Cafeman
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Posts posted by Cafeman
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I've privately worked on a whole bunch of ideas for Atari 5200/A8 homebrew projects. Some have gotten to the programming stage but most just stayed ideas in a couple of folders. The idea was always the first thing. Some were unofficial homages to games like Adventure ("Adventure II"), Swordquest mixed with Pitfall II ("Escape from AirWorld") , and Megamania (my idea for a similar weird-enemies shmup, I was calling it "Giga Blaster"). But most of my ideas were just a thought or inspiration I'd get one day. "What about a game where you put out fires and save animals?". Or, "what kind of Sherlock Holmes game could I make?". Or, "how about a survival game on a dinosaur and creature-filled lost island?". Or, "what kind of fishing game could I make where even I'd want to play it?", etc etc. The ideas would grow into a game design, with lots of iterative design passes as I'd think about it over time. It helps to know the capabilities and limitations of the target hardware.
As I type, I'm remembering more. I used to draw up game ideas based on novels , shows, and films. The fun was in creating the game design; after that, I'd lose interest (and unwilling to devote the needed time) before I programmed much. I was working with the 5200 Adventure II engine and was thinking about making a "Land of the Lost" game. I wanted Pylons with Crystal tables which would allow you to change the layout of the land or the time of day, for example. For a while I worked on a "Jaws" game where you were on the boat The Orca on the ocean, and the actual game mechanics were (a) trying to locate the shark, then (b) actual strategic boating and fishing gameplay, reading the sea and its waves and currents for the best positioning near (or to get away) from the monster shark, finally hooking barrels on Jaws to tire it, and the the final confrontation. If I were a better (and faster) artist, or if I partnered with an interested artist, some of these could have come together.
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3 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:
Another option of course is to use an old VCR to act as a demodulator to take the RF and break it back out to provide composite output form the VCR to your TV. I've heard that works pretty well although I've honestly not tried it myself as I no longer own a VCR and hadn't a need to get one
this method works great for me connected to my Panasonic plasma. When I try to hook up the RF directly to the TV, it usually doesn’t even register it. -
23 minutes ago, Atariboy2600 said:
What's funny is even when I help made both the box art, poster and and even the patch to this day I still never got a copy of the game. Wonder if I need to pay it?
I don't know if that was a condition of the deal, or not. But that is indicative of superiority complex of the Audacity people and it pisses me off to hear of it.
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Xbox (OG) -- Need For Speed Underground 2, 3 hours.
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06/2005 - a demo for the Oklahoma Video Game Expo OVGE 2005 named Adv2_Demo_OVGE_2005.bin.
Some Notes:
- All 3 Dragons exist now, but I noticed you cannot pass a Dragon Corpse yet. Revive yourself with #5 if you kill a Dragon and block the path you need to progress.
- Troll has been tweaked, he will now no longer steal the Bridge if it is just sitting there un-held by you. This makes the gameplay a lot more fair.
- Minotaur now exists.
- Sir Square still cannot walk over the green hedge maze "grass", making paths more narrow than the final game.
- Even in this 2005 demo, only the water waves animation is active. The plants, fountains, and Fire Castle fire do not animate yet.
- It appears the Ice Castle is not locked. Get the Red Key inside it. All of the Ice Castle's interior screens are a blue color - harder to navigate than later versions which introduced various distinct colors to each room. The rampart screens don't exist yet in the Green Castle paths leading to Kingdom4 or Kingdom3.
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2004 - a demo for the Philly Classic 5 in 2004 - AdvII_Demo_PC5_2004.bin.
Some notes:
- This is a year later from the prior OKGE demo. There is now a Title Screen and 2 selectable variations. You can beat both. The Dragon will kill you but not swallow you, but press #5 key to revive when she kills you.
- This demo is too hard and often unfair! Troll is too active, and you can't use Fire Button 2's Item shifting yet, But you can beat it with a little extra patience, and you'll be rewarded with some new screen images when you win. You need to use all the tools available to you, such as stuffing unwanted items onto Troll to get a Speed powerup.
- The Troll is now roaming around all screens, but he is too active. He doesn't actively aim for an item yet, he just blindly runs across the screen and may stumble upon items.
- The Kingdom1 and Kingdom2 mazes have been revised by Raccoon Lad since last year's demo. Still, the Hedge and Dark Kingdom mazes are not the same as the final version, with more cramped maze paths and some identical screens used in different places. The Ice Kingdom has the blindingly bright white color scheme which was softened with DLI-blues later on.
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I've been organizing homebrewing folders and found some interesting old ROM's for 5200 Adventure II as it was being developed in the early 2000's. I will use this thread to attach any runnable 5200 ROMs to this first post, in case anybody would like to try them out. All ROM's at the end of Post #1. The expo pictures are from AtariAge.com's Features on said events.
2002 - the first runnable Adventure II Demo - AdvII_Demo_03-2002 -- this demo basically uses the new screen-loading engine that was built by Alan D. This shows 2 nice screens by Raccoon Lad that were later modified or removed, and a couple ugly early attempts at maze screens.
09/2003 - a demo for the Oklahoma Video Game Expo OKGE - AdvII_Demo_OKGE_2003.
Some notes:
- There is no title screen, but you can let the game alone a moment and it will cycle through various screens. Press button/START to begin gameplay. There are a few early sounds.
- You only get 1 life but you *CAN* win the game. It gives you a new multi-screen slide-show as a reward. Try to win a round!
- You can't use Fire Button 2 yet, thus you can't switch around the sword or bridge in this demo. But you can use the Vertical bridge in creative ways to reach stuff like a sword behind logs.
- There is no magnet. To get to the Gold Key on the Island, you must cut wood planks from logs with the sword, and drag them to the screen.
- Troll lives on his Troll Bridge screen , he does not roam around, and he is too fast to escape from. You must appease Troll with an unwanted item before returning to the prior screen and trying to carry a desired item (like the Green Key) across the Troll Bridge. Early on I had the idea of finding Gold to appease a Troll on his bridge, incidentally. Troll hides items in the Green Hedge kingdom or castle if he steals them.
- This demo features early versions of Kingdom 1 and Kingdom 2 mazes. Raccoon Lad later built a much more complex Kingdom 2 hedge maze for the game. This demo's hedge maze was built by me, using Raccoon's KEY screen and character set as a base.
5200 Adventure II Game Demo ROMs:
5200 Adventure II Final Version Demo's. Note that you can enter "1980" on the Title Screen to unlock Alternate Icons , and "1982" for "Fat Creatures" mode.
2007 Demo - Easy and Intermediate levels from the final ROM:
2007 Demo - Advanced and Special levels from the final ROM:
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Atari 2600:
- Pigs in Space (10 min)
- Crackpots (10 min)
- Phoenix (10 min)
XBOX:
- NFL 2K5 (30 min)
- NFS Underground 2 (120 min)
- NFS Hot Pursuit 2 (30 min)
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By the way, the other secret code is "1982". You'll notice what effect it has once you've crossed a few screens.
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It's not the same as what Adventure II XE features, but 5200 Adventure II already has alternate selectable player-icons. On the title screen, enter the secret code "1980". Then either * or # (I forget which) to change to different icons. They make the 5200 game a bit more challenging since they are bigger than the Square.
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Where does one find the A8 version of Pac-Man Jr that doesn't have the choppy ghost-halting movement? The Glenn version is the only one I've ever seen.
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NM, there is evidently a fixed version already.
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I actually never played it back in the day because it was already kind of an older game by the time I got my Atari. So I do play it on emulation every now and then and it’s like new, I still don’t understand all the many game variations. 🙂
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Are you texting while driving?
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I knew it'd be a while so I don't care when my order is shipped. But I've read comments that the Atari purchase of AA would help Al. But how? It seems he's still doing all the work.
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5 minutes ago, ledzep said:
that 1st-person 3D approach of the new Haunted Houses could work.
It looks 3rd-person top-down/isometric to me.
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Inventory is a good idea and a 'quality of life' improvement. If you want only 1-item-at-a-time, you can always play the original. I really like how Zelda incorporated different weapons, hearts for health, and money. We'd want some more sophistication to the game, not just a modern version of 2600 Adventure, right?
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I have felt for some time that The Legend of Zelda was a spiritual sequel to 2600 Adventure, all of the same core ideas expanded-upon in a fun way. LOZ is a far better Adventure-style game than those crappy Swordquest games which the first one was originally called "Adventure 2", ugh. I'd be fine with a new Adventure that played similarly to NES LOZ, but with the Adventure theme.
Part of Adventure's unique charm is that the maze doesn't make logical sense, and you are always getting lost - until you finally learn the maze. And it has 2 unique mazes, smaller and larger. That adventuring feeling and discovering new or hidden things should be part of a new Adventure. It would be cool to have different maze variations - going over a bridge in game 1 may lead to a forest, but going over that bridge in variation 2 may lead to the mountains. Mix things up across different game variations so that you will have several mysterious and somewhat unfamiliar mazes. Add little puzzles and some interesting things to fight. I think the thief concept (the bat) should be eliminated or drastically cut back, however. It works in the 4K original but could ruin the gameplay in a larger game.
Some of these ideas I tried to incorporate into 5200 Adventure II years ago - different mazes, sometimes some mazes can shift in-game, different settings for the creatures across the variations, some temporary power-ups of speed, shield, and flight. You can cut wood planks and build bridges over water - but you don't always need to do this. A new Adventure game should feel free to add its own puzzles and mechanics and make them fun to do.
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On 8/22/2023 at 7:05 PM, Flojomojo said:
Maybe “account closed”
Maybe “game over “ 🫢-
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Atari 2600:
1. Reactor. 20 minutes, got pretty far. This is a weird/different but fun game and a good port. One of my favorite 2600 titles actually.
2. Pac-Man 8K. 20 minutes. I play this all the time, great homebrew/hack port.
3. Dragon Fire (Imagic). My favorite Imagic 2600 game. 15 minutes.
4. Berzerk. 15 minutes. One of the best on 2600.
Atari 5200:
1. Beef Drop. 20 minutes.
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Actually this is an interesting question. davpa one mentioned using Unity for Atari 800 VCS games ... but could you use Godot as well? I've heard that Gadot isn't as user-friendly when aiming at the console market development. If anybody is more experienced, feel free to expound on the subject.
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14 minutes ago, phillip_roberts said:
Kinkos should & would have absolutely nothing to do with this, at all. PERIOD.
You are dead to me, Phillip.
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“ Brought to you by Kinko’s “
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On 5/21/2003 at 6:54 PM, HardWork said:
I have clearly stated from the first post that I'm new to the 2600, but not to hacking. I'm warm to BASIC programming, and I'm no dummy. Also, I've had two guys jump on board this last week. One is a good friend of mine of 10 years, who was the first to know of KR2600, at the New Year. The other fellow I met by chance, whom works at the print shop where I have been producing my storyboards. These guys are no dummies, either.
Both have pledged full support after absorbing the content of my early work, & the content of this site. This week we have formed the Team, christened it with the "Savage" name, and have gotten little sleep since then.
stay on target...
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Yes, I in fact DO play some modern games on occasion, here are some examples, how about you?
in Modern Gaming Discussion
Posted
Even on my "modern" PS4, I tend to play retro style games. Most recently I've been playing Horizon Forbidden West and WRC 9. I liked Spider-Man and Dirt 4 too. But mostly on PS4 I play .. Ms Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Also been enjoying some of the Pinball FX tables - Williams FunHouse and Fish Tales (both are a lot of fun to me), and the fairly mediocre Jaws table with fairly mediocre voice actor trying to sound like Robert Shaw/Quint.