Ben_Larson

Do not believe the lies. Verily I say unto you that Hardwork will return one day for his faithful with a golden KR2600 cartridge in his hand...

There are a few 2600 games that don't work on certain 7800s but DK is not one of them AFAIK. Maybe it's a cartridge-slot fit issue?

Splatform is 1K and incredibly addictive IMO. It was originally for the C64 but Thomas Jentzsch ported it to the Atari 2600 and it's on the 'Swoops' cartridge: http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=2727

Well, I don't want to put anyone on the hook for this if it doesn't happen, so to protect people's identities, let's just say that I think a certain website admin may be making cartridges as we speak for a certain expo that shall remain nameless...

I'll third the machine language for beginners book. It is definitely next to impossible to program in assembly language if you don't understand binary representation, binary math, hexidecimal notation, etc. but that book should point you in the right direction.

I speak of the epic post-apocalpytic-RPG and fan-made-sequel to Accolade's 1994 magnum opus 'Barkley Shut Up and Jam'... Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa I just started playing it myself, and it actually seems pretty good...

You have to remember: A) those games were largely designed for kids, B) NES games back in the day were expensive, and C) most kids have a lot of free time. Hence, if the game was too easy, kids would have beat it too fast, and then the parents would have been pissed off that they just plunked down booku bucks for a game that their kid beat in like 3 days. That's my theory, at least.

For me it was: Aladdin's Castle, Eastland Mall, Columbus, Ohio (long gone - mall's still there, though) Bally's, Hamilton Rd., Columbus, Ohio (long gone) Malibu Gran Prix, Columbus, Ohio (it's now a day care center I think?) I also used to ride my bike over to the local strip mall that had some assorted games. There was a drugstore there called Dane Drugs that had Dragon's Lair, Wizard of Wor, and Gauntlet 2; a TG&Y next door that had Ikari Warriors and Demolition Derby; and a pizzeria (which is still there) that had Joust. I'd usually play some of those games (or watch people play them) and buy some Garbage Pail Kids and junkfood with my allowance. Those were the days...

Yea I know it doesn't make much sense. I'm not sure there's a consistent way to do pits on the horizontal parts and also do vertically oriented screens, though. If you allow falling off the screen, then you have to make separate screens for each pit on the horizontal parts and just watch your guy fall to his death each time, which I thought would be very aggravating for people. I mean, we all know watching your player fall in a pit over and over has already been done on Atari and no one liked it (*cough*, E.T ). Alternatively, you could just make the player die instantly when falling in a pit on the horizontal part, but then it's kind of inconsistent. My final rationale for doing it like I did was "well, you die on the vertical boards in Contra when you fall off the bottom of the screen... so if they did it then I can do it"

Ok, here's a new binary. This one is semi-playable, although I've removed the orange key to prevent proceeding to certain currently unimplemented areas. There's no enemies, no save points yet, and no 'lives' yet (you just get infinite), but there are a couple of keys and other assorted things to find. Also (this is important): there are some secret passages which look just like walls. You've been warned! Feel free to play it around, give feedback, see what you can find, etc. Lastly please try not to give away game spoilers in the thread... Thanks, Ben pp.bin

FYI: In case anyone was wondering ( or cares ), I am still working on this. Been adding content, mostly. I did implement my own little Java editing app a while back which is indeed proving invaluable in doing the screens. Attached is a screenshot of the editing program (with the rest of the development related stuff open too). I'm up to 48 screens thus far, out of I think 122. Hopefully another binary will be forthcoming soon but I want to get a few things done first so that it's at least a semi-playable experience... Ben

Well here's one idea: limit yourself to 256/6 = 42 playfield 'pieces'. Then they'll all fit in one page and you won't need to use indirect Y addressing for the PF - you can just use absolute X or absolute Y. You'll also use up half as much RAM. Otherwise I think you're stuck using indirect Y...

Incoming is 3410. Another interesting question might be how many lines of Atari 2600 code someone can write and debug per hour. Then we'd have some kind of idea of exactly how long it takes to write a homebrew.

Looks really cool. I love the premise of the game too. Yea I know what you mean - it's hard to stay motivated. But there's no real rush either...

Sonic tapping his foot, then lying down, then falling asleep if you stopped controlling him always amused me on the Genesis. And speaking of breaking the 4th wall, I also liked how in TMNT: the arcade game, your character could get thrown up against the 'camera' and break the glass.

Very true. First, the physics is somewhat difficult, especially if you've never done anything with newtonian physics (i.e. vectors and stuff). What I think is really a b*tch, though, is doing the platformer software collision detection and player position collision adjustments - all kinds of irritating 'gotchas' start popping up.

Well said. I should point out that back in the day kids did not wear bike helmets (you would have been laughed at and called a retard) and I walked and rode my bike over to my friends' houses and to the store all the time. Nowadays I think most parents are too scared to even let their children go out of their sight. And I don't think it's really any less safe nowadays, it's just too much moral panic and fear that has gotten rooted into people's minds. I blame the media for this somewhat, but also I think in a twisted way some people want to be afraid because it gives their lives some sense of drama...

I can somewhat relate being 31. I've read the biography of Steve Wozniak and stories about the early days at Atari, as a computer programmer, I feel incredibly jealous at having missed out on the 'computer revolution' of the mid-late 70s. As a kid, though, I did at least get to experience the arcades in the mid-late-80s before they all went extinct. That was the best thing ever back in the day - going to the arcade with my friends and $5 and just seeing how long I could stretch it. Or even just riding my bike over to the local drugstore - I remember the one down the street from me had Gauntlet 2, Dragon's Lair, and Wizard of Wor. Next door they had Ikari Warriors, Demolition Derby, and one other I forget. Alas those days are long gone. Even Gameworks or Dave and Busters is kind of a poor substitute nowadays I think.

The whole legal system in this country is corrupt if you ask me. Not in the sense of taking bribes or anything like that, but simply because there are so many unjust laws that are passed by either fear-mongering-legislators or by corporate-lobbyist-friendly-legislators. The end result is absurd prosecutions like this one. Common-sense jurisprudence goes out the window. I guess all you can do is stay informed and vote though.

(double post, see below)

10 years is probably just the maximum sentence possible, ever, as defined by the statute. Federal sentencing guidelines define what Federal judges actually hand down, and it's almost always far less. Still it's obviously a stupid and unjust law.

I had a GPS receiver that I dropped in a river - completely submerged. It seemed dead, but about 6 months later I powered it on and it worked fine. Well, except a couple of lines on the LCD were out. One of my friends claimed that he washed his computer keyboard and then it dried out and used it without problems. So long story short, yes it may be salvagable if it's dried out thoroughly. Maybe putting some desiccants on it would help?

I don't think you can convert an NTSC Atari to PAL. They run at different clock speeds and have different TIA chips, so you would need to alter the hardware. If your television supports PAL (I think many new ones sold in North America do, but I may be mistaken), you can play PAL games on an NTSC console - the colors will just be wrong.

That was due in no small part to the hardware design that offloaded a lot of the work that would normally be done in the hardware, to the software. IMO that contributed a huge amount to it's longevity...

I also put a post on my Facebook page mentioning Rob's lawsuit. Sadly, I think a lot of people in the software industry don't have much respect for the old timers. A lot of young programmers today have actually never done any real-world low-level programming, so they have no idea how difficult it is or how much more involved it is compared to what they're used to. Or, alternatively, maybe they do realize it and just have some kind of inferiority complex...I don't know.