+MarcoJ Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 (edited) **** 30th June 2022. Credit to Armscar Coder for being the first person to report finishing Pitkat **** **** 1st Jan 2022. The Pitkat Box and Instruction Manual is now available for purchase in the Altarage Store**** Please follow the below link: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1266 Pitkat is a side view puzzle game for the Atari 2600. It introduces a new graphics engine that permits scrolling tile-based graphical representation. The game was featured on the ZeroPage Homebrew Show Friday 3rd July 2020. The R2 release of the game was featured on the Friday 16th October 2020 show. Well done to Darcy for clearing those levels. The R3 release contains a minor improvement to the graphics engine. The latest release R3 is available below. This is a graphical update to feature a new graphics kernel that eliminates horizontal and vertical gaps. R2 is still a functional release, so this will be left available. It could come down to taste which you prefer; R2 or R3. Feedback is welcomed into the forum below. Thanks for trying out Pitkat! PITKAT_R3.zip PITKAT_R2.zip New gapless kernel (R3) Original kernel (R2) Edited June 30, 2022 by MarcoJ Armscar Coder finished Pitkat 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 (edited) We have the EXCLUSIVE WORLD PREMIERE of PitKat on tomorrow's (Friday July 3) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT! Hope everyone can watch! Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Pitkat (2020 WIP Exclusive Premiere) by Marco Johannes (@MarcoJ) and Dyfed Hitchings Prince of Indiana (2020 WIP) by @gfvh Snakes (2020 WIP) by @CPC464Kid Crossdock (2020 WIP Update) by Kevin Kelley (@KevKelley) (SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY) Edited July 5, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MarcoJ Posted July 4, 2020 Author Share Posted July 4, 2020 (edited) Thanks to the ZeroPage Homebrew show for showcasing Pitkat. Here is the first release. Not sure why it fizzed out on Zeropage's Harmony. I used a regular Harmony (non encore) with a PALJR 2600 and 4 switch NTSC woody to test. Would be great to get feedback if anyone else experiences a game crash. Cheers Marco Note: Depreciated release is deleted, please see top of forum for latest. Edited July 10, 2020 by MarcoJ New release 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Cute game! Reminds me a lot of Boulder Dash, and the like. :3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 I didn't see the show, but I just downloaded the game it rolled like crazy in Stella. If you haven't done so already, be sure to turn on developers mode in Stella to help find errors. Looking through the debugger, I believe one problem is that a # is missing for ldx #3 in your source code. It is being compiled as ldx zeropage instead, and is loading CXP1FB which has a bunch of undefined bits. In developer mode of stella these bits get randomized so these errors become easy to detect. Edit: fixed! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 When going from one screen to another the game is loosing sync, at least in the NTSC version. The scanlines should be stable all of the time or else it will cause the TV screen to bounce or roll. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Also, I just wanted to say I looked at your game some more, and I really love how you drew it. I like that you avoided flicker altogether by just leaving the screen as is, and not trying to interlace the missing picture bits over multiple frames. It looks cool, and is unique so I appreciate it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MarcoJ Posted July 4, 2020 Author Share Posted July 4, 2020 Hi Omegamatrix. Thanks for your reply. Good find on the lda non #. This goes to show, even running on real hardware may not find bugs on other hardware systems. And for the roll, that's it, gotta fix it. Even if it demands a rom size sacrifice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prizrak Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 I've been playing Milly and Molly for C64 (7800 wip) and this has a lot of similarities. Very impressed, hoping to play it on real hardware later. Sent from my SM-T727V using Tapatalk 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinMos3 Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Wow, this was a pleasant surprise. VERY nice. When you said "side view puzzle game" I imagined something else entirely. I would have never expected a Millie & Mollie type puzzle game on the 2600. Awesome work! Thank you! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 I'm very impressed with this game, and the colorful tile kernel. I'm looking forward to playing future versions on my system. Stella with developer settings enabled can be a huge asset for catching these kinds of issues. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Wow, just watched the replay of last nights ZPH and this is impressive! @MarcoJNot sure if this is your first 2600 game, but if it is, what a way to come out of the gate?. Can't wait to download and give it a try. Thanks for the ROM. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quohog Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 This game is super cute and fun! Thanks! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Excellent game! Could you describe briefly how you use the Harmony’s resources (e.g. how much RAM, whether you use the ARM to emulate a display coprocessor or for actual game logic)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MarcoJ Posted July 4, 2020 Author Share Posted July 4, 2020 (edited) Hi All, Thanks for your nice comments. Yes, this is my first 2600 game. The game uses the E7 banking scheme (16k ROM) and the full 2K of RAM. It doesn't use a co-processor. The 1K bank is solely for the 8 x 8 virtual display kernel, it contains code that runs in the ram. The tile addresses and colours are the modified portions of the display ram. The tile address is absolute and can be referenced from anywhere in memory space, though practically this is restricted to the current 256b RAM selection and the fixed 1.5K ROM portion at the end of ROM. Each tile can be any one colour in the 2600 Palette. The 4 x 256b banks are for timer/round display, tile map, tile set and rewind memory. The tile map supports 16 x 8 tiles (though could be 16x16 generically). The Tile RAM supports 32 tiles. The display supports use of both ROM addressed tiles and RAM addressed tiles. The character set uses direct ROM addressed tiles. The display takes 4 frames to update. Feel free to use the first release on Stella. It works OK, though not in developer mode. I have tested the game with a regular Harmony cartridge on a PAL and NTSC Atari 2600 and has worked OK for extended periods. I would appreciate if the community could try the game out on real hardware too, especially a Harmony Encore (This proved unstable on ZPH's system). Currently I'm working on reducing or eliminating screen roll so it's more stable on digital TV hardware. I hope to get Pitkat out of the pit lane (excuse the pun) and back into the race soon. Edited July 4, 2020 by MarcoJ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Awesome game and graphics engine! Thanks for sharing those details. Kudos for trying something different and using the E7 bankswitching scheme. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 4 minutes ago, MarcoJ said: Feel free to use the first release on Stella. It is works OK, though not in developer mode. I have tested the game with a regular Harmony cartridge on a PAL and NTSC Atari 2600 and has worked OK for extended periods. I would appreciate if the community could try the game out on real hardware too, especially a Harmony Encore (This proved unstable on ZPH's system). I have tested the first 12 levels on a PAL 2600Jr. with the PlusCart and it was working fine. So UnoCart should work too. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 46 minutes ago, Al_Nafuur said: I have tested the first 12 levels on a PAL 2600Jr. with the PlusCart and it was working fine. So UnoCart should work too. Just tested the first 10 levels on my original Harmony, Harmony Encore and UnoCart. I can't commit, but my aim is to try to play through as many levels as possible sometime this weekend. Loving the game mechanics, I did experience the screen roll (which Omegamatrix mentioned) upon each level start. Very nice game? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 I tested on a Harmony Encore and an Unocart, and didn't get crashes, either. I did notice screen jumps during screen transitions as noted by others, however. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamtex Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 If you find any bugs then either mention them here or email us at pitkat2600@gmail.com Hope everyone read the README.TXT and looked at the manual. Any feedback you have for that would be most appreciated too 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prizrak Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 I put this game in the same category as Robomechanik, another excellent puzzle game that frustrates me to no end. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevKelley Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 I finally got a chance to watch the gameplay on ZPH. Impressive! Everything from the sound, tiles, gameplay, rewind, etc! 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamtex Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 48 minutes ago, KevKelley said: I finally got a chance to watch the gameplay on ZPH. Impressive! Everything from the sound, tiles, gameplay, rewind, etc! Feel free to play it, the download is on the 3rd post and works well in Stella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevKelley Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 4 hours ago, Jamtex said: Feel free to play it, the download is on the 3rd post and works well in Stella. I must have skipped over that post! I will definitely have to check it out! It is sad a game like this had not came out during the life of the system. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xesf Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Nice game indeed. Watching on ZPH looked enjoyable. I am new to the scene, so I don't have a reference on how hard that was to achieve, but looks awesome. I will try on a PAL hardware and let you know. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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