Re: [stella] Some thoughts that hit me while the power was out

Subject: Re: [stella] Some thoughts that hit me while the power was out
From: emooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Erik Mooney)
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 23:18:58 GMT
>No kidding.  This gets more and more interesting.  The Stella manual
>says the control ports can be used for input as well?  Is this part of

ITYM 'output'... inputting from them is done all the time (reading a
joystick) :)  Yes they can be used for output; a single bit in one control
register switches it between input and output.

>the mechanism for reading the keyboard controllers (I seem to recall it
>saying it sent out signals to scan which button was pressed, like how
>different tones tell the computer which button on a touch-tone phone
>was pushed), or is there something else I'm missing?

I believe the keyboard controllers and Video Touch Pad work like this: the
Atari sends a signal out to the port telling the controller which column
of buttons it wants to scan; the controller sends the status of those four
buttons on the joystick inputs (u/d/l/r).  The delay between output and
input needs to be quite long; on the order of 0.4 sec if I remember
correctly.

>> Now all's that's left is for someone to write the
>> game and make a Catbox
>> for the 2600!  LAN party Friday...  bring Video
>> Olympics, Combat, and, of
>> course, Warlords!  ;^)
>
>At the risk of looking dopey, what is a "Catbox"?  I never heard of
>that?  Maybe I'm a little thick right now.  The notion of two-player
>cooperative Missile Command and Kaboom! are dancing in my head....

Cooperative?  Huh?  _Competitive_ Missile Command would rule!  Picture it
done in the style of multiplayer Tetris or Bust-a-Move or Puzzle Fighter.
Blow up two invading missiles with one shot and it sends an extra missile
at your opponent.  Chain three or four explosions together to launch a
huge volley of missiles.  Man, if only the 2600 had enough graphical
ability to do side-by-side screens that way... perhaps if you drew each
player's missile field as a 48-pixel wide sprite, on alternating frames?
(would need Supercharger RAM of course, or one of the custom designs with
RAM being bandied about every so often here)

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