[What was YOUR very first computer?]

My first computer was a VIC-20. My first TV games machine was a Telling Colour star. My first console would be a Master System.

[What are the 5 rarest homebrew games on Vectrex ?]

 

OooooOOOOOoooo! I'm intrigued.

To quote practically every forum thread in the world ...... "pics, or it didn't happen"

How about an in progress BIN?

 

http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/programming-projects.html

[What are the 5 rarest homebrew games on Vectrex ?]

Circus Vectrex - because I haven't finished it yet LOL

[Ideas on how to improve/complete a couple of old Vectrex games I started]

I've updated these games and added more to my Vectrex blog page since these posts, if anyone is interested...

 

http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/programming-projects.html

[Is there a SNDH to YM sound file converter for the PC?]

I am writing a game for the Vectrex that is based on Circus Atari and was going to try to convert the 'Entrance of the Gladiators' music for the title screen (using VECSOUND). However I can only find this in tune in SNDH format and not YM.

Is there any way I can convert an SNDH file to a YM file using a PC? VECSOUND only converts YM files to Vectrex code.

 

I believe you can do this on an ST. Unfortunately an ST is one of the systems I don't have.

Read more: http://vectorgaming.proboards.com/thread/798/vectrex-music?page=3#ixzz3Z82gQQyC

[Homebrew games I made, and ones I'm working on.]

Um, am I missing something?

How can I share my thought on a list of names!?

It there a download link or a site URL or something I'm missing?

 

 

Am I being thick here?

[new site focused on new homebrews]

I've got a few Vectrex things at various stages, an a VIC-20 project in the pipeline...

 

 

Feel free to have a look at my blog: http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/programming-projects.html

 

And let me know if you are interested, Some things have moved on since this page was last rewritten.

[Vec Wars 2]

I've just uploaded the latest version of the first VecWars to my blog (http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/programming-projects.html).

 

This has a few bug fixes, and some changed game-play changes: mostly the addition of an energy bar, that limits how long you can hold the laser button down for. It also has rudimentary sound, which would need some work before the game is finished. But from this I hope you can see my idea for the finished

game taking place:

 

Go to my blog or download from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1c17uirecoaszk5/retdev.bin

[NYT: Snatching Atari Back From the Grave Again]

How about a micro (plugs into TV) console ranging through all the 8Bit computer lines stuff from th 400 and 800 right through to the XL/XE. The onboard lineup could be trully fantastic!

 

And if you made IO ports that people could use to load their own cartridges, tapes, and floppies... Now that would surely be the best retro micro-console ever!

[Would you give up a 42" LCD TV for a 36" Trinitron CRT?]

Health and safety, there libal if anything happens with it...

 

I've had to smash and skip countless PC's and (CRT) monitors for the same reason.

[80s consoles]

I always wanted an Atari console but only had a Teleng colourstar (now that was a rare console). I remember playing on a console at my mates circa 1982 that seemed advanced for the time. There was an invaders game that had about 128 variations including swerving bullets and a golf game. There was a soccer game that had offside (unusual for the time). I think the console had numbered keypads.

The fist TVGames system I ever got was a Teleng Colourstars as well

 

They didn't really call them consoles back then... It was out a few years before the VCS though!

 

The same console was produced under a variety of names, if I remember correctly.

[Vec Wars 2]

I've been working on adding shooting and explosion sound FX and I'm looking at adding a random respawn - based on moving the player away from other objects.

 

Above this I'm looking into allegations of the game crashing when played for a while, and info or feedback would be appreciated.

 

 

 

For the second one, I think I've found a way to get that bit more on the screen without causing too much flickering, although I havent run these tests on my real Vectrex yet. I was also playing with the idea of using bullets instead of the laser... Although I do like the simplicity of the laser.

[Beamrider (Vectrex)]

I may have written some similar code for Spike and the Angry Vortex Bird, feel free to give me a shout if you get stuck and theres anything I may be able to help out with.

[great Vectrex brews but still no Battlezone?]

I think something like the Atari 2600's Robot Tank should be doable, with relatively simple scalable pre-drawn shapes.

 

The Vectrex can draw lines relatively quickly and it can rotate and scale pre-designed shapes relatively quickly, but it does suffer from a fair bit of flicker when doing the maths and the drawing in real-time.

 

I got quite a lot of big-object movement into my Spike and the Angry Vortex Bird game by using direct line drawing (and some creative maths) to move the background, but what you see there is about the limit (drawing-movement wise) that I could fit on the screen.

[Vec Wars 2]

I don't know if anyone is interested or not, but I'm looking at starting a VEC-WARS 2 game, based on my (almost finished, but now old, and previously abandoned) VEC-WARS game: See -> http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/programming-projects.html

 

 

Much to my surprise I recently found out that this had gathered a bit of a niche following, and I was asked to finish it - which I am currently working on. This was when I started thinking that it could be improved with a re-make. So I'd be interested in seeing what people think works and dons't work from the origonal, and what you would like to see added.

 

 

Please remember that this is a real project that I ideally want to make into a game worthy of release on it's own cartridge, so nothing too starry-eyed. But all suggestions will be read and considered.

 

 

Thank you for your support.

[Vector Pong (Vectrex)]

What was the 3D vector squash type game for the Dreamcast called?

 

I think the Vectrex could just about handle a cut down version of this.

 

I think I could probably adapt a few of the routines from one of my old games.

[Vectrex Flappy Bird]

I didn't know it existed untill after I wrote this. The other version is much more polished, and much closer to the original gameplay.

 

Mine was just a quick five or six hour effort over three and a bit evenings, which was done as a bit of fun.

 

I suppose I could tidy it up a bit, rotate the bird, make the graphics and animation a bit better, although I can't stand the original button controls, I could introduce a bit more movement controll. Although all gap combinations are reachable.

 

Or maybe I should just turn it into Floppy Fish!?

[One button controlled games]

I'm looking for examples of one-button controlled games. E.g. things like Blitz on the VIC-20, or more recently flash games like Canabalt, or even the notorious Flappy Bird.

 

I'm thinking of making a compilation of these type of games for the Vectrex. I've almost finished a Flappy Bird de-make and it didn't take long to write, so it got me thinking of other simple single-button games.

 

 

Any ideas?

[Vectrex Flappy Bird]

P.s.

 

... Yes, I KNOW it looks like a trigger-fish.

 

Flappy fish!?

[Vectrex Flappy Bird]

Hello all,

 

I made a quick Vectrex version of flappy bird over a few nights this week. It started as a bit of a laugh but it's actually quite playable.

I will put the binary up on my blog at http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/programming-projects.html after I tydy it up a bit, if anybody is interested.

 

[Is there a Canabalt type game for the VIC-20?]

I seem to have a hazy memory of playing something similar (in concept) to cannabalt on the VIC, years ago...

It may have been home-brew.

Anybody have any ideas what it could have been?

 

 

If not I'll maybe just have to try and write one

[Ideas on how to improve/complete a couple of old Vectrex games I started]

I've added some hit graphics to let you see when the dimonds and birds have been kicked, and a sound to let you know when the timer has been picked up. I've also tweeked some of the collision routeans, and foxed a few animation bugs...

 

I'll put the latest version up on my blog soon. I really have to just look at some sound/music now, and tydy up some more of the glitchies.

 

 

I've also been tinkering with the idea of writing a tutorial manual that's based around proctical examples that built up into a rudimentary game, pong or breakout, or snake maybe... something like that.

I've got a fair bit of experience writing used guides and technical reports, so I should hopefullt make a half-decent attenpt as this.

[Ideas on how to improve/complete a couple of old Vectrex games I started]

I haven'y had much time to work on these lately, but the Vtwist program is more-or-less getting there now. It has all the hit-routeans working, and the boss screen is up and running. I still have to add some hit/explosion animations and put some sound in though...

I've uploaded the latest bin to my blog, if anyone is interested in taking a look. Don't believe the blog text though - I haven't got round to updating that yet.

 

There are still some graphical anomolies when running it on a real vectrex though!

[Ideas on how to improve/complete a couple of old Vectrex games I started]

VTwist seems to mostly have a problem with beam-zeroing on the real Vectrex, the frame-rate looks ok.

 

I've been away a bit recentl, so havent had the time to update my blog page... Maybe this weekend.

 

 

After reading 'Christopher Tumber's account' I think I'm possibly 'fudging' the 3D drawing routeans a Bit much for the real Vectrex to deal with properly. I'm just using the standard draw routean to re-position and draw lines to make the background moovement, but I'm using a combination of ADD, NEG, and LSR instead of multiply loops to change the 3D objects size. The objects are DRAW on screen and limited to single sized-line chunks, so a bouble-sized line would have to be made up of two 'single sized' lines strung together.

This dosn't use the normal drawing routean, and dosn't handle '3D zooming' in the normal way, it seems faster but not as predictable, or smoothe! I've go a lot of mooving lines on the screen here compaired to most of the vectrex content, so I have to watch the frame rate (flicker).

[To All Non-Programmer Idea Peddlers]

This thread talks like there is real money to be made from retro programs.

Where on earth do you think this money is coming from?

 

The vast majority, probably (easily 90% +) of ‘home-brew,’ is ether given away free or makes absolutely no profit whatsoever.

 

If you are talking about programs delivered on hard-media e.g. cartridges then these are lucky to break even, given the cost of purchasing the bare materials and hardware to make the product... and that’s not including third-party ‘artwork’ or other extras, which some people seem to want a programmer (who will likely ether take a loss or make nothing from their efforts anyway) to pay out for!?!?

 

This Home-Brew is all basically by and for hobbyists, thinking anything else isn’t going to get you anywhere. You may see a relatively high price tag on a home-brew, but the programmer, or cart maker, has generally paid for those materials out of their own pocket, and (in most cases) the costs are only there to reimburse this expense.

 

There is no money; we program ‘retro’ as a hobby, because we want to, and mostly give it away free... There is no business and no business-model or dispersal of wealth for 99% of this. There is no wealth!

 

 

Are you confusing Public Domain, Home-Brew, and Indie games here?