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Retro Rogue

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Posts posted by Retro Rogue

  2. Posted

    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. ;)

     

     

     

    This is my FB2 story.

     

    I live in Mexico, so FB2 are not available here and I don't know if they will be. I was waiting for the first opportunity to go to the US to buy me one. And last week, they told me at work I had to go to San Diego for some meetings! So, after finishing my work stuff, I had all Friday afternoon free to look for one. I wasn't very familiar with the area where the office and my hotel were, so I spent 30 mins trying to find a Walmart. Finally I saw one on the distance. I looked for the toy department immediately, and at first sight there was an alley full of plug-and-play "TV games". I was a bit excited, so I took my time. I walked through the alley slowly, and stopped at times to take a closer look at some of those games that I don't own. Street Fighter seemed cool BTW. So there I was approaching the end of the alley and no sign for a FB2. I was starting to get sad, when I saw a bunch of FB1s. I already have two (honestly I haven't played with them more than a couple times) but at least there were flashbacks. So I begun to take some of them, to see if there was something behind, and yup, there was ONE and only one FB2  :cool:

    I grabbed it, and took it to the cashier. There was a lady there paying for her groceries in front of me and she told me "OMG, is that an Atari? are they selling it again?" and I explained to her. She sounded really excited about it.

    So, I ran to the hotel, to later get really upset because their TVs don't have an AV input. Damn. I had to wait until my return to Mexico.

    After crossing border lines and deal with customs agents with no problems, I got to my home yesterday. I hooked it up immediately - and it worked, much better than I thought. I am really impressed by the overall quality, and to be honest, I really doubt that 99% or more of general consumers will think other way.  :P

    933772[/snapback]

  5. Posted

    Well, I have to agree with the prevailing sentiment about the FB1; it was a disappointing product compared to what I expected (which was REAL Atari 7800 hardware).

     

    The main reason I ask is ... if it is an NES on a chip, could you potentially run NES binaries in there, or at least something better than the built-in games?

    930262[/snapback]

     

     

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

  6. Posted · Edited by wgungfu

    Is it missing from the online manual because there's no scan on AtariAge?

     

     

    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.

  7. Posted

    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?

     

    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).

  8. Posted

    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?

  9. Posted

    Just getting in to this and had a question on two terms I saw in threads -

     

    What is MCS (saw it in relation to scrolling) and what is RLE?

     

     

    Thanks!

    917925[/snapback]

     

    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.

  10. Posted

    In the graphics part, there were plans to have a balanced colour (PM overlay/underlay & charmode for graphics) usage with a reliable speed as the A8 HW is capable of.

     

    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?

     

    While graphics "MCS" is a part of "G2F",  there is still no chance until today, to have the same possibilities for the Sound.

     

    So there is something available for sound now as well?

  12. Posted

    ...the thing about FB1 being a 7800 (which it seems did a crappy job of), the public is eventually going say, "wow...another retro plug n play"...but then again, Jakks seems to be doing fine, so somebody is buying!!...and as long as the cost is right, then hey!...no problem!

     

     

    Well, that's not exactly the case here - because while the FB2 (and fb1) are techniclly "plug-and-play", they resemble more of a traditional console than the Jakks and Radica "joystick/controller" models.

  13. Posted

    Another thing I forgot to mention was the manual. Pretty well put together, although a couple of games could have used a few more specific instructions, but at least we have the manuals either here on AA or at AtariProtos.

     

    The larger online manual is done and will be going up soon. It includes complete instructions rather than the abbreviated ones that had to be done for the small packed in one. That includes full manuals for all the hacks/homebrews/proto games as well.

     

    Did anyone catch the the description in Wizard about the evil wizard Rassark and his evil imps Nagromj and Leimartj :lol: ? That was pretty clever.

     

    Thanks. I had other names first, but it was decided not to go with them for various reasons and these were gone with instead. It'll all go down as part of Atari folklore. ;)

  14. Posted

    Speaking of that I saw an FB1 at a WalMart today on clearance for only $39.98. Not always low prices on that one, especially since down the street at Target they had several on clearance for about $16. I'll keep checking back at WalMart though in anticipation...

     

     

     

    Did you try scanning it to see the actual price? That happened at one of the local Walmart's by me. When I scanned it, it came up $15. Went to the store manager who verified it, thanked me, and promptly went to change the tags.

  15. Posted · Edited by wgungfu

    Just to make everyone happy, for the FB3 we're just going to just have Nolan in a box. No really, we're arranging to chop up Nolan Bushnell in to little pieces and ship him out. And best of all, he'll be fully legacy compatible with any little Atari retro-orgasm fantasies you may have. The Atari Flashcoffin 3.

     

    So if there's any defects, design dislikes, bad game choices, manufacturing location, etc. etc. you can just take it up with his estate.

     

    Oh, and it'll only be available at Walmart. So please, start another "I hate Walmart" thread when it comes out.

  16. Posted

    - Yars' Return, near as I can tell, does not wrap, even though the manual says it does.  Maybe the enemies can, but I sure can't.

     

    That was an error that was corrected several times and somehow made its way back in during the layout for the revision you have.

     

    - Say something about the difficulty buttons.  I can't tell if they're pressed or not, and I sure don't recall what they were used for in most games.

     

    They should click and set in or out (b or a). I just don't think the ammount (distance) it remains locked in is that much.

  18. Posted

    Which Walmart in Milwaukee?  I'll buy one to check out another in the batch and return it.

     

    For what its worth, I tried legacy controllers in the demo unit I have right now (that I've been taking pictures of for the online manual) and didn't have that problem.  Maybe its something with the Walmart batch?

    902827[/snapback]

     

    I got mine at the Walmart on 27th Street in Franklin/Oak Creek (just north of Rawson) They had one left on the shelf after I bought my 2. I don't know if they had any more in back. Let me know!

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    Ehh, thats the complete other side of town from me (I'm in the northshore area). I'll try the one by Brown Deer Road first. My car isnt doing that great and I'd hate to ride all the way down to Oak Creek just to find out they were out.

  19. Posted

    As I mentioned before, I really like the feel of these new FB2 joysticks, so I tried again to use them on an original 2600, and being real careful, was able to squeeze the plug into the controller port.  I plugged in Frostbite and it was a blast to play with the new FB2 joystick- nice responsive control!  I also tried to play the Pong game on the FB2 with a set of original paddles, and could not get it to work.  The manual says that Pong supports Atari legacy paddles, but try as I might, could not get them to work at all.  I tried both controller ports and I tried the Coleco Gemini joystick/paddle combo, and could not get it to work, although the Coleco controller jack fit the FB2 port nicely.  This could be a problem for those (like me) who want to mod the FB2 with a cart port to play Kaboom!  What am I doing wrong, Curt?

    902751[/snapback]

     

     

    Which Walmart in Milwaukee? I'll buy one to check out another in the batch and return it.

     

    For what its worth, I tried legacy controllers in the demo unit I have right now (that I've been taking pictures of for the online manual) and didn't have that problem. Maybe its something with the Walmart batch?

  25. Posted

    They have a listing for it up on their site now - just do a search for "atari flashback". Comes with a bonus cdrom (they don't mention what), $33 plus shipping.

     

     

    Okay,  just got the call from the QVC producer, the Atari Flashback 2 pre-order Christmas in July sales will air:

     

     

    This Sunday 7/24: 9PM Eastern

    Monday 7/25: 11AM and 6PM Eastern

     

    Check you local listings for your QVC channel.

     

     

     

    Curt

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