Juno First - Final Version (Atari 2600)

[+Nathan Strum]

I've also added a "Get Ready!" message before the game begins, but I'm not sure if I like it yet so let me know what you think.

I don't mind it - but I want to be able to clear it out and start the game with the fire button, not have to wait for it.

[r_type2600]

I've also added a "Get Ready!" message before the game begins, but I'm not sure if I like it yet so let me know what you think.

 

It works fine graphically and adds some extra arcade feeling to the game, but the feature would fully shine if accompanied by the mood-setting (arcade) intro jingle.

 

Hoping that you'd find the motivation to add this sometime - it may appear like a trivial and superfluous extra now that 95% of the game has been so smoothly implemented, but such apparently dispensable spleens often are the spice that elevate a flawless entertaining game to an exciting and captivating experience, bringing back the player again and again, long after he's mastered it.

(a good example is the funky intro siren in Manuel's Colony 7 )

Edited May 21, 2008 by r_type2600

[JunoReaktor]

Thanks for making this game. Testing it has really inspired me to get into ATARI again. Juno First was a favorite of mine back in the day. I walked for miles during the summer of 84 when I was a kid to get to the only mall that I knew of that had the machine!

It always left me with that awesome rush that a only a few other classic games like defender did. The fact that it was an obscure machine made it more special and its strange name instigated bursts of creative thought (as demonstrated by the cool stories posted on this forum).

 

I am playing it on the z26 emulator in window mode. Stella doesn't seem to want to work on my system. I am on a 22"w

monitor so the window is quite small.

 

Points I'd like to make after testing it so far:

 

Your version is the best looking 2600 game I have seen or could ever imagine.

The theme track is cool.

Responsiveness is great.

Aliens look excellent given 2600 limitations.

Flicker is not excessive and seems to stop as they come closer. It views like a natural optical effect caused by movement and distance rather than a mere system limitation.

 

Alien movement and general playability have improved greatly with the latest beta version.

 

Ill be playing it today (day off work) and Ill post some helpful criticism and/or report any bugs.

 

Oh and I like the get ready screen, it works..... anticipation... like winding you up for the release

Edited May 21, 2008 by JunoReaktor

[cd-w]

It works fine graphically and adds some extra arcade feeling to the game, but the feature would fully shine if accompanied by the mood-setting (arcade) intro jingle.

 

I would like to include this jingle, but I have been unable to duplicate it with the limited sound abilities of the 2600 (and my own lack of musical ability). If anyone can figure out how to do this then I will be happy to include it.

 

Chris

[cd-w]

Thanks for making this game. Testing it has really inspired me to get into ATARI again. Juno First was a favorite of mine back in the day. I walked for miles during the summer of 84 when I was a kid to get to the only mall that I knew of that had the machine!

It always left me with that awesome rush that a only a few other classic games like defender did. The fact that it was an obscure machine made it more special and its strange name instigated bursts of creative thought (as demonstrated by the cool stories posted on this forum).

 

Thanks - it is good to hear from someone who played Juno First back in the day. I had never heard of the game until a couple of years ago when Manuel mentioned it on his blog. I have only played it in MAME, never on a real cabinet, but I immediately liked the simple and addictive gameplay. I am still open to suggestions for improvement, though I can probably only accomodate small tweaks at this stage.

 

Chris

[JunoReaktor]

I haven't had a chance yet to play test past the first 5 or so levels (my arcade motor skills aren't what they used to be) but at this stage Id like to make 2 small suggestions for improvement.

 

1 - The main Title flickers in an annoying way just before it changes color. This robs the game of some its ultra slick feel. If its a tossup between having the flicker with multiple colors or living with just one color I would choose the latter.

 

2 - On the Arcade version The sound effect when you save the Astronaut is very alarming it really feels like you have slipped into another dimension. I now realize that this adds a lot to the addiction. On this version sometimes its difficult to tell when your in bonus mode. My suggestion would be to drop out the background (wooshing/white noise) sound while in bonus mode and dropping it back in when bonus mode ends. I think this would make the beeping alarm sound stand out and the lack of engine/movement noise will add to the hyperdimensional effect. (I think I just made up a word). Alternatively you could take the woosh sound up in pitch a bit during the bonus part.

 

I tried the pal version and the vector lines in level 1 are green instead of the purple blue. Is this meant to be or is it an emulator issue? (... I dont mind it, the lime green gives it a different retro flavour).

 

Apart from that its got the vibe. When can I buy one

[+SpiceWare]

1 - The main Title flickers in an annoying way just before it changes color. This robs the game of some its ultra slick feel. If its a tossup between having the flicker with multiple colors or living with just one color I would choose the latter.

If you're using an emulator then you'll want to turn on Phosphor Mode. Under Stella on my Mac I hit COMMAND-SHIFT-P.

[Mayhem]

I tried the pal version and the vector lines in level 1 are green instead of the purple blue. Is this meant to be or is it an emulator issue? (... I dont mind it, the lime green gives it a different retro flavour).

 

I'm guessing the palette differences haven't been taken into account yet. Admitedly I hadn't really noticed cos I've been playing the PAL version mainly here so far. But having fired up the NTSC version and compared, I rather prefer its look instead...

[cd-w]

1 - The main Title flickers in an annoying way just before it changes color. This robs the game of some its ultra slick feel. If its a tossup between having the flicker with multiple colors or living with just one color I would choose the latter.

 

This is just an emulator issue - the flicker on the logo should be much less on a real TV. You should be able to reduce the flicker by starting Z26 using the -f (phosphorescent) option. In Stella, this option can be enabled by pressing Alt-P during the game.

 

2 - On the Arcade version The sound effect when you save the Astronaut is very alarming it really feels like you have slipped into another dimension. I now realize that this adds a lot to the addiction. On this version sometimes its difficult to tell when your in bonus mode. My suggestion would be to drop out the background (wooshing/white noise) sound while in bonus mode and dropping it back in when bonus mode ends. I think this would make the beeping alarm sound stand out and the lack of engine/movement noise will add to the hyperdimensional effect. (I think I just made up a word). Alternatively you could take the woosh sound up in pitch a bit during the bonus part.

 

The arcade version has some great sound effects, but the 2600 has very limited sound hardware and I was unable to duplicate them. I will have another go at tweaking the astronaut sound, but if anyone here can produce better effects then I will gladly include them.

 

I tried the pal version and the vector lines in level 1 are green instead of the purple blue. Is this meant to be or is it an emulator issue? (... I dont mind it, the lime green gives it a different retro flavour).

 

The PAL version is intended to be played on a real PAL TV. You can make the PAL colours display properly by starting Z26 with the -c1 option (in Stella: Tab->Game Properties->Display->Format: PAL60). The PAL colours should be very close to the NTSC colours when using the correct emulator options.

 

Thanks for your comments,

Chris

[cd-w]

I'm guessing the palette differences haven't been taken into account yet. Admitedly I hadn't really noticed cos I've been playing the PAL version mainly here so far. But having fired up the NTSC version and compared, I rather prefer its look instead...

 

Have you been playing on real hardware, or with an emulator? The emulators do not auto-detect the PAL palette when using PAL60, so you will need to set the palette by hand (use -c1 in Z26, or in Stella Tab->Game Properties->Display->Format:PAL60). I have taken into account the palette differences, but PAL colours on the 2600 always look a bit washed out compared to the NTSC versions.

 

Chris

[JunoReaktor]

Thanks guys for help with the emulators both Stella & z working fine now.

 

The arcade version has some great sound effects, but the 2600 has very limited sound hardware and I was unable to duplicate them. I will have another go at tweaking the astronaut sound, but if anyone here can produce better effects then I will gladly include them.

 

I think your sound effects are great. I realize the limits of the machine thats why I suggested dropping out a sound.

 

drop out the background (engine/white noise) sound while in bonus mode and dropping it back in when bonus mode ends

 

 

I don't know if this is possible or even if it would work just a suggestion. Sometimes less is more.

[Mayhem]

Cheers CD-W, I didn't realise PAL60 went "funny" in Stella on the detection front. Looks much better now

[Cybergoth]

Cheers CD-W, I didn't realise PAL60 went "funny" in Stella on the detection front. Looks much better now

 

In Stellas defense, there's nothing wrong with the auto-detection as such. It's generally impossible for an emulator to auto-detect that it should run a certain 60Hz binary with PAL colors, unless it actually knows the binary from its configuration.

[cd-w]

Here is another quick beta release for testing. The main changes this time are:

• The "Get Ready" message can now be skipped with the fire button (it also colour-cycles).
  
• The ship is invulnerable for a few seconds after starting, and after you lose a life - this is shown by a flashing ship.
  
• The high score table is greyed-out if no SaveKey is detected.
  
• The game now uses 262 scanlines (60Hz) throughout - this involved lots of minor code tweaks, so let me know if anything seems broken.
  

I think the game is really nearing completion now! However, there are two issues that I'm not sure about, so let me know if you have any opinions.

1. The game pauses after you die, which I think is quite handy if you need a break, but there was some feeling that this disturbs the flow of the game. Should the game continue automatically after you loose a life?
   
2. It is possible to start at any wave between 1 and 32 by pressing SELECT on the title screen. This doesn't make the game any easier, but allows more advanced players to skip the early waves. Should the scores be recorded on the high score table even if the player skips ahead?
   

The next beta should have significantly better speech, as mos6507 is currently working hard with the AtariVox. As usual, let me know if anything seems broken, or if you see any screen rolls.

 

Thanks,

Chris

 

EDIT: The first version of Beta7 that I uploaded had some nasty screenrolls in the savekey handling code - this should be fixed in the attached version.

Juno_First_BETA7_NTSC.bin

Juno_First_BETA7_PAL60.bin

Edited May 23, 2008 by cd-w

[Thomas Jentzsch]

It's generally impossible for an emulator to auto-detect that it should run a certain 60Hz binary with PAL colors, unless it actually knows the binary from its configuration.

Impossible? That's a strong term.

 

A statistical analysis of the colors used could be helpful:

E.g. colors $1x, $Ex and $Fx are rarely used by PAL colored games. Also e.g. red is more often used than magenta. All this information combined with knowledge about good looking color combinations and you are pretty close to knowing.

[cd-w]

Impossible? That's a strong term.

A statistical analysis of the colors used could be helpful:

E.g. colors $1x, $Ex and $Fx are rarely used by PAL colored games. Also e.g. red is more often used than magenta. All this information combined with knowledge about good looking color combinations and you are pretty close to knowing.

 

Alternatively you could just check the ROM filename to see if it contains "PAL", but neither solution is probably worth implementing due to false positives.

 

Chris

[+stephena]

Just an FYI that I just posted a thread for the 2.6.1 release of Stella. It fixes all the AVox/SaveKey issues mentioned in this thread, and also adds the long-requested feature of scanline/framerate counts overlaid on the TIA image. It's also much more accurate framerate-wise, as the framerate is now calculated based on the number of scanlines. This fixes the issue in Beta6 where sounds would 'skip' on the 266-line intro.

 

Cheers CD-W, I didn't realise PAL60 went "funny" in Stella on the detection front. Looks much better now

 

In Stellas defense, there's nothing wrong with the auto-detection as such. It's generally impossible for an emulator to auto-detect that it should run a certain 60Hz binary with PAL colors, unless it actually knows the binary from its configuration.

Yes, this is exactly what's happening. Currently I can only determine whether something is ~60Hz vs. ~50Hz. So that means 60Hz will detect NTSC, PAL60 and SECAM60 as NTSC. And 50Hz will detect NTSC50, PAL, and SECAM as PAL.

 

It's generally impossible for an emulator to auto-detect that it should run a certain 60Hz binary with PAL colors, unless it actually knows the binary from its configuration.

Impossible? That's a strong term.

 

A statistical analysis of the colors used could be helpful:

E.g. colors $1x, $Ex and $Fx are rarely used by PAL colored games. Also e.g. red is more often used than magenta. All this information combined with knowledge about good looking color combinations and you are pretty close to knowing.

An interesting approach, but it would need to determine differences between NTSC/PAL/SECAM, not just NTSC and PAL. And it would need to be done during the auto-detect phase, so within 60 frames of first running. Maybe if time permits I can research this ...

[cd-w]

Just an FYI that I just posted a thread for the 2.6.1 release of Stella. It fixes all the AVox/SaveKey issues mentioned in this thread, and also adds the long-requested feature of scanline/framerate counts overlaid on the TIA image. It's also much more accurate framerate-wise, as the framerate is now calculated based on the number of scanlines. This fixes the issue in Beta6 where sounds would 'skip' on the 266-line intro.

 

Many thanks - the AVox/SaveKey feature now seems to work perfectly with Juno First. Also, thanks for initialising the ROM to $FF as this will make debugging much easier.

 

The framecounter is great, but there seems to be a small issue where the frame rate jumps when accessing the SaveKey (e.g. immediately after the scrolling AA logo). This doesn't appear in Z26, and I haven't noticed it on my actual TV, but I'm not ruling out a problem in my code yet

 

Thanks,

Chris

[+stephena]

The framecounter is great, but there seems to be a small issue where the frame rate jumps when accessing the SaveKey (e.g. immediately after the scrolling AA logo). This doesn't appear in Z26, and I haven't noticed it on my actual TV, but I'm not ruling out a problem in my code yet

 

Thanks,

Chris

Yes, it seems frame 129-130 has 263 scanlines. You can see this in the debugger if you enter it just before the scrolling ends. You can step through each frame with 'Alt-f' or by repeatedly pressing the 'Frame +1' button. For that matter, you could write a conditional breakpoint such as "breakif _scan>#262", which would enter the debugger any time the scanline count goes above 262.

 

As for not seeing it in z26, it doesn't have AVox support, so perhaps a different codepath is being taken in Stella. And as for a real TV, I really doubt one would see a jump of one scanline in just one frame.

 

Actually, I just disabled using the AVox for Beta7, and the scanline jump then disappears. So maybe it's somewhere in your highscore code? Although I'm not dismissing the fact that it could be a debugger error either ...

 

EDIT: I think it's confirmed this is a Beta7 issue. I just tried Beta6c with and without AVox support, and the scanline count was constant at 262.

Edited May 23, 2008 by stephena

[cd-w]

EDIT: I think it's confirmed this is a Beta7 issue. I just tried Beta6c with and without AVox support, and the scanline count was constant at 262.

 

Yes, I can confirm this too - this facility is proving very useful already! It seems that a tiny (but important) change that I made in the last version has pushed it beyond 262 scanlines

 

Chris

[Thomas Jentzsch]

An interesting approach, but it would need to determine differences between NTSC/PAL/SECAM, not just NTSC and PAL.

There a no SECAM games.

 

And it would need to be done during the auto-detect phase, so within 60 frames of first running. Maybe if time permits I can research this ...

Actually I was only joking, but its definitely an interesting challenge.

[mos6507]

It is possible to start at any wave between 1 and 32 by pressing SELECT on the title screen. This doesn't make the game any easier, but allows more advanced players to skip the early waves. Should the scores be recorded on the high score table even if the player skips ahead?

 

I suggest you store the starting wave in with the high scores and then decide how to sort or page through the results afterwards. In theory you could store 10 high scores for each starting wave but that eats up a lot of space. or you could group them into chunks (starting wave 1, starting wave 2-5, 6-10, etc...).

[tremoloman2006]

GREAT game Chris! Can't wait to buy this one when its released! This has already become one of my favorite 2600 games and I haven't even played it on real hardware yet.

 

Here are a few of my observations:

 

The "Get Ready" message can now be skipped with the fire button (it also colour-cycles).

Maybe I'm just boring but I prefer the plain white over the color cycle - I find it distracting and better served for bonuses and things of that nature.

 

The ship is invulnerable for a few seconds after starting, and after you lose a life - this is shown by a flashing ship.

Think this is a great feature!

 

The high score table is greyed-out if no SaveKey is detected.

I liked the previous way as it looked more impressive, eye catching, and arcade like.

 

I think the game is really nearing completion now! However, there are two issues that I'm not sure about, so let me know if you have any opinions.

1. The game pauses after you die, which I think is quite handy if you need a break, but there was some feeling that this disturbs the flow of the game. Should the game continue automatically after you loose a life?
   
2. It is possible to start at any wave between 1 and 32 by pressing SELECT on the title screen. This doesn't make the game any easier, but allows more advanced players to skip the early waves. Should the scores be recorded on the high score table even if the player skips ahead?

#1: Would it be possible to making either one of the A/B or the BW/Color switch toggle between those modes?

#2: I think level jump is a good idea. Just look at Tempest and Millipede (two of my all time favs)

 

Mind you these are just my opinions and I'm sure plenty others will disagree with me. Either way you've written an awesome title and are going to make many 2600 owners very happy once this is released!

[vdub_bobby]

1. The game pauses after you die, which I think is quite handy if you need a break, but there was some feeling that this disturbs the flow of the game. Should the game continue automatically after you loose a life?
   
2. It is possible to start at any wave between 1 and 32 by pressing SELECT on the title screen. This doesn't make the game any easier, but allows more advanced players to skip the early waves. Should the scores be recorded on the high score table even if the player skips ahead?
   

I don't think it should pause between lives. If you really want a pause, code it to use the B-W/COLOR switch or something. I think it interrupts the flow of the game too much. But really, I don't think you need a pause for a game like this. If marathon games like Journey Escape, Enduro, etc. don't have a pause, I don't think you need to worry too much about your super-fast action twitch shooter having a pause.

 

And I think you should leave the level select, but don't worry about the high scores; I don't think it really matters. If the people skipping levels get an advantage on the high score table, well, they are starting at a higher level anyway so they've earned their advantage. And if people skipping levels get a disadvantage on the high score table, well, why not reward folks who play through every level? I can see a good argument either way so I don't think it is a big deal.

Edited May 23, 2008 by vdub_bobby

[+Nathan Strum]

And I think you should leave the level select, but don't worry about the high scores; I don't think it really matters. If the people skipping levels get an advantage on the high score table, well, they are starting at a higher level anyway so they've earned their advantage. And if people skipping levels get a disadvantage on the high score table, well, why not reward folks who play through every level? I can see a good argument either way so I don't think it is a big deal.

It's pretty easy to tell if someone skipped levels, since they'll have a high level number, and a relatively low score. I say just leave it as-is. Although for the final release, maybe have it skip every other level, or every four levels so you still have to play to reach some levels of the game. Edited May 23, 2008 by Nathan Strum