Port of «Tennis» for Atari 8-bit computers

April 15, 2022 • Updated: Mar 17, 2025 - 12:39 AM

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Enjoy the challenge and excitement of tennis on your 8-bit Atari computer, with this port of «Tennis» (Activision, 1981).

"This game is programmed in a totally different way than any other I've made; it's basically a port of the 2600 kernel. And it was from scratch, in the sense that I did all the disassembly and conversion myself," explains AtariAge forum user Glurk.

He recalled that last January he did a partial teardown of the Activision classic. "I couldn't quite figure it out, so I just left it and posted what I'd finished on the 2600 forum. And for the most part I forgot about it (...) But recently, I had an idea. What if instead of figuring everything out, I just took the disassembly I had and made it work on the 8-bit by changing GRP0 to GRAFP0, COLUBK to COLBK, etc., etc. Much to my surprise, it worked. A little more work, and I added some graphics for the playing field, a sound routine, and my ever-present logo. And it all works pretty well."

The left stick controls the orange player in all matches. The orange player starts serving in each set. Players will switch sides after each odd-numbered game. You can aim and "place" the ball depending on how you hit it. The angle of your shot is controlled by where you hit the ball on your racket. If you hit the ball in the center of the racket, your shot will go straight forward. The closer you hit the ball to the edge of the racket, the sharper the angle will be in the direction your racket is facing.

Scoring is the same as in real tennis: 15-30-40, "deuce" at 40-all, and "ad in" or "ad out" after "deuce." The first player to win at least 6 games and have a two-game lead wins the set. If the players tie the score at 6-6, the score returns to 0-0, and the first player to lead by two games wins the set. One bell rings after each point, three after each game, and six at the end of each set.

Tennis for Atari 8-bit computers

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