Jump to content
IGNORED

Birthday Mania - Unwrapped


Atari_Warlord

Recommended Posts

First of all, so much thanks to all involved for making this part of history available to the community.

 

Second, I was just thinking how the original carts had some random's name on the title screen, so, unless you know one of these randoms' name, any name or no name is as good as anything. Do we know the font/size characteristics was used for the original names? I suppose one could say that no name is perhaps the closest possible, as that would be what the original rom has. But it is very nice to have a version with the creator's name as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, high voltage said:

So Waggie's effort is out the the picture, never heard anything for some time.

 

And what about Roberts wish to give to some charity for any cart sold.

I d/l'ed the .bin and given 20 UKpounds to Cats Protection UK.

I was under the impression it was still planned, but someone will have to put in the effort to add the auto name addition programming. Of course, even after that, these projects have sometimes taken years to go from ready rom to carts for sale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holy cow, and just like that, the rom is suddenly freed with no fanfare whatsoever! Incredible. From 10K to 10¢ in an instant. Of course, thank you for finally doing so. What an odd ending to such a long ordeal.

 

The 404 is now possible for every collector! It’s a great day indeed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got the game to work, here's how I did it:

 

1. Press Tab and select "Input" DEFAULT EVERYTHING!

 

2. Assign the keys to your preference.

 

3. Go to Devices & Ports: Make sure your mouse controller is under "Analog Devices:
     Check "Allow all 4 directions on joystick."

 

4. Uncheck "Grab mouse in emulation mode" and "Use control key combos"

 

5. Load game, press tab and choose "Game properties"

 

6. Under "Controller" tab, pick P0 controller as "Paddles" and close menu.

 

7. Press the "`" on the top-left corner of your keyboard.

 

8. Click the I/O tab, look at the middle-left spot under "SWCHA (W)" and the first "0" will turn red.

 

9. Close the debug menu and do a complete restart on the emulator.

 

10. As soon as the game loads, move the directional keys and click the mouse.

 

11. Enjoy!

Edited by trevgauntlet
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Is there any way to tell from looking at the original source code what development system was used to create this cartridge? e.g. unusual compiler directives or unique formatting

 

Way back in the very first post, the programmer indicated that he had no memory of the system used. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I happened to be out of town this past weekend when the news broke regarding this rom release & I was busy catching up with work so I wasn’t able to finally get to this and burn myself an eprom and try it out until now. Here are my initial observations.

 

I’ll begin with a reminder that I had actually played this game back around 1996 at the owners house. One of very few, I’m sure, who had ever done so, but of course at the time I truly didn’t understand nor appreciate the extreme significance of the game & I really couldn’t recall much about it years later.

 

Well tonight, I think I can understand why. It didn’t take more then a few seconds of playing before I realized that it was pretty much a Kaboom clone or dare I say, even perhaps just a hack. It uses the paddle, it uses the mad bombers sprite, and the play control is pretty much identical. No doubt, I observed & determined the same thing 20 years ago, and probably left there unimpressed & disinterested in the same way I would have with any similar scenario.

 

(such as say playing Spiderdroid for the first time and realizing it’s Amidar)

 

One of our code guys here should look it over (or maybe  use that clone spy program) and see just what, if any, programming code is used or recycled from Kaboom.

 

Anyhow, it plays a little loose or even jittery, not quite as sharp & as tight as Kaboom, which makes it a little bit harder to control & to succeed. Also the difficulty is a bit off & could have used some tweaking. It starts off ridiculously easy (borderline boring) and then takes way too long to begin to increase, and then when it finally does, it becomes blazingly fast, arguably too difficult.

 

It’s a very low scoring game, and may not even be capable of a 5 digit display. (9,999 may be the max possible score & then it would roll over) More or less every time you break a couple hundred points, they increase your air capacity. On my second game, I got it as high as about 80 and scored 726 points. I plan to play it much more and will report back what else I uncover.

 

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad per say about the game. In fact, for a simple 4K cart, it’s pretty damn good! I mean it has a “title screen”, it plays a great opening melody, it has ok graphics, easy to understand gameplay, and even a secondary death melody. It just starts slow & takes a while to become engaging & challenging.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 7/31/2019 at 11:19 AM, Atari_Warlord said:

It was never my intent to hold this game hostage for so long.  I'd still love to have the individualized versions published.  The main piece missing is an automatic way to update each ROM with a different name. 

 

Attached is a ROM with the original programmers name in recognition of his creation.  Thanks to Thomas for cleaning up the code and creating this version. Albert, if this can be added to the first post, please do so to make it easier to find.

 

Play Hints:

 

1. This is a paddle game (left port)

2. Left difficulty switch in A=narrow blast, B=wider blast

3. Reset starts new game

4. Select not used

5. B/W switch, Color position shows and plays Happy Birthday screen, B/W position skips intro screen

6. Right difficulty switch in A=single blow mode, B=continuous blow mode

7. The game pauses between waves and only starts the new wave when the fire button is pressed or if it is being held down.

8. Enjoy!

 

Birthday_Mania_Robert_A_Tokar.bin 4 kB · 142 downloads

Oh my god... thank you so much for this Warlord (Waggie). As a much younger enthusiast of lost and found media, and old games like this, this means the world to me, and to everyone else that watched and chatted in this thread for the past 7 years now. Seeing footage of the game for the first time 4 years ago was exciting enough, but actually experiencing something that only a handful of people got to play back in 1984 is even more so. Thank you again! :)

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t think that’s going to happen. It would probably be too complicated to do so. To understand why, people have to go back to the beginning of this thread and read through all of it. It’s literally been years since this began & one particular detail that got lost in the shuffle has to do with any profits that the game generates having to go to charity. Not an easy thing to clarify & implement when producing & selling carts through the AtariAge store. It’s an inconvenience & not worth the hassle because there is no money to be made for anyone involved.

 

Secondly, since this particular game’s charm relies so heavily on personalization (without that it amounts to just a Kaboom hack) then unless & until a name entry system is programmed & implemented (like say RealSports Tennis has) it comes off as “meh” when it just says “to you” and “odd” when it says the programmers name.

 

It’s just not very appealing like that. The game then loses its character.

 

So it’s not a very marketable game for anyone to produce in any significant quantities. It’s kind of a build your own cart thing. Or just play it on Harmony or an emulator. Kind of like Space Chase monogrammed edition. Similar situation. I mean, who cares for a game rom that is personalized to some other random person? Would you want a signed Raiders of the Lost Ark movie poster hanging in your home that says: “from Harrison Ford & Steven Spielberg to Random Name”? And if these carts were individually made then that’s exactly what would happen years from now when they exchange hands through sales & trades in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Supergun said:

I don’t think that’s going to happen. It would probably be too complicated to do so. To understand why, people have to go back to the beginning of this thread and read through all of it. It’s literally been years since this began & one particular detail that got lost in the shuffle has to do with any profits that the game generates having to go to charity. Not an easy thing to clarify & implement when producing & selling carts through the AtariAge store. It’s an inconvenience & not worth the hassle because there is no money to be made for anyone involved.

We've done this before..

48 minutes ago, Supergun said:

Secondly, since this particular game’s charm relies so heavily on personalization (without that it amounts to just a Kaboom hack) then unless & until a name entry system is

programmed & implemented (like say RealSports Tennis has) it comes off as “meh” when it just says “to you” and “odd” when it says the programmers name.

This isn't too difficult to do, and would not be the first game sold in the AtariAge Store with personalization.

 

 ..Al

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...