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About this blog

Mostly Atari-related projects, and other ramblings. Home of the Artie the Atari comic strip.

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Homebreviews - part 28

Today marks the fourth anniversary of my blog! And to celebrate the event... the review that nobody thought would ever happen! (And no, I don't mean N.E.R.D.S 2 ) Yes, it's Actionauts. So, you're probably wondering, "How and or why the sweaty heck did you get Actionauts?!?" After all, I wasn't exactly enamored with the marketing fiasco associated with it. Simply put, I got a comp copy for having done some work on the manual and label. Ain't no way I'd plunk down $79.95 for an unfinis
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
 

Homebreviews - part 16

So much for the "shorter reviews" theory... Elevators Amiss 3/5 Elevators Amiss was inspired by a game for the Atari 8-bit computers called Elevator Repairman. I even played Elevator Repairman to check out the original, and Elevators Amiss does do an excellent job of paying homage to that game - right down to the way the character's tiny little feet shuffle along. It's just that I don't care for either game very much. The object of the game is very simple - move your character across the
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
 

Real-world Lynx fun

I recently added a Lynx to Artie the Atari. The reasons were twofold: I've had a Post-It note on my computer for well over a year that says, "Atari Lynx whose battery always dies by fourth panel".   . I've had a list of Lynx games I've been meaning to buy from B&C Computervisions for even longer than that. Much, much longer. . I'm not a completist, by any stretch of the imagination, but there are some games I've always wanted to pick up for the system (I own a Lynx II).   Nearl
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

Homebreviews - part 18

Dark Mage 4/5 You are facing a blog entry. > Look You see nothing special. > Scroll There is a game review here. > Use You can't use this item. > Eat You can't eat this item. > Read Dark Mage is a text adventure, in the classic style of Zork. I spent many hours in the early 80's at my friend's house, with the two of us logged into the University of Washington's VAX, playing Zork through a modem hooked up to his TRS-80. I don't recall how long we played it, bu
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3
 

Predictions for 2012

Hey, it's that time of year again. We'll get this year out of the way right away, then move onto how I did last year.   Predictions for 2012: I predict I won't make any predictions for 2012. So, I'm already either 100% right, or 100% wrong, depending on whether or not you take that prediction into account as an actual prediction.   The reason I'm not making any predictions, is that with Steve Jobs gone from Apple... they've become all-too predictable. iPad 3? Yep. iPhone 5? Yep. Killi
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

4
 

Homebreviews - part 30

Well, if I don't start writing some more reviews, I'll never catch up. So we'll start off with two games with musical names! (Okay, so one of them isn't a game. But "two carts" wouldn't have rhymed. ) Harmony Cart 5/5 The Harmony Cart is a programmable multi-game cartridge that allows you to load almost every game ever written for the Atari 2600 onto an SD memory card, and play them on a real console. While there have been other programmable cartridges for the 2600 before, the Harmony has
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

2600 music - rockin' the Casbah

(I went back in and edited this blog entry, since I found that the information I was asking for in the first place, was right in front of me the whole time. Serves me right for not doing a little more research before posting this blog entry. )   One of my still-unfinished projects is to create a set of 2600 sound samples for use with Apple's GarageBand.   Thanks to this handy web page, I now know how to do just that.   The trick is, having the 2600 spit out as the correct* notes, so I can
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8
 

You get what you pay for

Update: The domain info is now fixed! To be fair, the IT people where I work are desperately over-worked and under-staffed. Sure, it's annoying when something gets messed up, but they've been pretty good to me about fixing things when that happens. I didn't expect anything until next week, since they're off Fridays during the Summer months. So you can ignore most of the snarky comments in this entry... ____________   As part of where I work, I have free webspace for my CheepTech site. That's
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2
 

Taking a Detour

Coming in 2013, from the makers of Robot Chicken...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yRNXFhboBI   What's particularly cool, is that even though Robot Chicken's Star Wars specials were done with the permission of Lucasfilm, this is being created by Lucasfilm.   More videos at the official website.
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3
 

Congratulations, Albert!

No doubt thanks to all of the hard work he puts into AtariAge, and his upcoming attendance at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, he is this week's App of the week!   Download him now, while he's still free!  
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2
 

Homebreviews index - part 3

It's been almost a whole year, so it's time again for an update to the Homebreviews Index. There are now 89 reviews, arranged alphabetically, by score. There weren't too many new releases this year, but more are on the horizon. With any luck I'll hit the 100 mark sometime in 2010.   Reviews added since the last index are labeled New. All reviews are for Atari 2600 homebrews, unless otherwise noted.   5/5 2005 Holiday Cart: Reindeer Rescue 2005 MiniGame MultiCart 2007 Holiday Cart:
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

Homebreviews - part 36

I had one more game that came in after the last batch...     Incoming! 4/5   Incoming! is a 2600 port of the classic computer game Artillery. You and another tank face off against each other across a variety of terrains. Factoring in wind, the angle of your shot, and how much power to use, you take turns firing at each other. The first one to hit the other tank a given number of times, wins.   While there's already a similar 2600 game called Artillery Duel (by Xonox), Incoming! literal
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1
 

Making Labels - Part 3

Part 3 - More Coloring     Color Space   This is probably a good point to mention color space. A color space defines what primary colors are combined together, and how they're combined, in order to make a full range of colors.   RGB (red, green, blue) is what you see on your computer display.   CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) is what printers use. Technically, this image is only CMY. But it's a good comparison against RGB.   Printers can not print all of the colors that you c
Guest

Guest

3
 

Homebreviews - part 32

Ah yes, the Atari 7800... the poster child for "too little, too late". The 7800 had great promise when it was previewed in Electronic Games magazine back in '84, but the industry crash killed it before it even got out the door. By the time it was finally released several years later (to cash in on the success of the NES), nobody took notice, and nobody wanted to take a chance developing titles for it. The 7800's miniscule library eventually was the death knell for the system, at least as far as
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
 

Summer Full o' Superheroes pt. 3 - Thor

Okay, true story - I've actually known two people named Thor.   One of them was a co-worker, and the other a student (who is now a director).   I also knew someone whose last name was Batman. I bet she got teased a lot as a kid. But that's off-topic.   I went to see the movie Thor today, despite being somewhat underwhelmed by the trailers for it, and despite that I've always felt Thor was somewhat of a third-stringer, superhero-wise. But I decided to go see it since I enjoyed watching Iron
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3
 

Happy March 32nd!

The ridiculousness of some pranks has just taken all the fun out of the whole day.   28 < PreviousIndexNext >
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

9
 

From the lobby of the WTC

Remember the movie Escape from New York?   Near the end of the film, there's a scene where Kurt Russell and everyone is running through the lobby of the World Trade Center.   That was actually shot where I work - at CalArts, in the Main Gallery. The only thing I'm not sure of, is if they made it messier for the movie, or cleaned it up for the movie. (That's a CalArts joke... )   Anyway, it's 3:50 AM Sunday as I'm starting this blog entry. I just got home from the Character Animation Open S
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
 

Siri-ous TV

Apple has been rumored to have been working on an Apple-branded TV for years. They've actually released several products along those lines, such as the Macintosh TV, the first Mac Mini-sized Apple TV, and the current super-tiny Apple TV (seriously, you have to see this thing in person to appreciate how small it is). None have really solved the "TV problem", however. All TV services and DVRs have some shortcomings, and some are downright annoying to use. While I generally like U-Verse, I'm beginn
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5
 

Time Marches On

And so it's March. Where January and February went - I have no idea.   Anyway, I feel somewhat obligated to post a blog entry, just so I don't get pushed off the front page.   Music seems about as good a topic as any. As I'm working on various art projects, I like to listen to music that ties into what I'm working on. For example, if I'm working on sprites for a sci-fi game like Colony 7 or Juno First, I'll listen to sci-fi movie soundtracks. Tron works especially well for this, since it's
Guest

Guest

5
 

Spending $50...

Or he could buy a Star Trek pizza cutter. And a pizza.   But for those (like me) who dug the first two installments of Carmageddon, here's a link to their Kickstarter page.   115 < PreviousIndexNext >
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3
 

New old music - parts 8, 9 & 10

It's been awhile since I wrote reviews for Herb Alpert's music. But that doesn't mean he's stopped making it. Previously, I reviewed a pair of duet albums he did with his wife (here and here). Since then, Herb (still going strong at 81) has cranked out a new album every year for the past three years. 2013: Steppin' Out 2014: In The Mood 2015: Come Fly With Me I'm going to review these together because... well, they're all very similar. Which for He
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
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