Top Games You'd Like to Have for Atari 8-Bits

[+MrFish]

The bottom display needs a slight adjust towards yellow.

 

I'm not dumping those sacred ROM's Doc, no mater how many times you ask!

 

Seriously, though. Remember, we're working with the restrictions of hi-res mode. So, if you want to change the yellow, it means one of several things:

1. Make the light color darker, which gives less contrast between the brown and yellow.

2. Make the light color darker and make the dark color darker, which makes the dark color too dark.

 

If you want to change the hue for that section, the two choices are brown-green and brown-red, both of which look too much like other colors already on the display.

 

So, I prefer to the leave the brown in order to have more contrast between the displayed hues and leave the luminances as they are to keep the brown at a good level with good contrast against the text.

 

I could have actually gone a step further in replicating the original colors by making the center portion of the bottom text box blue, but I think it actually looks better without having blue in two places on the display.

 

What I'd probably end up going with would be a lot different than either this or the original anyway; so it's nothing to spend too much time thinking about for now.

[_The Doctor__]

LMFAO... surely not those ROMS, for I sent all but the four fastest dumpers to defend our our fair kingdom! Those four roms are safe and sound finding their way to our hero!

The Princess Bride Reference.... he of course was lying...

(I don't think he thought that word meant what we thinks it means as I was informed blathering continued after stating I ignored the thread and him all four ways AA allows)

 

You are correct the blue in between the green and brown wouldn't be a good idea... since it's not the background color in the brown box...

I really couldn't judge the colors correctly until on real hardware anyway... Laptop LCD's and Emu's are all different in brightness etc....

 

If you went full dark on the brown background the Yellow Letters might stand out and then you could or might or pick a color for the line above and line below(if any) to give it a border. It's probably not worth doing all that though...

 

It looks good like I said just pushing to see how nice or far we can go is all.

Edited March 16, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[Guest]

Replicating the original, we could get something like this.

 

Although there's something that can be said for staying true to the original, I'd have a lot more fun enhancing it to the hilt. So, things like real team helmet graphics, X's and O's on field to represent formations, more realistic gridiron, etc.

 

3in1 - Gridiron.png

 

 

am all for that. sounds a real improvement

[+MrFish]

LMFAO... surely not those ROMS...

 

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by MrFish

[miker]

 

No ROMz for YOU!.png

 

Haha, petey's spirit has spoken!

[juansolo]

My own personal wishlist:

Quazatron from the Spectrum. I'd certainly expect it to be smoother on the A8.
Super Sprint from the ST. Which to be fair is perfect on the ST, but maybe with driving controller support...

Impact from the ST/Amiga with paddle support. Unicum is sort of there, but not the same.

[cgfatari79]

Id love to see Chase HQ ported from the spectrum.

[256 colors]

Time Bandit

[+MrFish]

Here's my first idea for the gridiron and information panels.

 

I went with wide-screen mode, in order to get a wider gridiron -- which looks a lot better (not possible in normal width -- unless the end zones are eliminated, or uneven spacings are used between yard markers, which I hate).

 

I'm not completely settled on the colors yet; but with the PMG set up I'm using, every panel can have it's own color - including panels that are currently the same color. This also includes the yard markers and each end zone. Obviously some more splits are possible within a color section too (for gradients or other effects).

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by MrFish

[+Stephen]

Holy shit dude - that is beyond amazing! Looks great for a "monochrome" machine.

[_The Doctor__]

Damn that's hot!!!!

[+MrFish]

Here are some executables, so you can try them out at home (PAL included).

 

I just realized one of my favorite colors was missing from the display (we can't have that). So I threw in a version with blue msg box too (maybe better than gray).

 

 

3 in 1 - Gridiron 18 (Finished)NTSC.xex

 

3 in 1 - Gridiron 18 (Finished)PAL.xex

 

3 in 1 - Gridiron 18 (Finished, alt msg color)NTSC.xex

 

3 in 1 - Gridiron 18 (Finished, alt msg color)PAL.xex

Edited March 19, 2019 by MrFish

[_The Doctor__]

hmm referee flags are yellow and refs are black and white,

Looks great with grey and white bottom box (for some reason it seems classy and makes the other colors pop),

perhaps if a penalty is called the box changes yellow for the call? back to grey and whits again when normal play info happens

 

don't want too much blue or too many shades of blue... It's definitely more attractive with the grey to my eye. Yellow for a penalty brings it to life.

Edited March 19, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[Guest]

hi MrFish

 

splendid work! i will give this a testing later.

which DOS would you recommend?

 

thanks again.

[+MrFish]

don't want too much blue or too many shades of blue... It's definitely more attractive with the grey to my eye. Yellow for a penalty brings it to life.

 

Not a bad idea to make it yellow for penalty flags. But, refs also throw a blue bean bag down for change of possession. So, it'd also make some sense to turn it blue during change of possession too.

[+MrFish]

splendid work! i will give this a testing later.

which DOS would you recommend?

 

I'm not using any DOS at the moment. When I load on real hardware, I'm just using the "boot executable" command in RespeQt.

 

I just tested it out in emulation using DOS 2.5 and SpartaDOS X, though, and both worked fine.

[_The Doctor__]

 

Not a bad idea to make it yellow for penalty flags. But, refs also throw a blue bean bag down for change of possession. So, it'd also make some sense to turn it blue during change of possession too.

Now that is applying the polish! sounds awesome! this is way better than what was seen on any or the offerings for this back in the day!

 

The blue bean bag being thrown on a play that is any of the following... kick off, punt, interception, or a fumble is used mostly as a reference point for where that particular play began. It signifies basically a change of possession and can be used to mark where the ball should be at that change.

 

Fantastic ! These are the touches that show Mr Fish is making Atari great again.

Edited March 19, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[+MrFish]

Holy shit dude - that is beyond amazing! Looks great for a "monochrome" machine.

 

17 colors, but 7 of those are what they call "1/2 colors" -- since they are just additional luminances of the base hues in their areas. Those 1/2 colors add a lot to the display though; if all those 1/2 colors were just white, it wouldn't look nearly as colorful.

 

If I set each panel to a unique color, I could get the display up to 24 colors; but not likely practical for a good design.

 

Filling out the field a little here, and end zones with team colors.

 

Edited March 20, 2019 by MrFish

[manterola]

I would love to see Super Rally X finished.

Maybe the programmer of Bosconian could take the baton

Edited March 20, 2019 by manterola

[Guest]

 

I'm not using any DOS at the moment. When I load on real hardware, I'm just using the "boot executable" command in RespeQt.

 

I just tested it out in emulation using DOS 2.5 and SpartaDOS X, though, and both worked fine.

 

should the xex file do much at all?

 

on a side note, i see one or two potential issues for your re-write:

■ team data updates/editing/creation - will this be possible? i can see that on the yahoo/fbook boards there were discussions as to accuracy of the "bundled" team data

■ NFL league structure - i think there's been at least 3 expansions and several division/conference relocation of teams - not forgetting, playoff changes

 

think it could well be a huge thing to even attempt?

 

would love to offer help, in any way possible - but not really able to help with coding. happy to help with compiling team/league data - if this is of a use to you

Edited March 22, 2019 by Guest

[adam1977]

I would LOVE to see IK+ finished

[+MrFish]

should the xex file do much at all?

 

No, these are experiments to see what kind of graphics might be good for enhancing the original.

 

 

■ team data updates/editing/creation - will this be possible?

 

Editing is no problem; the data files are just text.

 

 

i can see that on the yahoo/fbook boards there were discussions as to accuracy of the "bundled" team data

 

Can you point me to where you read that?

 

 

■ NFL league structure - i think there's been at least 3 expansions and several division/conference relocation of teams - not forgetting, playoff changes

 

think it could well be a huge thing to even attempt?

 

would love to offer help, in any way possible - but not really able to help with coding. happy to help with compiling team/league data - if this is of a use to you

 

I don't see where additions, adjustments, or corrections would be a problem; and, of course, it would add interest to use some more modern teams; but the main task would just be to get it running in its current form, with no updated interface or any other changes.

 

That doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful to make an assessment of the existing data for accuracy, have some thoughts about creating additional team data, and take a look at some possible graphics (as I've been doing). For me, having some sort of plan for updating after conversion is what will make the conversion itself more worthwhile.

 

The nice thing about doing a straight ahead conversion first is that we'd get this "almost" title on the Atari platform, and in a state close to how it was intended.

 

So, to answer your question about it being a "huge thing to even attempt?", I don't really look at it that way. I look at in separate parts, which would each yield something playable/usable.

1. Initial Conversion

2. Correct Data Errors (if any)

3. Update Interface/Display

4. Add Teams From Other Years

 

I had a quick look on the net and found this site, which has data for old pro and college teams. I'm not sure how good the site is compared to others, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find some opinions about the various statistical sites out there.

 

Sports Reference

[Guest]

I had been trawling through the Lance Haffner Group in Yahoo - will see if I can find the posts again later.

[Guest]

here's a couple of the posts i found in this old Google Discussion:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.sports/FMq7uEyn91o

 

"However, the bottom line is that 3 in 1 has lived up to be a solid text-based football simulation. Granted, it does not currently incorporate every single

player on the field. Namely, does not include offensive linemen and individual blocking ratings. What 3 in 1 does include however, is every skill player rated
(rb, te, wr, qb, kr, pr, k, p, etc) and then have all players with sacks and interceptions and we used overall team ratings to account for the effectiveness
of the offensive and defensive lines."

 

 

"But to me, the minimal number of individual ratings, and complete lack of subjective ratings, is the area in which 3 in 1 loses some of its

appeal. For example, IIRC a running back is rated in exactly four categories: number of carries, yards per carry, number of receptions,
and yards per reception. In a short-yardage situation, it makes more sense to put in a Barry Sanders than a John Riggins, since the game
doesn't evaluate whether or not a player always gets 3-4 yards, or will lose three and then break off a forty-yard run. It's possible to
"trade" players, but doing so undermines the statistical model. Terrell Davis will average the same number of yards running behind the
Saints' line as he will for the Broncos. And in the college game, major-conference teams that run up scores and stats against hopeless
opponents (*cough* - Gators - *cough*) tend to get overrated (although there is a good system for toning down the performance of schools in
weaker conferences against, say, SEC schools.)"

 

There were a couple of points about accuracy as well, but am struggling to find them

[patjomki]

Scuttlebutt

 

http://eweguo.ownit.nu/scuttlebutt/