glurk Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 I hate to start a new topic for this, but I tried searching, and could not find an answer. Title is my question. Are there PORTS from the NES to the Atari 8-bits? I found lots of 2600 stuff, some homebrew, some simultaneous releases, etc... But I'm specifically looking for any games that were (at least somewhat faithfully) ported to the 8-bit machines from the NES. Specifically, I wanted to see if they used narrow playfield mode to get a 256x192 resolution. As in ANTIC Mode 4, 32x24 chars. This is not so much to play any of the games, but for technical reasons for something I've been noodling around with. So, in fact, I would be interested also in any Atari games that use the narrow playfield mode. It's not something I can easily search for, and I don't really want to dump the display list of a bunch of games to see... Any help appreciated!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzspeed Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 Porting from the NES to older 6502 based machines actually isn't that easy. The NES had a number of features that enabled it to do what it could do, no matter how simplistic the games now seem. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted July 18, 2021 Author Share Posted July 18, 2021 Well, to be more clear, I'm not personally trying to port an NES game, exactly. Something a bit related, maybe, but it may come to nothing. I never actually owned an NES, and don't really know a whole lot about them technically. But is a port to the Atari machines something that's never been done at all? Even a simple one? That would surprise me, but I could not find any examples of any, either. I don't even know what was popular on them, except the Mario stuff, LOL... I was just hoping for one example, if indeed there are any at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) None that I know of... though until the Atari legacy hardware WIP version showed up I had thoughts of their Galaga being a good basis for a VBXE compatible conversion. As mentioned, the hardware is too different. The 256 mode in fact is full width of the screen and multicolour. I've worked on conversions from a few others but of the common 6502 machines of the time I'd list ease of order around about: Plus4/C=16, C64, Apple II, Oric, 2600. Having no sprites, the Plus4 is pretty easy with the main barriers being memory if it's a big game, lack of 256 characters in some cases, and lack of colour attribute cells in some cases. Sound is fairly easy as the base clocking is the same so some simple shifting and calculations means sound can be made near the same. Edited July 18, 2021 by Rybags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 If you want to see what sort of a challenge it would be, take a look at Spelunker on the Atari 8 bit and then look at the NES version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibstov Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 4 hours ago, glurk said: Specifically, I wanted to see if they used narrow playfield mode to get a 256x192 resolution. As in ANTIC Mode 4, 32x24 chars. This is not so much to play any of the games, but for technical reasons for something I've been noodling around with. So, in fact, I would be interested also in any Atari games that use the narrow playfield mode. I used Antic Mode 4, narrow playfield 32x24 chars is Adventure Ponies;. So there is one, but I am sure many others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted July 18, 2021 Author Share Posted July 18, 2021 Thanks, that's helpful. My question was meant to be more about that graphics mode than about the NES, per se. There seem to be a good number of systems with only 256 resolution, but it appears to be an underused mode on the Ataris. Probably because it loses a good deal of screen width. However, for certain things, it has a better aspect ratio. Sometimes a lot easier than trying to re-draw EVERYTHING in a different aspect ratio! It's a shame that it does not / cannot fill up the screen better. This is for something I'm playing around with, which was in fact ported to the NES, but not originally made for it. And it may never see the light of day, I'm just playing around and experimenting so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 Dr. Mario is the first one that comes to mind. Somewhat weak graphically, but otherwise a quality port gameplay-wise -- covering two-player mode, etc. I had a couple ideas of my own at the time about how the graphics could be done -- which I'd like to use for a port of my own some day. The two Graph2Font images mainly just differ from each other on how the score panels are done; but then I also used different colors for the background patterns -- just to differentiate them a little more. Another one that I recall is Milk Nuts -- a port of the NES game Nuts & Milk. Pretty well-done graphically, but a bit sluggish on the gameplay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matosimi Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, MrFish said: Another one that I recall is Milk Nuts -- a port of the NES game Nuts & Milk. Pretty well-done graphically, but a bit sluggish on the gameplay. Milk Nuts is not a port. It was coded from scratch w/o knowledge of the developer that it is an existing NES game (kinda funny story)... so it is remake and not a port. Port must contain core logic (code) of the original game. All the BBC MICRO games that were converted for Atari XL/XE are ports, running original code written for BBC MICRO, but with presentation layer specific for Atari XL/XE hardware. That is the way how I converted Castle Defender. As far as I know only @Rybags was working/experimenting with real NES port of SMB. Edited July 18, 2021 by matosimi inconsistency of terminology :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 No, I didn't do any SMB work. Possibly you're thinking of the demo that analmux did? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 16 minutes ago, matosimi said: Milk Nuts is not a port. It was coded from scratch w/o knowledge of the developer that it is an existing NES game (kinda funny story)... so it is remake and not a port. Port must contain core logic (code) of the original game. Yeah, technically, a conversion (same for Dr. Mario too, I believe). Although, I'm not sure they still wouldn't apply to the OP's interest in the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matosimi Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Rybags said: No, I didn't do any SMB work. Possibly you're thinking of the demo that analmux did? correct, it was @analmux Edited July 18, 2021 by matosimi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) Not ports, but Probe did some demos of their P/M sprite-multiplexer design. In both cases they used narrow mode to accomplish the task. Graphics-wise these were somewhat hasty conversions, but still give the general ideas pretty nicely. Contra (Probe).xex Super Mario (Probe).xex Edited July 18, 2021 by MrFish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsCool Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 I've not seen many ports but have seen and also done several musical arrangements from the NES 2A03 to the ATARI POKEY and most of the time thing were pretty faithful to the NES style 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solo/ng Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) its like trying to port from C64. Most of the time you have to do it from scrach because of different h/w stuff c64/nes have (like 256charsets or colormaps or totally different sprites stuff etc). Edited July 18, 2021 by solo/ng typo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 2 hours ago, VinsCool said: I've not seen many ports but have seen and also done several musical arrangements from the NES 2A03 to the ATARI POKEY and most of the time thing were pretty faithful to the NES style Especially if you do double POKEY. The high 16-bit C distortions will stand in nicely for the NES pulse wave. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) 23 minutes ago, solo/ng said: its like trying to port from C64. Most of the time you have to do it from scrach because of different h/w stuff c64/nes have (like 256charsets or colormaps or totally different sprites stuff etc). True, but there have been a fair amount of C64 ports in recent years, such as Stunt Car Racer, Total Eclipse, and some of the hi-res games by Mariusz; and there've been a bunch of ports from the Spectrum, BBC Micro, Apple II, Atari 2600 over the years. Edited July 18, 2021 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 (edited) 14 hours ago, glurk said: Specifically, I wanted to see if they used narrow playfield mode to get a 256x192 resolution. As in ANTIC Mode 4, 32x24 chars. Going to state the very obvious but you know that Mode4 32 chars is 128 pixels right ? So 1 pixel *horizontal* scrolling/ movement would look pretty jerky unless accounted for somehow... Edited July 18, 2021 by rensoup horizontal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 12 minutes ago, rensoup said: So 1 pixel scrolling/ movement would look pretty jerky unless accounted for somehow... What would be so jerky about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solo/ng Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 1 hour ago, MrFish said: True, but there have been a fair amount of C64 ports in recent years, such as Stunt Car Racer, Total Eclipse, and some of the hi-res games by Mariusz; and there've been a bunch of ports from the Spectrum, BBC Micro, Apple II, Atari 2600 over the years. yeah but the two games and platforms you mentioned have one imporant common: no use of hardware sprites/256 charsets/nes tiles. then its a different aproach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 1 minute ago, solo/ng said: yeah but the two games and platforms you mentioned have one imporant common: no use of hardware sprites/256 charsets/nes tiles. then its a different aproach. I guess you know all about it, with Flimbo and Giana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 59 minutes ago, MrFish said: What would be so jerky about it? ? (I edited my post... ) How do you convert a 1 pixel horizontal movement at a resolution of 256 pixels down to a resolution of 128 pixels ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagChris Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 Wasn't there a Mario World clone for the 8bit back in the day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 1 hour ago, rensoup said: How do you convert a 1 pixel horizontal movement at a resolution of 256 pixels down to a resolution of 128 pixels ? Divide by 2? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rensoup Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 1 hour ago, MrFish said: Divide by 2? hi five to that then ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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