VCS Game Maker
This online tool is a no-code environment designed to allow someone to create a game for Atari 2600 without knowing much about programming and without installing anything on their computer.
It uses Blockly to allow the user to implement the logic using blocks and then, behind the scenes, generate a Batari Basic source code, that is then be compiled using batari-basic-js in order to generate an Atari 2600 ROM, which is emulated using Javatari.
Updated | 24 days ago |
Status | In development |
Category | Tool |
Platforms | HTML5 |
Rating | Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 total ratings) |
Author | haroldo-ok |
Tags | 8-Bit, atari, blocks, Game Design, Game engine, Retro |
Development log
- Version 0.11.0 is now available!24 days ago
- Version 0.10.2 is now available!28 days ago
- Version 0.10.1 is now available!31 days ago
- Version 0.10.0 is now available!46 days ago
- Version 0.9.0 is now available!60 days ago
- Version 0.8.1 is now available!62 days ago
- Version 0.8.0 is now available!Aug 19, 2021
- Version 0.7.0 is now available!Aug 10, 2021
Comments
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Will there be any functions to change the color pallet mid-frame in the future? Because I see a ton of potential on what this software is capable of. And I totally understand this kind of thing take awhile so no rush.
Hello; that's a possibility, yes, though, currently, I'm concentrating on making the default configurations of bBasic's standard kernel.
actually that's way cooler than what I was thinking. Thanks for the response
Thanks for the interest! 👍
Great project! I struggled a bit with the coding though. When I pull a "Repeat 10 times do"-loop into the Actions area, the emulator stops working. I looked into the generated code, but the loop there appears to be fine. Does somebody else have this problem as well?
No way, this is beyond awesome. Why have I not heard of this before.
Okay...so I've been discussing this tool on AtariAge Discord server. Maybe you could implement something like a genre template for things like shoot 'em ups and maybe platformers...?
Hello; I guess creating some specialized blocks implementing certain common functionalities from specific genera would be doable. Not sure when I would go back into this project, but it's a possibility.
Thanks for the reply. I might fork it and continue it if all else fails. I'll learn more about batariBasic first though
Thanks for the interest. 😊
Not a problem.
um, is there supposed to be nothing at the top? i turned off my adblocker so uhhhhhh
Yes; I originally intended to display a few buttons on the top bar if the screen happened to be too narrow to show the leftmost panel, but kinda forgot to implement that . Currently, it hides the left panel, but does not display its supposed replacement in that situation; the lack of those may make the tool unusable if the screen happens to be too narrow. :P
A workaround until that is fixed would be to either increase the browser's window size, or reduce the browser's zoom level until the leftmost panel appears; this leftmost panel is required int order to access the sprite editors, the map editor and the project import/export functionality.
sound could be possible with this https://alienbill.com/2600/atari-riff-machine/ it generates batari basic code
Sounds like a good idea; I will take a look at it, thanks. 👍
thanks
Cool!
Are you also going to make a version for Atari 5200 and 7800?
Could be possible, if the 2600 version ends up working well enough,
really neat! request: edit sprite/graphics! Keep up nice work!
Thanks! The sprite editors are planned; the background editors are being implemented right now.
nice! Itd be neat if this could expand to other old platforms like c64, etc (not sure if thatd be possible though) i hope to remake some games in your engine.
Maybe it could be adapted to other platforms in the future, though it would probably keep its restrictions..
cool. is there going to be a way to "paint" collisions also? like gbstudio.dev has? Thanks!
For now, it will restrict itself to Atari 2600 hardware collisions; software-based collisions may or may not be implemented in the future;
Any possibility of having a version that we can download in the future?
I guess... there are ways to implement that.
Wow Atari! Awesome!
It's still in the early stages, but may soon be capable of creating some simple games. ;)
I can't get this to work!
OK... what platform are you using?
Windows 10, Chrome Version 91.0.4472.164 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Same here, seems okay; what kind of error are you getting? And what's your screen resolution, BTW?
This is the best tool for creating Atari 2600 games!
It's still in the early stages of development, but it will get there! ;)