Alien Pinball

[+Random Terrain]

We definitely need more pinball games for the VCS. The action on this game is really fast and I find I'm draining a lot early on, but once I've got few games under me I'm doing much better. I even got the background scene to change! Yay!

 

I'd like to have a batari Basic pinball 'engine' that would help any bB user make Atari 2600 pinball games that will have the ball bounce and move in a realistic way and interact with the flippers in a

. I'm not even sure how many animation frames should be used for a flipper so players will be able to use the usual techniques to control the ball the way they can when playing a real pinball game:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/270373-realistic-pinball-physics-on-the-atari-2600/

 

 

 

youtube.com/watch?v=r_7TQ6wRZdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_7TQ6wRZdw

 

youtube.com/watch?v=b2ZJQYk6OMk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2ZJQYk6OMk

[winkdot]

 

I'd like to have a batari Basic pinball 'engine' that would help any bB user make Atari 2600 pinball games that will have the ball bounce and move in a realistic way and interact with the flippers in a

. I'm not even sure how many animation frames should be used for a flipper so players will be able to use the usual techniques to control the ball the way they can when playing a real pinball game:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/270373-realistic-pinball-physics-on-the-atari-2600/

 

 

 

youtube.com/watch?v=r_7TQ6wRZdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_7TQ6wRZdw

 

youtube.com/watch?v=b2ZJQYk6OMk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2ZJQYk6OMk

RT, I would love to take a look at the code. You can PM me or post here if you like. thanks!

[+Random Terrain]

RT, I would love to take a look at the code. You can PM me or post here if you like. thanks!

 

No code yet. It's just something that will happen one of these days, whether I make it or somebody else does. Imagine code on the bB page that any of us could use as a framework to create pinball games that have semi-realistic physics and flippers that act like real flippers. Maybe someone will create a drag & drop Pinball Construction Set for making Atari 2600 games in the future and remove the need to write code.

 

youtube.com/watch?v=ow0X7IrzzO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow0X7IrzzO8

[+Karl G]

I would personally love to see sample code with ball physics, too. I think it could help people make a variety of games.

[iesposta]

I'd like to have a batari Basic pinball 'engine' that would help any bB user make Atari 2600 pinball games that will have the ball bounce and move in a realistic way and interact with the flippers in a realistic way. I'm not even sure how many animation frames should be used for a flipper so players will be able to use the usual techniques to control the ball the way they can when playing a real pinball game:

 

Something I always wanted to do.

I had my hopes up recently because of development on the pinball part of Bob’s 7800 port of Baby Pac-Man.

Then the pinball physics frustration caused the project to be stopped many times.

I was hoping for simple fast 6507 code.

Kurt not only stepped up and wrote the Baby Pac-Man pinball code, it turned out so great that I’m sure it must be way beyond simple.

 

Future Pinball, a 3D PC pinball simulator, even used an already coded “physics library”, and THAT great program never played like a real pinball machine! It is still fun and at there are at least 2 different “physics fixes”, but I never bothered trying fixes.

 

I’m hoping the 7800 Baby Pac-Man will lead to other 7800 pinball video games.

 

But I’d still like to make pinball for the 2600 — with any physics (real or fake), from pong style, to “movement map” style, etc.

Blocky graphics would be good if the table covered many “screens” tall, wide, or both.

Nicer graphics like Midnight Magic and Bumper Bash need player sprite re-use, and player, Missile, ball skewing / offsets as the screen draws down, some things currently beyond batari Basic (unless a custom kernel of pinball construction objects were made).

[winkdot]

Something I always wanted to do.

I had my hopes up recently because of development on the pinball part of Bob’s 7800 port of Baby Pac-Man.

Then the pinball physics frustration caused the project to be stopped many times.

I was hoping for simple fast 6507 code.

Kurt not only stepped up and wrote the Baby Pac-Man pinball code, it turned out so great that I’m sure it must be way beyond simple.

 

Future Pinball, a 3D PC pinball simulator, even used an already coded “physics library”, and THAT great program never played like a real pinball machine! It is still fun and at there are at least 2 different “physics fixes”, but I never bothered trying fixes.

 

I’m hoping the 7800 Baby Pac-Man will lead to other 7800 pinball video games.

 

But I’d still like to make pinball for the 2600 — with any physics (real or fake), from pong style, to “movement map” style, etc.

Blocky graphics would be good if the table covered many “screens” tall, wide, or both.

Nicer graphics like Midnight Magic and Bumper Bash need player sprite re-use, and player, Missile, ball skewing / offsets as the screen draws down, some things currently beyond batari Basic (unless a custom kernel of pinball construction objects were made).

I used to have a real Baby Pac-man machine. Loved it but it has a special board in it that's sorta one of a kind (Vidiot! currently about $500 or so). It's complicated machine. I figured the board would fail in time so I ended up selling it.

 

Have not seen the baby-pac man on the 7800. That sound great. Is it still a WiP?

 

I never knew what I was getting into with Alien Pinball. The code in it is sort of crazy. Collisions were difficult and ball physics were hard (for me anyway). I put in gravity but overall it's just not right, just as close as I could get.

 

[iesposta]

 

I used to have a real Baby Pac-man machine. Loved it but it has a special board in it that's sorta one of a kind (Vidiot! currently about $500 or so). It's complicated machine. I figured the board would fail in time so I ended up selling it.

 

MoonbeamArcade Pete had a Baby Pac-Man also, then sold it also. Only 7,000 were made. I only played it when it was out new, and not very much due to the difficulty and the limited pinball area.

 

 

Have not seen the baby-pac man on the 7800. That sound great. Is it still a WiP?

 

 

 

Video of the latest. HD 720p :

 

 

 

I never knew what I was getting into with Alien Pinball. The code in it is sort of crazy. Collisions were difficult and ball physics were hard (for me anyway). I put in gravity but overall it's just not right, just as close as I could get.

 

 

 

I couldn't convert a simple type-in Atari 800 basic program of a "bouncing ball" to batari Basic.

That's was / will be my starting point.

Control over Gravity, Time, Velocity, Rebound, Decay, etc.

Maybe along with some kind of table area location map data that would influence movement such as needed for going up or down a ramp.

[winkdot]

Nice! That 7800 version of Baby looks great. Bob always does superior work. Iesposta, saw your name in the credits. Did you do the sound?

[winkdot]

Update - Harmony attempt.

 

update 1.0 harmony - it runs slower. If you do not use the harmony to play I don't think you want this version as it runs slower.

 

I don't have a harmony so to test I have been putting breaks for scan lines.

[Arenafoot]

It is with a sad heart, I would like to let all of the Atari community know that I just found out Ed Riley "winkdot" passed away last October. Ed was a programmer who created at least 7 known Atari 2600 homebrew games: Cows (2015), Alien Pinball (2015), The Deep (2015), Orb (2015), Doom Patrol (2015), Shark Jaws + (2018), and The Goons (2019). Ed helped me to cover two of his titles, The Deep (volume 2) and Doom Patrol (volume 3) for my book series. When I reached out to him for the title Orb, was when I found out about his death from his daughter, Lindsay.

As we never met in person, we had several conversations thru the AtariAge forums and on Facebook. He had plans in 2018 to come to the Houston Arcade Expo and attend my book signing there but, medical issues came up and he had to cancel.

In honor of Ed, I have made a dedication ROM pack of his games and a document contained within the pack with information about him. I know Ed would want as many people to be able to play his games as possible. May you get a perfect score playing your games in Heaven.

Brian Matherne 
https://amazon.com/author/brianmatherne
https://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

 

 

Winkdot dedication .zip

Edited May 28, 2020 by Arenafoot