Inky Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Thanks for posting, Tempest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxsolo2000 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 It will be released on cart, this year. Jose just asked me about getting this thing out. Do we know if it was the Milton Bradley release or something else entirely? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 My goldfish keep having babies.. And the good will keeps rolling in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambouis de l'Atari Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Hi everyone ! For us poor europeans with our scrambled pal palette, I edited the rom so we can enjoy it on the real thing too Xevious (fix 0.03) pal 60.bin 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxsolo2000 Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Do we know if it was the Milton Bradley release or something else entirely? So again is it the Milton Bradley lost title or something else entirely??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 So again is it the Milton Bradley lost title or something else entirely??? Sometimes a lack of details and/or delay is due to someone wanting to hype up & improve what they have in order to put together a final report & possible product that makes it well worth the wait as it helps the lost item shine bright as it would have should have & could have had it seen the light of day. Other times, they are caused by monkey wrenches and/or the ink not yet being dry on the backdoor side deals. Of course, it could be neither, and the guys that run this show are just busy with real life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AW127 Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 (edited) Good work "Cambouis de l'Atari". I put this PAL60-version to my PAL-collection. Tested the NTSC and PAL60 versions in STELLA and the game plays not bad. Sadly some of the graphics in this "Xevious" prototype-version looks not so good, when you compare it with some other shooting-games on the Atari. Especially the player-spaceship looks stupid. Maybe sometime will come a hack of this game, which will have sprites, that looks more similar to the Arcade-port. Nevertheless, one game more, which can be played on PAL-consoles. Edited July 25, 2015 by AW127 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2600 Forever Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Sometimes a lack of details and/or delay is due to someone wanting to hype up & improve what they have in order to put together a final report & possible product that makes it well worth the wait as it helps the lost item shine bright as it would have should have & could have had it seen the light of day. Other times, they are caused by monkey wrenches and/or the ink not yet being dry on the backdoor side deals. Of course, it could be neither, and the guys that run this show are just busy with real life. Are you gonna release those protos you are sitting on soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambouis de l'Atari Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 (edited) Sadly some of the graphics in this "Xevious" prototype-version looks not so good, when you compare it with some other shooting-games on the Atari. Especially the player-spaceship looks stupid. Maybe sometime will come a hack of this game, which will have sprites, that looks more similar to the Arcade-port. I personnaly find the game quite nice. The player's ship drawn using a missile was a clever choice to free a sprite resource and avoid flickering in the ennemies. Maybe they'd have been more polished if the game was not cancelled... we'll never know A sure thing, this kind of hack is far beyond my abilities ! PS : I wondered... except River Raid (and possibly Vanguard), do other vertical scrolling shooters exist ? Edited July 25, 2015 by Cambouis de l'Atari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 River Patrol & Polaris have vertical scrolling, and their kind of like shooters. Oh, and, how about, NO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinity Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 There is Fantastic Voyage. And it's pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambouis de l'Atari Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Thank you, I'll have a look on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Oh, and, how about, NO. Any particular reason why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerSpaceFan Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Well I just tried out the "fixed" ROM and I have to say, consider my mind blown! I did a little review if anyone's interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y05xxUhii0 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Nice video! "Fixed" only because the newer prototype had a few severe problems which I fixed. The more complete game play etc. was all there. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerSpaceFan Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Nice video! "Fixed" only because the newer prototype had a few severe problems which I fixed. The more complete game play etc. was all there. Thanks Thomas! And yeah, this ROM is simply amazing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Nice video! "Fixed" only because the newer prototype had a few severe problems which I fixed. The more complete game play etc. was all there. Hi Thomas: This is a separate topic but since you're in here I thought I'd ask. Have you considered re-using your Missile Command-TB code to add native Trak-Ball compatibility to other 2600 conversions that used Trak-Balls [or trackballs] in their arcade original versions? I was thinking about Parker Bros' Reactor but Centipede and Millipede would be the more obvious choices. I've read Crystal Castles might be too CPU intense for native Trak-Ball support although if I recall that mainly applied to both A8 versions of the game. By the way, Dan Kramer, the engineer who designed the CX-22 and CX-53 Atari Trak-Balls, is a big fan of your Missile Command-TB. He's mentioned it and demoed it to many people at the past two [sunnyvale & Davis] Atari Parties. [Apologies if I've already asked you this question]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 (edited) Maybe you asked before. Somebody (else?) definitely did. Unlike MC, all games you mentioned are very (too) busy in the kernel (that's where you have to read the TB multiple times). But I remember Nukey Shay has attempted to convert one of them lately. The thread is somewhere here on AA. Thanks for mentioning Dan's appreciation. Edited July 28, 2015 by Thomas Jentzsch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Maybe you asked before. Somebody (else?) definitely did. Unlike MC, all games you mentioned are very (too) busy in the kernel (that's where you have to read the TB multiple times). But I remember Nukey Shay has attempted to convert one of them lately. The thread is somewhere here on AA. Thanks for mentioning Dan's appreciation. Thanks for the info, Thomas. I was afraid of the kernel/CPU issues. Last question on the subject… [i promise]. Since reading the Trak-Ball multiple times causes such CPU/kernel issues - and not just with the 2600 but also A8/5200 apparently for Crystal Castles - do you think it might be possible to offload that task to a DPC/DPC+ chip? The coding of the games would have to be heavily modded, of course, to enable that…if such a chip could handle such offloading tasks to begin with. Again thanks! I'll let Dan know you said "hi". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Sure, with the DPC+ you gain heaps of extra time in the kernel. Data loads are just 2 cycles (instead of 4 or 5), all logic can be removed (done outside the kernel) etc.But the rewrite would be pretty major. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Sure, with the DPC+ you gain heaps of extra time in the kernel. Data loads are just 2 cycles (instead of 4 or 5), all logic can be removed (done outside the kernel) etc. But the rewrite would be pretty major. Thanks, Thomas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey.shake Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) Thanks again, Tempest... I've been playing this like crazy. It's funny to read the (little bit of) media coverage this is getting, mostly similar in tone to that Kotaku piece. "Hey, this is SO OLD... isn't it WEIRD that things used to be primitive? Can you believe this crazy crap is what gaming used to be?" *sighs* I had an early proto of this that is definitely less polished. Does anyone know any details about that one, and how it compares to this newly-discovered Jan 84 proto? Also, I'm a little fuzzy on what differs between the two files that Tempest so graciously posted. What is the "fixed" ROM fixing? Can anyone help me understand? And perhaps how they fit into the development timeline with the other Xevious proto ROM that I have? (I believe it's from that other Atari site with the nice ZIP archive available.) It's obviously later, I wonder how early development on the game started, and how late it went. [EDIT: D'oh! I found most of my timeline answers at the bottom of this page: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/xevious/xevious.htm, along with some indication of the glitches that may have been fixed. Carry on!] Edited July 30, 2015 by mikey.shake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDS Games Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Wow. Ok I'll say it....this has to be among the top arcade ports ever made. Really plays well. It's funny to read the (little bit of) media coverage this is getting, mostly similar in tone to that Kotaku piece. "Hey, this is SO OLD... isn't it WEIRD that things used to be primitive? Can you believe this crazy crap is what gaming used to be?" *sighs* Isn't it infuriating? This is running on 8k on a Pong-era console for Pete's sake! And honestly, the old games are often a lot more fun. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 It's funny to read the (little bit of) media coverage this is getting, mostly similar in tone to that Kotaku piece. "Hey, this is SO OLD... isn't it WEIRD that things used to be primitive? Can you believe this crazy crap is what gaming used to be?" *sighs* Funny, dis-heartening, whatever floats the boat. In that case a rowboat. Games like these are the essence of electronic fun. It would do the world good if all developers studied the first games and incorporated past elements and philosophy in what they make today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Wow. Ok I'll say it....this has to be among the top arcade ports ever made. Really plays well. Isn't it infuriating? This is running on 8k on a Pong-era console for Pete's sake! And honestly, the old games are often a lot more fun. The famed VCS. I personally consider it the first of the cartridge-based systems - however incorrect that may actually be. Maybe the first successful cartridge system, because all the others were failures in comparison. It becomes an impressive port when you consider the limitations of the VCS, 1024 bits of RAM and a simple 5-switch joystick. To make this game on a system with so few resources is remarkable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
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.