thegoldenband

What about having an "in-between" screen every five stages or so, free of enemies, in which you choose between two different paths, one of which leads you forward in the game, the other of which makes you backtrack somewhat? I'm thinking of something similar to the NES games Section Z or Xexyz, both of which do something a bit like this, as does Gauntlet, though I think there are other games that would be even more clear-cut examples. It'd be a great way to add some depth to the game as a whole -- not to mention the fact that it (the in-between screen) could be a chance to use my "delay" version of the underwater music!

Sure! Did you have a specific one in mind? They all use basically the same engine adapted from JoustPong, and the GoSub 2 thread has my .bas file for "underwater" in it. Otherwise it's pretty much all in the data files... Oh dear!

To my astonishment, I think I've figured out how to code it: underwater_finalcombinedtest3.bas underwater_finalcombinedtest3.bas.bin

Fun to see my music used in a real game! Is there any chance you could make it alternate between the two versions I sent you (underwater-final and underwater-final-alt, with alt coming first)? I tried to code it myself, but couldn't quite figure out how to do it...

And replied! I hope you like the "delay" version -- one of the things I respect a lot about Paul Slocum's work is the way he uses techniques like that to create the illusion of depth, reverb, and greater polyphony. @ MausGames: Let me see what I can do. Now that Thanksgiving break is over I'll probably have to rein things in for a bit, but I want to study a few tracks that use beats and percussion sounds, and see what I can steal be inspired by. The code I'm using doesn't really allow for note-by-note volume management, so I have to figure out how I want to handle that...

Thanks for the kind words, guys! I'd obviously be more than pleased if someone wants to use my stuff, especially in a project that makes it to cart form -- "Atari 2600 music programmer for commercially released games" would be a fun thing to put on my musical resume. (I'm a composer by trade, inasmuch as I'm working on my Ph.D. in it -- though the music I'm writing for my degree sounds pretty different from these tunes, to say the least!)

I finally got the Batari Basic compiler up and running on my computer this Thanksgiving -- great stuff! After writing a few very crude programs, I delved into the sound modules, and have written a few little tunes as my first attempts at music for the Atari 2600. Here's what I've come up with. It's all fairly simple, but was fun to make! maintheme_final.bas.bin This one's fairly active, and I can imagine using it for a title screen, boss fight, or something similar. newtheme2_final.bas.bin This one's probably my favorite so far. To me, it suggests caves, spooky mansions, or something underground. Would be good for anything that involves the player sneaking around, or some kind of suspense. airthemenew_final.bas.bin I asked my girlfriend for a cue, and she suggested "something in the clouds". This is the result. underwater_final.bas.bin And here's the underwater scene. Ideally, the arpeggiated pattern would happen a couple times on its own before the other part comes in, but I'm not that sophisticated a programmer yet! melody2_final.bas.bin This was the first one I wrote, and could be used for an invincibility theme or something similar. Big thanks to the folks behind Batari Basic, the tutorials, and especially to Kisrael for the "do re bB" guide found here -- I made heavy use of the JoustPong code linked there, in putting together my little tunes. If anyone actually wants to use any of these (!?), let me know! (Pardon the not-always-perfectly-descriptive attachment titles, by the way.)

I've asked this before, but has anyone disassembled this game? It'd be interesting to find out if there's anything there (i.e. an unreachable ending). If there isn't, it'd be a terrific "hack" project to code in a little ending of some sort to give closure to the game. I really like Superkicks -- the double-ender with Artillery Duel is one of my favorite Atari carts, actually -- but to have it just end with a whimper like that is seriously disappointing!

Wow, this game has really come along, and is shaping up to be a classic Atari party game, with a very good AI for one-player mode. I do find myself wishing that the bees were slightly more responsive -- I can't put my finger on what it is, but I think it's that there's just a little bit too much inertia when you start moving. But overall, it's really terrific, and the variation you've put in on the judge's serve is really crucial. Also the behavior of the net is great -- in particular the way a badly placed spike can fly into the air and go out-of-bounds on the opponent's side. I will say that I can do pretty well against the computer by staying in one spot, more or less, and spiking the ball repeatedly after I bounce it once. You could vary the judge's initial serve a little bit more, though it's not crucial.

Of these, momentum and two-hit limit both seem like great ideas to me. I also think that a little something more in the environment would be a great idea, whether it be speed-up power-ups, or something else. Actually, I like the idea of having something that punishes a player for holding onto the ball for too long -- maybe something that starts to interfere with your ability to control your player, like a blast of wind. Right now it's a bit reminiscent of a penalty-kick shootout, in that the player with the ball has an infinite amount of time to set up his/her shot; it might be nice to change that a bit.

The jazz one (more like boogie-woogie one!) is fun, but it changes a lot of notes in the original melody, which is a shame and kind of distracting. Maybe use the melody from the original version with the "jazz" accompaniment? Of course all this assumes that the necessary pitches can be obtained from the Atari's sound chip -- a major assumption to say the least!... EDIT: Whoa, I just listened to Nathan Strum's bee_loop.mp3 -- that's fabulous, especially getting the melody so in tune! Can that be used for the title screen, maybe with the jazz accompaniment instead (i.e. first eight pitches in the jazz MIDI file)?

Hmmm, still no luck. Everything seems to be set up properly -- I'm able to play Loony Balloon, Freedom Fighters, et al. with no problems. Maybe I have a bad dump, or it's just not properly emulated in (the Mac OS X version of) O2EM? EDIT: Ah, it was a left joystick/right joystick issue. Unfortunately, O2EM has no keyboard config window that I've found, leaving the user no way of finding out what the Player 2 keys are! I had to plug in a USB gamepad and map all the Player 2 functions to get things to work.

A bit OT, but: The discussion of this game made me curious, so I found a ROM for this, and an Odyssey2 emulator (O2EM for OS X), but...I don't seem to be able to get anything to happen. So, for those who know O2EM -- should I be able to move Pete with the arrow keys? What am I doing wrong? This is my first foray into Odyssey2 gaming, actually...it seems like exactly what I'd always read, limited graphics but lots of sprites and a unique flavor all its own. Having tried a few games, I'm getting very mixed results with O2EM -- in about half the games I've tried, I don't seem to be able to move my character at all...

Atari 2600: Artillery Duel/Chuck Norris Superkicks, Circus Atari, California Games, Crystal Castles, Go Fish, Hunchy II, Pitfall, Man Goes Down, Strat-O-Gems Deluxe, Thrust+ Coco: Caladuril: Flame of Light, Calixto Island, Canyon Climber, Downland, Dungeons of Daggorath, Phantom Stalker SNES: Chrono Trigger, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Lost Vikings, Mortal Kombat II, Out of This World, Secret of Mana, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Metroid

Tangentially, did Grand Theftendo ever get finished, or did a playable ROM get released at least?

It's funny, I got back on Atariage today for the first time in weeks, and the first thing I thought about was MGD, so it was a surprise to see that it was at the top of the homebrew forum. Alas, I was hoping that Alex was feeling great, and that the game was being completed... So is there any more, er, specific word on Alex's health? Is he still suffering from aftereffects from his (IIRC) cerebral hemorrhage? It's such a good game, and so close to being done -- if his health doesn't permit him to work on it, perhaps a strong programmer could help him to finish it up (with Alex's instructions and supervision).

You should totally use Unhatched Chicks. That'd map on very well to the 2600's sound capabilities.

I think I found a bug: after I beat the final (black) level and the celebration screen appears, if I hit the fire button, I begin a new game in which my sub forms inside a wall, causing me to lose three consecutive subs and get a "game over". This is in Stella 2.2 on Mac OS X 10.4.8, for what it's worth. Fun game, a bit on the easy side IMHO, but definitely a good candidate for kids and inexperienced gamers.

Ah, there was a line in the instructions that tricked me into thinking I needed to download XCode. Phew. The good news is, MESS seems to work nicely!

Ummm, when I sent him my message, I gave him a link to this thread (as an example of a game that's unusable without a working Button II). I don't know if you want to edit your above post in light of that, but if so, now's the time, I guess! I just tried downloading the latest MESS, but man, I'm confused. I have to download XCode to use it? A ~1 GB download that requires me to register with Apple? And that on top of 2-3 other downloads? I miss the days of one-stop, all-purpose apps...

This game looks like fun. It's unplayable in Mugrat right now because of the non-working button II issue (as are many CV games), but I've dropped R.B. an email about that -- fingers crossed!

Girl's Garden seems like a perfect choice -- anytime there's a title unique to a particular platform, it's great to see it on other platforms.

Hey, this is great! Thanks for putting the "hi-hat" sound in. One last suggestion: what if, when you reached 400 points, every other hi-hat was replaced with a snare drum-like sound? That would turn it into a full-fledged beat pattern, and really reinforce the idea that once you've passed 400 points, you've reached the ultimate level.

Do these techniques allow for any use of noise-channel "drum" effects?

Simone, the game's a lot of fun. Well done. Have you given any consideration to adding just a little drum effect to the music, once you get past 400 (or 500, or 600) points? It would really be a nice touch, I think -- just that little extra "push" to give it a sense of urgency.