Would you do it all over?

[Chris++]

Here's something I've always wanted to ask. Thomas and other 2600 programmers who've completed kick-ass original games: If you had known, before you started learning how to code for Stella, about all of the obstacles and hidden secrets that you would have to overcome regarding the design of your own games, would you still go through with it?

 

Just thought it would be interesting to ask.

 

CF

[Snider-man]

I'm still working on mine - have been for months. Still trying to grasp the nuances of ASM, trying to get the hang of cycle counting, trying to remember that "every bit is sacred," trying to get a simple freaking sprite to move the way I want it to move. I have spent hours of my life on this stupid project.

But, the first time I actually got my playfield to pop up in an emulator - knowing that I had *made that happen* - made it all worthwhile.

 

It's like learning to ride a bike, you fall down and bump your head a LOT. You'll wonder why you even wanted to try this. BUt, after the training wheels come off, there's a real sense of accomplishment. I'm barely at the beginning level, but I've had my share of "good-feeling-acheivements."

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris Federico:

Here's something I've always wanted to ask. Thomas and other 2600 programmers who've completed kick-ass original games: If you had known, before you started learning how to code for Stella, about all of the obstacles and hidden secrets that you would have to overcome regarding the design of your own games, would you still go through with it?

---

Definitely. The "ultimate challenge" was one of (if not the) main reason for me to start programming for the 2600.

 

Am I mad? Yes I am!

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Hm... I don't know if I'd have managed to learn assembly for or on the 2600. I was lucky enough that I've learned that *back then* on my C64. So the transfer to Stella wasn't really that hard.

 

I expect anybody who programms any other 8-bit Atari, Commodore or Apple computer in Assembler to programm the 2600 in less than a month. If your experience is some 10 years old, maybe 2 months all in all, to get back in gear

 

Starting from scratch seems really tough to me. I don't know if I could've done that.

 

Hm... actually I don't know anyone who released a completed 2600 game, who started from scratch. Thomas is a C64 guy as well, and Andrew programmed 8-Bit Ataris back then, for example.

 

Greetings,

Manue

[rolenta]

Shortly after I purchased my Atari 800 in 1983, I taught myself BASIC and wrote a text-version of Monopoly. It took about a year. I followed that up with a text-version of Risk, which took about a month. The problem with Risk was that it took too long to shuffle the cards in BASIC. So then I taught myself Assembler and spent eight hours to write a subroutine to shuffle the cards. That was the last time I programmed in Assembler. While I would love to write a game for the 2600, I know I wouldn't have the patience or the discipline to ever complete it.

 

[ 06-06-2002: Message edited by: rolenta ]

[maximebeauvais]

around last year, I starte learning atari 2600.

 

I only have a small back ground of programmation, I'm a beginner in C and C+.

 

so it was very hard for me to learn it.

 

also, it was more harder to find documentation

 

maybe this summer I will try again...