MayDay

Actually, yes... and this may not even be that hard to do. Just have a small subroutine where you track a variable (such as Fifty_Move_Check). Each time white (or black) makes a move, you incriment this by one. If a pawn moves or a piece is captured, this number is set back to zero. You could even make another subroutine where if the variable reaches say 46 or 47, the game could decide whether it was ahead, even, or behind in value and make a "decision" whether or not to accept/play for a draw based on cost of forcing this this variable to be reset. If this doesn't make sense (as I often don't), I'd be happy to explain further. -JD

Quoted from the homebrew services section of website: The pictures of course are on the page, at this link. Basically, if you can find a good cheap place, please let everyone else know too. -JD

You'd better hurry... Get a game in, you're running out of time!! tick tock, tick tock -JD

Got it. All except the math anyway! Have any unused and original music just laying around? Just curious -JD

Wow, I hadn't seen that. Any word on the BD project? I imagined this looking like the mockup shows, 7x7 grid, with tiles 2x16 in dimension. That would start halfway across the screen and only use PF2 and PF1 (reflected screen). I think a variety of options are open though, depending on comprimises you make vs. time you have. With flicker, I think you can almost display anything you want, as shown by Andrew with BD and Paul Slocum with HSR. -JD

I was a day or two away from making this call as you suggested, but luckily I found a new job today. I'm getting paid more, better benefits, and will enjoy the company a lot more than my old one. Not only that, but I'm now back into the industry my degree is in, so maybe I'll have a future in it after all (this excites my parents, you'd almost think they helped pay my way through college!) . Getting fired (laid off, in PC terms ) really was a blessing. Thanks for all the kind words and advice people posted here. -JD BTW- what's the difference between a forbearance and a deferring your loans? Two names for the same thing, or are they actually different processes? Just curious.

Could the sprites simply be masks over the background colours? Chris Another way to possibly do it (it wasn't done in this case however) would be to widen the sprites and display two pieces with one sprite.

Wow, KITT looks good... my vote would to be just have him on the cover, that's all the show was about anyway. Okay, you can have the helicopter shooting at him, but adding Hasselhoff is an embarrasment to both Europeans and Americans. (j/k... label is looking good!) -JD

I've been thinking about the HomeStar RPG game that Paul is working on. Back in the day, they put the 32 in 1 on a 64K cartridge. I've noticed that 32K is the largest boards being sold now, so what is the largest game a homebrew author could go about making and still make cartridges for at a reasonable cost (say, $50 or under)? Could enough of a rarity 3 cartridge (32 in 1) be scavenged to produce a limited release, and would this work? What is the largest cartridge game that could be made at a more unreasonable cost (say up to 100, 150 bucks)? How much could a supercharger tape hold? I believe it holds more ROM space, but does that come at the cost of anything else? What is Paul's plan when he finishes his game? Thanks for any help in this matter. -JD

Yes, and the website looks excellent. I had plans to do this myself, but yours is so complete I no longer feel the need to do so. In fact, that site is what directly inspired this thread. I used excel to re-alphabatize your disassemblies, but they will be easier to find for people going there to download if you do this on your site as well. I'll edit links in for the appropriate games in after I've compared our lists. -JD

I tried to throw together a quick (like 5-10 minute) version of a list for games that are over 4K. I came up with around 200 games, and I'm sure many of them are disassembled already somewhere on AA. I figured the hacks section would be the best place to put this since people here are probably more interested in the disassembly codes than homebrewers would be. The idea is, to make a full listing of these disassemblies. If you add labels to one, re-submit it (as long as no changes are made to the game itself) so that people here won't be repeating work that is already done. If they are already posted on AA, just submit the link instead of the file. I will start looking for these later on and edit this post to reflect finds/submissions. Anyway, with that in mind, here is the list I have (please help add/remove games if incorrect!): 16k Acid Drop 8k Alpha Beam with Ernie 8k Aquaventure 8k Artillery Duel 8k Asterix 8k Asteroids 8k A-Team 8k Battlezone 8k Beamrider 8k Berenstain Bears 8k Big Bird's Egg Catch 8k Bionic Breakthrough 8k Blueprint 16k BMX Airmaster 8k Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom 8k Bugs Bunny 16k Bump n Jump 16k Burgertime 16k California Games 8k Centipede 8k Challenge 8k Chuck Norris Superkicks 16k Commando 8k Congo Bongo 8k Cookie Monster Munch 8k Crazy Climber 16k Crossbow 16k Crystal Castles 16k Dark Chambers 8k Dark Mage 8k Decathlon 8k Defender 2 16k Defender 2 (different edition??) 8k Demons! 16k Desert Falcon 16k Dig Dug 8k Donald Duck's Speedboat 8k Donkey Kong Jr. 16k Double Dragon 16k Double Dunk 16k Dukes of Hazzard 8k Dumbo's Flying Circus 8k E.T. 8k Elk Attack 8k Espial 16k F-14 Tomcat Flight Simulator 32k Fatal Run 8k Fathom 16k Fishing Derby 8k Frog Pond 8k Frogger II - Threedeep! 8k Frontline 8k Galaxian 16k Garfield 8k Ghost Manor 16k Ghostbusters II 8k Ghostbusters 16k Grand Prix 8k Gravitar 8k Gremlins 8k Grover's Music Maker 8k Gyruss 8k H.E.R.O. 8k Holey Moley 16k Ikari Warriors 8k James Bond 007 8k Joust 16k Jr. Pac-Man 8k Jungle Hunt 8k Kangaroo 16k Klax 8k Krull 8k Kung Fu Master 8k Mario Bros. 16k Masters of the Universe - The Power of He-Man 16k Midnight Magic 16k Millipede 8k Miner 2049er Vol. 2 8k Miner 2049er 8k Monstercise 8k Montezuma 8k Moon Patrol 8k Moonsweeper 8k Motocross Racer 16k Motorodeo 12k Mountain King 8k Mr. Do! (very bottom of page) 8k Ms. Pac-Man 8k My Golf 8k Obelix 16k Off The Wall 12k Omega Race 8k Oscar's Trash Race 8k Pengo 16k Pete Rose Baseball 8k Phoenix 16k Pick 'n Pile 8k Pigs in Space 10k Pitfall II - Lost Caverns 8k Polaris 8k Pole Position 8k Popeye 8k Porky's 8k Pressure Cooker 8k Private Eye 8k Q-bert's Qubes 8k Quadrun 8k Quest for Quintana Roo 16k Radar Lock 8k Raiders of the Lost Ark 16k Rampage! 8k RealSports Baseball 16k RealSports Boxing 8k RealSports Football 8k RealSports Soccer 8k RealSports Tennis 8k River Patrol 16k River Raid 16k River Raid 2 16k Road Runner 8k Robin Hood 8k Robot Tank 8k Roc n' Rope 8k Saboteur 16k Secret Quest 16k Sentinel 16k Shooting Arcade 8k Sinistar 8k Sir Lancelot 8k Skateboardin' 8k Sky Patrol 8k Smurfs - Rescue in Gargamel's Castle 8k Smurfs Save the Day 8k Snoopy and the Red Baron 8k Solar Fox 16k Solaris 8k Sorcerer's Apprentice 8k Space Shuttle 16k Spider Fighter 8k Spike's Peak 8k Springer 16k Sprintmaster 8k Spy Hunter 8k Star Raiders 8k Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator 8k Star Wars - Death Star Battle 8k Star Wars - The Arcade Game 16k Stargate 8k Starpath - Communist Mutants From Space 25k Starpath - Dragonstomper 33k Starpath - Escape from the Mindmaster 8k Starpath - Fireball 8k Starpath - Frogger 8k Starpath - Killer Satellites 25k Starpath - Party Mix 8k Starpath - Phaser Patrol 8k Starpath - Rabbit Transit 8k Starpath - Suicide Mission 25k Starpath - Survival Island 16k Starpath - Sweat! - The Decathalon Game 8k Starpath - Sword Of Saros 8k Stell-A-Sketch 8k Subterrenea 16k Summer Games 16k Super Baseball 16k Super Box 8k Super Cobra 16k Super Football 8k Super Futebol 8k Surf's Up 8k SwordQuest - Earthworld 8k SwordQuest - Fireworld 8k SwordQuest - Waterworld 8k Tapper 8k Tax Avoiders 8k Taz 8k Time Pilot 8k Title Match Pro Wrestling 8k Tooth Protectors 16k Track and Field 12k Tunnel Runner 8k Tutankham 8k Up n Down 8k Vanguard (post #4) 8k Wing War 16k Winter Games 16k Xenophobe 8k Xevious 8k Zaxxon -Jason

I have played chess for a long time and only seen the 3 move repetition rule used once. As long as people know it's not part of the game's makeup I don't think it's a huge deal if you leave it out. Maybe you could spit out notation as you go along (not to be stored) that a serious player could write down and refer back to if they cared that much. Interestingly enough, I think it's no big deal, but it was part of the Fischer/Spassky world championship match in Reykjavich. During game 17, in the midst of a potential Spassky comeback, Fischer conferred with the official who declared a draw from a game where he was down a rook for a knight. Following Fischer's draw, many western "experts" pointed to that moment as the momentum swing back to Fischer, and thought the draw crushed Spassky's spirit. A quick google, you can find that game here if you want to click through it. EDIT- it would help (some) that anytime a piece is captured, everything before that move can be reset (as they will not occur again). But, then there is also the 50 move rule, at which point you are way out of memory to track again.

From supercat's suggestion in the previous post, in picture form. His version had one less line (11 instead of 12) so I just added one pixel to the top of each row. EDIT- also changed the king to match the queen's new design.

This is what I was meaning... I slightly altered both the king and queen using the new dimensions you listed. Still working on Four-Play, and possibly another game for the 2006 1K contest. Travesty!! Your setup is awesome, much better than the striped version the original is. I know this game isn't your primary concern right now, but have you given any thought to having your engine contain opening lines or endgames? Or will it play entirely based on logic? I think at least a few of the most popular opening lines would help immensly to strengthen it's playing ability. Most high-level games today go 15-25 moves "by the book" with several games having followed each line for the players/computer to reference. -JD EDIT- also, have you given thought to the most important part, which is what you're going to name the game? How about Deep Fuji or X3D Fuji?

That's the funniest thing I've heard all week. This is why I refuse to get married, I've heard too many stories like this. Better luck next time around bro. -JD

Just for you Thomas... Indiana Jones, Neo from the Matrix, Indian Larry, Kikochiko, and the Crocodile Hunter all at once!

There are people here with the expertise to be able to help you if you wait a while... you may also try putting a post in the programming section to make sure they run across it quicker. I think they pretty much use the Stella Programming Guide as the be-all end-all.

I download the binary because I thought your mockup may not be exactly accurate... I don't understand how you have both the board and pieces displayed with the playfield, or am I missing something? It seems as if there are more pixels displayed than should be allowed... I agree your crown for the queen is better than the one I designed. I also think you should leave the ring in the middle of the piece though so it matches against the king. Speaking of the king, I don't really like his crown either, but can't think of any better way to display the cross. Anyone with ideas? Chess logic coming anytime soon? I can tell you what it's rated!

What age are you going to start their Assembly lessons at? 3? 4? Congrats bro, looking good! -JD

j/k... This may not be exactly what he says, but I think it's close. The hair looks good... feathered and beautiful... they just don't do it like that anymore! Okay, enough references for one post... -JD

There are several ways to begin hacking games. There are a couple of bit-hacking programs available for download in the hacking section that allow you to change sprite shapes. It is explained in their threads pretty well how each of them work. The two I'm aware of are named "Bithacker" and "Hackomatic". Also, if you are more open to the coding as your post suggests, check out Andrew Davie's tutorials in the Newbie section of Atari 2600 programming. You will also need to find a program called Distella, which you can use to get an assembly file from 2K and 4K game binaries. Larger games are also possible, but you will need to learn to split the files in half, disassemble each, and put them back together using DASM. Hacking games is fun, and a good way to transition to writing your own games. Or, like some people here, you can just stick to hacking. A few of the hacks done here have rivaled "real" games, some even have their own cartridge releases... and maybe a few more should. -JD

I'm such a dork... I can't believe I didn't see the dates at the beginning of the thread. I couldn't find the "old thread" because I was already looking at it. In my defense though, wasn't there a screenshot that matched another Swordquest game pixel for pixel and had different colors, except for the hand on the main sprite was left the same, making the screenshot (for all intents and purposes) a fake? Then, IIRC there was a big discussion about connectors and how the picture was captured in the first place. None of that is left here...?

What about an Atari Age fund? If a bunch of people here got together and pooled say $2500 or more, you could use that for sniping and try to ensure the proto gets dumped. Once it's dumped, use the actual cartridge for some sort of website prize... maybe for best new game of '06, either that or something where everyone on the site is involved somehow. Of course, you could have a drawing where say for every $100 you put in to try and get the game you get your name in a hat once... 1000 bucks, 10 entries to win the cartridge. Just thinking out loud here... -JD BTW, if I recall correctly wasn't this game announced once and thought to be a fake because of doctored screenshots? I can't seem to locate the thread, but IIRC that was the case.

Yeah, and given a certain contest that is currently running -JD PS- never played the old game, but this demo looks good.

One thing serious chess players will probably want is a similarity between all the pieces on the board and proper heights in relation to each other. Not only that, but they should be able to distinguish any one piece from another without seeing the rest of the pieces. With that in mind, here is my take on the Jacques set with the exception of the knight which I think looks much better in mos's version than the Jacques version does. The rook and queen are not completely distinguishable when viewed seperately, but put together are quite obvious. For help in recreating them in code, the piece heights are: pawn = 6, knight = 8, rook = 9, bishop = 10, queen = 11, king = 12. -JD EDIT: After posting and seeing the image again, the ring around the queen and king should be closer together... probably by adding a pixel to the horizontal part of the king's cross to lower his one and removing the bottom row of the queen's crown to move her's up one. EDIT 2: Like so... base size also doubled, as you can tell.