Re: [stella] POLL

Subject: Re: [stella] POLL
From: Nick S Bensema <nickb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 00:20:19 -0700 (MST)
>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.

Nobody really has incentive, other than the approval of others, or the
experience of creating something.  That's what I'm in it for.  If anyone
is programming the 2600 looking to make any amount of money, they're sick
in the head.

>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.

Well, we can certainly have fun trying.  Remember, E.T. was written
in about six weeks.  OK, bad example, but it's still a complete game 
with above-average graphics by VCS standards.  The game itself is just
tedious.

Another thing that might stifle 2600 programmers is that everything
we want to do has either already been done, or is impossible on the
2600 without some real magic.

But we are coming up with the little things.  I've come up with something
that not only looks pretty neat, but works on a real 2600 too.  I got
the Vblank AND the Overscan right for an NTSC machine.  I commented the
hell out of it too, so it's more of a text file than a source code
listing.  Though it does compile with DASM.

And there's that one guy with the vaporware Life program.  Good luck to
him, too... it would be pretty neat.  If it works well enough, it might
make a good cartridge, or a good multicart addition at least.  But it
would be very difficult for common folk like us to come up with "the
greatest VCS game ever".  But not impossible.  :-)



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