Coolcrab Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 (edited) I feel that my first atari 2600 game is mature and playable enough for a beta. Therefore I posted it here as suggested by RandomTerrain. Feedbacks, critique and tips of any kind are very welcome. In the thread you can find a short game description, a 'manual' and some downloads. Enjoy The game is 1 player and works with both the joystick and paddle. You are an astronomer and you are working at a telescope. You are tasked to observe a certain star for your research project. Point your telescope at the star and observe! But look out for clouds, as they ruin your observations. Other astronomers also want to use the telescope, so make sure to finish your observations before the time runs out. Otherwise you will be banned for wasting time. Goals: *Fill the healthbar by pointing the telescope beam at the star and press the fire button to observe. Make sure to finish before the score reaches 0 *Don't observe clouds Manual: Flip the left difficulty switch to A for playing with paddles, B for joystick Flip the right difficulty switch to A for randomized levels. Press select for more randomization. Set it to B to remove all randomness and have a more structured level progression Flip BW switch to pause Use reset button to reset After a game over, your score will be shown on the title screen Play the game here or download the rom. http://javatari.org/?ROM=http://pietrow.net/games/astronomerV0.75.bin If you want to see the code, this is discussed here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/270313-betaastronomer-wip/ astronomerV0.75_NTSC.bin astronomerV0.75_PAL.bin Edited December 11, 2017 by Coolcrab 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Interesting!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 I really love the premise of this! I'll give it a whirl sometime this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted December 13, 2017 Author Share Posted December 13, 2017 Glad you guys like the idea! Looking forward to your opinion I also made a label that does a good job showing what you are doing in a much higher resolution. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vidak Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 Looks great!!I have been following the development! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted December 14, 2017 Author Share Posted December 14, 2017 Whoo, the game got a review on Retrogaming magazine. http://retrogamingmagazine.com/2017/12/13/view-heavenly-bodies-on-atari-2600-with-astronomer/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted December 23, 2017 Author Share Posted December 23, 2017 New version available with help from RT. Everything is much smoother and most glitches are gone. Pause function got removed due to space limitations and there is now a difficulty setting for the right switch. (+100 time if you set it to A) This is the almost complete version. Not because I think its perfect, but because of the 4K almost being out. Feedback welcome! astronomerv0.9.bas.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 There was a nasty error in the last version and for some reason I can't edit the last post. So here is a properly working version. (I hope) astronomerV0.91.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted August 8, 2018 Author Share Posted August 8, 2018 Astronomer is now out on Packrat! Get your cart + manual for 18$ or preorder the boxed version. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/281647-fs-astronomer-for-the-atari-2600-ntsc-or-pal/?do=findComment&comment=4087293 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Neat! I'm guessing you use a telescope occasionally, as this is totally a real world struggle lol. Highly original concept for a game too, I'll check this out tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted August 8, 2018 Author Share Posted August 8, 2018 Neat! I'm guessing you use a telescope occasionally, as this is totally a real world struggle lol. Highly original concept for a game too, I'll check this out tonight. Yea I used a few. MoMt notable are the VLT, Isaac Newton and now the Swedish Solar Telescope for my PhD. Hope you like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Yea I used a few. MoMt notable are the VLT, Isaac Newton and now the Swedish Solar Telescope for my PhD. Hope you like it! Nice, always wanted a solar scope. I have a celestron c90 backpack scope, a Stellarvue 'Sparrowhawk' 50, and a Barska Magnus ED Apo. Fun hobby, though Washington clouds make it hard to do here. Fun little game too. Reminds me of some of the good, early VCS titles that are still fun like Bowling or Pinball. Simple concept, but addicting gameplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted August 9, 2018 Author Share Posted August 9, 2018 Nice, always wanted a solar scope. I have a celestron c90 backpack scope, a Stellarvue 'Sparrowhawk' 50, and a Barska Magnus ED Apo. Fun hobby, though Washington clouds make it hard to do here. Fun little game too. Reminds me of some of the good, early VCS titles that are still fun like Bowling or Pinball. Simple concept, but addicting gameplay. Nice setup! Do you take pictures too? And you can buy a filter for most telescopes these days .they are not as nice as say a Lunt telescope but you can see spots. I'm glad that you like the game. It was fun to make and having others enjoy it is the main goal now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Nice setup! Do you take pictures too? And you can buy a filter for most telescopes these days .they are not as nice as say a Lunt telescope but you can see spots. I'm glad that you like the game. It was fun to make and having others enjoy it is the main goal now. I'd say that I'd like to take pictures, and I've almost pulled the trigger on a mount for my DSLR for that reason... but the amount of post processing involved, coupled with the need for a pretty expensive/fancy motor drive setup has made me always put it off, especially since cloud cover here prevents reliable use. I suspect it would start to feel like work for me. I just enjoy hunting for faint fuzzies, comets, planets etc. I find it almost like meditating. I will have to get this game on cart. I do a retro gaming night for kids on the autism spectrum, and this is a nice, simple game that would be easier for some of the younger kids to wrap their heads around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolcrab Posted August 9, 2018 Author Share Posted August 9, 2018 I'd say that I'd like to take pictures, and I've almost pulled the trigger on a mount for my DSLR for that reason... but the amount of post processing involved, coupled with the need for a pretty expensive/fancy motor drive setup has made me always put it off, especially since cloud cover here prevents reliable use. I suspect it would start to feel like work for me. I just enjoy hunting for faint fuzzies, comets, planets etc. I find it almost like meditating. I will have to get this game on cart. I do a retro gaming night for kids on the autism spectrum, and this is a nice, simple game that would be easier for some of the younger kids to wrap their heads around. Cool. The software is not that hard to do. There are free programs that you can use for relatively good results. Pm me me if you want some links. As for the kids game nights, that's super cool! If you do one with my game, please send some pictures (if thats a possibility.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Cool. The software is not that hard to do. There are free programs that you can use for relatively good results. Pm me me if you want some links. As for the kids game nights, that's super cool! If you do one with my game, please send some pictures (if thats a possibility.) Thanks, I may do that if I decide to take the jump. As is, I think about doing astronomy more than I actually do these days, as we have cloud cover here 95% of the time. Not like it was back in Northern California, sadly. I'd love to send you pics, but it's a bit of a process due to privacy/confidentiality concerns. I'll see if we can take some and add them to the ARC Directors list of photos they are planning on getting permissions signed off on so we can post them online for advertising the event. If we do... I'll make sure and share them with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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