Elevator Agent! (2600 Homebrew - Champ Games

[@jeffm5056]

That's amazing that they got the music, graphics and gameplay so close to the arcade on the Atari 2600. Unbelievable.

[@Asterra2]

This is basically unbelievable. This game joins a hallowed and exclusive list alongside Draconian (Bosconian), Mappy and Galagon as games that achieve what nobody before this millennium would have believed possible on the 2600. Bonus: For once, unlike those other three, it isn't a port of a Namco game. I mean this looks really darn close to the arcade game and it's running on home console hardware that was developed seven years before said game existed-back when seven years of gaming advancement actually meant a lot.

[@hidarimak]

This game puts the majority of the commercially developed Atari VCS titles to shame. The fact that hardware released 45 years ago had to wait this long for homebrew developers to reach this level, is amazing. Pac-Man is a great example of why homebrew games should be sought out by fans of the platform.

[@Asterra2]

@@hidarimak There are a number of Pac-Man homebrews now. The most impressive is the 8K one. But if I'm being perfectly frank about those efforts, nowadays they'd do better. For one thing, they'd almost certainly make the screen scroll vertically so it can fit without being squashed. The sound effects could be much closer to the arcade game as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYuQh5RsntOMfNE

[@rafaellima83]

@@hidarimak This game is using extra hardware, coders 45 years go didn't have access to the ARM chips this cartridge uses.

[@teddym2808]

What sorcery are my eyes witnessing? Amazing!

[@stevew8513]

It's a shame that programmers back in the Atari days were given a few months at most to churn out games. When given plenty of time to really exploit the hardware, games like this can happen. My favorite example is the original port of Donkey Kong, slapped together in a few months, and then Donkey Kong Arcade, the homebrew that is jaw-droppingly accurate to the arcade game (other than tilted girders on the first level, something had to give) but it took the programmer years in his spare time. Star Castle was considered incapable of being ported to the 2600, the roughest version they could get turned into Yar's Revenge. But then some insanely skilled homebrew programmer actually made a seriously accurate port of the original vector graphics game. All it took to really push the 2600 was to give programmers a good amount of time.

[@dennyhaynes3]

Incredible achievement, graphics and music are absolutely spot on to the arcade. One of the best I've seen on this system.

[@kevin12567]

I'd love to know what sorcery they used to make those elevators move smoothly and independently with no flicker! An amazing conversion of the arcade game!

[@johnnywc23]

Hi there! We're actually changing the background color 7 times on the lower levels to color the 2 doors and 5 elevators independently. :)

[@joeboo8626]

As someone who grew up playing this game and the Atari 2600 back in the early 80s, this is the best & most faithful arcade adaption for the system I've seen. You can jump over the elevator gap ( if you're under it), kill the enemy by kicking them, dropping a light on their head, and crushing them with the elevator. Thanks for sharing.

[@johnnywc23]

We have uploaded version 2 that fixes a few bugs and refines the game play a bit, including the 'end level' bug when the escape elevator is in the far right column that happens @10:01 :)

[@lo1bo2]

Dang, this might be the one to make me enter the world of buying newly developed games for retro systems!

[@markzilla8004]

Thanks to you and the Champ games team for this entry. Most of all, the spirit from the arcade game makes its gameplay elements work!

[@chrisandrea4963]

Great games. Is it possible to play it on z26 instead of Stella? I've got win98 and z26.

[@johnnywc23]

@@chrisandrea4963 Hi there! Unfortunately EA (and most modern homebrews) will not work on z26 as development for that emulator stopped a long time ago (I used to use it myself). EA specifically uses a bankswitching scheme that is only supported on Stella 6.7. Hope that helps!

[@BartothebartobangX2]

Love that flicker when there are 3 sprites on the same floor, it would not be a 2600 experience without it. Thank you for sharing, Willie!

[@lo1bo2]

WOW! I'm impressed this could be on the 2600. Elevator Action and Moon Patrol have a special place in my heart because they were in my childhood bowling alley and were fun. I'm sure there were other games too, but those two attracted me.

[@johnnywc23]

Great video Willie, thanks! PS You can kill the enemy agents by drop kicking them when they're in close quarters. :)

[@RetroFett]

John, simply amazing work! I have your MSDOS arcade games from the 1990s and these Atari 2600 ports are just as good! Congrats!!

[@johnnywc23]

@@RetroFett Thanks so much! I miss the MSDOS days, I'm glad I've been able to continue making games on the Atari 2600. :)

[@anonymousjones6218]

Wow! Unbelievable that this could be accomplished on a 2600!

[@McOuchies]

Aw no way, we've finally got a faithful port! I've always liked it since my dad got me "Taito Legends" when I was 9. Looking forward to its eventual physical release.

[@MainahTony]

lovedd this game in the arcade!

[@rafaellima83]

This games uses extra hardware which is inside the cartridge, which is basically the same arm chip that powers the Harmony flash cart (Thus, those games work on Harmony and emulators that emulate the Hamrony). A lot of people here "OH MY GOD IF PROGRAMMERS BACK THEN HAD THE TIME bla bla bla". If they also had a "Melody board" back then, I'm pretty sure they also would have amazing results. Not to downgrade the fantastic work done by Champ Games, but people must understand their games isn't running on pure 2600 hardware.

[@SVT512]

Agreed :)

[@dennisaylen813]

Holy sh*t I cant believe this is an atari port! So faithful to the arcade game.

[@Guernicaman]

Extremely impressive for an Atari 2600 game.

[@MrMegaManFan]

Impressive! Champ Games strikes again.

[@nostalgicforthe70s18]

Congratulations to Champ games. I pretty much buy all their releases. I also want to say that one of my favourites is still Draconian by Daryl Spice.

[@atarikid282]

Awesome!

[@madmax2069]

Champ games using more of that black magic on the 2600, I don't know how they do the things they do on the 2600.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

That is freaking nuts!

[@andyp3834]

This brings back some really good memories, thanks...

[@benjibird7221]

Thanks Willie! Totally understandable. All the intarivisions are great. I also just watched your video on the star trek enterprise ship model. The snap together one. That was great!

[@danestegman155]

Good video! Very interesting game for the Atari 2600! Looks great and fun to play too! Nice!

[@ArttuTheCat]

Happy new retrospective year 2023 from Martinlaakso, Vantaa (Finland 🇫🇮) to all of you fellow retro gamers from around the world 😺👍🕹️.

[@Bearcade]

Amazing translation

[@CinemaStormz]

Awesome video game play through keep up the good work!

[@bleirdo_dude]

I hate to be the cleaning lady coming out the door with those bullets flying. 😳

[@raptorchow329]

Neat game! (At first I thought the character wasn't wearing any pants, but I think his pants are the same yellow color as his hair.)

[@dholmlund]

This is totally rad!! :D Thanks for sharing!! It looks so much like the NES version!! :)

[@RetroFett]

Amazing demo 🎉

[@MikesFutureRetro]

Where will I be able to purchase such an amazing port of the original ??

[@lo1bo2]

Did you see the link in the video description?

[@curtis3948]

Great video and great looking game. I just scrubbed that last game you played and it looks like you got all the doors. Could be a bug.

[@oldmanretro949]

Wow just amazing ❤

[@lo1bo2]

I like the little details such as your shots being blocked by open doors, plus blocked by the top and bottom of elevators if they happen to line up. The Champ Games site says there will be 99 levels. Does that mean there is an actual ending scene?

[@benjibird7221]

Hi willie! Happy NewYear Great video as always. When will you put out another Intarivisions episode? Wizard of Wor, right?

[@SVT512]

Trying to rangle the crew so we can record the Intarivisions episode :P

[@Jarod_Schultz]

Champ made some good Atari games like Lady Bug and Scramble.

[@chinabluewho]

Definatly needs about 10X the amount of red doors to make it an actual challenge as it looked a little too easy.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

How is this possible? Looks so good.

[@UltimatePerfection]

This almost looks like an early NES game.

[@teddym2808]

Seriously though, imagine playing this in the arcades then seeing it on store shelves for the VCS.. Remember the console came out 5+ years before the arcade game..... And you buy it and play it, you'd suddenly think you had a friggin arcade machine at home! Then you go to play the rest of your Atari 2600 arcade conversions....................🤣 If just one programmer back in the day had these chops and commitment, it would have put pressure on all devs to extract the very most they could from the VCS.

[@pablopereyra5837]

how emulator? stella dont works elevator agent???

[@SVT512]

I used Stella for this

[@pablopereyra5837]

@@SVT512 i use Stella, but when the game is run the window happen' black.

[@GuppyCzar]

Wow this looks great! Do you know if this will work on the Atari Flashback Portable?

[@SVT512]

No, it does not work on the flashback portable.

[@timduarte1967]

At :29 I believe you meant to say HARMONY cartridge, not the AtariMAX cartridge. An AtariMAX cartridge does not exist for the 2600.

[@SVT512]

yep, old age is catching up to me.

[@Caviar_Liberta]

ASMR video?

[@scottbouc2888]

I wanted to like this one but I just can't compared to the NES version this one just isn't great ya the controls are a bit stiff on the NES version but stuff just sounds and looks better than the Atari version. I was hoping to add it to my Atari 2600 collection but I think I'll have to pass on this version.