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calamari

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Posts posted by calamari

  6. Posted

    Gameplay is a round "pie" border in which the ball bounces. At 12 o'clock there is a section of pie missing over which the paddle moves to contain the bouncing, ricocheting ball. As gameplay progresses, sections of the pie disappear

     

    Sounds cool.. I dunno if I will be able to pull it off or not, unless I do it in playfield resolution.

     

    Small progress report.. the ball starts in the middle now and travels toward player 1 (to stick to the paddle), however in certain positions, the ball misses the paddle :!: so I need to fine tune it a little. After I can get it to hit reliably then I will work on the code to have the ball travel with the paddle. After I get that, then I will add the ability to serve the ball then add some sounds too :D

     

    Has anyone had the chance to try the new version of the controls on the 2600? I'm wondering if it handles any better.

     

    Thanks,

    calamari

  7. Posted

    I've released 5200BAS version 1.80. Here are the new features:

     

    Version 1.80, 12Jul2002

    * Modified y2k title screen code to include Dennis Debro's update

    * Added SOUND statement

    * Added /M command line switch for mono debug output

     

    I was going to add extra code for missiles, but decided to get this out early due to a request.

     

    calamari

  8. Posted

    Here's a slighly more ROM efficient version of the beginning of DEBRO's code.. The original was fine, but I've been doing too much 2600 coding lately, so the replacement version saves 2 instructions (or 5 bytes) :roll:

     

    DEBRO's original code (above):

       lda $FD32 

  cmp #INXINSTRUCTION ; if there is no inx instruction here then this is a 

  bne TwoPortSystem   ; 2-port system 

   

FourPortSystem 

  lda #COPYLOCATION4PORTLOW 

  sta tempLow 

  jmp CopyBIOSLoop1 

 

TwoPortSystem 

 lda #COPYLOCATION2PORTLOW 

 sta tempLow

     

    My modified code:

            lda     #COPYLOCATION2PORTLOW;Assume 2 port system

       ldx     $FD32

       cpx     #INXINSTRUCTION      ;Is this a 4 port?

       bne     NotFourPort          ;Jump if not

       lda     #COPYLOCATION4PORTLOW;Yes, 4 port system

NotFourPort

       sta     tempLow

     

    One weird thing is that the original version of the y2k fix that I got way back when seemed to work fine on a real 2 port (and on the emulator).. but these new ones work too, so it's cool :)

     

    Thanks DEBRO for making the fix!

    calamari

  10. Posted

    I plan on having a label contest sometime in the future (with Albert/Alex's permission), but I'm terrible at finishing these kinds of projects on any kind of a schedule, so I'd like to hold off on it for now. I'd hate for you to go thru all that work until I am mostly done with the cart.

     

    If you are interested in jotting down ideas, that's cool! I would like to mention one design detail: Stay away from using "Atari" graphics, fonts, or metallic colors.

     

    Thanks!

    calamari

  12. Posted

    Then be excited. Cuttle Cart and (PAL) 2600 Jnr. Real paddles (bit twitchy though).

     

    WOO HOO! :grin: And it works on PAL too? I wonder how that happened. I didn't put any PAL code in there that I know of. :ponder:

     

    As for the ranges, they're good, but it's sometimes hard to stop in exactly the right place. I'm suggesting that when you hold down the fire button it moves at the same (low) rate regardless of what range it's in.

     

    That's a good idea and shouldn't be hard for me to implement.

     

    It feels like I'm driving an old GM car from the late 70s

     

    LOL.. Are you sure that the control is lagging behind the paddle turn? Some other possibilities: is it getting to a fast speed too slowly? do you have to turn the paddle too far for it to start moving? The player positions are updated every frame, so that SHOULD be 1/60th of a second response time with no noticeable lag. Maybe I can get away with a smaller dead zone and faster initial movement after adding the button to slow down.

     

    Thanks to you both for your testing! :love:

    calamari

  13. Posted

    I had a play of the 2600 game last night. The controls are... interesting.

     

    Was this with the 2600 or an emualtor? If it played at all on the real thing I'll be excited :)

     

    My paddle reading routine returned values from 1 to 85 (in the emulator). Here is how I divided up the values:

     

    1-5: -4

    5-10: -3

    10-20: -2

    20-35:-1

    35-50: 0 (don't move)

    50-65: +1

    65-75: +2

    75-80: +3

    80-85: +4

     

    So the size of the ranges are: 5, 5, 10, 15, <15> 15, 10, 5, 5

    This was just something I threw together. If anyone has suggestions on tweaking these ranges please let me know.

     

    calamari

  14. Posted

    Sorry about that filename :ponder: , I'll try to fix that tonight so it's easier to download.

     

    That Rounders game looks interesting. I was thinking about what I could do for game variations: solo (practice) mode, vs. computer (maybe), different serves (stuck to paddle or out of nowhere like regular pong), keep away (keeps score per hit), etc, and I thought about blocks, but I wasn't sure how much was wanted. It would be pretty easy to add some different playfield layouts, though. If you have some ideas on variations let me know and I'll consider them.. but I've only been programming the 2600 for a little over a week, so I might not be able to do everything yet :).

     

    I'd heard about The Core from the Stella list, but I've never played it before.

     

    I'm not sure when the game will be done.. I want to make sure I'm still working on my 5200 Solitaire game and working on school too (I had a nice break over the 4th of July weekend, but I need to focus again). As far as where, when I get ready to release the game it will probably be either through Hozer, or I could build the games myself with parts from Joe. The ROM & source will continue to be freely available in the spirit of the original game.

     

    My next challenges are having te ball stick to a paddle so it can be served, and I need to add detection for the left & right edges of the screen to know the ball went out (right now it only detects the top or bottom). After those are in place then the original game will be pretty much complete and we can have fun adding game variations :D.

     

    calamari

  16. Posted

    I posted the Radical pong game i found on the internet awhile ago

     

    Yep, you sure did!.. It was you and Skatepunk60 who motivated me to try making it as a 2600 game. Thanks, because I'm having a lot of fun writing it!

     

    calamari

  17. Posted

    That would be difficult for me to do (I don't own a set of driving controllers. I'm curious tho, can they handle different speeds or is it an on & off deal? Being able to control the speed of rotation is an important part of the game.

     

    Right now the game is set up for a standard joystick, but everyone I've talked to on the Stella list wants it to be a paddle game, and after playing with the joystick a while I see their point. Of course, one problem with paddles is that you can't keep twisting forever. But I may have a way around that (haven't tested it for sure though). I could set an artificial midpoint for the paddle, anything clockwise/counter-clockwise of that point sends the paddle in that direction. Speed would be determined by how far off center it was twisted. I'll experiment with it and when I find something halfway useable I'll put it up for comments :)

     

    Thanks,

    calamari

     

    p.s. For those curious, I am still making 5200 Calamari's Solitaire too.

  19. Posted

    Hi,

     

    Does anyone know where I can find a simple source for moving around a ball or missile on the screen? The Dig has lots of great stuff, but so far the examples have all been a little too complex for me when it comes to p/m graphics. The playfield stuff has ssome great examples (starting from simple to complex), but the p/m stuff is crazy where there are tons of sprites all on the screen at one time, bouncing around, etc :) If there is one on the The Dig, the name of the program would be great.

     

    Thanks,

    calamari

  22. Posted

    The 5200 Trak-Ball is analog AND is implemented just like a normal joystick. The only difference is that the trakball has a much smaller range of motion, so its motion is thrown out as noise in a normal joystick routine.

     

    To implement the trakball you'll need to write a routine that assumes at first that a Trak-Ball is attached (with its narrow range), and controls the game that way. But it should continually check for an out of Trak-ball range value.. if it sees one it should switch over to joystick mode and stay in that mode.

     

    I was working on a continously adaptive routine.. but it was too much work.. this method should be much easier :)

     

    Hope this helps,

    calamari

  24. Posted

    OOPS! I should have posted something a few days ago. He actually e-mailed me asking about the 5200 equates file I had on my web page :) So, I am the mysterious one with the technical documentation. Pretty cool, but when I asked questions he just referred me to his webpage.

     

    calamari

  25. Posted

    I've released 5200BAS version 1.70. :music: Here are the new features:

     

    Version 1.70, 28Jun2002

    * Added DASM assembler output support

    * Fix: Checks any given numbers to make sure they are in range

    * Added ++ and -- operators for add with carry/subtract with carry

    * Added y2k compliant title screen and AUTHOR command

    * Note: Moved default display list location from $BFC7 to $BFB4

     

    One thing I should mention on the DASM support. DASM doesn't seem to like it when ORG's are out of numerical order. I'm not sure of a workaround except reorganizing the basic or assembled code.

     

    calamari

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