wood_jl

Holy cow, you guys are good. I seem to remember being stuck around 6.00 and usually get 6.17 or blow the engine upon trials..... Glad to see there are other old-school gearhead-gamers out there. If you "get" this game, you must be one of 'em. This is one of my favorite time-killers for handheld gaming. I play this on the DS or GBA to kill time when I have to wait at a Dr's Office or Service Dept. It is, of course, on the Activision Anthology for GBA - which is one kick-ass title. Anyone else play this on the GBA/DS? Is it true-to-form, down to the level of clutch feathering and other intricacies? JW

Dare I ask how much it set ya back? Not easy to find one of those! Congrats! I was bidding on an original 400 new in the box, box mint, plastic still wrapped and factory-tied cords - on Ebay a couple months back, and it was $50 or so, then got up to be about $100 with 10 minutes, then got to be over $400 in the last minute.....

What a great deal....now it's $179, and here's excerpts from THE VERY SALE PAGE in the link..... [1] ...the console was very dirty, scratched, and just not very nice looking. The headset that came with the 360 was broken upon arrival, the jack was bent and it was missing the tip. And just recently I was trying to hook my iPod up to it, and I realized that the right USB port in the front of the system was broken, totally mangled and completely unusable [2] Be Aware, Mine was shipped with the Wrong Power Brick, I had to call the company who refurbishes the Xbox Units and they are shipping me the correct power block (Or So I hope.) [3] Our HD AV cable had white paint spots on it and feels very used, the headset is also worn looking and the foam pieces look like they are sun bleached, and the System we recieved has a different fan in it with a white LED bulb like in custom pc's mods which subsequently makes more noise and now has a faint glow, unlike my previous system. [4] unfortunately soon (2 hours) after purchasing and setting up my brand new (''quality'' refurbished) X-Box 360 I had the beloved red rings of death. TigerDirect is standing behind the product and offered a quick and easy RMA but still has not received another unit from their refurbished unit partner to replace mine. Sounds like a GREAT deal.....and a generous 30-day warranty too!!!

I still have a 39000-series big PS2 - not quite launch (35000-series) but quite old. Never had a problem with it, and used it as sole DVD player for years in the beginning. I think I might be lucky though. When anybody sees it, they have to comment "You're still playing with that old thing?"

I'm online! Thanks very much to Hyper_Eye - the sole respondent to my original questions in this thread. The way THAT I KNOW OF AND CAN CONFIRM to get an original Xbox online is to get an unused, OLD (original Xbox) Xbox Live card - either free trial or maybe bonafide prepaid- and do it from the ORIGINAL XBOX DASHBOARD. The first thing I did wrong was go to Xbox Live with my PC, and the only thing I see is "sign up for a free Silver account," which I did. That is apparently meaningless to the old Xbox. UNRESOLVED: Would an Xbox Live card that says "360" on it have worked, by entering the subscription code on it through the old Xbox dashboard? Guess we'll never know. Scratching to reveal the code means $50 down the drain if it didn't work. So I was going to buy an old (new old stock) card from Ebay but then thought I might have one.... I have a new-in-the-box spare original Xbox in the shelf - one of the last ones with Forza Motorsport pack-in. Inside was a Xbox Live 2-month free trial. Says on it "offer valid 10/1/05 - 12/31/06" but I tried it and it worked!!! Still had to put my Mastercard in the dashboard, but I don't care because it worked. I assume I'll be charged a year's fee in 2 months, and then when I get a 360 I'll be set! I already raced Forza 1 and found an opponent quickly! I realize that there won't be much but Halo 2 as far as finding opponents, but I just want to do this so I can play against one friend who's a really good gamer who lives a long way from here. To anyone else who wants to try this, I'd suggest getting a 2-month OLD Xbox live trial from Ebay ($10 or less) and you can get online. I see another thread in here with Xbox Live gamers trading their gamertag ID - I'm guessing by all the NON responses to this thread that everyone's moved on to 360. Maybe I'll see you in backward-compatibility mode!!! I don't know why everyone (even 360 users) had to dump all over the old Xbox when I asked this question in other forums. I guess the kids think it SUCKS if it's not part of some newly contrived gimmick or the latest thing. Sorry if I think Forza Motorsport (1) looks excellent still and has fantastic gameplay. The world is also full of other morons who think their [comparable] Wii graphics are acceptable. Oh yeah, that's the lastest thing.....never mind the graphics are the same; it's better because it's new......"You're still playing with THAT old thing???" Adios!

I have yet to upgrade to Xbox 360, but I probably will be before too long. Questions for Xbox live experts: 1) DOES XBOX LIVE STILL WORK WITH OLD XBOX??? Does anybody still do this? 2) Is Xbox Live "console-centric" - I mean, can I get Xbox Live going on my old Xbox, then buy a new 360 and use it on the same Live account? 3) Can somone with an OLD XBOX play against an "Xbox Original" (or backward-compat running game) on a 360 matched up on Xbox live? This would be great if the answer to this is yes. 4) Is there a way to determine which ORIG XBOX games are still capable of online play (servers running or whatever?) How about for 360? Thanks a million to any and all who reply; there just doesn't seem to be an easy way to learn of this unless you've been an Xbox live player all along and maybe acquired the knowledge and experience along the way - which obviously I am lacking.

I was wondering when Oswald would chime in! Welcome! I love this stuff....most enjoyable reading on the web! BRING IT!

Just enjoying reading this thread. Every time this type of thread comes up, I learn little bits, and I find the arguements are interesting. I suspect many other people do as well, or this thread wouldn't grow so fast. I enjoy reading the many points and the explanations (or opinions) behind them; I wouldn't purport to be able to make a technical arguement in either direction, but it's great to see that other people are able to do so. To the complainers: I just wonder why people see this thread, join it, and complain about it. I just wish - when someone is complaining about this thread - they'd explain exactly WHY they clicked on it when I'm sure they had a pretty good idea what it was about. The answer to that question should certainly be part of the complaint. Why not just skip the thread altogether? Why enter this thread to complain about its existance? It just doesn't make sense. To the posters: Love the debate!

Really? You're sure about this? I'd always wondered. So this was some ramification of the ill-fated SNES-CD thing? Shouldn't the entire deal with Sony have expired before the Playstation came out? How long was this contract for, and when did it expire? I am still fond of my N64 as the last cartridge system and the end of an era; even though carts were pretty much past their era at that time, I love carts! They sure didn't win the war then, though.

I've been operating "a generation behind" in all the consoles, and in the handheld dept refused to submit to the DS. I've been addicted to the Advance Wars games on the GBA for some time. When Advance Wars 4 (Days of Ruin) came out, read it could be played online. So I walk into Gamespot last week and they have a deal where you can trade in either your old Game Boy Advance SP or original (fat) DS for $40 off the price of a DS - that is, get it for $90. So I picked it up, and Advance Wars 3 (Dual Strike) and 4. Note: Gamespot doesn't differentiate between the newer (brighter/backlit screen) model from the original DIM GBA SP. So which do you think I traded in? HA HA. Until the brighter screen SP, I don't know how I managed to look at that CRAP but I remember thinking it was cool at the time when it came out! So I got online and played a couple people and it seems they never want to finish a game. I don't know if the phone rings and they say "screw it" or they're losing and just "hang up" (to use a legacy term) or what. The only other online gaming I've ever done was ATV Offroad Fury years ago on PS2 on dial-up and if I ever started to win, they'd "hang up." So is this the achilles heel of online gaming? I guess you need to make a "friends" list? I'm trying to get at least one friend to break down and buy an DS and AW4. ANYBODY ELSE HERE PLAY ADVANCE WARS ONLINE???????? IMPRESSIONS OF A NEW DS OWNER ------------------------------------------ If it wasn't for new Advance Wars games, a nice trade-in on a dim/junky SP, and the fact that I want one before they discontinue the GBA slot, I likely wouldn't own this. That being said..... I really like the DS lite - sleek and cool. The speakers/sound is much improved over the GBA SP. The 2 screens don't do a whole lot for me - kind of a gimmick that is required in order to get a handheld they still make games for. Likewise, I'm not going to game with a stylus.... Most of the arcade classics play on just one screen anyway, so in that sense it's not much better than a GBA SP (brighter screen model, of course). I foolishly bought Namco Museum DS and it's no better than Namco Museum for GBA which looks/plays the same!!! Battery life is WAY WORSE than GBA SP (even with brighter screen model). I guess that's expected 'cause it has to burn that gimmicky 2nd screen..... Would gladly have taken ONE screen for increased battery life, if given the choice. I imported the Taito Paddle controller and it's really cool - plugs into the GBA port and works on Arkanoid (actually uses 2 screens) and Space Invaders Extreme (uses 2 screens for boss fights). I just ordered Mario Kart DS because I hear it works on that too. I am glad I got in on the lite but before the newer "iDS" or whatever the new model will be. I think losing the GBA slot is a HUGE dealbreaker - for me, anyway - I have a half-gallon bag full of GBA games, and the Paddle controller won't work on the new model. I don't "do" Guitar Hero, but I guess they'll be canning that as well. The new model will be such a fraction of the DS market (which it shall splinter) that I wonder how that's going to work out, software-wise. Reminds me of the Atari "STe" computers that never got support for the new capabilities since everybody who bought games had a "regular" model ST. I suspect Nintendo doesn't know or care if the new features get support - the bread and butter they're after is the lucrative online-download/game rental market and they had to throw a few tasteless bones in order to pretend to justify removal of the GBA slot. The new model doesn't play MP3s either......some proprietary format; I wonder if it uses DRM? The new model's starting to smell already. I guess they want me to buy all my GBA games and arcade classics AGAIN through download and toss out my half-gallon bag.

Yeah, except for the poor quality of plastic that yellows!! Mine looked like a bastardization of 1/2 Atari XE gray plastic and 1/2 Atari 400/800 plastic! Thanfully, I was able to buy non-yellowed parts off Ebay and fix it. Man, what a bad deal that old faded plastic was for old collectors who keep that stuff though. Really makes old SNES look like garbage. And of course there's still the tendency to cheapen (leave off features) in the later generations of Nintendo consoles. I wonder what features the eventual redesign of the Wii will be missing? If it follows the same pattern, it will be missing Component and/or S-video...ha ha

Now you're talking! Maybe it'll be possible for collectors to get one CRT **per system** and ditch all the switch boxes and get a real arcade room set up....say, for $50? Man, the kids (today) would laugh hysterically if they knew what was going though my head now!

I got into Gamecube really late in it's life cycle.....to the point that I got mine a couple years ago at a pawn shop for $40. The Cube was definitely "uncool" by then. They had a stack of them. I lined them all up on the counter, and sorted through the canidates. First, eliminated anything that looked like a 2-year-old with A.D.D. took a penny to the finish. Then, anything dirty or even slightly banged. Then got about 3 "finalists" and took the one with the least dust in the fan. Man, I really enjoyed it! Later got a spare for $30!!! Only thing that kind of bugs me is how Nintendo continued its trend of cheapening its consoles late in life by dropping "higher end" video output. In the Cube, that means dropping component video. In the SNES that meant dropping S-video (and/or RGB??) in the last-gen SNES. In the NES it meant dropping composite (!!) video in the last-gen NES - and even the RF output SUCKS (comparatively speaking) on the newer "top load" NES. The GAMEBOY PLAYER for the Cube justifies the whole thing in itself!!! I mean, it's worth it for Advance Wars alone. I can't believe how cool this product is. I can't figure out how I lived without it! They'll NEVER sell something as functional as that again....never. Play the same game at home on TV and handheld while away? HELL no not now....not when they can sell you a copy of each. Pretty soon it'll be a download to each so you'll be actually renting the games and won't "own" any. The Wavebird cordless controller is excellent - OEM quality cordless! I am overall impressed with the Cube. I was **totally** prejudiced against it last-gen - as I had PS2 first, then Xbox and used to diss the Cube until I finally got one. Check out the Mario sports games - like the Tennis, Baseball, and Soccer. They're really fun. Unfortunately, they're pretty darned expensive still! I think the fact that the Wii plays Cube games has driven the price of the Cube games up a little bit, but has REALLY made the Cube hardware worthless at Gamestop (etc). Anybody else like Advance Wars?

That appears to be a "MADE IN CHINA" 130XE. I was trying to understand the differences between the Taiwan and China 130XE models but strangely could not get any participation out of the people here. I was wanting to get info before buying one. So I bought once anyway, and I noticed that the power light appears to be clear (as does yours) when it's off. I haven't looked inside to see how many RAM chips, etc it has. I'm extremely surprised how little information there is on any differences (or not) between models of 130XE of different origin.

Well, sorry I can't help with what you're looking for.....but I wondered if there's a way to do THE OPPOSITE. I'd like to use a PS3 Dualshock 3 on my PS2!!! I use the Logitech and they're pretty good, but nothing's like the ORIGINAL Sony brand D-pad with the four discrete directions on 4 individual buttons. It's the tops for fighting games (etc.). Every other brand of controller has a "disc" which rocks the wrong way when you're trying to pull off said discrete moves. I don't have a PS3 and have no plans to get one (esp since they dropped backwards compatibility) but I'd like a Sony-brand cordless for my PS2!!! Any thoughts?

That's great news. I think Atari had a great idea with Atari Connection. It was both a brochure of new products and full of great info. BTW, I hope you are feeling better Curt. Thanks, getting better each day, got a long way to go, but I'm making progress, thanks again... Thank God for Atariage, at least I have some good stuff to read!!! Curt I want to add my "thanks" for putting those Atari Connection scans up. I had that very issue when I was a kid with my 400 and 410. I couldn't believe I was seeing that again. What a blast from the past!! (apologies for overused cliche). I hope you'll put more up!!!

Hi! Thanks so much for the reply. There should be a little box on the bottom label, with the FCC ID, "Atari Corp" and "Made in ___________." Thanks again for checking! JW

Gee, if nobody in the active community of Atari-8 enthusiasts here can answer this tough question, I'll eat my hat. Let me rephrase the question, please: Have you ever even SEEN OR HEARD OF a U.S. NTSC 130XE that was NOT made in Taiwan? Thanx to any adventurous speculators that dare to take a stab at this mind boggling question!

Been looking at a pic of one for sale online, and it's made in China. Does that mean it's PAL since most of the PAL models were made in China? Or were BOTH NTSC and PAL 130XEs made in China? Was under the impression that NTSC (for US anyway) models were made in Taiwan like mine. Thanks much for reply; didn't see any comments on this issue in the other thread (about bad GTIA chips in Chinese-sourced PAL 130XEs).

It's been a LONG time since I messed with the PS1 "Multi tap" but you might be able to use it to get the receiver away from the memory card slot, even if you don't need the extra ports. Yes, kind of a kludge to hang off the front but it might work....

Thanks so much, Ryabags for your informative reply. This still begs the question, then: IF I FIND A 130XE IN THE UNITED STATES THAT SAYS "MADE IN CHINA," DOES IT MEAN IT'S A PAL MACHINE??? I've seen some for sale that said CHINA. I'm still confused on that issue. Anybody seen a Yankee 130XE from CHINA?? THanks.

As you know, there were some XE computers put out with "buggy" GTIA chips toward the end of the production run. From what little I am able to find, they were made in China. If you look on the B & C Computervisions site in the price list for 8-bit computers, they even have some PAL 130XEs that they list as "fails GTIA test." http://www.myatari.com/atarixlh.txt From that page: We have a group of brand new in the box 130XE PAL computers that have a different OS ROM and do not pass the GTIA test for some reason?? They work fine with many games but since the GTIA grapics mode does not work games like Recue on Fractalus look weird. These are brand new but Atari did not include manuals or powerpacks and they do not have a label on the bottom. HDA008G COMPUTER PAL B 130XE 60.00 do not pass GTIA test? HDA008IG COMPUTER PAL I 130XE 60.00 do not pass GTIA test? I have seen reference to this problem on some other sites, like in the body of text of this site where he addresses the problem in the description of his 1Mb memory upgrade: http://www.holyoak.com/atari/memsch1.txt (the "front page" of his Atari site is http://www.holyoak.com/atari/ ) From the body of his text file from the site above: "Some (if not most) of these 800XE/65XE's had a buggy GTIA (made in China)." (1) Any idea how many machines may have had this problem? I wonder if it was just one bad run, or over time. The affected machines listed on B&C obviously say they're PAL. The Guy's site with reference to 800XE suggests he's in Europe as well but I'm not able to tell DEFINITIVELY where he is or exactly which units he's worked on. (2) Is this problem likely confined to PAL zones? Should I be afraid of NTSC 130XEs made in China now? I sort of am. (3) If anybody has dealt with this problem before, is "merely" replacing the GTIA chip a likely fix or could this involve more components? (4) Would there be an easy test for this? I know booting up Rescue on Fractalus (as mentioned at B&C) will test it, but how about something easy to have an Ebay seller try it. Waaaay back in the day I had my early model Atari 400 upgraded. I remember reading in the magazine to enter in BASIC 10 GRAPHICS 9 20 GOTO 10 .....and running it would tell you which you had - flickery blue screen=CTIA, black screen=GTIA. I wonder if this would diagnose the bad GTIA. I don't suppose I'd have much luck getting an Ebay seller to type that into BASIC, but one can hope, if they're honest, cooperative, and especially if they're familiar with A8s. Maybe just avoid CHINA models, or is this a smaller problem that I think it is? Damn, and just when I was kinda looking for another 130XE to think about getting modded. I checked my (Ebay sourced) unit that works fine, and it's a TAIWAN model of course.

Man, this looks like a really nice 800 and 810 in boxes, but look at this "winning" price!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...A:IT&ih=001 Cough...cough.... Wish I had a few of these in the closet.

Ran across some site which provides the stuff to do this. Looks as recent as Feb 2008. http://trub.atari8.info/index.php3?strona=...upgrade_en.html I have never used ANY SpartaDos X, pretty much a historical 3.2d user myself; I missed out on the whole era of SparaDos X. That being said, is there some great advantage to the cartridge? Does it free up some RAM or give the command line more internal commands or what? More importantly, has anyone done this (flashed their own SDX) and have an impression to share? Failing that, any SpartaDos X users at all here who have any comments? If the entire DOS is in ROM, then how do "Utraspeed" (or whatever) handlers load? The site had images to flash to either 1-megabit or 8-megabit (as well as other flash system(s)). I have some 8-megabit cartridges, but it sure seems a waste to devote an entire 8-megabit cart to it if it will fit in 1. As always, comments are very much appreciated.

It's always the Atari people who start the crap with unprovoked snide anti Commodore remarks and drag us into it. Perhaps. But one must wonder why Commodore advocates wouldn't be prepared to expect (and ignore) such remarks at "www.atariage.com." If I were visiting "www.commodoreage.com" and ran into war-prone Commodore users dissing Atari computers, I don't think I'd take the bait because I'd have to consider not only the source, but the domain. I wonder why that shouldn't be the case here?