lord_mike

It's easy to make a PDF file... Install a Postscript printer driver (any one, it doesn't matter... Windows has many built in... HP LaserJet 4Ps would work great...) Then, when the printer dialog comes up, choose print to file, save the file as a*.ps or *.prn file... then go to this website and convert immediately to PDF for free! http://www.ps2pdf.com/ Easy! Thanks, Mike

I got my cart, today, too!! And it works perfectly (at least in single game mode, I haven't tried multicart... I hope I didn't jinx it by saying that!!! )... I was nervous about plugging it in... being so valuable, I didn't want to break it , but it worked fine. I have to say that you did a great job packaging this thing, Albert!... the care that went into the packaging and materials was obvious... and best yet, the croko doesn't give off RF interference like the supercharger does... Oh, and I almost forgot the free games that came with it! Can't beat that! I'm glad I made the jump and bought this. My wife will be so happy (after I finish programming a Christmas game for her, of course! ) Thanks, Albert!!! Mike (a very satisfied customer)

Did you get your email from Albert, yet? I haven't gotten anything... I bet I'm one of the "exceptions", not you... (goes into corner to cry) Thanks, Mike

Nothing is unsolvable, Mika! You need to use the magic of flickering! You've seen flickering in Atari games... just pop in Pac Man! The concept is simple... you draw a different row of cars after each screen draw... the objects will flicker, since they don't appear on every screen frame, but they will still be visible since the screen rate refreshes 60 times a second, so if an object appears only one third of the time within that second, it is still visible.... it gives you the illusion of more objects than the Atari will allow... you are just not showing them all at the same time.... Here's your algorithm: ScreenFrameNumber=0 GameLoop: Draw the cars at row ScreenFrameNumber Do game logic Drawscreen ScreenFrameNumber = ScreenFrameNumber + 1 if ScreenFrameNumber > 2 then ScreenFrameNumber =0 Goto GameLoop Get it? You'll need to keep track of the frame and where you want to put the cars each time drawscreen is called... collisions may be more complicated, too, but this is an old, old Atari trick. I hope I explained it clearly. Thanks, Mike

That's easy!!! Lookie here: http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-me...mmands.html#tia As for doubling vertical resolution, just repeat each vertical sprite line twice when you are defining it! Yes. I only looked at the game code briefly, but, as you suspected, it does look like missile 0 is daffy duck's eye. Thanks, Mike

Cool! So, then, you won't mind releasing the source code, too? *hint hint* (pretty please?) Oh, boy... you may want to take that back! You are going to be a VERY popular person around here!... I hope your wife and family are very understanding of all the time you'll be spending fulfilling programming requests at atariage! Free time? Forget it! Not anymore! You're all ours, now!! LOL! Thanks, Mike

Ahhh... you must be a Cleveland Browns fan! Thanks, Mike

Actually most of the veterans I know are quite happy with the VA... the VA has improved dramatically since the Reagan cutbacks of the 80's... The problems at Walter Reed and such are the result of massive PRIVITIZATION of that facility, ironically enough. If you would like a better and more realistic example of government health care, you should really look at Medicare. If you compare medicare to any other private health plan, you will find that patients under medicare have better access at lower cost. If you don't believe me, ask your parents or grandparents how they feel about medicare. My parents, who have recently retired, pay significantly less than they used to under their group plan, and can see whomever they want whenever they want. Medicare has much lower overhead than private insurers... People in England are not forced to go to the NHS. They can choose private physicians or dentists if they want to. But, only a few do, because (just like here), the cost is prohibitively expensive. Your argument is moot, regardless... no one here is talking about universal dental coverage. If you are concerned about rationing health care, no one rations more aggressively than the private insurance system... who tells you who you can see and what care you can get. With Medicare, you can appeal benefits denials, even go to court. With an HMO, you just die or go broke. Socialized medicine fearmongering is ridiculous. No one is talking about the U.S. nationalizing hospitals and doctors. The most radical plan being offered is Medicare for everyone. That is a modest reform compared to every other country around the world, which has doctors and hospitals directly run by the government. And yet, even with nationalized health care, every person I've talked to from Canada and the UK have all said the same thing, "Thank God for the NHS (UK) and Medicare (Canada)" Those are exact quotes. The UK's NHS is one of the lousiest socialized medicine programs int he world, thanks to Margaret Thatcher's budget cuts int he 80's, and yet, it is a million times better than an HMO. It is no coincidence that France's medical system is considered to be the best in the world... yes, better than the US. Everyone gets care, and it doesn't cost much out of pocket. Now, to say that socialized medicine is "free" is another misnomer... obviously, you have to pay into the system, and taxes can be relatively steep in some countries (like France).... however, just based on economies of scale alone, the savings for everyone would be enormous. Right now, a typical family of four pays $12,000 just for insurance coverage... Imagine if that number dropped to $1,000 AND get to see any doctor you wished.... Would you go for it? Probably not... ironically enough... 'cos you've bought into the right wing fearmongering that the government can't do anything right... except the military, I guess... That one is ok.. 'cos you can never say that the military does anything wrong (unless you are a republican... then, it's OK). So, what are you going to do now? I'm guessing that a Canadian style health plan would have saved you some money, while getting even better care (since you'd actually be able to see specialists). Since we are talking about Canada, it is important to note that the health care systems up there are run by the provinces... Wealthy provinces like British Columbia, have incredible access to quality care. In places like Saskatchewan.. well, not as much... It is important to note where the criticism is coming from... The right wingers always like to use the 8 month waiting list for a hip transplant in Canada, compared to one month here... totally forgetting the fact that 90% of hip transplants here are done under Medicare. All this argument proves is that American socialized medicine is better than the Canadian version.... now, if only all of us could get medicare.... Maybe you should try and make that happen! Thanks, Mike

Chimera is coming out, soon, too... From what I understand, it is a supercharged supercharger... Check out MOS6507's blog for more info... Thanks, Mike

Actually, if you use the mouse, Stella's paddle emulation is pretty accurate... you pretty much get the same "feel" as with the paddle controllers.. there really isn't that dramatic of a difference going from Stella mouse to a real Atari paddle controller... Just letting you know my personal experience in testing your game... the mouse with Stella gives you a pretty good feel as to what the game will be like in real life. I'll give your new version a go on the supercharger and let you know what I find! Thanks, Mike

Ok, tried it again on a real atari.... the steering is more sluggish, which would seem to be good, but still very difficult to control... It feels like the car and the paddle controller are not "connected" so to speak... the car doesn't seem to "sync" with the paddle control at all.... I think that a new concept of steering should be investigated... In the original Indy 500, the steering controller would give a momentary right or left joystick "pulse" for every click the wheel encountered as it turned... This functionality can be easily replicated with the paddle controller (just store the current paddle value and in each frame see if the next value is higher or lower and store again)... but, you run into the problem of the paddle controllers having stops at each end... But, there has to be a way where the two philosophies can be merged... the tight control and response of the original Indy 500 driving controllers, but with the realistic steering the paddle controllers can give you... I don't know the best way to go about this.... but, I do know that the current steering algorithm needs an overhaul. I'll look at the code and see what I might be able to come up with... Thanks, Mike

SHOPGOODWILL.COM?????? How did I not know abut this before???? I am in heaven!!! This is like garage sale nirvana!!! THANK YOU FOR THIS EPIPHANY!!! Mike

So, I *finally* loaded this up on a real Atari with my Supercharger and real paddles... It looks good, but the steering is still waaaaaay too touchy! The acceleration and deceleration work well, although maybe should be more sensitive.... So, basically, cut back on the steering sensitivity and increase the acceleration and deceleration sensitivity and you've got a good thing going! Thanks, Mike

Your code doesn't suck...but the lack of definitions for the temp variables also left me with a headache... and you'll be getting a killer migraine if you return to this project six months from now... Comment and do the dim-ing with the temp prefix as suggested earlier... It will not only help you, it will help us significantly when we assist you with the coding... I am especially interested in how you determine the deltas for X and Y based on direction, but again... I needed to take a break 'cos without a scorecard, it was just getting too lost with all the temp variables... Other than that, you've done a good job.. nice use of gosubs to make more structured code... and the game runs... I'm still having trouble driving the car, but at least I can actually influence its direction now! Thanks, Mike

OK, I got the paddles thing working (it was my fault), but man it's really hard to steer or know where you're going! Thanks, Mike

It should... according to Batari, all BB 1.0 programs are supercharger safe.... I have one, too.. but I can't get to my real Atari until after the weekend... I'm curious as to how this will work... Thanks, Mike

I can't get this game to work with Stella and the mouse... My mouse is mapped to paddle0 and works with other games, so that is a problem, methinks.... It could be me, though... I remember having some issues with night driver in the past... Thanks, Mike

I've noticed a lack of interest from my friends as well... For years, at my super bowl party, the focus of interest was always on my Atari 2600.... but, the past two years, no one has shown the slightest interest.. granted I have other distractions like a real life space invaders cabinet and a MAME cabinet, but almost everybody loved to play Atari football.. not recently... the machine was untouched last super bowl. I took my buddies on a road trip the other week, and with the van, we have the drop down LCD DVD player... I brought my atari flashback to plug into it... thinking they would enjoy playing while on the road... absolutely ZERO interest whatsoever... They'd rather watch movies.... These are guys that really dig retrogaming... or used to... Maybe it's too much of a good thing... the appeal is wearing off, I guess... Thanks, Mike

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

Well, if you are going to bring up the Amiga, then there is one, and only one, baseball game even worth talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Weaver_Baseball This game is STILL the best ever, even 20 years later... Thanks, Mike

Hi Michael! Thanks for replying! It was late at night when I wrote this question, so I didn't communicate exactly what I wanted to say... What I was wondering was if it was possible to make only one paramater dynamic (either pfcolors or pfheights, but not both) in the standard kernel without the superchip... In other words, could that option be possibly implemented without the need for the superchip. I'm glad I brought it up, though 'cos I assumed that both parameters were dynamic in the superchip option... I think it would be great to have both parameters changeable in the superchip modification... Thanks for all your work with Batari Basic and other Atari programming chores! You've been more than helpful to so many people here... I'm sure I can speak for everybody when I say that we all greatly appreciate it! Thanks, Mike

Since this thread is active again... Would it be possible if, maybe, when both the pfcolors and pfheights are both defined allowing us to redifine only one of the two options? In other words, could we have heights static, but be able to redifine colors, or vice versa? Thanks, Mike

The "background" kernel option is mentioned but, there is no description on how to use it... Define Pfcolors with 12 lines... I believe that the first pfcolor in the list becomes the default color for the playfield, the next 11 lines are the background colors. But, you will have to check with Batari on the syntax... Also, the shakescreen command is not described, either... there was a post here a couple months ago describing how it works. Thanks, Mike

Hmm... I guess that means no Flashback 3, huh? Hey, maybe Albert or Curt or one of us can buy the Atari name for a song? Should we start up a collection? Thanks, Mike

Windows Mobile is your target? Why not just use this? http://pocketatari.retrogames.com/ It doesn't work well with square screens, but the source code could easily be adapted to do so... also the Nydidot Virtual display adapter (http://www.nyditot.com/Home.asp) fixes that problem. The emulator works quite well, actually... There is also a sourceforge link if you search for atari800 portable emulator... same binary and source in the package AFAIK. Thanks, Mike