TROGBlog

vdub_bobby produced Wumpus Hunt 2600 last year using batari basic.

 

Chris

vdub_bobby produced Wumpus Hunt 2600 last year using batari basic.

Thanks for the heads up Chris. I did my original search back in 2003, and it hadn't occurred to me to do a more recent search.

 

I tried vdub_bobby's game. It's a good effort, but the game play doesn't feel the same. The main thing that's missing is corridors. I particularly like the TI-99 implementation, because you can't tell where a tunnel leads until you either explore it, or explore everything around it and then deduce its path. Another nice element about the TI-99 version is the fact that a red dot indicated you were within two rooms of the Wumpus, rather than just one. This meant a lot more red dots, and it required you to do more sleuthing before you could take your shot.

Also, it rolls on real hardware. Whoops.

Also, it rolls on real hardware. Whoops.

Hmmm. That shouldn't be happening. I tested the binary on z26 with the -n option, and it reported 262 scanlines. What would cause it to roll if it's using 262 scanlines?

 

Is there a mode in Stella 2.2 that will more closely emulate a real TV screen, and actually roll the display? It seems most Atari emulators go out of their way to compensate for coding errors and prevent screen roll, but I'd much rather see the screen roll in the emulator so I'll know there's a rolling problem.

It rolls when you press (or hold) RESET - when you do that the game resets all the objects in the map and redraws the map. Both of those tasks take a long time in bBASIC. And yeah, it would be nice if the emulators emulated rolling, but I suppose that would be TV emulation and not 2600 emulation.

Ohhhhh. Okay. You're talking about your bBasic implementation. I thought you were talking about my binary. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what would possibly cause rolling in my code...

 

My game will definitely roll when the full map is built. It will take thousands of cycles to churn out 64 8-bit pseudorandom numbers and then post-process and validate the resulting maze. I'll probably just blank the screen while it's thinking.

Oh, sorry.