Bosconian for the 8-bits

[lucifershalo]

is it going to be released on cart?

[shanti77]

Maybe some day, now I finish file versions. 64K and 128K versions will be almost the same except speech.

[_The Doctor__]

um are you going to try to keep at leas a little speech if possible on 64k and maybe a notice of some kind more speech at 128k

 

would be open to loading stages if that helps on a 64k machine...

 

with all the cartridge solutions out there that's also a good route

 

of course we like all ways possible ..

Edited November 8, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[ZylonBane]

The gauntlet is down!

 

[Rybags]

That's way better than you'd expect of a 2600... the score digits ludicrously oversized though.

[+SpiceWare]

That's way better than you'd expect of a 2600... the score digits ludicrously oversized though.

As always, developing for the 2600 is all about trade offs. The 2 players are used to draw the multicolor radar and formation indicator, so were not available for the typical 6 digit display. All that was left to draw the score and lives was the 40 pixel playfield, so the digits could not be made narrower. They could have been shorter, but we used the height(which was dictated by the size of the radar) for a more detailed alphanumeric font as the original plan was to use the AtariVox for the voice alerts, with scrolling text as a fallback for those without one.

 

[Rybags]

I had a feeling a technical limitation was the case... also have to say the speech seems really well done, in fact as good as or better quality as the computer version (guessing they're probably using the same ripped data)

[Sheddy]

Ah, OK, it's a Harmony based game. Slightly disappointed - thought that level of amazing was too good to be true on just stock 2600. Awesome job still due to the TIA limitations.

 

To be fair there's probably nothing else that can push the 2600 further

 

Isn't there a cart with a fast coprocessor to do bus stuffing on the a8 too? Can't remember the name.

Edited November 11, 2017 by Sheddy

[MrFish]

As always, developing for the 2600 is all about trade offs...

 

Question: was Draconian pushed to the level it was in any part due to seeing where the 8-bit version was going or was it always planned to be as such?

[+SpiceWare]

I had a feeling a technical limitation was the case... also have to say the speech seems really well done, in fact as good as or better quality as the computer version (guessing they're probably using the same ripped data)

 

iesposta did a great job converting the sample data to the format I needed. I'm not familiar with the Atari 8-bit computers, does its digital audio top out at 4-bit as well?

[+SpiceWare]

Ah, OK, it's a Harmony based game. Slightly disappointed - thought that level of amazing was too good to be true on just stock 2600. Awesome job still due to the TIA limitations.

 

To be fair there's probably nothing else that can push the 2600 further

 

Isn't there a cart with a fast coprocessor to do bus stuffing on the a8 too? Can't remember the name.

It's not using Bus Stuffing - that lets us generate output like this, but ended up failing on a number of systems (mostly juniors):

 

For Draconian I'm using CDF (as is John's excellent Super Cobra Arcade). CDF is an updated version of DPC+ (used in Stay Frosty 2, Space Rocks, and Scramble) which is an updated version of David Crane's DPC (coprocessor used in Pitfall 2). I talk about CDF in this blog post, with some additional information in this one about the Fast Jump feature. Fast Jump is basically the ARM processor overriding JMP $0000 for 3-cycle flow control in the kernel.

[+SpiceWare]

On 11/11/2017 at 9:10 AM, MrFish said:

 

Question: was Draconian pushed to the level it was in any part due to seeing where the 8-bit version was going or was it always planned to be as such?

 

Neither. I'm not into the 8-bit Atari computers so seldom follow the topics in this forum. This topic happened to be most recently posted to in the 8-bit forum last night and I spotted it while scanning down the main forum overview, so I decided to take a look.

 

The original plan for Draconian was to use DPC+ with an AtariVox for speech. With DPC+ the station shots were little squares, and the station cores just alternated between two rectangle shapes:

 

I wanted to do more things like diagonal shots(reply #100) for the player, but couldn't with DPC+, so cd-w and I started to create the Bus Stuffing driver for the Harmony/Melody. That didn't pan out, but we took what we learned and applied it to DPC+ and created CDF (Chris, Darrell, Fred(batari)). Using CDF let me shift the missiles & ball left/right which allowed for diagonal shots for the player, snazzier looking station cores:

 

and rotating shots for the stations:

[JamesD]

I'm not a 2600 fan, but that looks really good. If some of these games had been out when I was a kid I might have bought a 2600.

[Sheddy]

It's not using Bus Stuffing - that lets us generate output like this, but ended up failing on a number of systems (mostly juniors):

 

For Draconian I'm using CDF (as is John's excellent Super Cobra Arcade). CDF is an updated version of DPC+ (used in Stay Frosty 2, Space Rocks, and Scramble) which is an updated version of David Crane's DPC (coprocessor used in Pitfall 2). I talk about CDF in this blog post, with some additional information in this one about the Fast Jump feature. Fast Jump is basically the ARM processor overriding JMP $0000 for 3-cycle flow control in the kernel.

Thanks for the fascinating info. Sorry I wasn't being very technically precise - So, more memory/register stuffing than bus stuffing 😋. The 32 streams alone with auto-increment/step we'd kill for on the computer side! Very, very nice features to exploit the 2600. Edited November 11, 2017 by Sheddy

[shanti77]

Silly Venture 2017 versions.

 

SELECT -> High Score Cafe (only 128K versions) ,not work for now, game isn't must be add to site http://xxl.atari.pl/hsc/

 

 

----

bosco128NTSCe - work good on Atari800 emu

bosco64NTSCs - don't use 'LAX' command (slower)

bosco128PAL.xex

bosco128NTSC.xex

bosco64PAL.xex

bosco64NTSC.xex

bosco128NTSCe.xex

bosco64NTSCs.xex

[shanti77]

High Score Cafe work now.

[David Alexander]

I wonder is it possible for this version to be ported to the Atari 5200?

[MrFish]

Finally finished the title screen I was working on. Yeah, I know, a little late.

 

 

 

Maybe better with darker blues?

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2017 by MrFish

[Mclaneinc]

BRILLIANT!!!

 

Played it last night and its a showstopper of a port...The finished(?) item is just a stunner....

 

Thank you Shanti77...

[MARIO130XE]

Whoop whoop. Thanks for this 'early christmas gift' Awesome work!!!

[biobern]

Silly Venture 2017 versions.

 

SELECT -> High Score Cafe (only 128K versions) ,not work for now, game isn't must be add to site http://xxl.atari.pl/hsc/

 

 

----

bosco128NTSCe - work good on Atari800 emu

bosco64NTSCs - don't use 'LAX' command (slower)

 

Sensational releases, thanks! What does "don't use LAX command" mean?

Bern

[Rybags]

LAX is an undocumented/illegal 6502 instruction. It doesn't work on 65C02, 65816 CPUs and probably not on other later variants and clones so in the modern day it's a good idea to do software that works on those platforms as well.

[shanti77]

Gameplay

[xxl]

LAX is an undocumented/illegal 6502 instruction. It doesn't work on 65C02, 65816 CPUs and probably not on other later variants and clones so in the modern day it's a good idea to do software that works on those platforms as well.

 

but it works on all standard Atari models and in this case it is used to optimize the game to run efficiently.

[+Stephen]

Gameplay

Man do I suck at that game. I was all happy to hit 30,000 or so around level 5