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My Swiss seller has just delayed delivery from May 24 to June 6.

I suspect that many third-party overlays would be supported. Such as these:

And the first release from the Outline 2024 event this weekend has also been uploaded to the BBS.

I got my blog, here, created and a couple of posts made. More importantly, I started my DevLog for my version of Oregon Trail ... so further posts on my progress etc. will go there.

Steeplechase - 1:16 (improvement)

I just remembered I converted a bunch of the f18a demos to cart form. You should be able to run them on a FinalGROM99. f18a-demo-carts.zip

True, that's because GTIA's colourburst signal and hue $1x are always equal in phase. But here's an interesting issue (though tangential to the topic): If I understand the GTIA C014805 specs correctly (section 9.3, sheets 21 and 22), the colour pot should affect phases of all 15 hues including the colourburst/hue $1x. Now I cannot test it myself as I don't own an NTSC machine, but this means the colour pot should affect hues of NTSC artifact colours (because it would effectively change phase difference between the colourburst and the pixel clock). Have you ever seen this happening, by any chance? Yes, it explains the hue shift and, depending on how the decoder "reconstructs" the average of the colourbursts, it may also explain the changes in saturation. More on this below. Reading them after all these years, I am aware that my comments are somewhat confusing, maybe I was trying to explain the chip's behaviour from an "opposite direction". But for certain, the GTIA does generate the swinging colourbursts and the colour waveforms by delaying the input 4.43 MHz subcarrier by variable amounts. Also, I don't understand why the luma signal has crept into the discussion. I did not know any documentation that would describe in enough detail how a PAL decoder works, so I did not know (and still don't) if summing the swinging colourbursts in order to retrieve the phase of the -U carrier is what any existing decoders actually do. But summing two sine waves, one at +135° and another at +225°, gives a sine wave shifted +180° with a higher amplitude, so this approach at least results with a wave with a correct -U phase. But on a PAL GTIA, the phase shift between the swinging colourbursts is not always 90°. The PAL GTIA's colourburst is always equal in phase to hue $1x - just as in NTSC - but the delays of hue $1x on even and odd lines are both dependent on the colour pot such that the difference between the two is 90° only on a certain pot setting. Since no PAL documentation describes how a decoder should behave in such a standard-defying situation, I had no choice but to resort to experimenting with actual TV sets. I had a 14'' Crown and a 26'' Philips (don't know the exact model numbers), both CRT TVs from the early 2000s, so probably both contained a digital PAL decoder. Both were connected to an Atari via RF antenna input. On both sets I was experiencing the following symptoms: 1. When turning the colour pot toward "the maximum", not only the hues of colours were changing, but the TV was also displaying them with increasing saturation. 2. When turning the pot past around 80% of its range, when the colours were very saturated, the TV would suddenly stop interpreting the colours at all and display a black-and-white image, with every colour surface covered with a dotted pattern - a visible hallmark of displaying colour composite signal as if it was plain B&W. 3. The turning the pot further near the end of its range, the colours would come back on the TV, very saturated but all of them "reversed". An assumption that a PAL decoder in those TVs recreates the -U phase by adding the swinging colourbursts together, has turned out to explain all of the above properties. 1. Turning the colour pot towards the maximum increases the phase difference between the colourbursts in the even and odd lines. Summing two such colourbursts always gives us a sine wave with a certain phase, but its amplitude is smaller the bigger the phase difference. If the amplitude of such a recreated signal is used as a reference for decoding of the colours, it would explain the observable changes in saturation: since the recreated reference signal has lower amplitude compared to the colour signal in the rest of the scanline, those colour signals should be interpreted as having higher saturation. 2. At a certain point of the colour pot the phase shift between the swinging colourbursts becomes so close to 180°, so the reference signal obtained by summing them up has the amplitude that nears zero. This explains the loss of colours: the decoder ceases to detect the colour reference signal altogether, and treats the signal as a purely black-and-white one. 3. Turning the colour pot further increases the difference between the swinging colourbursts past 180° and more, and summing them up results with a sine wave with phase that is inverted compared to the less-than-180° angles. This is interpreted by the PAL decoder as the -U signal, but since it is inverted, the decoder inverts all decoded colours too. As a result, the current implementation in Atari800 was designed to replicate the behaviour of these two TV sets that I had access to. Thanks for pointing out that this might be non-standard and other TV sets could behave differently. I might have access to a few more PAL TVs in the following weeks, so I might be able to test them as well. Unfortunately, all of them are from the 2000s, so it is not going to be sufficient. A 1970s/1980s TV would be nice to have, to verify how it would interpret the PAL GTIA.

Lately I went a little crazy picking up a bunch of mini computers/consoles that I have been wanting to check out for a while. I do some unpacking, record some gameplay, and talk about some other unrelated things in this video: For a different type of video, a couple months back I did a casual playthrough/walkthrough of JAWS on the NES. I had learned this one for the first time early in the year and ended up having fun with it!

Woebegon: An “The Oregon Trail” Homage - DevLog: Day 1 (05/12/24) Here begins my “devlog” for “The Woebegon Trail” (working title, subject to change); my build of a “homebrew” Atari 800 version of, or at least homage to, the 1985 (and later) versions of “The Oregon Trail”. Why “Woebegone”? Let’s start with a definition: Woebegone [phn: woh-bi-gawn, -gon] adjective: Beset with woe; surrounded by woe; affected by woe, especially in appearance. Showing or indicating woe. Beyond the events of the game, reading some history of the Oregon Trail paints a hopeful, but hard and often miserable, transit. The grit, motivation, and courage of those that undertook this journey astounds me. But I’m still pretty sure they experienced their fair share of woe along the way. Between harsh conditions, wheels falling off auntie the wagon, the occasional midnight oxen-mutiny, repeatedly dissing Terry for causing everyone borderline starvation by sneaking more than his share of the food, the coffee running out before Snake River, only finding scrawny squirrels to hunt, and sister Sarah already having broken all her limbs - twice, the days were long and hard. Then its wake up again to a quick bout of pre-coffee-cholera or typhoid, before losing half your supplies in a clearly doomed river-crossing attempt, a brief stint of mid-morning pneumonia, and then dying of dysentery shortly after lunch. I mean, if that was me … I would be beset with woe. Would you be beset with woe? I’d be beset with woe. Oh, and in addition to being “woebegone”, the word “woebegone” sounds a bit like “Oregon”. Anyway … About the Devlog Posts here will not be limited to code/technical matters, though those will certainly be covered - both for the game itself and for any related tools I may build along the way. They will, of course, track progress, and will be crucial for floating ideas, questions, and considerations that would benefit from community input/perspective. I’ll post, and attach, relevant builds, assets, code etc. along the way. Philosophy & Approach This will not be a “straight port”, though fundamental gameplay, models, decision making points and so on will be preserved. I see things like the “hunting”, “river crossing” and “Columbia River rafting experience” differently. I’d like to include some of the ideas that R. Philip Bouchard (the 1985 Apple II version of the game’s lead designer) had but was not able to include due to space/time/technology constraints. And I want to take as much advantage of the Atari hardware as my programming abilities and knowledge will permit. Having just read “You Have Died of Dysentery – The Creation of The Oregon Trail” (highly recommended, by the way – especially if you want to get a proper feel for the nuances and specifics of the game) … I feel much like R. Philip Bouchard described as he undertook his re-design - in wanting to deliver something that captures the spirit or essence of the prior versions, but that adapts and expands upon it. For me, this is a passion/fun-project. The code, and any assets, will be open source (license to be decided). I’ll make the GitHub repository public as soon as the real coding for the project begins. Considerations & Community Input There are lots of considerations for this project, given what I want to achieve - many of which will benefit greatly from community input, which I hope to receive. One goal is that this be a “10-foot experience”. That means its easily and fully playable sitting on a couch, in front of a large screen, with just the joystick for control. A primary requirement is that this be playable on real hardware as well as in emulators. This has implications for what format I build for. Indeed, this is the biggest, community-related, concern I have at the moment: The 1985 Apple II version shipped on a single double-sided disk with 280KB of space. My early calculations suggest I’ll need about the same, but to be safe I’m thinking a double-sided, double-density disk/.ATR to get to 360KB. However, I have no idea how prevalent such drives are today, nor if real drives are being used or it’s all on things like the SDrive. Going with a disk-based model, rather than a bank-switched cartridge (etc.) is reinforced by the original using persistent storage for “tombstones” and its high-score table. I’d like to preserve those elements. Input here is very welcome! Graphics – very much not my strong point. It’s not a “concern” as such, as I have several ways I can address this to get appropriate quality assets, though community involvement (which doesn’t have to mean free/volunteer) here would make the final thing more a "community" thing once its done. Next Steps I’ll likely make individual posts on these items, and plan to wrap them up over the next week: Finalize my development environment and tools selection. Complete re-assessment of my 6502 and Atari 8-bit technical currency. Build a title/start screen (in the manner of the dream I had that started all of this), to verify the point above. Define and document the internal program structure, layout and architecture. Make the GitHub repository public. Several posts soliciting community feedback on my ideas/questions around: Input model (all joystick driven) Trading interface (maybe M.U.L.E. like?) The hunting activity (first-person?) The rafting “finale” (a reverse Frogger-ish thing?)

Three very unspecific "Atari Video Games" grand prizes were up for grabs from Sylvester's magazine in 1982...... If they turned out to be Demons to Diamonds 2600 carts I think I would have preferred the one year free subscription!

I hope not, for the actual multi-carts it was first SIDE2 and then later AVGCart (mostly for the reason of "native" support for SIO, SDriveMax is great, but a bit cumbersome to use, neither I like the touch screen, nor running the SDrive application and rebooting every time). All others are the aftermath of working on Popeye and/or doing soldering project.

With the things I was testing the new commit behaves the same as the last one (for which reason I will probably have to recheck if I compiled the new code, but I did pull the stuff and I have seen the report on the changed files...).

The original arcade version of Pac-Man uses a 4-way joystick! I know because I have one that came from Pac-Man machine. In one of the old "how to play" Pac-Man books, it mentioned cornering and said to push the joystick prior to the turn you want to make!

Possibly. I'll have to check when i get back to my shop tomorrow.

You are correct sir!

Sounds like you had a great day. There used to be a Boy Scout camp over in the Navarro area. I was never a scout, but I did help some many years ago to get the camp ready for the summer. We did some brush clearing and cut-down quite a few widow maker trees. That was back when I was young and had a good back - I miss those times.

Computer Entertainer last mentioned Millipede in Aug 1984, as mentioned above, and they never mentioned the game again. According to the Atari 8-bit FAQ, it was featured at the Winter CES of 1985 and released somewhere in Winter/Spring 1985 (as it appeared in the Summer 1985 issue of Atari Explorer).

Thrust+ Platinum is (still) one of my favorite game of all in the Atari 2600 library. Sadly i missed the train for buying the complete thing (= CIB) - i „only“ own the cartridge with instructions. Are there known plans for a „re-release“ with everything included (maybe with little touches to the game like different colors/elements or so)? I know coding the game was real pain if i remember Thomas right - therefore i don’t ask for a second game but i can still dream 😅).

My try.

Oh fine ... but that pen is super duper!!!! 😭

Thanks, Ray! As for bass backing, give this a try. (It was a lot easier to add a bass line than it was writing a melody, that's for sure.) whackem_game.rom

Sounds like a lot of talk that has nothing to do with showing us the overlays. 😞

It's not that hard! Sheesh!

Here's a game I've been working on for a while -- finally done! It's an oldschool-style RPG similar to games like Wizardry. Goblin Sword An evil goblin sorcerer has chased the goblins out of their caves, and summoned all manner of monsters to protect the vast goblin wealth. You, the hero of the goblins, must enter the caves, and put an end to the sorcerer and his countless minions. Hit reset to exit the title screen, then you'll be taken to character creation. hit the button for each stat to generate a number. The stats are strength, dexterity, and aura. Strength helps you do damage and block attacks. Dexterity helps you hit, avoid being hit, and dodge traps. Aura is for casting spells. When you cast a spell, your aura is reduced, but will be restored when you rest. Your hit points are the average of strength and dexterity, and your gold pieces are determined based on your stats. The better your stats, the less gold you will start with -- an attempt to balance things out. If you roll a lousy character, hit reset to start again. If you're satisfied, press the button and you will be taken to town. In town, your stats are displayed. If your level number is yellow, you are ready to train to the next level. If your HP are green, you are poisoned. The more poison in your system, the greater the chance of randomly losing HP. press the button to be taken to the guild. When in the guild, move the joystick to the right to scroll through the various items to buy. Rest will restore your HP and aura, Cure cures poison, Train will advance you to the next level when you have earned enough experience, Magic will train you in casting spells. Each time you train in magic, you will receive two new spells. The rest are weapons and armor you can buy to aid in combat. When you reach level 3, magic weapons and armor will become available. In the guild screen, you may also move the joystick down to enter the maze. When in the maze, move the joystick forward to move forward. Move it left or right to rotate. Move it back to make use of stairs, which are indicated by an up or down arrow. Press the button to display your possible actions/spells, and move the joystick to the right while still pressing the button to display your character. To perform an action, move the cursor down until it is next to the action, then release the button. The maze has 4 levels. You must find the down stairs to access the next level. Level 2 and below are dark, and you will need to cast a light spell in order to see. Some walls are illusionary. They look like normal walls, but you can pass right through them. On level one, there is only one illusionary wall which hides the stairs down. As you go down in levels, the monsters will become more powerful. On level two and below, chests are also trapped. Casting an open spell will avoid traps. Otherwise you will have to hit the chest to break it open, and rely on your dexterity to avoid the trap. If you don't avoid the trap you will lose one HP. Inside chests you will find gold -- the amount of gold will become greater as you go down deeper into the maze. You might also find better weapons and armor or potions that restore your HP, cure poison, or restore your aura. Hidden somewhere in the maze is the legendary goblin sword, which is the most powerful weapon available. If a monster appears, you may use actions to deal with it. You may hit it to attack, or flee to run away. Successfully running away depends on your dexterity. Once you perform your action, the monster will attack. If you hear a buzzing sound, that means the monster hit you. Be sure to watch your HP. If your HP is reduced to zero, you will be transported back to town, and lose all gold you have accumulated. If you kill the monster, you will gain experience, and sometimes a chest will appear. Hit the chest or cast open to collect its contents. If you don't want to open the chest, simply move on. Some monsters have special abilities. Spiders and wraiths will poison you, vampires will drain your aura, and the red blobs will damage or destroy your weapons or armor. Some of your actions will be greyed out, which means those actions aren't available until you train in magic. Each time you train in magic, you will learn two new spells. Light enables you to see in the dark. Open opens chests and avoids traps. Bolt hits the monster with a magical attack. Heal will restore your HP and reduce the amount of poison in your system. Port will take you back to town. Bless allows you to sacrifice 500 GP in order to restore your aura to maximum. Casting spells reduces your aura by one point. The bless does not spend aura. The evil goblin sorcerer is hidden on the 4th level. Find him and kill him in order to win the game. goblinsword.bas.bin