Atari 2600 Football (Soccer)

[Living Room Arcade]

Hello everyone.  I'm new here.  Andrew Davie invited me from the Atari Age forum.

Well, I found this interesting thread at AA
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/90363-atari-2600-soccer
people were discussing a new homebrew about foosball.  They were discussing how to make it better.  I posted a comment, addressed to Andrew, not realizing that he's not active there anymore.  So he PM'd me, and invited me to come here.  And so here I am.

And so hello everyone. 

[Andrew Davie]

Welcome. To clarify, the PM was in response to a request to me to update the Soccer binary to fix a couple of issues. Since I no longer post on the AtariAge forums, but I wanted to help... I suggested that we could continue the discussion here.

And so, yes - just a couple of minor fixes. Now when a goal is scored there's a significant delay before the ball moves back to the center. Also, there is a delay at the center before the ball is in play again. Looking at the code once more, I can see it does need a lot of work.

Meanwhile, attached is the updated binary with the above changes.

[Andrew Davie]

Some tweaks

* now stable at 262 scanlines. Earlier versions were 265
* removed HMOVE combs on left-side
* tweaks to ball speed and acceleration graduation
* removed colour graduations on scoreline
* new digit font

[Andrew Davie]

I have broken the position of the lower goalkeeper. Code is a bit tricky; will fix soon.

[Living Room Arcade]

Hello.  Can I call you Andrew?  Thank you so much for making improvements to this great little homebrew that somebody was sharing in the other forum.

Do you want some feedback about it?

I like the new number font.  Actually, I liked the old uniforms better when one team was red and the other team was blue.  You wouldn't consider going back to blue and red again, would you?

For me, there's just one little thing that I think needs to be fixed.  It's just this.  When one team scores, then the other team should have the ball on the restart at midfield.  Know what I mean?  Like, if the red team scored going up, then on the restart, the other team should have the ball and going down.  And vice versa.  If the team scored going down, then on the restart, the other team should have the ball and going up.  See what I mean?

But other than that, wow, what a great and fun soccer homebrew.  Thanks so much!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Actually, I liked the old uniforms better when one team was red and the other team was blue.  You wouldn't consider going back to blue and red again, would you?

Hm, for me the teams are red and blue. What are you seeing?

[Andrew Davie]

Here are the requested changes;

1. team colours now red/blue
2. Ball direction on kickoff goes towards the team who conceded the previous goal
3. Fixed the goalie position at bottom (black bars on edge are back though)

[Andrew Davie]

Hello.  Can I call you Andrew?

You may. I also answer to 'Boo' with workmates, friends, and family.

[Living Room Arcade]

Hm, for me the teams are red and blue. What are you seeing?

In the soccer20231206.bin version, there was an alternate kit for the blue team. 

[Living Room Arcade]

Hello.  Can I call you Andrew?

You may. I also answer to 'Boo' with workmates, friends, and family.

Nice to meet you. 

[Living Room Arcade]

Here are the requested changes;

1. team colours now red/blue
2. Ball direction on kickoff goes towards the team who conceded the previous goal
3. Fixed the goalie position at bottom (black bars on edge are back though)

Andrew, So, am I helping you to play-test this game?  For item #2, didn't you mean to say "ball direction on kickoff goes towards the team who SCORED the previous goal."  Like, if the red team scored, then at kickoff, the blue team has the ball and the ball moves toward the red team. 

This behavior works sometimes but not consistently all the time.  I think if you play for a while and score about six goals or more you'll see the ball go the wrong way on the kickoff. 

But the game is much better now than it was before.  Thanks so much!

Also, the game select and reset switches don't seem to work.  (I'm testing on Stella 6.7.)

Also, when the ROM loads, the game starts immediately.  I think there should be a short pause first.  Don't you?  Like in racing games where it gives you a "ready, set, go!" before the race starts.  Maybe just simply let the players face each other on the field for two or three seconds before the game starts? 

Thanks again for working on this.  I hope my play-testing is helpful to you. 

 

[Andrew Davie]

Andrew, So, am I helping you to play-test this game?

Well, yes but no. I'm not writing the game. I'm just fixing bugs and helping make a better version for you to play, as you asked nicely and I'm in one of those rare "be nice to people" moods

For item #2, didn't you mean to say "ball direction on kickoff goes towards the team who SCORED the previous goal."  Like, if the red team scored, then at kickoff, the blue team has the ball and the ball moves toward the red team.

I change the ball starting direction based on who scored last. I don't care which way it goes, as long as it's consistent. If it's inconsistent that's a bug.

Also, the game select and reset switches don't seem to work.  (I'm testing on Stella 6.7.)

Well, there are probably a whole lot of intended features the original author never got around to. I'm not particularly likely to spend a lot of time writing a whole game on this codebase; it does things differently than I would do myself, and modifications are a bit difficult/tricky. Not the easiest code to work on, particularly with the odd sprite system.

Also, when the ROM loads, the game starts immediately.  I think there should be a short pause first.  Don't you?  Like in racing games where it gives you a "ready, set, go!" before the race starts.  Maybe just simply let the players face each other on the field for two or three seconds before the game starts? 

Agreed. I'll fix soon.

[Living Room Arcade]

Well, there are probably a whole lot of intended features the original author never got around to. I'm not particularly likely to spend a lot of time writing a whole game on this codebase; it does things differently than I would do myself, and modifications are a bit difficult/tricky. Not the easiest code to work on, particularly with the odd sprite system.

Aren't all Atari 2600 games programmed in the same programming language? 

[Andrew Davie]

Well, there are probably a whole lot of intended features the original author never got around to. I'm not particularly likely to spend a lot of time writing a whole game on this codebase; it does things differently than I would do myself, and modifications are a bit difficult/tricky. Not the easiest code to work on, particularly with the odd sprite system.

Aren't all Atari 2600 games programmed in the same programming language? 

Most, but not all.  CDFJ games are a mix of assembler and C/C++.
This game is assembler. I was referring to the WAY the systems are written, not the language in which they are written. The techniques used to achieve the display are perhaps a bit different to what I would have done myself were I starting from scratch.

[Living Room Arcade]

Most, but not all.  CDFJ games are a mix of assembler and C/C++.
This game is assembler. I was referring to the WAY the systems are written, not the language in which they are written. The techniques used to achieve the display are perhaps a bit different to what I would have done myself were I starting from scratch.

Just curious, how to you open up the rom to see the code?  What software?