the official Channel F thread!

[3DMAZE]

7 hours ago, atari2600land said:

Hi again! I want to work on making a Channel F game but I have no ideas. I don't have any ideas for The Adventures of the Stalk of Celery, I have no ideas for other games. I'm idea-less. What do people want to see on the Channel F?

I did some concept art based on a ZX81 game called Big Oil. It's based on Oil's Well (1983). Seemed simple enough:

 

I don't know how to phrase it, but I'd love to see Channel F games that requires multiple "screens". Some examples would be:

● "Point and Click"= e.g. Going Out by John Earnest. Basically a slideshow with some variables keeping track of the game state.

● Pseudo-3D = e.g. 3D Monster Maze (1981)

● Side-Scrollers = e.g. Defender (1981). I haven't programmed much for the Channel F, so I don't know if it could update the screen fast enough for side-scrollers to be playable

● Multiple rooms = e.g. Adventure (1980), Black Rainbow (2016)

Some of the Nokia game jams could be worth looking at since their IO is quite simple (84 x 48, black & white, monophonic sound, 12-inputs):

• https://itch.io/jam/nokiajam2/results
• https://itch.io/jam/nokiajam3/results
• https://itch.io/jam/nokiajam4/results

Edited December 29, 2022 by 3DMAZE

[e5frog]

A Russian guy started doing the Chrome browser Dino-game. The hard part is to finish things though. 

[Machine]

OK, dropping these to $1 each.

Shipping is how you want but I can send a bunch via letter for $1.

 

[e5frog]

On 12/29/2022 at 11:53 PM, 3DMAZE said:

● Pseudo-3D = e.g. 3D Monster Maze (1981)

 

● Multiple rooms = e.g. Adventure (1980), Black Rainbow (2016)

 

 

I have also considered the pseudo 3D maze, should be doable if keeping the amount of pixels drawn down.
I'm swamped with making carts though. 

 

Multiple rooms is another nice idea - or a platform game. 
With a base of building blocks a large array of rooms could be built. 

With "Princess rescue" on the 2600 the Channel F deserves a platformer as well - even if it's tiny and blocky.

[Mikebloke]

I've wondered about an adventure / pitfall type game where a byte can contain a rooms details without having to map it out, should be fairly simple to make a basic setup. 

 

My demo platformer with Mario 1-1 level is very heavy on its data use, its not optimised for patterned sections. 

 

I do want to get back to development of Fairchild channel f perhaps at half term. I sold the games on ebay BTW, in case anyone wondered. I cried as I packed it. 

 

Just need to open up notepad++ and get back to it. 

[+fdr4prez]

what about a Super Pixel Bros type of game:

 

 

 

[Ashevent]

On 2/7/2023 at 2:17 AM, e5frog said:

dude! where's doom?..lol. 

Man that is amazing! Sorry you're so swamped, was gonna ask for a Pac-Man..lol.. Bu ti'll wait till stuff slows down. 

 

 

On 2/7/2023 at 2:17 AM, e5frog said:

I have also considered the pseudo 3D maze, should be doable if keeping the amount of pixels drawn down.
I'm swamped with making carts though. 

 

Multiple rooms is another nice idea - or a platform game. 
With a base of building blocks a large array of rooms could be built. 

With "Princess rescue" on the 2600 the Channel F deserves a platformer as well - even if it's tiny and blocky.

 

[kleeder]

anyone else saw the recent release of bintracker https://github.com/bintracker/bintracker/releases

featuring a new channelf audio engine sleisza quartet?

the tracker is still in alpha state, so usability isnt great yet, but i was very excited to see a new F-audio engine in there

[Mikebloke]

1 minute ago, kleeder said:

anyone else saw the recent release of bintracker https://github.com/bintracker/bintracker/releases

featuring a new channelf audio engine sleisza quartet?

the tracker is still in alpha state, so usability isnt great yet, but i was very excited to see a new F-audio engine in there

Nice will try and give this a go. 

[Ashevent]

I hope it was someone in this group who got it. I didn't see until it had already sold. Damn stupid Valentine's day weekend away with Mrs.!..lol. 

 

 

[e5frog]

Feels good to own one. 

[Mikebloke]

Wish I had the money, and the rest of the collection to make it complete 😜

 

Oh well.

 

A new game for everyone here though, tried and tested on a real console too!

 

Space Race has finally been finished after a half dozen tries at coding collision detection for all the stars. I think my issue was when I copy paste code for each of them (I am incredibly lazy and don't optimise code unless I really need to!) I was branching backwards instead of forwards when I forgot to edit a line. Well I've finally learnt the lesson and got it working! Works on Mess / Mame and real console. 1 or 2 player, a loose port of the 1973 Arcade game Space Race. Its 4kb at the moment but I can optimise it can easily get into 2kb.

 

Could do with sound still, so an update this week is likely, if I can get something not too grating on the ears! Will upload this to itch.io tomorrow probably.

spacerace.binINSTRUCTIONS FOR SPACERACE.docx

[+fdr4prez]

Thanks for the game.

 

I have been meaning to add the Channel F into my RetroPie.

[Ashevent]

6 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

May the Stone Age Gaming gods shower you with riches..and the rest of the collection!

 

 

Wish I had the money, and the rest of the collection to make it complete 😜

 

Oh well.

 

A new game for everyone here though, tried and tested on a real console too!

 

Space Race has finally been finished after a half dozen tries at coding collision detection for all the stars. I think my issue was when I copy paste code for each of them (I am incredibly lazy and don't optimise code unless I really need to!) I was branching backwards instead of forwards when I forgot to edit a line. Well I've finally learnt the lesson and got it working! Works on Mess / Mame and real console. 1 or 2 player, a loose port of the 1973 Arcade game Space Race. Its 4kb at the moment but I can optimise it can easily get into 2kb.

 

Could do with sound still, so an update this week is likely, if I can get something not too grating on the ears! Will upload this to itch.io tomorrow probably.

spacerace.bin 4 kB · 3 downloads INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPACERACE.docx 30.55 kB · 3 downloads

 

[e5frog]

Impressive!

 

They made that on Vectrex, with Xmas trees instead of ships.

 

@fdr4prez I have spent a couple of hours on that and not succeeding, it's difficult when every step is unknown and having to google several times on each thing.

I managed to boot an image but not getting any emulation running.

Ideal would be a finished image, that starts Channel F ASAP after powering up. 

 

A tutorial for total noobs is needed.

 

 

 

[Mikebloke]

3 hours ago, e5frog said:

Impressive!

 

They made that on Vectrex, with Xmas trees instead of ships.

 

@fdr4prez I have spent a couple of hours on that and not succeeding, it's difficult when every step is unknown and having to google several times on each thing.

I managed to boot an image but not getting any emulation running.

Ideal would be a finished image, that starts Channel F ASAP after powering up. 

 

A tutorial for total noobs is needed.

 

 

 

Further emulators on other devices would be amazing, especially on things like Retro Pie. Retroarch has something... But I find none of my games work 100% on it, and a lot of the commercial roms don't seem to work well on it either. 

[CaptainBreakout]

There's another Checkers out in the bay...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185674708978?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=q5Uw9aFzReS&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=IXSF_nPxTBe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Mikebloke]

Priced at higher than the boxed one that just sold, interesting! 

[Ashevent]

Yeah, like $100 more for no box or manual and the last one looked pretty pristine too. 

[CaptainBreakout]

Things are weird with Channel F cart pricing. I finally won a Video Whizball last week.

 

It went unsold for an opening bid of $120, then was relisted for $100 opening. I basically won it for a few bucks over the minimum. Comes with box and manual too.

 

I've been after this cart for years and never saw it for less then $200 even loose. Maybe it was luck but I'm truly surprised I'll finally own the thing.

 

There's one listed for $240 BIN. I think another one sold for around the same price last week from the Checkers seller. 

[+atari2600land]

Whatever happened to the Channel F Flashcart someone here was working on?

[e5frog]

2 hours ago, atari2600land said:

Whatever happened to the Channel F Flashcart someone here was working on?

@3DMAZE made it, works pretty well on most games when running on the NTSC clockspeed. For PAL there's more problems, he was going to try an other approach with state machines that are available.

The architecture also caused problems when compiling after making changes causing timings to be off. It seems it's just not fast enough to handle everything before it's needed.

IIRC he also graduated from school and may have gotten other priorities.

I suggest keeping an eye on GitHub and maybe make one for yourself and/or continue the work, all the needed data is available.

Maybe a faster pico will become available and solve the current problems.

 

Developing with the current flashcart could be tricky as it might be difficult separating bugs in the program and the flashcart.

 

Maybe it would help if we collected some money so he could afford to take time to work on it. 

More developers might help as well.

 

Just my thoughts on it. I had nothing but ideas myself and nothing as advanced as this (and while pondering, hardware becomes obsolete). If finished it would be the ultimate cartridge to have.

 

[3DMAZE]

@atari2600land Haven't kicked the bucket yet ! I'm out of the country at the moment for personal matters, hence why there hasn't been much recent news. @e5frog's got the gist of things. Everything was originally done in software, but it led to issues, especially with the non-NTSC versions. I've been trying to get it working with the state-machines provided, but that seemed to freeze the Channel F as if the CPU wasn't responding in time. The next version will synchronize them by force. I've been doing more breadboard tests too. This way I can step through the Channel-F bus protocol one signal at a time to see how the firmware responds. I'm half tempted to pick up an oscilloscope at this point .

 

I've completed the 3rd revision of the PCB too, for all that's worth right now. Can't say my routing skills have improved much, haha. The I/O pads (not visible) were made twice as tall, with the 5V/GND also being wider. Power traces were made thicker too. As for all the ICs, they were moved to the other side of the board with the SD card components, staying out of the way of the dust cover cylinder and upper/lower dividers this time

 

 

Software-wise, I finished the last two features for the CHF converter (attachments / watcher), and will have those uploaded to GitHub. I also have to redo some of the CHF documentation on there, as well as add documentation for the new converter.

 

Part of me also wants to start work on a Pascal-to-F8 compiler so that I don't have to write anymore assembly, but that's a project for another day.

 

Things'll speed up once I'm back. Folks have been able to do amazing things with the Pi Pico, so I'm sure it's up to the task. I saw one guy who was able to emulate a full NES with VGA and PWM audio. All I'm trying to do is emulate two chips...

 

The Mighty Channel F Bus Tester-inator

[+fdr4prez]

There is the BackBit Pro with the newly released Channel F adapter.

 

from @evietron

 

BackBit Pro Cartridge (Backorder) – BackBit

[3DMAZE]

Oof, beaten to the punch, such is life. I'll have to mention that on my flashcarts page. Looks pretty sweet ! I think I'll continue development anyway. If nothing else, I can experiment with other features