Dionoid

I never thought about a sequal, as I'm pretty happy with how the game turned out within the 4K limit (IIRC I had only 7 or 8 bytes left). Knowing the list of other game ideas I have, I'd say the chances are very slim. But you never know 🙂

Wow, firmware v1.0.0 looks really good. Lots of extra options. Thanks!!

Someone on Facebook mentioned buying a pre-loaded Retron77 SD card from emustation.store for $19.95, containing a recent version of Stella, every commercial game ever released and also a list of homebrew games. Selling a $4 micro-SD card for $19.95 by copying Stella and a large amount of ROMs onto it, for which you clearly don't hold rights... That's not legal, right?

Was that ever confirmed? I use early HMOVEs on cycle 73 all the time, and never experienced issues on any of my late PAL 2600 Jr. consoles or PAL 7800's. I think a lot of other homebrews also use early HMOVEs.

I'm using 41% phosphor - that is the closest I could drag the slider in Stella to 40% 🙂

Alternatively, you could define this data in 6502 assembly, and call it from C/ARM directly. I store all my CDFJ data in assembly banks, as I found C arrays use overhead-bytes in ROM. Also, as you're only using 20 bits per line, you don't need the full 32 bits of int.

To run 'Last Squadron' in the Altirra emulator, you'll need this patched version: https://atariage.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=785185

Good review. I agree with most of your feedback, although actually over 90% of the classic cartridges are supported (see this sheet). To me, the cartridge slot on the Retron77 is just a nice little gimmick; I use my Retron77 mainly as 'Stella Box'. That is indeed the main design flaw. What they should have done: Either: included a long, 20-feet HDMI cable (+ keep the joystick cables short), so you mimic the original way of playing: which is to have the console within reach - so you can push buttons and switch games easily - and use a long cable to allow having your TV at a distance. Or: keep the long joystick cables, but add a special 'menu' button to the joystick, which would pop up the Stella menu. (or even better: a wireless controller!) And the "Trooper" has become my favorite joystick, which I mainly use on my real Atari 2600. IMO they are solidly built, ergonomic, and don't make noise (e.g. clicking sounds).

I missed that the frequency wasn't at 60Hz; I fixed that and updated the ROMs. However I don't see why that would give a pulse on a CRT every second?

Great to see Amoeba Jump doing well in the PlusROM high score club! However I'm not planning to create a PlusROM version for Tower of Rubble - at least not this year. The game just became available in the AtariAge store, so I'd like Al to have an opportunity to recoup his investments on the printed boxes and manuals.

Great to see the color-blending in action on a real CRT monitor. The colors of the tower blocks are shades of petrol; a color which isn't available in the '2600 default color palette. These 'in-between' colors where generated by alternating the chrominance (color) each scanline, while keeping the same luminance (brightness); a CRT will blend this into a new color.

Hi James, minor detail: the Port-link currently points to the C64 version, but this '2600 version is a port of the original game: https://flatgub.itch.io/tower-of-rubble

Yay, my second '2600 game is released on actual cartridge!! I'm very happy with how this game panned out, also with the amazing label and box artwork by Dave Dries! And many thanks to Al for all the work he has done to bring this game to the AtariAge store. To give people an idea about the final game, I've just uploaded a feature-limited demo ROM to the original post.

Hi, I'm experimenting with flickering sprites on an Atari 2600 + real CRT. I always assumed that -when it comes to flickering objects- it's better to display the object as often as possible to get the least amount of perceived flickering; so e.g. displaying a sprite 2 out of 3 frames (67% visible) is better than displaying it 1 out of 2 frames (50% visible). However, in my perception, a constant flicker-frequency of 30Hz (i.e. showing a sprite every other frame) looks less flickering/annoying compared to showing it 2 out of 3 frames. And showing it 3 out of 4 frames is even worse. Is this just me? Here is a ROM showing 4 sprites. Anyone wants to test this ROM on a real CRT and give me feedback on which of the bottom 3 sprites shows the least flickering? (Note: the top sprite is just for reference, and is not flickering). flicker_test.bin flicker_test_moving.bin [Edit: when moving the object horizontally, the effect is even more noticable]

Hi, I just upgraded to the latest v.0.16.0, and I noticed that the menu items (in PAL) are often shown in a pink font, which makes them hard to read against the blue background. In the Setup screen, the first 4 menu options are white (readable), but the rest is pinkish and hard to read. Is it my TV, or is it a setting I can change myself?

I use Frhed. It is free and has lots of features. However Windows only.

Hi, I was wondering if a Harmony cart has some unique ID or serial code that can be read? Or maybe the ARM7TDMI-S LPC2103 microcontroller has some UUID that can be used for this? I'd want to use this to generate an encrypted string that can only be verified/decrypted on the same Harmony cartridge as it was generated on.

Hi all, at the moment I've got over 20 beta testers (with a Harmony cartridge), which is the about the maximum number of testers I can manage, as I've got to check who is testing what level, look at their feedback, keep track of fixed bugs, etc. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help out (either in a reply to this topic or PM) and sorry in case I couldn't accept your offer. I really appreciate how this community is supporting homebrew game developers! Cheers, Dion

Wow, I didn't expect this many volunteers! I think I've got enough beta testers for now 🙂 Give me some time to process and respond to the applications (both here and in the PM box). Thanks!!!! Dion

Hi, I'm looking for volunteers who would like to beta test a new Atari 2600 game which I'm working on. I cannot provide details about the game here, but it's an action-puzzle style game (think Boulder Dash, Lode Runner, Sokoban, Lemmings, etc.) The game engine itself is pretty stable, but most of the levels are untested. That's where you come in 🙂 What you'll need: Some free time. Preferably a Harmony cart for testing on an actual Atari 2600 or Atari 7800. Being persistent in learning game rules and solving puzzles. What you'll get: Access to a private AtariAge club with early, pre-release ROMs of the game. The joy of participating on a really cool project. A chance to have your feedback actually influence the development of a game (to some extent!). And of course, my eternal gratitude 🙂 If you are interested, just reply to this topic or send me a private message. I'd appreciate if only those seriously interested in actual testing request it. Cheers, Dion

Before I bought my copy from PenguiNet (in May 2020, after I saw the game on the Atari Homebrew Awards), this listing was already on eBay for at least a few months. So it's probably not a scalper.

Does your wifi router supports WPS? In that case you don't need to type in a password at all.

Being able to store the dumped cart-ROM is a really cool feature! Thanks!

On my SCART/Péritel 7800 consoles, I've simply connected the right pads of R32 and R33 to get a better mix of music and sound effects. And I also openend the Rikki & Vikki cartridge and turned the volume knob to max to crank up the music. Works for me.

Hang in there, CPUWIZ! I wish you a fast recovery.