Synthpopalooza

Question: Will Atari license Bob Crescenzo's Bentley Bear Crystal Quest for the VCS? It'd be cool to see this game officially acknowledged by Atari and added to the canon.

Well, how about ... Atari officially licenses Bob Crescenzo's Bentley Bear Crystal Quest on the VCS?

I was inspired by the music for the similarly themed level on Blaster Master when I did the music for the organic Area 4 on E.X.O.

Which reminds me, I may call upon your help, and muddyfunster as well, on a long dormant game project of mine involving an intrepid jetpack rocketman.

It's a shame you can't convince Atari to release BBCQ on the VCS. It would mean youd have to pull it off Atari Age maybe.

Better, in fact. NES uses 256 pixel, 7800, 320.

In the basic modes: 160A: 3 color + BG, 8 palettes 160B: 12 color + BG, 2 palettes 320A: 1 color plus BG, 8 palettes 320B: 3 colors plus BG, 2 palettes. bitpair 00 and 01 cannot coexist in the same nybble without turning off transparency (kangaroo mode) 320C: is similar to 320B except every two pixels gets their color from the same palette 320D: odd numbered pixels get BG + 00, even numbered gets 01 + 02. 00 and 01 cannot be in the same nybble unless you turn on kangaroo. It incurs same D My 320D interlace experiment involved swapping palette registers as well as the character pointer. The 4 color interlace happens on vertical lines. It will look bad on a standard CRT because of hi resolution artifacting.

Here's a link to a topic on font swapping: The idea is, you store two character fonts in memory, and change the character pointer every cycle. By using checkerboard dithering, you can blend colors. 160A will get you 9 colors plus BG per palette, with 8 palettes, 160B is 91 colors per palette, using two palettes, and 320B is 9 colors per palette, 2 palettes available, although this requires turning on kangaroo mode. In theory 320D allows 3 colors plus BG when interlaced (same as 320B) but with the lower 320A DMA cost, again needing kangaroo mode turned on. However, I have been unable to get any results that don't wash out the letters. In addition, better results are had if you blend the colors within one or two steps of each other. The effect looks better in ntsc than pal.

As a matter of interest, here is an attempt I did on the Atari XL, using a flicker trick called super IRG. It allows 14 colors, 9 per palette. This is also achievable on 7800 as well. The effect will look better on ntsc than pal. On 7800 you can have 8 palettes in 160A, and using flicker, 9 color per palette plus BG color. 160B allowing about 90 colors per palette over 2 palettes, although you have to be careful not to blend more than 2 luma steps apart. The image was converted from Amiga version

Look for my music on there. This is exciting, I love this game.

A birdie told me that might change soon, that's all I can reveal ...

Ok. I have some POKEY sounds and music for this. They were originally for a port that @mksmithwas working on. If, however, this version gets closer to done, would either of you be interested/okay with me contributing?

Yes he did wonders with POKEY. Way even before all its tricks were known.

mads assembler ... assemble the .asm, and the .s file is included with the .asm code

Took a break for awhile. My latest piece is from an Atari 7800 game called "Odyssey" ... it's a Zelda type adventure game taking place in ancient Greece. Settings: AUDCTL=$64 (double hi-pass at 1.79) 00 - $2x (hi-pass guitars - modulation frequency) 01 - $Cx (non mod 3 rough bass aka RMT E) 02 - silent (carrier frequency for 00) 03 - $Ax (square wave, harmonic with 00) This tune demonstrates the two timbres that are available in this setting with $2x. Using mod 15 frequencies in the first channel creates the really tinny and metallic sound used at the beginning at the tune, and in the second half of the tune. Other frequencies will make the swirling guitar sounds. odyssey-overworld.asm odyssey-overworld.s odyssey-overworld.xex