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rasty

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Posts posted by rasty

  3. Posted

    So, to prove that the PAL version of Phoenix actually moves faster to compensate for the slower refresh rate, I've investigated a little bit and it looks like it's all real!

     

    Please check the two images below, where I compare two frames of missile movement between the NTSC and PAL versions against a purple line I've added for reference:

     

    tJBEitP.png rofbnFb.png

     

    It's pretty obsious that the missile in the PAL version (right) moves faster compared to its NTSC counterpart (left), considering the gap between the two frames.

     

    Just to be sure I've checked the RAM values, and if I'm not mistaken I've found the Y coordinate for the missile to be located at $89. So I've tracked the Y value from frame to frame and in the NTSC version it decreases of 6 pixels while in the PAL version it decreases of 8 pixels!

     

    Very interesting, very interesting...

  4. Posted

    Wow I'm amazed about Phoenix, there are definitely differences between the two, or actually efforts to make the PAL version as close to the NTSC version as possible in terms of playability. I shall be able to have both a NTSC and PAL 2600 hopefully soon so I'll try them on real hardware. But it seems from Stella that the PAL version's movements are probably adjusted to make up for the slower refresh rate of PAL50.

     

    Cool find, since Phoenix is my favourite as well! :thumbsup:

  5. Posted

    Hello everyone!


    The premise: I've always liked Carnival on the 2600, it's a nice and fast brainless shooter but I find it way too easy to roll the score, considering that it's just 5 digits.


    To keep a not-so-long story even shorter, after a pretty long stretch of inactivity concerning all things Atari (years go by so fast!), I've decided to put the extra time available during the holiday break to some good use and add the much needed 6th digit to Carnival's score. Obviously the task at hand proved to be quite more time consuming than expected, but in the end I think I've done it.


    So I proudly submit for your judgment and possibly enjoyment: CarnivHack!


    ymHHNky.png


    Playing notes: Carnival is a game that requires a non-standard setting on emulators (i.e. Stella), since the display starts at row 26 and should be 214 rows high, instead of the default 34x210. Stella features a game-specific preset configuration for Carnival, so once you load this hack game in Stella please press TAB and open up Game Properties / Display, where you should set YStart to 26 and Height to 214, as mentioned above. You will only need to do it once. See image below:


    zq4BneY.png


    Some details and tech stuff:


    I had to completely replace the 6-digits display routine. Also, finding some free RAM was obviously a nightmare and forced me to implement a few workarounds. With some additional time on my hands I could have probably done things a bit more elegantly here and there. I wish I had the Stella Debugger a few years ago though :ponder:

    I also had to remove the 2-players option and the logo.. not a big loss IMO! :-D


    Interestingly enough, I've found out that the game actually used just 2 BCD bytes to display the 5-digits score, since the least significant digit is always zero ;)


    TESTERS WANTED!!!: Before calling it a "final" version and spending time on tidying up the source for release, I welcome any kind volunteer to further test, focusing on the following:


    • Testing on real hardware: my 2600 is PAL, so testing on real NTSC hardware would be awesome. I'm mostly concerned about the display being stable and the score displaying and vertically aligning properly, possibly comparing it to the original, non-hacked game
    • Testing the scoring itself
    • General gameplay testing, possibly comparing it to the original game
    • And... testing!!! :)

    I won't have much time available in the coming months so hopefully nothing huge will show up.. hopefully!


    The fine print, i.e. known minor issues I (probably) intend to fix:

    - During the attract mode, when the duck starts eating your bullets the score will temporarily show garbled graphics

    - This game features an easter egg that shows the programmer's name if you keep the fire button pressed while powering up the Atari. Since I had to remove some graphics I'll have to do part with this hack as well since now it shows garbled graphics too. Once again, not a big loss: if you want to try the easter egg, use the original game :)


    CarnivHack - beta1.zip

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    Interesting discussion..!

     

    I think the final answer is a combination of most all that was said in the thread.

     

    Specifically, I think that "old school" games had a very distinctive - and different - gameplay, compared to their newer counterparts.

    Games used to be much more repetitive back then, surely forced by the limited amounts of resources available to work with. Challenge was given by different factors: not really the desire to progress further, but rather the need to become perfect and therefore master completely the few available stages in order to achieve the highest score possible.

    Also, since games offered fewer variety, they also had to be on average more challenging (difficult).

     

    I know I'm not saying anything you don't know already, but this different approach to the games - this different philosophy - could not be immediately evident for someone used to different mechanics.

     

    By the way, reconnecting to the concept of becoming more and more perfect at the limited-content "old school" games versus the new games with huge contents/missions/goals: I always get the feeling, while playing such new releases, that I don't really get the most value out of them since, being practically forced to progress quite rapidly in order to achieve anything, I never really get to exploit the most out of them, and much less feel "connected" to them!

    I'd have to replay the same game quite a few times, but who does really have the time or will to replay Half-Life 2 a hundred times?

  13. Posted

    Humm.. it's interesting to see how, in quite a few years I've been away from this board, things have not changed really and each time Pac-Man for the 2600 comes up, the usual love/hate discussions ensue! :)

     

    I guess that, at least, Pac-Man 2600 has for sure a merit in being able to spark such confrontations for what seems to be forever and ever :D

     

    Anyway, the post was a nice read!

     

    Atari had a great version of Pacman on the 800, as did the C64.

    Humm.. I don't recall the C64 version being spectacularly good, not bad surely but I recall I expected quite a bit more bells & whistles from it at the time, which were surely delivered by Ms. Pac Man!

  15. Posted

    Yeah, that site has some cool game shirts, but that's not one of them. Not only is he trying to play Pong with a joystick, it's a joystick with no button that he's holding in a way that must make it hard to play anything.

     

    Some better shirts they have:

    http://tinyurl.com/yk8aje

    http://tinyurl.com/568xyd

    http://tinyurl.com/55rbtr

    http://tinyurl.com/6cukte

    I'd take the Pitfall! t-shirt... would go well alternating my Grand Prix one!

  16. Posted

    Thank you Fabrizio. This is much better. (That is, it fails. :|)

    Space Treat runs at 50.32 Hz on my NTSC Jr. It works fine on my big Viewsonic which claims VSYNC down to 50 Hz. But it falls in and out of sync on the Dell 1702FP which claims VSYNC down to 56 Hz. So the verdict is in. If you want to run PAL games through this board, you'll need a monitor (or other display device) that can sync all the way down to 50 Hz.

    Ok fine, I'll still get one of your VGA adapters... for $49! :D

     

    BTW, I forgot how good this game is. I got sucked into it for about 15 minutes, even with no sound. Well done, sir!

    I'm really glad you like it!!! Probably disabling sound even benefits the experience! :roll:

    (I promise I'll try harder with sound effects next time!)

     

    Regards!

    Fabrizio.-

  17. Posted

    I'd love to have one since I've specifically purchased a NTSC 2600jr some time ago for composite-modding purposes and still have it lying around intact!

    I also think $50 would be fair for it.

     

    I just tried what I thought was a PAL version of Centipede (from Atariage). It works fine using a monitor on which it should fail. Turns out the ROM is identical to the NTSC version. Do you have an example of a PAL only ROM I can check out?

    Humm, if it's a full PAL rom you need to test, I'd be honored if you'd try the PAL version of Space Treat Deluxe! (contained in the zip).

    It displays 312 lines.

     

    Regards,

    Fabrizio.-

  19. Posted · Edited by rasty

    I think there were several people working on trackers for Paul Slocum's Music Kit 2. Did any of these projects ever reach a state where it was usable ?

    Bringing back an old topic...

     

    Well, I was searching around whether there have been any progresses on music players for the 2600 after Paul's Music Kit 2 (either a new player or an editor)... and it doesn't seem to be the case! (feel free to correct me thou :D )

     

    I'm actually one of those who've started an editor/tracker for MK2 but never got it in a usable state. I've actually used it to compose the few seconds of music in Bounce!'s demo version.

     

    I don't think that I'll ever manage to get my editor in a decent state since, as I recall it, it was quite a mess.. but I may think about some sort of a mod converter. Gotta look back into it!

     

    Would that interest anyone besides me?

     

    Ciao!

    Rasty.-

     

    EDIT: now I recall why I haven't tried a mod2MusicKit converter before... it's really a too different approach!

    So, that probably won't happen for now...!

  22. Posted

    Hi Cassidy!!!

    Great to hear you've made it back safely and are getting over with the jet lag!

     

    Finally back from a very long trip (Rasty isn't exactly across the street!). What a GREAT time. Seeing Fabrizio and his lovely girlfriend were the highlights of our Rome trip.

    Our pleasure!!! :)

     

    We managed to hunt Atari games in the eternal city. Coming up short on Atari, we found a few lots of Gameboy (first gen) and Coleco carts that we picked up. Very cool to see Schrumpfs (Smurfs) in Italian....cannot wait to try it out!

    Humm you say it's called Schrumpfs? I'm no Coleco expert but that doesn't look like the italian name of the cart at all..

    Maybe it was a German one or something?

     

    I've still got to get me a Coleco :(

     

    Nicole and I are constantly amazed at the quality people we know in the Atari community.

    This is actually something that I keep stressing since I've first joined the AA forums... not that I've had the luck to meet nearly as many of you as I'd like to, but the "virtual" contacts I've had here are just amazing! :thumbsup:

     

    Now, we all have a duty to help Bounce get to the AA store! Looking forward to playing that bad boy....and if we all buy enough copies, Fabrizio can buy that red Ferrari we saw outside the Cafe Friday night (it was brand new, bright red and NASTY sounding).....
    I'm waiting you to finish your great Bounce! :)

    Yeah, I'll get that done!!! :cool: ... And possible not stop there!

    But I fear the income would probably get me a model Ferrari at best (and they're also very expensive!)

     

    You are also mentioned in Racing the Beam :)

    I've actually ordered the book from Amazon.. still waiting for it! Thanks for the heads-up!

     

    Regards!

    Fabrizio.-

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