apemaster Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Hi everyone! My name is Yoda Zhang, formerly known as Kemal Ezcan, owner of KE-SOFT, maker of the German ZONG magazine for Atari 8-Bit computers, and author of lots of games (Zador, Techno Ninja, Drag, Sogon, Antquest, Donald, Brundles etc.) and music for lots of games including Atari's Karriere, Hotel, Atlantis and others. I'm writing this post to let everyone know that I'm still alive and still active in retro-style computing. I personally don't own an Atari 8-Bit computer anymore, but use the emulator quite often to play, review and research games and other stuff. Here's the projects I'm currently working on: yodasvideoarcade.com I'm developing new retro-style games as browser-playables. There's already more than 10 games online, some of which are remakes of my Atari games, like The Pit, Bomber Jack, Sogon etc. All the games are 8-Bit style. Play for free. For this project, I'm looking for some graphics artists and also level designers. I have a lot of new game-concepts under development. yodagames.de I'm also developing board games, including retro 8-bit pixel style board games like Goldrush. Anyone who like board games may have a look. yodaprint.de This is my printing-company, basically my main job. What's special about this? I can make game-boxes with full-color print, like the one I made for Goldrush. This means anyone who wants customized game-boxes for homebrew games, can have these made by me. Very high quality, like the ones we are used to see for board games. I think this should be interesting for 2600 developers. I can of course also print the instruction-booklet, put an inlay in the box, shrinkwrap it etc. kemalsatariarchiv.gmxhome.de This is my Atari 8-Bit archive. You'll find descriptions and some screenshots of every single game / product I've ever made for the Atari 8-Bit. Also there's descriptions of the German ZONG magazines. Another project, without a website yet, is a new Retro Gaming magazine - yes, a printed magazine. My focus here is on real 8-Bit systems, that means Atari 2600, Atari 8-Bit, plus (sorry) C-64, VIC-20 and also the gaming consoles like Vectrex, Intellivision etc. but only 8-Bit, so no Mega Drive, Playstation etc. Anyone interested in helping with this and/or getting a copy of the printed magazine when finished, please PM me for details. Feel free to ask me any type of question, about my Atari games/music or new games. I'm here to answer. Cheers, Yoda Zhang 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Wow KE-SOFT, I remember your company and those games. Even you gave up using real 8-bits. I must be a pack rat, hardheaded, as I have hung on to all my 8-bit stuff (again to my wife's chagrin). Even Ben Pohland (the 8-bit Chemist from Current Notes and Atari Classics Magazine) gave up using 8-bits many years ago. He was innovative and refining the video and sound on the 8-bits. He said he just moved on. It amazes me how someone can be "so into something" intently, then just drop it and move on. I am beginning to think I have not progressed. Kinda sad on my part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Very nice, Thanks. You may want to consider some real Atari hardware again, as there have been many upgrades and improvements since you left the scene. Thanks again for joining AtariAge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Willkommen! one of my first A8 impressions... I typed in some of your games and listened for hours to your music... always wondered that you actually never (?) used a tracker but programmed the music in basic/turbo basic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Kemal Ezcan, the guy that lived among the Computermagazines and made some interesting stuff in Basic. Actually, built the only playable "Mario" Jump&Run Game and put samples in. A special Guy (in a positive way) on the A8 , for sure. Kind regards. I wonder about the name change "Yoda Zhang", as "Zhang" is a real name in China. And "Yoda" ... you know "Grammar irrelevant is" I'd really like to read a short memorandum. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmilo Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Wow ! Your browser games, your board games, printing business, magazines, history of all you've done... Welcome to Atariage and all the best in your future endeavors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apemaster Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 @Heaven/TQA: Yes, I never used a tracker. At that time, there was nothing like that, it was 1988. Trackers came much later. I had to find out all the note-values of the usable sounds in distortion 2 and 12 myself. I was inspired by the MULE music, the first that used distortion 12 for playing real notes. Later I made my own editor-software, called "Kemal Ezcan's Musikeditor", basically a tracker using my principle of organising the notes/tracks etc. @emkay: I changed my last name "using" marriage to Yun, then to Zhang - my ex-wife is a Chinese. Later magically my first name changed to Yoda. You must unlearn what you have learned. You must feel the force around you. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Best KE game is "The Brundles" … I still play that game, it's one of the better a8 games. It would be awesome to have a single-disk version one day without the need of swapping, so I could play it from MyIDE or other not-sip-based modern a8 storage solutions. Anyway: Great to see you here KE-Soft! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) Hi Kemal / Yoda! Nice to see to here, welcome on AtariAge! One question about music. You told us that you have newer used trackers for music. So who has done music for Atomit II and Zador II as I found them done in some version of Benjy/Pegasus Soundmonitor? Asking by pure curiosity... Edited January 7, 2015 by miker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 @emkay: I changed my last name "using" marriage to Yun, then to Zhang - my ex-wife is a Chinese. Later magically my first name changed to Yoda. You must unlearn what you have learned. You must feel the force around you. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. The name pointed to what you wrote. Thanks for the open words. I respekt everones desicion for life. It's some year since, when I was around 32 years old , I had an interesting encounter. It pointed to something interesting. At least there is no need for me to change the name, to point to my own position . Btw: Do you have plans for some Atari projects? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apemaster Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 @miker: As far as I remember, I coded Zador II and Atomit in Turbobasic. Maybe someone else made a version of it in a tracker. I remember the Benjisoft Tracker, and I also remember I found it too complicated. Maybe I used it for Atomit, but definetely not for Zador II. @emkay: Actually I would like to have an Raspberry Pie based (emulator) portable computer with LCD-screen and keyboard that I can use like an Atari 800. I'm just too lazy to read into how to do it. I'd also like to make maybe one or another game for a8, but not sure about that. It would start with the pie-a8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Ditto from me too, good to see you here. I remember your work very well back in the day. I recall actually putting together a compilation of your music with my brother some time during the mid 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikor Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 KE-SOFT, some Great games in Turbo basic Welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcokitt2000 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) Hello KE-SOFT, I have a floppy image start it with basic, It's from you 1984 and i like the music. Called supersynthesizer. greetings Marco floppy 109A.ATR Edited January 7, 2015 by marcokitt2000 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Hello KE-SOFT, I have a floppy image start it with basic, It's from you 1984 and i like the music. Called supersynthesizer. greetings Marco Wow - this brings back memories. I had some of these files on a public domain demo disc (mail order from Vulcan Software). Awesome that you are here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcokitt2000 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Wow - this brings back memories. I had some of these files on a public domain demo disc (mail order from Vulcan Software). Awesome that you are here. Stephen no problem if you need something searching mail me. I can sent you with Wetransfer mij floppy image. I have manager1350(atari software off course) of all my games and programs etc. Only i need email address. Sorry for my bad English i am dutch. Greetings, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gury Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Nice to see you here, Kemal. Greetings! Amazing to see people, who created very known stuff in the past, visit this forum. We gain much more information and interesting stuff this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foft Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 @emkay: Actually I would like to have an Raspberry Pie based (emulator) portable computer with LCD-screen and keyboard that I can use like an Atari 800. I'm just too lazy to read into how to do it. I'd also like to make maybe one or another game for a8, but not sure about that. It would start with the pie-a8. In one of these cases:) http://retroconnector.com/atari-800xl-1050/ Other fun options (I'm not unbiased here!)... The Pandora has tv out, usb and a built in lcd/keyboard. Also the mist is nice and portable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apemaster Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 @foft: Actually what I would like to see (and buy) would be a pre-configured raspberry pie with a8 emulator autobooting, in a nice laptop-style case that includes the a8 keyboard (of course can be a modified other keyboard with stickers on it) and a lcd-screen, should be at least 10 inches sized, with a usb-port for connection and a sd-card slot to put the disk images on. It should have the original a8 keyboard layout including the start-select-option-system reset keys. Maybe seperate arcade-buttons and joystick/joypad. Shouldn't be too hard to make that, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) Hi Kemal, nice to see all your stuff released in the ABBUC PD lib. That's really great. Maybe you remember this? I still have all you specs etc. and I still think about it often - and the fact that I had to learn the hard way the coding games is something you need very special skills for .... and I don't have them. You definitively have. So I stick to being a demo coder and support people who CAN write games with my IDE and advise. Cheers, Peter/JAC! Edited January 10, 2015 by JAC! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Hi Yoda, thanks for creating so many great games for the Atari Very Interesting reading your post. By coincidence we are playing the fantastic Zador in the final round of this season's High Score Club. Unfortunately the timer is too fast on NTSC systems - if you happen to have the code somewhere perhaps more seconds could be added one day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormtrooper of Death Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Hi Yoda/Kemal, I once met you in real life, at an Atari fair in Breda (or was it somewhere else) in the Netherlands. One of the last Atari 8bit fairs i went to. I was the with the High Tech Team and some friends of me from Eindhoven. We all were very impressed when we met you. The MASTER in real person ! Great to have you here at our Atari forum. Greetings from Richard Vermeulen alias Stormtrooper of Death (or DCW! (Dutch Cracking Wizard)) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apemaster Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 At the moment I have quite a few projects going on / in the planning. Would like to know your onions on them, if you'd be interested etc. Here we go: 1) Retroin - Retro Games full color printed magazine, focused on 8-Bit games (different systems but no 16-bit, official and homebrew games) only, focused on Images (large page-sized screenshots), landscape format for nicer screenshots. 68 pages, selling for 6 - 7 Euros (something). 2) A new Atari XL game. Still thinking about which game - thought about Donald 2, Tecno Ninja 2 or something else ... 3) Making a 2600 game. Something I always wanted to do. 4) Retrory - already posted in 2600 section. A physical (real) Memo game with 2600 images. Really cool! P.S.: Noticed the intentional typo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunsen Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 At the moment I have quite a few projects going on / in the planning. Would like to know your onions on them, if you'd be interested etc. Here we go: 1) Retroin - Retro Games full color printed magazine, focused on 8-Bit games (different systems but no 16-bit, official and homebrew games) only, focused on Images (large page-sized screenshots), landscape format for nicer screenshots. 68 pages, selling for 6 - 7 Euros (something). 2) A new Atari XL game. Still thinking about which game - thought about Donald 2, Tecno Ninja 2 or something else ... 3) Making a 2600 game. Something I always wanted to do. 4) Retrory - already posted in 2600 section. A physical (real) Memo game with 2600 images. Really cool! P.S.: Noticed the intentional typo? OK, here are my onions 1) I would buy. Probably I would write one or two articles. 2) Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be a dream, KE back in Atari business . 3) If you like! 4) No interest. P.S. Are you still meeting the ABBUC-Raf guys at their monthly meetings? We met there 3 or 4 times (about 12 years ago). I remember your extremely delicious sushi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikor Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Yes! Tecno Ninja 2! Plz make it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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