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Robert Hurst

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  1. Ahem, http://robert.hurst-ri.us/downloads/?did=10
  2. AWESOME! Now need to read up now on how to make the different colored labels to match more closely to the original...
  3. Yes, works perfectly. App performance and interface is outstanding. Thank you!
  4. It would be useful when -screen_cartridge_change=false that one could also supply a parameter like -screen_cartridge_label=cartridge.png to replace the disabled F5/F6 cartridge slot with a scanned image of the actual cartridge label.
  5. Started with BASIC on a Wang microcomputer in 1982, then bought a VIC 20 shortly afterward and loved its BASIC. Then machine language. But after college, got a C16 with its improved BASIC and a floppy drive and printer, which lead to apps, not games. The C128 (then C128D) was the balls with its built-in BASIC 7, then with a BASIC 8 compiler. Got an 8-bit C compiler for it at the time, but it was crap. But today, cc65 for 8-bit is pretty cool. In 1988, went Amiga 2000 with SAS/C, but it was long and hard to get a hold of the Amiga tech reference manuals, making C programming then almost useless without. So I wrote a commercial app in Amiga Checkbook using AmigaBASIC, but fortunately had access to a 3rd party compiler for it (I forget the name)... it ran MUCH faster and made the app usable on a stock Amiga with a floppy drive. By 1991 and after I got an Amiga 3000, I had everything I needed for some serious C programming (Checkbook 2.0, Sea War, Pizza Delivery Man!, Hack & Slash BBS with a Xem protocol) and never touched BASIC again. But thankfully, BASIC was around to keep my home computing purposeful until then!!!
  6. There are plenty of discussions and opinions on original classic machines playing on modern HD displays. The wave of "cheap" 16:9 ratio displays that can be had nowadays will not suffice the wants/needs of the classic retrogamer. If you are going to play on real hardware, you should have the real display from that era... i.e., like my old 27" Zenith TV and versatile Commodore 1702 monitor. Nothing like a little phosphor burning for that authentic color-bleeding action, baby!! Fortunately for the rest of the planet, we don't need to resort to such environmentally-hostile rigs (at least full-time), as there are still some energy-efficient HDTV makes out there that can do a bang up job with composite and analog signals, such as my two Sony (42" & 52"). But since I do some 8-bit programming as well, having the physical console playing at a correct ratio fully on my desk, or alongside the emulator counterpart using its PIP or POP feature, is a special treat. I recently got an HP LP2475w monitor for just such purposes as can be seen fully from my blog here. Sweet!
  7. Interesting historical perspectives from the Apple and Atari camps. What I am hearing, IBM PC was disruptive to Apple as Commodore was to Atari. Yeah, I think everyone knows that already; that hindsight has not changed significantly from 1985 to 2011. Price and distribution for consumer electronics will win the day, then and now. Commodore was the least expensive and readily available in all the major retail outlets, and they screwed their dealerships over and over to ship product. Atari and Apple 8-bits had their dealerships, which was not enough to dominate the captive markets formed in 1980 --their shit simply could not win in either camp, and only brand loyalty carry over from the '70s, new disgruntled (rich) folk, and entitled-but-not-accountable folk with their discretionary academic spending kept them in a fading business. Apple was for the rich folk (early adopters as posted), Atari was only slightly better (entertainment value for the rich). By 1980 when business and home computing became clear markets to the established OEMs, IBM ate Apple's lunch, Commodore ate Atari's, and Tandy disappeared. So what? Would the world be so much different now if only the 1980-1985 masses knew better about the internal workings of computer technology before investing hundreds on Commodore or thousands on PC? Recall a mere hundred dollars in 1980 is equivalent to $264.63 today, so a retail C64 would sell for $1588 compared to an A8 at $2382. Anyone have money left for software? All of those 28 titles cited for C64 at 1982 retail costs would likely be over $2000 today. Do the same cost ratio for peripherals and expansion cards. People were not stupid, they were practical -- what's MY return on this investment? Playing a (better) version of Donkey Kong? Get real. I also have "an uncle" story, too, who was beleagured by the thousands spent back then and the complexity of an IBM PC, DOS, monitor, floppies, printer, and word processing software -- spent two weeks struggling to get started and all he wanted to do was type his novel for a prospective publisher. In 1983 I was 18, and told him to return that PC shit and get a C64 with a Write Now! word processing cartridge at Toys 'R Us, hooked to his TV with a 12-pin NLQ printer -- got him started in under an hour and working on his novel for less than $800. If it stuck (and it did), he added a floppy drive for under $200 the following week. Wow, "people" were "stupid" then. Should have spent MORE on an Atari rig, or even more than the PC on an Apple (because it was SO much more friendlier). In the 1990s, IBM ate Commodore, and Atari and Apple limped through that decade with a severe case of an identity crisis. The 1990s were all about Microsoft. Today, Apple is still around with their designer turnkey devices for the rich; Atari is still making video games. Commodore's dead carcass has been picked apart since 1994. IBM continues to rule the enterprise datacenter, they just have to stay away from the software market altogether. And us aging geeks are still talking trash between our brand loyalties with Apple, Atari, and Commodore.
  8. Of all the posts on this thread, I felt like excerpting this from Atarileaf. I have been impressed by his YouTube reviews, but also a little shocked by the scope (not volume) of his collection activities. I love old school video gaming, but not to the breadth of what he was covering. Still, his attitude and humor portrayed suggested to me that it was under his control and he was happy. To me, this was his outlet to contribute something back to the retrogaming community, and he shared a lot of himself to us at the same time... so it was all good stuff. While it is sad to hear now that it was getting a hold of his life's priorities, we're happy he's on a track to a better place with moderation. My outlet is to resurrect old video games I saved or written from 1980s-1990s as well as to write new "homebrews" for that era as well... a very satisfying experience for me, even if the "rest of the world" does not give a shit. So, a lot of posts to this seemed to be focused on "justifying", if not rationalizing, these endeavors. I think the question each of us must answer about "feeling overwhelmed" in this topic: is it a video game collection or a video game addiction? Pressure to satisfy an urge that comes from within, that which "overwhelms" oneself, sounds fucking depressing, and I hope I am never in that bad place. The other metrics invested with this endeavor: money, space, time, ... hey, WTF, that's part of the equation for this and many other such hobbies. If you don't like it, if it is overwhelming to you, then your "out" is to join the "other" millions that simplify and use emulators. How many of you here "collect" vintage hardware and video games, yet still have the hundreds of thousands of video game roms, disks, tapes, scanned documentation, advertisements massed over the decades for "preservation" on your PC? Let's put weighing money spent aside, unless you bankrupt yourself in the process, because there are a lot more addictions (fast cars, fast women, slow ponies; not so much for drugs & alcohol, but the rehab costs are dear) for middle-aged and beyond geeks from the golden era of video gaming. There is nothing wrong with satisfying an urge to be nostalgic, to relive happy moments, to capture moments of what you were, today. Money spent on happiness, gee, how impractical is that? Does a bookworm get chastised for going to the library, Barnes & Noble, and keeping volumes of books? How many aging athletes continue to play their sport or find other outlets to satisfy their competitive nature? And women have diverse, global markets specifically targeted for their vanity and maintenance of it. The amount of money spent, in this context, is not addiction. Perhaps it's more of a personality disorder? To put this back into perspective with this community: how many of us used to enjoy congregating on Sundays, not at church, but at the local computer shop or toy store? We went mostly just to browse if anything new appeared on the shelves... looking for a wanting title with a reduced price, because some were just outrageously priced for our wallets. We "had" to go, making unnecessary trips (and sometimes dragging our family or girlfriends in with us), especially if we were already "in the neighborhood" (within 50-miles). Getting advance notice of a new title was rare, unlike today, the market is driven by release date (sometimes more than a year in advance) and big titles warrant a release show to feed the frenzy. So making repeated trips, risking that disappointment of nothing new for my beloved home computer or console, was part of the routine. What a thrill to discover something new on the shelves, and bang, you were in that going back loop until you had enough cash to plunk down and "get some". And routine becomes habit. How many of us fire up EBAY listings just to browse? Hopefully, you limit it to personal time and not work time, heh. It's still fun for me to try and get hardware, carts, accessories -- even better when it's at a dirt cheap price -- I got a THIRD VIC 20 for $5 and could not be more pleased because it is in pristine condition. I just recently "won" a TI-99/4A for 99-cents. It's okay to be a nerd that loves video games. Hey, I love babes, too, but this activity is cleaner, more respectable for a married man, and way less expensive. So, you might not be able to escape who you are (a fucking video game junkie no less), but you can control your habits, eh? Good luck, my fellow nerds, and keep the "overwhelming" part of this ridiculous hobby for making new personal high scores, reaching that next platform level, completing quests, uncovering those easter eggs, writing new homebrews, and sniping my last bid on ebay.
  9. This VIC 20 S/Video mod article details that operation and the resulting video is (I am informed by many adventurous users) outstanding. I have found C= VIC 20 composite video cables for ~ $8 on ebay all the time, and they also work with my Atari 800s with a Commodore 1702 monitor or connected to a VCR that passes the video source through to a standard TV.
  10. Yes, Dave and his web site are both Good Things for us aging enthusiasts to peruse on Sundays with our coffee ... I had forgotten how "magical" it was to get a Commodore Power Play magazine, released only every other month or so and often lost among BYTE, Apple, and IBM based magazines, until I downloaded all the issues for nostalgic trip. I sent Dave a few electronic contributions of my own, and found a few more to ship to him for scanning. A natural result from world popularity.
  11. Requires at least 8k memory expansion and a joystick to play. The PRG image can be download here. My updated VIC Software Sprite Stack, with this game's source code, can be fetched from this download page. Enjoy!
  12. Download directly and enjoy! I think everyone who owned a VIC 20 (pre-1985) created an Atari BREAKOUT clone in BASIC, or at least painted the colored bars on their screens as a mock display. Since I could not locate my BASIC version from my old cassette tapes, I thought I do one up right in ML, 1 or 2 player, uses paddles or joystick, and hi-res. More projects on my retrocomputing page.
  13. This got a lot of attention this past week. First, I got Retro Gamer magazine issue #77 delivered to find this review of it in its Homebrew section. Then, this avid YouTube poster and retro gamer fan, Atarileaf, made this video review:
  14. Very clear... and is that some reverb effects in there, too? Sounds like it was said over a microphone in an auditorium. That's pretty good for an 8-bit computer!
  15. Nice! Sounds way better than on the VIC. Have you tweaked the timing any to see if it can playback at a higher rate/pitch? If not, then perhaps 5800 is too much data.
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