2 May
2010
2 May
'10
10:42 p.m.
Once you understand the TIA even just remotely - its a damned fun
console to code on, the Atari 2600 is still being pushed well past its
envelope even today, if you check out the programming section on the
forums at atariage.com - there is a constant run of new games being
done. If you want to check out a truly INCREDIBLE new Atari 2600 game
- check out Dungeon - I never thought a game like that could be done on
the Atari 2600.
Curt
Josh Dersch wrote:
Jim Leonard wrote:
I love to look at games from the END of a console's life, as they
show some of the true programming wit and magic that comes with being
able to amass console knowledge for 5+ years. For example:
- The God of War series for PS2 show a nearly full framerate with
reflections, water, and (seemingly) detailed geometry
- Because the Genesis was based on a 7.16MHz 68000, some 3-d computer
games were ported over (LHX attack chopper, some Wolf3d clones, etc.)
The Jaguar, even though I just finished dumping on it, had a truly
3-d textured world engine to be used in an upcoming dragon-fighting
simulator, but sadly the Jag was discontinued before the game was
finished. Name and company escape me but I saw it demonstrated at
CGE2003. World Circuit was another unreleased 3-d driving game until
Telegames republished it, which is probably the best released example
of what the Jag could actually do (gouraud shaded polys and texture
mapping at a decent framerate).
I like to do that for the Atari VCS -- a machine whose graphics chip
was basically designed to make slightly-more-advanced games of Pong
possible, 128 bytes of RAM and a CPU that had to spend 90% of its time
running the display. Yet somehow programmers continued to squeeze
amazingly clever, fun and (sometimes) even good looking games out of
the system after more than a decade. I started hacking on a game for
it awhile back, I should dig it out and do something with it, it's a
real challenge...
- Josh