2600 and harmony homebrews/user written games/demo's and programs thread

[carmel_andrews]

Following on from the release/launch of this harmony cart for the 2600/vcs and also the increasing number of more homebrew/user written games/demo's and programs for the 2600/vcs bought me to bring up this thread

 

2600/vcs games/demo's etc and harmony games/demo's etc thread (either commercially available or homebrew/user written)

 

All contributions welcome

 

And i guess we could extend this thread to encompassing hardware projects, like AV mod's, supercharger alike devices, multi/flashcarts (like Krok cart/Cuttle cart etc) and any new joystick designs (homebrew or commercial)

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Huh?

[CPUWIZ]

Huh?

 

Double.

 

He doesn't even have one.

[+remowilliams]

[RevEng]

Hi CA.

 

You do realize we have a whole forum dedicated to homebrew discussion, and an Atari 2600 programming subforum where authors show off their WIPs all the time, right?

 

Its not exactly clear what this thread is trying accomplish that those forums don't already cover.

[+Nathan Strum]

I've re-read that several times, and still can't make heads nor tails out of it.

 

I think he wants a list of something...

 

[nonner242]

Whatcha been drinkin lately Carmel?

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Whatcha been drinkin lately Carmel?

 

I guess too much warm beer!

[SeaGtGruff]

I guess I'm the only person who (maybe) understood what Carmel was saying. He's suggesting it might be cool if we could create a collection of demo programs that show off the advantages of the Harmony cart or other 2600-related modifications or add-ons.

 

For example, if someone were to create a new game controller, or adapt an existing non-2600 game controller to work on the 2600-- such as Best Electronic's cable for using a Jaguar controller with a 2600-- then someone could create a demo that shows something that's possible to do using that game comtroller that would be more difficult if not impossible to do with the standard game controllers. Suppose you could have a joystick with two independently-programmable fire buttons, then someone could do a demo that does one thing when you press one button, and something else when you press the other button, like one button for jumping and the other button for firing, while of course moving around by using the stick.

 

Or someone could write a demo that shows off some of the things that are possible using the Harmony cart that would be impossible, or much more difficult to do, without the Harmony cart.

 

These demos wouldn't have to be games, although obviously the main intention would be to hopefully inspire the creativity of game designers so they might start to incorporate these advantages into their games. And the demos wouldn't just demonstrate what's possible, they could also serve as coding examples so other programmers can see how it's done.

 

But if I misunderstood what Carmel was saying, then [Emily Litella]"Nevermind![/Emily Litella]

 

Michael

[Nukey Shay]

But such projects would almost certianly have their own threads devoted to them :-/

[SeaGtGruff]

But such projects would almost certianly have their own threads devoted to them :-/

Yeah, probably. I think Carmel was thinking it would be nice to have a central repository for stuff like that, so people could find all the demos easier without having to hunt for them all in separate threads?

 

Michael

[ovalbugmann]

Carmel, everything you mention has their own Atari 2600 forum and threads dedicated to them - 2600 Hacks, 2600 Homebrews, & hardware forums. You have to check out those AA places and look around there to see something you might like to load up on the Harmony cartridge. And although the Harmony can run games like Pitfall II(sound chip or more RAM?) which has some extra hardware for more advanced gaming, it's really not a matter of what more the Harmony can do as much as the limitations inherent in the Atari VCS.

 

Personally, I am looking forward to loading up some of Ian Bogost's VCS demos and those of his student's also.

[Dino]

Whatcha been drinkin lately Carmel?

 

I guess too much warm beer!

 

Dude, is that your son in your avatar? the one with the shrinkwrapped WW???

[Zoyx]

Rom Hunter has an excellent collection. Seems to update it about twice a year... http://www.atarimania.com/roms-MENU-2.html

[SeaGtGruff]

Rom Hunter has an excellent collection. Seems to update it about twice a year... http://www.atarimania.com/roms-MENU-2.html

I thought he gave up trying to collect all the hacks and demos and homebrews ("That way lies madness!"), and someone else took it over from him?

 

Michael

[Dino]

Rom Hunter has an excellent collection. Seems to update it about twice a year... http://www.atarimania.com/roms-MENU-2.html

I thought he gave up trying to collect all the hacks and demos and homebrews ("That way lies madness!"), and someone else took it over from him?

 

Michael

 

that's my understanding too. Wasn't it User42??

[SeaGtGruff]

Rom Hunter has an excellent collection. Seems to update it about twice a year... http://www.atarimania.com/roms-MENU-2.html

I thought he gave up trying to collect all the hacks and demos and homebrews ("That way lies madness!"), and someone else took it over from him?

 

Michael

 

that's my understanding too. Wasn't it User42??

Yes, I think you're right!

 

Michael

[ovalbugmann]

Rom Hunter has an excellent collection. Seems to update it about twice a year... http://www.atarimania.com/roms-MENU-2.html

I thought he gave up trying to collect all the hacks and demos and homebrews ("That way lies madness!"), and someone else took it over from him?

 

Michael

 

That's pretty funny! - yeah it would be stressfull trying to keep up and collect- every single hack-n-homebrew binary and revision. I've been doing something like that with Jaguar, and it's kinda tough, and there was/is a lot less for that system. Rom did put out one 2600 Hacks/Homebrews gathering Zip, then hung that search up.

[Zoyx]

Version 5.0 of ROM Hunter's collection is dated May 20, 2009, if that means anything.

[Impaler_26]

Rom Hunter has an excellent collection. Seems to update it about twice a year... http://www.atarimania.com/roms-MENU-2.html

I thought he gave up trying to collect all the hacks and demos and homebrews ("That way lies madness!"), and someone else took it over from him?

 

Michael

 

Yep, i was mad enough to take over this job.

It's not easy to keep up with all the hacks and homebrews that have been posted lately.

So i dunno if i'll be able to post an update anytime soon but here's what i have so far:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/144662-atari-2600-hacks-and-homebrews-rom-collection-v1-2/page__p__1758233entry1758233

 

(Be sure to download the latest version from post #24)

[Zoyx]

Ummm, Rom is still collecting. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/136509-rom-hunters-v4-old-era-collection-now-online/page__view__findpost__p__1857548

 

Nice to see other folks helping out though.

[Wickeycolumbus]

Ummm, Rom is still collecting. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/136509-rom-hunters-v4-old-era-collection-now-online/page__view__findpost__p__1857548

 

Nice to see other folks helping out though.

 

Not homebrew ROMs though Only ones from 1977 to 1992.

[Zoyx]

Not homebrew ROMs though Only ones from 1977 to 1992.

Ahh, I see. Got confused along the line. Just looked at my various collections. The one with homebrews in it isn't from Rom like I thought it was.

[grafixbmp]

I think he has stumbled on to something here even if he didn't mean to. It seems so far that most are using the Harmony to mass load all their games onto one cart and that's a great thing. But this may be a good place to demo some of the more complexed things that the Harmony can do when the ARM processor is used to it fullest. Speaking of which, where can we find tech specs/opcodes for that NXP 70MHz ARM7TDMI-S microcontroller? I had understood that it would be possible to create future games that used that chip to exploit the 2600 to it's fullest. A thread that talks tech about what the Harmony can do at "full power" sorta speak would be just what the doctor ordered. Possibly some simple guides of how they (the ARM 7 and the 6507) can work in tandem would be cool too.

 

For starters, http://www.standardics.nxp.com/literature/leaflets/microcontrollers/pdf/lpc210x.pdf

 

And here is an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture

 

ARM info.txt

 

Ooo.. Got another good one

 

http://dkc1.digikey.com/us/en/tod/NXP/8-bitToARMConversion_NoAudio/8-bitToARMConversion_NoAudio.html

 

This is suppost to help with going from traditional 8/16 bit processor programing to 32 bit ARM

Edited January 25, 2010 by grafixbmp