madatariscientistjr

Just wondering if anyone has made or seen any developments along the lines of a homebrew Atari Video Music? Someone mentioned an issue with speed and cycles - I think the sample rate wouldn't have to be that high, right? Most music is what, 120 bpm, 160 bpm max? Which comes to 2-3 beats per second. We're just trying to move an image to the beat of the music. I'm envisioning something with minimal hardware you can order inexpensively from a Digikey or even Amazon, and using the existing paddle inputs and not a supercharger (which most people don't have access to). If it's a lost cause or done more easily and inexpensively with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino then so be it, but it would be a very neat thing to see on an Atari VCS! ?

Sure, though I am interested in the trim pot, and being able to adjust the paddle sensitivity depending on the game... When I get a chance, I'll do some experimenting and try some of the ideas in this thread! Similarly, a while back I inquired about adapting an optical USB mouse to be used as a paddle controller (via Arduino or Pi) and someone suggested using PWM (pulse wave modulation) to control resistance. Another project on the backburner!

The biggest shortcoming of the AFP is the controller - what they should do if there is ever an AFP v3, is add a mini/micro USB port (or let the existing one pass data not just charge) you can plug a breakout adapter into, that has 2 d-sub 9 and accepts all the original VCS controllers. The C64 TV had the same bottleneck - they included a single built-in joystick, when it should have had 2 D-SUB 9 ports and a USB port for a keyboard. Cuts the functionality from Very Cool down to Curiosity.

Thanks, I’ll check it out! Has anyone tried creating a 2600 VCS development system for other languages?

Here’s a question... Doesn’t Stella support upto 32k ROMs? How about FB portable? If so, then that gives plenty of memory for a swanky library of routines that could be used for lots of games. As far as putting in time, I have time to chatter about this stuff but that’s about it. I thought it would be cool to see Pitfall II running in the flashback portable is all, for the kids. But I also have it for the C64 - that music certainly gets into your head! heheh I grew up programming games on the C= in BASIC and a little assembly, and have occasionally been tempted to take a crack at the VCS but always been daunted by what seems like nightmarish low level complexity. I know about BATARI BASIC, does it work? I think it would be cool if someone made a JavaScript, Python, and C compiler specifically for making games for the 2600 with commands for all the basic graphics and sounds, that makes it relatively simple for a non-genius to casually make games (about as easy as it was with old 8-bit BASIC)...

Good answers everyone! It’s kind of cool how they (Activision & Mr. Crane) overcame the limitations of the machine by basically using the cartridge to upgrade the hardware. One wonders how far they could have taken that... For instance make the DPC part into a cart that plugs into the cartridge port, and then Pitfall II and other DPC games would plug into that. They coulda added all kinds of capabilities, coprocessors, memory, etc. But by separating out the DPC to be reusable for additional games they could have extended the life of the console (in a perfect world... but this is not a perfect world!)

Maybe not strip it out, but inject in some kind of equivalent stand-in that accomplishes the same things the DPC did, but in code? Honestly I have no clue, but I’m sure where there’s a will there’s a way, for someone smart, obsessed enough, and with no life, lol! If anything, a Pitfall II remake that requires no special chip would be a cool homebrew project...

I don’t suppose one of the more enterprising Atari homebrew programmers can do some ingenious hacking, to somehow mod the game to use some vanilla graphics routines instead of relying on that custom Display Processor Chip? Being that it’s an emulator, maybe leverage extra memory or something? (I have no idea myself, just asking!)