A8 port of 2600 River Raid?

[BoatofCar]

After reading the Stampede thread, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to port the 2600 version of River Raid to the Atari 8 bit. I know the 8 bit version is technically superior, but I prefer the more pastoral residential settings and straight riverbanks of the 2600 version.

[Rybags]

Anyone tried? Probably not.

 

It's been a long time since I played either version, but I'd think it should be possible. If the game uses the Player replication feature or not could determine if it's a relative walk in the park or needs some real effort.

 

Maybe River Raid II would be more worthy of conversion since it doesn't exist on A8. I've got the 2600 cart, never played it though.

[José Pereira]

I also never played it or even saw a video.

I was just passing and saw this Topic.

Hmm... River Raid II is just new levels and gfxs or does it have anything new in gameplay?

I don't see a reason to convert I or even II to A8 but maybe we can use the A8 code of I and do the II?

Is it II so different than I or hard for a coder to enter on its listing and do II?

[Rybags]

RR2 has altitude, open ocean and is probably sufficiently different such that using the original engine would be harder than converting from 2600.

 

RR looks like it's simple, doesn't seem to ever be much on a given scanline.

The proof though would be in going into the kernal to see what's going on.

[José Pereira]

And using the code and logic of 2600s II but with A8 gfxs like in I?

If you can use the 2600 code then the gfxs can just be re-done. Its just the same but with other looking and change the gfxs values in data.

Edited January 29, 2014 by José Pereira

[Rybags]

It'd probably be a mix of both.

Possibly the moving objects could be all done with PMGs with little modification.

Terrain stuff probably another matter. Playfield on 2600 doesn't convert directly to anything the computer has.

 

Although it's only 20 bits of data which either repeats, reflects or changes between screen halves - often it's the case that it's different on each scanline, so can become too much for a simple translational algorithm.

[Heaven/TQA]

again the question why doing it? (ok... remembering the the TBBT episode... "because we can")

[José Pereira]

From what Rybags said it seems that II has new things.

Doing it but with the 'A8 way of' and looking gfxs of I.

[Rybags]

The thing with these conversions is that once you talk about adding enhancements and extras it can become a whole different kettle of fish.

 

When a conversion is just doing what's essentially some emulation and conversion, it can be fairly easy, something might be playable in a few hours then add a few hours more of polishing and fixing up glitches.

 

For a largely static game like the pinball one, adding extra graphics that don't participate would be fairly trivial.

For a scrolling game such as RR/RR2, enhancing the graphics and adding extra moving stuff isn't. Maybe something like multicoloured sprites using spare PMG objects but beyond that it bloats out into a medium/large type of project.

 

What many of these games can do with though is stuff like pause feature, and maybe incorporate the option for existing hacks if they already exist - that is if they're useful enhancements to begin with.

[José Pereira]

From what Rybags said it seems that II has new things.

Doing it but with the 'A8 way of' and looking gfxs of I.

[NIKON]

The major difference of RR2 verses RR1 is that you have two different weapons....a gun for aircraft and bombs for ships and buildings...also you can fly over the land area because you need to to bomb the buildings...starts on an aircraft carrier and open ocean and you fly into the river area where instead of fuel plane there are fuel buoys that you must "scoop" up to get the fuel...however when you are low enough you can crash into the land areas...then after the river area you are back to open ocean where after a short time you must land on the aircraft carrier.

 

It takes a bit of getting used to and the only change that I would make to the game would be to assign the two weapons to there own fire buttons...BUT there is only one fire button on the 2600 controller...I guess if someone were to convert it to either the 5200 or the 7800 then that would be a possibility but that is not the topic here.

[+Ripdubski]

Mmmmm RiverRaid. Practically wore that cart out back in the day. Fun game!