Tempest Posted May 18, 2004 Share Posted May 18, 2004 Just read that. Where did the author get that nonsensical rumor about Apple creating the mouse by turning an Atari Trak It's the Village Voice, what did you expect? Didn't Xerox create the mouse and try to sell it to Atari? There actually was a mouse for the Atari called RATS but I don't think it ever saw wide distribution. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Rogue Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 Just read that. Where did the author get that nonsensical rumor about Apple creating the mouse by turning an Atari Trak It's the Village Voice, what did you expect? Didn't Xerox create the mouse and try to sell it to Atari? There actually was a mouse for the Atari called RATS but I don't think it ever saw wide distribution. Tempest No. As stated, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse back in the mid 60's. Some of the workers from his lab left when Xerox created their lab in the early 70's and brought the mouse concept with them. There's actually a nice picture of it in the book Fire in the Valley. Check out the link I posted, there's footage of his exciting demonstration. Networking, tiled windows, overlayed video feed, and more - all in 1968. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 I guess I don't neccessarily have a favorite 2600 programmer because I like a lot of their work. Having finally done a game of my own I have a great respect for all 2600 coders. At the moment though there is one 2600 programmer that stands out...Garry Kitchen. Garry wrote... Space Jockey Donkey Kong Keystone Kapers Pressure Cooker Space Jockey To write this, Garry taught himself how to program the 2600! He learned the system by disassembling Activision cartridges (quote from him at a CGE). He also developed a pretty interesting horizontal positioning routine. Before this most games used the code that was developed by Joe Decuir. Garry developed (at least we think so) a nice method that used less bytes. A modification of this routine later showed up in Battlezone (discovered by Manuel Rotschkar ) Donkey Kong Despite what others may think this version is pretty good. You have to remember this was Garry's second 2600 game. Looking at the code it looks as if he tried to squeeze as much as he could into the 4K limit. I think he did a great job. The game feels like Donkey Kong to me and I enjoyed it when I had it in the '80s. Keystone Kapers I loved this game back when it was released and still enjoy it today. I liked how he has multiple characters per board but used algorithms to not allow any flicker at all. Also remember, before there was Pitfall Harry there was Keystone Kelly. I'm disassembling this game now and it looks to be done very well. This game is the first time I've seen the NOP trick in a commercial game to save ROM bytes. Of course this doesn't mean it's the first time...it's just the first time I've seen it done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 my fave 2600 programmer by far is Rob Fulop (dont know if he's been mentioned in this thread yet,) Missle Command was awesome, but his Imagic work REALLY kicks ASS and stands the test of TIME (imho,) I still LOVE ---==LOVE==-- all of his Imagic games Demon Attack is Amazing, Cosmic Ark is timeless perfection, Fathom is just gorgeous with a huge game world, and I -STILL- love playing all of his games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 I'm disassembling this game now and it looks to be done very well. This game is the first time I've seen the NOP trick in a commercial game to save ROM bytes. Cool, when will we see your results? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 I'm disassembling this game now and it looks to be done very well. This game is the first time I've seen the NOP trick in a commercial game to save ROM bytes. Cool, when will we see your results? Unfortunately it's going slow because of everyday tasks and other projects. Hopefully I can make a real breakthrough soon. I can feel it coming. The setup/code is very similar to Space Jockey and Donkey Kong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Hmmm... Let's see. The nominees are: David Crane - Laser Blast (say what you will - the laser effect is still cool), Grand Prix, Pitfall & Pitfall II Rob Fulop - Missile Command, Demon Attack Glenn Axworthy - Midnight Magic And the winner is: (insert sound of envelope ripping) David Crane. He wrote the two games (Laser Blast and Pitfall) that floored me more than any others back when I first got my Atari. I can't pick a modern-day one, since I have the utmost respect for any homebrewer willing to put in the time and effort required to code a game for the 2600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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