color/b&w switch

[walter_J64bit]

Ok, I did a search but I didn't find any thing what 2600 games made use the of color/b&w switch for game play?

[Kittenmommy]

Ok, I did a search but I didn't find any thing what 2600 games made use the of color/b&w switch for game play?

 

Dark Chambers uses it as a pause button.

[+LS650]

Star Master uses it to switch between forward view and galactic map.

 

In homebrews, Ladybug uses it for a 'pause' key.

Edited June 11, 2008 by ls650

[tkarner]

Phaser Patrol and Space Shuttle use it for something (I forget exactly what).

[Kittenmommy]

Star Master uses it to switch between forward view and galactic map.

 

You're right! How could I have forgotten that? I guess I haven't played it in a while!

[Nukey Shay]

Star Master uses it to switch between forward view and galactic map.

 

You're right! How could I have forgotten that? I guess I haven't played it in a while!

 

Actually, it uses B&W and both difficulty switches. The screen alternates if any of them are changed. The manual doesn't mention the difficulties, but the disassembly confirms it.

[shadow460]

Space Shuttle uses it to activate the primary engines. Backup engines can be activated on a 7800 with the left difficulty switch, and you only use one or the other.

Phaser Patrol uses it to activate the shields. 7800 users cannot shut the shields down.

Starmaster uses ANY switch on the console to switch between the map and the cockpit view.

Commando Raid uses it to activate or deactivate the jet. 7800 users will always face the jet.

Many Fox games use it as a pause switch.

Ghost Manor uses it to change the player's sex (ok, in the game, not in real life!). 7800 users always play as the girl.

Combat uses it to make the screen black and white.

Edited June 11, 2008 by shadow460

[Nukey Shay]

BTW in case you are wondering, the toggle switch doesn't automatically do anything. The cartridge program itself needs to have a routine programmed in any case...whether it's reading from an alternate palette and/or stripping hues from values before they are sent to the color registers (the intended function) or utilized for something else. This is true of all the console switches.

[Kittenmommy]

Ghost Manor uses it to change the player's sex (ok, in the game, not in real life!).

 

I was going to say, that's one hell of a variation and I'm surprised we'd never heard about it before!

[walter_J64bit]

Ok, I see 7800 users get some odd effects does the 2600 adapter get the same effects too?

Edited June 12, 2008 by walter_J64bit

[Nukey Shay]

Ok, I see 7800 users get some odd effects does the 2600 adapter get the same effects too?

 

The 7800 doesn't get odd effects. The switch just does not remain in the "down" position (unless you set a brick on it). Otherwise, it functions just like the color/B&W switch does on 2600 hardware. Current programs are often made to incude console type detection on powerup and take this into consideration when utilizing the switch. 2600 adapters are made to function only as a 2600, and subsequently would not have the same issue.

 

Thanks again to batari for providing a memory dump of the 7800's powerup state

[cosmosiss]

I think it works as pause in Spacemaster X-7.

[Deteacher]

Doesn't color/bw also act as a pause feature with Kool-Aid Man too?

[A.J. Franzman]

Doesn't color/bw also act as a pause feature with Kool-Aid Man too?

No, I believe it's the left difficulty switch that does that.

[AtariChild840]

in synthcart you use the color/b/w switch to change bank sounds.

[Vic George 2K3]

Turmoil also uses the Color/B&W switch for pausing the game.

[supercat]

The cartridge program itself needs to have a routine programmed in any case...whether it's reading from an alternate palette and/or stripping hues from values before they are sent to the color registers (the intended function) or utilized for something else.

 

Was there ever really any point to stripping hues? Were there many games that programatically stripped hues without switching palettes (as opposed to using a different palette which might match except for the hues)?

 

I wonder if any programs ever used colors on a black and white television to obtain any particular effects. I guess the 2600's RF output may have been too noisy to exploit chroma artifacts, but there could be some interesting possibilities. For example, an Adventure-style game could have one key and castle flash colors in the sequence $18 $38 $58 $78 $98 $B8 $D8 $F8 while another pair went in the reverse sequence. On a black and white set, one would be covered with dots that would slowly crawl left-to-right, while the other would be covered with dots that crawled right-to-left.

[Nukey Shay]

The cartridge program itself needs to have a routine programmed in any case...whether it's reading from an alternate palette and/or stripping hues from values before they are sent to the color registers (the intended function) or utilized for something else.

 

Was there ever really any point to stripping hues? Were there many games that programatically stripped hues without switching palettes (as opposed to using a different palette which might match except for the hues)?

 

I wonder if any programs ever used colors on a black and white television to obtain any particular effects. I guess the 2600's RF output may have been too noisy to exploit chroma artifacts, but there could be some interesting possibilities. For example, an Adventure-style game could have one key and castle flash colors in the sequence $18 $38 $58 $78 $98 $B8 $D8 $F8 while another pair went in the reverse sequence. On a black and white set, one would be covered with dots that would slowly crawl left-to-right, while the other would be covered with dots that crawled right-to-left.

 

Well, some of the colors chosen for the "color mode" palette in many games would end up being indisinguishable from others on a B&W set (and as you mentioned, they may be displayed with "crawling dots" rather than be a solid shade of grey). It only takes 1 byte to hold the AND value which can be reused elsewhere once the display has been drawn, so that's not an inordinate amount of overhead. Heck, many games that supported a seperate B&W palette still have unused ram even after storing the palette table itself to ram - where it can easily be updated for "attract mode". Early games' kernals weren't so demanding. It seems that may have been a criteria for Atari-produced games in the early days.

[supercat]

Well, some of the colors chosen for the "color mode" palette in many games would end up being indisinguishable from others on a B&W set (and as you mentioned, they may be displayed with "crawling dots" rather than be a solid shade of grey).

 

Certainly using different palettes for color and black and white makes sense. And I know that many games strip out color bits from their color-cycle routines when in black and white mode, but I believe they also use a different palette. If two colors aren't distinguishable before some bits are masked out, I don't think they'll be distinguishable afterward either, so what would be the point.

[ninermaniac]

The light gun game Sentinel used the B/W switch to pause the game and used the A/B difficulty switch to either add music or not to add music. Awesome game by the way.

[Nukey Shay]

From the Sentinal manual:

- If you are using an Atari 7800 press PAUSE to pause the game. Repeat to resume play. On a 2600, pause the game by moving the B/W button twice (up and down or down and up, depending on the original location); repeat to resume play.

 

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