I figured I'd reply to this thread, fearing that silence on my behalf
might be inferred as complacency; i.e. that I don't have any real aptitude
or incentive.
I'm sure other people on this list won't be programming a 2600 game in the
near future, hopefully if the list members haven't released a lot of games
over the next year or so that doesn't discourage anyone.
Someone, perhaps Rob Fulop, once stated that it took a year of full-time
work to release a quality arcade-style 2600 game. I don't expect to see
a high volume of great games in the near future when you consider that
practically nobody will be able to devote such time to a project. I'd
certainly expect a part-timer to take at least a couple of years to write
an absolutely killer game, especially given the fact that we are mostly
novices.
> How many people on the list are planning to write a 2600 game?
Um, I'd like to eventually. I probably won't get started until late
1997, or even later.
I'm going to program a few games on some more modern 6502 based systems
first (I've already started), where I won't have to deal with the limited
addressing and detailed timing issues. Then, once I can think in 6502
machine code, I'll try to tackle the 2600.
After some thought, I decided that hopefully I would absorb some good
information from this list, even if I'm working on other platforms right
now. Ideally, a time will come when I'm not 'lurking' here, but for now I
will be.
> Describe the game you are planning (genre, size/#loads, level of
> graphical detail, controller type).
Haven't decided yet, though I sure like paddle games and graphical
adventure/puzzle solfing games.
> What level of skill are you at in 6502 assembly?
Beginner. I got a little bit into it 12 years ago on the Atari 800XL.
About 10 years ago a did some mainframe assembly, also.
> What level of skill are you at working on the 2600 in particular?
No skill at all.
> How much time do you have to reach your goals in 2600 programming?
Plenty of time, my lifestyle dictates that I can't rush with such things.
I work seven days a week, and my wife likes to see me now and then. I'm
hoping to devote approximately 10 hours a week to console programming, but
as I stated earlier, I'm going to tackle some 'easier to program'
6502-based systems first.
> What could be done to create more of an incentive to learn and program
> more aggressively?
I've got the incentive, but very little time. I'm a minority partner in a
new business, and my first priority has to be making our little operation
profitable so that we don't have to go back to the corporate grind.
I'm going to have to put most of my other hobbies on hold just to come up
with 10 hours a week to dedicate to console programming.
***Mike St. Clair***mstclair@xxxxxxxxx***irc:SaintMick***
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