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Another compiled game: - Moon Race, from Tronicsoft. Read the description on TI99IUC (Moon Race). ------------------------------------ Total compiled games: 327. [GAME] Moon Race (1984)(Tronicsoft)[Compiled by TMOP].zip

Took a break from the SCSI code this weekend to work on the IDE low level code. A new powerup routine now tests for device IDE1 and if found, its card's CRU address is saved and the sector IO address is cached. These two saved values simplify the low level call and eliminate the need to scan the card during each read/write operation (~faster). This implies that the IDE card will be usable at other CRU addresses in the future. I don't yet know if a similar powerup/CRU caching approach is feasible for SCSI and TIPI, though it is certain both cards would benefit from more than is coded within the OS.

Tomorrow i put prices for all options and add info about list for collector's edition. Thanks atariage users for watching premiere online! (I know, it has chaotic...)

Despite the 3 weeks, I still waited until the last day or 2 (shame on me!) Not 100% if I'll have time for another shot at improving. The End: 16180 Robot City: 2331 Tower of Rubble: 107

It's been a few days since I've posted an update, so wanted to do so now, as I will be spending nearly all of my time this weekend working on these games.. This week I've mostly been working on the extra games for these pre-orders (that is, additional games ordered with the pre-order games), as well as prepping even more cartridges. At this point I do have the majority of games assembled, many labeled, and should have all the pre-order games labeled and boxed by the end of the weekend. After that it will be just finishing up the extra games, and there aren't a ton of those (at least compared to the pre-order games themselves), so that won't take more than a day or two going into next week. I am also working on games for "regular" orders as well, as I need to get those shipped next week. Here are some more carts that have been prepped for all these 2600 games.. Still have a few more rounds to do, but that'll be coming to an end soon. Stack of 2600 carts after I finished cleaning them with Goo Gone. This is a bit over 90 carts. Behind these carts is a large, HEPA air filter so I don't have to smell those fumes (I also use this same air cleaner when soldering so I'm not inhaling solder fumes). Also helps the carts dry, as it's pulling in a lot of air. The above carts after I put them out in front a fan to dry: Some boards I was soldering during the week.. 5200 games (and a handful of ColecoVision games): Some 2600 4K games: Currently testing all the pre-order 2600 games that need to be labeled. After this is done, it will be a cartridge labeling frenzy. Tomorrow I'll assemble all these games into boxes, with manuals and posters for those games that have them. Not sure how long that's going to take, but it's a pretty mindless process so I can stream a show or movie(s) while doing it.. I set this up in another room to make it easier to go through these a bin of carts at a time. And one last photo, here are some of the extra games I've soldered that will be assembled into boards, tested, and labeled over the next few days. This weekend, though, focused mainly on finishing the pre-order games, but still doing some work on these as well to push them along.. From left to right, 7800, 2600, and 5200 boards. Goal is still to start shipping these orders next week. I'm excited to reach the finish line! That's all for now, may post some more photos tomorrow. ..Al

I've just written to Sue (his wife) and passed on our heartfelt condolences..

This is my test system now the v1.2 board is fixed and working (bad crystal).

It was designed with the rationale that if you could save 0.0005 cents per unit by simplifying the hardware, do it. The versatility and hence the longevity is because the design was brilliantly elegant. It's like a hardware haiku.

Today I finished the Atari 600XL A/V mod by removing the RF modulator and installing a 3.5mm audio jack (I was planning to also include composite video since it's a TRRS connector, but for now it's only for audio): Cheers!

As a long time TI'er I have always looked for ways to speed up the utility programs I use frequently. Two I have always used to speed up XB programs are: XBASHER PRE-SCAN IT! There are others I also use many XB based programs that were written specifically for Page Pro. A few are: PAGE PRO FX PAGE PRO STRIPPER PAGE PRO FLIPPER PAGE PRO ROTATE There are others, these are ones I use frequently. I think some have imbedded assembly code. Can the compiler handle imbedded assembly? I ain't much on programming or using the wonderful compiler by Senior Falcon. I can barely edit a newsletter every month. Anyway, is there anyone that would want to have a go at compiling these (and others) for your friendly neighborhood newsletter editor? If so, I'd be glad to upload dsks of the programs I use for your perusal. Yeah, I know, they ain't games....

Was browsing through my local regional brews at the grocery store today and came across this!!!! I am not an IPA fan at all, but had to pick it up for display in the game room!

Well, in my humble two cents opinion, for such ultrarare games, re-issues have no effect at all on the price. Starting from 500 bucks, those who are ready to put such amount on the table are real collectors that are looking for original stuff, possibly in good conditions. So, a reissue is totally useless for them, even if, probably, they buy one copy anyway just for completionist pourpose. Those who buy just a reissue will never spend so much money for an original one, no matter what. For me they are two completely different and separate markets, with reissues not affecting at all the original’s prices. I think that reissues are good because they give an affordable opportunity to passionate collectors to buy, play and have at home games that otherwise would never be able to have, if they are not wealthy… Having said that, the price asked by that german seller is simply ridiculous. It’s a pitty to see such a nice and important game in the hands of a crazy reseller…

Father's day gift

I was working on this with @ebiguy. We got to a point where we had something workable but couldn't find any pen inserts with sharp enough tips to get through the metal spring/stabilizer on the front of the pen carriage. Drilling out the metal was an option but it was not really a great one. @Bill Lange looked at my designs and came to the same conclusion. Since then I have been given a 1020 plotter to work on this problem. I've been doing it all blind so far. Now I can see the parts for myself I have an idea for how to solve the issue by replacing the metal spring with the spring that comes with the pen but I've been working on 3D Printed cases and the NUC+ and a bunch of other projects so it's been put to one side for a while. I will be returning to this as soon as I can. Now that people are also starting to retrofit this old ALPS mech with the ESP32 so it can be driven with GRBL commands the lack of good pens has become a pressing issue.

As @Mr Robot pointed out, he has graciously agreed to let me host the standard XE case STLs on my website when I begin the DIY public release of the 576NUC+ this coming Fall. This is the same case design that TBA is presently selling as an option for the production version of the NUC. So sometime around September-October 2021 a download of that, and the PCB gerbers, schematics, and the BOMs will be available at: https://ataribits.weebly.com/576nuc.html

Buyers name kept private to hide the shame……

Got some Sonic games today since Sonic's 30th anniversary is on Wednesday. Obviously, one of those is relevant to the Neo Geo thread... So I wasn't able to find a Neo Geo Pocket Color that I liked. Does the stick on the so-called "new" Neo Geo Pocket Color wear out or something? I was under the impression that it's supposed to be quite clicky. Neither of the 2 that I tested today were very clicky at all and one felt kind of loose and super not-clicky, so I didn't buy one (so I can't play Sonic Pocket Adventure yet). The staff dude at the store didn't know anything about the system at all, so he was not able to help.

Sonic's birthday is on Wednesday so I got some Sonic games that I have never played before today. I was planning on getting a Neo Geo Pocket Color, but I couldn't find one that I liked, so I can't play Sonic Pocket Adventure on Sonic's 30th birthday like I was planning. Sadness. Sonic Jam is one of the few times that Sonic 1, 2, and 3&K have been ported to another system. Most subsequent rereleases of the games are emulated (and sometimes very poorly like on the Dreamcast), not ported, so I am looking forward to playing the Saturn ports, which I have never played before. Sonic R is Sonic R. Is it so bad it's good or at least somewhat redeemable? I don't know and it probably isn't, but I'll find out soon.

Tower Of Rubble: 311 Absolutely fantastic game with great music!

These are a night and day difference. It's like the Saturn d-pad on a Jag 3 button controller. FANTASTIC

... 38 byte record ? ...lee

It was certainly an honor to see my game played on ZPH! I always love the positivity, enthusiasm and fun you all have in your livestreams. I usually catch the replay on youtube. I'm glad no big bugs were found and that the game seem to have the right amount of "chaotic fun" to it - that was certainly my intention. I have to admit I'm a little proud that the first iteration of the AI was considered a bit too hard. I actually spent a bit of time before uploading the beta 1 WIP rom making the AI a little bit harder because I thought it might have been too easy. But for my next WIP update to the game I'll make the difficulty switches also control how good of a shot the AI is (perhaps A/A <--> A/B <--> B/B for 3 levels of ability). I also wanted to go through my code and optimize it a little for space - it won't affect the gameplay but is good practice to do. It did look like most folks were a bit confused on what the orange timer bar was and what each side represented, that will certainly happen with a symbolic method of counting the clock. The full blocks on the left represent 2 minutes each, and can get cut in half to represent 1 minute, with the large orange bar in the center/right being the seconds counter. There is the ability to select a 3/6/10 minute game by using the select switch to toggle through (I think I might add a big table to the manual document to describe all of the various combinations one can play so it is more apparent). Of course, having an options configuration screen at the start to do all this would be more clearer, but by golly I wanted to use all of the knobs and switches that the Atari 2600 had and claim 24 different games like in the old days. To answer nostalgic26's question about the "ball pickup" sound, the frequencies used is the same (0,0,0,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3) as the ball pickup sound in Adventure (and the "collect" sound in Darrell Spice Jr's Collect tutorial) but I oscillate the channel values each frame to try and give it a more "Electro" sound to it.

Yep, you aren't supposed to be required to know how this is stored on the media. In fact, the FDR encodes these file type numbers in a single byte composed a a few single bit flags. The DSR manufactures in memory the 38 (edited) byte record it is going to return from various traditional bytes and words in the FDR. I think traditionally we've made float to integer conversion more difficult than it needed to be. Although TI didn't really document it clearly, in my opinion. .. The console ROM routine for float to int does not require XMLLNK, unless you want to be compatible with non-4A machines that nobody has... turn interrupts off ( limi 0 ) copy the 8 bytes into the FAC ( >834A ) set the workspace pointer to the GPL WS ( lwpi >83E0 ) call the console rom routine for float to int conversion ( bl @>12b8 ) restore your workspace pointer to whatever it used to be ( lwpi >???? ) The signed integer value you wanted from the float is now the first word of the FAC... ( mov @>834A, @dst ) I don't know anything about tp99... if you aren't allowed to extend it with embedded assembly, then you might translate the following C code to pascal, this does not use the console routine, but uses the knowledge Lee shared with me recently to convert these floats so I could fix reading them from the IDE controller catalog records: I just noticed I reference a twosComplement function that I wrote, that is grotesque, due to my code having to work with non-word-aligned buffers. but you are just taking the two's complement of the first word in the bytes (the first 2 bytes cast to an signed integer.

Half empty or half full? It’s all about how you look at life.

? I can see it now.......

I NEED a Bob and Doug McKenzie STRANGE BREW 2600 game ! ?

Mostly candid photographs. Half empty mayonnaise jars. 30 copies of Sharp Shot.

The end of The End: 47,410 Tower O' Rubble: 187

Hey guys I hope you all are doing well Been a long time since I posted anything here, so it's about time. Just for you guys and Durso, I had to dig out the first Neo - Geo home console I ever bought. I can never forget when I bought the system, I had just graduated with my bachelor's degree in Business. At that time I didn't know about Neo - Geo, but I use to relax with pirated games on PSP. Games like Metal Slug and Blazing Star made me interested in what kind of system Neo - Geo was, and I started looking into the console. It was then when I found about SNK and the console, and I was tempted to collect for it. Luckily I found a collector was selling the system about 45 minutes from me for £250 but after graduation, I had about £100 in my pocket, I thought the system was expensive at the time, but I was too hyped for the system and had to borrow money from my parents to buy it and I drove faster than lighting to the seller. The collector was a mature guy and I guess he was surprised to see a young WRCN buying the system. He invited me in and was very friendly and told me everything about the console I didn't know from before. I told him I will take care of the console very well and not looking to sell it for profit or anything. He had games like Metal 3 and 4 and he even let me play them on the system, just for fun. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money for the games, he was selling Metal Slug games for £1000 - 1500 each, but I told him to not sell the affordable games he had, such as Fatal Fury 1, 2, Specia and many more. To this day I regret not buying the Metal Slugs games at such good prices. After purchasing the console from and not a single game, I saved up and bought the Fatal Fury games at £70 each and Gunlord for £450. I still have contact with him and I speak to him now and then. I will always take care of the system as it was my first Neo - Geo console and it is in very good condition, almost like brand new. I just wanted to tell you guys the story of how I bought this amazing system and I will always keep it with me. Thank you, everyone, and thank you Durso for guiding me about the games?. WRCN

Better score: 53,925

Just cant seem to put this game down ? Robot City : 3,591

13,400

Im camped out just short of the top of mt sears with just 2 big box only steps left. Think im just gonna stay here in my tent and eat this cold can of beans and make the best of it.

I'll play it, but only if, like, there's a stage where you have to get a mouse into a bottle, eh? And Galactic Border Patrol still needs a home port, you knob.

Thanks, Durso?. I had a bare interest in gaming before Neo-Geo and PlayStation Vita came into my life. You know on PSP, you would casually play Tekken or GTA, but these two systems made a collector. Everything is going as we planned Durso, Fatal Fury 3 is on the way, I will give it a little time. The seller said he will ship Fatal Fury Real Bout tomorrow, so I will give it two to three weeks. Then we agreed on World Heroes 1, Jet and Real Bou 2. These are the games I will collect this year, as we planned?. Thank you for your help Durso, you know it is appropriated a lot by me?.

2021/06/19 - fixed bug with not letting you re-select bolt spell after getting a different spell (this was an interesting one, level select was NOT working as-intended) - updated level select art to show number of the level you'll start on if not the first - tweaked hero/wall collision to be more forgiving on top and bottom of hero sprite- tweaks some enemy speeds - spawn gems if you kill all enemies in a room and you're already at max health - updated some sfx - phase spiders blinks out longer, making them a little tougher - minor scoring tweak - freed up a little bit of ROM by optimizing some redundant code wizd_210619.bas.a78

C'MON <tags seven people> THEY ASKED FOR IT NOT ME, THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT SO NOW YOU HAVE TO DO IT, MAKE SURE YOU MAKE IT FOR BOTH 5200 AND ATARI 8BIT OR WE WILL HAVE TO ASK SEVENTEEN THOUSAND MORE TIMES I'd play a Strange Brew game. Basically a mix of Tapper and Hockey. LOL

It's ALWAYS a pleasure playing your games and featuring them on the show! Hahah, I'm getting a little better at them but not even close to Crossbow's abilities. ? - James

Improvement! Robot City : 2,907

My underground lair.

My GF typically says things more like, "...when I take your crap to Goodwill when you're gone." ?

Getting ready for post COVID travel…

Like the old (and wise) saying goes: "I trust.... but I verify" And so I did. I have been at the place, a small cave in San Jose, which seems like some sort of front-office. I have seen the character (nowhere near looking 70 years old, unless he made a devil's pact). It is a creepy place to be as far as I recall... but it DOES work. Generally speaking, it is a bad advice to hold an entire community hostage of one single individual. At the end of the day, we PAY for all that stuff (not that we get things out of charity or favors). Insisting in such approach, puts us all in a position of weakness (and that is a BAD position to be). Instead, we should continue to share our GENUINE experiences, so we all know what to expect. And it is NOT true that Brad is the only supply for regular spares... maybe for some special ones, true, but we can source parts from other places. His specialized stock is already dwindling (laws of physics). Once that happens, eBay will be the place for most things. I am ALWAYS in favor of win-win business (including Brad's, which is unaudited and unknown in several ways), but I will NEVER, EVER accept being anyone's "hostage". And no one here should. EVER.

I'm honestly really surprised by how nice the quality of these modern Game & Watch handhelds are! It feels like Nintendo made everything way nicer than it needed to be, making them something actually practical and fun to play rather than just a neat little trinket to sit on the shelf. The build quality feels really sturdy, the controls are excellent, the screen is bright and crisp and doesn't wash out in the sunlight, and the speaker sounds great too. They really went the extra mile to make it something you'd actually want to play! And play it I have, because I just beat the original Super Mario Bros. for the first time in many years

To me the draw is having the game available on a handheld as well as TV, plus whatever extras are added in. For Contra/Super Contra it even gives the option of handheld + vertical display, which is pretty much something that only the Switch can do conveniently. If I'm going to sit down at my PC, it's usually not an improvement over downloading some roms and emulating... although e.g. the Sega Ages games are really the best way to play, period, and I'd grab them on PC if I could. I'd hope that we're at the point in digital services and the evolution of consoles etc where Nintendo's not going to axe the whole eshop and try to re-sell the entirety of Arcade Archives etc again on Switch 2, but I guess I wouldn't count on it.

Prototype soldered in and up an running with no problems on my Framemeister. It's on to testing this now on several different tv's and scalers/line doublers. In the end I'll open source the gerber and jedec files on a website I'm building, so all will be made public. Just want to run it through its paces before I open up the project :-) Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-N960F met Tapatalk