Q&A for World Premiere of Circus Convoy + Interview with David Crane, Garry Kitchen & Dan Kitchen

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE OF CIRCUS CONVOY

POST YOUR QUESTIONS HERE!

 

ZeroPage Homebrew will be interviewing David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers) & Dan Kitchen (Crackpots) LIVE on Twitch this FRIDAY (Mar 12, 2021) with the EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE of their new Atari 2600 game CIRCUS CONVOY!

 

Please post your questions here that you'd like us to ask them!

 

   WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE LIVE     

Friday March 12th @ 4PM PT/7PM ET/12AM GMT

https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

 

- James

 

Premiere Announcement:

Circus Convoy Trailer:

[+Andrew Davie]

Question for the team:

A large part of the reason that there's a demand for games these days is the effort of many people over the past few decades who have contributed their time and skills to the "community". Tools, emulators, assemblers. Much of the technology has been openly shared, too, allowing people to write more complex and better games. I'm sure in some ways the developers at Audacity have benefited from this community spirit. Are there any plans to share the source code and/or release binaries to the community, or is this going to be a completely closed shop?

[rjedwards70]

Are any other Activision designers such as Steve Cartwright, Bob Whitehead, etc looking to possibly make a game(s) under Audacity Games with you guys? 

[+sramirez2008]

How did you arrive at the name Audacity Games?

[+mksmith]

1 hour ago, Andrew Davie said:

Question for the team:

A large part of the reason that there's a demand for games these days is the effort of many people over the past few decades who have contributed their time and skills to the "community". Tools, emulators, assemblers. Much of the technology has been openly shared, too, allowing people to write more complex and better games. I'm sure in some ways the developers at Audacity have benefited from this community spirit. Are there any plans to share the source code and/or release binaries to the community, or is this going to be a completely closed shop?

Great question Andrew! On top of Andrew's question what tools, modern processes etc are they using compared to the old days.  Also sounds like they might be using either DPC or an upgrade to that. If so, can they talk about the changes they made to enhance that module. 

[+D Train]

general questions for the audacity team:

 

Hi everyone!  Longtime listener, first time caller.  I'll ask my questions and then take the answers off the air.

 

what prompted you guys to jump into the pool at this point?

Is it because Dan was having fun and everyone wanted to get in on it as well?

 

how are you defining "success" in relation to this project?  Not asking for sales numbers, but is it based on units, or dollars, or is this about enjoying yourselves, or challenging yourselves?

 

someone asked if you are in touch with the other activision alumni; are you in touch with any of the atari alumni (todd frye, howard scott warshaw, etc)?  So is this a retroguy project or just a thing that you three decided you wanted to jump in on?

 

Dan was pretty clear that at first, at least, he really just wanted to create games based on the tech that was available back in the day, and it seems like Circus Convoy is aiming for the same thing (with much greater memory, which is awesome).  Is that your main interest or do you think that you guys will be looking to see what you can do with some of the tech (ARM processing; bus stuffing (someday!)) behind some of the modern 2600 homebrew games.

 

One of the strengths of the atari homebrew community is that it's very collaborative.  I realize that when you guys were programming for the 2600 it was a mostly solo experience.  But do you see an opportunity to collaborate with the community going forward, on game development, game testing, tool development or anything like that?

 

thanks so much!

 

[Lillapojkenpåön]

Circus Convoy looks insanely fun!!!

Thanks to Davids recorded talks on youtube I understood how the 2600 worked very quick, great pedagogical teacher, has he considered selling online courses for every console he has programmed for and save me a couple decades of trying to piece together the information?

 

Another random question, do they remember who did the 2600 port of Beamrider, if I remember correctly it was unknown if Dave Rolfe did that version?

[Dionoid]

• The game footage of the Circus Convoy trailer looks amazing with all these screens and mini-games.
  How long did you guys work on this game?
• Did you use any new TIA tricks for this game, which weren't discovered/known yet? If so, do you plan to share some tricks with the community?
• The group of potential buyers seems to be relatively small, so my assumptions is that Audacity Games is more about fun than making money.
  Or did you also start Audacity Games to maybe send out a message to the mainstream game development industry to bring back the focus to smaller games using efficient and optimized coding?
• What other systems are you planning to create games for? NES, Commodore 64?

Edited March 11, 2021 by Dionoid

[+SpiceWare]

10 hours ago, mksmith said:

Also sounds like they might be using either DPC or an upgrade to that

Not something like DPC:

 

 

 

They're using Superbank:

 

 

 

though I don't know if that's @batari's bankswitch scheme or something else

/**
  Cartridge class used for SB "SUPERbanking" 128k-256k bankswitched games.
  There are either 32 or 64 4K banks, accessible at hotspots $800 - $81F
  (32 banks) and $800 - $83F (64 banks).  All mirrors up to $FFF are
  also used ($900, $A00, ...).
  @author  Fred X. Quimby, Thomas Jentzsch
*/

 

[+TwentySixHundred]

I'd like to second every one of these questions they're all great (especially what tools are you using)

 

Has the AA community help assist with the development through new discoveries and knowledge post the commercial 2600 era?

 

Also wondering if Bob Smith is planning on joining the team? As he has sat along side David and Gary at PRGE panels mentioning his desire to develop a 2600 game again.

 

Thanks

Edited March 11, 2021 by TwentySixHundred

[+Karl G]

How difficult of a transition was it to jump back into 6502 programming after a long absence? 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

 

1 hour ago, SpiceWare said:

 

Then I would like to know how they think about the original DPC. And where they would draw the line. This has been discussed a lot here and I think many people would like how the legends think about it.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Thomas Jentzsch

[+D Train]

58 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Then I would like to know how they think about the original DPC. And where they would draw the line. This has been discussed a lot here and I think many people would like how the legends think about it.

this is a great philosophical question; it would be even more interesting to see a full panel on this rather than a section of an interview!

[zzip]

There are so many ways to play classic games today, flashback consoles, emulators, new "retro" consoles like Amico and Atari VCS.

 

And the unfortunate reality is much of the original 70s/80s hardware has degraded over time and may not be usable today.

 

So besides having boxed games, are there any plans to make these games available in a form that can be played on more modern "retro" systems?

[Zoyous]

As a young kid playing 2600 games, seeing the Activision logo onscreen throughout your games was really effective for creating brand recognition. Now, knowing how hard you guys worked to write games that fit within such a small amount of memory, I was wondering ~ did the logo ever take up memory that you wished you could use for something else in the game instead?

[orange808]

1 hour ago, D Train said:

this is a great philosophical question; it would be even more interesting to see a full panel on this rather than a section of an interview!

It's really not a great philosophical question or topic of discussion.  It's just a way to piss people off and argue.

[Dionoid]

1 hour ago, D Train said:

this is a great philosophical question; it would be even more interesting to see a full panel on this rather than a section of an interview!

Nooo... not that 'cheating' discussion again! But I guess the cat is out of the bag, and this somehow needs to be addressed tomorrow.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Dionoid

[Thomas Jentzsch]

9 minutes ago, Dionoid said:

Nooo... not that 'cheating' discussion again! But I guess the cat is out of the bag, and this somehow needs to be addressed tomorrow.

It seems like the wanted to make a statement, else they wouldn't have said so.

 

Anyway, I don't mind how they call it, I am just happy that I can compare my efforts with theirs. And learn.

[+Propane13]

Questions:

 

As a programmer, I'm guessing you weren't expecting to have a fan base a few decades after programming a few games.  Do you enjoy the fame?

 

Are you having fun programming the old systems, while using new tools?  Or, does it feel a bit too much like "work"?

 

What technical trick are you most proud of accomplishing in the game?

 

Do you think we could see sequels to some of your original games, or is the plan to just make original games due to licensing issues, etc...?

 

What's your favorite "this is so cool" moment that happened when re-learning how to program a system from so long ago?

[+sramirez2008]

"...And due to popular demand, every game will have a high score patch that you can earn."  - Will this include physical, as well as, virtual patches?

[fultonbot]

1. Are the cartridges 7800 compatible?
2. The character graphics are out of this world in the demo!  How did you manage to get back into the VCS mind-set and create such wonderful images? 
3. Have you considered making game for the 7800 or any other Atari platforms next?
4. Will we see any C64 games make with Garry Kitchen's Game Maker?

[KevKelley]

Thank you so much for these games. I had been a fan of many of your games as a youth (A Boy and his Blob being my favorite and first game I had saved up for with my own money).

 

Here is the question:

 

In developing these new games, has the creative process been a collaborative effort or is it more or less the brainchild of one programmer?

[keithbk]

SERIOUS QUESTION: to date, Adventure has been one of the few official Dungeon Crawl games for the Atari... can we get something on the level of Intellivision's "Crown of Kings" (aka Dungeons & Dragons) for the 2600?

 

NOT-S0-SERIOUS QUESTION: will Dan graduate from the Kitchen and end up in the Living Room finally?

Edited March 11, 2021 by keithbk

[Supergun]

6 hours ago, Zoyous said:

As a young kid playing 2600 games, seeing the Activision logo onscreen throughout your games was really effective for creating brand recognition. Now, knowing how hard you guys worked to write games that fit within such a small amount of memory, I was wondering ~ did the logo ever take up memory that you wished you could use for something else in the game instead?

Well, keep in mind that the color  rainbow Activision logo didn’t come until later down the road. Initially, it was just the fonts with the name in plain black or white.

[Omegamatrix]

Questions:

 

1) Was Stella or another emulator used during development for debugging?

2) What bankswitching scheme is being used?

3) Who did the graphics? The snake looks great, and the Giraffe too.

4) While no clowns were harmed, there is a rumor that they were paid in peanuts. What is the truth of this?