Midway Arcade -> Atari 2600 port

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Same here.  I guess we're past the point of diminishing returns when geeks like US don't even know the obscure games being referenced.

 

Hehe... well I think most of them have been ported to the Astrocade

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[NovaXpress]

Hm... I don't find one from Sega, but MAME lists a game called Eliminator from Gremlin, is it that?

Gremlin is Sega. If you look at the marquees from that time you'see see they say Sega/Gremlin. There was a detailed thread about this a few months ago. Back when they were an American company they did some weird stuff. The last Gremlin game was Zaxxon, all games afterwards were just called Sega.

 

Eliminator was superb, with 2 player simultaneous action as well.

Eliminator

This one was one of my favorites of all time, the forerunner to Gradius

Space Odyssey

 

Does this one look familiar?

Deep Scan

Check this out. A 2-in-1! Invinco/Head On 2

[NovaXpress]

Holy Crap, check out this oldie from Sega. It's just wrong.

Fonz

[vdub_bobby]

In general I know that those early Midway games look very simple, but it's always interesting to see some spiced up homebrews based on simple basic principles. Also these are ideal beginners projects.

There's two homebrew cart releases available with Pong variants, so why not trying these as well?

Heh, I worked up a rough draft of a kernel for M-4 this evening. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but maybe I'll slam something out in the next couple of days/weeks/years

 

Writing 1K games is kinda fun and M-4 could definitely be squeezed into 1K. Definitely it probably could, I think. Might be fun to try.

[NovaXpress]

I don't think I could deal with an M-4 actually playing on the 2600. That's one of those obscure games that I have a particular nostalgia for. I've never met anyone else who ever heard of it.

 

I think I'd want it to be monochrome like the original. I notice I never see color or monochrome variations in classic translations.

[Big Player]

Hi there!

 

I don't get the voting. Amazing Maze is Maze Craze so what's the point?

 

Amazing Maze has two players entering the maze on opposite sides of the screen. It's your goal to find the exit on the other side faster than your opponent. There's even a little bit of strategy involved: While you have to find your own way, you can also have an eye on the other guy and memorize his path, so once you meet each other, you can quickly finish your way.

 

Is this how 2600 Maze Craze works? I admittedly never really played it...

 

What? Maze Craze is one of my favorite two players games for the 2600. I've even found that people who don't like video games but like puzzles and mazes will play it.

 

In Maze Craze, there are a number of different options, but the basic premise remains the same: both players start in the same position on the left side of the maze and race each other to the exit on the right side.

 

From what I've read, the author of Maze Craze admitted he got the idea from Amazing Maze.

[vdub_bobby]

Here's a first hack at an M-4 port to the 2600.

 

Thoughts?

 

Issues:

Sprites are kinda, um, ugly.

Only missile-to-wall collisions are detected and/or acted on.

2-player only (no AI).

Sounds incomplete.

No scoring.

No timer.

etc. etc. You get the idea.

 

It's black and white right now for the pleasure of NovaXpress but colors can be changed easily.

M4.zip

[vdub_bobby]

Bump-da-bump-bump - somebody take a look?

[+batari]

Bump-da-bump-bump - somebody take a look?

835777[/snapback]

 

OK, I'll bite. Perhaps this should have its own thread, then you might get more feedback.

 

Anyway, this is turning into a good adaption of the game, and might be a good candidate for a 1k game for the minigame compo. A few things could be changed though:

 

If you're trying to match the real game, the tanks/planes in this version are too big, and move too fast, all by about a factor of two.

 

The bullets are too slow, by about a factor of three. On the real game it takes just over a second for a bullet to travel across the screen but on this it takes about 4 sec.

 

Anyway, the above is easy to change. The AI should be easy too. The algorithm appears to be something like this:

 

if the barrier is present or the player is reloading - move toward the player, shoot if in range.

 

if barrier not present, same as above except if a shot is being fired and the computer tank is in the path of the shot, then move away from the player.

 

This algorithm's flaw is that it doesn't accont for the case where the computer player is at the bottom or top of the screen. It can't move away from the player when the player is firing, so it just sits there waiting to be shot. Perhaps the AI can be improved upon to fix the "sitting duck" flaw to move toward the player in certain cases if it is being shot on at the top or bottom.

 

There might also be something in there for the computer to fire on the cars and planes going by since it seems to hit them once in a while.

 

With these changes it will be even better than the real game.

[vdub_bobby]

OK, I'll bite.  Perhaps this should have its own thread, then you might get more feedback.

Yeah. If I decide to take this to completion I'll probably start a thread for it.

Anyway, this is turning into a good adaption of the game, and might be a good candidate for a 1k game for the minigame compo.  A few things could be changed though:

 

If you're trying to match the real game, the tanks/planes in this version are too big, and move too fast, all by about a factor of two.

 

The bullets are too slow, by about a factor of three.  On the real game it takes just over a second for a bullet to travel across the screen but on this it takes about 4 sec.

Changing the speed of things is easy (and they are pretty off because I made zero attempt to match them to the arcade original). Changing the sizes of things...well, that's a little trickier, due to the 2 line resolution of the sprites. I'll look at that, though.

 

Anyway, the above is easy to change.  The AI should be easy too.  The algorithm appears to be something like this:

 

if the barrier is present or the player is reloading - move toward the player, shoot if in range.

 

if barrier not present, same as above except if a shot is being fired and the computer tank is in the path of the shot, then move away from the player.

 

This algorithm's flaw is that it doesn't accont for the case where the computer player is at the bottom or top of the screen.  It can't move away from the player when the player is firing, so it just sits there waiting to be shot.  Perhaps the AI can be improved upon to fix the "sitting duck" flaw to move toward the player in certain cases if it is being shot on at the top or bottom.

 

There might also be something in there for the computer to fire on the cars and planes going by since it seems to hit them once in a while.

 

With these changes it will be even better than the real game.

835937[/snapback]

Yeah, the AI is pretty simple.

 

Thanks for your comments!

 

-bob

[Rob Mitchell]

Honestly, Laguna Racer and M-4 are the only 2 that look even remotely interesting.

832247[/snapback]

 

Dogpatch is a 2-player BLAST on the Astrocade!! I've been secretly soliciting a programmer to make this with AI for the 2600 !! There's even a hilarious working title name !!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[sandmountainslim]

Hey Manuel , ya ever consider doing a homebrew of "Fonz"? Everyone says its impossible cuz it doesnt have a CPU Sure would be cool to see an expert give it a go though But it isnt a Midway game

[vdub_bobby]

Hey Manuel , ya ever consider doing a homebrew of "Fonz"? Everyone says its impossible cuz it doesnt have a CPU   Sure would be cool to see an expert give it a go though   But it isnt a Midway game

841632[/snapback]

I don't think anyone has said it would be impossible to make a homebrew of Fonz - just that it is impossible/very difficult to emulate it.

 

But, if you can't play Fonz in emulation, you would either have to own the arcade machine, have easy access to it, or have a very good memory of it to be able to port it.

[s0c7]

What about Phantom II?

[Pac Munchkin]

All these games seem like they have already been done, and in color yet.

 

Amazing Maze > Maze Crazy

Datsun 280 ZZZZap > Night Driver

Tornado Baseball > Real Sports Baseball, M-network Baseball

Checkmate > Surround (but the three enemies might be interesting?)

Desert Gun > that seems it was not done in any form for VCS

Dog Patch > Again that seems it was not made I can't think of any

Guided Missile > also seems not to have been done

Laguna Racer > Enduro Racer, at lest it looks like enduro from that picture

M-4 > looks like to me the M-network tank game.

 

So there are some but I would rather see color games, even though I was born in 66 all my first games were color, owwwww wait no I played pong and Space Invaders but other black and white games I don't remember, except for Death Race and Bezerk, almost forgot a game with a periscope it was pretty much like target fun, I remember those.

 

But most were color games I played.

 

Wade