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Atari 8-bit ports to 5200 in the works


peteym5

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I am currently working on learning how to port my prior Atari 8-bit releases to the Atari 5200. The possible games include: "Amok Bots", "Delta Space Arena", "Laser Blast X", "Megaoids", "Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold", and "Venture". I have to remind everyone this is a work in progress as I learning what is going with the game running on the 5200. Crashes often and tracing what is going on can be frustrating. I am trying to figure out how to read IRQ keypad. First thing I did was get it to the point of getting the games own title screen to come up on screen so I know the program is set up to all the 5200 memory address correctly. There will be announcements when the game is done and beta tested. We have my own trusted beta testers. Chances are these games will not be available for awhile so I ask everyone to be patient. I will post updates and announce when the games become available.

 

"Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold" will be an enhanced version of the freeware/demo that was released on the Atari 8-bit. I am going to put in a few extra things that are not in the 8-bit version to make purchasing it worthwhile. "Secretum Labyrinth The Legend" required a 64K ROM and a 64K Atari Computer. From what I can see, there is not any bank switching cartridges available for the 5200. I know about the 40K Bounty Bob cartridges, but no one has those anymore.

Edited by peteym5
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Some games can be taking advantage of the analog joystick and keypad on the 5200. Like how far you move the joystick over will affect the speed something moves. What I need to know, how many people have those Y-Cable or after market joystick devices that allow db-9 joysticks to be attached that cause the joystick to read as being fully pushed into a direction. I could have a option before starting the game to make the game behave as the Atari 8-bit version of the game.

Edited by peteym5
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How about Spy vs Spy? I & II!

I am porting over the games I have the original source for. It is easier to port when you have the source code vs doing a hack that you need to de-compile or disassemble. These I games that I also wrote over the years, so I am in the best position to do the ports. I am getting some help from Atari 5200 guru's. I know you have to do things like write 12,13,14, or 15 to the CONSOL register, or else you will get a continuous read of 228 from POT0 to POT7. It took me several hours to figure out what that was happening with my first port over.

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This morning I am finally able to get Delta Space Arena title screen and pressing start to begin the game to come up in the Altirra Emulator. The game itself does not do much as I am figuring out how to set up my PC game controller in the emulator as a 5200 joystick so I can test the game. I have an ideal of how to read POT0 and SPOT1 for the analog joystick.

post-14332-0-21757800-1498493989.jpg

post-14332-0-74473400-1498493989.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

This morning I am finally able to get Delta Space Arena title screen and pressing start to begin the game to come up in the Altirra Emulator. The game itself does not do much as I am figuring out how to set up my PC game controller in the emulator as a 5200 joystick so I can test the game. I have an ideal of how to read POT0 and SPOT1 for the analog joystick.

 

A very well done port of one of the games that CBS Electronics SHOULD HAVE made for the 5200, Omega Race, great!

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I completed the programming for Amok Bots, Delta Space Arena, Laser Blast X, Megaoids 2016, Putt 18 Miniature Golf, Venture, and a few others. Secretum Labyrinth is much trickier because even "Kings Gold" was bigger than 32K and had to invent new optimizations to help get it down to 32K. Secretum Labyrinth series of games also deflates parts into RAM on the 8-bits, even the area under the OS ROM, so the other issue is getting to only using the first 16K RAM area.

 

Some of the games were part of what I call the "16K Series" for the 8-bit were set up to fit onto a 16K cartridge plus the first 16K RAM. I made a template up and built several games off this format. The games could be played on a computer with only 16K RAM like the 600XL. I originally wanted to do 10 to 15 games with this set up, but I decided to finish up the first 8 games. Initial sales were slow on the 8-bit, KJMANN left our group and cannot do the music for some, and I want to get back to doing bigger games.

Edited by peteym5
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I am aware of Bryans design of boards and those may be the boards we be using. Most will not need the bank switching feature. I looked at that thread and tried to understand how that bank switching set up works. May need to do it by trial and error.

 

I developed some new techniques that all allow rooms and items to fit into a smaller space for Secretum Labyrinth Adventure type games, even with a 32K cartridge size. Plus this Inflate routine makes many other things possible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bryan designed a 5200 board that supports bank switching. I used them for Pac-man Arcade but without the bank switching feature since my game was 32k.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/69649-5200-game-announcement-now-shipping/?do=findComment&comment=855867

 

 

As you can see from that thread, Bryan's boards support 512k. If there were a 1MB board, A8 Space Harrier could be converted to the 5200. Imagine using the 5200's analog joystick or, even better, the CX53 Trak-Ball on Space Harrier!

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As you can see from that thread, Bryan's boards support 512k. If there were a 1MB board, A8 Space Harrier could be converted to the 5200. Imagine using the 5200's analog joystick or, even better, the CX53 Trak-Ball on Space Harrier!

As of now, all the games I will be porting are either 16K or 32K. Bryans board will work with out that extra logic chip for bank switching. From what I understand that chip is not exactly cheap so putting onto a cartridge will add a few dollars to the price tag.

 

What may be a cheaper solution is using compression routine like Inflate that can store contents on the cartridge and decompress (Inflate) them into the 16K RAM area. I can get something that requires 40K or more into that 32K cartridge.

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I managed to convert 9 different games I have the rights and make them playable on the 5200. The only game that is still in the process of being ported is a version of Secretum Labyrinth. I originally wanted to port "Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold" over. However since that game was a free download for the Atari 8-bit area, I decided to make it worthwhile for people to purchase and change things around inside its realm. It will have a new room map, and stuff moved to all new locations. A new store is being written with a new sub title. Include a few features I had been developing for next cartridge game for the 8-bit.

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If Space Harrier was ported to 5200 I would buy one. Be sure to rename it before selling it to avoid running foul of Sega copyright police.

 

It would be great if Space Harrier has multiple controller modes. Supports trackball, analog controller, or digital controller. I am used to digital controller for SMS and Genesis version.

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Space Harrier is not my game and you will need to look up the programmer and make suggestions to him.

 

On the 5200, the track ball pretty much acts like a joystick. Whatever direction the ball is moving is the same as pressing the joystick in that direction. At least that is what I found out reading through posts here and other websites.

 

A digital Joystick also converts signals to the 5200. The Analog uses the 2 paddle pots and read by the Pokey chip with a value from 0 to 228. 0 being up or left. 228 being down or right. What those digital converts do is send a signal through the joystick cable as if the analog was pressed fully in that direction. Pressing up will send a 0, 228 if down, 114 if center. Same for the 2nd pot for Left, Center, and Right. So games do not need a special game option to use these controllers. Although I read some have issues with some games using the analog signal for variable speed of movement and moving too fast with a digital controller.

 

Two of my games, Delta Space Arena and Megaoids, take advantage of the 5200 analog controller when turning the ship. Pressing left or right, the rotate speed changes depending on how far the stick is from the center. I added an option so that it rotates +/- 1 unit at a time for those that want to play it the same as the 8-bit or with digital controllers.

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Space Harrier is not my game and you will need to look up the programmer and make suggestions to him.

 

 

 

 

He doesn't want to do the conversion himself.

 

The real bottleneck is the lack of a 1MB board. I've been advised by a couple of folks that they could get the game working on the 5200 easily with some hard core bankswitching to get around the 64K RAM requirement but again, the bottleneck is the board issue.

 

The arcade original was an analog stick so the game play would rock with the Trak-Ball or a working CX52. Using a Trak-Ball though would give the game some serious notoriety.

 

As for Sega, they aren't Ninjaendo. They'd think it's cool. Rest assured, they already know about the A8 homebrew version.

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The real bottleneck is the lack of a 1MB board. I've been advised by a couple of folks that they could get the game working on the 5200 easily with some hard core bankswitching to get around the 64K RAM requirement but again, the bottleneck is the board issue.

 

 

Unfortunately that isn't the case. It would need a major rewrite to have any chance of using just 16k RAM. I'm not even sure it is possible. It would be great to have it with analogue controls though. Edited by Sheddy
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I am currently porting my RPG/Adventure engine to work from the 5200. When I came to Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold, I asked myself, would people want to buy this game since I already released it for free on the 8-bit. The sequel to Kings Gold, "The Legend" is sold on cartridge. Since this was intended to be a game series, I decided to copy and alter the data for "Kings Gold" and make a new dungeon map and will be replacing some of the challenges you encounter inside the game. This will be a 5200 exclusive adventure type game.

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Here is a Work-in-Progress video for Secretum Labyrinth Xenogenesis that will be a game within the Secretum Labyrinth series. It will be an Atari 5200 specific game because it is geared toward using 32K ROM + 16K RAM, instead of 64K ROM + 64K RAM on the 8-bit versions. It is set up to use the controllers, joystick + keypad. I have considered 64K to 512K ROMs, but from what I understand, that extra logic chip may up the price of the game. So I tried to make more extensive use of Deflate/Inflate compression, and other optimization techniques so there is more going on with the game.

 

Like the other Secretum Labyrinth games, this is Role Playing Game inspired. If anybody wants to see more RPG like features added, let me know. Work on this game is on-going for probably until October 2017. Then we start working on making the cartridge and make sure it works correctly.

 

 

I wanted something with X in the title since the Atari 5200 was also known as Video System X.

Edited by peteym5
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