MayDay

March 25, 2005

how about 1 player only and 2-3 fairly simple levels? However, I think this game is only really fun with 2 people, and not being able to do split-screen is what I think would destroy the project. Great game though... maybe we could steal the Barnstorming graphics for when you win!

http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.ht...wareLabelID=976

-JD[/url]

March 25, 2005

Nukey:

Um...
So you are checking to see if the article is real??

I think that what some people are saying here is that sometimes articles are faked.

In which case, it won't make any difference what you find.

What I'm saying is a few things here. First, the article wasn't something thrown together on someone's computer, it's a real document. Secondly, the paper appears to have aged properly with what is standard for newspaper. Lastly, if it were a fake (which it's not) the guy posting it would have needed intimate knowledge of the newspaper business, and especially offset printing-something most newspapers no longer do. Combine that with all the research needed and there is no way this is just a troller/April fooler.

Dolt:

FWIW, it's common for a lot of small/local publications to have people who write and take photos. I do it all the time for the trade magazine I work for.

-^Cro§Bow^-:

In addtion Hawgwild who posts here, was both the article writer and photographer who covered my OKGE event last year for his local paper. So it is very common.

I said it was odd, but not beyond belief. Being a DAILY newspaper, this would lead me to believe that it's not just a local paper with 2-3 people working to publish something once a week. The paper is owned by Gannett (name a newspaper person should recognize, and probably people outside of the industry as well) who generally doesn't purchase "small" newspapers. Even if they only have a staff of like 10, they should still have at least one full time photographer. People who write and shoot their own pictures generally also do things like layout and traffic and sales. I have to admit though, I didn't really take into account it being 1983 at the time, and to be honest don't really know how big it was or the state of the industry (specifically the ownership of the paper) at the time. Was only trying to add more information to the overall picture here.

With that said, I just got off the phone with the publisher who confirmed to me that the story indeed ran on page 1 of the Sunday, Sept. 25 issue. He had offered to fax me the information (which I didn't have access to anyway) but told me that they no longer have any hard copies of it. I was told that the only way to get one was on microfiche from the Alamogordo Library. Their phone number is 505-439-4140. Since I didn't talk to them (the story is hereby confirmed in my opinion) I don't feel too bad giving out their information. He said they could probably mail a copy to anyone who wanted one.

So, if a site administrator would still like his information, I have a name, phone, and e-mail address. The gentleman was very cool, and told me he was part of several internet forums himself. He also mentioned that the landfill closed 12 years ago (1993?) and a new one was opened elsewhere. I still encourage the rest of you NOT to call the newspaper itself.

In the news biz, we're told to have 3 sources before airing something.

1. NY Times article

2. Alamogordo Daily News article

3. dude with too much free time and gas money who went Atari landfill hunting.

I think that's good enough for Dan Rather!

Anyway, congrats to spud for digging this up (nearly literally), and shame on those who said rotten things about him. A little effort before name-calling next time.

-Jason

March 24, 2005

RadioShack has the coaxil adapter for sure, the part number is 278-255B. You need to take this with you, or you'll end up searching through a bunch of drawers full of adapters like I did (great customer service, btw). They ran like $4.50 or so I think. They are also available in the AA store, or were when I was looking for one for $3 (here it is http://www.atariage.com/store/product_info...products_id=42). However, if you're like me and not willing to wait, RadioShack and ONLY RadioShack has them.

-JD

March 24, 2005

I know it didn't show his first name, but I believe that would be one Art Mcquiddy A little more research has yielded a man named Marian E. McQuiddy who worked for the New Mexico Business Journal from at least around 1991 to 1993. More importantly, all of his articles are in reference to Alamogordo, NM. The stories can be found here:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=ar...+E.+McQuiddy%22

Oh, another note, the publisher said he would be happy to fax something if he found anything, but I don't have a fax machine (or care to go through the chain of command at work). I didn't figure a scan of a fax would do anything but encourage the nay-sayers anyway.

That's all... happy hunting everyone!

-JD

March 24, 2005

Yes, I'm guessing the Okies are much closer, and I may indeed go check out their show. However, I was thinking it's a shame we don't have our own little club here in KC, and would have to drive 5 hours to see something. I would also like to get together more than once a year... like first saturday or sunday of every month or something. Glancing through the membership list, I've seen a few KC people, but none that have posted any messages for a long time. Any of ya still out there?

-JD

March 24, 2005

When I first saw the image spud posted from Studio 8, I thought my initial reaction was wrong, because the picture looked like a dead-set effect fake. I used to work in television and still have some decent photo-editing software on hand, so decided to take a look.

My impression of the pictures seemed to be inaccurate, I would say with 99% certainty that the pictures of the articles are real. With the exacting information from the first scan, I realized it wouldn't be that difficult to track the information down. However, I am unable to find any information for M.E. McQuiddy (and found it curious he would be both a reporter and a photographer at a daily newspaper, but not beyond the realm of possibility).

So, I fired up the old horn, and gave the newspaper's publisher a holla. I was told that noone currently working at the paper was working there at the time, and that it was too late in the day to send someone to the archives searching for it. They are going to check for me in the morning, and I am going to call him back after I get off work. If I find the article is indeed genuine, I would be happy to forward the man's information on to an administrator of this site for double verification (I realize I'm still a newbie and that one of them would be much more trusted). However, I would please ask that nobody else call, as they may be a little overwhelmed and/or irritated if 50 people call and ask for the same thing. So, with that, until tomorrow...but know that I believe!

Jason

March 24, 2005

I just spent way too long reading this topic from beginning to end... you have to keep the big pic of Tron Guy on the green 3D grid! Maybe you could put the smaller pixelized sprites next to the name where you have his real pic at now? JMO... as I think the picture is what makes the game fun/funny in the first place. The hack looks very well done too, there is no way I would have ever recognized that game. I'm going to download the bin right now!

-JD

March 24, 2005

I also found it humorous/ironic that his feedback rating is 2600!

March 24, 2005

Rest assured it's nothing to do with secret agents running around electrifying door knobs, stealing plans and running off in an airplane in the hangar. icon_smile.gif

:_( :_( :mad:

I was just thinking the other day... I wonder if spy vs. spy would be possible on Atari... having a two player screen may be a stretch to say the least. Then I saw this thread, and of course had high, high hopes, only to get them dashed. Chopper Command was a pretty cool game by the way, as most Activision games were. Thoughts on the difficulty/ability to port a SvS game anyone?

-JD

March 22, 2005

Just now saw the second response after I posted a reply. What program did you use to do that for him, and where did you find it? If a copy is no longer available, would someone mind sharing the disassembler they have?

Thanks,

Jason

March 22, 2005

I just had it stored in the same folder as dasm. The reason I did this was because I created a new binary file that already had vcs.h included with the .asm file before the binary was created. Just something else I was trying before I decided to post to ask for help.

March 22, 2005

Are there any disassembler programs available? I've found links to a couple on the site... Distella links are broken, and 6502 Disassembler for Atari won't read any of my (working) binaries. Anyone know a new link for Distella or if I need to change something in my binaries to make them work?

It says compatible with windows 95... I get the following error message:

---------------------------

6502 Disassembler for Atari

---------------------------

Error reading file C:DASMDASM22~1DASMBINDOSSOURCE.BIN.

Either the file is corrupted or it is not an Atari binary file

or the file contains more than 256 segments !

---------------------------

OK

---------------------------

I tried taking vcs.h out and posting the variables directly in the .asm file, but this had no effect. Ideas, anyone?

March 22, 2005

Still have mine... just got it repaired a few weeks ago, now that i have some idea how to fix it. Since the button didn't work, I spent $5 to get a six switcher from a garage sale. That console, sadly ended up with all my games in the hands of one of my college roommates and was lost after we both moved a few times. I guess all things are meant to be... cause I'm back to the 4 switcher and life is good! (plus you can get tons of commons from ebay for dirt cheap!).

March 22, 2005

The New York Times article does exist, however it is archived and you have to pay to read it. I found the intro here:

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/119298...arts+Are+Dumped

Here is the relevent information from the free preview:

Atari Parts Are Dumped

New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 28, 1983. pg. D4, 1 pgs

Document types: article

Section: Business Digest

ISSN/ISBN: 03624331

Text Word Count 123

Document URL:

Abstract (Document Summary)

With the video game business gone sour, some manufacturers have been dumping their excess game cartridges on the market at depressed prices. Now Atari Inc., the leading video game manufacturer, has taken dumping one step farther.

But I guess we all know how reliable the Times is now... wonder if the same was true back then?

-Jason

March 19, 2005

I'm in the KC area, a northlander specifically. I work in Merriam, anyone else interested in getting together? We could trade dupes, mess around with code or just play Atari. Getting together like once a month would be kind of cool, me thinks. Feel free to e-mail me at stormwatcher213 at yahoo.com and we could trade info and decide a place to meet. Any takers?

-Jason

March 17, 2005

Congrats to the winners... but just to clarify, are you saying she molests the cats with cigars BEFORE she bottles them? That is one sicko lady! Make your spending cash somewhere else at McDonalds or something, geesh!

March 16, 2005

I think she is an evil lady (especially with that expression!) that steals cats from neighborhood children, puts them in the glass bottles, fills it with formaldehyde from the plastic tube sack/hose above her and ships them out to high school biology classes in the boxes. The razors and scissors are there to help get all the hair off of them, and the papers on the wall behind her are the "production" schedule for bottling kitties!

Someone should really call PETA, animal services, or Bob Barker... *sigh*

March 16, 2005

Okay, it didn't include the attachment for some reason... trying again.

-JD

Apparently, .s files are not supported...though I didn't get that message the first time. I don't have WinZip ready, so I'lll just post the actual code below.

; Dodgeball Playfield Code

; 3/14/05

processor 6502

include "vcs.h"

include "macro.h"

SEG

ORG $F000

Reset

; Clear RAM, TIA registers and Set Stack Pointer to #$FF

SEI

CLD

LDX #$FF

TXS

LDA #0

Clear_Mem

STA 0,X

DEX

BNE Clear_Mem

LDA #$A4 ; Load Color

STA COLUBK ; Set Background Color

LDA #$1F ; Load Color

STA COLUPF ; Set Playfield Color

LDA #%00000001 ; Mirrored Playfield

STA CTRLPF

Start_Frame

; Start VSYNC

LDA #2

STA VSYNC

STA WSYNC

STA WSYNC ; 3 Scanlines of VSYNC

LDA #0

STA VSYNC ; End VSYNC

; 37 Scanlines of Vertical Blank

LDX 37

Vertical_Blank STA WSYNC

DEX

BNE Vertical_Blank

LDA #0

STA VBLANK ; Enable TIA Output

LDX #192 ; 192 Scanlines to Display

Draw_Picture

LDA Screen_PF0-1,X

STA PF0

LDA Screen_PF1-1,X

STA PF1

LDA Screen_PF2-1,X

STA PF2

STA WSYNC

DEX

BNE Draw_Picture

LDA #%01000010 ; Disable VIA Output

STA VBLANK

; 30 overscan lines

LDX #30

Overscan STA WSYNC

DEX

BNE Overscan

JMP Start_Frame ; Build Next Frame

; Mirrored Playfields generated = PF0, PF1, PF2

Screen_PF0

.byte #%11111111

.byte #%00010000

.byte #%11111111

Screen_PF1

.byte #%11111111

.byte #%00000000

.byte #%11111111

Screen_PF2

.byte #%11111111 ;1

.byte #%11111111 ;2

.byte #%10000000 ;3

.byte #%10000000 ;4

.byte #%10000000 ;5

.byte #%10000000 ;6

.byte #%10000000 ;7

.byte #%10000000 ;8

.byte #%10000000 ;9

.byte #%10000000 ;10

.byte #%10000000 ;11

.byte #%10000000 ;12

.byte #%10000000 ;13

.byte #%10000000 ;14

.byte #%10000000 ;15

.byte #%10000000 ;16

.byte #%10000000 ;17

.byte #%10000000 ;18

.byte #%10000000 ;19

.byte #%10000000 ;20

.byte #%10000000 ;21

.byte #%10000000 ;22

.byte #%10000000 ;23

.byte #%10000000 ;24

.byte #%10000000 ;25

.byte #%10000000 ;26

.byte #%10000000 ;27

.byte #%10000000 ;28

.byte #%10000000 ;29

.byte #%10000000 ;30

.byte #%10000000 ;31

.byte #%10000000 ;32

.byte #%10000000 ;33

.byte #%10000000 ;34

.byte #%10000000 ;35

.byte #%10000000 ;36

.byte #%10000000 ;37

.byte #%10000000 ;38

.byte #%10000000 ;39

.byte #%10000000 ;40

.byte #%10000000 ;41

.byte #%10000000 ;42

.byte #%10000000 ;43

.byte #%10000000 ;44

.byte #%10000000 ;45

.byte #%10000000 ;46

.byte #%10000000 ;47

.byte #%10000000 ;48

.byte #%10000000 ;49

.byte #%10000000 ;50

.byte #%10000000 ;51

.byte #%10000000 ;52

.byte #%10000000 ;53

.byte #%10000000 ;54

.byte #%10000000 ;55

.byte #%10000000 ;56

.byte #%10000000 ;57

.byte #%10000000 ;58

.byte #%10000000 ;59

.byte #%10000000 ;60

.byte #%10000000 ;61

.byte #%10000000 ;62

.byte #%10000000 ;63

.byte #%10000000 ;64

.byte #%10000000 ;65

.byte #%10000000 ;66

.byte #%10000000 ;67

.byte #%10000000 ;68

.byte #%10000000 ;69

.byte #%10000000 ;70

.byte #%11000000 ;71

.byte #%11000000 ;72

.byte #%11000000 ;73

.byte #%11000000 ;74

.byte #%10110000 ;75

.byte #%10110000 ;76

.byte #%10110000 ;77

.byte #%10110000 ;78

.byte #%10001000 ;79

.byte #%10001000 ;80

.byte #%10001000 ;81

.byte #%10001000 ;82

.byte #%10000100 ;83

.byte #%10000100 ;84

.byte #%10000100 ;85

.byte #%10000100 ;86

.byte #%10000100 ;87

.byte #%10000100 ;88

.byte #%10000100 ;89

.byte #%10000100 ;90

.byte #%10000010 ;91

.byte #%10000010 ;92

.byte #%10000010 ;93

.byte #%10000010 ;94

.byte #%10000010 ;95

.byte #%10000010 ;96

.byte #%10000010 ;97

.byte #%10000010 ;98

.byte #%10000010 ;99

.byte #%10000010 ;100

.byte #%10000010 ;101

.byte #%10000010 ;102

.byte #%10000100 ;103

.byte #%10000100 ;104

.byte #%10000100 ;105

.byte #%10000100 ;106

.byte #%10000100 ;107

.byte #%10000100 ;108

.byte #%10001000 ;109

.byte #%10001000 ;110

.byte #%10001000 ;111

.byte #%10001000 ;112

.byte #%10110000 ;113

.byte #%10110000 ;114

.byte #%10110000 ;115

.byte #%10110000 ;116

.byte #%11000000 ;117

.byte #%11000000 ;118

.byte #%11000000 ;119

.byte #%11000000 ;120

.byte #%10000000 ;121

.byte #%10000000 ;122

.byte #%10000000 ;123

.byte #%10000000 ;124

.byte #%10000000 ;125

.byte #%10000000 ;126

.byte #%10000000 ;127

.byte #%10000000 ;128

.byte #%10000000 ;129

.byte #%10000000 ;130

.byte #%10000000 ;131

.byte #%10000000 ;132

.byte #%10000000 ;133

.byte #%10000000 ;134

.byte #%10000000 ;135

.byte #%10000000 ;136

.byte #%10000000 ;137

.byte #%10000000 ;138

.byte #%10000000 ;139

.byte #%10000000 ;140

.byte #%10000000 ;141

.byte #%10000000 ;142

.byte #%10000000 ;143

.byte #%10000000 ;144

.byte #%10000000 ;145

.byte #%10000000 ;146

.byte #%10000000 ;147

.byte #%10000000 ;148

.byte #%10000000 ;149

.byte #%10000000 ;150

.byte #%10000000 ;151

.byte #%10000000 ;152

.byte #%10000000 ;153

.byte #%10000000 ;154

.byte #%10000000 ;155

.byte #%10000000 ;156

.byte #%10000000 ;157

.byte #%10000000 ;158

.byte #%10000000 ;159

.byte #%10000000 ;160

.byte #%10000000 ;161

.byte #%10000000 ;162

.byte #%10000000 ;163

.byte #%10000000 ;164

.byte #%10000000 ;165

.byte #%10000000 ;166

.byte #%10000000 ;167

.byte #%10000000 ;168

.byte #%10000000 ;169

.byte #%10000000 ;170

.byte #%10000000 ;171

.byte #%10000000 ;172

.byte #%10000000 ;173

.byte #%10000000 ;174

.byte #%10000000 ;175

.byte #%10000000 ;176

.byte #%10000000 ;177

.byte #%10000000 ;178

.byte #%10000000 ;179

.byte #%10000000 ;180

.byte #%10000000 ;181

.byte #%10000000 ;182

.byte #%10000000 ;183

.byte #%10000000 ;184

.byte #%10000000 ;185

.byte #%10000000 ;186

.byte #%10000000 ;187

.byte #%10000000 ;188

.byte #%10000000 ;189

.byte #%10000000 ;190

.byte #%11111111 ;191

.byte #%11111111 ;192

ORG $FFFA

; Interrupt Vectors

.word Reset ; NMI

.word Reset ; RESET

.word Reset ; IRQ

END

March 16, 2005

Hello friends...

I have had DASM working for five days now, and have "finished" coding my first playfield using Andrew's tutorials/code. I'm still playing with the colors and shape of the center circle, but that's just cleanup.

I would like someone to take a look at the code and tell me what I need to do differently. I'm sure there is an easier way (and more efficient) of drawing the playfield than listing it out line by line (for instance writing a loop) because I don't seem to find the same thing in other code I look at. At first I was trying it with 24 (the number of vertical pixels available in the playfield?) but ended up needing to draw out each of the 192 scanlines for it to work right. Still I'm pretty happy for having been coding for all of four days now (I finished this last night, just now getting around to posting).

Also, as I (mistakingly) posted in the homebrew forum, I want to try and program a dodgeball game. There are several games I would be interested in seeing the code for, yet am unable to find code for any sports games at all (ie- basketball, volleyball, football). Is this available anywhere? I also don't suppose it's possible to take binaries and turn them into assemblies at all?

I would really like to have a 3 on 3 game where the sprites move independent of one another and you can switch between them as you choose (ala Super Tecmo Bowl wide receivers). I am however willing to settle for 2 on 2 with the players locked together if that isn't possible. I have also played with some code from the sprites tutorials, but can't seem to get any of it to compile correctly. My biggest problem is that I'm quickly running out of information to absorb, as there are only 24 tutorials and I still need to know about stuff like collisions, restricting sprites to half the court, etc. I'm hoping I have the potential for a high midichlorian count... any Jedi seeking a padawan (located in KC, MO) to train?

By the way, much kudos to Andrew Davie- I'm sure it's helped many people have the capacity to begin coding, even if just for hacking. :!: :thumbsup:

-JD

March 12, 2005

I have it all working now... thanks to vdub bobby and nukey shay for their patient help!

March 11, 2005

I always thought Pitfall may make a cool Spiderman hack. What was your plan?

March 11, 2005

vdub- you're my hero. No, I wasn't sure it was a compilable source. I downloaded it off the list of original ROMs, and since it was the only game I knew very well, was trying to run it. I have no idea why it didn't occur to me that it may not be any good...

Anyway, I downloaded your battlezone, but it was the bin and not the code. I went back and found the code for INDY500, off the same original ROMs list, and it too would not compile. However, I tried battlezone, and it seemed to work perfectly.

Wow... two weeks for that.

Homer Simpson said:

o/` I am so smart... I am so smart... S..M..R..T... I am so smart! o/`

Thanks a ton you guys, no aspirin needed for a couple of days!

-JD

March 11, 2005

Okay... I'm so close I can smell it now. I looked through the DASM stuff I downloaded and wasn't able to find either vcs.h or vcs.c, but did find a file named vcs.h on my hard drive through a desktop search. I put that file in (which when opened, refers to DASM, not sure why it didn't save into folder with everything else?!) with the DASM program which leads me to...

[/img]

Any idea why the vcs files don't seem to be present/in the folder? Suggestions on where to get a copy of vcs.c? Hopefully if i can find that file and put it in there, i can finally have it running.

-JD

March 10, 2005

okay... that was helpful, telling me to go to that exact directory. I had been trying it straight from the C (and previously E) drive. Now when I run the comball.s file, it actually runs DASM and gives me the following messages:

unable to open vcs.h (x3)

then it lists the unresolved symbols, which totals 39.

Do I need to find the vcs file and put it in the same directory as dasm itself? I don't want to move it around if I'm not supposed to.

-Jason

March 10, 2005

I am having this same issue. I dug up this post in attempt to see if the answer(s) had already been posted, and as far as I can tell they have not.

Here's my situation to date:

I am running XP and downloaded the DASM file into a folder directly on my C drive named DASM. After unzipping the file, it is in another subfolder named dasm22010. Inside that folder is another folder named DASM. Inside THAT folder is a bin folder, then the DOS folder.

So far, that would be C://DASM/dasm22010/DASM/bin/DOS/

Inside the DOS folder is what I believe to be the actual "executable" file, dasm. Properties of this file show it as an application, but with no file type. In this same folder, I placed a file named comball (combat variation, I have the original stored elsewhere). The file type is .s; the actual name is comball.s

Okay, after I open DOS and get to the C prompt, I try typing the following command:

dasm comball.s -f3 -osource.bin

I have tried several variations on this input, such as comball.asm and other things, but always get the following message:

'dasm' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I have screwed around with this program since I joined the forum a week or so before the end of February, and am terribly frustrated with trying to get it to work. I think I've provided all possible information, but if there is anything else I can provide let me know. Oh, one last thing, I've used Notepad to open/view the source code. My understanding is the command should 1. open dasm, 2. load in comball.s, and 3. output the binary into a file named source.bin.

Is this all correct? Any/all suggestions most welcome. Hacking on graphics is okay, but I really need to get into the code!

Thanks,

Jason

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