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About this blog

What I'm working on for the various consoles I can program for.

Entries in this blog

Atari 2600

You, too, can be a banana guarder

I changed the lemon back to a banana. And during the past week or so I finished the game. And now it is ready for release. And it will be released. I don't know exactly when, within a few months or so. I think I did a pretty good job putting this in 2k. I have one byte left, so I really had to cram stuff in there, AND also make it work at the same time. I also came back to my Odyssey 1 project I started a year ago. I designed the overlay to part 1, not to mention think it up
Atari 2600

X vs. O

I wanted to make a fly swatting game for the Atari 2600. I wanted to make a game about letters for the Atari 2600. I wanted to make a new Atari 2600 game. So I decided to combine all three into a new game I'm working on called "X Vs. O." You are the letter X, and your job is go up to letter Os and press fire. But there are some bees. If you touch a bee, you'll die. I'm deciding to make this a one-life game like the Odyssey 2 games used to be. The game is in a very early stage. I just began
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

when life hands you lemons...

I don't know why, but I keep changing my 2k Atari 2600 game Fruit Fly Fun. I guess it's an attempt to try making it better and better. I never did like the banana in the bottom. So I changed it to a lemon. And I changed the clouds so they look far away. Since they do, I then decided to get rid of the enemies going behind the clouds part since there was no longer a need for it. Most of the work was attempting to avoid jagged edges on the playfield (clouds, lemon). I don't know why
Atari 2600

Uncle Hairy returns.

I want to finish Uncle Hairy's Nosehair. I returned to work on it. I made it so when the box pops up, the demon stops chasing you and goes after it. Nothing special if he gets it, although you lose all the points lost while the scissors weren't going after the nosehair, and you do have to wait a little bit for another box to pop up. There's no more music, but there is color cycling when the game isn't running (think "Combat"). So now I have 10 bytes left. And I spent hours and hours working on t
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

The return of the flies.

I had been working on a game called Fruit Fly Fun for the Atari 2600. I had to give up and call it quits after I couldn't get the scan line and display a steady 262 scanlines. I came back to it briefly yesterday and could not fix it. So then I thought, if I couldn't fix it with assembly, I thought I'd try with Atari 2600 basic. For those who don't know, Atari 2600 basic uses extra code for compiling and displaying stuff, like making the scanline a steady 262, along with score handling and o
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

The nosehair demon. (Atari 2600)

I put in the nosehair demon in the game and someone was kind enough to help me figure out a problem with the sound so now I can use both channels. Previously, I was only able to use channel 1 but now I can use channel 0 as well. Other than that, not much has been worked on for the game. I hope to work on it later today. I just woke up and had breakfast (it's almost 10 a.m. here.) I also made some artwork for the game. This happened when I got bored programming it. I like to draw pictur
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

The new return of Uncle Hairy

I jump from project to project. When I get bored with one, I pick up another and work on it for a while. I plan to repeat this plan until I die (or can't use a computer any more.) So, as you may have guessed, the project du jour is Uncle Hairy's Nosehair. About a month ago, I called it done, but now I've decided to go back and work on it some more. So I did. This is what it looks like now. I find it funny and odd that this picture of the game is larger than the game itself. You can get
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Technically a game

After working for days and days I finally have a working version to show. I gave up on it, but then got some advice and it worked. I put music in it, but I don't know if it will be in there for long. Depends on how much feedback I get on the game part aspect, as I want it to stay at 2k and with the music in I have 35 bytes left. The version with music just has temporary music in on the title screen and if you're interested in seeing it it's in the AtariAge forums. It has music like MidSpace
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Sound thinking

Yesterday, I got real bored, so I decided to make some music for the menu. I also changed the font so it looks better. I don't like the "computery" font sometimes, so I changed it so that each number is a different font. I also colored the score different colors for each game so you know which game you got the high score on. I've been working on this since Sunday and I think I've done a good job so far. I don't know what else to do though.
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Some potato chip fun

I was looking through my stuff on my computer a couple days ago. I went into the Atari 2600 folder. I found my flying burger game. I tried it. It was okay, except for that the missile for the burger changed color. I thought to fix it, I could make the burger not a burger, but instead be something that just used one color. A hamburger wasn't one color. But what is? I thought for a minute. Potato chips are one color. So I changed the burger into a potato chip. The missile is the same color now.
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Q version 21

Added a bunch of stuff to Q. Title screen. It just says "Q" because that's the title of the game. On the title screen, if you press "action" with the right controller, you'll control the q with the right controller. If you press "action" with the left controller, you'll control the q with the left controller. Changed the q's interaction with bumping into a tree. If you use the joystick while the q touches the tree's trunk, it won't do anything except play a bump thud. When yo
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Potato chips at the beach

Well, I went back to working on my Atari 2600 game after a few months. What was left? I added a sixth level, and what happens after you beat the sixth level. When you beat the sixth level, it will loop back to the first level. Not very much changes from level to level, I did that just for a change of scenery. After the third level, though, the onion rings are equipped with homing missiles, which is an attempt by me to make the game harder. Once you beat level 6, the missiles should stay homing m
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Potato Chips are fun

Yesterday and today I have been working on my Atari 2600 game "Potato Chips En Masse." I made some lovely changes to the title screen and added a new level in. I have room for one more level, so this will be a 4k cartridge with 6 levels. I could put more in, but that would require bankswitching, which I would be new to since I'm using assembly. Potato chips on the moon? Well, one, anyway. The title screen does a color cycle. I have also been working on Frank the Fruit Fly. I added
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

One bite.

I made it so the fruit fly will eat one bite of the banana and then fly away. I don't know why I enjoy making games with fruit flies in them, but oh well. I also decided to change the swatter to a more purple color because I thought its color was too similar to the hornet's color. I have 52 bytes left if I want this to stay a 2k game (which I do.) I figure I'd test it on my Atari 2600 once I call it finished, which I think I am very close to do. Of course I said it was finished before
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Nosehairs for December 17.

I worked some more on the game. Here's a video of me playing it with the Stella emulator. I made it so the nosehair demon chases you around the screen instead of him moving randomly. Since he now does this, I could delete a fair amount of code associated with the process of randomly moving around, and as a result I now have about 70 bytes left, which is up from about 30. I also made it so you can play the game in black and white instead of in color. Though I doubt many people will, I j
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Nosehairs for December 15.

Yesterday I did some more work on Uncle Hairy's Nosehair. That's the name of the game, although since the game doesn't display the name in it, I could call it anything I want. I got rid of the cutting nosehair for points. I made it so touching the nosehair demon subtracts from your score. I made the box worth ten points instead of one. I have over 100 bytes left. And the game is 2k. I don't know what else to put in the game. I don't know how much I can put in the game and still have the display
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Nosehairs (Atari 2600)

So I've begun making a game for the Atari 2600 about nosehair trimming.  What I'm envisioning is a game where you dodge the nosehair demon, get powerups and periodically going over to the left side of the screen to trim the nosehair so it doesn't get so long that it ends the game. So sort of like Tapper, or, a more obscure reference, Dishaster for the 2600. Right now I have the nosehair growing, you can guide Mr. Scissors around the screen and can cut the nosehair, but that's about it so fa
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Nosehair update - 2-24-2021

I worked on my Nosehair game last night. I did three things: I made the nosehair's top speed faster (because people said it was too slow), I got rid of the horrid title screen music and replaced it with a better-sounding tune, and I changed the shape of the nostril. This is what it looks like now:
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

New score

So I got an Atari 2600 game I didn't have before. I bought Chase the Chuckwagon. But a huge shout out to AtariAge user SpiceWare, who changed the way the score looks in my nosehair game. It now looks like this: I redesigned the number font and I think it looks good enough. I also worked a little more on it and got the scissors back to facing the "correct" way (the way I wanted them to and were before.) With all the changes though, I have about 2 bytes left. Which I guess is okay since
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

My nose is still running.

Now that I think about it, I could call it "The Runs" and have it be a piece of poop running. But I won't. I redesigned Mr. Noseson (Noseson is a palindrome) and worked on the boxes to jump over. Mr. Noseson now looks like this: I decided to make his legs orange instead of black. This morning I put in collision detection for the boxes. Next up is working on making some music for the menu. But not today. I'm done with programming for today.
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

My nose is running.

So I didn't really want just one guy running for my running game. I thought, "What else runs?" Noses. So I titled the game "Runny Nose." Here is Mr. Noseson. His little legs are animated. I attempted a realistic jumping code, with gravity and stuff. I thought I was done with Atari 2600 noses when I finished "Uncle Hairy's Nosehair." Well, anyway, this is being done in batari Basic. I originally was going to have the ground in this be of varying heights, so I began in bB because I didn'
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Music returns.

Music has returned to Uncle Hairy's Nosehair. The colors don't change any more though (unless you flip the switch to b&w). I also made some more changes. For instance, if the demon gets the box, you lose 10 points. And I also made the nosehair's beginning growing speed slower. And then I had to get the scanline count a steady 262 so it doesn't jitter on real hardware. That is the hardest part of the projects I do in Atari 2600 assembly. The machine is what? 45 years old? It shouldn't be stup
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

Music and flashing colors.

So I worked some more on Uncle Hairy's Nosehair tonight. I went to sleep at about 11 a.m. and woke up at 10 p.m. because my leg hurt. I saw someone found a bug, so I was off to fix that. And then the stupid scanline wasn't being steady. Most of my work on this game has been attempting to make the scan line count be a steady 262. I did find a way however to add back the color changes and have music at the same time. But now I have 0 bytes left. That is, if I want to make it a 2k game (which I do.
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

More potato chip fun

I thought of an idea for the later levels: Homing missiles that the onion rings can shoot. So I put them in as a test. Then I noticed the missiles ranged in thickness when new playfield data is introduced. I didn't want that to happen, so I spent the next few hours trying to make it stop. This meant redoing all three screens I had designed so far, as well as the sprites. The sprites are smaller because the way I changed the way I use the playfield data to make the missiles all one thickness all
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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Atari 2600

It's Bert! (part 3) / Legend of Helga

OK, so someone at AtariAge helped me to make Bert's pupils black. So I guess the question now is: Would you buy this? I don't want to have unsold copies of this game sitting around. I also have been working on Game Boy programming. I have been working on tree collision on a game I just started called "The Legend of Helga." I improved what I had earlier this morning and now it's working just fine. I'm at a good place to stop now, so I'll pause work on this for a few day
Gamegearguy

Gamegearguy in Atari 2600

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