Space Rocks (2600)

[+Trebor]

 

It'd be nice to loosen the spec someplace so as to avoid eventually fragmenting the market. Or develop a comprehensive test procedure to ensure each version of the console can be bought into specification without any ambiguity.

 

Hopefully over time other cartridges will either continue to work, all or none.

 

The Domestic Field Service Manual denotes at least 16 revisions of the VCS\2600. From revision 16 and newer, they are grouped as "16 and up". Software and hardware developers have done one heck of a job having so few compatibility issues in light of the aforementioned.

 

Interestingly, it seems Sega picked up where Atari left off. Just check out all the variations of the Genesis.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I hope that eventually, when someone volunteers to overhaul the emu core of Stella, we will be able to exactly emulate multiple console variations.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I'm always a little hesitant to bump up an inactive thread but I just played Space Rocks (release candidate #7 on a Harmony Encore cart) for the first time today and I am absolutely blown away! With the colors set to black and white and the Magna-Mines turned off this feels almost identical to the arcade version of Asteroids, and it's hard to believe the Atari 2600 can do such an incredible job of replicating vector style graphics. I had just played the original arcade version of Asteroids this morning and the only real difference in gameplay that I could find with Space Rocks is that there doesn't seem to be any chance of your ship self-destructing from a hyperspace jump, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

Really outstanding work all around. I'll definitely be picking up a physical copy of Space Rocks from the AtariAge store as soon as funds allow.

[+sramirez2008]

I'm always a little hesitant to bump up an inactive thread but I just played Space Rocks (release candidate #7 on a Harmony Encore cart) for the first time today and I am absolutely blown away! With the colors set to black and white and the Magna-Mines turned off this feels almost identical to the arcade version of Asteroids, and it's hard to believe the Atari 2600 can do such an incredible job of replicating vector style graphics. I had just played the original arcade version of Asteroids this morning and the only real difference in gameplay that I could find with Space Rocks is that there doesn't seem to be any chance of your ship self-destructing from a hyperspace jump, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

Really outstanding work all around. I'll definitely be picking up a physical copy of Space Rocks from the AtariAge store as soon as funds allow.

 

100% agree! This game is excellent and always in my 2600 rotation.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/230610-what-2600-games-are-you-playing-right-now/?p=3336686

[Keatah]

In another thread I was saying that only 2 or maybe 3 top-flight VCS games come out every year. This would be one of them.

[+GoldLeader]

In another thread I was saying that only 2 or maybe 3 top-flight VCS games come out every year. This would be one of them.

 

Agreed!!!

[AtariLeaf]

In another thread I was saying that only 2 or maybe 3 top-flight VCS games come out every year. This would be one of them.

 

It's my favorite for sure. The greatest praise I can give it is that it is in regular rotation with my other favorite non-homebrew games that get played anytime I play the 2600.

[+Nathan Strum]

Was just playing PinOut! on my iPad and found something interesting...

 

 

No relation, of course

Edited December 24, 2016 by Nathan Strum

[+SpiceWare]

Space Rocks predates the Harmony Encore and was written using a version of the DPC+ driver which has a bug in it which prevents it from working on the Encore. batari released the 1.06 BIOS which will allow the Encore to run Space Rocks, however it's for NTSC. I was contacted yesterday by somebody in Europe who wished to run Space Rocks, but didn't wish to use the NTSC BIOS.

 

I took a look, but am not able to rebuild Space Rocks at this time because the Linux Virtual Machine I was using to compile the C code was corrupted during an update to Parallels (which is why I now use VirtualBox).

 

I then remembered I'd helped spendidnut with Chaotic Grill(a very impressive port of BurgerTime). He'd been using a really old version of the DPC+ driver with a bug in it that would crash the program under certain conditions. I was able to replace the driver in his ROM without having to recompile.

 

So I've run the following via Terminal on my Mac (these commands also work under Linux) to replace the DPC+ driver used in Space Rocks:

dd skip=3 count=29 if=spacerocks20121129_NTSC.bin of=srn29K.bin bs=1024
cat DPC+20121020.arm srn29K.bin > spacerocks20121129_NTSC_encore.bin
 
dd skip=3 count=29 if=spacerocks20121129_PAL.bin of=srp29K.bin bs=1024
cat DPC+20121020.arm srp29K.bin > spacerocks20121129_PAL_encore.bin

---

It can now be used on the Harmony Encore running the 1.05 BIOS.

 

spacerocks20121129_NTSC_encore.bin

spacerocks20121129_PAL_encore.bin

[Arenafoot]

Space Rocks predates the Harmony Encore and was written using a version of the DPC+ driver which has a bug in it which prevents it from working on the Encore. batari released the 1.06 BIOS which will allow the Encore to run Space Rocks, however it's for NTSC. I was contacted yesterday by somebody in Europe who wished to run Space Rocks, but didn't wish to use the NTSC BIOS.

Any way of getting a Space Rocks version for the AFP??

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I have created a PAL version of 1.06 for myself, by patching the NTSC version with a PAL menu. I can post it here, when I am back from vacation.

[DaveC1964]

I tried this on the AFP but it doesn't run I am not surprised though considering how this game pushes the real hardware. The AFP is just a crap emulator I guess.

 

Great work, can't believe how good some of these games are, it almost seems like magic for such old hardware.

[Keatah]

In this context, AFP is an incomplete/unfinished emulator.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I tried this on the AFP but it doesn't run I am not surprised though considering how this game pushes the real hardware. The AFP is just a crap emulator I guess.

 

Great work, can't believe how good some of these games are, it almost seems like magic for such old hardware.

 

 

In this context, AFP is an incomplete/unfinished emulator.

You actually attempted to run melody homebrew on the Flashback portable, and it didn't explode or catch fire???

[CrazyChris]

Who, over the age of 30, changes the default settings?

[dphirschler]

The game is so good as it is. I feel guilty even asking for a feature. I would just like your previous score to stay on screen longer, so I have time to take a picture.

 

Darryl

[+SpiceWare]

The game is so good as it is. I feel guilty even asking for a feature. I would just like your previous score to stay on screen longer, so I have time to take a picture.

 

Darryl

 

 

Thank you!

 

The game is finished, so no new features will be added; however, it's not actually needed as if you let it sit idle at the menu for about 20 seconds it'll enter demo mode, which displays the scores for the last game.

[dphirschler]

 

 

Thank you!

 

The game is finished, so no new features will be added; however, it's not actually needed as if you let it sit idle at the menu for about 20 seconds it'll enter demo mode, which displays the scores for the last game.

Well I'll be! How could I have missed that?

 

Darryl

[Pac-Guy 26]

Nice, you remade Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Space Duel all on one cartridge! Think you can do Blasteroids?

[+SpiceWare]

Thanks. I'd wanted to have the tethering from Space Duel, but ran out of room for it. My current 2600 plans are:

• finish converting the Stay Frosty 2 music driver to CDF format for Mappy
• Start in on creating the Spice C framework (like batari BASIC, but uses C instead of BASIC with the prebuilt kernels using the new CDF coprocessor)
• Port Frantic to Spice C
• Port Timmy to Spice C
• Start in on Sinistar using Spice C

Hopefully somebody else will try using Spice C to create Blasteroids

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Thanks. I'd wanted to have the tethering from Space Duel, but ran out of room for it.

Too bad, it would have added another dimension to the already great game play.

 

But then, good that you did not decide to switch to 64K. Else I would have had to buy an Encore to play the game on real hardware.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Else I would have had to buy an Encore to play the game on real hardware.

Or buy a cart!

[ZeroPage Homebrew]

We'll be challenging ourselves with Space Rocks Tournament Edition LIVE on tomorrow's (Friday) ZeroPage Homebrew stream on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

Twitch Stream: http://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

Game Lineup:

- Avalanche (2019 WIP Update) by Champ Games
- Upp Plus (2019 ZPH Edition) by Jason Santuci aka Jason Schelhorn aka theloon aka Gemintronic
- This Planet Sucks (1998) by Greg Troutman
- Space Rocks (2015 Tournament Edition) by Darrell Spice Jr. aka Spiceware

 

[+Nathan Strum]

Do you have a proper five-button controller for Space Rocks?

[+sramirez2008]

Sweet!

 

While I normally play Space Rocks with a Starplex controller, you should play the TE edition with a CX-40, just like we did.

 

2015 Classic Game Fest Tournament pics here.