>Are you telling me that the guy who originally wanted to write that
>Banked
>ROM RPG game has now put out the call on stellalist? That would be
>interesting.
I'm working on an RPG project now... this is independent from the other
guy who said he had everything designed, except he needed a programmer.
I'm not planning on working with him, but if it turns out that he's got a
full world design with storyboards, I might use them.
>If the guy was just talking about a text-only RPG then I'm not really
>that
>interested. Writing a text-only RPG for a system that huffs and puffs
>to
>display oversized characters seems like a loser's gamble.
>
>If he was talking about something a bit more graphical, tiled or
>scrolling, like Dragonstomper perhaps, then I'm more interested in the
>outcome. I have AD&D experience and could assist in game design if
>necessary.
I'm talking about something graphical... if you missed the original
posting,
I'm aiming for something like Legend of Zelda overhead view, each screen
pretty much separate, no scrolling, battles done turn-based in separate
screens like Final Fantasy, NES Ultima:Avatar, or Dragon Warrior. Think
Adventure with sprites used to jazz up the background, and a more
detailed
player. Here is where I'd love some game design assistance.. I've got
the main
display kernel pretty much working, though there isn't much to the world
yet.
BTW, I haven't seen Dragonstomper... can someone fill me in (or maybe
give me a bin or wav so I can see it myself on a real 'charger?)
>As far as what is possible on the 2600, there are many options
>available
>with the Supercharger and a random access medium like CDs or
>doubleclicking on BINs for multiloads.
I'm not sure if I want to do a Supercharger multi-load or if I want to
stay within a 16k bankswitched framework (partially for testing
purposes - at least PC Atari runs 16k bankswitched games perfectly.)
The problem with the Supercharger is that the main display kernel
needs immediate access to everything displayed on the current screen,
and I'd also have to fit the process-input-and-move-player kernel
into the same 6k (otherwise I'd need to do a load every frame.) At best,
it'd need a load every time the player changed screens... this would
get quite tedious.
There is another possibility in Chris Wilkson's mega-cart design, with
128k ROM and 16k RAM always available.. and since he designed the
cart from the ground up, manufacturing and releasing carts would be
relatively easy (easier than, say, using old 16k bankswitched games
with new ROMs, like has been done for new 4k games.) He also
has the potential for flash ROM, so games can be saved. I can do
password savegames in a 16k bankswitched design if I use that.
Problem here is that I don't have a cart (he hasn't actually built one
yet), and I also don't have an EPROM burner or eraser, and being a poor
college student, not enough money to get one :)
>You could store graphical splash pages as separate loads. These could
>be
>done in Suicide Mission stipple graphics. Jim Nitchals even seems to
>think that you could squeeze several frames of animation into one
>load.
Nah, I'm concerned with gameplay and world, not with splash screens.
>And of course, by using random access mass storage, you realistically
>have
>99 tracks available for CD (more if you use a CD changer), or an
>infinite
>number available if you load off a PC/MAC/Amiga.
>
>Game depth is therefore pretty infinite, although level-based or
>area-based in which areas "reset" if you revisit them.
Again, the problem would be how often the game would need to take
a load. At best, every screen and every battle entrance and exit.. and
possibly
at other points such as shopping or talking to townspeople.
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