Gunstar

I get my knowledge of the 6 megabytes from a Rebellion interview entitled "Inside Rebellion" from like May or June issue of, IIRC, Electronic Games magazine (1994), they also had a "Europa" article which focused on the Jag and a Jaguar specific layout in it as well, showing games like AvP, W3D, Club Drive, Brutal Sports Football, and talking of the developer's sign-up list, and the game that were "coming." The programmer himself was quoted at 6 megabytes in that article, I wish I had it next to me, but Clint Thompson currently holds it (the article clipping). He mention the game being a high number like 84 megabytes or something, uncompressed, and then they had the Jagpeg compression reducing it at upto 12:1. they spoke of AvP and Checkered Flag (Redline Racers), and the upcoming "legions of the Undead," and SkyHammer, which at that time had two names in consideration: "Cyber Punk City" and "HammerHead." Good article on Rebellion. Hopefully Clint will have it on his Jagcube site soon.

I wasblown away buy AvP when it came out, both from a graphic and technical standpoint and from a gamepaly stand point with atmosphere. I still love it, yeah it's a bit slow on Marine mode, and may have been realistic when moving forward or back, but definately seems jerky when turning, but like others have said, don't judge the speed of the engine until you play the Alien, or even the Predator who is also *slightly* faster I think. Skyhammer is the same way, it's starts out slow, because you have a slow vehicle, that needs engine upgrades and then the speed improves dramatically and you really get to see a pretty decent frame rate, in any direction, especially with engines 5-9. Any short comings I don't think were Rebellion's fault though, it was Atari who had limited budgets AND want to get the stuff out too soon, since they had a derth of software on the market at the time, I mean, two games (CF&AvP) released by the same developer very close to one another seems strange to me, how about one title at a time and give them time to finish it properly. Even AvP was SUPPOSED to be a 6megabyte cart originally, and was reduced, by Atari, to 4megabyte to save money on manufacturing costs. I think a lot more of everything would have gone into the game if it had the extra 2megs of memory...

I love my 3DO, second only to my Jaguar, then DC and Xbox as far as I'm concerned. Need for Speed is my all time favorite racer still (3DO version) and Road rash is good. My other favorites for the 3DO are Battlesport, Wing Commander 3 and Super Wing Commander, Space Hulk, StarFighter, Crash&Burn, Return Fire, and Shockwave 1&2. there are like 150 game titles for it (200 overall, but the other fifty are like ESPN sports tutorials and other interactive FMV crap), with about 20 excellent titles, about 50 good titles, and the rest are merely average or crap, but the titles that are good&excellent make the system rock!

It's called google. Uh...yes I'm aware of that, but it's still a LOT easier to get recommendations from people instead of searching pages and pages of links on a google search, and taking forever to discover which sites are the best, so why not ask for a good site addresses/links form people who alreay know? So PLEASE give me some good site links...

Thanks for the tips. Of course I inserted the workbench disk when I booted the system, but it doesn't help much if the disk drive does not respond. As far as OS 3.1 rom is concerned, I hadn't looked for it, I just know the workbench and other related utility files on the hardrive are version 3.1, so I'd assume the rom chip is too. I can see nothing else that looks like an "upgraded" system except the memory card, the 68000 is original, and I mean ORIGINAL, this is probably the first version ever made, it's HUGE! I see no other "upgraded" chips, only two slots are filled, one with the harddrive and the other with the memory. Oh, and yes, the label say Amiga 2000, not HD, so i'm sure the HD was added later. About your program incompatibility concerns, I've tried several games from the 80's and 90's and they work fine. Although I do only have about 20 games for it so far. I haven't tried them all yet, but the only one that didn't boot up so far was Arctic Fox, and I realize that that is an early game, so you may have something there about compatibility issues, but then, it could be a bad floppy, it is about 18 years old after all, but I'll test further...but I'm really not concerned about the early games anyway, the majority of them I can get or have for my 1040ST and Atari 8-bits and the c128 and all the calssic consoles I have, I'm more interested in the post '90 software for the Amiga. I plan on upgrading the 2000 as far as I can, being that it's still a 16-bit model, as far as I know, I don't think I can upgrade it with 32-bit components can I? Can I actually upgrade the 2000 with PowerPC chips? My intensions for the system are eventual web surfing and graphic arts and stuff like MP3 players and AVI players etc. That's about it. I plan on doing the same with my ST too. Eventually I'll get the new AmigaONE with the G3 G4 CPU's and maybe one of the Atari TOS clones like the milan, and leave the Intel/PC world far behind as long as I can. I've always destested PC's and only use them currently as a neccessary evil. As soon as I can get away form it, I will, keeping just my laptop PC for a file server for my 8-bit and 16-bit computers. $150 or $200 for the best upgrade cards doesn't faze me at all, after all, I payed $50 for two Amigas, two C128's. a C64 and a bunch of drives, software and accessories, so I figure if I spen a few hundred to get the 2000 upgraded to what I want, that's really all I've spent on it. I got my 1040ST system for $20, and feel the same way about upgrading it. If you look at the prices that Amiga's and ST/TT/Falcons are still selling for at online dealers, I'll be way ahead of anyone who purchased one of these classics from a dealer, having only spent about as much as they, but having a FULLY upgraded system for the same price approximately. It's my passion anyway (classic systems) so spending a few hundred here and there is nothing to me. I do hope to make it to MWC though, and have you, an experienced Amiga user, look over mys system and tell me exactly what I got and what I can do to improve it the best way... Maybe I will keep that A500 though, if just to play the classic 80's games on that may not run on my 3.1 system...

well, I just got the A2000 and it came equiped with a hardrive, although it could have been added later, but as far as expanability goes, I can see problems with the A500 and maybe A600 etc., or even the A1000 (original Amiga), but it seems like the A2000/3000/4000 have PLENTY of expandibility to them, there are 7 or 8 card slots in my Amiga 2000, half of which are XT and AT(?) compatible, and you can get a "Bridgeboard" for it to make it fully PCXT compatible, with an 8088 chip and memory and everything! You can even partition the harddrive for both. Not to mention the Amiga specific card slots, and all the upgrade cards for it (I've already seen a TON, just browsing a couple of sites the last few days) so expandability was not a problem with the bigger Amiga's that came in PC style cases. There are even companies still supporting the Amiga with cards today! Not to mention the TONS of software that was already available, and even though Commodore went under, there was a large enough worldwide user base to keep software coming out for it into the late 90's apparently, some still produced to this day! Not to mention the fact that Amiga Corp. seems to be a reality and a new AmigaONE computer that runs at upto 800mhz is coming out/is out. the same is true with ST clones, like MILAN, a TOS based computer that is compatible with the ST/TT/falcon line, but with much newer technology. If you really wanted to stick with commodore, you could have, and still can, same with TOS based machines. PC's may dominate, but they are not the only way (besides macintosh) to this day. You just have to look for software&hardware support a little farther than the local Electronics Boutique. But easily found on the internet. No, you won't find the latest Halo game or latest Tom Clancy military espionage game on them, but they do get some support from small development houses and dedicated user/programmers. Good quality stuff too. You will find new web browsers and and genlock programs and utilities of other sorts as well as new no-name games and everything you need to work and have fun on them, just not what's known to the masses. you can play Doom and Doom clones on them, etc. Lots of "underground" goodies, which I feel makes it all that much more exciting and interesting a computer to use.

Everything works fine when in interlaced mode, but it looks like it's refreshing at about 25-30mhz instead of 60 or even PAL 50mhz. Just think of a PAL display's flickering, if you've seen it and are used too NTSC, then double the intensity and annoyment and you have a very headache enducing display. Would it, you think, be because of the 1084 being 15hz instead of 30hz monitor? Maybe a multisync is required to have all the traditional Amiga modes work good on the same monitor? Did Commodore make a multisync for the Amiga themselves? There are two switches on the monitor, one in front, that I use to switch between RGB and composite, maybe the one on the back is for interlaced RGB/standard RGB? I'll have to look into that. I hadn't thought about that before, I assumed it was the same thing, just one in front and one in back... I have another question, about the 3.5" floppy drives. The A2000 I have only has one internal floppy, which seems to work fine, but I also go two externals with it, one of which seems to work, it did seem to read disks yesterday, but not today...Anyway, my question is about installing the second internal drive. I am trying to use one of the external drives. I removed it from the case and put the dipswitch on "1" assuming the first drive is set for "0." I then plugged it in exactly the same as the first, using the second connector on the drive ribbon cable, and I also twisted the three or four lines 180 degrees just like on the first drive (lines near the red wire side). But when I did this, neither drive responded and the busy lights stayed on on both and it just booted from the hardrive instead of booting the disk(s) in the drive(s). I don't see why and external drive couldn't be used internally, it looks the same as the other internal drive and it seemed to work externally, so I figure I must have it hooked up wrong. Would the second drive be hooked up (ribbon cable wise) the opposite of the first? should I not have twisted the few ribbon wires the same as the first? I only see the one cable and no second mount for a second cable on the mother board, so I figure it must use the same cable, especially since the ribbon cable came equiped with the second drive IDE connector (or whatever it is, I get the IDE/scsi/etc. stuff misxed up still). Any help welcome. Maybe someone who has the A2000 with both internal drives can help? Thanks for whatever... :wink:

Well, I was checking out the A2000 some more, just to see how it is equiped, and I have discovered that the HD is about a 500meg drive, and that the memory of the system seems to have been expanded to 4megabytes. It has an "8meg" card in it, but only half the sockets are populated by ram chips. But that's enough for now. When I took the card out and booted the system, it showed 730,500 (aprox.) of "graphic" memory and "0" for "other memory." With the card installed, the graphic memory jumps to about 940,000 (aprox.) and the "other memory" is well over 3,000,000+++ (aprox.) which I believe, if my math is correct, comes to about 4 megabytes of memory. Everything else seems stock, including the 68000. pretty cool system to start out with though...now I just need to upgrade it with an accelerator board and a new 68xxx chip to get it up to about 50mhz...maybe a better graphics board that allows VGA monitor and 256 colors, etc.

Please post all the best sites and dealers for the Amiga please, I'm a new owner of the A2000 and need parts, software, upgrades and support. I do have the manuals, so I'm learning...I finally own the spiritual decendant of the Atari 800/8-bit line! (same engineer/developers: they also are the ones that did the Lynx and 3DO!) I love Atari, but I also am very excited about ANYTHING produced by the same original engineers, even if they were released by a different company. The ironic thing is that the Amiga SHOULD have been an Atari machine (Atari funded it's development) and the ST should have been a Commodore machine (had Jack and family not been ousted and had Atari survived by other means, things may have panned out this way...) Ironic isn't it?

the A500 does not appear to be upgraded in anyway and I don't think it has a hardrive (at least it doesn't work either if there is one, I haven't opened it to look), I turn it on and it just shows the "work bench" disk screen with the hand holding the disk. No lights, or noise or anything at all from the floppy drive. I didn't bother looking into it further yet, to see if it's a reletively simple fis or not, as I've been messing with, reading up on and testing out the A2000, even without the keyboard I can play some games and at least check out the workbench and what's on the hardrive. What I know about it is that it has about a 500meg hard drive, and I think one meg of memory...the workbench bar at the top shows: 934,080 for "graphic memory" and 3,000,000+ for "other memory." I'm assuming the "other memory" is the hard drive and I believe, if my math is correct, that the 934,080 translates to just over 900K, about what's left after the OS, workbench, etc. use some space. So I figure the memory hasn't been upgraded froom 1meg yet, though I intend to upgrade it to the max internal of 8 or 9megs(?). It has OS 3.1 chip installed. Will the 3.9 or later versions work in the A2000? I think I want to upgrade the 68000 to the highest the A2000 can use...68040? 68060? and any other upgrades I can get, maybe video etc. Why is interlaced mode so "flickery"? is this just the 1084S monitor? or is interlaced mode like that no matter the display? It's horrendous! I thought PAL flicker was bad till I saw this! I'd like to get some of that software off of you, maybe I will bring it to the MWC if I make it, I have to work Saturday morning, so it wouldn't be till afternoon when I make it, if at all. I'll bring along the A500 too. I have the mouse for the A2000, just no keyboard. Lastly, anyone have any links to good Amiga dealers? I found two, but I'd like more, one wants $57 for a A2000 keyboard, the other about $39, I would have ordered it, but they have no way to add the used/refurbished stuff to your "shopping cart"...only new stuff?!?!?

T-bird, your an idiot. I was NOT attacking YOU or Battlesphere, just trying to show YOUR bias towards both games; one, the competition (or would be) and the other it is well known, because you once told me yourself, that you had a problem with the PhaseZero developers of one sort or another and hate one or more of them for whatever reasons. Hence, anything you say about them or their products will be biased. PhaseZero has 9 VERY UNIQUE levels and quite a few different enemies in it. But what ever. I can't believe I used to stand up for you when other's critisized you. ALL you do IS critisize others! I happen to love your game, and have NEVER attacked it or said ANYTHING bad about it or your other products except that I can't get a second copy and have no need for your other products until I get another copy or two. But you are a jerk, an egomaniac, and an all around putz. But everyone seems to know that anyway, so in the future I will not worry about people getting a biased opinion from you, I'll just assume they already know that your opinion means ZERO. It seems to me that ANYONE with half a brain ends up on your black list sooner or later, because they get sick of your crap and arguments start. It took me some time hanging out here and JI2 to figure you out and realize who the real jerk is, certainly not the people that argue WITH you...but all is good. I will now add you once and for all to my ignore list, so you no longer need worry about me reading or replying to your posts. Please, feel free to do the same to me. If I don't respond to further attacks from T-bird, it is because I have not seen his post and don't care too.

Phase Zero is Truly an excellent game ENGINE. The game itself is boring and repetative, with no new enemies or goals to accomplish. It's basically the same one level repeated over and over again with different colors and perhaps some of the scenery changed. But the engine is very well done and worthy of playing. This all makes sense, in retrospect, as we all now know that the main programmer developed the basic engine of the game to show to Atari and obtain funding for the game. The people he worked with needed to do this so they could invest that money into a Sega Saturn development system. Once they had that dev kit, they abandoned the Jaguar as much as possible while still giving the appearance of making progress on Phase Zero so as to string Atari along and hopefully get more money from them. There was only one known copy of Phase Zero, which belonged to Mark Santora, who was kind enough to make the image available for everyone to play. http://home.earthlink.net/~santora/phase.zip The programmer of Phase Zero was eventually kicked out of the company (which he started) and now the rights are in dispute. As for Space War 2000... I can't say much good about it. The only reason for owning this game is if you absolutely have to have everything for the Jaguar. Of course this is a biased opinion from a guy who had a run-in with the phaseZero developers and of course want's to dis Space War, since it WAS a competing product with his OWN Battlesphere game. PhaseZero rocks. It would have been as good or BETTER a game than Battlesphere had it been completed, and comes real close now. Boring? Repetative? same old levels? It has a TON more variety in it's levels than Battlesphere and it's "empty space"! There are about four or five different enemies, maybe less than Battlespher, but not by much. Repetative? Well, Battlesphere is certainly repetative, same with Tempest 2000, Protecoter, a lot of great Jag games. PhaseZero has 9 unique levels, half of which have enemies and missions, the other half are at least fun to explore and wonder at the fabulous Voxel graphics. Space War 2K? Very good too, considering it's incomplete, there are at least half a dozen enemies to fight, if you can survive long enough, and it's no more "boring" or "repetative" than Phase Zero or Battlesphere. Very good graphics too! Not better or worse than Battlesphere, but different. There are less game modes and options due to it being incomplete, but since it's a LOT harder to get your hands on Battlesphere, and less than half the price of BS/BSG, it's well worth it! Get them both, you will not regret it. Let me know if you need any hints on successfully playing either game, I pretty much wrote the manuals for both (not that there is a physical "manual" or anything). My review&guide for SW2K: (look in "reviews" section) http://www.metalstuff.com/area64/frames.html

The piracy argument doesn't hold water with me; the C64 had loads of pirates, the ST and Amiga as well and we should remember that the demo scene is a close cousin of the cracking scene, the former evolved from the latter during the period we're talking about. Blaming piracy is a common line for software houses who want to find an excuse to be elsewhere or who feel a certain user base need a kick up the arse to support them. Agreed. Piracy has no real valid negative impact on any media. Quite the contrary, if anything, it helps generate legimiate sales. I've got 3, somewhat long winded comments to make about it. 1) Most people who pirated something never would have bought the product to begin with. So the concept of "potential sale lost" is a total crock. Me seeing a game and not wanting to buy it, or me downloading the game both equal the same thing: 0$ made for them. Me downloading a game is not the same as shoplifting it out of some store. I am not depriving them a sale. The product is still sitting out there for whoever wants it. 2) When you buy a game or music or whatever, you're stuck with it. You can't take it back and get something else just because it sucks. Compound that with the high prices of the stuff, and people will shy away from wasting their money. I've bought many a game for my A2600, C-64, Atari 800, PC, NES (etc.), some were worth it, many were not. More then half the stuff I've bought I wish I hadn't, and why I almost never bought stuff unless I knew I really wanted it. I have bought games after downloading them. Why, because I liked them. I verified they wern't a waste of money, and would be something I would play for more then 5 minutes. Maniac Mansion for example. Great game. Only bought it after I downloaded it. Never would have gotten it other wise to tell you the truth. This is a factual point, that is even proven in the industry. Look at music. Complaining that the sale of CD Singles went down 33% in collage towns where filesharing was common place. True enough. But they also kept forgetting to mention that the sale of full CD Albums went up by 27%. Why? You could go buy the single, but since they can still cost as much as $4.99 sometimes, after you do, you arn't going to turn around and spend another $20 to buy the full album. But you doesn't want to buy the full album because you don't know if most of it is going to stuck or not. But if you download some of it first, you can make a better judgement as to where to spend your money. On the single or the album. But the industry is so stuck up & narrow minded that they fail to see the obvious... "Napster caused a 27% INcrease in full CD album sales". 3) The only thing piracy accomplishes is exposes what ever the product is to a greater base of people which ultimatly results in new sales. Music is a good example. If it doesn't cost you anything, you're more likely to try something then if you gotta pay. IE: Would you spend $20 for an album from some unknown group in an unfirmilure genera just to try and it see what it sounds like? I've been turned on to punk/industrial music from groups like P-Childern. A group I never would have known existed, producing music I never would have listened to, if it wasn't for filesharing. So thanks to filesharing, there is now another potential customer out there that wasn't there before. It doesn't matter if you are talking about games, or music or movies. The logic and results are generaly the same. The war against piracy isn't about profit, it's about control. Sorry for ranting. Just my .02. I agree with 99% of what you said. I too, have downloaded tons of stuff (mostly classic 8-bit/16-bit software) and that which I truly enjoy, I look to buy an original as soon as it pops up in the wild or on E-bay because I am a collector, and want the original with instructions and box etc. If I had not first downloaded the game, I never would have bought it off of E-bay or from a classics dealer, etc. So no sale was lost, it's 20 year old software anyway, so the publisher has not seen a penny from the stuff for years anyway either. I definately cause more purchases of software (and ultimately hardware upgrades to my classic computers) by me, not less. Music is the same way; while I have rarely downloaded a song anyway, if I liked one or two songs from an album/group, it also causes me to search for the real thing. Libraries of books, music and software always look a lot better and are a better experience to "enjoy" when they are complete originals. But I have no quams about downloading something and trying it first. The entire media industry would have made thousands and thousands of dollars LESS off of just me, if I had not "tried before I buyed." It IS all a load of crap from the industry, they are not losing as many sales as they are gaining, from people downloading and trying stuff out. I have a lot of stuff that I own originals of, that I never would have bought had I not downloaded it first. Shareware author's KNOW this to be true, which is why shareware does so well and people still publish software in this way; A.P.E software for the 8-bit? bought after trying it out on shareware. DiscJuggler CD burning software? Same thing, tried, bought. The list goes on and on. Doom was shareware, look where ID is today! The media industry are all a bunch of fricken' hypocrites anyway; wasn't DIVX SUPPOSED to be a format the industry was backing so people COULD "try before they buy" anyway? I remember reading that the format was originally suppose to be rented for a few bucks for a few days, then if you wanted to purchase the movie or music, you did, and the copy stayed good, if not, they erased it or something like that...not that it worked out like they wanted, but that is a perfect example of the industry wanting more CONTROL and had nothing to do with piracy, their favorite excuse.

Nope. No C-128D's, just two of the usual. I'll be checking back in with that dealer this coming week, to see if he may have the Amiga keyboard and some more cables around that showed up, and also the Atari 800Xl&stuff I saw. He had a couple more C64's and VIC20's, boxed, that he didn't include and one of the later model TI99/4a's (the grey styled case instead of brushed metal) and a few other odds and ends. He's just finally cleaning up twenty years of "old junk" he's had laying around, he only cares to keep and sell classic and modern consoles now. He just wanted to unload all the old computer stuff. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a C-128D though, for you.

The 2600 and 7800 were both supported to some extent, up to '92 or'93 when the Falcon and Jaguar were released. The 8-bit line had "support" til '90 or '91 and the ST/TT until about '93/'94 (I think). After '93, the Falcon was quitely dropped and only the Lynx and Jaguar were supported to some extent until '95 or when Atari folded into JTS. Atari really did try to support too many systems at once, overlapping. If I had run things, I would have supported the XL line as long as possible or at least till inventory was sold, and invested a bit into it software wise. I would have released only the ST line as a new line in '85, and I would have released the 7800, as planned, in '84 and continue support of the 2600 for a few years, but not as long as they did. This would have kept the old customers happy for a few years until they upgraded to the ST's and 7800's (which, theoretically, would have done much better and have a larger market share than the NES because it would have come out before the NES). I would have released an ST based console along with the Lynx in '89 (beefed up graphically) to compete with the Genesis and TG16 and future SNES, and dropped the 7800 at that point, unless sales were still strong. Concentrating on the ST and 7800 early and strong would have done both a better service than using up funds on the 8-bit and 2600. Of course this strategy would have meant I never would have gotten a 130XE, never fallen in love with it and Atari, and never been here now...probably.

I'll be making one of these soon for my C128 and using the server software with the PC too! Just like my Atari and SIO2PC/10502PC cable and A.P.E software!

Alternate Reality the City&Dungeon on the Atari 8-bit blow everything else away. I also really like the Ultima 1-4 on the Atari 8-bit and A Bard's Tale 1&2 and Might&Magic 1&2 on the C64. Apple II series had Phantasy, Ultima and Bard's tale stuff, but the C64 and Atari had just as good or better versions... I never liked any Japanese RPG's so nothing from me about Sega or Nintendo 8-bits...Midnight Mutants on the 7800 maybe, if anyone considers it a true RPG, I don't, but it's similiar to Zelda, so maybe other's consider it an RPG? Now if we start a 16-bit, 32/64-bit and 128-bit threads, I'll add a lot more to that list... Like the 8-bits, my 16-bit choices would all be computer based too. I didn't care for console based RPG's until the 32-bits and beyond showed up.

Well, this past week I bought a bundle of Commodore stuff off a dealer that had it all tucked away in the back room. I was also supposed to get some Atari stuff, like an 800XL and 1010 and such, but they "mysteriously disappeared" I may get them later. Anyway, I did get an Amiga 2000 (less the keyboard, but tested and works otherwise), an Amiga 500 (tested, drive doesn't respond), and two external Amiga drives, one works, one doesn't. The 2000 has a built in hard drive, which is nice, and full of software! I also got two C128's and two 1571 disk drives, and one C64 with two program recorders and four 1541 drives and a modem&parallel interface. Tons of software for both the 8-bit's and 16-bits. Lastly, I also got a 1084s (?) Commodore monitor, which is now hooked up through RGB to the Amiga 2000 and through s-video to my 1200XL (looks good). Replacing an Apple color composite monitor that will soon be hooked up to one of the C128s instead. I got it all for 50 bucks! But, there was a lot missing too. I have no serial cables for hooking any of the C64/128 drives up to the computers, only one power cord for all the drives, and I need an Amiga 2000 keyboard or compatible. Does the Amiga 2000 use a standard XT style PC keyboard or a special Amiga only one? I ask because it has the standard XT din port on it, but I tried to use a PC AT style keyboard (with an adapter for mini-din to standard), with no success. But I'm still wondering if a PC XT style with the standard din connector will work? I'm going to keep one of the C128's and the two 1571 drives, but I'll clean&repair the other C128, Amiga 500 and C64 and the four 1541's and put them up for sale or trade. so I'm looking for a keyboard for the 2000, and a bunch of serial cables (at least six) for the drives. Can anyone help me out? By the way, if anyone is looking for never used, complete C64 or Apple II Printshop software, I have it. I have a few other Apple programs and some IBM stuff too, I'll post it all up for sale/trade once I go through it and see if it works. But the Printshop stuff was never used, still sealed.

Well, a while back I compared many, many Atari games to the Commodore versions, and I too, found good and bad on both sides, but overall, I prefered the Atari and it's games, and felt no need to keep two systems so similiar and I grew up with Atari, so the C64 went. I just recently got a couple c128's and another c64 though, with games that I don't have or can't get on the Atari 8-bit, so I'll keep one of these. Might and Magic 1&2 anyone? I personally feel the Atari is an overall, slightly better machine, but then it's so close that it's sometimes just comes down to what your used to I'm sure. I recommend everyone gets both. Same with the Atari ST's and Commodore Amiga's...I now have both of them too. So far it's the same thing with them too, neither is better overall, both have weeknesses and strengths between each other just like the 8-bits. It usually comes down to the programming effort&talent put into the games...which system had the most effort and talent put into it's version?

. That's about all you can do unless you come across and old floppy drive cleaning kit; comes with a special disk that you drop a "fluid" (alcohol) onto and put in the drive, just let it boot up for 30 seconds (put up with the boot errors) and you're done. I have one of these, and I just came across another unopened one. Some Atari/Commodore classic dealers probably still have some for sale too. But, as I told you before, even though those disks tested good for me on the 130XE and 1050, does not mean they weren't capable of losing the information on them. Just let me know which ones didn't work, and I'll make new copies for you on other disks. I've had several disks I've made quit loading after a couple of times. Even unused disks may not be good after sitting on a shelf for 10 or 20 years. On the other hand, I have well-used disks that are 20 years old and still work fine.

Ahh, the memories of our first Atari. Mine was the 130XE, so it was always my "nostalic" computer, although I owned an 800 soon after and now own 800, 800xl, 1200xl and the 130xe. I had a friend who had the 600XL and the 1064 memory module, it worked well. I always made fun of the extra loading for Alternate reality: dundgeon on his computer, because he had 64k as opposed to my 128k and less loading. 600Xl was a good computer though, and the memory module makes it as good as an 800xl.

Iron Soldier overlay works well for 2, since the controls are exactly the same. I printed off a bunch from somewhere a long time ago, and lamenated them; a replacement Wolfenstein, Tempest, Atarikarts, Zero5, Missle command VR and 3D, I got some duplicates of my AvP's off the net, and use those and not the originals as most know how the paint can chip off around the buttons on the originals. I wanted to minimize the damage. So, there are some images floating around, I've seen several for certain games (variations). If you buy them, they will be real overlays, if you print them, just paper and lamanent,...or cardstock.

Because it came out before the procontroller, and the keypad was set up more for weapon selection. That's why you can switch between you're chaingun and plasma gun with the triggers. AvP, coincidentally I'm sure, use 7 and 9 for strafing on the keypad, which translates to Z and X on the procontroller, so strafing is a bit better, but not perfect. If a Doom+ ever comes out, hopefully this will be one of the enhancements.

Speaking of voice synthesis on the 8-bit, there is also the Covox Voice Master and jr. models that were renown in the day. If you want, what I feel to be, everybit as good software voice synthesis, ATOS (which requires a hard drive or SIO2PC&APE&PC-16meg of drive space needed)has a text reader program. If you want to make it sound it's best, you spell the words as they sound and not neccesarily as they are read (use a text editor; make a .txt file) and then you load the program on the command line (with Spartdos at least). Something like this: D[X]:readtxt D[X]: message.txt and the file is read aloud by the computer, sounding very much like Joshua for 'War Games. ' Or you can load it through ATOS windows to, (I think), and select the text file you want it to read. The advantage of doing it on the command line is that you can create a batch file, as I have, that the computer reads upon boot up, an introduction (or anything you want it to be). This of course is not voice recognition like the Covox and Alien box, just making your computer talk (if that's all you want). http://cth.dtdns.net/index.html

I was going to suggest just such a device as an option, although I've never used one (to my knowledge) myself. I've never seen the Dreamcast's VGA converter either, but maybe it would be compatible with other systems? A more or less standard device similiar to the one above? Or maybe it could at least be modified for use with other systems if it uses the DC's port instead of the video cords going into the box like the one above? I'll look into that, it sounds interesting. The DC's MIGHT be compatible and cheaper. Anyone know?