SIO2

I had noticed that. I suspect that the cause is the pfreads are slow. The game is coming along nicely though. Good work all.

Well, it is an interesting question. This was an early David Crane game for Activision. Activision was arguably the best game programmers of their day and certainly not a bunch of hacks. So, why did they not catch this in testing? If they did, why did they release it this way? The thing is, if someone had knocked the legs out from under David Crane and sent him packing at that stage, what would the Atari community have lost? Pitfall, DPC chip ? @RT: Been going on forever man. Found this interview http://www.2600connection.com/interviews/david_crane/interview_david_crane.html Q: Do you recall any of your other games having 2 or more ROM versions that were released (besides Laser Blast and possibly Decathlon)? David Crane: Fortunately, no. Unlike today, it was a very big deal to rev a video game ROM. We tested the heck out of our games and only changed the ROM code under very limited circumstances. However, occasionally we would discover something that didn't quite work in the way it was intended. But if it didn't make a big difference in the game play we just said, "That's not a bug, it's a feature".

@tschak909: Well, a fun game is a matter of opinion. Making a game that most people think is fun is quite difficult. I have been disappointed by games that were made by some of the best companies. I remember buying Laser Blast back in the day and getting it home to shortly discover that if I just repeated my moves the game was super easy. So, it became about just having the stamina to play through it as quickly as possible and get the million point patch. I did it, but it felt like work and not like fun. So, everybody gets disappointed once in a while. These days, we have reviews to help us avoid the disappointment. Thank you Metal Jesus

I don't understand the why assembly language programmers want to bash on basic programmers. Both are great languages with their own purposes. It seems though a lot of the posts go something like I bust my butt and they expect $$ for their effort? - I give up or they suck or whatever. To me it doesn't make sense. A person should be able to ask whatever they want for their work whatever it is. If one person is selling hand wired LED recreations of masterpiece paintings and the other person is selling finger painted fridge magnets they should each be able to ask whatever they want. If people are willing to pay more for finger painted fridge magnets, maybe the smarter person is making finger painted fridge magnets. Know what I am saying? But I can imagine how michelangelo felt after painting the sistine chapel and the first person who looked said, that is nice but I kind of get a kink in my neck looking at that. Hey, is that a painting of fruit that guy is selling in the lobby?

When it comes to caps I am in with the don't fix it if it isn't broken crew. Especially when it comes to the Atari 2600. Over the years I have repaired and or modified quite a few of these machines. As I worked on them and searched for the bad components, I would often remove and test capacitors. What I found is that in all cases but one the original capacitors tested fine for capacitance and ESR. Many times they tested better than new replacement capacitors I had purchased. In the one case where there was actually a bad cap, the 2200uf cap had ruptured and leaked on the main board causing some damage but I was able to wash the board and polish it up. With a new cap it worked. Why I think this is becoming a big thing is partly because of handhelds like sega game gear and atari lynx that are having high cap failure rates.

Taco Bell is awesome. I recently had their cravings deal. A ton of great food and a drink for $5. What a deal. Blocking AA is not cool though.

@DanOliver: Nice thoughts Dan. A description of what the person hoped or imagined the game could be would be helpful. When I looked at this, my thoughts are, there is a bug looking sprite and a human looking sprite. Which is the good guy? Is the human really a human or some other biped that is taking bug eggs? Also, with this many escape routes and only one enemy it will be difficult to for the enemy to put pressure on the player unless the enemy is so fast that it is unavoidable and that would not be fun. Plus, both sprites start at the same location which means collision detection needs to be disabled until they are clear of each other. Would be better to have different start locations.

Tandys 1000 are nice but not exactly a standard PC. I have a 1000 TX I am looking for a low price printer cable for its edge connector (no parallel port). If you find a 1000 for $25 or less though it would be a bargain.

Buy the Texas Instruments. But if you insist on a PC, go with the Dell. Faster and more RAM.

You should try concrete next time.

I have had days like that. Once after hours of work I got a program exactly where I wanted it and it got wiped out because I tried to rename the source file from within the IDE and it somehow got lost to the file system. After a bit of rage and a short break I sat down an recoded it in about a third of the time. Other times I have went to bed certain that what I was asking the computer to do was impossible only to wake up the next morning and have it seem so simple. So, take a break. My guess is though you will be back at it soon.

I am running Visual batari basic on a Windows 10 machine that was upgraded from Windows 8.1. I was originally happy with the upgrade to 10 but since have come to view Windows 10 as a trojan horse.

IMHO, this device would be very helpful to the homebrew developers and would lead to more homebrew titles being developed and more interest in the 7800 in general. In the absence of this product, I opted to use a DevOS modified 7800 for development. That system relies on a companion PC with a parallel port and is not as convenient to use as we all hope Fred's device will be.

Let's start here with a better way to post code in these forums: as a source that will compile coupled with a compiled .bin People will probably look at the .bin first to decide if they are interested in the project and then start digging into the code if they like what they see. The request was to have the enemy chase the player. I would probably have the enemy do its own thing and have the player try to avoid the enemy (or enemies if more are added). Nuka.bas Nuka.bin

Looking good there. I am just imagining out loud here about what could be so just keep that in mind. It is your game Ultima so you decide what it will be. My first thought is that the boss is awesome but could be harder to defeat. Also, the bat is kind of easy. Maybe the bat could dodge the arrow often but randomly not dodge it? Shooting a bat would be like swatting a fly - takes a bit of luck. Second, a larger adventure could be created by having each level on a separate cartridge. Maybe each cart should have a victory code that the player can collect toward achieving some greater goal (like rescue a princess). BTW, What is the purpose of the cake?

ifropt2.bas ifropt2.bin Changes in _Skip_Sound01, the pause switch routine right after main loop, RT's player movement routines, _Player_Drawn_Start_Enemy_Draw, breakable walls routine, moved pfscorecolor = 0 from inside main loop to outside, replaced any <= or >= with equivalent < or > only, shortened up collision with enemy, changes in knock enemy back and Skip_Col,P0_P1. I also reorganized the enemy sprite selection so that they are selected by an on goto and the size and color data are wth the sprite data. Not sure if it that bit is really faster but wth all the changes it is a little quicker overall.

So, where do I get one of those?

@576XE There is no perfect. At least not one we would ever agree on. However, you may find a Suncom Slim Stick that is in good working order meets many of your requirements. Suncom sticks were an excellent design IMHO but they have a wire attached to the joystick shaft which tends to break. Also the contacts need cleaned well for best response (like all joysticks).

Maybe you could post your game code and see if it inspires anyone.

Still waiting to play. Everytime I go to the barcade, someone has a bunch of quarters on the machine.

I would just go with the control scheme you have in version B. A much bigger gain could be had if you could figure out how to structure the game so that it doesn't have to constantly swap banks.

The rems I added here to ds0 and ds1 seem to solve the music glitch. At least I have not heard it mess up since.

My fingers won't fit into a US style outlet - haven't tried any foreign ones. I figure they might have designed it that way for a reason. Stacking XMs might be more analogous to seeing how many refrigerators you can run through power strips plugged into a single outlet. Not a wise thing to do even if safeguards designed into the system work.

Here are a couple more suggestions with a little extra code on each side so you can locate where they fit. skipthispart if _Bit7_Flip_P1{7} then REFP1 = 8 if !joy0up && !joy0down && !joy0left && !joy0right && _Bit5_Missile_Flag{5} then _Animation_Timer = 0 : goto __Skip_Joy0_Right rem move player normal way if no collision else use RT's routines to avoid sticky wall syndrome. if collision(player1,playfield) then goto __RT_Special if joy0up then _BitOp_Missile = %00000011 : _Bit7_Flip_P1{7} = 0 : _P1_UD = _P1_UD - 0.75 if joy0down then _BitOp_Missile = %00000101 : _Bit7_Flip_P1{7} = 0 : _P1_UD = _P1_UD + 0.75 if joy0left then _BitOp_Missile = %00001001 : _Bit7_Flip_P1{7} = 1 : _P1_LR = _P1_LR - 0.75 if joy0right then _BitOp_Missile = %00010001 : _Bit7_Flip_P1{7} = 0 : _P1_LR = _P1_LR + 0.75 goto __Skip_Joy0_Right __RT_Special rem random terrain's advanced collision prevention code+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ start here if !joy0up then goto __Skip_Joy0_Up ;*************************************************************** ; ; Draw player and enemy. __Draw_Player_I COLUP1 = $C0 if _Animation_Timer < 14 then goto __Skip_AT1 if _Bit3_Missile_L{3} then goto __Fritz_Left_I if _Bit4_Missile_R{4} then goto __Fritz_Right_Frame_I if _Bit1_Missile_U{1} then goto __Fritz_Up_Frame_I if _Bit2_Missile_D{2} then goto __Fritz_Down_Frame_I __Skip_AT1 if _Animation_Timer > 15 then goto __Skip_AT2 if _Bit3_Missile_L{3} then goto __Fritz_Left_II if _Bit4_Missile_R{4} then goto __Fritz_Right_Frame_II if _Bit1_Missile_U{1} then goto __Fritz_Up_Frame_II if _Bit2_Missile_D{2} then goto __Fritz_Down_Frame_II __Skip_AT2 __Fritz_Left_I

There was no manual as the game rules are pretty well covered by the intro screens. Is there anything you think a manual could expand upon?