So I decided to change the name of the game once again to "Kevin Vs. Tomatoes." Today's work on it was an experiment to see if I could get a different starting X position to the tomato. This took about 3 hours of testing, going back & changing stuff in the code, and retesting and changing stuff in the code and retesting and repeat ad nauseam. But I finally think I did it. The only problem is that the collision detection got all screwed up. At least I know how: I was testing the first startin
So I went back to the store where I had purchased the Channel F that I took back a few years ago. I asked if they still had it. Surprise! They did. So I rebought it. And this time I intend to keep it. Even though it has some problems. First off, the only game I can access on cart #1 is doodle. When you turn on the game, you have to press 3 as you turn it on, or else the "G?" message will flash on screen for about a second before it switches to the built-in game. Even that has problems. It keeps
So I was working on Killer Snake again. I got a score in the game. But a problem has arisen. Barf. Why does this keep happening? Anyway, the problem is with the score. When Ken gets the tomato, the score is increased by 1 point and the screen clears and regenerates the snake back to its starting position. Except when you get 8 points, the snake doesn't appear at all. What's more odd is the fact that the tomato appears. Why would the tomato appear and the snake not? I am really baffled by this
So I was laying in bed thinking. About the Channel F. And how I shouldn't have taken it back. Anyway, a thought came to my head about the game Killer Snakes. I dropped the second S from the title, making it Killer Snake. Because the screen isn't big enough to have two snakes on it. The thought was: If I can test if the edge is touched, then why not the fruit? So I went and worked some more on the code. I made a collision part of the code, and a few tries later of posting random bits of code (I s
There are a few days, well, ok, a few weeks, where I don't work on a particular project. This is also true with games that I really love. It's that i just don't get around to working on them. Well today I worked on MHTAL. I had an idea for a few screens: Going inside a giant igloo. This igloo would be mandatory to go inside. But as I was drawing it, it dawned on me: igloos usually have one exit, not two. It was then that I switched from having the igloo be mandatory to a smaller size and optiona
So I got out my Playstation games from the garage. Not what I had originally intended to do. I went to the garage to see if I could find my Colecovision and games. It was dark, so I had to hold a flashlight while sifting through boxes. I found the Colecovision but I couldn't find the AC adapter and I couldn't find the games. I did however, find all my PSOne games along with a gray brick PSX. I already had my PSOne sitting in my room with a few games. So now I have more. So I played a few round
For the first time in I don't know how long, I decided to plug the Atari Jaguar back in and see if it works. I figured it was just laying there on the floor, with a game in it. I figured I might as well test it to see if it worked. So I plugged it in and pressed on. Like magic, it worked. My Jaguar is still alive. Earlier, I worked on my Ants game. My goal there was to reduce the time it took for the game to start up. I found changing the game from a ROM (which it was) to an ABS file did it. But
I've made a new issue of Nintendo Stuff for the new year: January 2018 issue up online now: http://www.atari2600land.com/nintendostuff/ I just hooked up my N64 and you'll probably be surprised at which of the 2 N64 titles I've played this month I like better. Each issue, I play 2 Nintendo 64 titles. Why N64? Because I like it. In fact, my only known journalism piece I ever wrote was about the N64. I wrote an article of my thoughts on N64 games. It was for my middle school newspaper. I think it w
So I was looking through all the stuff I had stored on my website when I came across this: http://www.atari2600land.com/okochobonosolobo/ It was a long MIDI song I was making a few years ago when all of a sudden I had stopped working on it. I guess I just forgot about it for a few years. Shame, too, since it was over 85 minutes long. This was at about 11 last night. So I started working on it again. I was working away composing and programming the song. I looked at the clock on my computer. I wa
So after trying for a million years to try to save variables in an Intellivision game, I finally did it. One of the major problems was I didn't put "-j" in the batch file I use to open it. Nobody told me to do that. I looked in the help file and noticed that. I thought I'd try it and voila, jzINTV no longer had a JLP error. But the variables still wouldn't save. So the thing I tried to do is write the variables and then read them. I don't know how or why, but that managed to save the variables.
So I made some changes to Ten Pest. First I made it so it says "WAVE 1" at the beginning. You start play by pressing A. Code was put in to make sure you don't fire a missile when pressing A to start each wave. Second, after testing on a real Game Boy, I discovered the game stopped working once 10,000 points was reached. I am a lot better at this game on a real Game Boy than I am with an emulator. So I looked through the code, saw the problem, and fixed it. Next, I was able to put the score on
So the PC that had Bubba's Buck Blastin' on it died. Luckily I made a copy for myself in case that happened. A couple people wanted it, so I tried to get it off the disc and on to the new(er) PC, but it kept stalling at about 20% ripped and it said it was done. Well, several frustrated attempts later, it finally ripped the entire thing. I had used Handbrake. So then I had to make a new menu for it. That also was hard since the software I use to make DVDs with is user-unfriendly. But I had done i
I got a bunch of stuff for Christmas. - Super Mario Odyssey for Switch - Pac-Man and Ghost soap - Toilet paper, keychain and pen with the poop emoji on it (yes, I got poop on my toilet paper.) - 3 issues of the Keizertimes - 2018 Old Farmer's Almanac (my 20-year streak is unsnapped. I have every one since 1997.) - 3 orange shirts and 1 red shirt - a Minion Bob Giant PEZ dispenser - Activision socks - Cookies, popcorn, and Chex Mix and, my favorite thing, a 2018 wall calendar of the original Supe
Today I worked on Ten Pest again. What I did was introduce different kinds of UFOs each with their own traits. Since I can't possibly design 10 different ones, I'm going to change the meaning of Ten Pest. The new meaning is each wave has ten groups of ten UFOs to shoot at. When you complete a wave, a special sound will occur and you'll move on to the next wave. I want it to say "WAVE 2" at the beginning of the second wave, for example, with the maximum amount of waves being 10. Perhaps THAT coul
So I had a chance to stay up late. I was bored. So I decided to work on Ten Pest some more. I made the alien shoot at you. And he follows you. Shooting at the UFO's missile makes it but not the UFO disappear. Do you get a (brief) chance to shoot the UFO while it's not shooting? Take a shot! The highest score I could get on this version was 2,000. But there's no variety yet. But now I don't know whether I should make some aliens not shoot at you or follow you because that might make the game too
But I still have a lot to do before it becomes fun (or what I think is fun, anyway.) I have been working on Ten Pest again. I got the UFO moving towards the middle. If it gets to it, the game ends and "GAME OVER" displays at the bottom and there's an explosion sound and the rocket disappears. I also made it so when the game is over, pressing start goes back to the title screen. Unfortunately I couldn't make the ending score display at the title screen as well. I think it has something to do with
So I finally got a UFO in Ten Pest. Next step was having something happen when you shoot it. Got it to make a noise upon laser impact and generating a new one on the screen. The controls are a bit hard to control, so I think that is the next step. I had a hard time lining up the shot to shoot the UFO. I think if I slow down the rocket it would be easier to line up shots for the UFO. Here's stuff left to do: + Design nine more UFOs and stick them in there. + Work on some UFOs that shoot. + Move
So I figured out how to mute sounds on the Game Boy when I want them to be. Turns out I had to write to all four sound registers in order to change one. Which is kind of stupid, but apparently that's how it's done because it works. Spent some time trying to get a hi-hat cymbal type sound on the title screen song since the song's three bass notes sounded weird and off place. I put a little percussion in there to put the bass notes in context. Although I am kind of worried since Oranges was abou
So I am still wondering how Tempest never got to the Game Boy despite the fact that it was even attempted on the Atari 2600. I had the name for the game in my head for a while now. So I decided to make the game a reality. The first idea I had for title screen music I had to scrap because I wasn't able to control the volume to turn on and off, yet somehow I'm still able to turn off the music once the game starts. Also, I had to scrap the image saying "2018 chris read" and replace it with text say
The guy who i tried to get to publish my Game Boy game said I needed to go back and start a new game from scratch with a better idea. Well, that is a problem because I don't have one. At least one I can fit into 32k. So I decided to go back to work on Oranges, even though it will probably never make it to a cartridge release. So I decided to update the colors of the Orange-O-Matic screen. I had come up with one but the score was printed on a white background and the rest was on a light gray. So
So I have to redesign the whole game if I want to get it published anywhere. First of all what I did was remove the game ending at 500 points. Now it's a see-how-long-you-can-survive-type game. Second I added somw blinking lights on the machine. Redesigned the machine, room, and guy. The lights on the machine blink at random, just like on a real machine.That was one of the things I had trouble with. First I thought I should use sprites for them. But when that didn't work, I just thought to add
I came across an old issue of Chris's Fun, a magazine I had made. It was issue 1 in 2010. This was a few months ago. I decided to make a new issue. I keep forgetting about various projects I make because I bounce around from thing to thing so I don't induce ennui. That is responsible for me making video games in the first place. This issue will be on the chris's fun website on January 1. If I had kept it up like I should have, I would about to be working on issue 25, since I created it 8 years a
I guess the third time's the charm. I bought a copy of Atari 2600 Xenophobe off eBay a few days ago. The past two were PAL copies that rolled on my CRT TV. I was hoping this one would actually behave and be NTSC. Well, the dog woke me up to let me know someone was on our porch. I looked and there sat a package. So I got it. I opened it up. There were a bunch of foam peanuts, which my cat loves to dine on. Under them was a boxed copy of Xenophobe. I took it in my room. Thankfully my Atari 2600
So I thought it had been a while, thought I'd look up "game.com" on eBay. I almost bought the web link cartridge for $17 or so until I realized that it also had a kit needed. This was just the cartridge. So I passed. Which is the only interesting thing on eBay right now regarding the game.com. I plugged in my game.com. It froze during the intro. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. It began working good after that. One thing I like about it is the high score keep function. Unfortunately, I l
Into the valley of death rode me. Here is the top half of a screenshot of the game I'm working on. It's a nice sunny day wherever this game is taking place. It was hard, but I worked on the bottom half of the game today, where all the game action is taking place. I don't want to reveal it quite yet because the sprites aren't finalized yet. There are two sprites and a ball. I am going to add missile0 in there sometime. It was a ton of work doing what I wanted to do, then a ton MORE work getting t
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