Super Mario Bros Atari 2600 - James & Mike Mondays
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.พ. 2018
- James and Mike play Super Mario Bros Atari 2600 aka" princess rescue" See Mike's live stream of this game • Super Mario Bros - Ata... #retro #retrogaming #nes #snes #jamesrolfe #mikematei #atari #playthrough #gameplay #gamereview
- เกม
I live streamed Super Mario Bros (Princess Rescue) for Atari 2600. Found out more about the 2600 button limitations and how to use the fireball with original controller. See the live stream here
th-cam.com/video/ke4FGRaYEgg/w-d-xo.html
The entire time I just kept imagining how this would have blown all of us away back in '82.
Avgn please
Mike, have you ever played one of the best co-op NES games - Monster in My Pocket?
Melted spoonz - But faith is awesome.
Cinemassacre I hope that one day James Rolfe reviews dash galaxy on the nes on avgn. That game is one of the worst in video game history.
If I had to hazard a guess, the name "Princess Rescue" is a throwback to when there weren't established brands for games yet, and so the titles for Atari games were sometimes super generic.
Makes me wonder what sonic would be called if they made that on atari
@@tyminator8176 Animal Rescue
@@tyminator8176 Zippy the Porcupine. It exists.
@@tyminator8176hedgehog game
Playing Mario, on Atari, with a Sega controller.
What a time to be alive
Brainhorn I used to play with a master system controller on the ZX spectrum it caused some strange glitches in games like the characters flying
You could do that with the regular mario bros too...
Texas Rangers
This isn't Regular Mario Bros, so what I said is new
Stop repeating the same mainstream comment...
I don't believe you know what "mainstream" means
In this episode, James has questions. Mike has no answers.
Most of the time he has no answer,then change the topic
Should of gone to Radio Shack: "you have questions, we have answers". A shame they are all gone now.
"Pitfall"
Your comment refuted. Sit down, son.
freshpajamas then whats the point of having a two person show..if one ask,the other supposed to answer or crack a joke
But Mike was stumped as James it happens.
You can program up to 12 output button signals on the Atari. Regardless of the fact that the Atari had only on button. They made it like this due to the likelihood that the Atari 2600 would get other controllers with more buttons in the future.
The best prediction of early video-gaming era :)
Atari did have the Keyboard Controller for a BASIC cart. I used it on Codebreaker. It was 12 buttons.
There you go.
Beerdy - Bruce Lee Central Maybe there was Trackball controller for the 2600. Those normally had lots of buttons.
They had some great controller ideas.. but most only had one game to go with it :-)
You know how odd this really is?
A *NINTENDO* game on an *ATARI* system that has to be played with a *SEGA* controller.
3 in 1
Interconsoliary coop, or The United Federation of Consoles.
I hope his TV is a Sony and he captured the video on Microsoft Windows
+Orange harrison
That doesn't really fit here, but I see what you were trying to do.
It´s a retro nintendo game. It´s a retro atari sega game. It´s a retro... videooo... game...
Princess Rescue sounds more like an Atari title, though, methinks, James. I mean it's reminiscent of like the two word titles like Missile Command. Space Invaders, ect.
I find odd that James didn't get it.
Overall "Princess Rescue" just sounds way better on Atari than "Super Mario Brothers, the Atari version" lol. I think "Princess Rescue" is actually a really genius title for an Atari version of SMB.
I believe I had heard somewhere that Nintendo wasn't happy about the guy making a Super Mario game on the 2600. They had no issue with "Princess Rescue," however.
Its also possible that Chris Spry (aka the creator of this game) was trying to avoid attention from Nintendo. Didn't seem to work though.
How is it not a port of SMB? I would say that it is just as recognizable, if not more recognizable, than the infamous Atari 2600 port of Pac Man is. This is pretty true to the NES version, given the hardware limitations of the 2600.
The Atari 2600 version of Star Raiders came with a 12 button numeric keypad and the game used 5 of those during play, so thats probably the answer to the more than 1 button question.
I always wondered why I could never figure out how to play that game. I wonder why my grandparents didn't have the keypad for it.
So it was kind of like the Atari 5200 controllers?
Nathen Hutchison Yeah. It was a separate piece from the controller with its own port plug. Star Raiders on the 5200 made use of all 12 buttons on the controllers keypad. I liked that game a lot as a kid. It felt very advanced for that time
Wasn't the 7200 controller usable on the 2600?
It is, the 2600 Jr and the 7800 shipped with the same gamepads in some regions.
In regards to the extra button being usable, there are the keypads that were used with Atari Basic and a few other games.
Good point. That solve whole issue.
Also some games required 2 controllers even for 1 player games, perhaps button on 2nd controller shoots.
Yep, there were several official peripherals with more than just the output signals from the regular controller. I assume the Genesis controller works likewise.
Childrens television series of games had a 9 button controller for their atari games
I meant 12, like a keypad
Playing Mario on an Atari with a SEGA Genesis controller.... What a time to be alive.
...nd with strange aeons even death may die
I'm surprised they didn't think of trying out two Atari controllers plugged in to see if the second controller can use the fireball. At least that was my best guess knowing that one Atari Indiana Jones game.
Really seems like the most logical answer.. wasnt this used in a few games?
In Defender 2 it was used for the Bombs.
I thought the same. But I also thought that Mike's two button controller could be for games like indiana jones /raiders of the lost ark. hmmm
Yeah. That is what I was going to suggest, but you beat me to it.
I don't think that it would work, the Atari 2600 controller pin out has 4 pins for the joystick (one for each direction) 1 for the trigger button, and 2 for the paddles (and a couple more for ground and that kind of stuff), when connecting a genesis controller on an Atari 2600, the C button is wired to the trigger button (IIRC), while B and A are wired to the paddles, the thing is, the Atari CAN use the paddles pins as digital inputs.
Imagine if this was released back in the day.
Wow, didn't expect you guys played this. This is one of the great homebrew for Atari 2600.
Too bad it is impossible to find now.
Well the cartridge is impossible to find. But you can still play it on a emulator or flash cart. Its better than nothing.
Here's a technical answer for how the Atari manages to read extra buttons...
The C button happens to be wired to the same line that a paddle controller uses, and pressing and releasing the C button makes the Atari think the paddle is in one of two extreme positions. So if an Atari game wants to read the C button, it does so the way it would try to read a paddle controller.
I was wondering if I was the only one who knew the answer, apparently not XD
+Dwedit An another good explanation, thank you.
Now I know about the keypad controller, so don't reply to me about this.
+harry ballzonya - Look at the pin configs between the atari and sega game pad. Seems pretty straightforward. *shrug*
2 years ago but you still look like an ass. do people usually buy your bull shit in real life? people like you are a crack up. smug turd aficionado.
I have a feeling this would have been a massive hit had it been released for the 2600 in it's prime.
This looks like a legit game.
I would've def got this back in the day.
+SupaPixelGirl It IS a legit game, and is also very original and totally unique. :)
SupaPixelGirl It sure is Babe.
For the 2600, it looks fucking amazing. It's almost unbelievable.
When you're such good friends you can read each others thoughts... *"I think they had... "* *"Oh, they did?"*
That is INCREDIBLE. Imagine if it came out in 1985.
Good Atari homebrew.
You fight Bowser Jr. in this.
Yea, I found out about this from a speedrunner last year.
+Intimidation Oh, you mean BJ?
The 2 botton Atari controllers were meant to work for both right or left handed people. the normal 1 button Atari controllers were designed for right handed people.
But it are 2 seperate Buttons. On the 7800 they are independent. And that is possible on the 2600, too. It only was not used back in the day for normal Games. But there have been Number-Button-Controllers for the 2600.
Marcus Schulz
I was referring to the one button Atari 2600 controller.
I'm left-handed but I use the one-button Atari controller just fine. I hold it in an awkward manner, though, but I think it's because I'm just too used to holding the D-Pad/Joystick with my left hand and pressing buttons with my right.
I LOVE the button discussion so much, haha!
Pitfall though the character went across from screen to screen. This game you guys are playing actually has the character scrolling across the screen.
Defender and Defender 2 are scrolling for example.
Oh I know. I meant just platforming games.
I thought the same.
It's not real scrolling. The character isn't really moving across the screen. The moving environment is giving the illusion that the character is going across the screen. It's similar to what old racing games do. The car is really stationary and only the road and scenery are moving on the screen.
The environment is scrolling from side to side with character in the center of the scene, hence SIDE-SCROLLER
It's probably called "Princess Rescue" to fit with the vague naming scheme Atari games had. That's my guess anyway.
Super Atari Bros. lol
Or Great Gianna Sisters, oh wait
Going technical here, the pin that genesis checks for button C is the same that atari checks for the paddle controller, so the Atari already knows when you push button C, only that none of the original games use it since none of the official controllers have controls connected to it.
In fact not. Atari support Keyboard controller.
Keyboards and gamepads are not the same, the atari keypad can only detect 1 button at a time, while each function of the controller is detected individually
The keyboard controller also uses the paddle inputs.
Hey James and Mike, you guys were discussing earlier on if the Atari had an official controller with two buttons, and if any games supported these controls. They did release the Pro-Line controller and the 7800 Joypad (Joypad never got a release in the US), which both had 2 buttons. And yes, it works on the 2600, although they were designed for the 7800. I haven't really found any 2 button games on the 2600, but a certain community has tweaked some roms of games to include the option of a second button. I hope this was helpful!
i've heard that the prolines were originally going to be aftermarket 2600 controllers.
Love you guys when you review old games.... i know this one is not old, but you were playing on Atari 2600, and because of the game looks, it seems like an old fashion Atari game... please continue doing this, you guys are the best reviewing/playing old games.... keep taking us back to the past, leave new games to other people.... Great video, thanks :)
I think somebody already mentioned it, but if you recall, there was a keypad available early in the life of the Atari. It was used for a couple of oddball games and even a "Basic" cartridge. So it could accept more than just the 5 signals from the joystick.
did you try the switches on the console like game difficulty? maybe that is the fireball but they mapped that switch to be the C button
The genesis C button is mapped the same as the paddle on the atari, all they did is read the value of the paddle and throw a fireball when it's pressed.
I hope James or Mike read these comments. Useful info here
They started the atari with the genesis controller plugged in, that was their issue. The game itself was programmed to scan for those extra buttons and if it doesn't detect them then the normal joystick controls are activated instead which in that case UP would have been run/fireball. It's a limitation of the hardware, it's the same as starting a computer without a keyboard plugged in on a computer without usb ports (ps2/serial), the device has to be properly initialized beforehand.
The atari can't "scan" for extra buttons, there are no electronic components inside an atari controller that would allow identifying what type of controller is plugged in, or even that a controller is plugged in at all save for paddle controllers.
What they apparently did is assume it's a genesis controller when you press C and disabling any other methods of shooting a fireball.
It's probably called Princess Rescue to be more like classic Atari games and their generic titles that explain exactly what the game is. Combat, Baseball, Barnstorming, etc.
Ray Cumberledge barnstorming. .aybe that's a term but I can imagine what that is. A barn in a storm? Storming a barn?
I think it refers to barnbusting.
Baseball 😂😂😂😂
Thanx for making this video. I went and grabbed the rom. I love stuff like this
The paddle controllers had a single button per controller, but each controller was part of a pair which were wired together and plugged into a single port. So in reality when you plug in paddles, you're plugging in "one" controller that has two analog axes and two buttons. That's the only way they could support 4-player games with the original setup. It's telling that the Genesis controller used the exact same plug with the same pinouts, since that clearly means the hardware itself was capable of sending signals for at least 8 buttons (D-pad, Start, A, B, C). And don't forget about the "keyboard" controller which had a full 12 buttons (sacrificing the joystick entirely) laid out on a touch-tone phone style pad.
Also, the 3rd-party "2-button sticks" were a common gimmick at the time. In reality, they offered no additional functionality, in fact both buttons were wired to the same output and could not be distinguished by software. The only feature they allowed was for people who wanted to use the stick either left or right-handed since they'd have a button in both corners. There were also some sticks that had the Atari-style flat button on the base as well as a trigger or hat-style button on the stick. Again, these buttons would actually do the same thing.
Atari had a number pad controller with a shit ton of buttons, have you ever played Star Raiders?
The second button on that third-party controller was probably for using it left-handed.
It is I have one of those controllers in my collection since I like to collect as many controllers for the systems I own as I can, and the more weird the better. Most people look at 3rd party controllers as crap, but I beg to differ if you give some of them a bit of time to get use to over a standard controller.
The Tac-2 joystick has 2 buttons that do the same thing so that lefthanded people can use it also. Feels like one opf the common joysticks for the A500, at least i had like 3 tac-2s for my old amiga :D
As a hobbyist game developer who is aware of the specs on the Atari, I couldn't be more blown-away by this. The Atari 2600 doesn't support hardware scrolling, so I have no clue how they got scrolling this smooth.
This is one impressive Atari game. Mario actually looks like Mario. I'd say he looks better on here than NES at least characterwise
Christopher Martin It's just the SMB3 Sprite
still better graphics than.....
You only think he looks better because he takes up so much more of the screen.
ATARI Zelda next time?
the NES sprite had a lot more detail, which on an 8 bit console, and CRT's would probably look rather muddy.
compared to the flat, easy-to-detect colors of an atari sprite, i can see why he thinks it looks closer to the character original.
The Track & Field controller had 3 buttons and the Star Raiders / Kid's Controller / Keyboard controllers had 12 buttons.
Yep, the controller port on an Atari 2600 is just a standard DB-9 serial port. Commodore used the same port on the C64 and C128 computers, and I had a Commodore 1351 mouse for my C64 and later C128 for GEOS that had 2 buttons. 99% of programers just never used more then one button because a single button joystick was what 99% of people had for use with 8 bit systems that used DB-9 serial connection with the exception being the Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Colecovision, and Mattel Intellivision
You mean Atari 7800 😄
yeah typo on my phone lol
The Atari and the Genesis controller both got 9 pins. The common Atari controller only uses 6 while the Paddle controller uses all 9. Therefore it has to be possible to map more signals than the common controller can send.
Good one. Thanks for being here for us!
How about ZIPPY the Porcupine, next? It's Sonic on Atari.
that one is fun too!
Made by the same guy too.
Uh oh. Unnecessary race changing. ;)
Is Bowser here?
After yes he is.
Hes called BJ in this. I hope that not suppose to be a sexual thing.
Lone Star every game should end with a bj.
Lone Star its Bowser Junior
Jason not every game can have a happy ending
Sweet. Thanks for sharing this guys.
The Atari 7800 controller has 2 buttons which some 2600 games were made to use. Also, you can plug in a second normal 2600 joystick into the second player port for the second button.
there's also mega man 2600 and halo 2600. think you'll play those?
Austin Nix There's no Megaman on 2600 yet, it was just a web game with Atari 2600 style graphics.
STEAdYdropN Em i didn't said Princess Rescue is a web game.
Austin Nix megaman is something I can imagine on the 2600 but halo?!
This is something I definitely wanna checkout.
TheFallenJ It's really nothing special. I posted a review of it earlier in a reply to this comment.
@STEAdYdropN Em
And how exactly they would run it on real Atari smartass?
I'd like to see a full version of the NES Super Mario Bros. 1 remastered with Atari 2600 graphics.
Demastered more like.
Scnottaken Yeah.
There are tons of rom hacks that make Super Mario Bros look like an Atari game.
I don't. Old games were a product of their time and I enjoy gaming history for what it is.
Doodle Dangernoodle. I don't enjoy the hacks.
god i was half expecting james to just say "im just fuckin with you mike" at the end of that drawn out c button argument
This is actually really cool! Never knew about this. I did have Mario Bros for atari 2600 and Crystal Castles. Those are the last games I remember buying when I was a kid.
does this mean it's possible to make Mario 64 on SNES? duh!
No, it is not. Or at least without putting half of N64 into cartridge. Tak a note that StarFox needed special chip in cartridge to do shitty frame 3D.
Originally Mario 64 was going to be on the SNES using the Super FX chip (it's working title was "Super Mario FX"), but they scrapped it and pushed the proyect to the Nintendo 64.
Cindy Jones. Now that's an interesting bit of history.
>Star Fox
>Shitty
Get out. NOW
Star Fox wasn't frame 3D it was polygonal.
The reason the third button works is because the controller still sent an electrical signal. The game just has to detect the signal and interpret it.
+Christopher Cohron Thanks for the answer, I hope Mike finds this comment and would give this a heart.
@GameOver
Dude, he is a idiot. Atari support Keybord controller and that is the answer. They most likely forget about that.
+TheRezro Now I know the real answer. I though it was reasonable because of Atari's wireless controller to believe in the electro signal part. It also looks like James tried to find the answer online, but he didn't find the solution. Well anyway, thank you for giving me the answer to this.
TheRezro...Dude you're an idiot - The method is documented on AtariAge, and Christopher is correct. It has nothing to do with the fucking "Keybord" controller (wtf man?).
The game can't interpret "an electrical signal" if the console doesn't support it. Therefore Chris Tropher's answer is false. For example, the NES supports 8 buttons (4 directions, a, b, start, select) and even if somebody made a NES controller with more buttons no game could possibly detect them because the NES doesn't detect them. So the Atari must have already had support for more buttons. In another thread somebody said it could detect up to 12 buttons.
Atari can program to an extra because, since the Atari and Nintendo were 8-bit consoles, that meant the consoles can process 8 different button combinations at one time. Four of the buttons are taken up by the D-Pad on the NES, and 4 more buttons (start, selection, A, and B) while Atari only used up 5 "buttons", the big red one and the 4 directions of the Joypad. Atari 2600 was equipped with the MOS Technology 6532 RIOT (RAM-I/O-Timer) which had two bidirectional 8-bit digital input/output ports, very likely to support two controllers but can also be used to support more than 8 button combinations.
Atari 2600 did have a number pad controller used with the joystick for some games. So the console was capable of using multiple buttons for one game. That number pad controller had these cards you could place over the pad for each game to show what each button did. It had like 9 buttons or something like that.
Do Metroid 2600.
Navi, The Real Fairies Queen Former YANG. Seeing super Metroid with Atari graphics would be awesome
Same thing, Fusion and Prime were nicer in demake.
AtariAge has a great Metroid clone in Panky The Panda. That’s worth checking out.
What I really want is that “super-geni-tari” or whatever it’s called that they showed in AVGN that plays NES, SNES, geneses, and Atari 2600 games all on the same console. Save a lot of money instead of buying all those consoles myself
Someone on Atariage did a sprite set for 2600 Metroid, and it was beautiful.
Please Do Duke Nukem Forever for a AVGN Episode Video please!!!
He can't. It's too new. Watch sonic 06 video.
The Sega Genesis originally had 3 buttons but then they later released a 6 button controller without changing the Genesis. I would not be surprised if a 6 button controller could work on 2600 if a game was programmed for it. Perhaps we will see Street Fighter 2 for the Atari 2600 with 6 button controller support one day.
Always wanted to see you play this 😁😁😉👍
it must have been developed for the genesis controller. Edit - the console doesn't really need to know about the input. I'd say the game just has a check to see if C is being pressed?
Not sure about the 2600 but on other systems a controller had two spots (16 bits) in the RAM and was so that the the value of that address reflected the button combination. This means that no two button combinations produced the same value in RAM. If Genesis controller can send different signals than normal controllers, and a game has a watch point set to that address and is programmed to handle the extra values, then it would be no problem.
Thet is the thing. They forget about it. But considering how primitive Atari 2600 was its not surprise that someone could be surprised. After all it totally could be analog.
Keyboard, eh? So the 2600 was definitely capable of mass input. It's been a long time since even looking at a 2600 but the controller I had was as simple as it gets.
Yo Momma of course the console needs to know about the input. How would it pass the signal onto the game if it couldn't detect different button presses?
You should do an Angry Video Game Nerd episode about the Angry Video Game Nerd getting angry about remasters, ports and rereleases of older games especially his favorites.
this is awesome!!!! when I had an atari and didn't have a nes yet I would have loved this!
Looks REALLY good! I wanna play it! LOL.. I was an Atari kid back in the day. Remember me and my big sis played it alot I'd say in 1983. We had Pac-Man, Frogger, Space Invaders, Combat, and a few others.
Mario and Peach. Still a better love story than Twilight.
not really, if you think about it mario never ends up with peach and she is constantly getting kidnapped. at least in twilight the dumbass characters get married and have a baby.
Daniel Thomas Pshh...Have you Not seen New Moon...
Peach and Mario never happens.
Mario and Daisy is a thing.
Vagabond Spaceman Thanks, maybe you can help me Mr. Edgelord. ❤
if theres one critique i have with these videos, it would be mike not being able to talk while playing.
He also seems frustrated or disinterested with what james is saying when things arent going his way in game.
it detracts from the overall atmosphere, perhaps its a focus issue, but its the reason ive slowly watched less and less over the last few months.
at the end of the day, its an entertainment show. Dying is expected. Skill isnt the focus.
I watch Mikes streams to see him beat a games ass.
most of us watch j&mm for background gameplay and a good chat about the game (or games in general), not a skilled run through.
Prodigy 1098 yeah, thought I was the only one getting that vibe.
Agreed, Mike has always been that way.
+Prodigy 1098 He's not disinterested in what James has to say, he's just focused on the game and gets pissed when he dies. I'm sure a lot of people who play difficult games can relate. It's hard enough to play a difficult game, but it's next to impossible to do that and talk and listen to a guy next to you at the same time.
+AdamOS Retro Because nobody knows who you are, you're just some random dudes. James and Mike have been establishing themselves as retro game diehards since before TH-cam even existed. The reason so many people are into retro games these days is probably largely because of them.
Also Mike is a skilled gamer, he's beaten lots of hard games. Usually when he's streaming a game he can focus more and read the chat later, here he needs to talk to the audience while playing and also listening to James. It ain't easy.
Bridgeman this is my constructive critisism. it wasnt for you. it was for james and mike, so they can improve their videos (like most youtubers desire to do) so kindly move on. thank you :)
Really love the streams lately mike!
The second button is most likely the button used on player 2's controller. It's been coded to operate like a second button in the Princess Rescue game.
Great video I have been subbed to you for 2 years
Outlaws Generation congratulations
Thanks.
great comment I never knew you existed
eh, newbie. Rocking since 2006.
I’ve been subscribed for ten years.
I almost prefer the Atari sound to the NES
No.
Remember the keypad for the 2600 (used in Star Raiders or the Basic cartridge)? The 2600 Support much more than one button, the limitation was only from the original joystick, not from the hardware (and on the 2600 you always program directly on the hardware....no os, no layers, only registers on the chips)
Ok, after a buncha googling I think I figured it out. The atari joystick had 5 boolean lines that could only be set to 0 or 1, corresponding to up, down, left, right and the button. and 2 analog lines that could be set to any (natural) number from 0 to 255 for the paddles. And, to power the controller it had a 5 volt pin and a ground pin, which also act as baselines for the 1 and 0. The genesis controller had a wildly different but cleverly made to be compatible pinout. The biggest of which is the 5 volt line is the "select" line which when it is 5 volt it allows you to press B and C (with C mapped to 255 on paddle 1), and when it is ground it is A and start (with start being the paddle). and they used the second paddle as a 5 volt line. So apperantly you can never press both A and C on a Genesis.
So when it is plugged into an atari, select is always on. because the atari is sending 5 volts to that pin. B is jump which is mapped to the button. and C is fireball mapped to an inhumanly fast flick of the paddle. So if you get a robot that flicks a paddle controller very fast It would launch fireballs.
By that logic. and a quick google search. The Atari 7800 controller could also launch fireballs. using the left button the Master System controller could with button 2. And that aftermarket joystick probably had 2 buttons for left handed people.
Homebrew programmers usually think about all the wild user edge cases, like "what happens if someone tries to play with an obscure joystick" or "what if the user soldiered in a new soundchip or graphics chip" (I saw a Commdore PET demo that gave you SID chip music if you soldiered it in). It is amazing.
Edit: Alot of people are mentioning the Keypad. The Keypad isn't related. It uses a matrix between the joystick pins and the button and paddle pins to make a 12 button array by simulating 12 combinations of 2 buttons. It means you won't be able to use a regular Atari joystick.
Don't read this.
k
V Singularity
AV;LJ
The game looks pretty cool. Great video, dudes!
Atari and Coleco although their own separate machines were such experiments in gaming. It was cool to be around and have those consoles.
I don't know the specific details with binary and hexadecimal and all that, but I remember using a Gameshark back in the day. With that, whenever you're putting in a code for specific button presses, it was always done with the whole hexadecimal byte 0-F deal. 0 being nothing, 1 being button A, 2 being button B, and 03 being those two together. Keep going with that, and it something like:
0 - nothing
1 - A
2 - B
3 - AB
4 - C
5 - AC
6 - BC
7 - ABC
8 - D
9 - AD
A - BD
B - ABD
C - CD
D - ACD
E - BCD
F - ABCD
So if the Atari was using a single byte for its button input, it could easily handle up to four buttons.
These days we have fancy computers and backwards engineering that help modern programmers do all sorts of things with old programming. You have to remember how machines where back when Atari 2600 was made. Both the Atari and the computer used to program them where quite new, so computer language wasn't as refined. Still pretty cool what they managed to do here!
Very cool
thank you
Great video. There was an atari 2600 game I owned called Star Raiders. It came with a keypad that had maybe 9 keys, and an overlay of what each button did. So Im assuming those buttons all did something different in game, though I never knew how to play the game. I think there were a few games that used that keypad with various overlays. Its possible it involved using that functionality in some way.
mike, there was a keypad controller for the 2600, and even a keypad controller for sesame street edutainment titles, so, the 2600 had the posibility to mapping more buttons, thats why the genesis controller works, they just mapped the jumping and fireball to the genesis controller, maybe 7800 two button controllers work... Great game..
I recall a single input port for Atari controllers having four directions, two analog signals (for paddles), and two 'triggers'. The general idea was that each paddle would have its own trigger, and one of them was the same as the joystick trigger. On the 5200 the joystick was analog so it used the two paddle signals for up/down/left/right leaving you six buttons. I don't know how they did the third button with the Genesis controller or the keypad on the 5200, but I've read something where one pin worked like a 'shift' key so you could have... six more buttons? It wouldn't be hard to detect but I think the only 80's-era game that tried was 'Star Raiders', which came with its own keypad.
There were games for 2600 that came with multi button controlers. Star Raiders was one of them, which came with a multi button keypad and overlay.
A few other 2600 sidescrollers:
Vanguard
Laser Gates
Moon Patrol
Defender
Barnstorming
They forget that file compression is so much better now than it was 40 years ago and you can get a lot more into an Atari cart than you could in 1980
Haha, what a thoughtful creation. I value the attention to detail :D
Homebrew game for Atari 2600, made by animator called Chris Spry. I never played this game but this video shows that he did good programming work to create this game.
A two-button game! What an evil witchery is that!? :)
Confusion about controllers has come up in many episodes. The simplest answer usually boils down to:
1) How did the system use its I/O ports (buttons, potentiometers etc.)?
2) How were they used at the time (sometimes with common connectors like DE-9)?
3) What can be done now with more knowledge or programming skill?
In AVGN it's good for comedic value, but some gaming nerds are hardware and software nerds too.
Great video! Very interesting hacks.
Well, about the buttons, its more like programing stuff and input signals than console limitations.
At the time atari games could handle more than one button input, but didn't made any sense to assign more than one button since atari controller just had one. Since this game is "new", they probably intended to be played with other controller than the original one.
Keep up with the good work!
Hey guys the tac2 was one of the most common josticks for the Commodore 64 here in Sweden in the 80s to early 90s. I remember i liked because of the tight side to side stroke. Also it could take alot of physical abuse without breaking.
They nail the mario 3 ducking animation! That's crazy good on the atari hardware, gonna go look up how I can get some props to the guys who made this
I just recently found about this one too! =)
Supposed to be called "Princess Rescue" for it to fit the "ATARI 2600 era"
Super Atari Bros! Cool video this week!
The Atari did have a lot of alternate controllers that use different pins in the connector. The Joystick doesn't use all of them, so my guess is that the C button outputs on the same pin that a different controller, such as the paddle controller uses, since the potentiometer of the paddle controller isn't on the same pins as the directions from the joystick. Then it's just a matter of a game being programmed to watch for inputs from the joystick and paddle at the same time. Obviously no one thought to do that in the 2600's day because you couldn't plug both in to the same port at the same time.
Come to think of it the Atari 7800 and the Sega Master System also have 2 buttons, so maybe they'd work as well.
Both buttons on the Tac-2 do the same thing. It was meant to be ambidextrous.
Thank you for trying the original controller. That cliffhanger would have killed me.
James and Mike, I don't know if you remember one of the best looking official Atari 2600 games ever released Solaris. But in that game if you wanted to have full control of the game it required you to plug in two controllers into the Atari. One controller would control the ship and the second controller controller would control the map. Maybe in this game they expect you to do the same thing. I know on a platformer that would definitely be weird though.
On a side note, you should play Solaris, it might be an interesting game and worth a video.
Sega and Atari had 16 pins. Up down left right and corners and 1 button still left unused pins. That 3rd part controller had 2 buttons for lefty and righty gamers
Oh wow, this looks really amazing.
Calling the game Princess Rescue fits the aesthetic of the way most Atari games were named, and is hilarious.
The 9 button keypad maps combinations of direction presses and button pushes, that is not what was used here. They read the discharge of the paddle cap, as many comments have attempted to point out - You can go on AtariAge and read the threads where this was all planned and executed, no reason to fight or act like it's a mystery.
Those 2 button joysticks had both buttons function the same to give choice and probably to make them seem more advanced. Early computers like the commodore had joysticks with 4 or more buttons but they all worked the same, just on button, many ways to press it.
This game is definitely coded to accept a Sega Genesis controller for two-button input. I believe the Atari controller port simply had expandability in mind, because it has the same available bit registry as a Genesis controller, so what you can do on one, you can do on the other.
You were pretty close when you brought up the paddle controllers. While each paddle has its own single button, the paddles themselves are two controllers that plug into a single controller socket, so multiple button input was always there.
Also, I think you guys were thinking of Pitfall II, which is amazing. Original Pitfall doesn't have scrolling.
Super nintendo also accepts more buttons than the original controller can output. That's how they later came out with the mouse. There was also an official super famicom controller that had 0-9 keys. Mike was tight, Atari was planning for future functionality that they never released.