Atari 2600 games

[Naomasa298]

Has anyone ever converted any Atari 2600 games for the Beeb?

The Atari had a resolution of only 40x192. I was thinking you could do a working clone of most of those games in MODE7.

[IanS]

"Maximum resolution: 160 x 192 pixels (NTSC). Max resolution is only somewhat achievable with programming tricks that combine sprite pixels with playfield pixels."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600_hardware

[Lardo Boffin]

Check out Solaris for an example of nice graphics on the Atari 2600. E.g. http://www.1morecastle.com/2013/04/revi ... tari-2600/

[richardtoohey]

There are some amazing games for the 2600 - especially when you read how the hardware was set up.

[Naomasa298]

I reckon you could do a pretty good clone of Haunted House in MODE7.

Hmm... maybe a project for later.

[Lardo Boffin]

Its incredible what was achieved considering.

There is a good tutorial here on programming and it gives a good overview of how the hardware works as it goes along.

https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-260 ... ie-01.html

[richardtoohey]

At one point I thought (naively, obviously!) that because the Atari 2600 is 6502-based and "simpler" that I'd be more likely to be able to write a simple game (thinking that it was the perceived complexity of the BBC that was holding me back). I was wrong, there's not much simple about the 2600!

At least I know the issue isn't the hardware ...

[sydney]

I have not converted any Atari 2600 games yet but once my current 2 or 3 projects are finished it's something I've thought about doing. I'd started River Raid but abandoned it quite quickly so that is one I'd want to have a go at. I've recently modded my Wii and installed an Atari emulator on it and spent a fun couple of hours playing Robot Tank which is an awesome game so maybe I'd have a go at that too.

[kieranhj]

Atari 2600 is a wonderful but highly idiosyncratic machine. Even though it runs just over 1MHz 6502 and has apparently low resolution, there are many aspects of the hardware that are very difficult to translate to the Beeb’s architecture and bitmap screen, not least the 128 colour palette!

I think straight ‘ports’ (in the way that POP or SCR were ported) are pretty much impossible but ‘conversions‘ or ‘interpretations’ are feasible, albeit requiring complete rewrite from scratch.

I love the idea of Haunted House but in MODE 7! I have wondered whether we could do Pitfall justice on a Beeb in MODE 2. I believe there is a C64 version that might be a better starting point...

[Lardo Boffin]

Looking at the 1MHz bus Pi project (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19513#p271846) it is possible to get a screen output from data sent to the bus.

It is beyond my abilities but I was thinking it should be possible (maybe) to in effect emulate some aspects of the 2600 on the beeb using this process. In effect the 2600 writes to a register in the TIA and that tells it what colour to draw on the screen as it endlessly goes across and then down (well, until it gets to the bottom and goes back to the top). It keeps drawing in this colour until it is told otherwise. The faster you can change the colour the higher the resolution of the picture.
So if the beeb sent data over the bus to a program on the Pi that acts like the TIA you have a 2600 output via the Pi. And of course having the 128 colours is no problem on the Pi.

Just a thought! Was going to have a go at this myself but a reality check of available time and skills suggests I never will.

[RobC]

I'd started River Raid but abandoned it quite quickly so that is one I'd want to have a go at.

I'd love to see River Raid on the Beeb - particularly if we could get it to use vertical rupture for smooth scrolling.

[sydney]

I'd started River Raid but abandoned it quite quickly so that is one I'd want to have a go at.

I'd love to see River Raid on the Beeb - particularly if we could get it to use vertical rupture for smooth scrolling.

That was my plan but I couldn't quite get my head around it so decided to take a break from it and come back later, I'm still not back yet!
Robot Tank is another awesome Activison game that would need verticle rupture to work well. I was thinking about it yesterday while playing it and you'd probably need 4 'splits', 1 stationary at the top, 1 horizontal scrolling, 1 vertical scrolling (or possibly colour cycling to create the illusion of movement) and finally a stationary section at the bottom. If thats even possible, it's been a couple of years since I looked at the vertical rupture stuff.
I was also thinking that it might be better to use mode 1 and use some kind of dithering to produce more colours than use mode 2 since there are a couple of shades of green needed as well as grey. It would suit the videonula very nicely in mode 2.

[Naomasa298]

Looking at that game reminds me of Space Harrier. That's a game I reckon you could do a port of for the Beeb (or Master, at least).

[drfloyd]

PITFALL is a classic, it wlll be cool to see it on BBC