Posted By
MIK
on 2021-12-19
14:56:57
 |  Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
What are the best offerings we have that capture some of that classic old school Atari fun of arcade gaming?
Killapede is not a bad effort as a clone of Atari's Centipede. Pixel smooth animation would of been nice though.  The only thing I feel that lets it down is that once one part of the centipede reaches the bottom corner and starts going back up a second one comes out at the max height you your self can go, and even more come out at this height level depending on how many get to the bottom corner. The point of these extra ones coming out at your max height level was an attempt to stop you milking score, but hey the game soon speeds up and will get you in the end!
I gave Killapede 7 out 10. A neat little version worthy of it's old price tag.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2021-12-19
15:38:20
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
Yeah, I'd say Killapede is not bad. I'm not familiar with the "original" though... Which one would you compare it to? I looked up a few "Atari Centipede" videos, but those looked super blocky, Killapede seemed a lot better.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-12-21
08:54:09
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
In this case of Centipede the Atari arcade machine is the original I believe, I think Killapede might be comparable to the 5200 Centipede, not sure. I never owned any of the machines but to Atari fans they rate them classics.
There was also another called Millipede which had some sort of smoke bombs that can kill the beast if you time it right.
Yeah the Atari 2600 might look a bit blocky but looks as if it plays well enough.
EDIT:
Spooky - Just a few days later this showed up in the news!!!
BBC News: Largest-ever millipede fossil found...
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Posted By
marcos64
on 2021-12-22
03:36:42
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
Atari 2600 games are blocky and might not look good, but they are smooth and playability is excellent (at least the good ones).
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Posted By
MMS
on 2021-12-25
03:15:22
 | Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
I suppose the Atari 2600 is fluid, because due to low picture resolution and simple sound, the CPU does not have too much work, so it can react fast to input channels and can quickly modify the picture content (the 1.2MHz of 6507 also helped a little).
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2021-12-25
05:22:08
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
@MMS: You should read upon Atari 2600 architecture. What makes those games fluid is an awful lot of sweat, maybe tears and in worst case some blood. Pure brilliance and huge amounts of effort bring those results not some hardware simplicity. AFAIK.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2021-12-25
06:30:40
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
Yeah, but low resolution helped a little, no?
It works in the opposite way too, SAM Coupe, despite 6MHz Z80 CPU, was hardly faster than a ZX Spectrum in high resolution modes. It was also not built by amateurs.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-12-30
04:11:11
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
The deeper you dig the more fascinating things can get like this for example...
Small bit on Jeff Minter and while he is famed for his Atari dealings he only ever made 1 game for Atari being Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar.
So yeah while some of Jeff's classics originate for his fondness of Centipede it's also interesting to think C16/Plus4 POD (Proof Of Destruction) also sits along side them.
BTW a game called Gravitar both Arcade and Home Console just may of been the inspiration behind the game Thrust!
And as for Asteroids by Atari in both Arcade & Home Console flavours, the less said about the C16/Plus4 game Meteorite the better!!!
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Posted By
George
on 2021-12-30
08:02:31
 | Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
[Prospector Pete] is a very good arcade style game
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-12-30
10:23:33
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
Yeah, Prospector Pete is a fun little game and that's the thing... The commercial days of C16/Plus4 saw a lot of early 1980's arcade machine style games and because of our slight speed increase over the C64 many of them play superbly. 
There was an O'Reilly's Mine before Prospector Pete which I believe was released on Atari 8bit home computers first before landing on C64.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2021-12-31
05:54:39
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
@MIK actually I knew, that Jeff Minter (the father of Amiga system) was behind the Atari 2600.
From my perspective, tha ZX Spectrum ULA is a bigger achievement than 2600's design (not to mention Dave Haynie's (?) TED ), but it is just my personal opinion. But the 2600 system sold in ten millions, and I do not questionmark it's importance. (BTW I hade more experience with the games on Philips G7000 (Magnavox Oddyssey2), though Atari seems to have more colors (if I read it well))
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Posted By
siz
on 2021-12-31
06:33:23
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
@MMS > Jeff Minter (the father of Amiga system)
Most probably you mean Jay Miner as the father of Amiga
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Posted By
MMS
on 2021-12-31
07:27:11
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
OK, sorry, you are right, it confused me that in fact Jay Miner was the designer of the VCS chip, but later we spoke before Jeff Minter, also from Atari.
Jay Glenn Miner
"Atari
Due to its manufacturing of the MOS Technology 65xx series of chips, Synertek was recommended as a partner to Atari, Inc. after it had been decided to use the MOS 6507 for their upcoming Atari VCS home video game console. One of Atari's engineers, Harold Lee, had worked with Miner at Standard MicroSystems and suggested him as the designer for a custom chip which would power Atari's new console. Through an arrangement with Synertek, Atari hired Miner in late 1975 to lead the chip design for the Atari VCS, primarily that of the display hardware, the TIA.[8]
Miner would also be the designer on the follow-up technology intended for a successor console to the Atari VCS."
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Posted By
MIK
on 2021-12-31
12:11:11
| Re: Atari 2600, 5200 & 7800 style games on C16/Plus4?
@mms I have no idea what makes the Atari 8bit consoles tick, all I know is that they have 2 channel sound so we have a small thing in common.
I was just wondering what we have that the 8bit consoles got, (Atari stuff released a few years before ours in most cases).., and are C16/Plus4 versions any good, better or worse than those. Some of the earliest arcade machines were simple but also addictive fun and we have many of these type games. In the case of Killapede and comparing notes I have even more respect for it now knowing the original Atari version was an arcade machine.
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