Missing I/O initialization

[Missing I/O initialization]

I know the labels "amateur" and "pro" are from the programmer's guide, but the A/B difficulty was frequently also labelled as Expert/Novice (e.g. on my Vader console) and Advanced/Beginner too. IMO the latter is easier to remember.

 

BTW: Why did you draw and list the bits in reverse order?

[Slide (working title) new wip game for 2600]

Thanks for reporting. I was afraid that this would happen. IMO it would be best to blank two digits, the score will never even get close to 10,000.

[Slide (working title) new wip game for 2600]

Or maybe shift the room numbers one digit to the right?

[Slide (working title) new wip game for 2600]

I fixed the problem by moving the score one pixel to the right.

slideboy_RC3.1a.bin

[Slide (working title) new wip game for 2600]

IMO you shouldn't give up your iconic score font.

[Missing I/O initialization]

56 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said:

Stella manual says SWCHB is read only, and the only mention of SWBCNT is to give its address and say it is hardwired to input. So, seems to me we don't worry about SWCHB/SWBCNT at all...

That's not correct. 

 

 

[Slide (working title) new wip game for 2600]

I suggest that you test your game with Developer settings and especially TIA glitches enabled. In a brief test, the latter shows three minor problems which you can see in the attached screenshots. Not sure if you can fix these, though.

[To All Non-Programmer Idea Peddlers]

The problem are not the people who have great ideas. The problem are the people who think they have great ideas.

 

There were just too many posts where the latter were presenting their ideas in a way, that developers should be grateful if they are allowed to implement them. Usually without even a basic understanding of the system limitations, no thought out concepts, no details, nothing. Some of these people even didn't even want to get into detail, because they were afraid someone might steal their idea. 

 

Yes, there were exceptions (e.g. Salstadt and a few others), but the majority was like the people I described above. That's why this thread was created, so that we could forward them here. Without having to explain them over and over again why developers are not waiting in line to implement their "great" ideas.

[Wikipedia wrong about Atari 2600 Super Breakout]

4 hours ago, Reaperducer said:

It's Wikipedia. You're better off asking six people at a bus stop and going with the majority. 

Before making broad statements, have you ever taken the time to really understand how Wikipedia works?

[Bit 2 of VBLANK]

Not that I am aware of. 

 

Do you have some code examples?

[Colours are wrong]

Looks like the cart is NTSC.

[2600 (NTSC) RGB => OSSC Recommended Settings]

14 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Such is the struggle playing games meant for CRTs that have a TON more tolerance than digital equipment.

Yes, and for a developer this allows some fine tuning. E.g. display more scanlines or slightly change the game speed when not using fractional math.

 

The problem is that modern equipment isn't tolerant anymore. Not vice versa.  

[Hellway, an Atari 2600 homebrew with love]

16 minutes ago, SpiceWare said:

As a developer @Octavio Pinho Bokel, should be using Developer mode.

There is a reason why it is called Developer settings.  

[QuadTari]

10 hours ago, gauauu said:

Yours shipped a couple weeks ago, should hopefully be there soon!

Fingers crossed.

[36 Character Kernel (redux)]

4 hours ago, Omegamatrix said:

The latest the write can be done though is ending on cycle 19 as A, X, and Y are in use. 

Ending at cycle 21 by my math. Which should be OK because of the 5 cycles earlier HMOVE. It looks OK on my PAL console.

 

BTW: I changed COL_TEXT for PAL into $28 (COL_28 is $38 for PAL). $38 has a slight tint to red.

[QuadTari]

18 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

I gave it a test.  Through the front pot, it does seem better in that it does detect the 1st joystick properly now, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be able to read any joysticks plugged into the additional port (port 3 or port 4). 😕   It performed the same through the USB connector in my tests also; it could just read inputs from the first joystick.

 

However, it may just be because I have no way of mapping those ports because they aren't recognized as inputs with Stella.  Meaning, when I try to map inputs to joysticks P2 and P3, I can't map to the additional joysticks because Stella would need to set DUMPPORTS high to enable the physical joystick connected to port 3 of the QuadTari.  I'm confused actually; I'm not sure how it would work in software, but somehow you would need to map using the 2nd physical joystick connected to QuadTari port 3 to Stella joystick port P2.  (and the same for QT port 4/Stella joystick input configuration for P3).    

Hm, I get your problem. I suppose I need a QuadTari first to sort out the problems.

 

Anyway, thanks for testing.

[36 Character Kernel (redux)]

Another idea how to save cycles: Use M0 and M1 alternatively! That way you have to update the stack pointer (LDX #ENAM1, TXS instead of PLA) only every 4 lines. I think that should work, no?

 

So that would save 4 cycles every 4 lines. Together with one wasted cycle we would have another 5 cycles free every 4 lines.  

 

This would allow e.g. updating the background in 3 out of 4 lines. Or we could move "lda #RIGHT_8, sta HMP1" to the beginning of KERNEL_2 (before lda #{9}, not 100% sure about the timing). Then there would be 5 free cycles at the end of KERNEL_2 and 5 free cycles at the beginning of every 2nd KERNEL_1. That would allow e.g. changing the foreground colors.

[PAL vs. NTSC Atari 2600 console Questions]

6 minutes ago, FAMICOM_87 said:

much better then PAL one

Why? Just because of 24 colors less?

[QuadTari]

Both if you can. Use 6.5.1 (not 6.5), because there we made the change.

[Wikipedia wrong about Atari 2600 Super Breakout]

18 minutes ago, Rom Hunter said:

I think the problem here is that release years get confused with copyright years on the cart's front label.

So is the 1978 a bug or not? If not, then you should make obvious that this is not the release year. Else it should be fixed, IMO.

[QuadTari]

On 2/7/2021 at 4:13 PM, johnnywc said:

I'll give this a shot and post my results here.  

@johnnywc

Did you find time for testing?

[Wikipedia wrong about Atari 2600 Super Breakout]

3 hours ago, Random Terrain said:

Like I posted above, why didn't the person who originally put the incorrect information on the page have to jump through 500 flaming hoops to prove it? If they did, the page wouldn't have to be corrected now.

The wrong info was added July 14th, 2018 with a link to AtariMania. There Super Breakout is listed as "Year 1978". 

 

Looks like AtariMania is generally accepted as a reliable source of information. But obviously it is wrong (probably because the label says (C)1978, any idea why?) and the error replicated to Wikipedia too. I suggest to contact AtariMania first and make them correct their error. That should avoid discussion with the people at Wikipedia.

[Black and white 2600 (light sixer)]

Also, when turning the color pot too far, the colors become b/w. And the switchover point shifts when the console is warming up. At least on my PAL Vader.

[Atari is simpler times]

Agreed. Also the last ZPH show had a similar poll question and the answers seem to confirm this too.

[TIA differences between models]

 

4 minutes ago, JetSetIlly said:

I was confused by the Stella UI. I thought selecting Developer Settings in the TIA Tab would turn on developer settings only for the TIA but it turns them on everywhere.

I agree, the UI is not optimal there. But the Debugger tab has no separate player/developer settings, so I had to repeat the radio buttons on each of the other tabs.