JamesD

There was a thread discussing keyboard repair. If the keys are all on the same line in the keyboard map one of the traces is broken and needs repair. I found this on one of my 130XE's.

Like I said in response to your other message... Try the mailing list here: CoCo mailing list Or forums here: CoCo Forums The Coco 3 plays most Coco 1/2 games and there are patches for a few games out there that don't.

Try the mailing list here: CoCo mailing list Or forums here: CoCo Forums There's also a Yahoo group and it's posts echo to the mailing list.

Another person blaming Tramiel. Atari was a mess and Warner was unable to fix it. The death of the arcade in favor of the home console killed Atari's cash cow industry and left Atari depending on a low end console and slowing computer sales to support it. Jack probably sustained it longer than Warner could have but he fired too many engineers and lost vital technology that could have made the ST or Jaguar better. But opinion aside and to play along... I think you would have seen more companies making game consoles today. Atari and Amiga game consoles would have been more popular since the companies would have survived and their machines were better than other game systems of the time. We would have seen more players in the 16/32 bit computer market. A more realistic option to me... Crash or not, I think Atari might have survived if they had just released the 5200 when the 400/800 computers were introduced or shortly after while phasing out the 2600. The 5200 would have had a huge number of titles by the shakeout rather than the 2600. The improved graphics and game play would have helped it maintain sales in spite of new competitors like the ColecoVision. The 7800 wouldn't have been an upgrade to the 2600 but an upgrade to the 5200. Probably with more colors, more graphics modes, multi-color sprites, additional sound capability and more RAM. That would also make it's way to the computers and you'd see later Atari 8 bits more competitive with the C64. It could have even made it competitive with the NES. The 2600/7800 was dead end do to the change in games but the computer based 5200 would have been easier to adapt. The additional money and market share might have given Atari enough to draw Amiga to them instead of Commodore.

Time for another weekly nag... any update?

A lot of people are waiting for a firmware update. The current firmware doesn't support all CBM DOS features and I think it's a bit over their head downloading new firmware to the board. I think if someone releases one as a full unit with case and power supply it would be pretty popular. I'd rather install it inside the machine myself though.

Wolf 3D was released for the Apple IIgs and it was about all that machine could do to keep up with it's 2.8MHz 65816, more memory, better sound and better graphics. 20fps might be a bit optimistic for a 6502 since it couldn't handle the math lib that made it possible on the IIgs and SuperNES.

Not being aware of products for other machines doesn't mean they don't exist. 1541-III That should also work on a 128, plus/4 or other CBM machines. You'll notice it even fits inside the C64 DTV Joystick unit. There's also a C64 IDE interface. As for other machines... There are several IDE interface boards for the Apple II. One program lets you boot your Apple II through a super serial card and load a driver that emulates disk drives over the serial connection to the PC. If you look around you'll also find IDE interfaces for the Spectrum, TRS-80, Coco, MSX, etc... And btw, they have all had them for years. I think one TRS-80 version has been around for at least a decade.

Given the state of Atari's parent company I don't think there's a chance of it being released this year.

I never lost sleep over 8 bit games. I didn't have my own computer until I was a junior in high school and I only had a couple games anyway. Besides, I was so busy with school activities I didn't have time. I did lose sleep programming every now and then. In college I met up with some guys that produced software and ended up being a partner in a company that developed stuff for the Amiga. One of the guys had an Amiga dealership and we'd stay after hours and play games once in a while. In spite of owning an Amiga myself I never really played games on it much. I think Shadow of the Beast was the only one I ever bought. Tomb Raider was probably the first game I owned myself that I lost sleep over. Since then I'd say Warcraft III and Half Life 2 are the only other's I couldn't quit playing.

I was thinking it looked kinda Half Life ish myself.

Some games require 64K and don't run on the older 800 even if it is the machine I think of first when people mention the Atari 8 bit. It has 4 controller ports and later models have 2. Of the other models people often say the 1200 had the best keyboard but a buggy ROM. The 800XL may be the best overall game system for cartridges. Top loading and with the right ROMs can run any game cart. The 130XE has the most RAM.

*cough* I've heard the Colecovision called a lot of things. Elegent isn't usually one that springs right to mind, though. Elegance... !Which system you think could be used to call E.T. back to earth! Speak & Math? Am I the only one that got a laugh out of this? I thought sure someone else would comment on it.

See the quote.

The nice thing about source code is the enemy logic could eventually be fixed and a 5200 version *might* be an option. Sinistar was a real love/hate thing for me. I love the game but it was so difficult I hated it. Dang quarter thief anyway. Being able to play it at home would have been awesome. Too bad they killed the project.

Ok, you've had almost a week... you have to have found something.

I said no impact because I had no intention of buying any Sony products even before this happened. I guess you could say I hate Sony. Just for the record, I'm not fond of Nintendo or Microsoft either. I think I dislike Nintendo the least of the three.

I think the top loading cart slot and older keyboard get my vote for cart games. If you go newer get the 130XE.

The only sales figures I've found for the 400/800 I've found said 2 million. Later models were cheaper though and I'm sure sold better.

I can't find the link at the moment but there were around 2 million sold in the 400/800 years. Sales figures were missing after 1984 or '85 so I have no idea after that. Computer Sales BTW, those sales figures seem to be missing a *lot* of machines but it's a good start.

I have to agree here. At least she looks more human that cartoon. The videogame awards was full of characters that didn't look real at all but guys were ranting about how great they were. I guess that's what happens when you've never had a girlfriend. BTW, that Japanese game is just creapy.

I notice it's people that have actual games that dislike mame.

Still nothing to add I take it.

I loved TechTV but I can't wait for G4 to die a horrible, painful death. It's filled with useless "edgy" crap for the teen demographic.

I have a Yobo I picked up off of ebay. I don't have any complaints and it seems to be pretty true to the NES. I'm not sure if colors or sound or exact since I haven't played a real NES in over 10 years but it seems good enough for the games I've played on it. Anyone considering buying one... Make sure you buy one that accepts NES joysticks. Some use cheaper connectors with a different form factor connector. Don't assume sound is bad on all models since these vary from one unit to the next depending on manufacturer. I can't see how the connector would be responsible for broken cartriges unless a user is careless. If you buy one from ebay make sure you check the shipping since some are advertised cheap but have higher shipping.