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Space Raid (2600)


nanochess

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Yes yes yes yes yes i have always been in love with zaxxon, kevin Moss did a brilliant hack of the original which i adore playing but to get a version like this is staggering.........Literally cannot wait to try this out..

 

Bravo another excellent game for this amazing platform Hurrah

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Never say never... :)

Here is a version with stable scanlines count for real hardware. Also if your spaceship is beyond middle of level when destroyed it will restart at middle of level :)

Note: only the 8K version.

Edit: Also I've made gaps in walls to be more forgiving.

nanochess_space_raid.zip

Edited by nanochess
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This has really turned out good. Thanks for your all your work.

 

I have a couple of questions about possibilities:

1) During the space stages, I see the ball is being used for a star field. This is cool, but they are so close together that I thought maybe it would look more like stars if you made the dots appear 1/2 or 1/4 as many times as they do now, like below, (or even 1/3 as many -- not pictured).

post-9364-0-30734400-1384137817_thumb.png post-9364-0-84781900-1384138362_thumb.png

2) During the base stages, I see you're using the playfield for the altitude and fuel gauges. I was wondering if you could also use it to cover up the upper and lower portions of the screen like below (rough example). I realize it would have to be an asymmetrical playfield, so it may not be possible with this kernel.

post-9364-0-00976700-1384137818_thumb.png

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This has really turned out good. Thanks for your all your work.

:)

 

I have a couple of questions about possibilities:

1) During the space stages, I see the ball is being used for a star field. This is cool, but they are so close together that I thought maybe it would look more like stars if you made the dots appear 1/2 or 1/4 as many times as they do now, like below, (or even 1/3 as many -- not pictured).

I'm using HMBL in alternate scanlines to displace ball (stars.) I don't have enough cycles to alternate colors.

 

2) During the base stages, I see you're using the playfield for the altitude and fuel gauges. I was wondering if you could also use it to cover up the upper and lower portions of the screen like below (rough example). I realize it would have to be an asymmetrical playfield, so it may not be possible with this kernel.

I've been thinking in a kind of mask, but again it would require too many cycles.

Edited by nanochess
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I'm using HMBL in alternate scanlines to displace ball (stars.) I don't have enough cycles to alternate colors.

 

Ah, I see what you're doing -- flickering the ball so it appears twice per scanline, skip a scanline and do it again (using a 2 scanline kernel). For the sake of illustration & since the 2 scanlines "appear" as a single scanline, I'm going to refer to them as a scanline set. So currently, the ball is drawn twice with flicker on each scanline set. I've highlighted every other scanline set in the 2nd image below so it's easier to see how they're lined up.

Currently:

post-9364-0-70483500-1384194090_thumb.png post-9364-0-45102300-1384194091_thumb.png

 

Forgive me if I'm way off, but would drawing the ball 1/2 as often save cpu cycles? So, instead of drawing the ball every scanline set, only draw it once every other set? I've used the same highlighting as above, but removed the ball on every other scanline set below.

Proposed:

post-9364-0-15850700-1384194092_thumb.png post-9364-0-02984900-1384194093_thumb.png

 

If possible, it equals out the spacing so it appears a bit more like stars than diagonal lines.

 

If this is possible, then maybe doing it even less would look even better and the stars may appear to twinkle more than move? I don't know if I'm saying it in a way that makes sense, but basically, if the ball is drawn every 3 or even 4 scanline sets etc., they may look like they twinkle more than move. At some point, the movement would look a bit choppy, but beyond that, there should be a point where they would appear to twinkle. I'm just guessing every 3 or 4 scanline sets may achieve that. I would have to animate it to know for sure. I'm just curious here and wondering if it would also save you cpu cycles.

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Forgive me if I'm way off, but would drawing the ball 1/2 as often save cpu cycles? So, instead of drawing the ball every scanline set, only draw it once every other set? I've used the same highlighting as above, but removed the ball on every other scanline set below.

 

If possible, it equals out the spacing so it appears a bit more like stars than diagonal lines.

 

The trick here is that the ball is enabled always, I only move it every two scanlines, exactly in the scanline where I have enough time to do writing to HMBL.

 

As you've noted in alternate frames I change position to put two stars on each line also color to do twinkle.

 

In order to reduce the number of stars, I should add turn on/off ENABL register while keeping HMBL for displacing ball to following position.

 

Instead of reducing cycles, in fact I would need at least 5 extra cycles (reading counter and writing to ENABL)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, at last solved a bug that caused screen rolling in Atari 7800 (thanks Gabriel for heads-up) also when pressing Reset the screen lost sync (thanks Omegamatrix for reporting it)

 

Also finally it has been tested in an Atari 2600. :)

 

This thing of compatibility can be so interesting :D

 

nanochess_space_raid.zip

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  • 3 years later...

Wow, great game! While I liked the original 2600 version of Zaxxon, I really liked this version! Why hasn't this been talked about more? I only heard of it today...

 

Haven't seen the original Zaxxon robot but I suppose that's replaced by the tracking missile? Haven't gotten that far yet.

 

Also the manual said if the "P1" difficulty is at B then there'd be a crosshair, yet both of the switches are on B and I don't see one... Has that been removed?

Edited by Tangentg
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Wow, great game! While I liked the original 2600 version of Zaxxon, I really liked this version! Why hasn't this been talked about more? I only heard of it today...

 

Haven't seen the original Zaxxon robot but I suppose that's replaced by the tracking missile? Haven't gotten that far yet.

 

Also the manual said if the "P1" difficulty is at B then there'd be a crosshair, yet both of the switches are on B and I don't see one... Has that been removed?

Hmmm, I think difficulty setting is reversed, P1 difficulty at A shows a crosshair (easier), B setting doesn't show it.

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Hmmm, I think difficulty setting is reversed, P1 difficulty at A shows a crosshair (easier), B setting doesn't show it.

 

I will have to check that out also.

 

I bought your ROM of this game: A. Because you're selling it. B. For the Portable Flashback: C: [remember that joke "Official Zaxxon" label I posted? Well I had to have that on cart with this game in it, so I ended up paying you because you have the ROM reasonably priced for sale and it's the right thing for me to do.

 

That _is_ you selling it (I hope!) ? :o Right? Verdad?

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I will have to check that out also.

 

I bought your ROM of this game: A. Because you're selling it. B. For the Portable Flashback: C: [remember that joke "Official Zaxxon" label I posted? Well I had to have that on cart with this game in it, so I ended up paying you because you have the ROM reasonably priced for sale and it's the right thing for me to do.

 

That _is_ you selling it (I hope!) ? :o Right? Verdad?

Yes. It's me, nanochess, at Scubbly :)

 

Wow! An official label, sometimes I've feel a great temptation to make it a proper Zaxxon :grin:

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Yes. It's me, nanochess, at Scubbly :)

 

Wow! An official label, sometimes I've feel a great temptation to make it a proper Zaxxon :grin:

 

Good to know it's you and I didn't pay a stranger stealing your ROM.

I had a cart made way before your release was ready. That was like me stealing from you.

 

(I was proud I made the label entirely on my iPad.)

Oops. It was "unofficial". Link: http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=319404

 

P.S. It was higher resolution than this posted picture, but not 300dpi or better, and it still turned out very good.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

We'll be featuring Space Raid LIVE on tomorrow's (Wednesday) ZeroPage Homebrew stream on Twitch at 11AM PT | 2PM ET | 7PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

Twitch Stream: http://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:
- Warring Worms: The Worm (Re)Turns (2005) by Billy Eno of Baroque Gaming
- Space Raid by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez aka Nanochess
- Miss It by Alan W Smith aka accousticguitar
- Knight Guy in Low Res World (WIP Update) by John Von Neumann aka vhzc

 

UPDATE: Archived YouTube Video of Stream (Set to 60FPS for Full Quality)

Edited by ZeroPage Homebrew
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  • 6 months later...

I am happy to announce that Óscar has agreed to allow a release of a limited run of 50 SPACE RAID cartridges.

 

I have these for sale starting today, November 1, 2019. Once the 50 cartridges sell, no more are going to be made.

 

Price is $25 and ( $3 shipping in the US ).

 

More information at:

 

http://www.2600connection.com/features/spaceraid/spaceraid.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

thanks,

 

Tim

mcsr.jpg

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