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Every couple of weeks or months when I feel like commenting on current events and it doesn't fit one of my existing web pages, I'll put it here:
http://www.randomterrain.com/personal-comment-caboodle.html
It's a blog-like, but not a real blog.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1341
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Well, just when I get a bunch of stuff checked off my To-Do list, more stuff gets added to it.
So, new to the list are:
- New ghost sprites for Dennis' PacMan (not Pac-Man)
- (Some) new sprites for Rainbow Invaders
- Tiles for Bob (maybe he's redecorating his bathroom or something)
Plus I still have to clean up the Four-Play title screen a bit, finish the label art for it, finish the manuals for RPS and MGD, and I may take a crack at the power-ups for SuperBug.
Plus, I need to write up some store reviews for my latest haul from the AA store:
And of course, I need to spend some quality time with my 2600, too.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1340
- New ghost sprites for Dennis' PacMan (not Pac-Man)
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Here it is: an animated GIF showing how the game looks. Totally unlike anything on the 2600. There's a little flicker on a real machine but not bad at all. Monsters aren't deadly yet, but you can see how they move, and how the rocks and rubies fall.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1339
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I played Doom for the first time this weekend. I know, I know, where the hel have I been. I have played many FPS games, but I was so busy at college when Doom came out I missed it. I rememeber people mentioning it and talking about how awesome it was, but I never played it.
I must say now that I have played it, I am very impressed. The game plays very well. Control is smooth and responsive. The level designs are exquisite considering the limitations of the game engine. Unlike a modern FPS no 2 areas of a DOOM map can overlap, so there are no over and under design options. Despite this, I found all the levels to be laid out with great attention to what makes a FPS game fun. Lots of places to shoot at enemies with cover. Lots of secrets to root out. It was all very enjoyable. Truly Doom was a banner game that spawned a lasting genre. Many modern FPSs are not as good as Doom, IMO.
Looking at the engine, I can't help but wonder is a primitive FPS would be possible on the 7800. I know that it does not have sprite scaling built in, so that would mean lots of sprites need to be stored in the ROM at all the necessary scales. The walls could be monochrome to minimize CPU time, and lighting effects would not exist. Sort of a Tunnel Runner on Steriods. The end result would probably be more akin to Wolfenstien 3D than to Doom.
It seems to me that hte Lynx, which was able to do an excellent port of Stun Runner, should be able to run Doom considering it has the sprite scalling hardware support. The main obstacle to overcome would be the limit of 16 colors per scanline. Lighting options would probably be defeated by the limit in colors, although blackouts would be simple enough to accomplish.
Cheers,
Rob
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1338
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Another article about Infogrames/Atari. I found the last line very interesting:
To help raise money, Infogrames intends to sell off its internal studios, as well as some undisclosed intellectual property.
Wonder what intellectual property might be sold off.
Bill
March 10, 2006
Infogrames Seeks Interest Payment Extensions
Infogrames, the struggling parent game publishing/developing company of U.S. firm Atari, has requested an extension on deadlines for some of its interest payments as it negotiates with banks for financial restructuring. The company is currently asking bond holders to approve the extended deadline for repaying 13.4 million euros ($15.97 million USD) worth of interest due March 15th ....
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=8481
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1337
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Hi there!
Phew... in order to reclaim some space and getting rid of some junk in our house, I recently put my last Odyssey 2 (actually a G7000) on eBay. The few remaining games I still have will follow soon.
Next thing that has to go will be the Intellivision. I only bought one a year ago, after some friendly soul borrowed me his IntelliCart in order to have me consider homebrewing a game for it. Yet I never got warm with the system (read: controllers).
So, the 8-Bit consoles I'm still activley collecting for are:
- Atari 2600 (Shrinked my collection to some essential ~50 games. I only need 3-4 more titles to consider my 2600 collection done. From then on I'll only buy homebrews, Juno First currently being on top of my wishlist!
)- Colecovision
- NES
- SMS
What I'm still considering, is wether I should buy me a 7800 (Or, eventually get the one repaired I already have
). My plan is to check out all existing PAL games and when I find at least 10 that I enjoy, I'll buy it. I joined the 7800 HSC to check them all out, so far I have 5 titles on the "pro" side: Commando, Donkey Kong, Food Fight, Galaga, Ikari Warriors. Since the 7800 HSC already starts repeating now, I think I'll try the rest of the games on my own now, so I come to a quicker descission here )Greetings,
Manuel
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1336
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OK, I admit it. I'm behind the times when it comes to cool, simple yet addictive puzzle games that other people have known about for years. What rock was I under?
First I found out about Sudoku a couple of months ago, and what a great concept that game is. Even my wife got the bug and now solves a few puzzles each week! And next, I found -- you guessed it -- Picross. This is another challenging puzzle game which is perfect for a handheld platform like the Lynx where you just want to kill some time while waiting somewhere and yet you want a little brain stimulus, too.
The concept is simple: you get a grid of empty boxes, and some numbers outside the grid indicating how many boxes are filled in that row or column. You must then deduce exactly which boxes are filled in based on this limited information. End result is a cute little picture.
Chris Vick took a break from other responsibilities (and yes, he knows Lynx fans are still anxious for Distant Lands and yes, he is still working on the game!) to deliver this cool puzzler for the 2006 Lynx Multicart. For the Lynx version, you can of course expect some nice graphics, solid audio, friendly controls, and at least 50 built-in puzzles, but Chris and I have been discussing what else we could do to give this game even more longevity.
I've had a goal in mind for new Lynx games, especially (but not only) puzzle games, where the players can keep desigining new content and make that content available for Lynx fans for years to come. CM2:BT accomplished this by supporting new levels via comlynx download. That's a nice feature, but it's not very portable since the level is in RAM only and you need a PC link to download it.
So, you get the Multicart, you've solved the built-in Picross puzzles. What now? How about a puzzle generator screen where you can create your own puzzles with a unique password? And then a password screen where players can input a new puzzle? This should be a great way for Lynx fans to experiment with different Picross puzzles and share them with the Atari community. Keep an eye out for this new game coming in 2006!
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1335
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I thought I'd comment on the Origami hype from Microsoft and Intel.
There are people out there who just don't "get" the UMPC. That doesn't mean these things won't sell. They just won't sell to them. Nevertheless, they love to talk like they know what's best for us.
I read Slashdot a lot and ironically a lot of people there, as technologically savvy as they may be, when it comes to talking about mobile devices, start waxing lyrical about their old B&W Palms with no wireless capability. Or they say they like carrying a dozen dedicated devices in every pocket vs. a multipurpose device. I have a hard time relating....
I've been waiting for a device like this to come around for a long time. I was once given a laptop by my employers and I wound up returning it. Why? Because it was bulky and heavy. It wasn't something I wanted to casually carry around unless I knew for a fact I had to get some work done. If you are able to make a laptop small enough, then you can justify carrying it around everywhere. However, if you make it the size of a PDA or smaller, then the screen is no longer useable. So I think the form-factor of the UMPC is an okay compromise.
Nevertheless, people will whine and complain. It's too big, it's too small, whatever.
Why has it taken this long? Technology is part of it, but also misguided business sense.
History is littered with computer hardware makers chasing niche markets. With a niche market, your corporate clients, you can charge whatever you want because real people aren't paying. But your volume isn't there. Traditionally, PDAs and, more recently, tablets, have been positioned exclusively for these niche markets rather than the mainstream consumer.
Wasn't it a couple years back that Jobs said that it was the "year of the laptop"?? He didn't just mean vertical markets. He meant mainstream.
Laptops are a hotter hardware segment than desktops.
Meanwhile, there are TOO MANY different portable devices that have almost arbitrarily limited functionality. Take a GPS device. It's really a WINCE box, but with certain features disabled. Same deal with PMPs or game machines (like the PSP or even GP2X).
In order for a PMP to be able to render video effectively it pretty much has to have enough CPU muscle to run a decent OS anyway, but when you plunk down your $500 all you get is a video player and that's it.
I know a lot of people like to talk about how if you make something that just does one thing, it's going to automatically be better. I don't buy it, otherwise nobody would use general purpose computers to begin with. Every software application we want to run would require its own single-purpose computer. That would be a step back in the desktop domain, and there is no reason to think differently with mobile computing.
So I think the UMPC does in fact represent the singularity-point of mobile computing.
For those who think the UMPC won't be an iPod killer, remember, a full XP install can just run full-blown Itunes, which has a lot more fuctionality than the iPod interface. No more DRM compatibility issues. No more syncing either if you want to just use that box as your main music library. And no more video transcoding. You can run the full MPEG4 codecs. No requirement that it be a particular resolution or "Simple Profile".
The trick here is execution, and that's where things are lagging.
I think that some changes may need to take place within XP or Vista to make it scale down to portable devices better. I also think that more flash memory should be used as a substitute for hard drives, and the software should do a better job of deciding when to buffer and when to spin up the drive. MP3 players do a pretty good job of this. All media players on Windows should also.
Processors must be chosen which are powerful enough for media playing but no more. There is a sweet spot to hit after which you are just sucking battery life for no real gain. There may be ways to offload certain tasks to custom hardware so that the CPU can run slower. I just don't think it's been completely optimized yet.
And then there is Apple. With OSX on Intel now, they can get into the game too. They filed patents for multi-touch technology. With Apple, sometimes they innovate, and other times they seem to wait around and wait around forever before they enter the ring only after being dragged kicking and screaming (like video on the iPod or the "headless mac").
An OSX UMPC could be the endgame of the iPod evolution if Jobs wants to play it that way. Jobs has been hoping for this "halo effect" of iPod users becoming OSX users and I don't think it's happening fast enough, despite the Mac Mini. Slowly abandoning the iPod OS in favor of an OSX UMPC "iPod" would be the perfect way to convert every iPod user into a MAC user. Is it an iPod at that point or a shrunken iBook with a touchscreen? Does it matter?
Of course, the problem, especially for Apple, is pricepoint.
Quality laptops cost big money. And the smaller the device, usually the more expensive it is.
Apple has been reluctant to charge mainstream prices for its hardware. If the UMPC eventually breaks the $500 barrier, I wouldn't expect an offering from Apple to be any less than $750 or $800. A $500 device might still be considered a consumer electronics gadget. But beyond that, it's considered a laptop, something to be coddled, something a little less than casual. Not as much of an impulse buy.
And that's why the status quo is what it is. That's why when you pick up a $500 dell laptop you get something bulky and underpowered, and the Fujitsu P1510 starts at $1,400 and the OQO is around $2,000.
Intel has been focusing on packing more and more silicon into their CPUs with little regard for power consumption for too long. My PIV is 2.4ghz and about two years old. Clockspeeds aren't getting much faster than they already are. That's why they are going dual-core. What Intel now has to do is focus on taking new fabrication methods and applying it to deliberately simplified CPUs that don't have to be bleeding edge but are merely "good enough" for these UMPCs. By good enough I mean being able to do reasonably good video conferencing and no stuttering on h.264 playback of full res video. But it doesn't have to run the latest games at a slick framerate. Unfortunately, with x86, a lot of legacy has to be there for backwards compatibility vs. something like an ARM architecture, but there is no getting around that.
So I'm pretty impatient because I want to see a device like this come out that is $500 and with an 8-hour battery life. It looks like it might be a couple years before that's even a possibility.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1334
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Here is another Chimera teaser for you.
Ever since the end of the summer, Delicon and I have been hashing out a hardware specification for this cartridge. We knew we didn't want to do audio loads. We wanted to do serial. Serial would be easier to implement. Audio loads would probably have required a more complicated programmable logic chip like what is in the Cuttle Cart. That would be too expensive. With serial, we could use a dedicated microcontroller on the cartridge which had serial built-in. Some microcontrollers have other features as well, like integrated flash memory or other peripheral support.
So we started to look at the Philips LPC range of processors. These are ARM7 variants, similar to one of the CPUs that is in the GP2X. For the technically minded, you can look up the datasheets on these.
We are currently planning to use the LPC2103.
Here is a block diagram:
Yes, we're talking about strapping a 70mhz 32-bit system-on-chip style processor onto a 1.19mhz 6507.
OK, your first reaction to this must be:
WHAT.... THE.... F**K????
My response:
In 1977, a 6507 was cheap.
In 2006, this is cheap.
By using the ARM, we are able to reduce the custom logic down to two smallish CPLDs and a few support chips.
You'll notice that the ARM has two UARTs. So games will load automatically via serial. One of the UARTs supports hardware flow control. We are planning to provide an efficient way for VCS games to use both UARTs. New kinds of games could now be possible that use the serial ports. For instance, linking consoles via the internet, or interfacing serial mice.
Another big features we want to support has another mythical name: Ouroboros. You can probably figure out what it means from this picture:
We'll also provide a lot more than 6K to work with. We're currently planning to use a 128K SRAM chip. You'll probably have 64K for game code, and 64K for Ouroboros data. That's per-load. You'd still be able to overwrite any or all of that memory with each successive random-access load.
Also, it would be a tragedy to put a chip like this on the cart and not be able to use it as a true coprocessor.
We've spent most of the last few months trying to figure out how we expect to wring the most power out of this chip without incurring a lot of extra cost.
We think we have a viable strategy now. We just have to create a proof of concept which we can hopefully demonstrate soon at a convention.
I think the end result may be something like the Atari 2600 equivalent of the Sega 32X, a platform on top of a platform. It's more than just extra memory. The processor in the cart is going to be able to do some heavy lifting. When you code for Chimera, you will be writing for two architectures at once that cooperate together, either with built-in library functions that the ARM provides, or maybe even routines custom to your game. This may be a refreshing change for hackers who thought they'd already done it all for the VCS.
If you want to just write a single-load Supercharger game, you can do that. But if you want to expand outward, the extra memory and the extra features will be there for you to play with.
With every Chimera sold, either the standalone or preloaded homebrew, we add to the total number of users who can play Supercharger games. But also, by making sure that even homebrew games that only need the core Supercharger support have full latent Chimera capability, we are also seeding the new Chimera platform. We hope that this helps encourage Supercharger homebrews in addition to Chimera homebrews that exploit some of the Chimera-specific features.
Stay tuned for more details.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1333
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I finally picked up Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and I have to say, it's a wonderful film!
I missed it in the theaters, but I wanted to get the DVD because I've been a fan of Nick Park's work since his Creature Comforts short. Wallace and Gromit are terrific characters, and it was great to see them in a feature-length film. And even though I don't think the Oscars usually provide any sort of real-world validity, I was glad to see this film win for best animated feature. It's a testament that good characters and storytelling are the key to good animation, and the more that can be done to get that point across, the better.
I won't spoil the movie by going into too much detail, but it's a good-natured parody of horror movies, with some genuinely unexpected and fun twists to the plot. The whole film is a treat to watch, and the amount of work put into it is staggering. This is a film that was lovingly crafted, and not just shoved out the door of some studio to make a few bucks.
The story and characters are engaging and funny, and there are some moments in the film which are pure joy. I don't find myself laughing out-loud at movies very often, but Wallace and Gromit managed to surprise and delight me throughout this film. For me, that's about the highest compliment I can pay any movie.
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit jumps up near (or to) the top of my favorite animated features. This is a film I'll be watching again and again. The DVD offers quite a few nice extras too, with behind the scenes featurettes and commentary.
Highly recommended!
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1332
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There's now 4 kings, plus PAL support! Set TV Type to Color for NTSC and Black & White for PAL. I tried to keep the colors as close as possible for the 2 TV systems.
Here's the bin. For those with Superchargers, Cuttle or Krok Carts I'd appreciate any feedback on how this fits on your TVs as I'm attempting to use 200 scan lines for the displayed area.
Updated source code
Medieval_Mayhem_2006_03_11.zip
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1331
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It has been a while since my last blog posting, and I haven't been very active on the site recently. This is not because I have lost interest in the Atari - it is just that I haven't had time to do much on my various projects lately. The main distraction has been a book that I have been writing for the past year. The publishers deadline was the end of February, and as usual I ended up writing the majority of it in the last two months! However, now that it is out of the way I should have significantly more free time again. I would really like to produce something for the minigame competition this year, and the deadline for the Stella programming contest is fast approaching.
Over the last week I have been working on my Juno First game again, and the latest version is attached to the top of this entry. It probably doesn't look much different than the previous version, but it now contains a completely new kernel, and some fantastic sprites by Nathan. There are still a few small bugs, and it is definitely the most difficult kernel that I have written so far! This difficulty comes from the fact that I wanted the sprite graphics to be updated every line (i.e. a 1-line kernel), but this potentially requires doing all of the following tasks on every line:
- Display the spaceship sprite.
- Display the alien sprite.
- Change the spaceship and alien sprite colours.
- Display the two missile sprites.
- Display the laser beam.
- Display the moving grid.
I had to make a few compromises to fit everything in (e.g. the missiles are only updated every other line), but overall I am reasonably happy with the way things turned out. The result is really at the upper-limit of what is possible on the 2600 without any extra memory. It took me many hours of careful unrolling and optimisation, and there were many times that I though it wouldn't be possible. The tightest part is when the ship needs to be displayed at the bottom of the screen. There are absolutely no free cycles at this point, and I can't see any way to squeeze this code further. The entire kernel is written without any illegal instructions, as none of them seemed appropriate.
The biggest problem with the current kernel is the HMOVE bars, which cause the gridlines to flicker along the left edge. There are a number of possible solutions, but none of them are ideal:
- Perform an early HMOVE -> may cause problems on PAL Atari Jr machines.
- Use the PF to hide the left part of the screen -> will appear in the same colour as the laser beam.
- Perform an HMOVE on every line -> not enough space kernel cycles.
- Update COLUBK on cycle 26 -> tricky but not impossible - will make the left border larger than the right border.
- Ignore the problem -> looks a bit messy and will also interfere with the sprites.
I am currently leaning towards the fourth option, but I was wondering if anyone has any better ideas? Also, any more suggestion on how to tighten the code are welcome. The (messy) source code is included in the zip archive.
Chris
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1330
- Display the spaceship sprite.
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This is a quickie post to basically say I've done exactly nothing with Ooze (or any other hobby project for that matter), and will be doing exactly nothing for the next coupla months.
Maybe bB will be to another state by then and I can start cracking on a new version that takes advantage of the additional address space coming up.
(Might just pay for a cart of this version though. It's playable and fun and I really wanna cart dammit!)
That's about it. See you all in a short while.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1329
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My Four-In-A-Row board game has been playable for some time now, so now I'm just polishing things up. Of course, this list is subject to change.
1) Stabilize scanlines per frame during thinking state. √
Thanks to Fred and John for their help.
2) Title screen graphics
About 70% done. I'll post the graphics once Nathan and I decide on the final design. What he has done so far is fantastic, and I can hardly wait to show it.
3) Improve thinking time when there is an immediate threat
4) Fix "draw" bug
5) Show wins in all directions.
You usually win in just one direction at a time, but 2 or more is possible.
6) Heighten game board
7) Sound effects for a win
8 ) Implement different levels
I'm planning on four skills levels plus a 2 player mode.
9) Menu for title screen
For selecting levels, and player's color.
10) Title music
I'm willing to outsource for this. I'd like to hear a melody where groups of four notes play a prominent role. If you're interested in helping, please reply in this thread. I'll hook you up with a cartridge if your music ends up in the game.
11) If time permits, bonus games
12) Alpha and Beta testing
12) Release
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1328
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Hi there!
Amazing what you'll find on the NES. Almost everything is there it seems.
But this one really hit me with surprise. When trying a NES game called "The Last Starfighter", I realize that it is Uridium in fact!
Incredible!
The title screen already made me wonder, as it credited "Graftgold", yet I never heard about them doing a game called TLS:
But when I started it really hit me. Look at this:
Heya! No less than Uridium!
It seems to be pretty good a port. Besides changing the main fighter sprite, most of the game seems to be intact. Ok, the scrolling isn't as smooth as on the C64 (might also be an emulator issue) and some sprites have lost some detail. And the title tune is missing. But other than that it looks fine. I need to play it some more, as I didn't get past the 3rd level so far. My Uridium reflexes are a bit rusty it seems
Greetings,
Manuel
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1327
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I took on another project before others are done. Dammit, someone stop me!
This is a Supercharger game written in bB (with large chunks of inline asm.) Thanks to cd-w for posting SC skeleton code, which I used here.
The maze generator makes a 128x128 maze in 2k of SC's RAM. To generate a new maze, hit reset, and the screen will act as a progress bar. It takes about 15 seconds to generate a new maze. You can block off dead ends by pressing the joystick button, which should help in solving mazes since you can only see a small portion on the screen at any given time.
The maze generation algorithm is a heuristic given the limitations of the system, so it may not work right. let me know if you encounter an unsolvable (or solvable) maze. (The first one is solvable.)
BTW - here's a puzzler for the 2600 programmers out there: without looking at the code, how does the progress bar work? Note that the screen is rendered 100% in VBLANK - there is no actual kernel.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1326
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JUST NOTICED THAT the 2005 Minigame Multicart is #10 on the bestsellers list.
Kinda cool.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1325
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It's amazing to me, and a tribute to the Atari community as a whole, that we can continue to look forward to new Atari Jaguar and Lynx products in 2006. Think about it. That's a full ten years since Atari published its last Jaguar game, and at least seventeen years since Atari first sold a Lynx! Wow.
So what does this year hold? Never enough, I know, but that's life when you're doing this part-time for the love of the hobby and the community. But here are a few tidbits on what I see coming down the pipe:
* Lynx Multicart - This is going to be an awesome and diverse collection of small games to keep Lynx fans entertained. I'll go into more detail in a future blog about my first impressions on these games. Plus look for some cool technical features on this cart that haven't been done before on the Lynx!
* Jaguar Mystery Project #1 and #2 - Yes, I know, these are rarely discussed since almost nobody knows what they are. But I am hopeful to make progress this year and see one, possibly both, published before Christmas. And for the record, one of these requires me to write all the code, and some of the code has already been written and tested.
I may be looking for some help in the graphics department, however, since I stink at art.* Jungle Guide #3 - I've got a number of articles already finished, so really I need to start bugging Kevin to get the layout done. If he's nice, I might even give him the articles, too.
And in other non-Atari news, I am working on my first strategy card game design (not a CCG, for those who care) and have a very interested publisher who wants the game out before Christmas. It's quite different working on a card game versus working on code, but it's still an exciting challenge and something I've wanted to try my hand at for a long time.
Special thanks to all the Atari fans who have supported Songbird through the years. I hope I, along with many other talented coders, artists, and audio-ists, can continue to support these cherished systems for years to come!
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1324
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Looks like Atari might be delisted.
Bill
March 9, 2006
Atari Gets Delisting Warning From Nasdaq
Troubled game publisher/developer Atari has been given an ultimatum from Nasdaq that it has until April 30 to get its minimum shares above $1 for ten consecutive days, or it will lose its listing on the major U.S. stock exchange ...
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=8466
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1322
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Kepone's Blog - I don't want to lose it all
in Member Blogs
Posted
I guess it's about time I got serious about life in general. From what I've seen the past few days, when you're constantly drinking, the health issues start to slowly creep up on you. I can't keep doing this.
I've also gotten to the point of telling off people. You know that things are that bad if you start doing this.
I need time to reflect on things. Time to get my head straightened out.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...&showentry=1342