That is incredible for a game programmed on the 2600! Imagine if this had come out back then. Would have been a hit! Great to see a port come out like this!
Amazing, dont think I have ever seen such a smooth, clean looking and complete game like this on the 2600, as much as I love the old original catalogue
This is absolutely amazing for a 2600 game, hard to believe it is running on the system. Have to look out for a physical release when it is ready for sure.
I was maybe 4 when i walked by my brothers room at night and was stopped in my tracks by the flashing lights emanating from the crack in his door, peeking inside i saw him and his friend playing this beauty! It was the first game i ever laid eyes on. The rest as they say, is history!
Willie, could you imagine if this port was available back then in the '80s? Incredible how Atari could have had even much more success with these current versions of arcade classics. Even more, the customers would have gone bananas for these and Lord only knows how much further Atari's success could have gone with them. That would have been amazing. Thank you so much for this review. I'm so much in awe with this game.
wow, thats amazing, who knew the Atari 2600 was capable of doing this well (the sounds and the graphics), i'd love to see some more arcade games get ported to the 2600 with this level of quality.
I love the way John is able to beat VCS into submission! Awesome port! I can't hardly believe it came out this well on the old VCS! Yes, as kids we woulda lost or skull seeing games this good. Largely possible cuz Atari cheaped it up bigtime with hardware and put nearly all of the onus on the programmers. But hey, that flexibility makes games like this possible! Great job, John!
Dont agree, time has allowed people to improve on programming techniques and have put updated hardware in the carts to get the 2600 to do more that it was not able to back then.
That may be true but look at 8k pacman (not done by john). That one was done using only the organic powers of the vcs with no aid from any updated chips. Same thing with Princess Rescue. Problem was back in the day Atari gave programmers very little time and storage capacity (usually only 4k then later 8k and above with bank switching). That was why a lot of games like pacman came out looking like crap. Point is the VCS IS capable of more with time and the right programmer. And I certainly don’t mind the newer games with ARM processors to help the puny 6507 processor along. Even David Crane used it in Pitfall II. A chip that he designed himself.
This is better than 'pretty good'... This is AMAZING on this platform. It's crazy how much power these old school systems have, when you know how to bring it out.
I suppose this is an even more abstruse goal than making new Atari 2600 games in 2019 in the first place, but: I wonder how much would have to be cut out to make this a more physically period-realistic release--like the many 8k or 16k cartridges that came out in the post-crash era, say. Could most of the gameplay be kept in if they ditched the elaborate attract mode, for instance? Would they have to sacrifice movement patterns for some of the stages?
@@MattMcIrvin I don't think it could be pulled off at all on stock hardware regardless of ROM size, that's the least of the worries here... you need more RAM and processing assistance.
This thing plays so well, I think it rivals the NES port, which itself is a great port. Obviously the graphics can't be as arcade-accurate but they are fantastic-looking in any event--they have an appeal all their own. I guess the main thing they sacrificed in the gameplay is that when the bugs are in formation, the pattern only "breathes" vertically rather than horizontally. But the motion is smoother than on the NES. It is actually better-looking overall than the commercial 7800 version.
At this time there are three thumbs down. I don't think those thumbs understand how amazing this work actually is. They must save their thumbs up for their arse.
This is stunning. Does anyone know if they are releasing a physical cart? I'm definitely buying the Wizard of Wor Arcade cartridge when it is finally released this year!
That is pretty amazing! Whats the trickery used? Stock 2600 only have two sprites so clearly something I dont understand here. Is the motion trail also in the game or an artifact of how it rendered in an emulator?
Two players, two missiles, and a ball are available for use, so five altogether. You can also have more on screen by alternating between them during screen refreshes, which is why Pac-Man ghosts flicker so badly. There is actually only one ghost on screen at a time.
@@_Thrackerzod , yep I have been dabbling a bit with 2600 programming so I know the severe limitations of "racing the beam". But I also saw now that this video is using some sort of motion trail playback to remove that flickering, so its not really representative of how it looks. Still it looks like a very good port of the game.
Hello there! There is a trick that we're using (that was first using in Atari's Galaxian back in 1983) that allows you to display all 40 enemies in formation using just one sprite with NO flicker by altering the sprite location and sprite copies while they are being drawn on a scanline. This frees up the other sprite to draw the enemies in flight. We also use vertical separation and sprite re-use to draw multiple copies of enemies in flight without flicker and your ship. The enemy and ship missiles are drawn using the two missile sprites, and the stars are drawn using the ball sprite.
@@64jcl hello there! Yes, it looks like ArcadeUSA is using the phosphor effect of Stella which is meant to simulate the phosphor effect of a real CRT. Actually, the game looks much BETTER and less flicker on a real CRT than what is represented in this video as it looks like the frame rate is 30hz for the recording and on a real system it's 60 fps. You can tell especially with the text like "PLAYER 1", "READY", etc. where 1/2 the text is much brighter than the other half. On a real system it looks much more consistent with very little flicker. Hope that helps! :)
@solitarionotturno That is correct, well almost. In my kernel all 40 enemies in formation are drawn with GRP1 with no flicker; enemies in flight are drawn with GRP0. :)
The forum message linked in the description has the ROM images (and also points you to the Stella website to download the latest version of the emulator, which apparently is necessary to support the bank-switching scheme--this is a 32k cartridge, only one of which ever shipped back in the old days). I've tried it out and it works. Sounds like it's not available as a physical cartridge yet.
The fact that you need the very latest Stella says to me that they're really pushing the limits here, I guess with the bank-switching scheme. I wonder if they'll have any trouble putting out a physical cartridge.
@@MattMcIrvin Hi Matt! The reason Galaga needs the latest version of Stella is because it uses the CDFJ driver which is a minor extension to the CDF driver used for Draconian, Mappy and Super Cobra Arcade. Technically speaking, Mappy is the most complicated game I've written but Galaga is a close second. :) There will be no issues releasing Galaga on a regular cartridge as it runs on a standard Harmony (or Encore) and the CDFJ driver itself is part of the code (not the hardware). We're looking at a release in the fall of 2019. Stay tuned!
Skills. Many skills. One advantage it does have over nearly all of the 2600 games released back in the day is that it's a 32k ROM, which was almost unheard of (Fatal Run was the only one released commercially). The original carts started out at just 2k in the late 70s, eventually went up to 16k in wide use. To give you some idea: Combat, Breakout and Video Olympics/Pong Sports were 2k carts; Space Invaders, Missile Command, River Raid and Pitfall were 4k; Asteroids, Battlezone and Galaxian were 8k; Solaris and Xenophobe were 16k. So there were some great games in the smaller sizes, but you can see the graphical sophistication and sometimes the complexity increase as the cart sizes get bigger.
That is incredible for a game programmed on the 2600! Imagine if this had come out back then. Would have been a hit! Great to see a port come out like this!
I'm sure the Video Game Critic would give this piece of classic gaming jewelry an A+ in his website!
It couldn't have. It relies on an ARM processor to do more sprite multiplexing than you could do on the 6507.
Amazing, dont think I have ever seen such a smooth, clean looking and complete game like this on the 2600, as much as I love the old original catalogue
I can't believe what in God's name I saw! This bastard is sure to bring the Bally/Midway arcade cabinet experience home!
Seeing someone go to town on Galaga... awesome! Fond memories of a great game. Thanks for sharing that.
Finally! I've only been waiting for this one for almost half a lifetime! Best space shooter ever.
This is shaping up to be a terrific release later this year by Champ Games!
Yes ...need this cartridge to add to my collection. It just goes to show Atari 2600 was capable of so much more.
This is absolutely amazing for a 2600 game, hard to believe it is running on the system. Have to look out for a physical release when it is ready for sure.
I was maybe 4 when i walked by my brothers room at night and was stopped in my tracks by the flashing lights emanating from the crack in his door, peeking inside i saw him and his friend playing this beauty! It was the first game i ever laid eyes on.
The rest as they say, is history!
Willie, could you imagine if this port was available back then in the '80s? Incredible how Atari could have had even much more success with these current versions of arcade classics. Even more, the customers would have gone bananas for these and Lord only knows how much further Atari's success could have gone with them. That would have been amazing. Thank you so much for this review. I'm so much in awe with this game.
If games was this good back then it would've probably save their @$$ from the game crash of 1983.
That's awesome. It'd be nice to see a cartridge release of this.
wow, thats amazing, who knew the Atari 2600 was capable of doing this well (the sounds and the graphics), i'd love to see some more arcade games get ported to the 2600 with this level of quality.
What kind of sorcery is this?!?! if this had of come out back in the day...
IKR??!! I was STUNNED when I first saw this the other day! Whoever programmed this and worked around the 2600 limitations is a freaking genius!
I love the way John is able to beat VCS into submission! Awesome port! I can't hardly believe it came out this well on the old VCS! Yes, as kids we woulda lost or skull seeing games this good. Largely possible cuz Atari cheaped it up bigtime with hardware and put nearly all of the onus on the programmers. But hey, that flexibility makes games like this possible! Great job, John!
Dont agree, time has allowed people to improve on programming techniques and have put updated hardware in the carts to get the 2600 to do more that it was not able to back then.
That may be true but look at 8k pacman (not done by john). That one was done using only the organic powers of the vcs with no aid from any updated chips. Same thing with Princess Rescue. Problem was back in the day Atari gave programmers very little time and storage capacity (usually only 4k then later 8k and above with bank switching). That was why a lot of games like pacman came out looking like crap. Point is the VCS IS capable of more with time and the right programmer. And I certainly don’t mind the newer games with ARM processors to help the puny 6507 processor along. Even David Crane used it in Pitfall II. A chip that he designed himself.
This looks AMAZING!!!!!! Going to DL it right now!!!!!
Holy cow, this is amazing.
Man, oh, man! I have never seen an Atari 2600 game with THIS much polish!
This is better than 'pretty good'... This is AMAZING on this platform. It's crazy how much power these old school systems have, when you know how to bring it out.
It is incredible!
Wow! Nice job on that one.
I think this may look better than my 7800 version. Champ needs to make games for 7800.
I Want it on my 800xl !!!!!!! Amazing !!!!!!
Ninja golf 2
Goosh I remember back in the day when this first came out. I would play this for hours. Might get this game.
Well, it's amazing what can be done on the 'ol 2600 with additional hardware and memory, as the case here.
I suppose this is an even more abstruse goal than making new Atari 2600 games in 2019 in the first place, but: I wonder how much would have to be cut out to make this a more physically period-realistic release--like the many 8k or 16k cartridges that came out in the post-crash era, say. Could most of the gameplay be kept in if they ditched the elaborate attract mode, for instance? Would they have to sacrifice movement patterns for some of the stages?
@@MattMcIrvin I don't think it could be pulled off at all on stock hardware regardless of ROM size, that's the least of the worries here... you need more RAM and processing assistance.
@@richwalter5322 So how are they releasing these on cartridges playable on a 2600? They're packing the cart with additional RAM & processor?
This thing plays so well, I think it rivals the NES port, which itself is a great port. Obviously the graphics can't be as arcade-accurate but they are fantastic-looking in any event--they have an appeal all their own. I guess the main thing they sacrificed in the gameplay is that when the bugs are in formation, the pattern only "breathes" vertically rather than horizontally. But the motion is smoother than on the NES. It is actually better-looking overall than the commercial 7800 version.
this game is so GREAT --- i'm not even disappointed by the one color 'dive bombing' bugs
It could remind you what port of the game you're playing, to say the least.
Looks great and smooth too
This is a masterpiece!
Nicely played, and nice port.
Back then they would've Probaly added chips to the cartridge to get it to look this good. Technology wasn't what it is now.
Very impressed.
Incredible!
At this time there are three thumbs down. I don't think those thumbs understand how amazing this work actually is. They must save their thumbs up for their arse.
the thumbs down are probably trolls that have not other way to express themselves :P
Amazing if Atari had put out games that looked that good back in the day the video game market might not have crashed.
They did not have the technology back then as now, these newer games use arm processors and such in the carts :P
This runs on a STOCK 2600?!? WOW I had no idea the hardware could even do graphics that good!
If the 2600 can pull this off, surely the Atari 8-bit computers can. WANT!
Damn look at all sprites
This is stunning. Does anyone know if they are releasing a physical cart? I'm definitely buying the Wizard of Wor Arcade cartridge when it is finally released this year!
That is pretty amazing! Whats the trickery used? Stock 2600 only have two sprites so clearly something I dont understand here. Is the motion trail also in the game or an artifact of how it rendered in an emulator?
Two players, two missiles, and a ball are available for use, so five altogether. You can also have more on screen by alternating between them during screen refreshes, which is why Pac-Man ghosts flicker so badly. There is actually only one ghost on screen at a time.
@@_Thrackerzod , yep I have been dabbling a bit with 2600 programming so I know the severe limitations of "racing the beam". But I also saw now that this video is using some sort of motion trail playback to remove that flickering, so its not really representative of how it looks. Still it looks like a very good port of the game.
Hello there! There is a trick that we're using (that was first using in Atari's Galaxian back in 1983) that allows you to display all 40 enemies in formation using just one sprite with NO flicker by altering the sprite location and sprite copies while they are being drawn on a scanline. This frees up the other sprite to draw the enemies in flight. We also use vertical separation and sprite re-use to draw multiple copies of enemies in flight without flicker and your ship. The enemy and ship missiles are drawn using the two missile sprites, and the stars are drawn using the ball sprite.
@@64jcl hello there! Yes, it looks like ArcadeUSA is using the phosphor effect of Stella which is meant to simulate the phosphor effect of a real CRT. Actually, the game looks much BETTER and less flicker on a real CRT than what is represented in this video as it looks like the frame rate is 30hz for the recording and on a real system it's 60 fps. You can tell especially with the text like "PLAYER 1", "READY", etc. where 1/2 the text is much brighter than the other half. On a real system it looks much more consistent with very little flicker. Hope that helps! :)
@solitarionotturno That is correct, well almost. In my kernel all 40 enemies in formation are drawn with GRP1 with no flicker; enemies in flight are drawn with GRP0. :)
This might have saved them from the big videogame crash of 1983 if they had games that looked this good.
Ooohhh, this I need!
This was my favourite arcade game.. why can the 8-bit computers not get this right?? THIS ONE HERE LOOKS FANTASTIC!!!!
Fantastic
Does it have the original "run out of bullets" trick?
I played a bit of it and it's good so far.
Great!!
All these spaceships, bullets and stars on the same scanlines seem impossible. They even fly behind the score. Wtf!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So perfect, and beautiful for the Atari 2600. I must have this game. Where do I get it ?
The forum message linked in the description has the ROM images (and also points you to the Stella website to download the latest version of the emulator, which apparently is necessary to support the bank-switching scheme--this is a 32k cartridge, only one of which ever shipped back in the old days). I've tried it out and it works.
Sounds like it's not available as a physical cartridge yet.
Wow... just wow.
If games looked this good back then it would've saved Atari's @$$ from the big game crash of 1983.
Honestly there MUST be something. The machine couldn't do that...
Take my money NOW
Does not work with the UNO cart on real hardware :(
thats a bummer :( works fine on my Harmony Encore :)
I use the UNO cart on my Intellivision 2 and system changer. It's my favorite way to play 2600 games
The fact that you need the very latest Stella says to me that they're really pushing the limits here, I guess with the bank-switching scheme. I wonder if they'll have any trouble putting out a physical cartridge.
@@MattMcIrvin Hi Matt! The reason Galaga needs the latest version of Stella is because it uses the CDFJ driver which is a minor extension to the CDF driver used for Draconian, Mappy and Super Cobra Arcade. Technically speaking, Mappy is the most complicated game I've written but Galaga is a close second. :) There will be no issues releasing Galaga on a regular cartridge as it runs on a standard Harmony (or Encore) and the CDFJ driver itself is part of the code (not the hardware). We're looking at a release in the fall of 2019. Stay tuned!
Anyone know how they managed this?
Skills. Many skills.
One advantage it does have over nearly all of the 2600 games released back in the day is that it's a 32k ROM, which was almost unheard of (Fatal Run was the only one released commercially). The original carts started out at just 2k in the late 70s, eventually went up to 16k in wide use.
To give you some idea: Combat, Breakout and Video Olympics/Pong Sports were 2k carts; Space Invaders, Missile Command, River Raid and Pitfall were 4k; Asteroids, Battlezone and Galaxian were 8k; Solaris and Xenophobe were 16k. So there were some great games in the smaller sizes, but you can see the graphical sophistication and sometimes the complexity increase as the cart sizes get bigger.
@@MattMcIrvin had a feeling it was in part down to a much larger rom in the cart, thanks for explaining
Wow 🙏👍👍👍👍👋👋👋👋👋