Rob Mitchell

I am thinking of building the Magicard interface also .. seems easy enough ... I will probably build it inside my Atari 4 switch .. but I will probably not do it until next week after this Fourth of July week ... Plus I have much Magicard reading to do .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

There are programs in the manual on pages 2-24 through 2-29. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Did you find balloons? I'm a believer! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Thanks Mark .. Thanks Al .. I finally did figure out how to save only the images and not the whole webpage (right click). Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (windows challenged)

The Action Pak has Othello in it? That is not an action game! What was Atari doing? Were they trying to dump some unpopular stock? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Me too! I tried it out on emulation this morning! Tanks appear and move .. but don't fire .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (My God! It's full of TANKS!" 2001 - a Tank Odyssey

What the heck are tanks doing in MY River Raid? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Doh! I got the overlays to printout at the proper size .. just after posting my problem. Now I need a printout of the manual .. Any help here? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Yes .. I can find the manual in the archive .. but it is not in a printable form. And I can find the overlay scans .. but they print out twice as big as necessary. How can I resize them to fit the keyboard controllers? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (Cuttle Cart owner)

I now see that I am going to need to build a custom controller box with two pots at 90 degrees and two fire buttons. Just for your game!! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Because I have the Cuttle cart .. any possibility of getting the manual and the overlays from you? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

John Dondzila did a Gyruss clone for the Vectrex ... called Wormhole. It uses the "compass" directional control using the joystick. Now Chris Tumber has come out with a Tempest clone for the Vectrex .. called Tsunami which can use the joystick for L/R control, joystick for "compass" control, or the Driving Controller for spinner control. 3 different ways of control! I mentioned to Thomas about the possibility of hacking Beamrider to use the driving controller. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (driving controller user since 1977)

Starship (Outer Space) is the worst game cart ever put out .. and Lunar Lander is the worst 2600 game ever released. That said ... What Starship has going for it is the correct flight control: Up is dive, down is climb: which prepared me for Star Raiders on the Atari 400/800 in 1981. Slot Machine is dumb. Math is too basic .. and doesn't use the keyboard controller. Surround (Chase) is of worth .. have you tried the speeding-up variation? See how long you last against a worthy opponent. I challenge anyone to beat me at Surround! (Surround: interesting thing about the sound: Only one sound channel used. I could have sworn that the sound was cool two channel sound.) Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (Surround player since 1977)

What a pathetic waste of bits! .. which is what I thought in 1977 when we bought that cart for $20. Basic Math takes some thinking skills (early childhood challenge) .. Surround has good gameplay .. Lunar Lander has neither. Rob MItchell, Atlanta, GA (It is a crime that Atari did not make Math use the keyboards!)

I used to spend alot of time playing the original 2600 Blackjack. Great fun with three players .. I remember walking into a thrift in Vegas and seeing 10 copies of Casino. I'm still stuck on Thrust .. Save Mary has gotten into me ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

I am not impressed with the Atari Jr .. replacing switches with buttons doesn't do it for me. The console (6 or 4 switch) are durable .. as long as they are not abused. In all my thrifting I have only come across one unit that did not work. But I have seen several ones with broken switch shafts and the plug at the end of the RF cable is sheared off. I have tried to rescue these abused orphans .. at discount .. but the flea ladies will not consider my offers of $1. The early 1977 models were wired to put out the signal on only one TV channel .. so if you lived in a city that has a TV station on that same channel .. well imagine the lowsy picture due to the interference! This was a big problem with the first console we got in fall 1977. It broadcast on ch3 which got alot of interference from WRCB-TV3 in Chattanooga, TN. Sears explained that there was a mistake and the Ch3 units should have never been shipped there. So we were able to exchange our unit for a Ch4 one about 3-4 weeks later when the replacement units arrived. The Power Adapter takes alot of abuse .. Back in the early days (1977-1981) we had to buy a second one after wires broke. I remember I took one power cube apart and put a 1/8" socket on the bottom .. and wired the cord with a second 1/8" plug in an attempt to avoid future chaffing. The RF TV/Game switch box took alot of abuse too: Remember it came with double sticky foam to stick on the back of whatever 300 ohm TV you wanted to use the VCS on. Well you were supposed to leave it there .. and not move it to another TV .. which is what we did .. so it didn't stick in place .. and fell down .. Plus the constant plug in / remove from the box made the thing unstable .. and the 300 ohm wires eventually broke. So I had to clamp new lugs on the bare wires to keep the Atari VCS going. The jittery paddles are problematic .. but fixable. Paddle buttons do/did go bad in the early paddles. The early joysticks lost their aluminum disks that sat on the top of the shafts. Contacts wear out in the early joysticks. I was always looking for spare parts/ springs. I never had problems with the Driving Controllers or the Keyboard controllers. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (ask and ye shall receive)

The Cuttle Cart is able to run both Magicard and Video Life. Is there any difference between these emulations and the actual carts? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Simplest game or simplest cart? The simplest game is Lunar Lander (second set of games at the end of Star Ship (Outer Space). Maneuver lander (LRUD) and "land" on cheezy moon. Simplest and worst! See recent thread in RGVC. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

The pots are 1 MegOhm .. Will fire buttons be required also? LSM: I know the secret! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Someone came up with a finger touch pad controller for the Atari .. last year .. Inspired .. I made my own. Four areas of metal mounted on flat plastic (+ fifth for fire) .. and activated by an aluminum finger splint tethered with a wire. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Paul: I anticipation of your Marble Craze cart .. I just thought of a way to mount two paddles side by side. Get a flat piece of plastic, plexiglass or whatever. Drill two small holes on either side of the area where one paddle is to be mounted. Get a loop of elastic (rubber band, ponytail tie, whatever). Thread a small loop of the band through each hole and secure on the bottom side of the flat plastic by running a paper clip through the small loop. Then you have two lengths of elastic which can be placed over / around the paddle controller. Do the same for a second paddle. How's that sound? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Well .. if it is anything like the light show mode in the Synthcart .. it will be cool! BTW: Is the LSM in the Synthcart supposed to be an undocumented easter egg or something? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Well that sounds like alot of trouble. I like to push the limit with my HP200LX .. but for Atari and the Cuttle, I guess I'll have to break down and get another device. The other day I made a custom cable setup for connecting the palmtop to the Vectrex Serial VecRAM cart. BTW: I programmed my interactive Vectrex proof of the Pythagorian Theorem on the palmtop. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

This is true .. and the only setup I have seen has the spinner from a Driving Controller built into a jag controller .. As far as a connector for the Driving controller: it only uses four pins: 1/2 for quad signals, 6/8 for fire/ground. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Slightly off topic .. but not really .. Christopher Tumber has released his Tsunami game (Tempest) for the Vectrex. It can use the Indy 500 Driving Controller as a spinner! Very cool. Also being released is his Spinnerama multicart for the Vectrex. It consists of a bunch of hacked Vectrex games that use the Driving Controller also. Most notable is his update of Omega Chase (Omega Race) that uses the spinner. Thomas did similar hacks for several Atari 2600 games too. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (dreaming of new uses for the Driving Controller since 1977!)