Game Ideas?

[matorin57]

Hi I'm new to forums and also new to Atari 2600 programming. My friends and I are CS undergrads at TAMU and have been wanting to write a game for a retro console for a while now, being that we have a 2600 in our posession and have found a good development environment for the 2600 we are ready to go. We however are currently not sure what to make, we have been trying to play the 2600 as much as possible to try and see what the limitations of the system are and what genres would work well but we are still drawing a blank. We were wondering if anyone here had any ideas that we could implement. Please if you have any ideas let us know, we will be posting the finished rom for free and possible open source here. And if we end up using an idea given to us we will happily mail the creator of the idea a finished cartridge version if possible. All ideas are welcome, thanks for the input

[+Random Terrain]

I have a bunch of free game ideas here:

randomterrain.com/rt-free-game-making-ideas.html

[roland p]

Someone still has to finish this: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/64948-anyone-thirsty-for-some-pop/page-22

[carlsson]

Why not start with cloning some of the more popular types of games, to get you going with the development environment and get you familiar with the system? As you go along, you might come up with own twists, one after another that would turn a well known concept into something different, hopefully still fun to play. One good thing with starting with cloning is that you know exactly what you want to achieve and how it possibly should work.

[+Random Terrain]

Why not start with cloning some of the more popular types of games, to get you going with the development environment and get you familiar with the system? As you go along, you might come up with own twists, one after another that would turn a well known concept into something different, hopefully still fun to play. One good thing with starting with cloning is that you know exactly what you want to achieve and how it possibly should work.

 

I have a link for that too:

 

randomterrain.com/game-design.html#cure_for_sos_syndrome

[Thomas Jentzsch]

salstadt used to post some great game ideas (FadeOut!) here on AA. Unfortunately all screen shots are gone now.

[carlsson]

Not just clone a classic game, try if you like to mix two classic games into one. Now I know there is an excellent Pac-Man port for the 2600 on its way, but you could make a simpler clone in which the player when eating a power pill instead of gobbling up the ghosts, temporarily gets a gun and in the distance of direction can shoot ghosts in front of you, until they start to blink or whatever and your gun disappears. Just one idea out of a hat.

 

Or how about a snake game where your targets are moving robots, and you have to protect a bunch of humans from getting killed by the robots, by running over the robots in time. Some kind of twisted combination of Snake and Berzerk.

Edited April 16, 2015 by carlsson

[REACTOR]

If you want to go for ambitious goals why not make a Historically genred game based on the accounts of Herodotus? Recently I have been reading a really amazing and insane book which is the "Histories" by Herodotus (Herodotus is a Greek man who lived around 400 BCE who was basically the equivalent to the travel blogger). While some people may be thinking "Oh Ancient times, what could you possibly get out of it?", but I am sure there are many themes which could be incorporated into a game, and the stories are just incredible.

 

One idea could be having the player play as different rulers, Cyrus, Darius, Cambyses, and having the player go on military campaigns along with some storyline. This could be adapted using dynamics similar to Space Invaders or any other shoot'em up game, along with the weapons of the ancient times, and different obstacles throughout the ancient ruler's journeys, rugged mountains, marshlands, narrow valleys...

 

Or you could have a game where you are on a journey to a far away place set in ancient times but the only way you can get there is by dechiphering the replies from Oracles ([Oracle] A person (usually a woman) who gives prophecies which are often ambiguous).

 

Those are my ideas for you.

[Papa]

Make a game about ancient history only full of high technology!!

[Mr SQL]

welcome matorin, awesome you are CS students! You may like the free ASDK VCS development kit for building your game or to inspire you with ideas. It adds large virtual worlds and tile mapped sprites like the NES and lets you create cart or tape games. The games linked in my signature are built with it.

[kisrael]

Heh, late to the party

 

"2600 101" was another form of begining Atari programming.

And in general, a lot of newbies get great results in Batari BASIC.

 

I was able to do Loaded4Bear ( http://alienbill.com/loaded4bear/ ) in 48 hours.

 

My advice is to start bottom up rather than top down in design; put some things on the screen, start moving them around, see what feels cool and fun to make react.

[REACTOR]

If you want to go for ambitious goals why not make a Historically genred game based on the accounts of Herodotus? Recently I have been reading a really amazing and insane book which is the "Histories" by Herodotus (Herodotus is a Greek man who lived around 400 BCE who was basically the equivalent to the travel blogger). While some people may be thinking "Oh Ancient times, what could you possibly get out of it?", but I am sure there are many themes which could be incorporated into a game, and the stories are just incredible.

 

One idea could be having the player play as different rulers, Cyrus, Darius, Cambyses, and having the player go on military campaigns along with some storyline. This could be adapted using dynamics similar to Space Invaders or any other shoot'em up game, along with the weapons of the ancient times, and different obstacles throughout the ancient ruler's journeys, rugged mountains, marshlands, narrow valleys...

 

Or you could have a game where you are on a journey to a far away place set in ancient times but the only way you can get there is by dechiphering the replies from Oracles ([Oracle] A person (usually a woman) who gives prophecies which are often ambiguous).

 

Those are my ideas for you.

Or maybe, you could make a game based on the Turkish empire throughout the 12th-17th centuries, or other empires near there. I think there are a lot of ideas which you can find there. Turkey, the Arab world, and Africa, have very rich histories.

[AW127]

A "Dr. Mario" or "Puyo Puyo" clone on the Atari would be superb. Dont know if the VCS-2600 could handle all the blocks, when the screen gets filled with them in different colors, but these are two very good puzzle-games which i would like to see on the 2600.

[MayDay]

salstadt used to post some great game ideas (FadeOut!) here on AA. Unfortunately all screen shots are gone now.

Was FadeOut! the game where there was a red player and a grey player that could hide behind walls of the same color?

 

Edit- did some google searching which led back to the "in development" page here, which still has screenshots. Apparently, there were multiple colored players/walls, but it is the game I was thinking of (which he had put into an animated .gif for his avatar IIRC). http://www.atariage.com/development_page.html?InDevelopmentID=77

Edited July 9, 2015 by MayDay

[Crazy Climber]

LOGANS RUN!!

Edited July 14, 2015 by Crazy Climber