Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

Fort Apocalypse

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    1,599

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Fort Apocalypse

  1. Posted · Edited by Fort Apocalypse

    I found: http://nocash.emubase.de/2k6specs.htm#controllers

     

    It says:

    To read paddle buttons, configure SWCHA as input (SWACNT=00h), then read from SWCHA:

     

    Pin Bit Expl.

    3 SWCHA.2 Paddle #3 button (right paddle, P1) (0=Pressed)

    4 SWCHA.3 Paddle #2 button (left paddle, P1)

    3 SWCHA.6 Paddle #1 button (right paddle, P0)

    4 SWCHA.7 Paddle #0 button (left paddle, P0)

     

    Also found it in http://www.io.com/~nickb/atari/doc/stella.txt

    5.4 Paddle (pot) controllers

    Only the paddle triggers are read from the PIA. The

    paddles themselves are read at INP0 thru INPT3 of the TIA.

    The paddle triggers can be read at SWCHA according to the

    following table :

     

    Data Bit Paddle #

    D7 P0

    D6 P1

    D5/D4 (not used)

    D3 P2

    D2 P3

    D1/D0 (not used)

     

    But I have no idea how that would translate to bB. Anyone have any idea?

  3. Posted

    Not sure if this would work for you or not, but why not skip decimal and do everything in integers that are 100 times your decimal values, then divide down by 100 when you need to...

     

    For example, instead of saying y=y+.78

     

    Make it y=y+78

     

    Then when you actually want to set the sprite value, do something like player0y=y/100

     

    Does this make sense? The code will execute faster and should be smaller, too... (careful of rounding, though, you will have to adjust for that). If you can adjust your code so that you divide by a base 2 number, that's even better 'cos you won't need a module...

     

    Just a quick thought after very briefly reviewing your code...

     

    Thanks,

     

    Mike

     

    That's a good idea for the direction (p2dir) var. I'll change from a 4.4 to just using a regular non-decimal 8 bit number and divide/add 1 to get 1-16.

     

    For player coordinates though, since there are 4 players the max range of any 8 bit unsigned number is 255, and p2x, p2y, p3x, p3y, p4x, p4y, p5x, and p5y vars represent the coordinates of those then that wouldn't work right? (BTW- the reason the varnames contain 2-5 instead of 0-3 or 1-4 is because originally it mapped to their multisprite player numbers).

     

    I did think about just adding 3, 7, or 10 to the player coordinates (p2x, p2y, etc.) and I may end up doing that to save variables. However gameplay will be way too fast I think and won't be very smooth. I could also do 1, 3, 5 for a "slower" speed but that might be really rough looking. I'm guessing that's what I'll have to do in order to save variables for other things.

  4. Posted

    I see something else - p2dir is a 4.4 fixed point type (which is probably the core of the original problem.) It's not clear why you need a 4.4 type for p2dir, as its value seems to only be 1-16, right? That, and 4.4 types are only valid from -8 to +7.9-something.

     

    (Also, when used in a conditional statement, 4.4 types are multiplied by 16 so they can be used as normal integers, so the conditional statements wouldn't work anyway as shown.)

     

    Great info. Thanks! This would be really helpful to have here:

    http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-me...ds.html#decimal

  9. Posted · Edited by Fort Apocalypse

    Thought it might be fun if everyone posted a picture of their FB2 setup, their cart mod, some other FB2 mod, or some other interesting use of their FB2.

     

    Competition ends at Sept. 25 at 11:59pm (just to choose an arbitrary date and time).

     

    The award is that you will enjoy 19.72 days of being the coolest person in the forum (which by the way is 19d 17h 16m 48s).

     

    Competition will be judged by Curt, only if he is interested in judging. Curt can also enter the competition. Curt can pretty much do whatever the hell he wants, since he is the man.

  10. Posted

    There will be two versions, one without...

     

     

    FB3's spec's have completely changed since last year, will fill everyone in on the new spec's in a few months.

     

     

     

    Curt

    I hope this is still going to happen.

     

    My guess is that there will be no news as Curt had said previously until next year. But we're all hopeful that we might get some inkling of what is going on somehow, even if it is just to know the project is still heading to completion (which appears to be the case from those that are in the know).

  11. Posted

    If there were a way to have colors with those scores that would be even better, but they definitely wouldn't be necessary.

     

    Have you looked at the sample program and documentation? The scores already have different colors.

     

    Sorry, I meant a separate color for each of the four scores.

  12. Posted

    I like this mod, but I still find 32x11 to be pretty useless.

     

    I can't believe that a mod that allows me to change the value of COLUBK once, on a specific scanline would be more difficult.

     

    If you only want to change it on a particular line, I found a hack to do that in early versions of Insane Painter. I think I was setting the one of the TIA registers in bB with a wierd value (0x - I have no idea what bB converted the x into). Then the ball would change the playfield color.

  13. Posted

    If needed, I can personally host a programming wiki that uses MediaWiki (the same software as Wikipedia). I've had an empty wiki set up for a while now, I've just been trying to think of something to do with it. Anyway, my vision is a base foundation of the original TIA guide, divided up into different pages, and then let the editing/additions begin.

     

    That is very nice of you and anything supporting the community would definitely help!

     

    The only thing I'd worry about using that as the sole wiki for this stuff is would it would be maintainable if you or anyone else did this on their own. In other words, would you do regular backups of it and store them offsite with other individuals that would pick it back up if something happened to you, would you have the money to shell out if it had any kind of hardware failure and be able to fix it within a week, would you be keeping an eye on it to make sure no one was filling it up with advertisements or trashing it, and would it stay up indefinitely (in theory- at least no planned end to it). I'm assuming that Atari funds Atariage and that someone would pick up the slack if Atari ever tanked, so I think this would be the best place for it if possible. Mostly just don't want stuff to get lost that lots of people spend time on.

     

    those are my thoughts at least...

  15. Posted · Edited by Fort Apocalypse

    I just realized that as currently written, this minikernel will crash when used with the multisprite kernel. It's an easy fix, so I will change it when I add the ability to show 4 scores (along with a few other tweeks).

     

    Personally I wouldn't be using this with multisprite. I gave up on multisprite for the Ultimate Indy 500 game because of the lack of possible paddle support. Michael mentioned potentially modifying the kernel to get better vertical resolution of the playfield, but for now I'd still be really interested in a 4 score minikernel. If there were a way to have colors with those scores that would be even better, but they definitely wouldn't be necessary. They would be my lap counters, so they would be as functional within the game as they would be for display purposes. Thanks for doing this!

  16. Posted

    hey all. i rounded up an atari fb 2.0 that didnt make it throught a cart connecter mod.

    my question is. is it salvageable? a few of the solder pads where apparently pulled from the board.and also, the cap, or res, at j9 is gone.. ok the thing powers up and gets random game sounds, and color bars, and or graphic garbage on the screen? can i correct this? i am decent with soldering.any help greatly appreciated .

     

    Not that I could personally help, but I think if you want help, you'll need to post some pictures that show the exact current state of things as clearly as possible.

  18. Posted · Edited by Fort Apocalypse

    I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to rotate my player definition 22.5 degrees and found this page that describes a decent way to rotate "pixel art" (in this case, player sprite definitions):

    http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/Rotate_Pixel_A...ithout_Blurring

     

    Basically the idea is to do the following (I used Paint Shop Pro, but other apps probably work just as well or better):

    1 ) Create a canvas of the size of the player

    2 ) Zoom in a lot

    3 ) Use a 1 pixel paint brush to create the image (and make sure your foreground and background are right color before rotate)

    4 ) Increase the size a lot (1000%)

    5 ) Rotate it

    6 ) Crop it (doesn't have to be same proportional, just crop it as tight as you can)

    7 ) Resize it back to the original size (and zoom in)

    8 ) Look at the picture and make the player sprite definition look like it

     

    This wasn't perfect, but was close enough. Note that playerpal 2 has 90 degree rotation ability already. It just doesn't have 22.5 and 45 degree rotation.

  19. Posted

    They don't have to steal the FB2 implementation. The TIA schematics are openly circulated and there are cores available for such things as the 6502. A company was working on this sort of thing even before the FB2 came out but it ran into some difficulties along the way. So it could be done and for all we know it may still be done one day, although the odds may be diminishing as time goes on.

    Yeah, I was thinking the TIA schematics were open to the public I just didn't know for sure. I was really excited about putting a cart slot on my flashback 2 but I just have so many actual 2600 systems it doesn't seem worth it for me yet. If there ever was a full functioning 2600 clone (with original 6 or 4 switch design) with composite RCA video out I would be tempted to pick one up. It would have to be completely compatible with all the games though.

     

    Even better than that you can get the real thing. I know Longhorn Engineer sells A/V mods for the original 2600s and revamps them: see this post

  20. Posted

    There were quite a few people who were very vocal about their annoyances, but that apple was definitely the one that broke the camel's back.

     

    Yeah, that stuff was way out of hand.

     

    It's like the people that are pissy with waiters and waitresses because they feel there some sense of entitlement to being a customer. I'll be the first to say that I complain if I get really bad service and you can tell the person just doesn't care. However, when you see how hard people are working, you know that they really care about the service, and you know they are doing a great job, I totally respect and admire that. Curt is definitely one of the good guys, and the FB2 was one of the greatest products ever made IMO. Yes, a good part of that is also because the 2600 was one of the greatest products ever made, but the FB2 could have sucked in so many ways, and it didn't, because Curt made it true to the original as much as he could. It was even intentionally hackable which made it way cool.

     

    Well, I'll keep dreaming of the day when the new system is done. I can see it now. Curt kisses it before placing it in the box waving at it as it goes down the assembly line... it gets carefully handled with white gloves and FedEx'd overnight on a concord ... arrives at my house in a gift-wrapped box with a nice bow around it... Mmmmmmmm

  21. Posted

    I am still pro-Atari and definitely pro-Curt, but it was a seriously bad decision to not give anyone any insight into what is coming. One of the absolute best ways to generate revenue is to create buzz. No talk = no buzz = lower revenue for Atari. If there is a competitor that Atari is afraid will steal whatever secret they have is, then don't say anything meaningful, but least say something and acknowledge the fanbase. It doesn't even have to be good. Just give us an empty statement every two months like "the greatest thing since sliced bread" and at least we can sit here and try to pick apart the statement for some hidden meaning of "sliced bread".

     

    Turns out I was wrong. The reason they stop posting anything in the forums was because of some bad apples: see 1368747 and 1347119

  22. Posted

    There were quite a few people who were very vocal about their annoyances, but that apple was definitely the one that broke the camel's back.

     

    Well now I know who to blame for Curt's disappearance. I'm glad it wasn't me! At least I hope it wasn't me. If it was me I will run far away.

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...