Propane13

Hmm... perhaps I should add a small request-- Can someone take a small video of them getting into a Mesa? Then I could study it and become a master. -John

Hi guys, I dug out ROTLA last night, and showed a buddy of mine that there were indeed more than 3 screens to that game (since he had never figured out the grenade thing). In doing so, I walked through the game, and got close to the end, but remembered some painful Atari experiences with this game from my younger days. I decided to share my horror stories. Namely, 1) Accidentally selecting the eyepiece when you're standing just a pixel off, and dying 2) Waiting for 5 minutes for the sun, and then accidentally moving the wrong controller, getting confused, and dying 3) When returning to the marketplace from the black market, going up to the opener screen only to get hit immediately by a snake (grr!) 4) Parachuting, hitting the branch, and dying (grumble, grumble) 5) Making it into the mesa, but having those final little thieving jerks steal your shovel the minute you arrive 6) Making it into the mesa, making it past the little thieving jerks, but then accidentally pressing the wrong controller's button, and deleting the shovel 7) Making it into the mesa, making it past the little thieving jerks, using the shovel properly, only to learn with horror that you were digging in the wrong mesa. I'm sure a lot of people can relate. This game can be hard. Very hard. Well, we didn't make it to the end. But, I decided for fun to try to parachute into the initial mesa, and just keep resetting the game. It took 20 attempts. I got in their once by accident. So, does anyone have a "tried and true" method for getting in there? I have a few other obvious questions (I've figured out how to bribe the raving lunatic without dying for example, although, I don't know what exactly you gain from this). Regards, -John

I have: - Space Treat - Edtris 2600 - SoundX - Jammed - Pressure Gauge (gee-- I wonder why) - Marble Craze - Alfred Challenge - Merlin's Walls - Allia Quest - Mental Kombat If I had to pick just one, I couldn't. Each has their own merit; I think the homebrew community for Atari is amazing! But, the 2 that I reach for most often are Marble Craze and Merlin's Walls. -John

Tangental thought-- Has anyone hacked Space Jockey to turn the ship into: a) a pair of underwear, or b) a horse with a little guy on it This would truly make the player a Space Jockey. Bringing it back around-- how close are the ROM's (%-wise)? -John

Bingo-- that's it! I'd actually love some feedback on it. When I posted it to StellaList a long time ago, I never got any feedback, since no one could seem to get 4 people together. So, I have no way of knowing if it's any fun, or if it was really a pretty crappy demo. Any feedback (even extremely negative, just so long as it's better than SSSnake) would be cool. Regards, -John

You're missing one I once had a Pressure Gauge 2 demo that was 4-player simultaneous action. It had a little bit of a learning curve, but it was nevertheless quite enjoyable. It's probably available at "The Dig" somewhere. Regards, -John

That's pretty cool. This could be Alex Demeo (he did some Atari 7800 stuff for Absolute). http://atari2600.mobygames.com/developer/s...eloperId,58987/ Regards, -John

Any wav samples available. I don't have my emulator available at the office. -John

I've finished it--- once. Oddly enough, there is an ending, although it is rather anticlimactic (to be expected per 2600 games). -John

This brings up a good question. - You can max out the footbag event. - You can get the max points for skateboardin' - I even think you can max out Surfin (there's only like 5-6 tricks, and if you do them enough, you run out of things that give you points So--- what's the max score possible on BMX? -John

I think it all has to do with when you started collecting. I actually got all of the "hard" Atari games (Mean 18, Ikari Warriors, etc) through Video 61 like 10 years ago. At that time, Tank Command was an awful pain to obtain. And, a BOXED Tank Command was even harder. But, nowadays, Video 61 has dried up, and these Atari titles are now much scarcer. So, I guess things have shifted. So, a better question to add on is: 1) What was the hardest game to obtain 2) When did you start collecting from the 7800? Recently (last 5 years), or not-so-recently (over 5 years ago). I'm finding the same difficulties in finding Virtual Boy games nowadays. Apparently, it's the same type of market. -John

Can I ask how many sections there are (or, is that something we need to figure out too)? -John

On part 3. The mime continues... -John

Well, now I'm more lost than a mime in the woods without a compass. What the hell is he supposed to do? Scream for help? Ask for directions? No. He can't. He's a freakin' mime. -John

Wow. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnfarjQQhtZ-1 Test cartridge: $3,425.50 High score cart: $2,000.00 Autographed Klax: $1,950.00 Wow. Each of these items is *easily* obtainable for cheap, if you know where to look. -John

So, how would one go about playing Kaboom? -John

Completely Random thought-- what Atari 2600 games can be played on Paper? 3D Tic-Tac-Toe is a given, but I just had the completely odd thought of how funny it would be to say I was playing Pitfall II "by hand". Must be something in the water. My plant is turning orange. -John

Actual source code for these things seems to be a real pain to find-- All I've ever heard about being found are ST object files (like Pitfighther). There's a way to pull some truncated variable names for them in the disassembly of such things, but that's about all. -John

Anyone try it? Just curious. I hope at least someone found some satisfaction in finishing the game. -John

Oh my brain is kinda hurting, And it feels like it's beef stew-- Cuz I'm stuck on number one, And I want to try part two. And guess what? I'm getting sleepy Putting all these numbers in And they don't make sense in English So, I'm reaching for the gin. If anyone would help me, (Which indeed would be quite cool) I'd get past the number 1 quiz And stop looking like a fool. -John

Stuck on 1 too. Should the end thing spell something (like, in English)? Mine's like FHQWHGADS; I'm not really sure what that means, but if I drink a little more, maybe it'll mean something. Is drinking a requirement for this contest? Seems like #2, 3, and 4 must be easy, b/c everyone here is either stuck on 1 or 5... -John

I knew someone who was guaranteed to have a copy of the Atari ST source code (I'll keep him anonymous, but let's say it was a very reliable source). He had it sitting in a shoebox in his basement-- it was sitting there for the last 10 years. I asked him if he could copy the disk for me, so that I could try to recompile it for him. And, so, he checked, found the shoebox, and opened it. And, when he looked inside.... nothing. I think his wife may have thrown it out when reorganizing the basement... So, it's one of those "this close" stories. I only wish I would have contacted him sooner. -John

Electrocop was done. And, had I been a little more lucky a few years ago, it would now be in the community's hands. But, when the place where the ROM was last seen was searched, it had mysteriously "vanished". So, no Electrocop. This is why I don't play the lottery. -John

Um... this is not my ROM to give. I don't know where this rumor came from... -John

Hey guys, I should have distributed this a lot earlier. So, without any more time-wasting (I mean, I had this done 2.5 years ago), the "Possible Mission" ROM awaits you. It's a hack that I did to make the game finishable. Note: Please ignore the "z78" file comment. It's actually an a78 file (but I was having problems logging into that server at the beginning of this week, so now I just say "the heck with it-- it's a brilliant typo"). It can be found here: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~harvey/7800/ I have some spreadsheets of what exactly changed. For those curious, it was taking a diff of the PAL (working) version and the NTSC (broken) version. Then, I isolated these pieces of code, and changed any scanline-related or color-related code in the PAL game to its corresponding NTSC values. I've got some old data that I could share, but I doubt that it's of any interest anymore. As far as guaranteeing beat-ability of the game, well that's a toughie. I can say that I was able to beat it completely on this configuration, and someone else independently confirmed that as well. And, we both had 2 different startup configurations (I believe that the initial startup configuration is chosen from inside the onboard-RAM chip with the cart). So, that's 2 out of 2 for all possible combos. Good luck. Happy gaming! -John