5200 Hombrews at CGE and AGE

[+Cafeman]

I'm rather disappointed not to have read anything about any of the 5200 homebrews from either last month's AGE or the recent CGE. Everybody seems to have had a great time partying, and I've seen lots of comments on 2600 Climber5 from AGE, but not much else.

 

Did *somebody* show a *rather secret* 5200 long-lost game? (if not, never mind).

 

Feedback from Klax? What did Klax cost? How is the box & manual?

 

Anybody see the Adventure II demo?

 

Was Castles & Kings shown at all? Playable?

 

Inquiring minds want to know! (_)3

[Clay Cowgill]

Did *somebody* show a *rather secret* 5200 long-lost game? (if not, never mind).  

...

Anybody see the Adventure II demo?  

 

I showed a build of my Crystal Castles port for the 5200 at the NWCGE booth, maybe that was what you're alluding to? People seemed to like it. I gave the cart to Lee to keep, so he can post about it if he wants to.

 

 

I also had my MasterControl5200 working there on Sunday (it was damaged during the flight so I had to fix it Saturday). The NWCGE guys got some pictures of everything in action. If nothing else I got a kick out of playing with the 5200 using the wireless Playstation controller and confusing little kids how the game was playing... Hey, I'm easily amused.

 

Adventure II was at the NWCGE booth as well, I played with it and it runs quite nicely. There wasn't a whole lot to do in the game yet, but I had fun running around in the maps at any rate. It's coming along really nicely-- looks like it'll be a winner.

 

-Clay

[Tempest]

I showed a build of my Crystal Castles port for the 5200 at the NWCGE booth, maybe that was what you're alluding to? People seemed to like it. I gave the cart to Lee to keep, so he can post about it if he wants to.  

 

Oh wow neat. I must have missed that. I guess this is what he's talking about, but there never was a 5200 port of CC done (just a mostly finished 8-bit version) so it's really not a 'long lost' game.

 

Tempest

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Who cares!!...I want CC for my 5200!!! It yearns for Bentley and his magic hat. I am ready to kick some Gem Eater @$$!!!

 

Sorry, but just like Matt, CC is one of my all time favorite arcade games. It is also one of my favorite 2600 conversions next to Moon Patrol!

 

[Gregory DG]

Who cares!!...I want CC for my 5200!!!  It yearns for Bentley and his magic hat.  I am ready to kick some Gem Eater @$$!!!

 

Heck yeah! Playing it with the 5200 track-ball would totally rule!

[Mendon]

....but there never was a 5200 port of CC done (just a mostly finished 8-bit version) so it's really not a 'long lost' game.  

 

Is the 8bit version of CC rare or uncommon, Tempest? Reason I ask is because I have 2 of them and after reading this post realized I've never seen them very often before.

 

And mostly finished? You mean the cart's I have aren't the total game?

 

Mendon

[Tempest]

Is the 8bit version of CC rare or uncommon, Tempest? Reason I ask is because I have 2 of them and after reading this post realized I've never seen them very often before.  

 

And mostly finished? You mean the cart's I have aren't the total game?  

 

Whoops I should have been a bit more specific. The original version of Crystal Castles (the one done back in 84) was never finished although the roms are out there (Curt Vendel released them a few months ago). When Atari decided it needed more games for it's XE system they took the mostly finished 84 port and upgraded it (finishing it and adding a few bits of eye candy). That 'upgraded' version is what was released for the XE in 89. The 84 version was never released (although they're almost identical).

 

Tempest

[+Cafeman]

I showed a build of my Crystal Castles port for the 5200 at the NWCGE booth, maybe that was what you're alluding to?  People seemed to like it.  I gave the cart to Lee to keep, so he can post about it if he wants to.

 

Ah, cool! What percentage, or at what level of progress is the project? Are you going to work on a nice Trak-Ball routine?

[GrizzLee]

I showed a build of my Crystal Castles port for the 5200 at the NWCGE booth, maybe that was what you're alluding to? People seemed to like it. I gave the cart to Lee to keep, so he can post about it if he wants to.  

 

Hey Clay,

 

Of course I want to discuss all the new 5200 projects. Unlike most show attendees, I drove along way to attend. I just got back to Seattle tonight. There will be a complete review of a the show, including pictures from one of the NWCGE members (keep an eye out at http://www.cyberroach.com/cyromag/default.htm for details soon).

 

 

Regarding the new projects for the Atari 5200, all I can say is WOW!!! There are a few that are must haves.

 

Adventure II:

Adventure II is awesome. Ron Koffi and crew are doing an incredible job. So far it retains all the classic feel of the original while adding many graphical enhancements. This has too be seen to believed. Screen shots don't do it justice. If you missed seeing this one, you missed a real treat. I saw it last year at CGE and was impressed as heck. This revised one is even more impressive. I hope this can be ready soon.

 

Master 5200 Control:

I was glad to see that Clay is really making this a real commercial project :wink: The analog controls are smooth and crisp. I tried Kaboom!, Breakout and Pole Position. While not the same as a paddle, the controllers are much smoother, incredibly smooth. I was personally surprised to find that using the self centering analog PSX stick was better than the D-pad. I really like it. I want one really bad.

 

5200 Crystal Castles:

This was a sweet surprise. One of my favorite arcade games, finally available on the 5200. The controls are are dead on. Using Clay's Master 5200 Control, I was able to vary the speed of poor ol' Bentley using the analog PSX stick. Again, very smooth. I hope Clay can make these available as well. Perhaps with a special edition case (hint, hint..... :wink: ). I am not sure about track ball support, I will have to try and see. I hope Clay would make this a feature. Perhaps, the NYKO PSX trackball may work as well.

 

5200 Klax:

I played this briefly. I must be quite honest here. I appreciate the effort, but I am wondering why it couldn't be as dazzling as the 7800 version. The 5200 version seemed sort of bland. I think a near pixel port of the 7800 version is possible here. The playfield lacks a good 3D feel and the colors were kind of washed out.

 

 

Overall, the 5200 projects at CGE where very promising. I am very excited and hope to see these soon. In a related note, Clay had the Vectrex controller adapters there as well. It performed every bit as well as the Master 5200 Control. Smooth and precise. The analog and digital support are very tight.

 

In any event, look for a full report from CyberRoach very soon or keep an eye on the NWCGE site ( http://NWCGE.org )

 

Keep up the good work Clay,

-Lee

 

Time for bed... I've got broken white lines etched into my eyes. No more driving for awhile.

[Clay Cowgill]

Ah, cool! What percentage, or at what level of progress is the project? Are you going to work on a nice Trak-Ball routine?

 

The gameplay is all complete, so as far as the game engine goes it's done. I've added my own splash screen (the above picture, although usually without the CGE 2K3 logo) and I'm working on adding a high-score table stored on the cartridge in a serial EEPROM.

 

Someone was kind enough to provide me with the XE Crystal Castles for comparison and there's a few things in there that I'd like to borrow and try to move into my codebase. (I like some of the graphics better and there's a demo mode.) I've been digging through the XE version and it doesn't look too much harder to get working, so I'm going to mess around with it and see how far I can get. Downside with the XE version is that it's 24K which only leaves me 8K for patches to get everything working. Given the code I have now, that only leaves me about 600 bytes! It'll be interesting.

 

All in all I'd guess I'm maybe ~70% through depending on how evil the XE version is.

 

I got to talk to Dan Kramer at CGE about the 5200 Trakball which is driving me nuts. I'm suspecting that my Trakball (which although NOS when I got it) isn't working right. Dan's seemed to work much better-- if that's the case my trakball code might work as-is. My hardware might have been the problem all along!

 

-Clay