Wal-Rush! for the Atari 2600! [Atari 2600]

u/JWinslow23 January 27, 2016, 05:56:40 PM

Quote from: alexgt on January 27, 2016, 01:23:05 PM
Nice, sadly I can't test it

Aweh

How come?

u/Dream of Omnimaga January 27, 2016, 08:46:54 PM

Woah, that looks even more amazing JWInslow. I thought that such scrolling might look too choppy but I was wrong. It makes the game even more realistic now (per Atari standards). Would it be possible to make it look like this? Or is that too much for the console limitations? Or are the sides just empty due to not being visible on a TV?

Here is what I mean:

Also will your game work on both NTSC and PAL consoles?

Quote from: alexgt on January 27, 2016, 01:23:05 PM
Nice, sadly I can't test it

Can't you just install Stella emulator on your PC? Or do you have restricted admin privileges on it?

u/JWinslow23 January 28, 2016, 01:27:13 PM

That is all I am able to draw, due to timing constraints. Sorry

EDIT: As it stands, the game is NTSC, but I will make a PAL version in the next update.

Last Edit: January 28, 2016, 02:11:07 PM by JWinslow23

u/Dream of Omnimaga January 28, 2016, 07:26:08 PM

Aah I see. And yeah PAL would be nice for our Europe users who want to try this on an harmony cart.

I wonder if Stella supports SECAM?

u/calcplays January 28, 2016, 11:17:46 PM

This looks quite interesting and fun. I especially like the title screen.

u/JWinslow23 January 29, 2016, 05:03:13 PM

Thank you, calcplays! Have you played it yet?

u/Dream of Omnimaga January 29, 2016, 10:35:02 PM

By the way, this is an Atari 2600 game, so music isn't really necessary since Atari games with music are very rare, but if you were gonna add music to it, perhaps you could add some sort of title screen song remix of one of my older songs (maybe Ancient Kingdom of Happy Hardcore melody since it was made just a few hours before CodeWalrus creation). It would just need to use 1 sound channel. And during gameplay, all you would need is flapping sounds, which could just be standard Atari sounds, and when you die it could just be an explosion sound.

u/JWinslow23 January 30, 2016, 01:11:54 AM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 29, 2016, 10:35:02 PM
By the way, this is an Atari 2600 game, so music isn't really necessary since Atari games with music are very rare, but if you were gonna add music to it, perhaps you could add some sort of title screen song remix of one of my older songs (maybe Ancient Kingdom of Happy Hardcore melody since it was made just a few hours before CodeWalrus creation). It would just need to use 1 sound channel. And during gameplay, all you would need is flapping sounds, which could just be standard Atari sounds, and when you die it could just be an explosion sound.

I was thinking it over in my head, and I just realized composing original songs is very hard

I might do a remix of one of your songs, and I will definitely take that specific one into careful consideration (that is, if I find out how to do music and sound effects in bAtari BASIC, apparently that's hard too

). For now, that is all that's stopping further progression. I will finish as soon as possible!

u/Dream of Omnimaga January 30, 2016, 06:15:54 AM

Even single channel audio is hard?

I remember that SNES audio was hard, though. I wish there were more hi-level tools to make music like trackers or something.

u/JWinslow23 January 30, 2016, 06:19:55 AM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 30, 2016, 06:15:54 AM
Even single channel audio is hard? I remember that SNES audio was hard, though. I wish there were more hi-level tools to make music like trackers or something.

For me, it's just figuring out an engine to use. You know, how to actually store all the sound and recall it. I'm a n00b at bAtari BASIC, especially sound-related programming

u/JWinslow23 February 03, 2016, 04:32:06 AM

Bump.

Well, I finally have sound! No new screenie this time, as there are no cosmetic changes, but now it sounds sorta like an authentic game!

This is what I would consider a beta version of this game. Surely there is something else big that I want to add

, but that'll have to wait for now.

Download link has been attached. Now, the .bin is also available for download by itself. Tell me what you think!

Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 04:41:03 AM by JWinslow23

u/Dream of Omnimaga February 03, 2016, 04:41:53 AM

I like the sounds. Very Atari style.

Do you think you could make the difficulty increase over time? Also would the console be too limited to allow you to add the power-up?

u/JWinslow23 February 03, 2016, 04:46:28 AM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on February 03, 2016, 04:41:53 AM
I like the sounds. Very Atari style. Do you think you could make the difficulty increase over time? Also would the console be too limited to allow you to add the power-up?

Perhaps I could make the scrolling faster over time...up to a point

And no, the console is not too limited for me to add this powerup. I doubt it'll take more than a few lines of code to implement. And I have >2KB of ROM left in the first bank of the ROM, even with everything I have but the titlescreen in it. I'm sure it'll be fine.

u/Dream of Omnimaga February 03, 2016, 05:21:08 PM

Scrolling faster over time would be a nice idea I guess. And thanks for the info.

u/utz February 03, 2016, 05:45:13 PM

So great to see someone from this community fiddle which such ancient hardware. Massive props!
Just gave the beta a quick try in Stella. Plays smooth, but yeah it could do with a little speedup over time