Odyssey sales would have boomed!! :P

Remember the old saying: An image is worth a thousand words ? In this case, a thousand words that slipped in a crack (LOL!!). If this ad really existed, this would have helped sales of the Odyssey, that's for sure!

OK, now for the serious stuff: It's been at least a month i haven't released or done anything for this blog and i won't make any excuses since health and family comes first. Even if nothing happened in the past month, i did make some research on the net and found a blog that talks about old computers, video games, electronic games, etc...but there is two post that got my attention as the person who is in charge of the blog, aka cAHOONAh, which he vectored all 11 original overlays and post them in PDF format.

I downloaded all his vector overlays and converted the Tennis one back into a PNG format and that gave me a 2209x1754 image file, and it looks awesome! I still haven't made a semi-transparent overlay out of the PNG file....yet! but be sure i'll do it very soon to see what kind of result this will give. Here's the link of his blog: http://computer-classics.de/cah_blog2/

And here's the links to the two Odyssey vector overlays: http://computer-classics.de/cah_blog2/odyssey/overlay-heaven/ and: http://computer-classics.de/cah_blog2/odyssey/a-tiny-odyssey-lost-cables-and-traced-overlays/

Have fun reading, browsing and downloading! =)

As the Terminator says: I'll be back! :D

Cat and Mouse + Simon Says

Here's not one but 2 games from the original pack-in games with the Magnavox Odyssey, they are: Cat and Mouse + Simon Says. Cat and Mouse has only the F7+F8 resolution buttons added and there is NO AI or Sound. As for Simon Says, it also has the F7/F8 resolution buttons added PLUS buttons "9" and "0" for displaying the cards that goes with the game. Just press "9" to display a random card an again for another one and so on....and press "0" to cancel displaying a card.

Simon Says also has NO AI or sound added (this game simply sucks but it's part of the library) as i simply simulated what was required, BUT...this is the first game that i have included a "randomizer" so other games will be simulated quite soon! :)

Enjoy these 2 games and others from the 12 games pack-in will follow soon! =)

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Reply to CN10 message:

 Why is your web sight not crashing with retro gaming traffic? There's people who've been waiting 20 years for the Odyssey Simulator you've developed! I give you my genuine and profound thanks and please put up a Paypal donate link for those who wish to support your future work.

It pleases me to see that you are enjoying the OdySim but for now, i don't seek any publicity as i'm still learning/developping the OdySim, maybe sometime in the future but for now it's really a WIP (work in progress). And as for donation(s), i'm not rich but i don't need money as i'm enjoying doing this as a past time hobby (and also to preserve this "Holy Grail" of all video game consoles/systems).
If people want to "donate" something, they just need to send pictures or scans of accessories that i'm missing to properly simulate the Magnavox Odyssey. I will list the missing accessories soon.

So thanks very much and take care! =)

--- Sly DC ---

OdySim Tennis now v0.3!

OdySim Tennis is now at version 0.3 and now has added new features and some corrections.

Correction was especially for the fullscreen: When changing resolution with either F7 or F8, the new resolution was displaying in window mode instead in fullscreen and you needed to press F1...well not anymore! Now the game boots in fullscreen (800x600 by default) and when you change resolution (with F7 or F8), it stays fullscreen (it was again a minor code error).

I also added mini-icons that tell if Sound or AI is activated (or not) when the OSD is activated (F5). When you press F5, it displays the resolution and if you have pressed F12 (sound) and/or F4 (AI - Player 1), it will display right after the OSD message box a yellow mini icon for sound and a red mini-icon for the AI. Many thanks for "Nico aka pucpuc" for the great suggestion! =)

And for last, i've added the small and big scoreboard for the Tennis game! I know it's isn't part of the original accessory for the Magnavox Odyssey Tennis game but this adds more fun. To activate this feature, you need to press F11 to display the small scoreboard, press F11 again to display the big scoreboard and F11 again if you want no display at all.

Check out the screenshots:

And here's a picture on an HDTV:

The mini-icons are on the right side, that's was a test. ;)

So download the OdySim Tennis v0.3 on the right of this post and have fun! =)

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reply to pucpuc:

Hi pucpuc! Many thanks for the HIREs overlays, i will add those to the upcoming versions. As for the download thing, i will put the files on archive.org very soon so it will be easier to anyone to download the files. Again thanks! =)

--- Sly DC ---

Scoreboard added to Hockey

Just a small update to tell that i have coded the scoreboard (version A) to the Hockey game:

I had to downsize the scoreboard to 300 x 122 since the original size i had was covering too much of the play field. Both player scores are working great and by pressing F11, it toggles to display or not the scoreboard depending on your liking.

I also have the idea of either reduce the scoreboard to look like this instead:

Or i may even put both scoreboards (big and small) so that you may choose at your liking. So which do you prefer people ? Big ? Small ? or both ? (personally, i would go with both! =) )

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As i was going to post this, pucpuc posted a reply and here's my answer:

Great to read that you like the Sound and AI additions!

Changing overlays to be in HiREs would mean each game would be bigger in size and it was already a very long process to do all the overlays at 800x600 (in spare times, all the overlays took me almost a year). If someone want to redo all the overlays at HiREs (high resolutions), i would be glad to add them.

But for now, i'm concentrating to code all the accessories so each games will be properly simulated. Oh and sorry, i completely forgot to make the Beta Tennis to start at fullscreen...my bad!

OUPS! Again my bad for the F4 button to toggle the AI. That is a great idea to add an indicator for Sound and AI when the OSD is on, thanks for the suggestion! =)

Didn't know you have problem to download from the CCJVQ server from Germany. Think i'll find an upload service so that anyone anywhere can download the files, thanks for telling me this and also for the kind words! =)

--- Sly DC ---

P.S: When pressing either F7 or F8 to change resolution, the new resolution doesn't display at fullscreen but after choosing the resolution you want, just press F1 and your new resolution will be displayed in fullscreen. I still haven't finished with the resolution code so for now, you need to do this until i've corrected this small inconvenience. ;) (remember folks, it's still a beta version!)

BETA version of OdySim Tennis game

Hi folks!

I've just finished a Beta version of the Tennis game and put it online for those who want to test it out in their favorite emulator front-end. This is only the Tennis game found in the Magnavox Odyssey as it is the most played of all games.

As in the previous post, i have made some few corrections and added other features like Resolution change (from 640x480 to ???? - depending of the monitor/TV screen), a button for displaying (or not) the resolution size, a robot opponent (Player 1 becomes the robot opponent) and another one...

I have put the original sound from M.Baer's Active Card (the second one he made)! I know that the Magnavox Odyssey doesn't make any sound(s) but M.Baer did made a "Active Card" in 1972/73 so that any Magnavox Odyssey could make a sound (better than nothing) but Magnavox rejected the idea back then. Click HERE to read about the Active Card (link to Pong-Story).

I suggest that you read the "Read Me" text inside the zip file for all the details. Just unzip-it and double-click on the "OdySim-Tennis.exe" and have fun! OH...almost forgot! The executable is for Windows 32-Bit version.

Please give me your comments, ideas, suggestions, a 24 pack of Coca-Cola (lol!) by email or on this blog! Thanks and have fun! =)


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Reply to pucpuc:

Hi Nico,

The problem with LÖVE is that i don't know if the BETA Tennis game will work with the ahk launcher script. That's why i've made a BETA version so people (like you) can test out if this
version can work or not depending with which software you'll be using.

So try out this version and let me know about it, thanks very much! =)


--- Sly DC ---

Some updates...

First, i want to reply to "Anonymous" which he wrote: "nice work! It would be great to have command line options like start in fullscreen and start directly into a game for emu frontends like hyperspin."

And here's my answer "Anonymous": Thanks very much! :) Sadly, LOVE doesn't take command lines, i tried that and read about it and this doesn't work at all...BUT! Read below so that you may used OdySim with a front-end like Hyperspin. =)

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I finally corrected the Tennis game as the two "spots" (players) that was not responding and also both "reset" buttons, it was a stupid code mistake. And now the default ball speed is set to 300 instead of 200 (just a tad faster).

Now for the menu...that is still a problem. I can't decide if  i try to correct the bug OR put a simple front-end so that anyone could use their own front-end (like Hyperspin) OR make each games completely individual executable.

Here's the real problem for now: I tried to code the different resolutions into the menu and that failed miserably, but...if i put the resolution code into an individual game (like i did for the Tennis game), now it works like a charm. So if i make each game "executable", this will work with different resolutions and can be used with any emulator front-end. Each game should be around 5 Megs of size, which is very, very small compared to a lot of games.

So the logical course would be to release the OdySim without the built-in menu so it can be used with any front-end emulator. What do you think of this people ? Post your comments!

P.S.: As for booting a game full screen, since each game will have the different resolution code, i can put the "state" to boot a game full screen instead in window mode and then you can choose the desired resolution (but you will need to press "F1" to make your new resolution full screen again - which is logical as you rotate thru different resolution) but at least, the game will boot full screen  right away. 

Back from another dimension...LOL!!!

Sigh...i wish i could travel to other dimensions and parallel Earths, but that's not the case. ;P

OK, now to the subject! It's been more than two months now that i haven't made any progress or even posted anything (until now) but that will change soon. I began this simulator about three years ago and i intend to finish it (eventually one day, always depends on time).

I wanted to reply to Dastari who commented about a month ago and i don't know why, i tried to reply back three times and it is never published so here's my reply:

"Hi Dastari,

Sorry for the very late reply and thanks for the support! I will begin to work on the OdySim in a couple of days as i'm finishing other small projects. Let me know what you think of OdySim so far, thanks again! =)"

In the next version, it will be without (fingers crossed!) any "bugs" and i'll try to included some few homebrew games as well and simulation of the first accessory:

 (have to start somewhere!)

So stay tuned folks! =)