[Atari in movies and films]

remember Terminator , where the kid used an Atari to hack the bank account machine ?

Didn't the last terminator film hav a room-full of what looked like old Commodore PET's in it?

[whats your rarest console?]

Well there is the Vectrex and I have a first-version Lynx (don't think a lot of the 'Big-Lynx' systems were made/sold), on the newer side I've also got a first run raspberry PI and an OnLive TV box

I do have an old-style 40/80 BBC double disk Cumana 5" floppy disk drive... if that counts? I also still have the BBC cub monitor, which is now permanently attached to my Amiga

 

How rare is the first version of the Game.con handheld console?

How about the pokiman Picachu version of the N64?

 

Probably my rarest (but by no means the most collectable/expensive) thing is my Telling Colour Stars TV games system. I think I was 11 or 12 when I got that. Never did get all the cartridges though!

[Vectrex Game Brainstorming!]

I look into its cold, dark eyes every night and stare it down.

Ah, one of the remaining 'few brave men'

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

Sorry to scrape so close to a new game pitch, but.. what about turning VTwist into more of a Zoom! type game?

Thanks, that could work, and it is the type of comment I was looking for...

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

ok, i guess i don't know what to do with .asm files. ... When I view them in notepad, the text scrolls to the left, rather than down. It's a dozen or more lines long, but each line is like 5+ pages wide. Is it supposed to be like this?

Strange that! It defenetly isn't supposed to be like that.

I put these links up some time ago, so I’ll have to heck on what happened to the .RAR file and the .ASM files should all have fairly short lines of code with comments.

I’ve no idea why they didn’t format properly in Notepad.

These files may have been opened and re-saved with Dreamweaver or Visual Studio, but none of these editors should have made the code look like what you described!

Did you try using another editor?

 

 

I can’t do it from work, but I’ll try and put some new .ASM and .BIN files up tonight or over the weekend.

 

To compile and run the .ASM files I used the AS09 compiler and the VECX emulator.

 

E.g.

1. Make a test folder to hold the files.

2. Download the AS09.EXE compiler, and put it in the test folder

3. Then download the VECX.EXE emulator, and put it in the same folder

4. Next you need to download any standard VECTREX.I file, and put it in the folder

5. Now open up a command prompt window and go to the test directory

6. Type: AS09 –i vtwist.asm (return) to compile the .ASM

7. This will make a vtwist.bin file in the same folder

8. Then type: vecx –c vtwist.bin (return) to run the .BIN file in the emulator

9. you should now see the code running.

 

It’s not complicated, really just running two commands (a compile and a run) from the DOS/Command prompt.

A quick Google should find all the programs easy enough.

Maybe I should make all the required files available from the Blog page for quickness.

 

You can find a VECTREX.I file in most Vectrex code download sites: this is just a list of useful/standard Vectrex ROM routines and memory locations.

Both this file and the AS09 compiler can be found in the code download for the rather good ‘Vectrex Thrust’ game: available at - http://www.emix8.org

 

All the code for these games is held in one single file. So you only need the VECTREX.I and the .asm file to compile.

[BASIC question]

Check to see if the screen coordinate you move your man to holds a dot. If it does Then increment your score Else ... um don't.

[What VIC-20 development programs are there for PC or MAC?]

What Mac or preferably PC based tools are there for programming/testing assembly programs for the VIC-20?

My old VIC was the first system I owned, and after looking at some of the amazing things people have done with it over the years I think it’s about time I tried to do some new games programming for it.

[I want to learn how to program]

But I don't know where to start, like what language to learn, what programs to use, etc.

 

Can someone help me get started, and some tips?

It depends what you want to do.

If you want to learn classical programming concepts on a ‘proper’ old-style language I’d still recommend Pascal, or Python is a decent modern alternative.

 

People will tell you that the various flavours of ‘C’ are the holly-grail of programming, but I would recommend a language more designed for teaching first. C can get very messy very quickly if you don’t code it properly.

 

If you want something BASIC that will let you bang out some games/graphics type stuff quickly I’d go for something like Dark Basic on the PC, or pick up a RETRO computer with a decent (although sometimes limited) basic. BBC basic is probably about the best... and you can embed assembly right in there, when and if you ever want to dabble!

 

 

I am no programmer myself, but my brother is one, having made his doctor degree in informatics. He recommended the Microsoft Visual studio to me. It´s only for Windows programs, but pretty comfortable and easy to use. I am now starting with Visual C Sharp, you might try that or Visual Basic.

GOD, NO!!

I'm a C and VB.NET developer using Visual Studio... it doesn’t learn you to program properly at all.

If you want to learn how to program I'd stay away from library base object orientated stuff!

 

 

 

having said that, if you must - programmin Python on the Raspberry PI is quite a good way to get started.

[trying to decide what to start coding games for..]

Well back in the day it was the Atari 800 XL. This was the first machine I got some stuff accepted to PD libraries for. Back then you had to submit stuff by post and they decided what to include in their catalogues. I think I got a Jet-Pack rip-off and a Tempest-ish rip-off accepted first. Although there probably long-lost now!

 

The first machine I programmed was the VIC-20, and I’m really thinking of trying to be something on this again. Isn’t there a C cross-compiler for it or something?

 

My console of choice is the Vectrex, possibly one of the most straightforward machines to program in assembly.

I do keep meaning to have a go at hacking around with the Deamcast though. Although I don’t generally touch hardware (for programming) that’s that new!

[Vectrex Game Brainstorming!]

The Vectrex would be the perfect platform for a really good tube shooter. Not necessarily a Tempest or Gyruss port, but something original of that same little genre. The vector graphics are just begging for it.

I'd be interested in what you would add/do to this:

It's a very basic and unfinished idea I was playing around with some time ago, but I dropped it.

I can post some binaries of what little I had if you like...

 

 

Ever seen Web Wars? It's one of the original Vectrex games, and it is THE best game ever for this console, as well as one of the top ten video games of all time, in my opinion. Better than Tempest for me. You're right that this sort of game is very well suited to Vectrex. ... Perhaps more of this type could be made, but it would be very hard to top Web Wars.

I was thinking of something like that... but what if it was on a road that rises and falls, where you could jump your ‘car’ over certain obstacles whilst avoiding things in the air, as well as trying not to fall off the sides of the ‘road.’

This sounds doable, although it may be difficult to keep the on-screen action (amount of drawing required) down enough to avoid flicker!

 

Maybe I could try a simple fly-through-the-tunnel game. Although it would help if it were a square tunnel... e r. Ventilation-duct flyers maybe

 

 

I don’t think I could beat Web-Wars for playability though

[Vectrex Game Brainstorming!]

I guess I didn't make my game/app opinion clear. I don't care if it's BASIC per se. I think if the effort is going to be put into Vectrex related software than you should get the most bang for your buck. If a decent game making tool and "sprite" creator could be made MANY games would spring up. What could be better than that?

Don’t be afraid of assembly! The Vectrex is a very good machine to practice Assembly on. It has a variety of good ROM routines that let you get things up and moving relatively quickly.

 

I knocked up my first (very simple) program over a couple of days, maybe just 5 or 6 hours programming, and that included the time taken to read Vectrex tutorials.

 

The first thing I usually do when programming for a new system or language is to write a pong program, this was extremely simple on the Vectrex. So I bypassed pong and started playing around with other things almost straight away!

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

Hello gliptitude, and thanks for taking a look...

Don't expect too much though. As I said all the stuff up on the blog were early programming experiments that I primarily use to get used to programming the Vectrex.

 

I think an Atic-Attack 'type' game may be on the cards. It was a simple but addictive little game on the Spectrum.

I still think there’s the seeds of a good idea in the 3d tunnel type ‘twister’ game idea... although I haven’t done much in the code put up on my blog.

[Recommend me a good Vectrex development setup.]

Thanks, that sounds very much like it's what I was thinking about.

 

Looks like it's got dedicated 'push' editor software as well.

Although I'll probably still do most of my testing on an emulator it would be very usefull to see things working on the real hardware.

[Recommend me a good Vectrex development setup.]

Ok, the stuff I did previously was written in notepad, compiled using the AS09.EXE program and tested with the VECX.EXE Vectrex emulator.

 

 

I know this all seems very basic. So is there a more streamlined approach, or at least a good (preferably free) editor that recognises assembly code?

 

 

Ideally I want to get a cartridge that will let me test on the real hardware. So is there anything that can be integrated to a development platform that can ‘push’ code directly to the Vectrex? Or do I have to save my code to the writable Vectrex card then plug it into the system every time I want to run a test? Not that I’m complaining if I have to do this, anything would be a step up from what I was using!

[Vectrex game idea?]

I think I will be starting a new thread on here shortly, for kindred Vectrex fantasies, like what I mistook this thread for initially, a place to bounce ideas.

Let me know when you start that thread, I'm defenetly looking at doing some more Vectrex programming but I'm short on viable ideas!

 

 

 

Has an Atic-Attack type game been done on the Vectrex?

[Which Vectrex Multicart?]

I can build you a VecFlash if you want ?

 

It's a USB flashcart with very fast loading.

Can the vecFlash be written to as often as you like, for development testing use?

I'v heard that some of these can only be writen to so many times, or is that wrong?

 

Oh, and how much and when would the vecFlash be available?

[Which Vectrex Multicart?]

What's the best (writable) cart for testing development stuff with?

And how available are thay? is it just a case of looking through ebay unil something comes up?

[List of Taboo Trademarks]

Is there a 'City Bomber' type game for the Vectrex?

 

You know, buildings at the bottom, your fly down the screen getting lower as you drop bombs to destroy the buildings.

[Vectrex game idea?]

I'm fantasizing about making a vectrex game prototype and wondering if anyone knows what might be within my ability.

Have a look at the code for my 'Monster House' er. 'game' at http://free.7host01....rryg/retdev.asm

or on my blog: http://garrysgamingblog.blogspot.co.uk under the 'programming' tab.

 

This is a very simple program I knocked up whilst learning the basic fundimentals of programing the Vectrex.

You can also download some of my simple demo code from the blog.

 

Have fun, oh and I'd be interested in going through basic games designe/coding with you if you do start somehting.

I think you generaly learn more if you have someone to share code/ideas with.

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

Hello I've recently been looking over a couple of Vectrex games I started a few years ago but left, and it made me want to re-do a Vectrex project.

I was thinking about tidying up the RetroDevolved program or possibly finishing the other one; the idea for which was loosly based on a level of the 'Twister Mother of Harlots' game for the ZX Spectrum...

 

 

I'd appreciate it if anyone could have a look and let me know what you think of the ideas so far. Give me some sugestions about what can be changed or added to make them better... or let me know if I should just dump the ideas and start again!

No brand-new idea pitches though please...

 

 

 

Oh, you can find the assembly files here: http://garrysgamingb...g-projects.html

 

I'm not precious about these, so feel free to pull the code to bits if you want. They were both early efforts but I think the 'Twister' one may have had some legs...

 

 

I've noticed people seem to be sharing .bin files here and not the assembly code.

Would it be easier if I shared a couple of .bin's?

[Vectrex Programming Forums]

Hello, I've just started to bung out a quick bat and ball routean on the Vectrex and was looking for a vectrex programming discusion forum to ask some questions on.

 

Can anybody point me in the direction of any such forum, do they exist?

 

I've got my ball bouncing around the screen, I can move my bat back and forth and I can bounce my ball off of my bat

I can print statick strings of characters, but I can't work out how to show a score etc as text.

 

It may be my emulator, but it all seems to be going rather slow as well...

 

I'm looking for answers to this and some other basic question on Vectrex Assembly programming.

 

Any help is welcome.

[Adventure port?]

There was English Software. Some of their games were lame but they did release a few really good ones.

Didn't English Software do Electraglide?

I played this quite a lot on my 800XL...

[How to recover files from an ATARI 8Bit formatted disk]

Thanks for the replys...

 

Yes they are single density and most of the disks are written to on both sides!

 

 

Thanks to deathtrappomegranate who has offered to make immages of these disks for me

[British 8bit Atari Magazines]

I've still got some of the origonal Page 6 Disks as well, some issue disks and some of the specials. I also found a copy of bolderdash construction kit on a disk, although I've nothing to play then on just now

[European/PAL FB2 Release?]

I think I might just have to buy an NTSC version for the collection then!

 

For me it means messing around with the TV signal and power converster though!