peteym5

I wonder if something like a 5200 controller can be hooked up to it, to play the 5200 games.

I came across this documentary on YouTube. I hope everyone here find it as enjoyable as I did.
 
 

I came across this documentary on YouTube. I hope everyone here find it as enjoyable as I did.
 
 

I wonder if something like a 5200 controller can be hooked up to it, to play the 5200 games.

MOONBLASTERS X FOR ATARI 7800 WORK IN PROGRESS. VIDEO FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2023.
This is the latest update for MoonBlasters X for the Atari 7800. This is what happened to the Laserblast X project, as myself and Video61 are going in a direction of more original content earlier this year. 
What happened during the summer of 2023 caused concerns with unlicensed ports from other game systems.  Several games were already in development. Instead of cancelling development, we decided to change stuff to make them more distinct and original.

Here is a Video showing the latest work in progress for Amok Bots, Delta Space Arena, Laser Blast X, Putt 18, and Venture. It took me awhile to figure out a way to multiplex 8 sprites within a horizontal zone. Keep in mind I am forcing more sprites than usual to one horizontal zone, so for the most part, you will not likely see much flickering with my games ported onto the 7800. Some games have the character set written over several times in the background. This is to test to see how many sprites can be displayed over a background. The Multiplexing manager routine prevents crashes or the graphics becoming corrupted if too many sprites are displayed in the same horizontal zone.

I am not sure how many here program using the 7800 Basic. RevEng done a good job with some recent updates. I figured out most stuff. I cannot exactly go over to the other forum for help right now. Have to go by if someone posted about a similar issue.
What has gave me a lot of delays with older versions was "unresolved symbol" list and the compiler not showing what it was. Very frustrating. I put the 7800 games aside in favor of doing more 8-bit and 5200 stuff. The other stumbling block was converting MADS assembler to DASM. Being case sensitive and acculumular not being represented with a @ (ASL @) made it difficult to port code from the 8 bit version.
I made some progress with trying to get one complete game that I can use as a template for others. I have graphics for the sprites for 2 games. PNG images. Maybe do more as I figure more stuff out.

MOONBLASTERS X FOR ATARI 7800 WORK IN PROGRESS. VIDEO FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2023.
This is the latest update for MoonBlasters X for the Atari 7800. This is what happened to the Laserblast X project, as myself and Video61 are going in a direction of more original content earlier this year. 
What happened during the summer of 2023 caused concerns with unlicensed ports from other game systems.  Several games were already in development. Instead of cancelling development, we decided to change stuff to make them more distinct and original.

MOONBLASTERS X FOR ATARI 7800 WORK IN PROGRESS. VIDEO FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2023.
This is the latest update for MoonBlasters X for the Atari 7800. This is what happened to the Laserblast X project, as myself and Video61 are going in a direction of more original content earlier this year. 
What happened during the summer of 2023 caused concerns with unlicensed ports from other game systems.  Several games were already in development. Instead of cancelling development, we decided to change stuff to make them more distinct and original.

MOONBLASTERS X FOR ATARI 7800 WORK IN PROGRESS. VIDEO FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2023.
This is the latest update for MoonBlasters X for the Atari 7800. This is what happened to the Laserblast X project, as myself and Video61 are going in a direction of more original content earlier this year. 
What happened during the summer of 2023 caused concerns with unlicensed ports from other game systems.  Several games were already in development. Instead of cancelling development, we decided to change stuff to make them more distinct and original.

Something that could always be done with these system is replacing the main CPU with a faster one, and add more RAM. That opens up the possibilities to run better games. What would happen to an Atari 2600 with a 6502 running at 20mhz with 64K RAM? A Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo running at 50mhz? A Jaguar running at 80 Mhz?  A lot more stuff can happen. The graphics chips may need to remain on an independent buss, as they are geared to only run at a certain speed to output a TV signal. But manipulating registers on each scan line opens up some interesting graphical effects.  
Something that people did not realize about the Sega Genesis over the earlier systems, with the improved graphic processors that allowed more onscreen sprites at one time. I know from experience with working with 8-bit systems that a limiting factor is the number of onscreen sprites. Later, systems used blitters instead of hardware sprites that wrote data directly onto a bit-mapped screen. (Each pixel has its own memory address). 

I agree that Turbografx 16 is on par with Genesis and SNES, and it had a microprocessor that is derived from the 65C02. As I said before, clock speed of the system buss and CPU are more of a factor than the number of bits the CPU can handle. Along with the memory address space, the system. Something else that did help systems like the Genesis and later is the fact that the 68000 processors has more processor registers that allow program space reduction and increase speed. Less need to store registers in temporary memory locations. 

I grew up using Commodore and Atari 8-bit. I had friends who were into Video Game Consoles. Went from Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, and Sega. They did not know what a bit was. When Sega released the 16bit Genesis (MegaDrive), they believe "16Bit" was some video game super power. Later, Atari came up with 64bit Jaguar. This was the "Bit Wars" era. As programmers, we know there are many other factors involved in making systems play better video games.
 
Memory Address Size. The Program Counter, and how much memory the Central Processing Unit can address, is one of the important factors in making good video games. The 8-bit 6502 based machines, can address only 64 Kilobytes without bank switching. These machines had a 16bit program counter and address space. If bank switching is used, it must be managed in a way as to not to bog down the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Some of that memory needed to be used for display memory and put a limit on the graphics resolution. The other part of memory was needed for programming and data. That put a limit on how much you can do.  Later CPUs such as the 68000 and 80x86, had larger address space. 32bit program counter and address space, that can go up to 4 Gigabytes without bank switching. So, higher resolutions are possible and having more space for programs and data.
Clock Speed of the Central Processing Unit. This was much more important with consoles after the "bit wars" and was one reason why the Sega Genesis appear to be playing better games than other machines around the time when it was actively sold. The 68000 ran at 7.16 mhz on the Genesis vs 3.52 on the Super Nintendo. This is a major factor when moving objects around the screen while playing music, sound effects, and other things. Some may notice a few games slow down when the program tries to move too many things at once. "Blast Processing" was Sega's way to make it easier to understand that their system had a faster CPU.
Video Processor.  The Video Chipset or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The graphics resolution, bits per pixel, memory available and just some things that make a difference. How things are displayed, layered, and managed are important factors. Earlier video processors used hardware sprites overlaid on top of a background. Later units would be using "Blitters" to render moving objects. 3D accelerators came into use around 1995. As we know, the faster these things ran, the better and more realistic something looks. The video processors operate independent of the CPU and may have their own dedicated memory. So the # of bits of the main CPU may not matter.
There are other factors like optimizations of the programming, using compiled programming languages vs assembly. Management of graphics and data. There are people that make games on 8-bit machines with near 16 bit performance because they learned how to manage things, use optimized code, and pre-calculate things and store them inside tables. 

 
 

Jungle Quest is now Jungle Jerry. Work in Progress for November 07, 2023. I made several changes were made to the creatures that you need to dodge while playing the game. This makes it more Pete Meyer's Jungle Jerry and less like Pitt Fall. As everyone knows, some of us programmers, we are being more careful about making unlicensed ports. Some of the frogs no longer hop left and right in front of the ladder, and the monkeys are used instead by the ladders. Jerry Looses a life new when contacting a creature, and the game ends when extra lives run out. Some bug corrections. It is still a work in progress.

Megaoids Under Construction for the Atari 7800. This will be a game released on cartridge from Video 61. It is one of several games I am currently developing for the Atari 7800. This is another port over from the Atari 8-bit and 5200 version. It will be similar, using a shield that you need to recharge by collecting power. Get power ups. After all the asteroids are destroyed, you must go through the galactic gate to go to the next level. 7800 Special features are the rotating animated asteroids and an animated galactic gate.
 

Megaoids Atari 7800 Work in Progress for Octoboer 16, 2023. Changes were made with the routines that plot the asteroids and other sprites on the screen. This is intended to reduce the sprites flickering and slow downs when many sprites are on the screen at one time.
We were hoping to have Megaoids 7800 released sometime during the fall months of 2023. However, there were things that happened during the summer caused concerns about intellectual properties from my team and from others. Particularly, the discontinuing unlicensed ports being sold from a website, then later being sold to Atari. Therefor, some of our game designs needed to be altered. I also wanted to have the game perform better. We have been hard at work improving our unreleased games. I was concerned about releasing Megaoids for the 7800 with the way the Asteroids were flickering, as it may cause concerns and negative postings. Myself, Video61, and now others working tp bring the best games we could to market.
 

I grew up using Commodore and Atari 8-bit. I had friends who were into Video Game Consoles. Went from Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, and Sega. They did not know what a bit was. When Sega released the 16bit Genesis (MegaDrive), they believe "16Bit" was some video game super power. Later, Atari came up with 64bit Jaguar. This was the "Bit Wars" era. As programmers, we know there are many other factors involved in making systems play better video games.
 
Memory Address Size. The Program Counter, and how much memory the Central Processing Unit can address, is one of the important factors in making good video games. The 8-bit 6502 based machines, can address only 64 Kilobytes without bank switching. These machines had a 16bit program counter and address space. If bank switching is used, it must be managed in a way as to not to bog down the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Some of that memory needed to be used for display memory and put a limit on the graphics resolution. The other part of memory was needed for programming and data. That put a limit on how much you can do.  Later CPUs such as the 68000 and 80x86, had larger address space. 32bit program counter and address space, that can go up to 4 Gigabytes without bank switching. So, higher resolutions are possible and having more space for programs and data.
Clock Speed of the Central Processing Unit. This was much more important with consoles after the "bit wars" and was one reason why the Sega Genesis appear to be playing better games than other machines around the time when it was actively sold. The 68000 ran at 7.16 mhz on the Genesis vs 3.52 on the Super Nintendo. This is a major factor when moving objects around the screen while playing music, sound effects, and other things. Some may notice a few games slow down when the program tries to move too many things at once. "Blast Processing" was Sega's way to make it easier to understand that their system had a faster CPU.
Video Processor.  The Video Chipset or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The graphics resolution, bits per pixel, memory available and just some things that make a difference. How things are displayed, layered, and managed are important factors. Earlier video processors used hardware sprites overlaid on top of a background. Later units would be using "Blitters" to render moving objects. 3D accelerators came into use around 1995. As we know, the faster these things ran, the better and more realistic something looks. The video processors operate independent of the CPU and may have their own dedicated memory. So the # of bits of the main CPU may not matter.
There are other factors like optimizations of the programming, using compiled programming languages vs assembly. Management of graphics and data. There are people that make games on 8-bit machines with near 16 bit performance because they learned how to manage things, use optimized code, and pre-calculate things and store them inside tables. 

 
 

I agree that Turbografx 16 is on par with Genesis and SNES, and it had a microprocessor that is derived from the 65C02. As I said before, clock speed of the system buss and CPU are more of a factor than the number of bits the CPU can handle. Along with the memory address space, the system. Something else that did help systems like the Genesis and later is the fact that the 68000 processors has more processor registers that allow program space reduction and increase speed. Less need to store registers in temporary memory locations. 

I grew up using Commodore and Atari 8-bit. I had friends who were into Video Game Consoles. Went from Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, and Sega. They did not know what a bit was. When Sega released the 16bit Genesis (MegaDrive), they believe "16Bit" was some video game super power. Later, Atari came up with 64bit Jaguar. This was the "Bit Wars" era. As programmers, we know there are many other factors involved in making systems play better video games.
 
Memory Address Size. The Program Counter, and how much memory the Central Processing Unit can address, is one of the important factors in making good video games. The 8-bit 6502 based machines, can address only 64 Kilobytes without bank switching. These machines had a 16bit program counter and address space. If bank switching is used, it must be managed in a way as to not to bog down the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Some of that memory needed to be used for display memory and put a limit on the graphics resolution. The other part of memory was needed for programming and data. That put a limit on how much you can do.  Later CPUs such as the 68000 and 80x86, had larger address space. 32bit program counter and address space, that can go up to 4 Gigabytes without bank switching. So, higher resolutions are possible and having more space for programs and data.
Clock Speed of the Central Processing Unit. This was much more important with consoles after the "bit wars" and was one reason why the Sega Genesis appear to be playing better games than other machines around the time when it was actively sold. The 68000 ran at 7.16 mhz on the Genesis vs 3.52 on the Super Nintendo. This is a major factor when moving objects around the screen while playing music, sound effects, and other things. Some may notice a few games slow down when the program tries to move too many things at once. "Blast Processing" was Sega's way to make it easier to understand that their system had a faster CPU.
Video Processor.  The Video Chipset or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The graphics resolution, bits per pixel, memory available and just some things that make a difference. How things are displayed, layered, and managed are important factors. Earlier video processors used hardware sprites overlaid on top of a background. Later units would be using "Blitters" to render moving objects. 3D accelerators came into use around 1995. As we know, the faster these things ran, the better and more realistic something looks. The video processors operate independent of the CPU and may have their own dedicated memory. So the # of bits of the main CPU may not matter.
There are other factors like optimizations of the programming, using compiled programming languages vs assembly. Management of graphics and data. There are people that make games on 8-bit machines with near 16 bit performance because they learned how to manage things, use optimized code, and pre-calculate things and store them inside tables. 

 
 

Megaoids Atari 7800 Work in Progress for June 29, 2023. Changes were made to indicate how much you have for shields in the upper right corner. Now, a bar represents your shield strength that will flash red when shields get low. We hope to make Megaoids available for the Atari 7800 soon.
I am aware of what is going on with the Atari community. I have seen the announcement, reading posts, and seen the YouTube video. People believing something is happening with copyright infringement. Myself, and Video61 had made efforts to ensure what we are now doing is original and different enough from someone else's work to be called our own. There has not been any real indication that anyone is coming to crack down on those who ported unlicensed games and duplicated intellectual properties within the retro community. I know we are also guilty of making some games and using titles. I was once working with someone that did music for Tempest and Venture. Believed ports make more money. Even made unconfirmed claims that he did talk to the copyright holders and got permission. Found out later, it was a lie. He was demanding and wanted things done his way. So far, no one has anything to us. Even during development of Venture, I was looking at the programming I had already did for these games, and started experimenting to see if I can come up with something original. It did not take much to turn the Venture source into an RPG top down adventure game that eventually became Secretum Labyrinth. I also applied some programming to improve my Jungle Quest project. I hope to release the most recent form of Megaoids available for the 7800 without further delays.

Edit: there is now an update for June 29, 2023.  I decided to apply the new spaceship shape design I have been working on for the last few days, and make it part of the official 7800 version. 
 

I grew up using Commodore and Atari 8-bit. I had friends who were into Video Game Consoles. Went from Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, and Sega. They did not know what a bit was. When Sega released the 16bit Genesis (MegaDrive), they believe "16Bit" was some video game super power. Later, Atari came up with 64bit Jaguar. This was the "Bit Wars" era. As programmers, we know there are many other factors involved in making systems play better video games.
 
Memory Address Size. The Program Counter, and how much memory the Central Processing Unit can address, is one of the important factors in making good video games. The 8-bit 6502 based machines, can address only 64 Kilobytes without bank switching. These machines had a 16bit program counter and address space. If bank switching is used, it must be managed in a way as to not to bog down the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Some of that memory needed to be used for display memory and put a limit on the graphics resolution. The other part of memory was needed for programming and data. That put a limit on how much you can do.  Later CPUs such as the 68000 and 80x86, had larger address space. 32bit program counter and address space, that can go up to 4 Gigabytes without bank switching. So, higher resolutions are possible and having more space for programs and data.
Clock Speed of the Central Processing Unit. This was much more important with consoles after the "bit wars" and was one reason why the Sega Genesis appear to be playing better games than other machines around the time when it was actively sold. The 68000 ran at 7.16 mhz on the Genesis vs 3.52 on the Super Nintendo. This is a major factor when moving objects around the screen while playing music, sound effects, and other things. Some may notice a few games slow down when the program tries to move too many things at once. "Blast Processing" was Sega's way to make it easier to understand that their system had a faster CPU.
Video Processor.  The Video Chipset or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The graphics resolution, bits per pixel, memory available and just some things that make a difference. How things are displayed, layered, and managed are important factors. Earlier video processors used hardware sprites overlaid on top of a background. Later units would be using "Blitters" to render moving objects. 3D accelerators came into use around 1995. As we know, the faster these things ran, the better and more realistic something looks. The video processors operate independent of the CPU and may have their own dedicated memory. So the # of bits of the main CPU may not matter.
There are other factors like optimizations of the programming, using compiled programming languages vs assembly. Management of graphics and data. There are people that make games on 8-bit machines with near 16 bit performance because they learned how to manage things, use optimized code, and pre-calculate things and store them inside tables. 

 
 

I grew up using Commodore and Atari 8-bit. I had friends who were into Video Game Consoles. Went from Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, and Sega. They did not know what a bit was. When Sega released the 16bit Genesis (MegaDrive), they believe "16Bit" was some video game super power. Later, Atari came up with 64bit Jaguar. This was the "Bit Wars" era. As programmers, we know there are many other factors involved in making systems play better video games.
 
Memory Address Size. The Program Counter, and how much memory the Central Processing Unit can address, is one of the important factors in making good video games. The 8-bit 6502 based machines, can address only 64 Kilobytes without bank switching. These machines had a 16bit program counter and address space. If bank switching is used, it must be managed in a way as to not to bog down the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Some of that memory needed to be used for display memory and put a limit on the graphics resolution. The other part of memory was needed for programming and data. That put a limit on how much you can do.  Later CPUs such as the 68000 and 80x86, had larger address space. 32bit program counter and address space, that can go up to 4 Gigabytes without bank switching. So, higher resolutions are possible and having more space for programs and data.
Clock Speed of the Central Processing Unit. This was much more important with consoles after the "bit wars" and was one reason why the Sega Genesis appear to be playing better games than other machines around the time when it was actively sold. The 68000 ran at 7.16 mhz on the Genesis vs 3.52 on the Super Nintendo. This is a major factor when moving objects around the screen while playing music, sound effects, and other things. Some may notice a few games slow down when the program tries to move too many things at once. "Blast Processing" was Sega's way to make it easier to understand that their system had a faster CPU.
Video Processor.  The Video Chipset or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The graphics resolution, bits per pixel, memory available and just some things that make a difference. How things are displayed, layered, and managed are important factors. Earlier video processors used hardware sprites overlaid on top of a background. Later units would be using "Blitters" to render moving objects. 3D accelerators came into use around 1995. As we know, the faster these things ran, the better and more realistic something looks. The video processors operate independent of the CPU and may have their own dedicated memory. So the # of bits of the main CPU may not matter.
There are other factors like optimizations of the programming, using compiled programming languages vs assembly. Management of graphics and data. There are people that make games on 8-bit machines with near 16 bit performance because they learned how to manage things, use optimized code, and pre-calculate things and store them inside tables. 

 
 

Here is my latest progress with Delta Space Arena on the Atari Jaguar. Thankyou guys for guiding me on setting on Linux on my system and getting these Libaries to work.
 

OpenLara is a Tombraider clone. I would like to see the programming.

MEGAOIDS for ATARI JAGUAR
Today I am announcing we have been developing Megaoids for the Atari Jaguar. This will be taking advantage of the system's advanced features and will play unlike any of the 8-bit versions. It will feature full rotating asteroids, colorful space scene backgrounds, overlaid score, shield bar, additional power ups, and more types of enemy ships This is still a work-in-progress and many more changes are scheduled to happen. We have different types of boss stages going on, and other original ideas are being developed and added into the game. We hope to have the game released soon and hope there will not be any problems.
Here are some screen shots.