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something new... GTIABlast! 5200 WIP for Ultimate SD cart


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gb5200.bin

 

This is a work in progress demo of GTIABlast! ported to the 5200. It is a 512K image for the Atarimax Ultimate SD cart. It doesn't use all that memory at the moment, but it will eventually.

 

Aking asked if I'd considered porting to the 5200. I had not but it fitted in nicely with the direction the 8-bit development was going. In this demo Harvey has improved the GTIA 9, 10 and 11 levels from the 8-bit version, added a new GTIA 9 level and a whole bunch of new sprite designs. Thanks again to Aking for all the testing.

 

A 5200 version of the GTIA 9 background designer will be made available soon for anyone wanting to make their own demo.

 

 

 

 

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Just to make this clear to everyone else - that this image only works on the Ultimate SD cart with the Atari 5200 console - and that you cannot run this via emulation at the moment as Altirra does not support the mode used (I think it is the memory access?).

Downloaders have to be aware of this - otherwise you cannot run it.

 

Altirra could run this in the future, if it's developers support the mode used.

 

I hope some one or some 5200 enthusiasts etc will take this WIP game demo along to the Portland Retrogaming Expo and show it off to the public there? For us, as we don't have any representative to do that - given that this was not planned in advance for - and is a last minute update/conversion for the current GTIABlast! project.

 

Harvey

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Note - it is the bank switching of the SD cart - that Altirra needs to be updated for...

 

I plan to post a video up on Youtube soon - a day before the expo? It will not be running off a 5200 - but it should be about 99% accurate in representing it...

 

Harvey

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this reminds me of a 5200 version of a Jeff Minter game (Tempest 2000). Trippy! Keep up the good work. Will be great to see this completed? Are bosses possible or physical (non-enemy) obstacles?

 

The plan is to add some more attack patterns then reassess what to do next. Originally it was to be a disk based 8-bit game but now that it's on a 512K cart almost anything is possible - but I have to balance that against what I can get done in my spare time.

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I'd like to mention that there has been quite a bit more development on this GTIABlast! project than what has been publicly released so far. I'm not going to mention any specific details about that. But I hope that anyone who has been following our progress very closely - will have noted the differences (even if they be somewhat minor?) with each demo release. And they might be able to predict what we have been experimenting with? Or to say what likely things we are to do - anyway - because of what we have done so far.

Working on a Atari 5200 console version - was quite a surprise for us to do - and certainly we were not thinking about doing it, at the start of this year. How this 5200 demo version is received - is crucial - for what we may do in future?

 

Harvey

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Something else I like to mention overall:

What I have learnt with this GTIABlast! project - is to reaffirm that if you put in the time and effort into a project - almost anything becomes possible... This is the same for most things (interests/hobbies/sports/etc etc)...

Some people may well ask: What is the point of carrying on, with something you were doing 25 years ago?

Most people do not have that kind of opportunity presented to them, to do...

 

It is of course, what you set for yourself to do - that matters. We're not doing this for any kind of monetary reward - there is none - although it may be possible to earn some minimal amount - if you were able to manufacture some special 'Collectors' kind of cart/game/whatever of a limited run.

 

For me - it is to show clearly that the Atari 400/800 etc series 8-bit computers were some kind graphics wonder machine - and few games showed this clearly - back then, but now (in this present day) we realise - that actually there was a lot more that could have been done with them, for sure. Here are some examples ...

Of course, this applies to the Atari 5200 as well...

 

In these forums - you can see there are people who are keen to work on various pet projects of theirs - or who like to see certain things done on these ole Atari's. And it is good to see certain projects take off ... eg. Crownland - which is a good platform game (although this is not connected to this forum or site). It is always good to see games/etc which make you sit up and take notice of..

 

Harvey

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i have an idea for this Demo:

 

What About an Atari fuji logo shaped spaceship going through different "evil computer" motherboards ?

 

passing amstrad ,spectrum,bbc micro , vic 20 landscapes all the way to the final stage ,

in a C64 !!

 

at the end of each stage the main rival computer chip could turn into the robot boss to fight.

Final Battle Against SID robot ? :-o

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looks awesome! Mario, that killer ship, 5200 system board, etc.

 

Can't wait for sound effects, enemy patterns, bosses, smart bomb

 

auto fire, fires at pefect speed

 

Can you keep the border / overscan area black vs. changing?

 

Due to super colorful background perhaps make enemy shots be pink or alternating pink / black

 

Slow down the vertical scroll a little, so much to take in :)

 

Is it possible to make 2 player simultaneous ?

 

Amazing demo!!!!!!!!

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Thank you all for the positive feedback.

 

Place Logo Here, on 26 Oct 2013 - 5:08 PM, said:

Depending on the price, I would be willing to buy just the bin for a finished version of this (instead of waiting for it to be made into a cart).

 

No plans to make a cart, only intending to release it as a public domain bin for the SD cart.

 

grips03, on 28 Oct 2013 - 05:28 AM, said:

Looks awesome! Mario, that killer ship, 5200 system board, etc.

 

Can't wait for sound effects, enemy patterns, bosses, smart bomb

 

auto fire, fires at pefect speed

 

Can you keep the border / overscan area black vs. changing?

 

Due to super colorful background perhaps make enemy shots be pink or alternating pink / black

 

Slow down the vertical scroll a little, so much to take in :)

 

Is it possible to make 2 player simultaneous ?

 

Amazing demo!!!!!!!!

 

With 512K so much is possible but as a spare time project it has to be fun to develop with no deadlines or pressure. The intention is to work on it for another year and hopefully end up with something reasonably playable.

 

Sound effects = planned

Enemy patterns = currently being worked on

Bosses = maybe

Smart bomb = maybe

 

Most of the border changes you see are in GTIA 9 - you can't have the border black and the screen a different hue unfortunately. The GTIA 10 screens have a green border which is also one of the playfield colour registers. I know we looked at making that black but I can't remember the reason why we didn't now.

 

The current missiles toggle the fifth player enable bit each frame which results in varied colours and does help them stand out a little bit better than they otherwise would. The multi-coloured player bit is set for the sprites and this does lead to some strange blending of the missiles. It's not ideal, but just about acceptable. The missiles can be made fatter which does make them more visible, but they don't look right coming from the ship design.

 

There are currently 2 rates of vertical scrolling, 60hz and 30hz which is selectable every screen (a screen being 24 lines of characters). The idea was to scroll at 60hz to show the power of the machine and 30hz when there was an interesting design to draw attention to.

 

2 player simultaneous = no plans but perhaps afterwards might consider a cut down version which could support this

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  • 2 months later...

Here is a new demo release of the project, now called ATARI BLAST! due to the inclusion of ANTIC modes.

 

The filename extension has changed to .hyb but it still runs on the Atarimax Ultimate SD cartridge. It now uses hybrid mode which provides 8K bank switching instead of 32K, making it easier to align with the 8-bit version.

 

Two of the new ANTIC 4 levels are reworkings of Harvey's graphics from HawkQuest, an excellent game he developed with Andrew Bradfield for the Atari 8-bit published by Red Rat Software in 1989.

 

There is another new ANTIC 4 level and a new ANTIC 2 level. Harvey has also been busy refining all the original GTIA levels too.

 

There are now sound effects, some varied music, some new sprite paths and enemy missiles. Controls are now:

 

  • any fire button will fire
  • 1..8 will jump to that level (at any time)
  • * will start auto-fire which will remain active until you press a fire button

ab5200.zip

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Here is a new demo release of the project, now called ATARI BLAST! due to the inclusion of ANTIC modes.

 

The filename extension has changed to .hyb but it still runs on the Atarimax Ultimate SD cartridge. It now uses hybrid mode which provides 8K bank switching instead of 32K, making it easier to align with the 8-bit version.

 

Two of the new ANTIC 4 levels are reworkings of Harvey's graphics from HawkQuest, an excellent game he developed with Andrew Bradfield for the Atari 8-bit published by Red Rat Software in 1989.

 

There is another new ANTIC 4 level and a new ANTIC 2 level. Harvey has also been busy refining all the original GTIA levels too.

 

There are now sound effects, some varied music, some new sprite paths and enemy missiles. Controls are now:

 

  • any fire button will fire
  • 1..8 will jump to that level (at any time)
  • * will start auto-fire which will remain active until you press a fire button

 

 

 

Dual pokey support on the 5200 ?

:thumbsup: Freakin Amazing :thumbsup:

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