MayDay

I'll start working on some sprite animations next, beginning with Sub-Zero. We'll need to figure out how to handle certain actions such as punches/kicks (and special attacks?) that would go beyond the 8 pixel limit. I will bold the movements below I think might need this, and this assumes the player facing right (otherwise left/right should be reversed). Basically any of the moves with the buttons. But in order to get started, I'm going to list out the base player controls. Each player would possibly have a special attack (such as Sub-Zero ice blast) and a fatality that would involve slightly more complicated controls. NO BUTTON JOYSTICK MOVES Up - Jump Straight Up Up & Right - Jump Flip to Right Right - Move Right Down & Right - Squat Down - Squat Down & Left - Squat Left - Move Left Left & Up - Jump Flip to Left JOYSTICK MOVES WITH BUTTON PRESS Up - Jump Kick Up & Right - Jump Kick to Right Right (If forward) - Punch Down & Right (if forward) - Low Kick Down - Uppercut Down & Left - Sweep Kick Left - Spin Kick Left & Up - Back Punch Special Move - back back button Fatality - forward down forward button

Corresponding sprites. A few are designed to be playfield, but could be resized for player pixels if needed.

I went through and cleaned up all the backgrounds, centering objects, and making some other slight revisions. Biggest change here is The Pit. I've included it now as two separate rooms, plus one with those two rooms combined. The new palette looks much better!

Bottom of the Pit. Ideally with 3 rows of spikes, and more realistically with 2 rows. Would need to redesign the original Pit to match this too.

Game Selection Screen- pretty simple really. With and without sprites, which are 42 pixels at widest spot.

I kept messing around with the selection screen, and I'm a lot closer to something I like now. The two corners will require both sprites, as will the logo in the middle. Otherwise this is all playfield/background. There should be space around each character to fit a playfield box when selecting. I have it as layers, so I can also separate playfield and sprites if you want to mock it up. Edit- Actually just went ahead and removed the sprites so you would already have it.

Looks good! Some of the colors appear to be a little bit off, but that should be pretty easy to fix, it appears it is grabbing all of the data correctly. I've also been messing around with the selection screen to no avail. I was trying to do it strictly with the playfield, and thought I had it figured out at one point, but it didn't look that good when I was done. As an alternative, would it be possible to use the sprites in a straight downward line? The yellow / blue lines you see would be the player highlighted selection. If you wanted to hide a character or two, you could just move them to the bottom.

I was not, I was only looking through the editing buttons above. I edited the first post so that everyone should be able to see it now.

I can, but it will take me a while to convert them. I've actually been making images that are only 192x160, then just taking a screenshot of them enlarged to post. Making them small makes it a lot easier to both fill in and keep track of the correct number of pixels. If it helps, I could create them at 192x240, and that should correct the aspect ratio problem. That would be a lot faster if that works? I'm going to try and finish up the character selection screen, then I'll begin converting everything over.

Some quick responses- Actually 3 PF color changes on some lines- white/grey to yellow to white/grey to end zone color. When the play starts, you'd probably also end up with multiple sprites on the same lines. The red end zone could easily be lost, but it certainly looks better with it. I tried to show the very worst place possible in the mockup. Eh, if I could program better I'd be doing that, and not just mocking them up. I have been through Andrew Davie's tutorials and generally don't break "rules" without reason. While complicated, outside of the blocking dummies, I still feel this is far less complicated (and would look better) than Tod Frye's Red vs. Blue demo. Sorry about the images in this and the MK thread. Not sure why some can see and some can't. When I click the image button here, it asks me for a URL. I don't see a way to upload other file types at all. Also, as Zack notes in the MK thread I'm using square pixels, so while the images are pixel perfect, they are not at the correct aspect ratio. In looking back at my own content, I see a lot of the images are missing now as you say. Blocking dummies that would be used (instead of linemen) in a 5 on 5 drill. You also can not run through the dummies. It was really a just tradeoff for not using more sprites on the field, though not one that I'm that happy with.

A few things- 1.) I played around with a character selection screen tonight. I think I finally figured out a good way to do it, but I will have to finish it tomorrow. 2.) I pulled out my Sega Classic console and played the original MK for a while. It has six total arenas, but the other two don't translate that well. I think four arenas is a good number anyway. Because the characters we're making will be smaller, I also don't think scrolling is necessary. I kind of like the solid screen, and hopefully that would free up some cycles for the gameplay. 3.) What would this be called? I would suggest MK2600 for the title screen since "MK" doesn't specifically violate a copyright. See below. 4.) We'll need to decide what controls we want to use. After we know that, I can start trying to put together more specific sprite animations. 5.) For the record not everything shown in those mockups are original. The colored sky on the courtyard is from an existing game, I forget which one. The clouds on the pit is from Pole Position. The skeleton in the dungeon was heavily inspired by the one Pac Man Red created in the free sprite thread. 6.) I think this game could turn out really spectacular!

I've been working on some different arenas- all of these are playfield only with maximum two colors per scanline. Three are reflected playfields, The Pit is a repeating playfield, but the clouds could easily be reflected or even just removed. I think with 8-10 characters, 4 arenas would be a good number. I also redesigned them so that there would be no side to side scrolling. Dungeon, Throne Room, Outside Throne, and The Pit. Quick Edit- The Black in the dungeon would probably need changed to a dark gray so as to still be able to see some of the characters against it.

Looks good- Different character mockup that might help? If you give me some different design parameters, I'd happily redesign them. Red indicates where you would currently need missile to fill in.

Just curious what people would make of this- 5 on 5 football, Tecmo Bowl style. If anyone has ran 5 on 5 drills, we always used tackling dummies to create the running lanes. The passing controls would need to be similar to how NFL Blitz worked. Each team would have two running plays, a short pass play, and a long pass play. Players in the mockup are 8x11. The football is 3, 7, and 3 pixels wide. Ten sprites total, mostly at different levels in the field to minimize flicker. The bottom sideline could use collision detection with the sprite, the top with the football (allows some overlay with the sprite itself). Other notes- The sprite controlled by the player would flash so that you understand who is controlling what. The end zones and blocking dummies would be slight off-colors of the players so you can still see them.

Yes, I was asking in regard to the Mortal Kombat mockup I did. If one could make the sprites look good, I think a beat-em-up could be one of the nicest looking 2600 games as the background could be mostly or entirely static. Since little to no resources for the ball/missiles were needed (and the playfield could be static (at least where the players would be) I thought there might be enough resources for some fancy programming. Thanks for the clarification, and that RPG screenshot is amazing.

I had a question about sprites and flicker- I wasn't sure if there is a more advanced way to program a sprite so that it appears more than once in the same scanline without flickering? The application would be to create two players that both use both sprites. I wasn't sure if there is some clever programming technique such as repositioning the sprite mid-scanline so thats its used again without flickering? Any other theories on how to accomplish this?

R.Cade is right, it's an old video mixer. It's pretty easy to tell, as most of the buttons on the front have to do with settings for video wipes. I've seen a lot of mixers, but I'm not familiar with this particular model. I'm guessing it has two video inputs? Most likely would have been used in an old A/B tape editing system. My guess is that it would have also had a titler that worked in conjunction with it. The use is so limited I would guess it has little to no value, unless it would be as a collectible.

Another background with all fighters. Still not fond of the Raided resting sprite:

In the above mockup, players would be double wide sprites at a resolution of eight pixels and 40 pixels high. The ninjas are easiest to create- here's a better look at them and the pixel breakdown. I briefly looked at Raiden, but didn't get anything worth sharing. Even using two double-wide sprites, it's tough to get something that looks nice.

When I saw this, I began to wonder what might be possible for the 2600! I mocked some stuff up, starting with the players, and eventually doing an entire screen. This mockup would require both players to use both sprites. This probably means flicker, but I wasn't sure if someone with more technical knowledge would be able to program that out? Otherwise, a lot of this would be done simply with the playfield. This isn't 100% pixel perfect, but it's pretty close. I give you fan favorite, The Pit. It is 240 pixels wide at a resolution of four pixels, so as to allow some side to side movement. It is 192 pixels tall at a resolution of two pixels.

A long time ago I ran across a video that I believe was posted somewhere on this page. I re-created the character animations the best that I could tell them and made them into a video. For the record, someone had already turned the Zelda graphic into an animated .gif, which I just used instead of trying to decipher myself. I would give better credit if I remembered where it came from. https://youtu.be/6xGtbs6UYG4

Was FadeOut! the game where there was a red player and a grey player that could hide behind walls of the same color? Edit- did some google searching which led back to the "in development" page here, which still has screenshots. Apparently, there were multiple colored players/walls, but it is the game I was thinking of (which he had put into an animated .gif for his avatar IIRC). http://www.atariage.com/development_page.html?InDevelopmentID=77

I'm guessing someone has already linked this here or elsewhere, but went back a few pages and didn't see it: http://www.benheck.com/atari-landfill-cartridge-resurrection/

You are correct, no flicker, and sorry for the mistake. I would have edited my post after Thomas said the same thing, but for some reason that's not an option? There are also some links in my post that I would like to add in. My idea for this thread was certainly not to disrespect anyone, more for people to make their own lists for other people to check out and create more knowledge about the homebrew scene in general.

I played the download, did not realize that it was scaled down, which could very well be why I preferred Edtris. Obviously you would know, so I'm not sure why I thought it flickered. I didn't login for about a three year period and missed the boat on the cartridge, and only have myself to blame for that. I'm quite sure this game would be somewhere in the top five, but without being able to play it and no other access to it, I really don't know. It's akin to asking me if Red Sea Crossing belongs in the 100 best Atari games. I can guess by the demo, screenshots, gameplay video, etc., but without knowing for sure I thought the best way I could represent the game was putting it in the honorable mention section. It's clearly a great game.