Scramble - 2600

[macdlsa]

Here in Italy we mostly had three different versions of Scramble, some officially licensed and others reproductions/copies...

 

 

>Zaccaria built a wonderful cabinet for "his" Scramble (which is based on Konami's set), with gorgeous artwork :

 

>Sidam's "Explorer" is an UNOFFICIAL (pirate) COPY of Scramble. It has pirated Konami's boardset :

Got a working board in the "RetroCampus" association :

 

As you could see, both Zac and Sidam built their cabinets following their own style.

 

There also was a "Model Racing" 's Scramble, but I haven't any clue about its board :

 

 

I remember I played the game (which was named "Scramble"... then, not "Explorer" or others...) on a "generic" cabinet, probably with pirate board, so I can't tell which version it was based on (Konami or Stern).

My best was around the 600k points, but as it happened to me several times, I played until I could not stay in the cafe anymore (dinner calling...) so I had to give up with a good amount of remaining lives...

[Keatah]

Except those of us deft in electrical egineering can fabricate an autofire option into a controller with a toggle switch, a resistor, capacitor, and a 555 timer.

Do it with 2x 3904 transistors for the win!

[macdlsa]

Saturday morning's spare time = watch the score counter if it rolls after 999990pts.

Then, yes it does

 

Zeros in all digits and the first one on the right now has the center filled: don't know if it's a "1" or simply a thing put there to identify a >1.000k score.

[+Random Terrain]

Look what you dided now. You done went and brokeded the game.

[macdlsa]

Me ? Nooooooooo, Duane ! ... did just some beta-testing...

[macdlsa]

Eek ! maybe I really "ruined" the discussion ?

[+Nathan Strum]

Eek ! maybe I really "ruined" the discussion ?

 

 

Nope. People just get sidetracked. Homebrew programming is a hobby, and has to fit in where time allows.

[w3dal]

been playing this today - brilliant game

[ls650]

Wow - great job!

[xybot67]

Any news on a cart release of this masterpiece?

[+johnnywc]

Any news on a cart release of this masterpiece?

Hi,

 

Right now, I'm planning on tweaking the game play based on some of the feedback above, specifically when and what will appear based on skill level.

 

After that, it's really a matter of getting a label/manual/etc. together for a proper release. There has been talk about possibly having a label contest... keep your eyes posted for an announcement.

 

Thanks,

John

[+johnnywc]

Update:

 

I am in talks with Al to get this put on cart with manual and possibly a box.

 

I also finishing up the coding to address some of the concerns regarding difficultly, skill levels, etc:

 

- I plan on using the LEFT difficulty switch to select between standard and enhanced versions for all skill levels. So, in position B, only features from the original arcade version will be present; for A, the 'extra' features will be present, such as:

• rockets launching on the tunnel, meteor, maze and base levels
• saucers firing in the tunnel stage
• meteors moving up/down in the meteor stage
• additional rockets appearing in the maze and base levels

The skill level will determine when/if these extras will appear. As suggested above, I will most likely have these items appear earlier so most game players will be able to experience them

 

- I plan on using the RIGHT difficulty switch to select between single shot and auto-fire. 'B' will be single shot (per the arcade) and 'A' will be auto-fire. Right now, this is done with the LEFT difficulty switch

 

So, for an arcade-like experience, you will select ARCADE for skill and have both difficultly switches set to B (default).

 

- Fuel consumption will remain as it does now. It starts off a little slower in NOVICE and a little faster in EXPERT; all skill levels have the same 'max' consumption but will achieve it sooner for the harder skill levels.

 

As for the level selection cheat (currently activated by putting the RIGHT difficulty to the A position and pressing SELECT), I will come up with a different way to achieve this (most likely by pressing SELECT & RESET simultaneously during gameplay or something like that).

 

I am also planning on adding in at least one Easter Egg that will be a blast to find!

 

Unless feedback is negative from my suggestions above, I hope to have a updated build / release candidate ready in a week or so.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

[+johnnywc]

Saturday morning's spare time = watch the score counter if it rolls after 999990pts.

Then, yes it does

Scramble 2600 (2016-01-06)_8.png

 

Zeros in all digits and the first one on the right now has the center filled: don't know if it's a "1" or simply a thing put there to identify a >1.000k score.

Scramble 2600 (2016-01-06)_10.png

 

Great job! Yes - that is the indicator for > 1,000,000 score. It's the same thing I do in Lady Bug, except I don't think anyone has ever actually gotten 1mil on that (me included; high score is 750K or so).

[Thomas Jentzsch]

It would be cool (e.g. for a high score compo) that there is an indicator which difficulty setting (either this is locked when a game starts or the easier one used is displayed) has been used. The same for the level select cheat.

[Keatah]

Will the combo SELECT + RESET work in stella emulator?

[+SpiceWare]

Will the combo SELECT + RESET work in stella emulator?

 

 

Yes - you can see that with Space Invaders where holding down SELECT + RESET increments the game number significantly faster than holding down SELECT by itself.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Was just reminded I needed to download this ROM and put it in my Harmony cart. Thanks for the friendly bump!

[macdlsa]

 

Great job! Yes - that is the indicator for > 1,000,000 score. It's the same thing I do in Lady Bug, except I don't think anyone has ever actually gotten 1mil on that (me included; high score is 750K or so).

Hi John !

 

As I did in Scramble, also in Ladybug I noticed it immediately after the counter-roll, but I only reached it with the "massive-using" of the easter-egg found by the 2-years-old Marco Miccoli's daughter ! (as reported in the LB thread).

 

LABEL CONTEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah ! ... already did my box+cart artworks, ready to compete !

[+johnnywc]

It would be cool (e.g. for a high score compo) that there is an indicator which difficulty setting (either this is locked when a game starts or the easier one used is displayed) has been used. The same for the level select cheat.

 

Good idea! I'll probably allow the user to switch between A|B during the game, but like you suggest, add an indicator if the EASY mode is used at any time during the game. Any suggestions? I'm already using a different color for the stage border if a different skill level is chosen.

 

Not sure if it's worth doing it for the level cheat since starting at a higher level/stage would most likely only produce lower scores since they would be starting at a more difficult level and/or skipping stages with an easier difficultly.

 

Thanks,

John

[+johnnywc]

Will the combo SELECT + RESET work in stella emulator?

 

As Darrell mentions above, it will work, but I ended up implementing it a different way. In the latest version, you would enter 'stage select' mode by pausing the game and flipping the RIGHT DIFFICULTLY to 'A'. Since the right difficultly switch is now for selecting auto-fire, you will now be able to enter 'stage select' mode by pausing the game and pressing the SELECT switch. Previously, hitting SELECT during pause would bring you back to the title screen (this will now only work during game play). RESET will reset the game regardless if you're paused or not.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Good idea! I'll probably allow the user to switch between A|B during the game, but like you suggest, add an indicator if the EASY mode is used at any time during the game. Any suggestions? I'm already using a different color for the stage border if a different skill level is chosen.

I suppose by using the DPC+ there must be some free CPU time in the score display. Maybe you could use the ball for a little indicator here?

 

Or maybe a 6+1 digit display with RESPx?

 

Not sure if it's worth doing it for the level cheat since starting at a higher level/stage would most likely only produce lower scores since they would be starting at a more difficult level and/or skipping stages with an easier difficultly.

Agreed then.

[+johnnywc]

I suppose by using the DPC+ there must be some free CPU time in the score display. Maybe you could use the ball for a little indicator here?

Or maybe a 6+1 digit display with RESPx?

I'm currently just using the regular 48-pixel sprite routine for the score right now, but I may be able to use the ball. However, instead of displaying something extra if they've ever used the EASY skill level, I'm going to do the reverse and display something if they've ONLY used the HARD skill level since most people will just play with the easy level. I may consider having the skill level locked at the start of the game to make it easier. I think I did this for Lady Bug and added an indicator to the title screen. I could do the same for Scramble.

 

Thanks for the suggestions Thomas!

[KEWROCK]

If they weren't in such a rush to market with so much garbage, it's amazing what could have been with the 2600 back in the day. With games like this and Space Rocks, and that other Mars game, there's no reason why Atari couldn't have competed with later consoles.

[JeffIrok]

I just tried out this .bin

 

It is utterly incredible.

[Andromeda Stardust]

If they weren't in such a rush to market with so much garbage, it's amazing what could have been with the 2600 back in the day. With games like this and Space Rocks, and that other Mars game, there's no reason why Atari couldn't have competed with later consoles.

Fun fact, the coprocessor inside the Space Rocks cart is about 50x faster than the SNES. That would have been one expensive game cart in 1984!