Anothe P.o.C. Game

[glurk]

I'm happiest if I'm actually working on something, but still have not found the right candidate for another 2600->A8 port.

 

Crackpots is beyond my skill level at this time, so it's on the back burner.  I did a nearly complete disassembly of 'Haunted House' but looking at how it works, I'd almost have to re-write the whole thing from scratch to port it... And the flickering monsters, ugh.  It can have 4 onscreen at one time, so there's really no way around it.  The flickering torch is cool, though.  But it would be too much work for me, I think.

 

So, here's one I COULD do - but I never ever liked this game.  Proof of concept, NOT a WIP.  And not a single person requested this, or even mentioned it.  But the PoC looks rather cool, IMO, so I thought I'd post it so at least others could see what it could look like.  8K BIN cartridge image, as always:

 

fw.bin

 

Not a single bit of actual game code in there, just a display list/demo of how I think it would have to be done.  Should I?  Looks like a lot of work for an unpopular game...

[glurk]

Here's a little newer one, I slapped some paint on there.  Always good to have things very colorful, I guess.  Does it look better?  I don't know...

 

Any opinions?  Anyone?  Bueller?

 

fw.bin

[Mclaneinc]

It's Buellers day off...

 

Looks good, depends if you are 'feeling it' re the game, but has potential..

[glurk]

Honestly, I remember way back when it came out.  And I didn't even think it was a good game then, LOL.  Like a lamer version of 'Frogger.'  But it has fairly nice car sound effects, and I could 'enhance' it a little.  But then people will want an AI opponent, which is a good idea, really.  But ugh!!  I don't know how to do that, it's kind of complex.

 

So far, it's giving me something to play around with.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't.  It doesn't excite me though...

[Mclaneinc]

I'd keep looking then, if you are not in to the game then it's a chore working on it. I never had a 2600 back then, being a late teen when it was out made me look at it and think toy / games for kids which was naive of me but the down side is that I have little knowledge of the games. The usual targets are shooters, platformers and maze type games ala Pac man etc but maybe it should be a different sort of game. All depends on what you like as you get to stare at it for long periods of time

 

Good luck with whatever it is, you have the chops to do it so we will prepare to be impressed..Best word I can say to go for, playability, you nail that, and it can be any sort of game..

[Gunstar]

2 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

I'd keep looking then, if you are not in to the game then it's a chore working on it. I never had a 2600 back then, being a late teen when it was out made me look at it and think toy / games for kids which was naive of me but the down side is that I have little knowledge of the games. The usual targets are shooters, platformers and maze type games ala Pac man etc but maybe it should be a different sort of game. All depends on what you like as you get to stare at it for long periods of time

 

Good luck with whatever it is, you have the chops to do it so we will prepare to be impressed..Best word I can say to go for, playability, you nail that, and it can be any sort of game..

I was in my last two years of high school when I finally got a 2600 of my own, in the bargain bin during the video game crash. I moved onto an Atari computer about a year later, so there's little nostalgia as I dreamed of a Colecovision or 5200 system. One reason  I went for the computer because the games looked the same caliber as the 5200/Colecovision but I could do so much more than just play games.

 

So a lot of them are brand new to me too. I did collect about 100 VCS games at the time, and have a few favorites, like most of the Imagic games, half the Activision titles and a few Atari games like Solaris, but most of my old favorites I hold nostalgia for started on the A8 computer and beyond...

[Mclaneinc]

 

Hi Matt,

 

I, too, like the Imagic stuff (Atari computer) but have no idea how much is on the 2600, I'll have to look it up. It's just one of those machines I never bonded with, same with the Coleco. No idea why, but we didn't click.

 

On the other hand I wish glurk all the success on any port he decides to do, maybe it will make me want to go through the 2600 stuff with a new eye..

 

Paul..

[Gunstar]

1 hour ago, Mclaneinc said:

 

Hi Matt,

 

I, too, like the Imagic stuff (Atari computer) but have no idea how much is on the 2600, I'll have to look it up. It's just one of those machines I never bonded with, same with the Coleco. No idea why, but we didn't click.

 

On the other hand I wish glurk all the success on any port he decides to do, maybe it will make me want to go through the 2600 stuff with a new eye..

 

Paul..

There's some good 2600 games from Imagic that never made it to the A8, like Moon Sweeper and Cosmic Ark and Star Voyager (Or Activision's Star Master too, though I can see why here, I doubt either would have fared well against the A8 version of Star Raiders) and others. A8 got Atlantis  and Demon Attack and one or two others, and I think one or two games from Imagic not on the 2600- Oh, yeah, Laser Gates and Wing War (or were they on the 2600 too?), both great A8 games. Was Chopper Hunt on the 2600? But Laser Gates and Wing War look much better than the ports from the 2600 with their minimal improvements. If Laser Gates and Wing War were on the 2600 too, they did a better porting job than the others, or they came out on the A8 first. I was a huge Moon Sweeper fan and I like Cosmic Ark quite a bit too. When Solaris came out I sort of forgot about Moon Sweeper since some levels on Solaris are very similar and it's all around a better and deeper game and the main reason my 2600 gets turned on at all anymore or one of the few 2600 games I actually play on my 7800.

 

Somebody did point out and post a clone of Cosmic Ark, IIRC, in a 2600 port related thread.

 

To me, Solaris would be the Holy Grail of 2600 games that needs and updated port to the Atari 8-bit. Or even a true 7800 version...could you imagine!? With it's sprite capabilities!? Or using the engine or similar of A8's Space Harrier!?

Edited February 25, 2022 by Gunstar

[glurk]

I'm still playing around with this, using a kernel for color changes, and (honest accident) I indexed one past my sprite animations, and something funny happened...  This is actually amusing, I might have to keep at it and use this one:

 

fw.bin

[Thelen]

That poor chicken ?

[glurk]

Well, I guess this one has been upgraded from PoC to WIP.  Close to finished, really, but I'm almost running out of room in 8K, LOL.  I stored a lot of data in ROM to make it much easier programming.  I'm going to have to crunch like the 2600 programmers do!

 

Fully playable, actually.  Doesn't have the proper game selection levels in yet, but changing select does change the vehicle speeds and stuff.  I honestly never liked this game much, but IMO it's looking pretty good with the graphics updates I've added.  Not really happy with the sound, it's OK I guess...

 

fw.bin