So I was looking through my old files on my computer and I saw Bert. I've decided to add another game to Bert's Pigeons. So now it's called Bert's Games.
I watched Sesame Street as a kid. But I was too young to have the Sesame Street games for the Atari 2600. Later on in life, I got them all now and a Kid's Controller. And I became smart enough (barely) to attempt to make a Sesame Street game for the Atari 2600. I learned how to program for the Kid's Controller by making a simple Coun
On my bench (technically the trashcan next to my Helifire table) was Nintendo Space Firebird. This one was specifically the Gremlin license but they are the same game for the most part. The problem with this one is that some sprites are garbled or missing.
This ended up being one of the quickest repairs I have done. It probably took longer to hook up the board. The problem chip ended up being the second chip I did a spot check on: the 74ls00 at 3D. Probing the chip, I noti
So recently, I found out that Firefox isn't allowing people to download .bin files because it thinks they're malware or viruses. Since I have ablsoultely no knowledge of how to put malware or viruses into my games, you can safely download my games without worrying about that. I think you have to use Edge to do that however, since Firefox is being stubborn about it. Which is really dumb because I don't know how long it had been for me to download .bin files without Firefox warning me and refusing
The reason I asked to delete my account was because I feared I lost all my likeability with the previous blog entry and didn't want to be a burden on this forum any more. I'm not a racist, but I guess I should not make puns of that stuff.
So here is an edited version of my Atari 2600 game. I spent an hour changing it to something more acceptible to everyone.
This is Bob. He's a bird. I need to make a better bird sprite.
So I finished my Game Gear game about the burgers. Big surprise no one cares enough to want to publish it. So now I'm on to my next game. I've decided to make a better Soccer Odyssey 2 game. I did 1 on 1 Basketball before. So I worked and worked and worked some more. And I'll probably work more on this unless the game craps out on me and decides to break (which it has done a few times on just this ROM. I had to erase what I had and restart from the past save point a lot.)
I have way too muc
A Homebrew Draws Near!
A blog series by @Scrobins
Episode 41: Oratorio
Introduction:
Many of the games I’ve written about draw inspiration from classic games of yesteryear, sometimes while reaching into modern generation technology and gaming sensibilities to bring something new to the cartridges we pop into our very old consoles. Rarer though is the developer who ports an entire modern genre to a modern console, highlighting how the limits of the NES lie much further t
Decided that since I had power and I was bored to continue work on my Game Gear game I was making. I made some changes to level 10. It now looks like this:
Since I decided on wooden walls, it cheered up the hall a lot. Not that I wanted it to be cheery. I also put in some chandeliers in the hall. The portrait of the milkshake used to be a portrait of an old man. But then I decided "Who is that?" and people may read into the game more than I intended, I changed it to a portrait of a
It's been three days now where the temperature has been below freezing. I don't think once it got above 30 all weekend. And with .1"-.25" freezing rain coming this afternoon, the power may go out. So if I go missing for a week or so, that's where I am. Tomorrow it's supposed to finally get above freezing. So if the electricity goes out, we'll have no power and it'll be 50 degrees as opposed to 20 degrees.
I understand that most of the country right now is below freezing, but it's really rar
I am ecstatic to share that I was fortunate enough to be part of a historic moment. Tonight, at the Pink Gorilla Games store in Seattle's University District, a group of players became the first in history to play a 16-player game of Faceball 2000! Released in 1992, this game boy game was a conversion of MIDI Maze for Atari ST, a very early first-person shooter which supported 16 player link play, using the MIDI ports on the ST for linking the computers together. In 2005, the systems programmer
Ahead of the half-inch of ice we're supposed to get tomorrow here, I have been working on Pokemon Mini stuff. Why? I don't know. I looked at some other Pokemon Mini titles, most notably Psychic Seeds, and I redesigned my game to look more like that.
I am attempting to make a Fast Food Atari 2600-type game for the Pokemon Mini, where the object is to move the mouth around to eat the candy and avoid the pickle. which will decrease your life by 1 if you eat one. The pickle is not in the
How did almost a whole week pass between my previous blog update?
Anyway, after reading about that kid who beat Tetris, I decided to play it myself. Here's how far I got.
Apparently it doesn't take very much to be a Tetris master. I crap out at level 19 because it gets way too fast and I can't control the pieces any more. I don't understand how tapping the underside of the controller is supposed to help ("rolling"). I wonder what the highest speed is. I remember playing Tetris DX
Today I played NES. I wondered if it was possible to score over a million points and finish the game. Yes, but you must "cheat" in order to do so. In 3-2 you can build up your score to a million without losing very many lives and then proceed to beat the game. I watched some YouTuber get a million points. I was wondering why he kept dying, but I soon figured out why.
So all that talk about SMB made me want to play it. All I did was use infinite lives, nothing else. And I beat it a second ti
A Homebrew Draws Near!
A blog series by @Scrobins
Episode 40: The Meating
Introduction:
I keep a list of games and developers that I’m eager to write about and interview for this blog in the hope that we might connect, and I can eventually devote a post to them. The friendships I’ve developed in this community have gone a long way toward making some of these hopes manifest at the most opportune moments. People can be busy and may be slow to respond to a message, especia
2024 begins with more Odyssey 2 work. I decided to try to put in a fourth game. To see if it's worth it. Is it fun?
In this game, the x will rescue other x's while avoiding those pesky o's. I made a game before called Oranges for the Odyssey 2, but it was never made into a game for sale. So I think it's okay to steal ideas from myself. Oranges was sort of like this except there was no one to save and there were 5 oranges.
The o's and x's travel from right to left. The green x whi
Introduction
I'm sure most of us have traditions, New Year's being one of them. But what about video games or movies? Do you play a particular game or watch a particular movie during a certain time of every year?
I got Animal Crossing for the GameCube in Dec. 2006. I still have my original copy of the game, and have played it every year since. I've also celebrated New Year's in the game every year since, and it is sort of a tradition. I've since also played Animal Crossing: New L
What has happened since my last blog entry? I designed a few new levels for the hamburger game.
Level 6 is the city. There are lots of skyscrapers in it.
I don't know whether or not to make the score black or white on this level. Right now it's white, but I could easily change it to black if I want to. I don't know if I want to.
Level 7 is the beach.
I put a couple of palm trees on it. I also need to compose some music for it. I've been looking at samples for the
Introduction
For me, 2023 was a mixture of happiness, frustration, fun times, and, in a way, adventure. I made progress with both my video game and movie collections, got to see my family on my Birthday as well as Christmas, went to Monster Jam, and even looked in three malls (in different cities) and more than fifteen stores for a Chuck E. Cheese Funko Pop figure. There were plenty of good and bad days, but there were enough good times that I thought I'd make a blog about some of the highl
What originally brought you to NA/VGS?
I purchased a game from someone from eBay, and they said "oh hey, I'm also on NA, come find me" and I did! I don't remember who that was, but I was super excited to find NA -- a community of diverse and fun nerdy gamers 🙂
Story behind your username and avatar?
I was always a fan of the classic Ultima RPGs. In Ultima, the protagonist (player) is known as "the Avatar". So my avatar, is the Avatar -- and the image comes from the fabulous cover t
So I played my Game Gear for the first time in a while. Man, orange is hard to see on a blue background. I tried to make it more visible by darkening the screen and it worked a little. I think the problem is the shape of the onion ring: It is hard to make an 8x8 O-shaped sprite visible like that. The nacho that the taco shoots is visible. I think putting a black border around the sprites like I did in the Virtual Boy game would not look as good if you actually have a color other than red.
With all this work on Mean Santa for the Game Boy...
I thought I'd take a little time to work on Flying Hamburgers for the Game Gear as well.
Today I added in the ability for the enemies to move up and down instead of just straight on. I am planning this out.
levels 1-3: head on, regular speed
levels 4-6: head on, regular or faster speed
levels 7-9: up and down movement or head on
level 10: a mixture of any of these.
I have also decided to put
So I went to sleep at around 6 a.m. yesterday. And then I woke up at around midnight. So basically I spent most of Saturday asleep. I don't know why. But I figure if I didn't need to then I wouldn't have. So since midnight I have been working most of the time. All my work today was on Mean Santa. I could have worked less had I remembered I could make the background palette and the sprite palette different. I think that was the most troublesome part of my work. I am trying to make an endless runn
I woke up at 2 p.m. Not because I wanted to, but because of the leafblower people going around with their stupid leafblowers on. I thought perhaps they'll stop, but no, they kept going, 20 minutes later. So I decided to get out of bed. I worked a lot on Mean Santa again today. I got really angry because I was having horrible trouble with making the game easier to program.
A few hours passed, and I finally got everything straightened out. I was trying to make it easier to add new levels in t
Tim Duarte and I are working on bringing his game Mean Santa to the Game Boy. I have been programing it and he has been giving me feedback about it. Not that I'd get it completed by Christmas, but perhaps we'll do a Christmas in July and release it then or something.
I have been making it work for Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy, as well as just regular Game Boy, all in one cartridge. These screenshots are from the Game Boy Color mode. The Super Game Boy mode has its own border and color
