NoahsMyBro

With 2 rebuilt controllers, I think that sounds reasonable.

you should just stop now, you sound like a complete tool. If i was Curt i would be offended reading your two posts. You seem like well, maybe i should leave Noah all my stuff if i die, is what your trying to imply in a round about way. I wasn't trying to suggest that in any way, shape, or form, and I'm sorry it came across that way. I've been around here a long time, though not a frequent poster, and I'd hope my visible history on the boards can attest that I'm not the opportunistic ass you appear to think I am. In any case, what with the hermetically sealed UV-protected shrinkwrap being set in place around Curt's home, I'm satisifed my concerns have been addressed. As for the actual topic at hand (remember Galaga? It's a song about Galaga...), I never really played much Galaxian on the 5200 - I don't remember why. I assume I just didn't like it all that much, but I honestly don't recall. Of course, I never was a huge fan in the arcades either. When it came out, I thought it was just a ripoff of Space Invaders, and as a kid I had a hangup about not giving perceived ripoffs like that any appreciation. (I never watched the original Battlestar Galactica because I thought it was just ABC trying to cash in on Star Wars' success.) Also, I was pretty bad at the arcade Galaxian. However, I'd definitely be interested in a Galaga for the 5200 if it was done. I always was disappointed the 5200 didn't have the long-term commercial success I felt it deserved, and would love to see it pull something like Galaga off.

Actually, I'm concerned about the loss of Curt's knowledge, as well as documents/knowledge/materials in his possesion. If Curt falls off the face of the earth tomorrow, what happens to all of the useful documentation and equipment he has collected and shared? Would whoever handles his estate know it's worth, or put it out at a Garage Sale? The 5200 Programmers that may have benefitted from his docs lose out, for starters. ...God, I feel like a vulture even discussing this.

This brings to mind an off-topic, but imo important question. Curt is an invaluable resource for our community. I don't know him, but I assume he's a nice guy to boot, and I don't wish anything bad to befall him. I hate to be morbid, but suppose something does happen - he could get run over by a bus, killed by some random mugger, etc... I've often wondered about my online contacts/accounts/friends, and how I'd effectively just 'disappear' off the net, and nobody online would know what happened to me. But I'm really an inconsequential, bit-player; Curt's of much more import and value to the community at large. I'm not sure where to go with this post, or how to proceed, but I think this is an important consideration. Sorry to be morbid or crass. Curt, I especially don't mean to show any disrespect to you by sounding uncaring; sorry if this comes off that way.

Ron, I really don't want to whine, but I'm truly disappointed about the loss of rankings. I don't know much about coding, but if it is possible to squeeze them in somehow, I wish you'd put in the effort/extra time necessary, or come up with some solution somehow. I'm guessing adding more RAM, charging an extra $5 to cover it, and doing bank-switching would require a complete rewrite? Well, don't take this as ingratitude for the huge amount of work you've put in already; I realize this hasn't been an easy project, and I do appreciate all you've done so far. -- Steve

That's because I moved it for him. Wow, now I feel pretty foolish. I've got no idea how the option got changed in the first place, but thanks for the assist. -- Steve

**** THIS really belongs in the 'Site' forum, but I was told I haven't got permission to post there. Mods, feel free to move this. **** Suddenly, when I try to view a thread, the first post is shown, with a tree of the replies underneath. To view any followup post, I need to click it in the tree. I can't find any mention of a recent change taking place on the Announcements or Site forums. I looked in the Control Panel, to see if maybe this is a setting I need to adjust, but found nothing that looked relevant. I very much preferred the style I'm accustomed to, wherein the replies are shown below the first post, all on the page together. Any way to get that back? Thanks, Steve

I've probably said it before (search my previous posts here and over at DP) - as has been said by others above, when the sticks work, I love them. The only downside in my estimation is their infamous lack of reliability. (Damn I'm wordy today.) -- NoahsMyBro aka Mr. Thesaurus

As others have said, the 5200 is a great system, and almost every game available for it is very, very good. Having said that, I have to advise you on Countermeasure. IMO, Paranoid is wrong; Countermeasure isn't a 'must-have' title - again, in my opinion. I'd say CM is OK, but not great. When I was 13 and got my 5200, for a time Countermeasure was one of the few games we had. Out of a small handful of games, my brother & I would occasionally put Countermeasure in and play for a while. But we soon got to the point where the game was fairly easy and pretty boring. If it's cheap or part of a lot, it's not bad, but I wouldn't recommend you spend too much time or money seeking it out. Now, my favorites: Star Raiders Space Dungeon Ballblazer Dreadnought Factor Choplifter Miner 2049'er Kaboom (WITH modified, paddle controller) Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man Missile Command Baseball or Football

25 Years ago I'd have been one of the folks mocking the fact that the dragons looked like ducks. Having 'grown up' with them, the ducks now hold a certain amount of charm, and Adventure wouldn't be Adventure without them. If Atari 5200 Adventure had come out in the early 80's (& if Atari had known how to program them to look as good as yours, not necessarily a given), I'd have expected the dragons to look as realistic as possible*. Now, though, I don't mind a resemblance to the Mallard family, and it's sort of a badge of honor. *(dragons - 'look realistic?' hee-hee-hee)

NO. EMPHATICALLY, NO, NO, NO. Once, a few years ago, I received a dead 5200 from joeybastard. He'd bought the unit from somebody on eBay. When he received it, an Atari 800 power supply was with the system, and the system didn't power up. (See: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...power+ebay+dead , also, http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14927 ) If the 400 uses the same P/S as the 800, it will do very, very bad things to the guts of the 5200.

I cannot load the Adv2 webpage. Is it down right now; is that just me, or are any of you seeing the same thing?

Hell, I'd like a new Mazda 6 Wagon with all the bells and whistles. Maybe you could give one to each of the first 50 Adventure 2 purchasers? Seriously, the moment the game is available for purchase, I'll be ordering one.

Admittedly, I don't currently have plans to buy one of these, due to money constraints. But, I am still curious about the cart (and hope to buy one some day). Is it possible to manage the cart without the provided software? I'm wondering about using it with Linux, future versions of Windows or Mac, etc...

If we count PAL carts, do we need to do so in Metric ?

Firstly - I could be wrong, but do you guys really think piracy will be a problme of any consequence? I'd think anybody that knows about and/or cares about new Jag games will be mature and willing enough to actually buy the game if they want it. It's not as if everybody knows somebody else they can copy games with. Also, in order to use the games you'd need to buy the CF-cart in the first place. If a person is willing to spend the money for the cart, I think it's reasonable to expect the same person would be willing to buy the game as well. But perhaps I'm naive and optimistic. Secondly, and far more trivially, Lars - I don't mean this at all in a bad way, but my grammar police tendencies can't be constrained. Rather than saying you want to do something 'as good as we can', you should say 'as well as we can'. I realize english isn't your first language, and this isn't at all a dig. I know no other language than english, so I'm definitely not trying to be superior. That's all, Steve

It isn't the RF signal strength that's the problem. Auto-switchers are activated by a DC power level superimposed on the RF signal. The earlier systems don't provide this power, so the auto-switcher can't turn on. Anyone with basic-intermediate electronics knowledege could easily modify a 5200 to provide the DC signal; it only requires picking the power off the motherboard in the correct polarity, and mixing in the RF signal through an appropriately sized blocking capacitor. 874237[/snapback] This is something I'd love to know how to do. You should write this mod up and try to get it added to the 5200 FAQ somewhere.

Well, yeah, there is that, but the CV is lousy in pretty much every way when compared to the 5200. Other than that, I'm right there with ya!

I haven't played it yet, but I'd bet Quest For The Golden Chalice qualifies.

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

You must be joking! I agree the M-Network games were very good, but Coleco???? I never saw a Coleco-produced 2600 game that didn't suck. Even when I was 13 or so, I concluded that Coleco was intentionally putting out garbage to try and make the CV look good in comparison. Of course, the tactic made no sense to me, because anybody could see the 2600 shine with Activision, Imagic, etc.... games, and it seemed obvious that only the Coleco games (well, and Apollo) were so horrible. You really thought Coleco 2600 games were underrated?

My bday is mid-september - so your schedule may provide an awesome Birthday gift! And as has been stated previously - I'd also rather wait for something outstanding than get something good, but not as good, now.

I recently spent a lot of time playing the genuine Burgertime in MAME, and while annoying, the three items listed above are consistent with the original arcade BT. Staying true to the original will dictate those remain as you've described. Whether or not that's desirable is up to Ken. (I haven't yet tried the Beef Drop ROM, though, so I'm taking your word the game behaves as you've said.)

...ALL OF THIS IS JUST MY OPINION... Based on what you said about Breakout especially, and Gorf as well, I think it's safe to assume your controller ports work fine, and the failure is in the controllers you've got. It's likely the ports will need to be calibrated (adjusted) with a pot inside the unit, but that's a simple thing to fix. Now, and this is where the opinion disclaimer comes in, in my experience wear and tear is a non-issue with 5200 controllers. I must admit I haven't seen trak Balls fail, but the joystick controllers are deservedly infamous. Regarding them, I've seen them become non-functional with absolutely no use at all: simply staying in the original retail box for a few months after purchase, they would not work upon opening them. Rather, the original flex circuits simply didn't resist corrosion well at all. I've rebuilt a few in my time, using later model (Rev9) flex circuits and the controllers have lasted much longer. I'd like to buy and try the new gold-contacts and buttons/circuits Best produced, but haven't tried them yet. Personally, I really like the 5200 sticks when they work, so I'd skip the Redemption option unless it's a collectability thing. As for games, the 5200 is my favorite system, and I like most of the games, but I definitely recommend: Missile Command Space Dungeon if you can get the dual-stick holder and have 2 sticks Ms. Pac Man Koffi Adventure 2 (not out yet, but looks great!) Star Raiders Miner 2049er

I'm going to try and let this be the last I comment on the name, and I'll try to be brief. (I don't want to harass you about it, after all it's your game and your decision.) I already voiced my opinion to keep the original name. If you decide to change it however, PLEASE, please, please, not the current 'Beef Drop'. Honestly, I really don't like that name. Several good suggestions were made in this thread, all better than that one. Just my opinion, obviously. And I'll most likely buy the game regardless, so no worries there.