Draconian (2600)

[chewy]

wait wait on the pal setting, the colours look like the secam but it is NOT rolling, usu the screen rolls, hmm. well enough messing around, going to read your manual now

[chewy]

look im new here, but dog this is bar none the best aaa #1 spaceshooter better than the history of atari spaceshooters put together, that i know

[chewy]

so games like this, there is no way, they could of been done in the early 80s, right. it is out of modern techniques and new ways of programming that are compatable w/ the hardware, that you can rock something that i want to play for more than 5 minutes?

[chewy]

i will tell you this, when cycling thru the logos, on my 1986 rca colortrak which is not as bright a tube as it once was, the logo looks best in secam. on the other two the top 1/3'rd slice of top is too dark. when secam is on the menu the logo is full and i can read it most clearly!

[chewy]

NEVER BEFORE THIS GAME HAVE I MORE WANTED LIKE A FIXED JOYSTICK INSTEAD OF ONE I HOLD IN MY HAND. I AM ON A TAC-2 AND IF I KEEP IT STEADY I CAN ANGLE IT BETTER ON THIS GAME, JUST LIKE ON A REAL ARCADE. THIS DEFINETLY HAS TO BE IN THE TOP 5 LIKE BEST ARCADE GAMES ON ATARI 2600 BRO

Edited November 22, 2018 by chewy

[Cambouis de l'Atari]

 

You should have added this screen Spice

Edited November 23, 2018 by Cambouis de l'Atari

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That or an overenthusiastic, very happy customer.

[+SpiceWare]

YOUR GAME HAS VOICE ON MY LIGHT 6'ER

It's been known now to get the 2600 to play digital samples for a long time, both Quadrun and Open Sesame utilized it back in 1983. Back then the gameplay would have to stop while the sample was played.

 

IT LOOKS VERY 3D, IT ALMOST LOOKS LIKE SEGA GENESIS OR SOMETHING

Being able to reuse the Atari's 5 moveable objects frequently made it possible to create the parallax effect. Those objects are 2 players (nowadays known as sprites), 2 missiles, and a ball. The missiles and ball are just a single pixel, though they can be sized at 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x.

 

you put a menu option that cycles between pal, ntsc, and secam?? whoa ive never experenced secam before the colours dont look bad on my american rca........

wait wait on the pal setting, the colours look like the secam but it is NOT rolling, usu the screen rolls

The option only sets the color values used, which are different on the NTSC, PAL and SECAM versions of TIA(the video chip). The frame rate is kept at 60 Hz for all of them, rather than 50 Hz as expected for PAL and SECAM. Displays in Europe normally can handle 60 Hz though, so "PAL60" is a common way to implement homebrews for over there. More info on my Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM page.

 

so games like this, there is no way, they could of been done in the early 80s, right. it is out of modern techniques and new ways of programming that are compatable w/ the hardware, that you can rock something that i want to play for more than 5 minutes?

Correct. Back in the day Activision came out with a coprocessor to put in the cartridge and used it to create Pitfall 2. We're doing the same thing, but using a modern ARM processor as the coprocessor. This is what allows me to reuse the objects so frequently, as well as play back digital samples without pausing the gameplay. The ARM has an internal clock and by using it we can detect if the 2600 in question is NTSC, PAL, or SECAM because each model uses a slightly different clock speed.

 

i will tell you this, when cycling thru the logos, on my 1986 rca colortrak which is not as bright a tube as it once was, the logo looks best in secam. on the other two the top 1/3'rd slice of top is too dark. when secam is on the menu the logo is full and i can read it most clearly!

The top two colors in the logo use a luma value of 2, which can be dark depending upon how the brightness and contrast on your display is adjusted.

 

NEVER BEFORE THIS GAME HAVE I MORE WANTED LIKE A FIXED JOYSTICK INSTEAD OF ONE I HOLD IN MY HAND. I AM ON A TAC-2 AND IF I KEEP IT STEADY I CAN ANGLE IT BETTER ON THIS GAME, JUST LIKE ON A REAL ARCADE. THIS DEFINETLY HAS TO BE IN THE TOP 5 LIKE BEST ARCADE GAMES ON ATARI 2600 BRO

Thanks! I use a regular 2600 style joystick to play, though it's a newer one that was made for one of the earlier Flashback units. I don't like the newer flashback joystick though, they revised the internals and no longer feel right.

[Andromeda Stardust]

DOG I JUST GOT MY H. CART AND I SWEAR TO GOD I DONT HAVE THE 60 DOLLAR ATARVOX ADD-ON, BUT YOUR GAME HAS VOICE ON MY LIGHT 6'ER AND IT LOOKS VERY 3D, IT ALMOST LOOKS LIKE SEGA GENESIS OR SOMETHING

If you bought the AtariVox for $60, you overpaid. It is $45 in the AA store. https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1045

 

The speech synthesis is based on arcade samples but it uses a TIA audio register stuffing process for the speech synths similar to the music synth chip in Pitfall II. Also a bit overzealous on the posts mate...

 

Glad you are enjoying it. Yes, the new CDW bankswitching capable games are mind blowing. Yes, this game is so fantastic, I was playing on my AV modded 7800 and forgot that I was in actuality playing a 2600 game. It's that good!

 

I would also personally recommend Space Rocks, Scramble, and Super Cobra Arcade if you want more advanced 2600 games like this.

[chewy]

thanks you guys

Edited November 23, 2018 by chewy

[chewy]

im really getting a comprehension for this thanks for the info---- so is this as far as we can go w/ VCS, or do you think in 10 years we could even go further?

 

 

 

It's been known now to get the 2600 to play digital samples for a long time, both Quadrun and Open Sesame utilized it back in 1983. Back then the gameplay would have to stop while the sample was played.


Being able to reuse the Atari's 5 moveable objects frequently made it possible to create the parallax effect. Those objects are 2 players (nowadays known as sprites), 2 missiles, and a ball. The missiles and ball are just a single pixel, though they can be sized at 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x.


The option only sets the color values used, which are different on the NTSC, PAL and SECAM colors. The frame rate is kept at 60 Hz for all of them, rather than 50 Hz as expected for PAL and SECAM. Displays in Europe normally can handle 60 Hz though, so "PAL60" is a common way to implement homebrews for over there. More info on my Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM page.


Correct. Back in the day Activision came out with a coprocessor to put in the cartridge and used it to create Pitfall 2. We're doing the same thing, but using a modern ARM processor as the coprocessor. This is what allows me to reuse the objects so frequently, as well as play back digital samples without pausing the gameplay. The ARM has an internal clock and by using it we can detect if the 2600 in question is NTSC, PAL, or SECAM because each model uses a slightly different clock speed.


The top two colors in the logo use a luma value of 2, which can be dark depending upon how the brightness and contrast on your display is adjusted.


Thanks! I use a regular 2600 style joystick to play, though it's a newer one that was made for one of the earlier Flashback units. I don't like the newer flashback joystick though, they revised the internals and no longer feel right.

[chewy]

are we ever gonna get like a 16 gb game for the vcs in 20 years, is it going to be constantly improved upon or is it going to reach like a point where it cant go further?

 

and if we did have a 16 gb game would it just mean the game is really really long, or i mean could we get a game 16gb that would improve the graphics even more?

Edited November 23, 2018 by chewy

[Twin_power]

If you bought the AtariVox for $60, you overpaid. It is $45 in the AA store. https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1045

 

The speech synthesis is based on arcade samples but it uses a TIA audio register stuffing process for the speech synths similar to the music synth chip in Pitfall II. Also a bit overzealous on the posts mate...

 

Glad you are enjoying it. Yes, the new CDW bankswitching capable games are mind blowing. Yes, this game is so fantastic, I was playing on my AV modded 7800 and forgot that I was in actuality playing a 2600 game. It's that good!

 

I would also personally recommend Space Rocks, Scramble, and Super Cobra Arcade if you want more advanced 2600 games like this.

I don't think the AtariVox is available right now..

[+SpiceWare]

im really getting a comprehension for this thanks for the info---- so is this as far as we can go w/ VCS, or do you think in 10 years we could even go further?

We can go further, though we ran into problems with Bus Stuffing on a few systems (namely Juniors and 7800s). We were trying to get this working for Draconian, but ran out of time for my planned release of Draconian at PRGE in 2017. So we can up with CDF instead, as covered in this Draconian blog entry.

 

 

 

are we ever gonna get like a 16 gb game for the vcs in 20 years, is it going to be constantly improved upon or is it going to reach like a point where it cant go further?

 

and if we did have a 16 gb game would it just mean the game is really really long, or i mean could we get a game 16gb that would improve the graphics even more?

We could do a 16 GB game now by utilizing an SD card in a Harmony for game data. 2600 homebrews are individual or small group projects, who would likely be overwhelmed with trying to create that much data for a 2600 game.

[chewy]

i hope you sleep well at night because you should be proud you created the aaa #1 most advanced best and repeatily fun atari game, and most authentic arcade reproduction. It should feel good to be the best at something. You really should send a copy to Nolan Bushnell dawg, hed get a kick out of this

 

 

We can go further, though we ran into problems with Bus Stuffing on a few systems (namely Juniors and 7800s). We were trying to get this working for Draconian, but ran out of time for my planned release of Draconian at PRGE in 2017. So we can up with CDF instead, as covered in this Draconian blog entry.





We could do a 16 GB game now by utilizing an SD card in a Harmony for game data. 2600 homebrews are individual or small group projects, who would likely be overwhelmed with trying to create that much data for a 2600 game.

Edited November 24, 2018 by chewy

[chewy]

.

Edited November 24, 2018 by chewy

[Andromeda Stardust]

We can go further, though we ran into problems with Bus Stuffing on a few systems (namely Juniors and 7800s). We were trying to get this working for Draconian, but ran out of time for my planned release of Draconian at PRGE in 2017. So we can up with CDF instead, as covered in this Draconian blog entry. We could do a 16 GB game now by utilizing an SD card in a Harmony for game data. 2600 homebrews are individual or small group projects, who would likely be overwhelmed with trying to create that much data for a 2600 game.

I remembered the bus stuffing demos. They functioned fine on my 4-switch 2600 and my 7800. I did not test on the Gemini.

 

I would love to see more complex games made with the bus stuffing. They nearly rival the 7800 in capabilities.

 

Due to the way the tia operates, any static screen displayable on the Atari could potentially be a game screenshot in a 60hz game. Somewhat was working on the Cicada demo (galaga port using gb like monochrome). Whatever happened?

[chewy]

actually dawg i think it might be a tossup between Draconian game and that car pic for thing thats blowin my mind the most.....

[+SpiceWare]

The color picture of my old S2000 is super flickery, so much that I find it painful to look at.

The monochrome version flickers as well, but not as much so it is useful for things like pictures and displaying 32 column text. It could also be used for games, though the flicker causes moving objects to produce strange motion artifacts. Hopefully early next year SpiceC will have progressed far enough that people can start experimenting with that.

[Tangentg]

Huh, I got a red alert despite having destroyed all the spy ships since the beginning of my life anyway... One of them crashed into an asteroid and died, unsure if that counted towards "destroyed spy ship" in terms of setting off a red alert.

 

That said, I absolutely love this game! Gameplay was great, everything was smooth, the AIs worked great, the colours were pretty failthful, and the voice synthesis was there. It certainly played better than it looked even.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Tangentg

[+SpiceWare]

Huh, I got a red alert despite having destroyed all the spy ships since the beginning of my life anyway..

 

There's 2 ways a Condition Red can be triggered. Most commonly it occurs if you missed a spy ship, but it can also occur if its been a while since you attacked a station.

 

 

One of them crashed into an asteroid and died, unsure if that counted towards "destroyed spy ship" in terms of setting off a red alert.

You don't have to be the one to hit the spy ship to avoid condition red. You'll also earn points regardless of how it was taken out.

[Tangentg]

 

 

There's 2 ways a Condition Red can be triggered. Most commonly it occurs if you missed a spy ship, but it can also occur if its been a while since you attacked a station.

 

 

 

You don't have to be the one to hit the spy ship to avoid condition red. You'll also earn points regardless of how it was taken out.

I see, thanks!

[Tangentg]

Oh actually, I have another question. I was trying it on Stella with AtariVox set as the right controller, but every time I quit Stella and start the game again later, the highscores are gone. Does this not support AtariVox score-saving or is that a Stella issue? Haven't tried SaveKey so I dunno if it saves with that.

 

I saw a mention of this

 

 

No way that'll happen. AtariVox support to save 16 high scores is on the wish list. It would save a high score for each combination of Quadrant and Difficulty Level, though only for games that were started at Sector 1.

 

I guess that's not supported then.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Tangentg

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I guess that's not supported then.

[+SpiceWare]

Does this not support AtariVox score-saving

Nope. It was on the wish list, but there wasn't enough space to add it. Speech samples take up a lot of room.