Lambda

Dude was a legend and began making waves on wall st and entrepreneurial business fronts over the past few years. A real go-getter. He will be missed. Really sad to hear.

@Tanooki great input! I definitely see where you’re coming from, for sure. I have a massive appreciation for the polish that games of the past had when it came to the code set. There was no room for error, plain and simple. And if a bug did occur, the bug lived on with the coders forever as a “mark” on their work. There was no DLC, no patches, no updates... you got the ROM chip on the cart and that was it. I admire the programmers of old, and more importantly the testing they must have put their games thru to make sure that bugs were eliminated... that’s not to say that there weren’t things that slipped thru the cracks. Which is understandable for any developer. But the fact today that there are literally speed runs of games that are literally built nearly entirely on the bugs in the code is a bit disheartening.. a piece of me feels like a purist... or at least the desire to witness purity... and that may very well stem from the other half of me... the “hunter”... the side of me that absolutely loves finding the mistakes and the bugs, and taking advantage of them. Great thoughts! Thanks for sharing!

Haha yes, hunting in the seaweed can cause you to get greedy based on the “schooling” fish this is something to be aware of when building air supply. Awesome!! If you make a fast Speed run, feel free to post that score and I’ll add it to the games pedigree! I’ve started keeping lists of speed run scores of players that submit them, I’d be happy to add yours if you post it! you said something that caught my attention... seaweed... all I’m going to say

Awesome!!! So now I have three questions to ask: 1) how many times did it take you to get to this point? (How many times did the shark catch you before you figured it out?... also: did you ever die by drowning? Or the squid?) 2) do you think you can speed run the game? (Start by catching no fish at all and making a mad dash for the treasure chest?) 3) did you notice anything “fishy” on the shark stage (pun intended). I can’t wait for someone to find the bug I left in the code that allows for the cheat!

A question for all collectors: How do you feel when a bug is reported in a game? (Specifically a mainstream or licensed game). Do some of you feel like this is a natural part of game-play? or Do some of you feel like when a bug is found, it is an abomination to the code set? And the programmers should have done a better job? Are there any purists out there who seek games with absolutely zero bugs whatsoever and strictly play as intended by the programmers? Im curious about this topic. I found a bug in a game today and as far as I know, I’m the first one to find ANY bug in this game... and it’s a big one... it allows for the build up of infinite lives. I wonder how the community will react to that, so I ask this question thanks in advance to all who respond!

@Scrobins Thanks for sharing!! Love hearing acquisition stories! If you happen to remember me from the NA forums (I was only there for a year or so before the migration here), I was hunting a copy down, and you happened to respond and point me in the right direction. You are the very reason why I own one of my 2 copies. A million times, thanks for that and being such an awesome dude. You didn’t even know me but you reached out to help, and for that I’m very grateful. The mystery surrounding this developer is indeed intriguing. Through a bit of detective work, I realized he has a YouTube channel with a limited number of uploads... but his cousin is on there too, and a bit more active. Would love to ask some questions to either of them and get some more info on how this game was born. I know I play my copy a bit haha, and if you do too, you may have heard of the cheat code hidden in the manual.I think I know the code. I’ve been hunting a way to implement it, and have had no luck. Fortunately though, today, I discovered a bug in the code design! If you still play the game and are looking to beat it, see my intro post here and follow the link. I describe in that thread, a way to take advantage of the bug I found and essentially gain infinite 1-ups! Also, a question I have for you: If you still play, how far have you gotten? This game is relatively difficult as you advance... I can’t seem to get past Level 3, Wave 2 without using my infinite lives bug hah

All things Star Keeper (for the collectors!) I realize that Star Keeper is a homebrew game, but at this point all copies have been put into the hands of collectors. I also realize that this may limit this threads discussion to the 100+ owners/collectors since this game cannot be dumped to ROM. That being said, this thread is meant to be about all things Star Keeper. I’m passionate about having this game for a few reasons: 1) the game is fantastically crafted and well put together 2) I’m a hobby developer and love seeing other people’s work. The creator of Star Keeper (87Arts) has stated that he had never really done NES dev work before. He dove right in and crafted his own mapper (which is why the game cannot be dumped to ROM), (presumably his own PCB), coded the game, published and distributed it all on his own. This is a great feat for someone new to developing. This thread is intended for general discussion by all collectors regarding a range of topics. Feel free to ask questions and share information about this game! This thread is an appreciative nod to 87Arts, from all of us who love having this game in their collection (and most importantly, Playing it!) I have been asked questions about this game by many individuals/owners. In light of this, here are some questions and food for thought regarding some discussions that we may all benefit from: How many levels are there? How can I tell the difference from GE, LE, and SE copies? Whats the cheat code all about? Has anyone seen the physical PCB themselves after taking the cart apart? Has anyone beaten the game? Was the boss fun?! Is there a boss?! General thoughts on playability and fun factor? What is a copy going for these days? ...and anything else you might think of. Star Keeper Collectors: discuss it all here!! Ill start by sharing something new I had uncovered: I discovered a bug in the games enemy spawning routines that allowed me to hijack and loop the spawning process... essentially allowing all players to rack up infinite (or the top limit) of lives! From what I’ve seen nobody has hunted down or documented a bug for this game so far. More information can be found on that here: Looking forward to what everyone has to contribute about this game! (If this topic is wrongly placed, moderators can feel free to let me know, and I’ll happily migrate the thread. Logic here was that all games are now owned by collectors, and it will mainly be collectors answering questions and discussing here).

A short video of the glitch in action. the flying fish will come at you in sets of 3. And they’ll just keep coming... keep shooting til you get as many 1-ups as you’d like it may be a lot of time spent, but this glitch works 100% on Level 2, Wave 1. IMG_3924.MOV

@CasualCart so I originally had an old light sixxer as a kid. I upgraded to another light sixxer that was in slightly better condition, modded for RGB, and had the Sunnyvale Office tech support sticker still on the bottom. (I thought the original sticker was cool to have on the bottom ... I even tried calling the number for a laugh... it was either disconnected or routed to a totally different company ).

Okay guys! I found something!! @Deadeye @Hybrid In my day job, I do IT administration and security. When we’re running a vulnerability or penetration test, thinking outside the box is imperative.. if there isn’t one way to get the job done, or you’ve hit a road block, you have to find a new way... or go around it. That being said, I didn’t find the implementation of the cheat code in the manual...(maybe there’s more to it... there’s definitely something I’m missing)... but I DID find possibly the next best thing...a bug in the game’s enemy spawn routine that allows you to rack up lives and take zero risks/damage while doing it! Okay there’s a lot to unpack here so I’ll get right into it: First, I ran a bunch of play throughs on the first two levels. I began noticing some things that caught my attention. 1) Enemy spawn routines seem to be based (somewhat) on X and Y positioning of the player, direction/speed of travel, with an RND function mixed in. (No way to know for sure without seeing the code, but this is my assumption based on what I’m seeing). 2) I also noticed that power up spawns seem to be based strictly upon an RND function and are not tied at all to the enemy type you have killed: for instance: any enemy on screen can produce any power up. No single enemy produces a set type of power up. *I also noticed some power ups are unavailable in the beginning of the game (first two levels at least), but the important one (1-up) is. (This is important, more on this later). For the most part, the game is pretty fluid in spawning enemies. However there is one area that seems to cause the spawn routine to hiccup... the starting position of the level, specifically the first cloud platform just to the left of the house. (See the first picture attached). In level 1, if you circle the entire map to enable spawn possibilities of all enemies, make your way back to this cloud platform, and stand on it for a while, you’ll get a massive lull in the type and numbers of enemies that appear, until it essentially drops to just one enemy type (tornado). The spawn sequence becomes limited to tornadoes dropping from the sky. Okay so at this point, I’ve found a way to manipulate a routine within the game. Time to take it up a notch and make the game do something we want: On level 2, the same cloud platform, and enemy spawn routine exists. After circling the map in entirety and spawning all possible enemies, I went back to the same cloud platform, just left of the house and stood there. The game now began reacting in the same way... spawning of enemies was reduced to one type after standing here for a while. In level 1, the enemy type was tornadoes (which we cannot kill), but in Level 2, it is an attackable enemy Heres where we can take advantage of this bug: On level 2: 1) you’ll want to circle the map or ensure that all possible enemies have spawned at least once on the map. 2) you now need to acquire the Bidirectional Ray Gun power up. This is important for executing the glitch. 3) make your way back to the first cloud platform just to the left of the house. Stand on it and move slightly to the right just towards the end of the cloud platform. Make sure you’re facing Right. if you did things correctly, only one enemy type will now spawn and attempt to attack you. The “sea predator” according to the manual...(flying fish? Penguin?... lol not sure what to call him). We are now going to take advantage of his attack routine. The flying fish will move in the water until he reaches your X position on screen. Once his X equals your X, he will jump out of the water and begin moving in an arc in the direction that YOU are facing (this is why we must stand facing right on the cloud platform). You’ll notice that as he moves out of the water to attack, he cannot hit you, he moves past you. The flying fish has 4/5 possible jump heights, but all of them (99% of the time), will cross the Y axis level of the platform you are standing on. Crouch down to the prone position, and begin firing with the ray gun. Every fish that crosses the ray gun will be killed on second shot. (The ray gun is important, because the other guns just didn’t seem to be as effective in making this work). As the flying fish are killed, there’s a random possibility of receiving a power up. We wait until we get enough hearts to max out our heart meter (the most you can acquire is 5), and then begin waiting for a flying fish to die and leave behind a 1-up. (See second picture I’ve attached). if we did this right, we can essentially sit here as long as we want, without worrying about enemies sneaking up from behind, or coming at us head on. We just simply keep killing the flying fishes until they keep dropping 1-ups. I did this for about 20 minutes and acquired 5 extra lives to make my life count a total of 8. (See third picture attached). Theoretically you Could sit here as long as you wanted and just rack up lives until you’re satisfied to move on. as for the bug/glitch, I’m positive it works on level 2, and may possibly work on further levels, but I have not attempted it yet, and I don’t know what enemy types would be entered into the spawn routine... this enemy though, is an easy kill, and has zero chance of hurting you, making this an easy one. *notice also, when taking advantage of this bug, if you move off the cloud platform to the right to collect a 1-up you may cause an “evil cherub” to appear. Conversely, if you move off the platform to the left, you’ll cause either an “evil bird” or an “evil shellfish” that springs straight up at you to appear. *** I also tested this glitch on Level 2, Wave 2 - doesn’t work. Also tested on Level 3, Wave 1 - doesn’t work. In both cases more than one enemy type spawns and will cause you to need to abandon the platform to stay alive. thanks for reading, hope this may help some people get past some of the tougher levels

That’s a quick beat!! Nice job!! Greatly appreciate the play through! Thank you, means a lot!

@G-type nice!!! Happy you got to try it out! That’s a solid finish. Like I said it’s short and sweet mini game, (and mainly created as a fun way to teach my daughter some math concepts like Pythagorean theorem). question: how many times did the shark get you before you were able to swim past?

@Deadeye okay so I found something else within the controls page (8) of the manual. The Down and Left button font colors are different than all the others. My eyes missed this on the first pass thru of the manual. If you adjust my code to strictly include Dark Blue/Purple colored fonts, the code is now this: Up, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right. I still not have taken into account whether or not the capital letters mean anything yet but I did try one scenario after dying: I entered the (colored) code at the continue screen from level 2 when I died. When I hit continue, I was brought back to level 2 Round 1. Is this normally how the continue menus works from what you may have experienced? Or does the continue screen bring you back to level 1 after dying on round 2? (This is the first time I’ve made it to level 2, so I’m unsure). I’d assume continue means to continue at the stage you left off at but I can’t be sure without testing further tmrw. Let me know if you’ve made it to level 2 or past, and when dead, continue brings you back to either level 1, or whatever level you left off at (if you’d know). *** the only reason I’m assuming capital letters don’t mean much here is because they include the word start. If you press this before the other buttons are pressed at either the title screen, or during pause, whatever process is running is interrupted... I’m assuming this could be worked around with some clever coding (and the author is indeed a clever coder...), but it leaves more testing to be done. haha I’m determined to figure this out...

@Deadeye great catch! I’m going to update the code I wrote down with some variations based on those capitals and lower case letters. I’ll report back with what I find.

Thanks guys! I’m humbled for sure

@G-type thanks for the response. I decided to include the manual as well, so I packed everything into a github repo. The binary, manual, and redme are all available for download in a new topic posted to the Share forum.

Hey All! Today, I'm happy to release the bin file for Spear Diver, an Atari 2600 Homebrew game. After getting feedback on the artwork style I had chosen for this game (and if I should continue with it into the future), I was humbled by the kind words of @TrekMD, @G-type, @Link and @darkchylde28. I was even more humbled by the interest they had in trying my game out. That being said, I have decided to release the binary. All 10 physical CIB copies have sold off at this point, but I would be humbled and honored for anyone here to try the game out and add it to their own personal digital library. This game was created with my young nephews, daughter and step-kids in mind. I wanted to create a game for kids. I fell in love with the Atari 2600 as a kid, and I can only hope that I can pass along some of that appreciation to the younger generation in my family and maybe contribute to the community of people still trying to keep this system alive. The game is short, only 4 small "levels", but coupled with a bit of frantic action and a need to pay attention to multiple things at once, I hope the game gives everyone at least a few minutes of fun. From watching my younger nephews play, to having the game officially demoed at Game-On in Smithtown NY and seeing a group of guys my own age all struggle and laugh until they finally completed the game, I am truly humbled. The support from this community has been simply icing on the cake. In the physical copy release, the box and manual both contain a QR code that alludes to a secret within the game. I had purposefully left a small bug in the code that would allow the player to cheat at a specific point in the game. The first person who emailed me and could prove, and describe the cheat would receive a prize I've put aside for the winner. While I have sold out of physical copies, I still have yet to announce a winner for this small contest. (I've gotten a few questions, but none have truly found it so far). I am now opening the floor up to you all. ROM plays will now qualify for this contest, and if YOU happen to be the person to find this hidden "bug," I'll have a small prize for you as a token of my appreciation for playing my game. If you happen to be a seasoned Atari Veteran, and this game poses little challenge to you, I encourage you... put the joystick in the hands of a kid and watch them have a go at it. You may just see some frustration in their face that we can all probably relate to here, when we were younger. As far as replay value, I will be honest and say that I believe there is very little once you've figured out the tricks. However, as the coder of the game I have some very strong opinions on what may or not be able to be accomplished with a speed run. I would love to see someone give that a go and finish the game with the highest score possible while making a break for the treasure chest from the very start. The other reason to come back and play would be to find that cheat. I must ask for anyone and everyone who is able to: read through the ReadMe.md, the full manual, and use classic hardware when possible. Any joystick will add to the game, but I've found that the classic controller, and those in that style do this game the most justice. The arrow keys on the keyboard simply aren't the same and steal from a bit of the fun in this game (which was a realization I had while beta testing, and a motivating factor in doing a hard copy only release up until today). ***A teaser hint to all who play: If you find yourself getting greedy when you notice fish appearing from one "schooling" location on the first level... you may want to rethink the way you go about capturing them... it only takes a few fish getting away from you to destroy those greedy gains The ReadMe.md, Manual, and BIN can be found on my Github repo: here Thanks to All who play, and good luck to those who try to find the cheat... I'll be waiting to see what's found.

@Deadeye thank you! Would love to hear if you uncover anything!

@TrekMD @Link @darkchylde28 @G-type Thank you all so much for the kind words! Means a lot to me. I apologize for my late response here, I’ve been swamped with work today (and I’m just finishing help my step-daughter design a website for a school project (she was a main beta tester for the game and is mentioned in the manual haha)). As soon as I finish up, I will get the binary online (along with box images, manual in digital format, and QR code’s to make the package complete). I’ll open up a new topic and be sure to tag you all immediately. The new topic will announce the download and open up the contest for the “cheat” discovery to everyone, including ROM players. I finished putting together a small package for the winner today, and I’m happy with the way it turned out. I hope they will be too . Can’t thank you all enough for the encouraging words and support. This has only motivated me to keep brewing and keep getting better. (I have an 11 month old, two step kids of pre-teen and teen years, and two businesses I run, so time is short for me quite often ). But, Im going to keep working on new projects and continue sharing. Getting the feedback you guys all shared was truly humbling, and I thank you all! On this note... does anyone have any suggestions as to how to properly post a bin to these forums? I’ve never done so before, and I’m sure I could figure it out, but I’d be happy to hear suggestions if there is a best practice. (ie: post the binary directly via attachment here? (I’m not even sure if the website here allows executable attachments)... or... host the binary on another site and link to it from here?) Any input is appreciated!

@Deadeye so from my understanding, 100 LE copies were produced. They are all numbered via the code within the game and will display their #/100 on the title screen at the beginning of the game. A smaller number of these (maybe 10?... my memory escapes me right now) were “Gift” variants and actually had a customers name programmed into the game. These copies will display a custom 16 char name alongside the #/100 at the beginning of the game, while the other LEs only display the #/100. The Standard Edition does not have a custom display name or #/100 on the title screen. There were only 16 of these made if I recall correctly (which arguably makes them a bit more rare than the LEs). The boxes, manuals and carts are both identical. The only real way to tell is to boot up the game and see for yourself.

Hey All! i personally own two copies of Star Keeper. #73 of the LE run, and one of only 16 of the Standard Edition run (purported to be a bit more rare) 87Arts made before ending all further sales. *I felt the need to pick up two copies of this game last year for one reason: I love developing homebrew and tinkering. And if you know the story about the creator of this game, he went from knowing absolutely nothing about NES dev, to designing his own mapper, code, and circuit board, just to make this game come to light. I have to respect that type of dedication. My question pertains to the cheat code hidden within the manual. The pictures attached to this topic show both of my copies (identical in appearance, although I sifted through manuals and gameplay and everything appears identical), and the code I pulled from the manual. The code was deciphered pretty easily, it was just a matter of sifting through the font variations within the manual and piecing it together. What I don’t understand at all is how to enable the code to allow for extra lives. I’ve tried everything from entering the code at the copyright screen, title screen, pause menus, above and at the front door of the house, mid game, continue menu, etc... I was even looking for clues in the star animations on the play field. Still... no luck... In fact I wound up having one odd event where I entered the code so many times and so frequently that the game literally burped and crashed the entire system... first time I’ve seen that with this game, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the enabling of the code (was I on to something? ) I may have gotten the code down, but can anyone at all help with implementation to make it work? Does anyone have any insight? thanks in advance for all replies!

At least 50 or so... mainly NES, some SNES, bought an adaptor and even began picking up a couple famicon, which I’ve enjoyed playing to no end. On the other side of games though, I’ve also picked up quite a few systems... SNES upgrade, Atari 2600 upgrade, Wii (mainly for playing GameCube games), and the most prized of all.. which I do not regret in the slightest, and have even considered picking up a replacement in case my current one craps our or gets cap leaks... is the Commodore 64. I’ve coded homebrew for 2600, and I’m wrestling with myself as to what my next release will be... either 2600 or C64... either way I’m sure I’ll be happy with whatever I decide. but yea... I need to cool down a bit this year haha

@Link Thank you so much for the feedback! I never felt fully satisfied with the way the game played on Stella using only arrow keys.. (as mentioned above, the game is far more fun and “wrist-breaker”-esque with real hardware). But at this point, being that I’ve sold all copies, I’d be happy to release a bin if you’re interested in adding it to your library. If you play one day, that’d be a big honor to me... and more so... I’m now happy to open the “cheat” discovery to ROMS. Nobody has found it yet, and I have a prize for the first person who finds or accurately describes it. I’ll make a direct email, or forum post here as fair game. * the cheat is actually an intentional bug I left in the code. But it’ll take a keen eye to see it first, and then recreate it on a subsequent run of the game. cheers!

A bit more on the game: once it is beaten, I realize it can lose a bit of replay value... however... there are a couple of reasons to revisit. in the manual is QR code that alludes to a secret cheat within the game... to this day nobody has found it yet and I actually have a prize waiting for the first individual to find it successfully . Also, being the coder of the game I have some VERY strong feelings on what time would be needed to beat the game in a speed run. (Can you reach the treasure chest without ever replenishing any air?!)... if you can’t, the way you swim will matter to create the score lowest to minimal air needed to win before the player drowns. I would love to see someone give that a go. @TrekMD and @G-type, I’d be happy to share the bins with you guys if you’d want to give it a shot. I can also email or include the electronic version of the manual for a bit more “full effect”. (There are some very subtle “hints” For getting past the shark in the manual). I’ve included with this post a picture of the back of the box which shows two screenshots from gameplay (level 1 and level 2).

@TrekMD this game was never really mentioned anywhere online prior to this post. I got some shelf space with a local retro game shop (Game-On in Miller Place and Smithtown NY ... amazing people) and I decided I wanted to sell the game locally rather than online. Only 10 copies were produced and all have been sold now. @G-type thanks for the feedback! After testing the homebrew on Stella, before programming the EPROMs, I realized the game lost a bit of its fun and value by playing with the arrow keys rather than an original joy. (That sense of panic and frantic wrist movement just wasn’t the same on the beta testing, so I decided to do a hardware only release). This is not at all to say that lots of people don’t have SD Carts they can load the rom with and still play on original hardware. Although I never did it in the past, if you’re interested, I have a slightly modified “standard” version (aesthetics alone), as opposed to the limited edition... I’d be happy to get the bin over to you if you’d want to give it a play through? I’d be really honored. I must say though, I hope you have a way of playing with a joy as opposed to arrow keys on the keyboard... it’s a lot more fun that way and if you’re a seasoned Atari vet and happen to beat the game fairly easily, maybe there’s a kid in your life you can sit down and give a shot at it. I’m telling you... I had such a blast watching my 8 year old nephew get frustrated (enjoyably of course), and become determined to beat it . These new games nowadays like fortnite have completely deprived the younger generation of what it felt like to crack your wrists on a good old joystick!