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minsoft announced a really polished single screen bullet hell-ish shmup that looks pretty close to done! The Space Invaders influence is strong, particularly in the sound effects, but the gameplay is quite original. The graphics are fantastic, the sound is good, but the gameplay looks especially rewarding. Looking forward to a physical release of this!

The internet tells me the Commodore 64 was announced 40 years ago today at CES. Happy 40th, c64!

I’m typing this as I’m flying over the Atlantic Ocean using airplane WiFi, modern technology is amazing.

I have been mulling the idea of developing assembly language support routines for XB to access the SAMS card. As a matter of fact I now may have an acute need to do so because I am hitting a wall with my current mixed XB/assembly development project where I am running out of memory despite having used the entire lower 8K of the expansion RAM in addition to the upper 24K, with only 2K left and lots to do still. The main issue with the SAMS is that one can only store data in it but it does not solve the problem of running out of program space in XB, unlike assembly where you could just swap code sections at will. Could there be a way to swap XB code sections between the SAMS and the expansion RAM?

@Charlie Cat I found an extended version of that coffee Garfield comic. Here it is! Enjoy!

Thanks! (I have watched it before, along with all of his other Petscii Robot videos) He says he feels one button shooting is clumsy, but he doesn't say that run-and-gun is absolutely required. I don't agree it's clumsy (any more than it is in Berzerk), but be that as it may, we have 2 optional control schemes that allow for run-and-gun, with a possible 3rd one in the works.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, being the cheap bastard that I am, I finally dusted off my crusty old credit card and ordered a copy of Last Strike with a clear shell. It looks pretty amazing from Youtube videos, though i have to say I'm surprised there aren't more reviews of the finished game posted there. There's some 'preview' videos of betas, but I found only detailed video of the final product - in French. Maybe I'll have to make my own review to post there.

Today, Atari 7800 Fatal Run

One of the most interesting copy protection techniques I came across was on the Atari Microsoft Basic disk. You booted this disk and it automatically loaded into Microsoft Basic. If you then typed a DOS command, you were taken to the usual DOS menu where you could see an AUTORUN.SYS file. But if you copied the AUTORUN.SYS file to another disk, it wouldn't load into Microsoft Basic. It started to load but then simply performed a system reset. It turns out that the clever programmers at Atari created a hidden directory on the disk. Normally, the directory is found on sector $169 and runs for 8 sectors. On the Microsoft Basic disk, there is another directory at $179. This directory points to the real AUTORUN.SYS file which loads when the disk is booted. At address $1082 in the Disk Operating System there is a byte which points to the directory sector. The value of this byte is usually $69. But in the Microsoft Basic version, the byte is $79 which allows DOS to use the hidden directory and load the proper AUTORUN.SYS. As the AUTORUN.SYS loads, one of the final things it does it to place a $69 back into address $1082. Now DOS is pointing to its normal directory which points to a bogus version of AUTORUN.SYS. To copy the correct AUTORUN.SYS to another disk, you could write a basic program which poked $1082 with $79. Then open AUTORUN.SYS for input. Poke $1082 with $69 to reset DOS back to its normal value, and open an output file on another disk. Now simply read and write bytes until end of file. Poke $1082 with $79, issue a close on the first file, poke $1082 with $69 and issue a close for file 2 and voila!, you have a copy of Microsoft Basic that loads properly. Copy Microsoft Basic.atr

It will this year. ..Al

Wolf In Snow 14 colours. drpeter_WolfInSnow.xex

I strongly recommend giving this book a perusal: https://archive.org/details/tibook_smart-programming-guide-for-sprites/mode/2up It is a strong primer on using sprites and writing games in TI-XB

I have found this very interesting information: From MICROREVIEWS for August 1995 MICROpendium by Charles Good XB PACKER v1.2 by Brad Snyder This utility allows users to make practical use of an AMS 128K or 256K memory expansion card. With XB Packer you can load up to 10 XB programs into a 256K AMS card (5 into a 128K card). These XB programs all reside in bank switched CPU memory and can be run in any of several ways. You can manually switch memory banks from XB command mode and enter RUN, or you can run the programs from XB Packer's menu by entering the number next to the program's menu listing, or let the programs automatically call and run each other. I find XB Packer really user friendly. When you turn on your system you run the EA5 program ABOOT to set up the AMS card. Then you go back to the title screen, insert the XB module, and run XB Packer from XB. Once XB Packer is loaded you can use SHIFT/FCTN to change memory banks and a little display at the top of the screen tells you which of the 10 (or 5) banks you are in. From XB command mode go to bank 1 and enter OLD DSK1.XBPROG#1. Then SHIFT/FCTN to bank 2 and OLD DSK1.XBPROG#2, etc, loading XB programs into as many of the 10 banks as you want. At any time you can press SHIFT/CTRL to bring up a menu from which you can RUN a program in any bank. You can put custom titles in this menu to specify the name of the program in each bank. When you have loaded all the banks you want you can, with one command mode CALL LINK, save all the banks at once back to disk along with their menu titles in a special format. Next time you use XB Packer you can, with another CALL LINK, automatically load all the XB programs and their menu entries from disk (or ramdisk or hard drive) back into their repective memory banks, all in one continuous operation. Thus, once you get a group of XB programs set up the way you want them it is never again necessary to load them manually one at a time into each memory bank. The autoload of a group of programs can be set up so that a program in a specified bank immediately starts running after all banks are loaded. You also have the option of displaying the menu of program titles after an autoload so the user can select which program to run first. At any time from a running program pressing SHIFT/CTRL will get you back to the menu. Any program in any bank acts as if it were a self contained XB program. You can stop a running program with FCTN/4, edit the program and save it to disk, OLD in another program, etc. You can then switch banks from command mode by pressing SHIFT/FCTN and RUN or edit programs in other banks. XB Packer seems compatible with the various gram based extended extended basics. I have tried XB Packer with TI XB enhanced with Art Green's GUMS, with RXB v1002, and with Tony Kneer's XB v2.3 all with no obvious incompatibilities. Probably the most practical use for XB Packer is with a series of XB programs that load and run each other, programs that contain statements like RUN "DSK1.NEXTPROG" as part of their code. To make this work just replace each RUN "DSK1.NEXTPROG" with CALL LINK("BANK",x) where x is a memory bank number. When a running under XB Packer reaches this code, XB Packer will switch to the specified bank and immediately RUN the program in that bank. Having XB programs call other XB programs this way is very fast, faster than RUN from ramdisk and much faster than from floppy disk. There are a couple of limitations to XP Packer. One- you can ONLY load runable XB programs into the AMS mamory banks when using XB Packer. If your XB program reads data files or assembly language files, these files still have to be on a disk or ramdisk. Two- XB programs run under XB Packer can't have any imbeded assembly code. If you RUN an XB program with imbeded assembly code under XB Packer the program will appear to run properly, but the assembly code will overwrite XB Packer so that bank switching is no longer possible. If a CALL LINK to another bank is attempted you will get an XB error message. This is a significant limitation. Most of the better XB packages that load parts of themselves into memory as needed have assembly calls. This is true of Bill Gaskill's Mail List Manager, which would be a great candidate for running under XB Packer except for a little bit of assembly code found in only one of its separate XB program pieces. If an XB program listing says SYSTEX near the beginning this means the program contains assembly code and probably won't properly bank switch to other programs in other banks. I hope Brad Snyder will write a version of XB Packer that puts its assembly code in low memory. This would result in less memory available for XB code but would not interfere with the imbeded assembly code code contained in many of the better XB programs available today. To use XB Packer you must have an AMS 128K or 256K card in the Pbox. The AMS card and XB Packer have been successfully tested by me on a 40 and 80 column (AVPC 80 column card) 99/4A system. AMS doesn't work with a Geneve. XB Packer is part of the software package given to purchasers of the AMS card. Included is on disk documentation and a demo set of music XB programs all set up to batch load into the AMS and play from the XB Packer menu. XB Packer is fairware and the author requests only a $5 donation. ACCESS: Brad Snyder (XB Packer author); 4260 Cedar Drive, Walnutport PA 18088

https://www.unige.ch/medecine/nouspikel/ti99/superams.htm#High-level Haven’t seen this program but if it’s out there, perhaps it fits your purpose or at least the ideas behind could be utilized if you decide to build something similar.

I am going to so video this. Tomorrow my buddy is going to dig out his Atari Jaguar collection from back in the day that has been sitting in the attic for I do not even know how many years. I know he has the Jag and CD plus tons of games and also some other classic game goodness not for this forum. I am freaking so excited to open this Atari Jaguar time capsule tomorrow! All of his stuff is going up for sale in the future outside of what I cherry pick LOL, just saying!

Hi all, I have been working a bit on MP_STE, (M_PLAYER for the ST(e) computers), and here is version 3.00: - plays AVI/MOV with sound, FLI/FLC/FLH, GIF, FLM - can convert animations to the Extended FLM format + sound that is very fast on Atari. I have started to write the PDF user manual in english. Everything is on my page: (français) https://gtello.pagesperso-orange.fr/mpste_f.htm (english) https://gtello.pagesperso-orange.fr/mpste_e.htm Guillaume.

Hello, We are working on a new Rogue game for Atari STE. A teaser is now availble : https://youtu.be/MB13l3Pfstc The game requires 1mb of RAM minimum and will be available in several languages, English, French, German... Credits on the game: - Game concept, design and coding: Eric DAMAIN - Graphics: Papy CPC - Music: DMA-SC

Here is the reference card I talked about making. I'll update it from time to time. Geneve 2020 Reference Card.pdf

Hi everyone!

As one of many followers of this thread (over 6500 views!) just wanted to say how cool it has been to see the progress. Those carts look awesome just being displayed. Beats stamp and baseball card collecting in my book!

Hi folks! The game is still being updated for the cartridge edition. Slowly but surely. The game now has a proper menu, where you can, for example, choose the GUI language to be used (english and polish are available). Moreover, the selected configuration is stored on the cartridge, so the next time you boot your Atari it automatically loads the last configuration. Short video attached. Please ignore the minor graphics glitches, I'll get rid of them I promise

That is indeed an issue, the places I can think of: 1. Keep one SAMS page always mapped and store the mappings there, obviously that reduces the overall availability. 2. Store the pages mapped in scratchpad memory (that's an issue when doing XB, not so if you are running a standalone assembly language program, e.g. cartridge) 3. Use VDP memory (as you said) 4. Run FG99 cartridge in advanced mode and store the mappings there, aka. same as when storing in a supercart 5. In the DSR space if there's memory there, e.g. when using RAMDISK, ROS

Recommendation... Start with the user manual for Basic that follows with the TI. Start at the beginning and get a overview of how the codes work. Then look at this game... "SteveB52" a short game where a bomb is dropped. Also if you find the TICodEd tread you will find a manual about TICodEd. You will find this game in it and it is broken up into parts to explain it. Also TICodEd in it self is a programming tool. Then go to the nest game you find and go over the code to understand what is dos. Don't remember any maze game. But maybe someone will give you a link or code to a maze game to look at. It is not that complicated, when you look at the code.

It is on Disk 1126 in the Lima Users Group Library. The Filename is XBP. 1126.DSK

If I wasn't buying every game in the VCS Store to make videos on my YouTube channel I don't think I'd be buying the 7800 games personally otherwise due to them being available on Antstream, which is one of the cooler things on the VCS. The big difference is whether you are using bandwidth and need an Internet connection to play it.

Soldered in the connector (really don't want to do that again) And tested with good old Numan demo. Amazing what this Average Cart can do

Count me in if there's an AtariAge group buy.

For those that were looking to move the SD card forward. Here is my work around, Corresponding 90 degree headers. This is a concept as I'm minus 1 diode and a burned Atmega. I'm digging for my opposite side header. I have one I can solder side ways but that moves it even further. I'll update as I go here. Thank you

The 10 levels of fatness: Healthy Husky Fat Obese Round DAMN! Oh Hell No! Dear God NO! This Elevator is off limits Chair killer

99/4A Cartridge Breakout Boards came in today. They look great. I still have 5 left that are not spoken for. If you want any PM me for price + shipping.

TI*MES Issue No 2 from Autumn 1983 Read to print. TIMES Issue 2 Autumn 1983.pdf

If someone wants to volunteer, I wouldn't say no. The shark would help, but it needs to be done a certain way. I can't use the 2600 one, because it's made up of a crazy mishmash of NUSIZ, HMOVE, and etc... But consider this one on hold for the time being. Too much other stuff going on. AND there's a flash / glitch / issue that I can't seem to solve. Someone please let me know how bad it is, in your own opinion... I don't think I can fix it, I've tried so many things... Is it something people can "live with"?? It bugs me so bad... That said, here's a version that's actually fully playable, minus the fishermen and shark, and with the glitch issue: fd.bin

I think it could be a mistake to call this a work-in-progress, but MAYBE it is. Phaeron inspired me to give it a go on A8 kernel programming, and I guess a lot is working... I mean, sort-of. Much more graphics left to do, not at all my forte. It's playable, in a messed-up sort of fashion... Ignore the placeholder graphics stuff, it's just there to help me get the scanline locations right. fd.bin

For the 2nd year in a row, my Coleco Adam entry has won Holiday Music Week at Retro Battlestaions on Reddit. Coleco Adam with MIDI-MITE interface and Casio MT-240 keyboard. Chipmunks Christmas Song - Holiday Music Week IX winner Here's last years winning entry: Sleigh Ride - Holiday Music Week VIII

Has anyone ever come across this early Tele-Games brochure? I recently bought a very nice light sixer set CIB mainly for the brochure. When it arrived however I was impressed by how nice the set was. Looks like it’s hardly been touched. I love the brochure though. Can’t recall ever seeing one before. It’s dated 8/77 so it’s pretty early.

The 3rd one is the long-awaited 7800 neural interface, right?

Albert I would be happy to join on your group how you do as you have way more experience in doing mass shipments more than I do. I would be in for a group buy join in with you!

Once upon a time Tower of Mystery was supposed to be a "voice-optional" game. I remember attending a recording session where a voice actor recorded the phrases that were to be included in the game. However, that never got incorporated into the game before ME folded, and it certainly was not added when Tower of Doom was released by Intv.

This is my code for credits scrolling. Probably I've shared it before a ton of times: ' Public domain by Oscar Toledo G. @nanochess show_credits: PROCEDURE ' Credits FOR c = 220 TO 239 #backtab(c) = 0 NEXT c GOSUB clear_sprites WAIT BORDER 0,2 WAIT offset_x = 0 offset_y = 0 offset_d = 0 #offset_base = -20 DO IF offset_y = 0 THEN offset_d = 4:offset_y = 7 ELSE offset_y = offset_y - 1 END IF SCROLL offset_x,offset_y,offset_d WAIT offset_d = 0 IF offset_y = 7 THEN #offset_base = #offset_base + 20 PRINT AT 220 y = credits_color(#offset_base / 20) IF y AND $80 THEN y = y AND $7F END IF FOR x = 0 TO 9 #c = credits_text(#offset_base / 2 + x) #d = #c / 256 IF #d = 32 THEN #d = 256 PRINT #d * 8 + y #d = #c AND 255 IF #d = 32 THEN #d = 256 PRINT #d * 8 + y NEXT x END IF FOR c = 0 TO 7 WAIT d = cont IF #offset_base = 0 THEN d = 0 IF d THEN c = 0: GOTO sc_cancel NEXT c LOOP WHILE #offset_base < 35 * 20 ' 35 is the total rows of text FOR c = 0 TO 239 WAIT d = cont IF d THEN c = 0: GOTO sc_cancel NEXT c sc_cancel: SCROLL 0,0,0 BORDER 0,0 WAIT GOSUB clear_screen END clear_screen: PROCEDURE CLS MODE 0,0,0,0,0 FOR d = 0 TO 7 SPRITE d,0 NEXT d WAIT END credits_text: DATA PACKED " Castle of Love " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " A game by: " DATA PACKED " Rick Sanchez " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Music: " DATA PACKED " Morty Smith " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Manual: " DATA PACKED " Jerry Smith " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Box design: " DATA PACKED " Beth Sanchez " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Overlays: " DATA PACKED " Summer Smith " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Boxes by: " DATA PACKED " Nanocheetos " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Special thanks: " DATA PACKED " Robocop " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " Strange " DATA PACKED " Games. " DATA PACKED " (c) 2022 " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " DATA PACKED " " ' One color for each row credits_color: DATA 6,6 DATA 5,3,5 DATA 5,3,5 DATA 5,3,5 DATA 5,3,5 DATA 5,3,5 DATA 5,3,5 DATA 5,3,5,5 DATA 5,5,5,5,6 DATA 6,7,5,5 DATA 5,5,5

The crashes I mention are specifically due to the .pocket file conversion required to have them run off the sd card. Modders are patching the roms in this case so we're not exactly talking about original hardware. But yes, lots of people are having issues with everdrives on the pocket where they would work on original hardware. All reports I've seen of the pocket running original games though, what it's actually advertised to do, suggest that it works fine. I just wish there was a built in rom loader already so we wouldn't have to rely on these workarounds which may or may not introduce bugs. A well designed handheld for sure, but clearly unfinished on the software side of things. Feels like we're the beta testers in some respects.

Wonder who?

I would say, fill in the gaps first, them compare quality of scans, of the ones that Whtech has, if yours is superior, then use yours instead.

@OldSchoolRetroGamer For my pal Rob. Need a cup of coffee to lighten my day...

Bill, you had asked if anyone had come across this catalog. I was fortunate to acquire one recently. This was only the second time I've seen one, with yours being the first. Thanks for shedding light on this catalog, otherwise I never would have spotted it. It does seem to be pretty scarce. I think you're right that it was a point of sale flyer. Al/Rom, here's a scan of the catalog, in case you'd like to include it in your respective websites.

Here is a blast from the past- out of order but I just found it and can't find it anywhere else on the 'net... The UK User Group TI*MES Issue No 2 from Autumn 1983. A zip file of TIF images at 600dpi. - read, print, OCR or PDF. And add to WHT or any other archive! This is an historic issue as it has the first article that I wrote for TI*MES- my latest is in the December 2021 issue, some 38 years later- anyone else have a longer run of articles! There are several gaps where I didn't contribute. What's inside this issue: A look ahead- using computers in schools; a review of the 99/4 magazines available from the USA- Unofficial; IUG; Home Computer Magazine- and a brief note of what is in their latest issues; a run down of the various peripherals for the 99/4a and a few brief module reviews. Introduction to Stainless Software. Using data cassettes. A review of Extended Basic. A lovely hand lettered advert from Christine Computing. (I have seen a pdf of Issue 2 where this was replaced by a modern style graphic, which is a pity as Christine put some effort into her advert!) I don't see many of the early issues of TI*MES on the 'net- and given my limited output, would you prefer the older low number issues or older issues of TI*MES eg continue from issue 20? WHTECH has copies of 1,3,4,7,9,10,12,13,16 - is there a demand for a rescan of these or just fill in the gaps? Issue 19 follows next week. bb times uk No2_Oct1983.zip

While squashing the original graphics resembles the arcade the most, it has the disadvantage of not being legible if you're not very familiar with the arcade game. I think if the game was released on the 2600 BITD, it would have gone with a more vertical pow. (8x10)

I found out about it in the usual way: by myself and with a Victoria's Secret catalogue. Wait, what were we talking about again?

Had to make it worth the resurrection of the thread

I thought I'd have a look and see how @rbairos's MovieCart might handle a Zaxxon display. This is just a video playback of screen recording of Stella playing a screen recording converted to MovieCart But the idea is that with some nous, it might be possible to use the MovieCart 10-sprite + colour + BG display technology to do a number of vertical-format arcade games. Maybe, maybe not. The encoding might be an issue. But in any case, here's a look-see (of course, unoptimised) at what Zaxxon might be like. I still think Joe's demo is amazing, though.