littaum

Congratulations on the sale to Atari! This all has been a tremendous amount of work for you (honestly I don't know how you did it) and hopefully Atari can both learn some things from you and help you keep things running. Will AtariAge have any new 2600+ systems playing games in the AA booth at PRGE 2023?

Neat! I'd like to have a 2023 PRGE edition badge if it becomes available Mike Littau littaum Bend, OR

Thanks for the feedback! I could see how removing the player graphics entirely while waiting to start could break the immersion. But I do want to have something to indicate what the player should do next, so that they don't think the game froze up (I'm assuming that people won't bother to read the manual. ) It's pretty straightforward for me to have the "Press Fire" appear above the players so that they are always shown. The released version of the game will have something similar to the following blink at a reasonable pace. To me this is similar to how sports games on TV have statistics/words/graphics overlaid on top of the action. Or the "Press "F" to pay respects" type of graphics in regular games. Showing the players actually move back to the center is a neat idea. Due to the momentum based movement I'm not sure I could get them to move to their locations without them wigging out and making it look weird. And removing the momentum part might also break the immersion. And I also don't want people to not have control of their player for too long. To me, the "jump cuts" to me are similar to game action resuming after crown shots or commercials or things of that nature.

To follow up on my last post from 18 months ago - thanks to all who voted for ElectroBall in the 4th annual ZeroPage Homebrew awards. It was an honor just to be nominated. And, it was an honor to have that year's winner for original game (Vladimir Zuñiga for Game of the Bear), design the box art for the physical release of ElectroBall! As a catch up to the game's further development, in early 2022 I was reading Howard Scott Warshaw's "Once Upon Atari" book and was inspired by the section where he described what improvements he would make to E.T. had he more time. My game was not in a physical form, so why not continue to work on it? I was also working on other 2600 projects (one of which became Berry Fun!) and had successfully taught myself how to reposition objects (sprites/missiles/ball) during screen display. The version 1.0 release had a single positioning for the 2 sprites, 2 missiles and the ball for a given frame. But with being able to reposition sprites, I was able to create an easier to read game clock using 2 sprites and a missile at the top, then reposition the sprites & missile for the rest of the display. The AtariAge release will have the following improvements (all mostly improvements to usability and polish): 1. Game clock instead of "time bar". 2. Title and options screen has been consolidated into a single screen. 3. Small bug fixes (Player 1 was always getting the ball first on the first game played, difficulty switch settings in options menu would not properly cycle through all options in both joystick directions, optimized code in vertical blank to prevent a screen roll in some instances) 4. New game lengths of 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes. 5. For games where at least 1 human is playing, after each goal a "press fire" prompt will be displayed before each ball deployment (handy for those 60 minute games where you need a break!) 6. If a player reaches 99 goals, a "mercy rule" is applied and the game instantly ends. 7. When a player scores a goal or wins the game, their color will be "strobed" as an extra embellishment. 8. If a player holds onto the ball for 10 straight seconds while the clock is running, the ball will auto-fire (this is an "anti-cheesing" rule) 9. New AtariAge-centric splash screen (taken from this thread) - modified to work in color and black and white! 10.Player 1 A.I. has been rebalanced against Player 2 A.I. to make games more competitive for the same skill level. 11.Difficulty switches can be overridden by software options on the options screen for an even more "Couch Compliant" experience. 12.If you defeat A.I. hard as a human on a match 10 minutes or longer in length, you'll get a special on-screen acknowledgement at the end of the game (IE-the "achievement"). A few screenshots showing some of the changes: AtariAge Splash screen: Title+Options screen: Game play showing clock: "Press fire" graphic after goal (only when 1+ humans are playing, AI vs AI will play straight through as before). The graphic changes between "Press Fire" and the player sprites at this time. Here is some video of game play from last year's PRGE where ElectroBall was one of the demo games at the AtariAge booth. This shows the "celebratory color strobing" after scoring the goal while the Portland convention center blasted Ratt's "Round and Round" in the background.

I'm ecstatic at the work that @Atariboy2600 and @vhzc did for the art for these homebrew games. I wanted something light and happy (and strawberry mouth-watering) for Berry Fun! .. it makes picking berries in the hot summer sun appealing. The cover looks like a still frame from a Saturday morning cartoon. For ElectroBall I wanted an 80's style retro-futuristic look, which was totally nailed. It reminds me a bit of some of the game covers from Epyx or Mastertronic back in the day.

Just curious, have you ever compiled a list of all of the physical releases that have been made of your games across all formats? It must be quite an impressive list.

Those animations might lend itself to a Klax type game - you have to assemble stacks of waffles to order, some with whip cream, some blueberry waffles, some strawberry waffles, etc.

I will be attending again - 2022 PRGE was a load of fun. The free play arcade and console section was very impressive, got to meet lots of people in the retro community, the panels were very interesting and it was a lot of fun to wander the show floor to see what was for sale. And of course, playing lots of home brews at the AtariAge booth!

Trimet Light Rail to Ground Kontrol works really well. The line will take you right to the door. Getting from Ground Kontrol back to your hotel using Trimet is a bit more dodgy. Last year after attending when I left the streets were dark and sparsely populated .. just me and the many, many homeless people. There seemed to be a lot of delays in Trimet lines late at night, so it was just me alone on a street corner waiting for one. This year I might try a ride sharing app upon leaving.

Some good questions so far. I'll throw out a softball - I'd be interested in hearing the story of how Alien Abduction by John Van Ryzin came to find its home on the Atari VCS. It was a pretty big surprise that an original 2600 game came out for it from the original developer of H.E.R.O.

Yes, many times. Next question?

I submitted Berry Fun! to the Homebrew Games Summer Showcase 2023 - the author did a good job highlighting the gameplay. Amazing what some editing can do. Fellow Atari 2600 homebrew Xanthiom 2600 was also highlighted, check it out at the 12:31 mark.

Indeed - it was very touching.

That cat looks like it's been chastised for behavior completely in line for a cat.

Not released as complete or WIP in 2022 ... stay tuned next year for 2023 awards!