Episode 2 is now out, where I discuss the game Combat! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or you can listen to the episode here.
I have a page up for the podcast on Facebook, which you can like here. Please? I also now have a Twitter account for the podcast (which I didn’t have when I recorded this week’s episode), I think that actually may be an easier way to disseminate information than the blog or Facebook, but I will keep all three updated. You can follow me at Twitter here.
After recording the Combat episode, I came to the conclusion that it would be better for me to do two games an episode, unless it’s a really big game. I will do that starting next week. The game I announced on the podcast is Air-Sea Battle, but I will also do Star Ship. So if you have any stories or memories about either of these games that you would like to share with the class, please send them along to me right here.
Pertinent Links
Racing The Beam, by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost
Combat Machine Code (within Combat in Context, by Nick Montfort, scroll about halfway down)
Tank at KLOV
Jet Fighter at KLOV
Digital Press Interview with Joe DeCuir
Atari History Museum Interview with Joe DeCuir
Steve Fulton article on the early history of Atari
Larry Wagner resume
Larry Wagner's Combat design notes
Larry Wagner's programming notes for the 9 launch titles
Thanks for listening!
A great start Ferg !
ReplyDeleteI'll be sure to contribute, at least with personal stories, when I see a game I know well.
I haven't looked at the Combat code but I can guess (as a programmer) why 2 minutes 16 seconds is the length of a match. Working backwards.
ReplyDelete2:16 = 136 seconds
136 seconds * 60 screen refreshes/second (for NTSC) = 8160 refreshes (or executions of the display code).
A programmer sees a number like 8160 and thinks "I bet that was actually 8192". What's special about 8192? Early programmers had to write in assembly language which means dealing directly with computer registers that store numbers as bits, bytes (8 bits), words (16 bits), etc. To make that easier we use hexadecimal, a base 16 numbering system instead of decimal which is base 10. For an explanation of hexadecimal, see Wikipedia.
8192 in hexadecimal is 2000 (or 10000000000000 in binary). That's a nice round numberto enter in assembly language when programming (and it fits nicely in a single register with a couple of bits left over for extra state information). Programmers like simple numbers in their code. They're easy to find and remember.
Yesterday I discovered this podcast and have listenend to first two episodes yesterday evening. I think it's a great idea. About a year ago I brought all my Atari boxes with consoles, computers, books, cassettes, floppies and cartridges back up into my apartment from the basement where it had spent the 10 years before. I'm looking forward to the upcoming episodes and will rediscover the 2600 games as they are presented in this podcast. But as I see, I don't even have the Star Ship cartridge in my collection. Was it ever sold in Germany?
ReplyDeleteYesterday I discovered this podcast and have listenend to first two episodes yesterday evening. I think it's a great idea. About a year ago I brought all my Atari boxes with consoles, computers, books, cassettes, floppies and cartridges back up into my apartment from the basement where it had spent the 10 years before. I'm looking forward to the upcoming episodes and will rediscover the 2600 games as they are presented in this podcast. But as I see, I don't even have the Star Ship cartridge in my collection. Was it ever sold in Germany?
ReplyDeleteThank you Hermann! It seems that Star Ship was released in the US, and also on Brazil and Argentina multi carts.
ReplyDelete