Planet Bob

A blog by Cybergoth in General

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About this blog

You can't call a planet "Bob", can't we just call it "Earth"? - No one said you have to live on Bob.

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2 Songs from my Brother

Hi there! Here's two songs from my brother: http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/bob1.mp3 http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/bob2.mp3 I'd really, really, really love to hear some feedback regarding them Greetings, Manuel

Cybergoth

March 3, 2007

Failed Robotron 2600 Experiment

Hi there! I've been trying to see what happens if I push my multisprite engine to the limit. This is a demo of 32 sprites at once: 8k_sideluxe.zip Usage: Launch it, press fire, then wait a few secs until it stabilizes. Notes: DONT USE ON A REAL TV!! Tried & tested only with the latest Z26 DOS version. This is just multiplexing 1 sprite. The crosshair is the second. Another engine approach could probably multiplex both sprites, which'd reduce the overall flicker, but at the cost

Cybergoth

February 27, 2007

Ghost in the Machine

Hi there! A VCS demo:et_vs_hsw.zip Greetings, Manuel

Cybergoth

February 26, 2007

Two Types I'm done with

Hi there! Today I feel like talking about game design in general and about the games I've ported so far in particular. There's two types of games, which I probably won't do anymore. Never say never, ok, but I really want to avoid such designs in the future. 1. Two-Player Games Here I mean "true" Two-Player games. Games that draw *all* their fun out of having two players interact with each other. Namely Gunfight in my case. While it was fun programming it, about the only times I h

Cybergoth

February 22, 2007

I hate coding the "Game Framework"!

Hi there! I really do. Of all the jobs required for creating a game, this seems to be the most boring and dreadful part. I actually even prefer writing the manual. It's the one part that requires the most bite-through in the whole process. Coding all the state logic and thinking through all its numerous side effects, like what happens when you get killed while your last shot actually completes a level and other stuff like what RAM bytes reset to what content in which situation (game star

Cybergoth

February 17, 2007

More Galaxy Wars

Hi there! Based on the feedback from the "failed" experiment, here's two new Galaxy Wars experiments. They both narrow the screen to have only 4 objects visible. This one does 9 Pixel wide attackers with missiles: Experiment 1: menace_sources.zip This one does 9 Pixel wide attackers with flicker: Experiment 1: Serious offer: If anyone would be interested to try a 1K or 2K compo entry based on these, feel free to do so. I'm not sure if I'll ever continue here, there's way too

Cybergoth

February 3, 2007

Second Fire button on the 2600...

Hi there! I wrote a small test tool for additional fire buttons (very minimalistic, but get's the job done ) and ran some tests with it. 3do.zip Here's my findings thus far: Additional Fire Buttons on the 2600: | Works | Reversed | Comment | | Logic | ===================|==================|=================================== Atari 7800 Pad | no | x | Both Buttons work the same Coleco controller | no | x | Second Button has no functionality SMS Control Pad |

Cybergoth

January 31, 2007

Colony 7: Return Fire!

Hi there! Yup, you may have guessed it from the title, Chris is not the only one back on track! My 2006 summer vacation finally started as well! Well, as the title says, I resolved the particle storm from Colony 7, and implemented some real return fire for the Alien fighters. It's just that right now, since there's still no AI code, so I just have the lowest fighter firing shots downwards: Source + Binary: It seems I will have 2 bytes for each fighter remaining for AI, but I'm

Cybergoth

January 27, 2007

Failed Galaxy Wars 2600 Experiment

Hi there! This was just an experiment to see how the game might look on the VCS: I don't think it would make a good translation. You'd have to compromise it in several ways and it will show severly in this case. I mean, when porting Ghosts'n'Goblins to the VCS, everyone is expecting "some" loss of detail, but with a game as simple as Galaxy Wars you either manage a close to 1:1 conversion or better not bother doing it. Greetings, Manuel

Cybergoth

January 24, 2007

RARE! eBay story

Hi there! So, when trying to find me a copy of SMS Choplifter on eBay, scanning through the listed items, I found one without manual saying: RARE!! Now you must know, here in Germany this is the equivalent to NES SMB or 2600 Combat, there's just zillions of it in circulation. Being in *that* mood again, I missused the "Ask Buyer" option sending the line: "Yeah, yours is indeed very rare, all others around the corner are complete with manual." He then answered "Then go and b

Cybergoth

January 20, 2007

Retrotronics

Hi there! So did anyone ever hear the term "Retrotronics"? It's occasionally used here in Germany to describe a certain kind of popular Clubsound. It's 80's style analog minimal electronic music, done with C64s, Amigas, Moogs and stuff. It's so incredibly oldskool, there's no chance to not love it Here's a couple videos so you get the idea: Ladytron / Playgirl Console - 14 Zero Zero Fisherspooner / Emerge (loong intro, but killer song!) I-F / Space Invaders are Smoki

Cybergoth

January 9, 2007

I still don't like Gauntlet

Hi there! Well, I really tried. According to a poll I did, Favourite classic Gauntlet, Gauntlet 4 on the Genesis is supposed to be the best. There you go, I just beat it in the Quest mode: Still, it felt boring, repetitive and stupid, so basically I'm glad it's all over now. I guess I'm a hopeless case, I'll never like it Greetings, Manuel

Cybergoth

January 3, 2007

Plans for 2007

Hi there! Just trying to get my bits together, making something like a ToDo list for 2007. In 2007 I want to: - Become a father again. Chances are best in May - Finish Colony 7. A second must. - Start / Finish / Work on some other 2600 programming projects. We'll see. Son Son, Water Ski, GtA, Galaxy Wars... the list is long - Work on Tron 2600 - Continue working on Park Patrol for the NES. - Finish my 2600 'essential' collection. I'm already down to just 2 rem

Cybergoth

January 2, 2007

GTATo2600 V1.0

Hi there! Phew... this took much longer than it should have... I think I nailed 99% of the code now, maybe 100%. What it definitely does, is create a perfect map of the first GtA dungeon. I still want to verify a handfull more dungeons to make sure that I'm 100% accurate. New included in this version is the original seedmap, so instead of figuring out the starting seed manually, you can just enter the level (1-8 ) and the dungeon (1-16) numbers you want a map for. Fans of the gam

Cybergoth

December 1, 2006

812 asm lines = 471 C++ lines

Hi there! So, I'm done with a first draft of translating the Gateway to Apshai dungeon creation code to C. Given 2 Seed values, my GTATo2600 tool manages to produce a "dungeon.h" file, containing something that vaguely resembles a GtA dungeon it seems I'm pretty sure there's still a bunch of minor and major errors in it (At first glance there's way too many 'S'ecret 'P'assages), so the next step would be verifying it against a real 8-Bit GtA dungeon. Or even better, verify it again

Cybergoth

November 28, 2006

I haven't seen those in 15 years!

Hi there! God bless Youtube! Look at this, there's some of the best music videos ever made: Adam and the Ants / Stand and Deliver Fields of the Nephilim / Preacher Man Sigue Sigue Sputnik / Love Missile F1-11 Duran Duran / Wild Boys Front 242 / Headhunter Men without Hats / The Safety Dance Icehouse / Icehouse OMD / Sailing on the Seven Seas The Normal / TVOD Erasure / Drama The Sisters of Mercy / This corrosion The Art Of Noise feat. Max Headroom / Paranoimia Peter Gabri

Cybergoth

November 26, 2006

GtA Dungeon Creation

Hi there! History in the making! After starting the analysis of the dungeon creation of the 8-Bit version of Gateway to Apshai some 5 years ago, I'm now finally done with it! In this attachment here I extracted the bare bones requirements for the Dungeon creation code: The master function, all required subroutines and variables. I also have it fully commented, of course all based on the incredible work from AA member Kroah, who ~ 2 months ago released his reverse-engineering of the g

Cybergoth

November 18, 2006

Damned Teasers!

Hi there! First let me apologize for posting three music related entries in a row. The next will be about Gateway to Apshai, promised Well, I just posted this elsewhere, but I thought it can't hurt here either. My favourite band The Damned now offer a couple of songs to enjoy for free, straight on their homepage. The quality ain't stellar, but it's supposed to be played loud anyway You can check a fine selection from their 30 years spawning career here: http://www.officialdamn

Cybergoth

November 17, 2006

I wish I was a Punk Rocker

Hi there! ../ by Sandi Thom. Best song getting airplay in ages, you gotta love it for the lyrics alone: Greetings, Manuel

Cybergoth

November 8, 2006

Nitzer Ebb Live in Munich 31.10.06

Hi there! It's been a while since my wife and me have been to a concert. Luckily enough, we managed finding a babysitter, since seeing Nitzer Ebb on their comeback tour is definitely an event I didn't want to miss! A helluva blast from the past it's been, almost like the millenium never happened. (Un)fortunately I'm old enough to have seen them in their heyday and really, over a decade after their last regular tour, it still was every single bit like I remembered it The guys were bo

Cybergoth

November 1, 2006

Throwing the Gauntlet!

Hi there! Still sticking to my interpretion of beating a golf game (Hey, I got other things to do - still this live! ), I just played a sub-par round on the second course of World Class Leaderboard: Hey, I must say, that if I were a fan of golf games, this one really would be one I'd try buying! It's almost a really good game! Only found one bug so far, but you can workaround it when you know it: It only switches to putting mode, when landing on the light-green area (uhm grass

Cybergoth

October 23, 2006

Tiger, make way for the Cyber!

Hi there! Ha! played a complete course on par: That'll lead to an interesting question: How do you "beat" a golf game? I kinda think playing a par course qualifies for beating it. Any other video golf philosophies around? Anyway, three more courses to go! The next seems a lot more difficult: Besides sand and water traps it also has Trees! *gasp* Greetings, Manuel

Cybergoth

October 21, 2006

Uncovering a map on the VCS

Hi there! I've been playing some Gateway to Apshai lately, trying to see if I can get into it to give me some motivation continuing with a 2600 port. BTW and just for the record, I cannot recommend buying a C64 DTV for this at all: It's not playable. There's some severe bug with teleport traps, which'll not only teleport you into nirvana, but also corrupt the game as such. I think 5 out of 6 games I played ended with a deadly teleport. After Super Cycle and Championship Wrestling that's

Cybergoth

October 20, 2006