Glenn Main

2600 programming is hard-easy, hard-easy … I hope you’ll resume here and make a discovery or two!

“We can gain further insights into the possible explanations for code re-use by examining why artifacts are re-used in other human technologies. Here we draw upon the abundance of research on our oldest technology – stone.” Uh, yep! Lol. Thanks for posting the link, fun read.

All, I have been lost at sea with nothing but goons for company. Situation: one boat stolen, one load of folks wanting it back. Now the thing you're riding is a terrific modification of a punt actually, with big rotary wheels at back. Kinda like a paddle steamer only it's lacking for steam, though never for speed. To assist with fending off goons you are equipped with a gun and something I've come to understand as a BoomBoy - a dumb floating bomb which you release by cranking the lever all the way back. What shows before it, is a pinkish blob that cycles across the back deck, see? Hit the trigger to time the release on this. So far, the game got nothing. You can shoot some, say, by choosing joystick up/down to select a sight level, then you can hit the trigger when you're over one them goons. He's on a jet ski. A Goonski by accounts. And when he's crouching, he's firing back. But such actions of who shoot what don't register anything yet. And that boom whatchacallit doesn't do jack, except float and disappear into our backwash. Goonboat WIP 01 - NTSC goonboat_wip_01.bin

Obliged, tickled, relieved and still combustible, er, the last time I checked. Many thanks!

With respect to titles I've posted here in Programming (i.e., Roll Play, Numbers Game, Huey’s Party, Chalk & Duster, Chuck Heads & Goon Nights), I view as being completed in the year of their authorship. Both a happy outcome for me, noting no further work intended, and an unhappy consequence for the world generally, awash with the stuff. I figure it a slowly evolutionary tale for anyone viewing/playing along at home lol.

Hey thanks nooly. Dev: next game has the play pattern established ahead a technique, so I'm anticipating less tell and more show.

ROLL PLAY What was I thinking getting involved? As useless a rolling press I’ve ever seen. Infested, too. With weird little creatures that are no funny issue. Took it far as could. Getting out of the game I am. Here; maybe you guys can do something with it. Tested in Stella & Javatari & Gopher. Background An old electro-mechanical rolling press requires freeing of creatures that have become trapped onto its flat sheet. They’re shorting machine power and causing anomalous coloring. ROLL to reveal each creature’s stake per band (also indicated through colored lightbars) then choose a creature to PLAY for. Computer is on the left, you're on the right. Actually, you're the roller—but that's not important right now. Look, by timing a slide correctly, power may be partially restored back into the machinery for another try. Successfully ridding three unique creatures wins you a trophy (these are color-striped at top). Winning three trophies grants bonus power and moves you along to the next color-striped trophy series to collect. Progress through all stripes (14 unique colors) to win the game. A special presentation awaits. Notes: Power is indicated by a battery symbol with numbers that top out at 99%. It drains continuously. When fully depleted, it’s game over. Although it seems like it, you’re not trying to match colors. Those are indicating stakes. Gameplay Type: Reflex, smudge of strategy Instructions Minimal: Use Joystick Up / Down to select a Band. Joystick Trigger to send the Roller. Next, choose a Creature using Joystick Right. Joystick Trigger halts zooming Wedge; attempt at rectangle. Instructions Dense: [LOL] Wordy, larded with bullet points and yet somewhat useful (has pictures too): Zee Instructshions ... Rollplay_Instructions.pdf Stella original release - NTSC Rollplay.bin

Thank you for the inclusion and the play!

I agree. Hah. Just played it after a year and it definitely has its sharp edges (I'm also yet to complete GTA V's campaign, just to be clear about any prowess). Maybe if a player's been good, nabbed some trophies already, can trade them for req points-to-score. That favours 'streak banking' ahead gambling their use, adding a [modest] strategy component. Supposing you spend a trophy in a line of 3, the algo' will prove it's ever so more difficult to get back the 3rd after this, so you'd decide depending appropriate skill/level ... see now, there's all sorts of ideas, I'm sure you'd have a few. I have another [super odd] game here festering between book projects that perhaps gets its completion before revisiting this simple flicker.

This is a really nice thing rossum, and a sure surprise for the Pong and Combat enthusiasts. Given your technical acuity, have you built your time machine yet?!

‘I’ve blown over half the memory making the track work.’ First days with asm I had the screen stable with everything I needed to that point, it was really coming together. I was astonished to see I had no memory left for a play pattern, joystick inputs, sound or a scoreline or even one of those nifty titles glued at the front of the thing. A harsh couple of weeks followed lol. I really like your game so far.

Thanks for checking out this game. I usually view whatever I upload as the final thing, you know, moving on to the next idea … but I’ve come around to this WIP business as everything can be improved, sometimes vastly, hugely, massively, lol.

Thomas, hi there. The goal of this game is to get the highest score by clicking the Joystick button whenever a yellow swatch is over a green. Yes, you now wonder why a man spend time making such a thing, lol. Is a programming exercise to see how I can blob sprites and playfield together across multiple lines as until now I’ve not done. I’ve edited the game description to include a quicker blurb. I usually get excited whenever I finish a game and words start flowing. These can largely be ignored, lol.

Numbers Game A flick-timing game requiring button precision skills. Game Play Get the highest score by clicking the Joystick button whenever a yellow swatch is over a green; clicking when blue is instant game-over. Navigate lines using Joystick Up/Down. A line changes to white on a successful Try, points awarded to your score. This line is now zeroed from further use. A line changes to red on a failed Try, points deducted from your score, line is zeroed. To refresh a board after a round, check 'min number req' at base of screen. This deducts as you accrue successful Tries. When zero, board refreshes and flick-timing becomes a little harder. Trophies are awarded for streaks (getting successive Tries correct over successive rounds). Release #4 Click Joystick button to start a new game or restart from a game-over. Stella NTSC release : numgam4c.bin Notes about this programming exercise: Flick-timed hierarchical numbers are extensible to game genre and may also be a replacement for traditional dice-throw decision trees, like combat, or combined with randomness in speed and value that brings in a dice-like throw mix. Table of numbers may align a player’s attributes, example for an RPG, with negative and positive weights, speed of flick and animation of numbers per line rotating through a range, concordant.

Great work here. Happy that it's not my noggin having to figure all this timing!

Huey’s Party Huey has just turned one year old. As a Genuine Services Robot he’s not supposed to take time off but he’s heard a party has been thrown with his name on it. Late, rushed - and excited - Huey grabs the first Space Elevator he can find to join the fun on the orbiting Stellar Observation Deck. As he ascends over cloud layers, balloons are encountered to be popped. By collecting these to spell his name he’ll mostly avoid being immobilized by the Imperalexor, a security limiting device preventing unauthorized trips into space, such as this one. Spelling his name confirms he’s the factored authority. All is well. For now. Some balloons contain poisonous gasses that harm Huey’s health. This is shown via a horizontal slider diminishing right-to-left. It changes color to red then altogether disappears, giving the player one last chance to recover before it’s game over, as seen in the reddened Height readout shown top-left. Speaking of catastrophic ends, Huey can also slip off platform sides should walls give way to single entries. (NB., single entry walls cannot sustain the weight of a robot. These are slippery so tread lightly). Game Play Move Joystick left-right to hit stuff with the robot. Game Over / New Game Game-over is a mostly gray and static screen. To replay, Reset back or click Joystick button once for Title screen, then click again to commence. Alternatively, click-hold button briefly from a game-over state to start a new game right away. Initial New Game is the Title screen. Click Joystick button to commence. Game Won After 999 levels you’ll reach 000 - Landing’s Top for the Observation Deck. The screen will change to a party themed color and Huey will be in celebration mode. So check yourself in to the nearest cake cabinet to continue playing along at home. * Below is a description of game elements occasioning game play. Following these are screenshots and the game actual. You may skip to those. Balloons Lettered H-U-E-Y, in either green or red color. Question mark A chance to regain or lose health. Yellow colored. Infoplorer What is The Infoplorer is a line that sits lower screen left. It starts out dashed and progressively fills as the player adds the sequence of letters ‘H-U-E-Y’ Reading The Infoplorer begins dashed. Reading from leftmost side, the first dash represents ‘H’ with the immediate following gap its missing requirement : ‘H.’ Similarly this pattern continues. As the player fulfills each missing letter the correctly assigned part closes the dashed gap. On completion the Imperalexor is moved up the elevator shaft and the Infoplorer is reset. Imperalexor What is The task of the Imperalexor is two-fold : 1, to prevent unauthorized access to the Stellar Observation Deck and 2, immobilize platform guests when a pass cannot be accessed. The device achieves its results through Gargantuan EMP localized into a beam (horizontal line), utilizing any leftover capacity elsewhere in the Space Elevator network. Because security is a high priority you can be sure the Imperalexor will be working at every level. Passing To pass the Imperalexor at any level, please continue to produce namesake documentation in a timely manner. Popped balloons will also do. A successful pass moves the Imperalexor back up the elevator shaft. Warning A sound cue will alert when very near to an immobilizing event. Immobilization Line rests with platform. ‘Off world’ Moving beyond platform sides onto a single wall piece results in a calamitous fall and game-over situation. Padded Walls Preventing unwanted falls from platform sides are padded walls. Unfortunately they tend to tear off every tenth level. Recovering You can purchase replacement walls without leaving the secure confines of your platform. At night, simply collect coin. Enough coin buys back a wall piece. Living with less You can go without walled protection or build back at a time that suits. Three-two-one but never none There is always the initial wall piece to build back from. Coin Earning Coins are earned at night by catching them. Spending On walls The first clutch of coin collected automatically goes on wall spend. In a single night you can earn back a full wall. On health After a wall has been reconstructed fully any additional coin over a threshold amount will be added as Health. Health About The Health Bar is located along the top of the screen to the right of the Height readout. Each balloon carries a reward (green) or a penalty (red). Sometimes the reward of gaining the required letter occurs with a penalty. Losing Popping a red balloon or a Question marked balloon that’s gone against you. Recovering Popping a green balloon or, at night, when collecting coins after the third wall piece in situ. Height Height! Stellar Observation Deck sits just above 999. Day Blue Sky Balloons are encountered during the day. Below you are the clouds and above is the immensity of sky. Night Darkness The Space Elevator moves more efficiently at night, providing an audible gear-step change. Above, coins glitter in the moonlight as they fall from patrons' pockets. Level Hardness As Height increases conditions becomes more challenging. Imperalexor can move down more quickly. Balloons that contain poisonous gas impact your health more. Coin is smaller making it more difficult to catch, though carries the same spend opportunity. Screens Game Download Stella original release NTSC format hueyprty.bin

Getting an email from David Crane just now telling me about Circus Convoy? Next level awesome.

Great work here Dave. You have the talent, just a few more 'bits' (hehe) to go.

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Cool indeed.

Thanks!

Thank you for the add also, Prizrak.

Chalk & Duster Welcome to Chalk & Duster, that most recent entrant into the rapidly increasing genre of chalk and duster games for your Atari 2600. Gameplay You are a piece of Light Chalk attempting to re-shade a board of drawings - these continuously faded by Duster, a remorseless adversary who will stop at nothing, except maybe, a disappointing code bug I’ve yet to discover. Anyway, get hit and you’ll lose a piece (that’s the adversarial part). Lose three pieces and it’s curtains. Chalkless curtains. Duster also wins any game by moving left-to-right across gray-most drawings. You’ll know these kind as they don’t exhibit any banding. To figure how close Duster is to winning, note the frame which progressively fills on the front panel (diagram below). The other way Light Chalk can lose is becoming worn down. After becoming short you’ll wear down again - to nothing. Control the Light Chalk via Joystick using Up, Down, Left (when on the Board) & Button. Living on the Ledge Located directly below the Board is a Ledge (yes I’m going to keep with this capitalizing thing) comprised of two lanes which you zoom along, left-to-right. Light Chalk is opposed by Dark Chalk. You knew this was coming. But did you know it’s actually a game of Chicken? Dark has one move up its sleeve - choose when to swap lanes once per screen pass. Now, do you hold your lane or do you swerve? Light Chalk can swap over and over, bouncing between lanes. And it is bouncy as releasing Down on the joystick springs the chalk back up. Being hit by Dark smudges away your Light delaying you somewhat, whilst making screen passes (wrapping a screen) 'unhit' successively brightens your shade. After many passes though your chalk shortens regardless of shade. As a short piece of chalk you’re fractions away from losing the piece altogether. When you’ve had enough of the ledge, hit or hold-down joystick button to fling onto the board. If you’re the hitting-button kind of player, time it so that your chalk is beneath the Engagement Line when on the Ledge. Otherwise just hold until Chalk makes it to this area and it will automatically relocate you. Engagement Line On the Board is the Engagement Line which is either amber or green. Amber signifies your chalk is not the brightest. You may still go ahead and use Chalk but know that you won’t get any points. Why use it at all then? It may save a drawing from becoming too gray thereby denying Duster its progress; your Chalk’s shade directly relates how a drawing row will re-shade. Or you may want to race across the Chalk Flecks below the drawings to re-lengthen your chalk. Chalk Flecks are situated along the lowest row and are shade-controlled by the row immediately above it, meaning that for Chalk Flecks to re-lengthen your chalk this immediate row above must be full brightness. Similarly, Duster cannot gain advantage by rubbing along the Chalk Flecks but can still wipe out your chalk. And it can, of course, fade the flecks via the controlling row. Remorseless, I’m telling you. If the Engagement Line is green this signifies all is well with your brightness and you may proceed to the drawings above to potentially score. Scoring is located top-left of the screen, which is also the current Level. On the top-right of screen is the Vertical Gasser Group indicating how many chalk pieces remain. They progressively fill whenever you score. Once full you are proceeding to the next level, like it or not. Golden Line Situated above the Engagement Line is the Golden Line. This is a score doubling bonus declaring which row should be brightened. As expected, the bonus is only applied when you’ve scored, meaning a Golden Line is no advantage to any re-shading other than brightest; rely the Engagement Line to help you out with this. The Golden Line moves in accordance with your screen passes along the Ledge. Note how and when it moves. Drawings from top row down : 2015 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6x6 1981 Trabant two-stroke 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser BJ 40 2011 Mitsubishi Fuso Fighter 9 Tonne Observations ... Light Chalk, as brightest, can choose to go across the same row each time collecting points even if that row is already fully bright (hey if it works for you why not?). Sacrificial Chalk : You are rewarded due points on a row even if the Duster gets you mid-draw. As levels progress : Duster becomes more efficient. Duster quickens (from levels : 4, 8, 16 & 32 - all the lovely numbers you’d expect). Board color alternates. Chalk auto re-lengthened. Game Over is declared through a Good Game, ‘GG’, located in the Game State panel. Reset to start a new game **Update : 2020.11.09 : Eased playability (NTSC release only) -> chalk lasts longer & duster gives you a bit of a chance with its wipes not counting at the start of each level. Release of the NTSC Cart binary as below which aligns a richer contrast of color. Labels also shown. Cart label Cart end label Stella original release Chakdust.bin NTSC cart release Chakdust - NTSC Cart.bin **Update : 2021.12.29 : Simulation For funs, I created a 3d of the cart, card packaging, and converted the game’s binary to hex. These were written through ‘721’ metadata schema into a .json, referencing ipfs links, since curl-deposited assets to bit hashes via provident gateways (speedy connectors). This included the bin actual, manual and image(s) using MIME-types for requests, aligning expectant behaviour for browsers / web platforms. Virtualising a Linux distro within Windows I spun up a Node then minted tokens using a CLI and my unix-like scripts. The ‘wallet’ was seeded with [an] UTXO. In some moments I’d impressed the game into the Cardano blockchain, ostensibly as NFT, but with functional aspects. It was put into the marketplace via 3rd party smart contract. The hex dump is a gauche instantiation of purist intent; Having the game within the actual token mint data was the appealing aspect. I’II look at Haskell next to consider a more nuanced integration and modals for interpreting the old to the new, i.e., a dApp. Although trivial in scope, my implementation here, it’s possible to foresee vintage entertainment integrate fintech and decentralised networks as the world progresses further into Simulation.

Thank you for the include & analysis! Very helpful.

Lucks with your chucks!