Atari 2600 port of "Impossible Mission"

[grayescu]

Would it be possible to program a port of Impossible Mission on the Atari 2600? It is most likely to be a demake, considering the systems hardware. 

[+Al_Nafuur]

@rsiddall has tried his hand on an demo

 

[rsiddall]

22 hours ago, grayescu said:

Would it be possible to program a port of Impossible Mission on the Atari 2600? It is most likely to be a demake, considering the systems hardware. 

We are at a point now where there are a lot of savvy programmers and hardware that exists to run games on the 2600 (with the ability to look good).

It's just a matter of someone with the inclination to go about programming it. 

[grayescu]

Thanks. Would a physical copy of a game like that be possible?

[+Gemintronic]

2 minutes ago, grayescu said:

Thanks. Would a physical copy of a game like that be possible?

 

Emulators can hide flickering issues.  So, it really depends on how much the programmer leans on flickering to get more sprites and colors.  Also, how big the final ROM turns out.  It's really hard for most random cart makers to go beyond 32k.  Extra RAM is an issue too.

[SaltySQLCoder]

I actually have a spreadsheet I created that maps out all Impossible mission rooms - the wall and floor block dimension work out to be 40 wide by 25 (26) high -- perfect for Atari 2600 playfield size.  About 2/3rds of them use very similar room layout of 3-4 levels of flat floor, providing opportunities to re-use playfield data. 

 

I like  your robot demo.  Character and robot sprites would be relatively easy to copy with small simplifications like your did.  Furniture to search may be doable using creative playfield line coloring, or perhaps positioning sprites on vertical bandwidth not already occupied by the robots (wall shelves, windows?).  Electric robot shots may be doable using missile sprites.  Manipulation of puzzle pieces could be done as a completely separate screen to toggle to rather than on the main action screen.  Lift platforms would be player sprites (as they do not occupy robot or player vertical bandwidth "usually".  Player, robots, black orbs, lift platforms, and terminals could all be flickered sprites.

 

This and C64's Temple of Apshai would be really feasible ports.   I have notes on ideas for that, but currently I'm working on a Dark Crystal platformer for the 2600.