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It is my great pleasure to introduce you my entry for ABBUC Software Contest 2023. Time Wizard is a platformer game where the player can manipulate time. In-game story: Robots from the future are trying to change history to rule the world. The only salvation for humanity is you, the Time Wizard. You must go to the future to the world of robots to prevent the disaster. Your task is to collect all the energy stored in hourglasses so that robots cannot back in time. The mission is difficult but your advantage is the ability to manipulate time. You can stop it, rewind or restore the history. But be careful! Some objects are resistant to time manipulation and you cannot control them. During the game, press the fire button on your joystick to start the manipulation. With the button pressed, move left to rewind history or move right to restore the saved history. You can change the speed of the time shift by moving your joystick left or right. Release the button to restore the normal passage of time. If you die, press the fire button and move left to rewind. Press Start key to restart the level. Press Select key to go to the main menu. Additional description: In the main screen, it is possible to select one of the 15 levels. At the beginning all levels except the first one are locked. You must successfully pass the level to unlock the next one. To do it you must collect all hourglasses and go to the time portal. You have limited time to pass the level but remember that you can rewind time if you need. The time you don't use is your score for the level. The greater the value the better result. Sum from all levels is your total time visible on the main screen. Minimal requirements: Atari 8-bit computer or emulator with at least 128kB RAM. The additional RAM is required to store and restore the history of gameplay. Joystick or other manipulator in port 1 to control the game. Unprotected floppy disk to store the high score and unlocked levels is highly recommended.

Thanks, I had already thought so. Actually the Stella team got contacted by Koch Media mid of last year. Since we had no time to actively participate, we (the Germans ) gave our best advice, especially based on our experience with the R77. And their feedback was positive. We even got offered a prototype for testing earlier this year, but that never went through. They are definitely using Stella. And based on our discussion, it seems the dumper MCU can be reprogrammed.🤞

Shit House Blues.zip << Zip containing game files for XB, and EA5, and a little manual js99er-20230824233518.webm Shit House Blues is a game similar, but not the same as , Outhouse for the TRS-80. You control your drone with the number 1 wired remote controller, moving in all directions and you can fire in 8 directions ... care must be taken though as you can only fire when moving. Shoot the shit-rag bandits before they steal all your toilet paper. You start with 99 rolls . Bonus is given at end of each round with score added (10 points per remaining roll) As you progress the game gets harder. Wave 1 is just the shit-rag bandits, wave 2 is those plus the Zappers. Wave 3 onwards has all that AND a Saucer that tracks you movements in the hope of ramming your drone. An extra life is awarded at the bonus screen if you only have 1 drone remaining at that point. Be careful moving around as there is an electricity wire above the shit-house. Also the Saucers spawn on the screen in random locations - it's wise to keep moving! If all shit-rags are stolen then the game will end no matter how many lives remain.

Here is a new shoot'em up in 3D for the Jag. VR is supported through BigPEmu. This is a short game that has been on the back burner for quite a while but I decided to complete it thanks to the recent developpement of BigPEmu. The game runs on a real jag with a skunkboard. It should work on a JagGD. Using the VR mode is explained in the readme file. Don't do it on a real jag, your view will be upside down and locked to the side. Unless you've got a jagvr headset, then it might work. Have fun! shootemup3D.zip

A.R.T.I.:

A.R.T.I. will be making its debut at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in October! Here's a render of the beautiful box created by @Atariboy2600 (John Calcano): If you're not able to attend the show, A.R.T.I. will be available in the AtariAge Store in November.

R77 can't (only up to 16K), I hope Atari enhanced their dumper. Fatal Run, the only other classic 32K game, is marked "untested" though. BTW: Fortunately most of my own homebrews should work in the 2600+. Thrust Jammed Swoops! Three.s Aardvark Robot City VROOM! Bot&Tom (coming at PRGE)

Can we have a compiled ver .. oh shit.

Yes, it is different, and it was not derived from the version sold in the AtariAge Store. Here are the differences between the original version of Berzerk (as produced by Atari in the 80s) and the new Berzerk Enhanced version: • Modified graphics to look more like the arcade • Robots fire diagonally • Extra life bug corrected • Startup bug corrected • Five digitized speech samples from the arcade The version of Berzerk Voice Enhanced sold in the AtariAge Store only has three digitized speech samples, and I don't believe it has any of the other changes listed above. Also, Berzerk Voice Enhanced is 16K, and Berzerk Enhanced as sold by Atari is a 32K game. ..Al

I've also done Moon Cresta below; along with that, I've fixed some things that always bugged me about this game: - Relaxed the bullet to enemy collision detection (no more bullets going through enemies!) - Changed the score to be left padded with spaces instead of zeros (until the last two zeros, which seemed to be the norm) You will know it's the new version because I've used the alternate logo on the splash screen (and added the 'v1.1' like I did with Galaxian) MoonCresta.A78 MoonCresta.bin MoonCrestaP.A78 MoonCrestaP.bin

Boy, that backfired on you Garfield.

Sounds like I should use that latest binary for any additional Moon Cresta carts. ..Al

Pretty sure this thread is supposed to be about actual hacks that exist, not more hypothetical BS.

Gave this one to my Son. You can see my initial test with the Harmony, running Robomechanik. This is a really good game. I hope it gets completed and has a cart release some day.

"Our solution for this was to make a multi-mapper that could handle the discrete hardware demands of almost any Atari 2600 game. The multi-mapper replaces five variations of three existing mappers, so we can manufacture one board rather than 15+. Now, we are able to make all of our games from a single PCB." ATARI XP, 01.27.2022 https://atari.com/blogs/atari/inside-the-cartridge-the-new-atari-2600-pcb

I will be posting the box for this soon! ..Al

That room isn't that clean anymore. I have books and flight simulator equipment everywhere. I've been working out of that room since March 2020 and it's a little more worse for wear. I think my wife regrets getting me that 3d printer for christmas.

Great idea for a topic! That Starfox hack looks very interesting. Here are the hacks I've got on my SD2SNES: Alien 3: Assembly Cut https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4507/ This is basically a QoL hack. It adds a save system (the original game uses passwords), and also changes the controller layout a bit, closer to Super Metroid. Blackthorne - Red Blood https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4650/ This simple hack recolors the green blood red. Eek! The Cat - Color Enhancement https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6336/ Although this appears to be yet another horrible licensed platformer, it's actually kind of unique and worth a play. Anyway, as released the game's graphics are way too dark and lack contrast, so this palette hack improves things a lot. Jurassic Park Save Feature Patch https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6605/ Crucial patch for this somewhat underrated game (great graphics and excellent soundtrack)! It's an action/adventure game with a large area to explore and stuff to figure out... and yet, the game has no way to save your progress (not even passwords). If you know what you're doing, the game can be completed in a couple of hours, but that would require many many attempts to figure it out, starting over from the beginning each time. Anyway, this hack adds a save feature. Secret of Mana Turbo https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=27890.0 This completely overhauls the game. It removes the stamina bar system, adds a day/night cycle, and incorporates a bunch of other fixes and stuff. A fun way to revisit a fondly remembered but janky game. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Deluxe https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5025/ This adds a bunch of content to make the game a bit closer to the arcade version, including playable Sheeva. **Unfortunately, the author of the hack asked romhacking to remove it... it's worth seeking out, though.

Very funny concept, and as usual, well executed. The one question it leaves unanswered is this: is the toilet paper mounted so it goes over or under the roll? Inquiring minds want to know...

I was rethinking all of this. First, my great initial emotion, finally Atari returns to produce the legendary Atari 2600 and this time the SLOT for cartridges is no longer just a "forbidden word" as with the previous "Flashback" versions. Then, as expected, the disappointment as it is not an FPGA and therefore is not compatible with many Homebrew games. However I think that, putting aside the first emotions, we should be honest with ourselves and try to understand why this new Atari 2600+ should not be judged and compared with a more expensive FPGA, therefore intended for a more demanding and niche audience. To better understand the direction chosen by Atari we can simply compare the Atari 2600+ with the NES Classic Edition or with the Sega Genesis Mini (and therefore we are comparing it with giants) and it is immediately evident the effort and the courageous choice of Atari offering more than Sega and Nintendo, having included the SLOT for cartridges and immediately offering good compatibility with the original cartridge catalog, with the further promise of firmware updates. But there's more, the Atari 2600+ is not simply a commemorative system to be displayed, it was also born thinking of the Atari XP cartridge catalog which is expanding with new releases that will also be compatible with the original hardware. Not to forget the new CX40+ Joystick and CX30+ Paddle Controller, both a replica of the original design and compatible with the original hardware. And this time the prices are "popular" and finally international shipping is offered. I think that all this can't be called "just another emulation box" and I really hope that the project will be successful for many reasons, just think of the return of visibility and popularity that could derive from it. I think it's positive for our community.

Here we are... 👍 After several weeks of hard and hot (up to 39° celsius in Italy 🥵 ) work, I can finally release version 2.5 of Space Taxi for Atari 8 Bit. 🚕 This could really be considered a kind of "final" version, if we don't want to think about a possible cartridge version. As usual, You can find Space Taxi 2.5 in the @Philsan's great website (Grazie Filippo!): https://www.santellocco.com/atari/spacetaxi.htm I have fixed several bugs or uncorrected behaviors, but more importantly, I have introduced some important features and new features. You can read the full changelog in the version history text file included in the downloadable zip but, as a brief summary, these are the main new features: 24/08/2023 - Space Taxi 2.5 - 130K disk version 💪 - Most of the files have been compressed with a simple custom routine that fits the program perfectly. - The boot program has been modified by adding a decompression routine stored in low memory. - New voices! All phrases have been resampled using a TTS engine for better quality and splitting words to save space. - Classic voices saved for the nostalgic... I prepared an identical copy, but using the original samples. It could be a perfect "Side B" of the floppy - Added "Hey" phrase when the cab hits the customer - Added phrase "Hey Taxi" when the cab lands on a different pad than the one the customer is on - Added new phrase "Game Over" at the end of the game - Added the phrase "Pad + No." when the cab takes the customer to the wrong pad. The ride bonus is also reset in this case - Added level name to the menu in cheat mode for easier choice - Added music for the high score writing screen when the player earns more than $50 and reaches one of the top ten positions 👍 - Added music for hi-score table 👍 - Fixed flickering of rainbow bar colors in Level 20 - Fast Break during jingles and during speech synthesis As always, also for this version I have tried to follow your suggestions and have taken your comments into great consideration... in the end, I achieved almost all possible goals (better quality of samples, the game fits into a 130k disk, sounds and music completed) and the game is stable, but eventual bugs are always possible... for the future I will only work on any major bugs and in a possible (but not easy) cartridge version. I really hope you enjoy the game and I am sorry that it is not perfect but, after all, nobody is 😎 Thank you all for your support Andrea

Let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming. While the homebrew scene is still pretty nascent, with the SNES's strong library of classic titles, there have been a lot of hacks and patches made to alter and improve some of the old favourites and inject some life into the machine. These can range from new levels and rebalanced gameplay all the way to slowdown fixes and chaotic ramdomizers. Here are a few of my favourites: Yoshi's Island - No Crying, Improved SFX and Red Coins By Trisma https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3945/ Does what it says on the tin and a little more: Mario doesn't wail when he's in the bubble, and a lot of the more irritating sound effects have been toned down or removed. Starfox: EX https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7285/ Probably one of the most extensive romhacks ever made. Absolutely crazy amounts of new content and over three pages of options to play with. Mega Man X Randomizer https://github.com/TokyoScarab/MMX-Randomizer Absolute chaos backed up by a rock solid base game. If you find some fun seeds, share them with us! What are some of your favourite romhacks and improvements? Help us get back to actually talking about playing SNES games, even if they've been rejiggered a bit!

Nothing illegal about modifying it. Distributing it, that's not legal. Of course it's still owned by someone. We've no idea who, but there's no commercial software that has just fallen out of copyright, the period is too long. The difference between "is it legal" and "does anyone care" is vast, however. And so using one to prop up or tear down the other, in either direction, is a strawman argument that comes up all the time. This is all just opening up the same usual can of worms about "legal", "not legal", etc. All that was requested was the courtesy of asking any authors still in the community before messing with their productions. If that's too much trouble, skip their production. They might well come to you. It's not a difficult thing, but it's being made one.

Nice! With some educated guesses I'd say it supports 4K/8K/16K/32K games with or without ram. It also looks very hackable (annotations are my educated guesses) but to get back on topic. I'm very exited about the 2600+ even though it will play a limited collection of games. I think the 80% size will make it look cute and the lit up Atari logo 'Power LED' is awesome! Saw it is also available for pre- order on Amazon US, Amazon UK and Amazon DE Also found out the 2600+ is a colaboration between Atari and Plaion (Koch Media) (hopefully there is some good German quality under the hood )

There is another way:

What's really funny is that we are talking about 40 yr old hardware... here's an example. I had a 800 in storage. When I put it in storage, all keys on keyboard worked. When I took it out of storage in 2021, none of the keys worked. In 2022, I Took the Mitsumi keyboard apart and cleaned it well. This got 75% of the keys working. I advertised it for sale at a reduced price with a faulty keyboard. It finally sold in 2023... when I prepped it for shipping, I tested the keys again and 100% of them worked!!!! Between 2022 (75% working) and 2023 (100% working) nothing had changed except the humidity and the date/time. The point is... with this old hardware we are talking about, anything is possible... tread softly.

EXCLUSIVE FINAL BUILD of MARIO BROS. TOMORROW on ZeroPage Homebrew ZeroPage Homebrew is playing the Exclusive Final Build of Mario Bros. for the Atari 7800 on tomorrow's ZPH stream LIVE on Twitch. The developer, Oldstyle, will be in the chat to answer your questions about the game, hope you can join us! Game: Mario Bros. (2023 Exclusive Final Build | 7800) by Oldstyle @OldStyle / Bobby Clark @Synthpopalooza (Music / SFX) Fri Aug 25, 2023 | LIVE @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day WATCH LIVE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR BEST QUALITY

Thanks for the update @Albert. Good things are worth waiting for.

Well, I’m still alive. If I can ever get past my weakness I’ve got many YN’s to upload. cancer sucks, so does chemotherapy.

That's quite a lofty perch DKPK is on and it's certainly one I drew inspiration from. You'll genuinely enjoy this, and then some, whether a fan of the game or genre.

Firmware 23.08.2562 Overhauled audio mixing to improve flexibility Streamed audio (BupChip) now pauses correctly on break More Details There is now support for individual volume control of each POKEY as well as the streamed (BupChip, etc...) audio. For AV out the TIA is also mixed as the 7800 does, so you have external audio sources which are mixed together (POKEY, YM, COVOX, ADPCM) then this is mixed with the TIA last. This means AV out now matches what you hear through the console, however you have control over the TIA volume on AV out as well. One of the more useful features of the new mixing is how the channels are mixed. All channels are mixed as a percentage by their volume and this mix then normalised. The resulting volume is then attenuated by the highest volume in the mix. The upshot of this is, if you turn down POKEY2 to zero, it no longer contributes to the mix and other sounds become relatively louder. In situations where you have dual POKEY, but POKEY2 is only used for IRQ's, then you can remove it from the mix to gain some more volume on other sound sources. When using AV out you can also remove the TIA entirely when it's not used to boost the volume (and quality) of the other sound sources. Audio devices which are not enabled are also shown as zero volume and cannot be altered in the audio volume menu. For people who are only interested in playing the more mainstream games, you wont notice a difference with this update. However for games which use multiple audio sources and POKEY's just for IRQ's you can tweak things to get the most out of the audio. Where you are using internal audio through the console this is particularly useful and Portal is a good example of this. While the TIA is still overpowering on a stock PAL console due to the audio balance, you can at least tweak volumes to get the best out of it. And when you are using AV out you can of course drop the TIA volume and get it perfect.

A.R.T.I., a new 7800 game created by @Muddyfunster, will make its first appearance at PRGE this year! This box was created by @Atariboy2600 (John Calcano), and here's a peak at a render of the box: Welcome to A.R.T.I. - Archaeological Rescue Team International! Use your jetpack and your flying skills to navigate your way around ancient ruins. Knock out walls with your dynamite and delve ever deeper, searching for lost explorers and adventurers. Use your laser to defeat vicious beasties, but be careful not to knock out the lamps, rescue work is harder in the dark! Avoid traps and lava flows before heading back to camp for a spot of tea. • Supports SNES2Atari & Mega7800 adapters • Supports AtariVox, SaveKey and 7800 High Score Cartridge • Features POKEY Soundtrack with built-in HOKEY chip • More than 20 challenging levels to beat • Three uniquely themed areas to explore

When you write a manual to your software and later discover how people really work with it.

Some of my favorites have been hacks that make unlockable minigames into their own standalone SNES game. Time Pilot '95 This was a bonus game for reaching 100% completion in the Japanese exclusive Ganbare Goemon 4. This hack turns it into a standalone game while adding a title screen to it. Pitfall This turns the recreation of the 2600 classic that was hidden in Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure into a standalone game. Pac-Man Along those same lines, this turns the port of Pac-Man that's included in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures into a standalone game. Ms. Pac-Man Just like Pac-Man, the port of Ms. Pac-Man that was included in Pac-Man 2 is now a standalone game. This predates the standalone Ms. Pac-Man release on the SNES by several years and is quite different. Super Mario All-Stars For a change of pace with Super Mario All-Stars, I enjoy the combination of the previously mentioned physics fix along with this graphics hack that makes Super Mario Bros. a bit more faithful to the NES original.

I can understand the disappointment that some of the most technically advanced homebrew cartridges won't work with it (as well as some from back in the day). However, at the same time, I get the impression that this new leadership at the latest incarnation of Atari is coming up with some cool games and hardware. I think it is something I want to throw some support behind and see what more they can come up with in the future.

Always fun to see some polygons on the Jag... nice job!

Awesome it is! I've now created ATRFS to mount ATR images using FUSE: https://github.com/pcrow/atari_8bit_utils It's a modular design, making it relatively easy to add additional file systems. Currently, I only have the MyDOS module implemented, but it also has support for related disk images: Atari DOS 1 Atari DOS 2.0s Atari DOS 2.0d Atari DOS 2.5 MyDOS 4.53 Note that DOS 2.0d is detected as MyDOS, as they can behave exactly the same. If anyone knows any subtle differences besides boot sector code, let me know. DOS 2.5 is only detected if the image uses the enhanced density with the second VTOC on sector 1024. Support for MyDOS subdirectories is included for all of them except DOS 2.5, as there's nothing stopping you from adding such subdirectories using MyDOS on real disks if you booted from MyDOS. Support for creating new images is included, but it doesn't have the code embedded for boot sectors. I may do that and watch for creating DOS.SYS files, so that they are made bootable. My plan is to add SpartaDOS support next, which will be nice in having time stamps. So far, it uses the time stamp of the image file for all files.

- stereo - mechanical keyboard - all additional hardware/cartridges going to work - built-in microsd reader (as additional storage) - built-in some software (games?) - 2024 date kept - the UK patent stuff managed - all got enought $ to invest the whole project Waiting for more information (sent email to Larek a while ago)

I always wanted to try out that no cry mod. Nobody wants to hear that constant crying. The only mods I've played has been the MSU1 ones. Rock n' Roll Racing gets me everytime with the opening to Bad to the Bone

Sky Diver - 56 Getting better at this one! A typical session for me goes like this: miss - reset - splat! - reset - miss - reset - splat! - reset - etc. I don’t think I’ve ever received 11 points. I had a 10 once, but then I proceeded to miss with every other diver!

Great question. The main benefit is that the routine is now vanilla 6502 code which is universal for all 6502 systems and chip variants. This is desirable because you don't even need to consider if it will work on one machine and have unexpected behaviour on the next. It also don't exclude the routine from people who might not want to use illegal opcodes for whatever reason. The routine is simple, plain, and general purpose. I myself use illegal ops all the time, and didn't start out with a goal of making this work without illegal ops. After I simplified the code to solve the page boundary problem it eliminated gobs of recursive IF statements to check for a multitude of scenarios. The problem then became apparent that the last part of the code still relied on the SLEEP macro, and that macro has a switch to compile with or without illegal opcodes. Concievably someone could set that switch and not be aware that it would affect this routine... in particular the SLEEP uses bit $0 instead NOP 0 so flags affected by the bit instruction (N/V/Z) can change. It is more desirable to have the routine work like it does now because it avoids the problem altogether. I'd rather do that because it is simplier than having to remember that it behaves differently under a certain condition. Currently it ends with Z flag set, N flag clear, and V flag unchanged from entering the routine. The benefit is this allows people to easily add an unconditional branch after the routine to go somewhere else (2 bytes instead of 3 bytes for a jump instruction), or maybe branch conditionally depending on the state of the Overflow flag set before entering the routine.

Even more specifically: http://7800.8bitdev.org/index.php/7800_Software_Guide#Registers Definitely reference 7800.8bitdev.org all the way through. There has been a plethora of research and work performed since the aforementioned Wiki page; numerous updates, correcting data, and having a better understanding of the system overall. Information from threads, such as the below, is just the tip of the iceberg from what can be found there.

Air Sea Battle (15 B/B): 99-6 Sky Diver (4 B/B): 79 Improvements! Don't think will be able to reach 99 in Sky Diver. Fun games

Updates: Updated enemy tank respawn routines. Update player tank respawn routine. Player-to-enemy collisions now result in both the player and the enemy dying. TankMaze.asm TankMaze.bin

The replacement steam deck arrived today. I'm a bit jazzed about that. Seems new vs. reconditioned.

On a whim I visited my local Goodwill today and found this awesome multi-switch computer surge protector for $6.99. Super handy and matches my monitor to boot. Now I can turn on the entire system with one switch flip while keeping my Rpi in the TIPI powered up at all times via the provided unswitched outlet. 🙂

Just throwing an idea out here... we have 2 kinds of multibutton adapters now, mega7800 and snes2atari, that are in a number of players hands already thanks to 7800GD and Petscii Robots. @batari announced his intent to create a snes2atari+ adapter, which will support proline emulation and native snes2atari. I see these adapters getting even more popular as time goes on, if only to allow couch-complaint pause, reset, new rom selection in flash cart, etc. In 7800basic I put together a "multibutton" build option, and every 64 frames any default-proline controler is probed to see if either of these adapters are present. If one of them is found, its driver runs once per frame and updates SWCHA and INPT1 faux registers, with extra button bits stuffed into the INPT1 faux register. From the game code perspective, the game just checks the faux registers, which is a nice generic interface. I'm not pushing for any asm game author to do all that, but I am using it to illustrate that support for multibutton controls using these adapters are likely to be a thing going forward. It's also worth highlighting that the flashback controls aren't something that are easily obtainable anymore.

The next piece arrives! The boxes should be here later this week. Also did you know each game will include a flexible plastic controller overlay?

Got our first Signature Edition carts built over the weekend! More coming soon. Signature Edition should ship by end of August.