Top 10 Atari 7800 Games Voted on Facebook

[7800 Pro Gamer]

Well here's the thing @CrossBow is I noticed it and I was playing on a crt.   Maybe it depends what revision console you have?

[CrossBow]

38 minutes ago, Silver Back said:

Well here's the thing @CrossBow is I noticed it and I was playing on a crt.   Maybe it depends what revision console you have?

Oh I wasn't disagreeing with you! I know it is there, but I was essentially out voted on the issue by the other testers. So yes it could matter on the revision of console, but then it seems odd that this is the first time I can recall something like this on a game acting that different between revisions. The two systems I tested it with was an A3 and A1 series consoles.

Same thing in regards to the elevator timings. I was still able to. and still able to get the elevators largely to always be in my favor once I get it locked in a few levels in. But apparently no one else was able to replicate that either?!

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by CrossBow

[7800 Pro Gamer]

On 7/27/2023 at 5:56 PM, CrossBow said:

Oh I wasn't disagreeing with you! I know it is there, but I was essentially out voted on the issue by the other testers. So yes it could matter on the revision of console, but then it seems odd that this is the first time I can recall something like this on a game acting that different between revisions. The two systems I tested it with was an A3 and A1 series consoles.

Same thing in regards to the elevator timings. I was still able to. and still able to get the elevators largely to always be in my favor once I get it locked in a few levels in. But apparently no one else was able to replicate that either?!

 

My experience is almost exactly like yours!  I can't believe you were alone (in your experience) in testing.  Still an excellent and fun port of the game but the slow down is a bummer sometimes

[Video 61]

On 7/24/2023 at 5:56 PM, Silver Back said:

You know I've noticed slowdown in games where I doubt there should be any.   The 7800 runs Robotron flawlessly and I've seen it display incredible amounts of visuals and run smooth as butter.   But the other day when playing keystone Koppers I noticed slowdown on screens where all three levels had obstacles and the crook.  Maybe it's because there is some pretty looking backgrounds instead of black but I would think the 7800 should still be fine.   Could that be an effect of 7800basic using a lot of resources?

hi guys,

 

 the best basic i ever saw was turbo basic on the atari 8-bit. it looked as good, and was as fast as assembly. but it never had a compiler made for it, and it required a run time program.

 otherwise basic is really slow even with lots of data statements. get a few sprites going, or get going fast and you really notice the slowdowns.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

 

[7800 Pro Gamer]

22 hours ago, Video 61 said:

hi guys,

 

 the best basic i ever saw was turbo basic on the atari 8-bit. it looked as good, and was as fast as assembly. but it never had a compiler made for it, and it required a run time program.

 otherwise basic is really slow even with lots of data statements. get a few sprites going, or get going fast and you really notice the slowdowns.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

 

Thanks for the developer insight.   I assume all your (and peters) games are assembly?

[Video 61]

2 hours ago, Silver Back said:

Thanks for the developer insight.   I assume all your (and peters) games are assembly?

hi silver back,

 

as close as possible. you are welcome.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

 

[PCL]

On 7/27/2023 at 4:33 PM, RickR said:

I'd wonder if that CPU "halt" that Maria can do for DMA may also cause some slowdown

Yes, unfortunately it does. Every time Maria reads a byte of graphics data Sally is halted. So the more graphics you display, effectively the slower Sally gets. It is the same with the 5200/8-bit computers, but potentially worse on the 7800 since Maria can display a lot more graphic objects than ANTIC/GTIA.

In the worst case, if you drive Maria to its maximum then essentially Sally does not run at all. There are 262 scanlines per NTSC frame (not all visible), so with a 224 scanline display and a maxed out Maria, Sally only runs during the 38 non-display scanlines effectively reducing the 1.79MHz clock rate to 0.26MHz.

Of course you don't normally max out Maria but the more graphics you see on screen, the less time there is for code to run.

Edited July 30, 2023 by PCL