glurk Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 I guess I'll post this now, what I've been working on. Far from finished, and uncertain that it ever will be. There's too much stuff going on for my poor brain to handle. That said, what I've got so far looks pretty good (to me). See the "breakdancing bear," LOL. So many bugs, so much more left to do. I had no idea what I was getting into with this one, that's for sure!! For now, I'm going to keep plugging away at it. Let this thing run for a while, about 35 seconds, and it goes into "demo mode." There's a few major slow-downs at certain points, you can use F1 warp-speed in Altirra to get past them. I know what causes it, it's because there is no player-man, or collision detection, etc, yet. It's running the original 2600 code. Another one from Steve Cartwright, I even re-used a good bit of my 'Barnstorming' code. I really had no idea how difficult this would be. fb.bin 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelen Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 You're becoming the 2600 conversion master ? It's looking very nice so far! How many hours of work is already in it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poison Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 Nice Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 14, 2021 Author Share Posted December 14, 2021 4 hours ago, Thelen said: It's looking very nice so far! How many hours of work is already in it? I haven't kept track, but probably not as long as you'd think. My "approach" on these is to get things on-screen quickly, by building a display list with DLI's etc. And I re-used a lot of the 'Barnstorming' code. It's a LOT of ANTIC mode 6, with scrolling. And I'll be doing the sound, collision detection, etc., in the same way also, probably re-using code. But the part(s) now are where it gets harder, LOL! And I face a possible insurmountable brick wall here, with the player/missile graphics priorities. I'm not sure the Atari will allow me to do what I need them to do. I really should have worked all that out in advance, but my style is to just start coding first, and let the chips fall where they may. And PRIOR / GPRIOR settings confuse me to death. So there's still a lot to be done. If I can get the PMG stuff worked out, maybe I can progress faster.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 I guess I could just download it and check it out, and I probably will eventually, but it seems strange to "announce" a port, but not say what it is. What is this port? If it's an old Steve Cartwright title, I'm assuming it's something from the Activision back catalog? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 Not having access to my emulators, this morning I didn't know the name of the game too. But filename is fb.bin so I checked Steve Cartwright Activision games and found the answer. Barnstorming Megamania Seaquest Plaque Attack Frostbite Hacker Hacker II Aliens Air Rally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 14, 2021 Author Share Posted December 14, 2021 3 hours ago, bfollowell said: I guess I could just download it and check it out, and I probably will eventually, but it seems strange to "announce" a port, but not say what it is. What is this port? If it's an old Steve Cartwright title, I'm assuming it's something from the Activision back catalog? Thanks. Actually intentional. I figured anyone interested enough would check it out. I like low-key, and didn't want to do some big "woo-hoo" announcement and create undue expectations, or put unneeded pressure on myself. I'm just doing what I find to be fun, and let things be done when they get done... 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted December 14, 2021 Share Posted December 14, 2021 19 minutes ago, glurk said: Actually intentional. I figured anyone interested enough would check it out. I like low-key, and didn't want to do some big "woo-hoo" announcement and create undue expectations, or put unneeded pressure on myself. I'm just doing what I find to be fun, and let things be done when they get done... Understandable. It won't be long, someone will come along and be begging for a port to the 5200. Great job, as usual. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 55 minutes ago, bfollowell said: Understandable. It won't be long, someone will come along and be begging for a port to the 5200. Great job, as usual. Read it in this voice - thank me later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 While keeping with the idea of low-key, here's a screenshot for those without immediate access to an emulator. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 21 minutes ago, MrFish said: While keeping with the idea of low-key, here's a screenshot for those without immediate access to an emulator. Beautiful - thanks so much! I love how the image zooms in when I click on it 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 20 minutes ago, Stephen said: Beautiful - thanks so much! I love how the image zooms in when I click on it This one actually zooms out. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 (edited) @glurk If you keep at converting 2600 games that never made their way onto the A8, please consider two Imagic games: Moonsweeper and Cosmic Ark. These would be killer with slightly improved graphics. And if you really want a challenge, it would be incredible to have Solaris on the A8... Edited December 15, 2021 by Gunstar 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ely Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 This is great. I'd love it if someone would port Sky Jinks to the A8, that's one of my favourite 2600 titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 16, 2021 Author Share Posted December 16, 2021 On 12/15/2021 at 4:38 AM, Ely said: This is great. I'd love it if someone would port Sky Jinks to the A8, that's one of my favourite 2600 titles. Kinda funny, I was looking at that one after 'Barnstorming.' Different perspective, but yellow plane and (I think) nearly the same engine sounds. I'm SURE that it's doable on A8, being such a simple game. Maybe one for some other day (or some other programmer...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ely Posted December 16, 2021 Share Posted December 16, 2021 3 hours ago, glurk said: Kinda funny, I was looking at that one after 'Barnstorming.' Different perspective, but yellow plane and (I think) nearly the same engine sounds. I'm SURE that it's doable on A8, being such a simple game. Maybe one for some other day (or some other programmer...) Oh please feel free to do it Seriously though, what I love about it (and honestly I only ever play the 1st level) is just how smooth it is and how much of a zone you can get into playing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 17, 2021 Author Share Posted December 17, 2021 (edited) For anyone who's interested, here's the part of this project that is just killing me now. Not a programming problem, but a graphic art one (as usual). I have to create this [animated gif] as character graphics. I thought it was 8 frames, but it's 16, although some are repeats. I wish I could leave this part out, LOL. But I couldn't do that... If anyone is wondering, I didn't really "create" this graphic. It a bunch of screencaps from Stella pieced together to make the GIF. Edited December 17, 2021 by glurk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 18, 2021 Author Share Posted December 18, 2021 Got the ice blocks animated, a real pain. Top row only, just a test. Also fixed the bear. fb.webm 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelen Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 On 12/16/2021 at 9:14 PM, glurk said: For anyone who's interested, here's the part of this project that is just killing me now. Not a programming problem, but a graphic art one (as usual). I have to create this [animated gif] as character graphics. I thought it was 8 frames, but it's 16, although some are repeats. I wish I could leave this part out, LOL. But I couldn't do that... If anyone is wondering, I didn't really "create" this graphic. It a bunch of screencaps from Stella pieced together to make the GIF. I bet the programming forum would have a handful of folks that would dig into this with you... for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 18, 2021 Author Share Posted December 18, 2021 37 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: I bet the programming forum would have a handful of folks that would dig into this with you... for sure Haha, it's DONE now. It wasn't so much of a programming problem as it was creating all the graphics "frames." That's actually made up of 4 side-by-side ANTIC mode 6 redefined "text" characters. I hate doing the graphic art stuff. In some cases, I used the sprite data direct from the 2600 ROM, but the ice blocks weren't sprite data. It was done on the 2600 using the player AND the missile, all being horizontally HMOVE / HMP re-positioned on each line. Lots of using the Stella debugger to figure it all out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 On 12/15/2021 at 3:07 AM, Gunstar said: @glurk If you keep at converting 2600 games that never made their way onto the A8, please consider two Imagic games: Moonsweeper and Cosmic Ark. These would be killer with slightly improved graphics. And if you really want a challenge, it would be incredible to have Solaris on the A8... Re - Cosmic Ark, if an old type-in listing (from 1985, in Atari Basic) is okay for you, then here you go. Of course you will be looking for something better... Cosmic_Ark_(Bas).zip 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 23, 2021 Author Share Posted December 23, 2021 Much progress made lately. So here's a buggy and unfinished "test." But it has sound, bear, igloo, some collision detection, and is sort-of playable. No collision detection on the critters yet. Much more work to do on the PMGraphics stuff, but many things working. It's getting closer. fb.bin 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 Looks good so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glurk Posted December 25, 2021 Author Share Posted December 25, 2021 Frostbite BETA Happy Holidays. I come bearing a "gift." This should be a fully-playable A8 version of the 2600's "Frostbite." And just at the right time: ❄️☃️❄️?❄️ All I ask in return is play-testers / bug-testers / and comments!! I'm a really bad "gamer" and this one is too hard for my slow reflexes, so I need help! This is NOT yet complete, I still have to add ALL of the player animations. Right now it has a "proxy Bailey," LOL!! That part will be a lot more work, and I just couldn't get it all done yet. But I shall, it just may take a good while... Joy and enjoy! Frostbite BETA.bin 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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