Is It Live or Is It Emulated? - Part 1: Shareware and Freeware Emulators (originally for Suite 101)

[Suite 101 articles introduction]

Being a classic home video game enthusiast doesn't just mean seeing how many Atari 2600 cartridges you can amass. It can also mean just playing and enjoying the games of yesteryear, back when game play came first, not fancy graphics and sounds. Not everyone has the space, money, time or luck to collect all the games they’d like to play. That’s where emulators come in.

An emulator is a program that replicates one processor, computer, or system on another. The system that runs the emulator usually must be more powerful than the original system. Believe it or not, only recently have personal computers become powerful enough to emulate the video game consoles of the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the emulators I'll discuss require a 486 processor at minimum. This time, I'll cover shareware and freeware emulators available on the Internet. Freeware refers to software that you can obtain at no cost. Shareware is software you can download and try before you pay for it. Next time, I'll cover commercial emulators available in stores.

Note that all emulators require you have copies of the game cartridges (called ROM images) on your computer in order to play the games. It is illegal to own a copy of a commercial game you do not have in actual cartridge (or other original) format. I am not even entirely sure of the legality of having ROM images of games you do own. Although there are many Internet sites to get ROM images, I will not discuss them here nor in e-mail, so please don't bother to ask. This does not apply to the new shareware and freeware games I have discussed in a previous article.

The most popular classic system, the Atari 2600, has also spawned the most emulators. Probably the most complete one is PC Atari, which runs under MS-DOS. One of the nicer features is a built-in front-end, which makes selecting the game you want to play easier. Most other emulators require you to specify the ROM image on the command line when you invoke it. This includes Stella, another fairly complete emulator which runs on UNIX, MS-DOS, Windows 95/NT (although the latest version isn't available for Windows yet), OS/2, and Power Macs. One feature Stella has that PC Atari lacks, however, is support for Supercharger games. Stella, like PC Atari, is still being updated with new features. Some other Atari 2600 emulators are Virtual 2600, which has versions that run on UNIX, MS-DOS, Amiga platforms, and A26 and VCS 2600, both for MS-DOS.

There are three Atari 5200 emulators. One of the oldest is Rainbow, which began as an Atari 400/800 computer emulator on the Macintosh. (The Atari 5200 is actually an Atari 800-type computer with some modifications.) There is now a version for Windows 95 and NT as well. The other two emulators are both for DOS and are called Pokey, which also emulates Atari computers, and Virtual Super System (VSS).

Marat Fayzullin is, as far as I know, the only person to write a Colecovision emulator. It is called simply ColEm. There are versions for MS-DOS, Macs, UNIX, Windows, and OS/2, although not all are up to date. The emulator is fairly complete, so Mr. Fayzullin has not made any updates since 1996. There is also only one Vectrex Emulator. It is called DVE, which stands for DOS Vectrex Emulator. It is also mostly complete and has not been updated recently. Note that what I said about copying ROM images does not apply to the Vectrex because the copyright holder has released them for copying for non-profit purposes.

If you get tired of having to remember funny file names for different cartridges, you might try a front-end program that lets you pick cartridges from a menu. One I have used with DVE is Console Menu, which can be used with several different emulators.

Copyright 1997 i5ive communications inc. Used with permission.

[April 28, 2013: PC Atari Emulator is still available and now has a Windows version. Stella, however, is probably the dominant Atari 2600 emulator now. Virtual 2600 is available, but no longer being maintained. Official sites for A26 and VCS 2600 no longer seem to exist.

Rainbow is still available.  Pokey doesn't seem to be.  VSS is, but looks to not be maintained.

ColEm is still around.  DVE can be found, but doesn't seem to have a site of its own.  ParaJVE, a Vectrex emulator written in Java became a DVE competitor.

However, pretty much all these systems are now emulated by one emulator called MESS (Multi Emulator Super System).]

Electronicon is Coming!: Would I Con You? (originally for Suite 101)

If you're a comic book, role-playing game, Star Trek, Star Wars, or other fan, you're probably familiar with conventions or "cons." These events attract anywhere from dozens to thousands of people to one place to discuss their hobby and buy, sell, and trade items. Since collecting classic video games is a fairly new hobby, there have been few conventions, although local collectors do sometimes organize small gatherings. In fact, there has only been one actual convention so far, which was RGVC-Con held in Dayton, Ohio, USA last year. Scott Crawford, however, has taken it upon himself to organize a large convention later this month, called Electronicon. Rather than have me mess things up, I've gotten Scott to write this month's article to tell us all about it. Take it away, Scott!

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Electronicon is a weekend-long classic video game fan convention, scheduled for June 27-29, 1997, at the Philadelphia Airport Hilton, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The convention begins at 5 p.m. Friday, the 27th, and ends at 5 p.m. Sunday, the 29th. There will be things happening at all times between those hours, provided that someone at the convention is awake. =) Coincidentally, the event's opening date of June 27th also marks the 25th anniversary of Atari's date of incorporation.

Electronicon aims to provide the video gamers of the world with a great place to meet, play, trade, and celebrate all aspects of video gaming, with a focus on the golden years of home video games, often referred to as the "classic" era of the 1970s and early- to mid-1980s. Every other hobby of this magnitude has dozens, if not hundreds of conventions a year, all over the world, but until very recently, it seems that convention activity in classic video game fandom was either small (confined to smatterings of regional "collector's meetings") or didn't exist at all. Electronicon will give classic video game fans everywhere a convention-level atmosphere in which to meet; in other words, giving a huge, wonderful hobby the treatment it has for years so richly deserved.

Events at Electronicon include a guest speaking appearance by Howard Warshaw, programmer of the Atari 2600 games "Yars' Revenge," "E.T.," and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as well as classic video game tournaments sanctioned by Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Arcade Scoreboard (keepers of video game world records since the 1980s), live video game auctions, and various demonstrations and presentations, including talks on foreign video games and showings of ultra-rare games!

Electronicon will also coincide with the Videotopia exhibit's stay at the Franklin Institute Science Museum. For the uninitiated, Videotopia is a traveling museum detailing the history of video games, and is a must see, with over 50 playable arcade games included in the exhibit!

For more information on Electronicon, which promises to be an event to remember, check out our home on the World Wide Web or contact me via e-mail at electronicon@hotmail.com.

-- Scott Crawford

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Lee here again. I deeply regret that I am going to be unable to attend Electronicon. I hope, however, that I will be able to get someone who does attend to write a post-convention article for me. (Boy, I've gotten lazy! 8) ) Scott has already talked about one person who might be able to. If any Suite 101 members are planning to attend and would like to take a crack at summarizing the events, send me a note at [e-mail address redacted].

Copyright 1997 i5ive communications inc. Used with permission.

[April 27, 2013: As best I recall, Electronicon was a one-time convention, at least under that name.]

Atari 2600 Technical Spotlight (originally for Suite 101)

This month, I thought I'd discuss, in simple terms, how the Atari 2600 works. I feel this will give classic gamers a greater respect for the game programmers. Please note that while I am a computer programmer, I am not a hardware oriented person, so this is only my understanding of how it works.

The 2600 contains a 6507 processor, essentially a slightly stripped down version of the one found in the Commodore 64 and Apple II series. The 2600 graphic chip, called Stella, requires 2600 games to be written to display only one line at a time (one scanline). This means that all processing has to take place in between the time it takes to draw each line or screen! Also, the Atari 2600 can only hold four kilobytes of code at a time! Chips weren't cheap back in the 1980s, so most games are only 8k. Few, if any, are larger than 16k.

To truly understand how the 2600 works, we must examine the screen elements. The 2600 only allows for six different ways of displaying objects. There are two player objects, two missiles (one for each player), one ball, and the playfield. Each had a few effects that could be used to modify them. In case it's not obvious yet, the 2600 was really only designed with games like Combat and Pong in mind.

Let's start with the two players. These have a fairly high resolution (for the 2600). They allow two main effects. The first lets the programmer place up to three copies of the player on the same horizontal plane. The second lets the player be stretched to two or three times its "normal" width. The biplane and jet games in Combat illustrate both of these effects.

It is possible to use multiple copies of the players on different horizontal planes. This requires drawing the first copy during one frame (a complete scan of the TV screen from top to bottom) and the next copy during the next frame. Because TV screens refresh so fast, this technique usually causes no problems. But if too many copies are made, it can lead to flicker. This is what happens with the "ghosts" in Atari 2600 Pac-Man. You might note that later programmers were able to reduce the flicker for Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man Jr.

The missiles, one for each player, basically have to be straight lines. The programmer can alter their width slightly. If you've played 2600 Burger Time by M-Network, you might have wondered why the hot dogs look so un-hot-dog-like. Because the programmer used the first player for the actual player and the second for the egg, all he had left to work with was the missiles.

I'm a little fuzzy on how the ball works, but I think it has to be a square. Using the same technique for displaying multiple players, it is sometimes used to "round out" blocky playfield graphics, which is the last element left to discuss.

Playfield graphics often make up the background or terrain of the screen. The resolution can be determined by the programmer within certain limits, but the higher it is, the less time there is to do other things. The programmer can define the shape of half the playfield and then either mirror or copy it on the second half. Adventure has examples of both mirroring and copying.

These are only the basics of Atari 2600 programming. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of work to create a good game with all of these constraints. If you'd like to learn more about Atari 2600 technical details or programming, I recommend Nick Bensema's Home Page, Bob Colbert's Supercharger Development Files, and the Stella Mailing List.

Copyright 1997 i5ive communications inc. Used with permission.

[April 27, 2013: The article originally said the 2600 contained a 6502 processor, which is the exact same processor as the Apple II and Commodore 64. This has been corrected. It might not matter to the layman, but I like to get details right.

Nick Bensema is still around, but isn't advertising that site, just a LiveJournal. Bob Colbert's site seems to have disappeared, but you can still find his Makewav utility around.  While the Stella link above works, you'll notice it only goes through 2006.  It seems the list ran to at least 2011, but is now defunct.]

Tip of the Moment (tax withholding)

Tip of the moment: Don't forget to change your tax withholdings!

This tax season, my wife and I were hit with a major payment to the federal goverment. It seems I forgot to change my deductions when my wife got a full-time job. (Break out the W-4.)

[From my "Past Tips of the Moment and Past Thoughts" page. This was the sixth tip and tenth post overall. I didn't keep track of the dates beyond the year, so the date is an estimate. — 28 May 2009]

New Games for Classic Systems (originally for Suite 101)

[Suite 101 articles introduction; all links provided for historical purposes only]

Believe it or not, there are actually people writing new games for various classic video games systems right now! Sure, the last time you saw a game on the shelf of your local toy or video game store may have been 10 years ago, but when they say you can find anything on the Internet, you should believe it. Here are the games you can find that you've never seen before.

Atari 2600

Ed Federmeyer has created two games for the 2600: SoundX and Edtris. SoundX is actually more a demo or developer's tool than a game. It allows you to cycle through every sound the 2600 can make using two joysticks. It also contains a graphics demo that I have not seen. Edtris is a Tetris-like game that is supposed to be very good. Every system needs a Tetris clone, as you'll see. Randy Crihfield produces and sells cartridges for Federmeyer with each of these programs for $16 a piece.

Bob Colbert has created a label called RetroWare. He released his first game, a puzzle game called Okie Dokie, in a limited 100 cartridge run which sold out before he even made an announcement about it. You can still get the binary image for the game (minus an Easter egg showing the serial number) from his web site for use with a 2600 emulator, ROM burner, or the Starpath Supercharger. Colbert has also released an early version of Stell-A-Sketch, an "Etch-A-Sketch emulator" as an image. He says his next game should be ready around June.

Chris Cracknell is planning to release a not-quite-new game called Rescue Bira Bira. Cracknell took the Mystique adult game Jungle Fever and modified the graphics so he could play the game around his children. He chose Bira Bira, a supposed classic video game finding icon as the theme. He decided to release the game on cartridge after very favorable results from a quick poll. Because the game is not completely original, this has caused some controversy in rec.games.video.classic Nevertheless, it too should soon be available from Randy Crihfield for $16. In the meantime, you can get the binary image from Cracknell's web page.

Colecovision

Kevtris was created by Kevin Horton. As the name implies, it is a Tetris clone for the Colecovision. I have not had the pleasure of playing it, but it has gotten very good reviews. An image is available and the cartridge version costs $23.

The newest of the new games currently available is John Dondzilla's Star Fortress. It is a Star Castle clone. If Dondzilla's past efforts on the Vectrex are any indication (see below), it should be very good. It costs $20.

Vectrex

John Dondzilla's first foray into programming for classic video games was Vector Vaders, a Space Invaders clone. While it is good effort, it's not spectacular. It caused quite a stir when it was first released since it was the first new Vectrex game in 12 years. Dondzilla's next game was Patriots, a Missile Command clone. I've played it on the Vectrex emulator and it is a lot of fun! Dondzilla completed his 1996 trilogy with All Good Things. This cartridge actually contains four games: Rockaroids (an Asteroids clone), More Invaders! (what he originally wanted Vector Vaders to be like), Vectris (a Tetris clone; I told you every system needed one), and Spike's Water Balloons (similar to Kaboom! for the 2600). Binary images of all of Dondzilla's games are available at this time except All Good Things. Each is also available on cartridge for $20.

And finally, Clay Cowgill is working on a Lunar Lander clones called Moon Lander. Alpha versions are available as images. The final version, featuring digitized sound(!), should hopefully be ready soon.

So, there you have it. Not only are these systems still alive and kicking, they're still inspiring programmers to create new games. And you probably thought you'd never be able to buy a new game again.

Copyright 1997 i5ive communications inc. Used with permission.

[April 27, 2013: Bob Colbert was later forced to remove Stell-A-Sketch from his site because Ohio Art, makers of Etch-A-Sketch, claimed trademark infringement. Despite the controversy it caused at the time, Rescue Bira Bira became the first in a long line of Atari 2600 games modified into something slightly different. The 2600 is a hard system to program for, so modifying an existing game is a useful learning experience for budding 2600 programmers.]