Albert Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Wow, I just ran through all the binaries in succession. I was a huge fan of Ballblazer on the Atari 8-bit and played it all the time with friends. It's amazing to see this come to life on the 2600! The scrolling playfield may be lower resolution than the 5200/8-bit versions, but it "feels" just right! Once you have all the boundaries in place and can properly "bounce" off them, it'll feel even more like the original game. Can't wait to see two playfields in action!! Keep up the great work! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Wow, I just ran through all the binaries in succession. I was a huge fan of Ballblazer on the Atari 8-bit and played it all the time with friends. It's amazing to see this come to life on the 2600! The scrolling playfield may lower resolution than the 5200/8-bit versions, but it "feels" just right! Once you have all the boundaries in place and can properly "bounce" off them, it'll feel even more like the original game. Can't wait to see two playfields in action!! Keep up the great work! ..Al Wow that's just great! I hope I can keep up to the expectations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allpaul Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 I've been lurking in this thread since it started. This is too kick ass! You're on fire man! Keep it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElB Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Wow that's just great! I hope I can keep up to the expectations You've done great so far - I registered here just to congratulate you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Wow that's just great! I hope I can keep up to the expectations You've done great so far - I registered here just to congratulate you! That's cool! thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I'm working on the drones right now. I managed to get them 16 pixels wide! So I can reasamble the original drones pretty close. I first though about really cool scaling routines, but then I realised that I first need to display something and than work further on . The sprite in the sky is displayed in a completely different way than the part in the checkerboard, but you won't notice. So here it is, just a really huge drone: ballblazer.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 *falls out of chair* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moderntimes99 Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 This is simply amazing, the animation is so smooth... Regards, Moderntimes99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Is there any way to do some gradient stuff at the horizon line? This would really help the sky, for instance, but also to kind of "haze" out the checkerboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 zomfg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Is there any way to do some gradient stuff at the horizon line? This would really help the sky, for instance, but also to kind of "haze" out the checkerboard. The previous versions had gradient in the sky, but I remove it, because I was mainly focused getting the sprites on screen, so when that's finished, I will put it back in (assuming I've enough cycles left). Gradient in the checkerboard is also possible, but I won't do it yet, because it costs precious cycles, setting up the colors for the tiles already takes 963 cycles, I first have to speed it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Holy crap! That is amazing! That's one of the things I love about AA. People very often suggest what appear to be (or in many cases are) patently ludricrous ideas, and every once in a while - somebody brings them to life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Holy crap! That is amazing! That's one of the things I love about AA. People very often suggest what appear to be (or in many cases are) patently ludricrous ideas, and every once in a while - somebody brings them to life. Yeah, aren't you glad the creator of this thread wasn't sent to the To All Non-Programmer Idea Peddlers thread? "If you think Ballblazer might be is possible, make it yourself or shut up." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Oh. My. God. Now that is something I never thought I'd see on a VCS. Amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 I've been following this - pretty impressive. I take it doing it as dual window won't be any problem? Also - what proportion horizontally does the viewport occupy? It's kinda hard to tell with Stella on my widescreen monitor what's screen and what would be invisible on a TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 (edited) I take it doing it as dual window won't be any problem? I hope so Also - what proportion horizontally does the viewport occupy? It's kinda hard to tell with Stella on my widescreen monitor what's screen and what would be invisible on a TV. There is a black border left and right consisting of 5 playfield pixels, so it's a bit smaller than other games. You can toggle it in Stella with alt-n. Edited October 4, 2008 by roland p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potatohead Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 Nicely done! This remains one of my favorite games. Your efforts are brilliant. Hope you are feeling good, because you really should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allpaul Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Holy crap! That is amazing! That's one of the things I love about AA. People very often suggest what appear to be (or in many cases are) patently ludricrous ideas, and every once in a while - somebody brings them to life. Yeah, aren't you glad the creator of this thread wasn't sent to the To All Non-Programmer Idea Peddlers thread? "If you think Ballblazer might be is possible, make it yourself or shut up." I'll co-sign that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Another update. I've been optimizing the code. The routine for calculation of horizontal movement is now improved and inculded in the checkerboard kernel instead of in the VBLANK. This means I am able to create 2 playfields! You can use cursor to move upper ship and Y,G,H,J to move lower ship. Right now, both ships hover in parallel universums which means they can't see each other There are still some optimisations to be done, between the upper and the lower ship, lot's of calculations are done, so no time to display scores yet. ballblazer.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Another update. I've been optimizing the code. The routine for calculation of horizontal movement is now improved and inculded in the checkerboard kernel instead of in the VBLANK. This means I am able to create 2 playfields! That's fantastic! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 I knew you could do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 All this and it's only 4k so far? Pretty cool! Can't wait to see what comes of this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 All this and it's only 4k so far? Pretty cool! Can't wait to see what comes of this! Yep, 1004 bytes ROM and 17 bytes of RAM left so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdub_bobby Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Very impressive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 All this and it's only 4k so far? Pretty cool! Can't wait to see what comes of this! Yep, 1004 bytes ROM and 17 bytes of RAM left so far. That's not much RAM left for the actual game... the need to optimise somewhere or can I smell a superchip around the corner (I wouldn't blame ya here!)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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