crsdawg

Sandbox mode peeps...Sandbox mode...make your own fun!!!

I've always been a fan of Ram It by Telesys it's similar to Turmoil by 29th Century Fox...which is also not super well known and quite good.

What is the deal with all the necro posts on AA lately? Are members just trolling or is there another reason?

Here's the one I put together as a goof. It is constructed more similarly to the original designers vision, though I modeled it with FDM printing in mind. While the stacking ribs is a terrible idea for mass market, it actually makes the body of the thing easy to print.

I'm no fan of the un-console...but it looks to me that the fan is blowing across a heatsink that is sitting on top of the cpu. I built an AtariBox pi case as a goof last year...and trust me there is not enough height inside that case for a typical HSF set-up. You can see the mounting screws to the right of the fan. They also have shielding in place over the board...I see no reason to doubt that there is a pcb under; but I bet the board was unpopulated, probably an early sample. If I am to go to the trouble of producing a clear case I would want to showcase the parts. You can see the IO popping up through it though...so at least those parts were soldered in place. Having the shielding in place is a weird choice and would be a red flag for a journalist. Any excuse about secrecy would be a joke...there is nothing special about this hardware...unless that is why they wanted to keep secret. The utter blandness of it.

I went back a couple pages and I didn't see it mentioned, but the Raspberry Pi 4 was just recently announced? 1.5 ghz, 64bit, QuadCore, up to 4 gig ram, gigabit ethernet, USB 3.0, 2x HDMI ports, Micro SD card slot...tons of other IO (mic, video in...) The Pi 3 is everything the Ataribox wants to be only with a huge following and massive 3rd party support. The Pi 4 just takes what the Pi 3 is and turns it to eleven. Plus, it is in production and actual product is on it's way through retail channels now, no Kickstarter money used, and it is a derivative of a successful product with many quality software projects ready to be ported to it. It's just interesting to me how some people can be so enamored with the FauxTari product when what they want is available now for much, much less money.

At the ripe old age of 11 I was speed running E.T. before there was a name for that sort of play style. No special books, no online run through...I just used my ability to read words (in the manual) and my brain to invent different strategies to overcome the games difficulties and short falls. It became one of my favorites for a time as I found that trying to get through it as fast as possible was a fun challenge.

I think, as far as credit card charge reversals go, Atari has already failed in their promises of timely updates and openness to backer input. These claims were a big part of the campaign and is what I'd be harping on if I were working with a bank to get my money back. Otherwise they still have time to stall since the thing isn't due out for a few months yet.

I could give a couple reasons. For starters, David is a pretty popular YouTuber. YT gets a lot of hate on this site for some reason, but those bring a lot of interest into this hobby from people who otherwise wouldn't care. He has a substantial following that could lead to a homebrew scene. That's probably a stretch, but the device might at least get active user support if he sells enough of them (for instance, a public forum that actually gets posted to). It's not guaranteed, but he has a reach an unknown guy will not have. Also, he seems to be in it out of passion and not for profit. His last Kickstarter campaign was handled extremely well and is fulfilling orders either on time or early (I'm not sure of his timeline off the top of my head). The big thing, I feel, is Bill Herd's support. I like David and feel like he is doing this project for the right reasons, but having the designer of the C128 on board gives the project weight and credibility. The problem I have with the project, like many have said, with so many modern retro 8-bit computers already out there or in production...what makes this one special. Having David and Bill helps, but I don't think that is enough. If they went into a direction that focused on making the computer the spiritual successor to the C64 (sort of, what the C128 should have been). I think it would be more interesting. As it stands, with no guaranteed backwards compatibility to the C64 and a lot of modern hardware being considered in it's build sheet (might as well use a r pie or PC and emulate), I'm just not sure it there is a reason for it's existence (outside of being a vanity project). It's like a cool idea that doesn't really have a purpose. I think he is capable of building and delivering it, and will be able to sell them to his fans. The question is will people actually use the thing seriously? Maybe if he pushes it personally and on his YT channel makes some games for it...a few others makes some games. I don't know, I wish them the best, but it still feels like they are running uphill.

The thing with YouTube is that it is a game that the creators are trying to play. It's all driven by analytics with one of the most important being minutes viewed, the more time you can get people to watch your videos the more weight you get in the suggested videos algorithm and then your videos will get placed higher on the suggested videos side bar, which drives more minutes viewed (there are a few key variables but MV is one of the more important) . 240,000 minutes viewed per year is now the milestone you need to reach in order to monetize your videos, that's a lot. Reaching and exceeding that number is driving YouTube channels to create content in a certain way. This is why you see a lot of the face in front of a camera type of videos, one shot take videos, game play videos, and etc. It's simply because they are easy to make. YouTube'rs are encouraged to upload daily, twice daily...or even more. Since good videos take awhile to make, you end up with a lot of filler. Placing ads doesn't really figure into this as having good numbers is the real force in how creators choose to make videos. You need to upload as much as possible, have a nice camera and back drop, make short videos (so the viewers don't get bored), be super duper enthusiastic (to keep the viewers attention), and post videos that follow only the trending topics (because viewers all all lemmings). That's the formula and is why so many YouTube videos are all the same. Rinse...repeat...rinse.....repeat...rinse... To be honest they kinda have to do this. It works and 4000 hours watched is a tough goal. This puts a lot of pressure on the video makers to craft videos in a way that will improve their stats (and get your videos in the suggested list). If you don't get there, you are just giving your time away for free. YouTube is more than happy to profit from it though.

If new Atari takes a dive I would be afraid that greed and/or desperation might take hold and the current owners would just split up what's left of Atari's assets. Have an ip fire sale so to speak, they could split up all the old games and try to squeeze as much value out of them as possible by selling them to the highest bidder. Whoever ends up with the Atari brand may have nothing but a fuji symbol to show for it.

The thing is if a person made a homebrew game or showed promise that he could...that person would just get hired by a publisher and make official games. There was no need for a homebrew scene since their was a market for retail games and salaried jobs to be had making them. I think Skeet Shoot is an example of a guy who figured out how to program games for the 2600, he made what we would call a homebrew game, then a publisher found out (maybe he marketed his game to a few), they bought the game, hired/partnered with the guy, and the game was sold in retail.

2 screens for me. Always wanted one of these but have held off due to the screen issue.

Of course ET could have been a good platformer. It could have been a good maze game or a racing game (why not?)...or any other game style. It's all about execution, not game type. What ET really needed was more development time. If HSW was given the typical 6-7 months to code the game (instead of 6-7 weeks) we would have had something pretty special I think, or at least very good. Hell, I bet with 2-3 more weeks it would have been drastically better...but the suits at Atari after NB left just didn't understand the gaming business and put Warshaw on ridiculous schedule. I think the game as it stands is pretty decent...just flawed. All the hate is just bandwagonism and laziness b/c nobody wants to RTFM. I was speed running the game as a 10 year old...I don't get how people can think it is confusing or complex.