Phoenix 2021 - New AWA Game and Christmas reminiscing

[rra]

 

The new Phoenix 2021 assembly game compared to original Phoenix BASIC game written by the A/W/A team 40 years ago

 

Phoenix 2021 (8bit version): Phoenix 2021.xex

Phoenix 2021 (5200 version): Phoenix 2021.rom

 

Phoenix 2021 is the 14th and final game that the Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz team wrote and released this year!   It is appropriate that we chose this to be the final game to be released this year, because this assembly language game is based on the very first game that we ever wrote 40 years ago.  The original BASIC version is available at Atarmania.com:  http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-phoenix_31474.html

 

The start of the A/W/A team’s obsession with the Atari 8-Bit Computer began on Christmas Day 1981, exactly 40 years ago.  16-year-old twins Eric and Robert Anschuetz received an Atari 400 for Christmas along with a 410 Program Recorder and a BASIC Programming Language Cartridge in a bundled package that Atari called "The Programmer."  The Atari 400 Programmer bundle also came with a user’s manual and a BASIC programming guide.  The Atari 400 computer hooked up to a small 13” Color TV in our bedroom.   Since we weren’t experienced at typing, on that Christmas Day 40 years ago we had our Dad type in a BASIC program called “Shoot” from the September 1981 issue of COMPUTE! Magazine.  (We bought the magazine prior to receiving our computer).   “Shoot” was similar to Air-Sea Battle on the Atari 2600 VCS.  This BASIC language listing for “Shoot” opened our eyes to the world of programming and the tricks necessary on the Atari for displaying colorful images, making sounds, and making things move with a joystick.  As Ralphie said in the movie "A Christmas Story", this truly was "the greatest Christmas gift I had ever received, or would ever receive."

 

Phoenix was the very first video game written by the A/W/A Team only a few weeks after we got our Atari 400 computer for Christmas in 1981.   Of course, the game bore very little resemblance to the arcade game Phoenix, but that was the inspiration.   The game was implemented in a Graphics 1 text mode using Atari ATASCII characters.  The game was based on an example program called “Seagull Over Ocean” from the Atari BASIC Reference Manual that demonstrated a seagull flapping its wings and flying around the screen.  The BASIC version of Phoenix had the player control a black and white ship at the bottom of the screen made up of multiple text characters, and a single large bird with flapping wings that dodged all over the screen.  A press of the fire button on the joystick produced a vertical shot aimed at the bird.   If the bird was hit, the player scored a point, and the bird would turn upside down and fall straight to the bottom and the player would try for the next bird.  After 9 birds were hit, the game ended and the player was rated as “Phoenix Commander”, “Bird Captain”, “Butterfly Netter”, or “Bird Watcher” depending on the score.

 

The Assembly language update called Phoenix 2021 is a vast improvement over the BASIC game from 40 years ago.  It still is not a Phoenix clone, but it is based on the screen in Phoenix where you battle the swooping birds.  In actuality, Phoenix 2021 is probably closer to Demon Attack.  The game is easy to figure out how to play and doesn't really require instructions.

 

We hope you have a Merry Christmas just like we did 40 years ago today, and we hope that you enjoy this game!

 

Robert Anschuetz (@rra)

Eric Anschuetz (@eea)

John Weisgerber (@jjw)

 

This is a picture of our current Atari computers and peripherals that we got in the 1980s and still have 40 years later.  One of the Atari 400's belonged to Robert and Eric Anschuetz, and the other belonged to John Weisgerber.  The Atari 400 computer and 410 program recorder were Christmas presents in 1981.  Everything else was obtained over the next 3 to 4 years.

 

 

[Rybags]

Up/down seems to interfere with the movement - I'd recommend to change the movement routine such that unused bits are ignored.

[rra]

1 hour ago, Rybags said:

Up/down seems to interfere with the movement - I'd recommend to change the movement routine such that unused bits are ignored.

Update to improve left/right movement when pushing diagonally:

Atari 8bit version: Phoenix 2021.xex

Atari 5200 version: Phoenix 2021.rom

[darwinmac]

It has been a pleasure to see these games when they arrived each month. It has been great to see so many games for the 8-bit. 
 

Bob C

Edited December 26, 2021 by darwinmac

[BIGHMW]

The fact that you released all 14 of these great games for BOTH the 5200 and the XEGS makes us Big Sexy owners happy that we kept the faith, even though it is hard with all the great titles XEGS/8-bit owners get spoiled with like Gacek, Yoomp!, Albert (the game not our own great @Albert Yarusso  ) and the rest.

 

THANKS GUYS!!! I look forward to playing these great titles real soon!!!

 

 

....and BTW, some good news also on this Boxing Day/day after Xmas, since we have received some huge grants to pay off some back-owed (and future) rent here at Bishop Park Apartments, and since also I have been in so much debt that it would not be feasible to sell any of my units due to PayPal swallowing up all the money to pay off those debts hampering the ability to ship the items off, plus, with us being just 2 subscribers away from that magical 100 mark for a custom domain name (URL, and I have that one picked out already!!!) we here at BIGHMW.com World Headquarters have determined that it is still feasible to continue on with The Atari Report at this time, and yes, in the short future we will be reviewing some of these 14 A/W/A classics brought to us here in future episodes as well.

 

Happy Holidays!!!

 

Ray Jackson

AtariAge user ID: BIGHMW

Host - The Atari Report

Edited December 26, 2021 by BIGHMW

[invisible kid]

Very cool! Great background stories with the games.

[BIGHMW]

Nicely done guys!!!

 

BTW, Eric @eea, Robert @rra and John @jjw, I DO plan on reviewing some of your great games on future episodes of The Atari Report, (since we got the rent and internet service grants to keep us afloat for a while as well as my own financial debacle I got myself on in which made it impossible to sell my 2600, 7800 and XEGS due to the amount of debt I am in in my PayPal account) in my own unique kinda way of course. But, your story of how you started programming in which 40 years later wound up being these great games as well as others from Paul Lay @playsoft (Biscuits In Hell), Ryan Witmer @Ryan Witmer (Intellidiscs), Lennart Bown @Thelen (Yar's Strike), and even @glurk (Barnstorming) have inspired me to perhaps take up not only coming up with my own games (or at least A8/5200 versions of 2600 classics) but also 6502 programming and maybe even A8-to-5200 conversions as well.

 

Now we all know (or at least most of my fans know) that I have always championed myself as an odds-beater, my management, Len Enders (reachable at LenEnders@Gmail.com), saw the raw inner talents I had and took me in under his wing back in 1994, I became something in the music (and entertainment) business, and now, at 55 years of age, I want to do the same thing in the field of 6502/8-bit programming. Now we all know the old saying, "where there's a will, there's a way". We also know that I need to be stepped through the ropes in mostly anything I do, in other words, I just simply need to be tutored and shown through something in person, and I am more than willing to do such a thing. I already own an XEGS (and a 5200 I have had since my 17th Birthday back in 1983 of course!!!) and can get the peripherals to learn 6502 programming much like all of you guys did. Perhaps one of you guys can refer me to someone here in the greater Puget Sound (Seattle) area who can step me through it, and much like everything else once I get the hang of it, the gloves are off after that, the possibilities are endless. I may have a different method of doing things, but the end result is always the same thing, this is no different.

 

I have plenty of time, I only work from 6-10 pm weeknights at my job over at Safeway, the rest of my awake time is free other than that.

 

I could always cancel my Hulu account ($80/month) and cut back on some of my spending once I get out of this debt that I am currently in, and then I can make some serious shit happen for my fellow Atarians here on AA and maybe even have @Albert put out my games (or at least some of them) on carts, who knows!!! The sky's the limit, I just need to be shown the way, that's all. If there is a "for dummies" book on 6502 programming and also one on A8-to-5200 conversions I would love to know where (on Amazon) to pick them up, otherwise I just need some e-mail address and/or phone numbers of who I can call to start this up, who knows, maybe a 5200/A8 version of 2600 Phoenix just may lie in the power of my hands!!! Or maybe a keypad firing hack (buttons 2, 4, 6, and 8 for the 4-directional firing separate from that of the ship's control of the 5200 controller, perfect for the Retro Game Boyz 5200 joystick I own!!!) of 5200 Vanguard for that matter, much like what Paul Lay @playsoft did with one of his different variations of his brilliant A8-to-5200 conversion of Asteroids he did a few months ago!!! If @glurk can do a true-to-the-code A8/5200 version of 2600 Barnstorming, then I can do this too!!!

 

What do you guys think.

Edited December 27, 2021 by BIGHMW

[Synthpopalooza]

Love the Zanac final area music.

[Thelen]

Thanks for this Christmas gift. Also a very nice background story and you guys still have the equipment for over 40 years! ?

[rra]

12 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

If there is a "for dummies" book on 6502 programming and also one on A8-to-5200 conversions I would love to know where (on Amazon) to pick them up

@BIGHMW Bear in mind that in between the time that we programmed our BASIC games in the 1980's until the time when we wrote these updated Assembly language games this year, we each had 35+ year careers in computing programming.   So, we had a huge headstart in our knowledge base as far as getting these new games programmed.   

 

For picking up the beginning programming skills, I would suggest following a YouTube series such as this one for programming in the Action! language: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4mkNmb5LPFQn5KI-VYKBhg or this one for programming in the BASIC language: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClT3i3o_T6qC_iADAo-B2kg.   

 

There are lots of books (http://www.atarimania.com/documents-atari-400-800-xl-xe-books_1_8.html) about programming the Atari written back in the day.  If you get the hang of programming in these higher-level languages such as BASIC or Action!, then you might want to tackle Assembly.  But just a warning, it could take several years to get proficient enough to fully understand the Atari and Assembly Language programming before you would be able to write a game or convert one from the 5200 to the 8bit or visa versa.  

[ACML]

On 12/25/2021 at 6:08 AM, rra said:

The start of the A/W/A team’s obsession with the Atari 8-Bit Computer began on Christmas Day 1981, exactly 40 years ago.  16-year-old twins Eric and Robert Anschuetz received an Atari 400 for Christmas along with a 410 Program Recorder and a BASIC Programming Language Cartridge in a bundled package that Atari called "The Programmer."  The Atari 400 Programmer bundle also came with a user’s manual and a BASIC programming guide. 

 

Looks like we had the same Christmas morning in 1981.  I too received an Atari 400 (16K) with 410 and a BASIC cartridge and manual.  I think my father paid around $400.  The only color TV in the house was the 25" wood console unit in the family room.  I immediately hooked it up and started experimenting with BASIC to which my older sister asked, "what do you do with a computer?"  About lunchtime Christmas morning, I'm showing my father something in BASIC when my older brother is chasing my little sister across the room and she catches the RF video cord and my brand spanking new 400 flies off the coffee table and bounces a few times before it comes to rest about six feet away on the floor.  The horror!  Luckily, the 400 was no worse for the wear and still worked fine.  Exciting morning for sure.  In 1981, receiving that 400 was the best Christmas gift I could imagine.

    

[snicklin]

Thank you for this game.

 

I've been playing it, using a pattern to try and get a high score. I got to 65100 and then decided to hit F8, to pause the game in Altirra and Altirra crashed out unfortunately. I'd wanted to take a screenshot whilst paused. I was going to see whether it could go higher than 65535 with a score.

 

Could I just ask, does it allow scores greater than 65535?

 

[rra]

54 minutes ago, snicklin said:

Thank you for this game.

 

I've been playing it, using a pattern to try and get a high score. I got to 65100 and then decided to hit F8, to pause the game in Altirra and Altirra crashed out unfortunately. I'd wanted to take a screenshot whilst paused. I was going to see whether it could go higher than 65535 with a score.

 

Could I just ask, does it allow scores greater than 65535?

 

@snicklinYes, you can get higher than 65535.  It will "rollover" at 99999 back to 00000 and start over from there.   The score isn't actually held in a 16-bit (2 byte) variable, so the way that this is coded, there is nothing magical about 65535 that would cause any problems.  Each digit is a separate "variable" (each digit is stored in a one byte memory address).  So there are 5 bytes to store the 5 digits of the score.  When the ones digit goes over 9, it adds one to the tens digit and resets the ones digit to 0.  Same thing happens when the tens digit goes over 9 and it adds one to the hundreds digit and resets the tens digit.  Same thing happens for the rest of the digits until it rolls over from 99999 to 00000.   I guess we should have added another digit since you have mastered the game already!

Edited December 29, 2021 by rra

[+DjayBee]

5 hours ago, snicklin said:

I got to 65100 and then decided to hit F8, to pause the game in Altirra and Altirra crashed out unfortunately. 

 

Pause is F9.

F8 opens the debugger and stops execution. 

[snicklin]

13 hours ago, DjayBee said:

Pause is F9.

F8 opens the debugger and stops execution. 

True, yet I could in theory still hit it again to start again.

 

18 hours ago, rra said:

@snicklinYes, you can get higher than 65535.  It will "rollover" at 99999 back to 00000 and start over from there.   The score isn't actually held in a 16-bit (2 byte) variable, so the way that this is coded, there is nothing magical about 65535 that would cause any problems.  Each digit is a separate "variable" (each digit is stored in a one byte memory address).  So there are 5 bytes to store the 5 digits of the score.  When the ones digit goes over 9, it adds one to the tens digit and resets the ones digit to 0.  Same thing happens when the tens digit goes over 9 and it adds one to the hundreds digit and resets the tens digit.  Same thing happens for the rest of the digits until it rolls over from 99999 to 00000.   I guess we should have added another digit since you have mastered the game already!

Thanks for the explanation there. I reckon that 99999 is probably doable.

 

Tip: At the start of each wave, start to the right of the screen, about a third of the half of the screen off the centre. As soon as the wave starts, shoot down the bottom bird. Wait for the 2nd from top bird to bounce off the right hand side, shoot it. Then move left, shoot the third bird down and then the top bird when it bounces off the right hand side.

 

Once practiced a few times, repeat over and over. As the speed changes a bit, you may find yourself making very slight adjustments each few waves.

[David Alexander]

Just found out about this. Will give it a try soon and share with both Atari 5200 & XEGS Listeners.