matzieq Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Hi there, I'm Maciej, from Poland, and I'm new here. Recently, I began programming (or better: trying to program) the 2600. I have just finished my first attempt of making something playable: a little game called AOTM AFOS - Attack Of The Mighty Aliens From Outer Space (this is not meant to be funny, just a kind of title that people invent at 3 A.M. trying to make the 2600 emulator play music :-) It works fine with the z26. Of course, it's code is probably nowhere near efficient, and full of mistakes and things I could do better. But still, it works. I was wondering if I could post the .bin or source code here. I'd be extremely grateful if some more experienced people would look at it and give some comments. Is this the right forum? If not, where could I post it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotokeo2001 Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Post away. I would like to see what you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Fire away...this is the correct forum for any original work. Though if the game is based off the code of an existing game, it should be posted to the hacks forum instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Hi there! Here is a good place for discussing the games content, playability, ideas, concepts and other things, so feel free to post the binary here. (Note: You need to ZIP it.) Also, the best place to have 2600 targeted code discussed and reviewed, is the [stella] mailing list. Normally you'd get there around here: http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/ But the list seems somewhat unstable for the last 3-4 days and I don't even see a working subscription link at the moment Hope its working soon again... Greetings, Manuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocko Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Post! and welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matzieq Posted May 31, 2004 Author Share Posted May 31, 2004 This is no hack, I've written it alone, basing on Kirk Israel's and Andrew Davie's tutorials, the SPG and Assembly In One Step. So watch it and please, don't laugh :-) I'm just a beginner... And another note: on the stella for windows it doesn't work properly. Don't know why, perhaps it's a bug of some kind. I tried to make it PAL, but I could misscount the scanlines somewhere... Maciej aotmafos.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotokeo2001 Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Very Cool Idea!! It's a good start to a game. Add some more variety and refine it some more and you will have a great game. Here is a screenshot: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Good start Everything seems to work...though the "death" kernal is skipped when losing the last life. Expansions might be to make the enemy missile move faster or diagonal movement as the score increases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I like it! Good show! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA, USA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Welcome! Its great to see new programmers and especially ones borne from the programming tutorials! I can't wait to play your game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpddytim Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 This is some good stuff. One suggestion though is to make the enemy fire a little bigger. That little bugger is hard to spot! Keep up the great work! -Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matzieq Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 Actually, I have thought of bigger enemy missile, but when I did it this way, the code checking if objects are visible didn't fit into 2 scanlines! This code definitely needs optimization. Anyone could tell me how it is made "professionally"? I use the "playerbufferstuffer" method, mentioned by Kirk Israel in his tutorial. Maciej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmartin252 Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 Well done Maciej! Just found this thread- congratulations on your first game attempt. This really gives the rest of us *potential* homebrewers the motivation to continue. Do you plan any enhancements to the game? and what will be your next project? BTW the game seemed to work OK in Stella, except for not displaying the score (top of screen cut off) but this always seems to be a problem with Stella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salstadt Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 I dig it. I like that shooting the enemies makes them harder and harder to hit. It needs some kind of twist to the gameplay, or more variety in movement, enemy numbers, etc. but a great start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocko Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 Actually, I have thought of bigger enemy missile, but when I did it this way, the code checking if objects are visible didn't fit into 2 scanlines! This code definitely needs optimization. Anyone could tell me how it is made "professionally"? I use the "playerbufferstuffer" method, mentioned by Kirk Israel in his tutorial. Maciej Cool game! If you held that joystick lower, we wouldnt allow that avatar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matzieq Posted June 15, 2004 Author Share Posted June 15, 2004 I've managed to make the enemy shot a little bigger (I just had to throw away one stupid STA WSYNC - shame on me!), also I made player missile another color, and colored the ufo. Yes, I can see, that it still needs a lot of work. On the other hand, the vblank and overscan are completely filled with code (inefficient is my second name). I will think it out and maybe sometime... I thinked of a 'bonus stage' - some meteor shooting, or something like this. I still need to dig through the stella archives and these forums to find out how all this magic is done Does anyone know where can I find information about 'reusing' the sprites? (I mean, making 234234 aliens just by using two players). Anyway, what do you people think of it's difficulty? Isn't it too difficult? I've never scored over 414 or something... but I don't want to make it too easy, after all who enjoys easy games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabeen557 Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 nice game im starting to reat the tutorials too hope i understand them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mord Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 Haven't been able to keep up with the forums since my move. Anyway, the game shows that some of the games I've been thinking about are indeed possible from the tutorials! Now if I can just find the time to apply it. Great game tho, keep at it! From what I do know (Conceptually at least!) for reusing the player sprites to create 'infinite' enemies is to just make sure they don't cross over each other's vertical scanlines. There are ways to do it while letting them cross, but that adds flicker which is preferably avoided! For identical enemies moving together you can set the sprites to display multiple copies (like how it's done in Seaquest for instance) -- Mord Must... finish... setting up.... dasm... on... new(er)... comp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mika Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 (edited) czesc maciek! good effort, i'm just trying to read all the tutorials to make my own game. my programming expierence, some ATARI 8bit BASIC adventure games written in my primary school, wouldn't allow me to give you any advice of code optimization but i will try to do some code and then maybe you will have some advice for me Edited May 28, 2009 by mika Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uosipa llamxew Posted October 15, 2004 Share Posted October 15, 2004 In case anyone has missed it in the Atari 2600 forums, here is a link to Maciej's new homebrew Chronicles of Ataria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted November 30, 2005 Share Posted November 30, 2005 Hi there! Any news regarding this project? Greetings, Manuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matzieq Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 OK, it's been a while and I had to re-learn almost everything about the programming, but still I'm progressing on my way back into the action. As for now, I sort of "remade" my first game, so that it's 1k and still better Well, here it is: aotm2.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Neat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Welcome back - your game plays well, though a bit more variety in the aliens would be welcome. I'm hoping that you will be returning to your Chronicles of Airata project at some point soon, as it was looking very promising? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdub_bobby Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 A pretty good start - hope you keep working on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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