> There was discussion of networking 2600s via a joystick port ;-)
Oh yes, I ment to mention that. I was talking to John Harvey the other
day, and we where debating the possibilities of this, and what sort of
hardware software requirements there would be.
As many people on this list who know much about the atari's hardware,
connecting two atari's together via joystick port is extremely simple.
However the limitation is that how many people would actually have 2
ataris and 2 tvs, and two copies of the game, and two people who would
want to play?(some yes, but not many)
So, on the topic of long distance networking...
The hardware to allow a joystick port to be connected to a serial line is
not all that difficult, and could probably be made for $10 or less. This
would allow someone to connect an old modem(like a 2400, I can get many
for $1, if a desire to sell those is needed too), or to a computer. If
connect to a modem, you would make a direct call to your opponent(which
could be costly), or if connected to your computer, you could use your
computer's internet connection, and write a computer program that takes
basic serial data from the atari, and does all the networking tasks. (BTW,
for the hardware folks out there, I'm just talking about a basic RS-232
level converter such as the MAX233. See below about where I get the async
data)
I envision:
-battleship
-classics(chess/checkers/othello...)
-Connect four
-mastermind
-card games
I would REALLY like to see a networkable atari game, especially if we can
get it to run over the internet. If done in this scheme, the game could
be played both with 2 ataris locally(2 ataris, 2 games, 2 tvs, 2 cables
and a null modem), or via the internet.
Interested?
I am unable to program for the atari(because I have too many things that
interest me at this time to really do it right.), but I would like to work
on this with someone/team.
Needed:
1) Someone(or more people) who wants to make a networkable atari game(be
it one of the suggestions above, or a new one).
2) Someone who knows window networking and could write a simple program
that would connect over the internet to another copy of itself, and
tranfere the data on a serial port.(easy if you konw window/mac
networking)(the program would create an 'internet serial link')
I would be more than happy to work with anyone on how to make teh atari
software talk to the PC(ie., I know how), and can build up a proto or two
to dev on.(in otherwords, you don't have to know any hardware to do this,
just know how to program stella.) The same person may or may not do both
tasks, but I may have a lead on someone who would write the PC/Mac
program. However, if you are able/willing to write that PC/Mac program,
please let us know so that we can get someone doing a game :)
But just think, then we could say that we have an atari on the internet!!!
Mark
For the hardware minded who think I'm insane:
The hardware would take the second joystick port, and use one line as an
input, and one as an output. The only circuitry would be the RS-232 level
converter, and if we choose the right one, it would be one chip, with no
support circuitry. This would wire to a PC/Mac serial port. The atari
program would then be responsible for manually driving the output and
reading the input to tx/rx the serial data. This is kinda tricky, but no
harder than manually drawing a screen :-) I am not certain that this can
be done simultaniously as the screen drawing, as that would be very hard
to cycle count, but the games that I'm talking about, a second or two
delay without a display when transfering data would not be an issue. I
don't know what the data transmision speed we would get, but I'm positive
that we would be able to get at least 300 baud, and how many bytes really
need to be transmitted to play any of the games suggested above? I mean,
the delay while the computer is thinking in video chess isn't that big of
a deal, and this would be a shorter delay yet. Opinions on the hardware
scheme?
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