|
|
| Post Number: 1
|
Leisher 
Top 3%, yo.
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 26651
Joined: May 2004
|
 |
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,09:52 |
|
   |
And they awoke a great evil...
In the name of all that is good and holy, some things should stay buried!
Actually, I look forward to this documentary.
|
 |
|
|
| Post Number: 2
|
GORDON
90%
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 36125
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,09:55 |
|
 |
I think it is amusing. Someone spent money for that silly little feel-good quest, ha. Ordinarily I would say, "Good thing no kids are going hungry today," but quests like this that feed the soul are important, too.
--------------
I don't give a fuck!
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 3
|
TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,10:12 |
|
|
Nice!
I remember really liking that game as a kid. I never understood the hate.
--------------
Vidi Perfutui Veni
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 4
|
Malcolm
I disagree.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 27168
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,10:15 |
|
|
(TPRJones @ Apr. 28 2014,12:12)
QUOTE Nice!
I remember really liking that game as a kid. Â I never understood the hate.
1) I had it on the Atari as well.
2) Seanbaby shreds it like no one else.
QUOTE If there was no chunk of telephone in the pit, which was only the case in 97% of them, you could leave by stretching out ET's neck until he slowly, SLOWLY floated up.
...
When you make it to the top of the pit, which if you started in 1983 should be about... NOW, you have a fraction of a second window to immediately stop making ET's head stretch. This is important. If you miss it, he'll fall right back in and you have to start the floating process all over.
--------------
Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC:
"Better dead than smeg."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 5
|
TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,10:25 |
|
|
Well, first don't go in pits that didn't have the glint which indicated that there was something in it and you won't be wasting all your time in empty pits. And secondly if you went to the edge of the pit before going up it was much much easier when you got to the top than if you went from the middle, enough so that you'd never fall back in if you went up on the edge. It's because of the curve of the pit on the upper screen being round while the landing spot for the exiting E.T. sprite was a constant distance on the Y coordinate plane. At the middle of the pit they practically overlapped but on the edge there was plenty of space to react.
Sounds like Seanbaby was just bad at playing games.
--------------
Vidi Perfutui Veni
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 6
|
thibodeaux
RAG
Group: Privateers
Posts: 6494
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,15:25 |
|
|
I remember the Christmas this came out. This and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Those games made NO FUCKING SENSE.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 7
|
GORDON
90%
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 36125
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,15:40 |
|
|
My family was too poor back then... never owned an Atari 2600.
--------------
I don't give a fuck!
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 8
|
|
|
| Post Number: 9
|
TheCatt
Top 2%
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 22951
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,17:08 |
|
|
I don't think we had either of those 2 games. But we did have PacMan, and god that was a disappointment. I had been waiting WEEKS for it to come out, our family had gotten on some kind of waitlist to get it... my sister brought it home with my mom, I loaded it up, and saw this:
What the fuck?
I was so happy when we finally got the 5200.
--------------
It's not me, it's someone else.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 10
|
GORDON
90%
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 36125
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,17:11 |
|
|
One of the most distinctive sounds in video gaming history has to be that rubber-bandy "beng-beng-beng" of eating dots in that game.
My buddy had one.
--------------
I don't give a fuck!
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 11
|
Malcolm
I disagree.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 27168
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,17:49 |
|
|
The craptacular port of PacMan slipped my mind. Probably because I had the C64 port to fall back on.
--------------
Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC:
"Better dead than smeg."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 12
|
TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,18:19 |
|
|
Yeah, PacMan for Atari was a mess. Â This reminds me I should mention this book to anyone interested in the story behind all these games with some of the more interesting technical details and why things were done the way they were: Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System
It's technically a textbook for a media studies course, but I just read it for fun and I thought it was pretty awesome. Â But then I got my hacking start with Atari 2600 cartridges and a soldering gun, so I may not be a typical reader for this subject.
Edited by TPRJones on Apr. 28 2014,18:26
--------------
Vidi Perfutui Veni
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 13
|
Malcolm
I disagree.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 27168
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,18:57 |
|
|
Never got into the hardware until way, way, way too late.. Kicking myself for that. Software, on the other hand ....
--------------
Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC:
"Better dead than smeg."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 14
|
TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,19:06 |
|
|
The technical details in the book mostly revolve around how the software was constructed due to the constraints of the hardware. Â The Atari 2600 was unique in that it didn't have graphical frames. Â The screen was drawn in real time by the software directly instructing the electron gun how to draw the screen. Â So each frame of game has the overscan time to do non-video processing and otherwise had to limit itself to dealing with three clock ticks for every firing of the electron gun; two ticks to figure out what to draw next and one to draw it. Â That's some high-efficiency programming right there.
Even PacMan, as bad as it was, must have been phenomenally efficiently written by modern standards to keep up with that, much less fit into the cartridge and the limited RAM. Â Just amazing to ponder. But using one sprite to represent all four ghosts was a horrible idea. That's why the ghosts flickered in that game; it was showing them on the screen one at a time with each one getting every fourth frame.
But Pitfall was the real gem. That game had 256 unique game screens, and all that info was crammed into a mere 50 bytes of code. Madness.
Edited by TPRJones on Apr. 28 2014,19:11
--------------
Vidi Perfutui Veni
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 15
|
Malcolm
I disagree.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 27168
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,19:10 |
|
|
Goddamn. The Carmacks of the day. I assume writing in assembly?
--------------
Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC:
"Better dead than smeg."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 16
|
TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,19:13 |
|
|
Originally yes, Adventure and Combat and such were written directly in assembly. Â Later on as tech improved they had compilers, but even those weren't all that far removed from direct assembly. Â I'm not even sure we'd call them compilers by modern standards, more like editing tools with some common chunks of code ready to be plugged in here and there.
Edited by TPRJones on Apr. 28 2014,19:16
--------------
Vidi Perfutui Veni
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 17
|
Malcolm
I disagree.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 27168
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 28 2014,19:22 |
|
|
Probably was such a tiny amount of memory available you could barely stuff in enough registry lookups and jump tables to go slower than the rays. Maybe a few escaped the tubes and branded "IT" on my forehead.
--------------
Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC:
"Better dead than smeg."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 18
|
Vince
I make sweet, sweet love to my legally licenced copy of Microsoft Vista.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 5016
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 29 2014,02:44 |
|
|
They also had the first easter egg in a game on Atari. Wanting to say it was "Adventure"? Some attempt at a D&D themed game.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 19
|
TPRJones
I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
|
|
Posted on: Apr. 29 2014,04:54 |
|
|
Yup, if you dragged the key from the end of the game all the way back to the start you unlocked a screen that had the creator's name on it.
I think he was eventually fired for it after it was found. Atari had this thing where they considered all employees of exactly equal importance, with the coders being no more or less important than the janitors. Taking personal credit for the game was a big no-no.
Atari was a bit weird.
--------------
Vidi Perfutui Veni
|
|
|
|
|
|
