Aaron,
First of all, I wouldn't let your coworkers get you
down. They've probably never even written anything in
assembly language, I'm guessing. As long as you have
an understanding of binary operations and 2s
complement number representation, I don't think it
should be too hard for anyone. In some ways it might
even be easier since every operation is so atomic and
well defined. Personally I think learning 6502
assembly is relatively easy compared to learning the
VCS architecture and *how* exactly, to use that 6502
assembly to program the VCS. :)
I think your IDE you are working on to assist in the
more tedious stuff sounds very intriguing. I will
have to check this out. I can see something like this
having a lot of potential beyond just playfield code
generation.
Good luck on everything you're working on...
Ben L.
--- Aaron Bergstrom <Aaron.Bergstrom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Hi... it was suggested to me on Atari Age that I
> sign up for this
> mailing list, as it's the list for 2600 developers.
> I don't claim to be
> an expert programmer... I've only got a BS in
> anthropology... but I do
> alot of Java3D programming in my job as
> visualization manager for the
> university archaeology tech lab
> (http://atl.ndsu.edu/).
>
> Some of you have probably already read about this on
> Atari Age, but I'm
> attempting to develop two 2600 games and a
> Java-based 2600 development
> environment. I've been told by a couple of guys at
> work... and
> specifically by a guy who is supposedly an expert
> programmer that I
> don't have the skills to do assembly programming and
> I'm wasting my
> time. But I've been told I'm not capable of doing
> things before... but I
> try not to listen to those kinds of people.
>
> Anyway, the first game is called "Eric Bergstrom's
> KC-135". It's a
> tribute to my brother Eric who passed away a few
> years ago. But for
> those who are interested, you can read more about it
> at the following
> website:
> http://myweb.cableone.net/bergstrom/ebkc135/
>
> The other game is actually an extension to my 2600
> developers
> environment. I'm calling my developers environment
> CAG - or Classic
> Atari Gamer developers kit. Basically, it is my
> attempt at making
> complicated Playfield drawing easier. My radar map
> for EB's KC-135 took
> me forever to draw... and I thought it would be nice
> to be able to
> create a drawing utility similar to photoshop,
> paintshop pro... or at
> least MS Paint for quickly drawing playfields. CAG
> is being built in
> modules. The first mod is the playfield utility, but
> eventually, as I
> learn more about 2600 programming, I hope to have
> something that allows
> to setup drag and drop event routing for collisions
> and controller inputs.
>
> I've put alot of time into CAG so far so my
> girlfriend thinks I should
> sell the software... but as it's probably not going
> to be a big money
> maker... and because it was never my intension... I
> plan on giving it
> away to homebrew developers. Hopefully it will run
> on Windows, Mac, and
> linux. See the url below for screenshots:
> http://myweb.cableone.net/bergstrom/cag/
>
> But I digress... the second game will actually be
> the first game I
> finish using CAG as it is likely to be quite a bit
> less complicated than
> EB's KC135. The game "Broomsticks" will be the CAG
> tutorial game -
> eventually the tutorial will be viewable via CAG's
> web-browser (i've
> alreay written a simple java-based html browser for
> work) in either HTML
> or PDF format... I haven't quite decided yet.
> Broomsticks will be based
> on the Quiditch game described in the Harry Potter
> book series.
>
> There will be a vertically scrolling playfield
> either two or three TV
> screens in height. The playfield will consist of a
> soccer-like field
> surrounded by 8 castle towers. The background will
> have the look of
> mowed green grass like you would see on a football
> field. There will be
> a goalie for each team, a chaser who's job it is to
> put the "quafle" or
> the main ball (the PF ball) through one of the
> opponent's three scoring
> rings, two bludger balls (1 for each of the player
> missles), and a
> "seeker" whose job it is to catch the snitch ball
> when it appears
> (haven't quite figured out yet how to implement the
> snitch since I've
> run out of missles). So there are the ideas. I don't
> have a website for
> Broomsticks yet.
>
> So that's me. I just thought I'd introduce my self
> to the group and
> invite people to look at my stuff.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Aaron
>
>
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