FastRobPlus

The Agnes chip is the one you are referring to (which does indeed contain the blitter) Some 500/2000 systems are already good to go, but older ones actually need the chip swapped. As with the Atari ST, some TVs and monitors won't handle the other region's settings. Symptoms include a rolling screen, or a stable screen but only in greyscale. You are right that all 1084/1942/1959/1960 monitors can do both PAN and NTSC with no issue. 1080s and 2002s usually also all work, but may need a more dial tuning. I do think that as long as you are opening up the unit, it might be worth putting an FFVII or Indivision scan doubler board inside so you can output to a more modern monitor, but that's just my personal opinion. I know lots of folks who like CRTs better.

These are region-free by default. The actual issue with the 3 computers you mention is that they were made with the intent of outputting video using old television standards, and when developers made games, they designed them to fit either NTSC-spec or PAL-spec televisions. The takeaway is that part of the game might be cut off in some cases, and things like game speed might be a bit off. For the C64 and Atari 8-bit, I'm not sure you can do anything about that. For the Atari ST, I think you can pop a disk in that changes the computers output back and forth between the two standards, but this may be hit or miss, and most televisions and some Atari monitors from one region might have trouble or require vertical hold adjustment to lock in the other region. Amiga is similar to Atari ST, but most Amiga users now have some kind of VGA upconverter (flickerfixer/scan doubler) that promotes video to a format compatible with VGA monitors.

I agree. And I know it stuns a few people here, but to simplify the discussion: The problem with Sarkesian and her ilk is that they are saying "Cyberbullying of women by men is a serious issue that male gamers must work together to address!" while the more reasonable among have said and are still saying "Don't fragment the issue. Cyberbullying of people online is an serious issue that we should all (not just men or gamers) work together to fix." Remember Dong Nguyen? He was a far more famous game developer than any of these women and he was also driven from the games industry (his words) due to a large number of death threats. This was in the news for a week or two but the threats were brushed aside as the action of internet trolls and thus an overreaction on Dong's part. Why didn't everyone get just as angry about what was happening to this person? Was it inconvenient to hear that cyberbullies will bully men as readily as women? If he were to get a gender change, would he then be reasonably considered a victim?

Another list of 25 assertions without any real evidence, but it illustrates the way in which Anita's "sounds about right" pop psychology can be used to prove the exact opposite of male privilege in gaming: Link to original Many women recently have claimed to experience alienation and harassment in gaming because of their gender. They have spent countless hours telling social media, and real media, about how their individual experiences are indicative of a widespread issue. Any women who attempt to showcase their positive experiences in gaming are met with accusations of self-hatred, or of not being real. One of the issues of being a member of a group that is constantly being told is “oppressed” is that the benefits awarded to us may remain invisible. Working towards a solution requires that female gamers become aware of the ways which we unconsciously benefit from being female. With that in mind, the following is a list of some of the concrete benefits that female gamers automatically receive simply for being female. 1. I don’t have to be worried about being told I am “too old” to be playing games. Because I am female, no one will call me a “man-baby” or claim that I “need to grow up” simply because I choose to play games. It will also not automatically be assumed that I am a nerd or a virgin. 2. As a female, I don’t have to worry that someone will automatically assume I live with my parents because I play games. 3. People will be willing to censor popular titles, and content, for the sole purpose of catering to my possible feelings. 4. I could openly admit that I do not play games, yet people will be willing to hand me thousands of dollars just to hear my opinions on them. 5. Men will be willing to devalue themselves, and their entire gender, in order to place me on a pedestal, solely because I am female. 6. I will never have to worry about having a sufficient party in order to complete raids. Being female ensures that I will always have available allies willing to contribute to my success. 7. I can make blanket claims about gamers of an entire gender, a gender which I am not a part of and can not relate to in any real life situations, and will receive the widespread, unwavering support of the media. 8. Because I am a female, I will be far more influential in the socio-politics of in-game communities because I am seen as a rarity. 9. The industry, as a whole, is willing to attempt to push out other consumers in order to secure a safe spot for me, free from any potentially offensive or controversial content. 10. When dating, the fact that I am a gamer will not be looked down upon because of my gender, rather it is more likely to be viewed as an endearing quality. 11. In the event my presence is not welcome for any reason, I have the ability to claim the motivation is based solely on my gender, and there will be no lack of people willing to believe me with no requests for proof. 12. In the event I do something wrong and am called out on it, I have the ability to claim the person calling me out is sexist, and will receive intense, widespread support. 13. My opinions on any matter will hold more widespread clout immediately, for no reason other than I am a female. 14. Many players will be more willing to censor their language in order to make sure I am more comfortable. In the event someone does not censor themselves, I will have no shortage of men willing to “white knight” on behalf of my honor. On horse or afoot. 15. As a female, people will be afraid to criticize me, or my opinions, no matter how radical or insane they are, for fear of being called sexist. 16. If I am short on in-game currency, there will always be someone willing to purchase items for me, solely because of my gender. 17. Rarely are my mistakes called out in a game. Instead of the expected trash talk a male gamer receives, I am offered constructive criticism, advice, and even compliments on what I DID do correctly. 18. As a female in a “male dominated environment,” I have the potential of holding more power in a gaming community than someone far more experienced than I, simply because I am seen as a rarity. 19. People are willing to gift me extra items, or even games, for no reason other than that I am a female. 20. I will have more success if I decide to stream on Twitch, for no reason other than that I am a female who happens to play video games. 21. Should I ever choose to enter the gaming industry, I will have more success with fundraising campaigns because of my gender alone. I will have access to special grants and foundations, based on my gender instead of my experience, ability, motivation, or credibility. 22. While it may be true that some people expect males to be better at games, that also works in my favor. I don’t have to be as good as a male in order to be considered better than him. Lower expectations does not mean I am unwelcome. Rather, it means my performance does not have to be impressive in order to impress people. 23. People will automatically assume that, because I happen to be female, I want to read gaming articles, blogs, reviews, and magazines written by other females, and will go out of their way in order to accommodate me in that regard. 24. Popular websites and magazines will take my gender into account when reviewing any game, and will stretch as far as possible in order to “pre-warn” me about any small amount of material in the game which could potentially hurt my feelings, because of my gender. 25. Because it was created by a female, this checklist will be less likely to be taken seriously because of its content. I will likely be accused of internalizing misogyny, simply because I am acknowledging the benefits I have as a female gamer, versus focusing on what I think my disadvantages are. However, I know that, in creating this list, I will also garner a decent amount of appreciation, simply because I am a female willing to express appreciation for the benefits available to me, instead of playing a perpetual victim.

WestofHouse You've declared yourself the winner and the discussion finished? Is that how you think debating works?

I went ahead and watched the whole thing. The second to last guy (I think he's the snarky, curmudgeonly G4 reviewer guy) was saying something like "We must acknowledge the problem and take responsibility for it as a community!" Really G4 guy? We've been a community supportive of kids trolling online up until now? We haven't as a grass-roots community already been doing our part to to foster an inclusive community, pushing the racist and homophobe kids and trolls to the dark corners of the internet by down voting them, banning them, and helping to teach each other how to ignore them? We never thought to do any of that, but now that you've told us we'll wake up? Let me tell you what you are really doing with your 25 privileges: You are giving the trolls a list of 25 ideas for things they should do or say to enflame and re-arm the feminists and keep this whole cycle front and center. You are ensuring that the stories keep coming. You are telling us the problem is internal in an attempt to pit us against each other rather than frame the issue as a gamers versus trolls who want to tarnish our reputation - the lone argument that could galvanize everyone into supporting this cause you profess to care about. Oh, and of course you are painting yourself as a white knight who is an advocate for all gamers, rather nicely deflecting the conversation away from the journalistic corruption issues that plague your part of the industry. But you knew that last one already, didn't you G4 guy?

To be fair, I have seen links to twitter tweets where a threat is made to a woman and the threat is from someone like "GamerGate001" or something. But nobody has ever answered my initial question (or for that matter any of my others quesitons!) So getting back to my initial question: "Who in the games industry is making threats?" As near as I can tell, these are anonymous threats made by trolls or easily tricked kids responding the initial feminist trolling. This is troll-on-troll twitter violence pure and simple! Calling it gamer-related does not make it true. It's only a problem for the gaming community in that we keep being told it's an internal problem. I have to say, It's really hard for me to prevent my fellow (for example) AtariAge users from issuing all these death threats when I have no reason to believe that anyone is actually making any!! The very closest I've found to an actual threat issued to anyone was that Hungarian StarCraft pro tourney guy who threatened to "Rape my female opponent in the StarCraft playoff" or something. You can reasonably say he's a gamer. So what happened? Other gamers dog piled him in social media, he was banned from the tournament, and he quickly apologized and acknowledged his insensitivity. Is he an ass? Yep! Did he deserve what happened to him? Yeah, I think so. Did we in the gaming community make an example of him for his comment and probably scare others from making stupid comments - or at least make sure when they says they'll 'rape' or 'kill' you in StarCraft, that they make sure they direct the comment at a guy? Yup and yup! This does not sound like the endless litany of credible threats from within the games industry I keep being assured is happening.

Not going to reply to my question? Let me repeat it: And hey - I noticed you've tried to sweep my other questions under the rug too: You seem to be spending the lion's share of your time finding ways to insult me when I think most of us would like you to respond to these reasonable questions. TIP: When citing external websites avoid saying "Go out and read this whole thing." Rather, state the evidence and put the corroborating link inline or as a footnote, and make sure the link takes you to the place with the relevant information to support your rebuttal. Finally, check to ensure that that source does not simply make assertions of its own without referring verifiable facts

Okay - some progress!!! Let's start with the first one. Clicked the link, it's some twitter exchange between Tim Schafer (a guy MS had to cut loose as his game Psychonaughts drug on in both time and cost during its developent-days as a Microsoft product...) ...and on the other side of the debate... I dunno... some other people? Oh, and the page says #gamergate at the top. I don't really consider Twitter to be a hub of the gaming community since it's often anonymous exchanges across people with no past history, but I read this one completely through for you JR. It's an argument about game development costs... So what is your point here? Did I miss the part where he's accused of paying bribes to game journalists?

Got any evidence?

"That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence." -Christopher Hitchens

I'd like one more to sell or donate as a prize at Seattle Retro.

I was thinking about another thread where someone said that most games are now crass, violent, and anti-social. It made me think about all the battleships, tanks and aircraft I destroyed playing Air Sea Battle and Combat! as a child. How many people were in those ships? How many simulated lives did I not just wipe out, but wipe out with a smile on my face? I never want to go back to those dark days...

I wrote an uber-long pros and cons for each system. One page of pros ad cons for each system, though mostly geared towards veteran retro collectors who are new or new-ish to Amiga. You can find it here. I mention this because there are a lot of hidden considerations. For example, the capacitor issue on the 600/1200/4000 can bite people who don't know to check. Some factors are regional. Here in the US, the 500 and 2000 and expansions are far more common than elsewhere, and of course the 500 has a new secret weapon - the ACA500 accelerator, which I think is unsightly, but represents a crazy easy way to get into retro Amiga computing with old hardware at a rock bottom price.

Really? Most games? This sounds like yet another assertion without evidence. What's your source for this? Are you saying that Candy Crush is crass and uncute? It's moved more than 200 million copies across just iOS and Android. That's more than any single game title has sold for Wii/360/X1/PS3 and PS4 combined. Or were you just referring to AAA console games? I wonder, when you think about media, do you only think about blockbuster movies? And where were you when Adera: The Shifting Sands and Disney Fairies: Hidden Treasures came out? I worked for over a year on these two games as the gameplay and usability researcher, making sure they were as fun and inclusive as possible. Have you even bothered to try the free version in the Win 8 app store? They were both in the top 10 there for most of 2013-14. Adera was first bumped from the top spot by Tap Tiles. Was TapTiles crass and anti-social? Do you think assertions without evidence are in some way helping your "Video games have been crass for a really long time" problem statement? Is this all you are doing? I can count on my fingers the number of folks here who have rolled up their sleeves and produced games, but the number of people complaining that things were better in the good old days is countless. Yes. People are saying that sarkesian wants to take video gamer's toys away. And who are these people? You! And the others like you on this very thread. I certainly have never even hinted at this. Like so many things your side says, it's a nonsense statement crafted primarily to troll. Another baseless accusation with no supporting evidence. Who in the games industry is making threats? Show your evidence! Or failing that, just use your common sense. The gamer community is well established online with a number of open forums such as these here on Atari Age. Show us the serious threats here on AA. In fact, show us rape threats here on AA, Digital Press, or any other forum where the primary focus of discussion is around gaming. And show us how the culture of rape on these forums meant that the person was not only not banned, but was embraced by the gamer community.

Perhaps MS should not have laid off a chunk of their Xbox Live operations team. But what do I know, I've only got one of the 10 oldest gamertags on the platform...

I did! I hacked a hole in the back of my 3000. I didn't take it to a shop. And it showed...

I seem to be endlessly tuning the OS, but I do have a functional web browser on all my Amigas, so I can browse the web if I really want.

I'd have to think carefully about whether I agree with you on all your points, but one point I agree on completely is that this whole "Culture of Hating Women" does not actually exist in video gaming. The most you can really say is that men who actively dislike women are very possibly gamers, since in western culture nearly 70% of adults play games. Sarkesian and the other feminists would be better served by framing the issue as an epidemic among liquid drinkers, since that would even snag the last 30%

I've had those same classes (easy credits!) I agree that people want to have a story and make a connection with the big ticket things they purchase. They want to build them into the narrative of their lives. I also admit that I'm still a huge Amiga fanboy, as I think Amiga somehow overwrote the area of my brain that's occupied by religion in many folks. That said, I stand by what I and a few others said earlier. We got Amigas, often after owning STs, and for various reason found Amiga to already be familiar, even when it shouldn't have been... Finding out later that Amiga shares quirks with the A8 line was a bit of a lightbulb "Ah-ha! So that's why it's familiar!" moment for us.

Men treating women badly is a symptom of a much larger issue. For instance: There are groups of people who say mental illness isn't a real health issue, and anyone with an illness such as PTSD is "faking it." The hosts of a popular women's talk show called "The Talk" laughed and made fun of a recent news item about a man whose penis was cut off and blended in a blender by his wife. An NFL player was recently filmed in an elevator punching his fiancée. While it’s true that all people are equal in the eyes of the law, and all people deserve equal rights, we live in a world containing some objectively, demonstrably worse human beings than ourselves. This new kind of feminism attempts to shine a light on all the instances where one of these lower quality humans threatens to abuse a woman, and rightly so. But they add in a new twist. They tell us that in all cases we created these people by our actions or inactions. This is the very same sort of logic used by people that told us that rape and murder were coming from the new-fangled rock-and-roll music. This is the same twisted logic as the parent who says: "Oh, you like beer. Well you know who else liked beer? Stalin!!" Let's stop pretending that we as individuals are culpable for the behavior or actions of lower quality people we have never met, just because the person professes to like something that we also like.

Possession of the family name seems to be nine-tenths of succession. I think there was a story this week involving King Richard III. If I understood it correctly, there are breaks in the legitimacy of his line of descendants, opening questions about whether even the current royal family of England have actual royal blood.

For me I think it went: Compumate SpectraVideo -> TI99/4a/Vic20 -> Atari 1200XL -> C64 -> Northstar Advantage -> Atari 520ST (no f or m!) -> Amiga -> 386 -> Amiga -> Pentium I did the same thing you did with the Apple II. After using a 386 for a while, I looked back at Amiga and thought "this is crazy, why am using this POS 386 clone?" I left the A8 for a petty reason, it had no music in Ultima IV...

Like I said 20-30 posts ago, I'm still stunned at how many people think it's somehow apocryphal to even admit that these two platforms are related. Nobody is trying to tarnish the ST's legacy or suggest that if you peel an Amiga 1000 logo off you'll see Atari 1850XL emblem underneath...