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Work in Progress / SupraMan - DBC

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heartbone
21
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Joined: 9th Nov 2002
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Posted: 30th Jun 2007 21:34 Edited at: 30th Jun 2007 21:35
I've never regretted selling my ATARI 2600 and cartridges back in November 1981 to help me purchase my $1400 ATARI 800 system with 48K of RAM.

I did miss a few of the games, but the sophistication of the newer computer programs was even more satisfying.

Nowadays the excellent Stella emulator allows me to enjoy that first generation of video game software whenever I want.

I realize that it really makes very little sense to recreate those games.
However.... being a bit bored,
and not feeling an immediate need to convert TWO FLAGS to 3D...
or to extend INTERSHIP into networked game play...
or any of the other major projects thatare in my head....
I decided to create a quickie project.

Those ATARI VCS titles are always fun to port and with the Stella emulator to aid in the translation,
after replaying one of my old favorites I could not help myself in thinking that it would be fun to recreate.

Also I need to ease into PlayBASIC,
because I have a gut feeling that PB programs will have a greater chance in running under Linux-WINE that DarkBASIC.

My intention is to recreate the game in DarkBASIC Classic (pixel perfect collision detection)
then immediately translate it into PlayBASIC to learn those ropes.

I started Wednesday night (6/27) extracting the graphics and that is complete.
Attached are the extracted graphics that will be used for the game.

Run the attached DarkBASIC source to navigate the (26) game screens by using the arrow keys to move around the city blocks and by pressing the space bar to enter a portal.

Next I need to synthesize the game sounds.

SupraMan Design Document


I'm unique, just like everybody else.

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jason p sage
17
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: Ellington, CT USA
Posted: 2nd Jul 2007 08:46
Interesting. Are you having fun with it? I'll assume your answer is Yes - and I say GOOD JOB!

(I always found it challenging to write tight machine code to make programs in limited ram ... You can actually do alot in 45k or whatever. I starte4d on a Timex Sinclair when I was around 10... and it had 2k... UGH.... 16k Expansion pack eventually... Tape Recorder was my harddrive. It was cool though

Know way too many languages - Master of none
heartbone
21
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Joined: 9th Nov 2002
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2007 20:53
Fun is not quite the word.
I do find it enjoyable.

I'm still studying the original program behavior.
I'm going to forget synthesizing the game sounds for now.
Instead I'm going to digitize them into (huge) wave files for now and work on reducing them later.

Audio Events
------------
supraman flying
trans-ray vision
bridge explosion
hex heli-pack
helicopter
argonite satellite
argonite hit
tara touch
pick up object
crook into jail
bridge rebuilt
game over


I'm unique, just like everybody else.
jason p sage
17
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: Ellington, CT USA
Posted: 2nd Jul 2007 21:27
Sounds like fun to me When I'm coding games, its easy to get into a mode with the family that makes it seem like "work" but frankly - I'd put down any work to code stuff using graphics etc. So, to be honest with myself - I've come to realize - I ENJOY this kind of programming - because its FUN In fact, if it wasn't for games, I wouldn't of ended up a computer programmer in the first place.

Jason

Know way too many languages - Master of none
ozmoz
17
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Joined: 25th Apr 2007
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2007 01:08
I love atari game and this is nice old game
heartbone
21
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Joined: 9th Nov 2002
Location:
Posted: 6th Jul 2007 05:01
Things are plodding along at the one week mark.
All of the audio and visuals elements are finished.
Attached is the media folder needed to make this source code happy.

I can't disassemble the 6502 machine code to figure out the original AI, as I do not have good knowledge of the details of special processors used in the Atari 2600.
The best that I can do is analyze based on observation and make a good guess.
I will start the game objects off the same way, in the same places as the original, but my AI will be different, unless I can figure out every detail of the algorithms.

One thing for sure, with only 4,096 bytes total to work with,
the AI can't be too complex.
The genius of those ATARI programmers just makes it feel that way.

I won't bother recreating the original program player/missile (sprite) flicker, or its attract mode color changes, or the 2 major bugs that I've found so far.

Otherwise I intend to make the gamelook and gameplay faithful to the original.
Except I was compelled to change a few of the original sprite colors.

I'm unique, just like everybody else.

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