Star Raiders 2 not Last Starfighter could it be ported.

[bradhig1]

Could this be reproduced for the 5200?

[CommodoreDecker]

And for 400/800 series. Homebrew of the year for sure, The "official" version (Last Starfighter) was probably chosen for being more colorful, but the original with the wireframes and zoom-ins just have more pizazz. 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

My only issue with this actual release is that as you saw in the video, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose two of those star bases within the first 30 - 60 secs and that always bugged me. It is like you are already coming into a losing battle and the fact that the game will end as soon as you take out the enemy bases on the enemy planet without having to take out all the squadrons as well.

 

I think that is why I still like TLSF conversion on the 5200. While it might not have the zoom ins and 3D movement. It is a really good game with the having to juggle between defending the barrier, taking out squadrons of enemy ships to keep them away from the planets and eventually taking the offensive to them to take out their own bases and hopefully find the Kodan command ship. 

 

Given this, you can sorta see why Atari might have abandoned this in favor of turning the TLSF into Star Raiders II on the 8-bit line. 

[Lynxpro]

This was the version programmed by the guys in Atari's Coin-Op - later the separate "Atari Games" as of July 1984 - division, right?  It never hurts to have another title on the 5200 even if it's an alternate like this....

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Lynxpro

[Keatah]

On 4/23/2020 at 5:01 PM, bradhig1 said:

Could this be reproduced for the 5200?

Sure. The 5200 is the same as a 400/800 minus the keyboard.

 

On 4/24/2020 at 5:48 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

I think that is why I still like TLSF conversion on the 5200. While it might not have the zoom ins and 3D movement. It is a really good game with the having to juggle between defending the barrier, taking out squadrons of enemy ships to keep them away from the planets and eventually taking the offensive to them to take out their own bases and hopefully find the Kodan command ship. 

 

Given this, you can sorta see why Atari might have abandoned this in favor of turning the TLSF into Star Raiders II on the 8-bit line.

It never made sense (to me) that Atari called TLSF Star Raiders II. They clearly have different names and themes.

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, Keatah said:

Sure. The 5200 is the same as a 400/800 minus the keyboard.

 

It never made sense (to me) that Atari called TLSF Star Raiders II. They clearly have different names and themes.

 

They renamed it because the movie did badly at the box office when originally released. So it made more sense to Atari to rename the game Star Raiders II since the original Star Raiders was well known and they didn't want all that programming and the money they likely spent for the rights when they were going to call it TLSF to go to waste. That would be my guess..

 

And I seem to recall in the original thread where the original Star Raiders II was revealed, that the 5200 was brought up. It was stated that the game uses more RAM than what you can recode to work easily within the 5200s limited RAM space or something to that effect. I would have to back through the thread to read it all but basically the actual Star Raiders II game is just too big to be fit to be converted without basically rewriting it.

[Lynxpro]

On 5/12/2020 at 11:27 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

They renamed it because the movie did badly at the box office when originally released. So it made more sense to Atari to rename the game Star Raiders II since the original Star Raiders was well known and they didn't want all that programming and the money they likely spent for the rights when they were going to call it TLSF to go to waste. That would be my guess..

 

And I seem to recall in the original thread where the original Star Raiders II was revealed, that the 5200 was brought up. It was stated that the game uses more RAM than what you can recode to work easily within the 5200s limited RAM space or something to that effect. I would have to back through the thread to read it all but basically the actual Star Raiders II game is just too big to be fit to be converted without basically rewriting it.

 

Both of those seem suspect to me.  While the box office wasn't great for The Last Star Fighter, it still was popular, especially amongst gamers. From my recollection, it was due to Tramiel's Atari Corp not wanting to spend money on retaining the licensed name from MCA Universal, especially when they were trying to get the ST and the XEs out, keep the doors open, and make repayments on the loans to Warner at the time. Plus having to pay GCC for the 7800 and also unexpectedly having to pay off Nintendo of America immediately for their royalties to every single Mario Bros. cartridge and disk in the Atari warehouses due to the "sale" of Atari Inc's Consumer Division's assets to Tramiel's Atari Corp.

 

As for the 5200, it has 16K RAM just like the Atari 400 did. This version of Star Raiders II was designed to use a 32K ROM cartridge. So unless it won't run on a 16K Atari 400 - or 600XL for that matter - then I don't see why it couldn't run on an Atari 5200 once the various mappings were changed for their different locations on the 5200.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

As I said...I'm basing that off what was discussed in the original thread when this version was found and released and it had been stated that it wouldn't be possible to port to the 5200. Let me search the 8-bit section to find it as I know the reasons were stated there.

 

**Update** so I did search the original thread where the game was released. It would seem the game uses an interesting bank switching method that could be made to work on the 5200 but the source files were needed to do this and that info was potentially hidden or lost on an old Corvus drive that Mr. Wilmunder stated he believed the source files to be located on.

 

So unless something more specific related to the 5200 is mentioned beyond page 8 of the thread, it seems that according to the original programmer, it has to be redone for a bank switching method that works with the 5200.

 

 

[Lynxpro]

On 5/14/2020 at 9:45 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:

As I said...I'm basing that off what was discussed in the original thread when this version was found and released and it had been stated that it wouldn't be possible to port to the 5200. Let me search the 8-bit section to find it as I know the reasons were stated there.

 

**Update** so I did search the original thread where the game was released. It would seem the game uses an interesting bank switching method that could be made to work on the 5200 but the source files were needed to do this and that info was potentially hidden or lost on an old Corvus drive that Mr. Wilmunder stated he believed the source files to be located on.

 

So unless something more specific related to the 5200 is mentioned beyond page 8 of the thread, it seems that according to the original programmer, it has to be redone for a bank switching method that works with the 5200.

 

 

 

Let's hope Kevin has been able to recover the source code since 2015 then...

 

[phonedork]

Looks like the source code was released. 
Just thought I would bring this subject back up since it’s now 2023.

[Giles N]

On 4/24/2020 at 12:01 AM, bradhig1 said:

Could this be reproduced for the 5200?

Looks like perfect content for Atari to put into a DLC for the Atari 50th Anniversary.

If its incomplete, then fix it/finish it.

 

If finished, but not released, then how can it not be of interest to Atari-fans…?

 

Man, the planet-approach and flying around on planet-surfaces looks really, really cool!

 

Would like to try this out, but much more that it would get a complete official publication on Atari50 (through DLC).

 

If they then get the business with Playmaji up ‘n going with the 2600/7800 cart-reader, they could expand it slot by slot, system by stem to include also the 5200, then reissue a hardware-5200 full deluxe Star Raiders 2 Official run - with manual, box and everything.

 

Then we who actually have original 5200s, could play a newly released offical 5200 game and play it on old consoles with crt-tvs and all…

 

—

Ok, ok … I hear some muttering ‘dream on buddy’…

I will, I guess

[SoundGammon]

M.U.L.E. on the 8-bits required 48K ram, 32K for STORAGE and 16K ram to run the game. It was put on a 32K cart for the 5200!  Also, Bounty Bob Strikes Back is 40K on cart.

[Giles N]

On 4/24/2020 at 12:01 AM, bradhig1 said:

Could this be reproduced for the 5200?

What is this played on?

 

Is at a old ROM, just run through emulation, or a rare limited number of old carts (… or anything else…)?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

28 minutes ago, Giles N said:

What is this played on?

 

Is at a old ROM, just run through emulation, or a rare limited number of old carts (… or anything else…)?

He is playing that on the 8-bit computer. He even mentions how much better he feels it would have controlled if it has been on the 5200. 

 

[phonedork]

On 7/10/2023 at 5:43 PM, SoundGammon said:

M.U.L.E. on the 8-bits required 48K ram, 32K for STORAGE and 16K ram to run the game. It was put on a 32K cart for the 5200!  Also, Bounty Bob Strikes Back is 40K on cart.

Actually its a 64k mega cart. I own the original cart and have downloaded it

[SoundGammon]

11 hours ago, phonedork said:

Actually its a 64k mega cart. I own the original cart and have downloaded it

I have one too! Will have to open it up and take a look!

[Giles N]

On 7/11/2023 at 2:43 AM, SoundGammon said:

M.U.L.E. on the 8-bits required 48K ram, 32K for STORAGE and 16K ram to run the game. It was put on a 32K cart for the 5200!  Also, Bounty Bob Strikes Back is 40K on cart.

 

Anyone who’ve tried to run it, or know by the following description if it can be run, on sn AtariMax Ultimate on the 5200…?
 

The Ultimate SD Cartridge supports the following Atari 5200 ROM formats:

• All standard 32K or less ROM images.
• All bank-switched ROM images including Bounty Bob Strikes Back! 
• MEGA-CART Bank-switched ROM images up to 1024KB (M.U.L.E, etc)
• New modes including the Hybrid 1024KB full Read/Write 8k/8k Bank-switching mode

The bank switching logic, CPU firmware, boot flash and menu software are all 100% field upgradable by just placing new files on the SD card and turning on the system!

[RB5200]

Works on my atarimax sd

[+-^CrossBow^-]

9 hours ago, RB5200 said:

Works on my atarimax sd

MULE or the 8-bit unreleased Star Raider II being discussed?

 

[Giles N]

15 hours ago, RB5200 said:

 

Works on my atarimax sd

 

Star Raiders 2 original…?

[Giles N]

On 4/24/2020 at 12:01 AM, bradhig1 said:

Could this be reproduced for the 5200?

It says unreleased…

 

Did this title get some sort of limited run?

 

Was it cancelled prior to release…?

 

Is it now just a ROM out there in aether, or what happened to it?

[RB5200]

1 hour ago, Giles N said:

Star Raiders 2 original…?

Mule, I read it as your asking if mule works on atarimax  

[leech]

Would be awesome to get this released on cart or ROM for the 5200 (Star Raiders II).  someone I worked with once told me he was convinced the 5200's controller was only truly designed to play Star Raiders.  Ha, it definitely seems like flight type games would be the best purpose for it.  Digital games like Frogger that were four way only should have the keypad as an option, not sure if that was always the case like Frogger.