Atariman

So, just to make sure I understand - They work great on a Flashback 4, but crappy on a vader 2600? I'm pretty sure that the original 2600 measures the position of the pots via an RC circuit. Does anyone know if the Flashback 4 does as well? My only other thought would be that maybe (however unlikely) the caps associated with the aforementioned RC circuit are bad? Perhaps the contact with the pin is marginal and resulting in this strange behavior?

Ah, I remember this! I have one tucked away somewhere... As I recall, I got mine for free with an order of Jaguar stuff sometime in the late '90s. I think GoAtari used to send these along with some Jaguar orders? It was long enough ago that I can't quite recall, but I remember it being a decent read as well.

Curiously enough, I have an easier time with software than hardware and also attempted (but failed) to use a digital pot and a PIC a couple years ago. I hand-built a decent chunk of the circuitry and merely succeeded at making the digital pot VERY warm - I have been meaning to take another crack at it. (I was a bit rusty when it came to hardware at that point). I found a digital pot with decent resolution at the time, but never really checked to see if it had a linear output. I need to dig out the little dual-output IC I picked up and try it again... Anyway, welcome! Nice to see a fellow microcontroller user around.

Ha! That was always the case at my house. My friend and I would be getting ready for a match on Duke Nukem 3D and it was always inevitable that one of my parents would pick up the phone and start dialing a number. I, too, had to worry about tying up the phone line as I would always get the "Grandma tried to get through to us for over and hour" talk if I played for too long. Then came the novelty of DSL - Online all the time and the phone line isn't tied up? Magical!

If I remember right, Curt has said in the past that an email will be sent out verifying shipping addresses shortly before the XM ships.

Not sure if I missed the boat in helping test prototypes, but I'd help however I can. I can afford a $70 programmer and imagine I could use it pretty effectively considering I use a couple Microchip ones every day at work and have one of the Atmel JTAG ones within eyesight as I type this at home. (I have a little time in the evenings to check out Lynx games and can likely sucker my wife into helping, too)

It sounds like you either talk to some hilariously misinformed people or the guy was yanking your chain. The whole 120V/125V thing is moot - it's basically just a couple pieces of stranded wire that go from the wall socket to your PSX, nothing more. It doesn't regulate the voltage any more than a metal fork - If you are worried about the current rating, I'd be willing to bet that the console has some sort of max amperage listed on the bottom of the console (120V xAmps or some such information)

Iron Soldier II has the smaller, silver label. Worms has the black and red label. I have purchased both of these within the last couple of months, so I imagine they are still the current offering!

Yes, I know. There are none in stock. I was curious if there had been any in stock at all (that I had missed)

Ah, didn't see this thread yesterday! Disregard my PM. Though one question still remains - Did any ISII CD copies come in? I'd like to get that version someday...

I had been thinking it was a heavy sixer until I realized that I was just looking at a shadow cast by the camera's flash. I agree with the others - Definitely a light sixer!

Ah, I don't think there will be anything I can do to prevent my demise - I can only imagine the news, though: "In an apparent wild animal attack, a man was sliced open by what appears to have been a hedgehog. A rabbit was found at the scene that was covered in human gore after apparently being trapped inside the man's chest cavity for an unknown amout of time. Officers are calling this the most bizarre case they have seen in decades."

Pretty sure the guy is just nuts. Not sure where your Disc Replay, but the ones I visited in Northern Indiana were always hit or miss with their prices. Sometimes they were pretty reasonable, but they had their crazy prices, too... Edit: Even checked Ebay. An impatient person could grab one for a BIN of far less than $69... Typical dumbass that thinks that just because he doesn't have 4 copies of it that it must be worth crazy amounts of money.

Found the thread I was reading earlier: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-20908.html Sounds like they felt that the hardware ID was unique to the device. I'm thinking that someone with a scope that can decode I2C/SPI messages could watch the data lines and figure out the ID returned based on that...

Did a little digging around as I was curious as to what sort of IC the BU9850 is and saw that it is known to be a 4k serial EEPROM that supposedly is proprietary. It was also discussed that the cartridge is intelligent enough to read the device ID from the EEPROM as well... This got me thinking: If we knew enough about the BU9850, wouldn't it be possible to use a small microcontroller to mimic its functionality? Lots of cheap microcontrollers with 4k+ worh of EEPROM space...

The fact that there is a correlation between rarity and game prices would mean that, yes, many people feel there is a reason to buy loose, rare carts. Some people don't see the allure of having boxes and simply want the cartridge to play it and show off in their collections. Others purchase the games for their collection based on their entertainment value alone. I am one of the folks that don't mind not having a box for a game. While I prefer having them and take great care to keep them in pristine shape when they make their way into my collection, I don't feel the need to empty my wallet out explicitly for the extra cardboard. I can certainly appreciate why a person would, though - It is pretty cool to see all of those boxes lined up - especially the rares. Even the rarer games that aren't fun to play can be worth collecting - I may not like Sneak 'N Peek (not a rare game), but I'm glad I can honestly tell someone that I think it sucks based on my own experience versus the clowns with no clue ripping on E.T. just because they were told this by their equally uninformed gaming magazine... Then there's the thrill of finding a game for cheap at a thrift store or garage sale - the rarer and cheaper, the better! Loose or not. Collecting is chock-full of entertainment all around. Much better than lottery tickets... So yeah, there are reasons to collect loose, rare games.

Dang. All I have are a bunch of NWC carts and Jaguar VR units! If only I had one of these! I sure could use the 20 bucks! Hold on, I gotta take some of these worthless Chase the Chuckwagon carts out to the trash. I swear, figuring out what to do with all of my duplicate commons is getting to be a pain. (Disclaimer: No, I don't have any NWC carts or VR units, either)

Yeah... I agree. Seems a bit pricey! I spy a couple Atari pins in the lot - a Middle Earth and a Space Riders! (Not that either of those are worth a ton, I just like them )

If they are even remotely compatible with the NES, then, no, they aren't compatible with the 2600.

From what I remember, it suffers from relatively frequent crashes. I always loved this game, but it was always frustrating to have it lock up. Now that I have the Memory Track, I might have to give it another go.

I think I tend to agree with the pro-flipper people who have the caveat that the item being flipped isn't some limited homebrew cart (or equivalent) that was purchased for the sole purpose to make a profit. If somebody finds a cart at Goodwill before I do and they plan on selling it, fair enough. However, if someone buys 10 copies of a game with a limited release just to resell later once it has sold out... That's just plain greedy - The equivalent to the kids that snatch the whole bowl of candy left on the doorstep on Halloween!

As others have said already, don't worry about the XM! Your health is way more important right now! Get better soon!

Got this book as a Christmas present from my wife and have been thoroughly enjoying it. I'll be sure to post a review on Amazon when I'm through! Great stuff - Thanks for doing all of the legwork that went into this book, Curt and Marty!

Anybody else find themselves checking this thread daily for progress? I've got to admit this is a pretty awesome project and I have been amazed by the progress so far!

I agree - I'm not even a fan of the game and this irked me a bit. I can appreciate a playful jab here and there, but as someone mentioned in the 'WTF is going on around here' (or whatever it was called thread), it is bizarre how so many people can't seem to fathom how anyone could like something they don't like. I'm probably guilty of having done this to people in the past, too, but have learned over time that just about everyone has those quirky games/movies/bands that they enjoy even though they are in the minority. Also, while I don't really consider myself to be overly sensitive, I would probably feel a bit insulted by some of the things said here if I were the original poster, too. It may just be that some of the joke was lost when converted to text, but a lot of it came off as being extremely condescending. So the next time one of you naysayers thinks about bashing somebody for not seeing eye to eye with you on some game, perhaps think about those times you've sat in a dark room, listening to music that you'd never let ANYONE know you own. Give us fellow weirdos a break.