Friday 29 March 2019

OdySim News as March 29, 2019

Hi folks!

Just an update/news about the OdySim as the last post was January 1st. As being a single parent of two kids and working a full-time job it is not easy to ever find some spare time or even "just sit and breathe". The OdySim project is still going on as today (March 29, 2019) and i intend to finish the last remaining 6 official released games (Baseball, Invasion, W.I.N., Wipeout, Brainwave and Interplanetary Voyage) and even homebrews.

I am still trying to figure a way how to start a game in a specific resolution and after so many tryouts, seems it's impossible without making an overlay for each resolution (more than 40) so i'm putting this "on hold" until who knows when.

Using an USB generic gamepad (or two) is (half) working as now and still trying to encode this so it's still a "WIP". I also have many ideas for the OdySim and also for the real hardware afterwards the OdySim is "completed" to a satisfactory level. I already made and tried out some modifications on a real Odyssey like Video output, the "Teleprompter" circuit (the one back in the late 60's), a power "ON" LED, and playing versus the game console itself (robot mode), and these are only a few mods.

I recently discovered an unreleased homebrew called "Yar's Revenge" which was going to be released by Chris Read back in 2011!? I saw the ad in the back of the Dodgeball instructions on a well known auction site (this auction site doesn't need more publicity). See the picture below:


And two days ago, Chris wrote on his blog that he is making copies of his new (ahem...since 2016) homebrew called "Six²" (pronounced "six-square"). But will this be only for American residents ?!?

And just for fun, i've made a sketch-up overlay of Yar's Revenge for the OdySim:


But this has inspired me to port one of Chris games to the Odyssey, can you guess the name ?


LOL!!! Don't try to hard as the name of the game is showing on the screenshot. Wep, it's "Gosub" which was released for the Atari 2600 and Magnavox Odyssey² (and i think also on the Sega Game Gear ?). Well i'm using the cartridge #12 to play with this port but don't expect this one to be released as i still didn't asked Chris Read permission to release it.

And finally for today, if anyone of you has a copy of this game:


Can you take pictures and scans as i've tried 2-3 times to be in contact with the author (ManCaveArcade) and asked him his permission to released it for the OdySim and seems that he disappeared from the net as 2-3 years ago. And i've missed this one on (ahem...) UPay a couple of days ago...sigh!

So until next post, take care & keep on gaming folks! :)

--- Sly DC ---