e1will

Have you considered using DPC+? Stella supports it as long as you're not doing any ARM subroutines. DPC+ is definitely on my radar. And it would definitely help the cycle issue if I wanted to keep the ball sprite in play. As it stands I'm looking at using the ball sprite only for the title screen, since Pac'll only need to go left and right there. In the game proper, I think I'm going to have to use a player sprite, so I can use up and down sprites, as well as to not force the adjacent playfield (maze + door) pixels to be yellow. I'm trying to think, would DPC+ let me implement cd-w's idea of the venetian blind effect on the whole screen (in the flickery mode)? I'd love to try out the venetian blind effect, but I'm struggling to figure out how to achieve it since I'd need to call RESP0 and RESP1 each line; I can't get away with just HMOVEing P0 and P1 since the fruits/keys (frame 1) are going to potentially be horizontally far away from the ghosts (frame 2). --Will

...and I'm not 100% sure, but I think I can get it so that both the blocky and flickery versions have solid (non-flickering) pink doors. I've already got the maze solid. Getting rid of the ball sprite frees up a lot of cycles. --Will

Interesting idea, I may try that. Yep, right now with the binaries I'm playing with, all of the objects have a luminance of 6 or less. Seems to help a little. I still need to add the score and lives, so I probably won't have scanlines to spare. Thanks. Right now I'm re-writing it to use two separate kernels depending on the setting of the TV Type switch. Color for "flickery" (similar to the kernel I posted earlier) and B/W for "blocky" (colored squares instead of fruits, but they don't flicker). In both cases I've decided to rework Pac-Man as a player sprite instead of the ball sprite, so up- and down-facing sprites can be easily supported. In "blocky" mode, that will essentially generate the same flicker as Ms. Pac-Man, which is (IMO) acceptable, especially since I'll be tweaking the ghost AI to avoid being on the same scanlines if they can. The Pac-Man sprite will not flicker at all in "blocky" mode. I'm thinking "flickery" mode might just be a "bonus" mode for people with emulators, since Stella can make it look pretty decent with the phosphor effect enabled. --Will

I hadn't seen this thread before, these are awesome. I for one would pay good money to play 27 Turtle Games or Batgammon. Don't think I'd want to try Boweling, though...

Yes, around 2510 or so we could be seeing some serious shortages. Al's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson may have to start paying $5.00 for old carts. --Will

I don't know Batari Basic, but I'd be happy to whip up some assembly for you tonight. Can you clarify what you mean by "cycling through a set of numbers"? --Will

Try including one of the external references from the Halo 2600 Wikipedia page. They'll be less likely to revert it if it's referenced. --Will

Wild! I tried it out, and yep, that video's accurate. A little tricky to do, but I got it on the third try or so. Nice little quirk. --Will

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'm working on a $15 ROM pack that will include the cartridge version of the Duck Attack! game binaries, some alternate versions (like the all-green St. Patrick's Day version), a big ol' behind-the-scenes document with early prototype screenshots, the manual, and a game world map. It's entirely optional, of course. I'll keep a basic version of the game binaries posted online so people can play for free if they're inclined. (And the manual, of course, will stay online, so people can figure out how to play it.) The ROM pack is really more of an experiment than anything: is there demand for a digital "extras" package on a 2600 homebrew, or are people satisfied with a free binary and/or buying a cartridge? I dunno. But I'm curious. If you've got any suggestions for other cool stuff that ought to be in the ROM pack, let me know. Anyway, here's a sneak peak of one page of the game world map. --Will

I agree with Thomas. Come on Kurt! Thirded! Fourthed. The stuff he did for the 8K Adventure alone was more original than many "original" games. --Will

Ha! Fuzz up the resolution a little bit and Travolta could pass for the Tron sprite in the I/O Tower. On-topic: If I had to choose between "retro" and "good" in the art department, I think I'd stick with "good." --Will

What popular games can you think of that have a constant 30 Hz flicker on most or all of the sprites? Asteroids is one that comes to mind off the top of my head, but I'm having a hard time thinking of others. I know Yars' Revenge flickers the playfield at 30 Hz but not the player and missile sprites.... Surely Asteroids isn't the only one, is it? --Will

I loved the games back in the day, but the stuff people are doing now is just amazing. --Will

Thanks! All I did was send them an e-mail. Most people have no idea there's an active and vibrant 2600 gaming community, so when you tell them, they often want to hear more. Figured it couldn't hurt to let them know! I'll have to pop into the Goodwill here and see how many cartridges they have lying around. --Will

Yup. My problem is that this game has the same flicker (30Hz) as Asteroids and Yars' Revenge did, but seems to look worse, at least in emulation, no matter what settings I've tried. So right now I'm saving up for a Harmony cart, so I can see exactly what the deal is on real hardware. --Will

There was a nice little writeup linking to AtariAge in the News-Sentinel today: http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100809/BUSINESS/8090325 --Will

Nice mockups. I think CE would be an excellent fit on the 2600. --Will

If the rights holders have an issue, they'll take it up with Ed. If anyone else has an issue, they should find something more constructive to do. --Will

Sounds like you're ready to try the next 2600 game. There's lots of good ones, I'm sure the folks here can recommend some.

Even better! I'll PM you the Duck Attack! ROM pack once I'm done adding to it (I keep thinking of new things to add, like a game world map.) The AA store would be the perfect place for this sort of thing. --Will

This thread (and the other one) have been interesting to follow. Now I'm really curious to see if there's a market for digitally distributed homebrews, so I'm going to try it. I put together a $15 "ROM pack" zip file containing the ROM of my game, its manual, and some extras, like a monochrome version of the game and a behind-the-scenes essay on the development with some screenshots of the early prototype versions. And if you buy the cartridge (from Al) I'll toss in the ROM pack for free, so hopefully it won't discourage people from getting the cartridge. This is the first time I've done something like this, so I'll be very curious to see if there are any takers. --Will

Maybe I should ask Valve for permission to do a 2600 version of Portal... then we can add Chell to the list. --Will

Just a teaser pic of the title screen. Haven't got all the flicker issues worked out yet but I'm not conceding defeat just yet. --Will

Fun game! Any Easter eggs? --Will

Level 12 is the last level with new rooms to discover. --Will