mikiex

The some of the problems with BASIC back in the day for me: #1 Line numbers #2 Interpreted #3 Designed around completness instead of performance When I was younger I wanted to make games and BASIC was just too slow. There was the odd interesting languge that was designed for speed but these where not what you got with the machine. Then maybe when ST/Amiga came along you had STOS/AMOS/Blitz which where ok. Compiled basics like IntyBasic and Batari Basic are totally different, they are designed to make games, designed around the limitations of the hardware. They are BASIC , but are more related to Assembly - just sugar coated. I actaully wish I had learned Assembly back in the 80s, because it was never as hard as I thought it was.

http://vectrexmuseum.com/share/coder/DIS/CLAY/ORIGINAL/SOUND1.AS9 Is an example of using the 6522 only correct? I am pretty sure I used this in some experiments a while ago. It would be interesting to know which method gives the best results / pros and cons because I didn't try the AY method yet. Both use the 6522 because because the AY is connected to that as well. For Dripfrees original post, was it superior? Well it was the same as other AY based machines. These days with a lot of that is hindsight and progression of the art of chip music. No decent AY music existed back then even if the chip was capable.

Join the facebook Vectrex Fans Facebook page if you can and ask on there. First think I would do is take it apart and clean all the dust out and re-seat everthing. It doesn't always work but its the first thing I would do. Of course take the precautions you need to as the Tube can hold the high voltage even when its off, plenty of info about that around.

Nice work, I wonder if you get any more improvement from updating twice a frame at 120hz?

I think a year ago the main reason might of been to be the first to do it on a particular platform, another being that its fairly simple to make. Also maybe to play tribute to how crazy the phenomenon of the original was. Some games riding the waves of the original would make it around the net, maybe even drew some interest for retro gaming in general. There is probably less reason to do it now, still I'd like to see it on every platform just for the hell of it, along with tetris and spaceinvaders etc.

I didn't say that exactly , I don't think you should call a game crap unless you have played it. By playing the original and 2 clones doesn't mean you should call all the others crap without playing them. I didn't say you should not be allowed to call a game crap unless you have made games yourself, you certainly might have more empathy for game development and also add more weight to your opinions if you did. You should offer some alternatives for what people should be developing.

Thats cool, it might of taken some time, but I'm sure the next time you try to make something it will be easier. You should keep going.

Thats another thing, a lot of people didn't make an exact clone - many have small twists.

That would be an interesting one the Studio II being that some people considered it the "worst" console ever. Space invaders looked pretty good on it, seemed to get more out of it compared to the original commercial releases. I'm wondering if thats because maybe it used proper assembler vs the pseudo machine language

I'm not upset by your opinions because that's exactly what they are, there are many people who like flappy bird or it's derived clones. So it's debatable that most people consider it to be shit. Doing a remake of what you consider a good game is ok, but equally that also shows no imagination,originality or creative thought. So what it really comes down to is that you don't like the game which is fair enough. I think the effort of making a flappy bird clone on an old machine depends very much on the skills of the developer. Some might of made the game in a day and so spent little effort, so why not make it? Others might take longer because they have never programmed on a system, as so it's a learning experience that takes more effort. But that longer time is not effort wasted if they learned something that can take on to make something more original in the future.

So why should every game be imaginative or original? What game should people be making?

How many of these flappy bird clones have you played?

Looking forward to your original, imaginative and creative thoughtful project.. But seriously flappy bird is an ideal starter project for anyone looking to get into homebrew. Being original or using imagination can be more of a hinderance when you are learning a new platform.

Ah that explains it! Thanks for pointing that out e5frog!

Hi James, Thanks for you comments! Thats wierd, the first release was under 4k, v1.5 is under 6k. So I really don't know why its not working correctly for you. Might be worth asking someone who knows more about carts on the Vector gaming forums. I've not made any other games, I did start writing a tutorial which will result in a finished game but I've not had time to progress this (maybe when winter comes!) Its worth checking out the Vector gaming forum and looking out for new releases as its got a lot more active recently with developers old and new working on stuff.

http://vectrexprogramming.blogspot.co.uk/ Feedback can be posted here: http://vectorgaming.proboards.com/thread/992/vectrex-programming-tutorial-tools-tech Or in this AtariAge thread if you like. Please post any questions or feedback.

The other differences are that with Veccy the pipes are always in the same position, it's also possible to complete! (version 1.5) So far only one person I know of has managed it - Wazzal on the Vector gaming forums.

Thanks xefned, I look forward to you making some Vectrex games

The Vectrex memory normally survives pressing the reset button, when warm booting it displays the title of the rom and what was previously stored as ascii in the memory location used for highscore. So yes it doesn't have memory backup but it does have a standard ram location for the scores/highscore. I wasn't using the standard ram locations for scoring at all as I rolled my own scoring system. But I now copy the highscores into the standard location to conform more, if say an emulator could backup scores then it would just work now. Thanks for giving it a go

http://vectorgaming.proboards.com/board/20/vectrex

I would upload some video and also post on the Vector gaming forums if you have not already

I think my brightness was turned up quite a bit when I tested it and it looked a little dim when I turned it down, so I have brightened it up in v1,5 (link to new version in first post)

Ok thanks, I must of been tired or something to forget that ... here is the link to the rom veccybird because I noticed a french website linking here didn't think it was released.

Did I ever post a link to the rom?, or maybe it was removed :/

It's a totally different game really as it doesn't have random levels (or random chunks of level.. I don't know what he did for sure), I could never get the timing the same at the mercy of 8bits .. I actually think its easier but then you get better at games when you test them at lot and not many people have posted high scores. The movement I just tried different amounts of velocity for the gravity and flap bird velocity until it felt ok and worked with the levels. Then the velocity is linked to the bird rotation.