Bill Lange

I've tried using the Atari CX22 trak-ball controller with the Stelladapter 2600 to USB adapter, but that didn't work.

Look here: https://retrogames.biz/games/the400-mini/

Here is The Atari 400 Mini next to an origianl 400. It looks great. Neither the keyboard nor the cartridge door work. There are five USB ports. Four on the front and one in the back. Out of the box, the only thing you need to provide is an AC adapter plug to use with the USB power cable. A nice touch is that the power cord and HDMI cable are styled in the Atari Sunset color scheme. It is easy to load games via a USB memory stick. Just plug in the stick, select the stick from the game menu, and then choose the game you want to load. I tried adding and playing a handful of games such as Caverns of Mars, Getaway, Shamus, Karatakea and many more. I was able to load BASIC and then CLOAD a BASIC "game" (Chris Crawford's SCRAM). The DRAFT Manual shows that the following file extensions can be loaded: The CXSTICK USB joystick is interesting. It has an extra seven buttons integrated in its design. Three on the front face, and four more integrated into what you might call the "boot retention ring" as shown: Its great having all those extra buttons, but I might have to relearn 40+ years of holding a joystick as I sometimes hit the new buttons unexpectedly. You can easily plug in a USB keyboard. You also have access to a virtual keyboard by pressing the HOME and MENU buttons on the front face of the joystick. When the manual becomes available, it should be here: https://retrogames.biz/links/the400-mini/support While I was able to run BASIC and the Assembler/Editor cart, I'll likely stick to Altirra and Fujinet for development though. The 400 Mini shines at being a small cool design and being easy to hook up to a modern TV. It is also very easy to add more software. The packed in joystick is great even if it takes a bit of getting used to. I'll likely get at least one more CXSTICK USB joystick to play two player games. Let me know what you think.

Just got an emailed update saying the embargo end date is the 26th!

The instruction that came with my 400 Mini clearly state the March 28th date and time.

You may find what you are looking for in the feature details here: https://atari.com/products/atari-400-mini-cxstick.

The review and content embargo ends at 8 am PT Thursday, March 28th! Looking forward to discussing ...

Something like this would be nice.

I received a review unit in the mail today to review for Old School Gamer magazine (https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/). I'm only allowed to post a photo of the box prior to the March 28th release date.

There are .png images of the original code and non-Atascii versions as text files in the repository. Basically I wanted to be able to display the source code without all the gibberish in the text files.

The Action! programs I've been putting on Github, I've been replacing the non-printable ATASCI characters as published with character codes so that they can be displayed online. For example, in Killer Chess: https://github.com/billlange1968/Killer-Chess/blob/main/killer.act is replaced with ... Of course this make the programs longer, but they are easier to read online. Bill

The phone book has a 73 y/o Ted Goldstone in Burbank: https://www.usphonebook.com/ted-a-goldstone/UyADOwMDM4czM3cTOyMjN4EDMy0yR

Sweet. Successfully funded with 24 hours to go. Thanks!

90% of the way there with 28 hours to go! Getting close!

Old School Gamer magazine's Kickstarter has about 30 hours left and is about 80% of the way to their goal. If you are able, consider supporting this Kickstarter. Here's why: The five year old magazine covers games, consoles, computers, video arcade machines, and has also recently started covering pinball. It also attends and reports on the various Retro Gaming Conventions around the United States. This magazine wants to expend from about 50 pages to about 75 pages. And it wants to continue publishing a "print" version as well. Here is a sample of the latest issue: https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/sample/ Writers for the magazine include: Brett Weiss, Michael Thomasson, and many others. Take a look at the Kickstarter info and the latest digital issue and see if it might be something you might like to support. Thanks Bill