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phuzaxeman

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Posts posted by phuzaxeman

  1. 4 minutes ago, space_dungeon said:

    This conversation has been going on for decades.  There are many reasons to play the 5200.  I had the chance to play 5200 Realisports Baseball last week.  The 8bit can't play that game properly.  Playing Intellidiscs yesterday, the Tron classic pays homage to the Intellivision controls as well. I love my 8bit, but I play the 5200 much more in modern times.   

    River Raid, Centipede, Defender, and Galaxian are excellent reasons to play the 5200 over the 8bit too.

    • Like 3
  2. 9 hours ago, space_dungeon said:

    Basically when you go through the different colors, the overall playing field blends together and you lose your place especially when the game goes fast.  

     

     

     

    millipede.thumb.jpg.9fed47893682742e6763f8cd3101a9f3.jpg

    Great point. . There are times on the higher levels when the mushrooms (rectangles) begin to crowd the screen, and the game flickers, and you have the "bugs" coming from diagonal; it's hard to see where you are. 

  3. 9 hours ago, Cafeman said:

    5200 MP is a great port, and challenging.  
     

    2600 MP looks to be a very talented effort in programming, the millipede segments and other creatures move very smoothly.  I’d guess that the player repeat registers are heavily used. Too bad all the mushrooms are rectangles just like 2600 centipede though.  
     

    We recently had a 2 week HSC and that was the most I’d played this A8/5200 version ever, it’s a great port. It may seem choppier than 5200 Centipede because it uses more character soft sprites than Centipede had to, which rarely can be moved as smoothly as a dedicated player missile sprite.  But 10 seconds into gameplay, and I don’t really notice any choppiness, but I’m fixated on the gameplay. I’d pick 5200 MP over 2600 MP if I had to choose. 

    Great take. It's easily 5200, hands down, better than the 2600 version.

    Millipede.jpg

    • Like 2
  4. On 12/19/2023 at 9:43 AM, remowilliams said:

    Cool? - Yes!

     

    The most practical? - Probably not : D

     

    image.thumb.jpeg.d04d56484569108e0203998c601994c8.jpeg

    For me, the 5200 VCS adapter is very practical.  My 2600 is in storage and haven't played it in years.  I bought the new 2600+ joystick and when I want to play the 2600, I take out the 2600 adapter for my 5200 and hook up the 2600+ sticks.  I save lots of space and I can quickly switch from the 5200 to 2600 without all the wire changes and needed space needed for 2 consoles.

    • Like 2
  5. On 12/20/2023 at 1:05 PM, Lord Thag said:

    I love the beast, but none of these criticisms are off base.

     

    Throw in the wide availability of cheap SD card interfaces, internet access with Fujinet, far more RAM to run complex games, a bigger homebrew scene, reliable controllers, easy A/V out for upscaling... the 8-bit line is just far superior these days. The GAMES on the 5200 are fantastic, for sure, and I love mine.. but I always steer new fans to an 8-bit computer. There's just so much more you can do, with much less effort. 

    I've had the 5200 since 82.  I've had my 800XL since 84.  I was part of the Houston 8bit community meet ups etc and supported the 8bit for years. I've also published gaming reviews for the 8bt. 

     

    In todays age with the new controller upgrades and options, plus many joystick options, the 5200 with the AtariMax and 8bit conversions to me is just easier and better for me to play than my 800XL.  My 5200 also has the 2600 adapter so everything is faster/setup to play 5200/8bit/2600 games on 1 TV. Plus I can store my controller in the 5200 storage.  The 5200 gets way more playing time and is more versatile for my situation than my 8bit. The dual stick and trackball options make the 5200 even better too. 

    • Like 1
  6. On 11/26/2023 at 7:17 PM, space_dungeon said:

    I have both Millipede on the 5200 and 2600. The 2600 version is done well for a 2600 game. And it's better than 2600 Centipede. But the 5200 version of Millipede has more detail, more colors, much better sound effects, and a better feel like the arcade than the 2600. The 2600 version mushrooms are just rectangles. 2600 version doesn't even display the high score. The 2600 ship/wand is also just a rectangle. The 5200 trackball is the best trackball made in that era. 

     

    My only gripe I have with the 5200 Millipede is the speed is a little slower than the arcade. 5200 Millipede is superior to the 2600 version in everyway. 

     

    I completely agree with 5200 Millipede vs 2600.  5200 Millipede is much better on all levels. The speed of 5200 Millipede actually gets much faster in the later levels. 

    • Like 2
  7. On 11/13/2023 at 11:19 AM, Rick Reynolds said:

    I was playing the 5200 Chess cart some this past weekend.

     

    My understanding is that this is a conversion from the 8-bit program, which expects a keyboard in order to enter data for certain features.  Does anyone know if the programmer who did the conversion enabled all the features to be accessed via the controller?  And if so, are there any notes regarding how to do that?  The only documentation I've been able to find is the manuals that came with the Atari 8-bit version, which don't actually address my questions.

     

    I DID find out how to set the skill level, and I assume also how to set it so the player can play black instead of white.  But I don't know if the 5200 version will allow for under-promoting to a knight for instance when a pawn reaches the end of the board.  The manual for the 8-bit version says that relies on a "setup pieces" feature that seems to need a keyboard.

     

    I know chess on the 5200 isn't a big concern for most.  But I'm curious...

     

    Rick

     

    The 5200 version does not allow for under-promoting a knight, for instance, when a pawn reaches the end of the board.  It automatically promotes the pawn to a queen. The game itself still plays well like the 8bit.  

  8. Creator Phillip Price sums up his vision in his interview on what the ultimate goals in the final game, "a person in the final game in the series would have to make some heavy choices. Should I annihilate the planet we are orbiting that is populated with aliens who had kidnapped me? Should I just return to Earth? Should I take the alien megaship I am in with me to Earth? Should I destroy it? These were all final choices in the end, each with probabilities of certain consequences occurring from those choices." 

     

    Interview: https://dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/PRICE.HTM

     

    Price doesn't suggest there is virtual world in which humans are being controlled like in the Matrix.

     

     

     

     

     

  9. 20 minutes ago, CharlieChaplin said:

     

    On the internet, where else ? At one time Gary Gilbertson himself wrote the background information for all AR titles that were planned, see here:

     

     

    And regarding similarities between AR and The Matrix read my posting that follows after that one...

     

     

    I've read the discussion. In the Matrix, the matrix is a computer-generated dream world designed to keep human under control. There is nothing in any of Gary's lyrics in AR that suggest AR is some kind of matrix world to keep humans under control like the movie. Nor does the epilogue say anything anything to suggest it. AR epilogue includes the premise that you were abducted by aliens and placed in a doorway into the city of Xebec Demise. In the opening sequence of both the City and Dungeon, you literally see the alien ship zapping earth. The AA discussion on AR was almost 20 years after the release. 

     

     

  10. On 12/8/2022 at 7:12 PM, Xebec's Demise said:

    Isn't the main theme of both Alternate Reality and The Matrix that you discover your mind has been involuntarily placed within a virtual reality?

     

    Did you not see this post here and the article I linked to quoting Philip Price?

    Hi, I'm joining this talk late. I grew up with AR and I spent a half decade on the game. I also wrote a review many years ago. It's my top 3 8bit game of all time. I just started playing the game recently after decades of not playing AR on my PC.

     

    To answer your question, I never got the impression that your mind was placed in some kind of virtual reality. The premise of AR is that you were abducted by aliens and placed in a doorway into the city of Xebec Demise.

     

     

  11. On 11/29/2022 at 9:41 AM, Ninjabba said:

    I had a look to see how much it would take to port the original code to a newer template and quickly closed my editor once I saw the hexadecimal nightmare I created in the memory layout again.

     

    Everything that you would flag for improvements have been done for good memory reasons in the past.. the background is scaled up for example to allow it in memory within the battle module. In retrospect, maybe some loading/unloading of sprite data while rendering the scene could overcome this issue (never tried this), but then there is the hard limit of the 256kb ROM size to which I'm very close to already in the original state.

    My aim is to first create the story/maps/sprites and then see if I can make graphics/sfx and other improvements.

    WT is amazing.  Thank you for creating it. 

     

    There are a few improvements I would like to recommend that would make the sequel even better. Feel free to add them if you'd like.

     

    #1 I feel like there's less time to explore and learn the caves because every 7 seconds I have to fight or flee.  Having more time to move around and explore would allow more flow to the game. 

     

    #2 It would help to have more variation in music and visual background during the fight scenes.  For example, having  

     

    #3 When using magic, it seems to take such a long time.  Maybe speeding things up.

     

    Thanks again!

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  12. On 9/27/2022 at 1:29 PM, pirx said:

    After a very difficult struggle with memory requirements and help from @miker we have a version of Scorch (Scorched Earth demake) ported for 5200. Unfortunately I do not have the console, so testing with emulators only. 
    And here is the problem - the game works OK in the atari800 emulator (and derivatives), but fails miserably in Altirra. I guess it will fail on the real hardware as well, because of @phaeron prowess and the Altirra emulation accuracy.

    By fail I mean it does not recognize joystick being in a neutral position. For analog->digital conversion I used @JAC! procedure from Alien Swarm (almost) verbatim, but I guess I am doing it wrong :) (had to change POTx to PADDLEx because of using deferred VBI - POTs seem to be depleted in deferred)

    Anyways, could you try the attached ROM on the real machine?

     

    The source code is here: https://github.com/pkali/scorch_src/tree/develop, to compile 5200 version you need to change `TARGET` in scorch.asm. The joy division starts at line 1240 in the same file.

     

    The game itself right now uses only joystick and a single button. The texts are from A800 version, will be adjusted. pressing the trigger for a longer time in the game drops you to an inventory where you can select weapons. in the inventory and shop move joy left to switch between defensive and offensive weapons, joystick right selects a weapon. fire gets you back to the game. We'll probably employ numpad keys for easier access to different functions, like on A800.

    All comments welcome.

    scorch.bin 32 kB · 49 downloads

    Thank you for this game!  It works great on my 5200. My only suggestion is the text is somewhat small at the end of each round.  Everything else for me is great. 

     

     

    • Like 1
  13. 4 minutes ago, famicommander said:

    Whether the games themselves are good or bad is not the issue. The issue is they claimed they tested some games as working that literally cannot work on an HDMI display. They need to update their compatibility list to make clear that those games are unplayable.

    Alien Brigade works great using the joystick and light gun. Why wouldn't a game like this work on an HDMI screen? 

  14. 2 minutes ago, famicommander said:

    The lack of analog video output really is a bad oversight. The light gun-only 7800 games are listed as tested working, but that cannot possibly be true because those games aren't going to work on an HDMI display. You need an analog CRT display for old school light gun technology to work.

     

    Further, if the target market is people who have a stack of old Atari carts lying around, chances are a high percentage of those people have a CRT or an analog capture device or a scaler of some kind.

     

    Obviously it costs more to have both analog and digital audio and video, but they could mitigate the cost by selling cables. Use one breakout port for analog video and audio and then sell Atari-branded composite, s-video, component, scart, and/or VGA cables. Cables are almost all markup; I worked at a computer store for over a decade and the main way we made money was by selling printers/TVs/laptops/desktops/game consoles below cost and then attaching video/audio/data cables to them. Store cost on a 50 dollar cable was like a buck, if that. Put the video port on the console and make people buy whatever analog cable they need separately, since most people will probably opt for HDMI.

    I have the original 7800 and 2600.  I don't need the analog video.  I want to see and play games on the HDMI monitor. 

    As far as 7800 light gun games, there's only about 5 games.  Other than Alien Brigade, the other games were poor.  

    • Like 1
  15. On 8/1/2023 at 9:27 AM, RockLobster said:

    Oh sorry I thought I had replied already but yes it's fantastic!   

     

    Since there's no fast auto-centering for the sticks, there's no way games that require quick direction changes to work well enough on the 5200 sticks.

     

    The distance (and the time) to change directions quickly for games like Defender is made so much easier in digital.

    I haven't played Defender in ages. I racked up some great scores as a kid using the original sticks. The controls are still amazing. 

    • Like 1
  16. On 8/1/2023 at 9:27 AM, RockLobster said:

    Oh sorry I thought I had replied already but yes it's fantastic!   

     

    Since there's no fast auto-centering for the sticks, there's no way games that require quick direction changes to work well enough on the 5200 sticks.

     

    The distance (and the time) to change directions quickly for games like Defender is made so much easier in digital.

    I disagree. For example, you'd think a quick digital left and right direction would work great on a game like 5200 Galaxian. But the 5200 sticks work great and are an advantage with the analog control speeds. I have the high score records for Galaxian.

     

    In your example with 5200 defender. I also have defender on the 8bit computer using a tac stick and my scores are higher on the 5200 because the access to my smart bomb is on the 2nd button rather than reaching for the space bar and the hyperspace 5200 button is any button on the keypad. Left and right is just as fast.  I've tested this for decades since I've played and owned both defenders. Star Raider is the same control concept too.

    • Like 1
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