Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
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Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
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Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#2What kind of CPU drove the logic? This seems to be missing from the article. It describes an iterative compile/debug cycle but leaves out the part where why the DEC computer was needed to make a tape for a Forth debugging machine - we are never told how that Forth thing made the final leap to the stand up cabinet hardware or if the tape thing also went to the cabinet after it was debugged.
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#3This game was a productivity destroyer when I was a 19 yo intern at Atari.
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#4What kind of CPU drove the logic? This seems to be missing from the article. It describes an iterative compile/debug cycle but leaves out the part where why the DEC computer was needed to make a tape for a Forth debugging machine - we are never told how that Forth thing made the final leap to the stand up cabinet hardware or if the tape thing also went to the cabinet after it was debugged.
6502
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#5Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar is still one of my favorite games of all time. I can’t think of any other game that can get me into that pure zen mind/no-mind state as quickly and for as long.
I was playing it at the video games exhibit at the Smithsonian a couple of years ago and setting all the high scores and eventually a small audience was watching me play and asking me questions about it. I wasn’t sure if the game was the exhibit or I was.
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#6I knew a guy that specialized in repairing these types of games. I was fascinated in hearing about how the game controlled the scanning of the electron beam from the normal CRT horizontal scan. I was always curious of what was the genesis for the idea to use a CRT in this way. The first thing I had always thought about was sending this method of scanning an audio signal to let it draw the sound. For the time period, I can only imagine the images would have been pretty cool party visuals.
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#7What kind of CPU drove the logic? This seems to be missing from the article. It describes an iterative compile/debug cycle but leaves out the part where why the DEC computer was needed to make a tape for a Forth debugging machine - we are never told how that Forth thing made the final leap to the stand up cabinet hardware or if the tape thing also went to the cabinet after it was debugged.
The game used a 6502 for the main CPU, but had a custom system called "Math box" that handled the 3D computations:
> The Math Box was built around the AMD 2901 Bit Slice which contained an Arithmetic/Logic Unit, a 16-deep dual port RAM, two registers, and a multiplexer. Each one was only 4-bits but had hooks so that it could be expanded. Four were used to produce a 16-bit machine and they were controlled by another State Machine.
> Battlezone was the first game to use a new development system: the Blue Box and White Box duo. The Blue Box was programmed in Forth and controlled the emulator/analyzer in the White Box. It also had an external 8" floppy disk drive as well as a serial port for connecting to the VAX. Unfortunately, it did not have a full featured editor/assembler. Editing/assembling/linking was originally done on the department's PDP11 Model 20s which placed the output file on an 8" floppy, which could then be loaded by the Blue Box.
> Later, when we got the first VAX, the Blue Box could be used as a terminal and the VAX was used to edit, assemble and link the program, and the output could be downloaded into the Blue Box/White Box.
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#8What kind of CPU drove the logic? This seems to be missing from the article. It describes an iterative compile/debug cycle but leaves out the part where why the DEC computer was needed to make a tape for a Forth debugging machine - we are never told how that Forth thing made the final leap to the stand up cabinet hardware or if the tape thing also went to the cabinet after it was debugged.
This is a starting point https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers...
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#9I knew a guy that specialized in repairing these types of games. I was fascinated in hearing about how the game controlled the scanning of the electron beam from the normal CRT horizontal scan. I was always curious of what was the genesis for the idea to use a CRT in this way. The first thing I had always thought about was sending this method of scanning an audio signal to let it draw the sound. For the time period,…
Think vector arcade games grew out of oscilloscopes where some smart tinkerers found they could use the oscilloscope as a display screen for rudimentary games.
Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece
#10I knew a guy that specialized in repairing these types of games. I was fascinated in hearing about how the game controlled the scanning of the electron beam from the normal CRT horizontal scan. I was always curious of what was the genesis for the idea to use a CRT in this way. The first thing I had always thought about was sending this method of scanning an audio signal to let it draw the sound. For the time period,…
For simple stuff like audio we clipped the wires to an old TV deflection coils. The impedance was within reason for a speaker so direct connection to an amplifier worked. Unfortunately we didn't have component video on that old thing so no good control of the color. For gaming non-linearity was relevant and they had analog circuitry on board to compensate for that.