ideas for homebrews

[chrisbid]

ive been amazed at how much the homebrew scene has blossomed over the past couple of years. for whatever dumb reason though, ive been most impressed the the improved versions of original games. when i heard the music from the updated Combat Rock, I was very impressed at what could be squeezed out of two sound channels (correct me if im wrong on that). Although im not a big fan of the game, i wonder if a version of Dance Dance Revolution could be acomplished on the VCS? The Gameplay obviously isnt complicated, and one song accompinied with some random visual effects, and a few difficulty levels, and some white arrows doesnt seem too far fetched. I have zero programming knowledge, so i could never turn that idea into an actual game, but do you suppose it would be feasible?

[ubersaurus]

I could see it as a more successful idea on the 5200, due to the fact you have more to work with...

[Albert]

This would be pretty amusing to see on the 2600, and with a 32K cart you could probably get a few different songs in. However, I'm not sure what you'd do for the controller, since no one's ever made a DDR pad for the 2600. I'm guessing it wouldn't be very easy to adapt a PSX controller to the 2600, so you'd probably either have to "roll your own" or just use the joystick or keypad controllers.

 

Technically I don't think it would be very difficult to pull off, especially if you don't have to support two players simultaneously.

 

..Al

[King Atari]

If you want homebrews, we need:

 

Dog Patch

Kicker (Shao-Lins Road)

[Paul Slocum]

Glad you liked Combat Rock.

 

I bet the Ninendo power pad could be adapted. The game would probably be easy to program but it would require a lot of music so we'd have to find more composers.

 

-Paul

[Cupcakus]

My wife and I said I should do this game on the 2600 as a joke :-)

 

The end result of whomever does this, would obviously be a terrible parody. :-) Can you imagine trying to dance to the clicks and dings of the 2600 sound system :-) hilarious.

[+Cafeman]

I'm not familiar with the 2600, does it have the Pokey chip for sound?

 

After hearing Berzerk VE, it's not hard to imagine the 2600 could make a few sweet electronic-ish sounds on a 16K or 32K cart. THe problem is the 2 channel limitation and the ROM size, and only one of these limitations can be beefed up.

 

2 channels wouldn't make very good 'dance' music. But who am I to talk, I hate to dance, I'm not good at it like some people like Tempest.

[Paul Slocum]

The 2600 uses the TIA which is like a Pokey with only 2 channels and 5 bit pitch. But you can do pretty cool music with it considering the limitations. Here's a couple of examples:

 

starfire.mp3 (430K)

 

marble_music.mp3 (780K)

 

-Paul

[MegaManFan]

<a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~paul-slocum/audio/marble_music.mp3">marble_music.mp3 (780K)</a>

 

-Paul

 

Doggone it, I was hoping it would be that sweet music from level 10!

[Paul Slocum]

new_demo2.mp3 (520K) (level 10 )

 

-Paul

[Paul Slocum]

Oh wait, no sorry. What I just posted is from level 13 and on. I don't have a sample of the level 10 music online.

 

-Paul

[King Atari]

Cool avatar, Paul.

[MegaManFan]

Oh wait, no sorry.  What I just posted is from level 13 and on.  I don't have a sample of the level 10 music online.  

 

-Paul

 

If you ever do put up a clip Paul, let me know. Meantime I have no problem plugging it in just to listen to it. I even showed off your game to my parents when they came to visit us at the apartment this weekend!

[+Cafeman]

That music .. is it from the recent homebrew Marble Craze? If so, how in the world did you get it to fit in the cart, along with the game?!

 

(both examples were very impressive IMO)

[chrisbid]

i guess it would be kindof a joke, but it would also serve as proof that gameplay is much more important than pretty graphics. I remember how much commotion was stirred when that hoax VCS port of Doom was floating around. People were amazed, and a project like that could make generate even more interest in the homebrew scene

 

you wouldnt need a dancepad per say, quite a few people play with controllers.

[Paul Slocum]

That music .. is it from the recent homebrew Marble Craze? If so, how in the world did you get it to fit in the cart, along with the game?!

 

The first one (starfire.mp3) is part of the music I'm doing for Manuel's port of Starfire, but the other two are from Marble Craze. Marble Craze is 32K so I had space for a lot of music.

 

At that time, the music took roughly 1K per minute and there's about 10 minutes of music in Marble Craze. More recently Thomas and I have worked on a modified driver that uses less space and is more flexible. With the new driver I managed to do a complex 3 minute song in about 2K. There is room for improvement, but the next logical modifications are going to make the song format much less readable, so I'm going to have to write a front end for it.

 

(both examples were very impressive IMO)

 

thanks!

 

-Paul

[oesii]

you wouldnt need a dancepad per say, quite a few people play with controllers.

 

 

Yeah if Paul was the music composer I would have just as fun playing with a joystick as a controller. (Member of the Marble Craze fan club )

[Xot]

What about the Thrust footpedal controller? Not having actually used one myself, would it be feasible for something like this?

[sdstuff64]

Lacrosse anyone?

[chrisbid]

wow, those music clips are great, i guess i know what my next homebrew purchase is going to be

 

as for a name, a parordy name like DRR (Dance Retro Revolution) would have to be in order.

 

also since i mentioned combat rock earlier, its appropriate to mention the passing of Joe Strummer yesterday

[rustbucket]

you can probly get pretty ok sound. As for if you would wan't to dance for it. Some people like the blips and beeps. It somtimes sounds like some wierd techno music. And about the controller. Some good contollers would be The Exus Foot Craz Activity Pad. The only thing that you would have to change is intead of arrows, colors. Another choice is the Atari Track & Field Controller. Ok shoot me. but its a good idea if you think about it. You can have every Direction exept down. Also for the ppl who don't wanna dance on the The Exus Foot Craz Activity Pad, YOu can use the Atari Kid's Controller or the Atari Video Touch Pad with over lays. i hope i gave ideas.

[Paul Slocum]

The Foot Craz would be perfect except that it's rarity is 9 or 10. I think it would have to be something that you could dance on. IMO, that's the appeal of the game. I'll buy a NES Power Pad at some point and see how easy it is to adapt it.

 

-Paul

[RMila75]

I may be leaving the general flow of this discussion, but I'd love to see someone try a 2600 version of Space Harrier.

Or maybe try to make a better version of Gyruss, with more sound in addition to music, and more colors.

[Osmeroid]

How about 'Boulderdash' for the 2600????

 

One of the best home computer games ever???????

[Xot]

I was playing Picnic this past week and it occurred to me that there's isn't a 2600 version of Donkey Kong 3. I'd like to see that, and it doesn't strike me as terribly diffcult.