thegoldenband

I tried firing it up in Stella 2.0.1 and 2.1 for OS X, and couldn't get past the title screen -- reset, select, the fire button, etc. didn't seem to do anything. I know I should download the newest version of Stella; otherwise, am I missing something?

Very nice! Even though I never owned a Colecovision as a kid (strictly Atari 2600/5200 for consoles at my house), I've really been enjoying following your progress with this project. Out of curiosity: I know the CV uses the Texas Instruments SN76489A -- same chip as the SMS, Game Gear, et al. -- and that it has 3 square wave channels + 1 noise channel. Can it reproduce pretty much the full gamut of tempered pitches (i.e. all the notes on the piano, in tune)? I ask because I know that on the Atari 2600 (for example), its sound hardware is so idiosyncratic that it would be very difficult for a composer and programmer to collaborate on game music. But listening to the tunes you took from the "musicbox demo", and looking at the CV's tech specs, I found myself thinking, "Hey, I could write music for this system!" -- and that my MIDI files (or whatever I might send) could be comfortably rendered, so long as I kept strictly to no more than 3 voices + "percussion" (i.e. noise channel clicks and rumbles) at any one time... Or are there technical hurdles I'm overlooking?

Isn't there a Japanese NES golf game called "Birdy Rush" or something like that? (Unless it was released stateside under a different title?)

Quick question: I'm using Stella 1.2 on Mac OS 9, and on levels 4 and 10 of Hunchy II (NTSC version), the missiles blend in with the playfield to the point where they become very difficult to see. (Both are dark blue -- like the guards -- with a *slight* difference in, um, luminosity, or K, or something like that.) Is this an emulator anomaly, or does it play this way on real hardware and/or in other emulators (Z26, etc.)? I can imagine it being part of the challenge, but it makes level 10 a real bear -- easily the hardest in the game, at least for me -- simply because I can't see what's going on. (In a day or two, I'll have a new Powerbook and will try it in Stella 2.0 on OS X...) In any event, this is a fantastic little game, easily one of the most fun homebrews I've played, and quite addictive! If it ever gets expanded to 8k, I'd love to see more levels...a password system...and perhaps even a boss fight?

I've been firing up the ol' TRS-80 Model III/IV emulator lately and playing an RPG I used to enjoy as a kid, "Quest for the Key of Night Shade" (aka Nightshade): http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-1m.htm (scroll down a bit) It's a fairly simple/primitive game, but one that has a few nice touches and distinctive elements...and more than a few rough edges, including a ridiculous difficulty curve. Anyway, it occurred to me the other day that it'd make for a great port to an Atari console system. It'd probably be too ambitious for the 2600 [1], both on account of RAM requirements and control issues (numerical entry), but it'd be absolutely perfect for the 5200. The game is written in BASIC, so the inner workings are quite transparent -- so much so that even I can understand them. (i.e. hit the BREAK key, type "G = 500000", type "CONT", and voila, a whole lot more gold! ) It'd also be pretty easy for an ambitious coder to both polish up the game's rough edges, and to possibly add some new features (experience points/leveling up, more monsters, a fancier ending, and so on). And the 5200 controllers would be perfect for the numerical entry that the game requires ("How many water units would you like to buy?"). So, any interest? [1] (though I could be wrong: perhaps the 2600 could handle it!) [EDIT: Here are some screenshots to give you an idea of the flavor of the game. The first one is simply walking around, the second is a town menu, and the third is the start of a battle.]

Your post piqued my interest, so I did a quick Google search and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minus_world The David Victor Gehrke claim is interesting -- Wikipedia says it's bogus, but I found a page on answers.com that seemed to give it more credence. It certainly makes sense that there'd be a way to glitch out of it somehow...

This cart always seemed like it was meant to have an ending. Digital Press points out: However, other sources (including the game's manual) seem to make it pretty clear that there isn't one. I don't remember whether I ever defeated those last three bad guys...but I certainly would've been disappointed if I had done so, and then had nothing to do but sit around and wait for the game's clock to run out! So, has anyone disassembled this cart to see whether anything might be in there to suggest that an ending was intended? (Perhaps it's in there but unreachable due to a bug?) Or: has anyone considered hacking in a decent ending? (I'd do it if I had the skills, but...)

That of course should be green and golden.

Well, I got a new high score...of 326!! But what (to my mind) is even cooler: when my man finally perished, he did it by running into the edge of the game's universe! After I got past the 211 mark, I was mentally counting the number of stop signs I'd gotten, concerned that if I rolled it past 99, the game might crash or otherwise throw up a glitch. After my 55th stop sign, the 56th one was within reach (i.e. not over a gap), but too far away to grab in time. So I skated on, and almost immediately, the blue section ended, giving way to a grey area whose only feature was an impassable wall of yellow and golden light! I assume this is a hard-coded barrier to, as AlexH said earlier, keep one from getting into game data -- but I guess it doesn't appear until you've been in the blue area for a while, and then miss a stop sign. Anyway, pretty cool! I only grabbed a screenshot of the "light wall" once it'd already scrolled to the top of the screen, but here it is, along with my final score:

Really? Weird -- I'm quite sure that every time I've gotten a stop sign, they've kept appearing continuously until I miss one. Are you sure we're playing the same version? I think mine is the most recent one, as far as I know... (Now that I think about it, it is odd that my item patterns have become so consistent -- I haven't seen a bubble in quite a while, for instance. I wonder if it's something about my particular style of play, maybe? That seems unlikely, though.) By the way, the closest I've come to matching my record of 211 was a score of 190 a couple days ago. It's looking more and more like I just had a streak of really great luck -- but hey, I'll take it! [/i]

I should've been clearer about this -- in other words, an item that oscillates between different choices before you pick it up, so that if your timing is right, you can choose which one you'd like to have.

This game is so much fun -- I have to make myself set it aside, lest I fail to write the paper I have to get done by Monday! I haven't gotten anywhere close to my 211 score lately, though I did manage 153 just now (clocking up 16 "stop signs"). Typically, I'll get into the blue zone after the sequence helicopter -> helicopter -> skateboard, without missing any fruits. (Sometimes it's gravity -> helicopter -> skateboard, which is much trickier.) I'll collect my third fruit right before or after the blue zone, and then if luck permits, I'll grab the fourth fruit, and then about 75% of the time, the item will be a stop sign. (If it's not -- the alternative is typically a second skateboard, though I've seen a bubble come up -- you're pretty much out of luck.) From that point on, it's just a matter of waiting as long as possible to commit your guy in any way, so that wherever the stop sign may appear, you give him as much opportunity as possible to grab it. No matter how skillfully you play, though, it'll eventually appear in a place that's simply impossible to reach, and you'll have to start from scratch again. After that -- unless you have a stroke of extraordinary luck with both fruit and gap placement -- it's just a matter of time before your man meets an untimely end. It must be kind of a bittersweet feeling for the developer to have written such a fantastic 2600 game now, in 2004 -- in the sense that, if this had come out 20-22 years ago, I think that (given the right marketing and a little luck) it would've sold thousands upon thousands of copies. It's that good! I hope it gets completed soon. Other than the blue zone fix, about the only gameplay issue right now is that the gravity item is frustratingly unhelpful, so that if you get it instead of the helicopter, it's tempting to just reset the game. One thought: what if you had an item that oscillated between two items -- say, gravity, and the bubble? If the game's early stages were prolonged, both items could become more useful. I'm trying to imagine other possible items. The obvious candidates would be something that would permit the man to pass through floors (teleport, bomb/mine, jackhammer) or, maybe, to wrap around horizontally (which could add an interesting strategic twist). But the game is so delicately balanced right now, I wouldn't want to upset that!

A new high score of 211! Dare I hope that I might be the current "Man Goes Down" World Record-Holder? (I'd been looking for an excuse to bump this thread, in hopes that some new development might've taken place... So, a skateboard, a run of good luck, and voila! I think I could've taken it farther if I'd been more patient/less tired...)

I finally sat down and beat* the game. Nice ending screen! I still haven't found that hidden level, though. Anyone want to give me a subtle hint as to where I should look? *(though I should admit to having availed myself of the pass-through-walls trick, so technically...)

Hi, Robert, Thanks for replying! Excellent. I think it'll be a real help! If you do a swap (rather than a substitution), I might suggest swapping with level 2 or 3, since the action gets pretty fast by level 4-5. By the way, since I wrote last, I've found one more bug, though it's tricky to pin down. In certain circumstances, the collision detection with enemies seems overeager by a pixel or two -- in other words, my character dies even though the enemy is clearly at least 1-2 pixels away or so. This seems to happen when my character's weapon is pointed at the enemy, as if the weapon extends the available contact area for a hit. I know it's happened with the knife; I'm not sure if it's happened with the gun. And it applies as much to the moving barriers as to the other enemies. I know this is a bit vague, but it's a frustrating (if occasional) bug and it'd be nice to pin it down. Oh, and one more: sometimes the dot that represents my character's weapon briefly moves to a point about twice as far away as usual, for no apparent reason (and no, I'm not firing my weapon at the time! ). It only lasts for a second, if that, and it seems to be a purely graphical glitch with no ill effects, but I thought I'd mention it just in case it was relevant. Again, all this is under Stella 1.2 on a Mac, so of course one can't rule out emulator weirdness (though Stella is usually pretty solid). You're very welcome!

You're very welcome! Stella generally performs very well on these older Macs, though once in a while you'll need to fiddle a bit to get a full 60fps. (I've noticed it tends to run better under OS 8.6, for what it's worth -- "better" in that if I turn off the speed limiter, I get much faster values in 8.6 than I do in 9.2.)

Better yet, go straight here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/stella/...ac.sit?download

Go to http://emulation.net/atari2600/ and you should be all set. I'm running Stella 1.2 under Mac OS 9.2.1 with no problems.

I got the bubble! I couldn't really tell what it does, though -- it seemed to slow me down and slow down my character's descent, neither of which is that desirable (especially at later stages). But my game didn't crash or anything. Here's a screenshot of the end:

I was playing today and grabbed the bubble, and the game didn't crash! A bubble formed around my character, but unfortunately it "popped" on the edge of a platform before I got the chance to see what it would do. This was the first time I'd ever seen the bubble, so... By the way, what does the exclamation mark item do? Anything yet? And is the select cheat still working in this version? It doesn't seem to do anything on my system (Mac OS 9.2.1, Stella 1.2).

This game is terrific, and just as addictive as everyone's claiming! I'm looking forward very much to the next update. Here's my high score at the moment:

This game looks and plays very well -- you've done a great job, and it plays very nicely in emulation (Stella 1.2 on Mac OS 9.1). There were a couple small issues I noticed: -- Once or twice I've seen a bug crop up where a bullet gets "stuck" against a wall, staying there for 1-2 seconds until it times out. This has come in handy at least once when an enemy walked into the stuck bullet but it's probably better fixed if possible. -- Some of the entrances and exits to rooms are very narrow -- exactly the same width as your character, if I'm not mistaken -- and it's a little frustrating to be on the verge of completing a level, only to get hung up on a corner and killed by the SS man. (I guess one could argue this is part of the challenge, but the net effect is that it feels more like a play control issue.) Could the exits be widened by a pixel or two? Or, alternatively, you could change the collision detection system so that (for instance) if you're pressing Up+Right next to an object, and you can't move any further up, you keep moving right, rather than just getting stuck. (Did I express that clearly? In other words, it'd be allowing lateral motion when pressing against an object.) -- Currently, when you shoot an enemy, if you shoot it again before the death animation finishes, it "dies again". This is normally not a problem, but when you've got two enemies in a row, and you're trying to shoot the one behind the one you just killed, it's a little frustrating to waste a shot. Any chance of fixing this? -- Finally, on my system at least, the first level is very dark -- it's hard to see much of anything, and at first I had a hard time seeing where my character was. Perhaps you might consider a palette swap with a different level, so that people have time to get used to the mechanics of the game before having to deal with a dark palette? (Perhaps it's less dark on a real 2600, or on a PC...) Anyway, as I said before, terrific job!