peteym5

I am working on a port over to the 5200 and trying to work with its 32K ROM + 16K RAM limitations. Trying to get this Deflate + Inflate routines to help compress things to within the memory we need. I will also be reusing the techniques used to make it fit into a smaller memory space to help the next big Atari 8-bit game (Secretum Labyrinth III) game do more. It may use a 64K Williams Cartridge or a 128K AtariMax Cartridge.

Now that Tempest Elite is available for Sale and being shipped. We decided to make this a technical support thread. Tempest Elite is set up to by default to run on a stock Atari XL/XE computer with 64K RAM with standard 6502. We are not taking responsibilities for program conflicts caused from custom hardware upgrades other than VBXE or Stereo Pokey. Makes use of the RAM under ROM ($C000 to $CFFF & $F800 to $FFFF). Does not make use of extended RAM over 64K, like 130XE, RAMBO, etc. Does not take advantage of any 65816 upgrades or issues undocumented (illegal) 6502 instructions. On Startup Tempest Elite checks for VBXE present in the $D640 or $D740 memory areas, if not detected, it will continue to load the standard Atari graphics and Player/Missile multiplexer sections into RAM. If detected, a VBXE blitter is loaded into RAM instead. The VBXE can be bypassed by holding down option key when the cartridge when turning the power on. Stereo Pokey is checked in the $D210 memory area. Majority of the 2nd Pokey Chip upgrades use this area. I am aware of some custom upgrades that placed the 2nd pokey at $D280, or Quad Poker, or with COVOX chip. Tempest Elite does not support Pokey chips mapped between $D220 to $D2FF. "CONTROLLER" + "JOY+UP" or "CONTROLLER" + "JOY+DOWN" is for joystick and the direction you need to press for the "super zapper." If your joystick works with standard Atari Games, it will work with Tempest Elite. Tempest Elite does not support extra fire buttons. When the title splash title is on your screen. You can use the joystick to choose game options or use the console SELECT & OPTION buttons. However the joystick will only select "JOY+UP" or "JOY+DOWN." to choose other controllers, you will need to use the OPTION button to choose these other controllers. Space Bar or Escape Key toggles the pause. When using alternate controllers, Space Bar triggers the "super zapper" and only the Escape Key toggles the pause. Paddle Controller option moves the ship depending on how far the paddle knob is turned. Trackball controller is based on CX-80 and WICO Command Trackball based on that 2bit code. Some of these have "joystick mode" also. Some people managed to hook up an Atari ST track ball that uses "gray code", which may work with the (Indy 500) Driving Controller option. If a trackball or driving controller is causing the game options to cycle through a rotation on the title splash screen, move the controller until it stops, or unplug the controller and plug it back in.

Thank you for all the positive compliments. I am now waiting for some feed back from those that had played the game other than our own associates. We spent a lot of time beta testing and debugging this game.

Some people had been asking about what the game looks like while playing on standard Atari-8-bit hardware vs playing on an Atari with VBXE. That along with differences between Tempest Extreme and Tempest Elite. I have attached some screen shots of the same level. In addition, I am including a screen shot from Tempest Xtreme. All from Web Number 6. Some differences between Xtreme and Elite are the scoreboard icons for Warp Keys and a Bigger Ship. Also I chose this particular web. The Xtreme version was 5+5+6 (16) to make up a triangle. Elite has 6 lanes to make up an 18 lane triangle.

I am glad that you like the VBXE support ideal. Now I am awaiting for feed back on the game play from real customers. We will answer any technical concerns about the game. Here on some more screen shots. The levels with finer lines and sprites are what the game looks like while playing on a system with VBXE. A few of the screen shots were taken from earlier development of the game. The ones with a narrower colon between the V and number are more recent. The yellow ship was also enlarged. This was so we can do the 3 green triangles in a row to indicate the Warp Keys.

The video of the Earth is from the game running in VBXE mode. SInce the Player/Missile multiplexer program needs to load into RAM because of self modifying code, it can also be replaced with a VBXE routine that simply places sprites at the same screen positions. On start up Tempest Elite detects if VBXE is present, if not, it loads standard atari player/missile and related graphics driver routines into RAM. Lets say the player is intended to go at 40,60, and is single width and 14 pixels tall. The game VBI sets the positions and the index of that "sprite" in a prior frame. All a VBXE routine needs to do is multiply the horizontal position by two to convert the X coordinate. All the player (sprite) images are index. Lets say 1-16 are all the possible shapes for that Red X shape flipper. 1-16 will have the pointers inside the player source data that the multiplexer copies into the pm area at the start of the next VBI cycle. If on a VBXE area, it will have pointers inside a bitmap image source that the blitter will send to the VBXE screen. You can disable VBXE by holding down option when booting the cartridge.

Some games can be taking advantage of the analog joystick and keypad on the 5200. Like how far you move the joystick over will affect the speed something moves. What I need to know, how many people have those Y-Cable or after market joystick devices that allow db-9 joysticks to be attached that cause the joystick to read as being fully pushed into a direction. I could have a option before starting the game to make the game behave as the Atari 8-bit version of the game.

I just got one of the games converted and we will be using it as a template for the other games. Over the last 2 years, I made a series of games that can run on an Atari 8-bit computer with as little as 16K RAM. I am working with someone to port a few others over. I chose Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold as another possibility because that is a smaller game that was designed to be loaded from disk into RAM, and with a little help with Inflate/Deflate, fit onto a 32K ROM cartridge, and work with that 16K RAM on the 5200. Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold had about 96 rooms vs The Legend having 256 rooms. This 5200 cartridge could have somewhere between. How many different screen will become available will depend on how much I can downsize the program and data, but it may be possible to have a larger map.

I am currently working on learning how to port my prior Atari 8-bit releases to the Atari 5200. The possible games include: "Amok Bots", "Delta Space Arena", "Laser Blast X", "Megaoids", "Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold", and "Venture". I have to remind everyone this is a work in progress as I learning what is going with the game running on the 5200. Crashes often and tracing what is going on can be frustrating. I am trying to figure out how to read IRQ keypad. First thing I did was get it to the point of getting the games own title screen to come up on screen so I know the program is set up to all the 5200 memory address correctly. There will be announcements when the game is done and beta tested. We have my own trusted beta testers. Chances are these games will not be available for awhile so I ask everyone to be patient. I will post updates and announce when the games become available. "Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold" will be an enhanced version of the freeware/demo that was released on the Atari 8-bit. I am going to put in a few extra things that are not in the 8-bit version to make purchasing it worthwhile. "Secretum Labyrinth The Legend" required a 64K ROM and a 64K Atari Computer. From what I can see, there is not any bank switching cartridges available for the 5200. I know about the 40K Bounty Bob cartridges, but no one has those anymore.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/243658-mad-pascal-examples/ This is a newer programming language that is great for making games and other software on the Atari 8-bit. It compiles to concise machine language and only the module sections that you use. I did a few tests, and the executables run faster than compiled Turbo Basic XL. You can set it up with things like fast graphics, fast math, etc. It runs from PC DOS, compiles down to assembly. Then you use MADS Assembler to build your final binary. You can make an XEX or Cartridge ROM file from there.

I like the opening for those videos and nice border. However I am really disturbed that my name had been removed from the credits for that 5200 Venture.

That would be awesome if someone in this day and age build a few adapters that can interface an Atari 2600 type joystick into the 5200. Biggest complaint against the 5200 was the controller issues.

Hey everyone, it is Tempest Elite is now available. http://members.tcq.net/video61/tempestelite.html

Jungle Quest is a Platform Game for Atari 8-bit computer. I am working on resurrecting this program that I started ten years ago. I was very far along with the game when I accidentally erased a partition on my hard drive. I had to recover a less complete copy from an old back up disk. It originally started writing the game MAC/65, then I ported it over to Mad Assembler so development can be done on my Windows PC and emulators. I was originally making this game before I knew Video61 and Kjmann. It started as being a TurboBasic XL game with ML routines, the Turbo Basic parts got translated to full assembly. It originally was going to be a 130XE/Extended RAM Game. Then this guy Video 61 knew texted me, and asked if I can do this "Battle Squadron" game and see if we can make it on cartridge. I was still doing games with MAC/65 at the time, and barely knew how full executable and cartridge games were put together. Later we dropped Battle Squadron to do Tempest. I was talking about doing the game on AtariAge and some like the ideal of extended memory, but many still want to play on a 64K machine, stated why I don't do the game on these 128k Cartridges. Now I am still figuring out what I did ten years ago and adapt more modern programming techniques into the game like multiplexing, compression, RMT music and sound, etc. I also made this game more colorful and pushed the Atari to its limits in response to the whole "Commodore 64 vs Atari 8-bit" feud that went on for 464 pages and over 11,000 posts on AtariAge back in 2008 through 2009. Wanted to put something together that can show what our great Atari does over the Commodore 64.

Thankyou for taking interest in Surround'Em. I kept the graphics for Surround'Em simple and actually wanted to gave it a retro look. I wanted something like 80x48 pixel mode (graphics 5), but figured it would had run out of room fast, so used 160x96 (graphics 7) that with with double height PM graphics. It runs much faster than Surround. I had to re-work my player/missile multiplexer routine to work with 128 byte high player/missile areas. Instead of doing separate games on a multigame cartridge, Surround'Em can optionally play many different Surround type games like 2600 Surround, VIC-20 Slither, and a Dodge Survival Game. Like 2600 Surround, it can activate diagonals movement, progressively increase speed during the game, wrap-around mode, and pressing fire can stop the path from being drawn. There are many options screen when the title splash screen that lets you choose how you want to play the game, including up to 4 multiplayer. Four player mode can be done using an Atari 800 or using the Multijoy8 interface for the XL/XE machines, although it is only a 4 player game. Multijoy8 will only activate if you select it on the title screen, or else it defaults to standard reading PORTA and PORTB. Joysticks are just about the only controller you can play thing type of game with. This game is Atari 8-bit universal, does not use the RAM under ROM and use OS VBI and DMI immediate vectors. When running on NTSC machines in North America, The game VBI is executed at 50 frames per second so it runs the same speed as PAL/SECAM machines in Europe. The game also looks great on HDTV set ups.

We have two options of aiming and putting the ball. One is place the cross hairs where you want to hit the ball, the ball moves at the cross hairs after you press and release the button. The longer you hold down the button, the more force you hit the ball. Like the power-force meter you see in other golf games. Second option is similar to 2600 Miniature Golf. The Cross hairs is replaced by a square, and press fire, makes the square jump to the ball position and the ball shoots off in the opposite direction. The further the square is from ball, the greater the force the ball is hit at. It is not easy to get the sounds exact using the Atari 8-bit pokey chip, and probably needs a little more work. This game is a work in progress.

We Finally have unlocked the video with commentary with people playing the actual game with different controllers. I know when people were asking about these controllers, I pointed out various issues with using those controllers like needing to constantly moving your hands or not having a separate direction for the SuperZapper. So the Space Bar acts as the switch to activate the superzapper, and escape acts as pause when using something other than the joystick. When joystick is selected as the game controller, Space Bar will just pause the game. You also need to use SELECT and OPTION to cycle through the controller options on the title splash screen as someone will need to plug in another controller before starting the game. Please stand by for the official announcement about the release of the Cartridge Game as we are hard at work preparing everything.

Over the past six months we've been working on a Miniature Golf game called "Putt Eighteen." Now I know there had been several Miniature Golf games written for the Atari 8-bit, most of them in Basic. As usual I build these games up from assembly code and as you seen in the past, they can have much more going on with the screen. This game will be a combination concept of the 2600 Miniature Golf and the NES Mini Golf. It will have obstacles, several on screen at once, and can be one of 8 animated shapes, moving like the red square in the 2600 Miniature Golf. Has the hills with chevrons pointing which way is down hit. Also has sand traps, water hazards, and ledges. One or Two people will be able to play. Several courses will be included onto the cartridge. Currently it is a work in progress as things are being figured out during the game development. I am posting this game early to get some feed back about what people would like to see with this game.

I had considered an Atari 7800 port, Jaguar Port, as well as porting to other platforms. I need to figure out a good way to set up a character mode screen on the 7800 to start with and work up from there,

http://members.tcq.n...1/secretum.html "Secretum Labyrinth : The Legend" Is now available on cartridge. The Game requires an Atari XL/XE computer with 64K RAM, a joystick and some keyboard usage to select and use items in your inventory. This is a Role Playing Adventure Game that fills in a gap for the Atari 8-bit in that there had been many Arcade Action Role Playing Adventure type games. We put a lot of hard work into this game, months of extensive beta testing. The cartridge is available for $39.95, and comes with an instruction manual. "Secretum Labyrinth The Legend" (cartridge) and "Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold" makes use of Super IRG, and Multicolor mode on player/missile graphics that provides many colors on screen at once. Some of the rooms vary the color palettes slightly. I hope to keep things positive on this thread. This is my first attempt to make extensive use of this mode that alternates between two fonts, checkerboard and bar dithering techniques. There are differences between "Kings Gold" and "The Legend" both with the game and with the programming. In "Kings Gold," you can only advance to skill level 7, and cannot go beyond 99 hitpoints. Has a limit of 95 rooms. There is also a different weapon. You only need to collect 6 treasures to solve, 3 gold coins, and 3 gold stars. This is designed to fit inside the 64K RAM on a stock Atari without any extended memory. "The Legend" you can advance as far as level 21 and have up to 254 hitpoints. Has 256 rooms map, and weapons are available. You need to collect 16 treasures, each with a different image. You need to do certain tasks to get beyond some points in the game. A sequel game is in the planning stage right now and I am asking what would people like to see. More rooms, monsters, weapons, and perform different tasks to get beyond a certain point in the game. Going with many more rooms makes it harder to debug, so I am setting up a more idiot proof system for the room set up. Might add an armor system, upgrading armor. Collecting money and going to places to buy things. More items that you need to get beyond points inside the game. It will be much more involved game. I am working on ways to save your progress. Anybody interested in seeing it complete.

TIA and Pokey would give you six voices. We use a program called RMT to generate the Music on the 8-bit. Not sure how Pokey is mapped on those cartridges. Don't have a ton of information on those. I had given thought about trying that 7800 Basic to see if I can port my Adventure/RPG project over.

We are getting ready to release the Atari 8-bit cartridge and I hope there would be enough cartridges available for immediate sales. We thought we had enough for Tempest Xtreme, We found someone that sold us parts to make more for both games.

To further answer that question, it will work with a trackball if the trackball has joystick mode. If I was to add trackball mode, it would end up playing the same.

Joystick will be default controller. I am waiting for reports from beta testers that are testing it with the Trackball and Driving Controller.

Well doing the ship and objects coming up the web should be easy with the 7800. I am wondering what would be a good way to do the web graphics itself.