Retro Rogue

I have three with the dates, here's the serial number for two of them that I happen to already have pics of on my computer. (Just got married and everything is packed up right now). The first one is the one for the motherboard picture I already posted. Couple of wierd things about that one as well. It has a different style/method of the logo imprint on the case front, as well different printing revision/style for the switch lables. It also has the A/B channel select molding in the case bottom where the normal vents should be. Also, one of the posts inside is only 1/3 the normal height. What was also interesting to me is the date, which shows the heavy sixers were being manufactured in to '78. I usually open up all my sixers when I get them, because I'm usually giving them a thorough cleaning as well as doccumenting any revisions/differences. I do the same with the sixer joysticks (of which there are several revisions of as well).

Yes, I'm actually working on an update of that for over at Atari HQ. Also putting that together for Pong systems, 5200 and 7800.

To use one of A.J.'s previous statements reworked for this thread: "I take it your answers are assembled very slapdash with no fact checking whatsoever." No, there are light sixers with the speaker slots as well. They just normally don't have the posts inside. The light sixer runs are basicly all a mishmash of revisions, some with various sixer legacies. I actually have a light sixer that has one speaker hole and the nubs of two posts. And in the other heavy sixer thread - Nope. Just a revision number. There may be date codes on the ICs, but those only get you to "built after ..." range, with no indication of how long after. 936056[/snapback] Not true.

I seem to remember a coin-tossing and lots of beer.

Clint, no - Atari's video phone was actually released as the Mitsubishi Luma Phone (hence the name in the discission). Curt's model is a Luma Phone as well. As far as I know, it was the only product of Ataritel that eventually made it to market.

Apparently some people in Japan are still using them - http://www.jearn.jp/Teleclass/luma/LumaTalks.html

First off, my unerstanding was that the major store chains themselves were getting their allotted shipments now (not each individual store within that chain). I.e. it has to go to the major distribution centers for each company, everything cataloged/itemized/upc recorded (for those that do that), and then first get distributed to the individual stores. Once it gets to the individual stores in each chain and everything set within their system, then it'll first get put out. On that note, I stopped by Best Buy, Target and Walmart here on the north side of Milwaukee (Brown Deer Road for the locals). Target didn't have any, Best Buy was strange though. One of the guy's the helped me said he looked up the release date twice this week and it was either next week or the week after. But when he went to look it up with me, the FB2 entry in the BB system was *completely* gone. Walmart had 5 of them, and they have to be the second shipments because they had been completely sold out of them since August. Odd thing was, they insisted it was going to be put in the electronics section instead of toys, but there it was in toys by the other plug-n-plays.

Yes, I have one as well.

Not anymore. 938931[/snapback] Last I checked, when documents end in .php, its a php document. As far as what Yuppicide said, he's a bit mistaken. There's nothing wrong with php, its just like any other language. Sloppy programming and no attention to security when coding is what causes a lot of the security problems. Most of what's been getting hacked that I've seen are actual software packages (such as PHPboard) that have security flaws. Much of windows is written in C++, you don't see people blaming "that C++ crap" every time Windows gets hacked or has virus problems. You blame Windows.

$2. I'll take the burden off his hands.

Curt, we really need to revisit our concept of combining Flashback 3 with a George Forman grill. 938461[/snapback] Either that or that Egg McMuffin machine thats in the new Wired. Toasts bread, poaches up an egg and warms meat all at the same time.

I keep telling everyone, it's just going to be chopped up Nolan Bushnell in a box. But noooooo...........nobody wants to listen. A 5200 shaped mini-coffin, the CX-5200 FB3 aka "Soylent Green". Marty Well, any official announcement needs to come from Curt. I would imagine he won't be making a list available for a while. 937769[/snapback] 938024[/snapback]

No, that's a common point of confusion. Infogrames Entertainment IR is stil a seperate entity and based in France. The US operations were spun off as a seperate entity named Atari Inc., of which Infogrames is a major shareholder. The other international operations were simply branded with the Atari name. As I stated, Atari Inc. (which is only the US Atari, and the entity that is releasing all these products) is a seperate entity that doesn't take it's que's from Infogrames.

Actually no, I asked about the same thing, PM'ed Curt myself. Its so that I can hook up a friend of mine with new sticks and a a/v modded Atari. 932908[/snapback] Doh! Guess Gunstar was too quick at the trigger there. Also - Infogrames != Atari. As stated previosly, Infogames owns a controlling percentage in it. However it's a seperate entity that's pretty much left to it's own devices.

Just to add my 2 cents - When I talked with Leonard Tramiel he stated the XEGS was an attempt to "do the 5200 right." It is a both a game console and a "traditional computer", and was intended as such.

It is a pdf version. Both manuals are accessible through the main FB2 page. I wouldn't advise linking directly to the print manual.

I'm sorry, but you must post a picture of your FB2 by some Mexican beer or tequila otherwise I'll have to inform customs to reposess your unit.

Just wanted to let people know that the print version (text only except for the cover) of the manual is now up, as is some of the material in the bonus section.

Yes, the same one that turns it in to a giant dildo.

You should be able to run the binaries on a real NES.

If at all possible, scans were not taken from Atari Age and were done from my personal collection of manuals, boxes, and catalogs (and it took a lot of hours to scan everything). In fact, maybe about 1-2% of the artwork came from Atari Age scanned artwork. The decision to not include as much graphics as I would have liked (including more Game Select Matrixes) was because the delivery method and other restrictions were unknown and/or constantly changing. For example, I designed it in non-centered 800 x 600 because I thought they were going to fit it in to their own template (their top border and side menu). There were other prepared graphics for some of the homebrew games as well that I was given that did not go in either.

In my case software sprites with a player or two to add extra colour but it varies from project to project and indeed coder to coder; the idea doesn't suit every type of game t'be honest... (Oh, i'm new to the Atari hardware too by the way, C64 coder who decided to spread out and find new platforms to be a nuisance on... =-) 919358[/snapback] Ok. So I'm assuming it's not much different theoretically than Kevin Horton's process described here? (forgetting about the CV's need to stagger sprites).

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help and you taking the time to explain it. The question that comes to mind is if you're using up the sprites to add the extra colors, what do you do for the actual characters in the games themselve then? Or are you swapping back and forth between character and background sprites?

have a look here if you want to see MCS screens in combination with scrolling: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...43&hl=scrolling 918377[/snapback] Thanks, I had already looked at that thread. My question is still the same though - what is the MCS technique? It looks like it's a method of layering, but I haven't seen it actually laid out in an actual specification or someone saying "MCS is the technique of......and is done by....." I'm not a novice programmer, but I am new to A8 programming. So I'm not used to a lot of the terms that are being thrown around either (PM, Gprior?). I realize English is not Em's first language, so if anyone else can answer my question to I'd appreciate it.

PM? So basicly it's an overlay process? I was looking at some of the graphics included with Graph2fnt and it looks like one layer is B&W the other is a color layer. How much does that actually speed up the rendering process? So there is something available for sound now as well?