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Showing results for tags 'Dark Chambers'.
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This project began as an effort to modify Dark Chambers for the Atari 2600 in the direction of the arcade game Gauntlet (Atari 1985). What started as a few graphics changes and minor modifications to game play slowly evolved into a full 32k conversion, thanks to a good disassembly and especially Adam Clayton’s phenomenal Dark Chambers engine for the VCS. The game is now complete, with the following features: * Play all 4 characters from the arcade, in a 1-player game or in any 2-player combination * Each character starts with a special ability: Warrior: extra shot power Valkyrie: extra armor Wizard: extra magic power Elf: extra shot speed * Fight 3 levels of ghosts, grunts, demons, and sorcerors; 2 levels of generators and bones; and death. * collect food, treasure, keys, and magic potions * increase your abilities with 4 different upgrade potions as well as invisibility amulets * play 80 unique levels, including the first 7 modeled on the arcade intro levels Final versions NTSC: Gauntlet (Atari 1985).bin PAL: Gauntlet (Atari 1985) PAL.bin SECAM: Gauntlet (Atari 1985) SECAM.bin _______________________________________ Earlier released builds: gauntlet512-WW.bin gauntlet512-EV.bin gauntlet810.bin gauntlet823.bin gauntlet1004.bin gauntlet1007.bin Original post (May 12, 2015): I recently introduced my kids to Gauntlet, and that got me thinking about hacking Dark Chambers so they could play on my VCS. So here's a start on a conversion. I started with the sprites naturally but quickly realized the animation tables needed reworking, as the sprites were shared in weird ways. Reducing the animation frames for players and enemies gave me enough room to shoehorn in a whole bunch of new sprite and color data. All four characters are now coded in. However, I haven't figured out a way to switch between them within the game. So I've uploaded two versions, WW for the Warrior and Wizard and EV for the Elf and Valkyrie. As it stands, you'll have to do a bit of hacking to get the exact P1/P2 combination you want--I hope to post some instructions on that later. There are no special characteristics per character, so it's just visual. Enemies have been changed to grunts, ghosts, demons, wizards, and death. They no longer mutate form, and instead of disappearing on contact they continue to melee attack as long as they are touching you (but you can't melee back). Ghosts, however, do disappear and take a chunk of health in the process. Wizards blink in and out, and death now can only be killed by magic. Making demons and wizards shoot is not likely to make it into this hack--just way too complicated. One thing that makes Gauntlet really different from DC is how enemies mass up behind each other and beeline straight toward you if nothing is blocking them. DC is very different: enemies can overlap and tend to amble around. But after a couple of experiments I'm hesitant to change this. Overlapping sprites all beeline to the same spot and appear as a single enemy if there isn't some kind of coarse movement grid checked against. So this part of DC has been left as is. Dark Chambers draws levels with a pretty remarkable economy of code. There are 16 playfields actually drawn out in pixels; each DC screen allows you to scroll up and down through a stack of 4 playfields, each represented by one nybble. So the original map for Level A was set in just two bytes: $40, $19. But the flip side of that economy is that it just isn't possible to reproduce intricate mazes. Instead I just redid some of the playfields to get a bit of a Gauntlet feel in here, with obstacles, diagonals, nested boxes, vertical lines, and generally narrower spaces. Levels 1 through 7 have been completed so far, and I tried to port the corresponding Gauntlet levels over in spirit. Levels 8 to 26 haven't been finished yet--these will be mostly new creations although drawing inspiration from various Gauntlet levels. I know there are complaints about the pacing of Dark Chambers. I wonder if a lot of that can be mitigated by not having the player double back too much, and by increasing the number of enemies. Player speed and scrolling speed can be increased without too much trouble in DC, but the problem is, that introduces a number of glitches that would have to be fixed. For the moment, I just kept everything as is. Overall, I know we're still a ways from Ed Logg's arcade masterpiece, but if you are craving a Gauntlet experience on your VCS, or just want a new take on Dark Chambers, here's hoping this can tide you over. _______________________________________ UPDATE October 7, 2015 I've been able to make a great deal of progress since the above was posted. We're now close to a finished Gauntlet for the Atari 2600. The latest version is posted below, please see the rest of the thread for earlier versions and running commentary on what was changed. A summary of the game so far: * Play as all 4 characters from the arcade, either as 1 player or in any 2-player combination * Each character starts with a special ability: Warrior: shot power Valkyrie: shield Wizard: extra magic power Elf: shot speed * Fight ghosts, grunts, wizards, and death as well as generators and bones * collect magic and upgrade potions * 80 different levels
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The latest episode of my channel is now up. I discuss Dark Chambers and the Atari Advantage Program. I really enjoyed this game a lot, although I'll be honest, I just recently discovered it. Back when it came out I did have a 7800 and was splitting time between it and the NES. I was pretty much unaware that they were still making games for the 2600 back then. It's too bad that I missed this game as I know I would have played it to death. To tell you the truth, I wasn't a big Gauntlet fan. I know, start throwing the rotten fruit! I just thought it was too hard! Even though this game came out later I think you can call it a pre-Gauntlet or Gauntlet Light. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the episode. If you do please don't forget to Like and Subscribe, as I'm trying to get 50 subscribers. I've always got a lot of support and constructive criticism from you guys here and I appreciate it! Thank you.
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Hey guys, I decided to try this forum as it might garner some more attention than in the Marketplace section. I'm near to completion with my PAL release Atari 7800 collection and there are three games that I've been having real difficulty in getting... - Kung Fu Master - F-18 Hornet - Tomcat: F-14 Simulator All three of these games were released in PAL territories under the HES/Salu branding and I'm looking for boxed versions of these games! I'm also on the hunt for a boxed PAL copy of Dark Chambers. Is anyone willing to sell any of these? I don't care too much about the condition! Thanks!
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I have put 45 different Atari 7800 games up on ebay. All titles are boxed. i combine shipping. see here: all games are sold. thanks for looking
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- Summer Games
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So I was listening to Warren Robinette's talk on Adventure, and he mentioned that an Adam Clayton was the first person to have written into Atari about discovering the secret room. See here for more info..... Adam was apparently 15 years old and living in Salt Lake City. Could this be the same Adam Clayton of Sculptured Software (based in Salt Lake City) that programmed Dark Chambers for the 2600? Anyone know more about this? I've developed a real appreciation for his work on Dark Chambers.
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- Adam Clayton
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I recently got the Dark chambers cartridge for the 7800 and I can't for the life of me get it to work/play. I mean Dark Chambers is a common enough game to buy a new one if it's broke, but that's the thing: I don't know if it is. There is static on the screen when I power it up, but no atari logo. I cleaned the cartridge and the 7800 port as best I could and no luck. Any ideas? Cartridges are supposed to be durable, and honestly I've never come into a bad cartridge before/one that doesn't work. Can cartridges fail just like disc media?