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Gunstar

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Gunstar last won the day on March 18 2023

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About Gunstar

  • Birthday 08/12/1968

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  • Custom Status
    If it's broken, fix it as well as mod/upgrade it.
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    In the heart of "flyover country" thank God.
  • Interests
    Electronics, videogames, motorcycles, great outdoors, painting/art in all mediums. Repairing, restoring, upgrading, modifying and customizing vintage computers and consoles.
  • Currently Playing
    Atari Jaguar: using with the Game Drive and play bit of everything: commercial releases, hacks, homebrews and ST ports. Playstation 2: Iron Soldier 3, the sequel to the Jaguars 1&2, w/PS2's texture smoothing so it looks more like the Nuon version!
  • Playing Next
    Hopefully my Dreamcast again soon. As I had taken it apart for battery replacement, decided disassemble and paint it as, severe yellowing had returned; even after 2 retro-brite's in 2 years. Would not power on after: the power button stem had broken.

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  1. I seem to have a bit of catching up to do with several pages added to the thread since I was last here. My absence was because my mother passed away a couple of weeks ago (my father passed away in Dec. of 2010), and so obviously I've been attending to all that entails and family matters. Her passing had been expected at anytime for the last two years, since she was first diagnosed with heart and kidney failure and given less than a year to live. At 85 they wouldn't touch operating on her with a ten-foot pole. A cocktail of meds kept her alive for another 2 years. So, at the age of 55 I have become orphaned. Anyway, back on topic. Here are a couple more Atari name and Fuji logo oriented conversions. I've re-attempted both many times over the past couple of weeks and let them run for days. I never achieved as good of conversions as I was striving to reach. But considering the colorful subject matter, I knew I was attempting a near impossible task for the graphic hardware, as amazing as it for 45+ year old tech way ahead of it's time. Both allowed to run on the final attempts, when things seemed to be going the best so far, into multi-billion evaluations. Both had multiple, glaring HPOS artifacts, but Rasta Slide 4.3 was able to fully repair both. Atari Reflection. 87 colors. GS_AtariReflection.xex Bell-bottom Fuji. 62 colors. GS_BellBottomFuji.xex (I'd love to have a Tie-Dye shirt like this, but I'd prefer the standard straight-leg Fuji since the LS*D already causes it to look bellbottom as it melts and runs down my shirt and onto my joysticks, one Atari branded, one not)
  2. OK, a couple of tips...set the 'number of solutions' high, in the thousands or tens of thousands. This allows Rastaconverter many more attempts to get the conversion closer to the destination image. Images will take much longer to resolve, but will be much more representative of the destination image. Also, the higher the contrast the easier it is for Rastaconverter to choose from the limited color pallette between best color and shade when down grading the color depth from the 256 color palette of the destination image to the 128 color palette of the Atari's graphic mode Rastaconverter uses and limitations in color change and position (less horizontal line stripes throughout the image). Don't be afraid to experiment with drastic changes in the color brightness, contrast and gamma levels and all other settings to see what happens and experience will allow refinement of control and best initial guess for setting on any given image. It's more a learned skill, nearly an art form in itself in finding the best settings for Rastaconverter to get the best results on any given image. I liken it to photography, back when everything was manual, pre-digital cameras, when a photographer had to have knowledge and skill and talent to get the right lighting conditions, proper lens choice and adept focusing skills, on to development of the film to make the best photos. The best (manual-analog) camera in the world will only produce pictures based on the skill and talent of the photographer.
  3. Circle Atari Fuji. 40 colors. GS_CircleFuji.xex Classic Atari Fuji. 63 colors. GS_ClassicFuji.xex
  4. Atari black & White reflection. 8 colors. GS_AtariBWReflect.xex Atari Aqua Fuji. 83 colors. GS_AtariAqua1.xex Atari Vector Fuji. 52 colors. GS_AtariVector.xex Atari Fuji rainbow. 43 colors. GS_AtariFujiRainbow.xex Red Atari. 24 colors. GS_RedAtari.xex
  5. Same here. Subscribing member for the last few years they were around. My first experience at writing articles or any writing out of school was for their newsletter. Around the same time my first officially published article was for Atari Interface Magazine.
  6. How time flies! already over a year since the last time I checked the status update section or added any of my own! 

     

    Well here is a long over due update (one among many) now that it is my business's off-season and I have time for personal projects and doing blogs and status updates.

     

    Below are pics of my finished DIY, powered subwoofer for my audio/video sound system. As good as a manufactured subwoofer costing hundreds, it was made for substantially less than $100, the speaker being most expensive, but bought at 50% off.  Vinyl material was purchased before for making dust covers for consoles and peripherals and cabinet; reused from an old karaoke machine  were already in my possession. About $5 worth of the vinyl material was used for this project.

     

     

     

    @save2600 You commented that you hoped my DIY subwoofer sounds better than it looks, and rightly so as it still looked bad while I was concentrating of making it sound good. I told you not to judge a book by it's cover, but now you can in this case. Here are the overdo pictures I promised in the last sentence of my last reply to this update. I completed the subwoofer close to a year ago, then got busy with my business,. fully vinyl covered and completed aesthetically. Though I must admit, as proud as I am of my final product in this DIY project, it does still sound better than it looks. I've made more upgrades and additions to my sound system too, including a vintage reel-to-reel tape deck, but I'll show that in a new status update soon.

    image.thumb.jpeg.b5a9202a63f811b5b8d845cd03db6e07.jpeg

    image.thumb.jpeg.0abf43f171d0729d17a033050231c0ce.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.bdda3a1433a1dff274bb5c0471020fa6.jpeg

     

    This all was also posted in a reply of the original status update about my DIY subwoofer, for those who need to catch up. Posting only there would have meant only those who saw the original update and replied would have been notified apparently.

    1. Gunstar

      Gunstar

      I have decided, just today, to add one more aesthetic and protective upgrade to the subwoofer and both my front tower speakers (that I also completely rebuilt this past year with all new 3-way speakers, protective covers  and new paint job). I just ordered a 24-pc metal corner protectors for all three. I'll post pictures of all three speakers once the corner protectors are mounted. below is a picture of what I'm getting along with a speaker example, that I copied off of Amazon.

       

      61RcQHOVBGL._AC_SL1500_.thumb.jpg.00b3272c75496199b8545ecb2804ee2e.jpg

    2. GoldLeader

      GoldLeader

      My living room speakers are very similar to those.

  7. Prove to me that is what he was referring to. Where did you read or hear him say or write that he was talking about democracy. Because he is a U.S. citizen for one, and the United States is not a democracy, it is a REPUBLIC. Go learn the difference. It's a REPUBLIC that still respects the minority's opinion, NOT a Democracy which steam rolls the minority, which is why our incredibly intelligent founding fathers specifically chose to be a Republic and not a Democracy. A Democracy is where the minority could actually get their way despite a majority vote, but that is political science and politics are not allowed here. A Republic actually respects the minority while still insuring the minority doesn't end up controlling the majority. But that is far to complicated to explain in a reply here. I don't believe you truly understand what either means or the consequences of an open democracy compared to a republic. I thank God the U.S. is a Republic and not a democracy. But I'm not going to explain the deep truth about both forms of government to you, there are plenty of sources for you to learn for yourself as you obviously wouldn't take my word for it anyway. People that think the U.S. is a democracy are very ignorant or very stupid people. If you are still feel the need to reply because you are a masochist, then please PM me were we can debate/argue this all further and I will be happy to oblige you, but let's not continue to derail this thread. I could teach you the actual politics of a democracy then too, which you clearly have a false concept about. I can also help you out with English too, of which I have a college degree.
  8. It's a direct quote of Nolan, if you have an issue with his quote, correct him, not me. But I will patronize you with a reply to your view on Nolan's quote. I'm not going to "edit" his quote, as it's not my place as I'm quoting, him not presenting my own statement of belief or ideology. And I know what he meant, regardless of proper use of the English language or not, and I agree with what he meant, which is why I present it here. But did you confer with Nolan and he told you that is what he is talking about? Otherwise that's pretty presumptuous and arrogant to say you know what he was talking about. Also, if everyone agrees and come to a consensus, then there are NO minority opinions to be respected according to your own logic here. If you walk into a room as a person who is the leader of a group, but came late, telling them to start without you, and know what they would have been discussing, and that everyone present came to a consensus and you ask "so what is the consensus?" that would be a grammatically correct statement even though not everyone was there (the group was missing you and possibly others could have been absent too). But it was only the majority of the group came to a consensus, as not everyone who belongs to that group was present at the time of consensus. I certainly see nothing about the quote at all that infers democracy or compromise. There can be a majority agreement on something and have nothing at all to do with democracy or compromise. The word "majority" can be used in many instances that have nothing to do with voting or even people, to assume that is ridiculous on it's face. For example, "scientific consensus says the majority of insects in the world are still undiscovered species." -There nothing to do with democracy or compromise or even people.. I believe Nolan was referring to corporate discussion surrounding ideas and decisions. And a corporation is most definitely not democratic. And corporations don't have to compromise based on employee group discussion and consensus, final decisions are left up to those who own the company, or the person(s) they put in charge, like a CEO, regardless if they accept input and discuss with employees first.
  9. Wild! Sure give me the pictures of the vineyard, etc. This is exactly the type of subject matter that my grandfather loved to paint. He would have done it with pastels or water colors.
  10. Me too, I had no idea it was a picture of an ongoing natural disaster! We were struck with a 5.1 magnitude earth quake in my area last night, I am about 50 miles from the epicenter. Fortunately there was no damage near me, I just felt like I had just tossed a coin into a vibrating bed for a few minutes (It struck at around 11:30 PM just after I had gone to bed).
  11. It reminds me of an image from video tape that is "paused" on a VHS player.
  12. Old River Mill. 85 colors. I'd hoped this would come out better, but after dozens of attempts this is the best. Certainly not my best work, but after the time put into it I decided not to just discard it. GS_OldRiverMill.xex
  13. Over the last 5 or so years I've been looking for some other 8-bit brand alternatives that could come close to my expectations I've grown used to from my Atari 8-bit. And I too found very few other 8-bits that I'd actually use by not falling too short of my standards set by the A8 line. The C64, of course, fits my criteria. Other than it, I found only the Amstrad CPC and the other 8-bit I did acquire instead of a C64, due to the high prices original C64's and peripherals are going for these days (regardless of being the most common 8-bit of all time!). What I ended up with as my second 8-bit is the RadioShack Coco 2 (with upgrades). I do now have a third 8-bit computer too, though it isn't as powerful as the Atari or Coco 2, I built it myself from ancient vaporware schematics, which is an upgraded Bally Arcade to a full-fledged 32K computer. I have blogs I started, but have yet to finish on both of my other 8-bits: Though I haven't finished the blog for the Bally Arcade, I do have photos of the finished machine not yet in the blog:
  14. Steampunk Inventor. 63 colors. GS_SteampunkInventor.xex
  15. M.L.K.J died 5 months and 8 days before I was born.
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