glurk #1 Posted June 3 Hungry for something new? Ok, here's my 8-bit port of the 1982 Telesys 2600 game "Fast Food." Something other than Activision ports for a change... I just finished this up, and I think it's working pretty well. All testing appreciated... This was ported in an EXTREMELY direct way, using P/M sprites and nothing else, no DMA, no playfield, no fonts or anything beyond PMG. It uses my '48 Pixel Kernel' idea on the 8-bits for the score display and the vertical scrolling messages. I think it's the first and only 2600 game to be ported to the 8-bit machines in that way... Specifically, it uses the 4 "Player" sprites, and the "Missile" sprites combined as 5th, and then re-uses a precisely timed "Player 0" twice on the same scanline for a total of 6 8-bit-wide sprites. This re-creates the "48px" thing so common on the 2600... Almost 'racing the beam' style, sort of... NTSC 8K cartridge image only for now. This uses a lot of colors, so a PAL color version will probably come later. Please play-test and post if any problems or issues are found, thanks! Fast Food [NTSC].car 16 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tuf #2 Posted June 3 I'll give it a shot tonight! Thanks - love all the new game development going on around here! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aking #3 Posted June 3 Where's the 5200 version? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #4 Posted June 3 3 minutes ago, Aking said: Where's the 5200 version? Dude... I JUST NOW finished this one... I need it to be play-tested and stuff before I even do a PAL color one. It would be crazy to try to do multiple versions till it's tested and solid. I'm working all by myself on these things.... 2 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aking #5 Posted June 3 No rush! Last time the 5200 was on the 5200 forum then it moved to this one. Thought maybe this time it may be in the programing sub forum or anywhere else. Take all the time you need. This should be fun for you to do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #6 Posted June 3 The 5200 port will take a while, I assure you. I may even have to get some help to do it... With that said, the 8-bit PAL color version was actually less work / fewer changes than I anticipated. So here it is. Same as NTSC version above, with only the necessary color changes: Fast Food [PAL].car 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
adam242 #7 Posted June 4 This is awesome! No more hoping that the official A8 prototype ROM will be discovered and dumped. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #8 Posted June 4 3 hours ago, adam242 said: This is awesome! No more hoping that the official A8 prototype ROM will be discovered and dumped. I had no idea that such a thing was even thought to exist... 🤔 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #9 Posted June 4 Ok, on my own, I've just now coded up a 5200 version that might be OK. It seems to work fine in Altirra, but I have no real 5200 to test with... Someone PLEASE test this and tell me if it's OK (or not). Especially if two-player mode works. I'd really appreciate to know if it's working. Fast Food [5200].bin 4 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aking #10 Posted June 4 37 minutes ago, glurk said: Ok, on my own, I've just now coded up a 5200 version that might be OK. It seems to work fine in Altirra, but I have no real 5200 to test with... Someone PLEASE test this and tell me if it's OK (or not). Especially if two-player mode works. I'd really appreciate to know if it's working. Fast Food [5200].bin 16 kB · 39 downloads I'll do it on sunday. Thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TGB1718 #11 Posted June 4 Nice simple game, I used Altirra and honestly switching to PAL I thought looked better Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mclaneinc #12 Posted June 4 Thanks Glurk, appreciate the work and time... Don't get burnt out on these ports, it's got to be a fun challenge that you do at your pace.. Again, thank you. Paul.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #13 Posted June 4 (edited) Paul, I'm actually a happier person when I'm actively working on one of these things, LOL. So probably won't get burnt out, I genuinely enjoy programming and always have. I do get frustrated when I get no feedback. Not looking for praise mind you, but for someone to try this stuff out and post "yes, tried it out and everything works as expected..." etc. Or if not working either. I literally have no one around here to test any of this stuff, so I'm kind of flying blind, especially with the 5200 ports. So feedback that lets me know when it works is helpful, because otherwise I have to assume that no problems reported means no problems found... Which may be wrong, LOL. Hope that makes sense... TECHNICAL STUFF: With the 5200 port I just posted, I had to implement key polling via reading KBCODE and SKCTL because I didn't want to add interrupts and a bunch of VBI code to the game. And it works OK in Altirra, but I don't know how well it works on a real 5200 controller on the real hardware... So I'm left to assume it's OK. I "guess" it works on the real thing, but who knows... I wish someone would tell me... Edited June 4 by glurk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mclaneinc #14 Posted June 4 Sorry, can't help with the 5200 answer, had a wee play of the 800 port and it seems silky smooth with no issues.. Hopefully some of our more hardcore playing folks will provide the all important feedback. Always nice to see new stuff on the old beast. Have you ever thought of C64 ports or not had a c64? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wrathchild #15 Posted June 4 (edited) @glurk Don't sweat it too much, the quality of emulators these days is accurate enough that if it's working there then it'll be OK on the h/w. Edited June 4 by Wrathchild Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mclaneinc #16 Posted June 4 1 minute ago, Wrathchild said: @glurk Don't sweat it too much, the quality of emulators these days is an accurate enough that if it's working there then it'll be OK on the h/w. I've always used Altirra for 5200 stuff, I have tried other emus and found them to be fine, but I don't want to have to keep track of too many emulators and with Avery behind the code I'd say that the very knowledgable Wrathy is spot on..(as almost certainly are the other emus) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Allan #17 Posted June 4 @glurk I played the 5200 version for a while. Fun but it is a hand buster. . It did crash on me once with the screen going black with no response by any of the keys (yes mine work. . ) Sorry I can't give you any more detail than that. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #18 Posted June 4 3 hours ago, Allan said: @glurk I played the 5200 version for a while. Fun but it is a hand buster. . It did crash on me once with the screen going black with no response by any of the keys (yes mine work. . ) Sorry I can't give you any more detail than that. That's troublesome, since I can't fix the problem if I can't re-create it on my end.... It's actually tricky / difficult to read the darn keypad keys on these things. I have code that works under Altirra, but if I had a real 5200 I could bang on all the keys, press weird combinations, test all the edge cases and etc.... Which can only be done on the real h/w. That's what I was meaning earlier. But it should never go to a completely black screen. I don't really know how that could happen, truthfully. I'd fix it if I knew how / what to fix... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Larry #19 Posted June 4 You have a definite talent for these conversions. Maybe you can start signing them "Glurk the 2600 Man!" 😉 3 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
glurk #20 Posted June 4 12 minutes ago, Larry said: You have a definite talent for these conversions. Maybe you can start signing them "Glurk the 2600 Man!" 😉 Thant's funny, hehehe... I think I've kinda found my niche with these too, I like doing them. But running out of good games to convert, sigh... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
José Pereira #21 Posted June 4 Like Glenn the 5200 man, indeed very similar (starting with a G and also 5 letters). 👍 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+MrFish #22 Posted June 4 1 hour ago, glurk said: But running out of good games to convert, sigh... Chopper Command and Pressure Cooker are two more good Activision titles. 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Allan #23 Posted June 4 I'd love to see the two Atari 800 Apollo games. It looks like they were just going to upgrade the background graphics so it might not be to hard to convert them. https://archive.org/details/Electronic_Fun_with_Computer_Games_Vol_01_No_03_1983-01_Fun_Games_Publishing_US/page/n59/mode/2up Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saberman #24 Posted June 5 And small gameplay... 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sikor #25 Posted June 5 Super game, I liked it on 2600, so it is big surprice for me. Thanks for this version! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites