Atari Flashback Portable Question

[Atari Flashback Portable Question]

Which version of the Atari Flashback Portable is better emulation wise the 2016, 2017 or 2018 version. I ask cause as far as games go I can easily add in the entire 2600 collection to the SD card so the built in games don't matter. I also plan on testing my homebrew on it, so if someone could post which versions of Stella are running on each version, it would help me with my decision on which one to get as well.

[will there be more Atarivox + ?]

 

The issue doesn't affect games that are using the AtariVox+ for just storing and retrieving information, which is what most games use it for. It only affects a few games that use speech, and only one on the 2600 that I'm aware of. I don't want to build more AtariVox+ units at the moment, though, until the cause of the issue is discerned and a fix is developed. I'm hoping that can happen early in the new year.

 

..Al

Hey Albert,

 

Hope you had a great Christmas & New Years! Was wondering if it would be possible to buy one of those "bugged" AtariVox+ for testing my game. I don't care if it doesn't work 100%, as long as I can test my game with an AtariVox+ . Also do you have any plans to sell stuff on Amazon?

[Can't get F8 Bankswitching Working]

I'd suggest placing the whole display kernel in the second bank (for simplicity), and leave the first bank just for startup and overscan/support routines. It's probably the easiest approach until you become accustomed to how banking works.

Unless i'm misunderstanding you, it tried what you said and now the Atari 2600 is bleeping at me.

 

Source

[Can't get F8 Bankswitching Working]

So what's the benefits of having 2 banks if most of your code and/or data has to reside in a single bank anyways?

[Can't get F8 Bankswitching Working]

I managed to get it running, sort of. It seems to work, but none of the player or playfield graphics are working. All i get is a box instead of a face for the player and the playfield simply does not load at all. I have added a link to the source code for reference.

 

Source

[What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)]

Ookma-Kyi - PC - 120m

Heroes & Shadows - 2600 - 400m

Clan Lord - PC - 0m

Kaboom - 2600 - 120m

Survival Island - 2600 - 15m

Mind Maze - 2600 - 55m

 

Laptop died so no Clan Lord for me. Hopefully I can get enough money for a new one this Christmas, but hey at least my Atari works!

 

In other news I moved my Ookma-Kyi to Cloud 9 so I can work on and play test it in my local library. SSSSHHHhh >

 

Also I managed to get a working instance running on my previous cloud provider. As my laptop is dead I have to spend half of the posted time wrestling with it to do what I need it to do to get stuff accomplished. That is why there is such a big number next to it. Let's see how long this will last... :'(

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[[POLL]Heroes & Shadows Game Type]

Hi,

 

Well with AtariVox+ support on hold, I am interested in knowing how you would like me to proceed. There are 2 types of game types I would like to use for my game. Read the descriptions below and vote on the poll on your favorite. The winner will be considered as a possibility for the game's new type.

 

Strategy:

 

In this genre type, you control the president via the keypad controller. You enter commands via the keypad buttons in the order you would like to execute them. After entering the desired commands you press another button and the commands are run in the order they are entered until they are all executed. Your goal is the reach the goal in the least amount of commands. You will be able to hear speech and save your high score via the AtariVox+ when available. The Atarivox+ is not necessary and would be optional. Having one would add additional features.

 

Simulation:

 

In this genre type, you take care of the president via feeding and training him(think Tamagotchi). Over time he will become stronger and fight the invading creatures. There is the possibility of having different carts with different creatures you can train. One thing I was thinking was having presidents fight each other via a special "tournament" cart. You will be able to hear speech and save your stats via the AtariVox+ when available. The Atarivox+ is not optional and not having it would make the game incompletable.

 

Regards,

 

Heroes & Shadow

[What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)]

Ookma-Kyi - PC - 200m

Heroes & Shadows - 2600 - 0m

Clan Lord - PC - 200m

Pitfall - 2600 - 20m

Pitfall 2 - 2600 - 30m

Frogger - 2600 - 45m

 

Very busy this week so I'll just post a quick recap. Cloud VM for Heroes & Shadows homebrew is still down. Progress on Ookma-Kyi is slow but, steady. Lot's of Clan Lord parties this week with my friends. When not clanning I was playing on my Atari 2600.

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[will there be more Atarivox + ?]

Any news on what the culprit with the AtariVox+ shutting off unexpectedly is? I only ask cause it would be nice if I could start working on adding support for the AtariVox to my game. Unfortunately, my game needs to save progress so an AtariVox is more or less necessary. I really wanted to have basic support added before Christmas but, at this moment with everything that's happening it's very unlikely. Either way thanks for creating a great product. Hoping it will be available again someday.

 

Sincerely,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[[WIP]Heroes & Shadows]

Update:

 

Currently, the game is in an indefinite hold. My VM that holds the source code to the game has crashed. I have tried contacting my cloud provider several times and haven't received a response from them at all. Until they fix myVM I can't access my source code and therefore continue development. To add salt to the wound I have a paying account with them. If anyone has any good suggestions for a cloud provider that allows me to edit my source code on the go, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)]

Sonic 2 - Genesis - 30 minutes

Heroes & Shadows - 2600 - 0 minutes

Clan Lord - PC - 220 minutes

Ookma-Kyi - PC - 300 minutes

 

NEWS

-----------

Ookma-Kyi: Held a big meeting today to decide the games fate on wither it will continue in it's current incarnation or will ultimately be redone from scratch. By meeting i mean more playtesting and chaos while video chatting on my private development slack.

 

Heroes & Shadows: The cloud vm that contains the source has ultimately crashed and the cloud provider has not responded to my ticket to try to figure out what it will take to get it back up. This could be due to the holidays which is why there's a big fat 0.

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[will there be more Atarivox + ?]

I am not going to produce more AtariVox+ units until the problem where some games cause it to reset is solved.

 

..Al

Thanks for the update. What causes what to reset, the game, AtariVox+ or AtariVox+ SRAM?

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[Can't get F8 Bankswitching Working]

Hello,

 

Trying to get F8 Bankswitching working after my cloud instance crashed. At the moment all I get is a black screen. If I remember correctly Bb with the 8k ROM option stores the code in Bank 0, and graphics and data in Bank 1 according to something i read. I am trying to accomplish the same effect. If anyone can help me it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Source: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3cnn483zog0bkra/Source_11-19-18.zip?dl=1

 

Regards,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[will there be more Atarivox + ?]

Yes, I plan on making a large batch in November after the Portland Retro Gaming Expo.

Sorry for the double post but as you stated earlier there were plans to make a large batch of AtariVox's after the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. The expo finished several weeks ago, we're in the middle of November and we haven't heard any news in awhile. I just checked the the store, and as of a few minutes prior to this post they are still out of stock. Could you please tell us when the large batch is planned to be available?

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[Six Game Cartridge Switch?]

 

They have been known to actually damage an Atari VCS/2600 because of it's shoddy wiring.

Not to derail the thread, but could you please elaborate a bit?

[Six Game Cartridge Switch?]

This is the only thing that comes to mind

I think I still have one somewhere...

[Six Game Cartridge Switch?]

Can you please provide a picture of it? It might help in determining what it may be

 

Regards,

 

Heroes and Shadows

[[WIP]Heroes & Shadows]

Reserved

[Programming Contest for Astrocade?]

I would be interested in learning how to code games in assembly language for the Astrocade. Is there a forum or wiki somewhere where there are tutorials or even a series of tutorial similar to Andrew Davies "Atari 2600 Programming 101" but for the Astrocade?

 

Regards,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[[HELP]Movement Not Right]

 

Still feels wrong to me. If your position is 155 you are greater than 20 and branch past the reversedirection code as well as the second check for the right-boundary condition.

 

In a higher level language I think you've created this:

if(x < 20)
{
  if(x > 144)
  {
    ReverseDirection();
  }
}

But what you really want is this:

if((x < 20) || (x > 144))
  ReverseDirection();

Or with the logic inverted:

if(!(20 < x && x < 144))
  ReverseDirection();

Ok, this is what I came up with:

; pet movement code
   lda PetX                                                                    ; load pet x position into accumulator
   clc                                                                         ; clear carry flag
   adc PetVX                                                                   ; add the pet's velocity constant
   sta PetX                                                                    ; store pet's new x position
   cmp #LEFTBOUNDRY                                                            ; does it intersect the left boundry?
   bcs SkipReversePetXVelocityRight                                            ; if not branch
   lda PetVX                                                                   ; load the pet's x velocity
   eor #$ff                                                                    ; negate it
   adc #0                                                                      ; add 0
   sta PetVX                                                                   ; store the pet's new velocity
SkipReversePetXVelocityRight
   cmp #RIGHTBOUNDRY                                                           ; does it intersect the right boundry?
   bcc SkipReversePetXVelocityLeft                                             ; if not branch
   lda PetVX                                                                   ; load the pet's x velocity
   eor #$ff                                                                    ; negate it
   adc #0                                                                      ; add 0
   sta PetVX                                                                   ; store the pet's new velocity
SkipReversePetXVelocityLeft

Seems very convoluted and something that seems like it can be very easily optimized but, hey it works thanks.

 

Regards,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[[HELP]Movement Not Right]

Second adc PetVX should be adc #0 since carry is set and you need to add 1?

 

Also, shouldn't the reverse direction only be skipped when PetX is greater than left AND less than right?

Fixed the first issue, same problem. About the second:

Cite: http://6502.org/tutorials/compare_instructions.htm

 

So for left, I use bcs to not reverse the velocity if pet's x position is greater then 20

For right, I use bcc to not reverse the velocity if pet's x position is less then 144

 

x > 20 OR x < 144

 

Regards,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[[HELP]Movement Not Right]

I am trying to get my "character" to bounce between the left and right parts of the screen. Here is the code I'm using:

First, the global equates:

LEFTBOUNDRY        equ                 #20
RIGHTBOUNDRY       equ                 #144

and then the actual code:

; pet movement code
   lda PetX                                                                    ; load pet x position into accumulator
   clc                                                                         ; clear carry flag
   adc PetVX                                                                   ; add the pet's velocity constant
   sta PetX                                                                    ; store pet's new x position
   cmp #LEFTBOUNDRY                                                            ; does it intersect the left boundry?
   bcs SkipReversePetDirection                                                 ; if not branch
   cmp #RIGHTBOUNDRY                                                           ; does it intersect the right boundry?
   bcc SkipReversePetDirection                                                 ; if not branch
   lda PetVX                                                                   ; load the pet's x velocity
   eor #$ff                                                                    ; negate it
   adc PetVX                                                                   ; add pet's current velocity
   sta PetVX                                                                   ; store the pet's new velocity
SkipReversePetDirection

Also here is a link to the full source code: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6g6fmpmksvx7dmo/Source_11-14-18.zip?dl=0

 

Thanks for the support so far,

 

Heroes & Shadows

[What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)]

Sonic CD - Sega CD - 104 minutes

Heroes and Shadows - 2600 - 40 minutes

Tron - 2600 - 5 minutes

Clan Lord - PC - 300 minutes

Ookma-Kyi - PC - 10 minutes

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)]

When are the top 10 games going to be posted for the week of Nov 5-11? Seems like someone fell asleep on the wheel cause it's the 13th already.

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org

[What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)]

Clan Lord - PC - 5 hours

Dragster - 2600 - 3 hours

Ookma-Kyi - PC - 2 hours

Heroes & Shadows - 2600 - 80 minutes

 

 

Heroes & Shadows

https://heroesandshadowsgame.neocities.org