gdement
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Posts posted by gdement
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I just reread that transcript and they mentioned that a Joust character on the 7800 has 12 colors. The character images I made for Kenfused's Q*bert were three colors and only three colors. Does this mean they used some clever trick to make that Joust character seem like it's 12 colors?The maria has an alternate rendering mode to draw 12 color sprites. You can interchangeably draw 3 color and 12 color objects as needed. 12 color objects are normally not used because they require twice as much storage space and take longer to render.
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It just seems short sighted to me that Atari expected companies to go thru the extra expense of adding the pokey chip. I could only see that happening if the 7800 was as big as the VCS in sales so the added cost was made up in volume. Especially since they didn't even do it themselves on 99% of the games so Atari didn't even want to be bothered with it.Here is a theory I had on this...
If you have looked at the 7800 PCB it's pretty crowded, so adding a pokey to the design probably would have increased the size of the PCB, the size of the system, and the overall cost of the system.
A lot of the 7800 carts had one of three "added features", extra RAM, extra ROM, or a POKEY, so the Pokey cart would not have been much more expensive then the other carts to make. Even if you had to tack on a few dollars to the price of the cartridge, this may have actually been more palatable to the consumer then increasing the price of the console by say $10.00.
Dan
I don't think the Pokey cart situation was the original plan, because it really doesn't make any fiscal sense. If they were concerned about pricing, they could just as easily have swallowed the cost of integrating a POKEY in the console, and jacked up the price of some "Supercarts" that use it. The consumer wouldn't know the difference, and it would save Atari money. They didn't have to charge the Pokey-tax on the component where it actually was located.
I think it's more likely that they either didn't think the sound upgrade was needed, or GCC just didn't realize they were short of board room until it was too late. They thought they were in a hurry to ship, so they punted.
It seems to me that integrating sound in the MARIA would have been too much complexity for one new chip, but I don't know much about such things. I wonder if they could have instead designed a downward compatible version of Stella or RIOT that had some enhanced sound features integrated. But I suppose the RIOT might have been problematic to imitate since it's not an Atari chip to begin with.
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Showbiz Pizza, which we had in Wichita, KS when I was little. That was the first arcade I had ever seen and I still have hazy memories of it. They had a dual screen Donkey Kong with lots of people crowded around, I remember eventually getting in a game but I died quickly. There was also a Dragon's Lair, which I was amazed to look at but never played it. I spent most of my time in the back room because almost nobody was in there. I realize now those were the old games, probably stuff from the 70's and some BB gun type games.
I had at least a couple birthday parties there - they had this crazy on-stage audio-animatronic band of animal characters that played music and jabbered to each other. I think one of them was named "Billy Bob". Very loud and exciting for us kids. Annoying as hell for the parents I'm sure.
Chuck E Cheese bought the place out well before my family moved. I resented that - who is Chucke Cheese and why did that stupid mouse steal Showbiz? That was the first time I learned the concept of businesses being bought and sold. We had another Chuck E Cheese in Pensacola, and it was very weak. I don't know if it was typical of the chain, but if so, I must conclude that Showbiz was way better.
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I still like Nesticle. The trend nowadays is for very slow and accurate emulation, and certainly that has it's place, but I appreciate an emulator that was written when classic Pentiums were the norm, and processor speed couldn't be taken for granted. My sister still has a P133 laptop, and Nesticle is the only option for playing NES games on that machine. It's just too bad it won't run under NT.
I prefer Nester and FCE Ultra though, and use those emulators on everything else. I don't keep up with the latest computers anymore, so the high-CPU emulators don't appeal to me. There are several 400-550MHz machines in my family, including my own desktop.
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This was one of the first games I rented on the NES, and I really was fascinated by it. But I absolutely couldn't stand the jump-back-into-a-pit-when-hit play mechanic. It was so frustrating I made the conscious decision not to get the game, despite how much I otherwise liked it. Ninja Gaiden had the same problem. That jumping-back stuff was a dealbreaker for me, I just had no patience for it.
I still played Castlevania on several different occasions though, and I eventually got pretty far in it. I definitely didn't finish it though, and I doubt I ever will unless I use savestate cheats on an emulator.
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The story I heard at the time was that Mario would spin around the top of the flagpole like 3 times or whatever. That game was such a phenomenon for a while, its funny how many legends started going around about it, some true, some not. I'm generally pretty fond of the early NES years.
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ENIAC is better because it's 10-bit.
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I haven't been able to open the CD drawer on my model 1 yet, and i'm hoping there's going to be a disc inside. It'll probably be a sports game, since every used game console I've ever bought with a game CD inside has traditionally had a sports game in it.
You don't need a controller or screen, all you have to do is push Reset and it will eject.
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I'll have to try hooking it up to my older Genesis and see if that helps.
I agree. I ended up pretty disgusted with Sega that they kept treating the CD as a novelty, rather than a platform for real games.
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A couple days ago my niece wanted to try playing the Sega CD game "Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective" (volume 1). This disc originally was included with my front-loading Sega CD console. However, I no longer have that unit. Therefore I set up the game on a newer model Genesis with top-loading CD unit.
Other games work fine, but Sherlock Holmes does not. The game boots to the licensing screen as expected, but then the game just stops loading. After waiting a very long time, I opened the disc tray and found that the disc wasn't even spinning. I tried again and had the same result. Does this game have an incompatibility issue with the newer hardware?
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I just tried Altered Beast on a Model 1631 Genesis (2nd generation style), and it works fine. I agree though that early EA games won't work on the non 1601 Genesis models. I just wish I still had an early EA game to test, unfortunately I lost one of them and sold the other.
From what I've read of the story, I think there was some unexplained piece of code in the Sega games that EA couldn't determine the purpose of, so they didn't duplicate it. It turned out to be relevant to licensing. As a result, early Sega games are recognized by the later consoles, but early unlicensed EA games are not. I don't have an intimate knowledge of the system though, that's just something I remember reading.
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I must have been 7 at the time, but this was such an exciting event for me that I remember it pretty well. I was at a friend's house and he bragged to me about all the games he had gotten that day at Target for $5 each (I still remember this because I wanted to tell my mom later). I remember playing Night Driver and Pitfall. He wanted to play Pitfall, but I was bored by it because we already had that game. I thought Night Driver was the coolest thing ever. By the time my mom came over to pick me up that evening, I had also seen the Target commercial on their TV. I was excited to tell her about the sale, and I think my friend's mom helped explain what I was talking about. My family went that same evening to Target and we all picked out some games. I got Night Driver, one of the worst games I own. Of course I didn't realize the significance of the event at the time, but I realize now it must have been the 84 crash.
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I never use IE unless I absolutely have to because it is so easy to pick up spyware and viruses with it.ActiveX downloads can be disabled, if that's what you're referring to. Go to
Tools->Internet Options->Security and click "Custom Level" for the internet zone.
Then disable downloading of activeX controls, signed or not. Maybe you already knew about this, but it's hidden away enough that many people aren't aware of it. The default setting of "Prompt" is definitely a disaster waiting to happen.
That way IE won't ask you to install stuff just because some web site wants you to. Instead you'll get an annoying error message, but you don't have to worry about clicking the wrong button anymore, the only button is "OK". If you're running Flash then this error won't come up very often. It's also possible to hack shdoclc.dll so that message box no longer appears, I've done that and it works well. This link explains a bit more about how to fix the error message:
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If Tetris keeps its high scores in cartridge RAM, then this might be possible. But I doubt Tetris needed more than just the console RAM. The idea might work for other games though, depending on whether the data of interest is kept in cartridge RAM.
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I heard that Flash is hard to make games with. It would be cool if it wasn't that hard since I'd love to make a few online games.
My problem with the idea of writing games in Flash is that there's a fair number of people who would prefer not to install it. The problem is there's no apparent way to selectively allow Flash only for selected web sites. So since Flash is all-or-nothing, I'd rather not run it. I think Java is the same way, but for whatever reason Java usually doesn't get used for ads, while Flash is almost constantly used that way. Besides the annoyance, Flash ads also cause a significant slowdown, but maybe people running newer systems don't notice it. My niece and nephew have asked me to install Flash for some online games, but I've had to turn them down because of the performance impact it would have on the rest of the internet. If only those games were written in Java it wouldn't be a problem. I think a lot of people would prefer to install Java rather than Flash, simply because Java seems to have a better signal-to-noise ratio, while Flash mostly just adds noise.
Even neglecting that issue, I'd still recommend Java between those two, since Java is a useful programming skill that could come in handy in other areas. Graphics programming might be easier in Flash though, I really have no idea.
edit: After looking at the original question I can see my reply is somewhat off-topic. Well, if you get to the point of deciding to learn a language, then I endorse Java over Flash for the reasons stated above. But as far as easier game-making tools go, I don't have any particular recommendation.
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I've never seen one in real life, but there is apparently a visual difference.
http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/consoles.html
The moulding beneath the woodgrain is U-shaped on the heavy version, but V-shaped on the others.
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From what I've read, my understanding is that the MARIA chip controls the clock signal in the 7800. The 6502 and 6532 run from the same clock. When the 6502 is running at 1.79MHz, the 6532 is clocked at that speed as well. However, when the 6502 signals an address that maps to the 6532, then the MARIA slows the clock down to 1.2MHz. Somebody correct me if this is wrong.
According to a data sheet I was reading, the 6532 was available at speeds of 1MHz and 2MHz, so 1.79MHz should not have been a problem. Not only that, but the 7800 in fact does clock the 6532 at 1.79MHz when its not being accessed. The 6532's timer functions run at the higher clock speed most of the time, only to slow down when read or written to. So if the 6532 can run at 1.79MHz most of the time, why does it need to slow down at all? Seems that the speed should only be keyed on whether the system is in 2600 mode, and be indifferent to the address. What am I missing?
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In 1985, the only thing I knew about Nintendo was that they had their name on my Donkey Kong Jr. cartridge. Thinking back... I was in 3rd grade then! That's definitely long before I or anyone in my school heard of the NES. It was all about Intellivision, Atari, and Commodore 64. I don't think it even caught on where I lived until 1987. But I grew up in Wichita, deep in flyover country.
I never really understood time capsules.Yeah, they are pretty silly. I wonder how many schools even remember they have them. If they ever open them, I bet the kids find it pretty dull. It would be more fun to go back as adults and open your own time capsule.
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I think a simultaneous two player mode would be excellent. Whenever a frog reaches the goal area (whatever its called), it could be colored to indicate whose frog it was. Alternating two player wouldn't matter a lot to me.
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You maybe have already seen this, but somebody was having similar troubles on an 800:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=66856
I don't have any experience with the SpeakJet or serial I/O though. I don't think anything would interrupt the CPU during vblank, at least nothing I can think of. Maybe it's just a timing issue like you mentioned.
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Very good packaging, that should get a lot of people's attention.
They show some paddle games on the box, yet the system comes with joysticks. Those must not be original binaries. Hopefully the joystick games are unaltered.
Are the joysticks removable DB-9s? That would be nice, but given the price reduction, I wonder if they're hardwired serial devices. If the system really is binary compatible, that might also explain the price reduction since they wouldn't have to pay for much reprogramming outside of the paddle games.
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It's 128KB, and also has a 32KB RAM chip on the board, yet it can only use 16KB of it. I guess they had a surplus of 32KB SRAMs?
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There's little point in installing a cartridge connector and then trying to pretend it isn't there. It costs money to install, so if Infogrames doesn't want more than a few hundred people to know about it then they have no reason to spend money on it.
Even if they did try this, it wouldn't work. It wouldn't take much imagination for people to realize what the connector might be for. Word would get around pretty quickly.
However, I think it would be pretty cool if they included the connector and proudly advertised it. Not being limited to the built-in titles would carry a lot of appeal. I bet a sizeable number of people have old Atari games they'd like to play again. They would take interest in a small modern A/V equipped console to play those old cartridges with. I imagine most people don't feel like messing with their old VCS units, if they still have them, because either they've misplaced some pieces or they can't hook it up. But their willingness to buy retro units shows they are indeed interested in having a way to play those old games.
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TIA ain't friendly to groovy sounds, but you can still do a lot with it if you know how.Having lots of room for data helps also. Music, especially, is very data-intensive. Since the 7800 has more RAM and more ROM space (then your average 2600 cart) it can do a lot more with sound than the 2600 can.
On the other hand...check out Marble Craze, Thrust+, and the Homestar Runner RPG demo to see what can really be done when you push TIA hard. In other words, check out Paul Slocum's work.
And Pitfall II has a special chip on the cart but everything is still running through TIA - all the special chip does (I think) is feed sound data to the program which then sends it to TIA every scanline (or something).
And, incidentally, I don't think the 7800's faster processor helps that much since it has to slow down to access TIA and since the processor stops while MARIA writes to the screen.
All that to say - yeah, with 4K of RAM (or whatever the 7800 has) instead of 128 bytes and 32K of ROM instead of 4K-16K, and with a lot of know-how the 2600 could probably reproduce just about anything you hear in a non-POKEY 7800 game.
And seriously, check out those games I mentioned above - it is amazing what P Slocum can do.
I agree that the ROM and RAM space makes a big difference, but I think the available CPU time is also an important factor. The 7800 does have to talk to TIA at the same speed that the 2600 does, but the 7800 has a lot more free time after graphics are rendered than the 2600. As a result, it can spend more time holding the TIA's hand through complex sounds. I don't know if this comes in to play in typical cases, but it's at least an enabler for the PCM sound in Jinks.
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Unimex Transfer Adapter for C64 carts...!?
in Atari 7800
Posted
So if I understand correctly, he doesn't know anything about it, but he assures you it was a long time ago and it wasn't a copy unit?
Sounds like he just knows better than to talk about it.
As yuppicide mentioned, maybe he's planning to resell it.