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  1. I had some time after the Raymaze thingy and I used it to test some ideas "accumulated" in my head, after all these years. So be warned, long post ahead, with raycasting ramblings.. I had 3 things that I wanted to see working: - what I call the "line flicker" effect for APAC modes - an idea for a new (very fast) renderer, called Project X, that uses APAC over a char mode - and all the logic to have objects working APAC Line Flicker: The line flicker effect is basically having a normal screen in the "even" frames, and setting the screen one scanline down in the "odd" frames. So for an APAC mode, the GTIA 11 and 9 lines of one frame mix/merge with the GTIA 9 and 11 lines of the next frame. Then this is similar to interlace, but the idea is to reduce the dark lines product of using the GTIA 11 mode. Here.. a video is better.. (you need to set the quality to 720p50Hz to see it): In the middle of the video I activate the "frame blending" option in Altirra, so that's why the effect start looking "better". From what I understand some modern TV's do a similar effect. I'm a little undecided about this, but it could be an option. Probably I could give a final verdict if I see it running in real hardware. I think it would be a little better in NTSC also (30 Hz instead of 25 Hz). Implementing this with DLI's is trivial, but with IRQ's it was kind of a "side quest". First problem was that I was using one IRQ every two scanlines, to flip between GTIA 11 and 9 every line. Why?, because for 32 bytes mode lines, is faster to do a medium IRQ every two lines, than one small IRQ every line. Given that I was also going to implement this effect over a char mode, using one IRQ every two lines was "convenient", to skip the bad lines. But if you want to move your screen one scan line down, every "odd" frame, you will need to re sync the starting point of your IRQ's. That means touching SKCTL (15KHz clock) or STIMER (1.79MHz clock) every frame. And if you also want to play sounds or music, you don't want to write SKCTL or STIMER every frame, because they are going to sound wrong. I don't know if there is a way to do that.. maybe this is a question for phaeron In the end, I also needed to change the font every mode line, so with all those requeriments, the only solution was having one IRQ every line. Using the IRQ on channel 1, clocked to 1.79MHz, I can use the remaining 3 channels without any restriction (no need to force the music to 15KHz). Also you can sync the IRQ's to a point before the start of the badlines, so there is no conflict there (it still needs to be short). And you can move your screen one scan line down every odd frame, without the need to touch STIMER, just by moving the scan line of your DLI that init the IRQ's for that frame. Project X: The idea behind Project X was having a renderer with a processing cost near 0.. is that even possible?, without using all the memory?. Well.. yes. For starters one screen window uses 64 bytes, compared to the 4K per screen of Project M. So is kind of obvious that writing 64 bytes is a loooot faster than writing 4K (we are talking about the same screen resolution). I suppose this is a good example of the flexibility of the A8 to generate special "graphic" modes x) The big drawback of this mode is that you can only have very simple walls, so no complex textures. If you are smart you can have a good number of variations (more with a cartridge), but you have only a few number of different designs to use. The good thing is that they can be colorful, you win a nice and free depth cue effect, and you get back like 16K of ram (comparing it to Project M). Also, most of the processing time can be dedicated now to the "raycasting rays" part, and also.. objects experiments. Project M has a type of renderer that uses a block of around 14K for the scaling code (to scale up or down the textures). The scaling code points to a fixed 8K area in memory, where all the textures reside (and that would be one hell of a use for the banks of a cartridge). This is basically precompiled code, very fast, but still need to fill a 4K area for every logic frame. On the other side, Project X is the type of renderer that has all possible wall columns already scaled in memory, so it only needs to write 2 bytes to generate a final scaled wall column on screen (with background included). For this particular renderer it could be useful to use GTIA 10 instead of 11, to generate the color part of APAC, but I would need to see how that looks, because of the different offset of the GTA 10 pixels against the GTIA 9 pixels. Another advantage of Project X, is that it allows the camera/player to be closer to the walls, so is easier to move through doors. Also, the extra speed allowed me to increase the visual quality, using more precision on some of the raycasting data. Raycast Optimizations: After this, it was time to optimize the raycasting code. Now that the camera pivot is in the player position, there was a way to speed up a lot the camera rotations. It could have minor visual imperfections, but they are noticeable only if you are looking for them, so I tried it on. Then.. rotations were running at 54 fps in PAL ... yeah that's not an error (still NTSC was a little slower than 60). Because my frame rate was never that high and I use double buffering, I never needed a hard screen sync before. So it could happen that I render more than one logical frame per hardware frame. I added a "soft" kind of screen sync, so PAL don't go over 50 (softer than just waiting for a specific VCOUNT value, I wait for a VCOUNT "zone", so you can start rendering the next frame sooner, if the previous one was shorter than average, for example). After that, was the turn to improve all the raycasting that is done outside rotations. I had the idea, long ago, about interpolating most raycast info between 2 rays that were touching the same wall. The full idea means doing something like a binary search over the rays, and a general interpolation between any two rays. But there is a danger that doing all that could end up costing you too much time. So I decided to do a simplified version, that only check if ray N and ray N+2 touch the same wall, and then see if it can interpolate most of the data from ray N+1 (interpolation is also easier this way, with some specifics to the type of data you are interpolating). It was another good optimization. I would say in average 8 rays get interpolated (which is a lot faster than doing the raycast). So the speed up is similar to the one when you run Project M in the smaller window (starting the demo with SHIFT pressed). I can easily move these optimizations to Project M (fighting a little with ram distribution), so that's a low hanging fruit for the future. Objects: The implementation for this is another old idea. It was kind of surprising that it worked so easily and without major issues x) Basically, for every active object, I need to get the direction from the player, the distance and the screen size of the object. For every one of these I have a table that is accessed using the positive deltas between the camera position and the object position. Is little more complex, because there is also a "scale factor" involved, that is related to the distance between the camera and the object. If the object is closer to the player, then the tables provide more "resolution" for the data that they contain. The direction is transformed into a world angle index, that is later changed to a screen angle index, to see if an object is inside the screen. Then the distance is used to see if we need to clip some columns of the object, against walls that can be between the camera and the object. Finally the object should be rendered using the correct sprite frame, for an object of that size and with that orientation. This is different in the video, because for now I only draw columns of different width and size, and also change the color according to the distance. Right now the angle table uses 1K and I think it would look better with more resolution (that would mean 4K instead). The distance table uses 256 words (so 512 bytes), and it haves 7 bits of precision that I'm not using yet, but it works well enough. I was using a size table of 256 bytes, but in the end I don't need it, because objects also need the perpendicular distance to the camera (same correction as wall columns), so I'm using the same code used for the walls, to get this scale factor. In the video I implemented two "objects", one of them moving in a loop. They get activated when they are at a "visible" distance from the player (like 8 tiles away) and if they are disabled they should not cost much processing time. Probably two enemies at the same is a good rational limit for this engine, but I would have to test this more. Set the quality to 720p50Hz also for this.. For the future: (whenever that is..) For Project X, it could be useful to force a max frame rate of 25 in PAL (30 or 20 in NTSC), so it is a little more stable. Now it can go from 50 to a little below 20 (in very specific points of the maze, looking in specific directions and with 2 objects active.. but maybe I can optimize this worst case), so that variation may bother some people. In general I would say the average goes between 25 and 35 fps. So maybe locking the upper limit could be another option. Also, for any movement logic, is better to have a stable frame rate, but you can also solve this moving the logic to an interruption. The next step would be using better graphics for the objects, and that would require more complex clipping and lots of sprite frames . This can be done using P/M's, or char based software sprites in Project X (there is space for that), or just software sprites, in Project M. I also need to move the optimizations and the object code to Project M, but maybe it would be more productive to start migrating everything to a cartridge. Regards!
    25 points
  2. Finally compiled everything and finally got all of the data put into a menu menu'ing hierarchy I've wanted to implement for a long time. RAINBOW page will be updated soon. Waiting for some documents to come from Kevin Savetz and I have a bunch of chip tape outs and other materials I'll add in. The AMY stuff is already up in the RAINBOW page. http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/aed/OMNI/
    10 points
  3. This is something I’ve kind of wanted to have (or otherwise, to make) for a while. Which is to say, a good TI-99/4A “soundtrack” which is in effect just a collection of longer uninterrupted and continuous musical compositions (hence, almost inherently, title tunes) for classic TI-99/4A games. Especially Alpiner’s, Midnite Mason’s and Protector II’s title screen music really made an impression on me, back in the day. So good I barely wanted to leave the title screen. In the present day, there are homebrew games and demos which are absolutely killing it, when it comes to TMS9919/SN94624 musical compositions. But I wanted to revisit some 80s era classics first. I can definitely see how a “soundtrack” of the best of all eras, or the best of the modern era, would be desirable, though. Including glorious stuff like Bouncy’s Obstacle Course and Flying Shark and Tursi’s Mega Man 2 conversion and what have you. But that feels like a different category from what are, in these cases, mostly PSG translations of classical or traditional music. I also didn’t include any jingles or fanfares or otherwise very short compositions, here. Or any which I simply don't find very listenable. Title List in play order: Alpiner Anteater Jawbreaker II Midnite Mason Mouskattack Protector II Slymoids Arcturus Blasto Hustle St. Nick Driving Demon Ambulance Hangman Hen House Junkman Jr. Rotor Raiders Tombstone City Tris Yahtzee
    9 points
  4. They keep making all these press releases, and the usual suspects make posts on IGG or social media about what great news it is. But this stuff NEVER amounts to anything tangible to backers. The news in the press release is actually pretty bad when you think about it. They said they would have at least 11,000 consoles shipped by the end of March. Now, they might have 500 made by that time. The rest? Who knows. The rest of the release is just jibberish. I hope no one really believes this bunch has the ability to produce and manage a cryptocurrency.
    6 points
  5. Zipped TIF format images of the manual for: Myarc MEXP-1 Memory Expansion Card for you to print, read, OCR or PDF. This manual covers the 32k, 128k and 512k models. Note- there is an extended section on using DATA files in Basic/Extended Basic which may be helpful if you are struggling with file access using floppy disks. The 512k model could be configured to be used as normal 32k expansion plus a ram disk plus a print spooler. The contents of the ram disk disappeared on power off. The ram disk could be used in any language or module that allowed you to use a device name "RD." instead of "DSK1." OR it could be configured at the comand line to emulate DSK1. for those programs that did not allow RD. And for limited programs such as Multiplan which looked for DSK.TIMP, you could also have the RAM disk emulate disk DSK.TIMP. There is also a note in the manual regarding assembly access to the ram banks- the 128k and 512k cards had 96k in four banks. From memory I think the Funlweb operating system could use this to tuck part of itself somewhere safe. Myarc Extended Basic OS used/required the card but the card was very useful without Myarc XB.. Myarc_Mem_Exp.zip
    6 points
  6. Even Gamestop's hopes are not high. ? https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/arcade/products/atari-vcs-800-onyx-base-system/10178640.html (scroll to bottom)
    6 points
  7. This is why it's rare Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk
    6 points
  8. Please keep politics out of this and all discussions on AtariAge. There will be no further warnings about that in this thread. Thank you, ..Al
    5 points
  9. Meh. I'm a small fry compared to big hitters like our Flo! ? It's not a competition young man! ?
    5 points
  10. Thanks to the help of a nice user here my Atari is complete again!
    5 points
  11. I am definitely "LAUGHING NOW!!!!" Jerry ... and it's got nothing to do with the markets. A new announcement from Ataco up at ATARI Investisseurs, including new game launch details, Ashoebox manufacturing update, Atari Token details and Casino dribble. Some interesting details. If you like taco's, CLICK HERE.
    5 points
  12. https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/#!/Bounce-N-Pounce/p/179773047/category=0 [emoji4]
    4 points
  13. Yeah, me But I'm still waiting for PCBs from China, I'll put them assembled on my Tindie when they come.
    4 points
  14. 10,231 Fun game! Nice 80s-style bullet hell later on.
    4 points
  15. @Spriggy, I'm shocked you haven't "won a day" at AtariAge since December 23th... Imagine what would happen if Tommy Tallarico did not post that much!
    4 points
  16. LEFT RIGHT, LEFT RIGHT, B-A-START
    4 points
  17. Your ATR is correct in itself. I booted it successfully from SIO (using RespeQt, at 57600 bps) and from a real HDD (IDE+ 32 MB partition). So the problem must be in the configuration of your SIO2SD. Maybe the serial speed you selected is still too high for SpartaDOS, try something like 52-57 kbps (POKEY divisor from 8 to 10). By the way, many programs you have collected on that ATR in the SD_UTILS directory are SpartaDOS X programs which will not run under SpartaDOS 3.2. For example: CONFIG, ECHO, INIDOS, KILLDIR, MDUMP, NEW, RUN, TOMS, TRACE, TTD, VIEW. Most of them is so old that I doubt if they could run even under modern versions of SpartaDOS X. And, by the way... Seeing KILLDIR.COM in there truly touched my heart. It was my first ever program written for SpartaDOS X (then version 4.20) with the use of the SpartaDOS X library calls and compiled into the native, relocatable SDX binary format. I still have the source code, it is dated 21 Sept 1993, which must have been the day I last touched it. Since there was no appropriate assembler which would allow to generate the relocatable binary (no Mads, not even Fast Assembler yet), the source code is named KILLDIR.M65 - yes, MAC/65. All the fixups and stuff generated as blocks of .BYTE data, plus probably a helper program (I do not have it) which fixed the header afterwards. We had no information on the SDX internals (nobody had, as far as I know), so all the stuff: that it is there, what it is, and how to use it, had to be gathered first by analyzing the binary code. The program lives until now, cleaned up, debugged, enhanced, renamed, compiled with Mads, but still the same: it is CAR:DELTREE.COM in the current SpartaDOS X distributions. MDUMP.COM is probably mine too, and I too still have the source: same M65 format, same stuff as above. And it is MDUMP.COM until this day (CAR:MDUMP.COM). Man, people were doing such stuff when the world was young
    4 points
  18. We could name it the "Jimbo" (runs and ducks for cover)
    4 points
  19. Thanks man. Once I clear some things out and get set back up for success, I'm gonna get myself back into some coding. I have issues with accumulation... not just computer stuff, but many other things as well. I need to de-clutter the world around me. Then I will be able to enjoy my hobbies more.
    4 points
  20. Thanks Greg. I'll be putting several items up over the next week or so. Likely to be included in this set of auctions are: -Funware collection (already up) -Mechatronics XBII+ with manual (already up) Coming this week or next: -MG GRAM Kracker (in original box, new) -Super Sketch (in original box) -Red Baron cartridge -Miner 2049er cartridge -Plato Interpreter cartridge -Large lot of sealed PagePro software and add-ons I also have many non-TI-related video game lots coming up including a rare boxed Sears Intellivision with 50+ games, and an Intellivoice module. Also will be selling a gorgeous, boxed, complete Tandy 102 Portable with all the case candy. This one's a gem. Im not getting out of the vintage game/computer world, but I need to reset my priorities. My loss is your gain.
    4 points
  21. Are you being sarcastic? I genuinely can't tell at this point.
    4 points
  22. Tom Hudson (@Klankster) was a technical editor for ANALOG computing and wrote some A8 games, including Livewire!, Buried Buck$ (eventually published by Imagic as Chopper Hunt), Planetary Defense (updated in 2012). He programmed Solid States, a 3D object viewer and 1020 plotter printer, published on Analog Computing magazine February 1984 issue #16. In fact, as he wrote in the magazine To be honest, I can't take all the credit for this program. I got it from a Compucolor II computer bulletin board several years ago; the author was not credited. I modified the program to work on the Atari computers, added the editing, screen clipping, plotter output and file handling. Eventually he developed DEGAS (1985), co-developed CAD-3D (1986) and Cyber Studio (1987) for Atari ST and then the famous 3D Studio (1990) for PCs. Screenshots from Altirra emulator: Eventually two articles appeared on Analog Computing June 1984 issue #19 and September 1984 issue #22, with enhancements (animation, print) and readers objects (letter A, nuclear reactor cooling tower, adjustable stop, Tie Fighter, X-Wing, Atari 800). Thanks Atari_Ace for the heads up. I typed the data of some 3D objects and I found some of them on the Internet (thanks devwebcl). I made a disk with Solid States program together with published 3D objects: Solid States (1984)(Analog).atr This disk has Turbo-Basic XL therefore the program runs faster: Solid States (1984)(Analog)(TBXL).atr I made a PDF with mentioned Analog Computing articles: Solid States (1984)(Analog)(manual).pdf You can read the articles in html format: issue #16, #19, #22. It would be nice to design an Atari logo. Solid States inspired Super 3D Plotter II (1985, Elfin Magic Software). Manual - Download. The author Rand Constan wrote on the manual: "I wish to thank Tom Hudson and A.N.A.L.O.G. magazine for finding and publishing the "SOLID STATES" program, as this was in fact the original inspiration to create SUPER 3D PLOTTER". In fact on the disk there is the above Solid States 3-D space shuttle and there's a Basic program to convert objects from Solid States. More infos on Tom Hudson and 3D Studio ancestors can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hudson_(programmer) http://www.klanky.com/ https://doudoroff.com/atari/index.html https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/simplecontent/content/autodesk-3ds-max.html
    3 points
  23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdh5zU1J4Kk This is a compilation of every Atari game to be released on more than one of their cartridge-based consoles. If it was released on a combination of the 2600, 5200 or 7800, it's on here.
    3 points
  24. 14,673 Man, chain deaths are a real thing 8n this game, eh?
    3 points
  25. This version looks more exciting...
    3 points
  26. I tripled my lifetime PB on Kaboom during Week 7, spent about 20 hours playing over and over to do it, and didn't even get into the top 10, much less the top 4. A lifetime best for me after playing the game since 1982 (almost 40 years) wasn't even 1% of the score that the top player could get with two broken hands playing a bad game for his skill level. Isn't all of this, however, kind of the inherent nature of a "contest"?
    3 points
  27. So we're more than a week into March, and not only did February come and go with no actual updates (only a couple of VG screenshots, a tweet about getting hookuped with the Sega RetroBit controllers, and a "fun fact" about the console's database which is currently pointless since no one has the hardware in their hands yet), but only on the 5th was there an "actual" update on the beta saying that the actual big update will come out next week. Along with a retweet from ModernVintageGamer being excited they got into the beta. I also decided to look at the #Polymega hashtag on Twitter, and found that others were tweeting about their acceptance into the beta test. Playmaji usually hops all over positive press @'ing them or using the hashtag, so it seems rather interesting that the only retweet about beta acceptance comes a major retro gaming YouTuber that's announced as such so far. Kinda funny that they latch onto it, since MVG could also prove to be the one that makes or breaks potential future purchases or keeping of preorders if it proves to not be accurate enough with its emulation for the price. This is, of course, assuming that this thing doesn't keeps getting delayed into oblivion as previous events have shown, but that's another kettle of emulation cores. Speaking of, here's a Reddit story from last week (found as the first popular result on Twitter if you look up #polymega): Yeah, it seems they already have unhappy preorders from the constant shifting of dates with little to no news or interaction to those who bought into Polymega unless they say: "No console yet? Give me my money back." This is one of the reasons people like myself are skeptical that this thing will ever see the light of day. Knowing that at least one prototype unit exists and has been shown off does little to quell the accusations of scamming, or at the very least incompetence, pointed at Playmaji and Bryan Bernal. If that's all it took to quiet critics, my eating shit a year ago over the Saturn HLE BIOS would've likely been where the conversation ended. Since we know eyes are on this thread: we don't need more tweets showing retro gaming ephemera and fluff journo pieces, Playmaji, we need tangible evidence that more units beyond the 1-2 prototypes that exist, and that they are ready to ship out to those who gave you money. Bigger companies have been able to get away with multiple delays because of their proven track records of performance, and even they haven't continually changed dates as much as you have. You aren't in the same position as Atari, guys, where you can hide behind a LLC and a IGG campaign to keep stringing out BS and find yourself with little legal recourse; you took money directly for a product under the guise of a preorder, and you are an incorporated company, so you are under the full extent of US consumer protection laws.
    3 points
  28. "I need TP for my bung hole."
    3 points
  29. XB1 Shadow of the Tomb Raider (729 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (415 min) Synth Riders (58 min) Continued my SotTR game. I'm working on the DLC challenge tombs (which I didn't realize I needed to download for the definitive edition of the physical disc). Still playing Beat Saber, but I also tried Synth Riders, which is similar and pretty cool, but alas, its no Beat Saber, lol.
    3 points
  30. Watch the monkey. His animation will show the direction that's he's going to throw the next coconut. I jump straight up, then tap the joystick right or left to move onto a nearby platform. I work my way up to the level below the monkey, then just ride platforms back and forth on that and the next level below, until the monkey throws to the right, or takes a break from throwing. Then I go up the left side to rescue Zelda. Short, vertical, controlled jumps work better than long diagonal ones.
    3 points
  31. Easier said than done since the address listed isn't actually the correct address. Last time I had sent mail to them it had come back undeliverable and the phone numbers were also disconnected, called to get a current address but couldn't even get that. It's amazing that anyone is able to do business with them.
    3 points
  32. All I can can say for "Atari" for trying to sue others for using their expired patents on controllers is: "They're pretty much out of luck." *The site is from Aliexpress.
    3 points
  33. Speaking of old PDubs I think we are past the point of his banishment from this thread aren't we? After a certain time frame should things like bans and moderated posts be lifted? Maybe he is ready to have some tacos.
    3 points
  34. Yes, however even after a patent expires, you have what’s called Trade Dress (the look of a product) however just like trademarks, trade dress has a 3 year non-use abandonment clause. Atari stopped making the classic 77/78 joysticks in 92 and by 94 the patents had expired. 96 Atari ceased to exist and was merged into JTS which ran a division called Atari Interactive. In 98 Hasbro buys all the game copyrights & IP from JTS, Infogrames buys Habros gaming assets - Atari Interactive among them. So from 96 through 2001 Atari is a software only company. No hardware has been produced. Their last know hardware - the Jaguar is the only thing people remember of Atari and the only controller is the Jaguar controller. Atari has abandoned its trade dress on its joysticks, it can’t argue Residual goodwill because everyone in mainstream culture has forgotten about Atari, it’s been a software company for 5 years straight until the Jakks Pacific 10in1 license. On their console, that’s a lost cause... Atari back in 1984-1992 abandoned the entire trade dress of the 77-83 VCS design, in 83 Atari itself abandoned its wood grain usage. Most of the mainstream public only knows the 2600 as the wedged shaped 2600jr design. Atari has ZERO standing on that. This case is a no win for them.
    3 points
  35. Atari has ZERO rights of ownership of the old joystick design. I can tell you this for a fact. I’ve been selling my USB Classic Controllers for 12 years and Atari has known about this since day one and I even had their head of legal confront my in 2008 and said there was nothing Atari could do. The patents expired, they haven’t used the design in over 13 years 92-05 so they can’t claim trade dress either. Atari has knowingly allowed the sale of joysticks that are similar to the old 78 design and their actions (or lack of) remove any form of argument for them to use. Furthermore, Hasbro bought IP rights, no patents, no designs, no holdings. Atari owns game copyrights & trademarks, therefor Infogrames has no position of enforcement of product trade dress.
    3 points
  36. Well, this was unexpected, to say the least! AFAIK we've only ever seen this design once (as this title was seemingly never re-released by Carrere Video in Europe), and that's in the 1983 U.S. Games press kit (pdf, Atarimania, see page 28), in black-and-white. The included cartridge features the "beveled shell" U.S. Games style labels *over top* of the older Vidtec style label & cart shell. A closer look: The manual and box are indistinguishable from other later U.S. Games titles in terms of paper quality/size/etc. There's nothing printed on the packaging that suggests that this is a promotional copy or made specifically for a trade show, but... it's hard to imagine that this was put out for retail sale with labels stuck over top of another label. That, plus the fact that this is seemingly the only one to ever turn up suggests to me that it's more likely some kind of sample copy. Unfortunately I have nothing more concrete in terms of provenance. The person who sold it to me had no information on where it came from. The box has a Proof-of-Purchase in the usual U.S. Games place (on a top flap), but I don't think this is necessarily evidence of it having been manufactured for sale. I've sent a message to one of the PR reps who handled U.S. Games at the time -- I'll post again if I receive a response!
    2 points
  37. here is my new labeled ebay C64 with the Keelog power supply that I ordered from Poland, and the video cable from ebay which looks much better than the RCA out. the backbit cart is ordered. and everything is falling into place. was really enjoying Wizard of Wor on the vice emulator and got a great high score. being an atari 600XL kid in the early 80s, I missed out on the Commodore. Must say, I am really impressed.
    2 points
  38. Thanks for the report, its part of the copy protection that needs values adjusting due to the relocation. I did that for the 5200 version but not the A8 cart. I'll work out what these should be and post a patched version
    2 points
  39. Huh. After re-reading his post, I see what you mean. Oh well, apologies if I caused any confusion...
    2 points
  40. Found a nice scan of the manual if anyone's interested: http://www.pixelatedarcade.com/pdf/Game/54/Demon-Attack-Intellivision-Instructions.pdf ...and I realized that this HSC hasn't been posting manuals. Oh well, cool to reference.
    2 points
  41. Here it is, the A.T.A.R.I. (AtariAge Text, Art and Rom Injector) v0.X 900+ games this time. It will work with the Atari Flashback 9HD, 9Gold, X and XDeluxe as long as you are running the Custom Firmware and the mount and startup files are on the root of your SD Card/USB Device.. This works the same as the "emulator" folder. This is the "rom" folder. Swap it out with the one you dumped to the root of your USB Device. you should have on the root of your SD Card/USB Device: the "mount.sd" file. the "startup.sh" file. a folder named "game" with Atari 2600 roms in either .bin or .a26 format and no spaces in the rom name, and not an overly long name. (this is just for side loading games without art the old way.) a folder named "rom". dump it with the "mount.sd" file when you power on the system. (or just use the one I just posted here) a folder named "emulator". dump it with the "startup.sh" file when you power on system. (or just use the Sans Boom Theme/"emulator" folder up above. If you need help, just ask. If you have changes in mind to make to the rom pack for future updates, just let me know. About the music, I always turn the background music off, so I don't even think to edit it. but yes, totally swappable. The stella core is in there too, I imagine someone who knows what they are doing could edit or swap that. To edit the main game list: in the rom folder is a file named "all-games.ini". you have to edit that file with notepad. If you have Tron.a26 rom you will need a thumbnail in PNG format, 211x290 pixels, named Tron.a26.png and a second thumbnail 122x168 named Tron.a26.s.png. The rom the thumbnails and even the all-games ini file all are in the "rom" folder together. Check the other games entries in the all-games.ini file to get an idea how to add your new game. but it looks like this: [Crossbow] File=/rom/Crossbow.a26 Platform=Atari Sort=Crossbow Year=1987 Genre=atari Description= Note= \ Player Mode: Multi-player game (1-2) \ \ 1. SELECT button. \ Press the SELECT button to choose between games. \ \ 2. Use joystick controllers. \ Use the P1 or left slot joystick for one player games, and the P2 or right slot joystick for the second player in two player games. \ \ 3. Difficulty switches. \ Toggle Switches for Difficulty. \ \ 4. Instructions. \ Press START button to begin play. Alright guys, Have Fun! ATARIvX.rar
    2 points
  42. i got my 4000B in today... Feels like Christmas! Going to put it in my Geneve.
    2 points
  43. You should realize that the odds of abandonning a project before its completion are much greater for an NES game that's proposed to reach the scope of commercial offerings (like 128K or more). That's what I like about the ColecoVision, as a publisher: 32K represents a sweet spot where any bedroom coder can make a good game in a reasonable amount of free time, assuming he/she has a good understanding of the hardware and some programming experience. Anything over 32K requires a lot more dedication to carry the project through to the end, and not many have the drive (and the free time) to do this. It should be noted that if you have access to a full IDE (Integrated Development Environment) with graphic editor, sound editor and whatnot, then making bigger games becomes a more manageable possibility, but it's not necessarily easier. You can still get bored of your own project and drop it when everything else in the universe seems more interesting than that last 20% of work you need to do to finish your game. EDIT: And don't get me started on team programming. That may work fine when people are paid to do their jobs, but homebrew teams break up and go their separate ways very easily.
    2 points
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