D K VCS Donkey Kong Remake for the 2600 AMAZING
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- Опубликовано: 12 ноя 2013
- If You are a child of the 80's who was raised on Atari 2600 then no one needs to tell You how amazing this is ! This demonstrates a labor of love for the classics that is rarely seen today. Hats off to Joe Musashi for this magnificent remake.
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Donkey Kong Atari 2600 Is Some Kind On Reason Look's Like Donkey Kong 3
i am amazed by the sound effects and music also! And all 4 levels! Not even the standard Colecovision or NES versions had all 4 levels!
Kudos to the coder(s). This re-defines "pushing the limits of the hardware". Unbelievable that this runs on a 2600.
Hey shmuck, this uses at ARM processor that has a hundred times the power of the 6502 series and could actually run multiple mame donkey kong instances simultaneously.
@@datacipherHey shmuck, this runs on standard Atari 2600 hardware. How about using google instead of making up false bullshit?
If you were working for Activision, you’d figure out how to make those ramps slanted.
forgive my ignorance but why aren't the ramps slanted? Does that require more processing/memory power?
No it’s just Atari’s VERY fat pixels
The ramps *were* slanted in the original 2600 version of Donkey Kong.
@@kdkseven But any semblance of physics was removed; Mario's jump was just a frame to the top, wait half a second, then go straight down next frame. They sacrificed a lot to make a barely playable version.
@@amylee9092 oh yeah, DK was definitely hobbled by the limitations of the 2600. All i was saying was that it actually *looked* like the original for the most part (specifically the ramps). For the 2600, that was impressive. Of course, everything else sucked-- the sound, the gameplay, only 2 levels.
I am floored by what I am seeing. Never in a million years, would I think the 2600 would play a version of Donkey Kong, this faithful to the arcade game. Bravo!
_Multicolor_ sprites? Smooth vertical scrolling? Holy crap! Bravo!
It would be an unforgivable sin for this not to get a cartridge release.
I currently own the only cartridge in existence :)
Yancade hand built games machines give me one. :P lol
After what happened between Nintendo and AtariAge over Princess Rescue, it's safe to assume that this will never be officially released on cartridge. The only way Nintendo would allow this to be released on cartridge and sold would be if they signed a deal with AtariAge and forced AtariAge to pay a hefty royalty fee on each cartridge sold.
And the only way Nintendo would allow Princess Rescue to see the light of day would be if they signed a royalty deal with AtariAge, forced AtariAge to pay a royalty fee for every copy sold, and turn over the "Princess Rescue" name/trademark over to Nintendo.
***** well i guess if they ere going to charge double for the initial purchase then that could be possible but that wont happen. Albert at atari Age will not contemplate any kind of official release of any previously released games its far too much trouble. there are plenty of people who can make you a cartridge if you want one or play this file on your harmony cartridge.
***** I'm sure even giving the cartridge away for free would get a cease & desist letter from Nintendo's legal department.
Face it. It will never be officially released by AtariAge.
We wished Atari had games this good back then. Well done
I didn't even think that graphics and sound like this were even remotely possible on an Atari 2600. I have to play this game!!!
It wasn't. However it was possible to add processing power in the cartridges which is what was done here to make this remake with more modern hardware.
Hey shmuck, this uses at ARM processor that has a hundred times the power of the 6502 series and could actually run multiple mame donkey kong instances simultaneously.
@@Livinghighandwise
heey wow are you serious, does this homebrew game just use the ARM chip instead to drive the tia chip to it’s max to allow such complex graphics,sounds and physics of the game to it’s max To become possible on the atari 2600??? Is the main atari cpu not used at all for other stuff ???
Wow!!! I can't believe how awesome these new programmers are. What an incredible accomplishment!
yea all it would have taken is a multi ghz multi core machine and a rom that would have cost as much as the retail price of the 2600 at launch...
Does this mean they shouldn’t try to push the machine to its limits?
@@osgeld so its not possible on actual hardware back then unless consumers wanted spend 100$ on a cartridge of donkey kong
It was technically possible back then. But modern home brewers have modern tools and are not time limited by deadlines. Plus they opted for 32k bank-switched ROM (the 6502 CPU variant used limited the address lines to 8k which limited non banked ROMs to 4k.
In short, this is what passion looks like.
@@avalond1193not even possible for 100 dollars lol!!! This unused an ARM processor that could technically run multiple mame donkey Kong games simultaneously!
0:55 sounds like a amiga sound effect
In theory if you turn this ROM into an audio file, it may also be possible to run it through a classic Starpath Supercharger. This attachment allowed the user to use expanded memory games by plugging in a cartridge like device into to the Atari 2600 and connect to a cassette recorder which the gamers were on. A portable CD, even an mp3 player can be used to deliver the file into the memory of the Supercharger. Also there are "ahem" 2600 SD carts you can simply download the files into and play on a classic 2600 console . This game is fantastic!!
The problem wasn't necessarily because the VCS was primitive yet difficult to program, it was because companies viewed the system as a cash cow, pressuring developers to code games in a rush hence why quality suffered and people were burned out by the market being saturated with sub-par releases.
I bet an intrepid programmer or two at AtariAge would be able to pull off a faithful Pac-Man recreation for the 2600, miles ahead of the original release.
blakegriplingph They already have. Heck PacMan 4k is amazing for what it did in just 4 kilobytes.
Part of the problem was that Atari often didn't want to shell out the money/time for a proper release. Ms. Pac-Man fixed a LOT of the problems with the original Pac-Man cartridge, and they did that by doubling the ROM (4K to 8K). Also, the Pac-Man cartridge was developed in a matter of weeks (I think six), whereas games like Yars' Revenge were programmed in five to six months. Nowadays, with ROM being so cheap, it's possible to load up cartridges with as much as is needed for storage of unique sprite designs and graphics, something that would have been prohibitively expensive back then.
SuperVpower They were basically carried away by their success and thus they wanted to make a quick buck out of every game they produce regardless of quality.
Look at RUclipsr Larry Bundy Jr’s latest video about games that were deliberately made terrible, which he has just uploaded; the original Atari 2600 original version was one of the games featured in his video...
Look up Hack em and Ms. Hack on Atariages website. They are Nukey Shay's version of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. I personally love these more than Pac-Man 4k and 8k.
Really impresive version. What many marvelous things could do this machine. It depends of programmers skills. Definetly.
And to think most people didn't know what the Atari 2600 was capable of!
Not even the original hardware designers!
It was limited to the 8k of rom carts provided at the time. This is 32k which in the early 80s was a pipe dream to the 2600.
32k was definitely possible. They just didn't consider it feasible. They may have pushed out 32k carts had they known the crash was coming though. Also imagine what it would've been like if they had a way of programming games in Basic like many homebrewers do today.
If you think this is impressive (which i do) there is also a donkey kong homebrew for the atari 7800 which looks and sounds identical to the arcade version! goes to show what these systems really could do.
Could’ve been done on the c64, but no, not the 2600 back in the day
I love the intro sequence. Especially the text on the title screen
Wait. This was on the ATARI? This looks magnificent, considering this was on the 2600.
Wow, very very impressive!
But one thing to note is that Atari 2600 games in the 80s were written using very clunky hardware/software solutions that hindered development. Nothing compared to assembler tools that are available now, running on computers that are thousands of times faster.
Of course I don't want to diminish the effort that went into this, modern tools made this possible, but it still required a lot of work I'm sure.
They also released the original on a scant 4k cart. I suspect this has a bit more headroom XD
Most likely :P
Just a touch. Or 1000.
As others said it's the memory. again not to diminish this fine work. 8 bit compilers are exactly the same since the 80s. Vcs programs had to fit in 4096 bytes. Anyone know the size of this ROM?
Paul P archive.org says 32K. That's roughly 32000 bytes.
I play this with my family regularly on our Atari 2600 (with the Harmony Encore), it's awesome and my favorite Atari 2600 game ever.
This my friends, is dedication and hard work paying off to create something truly amazing!
Looks amazing! Didn’t think the 2600 could do this!
To be honest, I was a little mixed viewing this the first time as it has its own share of concessions -- jumping is a bit off, fires can't climb ladders, no slopes, barrel behavior and Pauline missing from most maps.
That, and some comparable consoles had decent official ports.
Then I saw the abysmal original 2600 version. Yikes.
Yup, my thoughts exactly.
The fires not being able to climb up/down ladders makes this into a kids version.
@@djmips
It was an Atari vs game. "Kids" was THE consideration. Don't be a snob, that's even more childish.
I actually like the original 2600 port. It's archaic, but it controls well and is close to the original game for having a fifth of the original's ROM size.
@@reillywalker195 It's also missing half the levels and sound effects. I agree it has charm but it's a little too compromised in my opinion, as a lot of VCS games are.
Wow, this is nothing short of amazing! This is what I love about homebrew development...remakes of yesterday's classics for classic systems, using today's advanced tools. Kudos, this is perfect!
It works great for Atari 2600 standards. With extra ram in the cartridge (like tunnel runner) the flickering could be much less and more solid visuals. Way better than the one we got long ago by any rate.
This is just my gaming channel. Check out my trailers on my main channel (jtomally9681) and gaming channel.
Yes, this is an amazing feat. However, there's a reason why it's possible (besides amazing technical skills)- you're using 32K of space for your ROM cartridge. This would have been phenomenally expensive in the Atari 2600 days; many games never even got close to that; an average was 4K, with only the very late, late stage games like Double Dragon (which was released way past the 2600's lifespan in 1989) came close 16K.
A 32K game back then would have been prohibitively costly.
Wrong: Coleco were not doing proper ports for their rivals.
@@JesusJavier-MyAccount UGH....NO. I agree, Coleco's ports were often very sub-par - while Atari and Mattel seemed to do a pretty sincere job of porting most of the time. However, Donkey Kong was done by the great Gary Kitchen, and he did a great job with what he had. He had only 3 months to do the whole thing, and he had FOUR K. He begged Coleco for 8 but they wouldn't do it.
It would be an interesting challenge - Fit a playable 2600 Donkey Kong game into 4K. How much better could it honestly be? 32K in 1982 was like, more than most expensive home computers had. My parents bought me an Atari 400 computer with 16K in 1981 and it was $500.
So you might think: Big Deal. What's $500? $500 in 1981 is equivalent to $1488 dollars in 2020!
There's NO way a gaming company would put this on ROM back then. The cart would have cost more than the damned console! :O
@@Chordonblue don't confuse RAM and ROM. 32k of ROM wouldn't have been impossible. But you don't just put 32k of ROM on a VCS cartridge without some other expensive (then) tricks.
@@KC9UDX 32 KB of ROM did happen on the 2600, but not until 1989 when the system was nearing its discontinuation.
If this was available at THIS quality back then,it'd have sold by the bucketload.
Amazing effort for sure!
All that effort, yet Pauline's hat, purse, and umbrella bonuses have been overlooked. :(
Atari 2600 was my first console and i remember playing DK when it first came out for the system. Back then the version you got at home paled in comparison to the arcade, but i still loved it. To see this game running on 2600 hardware with such quality and to hear those nostalgic soundchips pumping out the trademark 2600 sound effects really takes me back. To be completely honest with you, if this game was released for the system i would wait in line for it. Who doesnt wanna re-live a great childhood memory? Really great video, man.
let me get this straight, the Atari 2600 VCS, is doing THIS?! this looks like an early NES game!!
Eeyup that's the Atari 2600. I played this on an emulator.
Eduardo Lupercio
yeah. There is an actual cart as well. I emulated it because I do not have a 2600. That & capturing 2600 video is a nightmare.
wow. why couldnt the official atari donkey kong look like this?
@@xj0462 As has been stated in the comments here elsewhere, the tools and experience were simply not available in 1982. Today, you have computers thousands of times faster - able to emulate the 2600 in real time, and the shared programming experiences of thousands of people across the Internet. Back then, there was one or two guys in a back room responsible for the artwork, sound, AND programming. And the process was slow and cumbersome involving paper tape, pure assembly programming, and using graph paper to chart out your characters. And all your code had to fit in 4K (8K at the most - but Coleco DK was 4K!) The DK above was created with 32K of space - unheard of in 1982 unless you had an expensive home computer. Again, you have to remember the times.
To be sure, Coleco didn't do a very terrific job, and Atari's ports to other platforms were often not that great either.
But to be fair, in order to do a good port to most of the platforms back then, it also required some experience on that particular platform. Considering the fact that video gaming consoles hadn't been around more than 5 years or so by that point, there were few people experienced enough to even KNOW what was possible. It's also very likely that expectations were low on the old Atari. At that point, the machine that was really only made for Pong-type games had been stretched to incredible levels. Honestly, as a kid, I NEVER thought I'd see Space Invaders, Missile Command, or Asteroids on my 2600 back then, and so, to see Donkey Kong AT ALL was an astonishment.
@@Chordonblue Coleco didn't make the game. They contracted it out to best programmer of 2600 games available, Gary Kitchen. Gary initially made the girders horizontal because it was easier, but then was pressured to make them slated like in the arcade. According to Kitchen he spent 90% of his time working to get the girders slanted, something this new game skipped.
Wow! Really creative and well done.
Amazing! They need to do this to DK Jr. As well :)
this easily could be mistaked for a 5200 game, it's impressive
Holy HECK! Fantastic programing feat!
I wish this would come out on the Flashback Atari system. Love the 2600!
It’s really, really hard to believe this is on the 2600! Amazing doesn’t even begin to describe this!
This is a technical marvel! Hat's off to whoever made this.
Awesome!! I wouldn't believe this is for Atari 2600. Incredible programmers.
Wow! Pretty impressive.
Couldn't add the download link to the video. It's in the description.
This would have been Heaven back in the day on the 2600!!!! ESPECIALLY since what we got was ABSOLUTELY awful!!!!
Hypothetically, would this cartridge have cost $300 if licensed and produced back in the early 80’s, given the tech of the times?
Amazing port! I wonder if that could be done on the Odyssey2
Impossible. The Odyssey 2 hasn't had the hardware for such awesomeness.
I really love this version of donkey kong. :) Superb!
According to Guru Larry, the Coleco Donkey Kong cartridge was made bad on purpose. They were trying to sell the Colecovision as well at the time. That was an incredible port. This shows, we could have had a great version even with the 2600 limits.
Unbelievable! I am stunned!
Much better than the original 2600 release, which was a mess.
This is amazing!
This looks like something form the atari 8 bit fammily
this is just awesome, damn, you deserve at least a beer!! (y)
And a Pizza Trophy.
There's only two problems with the sprite-flickering trick used here:
• Mario looks ghostly.
• Individual screenshots/stills are "incomplete" due to motion being required in order for the effect to work; DK specifically either looks like he's been stripped to the muscle or is being electrocuted, depending on the frame.
Other than that, though, it's really impressive.
Interesting - so you would need special tricks to take a good screenshot - grab multiple frames and overlay them...
@@stephenmontague6930 Yeah, I've done that in the past. But at least it's simple, just set the top layer at 50% opacity.
The thing that Gary Kitchen spent 90% of his time working on was creating slanted girders like the arcade. This version skips it entirely.
The only problem is that this remake is contained in a 32k ROM, whereas Atari games back in the 1970s and 80s were mostly used a paltry 4k ROM. Some games used an 8k ROM, but that was about as good as it got. Seeing this level of fidelity from an Atari game is stellar even by modern standards.
Hey shmuck, this uses at ARM processor that has a hundred times the power of the 6502 series and could actually run multiple mame donkey kong instances simultaneously.
@@datacipher Thank you for your WONDERFUL insight, captain obvious. I NEVER would have guessed that! 🙄
@@fredricgreenblott4169 that’s right, you didn’t. “The only problem is” - LOL.
And even now you admit you’re just guessing. So not only are you ignorant, your little tantrum shows you’re a little man inside well Lol.
All you had to do was say: oh wow, I didn’t know that. But your little ego couldn’t handle it. 😂😂😂😂😂. Poor little guy.
Though I was very young I remember that in the late '80s was always very disappointing to see the great gap between the arcade machines and their atari 2600 versions. It would have been simply wonderful if this version of "donkey kong" was available at that time. But I suspect that it would be virtually impossible to have scheduled this game back then, as he takes to the limit graphics capability and processing power of the Atari 2600, and probably this fact can be obtained only through the resources available nowadays as the emulation via software and all these software and hardware tools available, wonderful job only regret that time there have been no games with this quality.
Seeing this MAGIC homebrew, I personally believe that companies such as Coleco intentionally "dumbed down" the graphics and gameplay so that the Intellevision and Colecovision graphics and gameplay still looked better, and more people would want to buy those systems (particularly Colecovision), being that they looked more "arcade authentic." It always comes down to money and sales! :-O
Jacques Jenseen : You're probably right in yours explanations but beyond that really it is extremely difficult the game programming on the Atari VCS 2600 ! The difficulty is in the fact that VCS has no framebuffer (in opposite as coleco and itellevision ) then each line of the image has to be informed whenever the beam of electrons TV reaches the end of each line , imagine the difficulty of programming a video game this way !!
this is why this developer held a small miracle in this version of Donkey Kong !
I believe you! This is probably why the programmers had such difficulty developing "Stella," one of the original VCS emulators for the PC and Mac.
And speaking of frame buffering, my original computer, the "Apple ][e," always had a problem with animation, in large part due to the fact that it could only utilize two high-res graphics pages at once. A lot of the animation for games and such relied on shape tables as a result, used for the individual character graphics and the like. Based on your description, I assume that the VCS had similar problems and then some!
However, as with this homebrew, within the last couple of years some programmer (also posted on RUclips) was able to figure out how to create .gif files from video feed running through the Apple ][e and create basic animation on not just system, but also its predecessor, the "Apple ][+ !" And likewise, it's able to run without the need of additional hardware / other equipment, just off a 5 1/4" floppy disk! Incredible what some minds are coming up with these days. :-)
BTW, if you don't mind my asking, how'd you get into playing and learning about the 2600? Girls weren't ALLOWED to play video games back then! Kidding, kidding... :-P
Are you sure about that?
I'm pretty sure the VCS didn't have "display lists" - the graphics processor was rather primitive (most of the display processing had to be done by the 6502, on a scanline-per-scanline basis).
I guess you're really thinking of the Atari home computers (400/800), with their much more sophisticated ANTIC graphics controller chip, right?
This wouldn't be possible as it would be very buggy and it would have taken months to program anyways.
Excellent!
This looks incredible for an Atari 2600 as much as I love the simple graphics of the late 70s early 80s Atari games I love the fact that people are taking Atari games and pushing their limits
As a Donkey Kong fan and one who grew up obsessed with my Atari 2600, I've been playing this almost every day since I discovered it a month ago. It's addictive, a lot of fun, and quite challenging (especially the rivets level - the foxfires are hard to jump over, or avoid). It doesn't play exactly like the original arcade version but it's damn close enough. The vertical scrolling effect actually adds to the game play, enhancing the challenge
I love everything about this
Just fantastic! Gotta get it.
I would have love this back then 1982
The sound: 7/10
The visuals: 6/10
The controling: 8/10
BEST PORT EVER
I didn't believe a friend who shared this video. I need to try this game out, holy shit.
+Trevgauntlet If you think that is insane.. check this out ! & please note the sound !! Mind blowing this is on a 2600 !!
atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/
Gaming History Source Someone mentioned a harmony cart. I've never heard of one until recently, I need to get on that so I can stop buying unreleased or rare Atari games for ridiculous prices.
that's impressive for a 2600,i never knew it could do sprites that small
Is this actually available for purchase??? Where can I get a copy!! This game.looks amazing for the 2600 and alot of fun!!
This shows what the system could've done if they'd only put in the effort instead of just cranking out games as fast as possible with little to no quality control.
+CasViewer well.. truthfully. This version is 32 kb in size witch would have been huge back then & costed a small fortune to produce & buy. The original version was 4 kb if I'm not mistaken.
+Gaming History Source True. But, they still could've done a better job than what they did. They made much better games later. It's also nice to dream of what could've been.
+CasViewer 100 % agreed. The mentality of the executives was that a game, any game could be developed & ready for marketing in 6 to 12 weeks. But it is most certainly eye opening to see what the 2600 could do when properly utilized.
+CasViewer Not within the limitations of a 1 or 2K ROM chip they couldn't. I don't think 32K ROMS even existed back then or if they did, they would have been so expensive that this game would have cost hundreds of dollars at retail and nobody would buy it.
+Joe Snow Thanks.
Wow, even has the pie factory... if only we'd had good programmers like this back then.
We had good programmers back then. The difference is that the economic realities are different. This is a (then massive) 32 KB cartridge that probably would have resulted in a $200+ SRP back in the day. It's also a labour of love where the programmer had the time he wanted to work on it, not a strict dev deadline. In addition, modern tools were likely used in its creation that weren't available in 1981.
Part of the problem was that the 2600 port was done by Coleco, who were probably more interested in selling Colecovisions than making good 2600 ports. ;)
Well, that and it was a totally unlicensed port that landed them in court with Nintendo.
Thom Wetzel That was a common misconception we all had at the time. It was in the programmer Todd Fry's best interest to make the best game possible, though, since he received royalties on each copy sold. He actually spent a lot of time on the original 2600 DK. The angled platforms on the first level of the original 2600 version were actually a big technical achievement that even this modern marvel doesnt have.
Marco Brunello Super interesting! Thanks. :)
0:01 OMG the logo animation is sick
WOW. Very good graphics considering the hardware. And sprites containing multiple colors on the same horizontal line of pixels, no more of that “color bleed” effect.
Anyone else notice when DK falls on the blue screen, it sounds just like a dragon getting killed in Adventure? Nice!
I always thought the VCS was capable of better things back then.
Most of the games we got were utter sh*te.
AT THE TIME - they were the best anyone was offering. Not to shock you BUT the newer the computer, usually the better the graphics. Just compare the 2600 to the Atari 800 that came out just a few years later with graphics and sound that blew the 2600 away.
this is great and made me wish to make a new DK version for my Zx spectrum..here it is:
DONKEY KONG RELOADED AGAIN-Zx Spectrum 2014
The 3rd level is not balanced because players can skip through the vertical moving platforms and the ladder to the end is near the edge
An AMAZING achievement! I'll bet the original Atari guys would shit their collective pants if they saw this.
Hey shmuck, this uses at ARM processor that has a hundred times the power of the 6502 series and could actually run multiple mame donkey kong instances simultaneously.
@@datacipherWas "shmuck" really necessary? Nowhere is that tidbit mentioned that I could find, either in the video description or on the Atari Age link. What is your source?
@@JustWasted3HoursHere unbelievable… you ask me for a source, but complain i called you a schmuck? You had 5 years to figure this out. It’s not my fault that they don’t like to mention that fact. Do you know how 2600 dpc (and variations) are done?
It was harsh but don’t you think a guy who’s had 5 years to figure out that a modern cpu is used in the cartridge or who blindly believes that a 2600 did this on its own, just might be - being nice - a shmuck?
@@datacipherWow, imagine that. I ask you to prove something that you claim is true when there is zero evidence on this page or its links and you take offense at it? You think I've been researching this for five years? Here's how time works. Pay attention: I came across this video five years ago and commented. Wow. Was that too deep for you? Do I need to break it down into even simpler third grade level words so you can wrap your brain around it? Go ask mommy. Maybe she can explain it to you. *NOWHERE* does it say that this game requires a cartridge with an ARM processor. And if it is common knowledge then you should have no trouble PROVIDING A LINK to such evidence. I don't doubt that such games exist, but there is no evidence that _THIS_ game is such a program.
Whoa this as a home brew ! If Atari saw this they'd be amazed
I literally can not believe it
Really cool!😆
Now We Need a Dk jr Remake..
agreed. & maybe even Mario Bros.
That's amazing.
Amazing! Is it actually possible to play this on the original hardware, given that apparently only Yancade is the only person to have a cartridge?
Look great, and superior the original
Even it's almost like the colecovision version!
Impressive how talent and more ram can make a world of difference.
This is on a 2600? WOW! I remember the stand up arcade version and the old 2600 version, which I did enjoy by the way. But this remake ROCKS!
THIS is for Atari 2600?!
Wow...
mario's transparency was a great idea. is that by design or hardware limitation?
Cartridge available anywhere ?
Amazing they could pull this off on 2600 hardware!!!
Very impressive
This is absolutely amezing since the atari 2600 has NO framebuffer and it could only view 4 colors atonce and it only has 128 bytes of ram and 4KB rom, even worse , they had to do every picture manualy and they had to know how ntsc works,so eventrough the official version looks like nothing, but programming for it was sooo hard and primitive.
Actually, it can display 4 colours per scan line. I'm not sure how many scan lines there are, but most games I have checked have no more than 16 colours at once.
It actually had 128 _bytes_ of RAM, which even had to keep some space free for CPU stack.
+Noah Covert And the fun fact is that the master palette to choose these colours from is way bigger than that of the NES.
The NES has 2kb of on-board RAM memory. (You can get even more RAM with a modified cartidge.)
Atari with 4kb of RAM? I wish.
The 6507 in the 2600 had no external interrupt pin (I'm trying to remember if even SWI worked ... can't recall offhand :-).
There was no "formal" display list (I'm sure they existed in the more complex game software that was released later, but there wasn't any hardware for a display list in the 2600).
Software had to determine the scanline they were on and update the playfield, missile, ball, and player registers accordingly.
VSYNC and HSYNC were sync'ed to the processor by setting a latch in the graphics chip (TIA) and waiting.
You typically designed for 240 active scanlines per frame @ 60FPS, though I've seen some games overscan a bit (you risked screwing with TVs at the time if you overscanned).
I think you are confusing the 2600's graphics chip (TIA) / hardware with the chips that were in the Atari 400/800 and 5200 (GTIA and ANTIC). In that case, you are 100% correct :-). The 2600's graphics, however, were driven purely by the CPU with ridiculously little hardware assist.
Impressive. The guy who did the original one said the only reason he did 2 levels was because they wouldn't give him more than a 4k ROM and he didn't have the time to do it the right way.... But this version is excellent here.... especially for the 2600.
Now this just shows the people who made the original were lazy as i thought this couldn't be done as the 2600 wont handle it
I wish all of the arcade ports on the Atari 2600 should be remastered, especially if they all look as great as this!
Agreed ! I would love to see a remastered DK jr., Yar's Revenge, Jungle Hunt, & Centipede. Just to name a few.
Was this using the supercharger or running on 2600 hardware by it itself? If this is running on "un-aided" 2600 hardware that's incredible!
Done without the Superchager or even the Melody Board used in Space Rocks. (The Melody Board has a 70 MHz ARM processor, a DPC+ chip, and 8 KB RAM which increase the graphics and sound capabilities and allows for bigger content such as larger levels and more levels.)
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
i wonder why when i play the game, only two levels appear, but in this video, theres all 4
Wow love this! Would love to see it on a cart in box!!! Yeah memory back then was not cheap! Just think the 2600 was a $200 system back then. Now you can probably put all the programs ever made for the 2600 then on a 1 GB flash drive and still have space left over. Now you can download android games bigger than all the 2600 games together to your phone. Memory has become cheap and you can get plenty of it.
Where is the video of how this was achieved? Incredible …
WHY COULDNT ATARI DO THIS BACK IN THE DAY??????
Mostly likely because it would cost more and their technology was limited such as the PCs they used to program these games.
Developing games with the Software and Hardware of the time was hard. Nowadays we can debug, test, develop, program, reprogram, have backups...
Because Coleco were not doing proper development for their rival consoles.
Atari 2600 & ImtelliVision's DK wasn't even made by Atari, but Coleco.
@Master Farr Sad but true. Yet, I'm not all that impressed with the controls for the CV version of DK either. So as far as I'm concerned Coleco screwed up all 3 versions. The best "old school" version was for the Atari 800 computer line. Hard but fun (and includes the pie level).
How is this even possible?!?!
Wow!! I will need this to be made into a cart and mailed to my home to believe it.
Will this ROM work on a Harmony cartridge?
Yes. It was made into a physical cartridge at one time & did work on the original hardware. It looks even better on a CRT.
Ace!