Punch Chess

This Atari 2600 (NTSC) game has been developed for the jam Inspired by... retro game jam. It was inspired by two games proposed as jam inspiration themes (punch out and turmoil - for the type of movement) 

The game is an actual old Atari 2600 binary that I wrote in assembly with the limitation of the console (popular between 1970-1980). The rom has max size 4Kbytes and the memory available is 128 bytes (yes, it is true, just 128 bytes!!). The game can be run using the great javatari emulator on this itch.io page (on both computers and mobile phones).

To play:

- Use keyboard arrow keys to move and spacebar to punch (while playing on real Atari 2600 you can use the joystick and the fire button)

- The player can move only vertically on the center row and horizontally freely on each row

-  The goal is to hit the maximum number of enemies with the punch, but it is very easy to lose one life touching them while doing that

- When the game is done (because of all the lives left or the time is up) the scoreboard on the top becomes red, it gives you 2 seconds to review the result and then you can continue pressing the fire button (also the splash screen page has 2 seconds of pause and after that is possible to press the button to start)

The game, as said, can be run directly in this itch.io page, but I have also attached the binary file to be used with Atari 2600 emulators (like Stella) or directly on your real Atari 2600 (if you have a cartridge to support it - like the Harmony (atariage.com))

Credits

Programming: kamaleon70

Graphics: Moritz the Underdog

Music: Pedro Pimenta

IDE to program the game the great website: 8bitworkshop

To create the splash screen: https://8bitworkshop.com/dithertron/

To create the audio effects I used the info in this page: https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-lets-make-a-game-spiceware-13.html

TIATracker was used to create the music

Really helping on the path to program in assembly for Atari 2600 was the inspiring course by Gustavo Pezzi Learn Assembly Language Programming Games for the Atari 2600 (pikuma.com)

Also great thanks to the creator of the Javatari emulator. It is really a masterpiece.

Remember that: "Chess speaks for itself!" 😁