Omnimaga

Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => Topic started by: Ashbad on April 12, 2011, 10:25:30 pm

Title: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 12, 2011, 10:25:30 pm
I have challenged myself to the fastest speed coding challenge I've forced myself to do ever -- imma a gonna port 7 original atari 2600 games in 7 days.  That's one per day -- and these are all full featured games ;)

Here is the list of the 7, with the status in parens and the name of the port in brackets:

Yar's Revenge [Zar's fury] (completed)
3D tic tac toe [A game of 57R473GY] (started)
Adventure [Quest] (not started)
The empire strikes back 2600 [Hoth: planet of blood] (not started)
Pitfall [Jungle run] (not started)
Warlords [Daimyos] (not started)
ET: The Extraterrestrial [My name is Earl] (not started)


This is the end of day one -- I plan to finish all 7 of these high quality games by next Monday, 12 PM EST ;)

Wish me good luck -- though I won't upload them until the speed coding challenge is over.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ruler501 on April 12, 2011, 10:26:58 pm
Wow. what are you porting them to?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: jnesselr on April 12, 2011, 10:26:58 pm
7 games... 7 days... 1 mission.  Good luck!  I'm guessing you are on day 1?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ztrumpet on April 12, 2011, 10:27:22 pm
This sounds incredibly awesome!  I wish I had the time to take on something like this; it sounds like a lot of fun!  Good luck, and I can't wait to see these games. ;D

Axe, Asm, or Basic?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 12, 2011, 10:29:12 pm
Thanks ;D yeah, its in axe because there is no way anyone can speed code in pure asm x.x

I'm making them separately, but I'll release them in two forms -- a multipage game package with all games in one, and as separate files for those short on memory.

Ad, this is the end of day one :)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 12, 2011, 11:17:32 pm
Wow good luck making the games this fast. I hope you don't run into too many issues. In any case, make sure to back everything up regularly.

As for the games, by the way earlier on IRC I was joking about my ET suggestion. O.O
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ralphdspam on April 12, 2011, 11:19:09 pm
haha.  I'm actually looking forward to ET.  If I find my calculator in the middle of New Mexico, it's Ashbad's fault. :P
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Freyaday on April 13, 2011, 12:23:31 am
^LOL.
Yeah. Good luck, and I hope ET isn't a faithful port.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 13, 2011, 12:48:22 am
Yeah Atari really messed up very bad on that part. X.x

Apparently the game sold pretty well. It just sucked so people returned it and combined with the fact they produced way too many, it almost caused them to go bankrupt. X.x Apparently Pac Man for Atari didn't help either.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Juju on April 13, 2011, 12:57:29 am
7 games in 7 days? Oh wow that would be fast. Well I wish you none other than good luck.

And yeah, E.T. sold well because everyone expected it was better...
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Darl181 on April 13, 2011, 01:57:09 am
Will it be packaged as a game pack or individually?
Looking forward to warlords btw, I've thought of making atari game ports before...

I might do canyon bombers if I remember (tho I think that's a different model system, I only know the games from a "flashback" console) :P
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: TIfanx1999 on April 13, 2011, 08:38:34 am
Interesting Ashbad, good luck! :)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Yeong on April 13, 2011, 08:42:30 am
Oh btw, you hav a permission to make ET better.
(I believe it's the one that branded with the title "Worst Video Game Ever")
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Munchor on April 13, 2011, 08:45:58 am
This seems very interesting Ashbad, however, I think you should be uploading them every day (when you finish them) so that we can know you really did :P I trust you, though.

Looking forward for them eitherway. 3D Tic Tac Toe, wondering what that looks like :P
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: BrownyTCat on April 13, 2011, 10:49:03 am
Quote from: Ashbad on April 12, 2011, 10:25:30 pm
..these high quality games..

I saw ET in there like everyone else. If you manage to somehow make it better, I will stand corrected, but seriously, that game literally filled a landfill.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 01:42:19 pm
ET is a close port ;)  I actually tried it on an emulator -- for a mini game, it's not bad -- but for a $19,99 disk, it's a piece of shit :/

So, it's actually not bad considering they way you guys can play it is for free.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 13, 2011, 03:34:01 pm
Quote from: yeongJIN_COOL on April 13, 2011, 08:42:30 am
Oh btw, you hav a permission to make ET better.
(I believe it's the one that branded with the title "Worst Video Game Ever")
But again, some game sites claims Zero Wing is the 7th worst game ever, even though it isn't even all that bad (it's not awesome, it's just a generic shooter, but it's not horrible either. I guess the translation didn't help, though).

Also many Atari games are very pixelated, so on-calc there won't be much quality reduction except for the lack of colors. :P

How is progress going by the way Ashbad?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 03:35:13 pm
Going quite good right now :) I went back to finishing Zar's fury, and I'm almost done the port of 3D tic tac toe.  I wonder what I'll do tomorrow... Maybe I'll do ET then :)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 13, 2011, 03:43:58 pm
Cool to hear. :D I think you should release the games as they are done, in case crap happened like a mem clear or hard drive failure, though. I would hate to see such fast work wasted. X.x

Will they all be written in Axe, by the way?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: aeTIos on April 13, 2011, 03:45:32 pm
He said "yes, because asm is not suitable for speedcoding". So yeah.
I'm looking forward to this!
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 03:47:39 pm
DJ: I'll plan on releasing a 'sample' tonight in the form of Zar's revenge -- it has decent gameplay and is fun, but the graphics blot phoenix 4.0 out of the picture :)

Yeah, they're all written in axe ;)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ZippyDee on April 13, 2011, 03:50:33 pm
I've never heard of Yar's Revenge anyway...what is it?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Darl181 on April 13, 2011, 03:51:40 pm
You're a fly on the left that's trying to eat a wall on the right as something called a qotile is shooting at you...
I'll try to find a better description
Quote
The game began as a licensed port of the Cinematronics arcade game Star Castle. In the original game, a powerful cannon is protected by three layers of counter-rotating shields. The player must shoot holes in these shields in order to destroy the cannon inside. But once these holes are made, the cannon can also shoot out at the player. If the outermost layer is completely destroyed, new layers of shields are grown. Harassing the player are two free roaming torpedoes that hunt out the player's ship.

As the Atari version grew, change after change was introduced until the final product had very little resemblance to the original. In this game, the hero (a Yar) is an insect-like creature who must nibble or shoot through a barrier in order to fire his "Zorlon Cannon" into the breach and destroy the evil Qotile, which exists on the other side of the barrier. The Qotile can shoot at the Yar even if the barrier is undamaged, by turning into the "Swirl" - fortunately, the player is warned before the shot is fired, and he can retreat to a safe distance to dodge the enemy's energy blast. Also in the game is a safe area, "the neutral zone", where the pursuing enemy torpedo cannot harm him (although the Swirl can). The Yar cannot shoot from within the neutral zone.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 03:52:40 pm
Its a simple shooter game that requires you to beat each level by defeating the enemy spaceship behind a big shield -- and in later levels it gets harder because it adds mobile enemies and missiles, thicker shields, and faster speed.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ZippyDee on April 13, 2011, 03:53:28 pm
I was watching a gameplay video. It still makes no sense to me.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 03:54:20 pm
It's a different style of shooter -- however, my version will be a little more straightforward :)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Darl181 on April 13, 2011, 03:54:58 pm
So you won't have to bring out the cannon and such?  Never played it, but I've read through documentation :P

Spoiler For btw:
this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Flashback) is the only atari I've played, so yeah... (first image)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 03:56:17 pm
Yeah, nothing like that -- think of the new port as having the parts of the old one, with features of phoenix and galaga :)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Yeong on April 13, 2011, 03:56:48 pm
I would really like to see pitfall in calc.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 03:58:46 pm
Pitfall will not be an easy one to port, but it wont be hard either :)

The harder ones to port will be adventure and Star wars empire strikes back 2600 :(
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Yeong on April 13, 2011, 03:59:48 pm
If I remember correctly, pitfall is where you collect all the treasures, right?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 13, 2011, 04:13:59 pm


You might want to explain well how to play in the readme, that's for sure, because it took me a while to get it.

For the middle part that looks like garbage, you would just have to use the sandstorm effect I made once, I guess, or something similar.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 09:20:04 pm
Well, I just figured out my schedule IRL for the next week, and I unfortunately don't think I have time to do any more speed coding.  However, I shall resume the challenge in a few weeks when I'm a bit more open ;)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 13, 2011, 09:35:24 pm
Sorry to hear. I still hope you make some of these games, though, or at least continue working on other projects. Don't rush yourself too much, though.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 09:38:10 pm
Yeah, I will make them, but not now ;). I'll make all of them though.

For now, I'm back to just pyyrix 2 and TaNF -- these can be worked on probably in early May timeframe
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ralphdspam on April 13, 2011, 09:40:32 pm
I hope all goes well with you, Ashbad.

Quote from: DJ_O on April 13, 2011, 09:35:24 pm
Don't rush yourself too much, though.
It's fine if you rush on the ET game. It adds to the authenticity. :P
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ztrumpet on April 13, 2011, 10:22:58 pm
Aww. :(  Too bad.  I was really pulling for you, Ashbad. :)
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 10:23:45 pm
You can pull for me in May ;)

I promise to do it then :D
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Freyaday on April 13, 2011, 11:24:58 pm
Ok. I'm pulling for you  early, Ashbad!
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Munchor on April 18, 2011, 02:16:37 pm
So did you finish the 7 days, 7 games?
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: aeTIos on April 18, 2011, 02:29:19 pm

Quote from: Scout on April 18, 2011, 02:16:37 pm
So did you finish the 7 days, 7 games?
No:
Quote from: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 10:23:45 pm
You can pull for me in May ;)

I promise to do it then :D
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Freyaday on April 18, 2011, 04:01:38 pm
You know what you should do?
Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Munchor on April 18, 2011, 04:26:58 pm
Quote from: aeTIos on April 18, 2011, 02:29:19 pm

Quote from: Scout on April 18, 2011, 02:16:37 pm
So did you finish the 7 days, 7 games?
No:
Quote from: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 10:23:45 pm
You can pull for me in May ;)

I promise to do it then :D

Oh, fighting Ashbad lost all the fun, I'm gonna make one game every day, I've made one today, tomorrow I'll start a new one and continue the one I'm developing today.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 18, 2011, 05:04:37 pm
/me hopes Ashbad won't give up on this.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: ztrumpet on April 18, 2011, 05:38:30 pm
Quote from: Freyaday on April 18, 2011, 04:01:38 pm
You know what you should do?
Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
No.  Just no.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: JosJuice on April 19, 2011, 02:29:13 am
Quote from: ztrumpet on April 18, 2011, 05:38:30 pm
Quote from: Freyaday on April 18, 2011, 04:01:38 pm
You know what you should do?
Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
No.  Just no.
That one would fit better on the Prizm... The speed gauge, HUD and other stuff has trouble fitting into a 96x64 screen. I made a mockup of it once.
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Freyaday on April 19, 2011, 02:32:25 am
All that stuff has trouble fitting in the space allotted for it anyway! The Taillights don't even fit on the truck!
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: Ashbad on April 19, 2011, 08:09:10 am
All of these work perfectly for the 84+ screen :)

While it WOULD be exactly perfect on the prizm or Nspire, I'm not programming a SH3 asm version of them until I actually own one :P
Title: Re: 7 days, 7 ports, 7 atari 2600 reboots
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 21, 2011, 03:21:59 am
Quote from: Ashbad on April 13, 2011, 10:23:45 pm
You can pull for me in May ;)

I promise to do it then :D
<_<
/me prepares to smack Ashbad at the end of the month if he doesn't do it :P