Rikki & Vikki

[RevEng]

I was just looking at the video, I noticed that the top of the cutscenes are affected by composite artifacting (ie. the edges of the filmstrips are tinged red and green, as are dragon wing lines) but the single-pixel font below isn't.

 

If you're turning off colorburst mid-frame to do that, be advised that it's been reported that some modern TVs don't like that, and will show the whole frame without color.

[jefffulton]

Unless the pile of cartridges in my living room isn't actually there, and I don't actually exist - there is a high probability the game is real.

You probably didn't hear about it since it wasn't announced until now!

 

 

Thanks, and yep - usual "click to dispense video game" PayPal button.

 

 

All footage of the game in the trailer above was recorded from an Atari 7800, so it already is.

That's the 7800 Version!!!!! Take my money, PLEASE =) I see the link. The site is where to buy. The sound chip you guys have made is amazing. about 750K of game, makes this look and sound like an Amiga game!

[TailChao]

Do you have any interest in selling those new 7800 shells you have made? There is a market just waiting for them.

It depends, these are injection molded so we only manufactured enough for our needs. For now, it might be best to wait until you've actually seen and held the cartridges then go from there.

 

 

I did. It is said that the video portion is from a "real 7800" but the audio is from the windows port, which seems an odd choice - kind of confusing.

It's a trailer for the game in general, not for a specific version. We'll release undoctored video of the Atari 7800 version before release, so everyone knows exactly what they're getting.

 

 

If you're turning off colorburst mid-frame to do that, be advised that it's been reported that some modern TVs don't like that, and will show the whole frame without color.

This is from the capture card I'm using which has proper Y/C separation (but imperfect sync despite that, hence the status bar wiggles). The colorburst is never disabled during the game, but if you're displaying a color in the $0x range the chroma signal will go silent for those particular pixels.

[RevEng]

This is from the capture card I'm using which has proper Y/C separation (but imperfect sync despite that, hence the status bar wiggles). The colorburst is never disabled during the game, but if you're displaying a color in the $0x range the chroma signal will go silent for those particular pixels.

Perfect, though weird that you still get some artifacting with Y/C separation.

 

Glad to hear it's not what I thought. This game looks like a masterpiece.

[RushJet1]

Do you have any interest in selling those new 7800 shells you have made? There is a market just waiting for them.

I'm surprised people aren't just 3D printing them.

[+GoldenWheels]

 

I noted that too and even wrote them. Never heard back. Anti-Atari bias hahaha!

 

I'm just fine if Famester81 stays away from the 7800 scene COMPLETELY.

[+SmittyB]

I'm ashamed to admit it but when this was first posted I initially couldn't tell if this was some sort of elaborate ruse. Hi-res graphics? Audio co-processor? Massive cartridge size? It just seems too good to be true, and I would have thought 320B without kangaroo mode would have caused more noticeable problems with transparency. It certainly looks like damned fine game.

[Greg2600]

I'm torn on this. While it's a fantastic looking and sounded game, the use of modern hardware is at first a bit disappointing. However, making that open source is a plus. My thing is that this game does not make use of the XM, so whenever that finally comes out, it's no longer the "end all be all" for modern 7800 homebrewing.

[Jinks]

I think it is great. The 2600 and NES have all sorts of fancy carts why not the 7800?

[DracIsBack]

I think it is great. The 2600 and NES have all sorts of fancy carts why not the 7800?

 

That's my feeling as well. The 7800 only really had two games with POKEY and maybe eight with extra RAM. This is cool to see.

[Atari_Falcon]

That´s so awesome! I must be dreaming! Impressive game for my favorite console!

[CPUWIZ]

 

That's my feeling as well. The 7800 only really had two games with POKEY and maybe eight with extra RAM. This is cool to see.

 

That has long since changed.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Do you have any interest in selling those new 7800 shells you have made? There is a market just waiting for them.

He said they have a different shape. Exteriorly, that is fine, however if the interior dimensions don't align well with Atari brand shells, then commercial pcbs as well as homebrew pcbs may not fit. The pcbs might need a redesign to fit the new shells.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I'm torn on this. While it's a fantastic looking and sounded game, the use of modern hardware is at first a bit disappointing. However, making that open source is a plus. My thing is that this game does not make use of the XM, so whenever that finally comes out, it's no longer the "end all be all" for modern 7800 homebrewing.

It is plausible this cart, with it's advanced coprocessors, may or may not play nice with an XM attached. Suffice to say, as the XM has not been released, CPUWIZ made carts that support the extra ram, bankswitching, plus Pokey, so all they lacked is the keyboard accessory, Scoreboard, and Yamaha sound.

 

This cart goes beyond vintage soundchips by doing it's own synth using an ARM. I wish it included an EEPROM or flash to save progress but I digress. It's impressive tech.

 

2600 games are already approaching 7800 quality with the CDW bankswitch scheme, and surpasses it with bus stuffing. Late era NES games weren't that far away from early SNES sans enhanced graphics and audio. Maybe someday we'll see Xbox games on the 2600.

 

Oh, wait!

 

[Jinks]

I played nes games. Nothing matches this for graphics or sound.

Like I read it is almost amiga like.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Jinks

[TailChao]

Perfect, though weird that you still get some artifacting with Y/C separation.

Yeah, it's tough to fully eliminate.

 

 

I'm ashamed to admit it but when this was first posted I initially couldn't tell if this was some sort of elaborate ruse. Hi-res graphics? Audio co-processor? Massive cartridge size? It just seems too good to be true, and I would have thought 320B without kangaroo mode would have caused more noticeable problems with transparency.

No worries, I'll take it as a compliment.

 

If you look closely at the trailer there's draw tearing where the game hits Maria's bandwidth cap. All the objects are moving and exhibiting opacity on two-pixel horizontal boundaries as well. I don't think, in any circumstance, you'd want this to show up in a promotional video unless it's actually running on an electronic fossil. The hardware limitations (and Mode 320B) severely restrict what we could and couldn't do, and all the artwork and stage assets were designed around it.

 

So in short, this was not trivial but there are definitely tells that Maria is responsible.

 

 

I'm torn on this. While it's a fantastic looking and sounded game, the use of modern hardware is at first a bit disappointing.

I totally understand, but sourcing older chips isn't always the best decision for a product even if it's supposed to be for ancient hardware. For example - Pokey is more expensive, less capable, and has a larger package than the BupChip. We had also considered the YM2413 but there's issues with counterfeits and the write times are obnoxiously slow. So we went with the BupChip because that would result in the game actually shipping within its budget and at a reasonable price.

 

Despite using the BupChip, I am fairly confident most of the game content would make it through unscathed if it had been developed in 1990 - 1993. However, the implementation would be extremely different.

 

 

My thing is that this game does not make use of the XM, so whenever that finally comes out, it's no longer the "end all be all" for modern 7800 homebrewing.

Sure, but Rikki & Vikki's existence isn't going to prevent other games from using the XM. It just had requirements that the XM did not offer solutions to. To clarify, the designs we've made and released are for this game's needs and if we were to do a more generic solution it'd be quite different.

 

 

He said they have a different shape. Exteriorly, that is fine, however if the interior dimensions don't align well with Atari brand shells, then commercial pcbs as well as homebrew pcbs may not fit. The pcbs might need a redesign to fit the new shells.

Our boards are sized similarly to the "T-Shaped" Atari PCBs, which do fit in the shell. What I meant was more along the lines of "let's not jump to conclusions, wait until you've seen the product." Edited December 15, 2018 by TailChao

[DracIsBack]

 

That has long since changed.

 

I meant contemporarily. I actually own several POKEY homebrews including Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest.

[Lynxpro]

 

I noted that too and even wrote them. Never heard back. Anti-Atari bias hahaha!

 

 

Just for the record, Collectorvision doesn't profess to have an anti-Atari bias. They said on Facebook they're looking for "interested" coders on the various Atari platforms. They'd like for any interested coders to email them. I have the impression they'd like Sydney Hunter on all platforms, so that would also mean all Atari platforms... 2600, 5200/A8, 7800, ST(e)/Falcon, Lynx, and Jaguar...

 

Didn't mean to give the impression of a thread-hijack; I just wanted to address that statement before others took it further...

[Lynxpro]

Thanks, everyone

 

No worries, High Score Cartridge support was seriously considered but I thought the space would be put to better use for more content. While the HSC is pretty neat, I think nowadays most people have a cellphone with a camera on hand or close by. Take a picture

 

 

True. At this point, HSC is more of a "hey, look at this cool feature Atari Inc/GCC developed for the 7800 and never brought to market" and as a form of bragging rights in the retro scene. It's definitely unique amongst the 8-bit platforms, not counting battery back-ups in the various NES and Sega Master System carts. I'm surprised memory space was a concern because it appears your game here is the largest ROM so far released for the 7800.

 

Which reminds me...if this game is as large as I suspect it is, does a player have to play through the entire thing - a la Midnight Mutants - or is there a password generator scheme for saving current progress or is there an unmentioned hardware feature? Apologies if that's covered in the write-up and I missed it somehow...

[DracIsBack]

Good grief - did my smiley and hahaha not do a good enough job to indicate that I was joking???

[Lynxpro]

 

The decision to have audio in cartridge had nothing to do with Jack Tramiel. That was GCCs decision and design. The issue of POKEYs almost never being used was definitely a Tramiel problem. They never had mappers like the NES, IIRC. A few carts had extra ram (notably the Epyx conversions).

 

Let's just say that Tramiel's Atari Corp never expanded upon designing carts with audio capabilities beyond POKEY support. I suspect a lot of that had to do with the sour experience in trying to get the AMY working first with the ST - before it was released - and then the [unreleased] 65XEM. They licensed the tech out to Sight+Sound and apparently that company tried to stiff them on the chip once S+S got it working and [claimed to] improve upon it. And the PORKEY and Dual and Quad POKEYs appeared to remain the IP of the then separate Atari Games Corp.

 

Tramiel's Atari Corp probably should've pivoted and spent a few drachmas on designing a 7800 cart PCB that used the [often maligned] YM2149. They could've then probably achieved better volume pricing - since they were already purchasing them for every ST they built - and they could've recycled audio from ST games, not to mention audio from Colecovision, Vectrex, and Speccy games. But that's a thought exercise probably meant for a different speculation thread...

[TailChao]

I'm surprised memory space was a concern because it appears your game here is the largest ROM so far released for the 7800.

There's a lot of game in there

 

 

Which reminds me...if this game is as large as I suspect it is, does a player have to play through the entire thing - a la Midnight Mutants - or is there a password generator scheme for saving current progress or is there an unmentioned hardware feature? Apologies if that's covered in the write-up and I missed it somehow...

For the Atari 7800 version, yes - you'll have to play through in one go without powering off. The Microsoft Windows version will save your progress. But the amount of content shouldn't be so overwhelming that it'll prohibit completing the game in one sitting. I'd place it at a similar length to contemporary NES or SMS games which did not feature passwords or save memory.

[Lynxpro]

Good grief - did my smiley and hahaha not do a good enough job to indicate that I was joking???

 

I was just making it clear based upon the information I had read from earlier this week - outside of AtariAge - concerning that retro gaming company and the assumption many of us had concerning their current lack of support for Atari platforms. That's all. Joke on!

[Agent X]

This is seriously stunning! The trailer shows some great artistry, with detailed sprites and cinematic stills, along with some fine sound and music. It has a slick, professional look that's reminiscent of some of the great commercial action games on competing 8-bit hardware during the late 1980s.

 

A game with this level of polish would have been a welcome treat this during the 7800's prime. But hey, better late than never!

[killersquirel]

This looks amazing and I will definitely be getting a copy of this. Looking forward to new projects using the bupchip.