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New Harmony product: Harmony Encore


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First there has to be a game that will persuade people to upgrade to this new version of Harmony. Boulderdash is out of question right? Anything else really worth it? 512k... jesus it is not even what an 8-bit CPU is supposed to address... For the time being I will just play in peace with my recently acquired standard HC.

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I think Harmony+ sounds the best too, while leaving room for Harmony++ in the future (even if Harmony++ is what a C nerd might say today if he obtained another Harmony).

 

Of the music ones, Harmony Forte seems the least bad because a successor or special edition could be Harmony Fortissimo. (I don't like Allegro because after packaging o2em for a few different Linux distros over the years, I think it's a terrible, unmaintainable library.) "Reprise" is usually a brief restatement of an earlier theme, if I remember correctly, and this Harmony is an expansion of the original, not a brief restatement.

 

Weren't there some 64K compilations in addition to the Boulder Dash demo? Regardless, I'm more curious about what kind of RPGs people will attempt with 512K of RAM -- and then add in the SD card multi-loading that to my knowledge no one has used on the original Harmony for some potentially massive games.

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First there has to be a game that will persuade people to upgrade to this new version of Harmony. Boulderdash is out of question right? Anything else really worth it? 512k... jesus it is not even what an 8-bit CPU is supposed to address... For the time being I will just play in peace with my recently acquired standard HC.

 

I know my next Atari 2600 project will be 64k. CPUWIZ has 256k boards in development which hopefully will be accompanied by batari BASIC support. That would entice homebrewers like Sprybug to use these gynormous sizes. I haven't tried running 64k games on the original Harmony but I wouldn't count on them to support those juicy 256k games that will come. I'll definitely be picking up a Harmony+ :)

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In that case it wouldn't be an upgrade as the older boards don't have a way to attach the extra hardware, but basically a trade-in, and the fee would be more like $40. I'd then clean up your old cart, upgrade the BIOS and whatever else needs to be done, and offer it as a refurbished Harmony cart for less than a standard edition runs now.

 

Now, this all depends on how much demand there would be for a lower-cost, refurbished Harmony cart that isn't upgradeable. I'd guess there would be enough demand, but I don't know until I try.

Cool! I'd definitely trade in my harmony for the Harmony +/gold/reprise/forte/etc.

 

Looking forward to the 7800 version as well. :)

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Perhaps the best part will be the resurgence in 4k and maybe even 2k games that'll happen in a year or so as the purists get sick to death of all the enormous brute-force batari BASIC releases. :-D :thumbsup:

 

Space Raid, Rally X... Muncher... all great games and staying within 4k... But I guess people like to investigate new things so we will see games over 32k... The thing is if it is over 32k there should be a good reason for that you know... if you have a kernel that is 32k and is doable in 8k.. I don't know

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Space Raid, Rally X... Muncher... all great games and staying within 4k...

 

And how many bB games have appeared since the earliest of those three? I'm not a purist, and have no problem with bB (though I'm most impressed with bB games I can't immediately tell are bB games). But you can't deny that since its appearance, volume-wise it's kind of taken over. The Harmony contributed to that and the H+ or whatever its name turns out to be will contribute further.

 

Certainly if I do what I've been thinking about doing since this thread started, it'll require the Harmony if not the H+. I actually get a little disappointed when someone goes "Yeah, this could be better, but I'm sticking within 4K." But a 16, 32, or now 64K and up game has to impress me a hell of a lot more than a 4K/no extra features one.

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But a 16, 32, or now 64K and up game has to impress me a hell of a lot more than a 4K/no extra features one.

At this time, bB DPC+ games can have high resolution playfields and 10 multicolored sprites. The default is 32k (only banks 2 through 6 are free for normal use), but you only have 26 variables and they can get used up in a nanosecond even if you try to squeeze out every bit. If you want more variables, you have to start killing off your extra sprites:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#dpc_dpcspritemax

 

If bB users want at least 48 more variables to add to the 26 (so they can have more features), they can use Superchip RAM, but the playfield won't be as pretty and there are only 2 sprites that may or may not be multicolored depending on the kernel options and some of those options kill one or both missiles.

 

So far there is nothing for bB users that gives a high resolution playfield, a lot of multicolored sprites, and a ton of variables. If we ever get those three all at the same time (DPC+ with extra RAM), we'll probably see a lot of impressive games that are pretty while having a lot of features and more interesting gameplay.

 

I wonder if the Harmony+ is the solution to the problem? Will bB users be able to use the extra RAM in the Harmony+ to make DPC+ games that have a lot more variables without needing to kill off sprites?

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