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Arcade Pong


djmips

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Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

 

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

Edited by BigO
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Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

 

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

 

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

 

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

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Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

 

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

 

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

 

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

The 'cfg' file you included is a disassembler configuration file, used by the internal Distella code to represent how the disassembly should look. If you want to include automatic setup for the game itself, you need to include a .pro file (game properties are stored in the .pro file).

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Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

 

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

 

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

 

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

The 'cfg' file you included is a disassembler configuration file, used by the internal Distella code to represent how the disassembly should look. If you want to include automatic setup for the game itself, you need to include a .pro file (game properties are stored in the .pro file).

 

I see, well, so I would have to include a 'stella.pro' file with the configuration below. But that leaves a problem I don't know how to solve, which is that I don't know to feasibly append this to the user's stella.pro on multiple platforms or provide a way of launching with a -propsfile option. It seems that the Stella app is biased against paddle games it doesn't know about. ;-)

 

"Cartridge.MD5" "3e21b5356ea6d61a5fedb5493534c62a"
"Cartridge.Name" "apong.bin"
"Console.SwapPorts" "YES"
"Controller.Left" "PADDLES"
"Controller.Right" "PADDLES"
""

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Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

 

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

 

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

 

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

The 'cfg' file you included is a disassembler configuration file, used by the internal Distella code to represent how the disassembly should look. If you want to include automatic setup for the game itself, you need to include a .pro file (game properties are stored in the .pro file).

 

I see, well, so I would have to include a 'stella.pro' file with the configuration below. But that leaves a problem I don't know how to solve, which is that I don't know to feasibly append this to the user's stella.pro on multiple platforms or provide a way of launching with a -propsfile option. It seems that the Stella app is biased against paddle games it doesn't know about. ;-)

 

"Cartridge.MD5" "3e21b5356ea6d61a5fedb5493534c62a"
"Cartridge.Name" "apong.bin"
"Console.SwapPorts" "YES"
"Controller.Left" "PADDLES"
"Controller.Right" "PADDLES"
""

Unfortunately, yes, that is correct. The user could always manually copy and paste the entry you've provided directly into their own stella.pro file. Currently, there's no way to just drop a custom, per-game properties file into a directory and have Stella see it. Adding such a feature might be easy enough to do, and I'll consider it for the next release.

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  • 6 years later...
  • 2 months later...

I have no idea why simple arcade ports of PONG are such a rarity. This is right along the lines of what I want out of PONG. My main issue with this is the lack of a single player mode. I had no idea that 2 players were required for the original arcade PONG. Arcade accuracy is what I want, but I need a single player mode. Couldn't we bend the rules just a bit to allow the option for those of us with no friends lol. It'd be nice if that paddle issue could get fixed on a code level too. By NO means am I complaining. Goodonya for this. It's just a small wish list.

 

As it stands, the most BOSS port of PONG I've played is Kiwi's for the ColecoVision. It's not 100% arcade accurate, but it is essentially. It has a slick custom title screen, and a single player mode. Unfortunately for the masses, the ROM isn't publicly available.

 

But it would be awesome to see this with a single player mode, with the paddle fix for the 2600. It feels more at home on an Atari platform, and I'd love to own it on cart. I don't feel entitled to it. Just a small wish. :)

 

Thanks for making this open source btw. You've laid some great groundwork.

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  • 1 month later...

This looks great. I'll definitely be checking it out once I finish up my Ultimate Atari Flashback project.

 

Question, I see mention above about having the paddle fix for 2600. Does this mean the game currently, doesn't use the paddles?

 

It uses paddles. A kernel that uses paddles has to make some sacrifices since the paddle must be checked frequently since it uses the time to charge a capacitor and that's sensed by a comparator. The timer is a soft timer (the line count in the kernel) that has to be stored when the paddle register goes minus. This pong kernel reads the left player one frame and the right player the next frame. So it alternates back and forth. That means the latency for paddle reading is 33ms for any particular player which isn't too bad under the circumstances. It would be possible to read both paddles in the same frame and improve the latency but that requires more clever code.

 

A couple of things to note. I believe the posted version uses Paddle port 2/3. If you are using Stella you will need to do some config to set it up to use your mouse for the paddle. I forget the details but with some googling / playing with it you should be able to figure it out.

 

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It's there to clear up any possible misconceptions regarding .cfg files and their relationship to Stella (i.e. that they don't preset emulator options).

 

The game polls INPT2 and INPT3 for movement (a paddle pair hooked to the Right controller port on actual hardware).

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First of all, I checked and the very first versions of Apong in this thread use Paddle 0/1 (a paddle pair hooked to the Left controller port on actual hardware) It's only the very last version (posted in 2010) that use Paddle 2/3 (a paddle pair hooked to the Right controller port on actual hardware).

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It's there to clear up any possible misconceptions regarding .cfg files and their relationship to Stella (i.e. that they don't preset emulator options). The game polls INPT2 and INPT3 for movement (a paddle pair hooked to the Right controller port on actual hardware).

 

Hey, thanks for that, I've forgotten how Stella works. I think it's confusing, the current UI. At least to me. What are the cfg files used for again? I have forgotten.

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To aid a disassembly process when a source file is unavailable. Disassembly (in effect) creates a faux source file from a binary...a config file is used to better instruct the disassembler to which parts of the binary are coded instructions and which parts are data tables or graphics. As this Arcade Pong the programmer created using his own original source, mentioning config files at all was an error in context :P

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To aid a disassembly process when a source file is unavailable. Disassembly (in effect) creates a faux source file from a binary...a config file is used to better instruct the disassembler to which parts of the binary are coded instructions and which parts are data tables or graphics. As this Arcade Pong the programmer created using his own original source, mentioning config files at all was an error in context :P

 

OK, I'll let the programmer know! Thanks.

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  • 7 months later...

Sure. May be easy or may be hard Can you play paddle games on the Flashback portable?

It might just need the paddle adjusted to use the other port.

Worst case it would need to be converted to joystick control. (blech)

Yeah, it can play paddle games as far as I know.

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  • 1 month later...

Sure. May be easy or may be hard Can you play paddle games on the Flashback portable?

It might just need the paddle adjusted to use the other port.

Worst case it would need to be converted to joystick control. (blech)

Just realized there is no single player mode, so it would be useless on the Flashback Portable. So nevermind!

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Only the paddle games included in the portable can be controlled. Others would need rewriting to read from SWCHA instead of INPT0.

 

 

Just realized there is no single player mode, so it would be useless on the Flashback Portable. So nevermind!

What about the Atari Flashback 2 version of Pong? Arcade Pong has an option for 1 or 2 players, but I've tried it on the AFP and the ball goes off the screen and wraps around making the game unplayable. Is there a possible fix for that?

 

http://www.planetemu.net/rom/atari-2600/arcade-pong-flashback-2-version

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry for bumping an old thread. Djmips, I wonder if you would release your most recent version of apong but with the left paddles (0/1) as default.

 

I am building a replica pong arcade cab, and using your rom with the Harmony cart. Problem is, most other paddle games use the left controller as default.

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Sorry for bumping an old thread. Djmips, I wonder if you would release your most recent version of apong but with the left paddles (0/1) as default.

 

I am building a replica pong arcade cab, and using your rom with the Harmony cart. Problem is, most other paddle games use the left controller as default.

 

OK sounds good. I can get to it this weekend.

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