Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/26/2021 in all areas

  1. Pointing out negative aspects or predicting the early demise of the "AtariVCS" literally has nothing to do with hating "ATARI" ? It blows my mind mind that some feel that anything Atari branded these days most somehow always gets a pass or be blindly worshipped and is somehow beyond any negative comments or analysis. Simply pointing out some the failings or disappointment in a product does not make someone a "HATER" and it is ridiculous how people keep feeling the need to defend or white knight a product that literally would be ignored if it was simply some Chinese import knock off that didn't happen to have an Atari badge slapped on. ?‍♂️
    12 points
  2. I was looking on eBay a couple of weeks ago. I don't even remember how I found these now. But I noticed these 2600 boxes in a mixed loose and boxed lot. The artwork on the silver boxes caught my eye as they were not what my brain would normally associate with those titles. The Galaxian art seemed familiar but I couldn't place it. There were no pictures of the backs of the boxes in the listing. I did some googling and came up with nothing. Searched Atari Mania, nothing. So I went all in and won the auction. They arrived and I was very excited when I saw the backs of the boxes. It turns out I should have recognized the Pole Position art as a variation of it was used on the 5200 box. @Ballblaɀer also pointed out to me that the Galaxian box appeared in an issue of Atari Age magazine in 1983. Also Tim Lapetino pointed out on my FB post that he came across the Galaxian art when he was researching his Art of Atari book, but it didn't make the cut. I am very happy to have these in my collection now. The promo boxes were in amazing condition for being printed in 1982 & 1983. The boxes did have standard copies of Galaxian & PP carts an manuals inside. My guess these were added by someone along the way. The rest of the carts in the lot were in amazing condition and the Kaboom box was missing the cart. An odd lot for sure. Enjoy.
    11 points
  3. Subscribe today to the official IntellivisionRevolution YT channel. Will start uploading new content on a more regular basis. (Hopefully) ? https://youtube.com/channel/UCZTbPobVo0wzxWYDwxFWbsA
    9 points
  4. Also, I gotta call you out on this. Not only is it a pretty straw man style argument to say I hate Atari, it’s also pretty ignorant. Do you know me? I’ve been a member of this forum since 2004. I kept the Atari Traveler cartridge (remember that?) safe during Cyclone Nargis while I lived in Myanmar. I wrote the 7800 review section for AtariHq nearly 20 years ago (check ‘em out here: http://www.atarihq.com/reviews/7800/index.html) So to call me a hater is, honestly, a pretty stupid thing to say. Critical of the VCS? Yup. I think they lied to their customers and investors and continue to do so. But I love my Atari consoles- been playing tons of Lynx lately via Evercade.
    9 points
  5. Djmicklovin's been banned from the thread, so he won't be responding to any more posts. ..Al
    8 points
  6. Doing some more testing of my Tile and Sprite Editor, playing with some graphics. I think Lunar Rescue would work well on the Coleco, MSX and Spectravideo. Very early graphical mock-up with some motion added to test how things fit. I used to love this game as a kid, and I wrote a version in Basic (with a little machine code) for the MSX back in the 80's so it would be nice to revisit this one and make a full machine code version. CoolCV - LUNARRESCUE.ROM 2021-07-26 21-57-12.mp4
    7 points
  7. You tell him, you are clearly the authority on who is an Atari fan, nothing he says or does mean squat unless he refrains from saying anything negative about the current hunk of plastic with the Atari logo the AtariVCS ? Seriously though, not sure why you have it in your head that liking the AtariVCS seems to be a requirement to be an Atari fan, I think it's an overpriced hunk of plastic that has nothing going for it besides an admittedly cool case but I don't want one yet I lived through Atari history, own pretty much every model of the original 2600 as well as several Atari 8 bit and 16 bit computers etc. I consider myself an Atari fan, your opinion has no bearing on that.
    7 points
  8. One of those ideas on my bucket list for some time has been a "big sprite system" using PF graphics. With the spaceship, I've now managed to get this functioning. The ship-draw is actually a generic draw of any sized (up to 32 PF wide, unlimited depth) sprite, with masking. In this demo - which is not truly practical due to timing - you see 5 ships moving around the same time and the background still doing all its stuff. But the point of showing this is that I can imagine/see a 4-player fighting game with sprites this size. Each PF sprite has a configurable centerpoint, so when you draw at a particular coordinate, the frame(s) shift around to keep the center point in the same spot on the screen. This draw is happening at 60Hz. I may work on a stand-alone engine to allow this big sprite system to be used by others; it's extremely simple to define shapes, and even easier to draw... Here's the definition of the ship (and mask)... side by side for ease of editing... const unsigned char rocketShip[] = { 1, // width in BYTES (=8 pix/byte) (MAX =4) 105, // height in SCANLINES (pref multiples of 3 -- TRIPIXs) 3,105, // center point (PIXELS) from 0,0 top left ________ ________ // colour 0 ________ ________ // colour 1 ________ ________ // colour 2 etc... ___X____ ___X____ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ___X____ ___X____ ________ ___X____ ___X____ ___X____ ___X____ ___X____ ________ ___X____ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ ___XX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ ___XX___ __XXX___ ___X____ __XXX___ __X_X___ __XXX___ ___XX___ __XXX___ ___X____ __XXX___ // 00 __XXX___ __XXX___ // 01 ___X____ __XXX___ // 02 __XXX___ __XXX___ // 03 _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 04 __XXX___ __XXX___ // 05 _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 06 _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 07 __XXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 08 _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 09 _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 10 __XX_X__ _XXXXX__ // 11 _XXX_X__ _XXXXX__ // 12 _XX_____ _XXXXX__ // 13 __X_____ _XXXXX__ // 14 _XXX_X__ _XXXXX__ // 15 _XXX_X__ _XXXXX__ // 16 __XXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 17 XXXX_XX_ XXXXXXX_ // 18 XXXX_XX_ XXXXXXX_ // 19 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 20 XXX___X_ XXXXXXX_ // 00 XXX___X_ XXXXXXX_ // 01 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 02 XXX___X_ XXXXXXX_ // 03 XXX___X_ XXXXXXX_ // 04 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 05 XXXX_XX_ XXXXXXX_ // 06 XXXX_XX_ XXXXXXX_ // 07 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 08 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 09 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 10 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 11 XXXX__X_ XXXXXXX_ // 12 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 13 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 14 XXXX__X_ XXXXXXX_ // 15 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 16 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 17 XXXX__X_ XXXXXXX_ // 18 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 19 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 20 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 00 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 01 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 02 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 03 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 04 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 05 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 06 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 07 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 08 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 09 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 10 _XXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 11 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 12 XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ // 13 ________ XXXXXXX_ // 14 _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 15 __XXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 16 __XXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 17 __XXX___ __XXX___ // 18 _____X__ _XXXXX__ // 19 __XXXX__ _XXXXX__ // 20 __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ _XX_XX__ _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ _XXXXX__ __XXX___ __XXX___ XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ XXXXXXX_ __XXX___ __XXX___ __XXX___ XXXXXXX_ X_XXX_X_ XXXXXXX_ __XXX___ _XXXX___ ________ XXXXXXX_ X_XXX_X_ X_XXX_X_ ___X____ X_XXX_X_ ________ X__X__X_ X__X__X_ X_XXX_X_ ________ X_XXX_X_ ________ X_____X_ X_____X_ X_____X_ }; Here's how to draw the ship... and flickery flame.... you don't need to erase... just draw things where you want... drawBitmap(&rocketShip[0], x, y, false); if (!(getRandom32() & 3)) drawBitmap(&rocketShipFlame[0], x, y, false); In the above example, a ship and the rocket flame share the same x,y coordinate (centerpoint). The flame will appear below the engine, because the center point of the ship is at bottom center of engine, and the centerpoint of the flame is top center. Anyway, I digress... it's a lovely thing. Using the ChronoColour(TM) system, as this does, each sprite can have 9 ICC colours (that is, 8 colours of ICC AND a transparent "colour" due to the mask capability).
    7 points
  9. Just finished preparing a large batch of Jaguar GameDrives for shipment tomorrow. ..Al
    7 points
  10. Wen Hop? The Search for Planet X You're the very, very famous and dashingly handsome spaceman/explorer/all-round-good-guy, Mellon Husk. To save humanity from the "Great Filter" that you fear is coming soon, you are on a mission to find "Planet X" so that you can establish a new human colony and safeguard the future of humankind. Using your trusty rocket-ship, inspirationally named "ship", you are on a mission to visit the moons, planets, asteroids of the solar system to find that elusive new home. Your goal at each stop, to mine enough dogecoin (yes, in the form of actual physical coins) enable you to buy enough rocket fuel to continue your quest. Getting the dogecoins would be a matter of solving puzzles and avoiding aliens on the planet. It's going to be very much an action/puzzler. Each planet/location has its own gravity. Terrain will have different characteristics - for example, friction on an ice planet. Underwater swimming... I hope to spend some considerable effort on variations in controls. The terrain is fully navigable on a per-pixel basis rather than character graphics. That is, Husk's movement is freeform over the char background. You cannot dig underground, but you can follow existing passages, and of course you can use tools. You will be able to pick up and drop some "objects" such as explosives, and rocks. Use rocks to allow you to reach stuff, or to drop on enemies, or block off exits. Use explosives to open up new passages. Underground you can crawl along diagonal passages. You cannot move "up" - you have to jump or climb. There may even be some alien superstructure/buildings - maybe you can even go inside for a sub-level on the planet. Whatever I can implement. Maybe a rocket pack.... At the moment the player sprite is just there to allow me to scroll around. It is not coupled to the background. That will come soon. At the start of each planet, I plan to have a big animating ship (character graphics) landing you on the playfield. Out comes spaceman Husk and then you're in control. You try and collect the dogecoin by moving through the underground passages and using tools/explosives where necessary to get access. Once you get enough Dogecoin, you go back to the ship and it lifts off (huge animation) for the next adventure. The video shows what I have so far. Essentially, it's a graphics engine that has the following capabilities... * super-smooth playfield scrolling * Animating background character graphics * parallax scrolling.... pretty cool effect * lava * water * earthquakes / screen shake Objects/creatures/behaviour... this will be expanded... * water drips * alien eggs * various foe - chasers, huggers, etc * dogecoin Tools * rocks - can be lifted/carried * explosives - place underground to blast away soil/rocks So as a first pass I've worked on the dirt and made it so that it intelligently "rounds" the edges where appropriate. It gives the whole thing an organic (non-character-graphics) feel. I feel that I work better when I get feedback, and I do like to share new developments ASAP. So I hope/plan to occasionally update this thread with videos and very soon some playable binaries. What you see in the video currently runs just fine on actual hardware. I've tried to show a few of the features - lava (which destroys just about everything) and causes earthquakes. Rocks (eventually) explode when in lava. Water, which dissolves soil/dirt, and will perhaps enable access to areas you might not otherwise reach. In other words, you float/swim until you're high enough. Both water/lava can slowly rise in level. I'll be putting in what gameplay elements I can. Well, if you want to contribute suggestions for gameplay, feel free to do so. And if you "follow" this thread, that will let me gauge interest in the project. It's a CDFJ (32K) project, written mostly in C. I'm really pushing the hardware with this engine; it's incredible what you can make it do if you design to the capability. I'm already very short of space, so it's going to be a matter of optimising from here on in. Onward and upward!! wow so various such example wow so much blast such first so much objects such matter very necessary so physical such spaceman
    6 points
  11. This is the dumping thread for demo binaries of my new ChronoColour(TM) Sprite System. This first demo just has spaceships; I plan to have it running some fighter sprites to see how it looks. This will probably bork on hardware; it's not too far away, though, from working if it does. No interaction here... purely a demo. My goal is to refine the system and see how much speed I can get, and thus how many/big sprites can be drawn. Also, to see if a fighting game using this is feasible. I suspect so.... BIGASS20210726.bin
    6 points
  12. Someone found 16mm film reels of the Japanese Super Mario Bros movie. They're working on a restored version, & have posted it to YouTube:
    6 points
  13. At long last the livestreams are loaded to Youtube. Many hours of live game streaming for your viewing pleasure. Many thanks to all the players involved, and First Spear for handling this. And to Dz for uploading to YT! Playlist:
    6 points
  14. I love these doom and gloom posts. Blows my mind that there are people that hate Atari on Atariage forums... The media has said all they could say about it, doesn't mean it's dead. My local Microcenter and eBay are selling them, i've been keeping an eye on stock. But yeah I wish Atari would keep the game announcements coming. People are still posting unboxing and game videos for the VCS on YouTube. Funny because the big gaming channels that mainly cover anything Nintendo, Sony, Xbox related stuff don't get anywhere near as many views and engagement as something on Atari gets because it's rare to hear something from Atari or even Sega. That should tell you a lot of what people think of the big three gaming giants.
    6 points
  15. Updated Force Command 1.25. This adds routines to read the TIPI mouse, and support a mouse pointer in 80x30 F18A text mode. For the purpose of allowing FCMENU to use these routines and support click to launch. Mouse pointer only works in F18A mode. It felt pretty slick to boot into ForceCommand, where my AUTOCMD launches FCMENU. I click on a script entry that maps DSK1 to TI-Artist, and then XB DSK1.LOAD, and then in TI-Artist the mouse also works (due to prior work) Improvements... I should probably hide the mouse pointer until it moves... and provide next and back screen elements to click on if your menu has multiple pages.... next weekend.
    6 points
  16. Aleste (Sega Mark III/ Master System) 12 mins Power Strike II (Sega Master System) 7 mins (both played on Aleste Collection on Switch) Super Mario World (SNES) 32 mins (played on Switch)
    6 points
  17. UPDATE of RXB 2021 CALL HCHAR converted so not using GPL FMT command but now Assembly in ROM3 Ran RXB 2021 HCHAR vs Extended Basic with this test 100 OPEN #1:"CLOCK" 110 INPUT #1:A$,B$,C$ 120 FOR X=1 TO 10000 130 CALL HCHAR(1,1,66,768) 140 NEXT X 150 INPUT #1:X$,Y$,Z$ 160 PRINT A$,X$:B$,Y$:C$,Z$ RXB 2021 = 9 Minutes 4 seconds Extended Basic = over 2 hours when I gave up waiting. I think I am on to something here. CALL HCHAR(5,5,65) If a single character is used after 10,000 loops only faster by 3 seconds in RXB 2021 over Extended Basic. So the less characters the lower the speed increase.
    5 points
  18. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
    5 points
  19. I find it mildly interesting that the only ataribox threads with any action are stuff like this. New release thread? A couple of posts every few weeks. Blaming the haters for the inevitable demise? Boom!
    5 points
  20. Why did you say that? You must really hate EVERYTHING about Atari. Why are you even here, do you secretly work for Nintendo??
    5 points
  21. To be dead, you'd need to be alive first. And the way I see it VCS never truly was, in fact I don't think it was planned to be. Obviously, I mean the general concept of a thriving platform with original content, because if you own it and it works for you as just a media/lightweight gaming PC, then that's great. But that's not what Atari SA was promising with their bombastic "unprecedented levels of flexibility and control to help transform how we Interact with our TV’s, just as the original Atari 2600 did four decades ago" or "all new games". And I don't think they have ever really meant it. Those who are familiar with their history and operation know that they were never capable of supporting such eco-system, and this whole project was an opportunistic stunt, riding on the popular wave of retro-nostalgia machines. They are small-time and so the KS money, plus some profit from selling the new units and whatever they can scrape from the "store" as it is, is probably enough. The existence of the VCS also creates an illusion of ASA being still an important player in the industry, which might help with their future investor-baiting exercises.
    5 points
  22. Ah, cute! I met Leo back in the day - he had posted some kind words about my SCWebCam program, so I actually went to a recording of his show, and we got to chat a bit between segments. He mentioned me on the air that day:
    5 points
  23. Sega Saturn: Grandia - 104 min. Nintendo Virtual Boy: Wario Land - 262 min. Did end up going back and beating Final Fantasy X. Was at the last save point of the game but just could not beat the second form of "sin". Ended up grinding for around 4 hours and beat him with no problem. Only FF games I have to left beat are 2, 12 and 15. Not including mmorpg and direct sequel. Got a controller extension cord for the consolized Virtual Boy I built last year. Never got around to playing anything on it due to the short controller cable. Now I can be a whole 5 feet away for the system and it's great.
    5 points
  24. New week, new game: - Stone Stepper: description on TI99IUC page (Stone Stepper); ------------------------------------ Total compiled games: 361. [GAME] Stone Stepper (198x)(Paul Stahlke)[Compiled by TMOP].zip
    5 points
  25. Ding..Ding..Ding.. School is in session. There is a huge difference between Atari and atari. The former is loved by all. The latter is hated by all. Class dismissed!
    5 points
  26. Okay there's being critical of a product and being a crazed stalker troll. These are literally the same people posting negative things on the VCS and Amico almost daily. Nothing better to do with your lives eh? Funny you mention Chinese import knockoffs. Where do you think the PS5s, Xboxs, Switches are made?
    5 points
  27. I meant BY $100, not TO $100. If it were priced that low, it would probably be flying off the shelves and no one would be able to keep them in stock.
    5 points
  28. Sega Genesis: Target Earth - 15 minutes. aka Assault Suit Leynos. Man, is this hard. Pocahontas - 15 minutes. Way underrated Flashback-meets-Metroid game. Clearly the primary inspiration for Tanglewood, but if you ask me the two characters make this one more interesting than that excellent game right out of the gate. James Pond 3 - Operation Starfish - 15 minutes. Gotta go fish! I mean fast. I mean… you know. Skitchin’ - 25 minutes. Road Rash 2 and 1/2… a little too complicated to really hit the Road Rash buttons, but not a bad game. Sega Game Gear: Sylvan Tale - 60 minutes. Making a serious attempt to complete this for once. It’s a little rough compared to Zelda but it is marvelously fast and smooth. X Men in Mojo World - 15 minutes. This very uncommon game is just an expansion pack for earlier X-men games. The Chessmaster - 60 minutes. The default difficulty plays like a five year old. I am not ashamed to say I mopped the floor with it again and again just to feel better about my very poor chess skills. Tesserae - 20 minutes. This is a confusing game. It’s essentially peg solitaire but with different colors of pegs. And they fuse together into intermediate colors. And then it’s a whole mess. Stargate - 40 minutes. This is a boring puzzle game, and a frustrating one (if you start messing up you will be doomed in a hurry). But somehow it’s strangely addictive. I played it while watching the deeply stupid but undeniably entertaining Stargate movie. Sega Mark III Aleste - 25 minutes. Pretty rough compared to later games in the series, but a damn good time anyway. Atari 2600 FlapPing - 30 minutes. I finally skunked the computer. Balloon Trip - 35 minutes. Random levels and no music mean that this is not quite the masterwork that the NES original is, but this is still a lot of fun. NEC Supergrafx: Aldynes - 65 minutes. This game is just sadistic. I got to (EDIT: only) level 5 with some assistance from save states. Turbografx CD: Ys Book I & II - Ancient Ys Vanished - 20 minutes. Just did some grinding. Vectrex: Stramash Zone - 60 minutes. Spent significant time with each of the modes and with both a double joystick and a single. It’s an amazing accomplishment but it is a little frustratingly slow and I’m concerned about what it’s doing to my poor Vectrex CRT.
    5 points
  29. Today is Sonic's 30th birthday in Japan. I didn't have a nice CIB copy, just a beat-up cart-only copy, so I went to Akiba and bought the single nicest Sonic 1 I could find in the entire town. Spoilers: it was also literally the only CIB copy I found in the entire town... Also picked up Radiant Silvergun on the Saturn and Gaiares on the MD. I wasn't planning on buying anything other than Sonic unless I could find a Saturn Out Run that works on the white Saturn (I did not find a copy that does, just ones that don't), but I got both shooters for very good prices, especially Radiant Silvergun, mostly because it's missing the hagaki and the obi, but you buy what you can find and it was cheap, so only some regrets. I have been looking for both of these shooters for about a year now, so I am glad to finally have both of them. I just played Gaiares. It has exactly 2 difficulty settings, and those difficulty settings are "easy" and "extremely difficult". That's just about perfect! I think this game's intro might be even longer than Gleylancer's intro, but they are pretty close. Gleylancer's intro has kanji, though, so that means that Gleylancer's is better. Gleylancer's also way easier to read because of the kanji... or it would be if the text speed wasn't ridiculously fast.
    5 points
  30. My times for the week: Master System: Andre Agassi Tennis - 34 min. Genesis: XDR: X-Dazedly-Ray - 40 min. 3DO: Guardian War - 91 min. Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return - 345 min. Montana Jones - 111 min. Rise of the Robots - 122 min. Beat Iron Angel etc. and Montana Jones, and also cleared Rise of the Robots on Easy and Medium difficulties.
    5 points
  31. Yes the case is quite nice for something that has not had a tens of thousands of dollars injection molded die set created for. SLS printing (presumably what these cases are) is quite premium. Never underestimate the power of hoarding and revolving glass display cases. ?
    5 points
  32. Fast boot does two things: it speeds up the memory clear and checksum routines in the OS, and it installs an SIO hook to do an immediate return on access to nonexistent disk and type 3 poll devices. Eliminating both of these days, combined with SIO patch, makes many programs start instantly. You may not have noticed it because there are several ways it which it can be partially or completely disabled: if it can't locate a standard memory clear or checksum routine, or if SIOV is not used for disk access. Booting a custom OS into SDX in particular will show less effect unless OS-level SIO is enabled. It also tends to be a no-op when full disk drive devices are used because the Auto power-on delay will force an additional delay on startup anyway so the drive firmware can init in time. The SIO patch override function forces the first disk access to a drive to bypass the fast boot hook to detect if anything is intercepting the request. It's better to use the PBI device mode when possible since that allows the emulator hook to be properly placed at low priority, but IIRC there were issues with PBI priorities in SDX -- I think PBI.SYS might interpret PBI priorities backwards from the XL/XE OS.
    5 points
  33. It was a disappointment from the start
    5 points
  34. I played some Switch shoot 'em ups today that I bought for cheap but I wasn't really feeling any of them so I played no longer than like 2 mins each so I won't bother counting them. I did play some Aleste Collection but I'll put those times in classic tracker.
    5 points
  35. Atari 8-bit: Caverns of Mars II - 146 min. Phobox - 60 min. C64: Summer Games II - 100 min. A8 times obviously are due to the HSC, with a few really enjoyable games this time around: easy enough to get into, tricky enough to get very far in. I visited a BBQ party with friends and we tried to play Summer Games II. Unfortunately it turned out that the fencing event is of the kind everyone meets everyone if you have two joysticks, which means 5 players equals 10 rounds x surely 2-3 minutes each which was a little too much for my friends' attention spans so we never finished the game. Everyone have grown up with vintage computers (Commodore, Sinclair or Atari) but most are in the age when they only collect games to put on a shelf than playing those, and they prefer to listen to music over playing 30++ year old games so the amount of playing we obtained was more than expected.
    5 points
  36. Here are my times for this past week (July 19th through 25th) on classic systems: Adventurevision: Turtles - 3 Arcade: Donkey Kong 3 - 22 min. Jr. Pac-Man - 138 min. in 8 sessions Jungle King - 7 min. in 2 sessions Kangaroo - 37 min Mr. TNT - 3 min. Pengo - 12 min Space Firebird - 24 min. Tetris (SEGA) - 8 min. Time Pilot - 5 min. This week, apart from playing Turtles on the Adventurevision for a few minutes, I played an assortment of arcade games. In Jr. Pac-Man which again is the game played for the most time, I didn't get any farther. In Jungle King, I didn't manage to cross the river. I noticed, however, that there is a rope hanging over the water which you can never reach because Tarzan jumps into the water instead at that point. In Kangaroo, I managed to complete the first set of levels after several tries. In Mr. TNT, I only managed to beat Level 1, but not more than that... I rememer the C-64 version was easier though. In Pengo, I cleared some levels, and in Time Pilot the game ended at the Jets level. Then I played Space Firebird, an early Nintendo game which has similarities to Donkey Kong 3, which I plaayed next. As for Tetris, I played the SEGA version this time which was only available in Japan probably because Atari Games had the arcade rights for the rest of the world. Both companies used relatively modest hardware for the time... both are 8-bit systems despite coming out in 1987 and 1988. The Atari version uses a 6502 CPU and, I think, 2 POKEY's for sound while the SEGA version uses a Z80 and... well... actually it seems this is based on Master System hardware, also judgeable from the sound it emits which only features square waves, no FM sound. Gameplay-wise, The SEGA version is simpler than the Atari version by not breaking up the game into distinct levels, but rather you only have one continuous game. Surprisingly, on the SEGA version the speed reduces again on Level 10, similar to what happens on Nintendo's Game & Watch games.
    5 points
  37. Here's a theory. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo "fans" have countless other channels to check about their system. And in my experience (I'm in charge of a retro gaming web site), controversy creates views, so yeah, articles and videos about systems like the Atari VCS are quite successful. It doesn't mean the system is, though.
    4 points
  38. When has atari ever been Atari? Time for you boomers to move on. By your logic, Atari hasn't been Atari since Nolan Bushnell sold the company to Warner in the late 70s. The name has been run by so many different entities over the years. Even if Atari had the same lineage from the 70s/80s, and even 90s, Atari wouldn't be the same company today regardless, like every other company changes throughout the years. All the original people involved with the original Atari, Steve Jobs, Wozniak, and others included would be long gone today. So who cares? The people running it today seem to doing a better job than the idiots running it from the past three decades. The company is profitable again and they are bringing Atari back to greatness.
    4 points
  39. I bet sales would pick up by quite a bit if Atari dropped the price for the full bundle by $100. As it stands, the VCS just doesn't offer much value when compared to other gaming platforms, and it's ability to double as a full-fledged computer isn't enough to push it over the edge.
    4 points
  40. Unexpected side effect of the loosening of COVID restrictions: I am now free to make my annual pilgrimage to the gas station nacho bar, which inevitably results in a year of reinforcement as to why I don't do this more often.
    4 points
  41. This is the Best! Namely because I fully imagine someone under 25 saying,..."What's a Waterbed Store?"...."Oh Ok, What's an Arcade Cabinet?"
    4 points
  42. Never nice to say "I told you so", so I won't I guess it's the fault of all us haters that doomed it.
    4 points
  43. Several of the screens in the game will have more than 5 colours. In fact, if you look closely, you will see that there are 6 colours on the first screen of the game (green, grey, black, brown, white and blue) All screens are manipulated in G2F, although of course not all possibilities are used. As I write, for the cartridge version (.cart), 64Kb definitely. 48Kb if I have the nerve. Don't worry. All the enemies are there.... Even Satan ? Thanks!
    4 points
  44. I don’t see anything being released, and no one in media is talking about it. No buzz, not even from Atari. What happened to all the people who said that this would compete in store with Switch and Microsoft? The Netflix moms? For those who bought it, do you feel a bit ill used by Atari seemingly dropping support already?
    4 points
  45. Really just dribs and drabs this week for Classic Gaming- I think I'm pretty well done. Overall, it was a 'quiet' week for gaming at Casa Digdug. Arcade: Frogger -- 30 minutes Street Fighter Alpha 2 -- 15 minutes Sega Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 -- 30 minutes
    4 points
  46. I'll try and get a public binary in a week or two...
    4 points
  47. Hi Guys: Sorry about the lack of postings on this. I believe (@RevEng correct me if I'm wrong) that everything is done for this BIOS (the game + the BIOS itself). We've tested it with everything we have, but I'm always nervous about that *one* 7800 + odd game that might cause an issue. So, if everyone understands that although we've tested this a *lot*, and even the new ARM 2600 games will now work with the PAL 7800 BIOS, I think it's ready to use. I have it in both of my 7800s. Also, one thing to note: The BIOS itself is open source, although the game is not. Please, do not extract the game from the BIOS. I really don't want to see anyone on eBay selling this game. Thanks, Bob
    4 points
  48. Tired, going to sleep early. I might play something on the Switch in bed if I can't sleep for whatever reason. As there are about 2.5 hours left until Monday, I'll just post again later if I do play something. PS4 Kangokutou Mary Skelter 2 - 1282 Love Live! School Idol Festival ~after school ACTIVITY~ Wai-Wai!Home Meeting!! - 207 (estimate) More birthday events. Yay... another started today but I didn't do it yet. I think another one starts in a few days, as well. I hate these events so much. I thought about not doing them, and I think I will stop doing them once I do everyone's event once, as the reward for the first time are actually good, but on subsequent times, you don't get anything worth spending 3~4 hours grinding for. PC StarCraft Remastered - 56 Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga - 345 Switch Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 40 Gamecube Super Mario Sunshine - 50 (estimate) Vita Ebikore+ Amagami - 87 Yay, Amagami. I have wanted to play this for about a decade. I thought I might actually have the PS2 version somewhere, but I didn't bother check to see if I do, so I bought the Vita version, which is the best version. I unfortunately lost about 15 minutes and 47 seconds of progress due to my memory card being corrupted, but I logged it anyway because I can. It seems they kept the original 4:3 artwork and zoomed in on it to create fake widescreen, but you can fortunately pan the camera or even just play the game in 4:3. There is an alternate soundtrack that was made on a PC88, so you can play with PC88 music, as well. There is also a mode that replaces everyone's voices with beeping. Guys get deeper beeps and the girls get higher-pitched beeps, but unfortunately none of the characters seem to get their own unique beep, so there are only 2 different kinds as far as I have noticed. The game's composer is the same dude who did the music for Gleylancer and the Langrisser series, interestingly. Too bad there is no option for PC88 graphics, as well. Flowers - 68 Unfortunately, Vita games are all dropped/on hold until further notice due to the death of my memory card. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It was working fine on my Vita, but then I tried playing Amagami on my Vita TV to see how it looks (quite nice, actually; this game looks better on my Vita TV than any other game I have tried on it) but couldn't save, which is why I lost those ~16 minutes, but then when I tried it again on my regular Vita, it worked for a few minutes. Then when testing various things it stopped letting me even open games at all anymore, but right now it seems to be working fine. Not sure what is happening, but it seems my memory card is dead or dying. This is a known problem with the 64GB memory cards, but it took about 8 years for it to happen to mine. I do have my old 32GB card, which I should probably swap to, but I have over 60GB of Vita+PSP+PS1 games, which is of course why I bought the 64GB card, and I really don't want to go through and decide what gets put on the 32GB card and what doesn't. How annoying. At least I was able to back up everything on my computer, so I didn't lose any saves or anything.
    4 points
×
×
  • Create New...