ForceInfinity Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Was there ever a game on the Atari 2600 that actually did NOT roll over at one million and actually went to the 7th digit? Was there some hardware or physical reason why it seems like none of the games on the Atari 2600 ever went pass a million? That question (abliet minor one) has bugged me for some time. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susuwatari Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 You have to understand the limitations. For one thing, computers and video game systems don't count 0-9 naitively, they count 0-9 and A to F for a total of 16 steps before going to the next digit. So conversion to base 10 numbers is required. That takes up a bit of CPU processing. When you consider about 80% of the CPU is used up just for video, that doesn't leave much for reading controllers, calculating paddle value if used, and carrying out game instructions. Secondly, Atari 2600 has a measly 128 bytes of RAM. Not 128K, not 128MB, just 128 bytes. Some of them may be used up for storing variables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Plus the Atari can only display 6 different sprites/row. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Slocum Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 So conversion to base 10 numbers is required. That takes up a bit of CPU processing. Actually the 6507 does have a binary coded decimal mode (BCD), and every game I've ever seen uses it for score. -paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Actually the 6507 does have a binary coded decimal mode (BCD), and every game I've ever seen uses it for score. Except SCSIcide! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Actually the 6507 does have a binary coded decimal mode (BCD), and every game I've ever seen uses it for score. Except SCSIcide! :wink: I don't get the score in that game, I know it is hex, but I have no idea how to compare two scores and see what is better. I just played a game and got 0B0FCD, I got pretty far, I always like this game, but not the scoing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 I don't get the score in that game, I know it is hex, but I have no idea how to compare two scores and see what is better. Like with base 10 numbers, you look for the highest value in the most significant positions. Our decimal number system goes like this: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14... When you reach the last digit, you add a new digit. Hexadecimal does the same thing, but from 0-15 instead of 0-9, using letters to represent values above 9. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B... So, when you look at your score, take the most significant position (that isn't 0) and compare from there on down, like you would with a normal base10 score. A00000 beats 900000. C54F16 beats C54B30. And so on... -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I just played a game and got 0B0FCD, I got pretty far, I always like this game, but not the scoing. You can always open up the calculator in Windows to covert the scores to decimal. Click on hex, key in the number and click on dec. 0B0FCD is 724,941. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Actually the 6507 does have a binary coded decimal mode (BCD), and every game I've ever seen uses it for score. No comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermChase Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 And then there's games like Carnival, that rolls over every 100,000 points. Only 5 digits. It's SO annoying to have to count 10+ rollovers. ------- Chase Hermsen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 And then there's games like Carnival, that rolls over every 100,000 points. Only 5 digits. It's SO annoying to have to count 10+ rollovers. ------- Chase Hermsen Thrust does this also. But I have only rolled it over 2 times in one game before so it isn't that annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 So does Yars' Revenge display more than 6 numbers in the score? The score in the TG database is over 12 million. It seems like it could display a lot of numbers because it shows the score completely seperate from the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Question for the gurus: is it possible to put in a "0" but not have it active. For example, Pac-Man scores 1 point for a dot. If a 0 was added behind it we would have accurate arcade scoring, even if that final zero wasn't actually the score but just a graphic on the screen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TailChao Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Question for the gurus: is it possible to put in a "0" but not have it active. For example, Pac-Man scores 1 point for a dot. If a 0 was added behind it we would have accurate arcade scoring, even if that final zero wasn't actually the score but just a graphic on the screen unless you use the 1's place counter, it's possible, I used it in Zonik. this is actually better for the console, as it doesn't have to bother processing that number's value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Thrust does this also. But I have only rolled it over 2 times in one game before so it isn't that annoying. And Thrust counts the rollovers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 So does Yars' Revenge display more than 6 numbers in the score? The score in the TG database is over 12 million. It seems like it could display a lot of numbers because it shows the score completely seperate from the game. Nope, it's always 6 digits. How empty the screen is makes no difference (though playfield graphics could have been utilized on the seperate screen to allow as many as 10 digits...4 pixels each digit). As it is, the player has to keep track of the rollovers manually. 12 million?? Geez, imagine accidentally hitting the Easter Egg at 11! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCmodeler Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I don't get the score in that game, I know it is hex, but I have no idea how to compare two scores and see what is better. (shakes head) People who can't read Hexadecimal shouldn't be allowed to touch computers. (just kidding). It's simple to compare: 90 is higher than 80 F0 is higher than 80 F0 is higher than E0 100 is higher than 90 100 is higher than F0 Just compare the two scores, and it should be obvious which is higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 (shakes head) People who can't read Hexadecimal shouldn't be allowed to touch computers. (just kidding). I wouldn't consider the 2600 a computer anyway I understand it pretty well now anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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