Jump to content
IGNORED

Atari 2600 game select information DB


Recommended Posts

OK guys here we go. As stated in the PM I'm trying to gather information concerning the game variations in 2600 games for inclusion with the xbox Z26 emu. A rather large task to say the least. :lol:

 

I also intend to make this DB file available for use by anyone wishing to use it. I only ask anyone who does to give credit to the people involved with gathering this information. :)

 

To get to the AtariAge provided manuals, just follow this link. Use the following settings.

 

Region -> North America

TV Format -> NTSC

Items Per Page -> All

 

I count about 945 titles which comes out to 315 each with the 3 volunteers we have. Me, Albert, and Mimo. If we go alphabetically that would end up as follows (approximation).

 

Me -> 2003 AtariAge Holiday Cart thru Final Approach

AL -> Fast Food thru Quest For Quintana Roo

Mimo ->Qb thru Zaxxon

 

Hopefully no one ended up with a bunch of stinkers. :lol:

 

I included one sample. See message #2 for what it would look like. I usually just cut-n-paste the stuff into notepad, edit it, and then cut-n-paste it into the message board. Looks like with HTML manuals it's best to use the "code" tag and cut-n-past straight into the message box.

 

Also listed in message two is a sample of the database file format. It is designed to work within the constraints of X-ports "INI file" reading code. Don't worry about formatting anything that way unless you want to.. It is pretty much a work in progress and as you can see Asteroids has a little exception called "Kid mode" which I have not really resolved just yet so the below example just might have to be changed.

 

Ultimately how it ends up will depend on what ALL the different games have in common with each other in regards to game select charts. I'm trying to keep the size of the DB file small as can be seen. Mostly due to the amount of memory the xbox has compared to a normal PC.

 

This thread will self destruct in one week. :P

 

Some CRC's..

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe - 58805709
Acid Drop(NTSC) [c] (TJ) - 13160630
Adventure - A6DB4B3A
Adventures of Tron - 1B8019D6
Air Raid - B0E53814
Air Raiders  - BB16539D
Airlock  - 25C90CE7
Air-Sea Battle - 1FC6C0F1
Alien - 6D61059F
Alien's Return (PAL)  - C161F53B
Alpha Beam with Ernie - 27C6B897
Amidar DS (Fast Enemies) - 851CCF3D
Amidar - 8EB5BD72
Angriff der Luftflotten (PAL)  - 74FE8262
Arcade Golf - 28562315
Armor Ambush  - FC35704B
Artillery Duel  - 1D0F7E8D
Assault - AB3A2B77
Asteroids - C7D64C94
Astroblast  - 1DE25331
Astrowar - 7B4B7EAF
Atari Video Cube - 272AE37F
Atlantis (Imagic)  - 92560498
Atlantis  - C22E6A25
Atlantis II  - BA5566AA
Bachelor Party - D9CD6C95
Bachelorette Party - E8189EEB
Backgammon - E2A7FFA6
Balthazar (aka Babylon 5) - 84F589FF
Bank Heist - 7AA79D1E
Barnstorming  - 4A005181
Baseball  - EF851FA2
Basketball - B31D49F0
Battlezone - 9155DD1D
Beamrider  - 1618565B
Beany Bopper  - B722BC8F
Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em  - C90D4F84
Berenstain Bears - 29D28BAF
Bermuda Triangle  - 0FCB5B94
Berzerk (Voice Enhanced) - 8A2C4F09
Berzerk - 2E8B4B5F
Big Bird's Egg Catch - 96DC9A9C
Blackjack - 7125A8B9
Blueprint - DA7B9DFA
BMX Air Master - B4017EE3
Bobby is Going Home (NTSC) [c] - 97559337
Bowling - FEA0D6D5
Boxing  - 9ECE0021
Brain Games - 150709C2
Breakout - Breakaway IV - 3037638C
Bridge  - 9C71D175
Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom  - 2030F686
Bugs  - 1202427C
Bump 'N' Jump - DF2BC303
Bumper Bash - B1A6A23E
Burgertime - C183FBBC
Burning Desire - 92F91D36

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was thinking. If you guys want we can maybe skip over the stinkers and concentrate more on the mainstream stuff. That way at least the good games will be taken care of if/when we get tired of doing this. :lol:

 

Also we might as well avoid hacks as well. Homebrew is fine, though. I mostly wanna have a pretty decent sized DB by release time. Just trying to "enhance" the experience for the end user a little more. :D

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shhh I'm trying to ignore the fact that I probably bit off more than I can chew. :lol:

 

But I appreciate the comment. :)

 

For anyone half paying attention I currently have wto formats. The Iteration format which is the most common and the "matrix" type which is based more around the typical atari game matrix style. I had to make that one up due to Atari Video Cube having some rather odd game selection patterns.

 

The Iteration format is based on a nested loop style format, anyone familar with programming should be able to follow. Those ones I think should work but it will be easier to tell when I plug the numbers in. Probably need to pick a smaller word than "iteration" though. :lol:

 

The game matrix format lists all the options and then which "options" are available for each game.

 

If some enterprising programmer has any suggestions, feel free. There may be a simpler way. I'm mostly concerned with keeping the file size down due to memory constraints in the Xbox. Although I should still have a decent amount of space available.

 

The idea is for the emulator to display which game options the user "selects" while in the emulator and pressing the button assigned to the "select" switch.

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the advice. I've always found the 2600 games to be a bit confusing to keep track of. For example Atlantis was made by Imagic and eventually bought by Activision. So in that case I actually knew about it. :D Luckily the Atariage database is pretty good about providing links about clones, etc.

 

That is kinda why my system is a little convoluted. I use the CRC as a tag [crc-here] and then a Name=Atlantis underneath that which "points" to the real information which is tagged as [Atlantis] that way multiple CRC's can be taken into account. I know it's a bit convoluted but I'm just trying to take advantage of the code already present in X-port emu's without "adding" too much customized code. I honestly hate messing with strings in C. I know there is the string library but for some reason most emu's avoid it and x-port's code is no exception.

 

Like I said square hole, round peg. :lol:

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Although I have not heard from Ne146 lately, I volunteer him for the mystique games. :lol: j/k

 

I'm still flip flopping between using the iteration method and the game matrix method. Although the iteration method is more compact. I feel the matrix method is easier to follow and is something anyone who helps should be able to do without my involvement. Plus matrix order makes it easier to control the "order" text is displayed in. For example typically the game type or number of players would be preferable to display first.

 

I'm also toying with the idea of including controller type info just to make things a little easier for the end user.. It's probably the only thing (outside of the mysterious game selection and left/right difficulty switches) that would be useful in getting a game going.

 

What do you all think?

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to see this project gain momentum. I have considered making labels to stick on the backs of all my cartridges, containing: controller type, number(s) of players, notes about any special conditions (unusual console switch functions, uses right controller port for 1-player games, etc.), as well as a game select matrix. Having all the info in a single database would certainly make this easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always found the 2600 games to be a bit confusing to keep track of. For example Atlantis was made by Imagic and eventually bought by Activision. So in that case I actually knew about it. :D Luckily the Atariage database is pretty good about providing links about clones, etc.

No, it's not.

 

Please use this page:

http://www.atarimania.com/rech_advanced.ph...amp;TYPE_CODE=G

 

8)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I'm gonna kinda skip over Brain Games for now in regards to the difficulty switches.

 

Anyone know the difference between game variations in Bugs Bunny? The manual does not really specify.

 

Well I finished the B's... :)

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm seems I stumbled across a couple more games that use different settings for the difficulty switches for each game variation (Flag Capture and Casino). I guess I'm gonna have to think up something not too convoluted. :lol:

 

For now I'm just listing the options until I think of something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Added some more games. Added a variation for Pele's Soccer. Not sure if that method could be applied to games I already covered or not. But it may be useful for multiple difficulty switch settings. Not really sure.

 

I also noticed that according to the game matrix for chase (aka surround) that Game 10 and 11 are the same. I wonder if this is really true.. :ponder:

 

I don't have my CRC's text file with me so [X's] are in there for temp..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aha! Thanks. Maybe my eyes were crossed at that point. Staring at those game matrixes makes me see dots when I look at a white wall. :lol:

 

Yeah I've seen various projects like this fizzle out over the years. So hopefully I'll be able to get thru without real life getting in the way or boredom settling in. Luckily when I've been working on these I was more bored with what I was doing at them time then doing the game select stuff. I get distracted easily by shiny objects. :lol:

 

I had one guy that copied the game matrixes for the Y's and Z's PM me. Had not had a chance to put 'em here or look thru them yet. But he offered to do more.

 

I know my method is a little odd but it is meant to be read by an emulator. :lol: Still need to figure out something for multiple difficulty switch settings though.

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Added a bunch of games I did yesterday and a couple homebrews. I'm currently trying to talk someone into going over the homebrews since documentation isn't always readily available for them.

 

Condor Attack -> I'm not sure about the game variations (does it have any?)

Communist Mutants From Space -> Not sure about the difficulty settings.

 

The two homebrews I did were Conquest of Mars and Elevators Amiss since I already ran them thru the emulator real quick.

 

I just thought of a way to do type=matrix that should make for a smaller text file but harder to read. For example a matrix right now looks like this.

 

Game01=02

Game02=04

Game03=12

Game04=03

Game05=04

Game06=13

 

The new format would be like this.

 

Games=02,04,12,03,04,13

 

Now for small matrixes this is fairly easy to follow but on larger matrixes it wont be so easy to read.

 

Well Cosmic Swarm nearly threw me for a loop with weird difficulty switch settings but at the very least I think I came up with a multiple difficulty switch settings system.

Edited by Shannon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...