Subject: Re: [stella] Program.. From: "John K. Harvey" <jkharvey@xxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 12:59:47 -0500 |
One reason such a device would be near-impossible to develop is because of the limit of sprites... there is no frame-buffer here like any newer systems (does the C64 use a frame buffer?). There are also huge sprite limitations. You're drawing sprites on a per-scanline basis while that scanline is actually being drawn. This makes for some interesting programming. Plus, there is a sprite limitation. A "simple" kernal could have 2 player graphics, 2 missile graphics, and a ball graphic on a single scanline, but there would be far too many limitations to what a high-level programming language could do. There would have to be hundreds of checks to make sure that you weren't updating a sprite's graphics too soon or too late in a scanline, with the limited number of clock cycles you have during that scanline for the updates. Bottom line: My guess is it could be done for a demo using both player graphics only, but how fun would that sort of game be? You'd probably end up with Combat or Space War without any playfield objects. -John K. Harvey At 03:13 AM 7/14/01 -0400, you wrote: >How come anyone has never decided to build an Atari 2600 Game Design >Program?! > >I see a lot for my old Commodore 64 and for PC as well as a few other >platforms. > >If you do not know what I am talking about, here's an example: > >You load the program on your PC.. you design your sprites with the built in >sprite editor, you can make sounds too, intro screens, etc. Then you define >each action: what happens when players turns in all directions, what the new >sprite picture would be, you also define enemies and how they move: do they >follow a path you define, or move randomly? Do they behave differently each >level? How does your character move -- paddle, joystick, indy controller? >Set scores, what happens when two things collide or collide with edge of >screen, etc. > >After all that you press the output button and it will create the ROM for >you which you can then burn to a cartridge and play on a real 2600 machine. > >I had programs like this in the past and designed a Shoot Em' Up game for my >Commodore 64 this way, without any programming knowledge. I also designed a >simple Role Playing Game on PC. > >- >Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ >Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/ > > - Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
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