intergalactic419

Somehow I had never played Robotron before. I was working out east and had a big block of time to kill in between appointments last summer and found Billy's Midway Arcade in NJ. Had a great time playing and spent a lot of time on Robotron which is awesome. Really unique experience with the control set up. Billy was a cool guy and spent a lot of time talking about the machines and the hobby. He keeps his machines in great working order and I hope to get out there again when traveling.

First time viewer live. Thanks for the show, was fun. Really looking forward to the release of Robot Run 2600. I just recently ordered an Edladdin 78, but I think I need the twin 78 for this. Any confirmation the twin 78 double joystick will function on this to replicate the arcade setup? Or do I need two twin 78's to play the coming 4 player sports games that were mentioned haha. How far off is that quadtari that was shown? So many big drops in this episode! Also the key code was great. Finally a solution to stopping my kids from taking my games!

Thanks for posting your score! I need to practice as I'm well off that mark haha. Agreed addictive! Did you clear all sectors in a quadrant with that score?

Haha that pic is great! Exactly what I think of when using the term Backyard Football. I'll send you a message on RC6.

The positive is if you're on the goal line the next snap is an automatic qb sneak touchdown. I run out of bounds prior to the inches situation or make sure my pass target doesn't leave me in the inches situation. Once in awhile I'll have luck putting the receiver out wide and selecting the down route in the inches situation.

Thanks, I've had a blast playing and look forward to playing someone head to head.

Now that the field is marked in brown numbers the rich kids with white numbers painted on the field comment made me laugh. Now you have an average kids field too haha. We'd take our cleats or shoes and kick up the grass to mark yards or boundaries. So I'm visualizing those brown numbers as cleated out grass. Not sure if it's a bug and would be extremely difficult for me to replicate, but I threw a deep pass and was brought down on the goal line. Next play I snapped the ball and it immediately signaled touchdown without doing anything. Is this going to be released on a cart? Thanks for the game its fun!

runningtouchdown+longpass.mp4 runningtouchdown+longpass.mp4

I have a spreadsheet color coded I can send over. A page for each team, each team having columns listed by position and appropriate candidates. Cells color coded if a candidate ranks in the top 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 all-time of their respective position. I kept players limited to one team. I really focused on the the oldest teams and the Mariners and Jays since you had them as popular requests. Also some position adjustments (I.E. Tigers Cabrera has played more games at 1st then 3rd, but the game is more fun to put him at 3rd so Hank Greenberg can play 1st). Come on now, do your Red Sox really need Babe Ruth? haha. They already have a potential rotation of Pedro, Clemens, Smokey Joe Wood, and possibly Cy Young (he should go to the Indians). Actually I think it would be fun to have Ruth represented as a pitcher with Red Sox and hitter with Yankees, and each team should have one fun throw in. Happy to work on attributes if you decide on the final players and what attributes you want.

Yes. And when you cross the goal line the screen will flash indicating a touchdown. In fact as soon as you release the ball as the quarterback you can start controlling the path of the receiver. I find it's best to lead the receiver for a successful deep pass. Meaning roll out to pass, then when he is starting to break free hit the space bar. which allows you to then move the target. Put it further down the field. Then release when timing is right. Do not wait for him to get to the target, it is most likely a dropped pass if you wait for him to arrive at the target before throwing. He catches it better when on the run to the target.

Hey Chewy give my approach a try in the post above and I'm sure you'll be putting up some points soon. My best game is winning 10-3. I was up 9-0 and I thought I was going to shut them out 10-0, but I fumbled on the next attempt.

No not to easy, I think i've just found a good pattern to beat the computer. I place receiver on the outside route, send him deep, and immediately start rolling opposite way. If my defender goes to help on receiver I keep going with the roll and run on the diagonal to the sideline and can pick up 15-20 yards. If he doesn't help, rolling to the opposite side of the receiver leaves a cross field lane open to nail the receiver with the fast pass and pick up half the field. Need to change the side of the field the receiver is on every time to not get sacked. I just go with what the defense is giving me. That approach seems to work well and key is running on a diagonal as much as you can as the defenders can't catch up as well when running on the diagonal. Thanks for giving scheme 3 a try. I love the look of the field that way, but with the white football it makes me feel like rugby or soccer to much. So I"ll go with the scheme 2, lighter grass, dirt numbers, and leather brown football.

This is great! This version needs to be named Billy vs Sidney haha. It makes me think of White Men Can't jump at the beach scenes!

I appreciate you explaining the constraints as I'm learning and impressed by the constraints you have to work in when designing a game choosing what to cut and what to keep. When you are using numbers and teams are taking 256 bytes does each digit take a byte? What if a player is #32, is that 2 bytes or still 1? So bytes are 256 minimum up to maximum 512? Or are numbers always 1 byte no matter the size while characters are a byte for each letter? Would TC on Detroit be an option for a player if the player represented by TC never had a jersey number? Could Home Run Baker be represented by HR? Or is that to close to using names? MLB is running an all-time team bracket right now which is strikingly similar to rosters I formed using research. MLB's rosters present a few problems as they have multiple players on multiple teams (Arod on Yanks and Mariners, Jimmie Foxx on Athletics and Red Sox) which mine corrected for, and they have some silly ommissions like Addie Joss not on Indians. For those that don't know the all star game was started as a benefit for Addie Joss as he died young and was one of the top pitchers of his time.

I think going all time greats essentially accomplishes both goals in this instance. As only jersey numbers will be used, only those with baseball knowledge or those interested in determining who is who will know which players are actually represented. Those people really want the real teams and characteristics of the players as part of the game. Others solely interested in game play will just know it as "hey this number 3 guy can really crush it on the New York team." Or "24 on Oakland is really fast and good at stealing bases". Or this New York Team can really slug and the St Louis team are speed demons. Timeless.

I think the lighter green grass is easier to view the players on and target. Are you able to show the lighter green grass with white numbers as opposed to brown numbers? I understand wanting the brown football but I think the white sideline and white numbers show better. Having fun playing and I can actually win on the keyboard now. For whatever reason I think it's a lot easier to run. Seems like both defenders are dropping back to cover receiver more frequently than before.

Getting some kind of error where the defender tries to blitz bumps into me then backs off and quarterback can't throw or run and the time clock doesn't count down either. Instead of the black throw marker it is a flashing color.

So I downloaded Stella for the first time to play this and am working off the keyboard. Using the keyboard I'm having more success with the fast pass but I think the slow lofted passes will work well when I can control the receiver with a stick and break route when he is covered. If it works how I think that's a pretty cool feature option. Is there anyway to escape the blitz? I managed to do a qb sneak and almost take it the house. Running the length of the field I bowled over both defenders, but then one recovered and took me down on the two yard line from behind which made it a little anti-climatic. I vote if you bowl over both on the sneak let him score as I would have been jumping up and down here. Unless that is, it's easier to bowl over defenders than I know and haven't figured that out yet. "Backyard Football" if that's the name I think I definitely have to pick up a copy haha.

I'd go green since as opposed to sandlot football it was always backyard football for me. We never had marked yardage lines so I don't know if you could do anything more sandlot or backyard style. Our endzones were always denoted by running between two trees at both ends. Like the team picking concept.

Space Rocks in Co-op! My son has been requesting this one everyday.

Hopefully with no possibility of injury for Ripken and Gehrig haha. Thoughts at this point of DH batting in lineup or pitcher batting? Will pitchers have attributes? Velocity, movement, stamina? If playing a tournament or season will the same starting pitcher be available in the following game? Reflecting back to playing sports games in my youth I think they were more fun if the teams were left unbalanced. When you played someone head to head you both tried to pick the best available team. If you played on your own you picked your favorite team. Once you had the game down on your own, you then picked the worst team and tried to win the championship for fun. So I'd vote to grade out the players and let the differences be. Just for fun right now, teams limited to 16, 8 national, 8 american, with including Seattle and the Jays are grading out as follows: Tier 1 - Yankees, Red Sox, A's, Tigers Tier 2 - Giants, Dodgers Cards, Tier 3 - Cubs, Braves, Phils, Indians, Twins(with old Washington), Mariners (giving them Arod over Yanks, giving them Canoe over the Yanks, Beltre since no Rangers, and Big Unit with no Arizona) Tier 4 - Pirates and Reds as they both have a shocking lack of top tier pitching. With pitching Pirates would have been tier 2-3, Reds tier 3 Tier 5 - Jays. That 77 year head start really helps the other franchises, Team Canada, Jays and Expos? It would help them a lot. Tiers done by using Bill James stat analysis player rankings by position and coding each team starting lineup based upon players falling 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 all-time for their respective positions.

As a huge baseball fan I can't wait to see this come together. Thank you for taking this task on and I hope you find it fun in the process! If you have to go down to 16 teams how about the oldest 16 which will especially help with all time great rosters. Cubs, Braves, Reds, Cardinals, Pirates, Giants, Phillies, Dodgers, Athletics, Twins(Senators), Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Red Sox, Orioles(Browns), Yankees. I think the teams will all end up looking pretty stacked. Since Seattle is in, maybe cut the Phillies as Philadelphia will have representation through the Athletics, which had far better Hall of Fame players and a better park (Shibe). Or if you are naming by city cut the White Sox as you'll already have the Cubs for Chicago. Maybe add the Homestead Grays? Please consider breaking hitting up into average and power if possible. How about instead of names using nicknames. I.E. Ozzie Smith (Wizard of Oz or The Wizard) Just going by number will cause some problems as older all time greats like Cobb, Wagner, Mathewson, Johnson never had numbers. Yes please on the all time greats! That would keep the long term playability of the game more fun. If you go current rosters in a couple of years the players have moved and most of the journeymen are retired shortly anyway. Max total skill per team please! Maybe a few Techmo Bowl style players (Bo Jackson Lawrence Taylor) who are the greatest at their skill, Ruth homeruns, Rickey Henderson stealing at will, Ozzie Smith catching everything in the infield, Cobb Hornsby or Williams always getting on base, Nolan Ryan throwing an impossible to hit fastball. Love the strategy, bunting also? I can't wait to have the Orioles/Browns and bring 3'7" Eddie Gaedel off the bench to pinch hit for a guaranteed walk haha. Possibility of a Beanball that forces the hitter out of the game and or pitcher ejection? Maybe a few historic pitchers able to throw a limited number of unhittable spitballs or scuffballs strategically throughout the game. I second several people's classic park suggestions if you can differentiate each one with certain unique features. One last item if you do historic parks like Polo grounds that had short home run porches but cavernous center fields Triples and inside the park homeruns were common. I know you mentioned doubles and Triples, but don't forget the inside the park jobs. If you want any leg work done, assembling lists of all time greats per team per position for you to choose from or have voted on, uniform numbers, player nicknames, player skill ratings, or unique park features, or one off unique roster guys like Eddie Gaedel. I'm happy to help in any way you want. Otherwise I'm ready to play my kids in this one once I have a boxed copy in my hands!

Gotcha, Thanks Al. You may show a double review from me then. Sorry for my confusion.

I tried, it shows my star rating for the game, but maybe I messed up as my review hasn't posted.

Glad you saw this one through to production. As a big fan of the original Adventure I picked up one of your new carts and had a blast playing it along with my 5 and 7 year old which also love Adventure. The wizard regeneration can be maddening, especially when you've taken out one wizard with the fire staff and then the bat steals the staff from you before you've found and killed the other wizard. Next thing you know the wizard you thought you've vanquished is back from the dead and you're back to square one. The ending was so satisfying burning the red wizard up in the chalice after he must have re-spawned 38 times in the game haha. Also my brain is trained to go on autopilot through the water maze after playing Adventure so many times, it's hard to resist going the autopilot direction and not the now reversed correct path in EMR II. In Adventure dark catacombs are easy to intuitively find your way through moving in a constant direction. I love how your dark catacomb mazes run counter intuitive to the direction I want to progress through. Keeps it a good brain challenge. It seems I did find a glitch. I'm not exactly sure how it happened as it happened so quickly. I believe I was in the dark catacomb and entered the white room and then back into the dark catacomb immediately. Somehow this managed to get my square locked inside the white wall and unable to move. I considered this punishment for not remembering the catacomb maze haha. I hope to see an EMR III and hope there isn't a 7 year wait! Thanks for this piece of game art!