Enduro ported

[Goochman]

I always heard it was difficult to get 2600 games to work the same on the 800 despite its more advanced capabilities due to the 2600 having the mirror effect and such.  Cool to see alot of the better 2600 games on the 800 now

 

Great job!

[_The Doctor__]

800 series horizontal mirror top to bottom, but perhaps their is another trick... once known but forgotten maybe it's found or rediscovery is around the corner.

Edited April 17, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[Keatah]

What are some of the subtle things ya'll noticed about Enduo years and years after you got the game? The speed of the sunset, like in real life, goes through the stages pretty quickly compared against the day/night times. You can sort of set your own difficulty level if you're a cruiser. Fine-tune your speed. As you get better, crank it up a little more. If you get tired, slow it down.

 

For additional challenges, complete requisite # of cars passed by a certain time of day. On level 1, aim for completion by sunset. When you get good, finish it just as you exit the snowstorm.

 

This is why good games of old are so endearing. You discover things about them years later. And find new ways to change-up the rules.

[+Stephen]

I never played Enduro much - once I got my 400 in 82, the 2600 was relegated as "the toy" for my much younger brother.  This port makes me want to play it again though, and I will try these strategies.  Especially now that I know GACCRR was based on this.  I played that game to death!  Growing up with Smokey & the Bandit, Dukes of Hazard, Knight Rider, Cannonball Run, etc. - this game was my way of living that out since I was far too young to drive.  To this day, racing games are my absolute fave genre.

 

The last game on 2600 I spent major time with, was Indy 500, and I cannot pry the wife away from Demon Attack.  Sorry for the off topic.

[Jetboot Jack]

Really stupid question (and nothing to do with this awesome port)...

 

What do you see when you look at the the car sprite?

 

Is it rear tyres and a rear wing as if looking at the back of the car?

 

OR

 

Is it rear tyres and front tyres as if looking down on the car?

 

I have seen it as the latter until a couple of days ago, and then pop - looking at this conversion I saw rear tyres and a rear wing all of a sudden!

 

Thoughts?

 

sTeVE

[Goochman]

3 hours ago, Jetboot Jack said:

Really stupid question (and nothing to do with this awesome port)...

 

What do you see when you look at the the car sprite?

 

Is it rear tyres and a rear wing as if looking at the back of the car?

 

OR

 

Is it rear tyres and front tyres as if looking down on the car?

 

I have seen it as the latter until a couple of days ago, and then pop - looking at this conversion I saw rear tyres and a rear wing all of a sudden!

 

Thoughts?

 

sTeVE

 

Damn you're killin me - I think its the former now, though is asked without looking the latter 

 

[Keatah]

I see 4 tires and higher look-down perspective. Better matches the road's perspective. None of the cars in the manual/box artwork have any significant spoilers going either.

[+Cafeman]

I’ve always seen rear tires and a spoiler on top.

[+kheller2]

Can you cheat at night driving and pass right in front of the taillights (where you would normally hit the car during daylight)?

 

[Keatah]

Yes you can. And if you're positioned like that when it turns daylight, you crash.

 

Actually, you need to be positioned behind the car, it doesn't matter if you're infront, at night it seems the taillights are mounted in the front! And the car grows behind them when turning to day. I guess it's a whole differently sized sprite with different collision detection dimensions.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Keatah

[Gunstar]

9 hours ago, Jetboot Jack said:

Really stupid question (and nothing to do with this awesome port)...

 

What do you see when you look at the the car sprite?

 

Is it rear tyres and a rear wing as if looking at the back of the car?

 

OR

 

Is it rear tyres and front tyres as if looking down on the car?

 

I have seen it as the latter until a couple of days ago, and then pop - looking at this conversion I saw rear tyres and a rear wing all of a sudden!

 

Thoughts?

 

sTeVE

I always perceived it the same as you, But being artistically oriented all my life I chose to imagine more perspective in the one color 2600 sprites. But I also always thought the Enduro cars were very ugly and of course much preferred the multi-color TGACCRR sprites, though I still always felt they were ugly too.

 

But then back in the day, especially with consoles, but computers too, there was generally just one programmer who did the code graphics and sound, and they were not often good artists and musicians too. So I always felt I could do better graphics myself. I always detested 8-bit Pole Position cars and I thank @TIX for his artistic upgraded hacks to a lot of 8-bit games, like PP. I couldn't have done any better than he given the limitations and am happy he started doing the graphic hacks since I didn't know how too.

 

Both the A8 and the 7800 are blessed with some good artists who know how to hack the graphics of games making them much better or closer to the arcade look, as they should have been in the first place! I realize, of course, budget constraints, memory limitations and ever encroaching dead-lines that commercial programmers had back in the day that hackers and homebrewer's don't have to worry about today. 

 

As for 2600 ports to the A8, I'm all for them if a superior version or homebrew/clone doesn't already exist. But I too am in the TGACCRR camp and though I played Enduro endlessly in my 2600 heyday, I never really looked back after I got an A8, enjoying the far superior game versions it had. But the 2600 has a few games that I have no choice but to return to it to play. Robot Tank is a good example. But I want to see a port of Solaris most of all, maybe even enhanced though, but 2600 graphics can suffice in this instance since they are above and beyond the usual 2600 graphics. There are also quite a few Imagic games I want to see on the A8, even if it is just 2600 ports. Moonsweeper, Cosmic Ark, Star Voyager just to name a few. Though I always would prefer them to have enhanced graphics...

 

[manterola]

In my case, Enduro was always one of my favorites. I actually started a thread years ago about 2600 games that never made it to the Atari 8 bits computer platform. A lot of great ideas for porting are there.

Now regarding Enduro I really like it. I also like that it is like the 2600 one, without additions. The only addition I can agree on is (maybe) a pause button, for a little break. But even that addition might change part of the challenge of the game which is to keep the concentration and focus the longest possible.

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by manterola

[Jetboot Jack]

Glad it's not just me - and opinion is divided 🙂

 

I always thought they were slightly ugly 3/4 top down cars and could not understand why the front wheels didn't steer or animate until this week when I saw a back end and a wing 😛 

 

Please feel free to see what you see, not what I see...

 

     sTeVE

 

P.S. This port plays delightfully!

Edited April 20, 2023 by Jetboot Jack

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, Jetboot Jack said:

Glad it's not just me - and opinion is divided 🙂

 

I always thought they were slightly ugly 3/4 top down cars and could not understand why the front wheels didn't steer or animate until this week when I saw a back end and a wing 😛 

My experience is the same as yours. I always wondered why the front tires weren't animated; never thought of it being just a back view only -- until you mentioned it.

 

But now, I have to agree, it makes the most sense, since it would account for the front tires not being animated. Also, if we take G.A.C.C.R.R. to be an upgraded version of Enduro... all cars in G.A.C.C.R.R. are from a back view (albeit none of them formula 1).

 

 

[glurk]

This is a really good port, and one that I didn't want to take on, so I'm glad that @Vin_the_2600_Man did.  However, I found a bug / omission.  When you lap all the cars, the flags are supposed to turn GREEN and they do not.  So I took the liberty of patching all 3 binaries so that they do...  😀

 

 

enduro.zip

[Vin_the_2600_Man]

Here is version 2 with a fix for the lack of green flags.  Thanks to glurk for finding that mistake.

This version will handle PAL for the green flags.

 

endurov2.zip

[eegad]

Much thanks for this! Enduro was by far the best racing game on 2600 in my opinion. Very glad to see it finally make it's way to the 8bit computers, which I always felt should have had some more (and better) racing games. GACCRR was pretty okay. Pole Position as well. And I did like Rally Speedway since it was similar to the Intellivision racing game, which was a favorite of mine to play at my friends house. But not too many others that I can think of. Always wanted to see Turbo (or a knock-off) come out for the 8bits.

 

 

[+MrFish]

6 hours ago, eegad said:

But not too many others that I can think of. Always wanted to see Turbo (or a knock-off) come out for the 8bits.

Pitstop is a decent one, and at least makes a good attempt at having some more depth (although GACCRR qualifies for having depth, and I think an overall better game). Pitstop II, on the other hand, was the pits...

 

There was also GameStar's On-Track, but I could never get into it much. I think a game like this, with the full track on screen, would do better with driving controllers instead of joysticks.

 

We also have the port of Stunt Car Racer, which is pretty cool/fun.

 

Other than that, there's Night Driver and Kikstart.

 

I'd agree that we could use a few more good (there are plenty of bad and mediocre ones) first-person 3D-ish driving games, though.

 

[gambler172]

On 4/15/2023 at 2:30 AM, adam242 said:

Enduro was already ported to the 8-bits, it's called The Great American Cross Country Road Race.

 

But seriously, thank you for this! Thanks to you, glurk, phaeron and others we are amassing quite a collection of 2600 ports.

 

Still hoping someone would take on Dark Cavern and/or Pressure Cooker...

You are wrong. Enduro and GACCRR are different games 👎

[adam242]

15 hours ago, gambler172 said:

You are wrong. Enduro and GACCRR are different games 👎

I am aware that they not literally the same game. See this post. SMH.

[+Adam+]

On 4/29/2023 at 6:05 AM, Vin_the_2600_Man said:

Here is version 2 with a fix for the lack of green flags.  Thanks to glurk for finding that mistake.

This version will handle PAL for the green flags.

 

endurov2.zip 14.55 kB · 91 downloads

@Vin_the_2600_Man As I understand this is the final version of "Enduro" and no further development is planned? The game is still categorised as "WIP" in the thread below and I think it's a mistake: