r_type2600

StellaGate

How about "Stellactic" or "Stellaxy" or "Stellaga" - sure would be fitting this project's impact 🙂

I don't think that in practice this would really affect many people. Newcomers to the classic games scene would not own / have easy access to 7800 carts anyway, so that issue would hardly give them headaches. Retrogamers such as us would already have the necessary controllers to be able to play 7800 games. (unless you're solely collecting for the shelf and didn't get hold of 7800 controllers before, but then it wouldn't bother you anyway that you can not play the games.) So I think it is a bit exaggerating to conceive this as an issue. However what Atari could and should do is to release a "CX-78+ bundle" packing an Atari 2-button joypad with a combi-cart sporting 2-4 of its 7800 games, akin to the Paddle-bundle. That would warrant that newcomers could get the full 7800 experience, and longtime collectors easier availability of an Atari joypad.

Confirm that this also worked for me just now.

The new artwork is another step in the right direction. Of course the original Outlaw artwork remains a classic, but if Atari wants to regain some identity in the 2020 decade, they definitely have to push for some new looks. And not only new looks but also some noteworthy new content (such as Omegamatrix' beautiful menus, AI for one player games, and perhaps some new game variations). That would really make such purchases justifiable then. In the long run, they should really also strive to come up with a distinct new general box design for all-new original games, but I don't mind them picking up on the silver box look for such "collectors" reissues. A dozen or so such XP games, with Bill Butcher cover and added content sure would find its audience then. And yes, it would be better if they would add the XP moniker to the official title to distinguish them better from the original release: Outlaw XP, Super Breakout XP, Indy 500 XP, etc..

This really. That would give so much more credibility to their current practice of just rehashing the very same old games. Take Outlaw for example - I hope that they are aware of Omegamatrix' fantastic work on menu updates, and coordinate with him to use his version for that new XP Outlaw release.

It's a huge shame that the advent of this marvelous new game for the 2600 has been torpedoed by some despicable rat(s). I trust that genuine 2600 aficionados will still purchase the game anyway (especially as a physical release) in support of the programmer, but the true economic potential of the game has likely already be compromised by this theft. Hopefully Atari finds an adequate remedy to this very annoying issue. Maybe they could then relaunch it with a substantial amount of additional levels (perhaps 10, 20) so to give enough incentive for most, casual, gamers to still buy it.

Unless the game programs themselves have any added value, the whole promotion remains a collector milking exercise, unfortunately. If they'd beef up the roms a bit and include an in-game menu (like the great omegamatrix ones) or some trivia on-cart (programmer credit, game history or such) there would at least be some superficial novelty to these re-releases.

Little known early (1990) Techno-Rap song from Falco made heavy use of the Mega ST in the album production and its official video: Falco - Data de Groove

Has anyone ever seen any other 84 variation box than Joust? I've seen (demo/proto?) carts for several of the early games with a fitting label (Centipede and Galaga come to mind) but so far only the Joust box with this cool design.

Hadn't noticed this one before. Great that you have picked it up again - it looks really promising. I love the tank chains animation, but wonder if you could shorten the main tank body by one line on each side, so that the chains would stand out a bit? That could reduce the current overall square appearance of the sprites. I'm also impressed that all 4 sprites seem to be horizontally bi-colored! Where do you want to push this gameplay-wise? A port/interpretation of one of those early tank battle arcade games (such as Tank Battalion on No Man's Land) would be great, but one could also see the potential for a 4 player game using Quadtari :)

Delete.

Very cool effect. It is those, seemingly unnecessary, "fun bits" that add personality to a game and playing it an experience. ?

Thanks for posting the video. Really original and nice colors scheme, and the parallax scrolling is cool, and smart.

On the Phantom Gardener animation: I love it, like most, and I also find its pace quite natural and fitting. On the other hand the break does indeed disrupt from the gameplay flow. But I think there's a simple solution to this dilemma, which actually might even turn it into an additional gameplay feature: Let Tober start his rush down in parallel to the Gardener's animation, with the fence gate opening from the side the gardener enters the screen. Shall Tober be able to reach the pumpkins area before the Gardener finished the watering, two possible effects: either the gardener then just quickly finishes his job and rushes off. Or, even better, Tober gets a chance to catch the gardener for bonus points. An additional twist then (but not sure if technically possible) would be to have any yet unwatered hole grow a special, more powerful legume. A purple pumpkin, or carot, or whatever fitting with the Halloween theme. That special legume would distinguish itself from the regular orange pumpkin by the ability to hit several enemies in a row before busting.

One immediate idea would be to further enhance the (already great) Game Over to Title Screen transition by adding a triumphing grinning to the big Halloween face at that occasion. I guess a couple of additional frames to his mouth would serve that nicely. Also, it would be great to have a brief interlude between each level, informing of the upcoming level. For example a crow sitting atop the lawn during normal gameplay, maybe with a couple of animation frames to his head expressing him curiously observing the action below. Once a level is finished he would then briefly fly down displaying the next level number under his claws for a couple of seconds and then return to the top of the lawn. Just another storytelling element that would add further polish to your creation that already impresses with the many lovable arcade-style touches (like the display of score points or the great gardener character). Such a creepy silent observer would also add to the atmosphere during gameplay. A gameplay suggestion: adding time pressure. I guess the squarish white "globe" is representing the moon - how about having it wander slowly diagonally from the fence to the top of the sky area, thus displaying the elapsing time. Once the moon has left the screen, the player would lose a heart, or perhaps a life. It would introduce an element of stress, that would boost the gameplay excitement. A nice additional atmospheric element as a side-effect. I agree with others that this game would much deserve a boxed physical release. Maybe for next Halloween. Since you marked this version as Alpha, I have hopes that you'd be open to further enrich it, as it shows such great potential ?

Very enjoyable game, took me by surprise! Original and fun gameplay, which is easy to grasp without reading the instructions. I particularly loved all the neat touches that add much atmosphere to the game, and make it an experience. Smashing (:) title screen and all the smoothly interwoven little animations really put you into the game/story. What I would hope for are a couple of fitting tunes for in-game and title screens. I think that would spice up the atmosphere even more. Maybe a few more animation touches here and there, but in any case this game has great promise. Thanks for this sweet treat!

I believe these generic white boxes were Coleco's economic approach to the bilingual requirement for the Canadian market. Carts were repackaged in generic white boxes with an English/French label slapped on them. IIRC over the years such boxes also surfaced for Mouse Trap and maybe a couple other Coleco releases.

Just wow! The demo already oozes more arcade feeling than the 5200 or Lynx versions. Seems to be all there - cool presentation, perfect graphics (& effects), smooth gameplay + awesome, "electric" sound!

Got it now. Another ignorant question: can missiles appear on screen if the corresponding player is not displayed? Idea is to then create a phantom sprite (a few lines red, a few lines white) and then be able to use its missiles for the road strips. Would likely increase the flicker a bit, but the game seems to still have some tolerance in that regard and we've seen how well the flickering has been tamed in Galagon, Mappy, etc. Redundant idea of course if missiles can only be displayed at the same time as their player...

Thanks for the explanation on the background colors rationale, it all makes a lot of sense. I imagined you sure would have tried to go for the arcade look, but likely had to make compromises. I also understand that convincing recreation of the city, tunnel entrance and curved wall were priority and you hence went for PF horizons for those scenes. (I assume the bridges also recur to that technique). Interestingly in these scenes, one's eye doesn't notice the separation of the data area so much. The overlapping of the scenery into the horizon in these scenes alleviates the appearance of separated areas to a major extent. It's mostly in those scenes where the horizon remains separated from the scenery, that the splitting of the screen into different areas becomes most obvious and slightly distracting from the sensation of being "in the game". Would it make any sense to try to mix techniques depending on scenery? e.g. PF horizon /black data area for city, curved wall, etc. & solid color+sprites/horizon colored data area background for the other scenes like forest, hills, etc. I mean such a mixed approach worked neatly for your Wizard of Wor for example, where you used multicolor sprites for the Worlok and Wizard and monochrome sprites for multi-enemies levels. Of course the transition should remain smooth to the eye. Not worth it otherwise. I see the issue of legibility, but experiencing with contrasting colors might address that?

The player sprite has red and yellow (a good replacement for white). So, accordingly, red/yellow road strips using missiles would be feasible? Sorry if I don't grasp that properly... Or, would it mean that the missile color on every horizontal line has to correspond to the one of the sprite color on the same line? Makes sense that it would not help then.

Another striking Champeau/Strum cooperation, and Turbo is a great choice for a port. Good to see another groundbreaking early arcade game being faithfully converted to the 2600 ? The road strips definitely are essential for the driving experience. I wonder if the missiles are being already used in the scenery/gameplay portion of the screen? If not, have you thought applying the technique used in Pole Position for the road strips? It would be a natural fit. Also, would it be possible to have the background in the game data field correspond to the horizon color? (e.g blue for most scenes). Not sure if the current black is due to technical constraints? A uniform appearance would certainly increase the draw-in effect of the game, akin to the arcade version. Love your plan to create additional scenery, such as the desert/cacti one John mentioned in the ZPH stream. ?

Thrilling! Wonder if we can expect anything audacious?

I understand conversion rights for the vast majority of pre-1985 arcade titles are now owned by the current Atari (including those games originally released by Parker and Coleco). At least for the classic Atari consoles. I'm not a lawyer but I would believe it's therefore not a matter of concern to the owner of the IP rights, but to the owner of the conversion rights. Back in the days it was Atari who sued Magnavox on K.C. Munchkin for the Odyssey2 and not Bally/Midway. Same case with Demon Attack, where Atari saw an infringement on its Phoenix conversion rights. Current Atari does only seem to bother if their own IPs for original Atari creations are used without license, since licensing is their main business model nowadays and they need to enforce their rights.