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I suppose we should remember to ask for a photo of the motherboard next time, just in case.

Can't guarantee this one would be as easy (or free), but I'd be glad to help.

There are still interesting things to find out there, even for those of us with extensive reference sets of equipment and software.

That's an awfully kind offer. I'll persevere a little longer in the hope I can get it working. I've watched several of your videos in the past - impressive stuff! Thank you!

So just to update and close off this topic .. FJC has very kindly spent some time and cast his expert eye over my XL and the problem was (drum roll)…. Whilst diagnosing the initial problem with the Antic chip… I had placed Pokey back in the machine the wrong way round!! What a rookie

Every Saturday, even if nothing is posted! Even if I post that I'm not available.

Cartridge socket teeth looked fine to me - the SALT works fine in it. Option doesn't work. Removed BASIC ROM - exactly the same blue screen white cursor. No boot errors any more. The activity light comes on and I hear the drive motor going and then it just seems to keep going until I power the 1050 off. I have dug out my unopened universal programmer. If I want to try to read the OS ROM any idea what I can select as the chip in the programmer? There's a massive list and this seems to be a Symbios Semiconductors which isn't in the list.

What's the significance ? Mine has "253".

You have a YouTube channel? 🤯

I'll even try to create a game and post my dev here. And I promise not to toss anything or resell. Period.

Little off topic and I’ll stop here. Once you get the hang of this game it’s really fun! Definitely RTFM! Level 4 with 8 lives left! Left difficulty set to B. Only used 10 matches.

I'd love to!! I'll even pay shipping and a fee for the equipment!

I was hoping to play Boxing as this week's bonus game, but as it turns out that game is only two player so I've switched the bonus game to Congo Bongo instead.... 👍

What is with Basic, it is slow and sucks! XB is way faster and can auto start plus load multiple programs. RXB has CALL USER which is better than DOS as it can run XB programs, Assembly Programs and LINKs and even SAMS too!

Meeting today?

Oh, dang. Thanks for noticing, I thought I had copied the "warm" palette from A7800, but I must have copied "cool" by accident. I'll have to reset that ASAP.

Hi Here and there I read about "streaming" sprite data. I'm not sure I understand what it means 😊 For the name, I suspect it's using lynx_load every frame to change sprite data pseudo code while(1) { lynx_load(sprite_data[X]); <wait_frame> ++X; } Can someone correct me ?

A couple of items to keep in mind as NTSC palette colors are being chosen, what is currently referenced above is fine under a CRT when the system is within its first couple of minutes of being powered on. After the system has warmed up, this is closer to what is experienced under an NTSC CRT: The big change to note is Hues 14 and 15 ($Ex and $Fx). The other changes are subtle to none. Also, under a modern display, Hue 1x appears more green/chartreuse rather than the intended gold range, unfortunately. After the system has warmed up, this is closer to what is experienced under an NTSC modern display:

This is not the case. You can specify pfheights as many times as you need to to change the definitions. Yes, the tables are stored in ROM, but under the hood a RAM pointer to the current data is updated. It is the same way that changing the shape of a player sprite or playfield works with a new playerX: or playfield: definition.

Hi Darklord. I want to compare this Speed-up 16 board to my Adspeed 16 and my HBS 240, and my Mega STE, which all have caches. The Adspeed is more difficult to compare, as it appears to be 8Mhz or 16Mhz+C, not 16Mhz with cache disabled. As you will know, the Mega STE does 8Mhz, 16Mhz and 16Mhz+C. My HBS 240 does 16Mhz or 16Mhz+C (not worked out how to get it working at 8Mhz only yet, but that might have something to do with soldering wires to the sound chip(s)!!!) It is looking like this Speed-Up 16 board could also be compared to the Exxos 16Mhz booster and FAST ROM, as my Speed-Up 16 also looks like it supports FAST ROM, but won't know for sure unless I get it running at 16MHZ. My HBS 240 has jumpers for the FAST ROM, but my Adspeed has no jumpers for FAST ROM (correct me if wrong), but still manages to get the same or roughly the same Gembench ROM speed as the Mega STE and HBS 240 at full FAST ROM speed (with caches enabled of course). However, my Mega STE and HBS 240 have 16k caches (correct me if wrong) and the Adspeed has 32k cache. Then on top of that, installing my SFP-004 type card with 68881 FPU and further comparing to my Mega STE, which also has an 68881 FPU, and also came from Germany in 1991 (I believe the UK Mega STEs didn't come with FPU). It's fun and a great learning curve. Oh, I am also very interested in finding an HBS 640 if anyone wants rid of theirs???? Regards James

Kaboom! 3788 - was my all-time favorite at some point, we'll see if I've still got it haha bumper bash - 14140

I maybe found a hint: Some ROM sets contain All-Star Major League Baseball and according to this Site its a alternative name: https://history.blueskyrangers.com/intvcorp/wcbaseball.html But it says Release 86, the ROM says Release 83, so not sure if its actually the same Edit: Okay, its the ROM. Lol, I never noticed that its even "All Star Major League Baseball" on the Title Screen, tested it with my OG cart. Weird situation that it has a different name on the box.

Living Room Arcade asked me to share my perspective, essentially on what is a video game. Video games are art and there are many different types of art. I think Two Player Tron is an abstract game, if you like SSSnake (also Tron Light Cycles genre) you probably like abstract games. I will be adding a difficulty switch per @Living Room Arcade's tests slowing the game down in Stella to 30% speed to make it more playable for players without Ultra reflexes. Do you prefer StarShip or Star Raiders? I like them both, one is abstract and the other is more complex in the same genre. I like to write complex games and abstract games and I like both programming languages, BASIC and Assembly. Here are two examples of complex and abstract video game art you may or may not like. My ARKANOID clone Pong Music Demo vs my sideways Breakout game SCROLLOUT Follow the Ball which is more abstract - You may find it interesting the more abstract game is written in Assembly in this instance which is a good illustration that no one should stereotype what games BASIC or Assembly can produce. SCROLLOUT Follow the Ball features block graphics that look like a 70's game from the RCA Studio II but once you break free into the land beyond you can follow the ball with the camera. There's a French review of SCROLLOUT Follow the Ball linked on the thread where the French reviewer is quite captivated with abstract game art. You'll also see on the thread there are Atari fans who would like abstract games on cart. Indeed @Albert and I have discussed the abstract sideways Breakout clone but never the ARKANOID clone. For fans of the sideways Breakout genre I suggest Krakout on the C64. Pong Music Demo is fun ARKANOID clone that is a more complex game and is fun to watch complete the levels on it's own as a screen saver. You can push up to play the game anytime however (note the ball may go offscreen and bounce around if you catch the S powerup, this is a feature). Appreciating Art: Art appreciation is up to the beholder including Audio Visuals in Video Games and really anything gained for presentation, even a Football game. Some fans may rate one of my games a 10 while others may rate the same game a 2. Here are two thread examples to compare Abstract and complex Video Game Art:

First of all: I have a complete collection, I finished it years ago. Not sure how the ROM theme is dealt with here, but honestly... 40 years old games should be that big of a deal imo. That said: I do not want to use my LTO Flash with a complete library. So I found a "complete" collection missing several games. I noticed that these "complete" collection doesnt contain Math Fun, Word Fun, the Learning Funs and somehow Tron Deadly Discs. No biggie... easy to find. But still only 124 and the last missing ROM is World Championship Baseball... and if I search that I am not able to find it, all I find is World Series Major League Baseball, so a complete different game. Could anybody help me solving that issue? 124 on the cart is kind of triggering, even its not an important game missing

Err... no. There is no "internal buffer", and the only thing CIO does is to determine the handler responsible for XIO, and for that it locates only the letter upfront the colon, and that is it - it just passes the command to the handler found from HATABS. Everything beyond that point is interpreted by the FMS once it receives the command. Whether it needs a period or not depends on the FMS. For DOS 2 and related file systems, no period means just that the file name extension is blank, but the period is not exactly needed.