them during the interview on Friday's ZPH stream! 🙂 - James

If you have any questions for David Crane, Garry Kitchen or Dan Kitchen about Audacity Games, Circus Convoy, the tech behind the new cartridge or anything else you might want to know, make sure you head on over to this thread so I can ask them during the interview on Friday's ZPH stream! 🙂 - James

EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY POST YOUR QUESTIONS HERE! ZeroPage Homebrew will be interviewing David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers) & Dan Kitchen (Crackpots) LIVE on Twitch this FRIDAY (Mar 12, 2021) with the EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE of their new Atari 2600 game CIRCUS CONVOY! Please post your questions here that you'd like us to ask them! WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE LIVE Friday March 12th @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ - James Premiere Announcement: Circus Convoy Trailer:

CIRCUS CONVOY TRAILER POSTED! Tune in this FRIDAY to ZeroPage Homebrew for the EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY from Audacity Games and LIVE INTERVIEW with David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers) & Dan Kitchen (Crackpots)!!!! Friday March 12th @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

CIRCUS CONVOY TRAILER POSTED! Tune in this FRIDAY to ZeroPage Homebrew for the EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY from Audacity Games and LIVE INTERVIEW with David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers) & Dan Kitchen (Crackpots)!!!! Friday March 12th @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

I'm able to post to YouTube it 24 hours after it airs on Twitch. You can watch it right now on Twitch but I generally find the quality better through YouTube. It will be available on ZPH's YouTube channel at 6PM PT/9PM ET. 🙂 - James

It's probably a small thing but you can see your ship flash on the screen briefly if you press reset over and over. - James

Updated WIP Binary: Shattered Earth (8K) by Ric Pryor @KaeruYojimbo | WIP Binary (20210310) PLAY ON JAVATARI | Updated: Mar 10, 2021

FIRST SNEAK PEEK AT CIRCUS CONVOY!! Check out these incredible first screenshots sent to me from Audacity Games of the some of the graphics you'll encounter in their upcoming Atari 2600 release of Circus Convoy!! Don't forget to tune in this FRIDAY to ZeroPage Homebrew for the EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY and LIVE INTERVIEW with David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers) & Dan Kitchen (Crackpots)! Friday March 12th @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

No wonder she was beating me some of the time. 😉 Might a good idea to put another indicator or a DING! to let players know they've 'registered' their car. Ahhhh, okay! I thought the AI were doing something I was missing because of the flashing at the beginning. Tapping the button certainly didn't help my speed. - James

FIRST SNEAK PEEK AT CIRCUS CONVOY!! Check out these incredible first screenshots sent to me from Audacity Games of the some of the graphics you'll encounter in their upcoming Atari 2600 release of Circus Convoy!! Don't forget to tune in this FRIDAY to ZeroPage Homebrew for the EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY and LIVE INTERVIEW with David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers) & Dan Kitchen (Crackpots)! Friday March 12th @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

Congratulations @Gemintronic! - James

Moved from WIP to Completed: Slide Boy in Maze Land (32K) by Vladimir Zuñiga @vhzc | WIP Binary (20210309) PLAY ON JAVATARI | Updated: Mar 9, 2021 [ref] Updated WIP Binary: Bounce & Catch (2K Port) by Víctor Parada @vitoco | WIP Binary (20210309) PLAY ON JAVATARI | Updated: Mar 9, 2021

Good one @cwieland, beat me by an hour! If only my stream was scheduled 1 or 2 hours earlier today. 😉 - James

We'll be doing the draw at the top of the show tonight, OUT OF A HAT! WATCH HERE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ - James

EXCLUSIVE WORLD PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY from David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen ON ZEROPAGE HOMEBREW! LIVE INTERVIEW with Audacity Games on ZeroPage Homebrew! Friday March 12 @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT WATCH HERE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ ZeroPage Homebrew has the EXCLUSIVE LIVE INTERVIEW with Audacity Games comprising of the masters of the Atari 2600: David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen. We will also be DEBUTING their new game CIRCUS CONVOY on the show! YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS! TUNE IN LIVE AND HAVE YOUR QUESTIONS READY!

EXCLUSIVE WORLD PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY! from David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen ON ZEROPAGE HOMEBREW! LIVE INTERVIEW with Audacity Games on ZeroPage Homebrew! Friday March 12 @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT WATCH HERE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ ZeroPage Homebrew has the EXCLUSIVE LIVE INTERVIEW with Audacity Games comprising of the masters of the Atari 2600: David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen. We will also be DEBUTING their new game CIRCUS CONVOY on the show! YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS! TUNE IN LIVE AND HAVE YOUR QUESTIONS READY!

If you space it out so that no Rhino (with its neck stretched out) crosses another you could make it work. Here's a quick and dirty mockup based on the drawing above: - James

Oh wow!! That's awesome @BladeJunker!! You may want to make it so there are just two Rhinos side by side at the top and the bottom to reduce the amount of flicker, as the 2600 can only handle two sprites on the same horizontal line at a time. This would make for two Rhinos on each of the four edges, which is much easier for the 2600 to draw. The marbles could be drawn using either be playfield or balls. By using playfield you can have unlimited marbles on the board but they would move around in 4 pixel chunks horizontally. This works really well in @johnnywc's RobotWar: 2684 with the Grunts and may work well in this for the marbles, it's hard to say though without seeing it in action. With balls you would be able to only have one ball per horizontal line without flicker but they would be able to move around smoothly. I don't know if either solutions are achievable on with bB and you'd have to implement software collision for the marbles in either solution. Another method would be to add in the missiles as the "second" and "third" marble objects in addition to the ball to reduce the flicker but then the marbles would take on some of the colours of the hippos at times depending on where they're being drawn and how quickly you'd be able to switch the colour over to 'marble colour'. Great start!! - James

I've always had the same feeling as well in terms of which classic console I want to play games on with 2600 vs Intellivision vs Coleco. For me I think it comes down to: 1) Immediacy: With the 2600, you turn it on and the game is ready to play. There's no title screen you have to sit through, no forced options you have to select. With 99% of games all you have to do is flip the power on and then press down the reset button to start playing. The 2600 will default to a basic game variation and you're good to go! 2) Controls: The 2600 joystick is immediately familiar and simple. It's a joystick, similar but not exactly the same as an arcade control, and a button. Sure, a second button would be great but developers are able to make incredible games with just one button. With the Intellivision, the disc is a VERY different beast and takes some getting used to especially for precision movement. The Intellivision disc is good for 360 movement but I don't find it easy for every type of game. The controller nub for the Coleco is a little small to use and can cramp my hand after a while. The extra buttons and overlays on both Intellivision and Coleco are great for more in depth games or simulations but don't make up for comfortable controls. Also, the common Intellivision model has the controls wired in and you don't have a choice of using the MASSIVE array of DB9 alternative joysticks. 3) Other: The nostalgia factor definitely play a big part of this as I grew up mostly playing on the Atari 2600 and there's also an incredibly big library of 2600 games including homebrew. Having said all that... I own multiple consoles of all three systems and tons of games for each, including homebrew, so there's a place in my heart for all three but the Atari 2600 will always take top place. - James

Just a heads up that there will be a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT (as well as awesome games) tonight (Tue Mar 9, 2021) on the ZeroPage Homebrew stream on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 2AM GMT! ZPH Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Vroom! (2021 Exclusive WIP Update) by Thomas Jentzsch @Thomas Jentzsch Local Hero II (2021 Exclusive WIP Update) by Mike Indovina @satyrsfaction Knight Guy in Low Res World: Castle Days (2021 WIP Update) by Vladimir Zuñiga @vhzc