Planet Bob

Not much playing time today, since there's less than an hour off inbetween the Euro 2008 soccer games

 

I still managed to advance to level 22, yay!

To my very surprise, today I played up to level 27. That came rather unexpected since the manual claimed that there's 25 levels.

 

Using all trainers from the Remember version and running VICE in Warp mode I found out that the game never stops. From level 99 it loops to level 00 and continues for all eternity I think

 

Great little game!

 

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see another Mastertronic low budget title in the form of "Spore", but first I'll play something more adventurous...

Do you think there is any scope for converting this to the 2600? It looks like it might be possible if the formations were chosen to avoid too much flicker. I'm not sure how the grid would be represented though, but it might be possible to use the playfield in some clever way?

 

Chris

The grid is an essential part of the gameplay. When you shoot enemies, the explosion wil destroy certain parts of the grid, as seen on the left edge of the screenshot. Those gaps in the grid will slowly "heal", so after a while you can move there again. It would be next to impossible to recreate that on the VCS, both for RAM usage and the required smoothness. You could possible do it vertically, but not horiziontally with the grid being way to coarse there. Even if you went with a very coarse grid, it'd still require a lot of RAM.

 

Else it would be pretty doable. I think it has only 8 sprites on the screen at a time, so you should get pretty good results with multiplexing. But without the grid it becomes just a variant of Centipede.

The grid is an essential part of the gameplay. When you shoot enemies, the explosion wil destroy certain parts of the grid, as seen on the left edge of the screenshot. Those gaps in the grid will slowly "heal", so after a while you can move there again. It would be next to impossible to recreate that on the VCS, both for RAM usage and the required smoothness. You could possible do it vertically, but not horiziontally with the grid being way to coarse there. Even if you went with a very coarse grid, it'd still require a lot of RAM.

 

OK - I haven't actually played the game, so I didn't appreciate the importance of the grid

 

If the ship moved from one square to another, rather than along the edges then it might be possible. These squares could be constructed using the PF and then turned off as they are damaged. It would still require a lot of RAM though, and there wouldn't be any easy way to make the squares heal.

 

Never mind - just starting to think about what I will do once Juno First is finished ...

 

Chris

Never mind - just starting to think about what I will do once Juno First is finished...

 

Excellent, so we're going to see another killer-app from you!

 

Are you already considering anything particular, like "another shoot'em up", or are you just looking generally?

Excellent, so we're going to see another killer-app from you!

Are you already considering anything particular, like "another shoot'em up", or are you just looking generally?

 

I hope so - no reason to give up now I'm just looking generally at the moment, so let me know if you have any suggestions? I quite like the idea of another arcade port as it provides a solid target to aim towards. I think you produced a list of possible arcade conversions some time ago, but I can't seem to find it at the moment?

 

Chris

I hope so - no reason to give up now I'm just looking generally at the moment, so let me know if you have any suggestions?

 

It often seems as if all reasonably doable games have already been done. Often there's a lot of room for improvement though, for example do I think that the 2600 would really deserve faithfull conversions of "Lunar Rescue" or "Elevator Action". Staying with Taito, another one of theirs that would IMO make an amazing VCS conversion is "Water Ski". The first Ninjakun game could also be fantastic on the VCS. Unlike the horizontal scrolling sequel (available on the VC) is the first of the series (from 1984) only scrolling a vertical tower.

 

I think you produced a list of possible arcade conversions some time ago, but I can't seem to find it at the moment?

 

It was more a list of titles to research, but I wasn't too impressed with most of them

I hope so - no reason to give up now I'm just looking generally at the moment, so let me know if you have any suggestions? I quite like the idea of another arcade port as it provides a solid target to aim towards. I think you produced a list of possible arcade conversions some time ago, but I can't seem to find it at the moment?

Bosconian.

It often seems as if all reasonably doable games have already been done. Often there's a lot of room for improvement though, for example do I think that the 2600 would really deserve faithfull conversions of "Lunar Rescue" or "Elevator Action". Staying with Taito, another one of theirs that would IMO make an amazing VCS conversion is "Water Ski". The first Ninjakun game could also be fantastic on the VCS. Unlike the horizontal scrolling sequel (available on the VC) is the first of the series (from 1984) only scrolling a vertical tower.

 

You might be right - I think a lot more games would become doable with a little bit more RAM, but I'm sticking with the basic 2600 until actual carts are available. Thanks for the game suggestions. I hadn't heard of Ninjakun before - it looks like a simplified Bubble Bobble - should be reasonably doable but it would require a lot of clever PF artwork to make it look good! Water Ski should be more straightforward, but I'm not sure I like the game that much as it seems a bit lacking in variety to me.

 

Bosconian.

 

A Bosconian port on the 2600 would be nice, but this would easily outdo Juno First for flicker!

 

Chris

Yep. It would be pretty brutal.

 

How about Galaxy Wars? Manuel had a pretty good start on that. Actually, a multi-cart with a few of the old Taito classics would be really cool...

 

Another possibility would be Armor Attack. I think the 2600 could handle that. It would make a nice companion piece to John's port of Rip Off and Trogdor's Stellar Fortress.

Yep. It would be pretty brutal.

How about Galaxy Wars? Manuel had a pretty good start on that. Actually, a multi-cart with a few of the old Taito classics would be really cool...

Another possibility would be Armor Attack. I think the 2600 could handle that. It would make a nice companion piece to John's port of Rip Off and Trogdor's Stellar Fortress.

 

Armor Attack would make a good project, and looks like it should be doable:

• Reflected PF used to draw background.
  
• Player 0 sprite used to draw Jeep.
  
• Player 1 sprite (double width) used to draw tanks/helicopters (flickered).
  
• Missile 0 used to draw bullets (flickered).
  
• Missile 1 used to draw tank turrets and helicopter rotor (flickered).
  
• Driving controller (or paddle) used to control Jeep.
  

However, I think the sprite requirements would be rather hefty, since each sprite would need to be drawn in 16 different orientations to look good? Feel free to add the sprites to your to-do list - if they work out I will put together a demo kernel to see how it plays.

 

Chris

BTW: Some time ago I was merging ~ two dozen older "this game should be on the 2600" threads into one, so you might get tons of good suggestions out of this one:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18683

However, I think the sprite requirements would be rather hefty, since each sprite would need to be drawn in 16 different orientations to look good? Feel free to add the sprites to your to-do list - if they work out I will put together a demo kernel to see how it plays.

Will do. 1LK or 2LK?

However, I think the sprite requirements would be rather hefty, since each sprite would need to be drawn in 16 different orientations to look good? Feel free to add the sprites to your to-do list - if they work out I will put together a demo kernel to see how it plays.

Will do. 1LK or 2LK?

 

1LK for the Jeep and 2LK/double width for the tanks and helicopters should work. Will probably have to do something clever for the helicopter as I doubt it will fit into 8 pixels width (something like the venetian blinds trick in the juno first logo).

 

Chris

Just remembered... the turrets and tanks can rotate separately. How do you want that handled?

Just remembered... the turrets and tanks can rotate separately. How do you want that handled?

 

I'm planning to draw the turret separately using the missile sprite on top of the tank sprite (same with the helicopter rotor).

 

Chris

Ah... got it! Missed that part earlier.

BTW: Some time ago I was merging ~ two dozen older "this game should be on the 2600" threads into one, so you might get tons of good suggestions out of this one:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18683

 

Thanks - there are some very useful ideas there. That thread certainly stretches back a long way - it is interesting to the early discussions on games that have now been ported like Boulderdash, Ladybug, and Conquest of Mars!

 

Chris