Question about rolling over the score

[ForceInfinity]

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

[Susuwatari]

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.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Plus the Atari can only display 6 different sprites/row.

[Paul Slocum]

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

[Thomas Jentzsch]

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:

[bjk7382]

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.

[Bryan]

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

[Big Player]

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.

[Nukey Shay]

Actually the 6507 does have a binary coded decimal mode (BCD), and every game I've ever seen uses it for score.

No comment

[HermChase]

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

[bjk7382]

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.

[bjk7382]

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.

[NovaXpress]

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

[TailChao]

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.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

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.

[Nukey Shay]

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!

[RCmodeler]

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.

[bjk7382]

(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