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No problem, John ! I'm still on X-Mas/NYE vacation/holydays so I still have some time for my hobbies... and playin' on the VCS (or Stella in this case, since I haven't an Harmony cart...) is one of them ! Yeah, I think you're right, speaking of "adding more challenge", even in the Arcade skill level ! I mean, whatever you're implementing in the code, your game is always amazing ! (and this also comes from the heart of a Scramble coin-op human player, as I already said ). HEY ! I knew ... I imagined that you and Nathan would not have stopped in the development of Scramble only... So, keep up the good work ! But before... and here I say one thing for which I think all the Scramble fans and homebrew collectors agree with me, I really would like to purchase a "real" Scramble cartridge for my VCS !!!

Old topic... but I just found it (I'm still on vacation/holydays...). Really nice job, bennybingo ! I'm on the Daphne and D-L-P communities since almost 13 years, and I perfectly understand what a "real" Dragon's Lair machine could mean ! DVD or BR/PC-HD games aren't considered... same thing for iOS/Android/wii, etc... THE ONLY ones that could be played as in the arcades are: > of course, the coin-operated machines themselves > a "true" cabinet with the "Dexter" laserdisc replacement system (real hardware connected to a virtual LDP+LD system made with a RSPi-based machine) > the Daphne emulator, with original players+discs or even with that all good *OFFICIAL* captures available with the DaphneDownLoader system (years ago I sent to the community the two captures of PAL Dragon's Lair and Space Ace disc which work only on Atari European cabinet & hardware). The Merlin board is just an amazing mod ! It could give even more if you have a Pioneer LDV-8000 player, which is capable of send overlay text to the display: for example, you could play Space Ace rev.A2 or even the Enhanced on a "regular" Cinematronics dedicated DL cabinet (like your), selecting the skill level directly on the screen without necessarily having the three skill level selection buttons on the control panel... With the Dexter + Dragon's Lair II "Enhanced Edition", you could play the game in a, again, Dragon's Lair Cinematronics cab and in a way you had never seen, with much more features on the gameplay and an alternative ending. Well... enjoy Don Bluth's LaserDiscGames ! [ clips of me playing on my cabinet: prototype revision with "extra footage" comin' from the Limited 2002 Edition laserdisc ]

Don't follow Jakobud's plans or you'll completely fail the marquee section ! It's since YEARS I told "him" to review those awful plans but seems that he didn't. Believe me... I have a Cinematronics Dragon's Lair cabinet (pic) and it's just NOT like Jako had drawn !!! Hi-resolution artwork scans for DL and many other arcade cabinets could be found at CaGa site : http://www.arcadecollecting.com/caga/ And this is me playin' on my cab with the 2002LimitedEdition , which includes the "extra footage" taken from the (ARGH!) restored VHS... (2 diferent clips)

It was in 1984 when we used to play Space Ace in the arcades, which was necessarily loud ! That was to make us listen "beep" and "boop" sounds to determine if a move had been accepted or not. BUT in the same year came a great game which was "enclosed" in a huge three-monitors cabinet and with a really powerful sound system ! ... maybe too powerful ! The noise of the engines, especially when cars enter the gallery, echoing almost throughout the whole arcade !!! Beautiful game, indeed ! ... even better than Pole Position and than the high-tech laserdsic-based game "Laser GrandPrix". TX-1

Dang ! Daphne is pretty much less exose in terms of hardware than MAME... Unfortunately, our DaphneTeam "chief" put in standby the progresses of the emulation since the 2010, so to play FireFox and CubeQuest you'd have to take the respective CHDs for MAME (from the rev 0.127). Also M.A.C.H. is better on MAME than Daphne, but for ALL THE OTHER LaserDiscGames I suggest to use Daphne. Daphne+Singe also emulate many of the AmericanLaserdiscGames...

Hi John ! I ran out of fuel just before and/or after shooting the final base. After the 9th level it also occurred in the fireball section... yeah, that's mainly because in the previous section it's important to avoid UFOs' missiles and to do that I find extremely necessary to stay above the UFOs and shoot them with both missiles and bombs. But "stay above them" means "stay far from the ground", and in this position is impossible to shoot fuel tanks with precision. Yep, in the Super Cobra coin-op machine UFOs shoot... but there are many other things and many of them moves around the screen, just like those missiles we use to call "suppository" which take off from the ground like the other missiles... Moving bases (like tanks) , stalactites, etc... If I remember well (I was not so good at Super Cobra like I was on Scramble) fireballs could be hit and destroyed with fire &/or bombs. I see, John : in the "labyrynth" there are some other things which the coin-op hasn't. So... well, yes: I think (right, Keatah ) all the "extra-features" could be included in the Expert skill only, but this is only a personal thought... Oh, the round counter is fine: I know, but, as I use to say, I'm NOT a programmer... so I SUPPOSE that to use multiple flags without too much flicker I think you would had to draw remaining lives and flags with alternate horizontal lines... YEAH ! Seems that the "horseshoe" has to be "expanded" to avoid CX-40 "rolling up"... The square bomb ? Mah... I prefer the old "thin" version because it's closer to the... hemm, yep, again... closer to the original coin-op bombs Thnx... yep, it's not a bad score, considering that meanwhile I was helping my daughter with her geography homeworks... Regards, Marco

Hi again, John ! Great improvements here ! I played again some games and I ran out of fuel several times... unlike playin' on the previous release I had it happened almost never (excluding the times I missed the base...). Dunno if it's my impression but... hehe, you wanted to increase a little bit more the overall difficulty, isn't it ? Hey ! ... in the coin-op UFOs don't shoot ! Ok, this comment comes from an "arcade purist" (speaking of Scramble and some other coin-ops...), so maybe in the "arcade" skill level I would have preferred UFOs shooting ability turned off, leaving it for the "Expert" skill only... Colors matching is OK ! Even the "level grid" (1st,2nd,...base) matches the coin-op's yellow !!! Level counter is ok, too... in the coin-op that counter is made of flags, which number increases from 1 to 15 or 16 (don't remember well), then it resets to 1. Just one more thing, which I already told : that damned "horseshe" always makes me swear blaspheme words... and with my daughter around here (we're both at home now until the 7th: me from job and she from school...) it's not so good ! Better for me to avoid playing for now... Greattttt job, as always, John !

Hmm... maybe you could do the, as we use to say, "trouble shared is a trouble halved" : open up the only right turn (diag. R+down), which is the most difficult one, and leave the left turn as it is. Yeah, just like in the coin-op, ship's exhaust does not affect collisions... I was used to hit the mothership with one only bomb flying low and at close range, and so I do also in this VCS porting... to do this you'd have to stay very close to the Konami's (AtariAge's ) tower and the other lower building...

It's moved here : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dragon-s-lair-returns#/ Say what you want, I would really love to see a Bluth's new movie, as I'd love to see an entire drawn animation movie instead of another CGI one ! ... but I'm a little bit "biased".. ... and, of course: I still have to search (and hopefully FIND...) other VHS of Bluth's movies I bought several years ago.

Hi John and pleased to meet you! Hehe, no, actually I think I have spent a maximum of 4 or 5 dolla... HEMM... I have done more or less twenty games . Let's just say that Scramble was one of those games in which if I slipped a quarter in I soon had been kicked out of the arcade, that's all . So I had already spent some time to learn playin' on the coin-operated, and as your Scramble is one of the more beautiful and faithful porting ever seen (and I speak not only for the VCS... ) I did not take too long to get those more-than-200k, though unfortunately the reflexes are not what they were before... [speaking of coin-op, on Gyruss, another of my favorites, I can now barely reset once the score counter, while in Xevious I can not even reach the 5 'base... not to mention Defender, in which I currently can barely get a total of 300,000 points ...] For me the difficulty ramping is great, although a little bit below the coin-op, but I think if you ever wanted to make it harder then it would have been not a good thing... Yep, 'cause the "hardcore gamer" could defeat it anyhow, while a "common" player would feel a bit frustrated... In any case, I found no issues at all, only a certain "propensity" to "easy collisions" with the ground. In points like the "horseshoe" (as we lads used to call it at the "downstairs cafe") it's difficult to take the right timing to go free without colliding with the ground (and here I think it could be a scrolling matter... isn't it ?) Cheers and congratulations again, John ! [ Do you like my artwork for the cartridge box ? ... I only forgot to include the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive controller option description, but it's me, and I really have a kind of "dislike" for that machine ... ]

More and more beautiful ! I mean ... it's always the same Scramble, but with a "long run" you can see all the various considerable increases of difficulty ! To tell the truth, I paused the game 5/6 times because wife and daughter got up, then we had breakfast together... then as they began to do schoolwork I continued my game [after the 8th round, counter resets]

[ o.t. : yeah, Jeri is so hot... but if, I could say, I still prefer Jolene "T'Pol" Blalock ] Speaking of Lady Bug, when I bought the cart I produced a box keepin' the layout of the ColecoVision cart... [ sorry for the LCD TV... I was repairing and "fixing" it. PAL L6 + PAL 60 LadyBug ]

Finally I can post ... although to be honest I got a some spare time last Sunday, but I was busy... Yep, busy to PLAY it !!! ---[ and also to produce my own template for the cartridge box... (picture attached) ]--- ------------------------------ I translate from italian my own review/first impressions of VCS Scramble I already wrote in my "VideoGames Dawn" FB group, so please forgive me for any errors... ]--- ------------------------------ What can I say ? ... ah, I have to say IT'S AWESOME !!! We could really define it as "arcade perfect", for both gameplay and graphics ! I also tried to do the classic "gliding raids" and other maneuvers that I used to do on the arcade and I must say it really reminds me of the many games played on the coin-op at the "downstairs cafe", in '81 / '82 (and my father "slaps" when I came home late from school because I HAD TO to play Scramble, before !!!). The development of the bases, missiles, all the other enemies and their movement patterns are virtually identical to the arcade ! As well as the sounds and music ! On the emulator we can turn on the stereo audio output on, so we could hear the effects of the game on right channel, while the left one is "dedicated" to the classic and thumping noise typical of the arcade, the noise of the enemy ufos engine and the effect of explosion of our bold spaceship. --- [Note: it is SO urgent that I decide "in time" to fix my stereo Heavy Sixer... before I'll have buy the "true" cartridge !] --- The "AtariAge" logo instead of the "Konami" one on top of the tower block just before the enemy base (which is a bit more difficult to hit of the corresponding on the coin-op ...) is a" gem " !!! ... but the author of the game had already did "gems" before, precisely in the very first screen of his Lady Bug for the VCS, which I already bought about 7 years ago, that showed the typical "check" of the coin-op version just after turning on the console ! For now the only "defect", if we can call it that, is the usual "inclination" to the blinking / flickering, but we all know that is something "congenital" for the VCS... so, looking at all that objects that runs around the screen, I think it's kinda' the best that could be done ! ---[ on the emulator you can turn on the "phosphor" option and set it at 100%, and so blinking is reduced "to the bone", but of course in the scenes in which there is confusion of sprites also the phosphor can do nothing... ]--- Ok, I would say that in when we have to "dodge" the walls in the tunnel and we've to fire at the various fuel tanks placed there, the shooting of our spacecraft is a little less effective than in the coin-op. This is due to the fact that the arcade got TWO FIRE BUTTON, one for shooting the front and one for bombs, while the VCS does obviously "everything" with the only fire button of the good old CX-20... then, it's an alternate firing between missile and bomb. Those who owns a Sega Genesis / MegaDrive joypad must use it: the implemented "auto-detect" function activate the "two button mode", so you can have a control system accurately as in the coin-op (too bad the Sega joypad is horrible ... one button beside, our already mentioned CX 20 is so much better... ) ] --- ANYWAY this game is really a masterpiece and it ABSOLUTELY deserves original hardware and a CRT TV !!! The return of John "Champ" Champeau who, after several years of "inactivity" and after his incredible version of Lady Bug, has decided to give us another porting from the arcade world that no one had ever seen on our beloved VCS ! Another game, another awesome conversion from the original coin-op !!! Chapeau, Champeau !

Interesting... I still have two '82 joysticks from my own L6 and they're fully workin' although they have spent their mid-80's with the VCS (Decathlon), C=64 (Decathlon, Track&Field) and Amiga1000 (various) ! Just some cleaning . Never found better short stroke sticks (short sroke = it was never necessary to urge them beyond their limits, otherwise, yes, they prematurely end their life...) About the Decathlon, I was on the top-ten Track&Field (Arcade Coin-Op, joystick version) hi-score boards here in Italy in the '84, so I'm probably "biased" on Decathlon, which has *almost* the same control methode. Just to let you understand what was commonly known here about this two wonderful games' "human-interface", I translate (hope it's right...) a piece of my review of both Arcade and VCS' Track&Field game(s) : ---------- The controls Controls... big word ... how to "give back" the feeling of riding and fatigue to the player, usually equipped with a common joystick and a few buttons ? Nothing better than two keys to be pressed alternately to run: the higher the frequency with which keys are pressed for the run and the higher the speed that the player gives to his athlete ! BRILLIANT, no doubt about it ! The third button, which in the original cabinet is placed in a very uncomfortable position (between the two running keys) is used to jump/throw. Congratulations to Konami's game engineers... but it would be more correct to say: Congratulations to Activision's folk !!! Yep ! Indeed the beautiful AtariVCS/2600 "The Activision Decathlon" which was developed and marketed just a few months before this T&F already had a pretty similar control system (in addition to being in practice an almost equal game...) : the power stroke is given by the speed with which "fiddles" the good old CX-40 alternately left and right. In my opinion (as well as MANY other players), the latter solution is PERFECT : the sense of fatigue appears in this case dramatically more noticeable than with the buttons one ! Most of the T&F, typically bootleg versions named "Hyper Olympic" and distributed mostly in Europe were equipped with this control system (Joystick + button to jump/throw). A game that does SWEATING, in all senses ! The best "man-to-game" interface ever seen ! BRAVO to both Activision and Konami ! ---------- SO... "The best "man-to-game" interface ever seen"... this feature is pretty enough to make the Decathlon a very-special game. Gameplay, controls, graphic, challenge... all of those features would guarantee him a top-ten position in the ever hall of fame !

Hi Miss. AH ! Hehe, yep, like we use to say here seems that "I used the hoe on my own feet" Strange thing I didn't see my #361 post in the log on my account, and that's why I posted another *updated* list (not to mention my well-known lack of memory... )

In that "RH Arcade Competition 2013" videoclip it's me playing on the SEGA 1984 "Pitfall II - The Lost Caverns" coin-operated arcade game.

An interesting 10 years topic and I still didn't have placed a reply... Well, it's never too late ! [ I'm VERY surprised to find some of the very-best titles for our beloved console in a terrific position on this hit-parade ! Pole Position in 43th place and... The Activision Decathlon in 71th position !?!?!?!!! How could it be possible ?!??!! ] ORIGINAL - I base my choice on the best favourite games I had, already own and I used to play both in the early 80's as nowadays ! 1 - Pitfall II - Lost Caverns 2 - The Activision Decathlon 3 - Raiders of the lost Ark 4 - Pole Position 5 - Ms.Pac-Man 6 - Indy 500 7 - H.E.R.O. 8 - Combat 9 - Moon Patrol 10 - Fathom SUPERCHARGER - Since I had never own the Starpath device, I base my choice on the few games I used to play in the early 80's at a friend's house ! 1 - Survival Island 2 - Frogger HOMEBREW - I base my choice MAINLY on the best hb/hack favourite games I own and/or I have played on real hw and just a few on emulator(s) 1 - Space Rocks 2 - Juno First 3 - Stay Frosty 2 (emulator) 4 - Lady Bug 5 - Pac-Man Arcade 6 - Thrust + 7 - HALO 2600 8 - Space Invaders Arcade (emulator) 9 - Defender Arcade (emulator) 10 - Galaxian Arcade (emulator)

I'd like to contact the seller... just for curiosity

UH ! ... I forgot the "Activison-style" box layout !

[ "Post reprise" ] Yep, but since the "new" CV game is pretty much the same as the SG-1000 it lacks of MANY details typical of the coin-operated game ! Well, I didn't want to post here anything else about my "mockup"... but I changed my idea, hoping that someone would be interested... [ lo-res and compressed images ] Here it is the original Pitfall II map, done with Commodore 64 screenshots. It is IDENTICAL to the VCS version... just a little bit more graphic details and nothing else ! : It has 8 vertical columns and 27 horizontal "floors" in which Harry could run, PLUS other "virtual" 2 floors which are "occupied" by the river (and, of course, in which Harry could swim), for a total of 29 "floors". This is the coin-op arcade game map : The first level It has 32 sections. It's designed to "take" something from the Crane's very first Pitfall game, which is developed in horizontal way only and with just the possibility to climb up/down one ladder at a time to go in the lower level. The underground levels (second, third and fourth) They are developed on a 8 columns/28 floors map... so a structure very close to the home version's ! If you're interested but you do not already knows all the other differences between home and arcade versions (and they're MANY...) , please check the videoclip in post 5 [http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232066-pitfall-ii-arcade/#entry3118774] . At this pont, thinking about an "hack" of the Pitfall II home version, I imagined to "cut" much of the arcade's 1st level and to combine it with a NEW "27 levels-underground" (just one less than the arcade version), in the way I have a total of 29 "floors", perfectly matching the home version's development !!! And so here it is "my" Pitfall II - The Arcade game mockup map for the VCS : Here you can see the two maps of the home+arcade VCS versions mixed together (I made it just to see the differences...) :

Hi Iwan ! Good thought, but we do not know really much about the "official" european H6ers... could they had been sold with gatefold Combat ? My Light Sixer came with a "regular-boxed" Combat, not gatefold as the NTSCs did... but it's an L6, not an H6... Well, we discussed a lot yesterday on FB and at the end we concluded that the auction's VCS is definitely: 1> an NTSC Heavy Sixer : the seller posted some "false" pictures, at least they came from another (full PAL) setup 2> a mainboard-replaced "NTSC-to-PAL" Heavy Sixer : the seller had reconditioned, like already written in the auction description, the console ... maybe he changed a (probably not-working ?) NTSC H6 into PAL, replacing the whole PCB (yeah, we know it's not enough to transplant the 6507 and/or the TIA because all the electronics, clock first, "work" for a specific system... while PAL and SECAM TIAs are changeable and compatible ***!!!***, NTSC and PAL aren't !) ; pictures shown are "true" and came from that machine cabled to a PAL TV.

Hi Tom ! Well, we all know PAL H6s are much more rare than NTSCs, 'cause they were produced in few units compared to the US machines. So one of those console made for our european TV system may be worth a lot, especially if it's boxed+complete (CIB), working and in perfect condition as the one on the auction. So, some people in that FB group I mentioned before claims that this machine is a NTSC unit, mostly because it has a recognizable U.S. label attached underneath, with the typical "FCC Type... part15" approval (as mine, shown in the pic below) whereas to be PAL it should have had a label withOUT the U.S. approval, like this UK Heavy Sixer in the pic below or, again, like this one, sold in Italy in the 1978 by the official seller "Melchioni" and property of a friend of mine who worked for several italian videogames magazines in the 80's and 90's : Then, did the seller show pictures of another setup or he was really honest ?

Hi guys. The topic is a discussion we're having on the "videogames dawn" italian FB group, and it's about this (already ended) eBay auction : http://www.ebay.it/itm/ATARI-2600-HEAVY-SIXER-SUNNYVALE-PAL-IN-MINT-CONDITION-VERY-RARE-/281680926974?ssPageName=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AIT%3A3160 Some of ous say it's NOT a PAL Heavy Sixer... I was undecided which side to take because I trust to the good faith of the seller... Then I made some tests with both Stella and *real* hardware to compare the game screens. First of all, as shown in auction's pictures, we could see "our" european Combat is one of the (few) games which PAL version isn't a NTSC-conversion: a very nice fullscreen without the "classic" black (scan)lines ( added to fill the typical empty lines of the games converted from NTSC... ). Berzerk, the other games shown, is so much different because it has those typical filling black scanlines. But, as far as I can see, and if the seller had not made a "trick" showing pictures coming from another setup , to me that H6 is PAL ! This is an AD from UK, 1977, marked "Ingersoll", official dealer for the UK in these years (on the auction, the Psupply of that VCS is also signed Ingersoll...) Combat - PAL cartridge in PAL console (emulator) [ colors match ebay auction's Combat TV picture ] Combat - PAL cartridge in NTSC console (emulator) ... (the same cartridge in my modded H6 NTSC S-Video cabled) Combat - NTSC cartridge on PAL console (emulator) Combat - NTSC cartridge on NTSC console (emulator) Berzerk - PAL cartridge in my PAL Light Sixer (RF cabled) [ colors match ebay auction's Berzerk TV picture ] Well... what do you think ? Could that console in the auction really be a PAL H6 or not ?!

Days ago I got a "TopScore" on Raider of The Lost Ark (modded 2600Jr., livingroom full PAL setup) with 20.5 "steps" and both the EasterEggs shown. [ Track & Field controller used as right controller... much more comfortable than a second stick between knees ] Space Invaders (same setup) : 9970 ... Which is actually 19970... Yep, because the "real" difficulty in Space Invaders is been able to "stop" the counter on 9995 points, killing the "right" number of aliens and avoid that the same counter will reset to zero (at 10 000 points) !!! ... which it's happened in that game ! I made it with one ship/life, but then I lost letting them invade while trying to reach that damn 9995 ! Moon Patrol (same setup) : 165330 Vanguard (same setup) : 180060 Pitfall II (same setup) : 199000 [ white score counter over light blue bng and camera flash reflections forced me to shot the pic very close to the screen... ] Pac-Man Arcade (garage/tavern/arcade room setup; CVBS+S-Video+Stereo+Internal Audio modded NTSC Heavy Sixer, PAL TV... LCD, unfortunately, because all my CRTs ***I have 8 of those TVs+++ does not sync an NTSC image over S-Video connection... ) : 111390 and... yep, E.T. (garage/tavern/arcade room full-PAL setup : Light Sixer and CRT TV ***RF***) : 20189

Keatah, only saw those two little Air-Sea Battle and Battlezone screenshots...