tremoloman2006 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 According to Atarimania "Although finished, this game was never released." Is this true? That would be killer if it was! Then we would just have to hope someone comes across it somwhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Ummm... in case you didn't notice, the Atarimania page linked to above contains a ROM download for this... so you can check it out for yourself. According to Atarimania "Although finished, this game was never released." Is this true? That would be killer if it was! Then we would just have to hope someone comes across it somwhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Ummm... in case you didn't notice, the Atarimania page linked to above contains a ROM download for this... so you can check it out for yourself. According to Atarimania "Although finished, this game was never released." Is this true? That would be killer if it was! Then we would just have to hope someone comes across it somwhow. There's no ROM download for the 2600 version... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800Lover Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 I remember the game was planned but cancelled for the 2600 according to AtariProtos.com. I'd love to see that game put out anyway. I used to play the arcade game in Showbiz Pizza years ago. What's more, I wouldn't mind seeing a 7800 version too. I even make a thread about that sometime ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIPITBULL Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 (edited) I'm also still waiting for some of the great game makers we have here to make this complete with a box! Edited February 23, 2009 by ATARIPITBULL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMika Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 (edited) Alright. Attached is my old old old Kickman ROM. If I had to rate this on the completion scale, it's 1%. I had big plans but then my day job just got in the way. Classic story. This does not seem to run fine in Stella, and on Z26 it has the wrong palette. Runs fine on my real 2600 though. I make games pretty iteratively, so this was my sketching out of at least one way to approach the game. Note: I stole the font straight from Gorf from CBS because I was originally going to "leak the proto" around April first a few years ago. I figured if I followed the CBS game structure, it would make it harder to judge as a hoax. You are warned, it is REALLY ugly. I was planning on upping the resolution of the sprites. And please, I know it is rubbish - no need to tell me. The sound is atrocious, it was barely a first pass. Hopefully this gives some closure to at least my branch of the Kickman lore! Oh! Controls: reset to start, I think I had some kind of difficulty ramping already started for game type (Select). Button kicks. This might not be the last version, because I did fix the balloons to drop from teh correct position and retain their bitmap image instead of switching to a missile. Hmm.... Ugh. kickman.bin Edited June 13, 2009 by MikeMika Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Thanks for sharing this almost legendary homebrew ROM, Mike. Although not finished, it looks very promising. I sure hope someone can help you finishing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Alright. Attached is my old old old Kickman ROM.... Awesome, thanks for sharing! Even in this early stage your WIP shows that a fun to play 2600-port of Kickman is possible, i also hope this will get finished one day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Alright. Attached is my old old old Kickman ROM. If I had to rate this on the completion scale, it's 1%. I had big plans but then my day job just got in the way. Classic story. This does not seem to run fine in Stella, and on Z26 it has the wrong palette. Runs fine on my real 2600 though. In Stella, the scanline count alternates from 31 to 291. That's what's causing the slowdown and flickering. It's probably a vsync or wsync issue in Stella, which I'm working on fixing for the next release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthkur Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Alright. Attached is my old old old Kickman ROM. Thank you very much for sharing this very interesting piece of Atari history with everyone. It looks quite promising. I'm certain it will reach completion at some time in the near future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMika Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 @stephana: Yeah, it wasn't cleaned up at all on my part. Stella works great, it's just the way I assembled this version of the ROM. I'm trying to find a later version because a lot of that was fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I just checked but I no longer have the binary you sent me back then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 @stephana: Yeah, it wasn't cleaned up at all on my part. Stella works great, it's just the way I assembled this version of the ROM. I'm trying to find a later version because a lot of that was fixed. I was doing a bit of testing, and it seems the reason for the misbehaviour in Stella is because it autodetects the ROM as NTSC when it is in fact PAL. When I force to PAL mode, it works fine in Stella as well (but seems to use the wrong colours; I also have to force to NTSC50 palette). It's happening because the ROM runs the startup screen at 240 scanlines, and then switches to 322 in-game. However, Stella uses the first 60 frames to determine whether it's NTSC or PAL, and looks at the scanline count to do so. So it thinks it's an NTSC ROM. I'm going to fix this for a future release, to also consider the first scanline, and not just the number of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 wow thats awesome, thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 I have a Kickman binary dated May 21, 2003. Is that the same as the one you posted, Mike? Edit: I did a binary file compare between what you posted and the file I have and it's the same. Guess you never sent me a newer version. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMika Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Thanks for checking, Al. I got all excited a while ago after seeing Man Goes Down (I think that's the game) - it was slick and got me inspired, so I started fixing up Kickman finally. I wanted to get the Pac-Man balloons in, but I got slogged down in re-writing the kernal. I'll give another look this weekend. I've probably consolidated drives and machines a few times since then. Just gotta get the search engine rolling. I need to find it to convince myself I'm not crazy. Last look was fruitful! I did find my Gunsmoke GBC rom (Digital Eclipse/Capcom), my Euro Klax Rom (2600 Adventure hidden in it and a proposal to my wife , and some other odd bits and bobs. I think I also found the prototype Atari ST Ballblazer that Tim Mensch and Dan Filner did for LucasArts. That's a keeper! I need to dig more often! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman2000 Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 The game was found! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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