A new game for the Atari 2600 from Baroque Gaming.
by Billy Eno.

Warring Worms is like an advanced version of the classic Atari game Surround. While avoiding walls, each worm can shoot a cannon that will destroy a single block on the playing field, or kill the opposing worm.  There are eight starting playfields, a single player and two player mode, hostile environment games, wrap around games and every combination of those possible with a total of 256 game variations in all!

There is a new review of Warring Worms up on Tony Morse's On Screen Chaos Site.  He seems to really like the game but does point out the flaws that have been bugging me.  The AI is a little jittery and could be improved.  And, to beat the game you have to get to 99 wins, he says he doubts "most people are interested in best-of-197 matches."  Which is probably true.  I may work on this.

For this Christmas, I made a friend of mine's brother a custom Warring Worms cartridge, just for grins (and a twisted need for completeness) I am posting it to my downloads page.  So, if you ever meet Tim Strauss, ask him how Christmas was.

Also, I have finally gotten around to posting the Midwest Classic Edition .bin. It is on the downloads page.

And, in case you haven't noticed, AtariAge is now selling Warring Worms in their store.

The Midwest Classic Version of Warring Worms will continue to be available through GOAT store until all the remaining copies are sold out

Also I have posted a .zip of the source code to Warring Worms, check out the Warring Worms Source Page

There will be a special edition of Warring Worms available at the Midwest Classic, June 8th in Milwaukee, WI.  There is a special opening screen, and a special label.  The price remains $25, carts will be available with special packaging for $35 dollars, with the $10 difference going to the Boy Scouts of America donation fund established at the show.  There will be approximately 60 carts available and you will be soon be able to reserve a copy through the GOAT store for $5.  (reservations for pick up at the show only, extra copies will be sold after the show)

I got the carts today to make the next run of cartridges.  Right this second I have about 30 assembled cartridges and I have the pieces to make another 70.  There are about 25 promised already, but the rest should be ready for sale very shortly.  Price and everything remains the same.  Get 'em while they're hot.

Whew!  I sold the first 25 carts out today at 5PM.  Thanks to everyone who bought one!  I will have the materials for a second run real soon, I am still taking names for a waiting list, and you can prepay if you would like.  Prepaying is not required to hold your name on the list, but will get you a cart sooner.

Warring Worms is now for sale!  I  have 25 carts for sale immediately and will be taking names for a waiting list for additional cartridges.  The additional cartridges will be available as fast as I can get more PCB's.  Each cartridge comes with instructions.  The price is $25 + $3 shipping and packaging.  You can PayPal me at ceno@austin.rr.com (eCheck only).  Or email me for an address to send cash/check/money order. 

Take a peek at the Instructions (Word Format)

Play the final version warworm.bin

Still working on perfecting the AI.  I have all the pieces for the first 30 carts.  So as soon as I get it right, I will be releasing the game one way or the other.

Warring Worms is nearly ready for primetime.  I am not going to post it yet, just to keep suspense up a bit.  If you email me and ask real nice I will send you a copy to review.

Also, the folks on the Stella Mailing List were kind enough to point out to me that the game play found in Surround is pretty similar to my game.  Fortunately for me they didn't give me a hard time about it ;>.  I had a sneaking suspicion that there was bound to be a game out there similar to this, I just didn't expect it to be one of the first 9 that Atari released...  

At any rate, I had never even looked at the game before I put out the first beta release, so I don't feel too bad about it.  Perhaps my game should be alternately titled "Surround II" or something.  I do think that the additions to the game play (including the cannon, my different one-player AI, and selectable starting fields) give it enough to stand on its own.

Still to do:

• Better Sound
• Speed Variation
• A wrap around version of the game (similar to the "Video Graffiti" games in Surround)
• Hostile Environment Game (space permitting)
• Third Computer-Controlled Character (space permitting)

September 30, 2001 -
Download the first beta version.  It is a complete playable game.  Tested on Stella, z26 and Supercharger.

Right now I am releasing the binary for people to play with.  After a while I will release all the source code for people to do with as they please.  It should all stay under 4K (currently at ~3K) so maybe I'll make some cartridges.

In the Works:

• More Sound

• Selectable Speeds

• One player game with a computer player

• One player game with a hostile environment