+saxmeister Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Growing up, I had a beautiful little Commodore VIC-20. I always played on Atari and programmed on Commodore, but these days, thanks to the magic of 7800BASIC and several other tools that the great devs have created for us to use, I am programming on the 7800. One of my favorite COMPUTE!'s Gazette games was published in June 1984, was written for the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64, and went by the name of "Frantic Fisherman." I actually preferred the VIC version due to the larger graphics and slightly faster draw. I don't know how many hours I spent playing that simple little game. To honor that memory, I have adapted that idea of a game to the 7800. This is an early test and I still have lots of bugs to iron out and things I want to add. I know already that if the score gets above 1700 it crashes for some odd reason. I can't track that one down just yet. Protect your boat from sharks and rain. Use your paddle/prod to swat at sharks and use your umbrella to block the raindrops. Original VIC-20 program: Updated for the 7800: frantic_10.bas.78b.bin frantic_10.bas.78b.a78 Link to JS7800: https://raz0red.github.io/js7800/?cart=https://forums.atariage.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=1086673&key=a9ba360257a80cfc1466c31c38c42408 15 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 As someone who would sometimes stay up all night typing in C64 games from Compute's Gazette magazine in 1983-1984, I can appreciate your inspiration for this game. It looks great, I'm about to download it and try it out. Edit: Could you share the a78? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 1 hour ago, Atarius Maximus said: Edit: Could you share the a78? frantic_10.bas.78b.a78 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Off to a very nice start, Sax. As part of the update from the VIC-20 original, perhaps, "BLOCK RAIN WITH YOUR UMBRELLA" can be modified to "BLOCK HAIL WITH YOUR UMBRELLA". Half the letters are already in place and the raindrop already appears quite large, it can easily pass for hail. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrunchyTC Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 (edited) Very interesting! I never had any 80's computers aside from the crappy 84 Macintosh, so any computer game port to the 7800 is welcome! Edited January 29 by KrunchyTC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 @saxmeister Looks great, thanks for sharing. Look forward to downloading and testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merman Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 This is fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Nice start. Love the title screen. Look forward to future updates. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+saxmeister Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 @sramirez2008 I always love seeing games on your television. I'm currently searching for a CRT solution for my retro gaming joy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 10 minutes ago, saxmeister said: @sramirez2008 I always love seeing games on your television. I'm currently searching for a CRT solution for my retro gaming joy. If you find a Toshiba, I recommend them. I have two and both have S-Video and RGB in addition to RF of course. I prefer a smaller set, so mine are 14” CRTs models 14AF44 (pictured) and 14AF42. The picture looks much better than what my phone captures. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edweird13 Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 I have a 13 inch CRT for my gaming needs. To me it is required hardware. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+saxmeister Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 I am on my quest for one. I had a great 20" stereo TV I was I had kept. It was always my gaming rig. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 This is cool! I will need some sort of delay at the game over screen, as I am still frantically swinging my club and miss the screen. My button mashing skips me right to the title screen. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 If you find yourself wanting to get really fancy, you could perhaps animate a "sharknado" in the background that is sucking sharks up into the clouds. It is those airborne sharks which then later rain down on your boat, prompting for the need to use an umbrella for protection. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+saxmeister Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 I *love* that idea. I would need to incorporate some sort of "power up" system that would allow the player to upgrade to a "super umbrella" to protect against the impending doom! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+saxmeister Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 BTW, @sramirez2008 I finally picked up a CRT TV to use for gaming. I tried to find a Toshiba but there wasn't anything near by. So I wound up with a Magnavox 27". Much bigger than I wanted, but it works and the picture quality is good for retro games. (My phone doesn't do the images justice) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 3 hours ago, saxmeister said: (My phone doesn't do the images justice) Congrats on your pickup! I don’t have anything against emulation, but I prefer CRTs. The games look great on them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 On 1/28/2024 at 3:43 PM, saxmeister said: I've been trying to put my finger on what it is that this title screen reminds me of, and it finally hit me: Orca's arcade games. They never really did one in this style - it just has the same sort of feel to it. In my book, that's a good thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+saxmeister Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 @sramirez2008 I'm in the same boat. A good old CRT just does the right thing. I introduced my kids to the goodness of CRT gameplay and now they are obsessed. My son kept hooking up every game system he could find! @x=usr(1536) that is very cool. Orca's games do have a certain aesthetic and I'm glad to have captured that. That makes me want to have a port of Net Wars and Springer (games I never got to see in the arcade - only via emulation). I definitely love using the hi-res 320 modes for title screens. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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