RAM Pong

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I always wondered, if it is possible to let a "game" run from the 128 bytes of RAM. So here is my first try, a single player Pong (using paddles). Ok, there is no scoring, game over or sound, but you can play it.

 

And after loading it into your VCS, you can remove the cart and it still runs!

 

Working on a two player version now...

RAM_Pong__1_player_.bin

[Nukey Shay]

^ Handball

[PacManPlus]

@ Nukey

 

 

Hey Thomas - always thinking outside the box (or 'cart', in this case)

 

 

You always do such great work!

Edited April 26, 2009 by PacManPlus

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Ok, 2 player Pong now.

RAM_Pong__2_player_.bin

[Wickeycolumbus]

Very cool

[BigO]

Excellent.

 

Now you just have to figure out something useful/cool/silly to do with the open cartridge slot.

[Emehr]

Now you just have to figure out something useful/cool/silly to do with the open cartridge slot.

How about an LED display cart showing the score? lol

[gambler172]

Hi Thomas

Great work.Do you think,this is possible for the 7800???

greetings Walter

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Do you think,this is possible for the 7800???

I can see no reason why the ROM shouldn't work for the 7800.

[kaishaku]

This. Is. Awesome.

[+Stephen]

Very awesome. Didn't think you could do a game in 128 bytes!

 

Stephen Anderson

[LS_Dracon]

Incredible!

1 kb is too much for Mr. Jentzsch

Excellent.

 

Now you just have to figure out something useful/cool/silly to do with the open cartridge slot.

 

I remember Ridge Racer (the first game for psx) it's uses 1,5 of 2 mb psx ram, there's only 1 load screen for entire game and after that you can remove the CD and insert a common music cd to play during the game.

Later 2 mb of RAM was a hardware limitation for many psx games. Figure 128 bytes!

[+Stephen]

Any chance of sharing the source when done?

 

Stephen Anderson

[Wickeycolumbus]

Any chance of sharing the source when done?

 

Stephen Anderson

 

I would also be interested

[roland p]

Maybe the copy to RAM method could also be useful to test new cartridge designs?

[Devin]

Impressive!

[potatohead]

Awesome.

 

Seriously awesome.

[Zach]

You rock, Thomas! Can't wait to play this on an Atari with an empty slot.

[vdub_bobby]

 

Now add scoring.

 

And, at least in Stella, the pic isn't completely stable; seems to jump a line or two when the ball hits the walls.

[cd-w]

And, at least in Stella, the pic isn't completely stable; seems to jump a line or two when the ball hits the walls.

 

This happened for me also until I selected the paddle controllers.

 

Chris

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Another version, now with sound! Parameters are copied from Video Olympics, I hope it sounds ok.

 

And source code...

RAM_Pong__2_player_v0.2_.bin

RAM_Pong_05.zip

Edited April 27, 2009 by Thomas Jentzsch

[BigO]

Wow. I'd suggest an Ultraminigame competition except there probably wouldn't be much competition.

[ppcasm]

That is pretty impressive.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Many thanks for all the compliments.

 

What feature do you think is missing most? And what could go for it?

 

Remember, we are talking about a VERY few bytes here, so no title screen, sound track, not even scoring!

[BigO]

Many thanks for all the compliments.

 

What feature do you think is missing most? And what could go for it?

 

Remember, we are talking about a VERY few bytes here, so no title screen, sound track, not even scoring!

Aw, c'mon, you can do scoring. You da man!

 

Just brainstorming here, maybe you can translate into something reasonable...

 

I realize the overhead of maintaining, interpreting for display and actually displaying the score is astronomical when you only have 128 bytes to work in, but thought I'd offer this concept anyway, cuz if anybody can make it happen, it's TJ:

Any chance of doing scoring without numeric readout? Like a progress bar. If that's possible, it could progress toward the center line as a visual reference to make it easier to see who's ahead (bar has extended closer to center line). With one byte, you could store 0 to 15 for two players. Use a winning score of 7 and you'll have two entire bits left over to use for soundtrack processing!

 

Multi-ball play?

 

Difficulty settings? (Bigger/smaller paddle)

 

English? (May be there. I haven't played it yet.)

 

A silly concept: Combine a scoring indicator with difficulty setting? As a player's score increases, the size of their paddle decreases. It would be an odd twist on the game that might make for some more even matches.

Edited April 28, 2009 by BigO