What madness inspired you?

[jrok]

Out of curiousity, what inspired you to start homebrewing?

 

For me, I think it was a love of retro graphics. I work in the motion graphics industry, and I spend most of my days managing the obscene amount of the technical minutae that goes into modern animation, so I guess I just found it really fun and relaxing to fiddle with Atari's minimalist display.

Edited January 8, 2009 by jrok

[ten-four]

For me it was love at first sight, when i saw my CBS ColecoVision very first time.

 

Graphics, Gameplay, and the very close Arcade look-alike...

 

I was inspired by the games from various gaming halls around me.

[LS_Dracon]

Because the graphics too.

I'm curious about what is possible to draw using 2600 hardware.

Then my firsts binaries was graphics demos.

I get funny coding for the TIA and start to code my own games.

But I don't think myself as programmer, I have no tallent in assembly. I'm triyng to code for not be another guy in "programmer idea peddlers" thread.

[Impaler_26]

But I don't think myself as programmer, I have no tallent in assembly.

Why not? You already released Bee-Ball and your demos and WIPs are also pretty good.

Of course you're a programmer, admit it!

[LS_Dracon]

Hehe tnx.

But I learn assembly just for code to the 2600. I can't code for others machines.

Most of programmers here already learned 6502 assembly for the 80's computers or job with programming for modern machines.

I'm still learning and hope one day think mysef as genuine programmer

Edited January 10, 2009 by LS_Dracon

[Mord]

Hehe tnx.

But I learn assembly just for code to the 2600. I can't code for others machines.

Most of programmers here already learned 6502 assembly for the 80's computers or job with programming for modern machines.

I'm still learning and hope one day think mysef as genuine programmer

 

Eh. Assembly is different with each family of processors anyway. (and the differences between versions of the same family)

 

I use to be able to do some simple assembly for the 8086, but now it's just the 6502's I know anything about. (And I'm sure you're better at it than I am. ) As far as homebrewing for consoles that use the 6502 family is concerned, you know assembly.

[Kurt_Woloch]

I was always interested in the inner workings of computers. I already programmed the C-64 in assembly language back in 1985, and I drew up mock-up screenshots of different games. For instance, I drew up a mockup screenshot of the non-existing Atari 2600 version of "Penguin Wars" and other games back in the 1980's. Sadly, I didn't know about some of the 2600's limitations back then. For instance, the "Marble Madness" mockup screenshot implied that you could do a non-symmetrical background in 4 colors in a resolution of 40x96 on the Atari 2600. The mockup of "Penguin Wars" looks a bit more doable...

 

Of course, when the Internet came up, and with it accurate information about the Atari 2600's inner workings back in 1998, I absorbed it quickly. And since I already knew 6502 assembly from the C-64, I decided to try something in this direction too.

[potatohead]

bB looked fun! And technically, it is a great accomplishment! Who would have thunk it?

 

Anyway, I had been reading and playing and talking about stuff on AA for a long time. Seemed the perfect time to jump in and give it a go. That was Ooze! I had a great time, and will do it again sometime soon.

 

I was inspired by the many great projects I see here, the community as a whole, and just wanted to see bB grow and figured that if people just did some stuff it would be catchy!

 

And it was! Just look at all the cool bB efforts happening regularly.

 

The other thing that kind of keeps me retro is the simplicity of the scene. It's possible to just be entertained for a short time with few worries. Always liked that.

 

Heck, the other inspiration is seeing the older machines do interesting things. Realistically, the limits are not where I thought they were! Pacman on Channel F? (WTF ?!?!) Ballblazer looks to be possible on VCS? It's just great fun, watching that all happen!

[Wickeycolumbus]

Around 2003, I got my first 2600 from a garage sale. The only problem was that it did not have an AC adapter. I searched on the internet to find one, and in the process I found AtariAge for the first time. When I was on the website, I saw that people were actually still writing games for the 2600. I after getting the information I needed about the AC adapter, I left AtariAge for many years. It was not untill 2007 when I remembered about AtariAge and got interested in writing a 2600 game. I had been a programmer for a few years already and wanted to do a game for a 'real system'. I spent the next year and a half learning about the 2600 and programming Vong.

[+Random Terrain]

I wanted to make Atari 2600 games since 1982. Thanks to batari Basic, I'll finally be able to make a few games that might be worth playing. The Atari 2600 usually gave us clear, clean, crisp graphics, but then we got years of mostly fuzzy looking crap on consoles such as the NES. I had some fun times with the VIC-20, C-64, NES, SNES, Amiga 500, 3DO, Playstation, Playstation 2, and Xbox, but for 'homebrewing,' I'd rather go back to the Atari 2600 and see what I might be able to do. It was my first console and what got me thinking about game design and dreaming about making my own games.

[+SpiceWare]

Out of curiousity, what inspired you to start homebrewing?

As a kid I wanted to make a game for the VCS, but at the time that wasn't possible. I forgot all about it when I got a VIC 20 and was able to write games for it.

 

In the 90s I became involved in the emulator scene and did the OS/2 ports of Stella, ColEm, MasterGear and Virtual GameBoy. However, I didn't regain the desire to make a VCS game until April 2004 when I started on Dragon Defense Squad. Real life intruded and it ended up on the back burner(where it still remains).

 

Everything finally clicked due to Xmas 2005 - I played Warlords with my nephews and their friends(who were initially skeptical due to the Atari's graphics, having grown up with PS2s and Xboxes, but eventually they had a blast). That lead to Medieval Mayhem, my take on Warlords for the VCS.

 

But I learn assembly just for code to the 2600. I can't code for others machines.

One machine is enough - you're a programmer, and a good one at that

[roland p]

I don't know what inspired me... I'm a web programmer programming databases and java, which has nothing to do with games, no aspirations as a game designer. But I do like all visual stuff.

 

I just explored the 'HELLO WORLD' demo for the atari and saw the Ballblazer thread. Supercat posted an idea about the change of background color and I thought that I could do that, just STX, STY nothing special: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1581842 I never thought at that point it would come this far. I did suffer from insomnia (just became daddy) at that time and that made me fuzzy and do strange things

[LS_Dracon]

One machine is enough - you're a programmer, and a good one at that

Actually, I have programmed for PC Game engines such rpg maker and mugen, nothing relevant for share here.

The language used on these engines cannot be compared with assembly, so I can't brought any programming experience to 2600 except the gameplay and others factors.

If I can"t do the best code, graphically for me, the things must work.

 

I have interest to code one game for the 5200, just need to finish my VCS projects (about 4 games).

 

I just explored the 'HELLO WORLD' demo for the atari and saw the Ballblazer thread. Supercat posted an idea about the change of background color and I thought that I could do that, just STX, STY nothing special: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1581842 I never thought at that point it would come this far. I did suffer from insomnia (just became daddy) at that time and that made me fuzzy and do strange things

 

I hope you finish ballblazer and do others games becouse you did an impressive start on homebrew scene.

Edited January 11, 2009 by LS_Dracon

[yuppicide]

I grew up on the Atari 2600. I've always had ideas for games. Haven't spoken to my Dad in 15 or 20 years and maybe it's a good way to reopen lines of communication. Show him a finished product.

[visyli]

I've always been inspired by the very design of the hardware itself. On the VCS, I was greatly impressed with the very cheap and simple yet well-designed hardware, which has [as we've proved time and time again ] still unexplored possibilities hidden to it. This method of using an "old dog" to do "new tricks" has always appealed to me greatly. Then again, on the other hand, I only see the hardware as an enabler or a platform for a design, not as a limiter: I'm not going to do stuff that look like Atari games, I'm much more interested in doing my own thing.

[+batari]

It wasn't madness that inspired me to write homebrews, but rather the need for a creative outlet to prevent madness.

 

As for how batari Basic happened - the concept of a complied language for the 2600 was suggested on the Stella list months before. But over a 3-day weekend (July 4th, 2005) the concept gelled into something I thought I could do. A few things came together at once, really, and I was able to draft a quick spec of how a BASIC compiler might work. The actual programming of the first release took 4 days. The RAM organization (26 user variables a-z, just enough temp variables and stack space, and the rest for the graphics and score) just happened to fit perfectly.

[rpgfaker]

Just this one game idea driving me insane

 

I lived in Germany about 15 years ago..and saw all kinds of viking goodies at museums and festivals. That got me collecting viking books. After loads of reading I wrote my own "endless quest" book about a fictitious viking and I started a bible of ideas that turned into a bunch of animations, drawings and notes about the story. Then I came across some PC software to make your own point and click game. So I turned the book ideas into a game, got it up to three parts. That's got me interested in learning how to program so I can make a better game than I did before.