Re: [stella] POLL

Subject: Re: [stella] POLL
From: Nick S Bensema <nickb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 01:00:41 -0700 (MST)
>On Mon, 3 Mar 1997, Mike St. Clair wrote:
>> 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.
>
>The advantage now over 1981 when Rob wrote Missile Command is that the
>tools are a lot better, and all the "tricks" have been discovered.  The
>purpose of this list is to get away from the "every programmer is an
>island" mindset and to pool knowledge and resources to cut development
>time.

>The growing amount of source code and disassemblies is a good way to
>rediscover these "tricks"--and reuse them.
>
>We should try to avoid having to constantly reinvent the wheel, either
>collectively or individually.  There ARE some tried and true methods to
>acheive certain results and this list should be a clearing house for this 
>information.

Of course, but this isn't exactly bartending school.  The only reason I
know what I do about the 2600 is because I've pulled Combat apart, and I
decided to look at those cycle counts in the middle of my C64 ref, seeing
as it'd be hard to avoid if I ever really got into it.

Perhaps every perspective 2600 programmer should take it upon himself
to step through a 2600 game as I have done.  Believe me, you will learn
and discover things you can't learn from those dinky text files that
list most of the registers.  Those of you with a lot of 6502 experience,
or a lot of reference, will probably have an advantage over me in that
you won't have to run around like a chicken with your head cut off for
a full month wondering what the BIT instruction does.

It would certainly take the pressure off ME.  :-)

>Maybe we should work on a 2600 programming techniques FAQ...

Too many questions from which to select the most frequent.  The only way
to learn is to soak up as much information as you can, and try as much
as you can.  Read source code listings, with or without comments.  With
DiStella and other disassembler programs, you can get the source code
for dozens of games.  Warren Robinett does something this way, but
Larry Kaplan does it this whole other way, and Activision games all
seem to do attract mode like such, and so forth.  

Like I said, this ain't bartending school, and these games weeren't
exactly programmed by chimps.  But it ain't rocket science either.
It just takes time.


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