Atari 2600 News
Tetris (Build 8) (A2600 Game)

atari2600land picked up the work on his bBasic Tetris game for A2600.

Release notes:

Funny you should mention that. I’ve always wanted Edtris, but didn’t know how to go about getting it and didn’t want to go the Hozer route. Borrowing some notes from the title screen of this unreleased game, I’ve made a little title screen ditty. Also, if you got 60 lines, the color didn’t change back to green. I’ve fixed this. The color scheme is as follows:
0-9 green, 10-19 yellow, 20-29 orange, 30-39 red, 40-49 purple, 50-59 blue, and it loops back to green at 60 lines.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=135837

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Tetris (Build 5) (A2600 Game)

atari2600land picked up the work on his bBasic Tetris game for A2600.

Release notes:

All 7 shapes added, with the random shape generator number added. If you find a bug, please tell me.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=135837

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PDRoms Coding Competition v4.01 – Reminder 1 (A2600 misc)

For those who might have not recognized yet, we do have another coding competition here at PDRoms, running since 2nd April and it’s deadline beeing 31st May 2009. There is still plenty of time to get things going!

Here is the brief data:

Topic: Create a logic/puzzle game
Competition running time: Thursday, 02 April 2009 to Sunday, 31st May 2009
Deadline: Sunday, 31th May 2009 @ 23:59, in YOUR timezone!
Systems allowed: Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Coleco Vision, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Game Gear, IntelliVision, Master System, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Nintendo Entertainment System, Odyssey2, Wonderswan, Wonderswan Color, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis/Megadrive, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo 64, PC Engine, Sega 32x, Sega CD and Vectrex.
Prizes to win: A WIZ console, 2 PSP Games, 1 Genesis Game, 5 R4 Cards, 10 Acekards and 150 US$ in cash

Prizes are sponsored by: http://shop.gp2x.dehttp://www.flashlinker-shop.comhttp://www.superfighter.comhttp://www.gamekool.comhttp://www.slanina.pl – ph0x

http://pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=4642

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Stacker (Build 16) (Beta 2) (A2600 Game)

Stacker is a bB version of the arcade game “Stacker”.

Release notes:

I added a whole bunch of drawscreens to the code and ended up having the scanline count steady @ 262. Next up: tackling the blocks.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=140937&st=50

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PDRoms Coding Competition v4.01 (A2600 misc)

It’s reality again, here comes PDROMS CODING COMPETITION v4.01 – Retro Coding Fun for Console and Handhelds!

Coding on “closed” handhelds or consoles must not be a privilege; dozens of free development kits proof the opposite. The steadily growing “homebrew scene” produces unlicensed software for devices not meant to be open for everyone.

PDRoms has always been in the homebrew scene to support the creation of new homebrew software, support programmers and artists. To show our love to the homebrew scene once again, here comes the ninth PDRoms Coding Competition.

Here is the brief data:

Topic: Create a logic/puzzle game
Competition running time: Thursday, 02 April 2009 to Sunday, 31st May 2009
Deadline: Sunday, 31th May 2009 @ 23:59, in YOUR timezone!
Systems allowed: Atari 2600, Coleco Vision, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Game Gear, IntelliVision, Master System, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Nintendo Entertainment System, Odyssey2, Wonderswan, Wonderswan Color, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis/Megadrive, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo 64, PC Engine, Sega 32x, Sega CD and Vectrex.
Prizes to win: A WIZ console, 2 PSP Games, 1 Genesis Game, 5 R4 Cards, 10 Acekards and 150 US$ in cash

Prizes are sponsored by: http://shop.gp2x.dehttp://www.flashlinker-shop.comhttp://www.superfighter.comhttp://www.gamekool.comhttp://www.slanina.pl – ph0x

Spread the word! – May the Schwartz be with you 😉

http://pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=4642

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Armageddon Complex (01-04-2009) (Atari 2600 Game)

A sci-fi adventure game by jrok set on a space station filled with evil mutants and robots. Your goal will be to locate the station’s death ray and disable it before the bad guys use it to destroy mankind.

Release notes:

Okay, this is a pretty big update. Essentially I’ve introduced many new mechanics, and have crafted a “mini-level” that I am going to use as the base for testing all gameplay mechanics from here on out.

The goal of this mini-level is simply to locate a Chalice.

I’ve updated the instructions a bit below, but without going into to much detail here are the major changes/additions:

Puzzling: Throughout the station are computer terminals that control various obstacles you need to bypass. There are clues hidden in the environments in and around each obstacle, so you have to pay attention in order to solve the code. You can access one of these terminals by standing on it and pressing the left fire button. The screen changes to a “1st person” view of the computer monitor. The interface is composed of 9 buttons in three different colors and a white “enter” button. You can move the cursor beside the various buttons using the left joystick, and select a button by pressing the fire button, adding that button to your code string. When you think you’ve entered the full code, select the white enter-button and press the fire button. You will be then returned to “3rd person” Adventuring Mode, and a sound will indicate whether the code was correct or incorrect. If correct, the computer will perform the desired action (i.e. lowering a force field, disarming a turret, etc)

Enemy AI: I’ve removed “The Mutant” for now, so you’ll only be fighting robots. Revised collision detetion and steering. Added a projectile weapon using the ball object. Robot randomly appears when a new room is drawn

Item Pickup: This is still a little inflexible and needs to be worked on. When you see an object in a room, postition the hero on top of it and press the fire button to pick it up. It will appear in the third slot in your inventory and will automatically be armed. Certain items (like the gun) have a limited number of uses.

Death: Each time a robot shoots you, you will lose a shield. When you have lost all your shields, Young Skywalker, “You will die.”

I am REALLY curious how difficult you guys think the puzzle(s) are in this build. I want to make puzzling part of the core gameplay, with the puzzles getting progressively harder – and even deadlier – as you get closer to the game objective.

HUD:
At the bottom of the screen, the score area displays your current inventory and shield strength. You can hold up to three items in your inventory at a time, and can have a maximum of up to three shields.

CONTROLS (Adenturing Mode):
Reset Switch Restart the game.
Left Joystick – Move hero in 8 directions
Left Fire Button – Activate a computer terminal or Aim/Use the active item in your inventory, as follows:

Laser Sword – While holding the button down, tap the Left Joystick left or right to slash in that direction.
Gun – Move the Left Joystick in one of 8 directions to aim the gun that way. Release the Fire Button to shoot.
Bomb – If you can find this item, you can blow holes in interior walls and doors.

RightJoystick – Tap left or right to change your active Inventory item.

CONTROLS (Puzzling Mode):
Left Joystick – Move the cursor in four directions
Left Fire Button – Press a colored button or submit the code by selecting the Enter key at the bottom of the monitor.

ENEMIES & OBSTACLES (only two at the moment):
Killer Robot: Garden variety evil robot. They turn up randomly in rooms that you enter, and can be dispatched with a single shot or a swing of your sword.
Mutant X: This is a persistent character that will serve much of the function that the Dragons did in Adventure, relentlessly pursuing you around the complex. You can mangle him with a sword strike or a bullet, but after a few seconds he will re-constitute himself and continue hunting you down.
Computer Terminal: A security computer linked in to the Armageddon Complex security network. Can be used to disable Force Fields or trigger other events.
Force Field: A barrier which must be disabled by entering the proper code in a computer terminal.

Cheers,
Jarod.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=131950&st=50

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Video Poker (Build 2) (A2600 Game)

atari2600land updated his “Video Poker” game.

Release notes:

You can now select cards to drop and get new ones. To do this, select a card you want to get rid of by using up & down and press fire. The card will then turn blue. To actually get the new cards, make the arrow go all the way down to the blank space and press fire. The version i’m posting here is different from the first, even though they have the same file name.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=141767

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Video Poker (Build 1) (A2600 Game)

atari2600land picked up a new project idea and wants to realize a “Video Poker” game. Let’s see how much progress he’ll make the next days.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=141767

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Stacker (Build 13) (A2600 Game)

Stacker is a bB version of the arcade game “Stacker”.

Release notes:

Made a few cosmetic changes and added a sound effect for failing. I have 383 bytes left.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=140937&st=25

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Evil Magician Returns (Build 9) (A2600 Game)

Evil Magician Returns by Byte Knight is an adventure style game for Atari 2600.

About:

This game is based on the Evil Magician mentioned in the Adventure manual. The premise is that his dragons are now dead, so he and his apprentice have returned and captured the golden chalice. The Evil Magician (red wizard) has the ability to shoot fireballs, his apprentice (white wizard) does not. You too have the ability to shoot fireballs after you’ve acquired the staff. The red wizard tends to guard certain items, while the white wizard avoids them. You’ve also brought a backpack with you this time so you can carry multiple items. Otherwise, it’s very similar to Adventure.

Release notes:

Here’s the latest version. I slowed down the “boss” in level 3 – he was kickin’ my ass too much. I also made his patrolling of the maze more random, as you could predict which direction he was going to come from. I also added a little logo to the title screen. This will probably be the final version of the game. The next step is putting it on a cartridge and trying it out on the real hardware – should be fun playing it with a joystick and not the keyboard!

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=139348&st=50

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