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oky2000

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Posts posted by oky2000

  1. Posted

    I've only played the C64 version, and yeah it is only 2-3 frames per second but oddly the response to controller input is more like 25 frames per second making it a lot of fun. Shame because it is out on PC and Amiga so I guess they just gave up around that time being an American company they looked to where the sales were I guess. I think it would have been a good F1 game for the ST, and pretty fast on a Mega STE.

  2. Posted

    I remember seeing this on TV with Jack Tramiel at some UK computer show.

     

    If you think about it CD-ROM would have worked well for the ST as it circumvented the need for an expensive sound chip in the design spec of the computer. Was this going to be the plan, soundchip for SFX with CD Audio tracks for music on ST-CD titles released. There must have been a longterm plan if cost was the only reason it never made it to market despite clearly working.

     

    I remember in the same interview he talked about recording onto CD being possible with the present and within 36(?) months of launch. That REALLY would have benefited bedroom musicians using a CD recorder to make demos of their work to give to producers, all composed using the music workhorse that is the ST MIDI setup.

  3. Posted

    Grand Prix Circuit is a game I only recently played this Summer on another machine and hope to try a 16 bit version on a real machine. I then went to see what sort of speed the ST version was after reading a review saying the ST version would follow in early 1990 after the Amiga conversion of the PC game in The One for 16bit games magazine. Looks like it never came out, no videos or downloads of disk images can be found. Not even to say just that there is no download.

     

    Does anyone know if Accolade just completely dropped support for the ST while it was being ported?

  4. Posted

    I have this on the C64. Most of the stuff, well pretty much all of it actually, is below the quality of a typed in listing you actually would bother to save on tape after running it to load more than once in your life. It's still not as bad as Cassette 50 on C64 though, from some screenshots on Atarimania it looks like it is not as bad as Cassette 50 for the Atari A8 machines too?

     

    And yes I know choosing one over the other......that's like choosing between contracting projectile vomiting type food poisoning or severe diarrhea of the life threatening variety :)

  5. Posted

    On 3/15/2020 at 4:30 AM, ParanoidLittleMan said:

    So, that PC1 runs SW backwards :  100% - 400% = -300% .

    No wander that was not sold well 🙂

     

    I have no idea why it didn't sell well to companies that needed a compact and compatible 8088 EGA based machine (Amstrad PC1512 was CGA) for their office, perhaps like Lexus branching out from parent company to hide its less professional product range Atari should have made a new brand name to stick on their PC machines. Office equipment buyers probably were put off recommending the excellent value EGA compatible PC1 with comparatively small desktop case size simply because of the name Atari. I do remember finding a technical explanation on a website why an original 8088 based 4mhz PC actually executes code more slowly than the 1mhz 6510 of the C64 with lots of different machine code tests. 

     

    But yes that should say 75% slower or 8086 is 400% faster :)

  6. Posted

    On 3/13/2020 at 4:07 AM, DarkLord said:

    <cough> I'd play the Atari ST versions...  :)

     

    I totally agree, I would never play something like Defender of the Crown on an EGA PC instead of on the ST I had at the time, there never was a need to play any games on EGA PC, either the ST, Amiga or C64 I owned during the 80s would always did a better job, and as you are probably inferring the ST version plays better than the Amiga and looks nicer than the C64 disk only version so even if I had it on all 3 machines I would actually play the ST version most often (plus I never ever owned a disk drive for any 8 bit computer and a cinemaware game is not enjoyable with a tape multiload). 

  7. Posted

    On 2/26/2020 at 7:37 AM, leech said:

    I'm not sure which is stranger... that you'd keep a 260ST for display, you have an Atari PC1... or that you DON'T have a ST Book... :P  Whenever I see things about the PC1, it actually makes me kind of sad, because it was legitimately better than most IBM compatibles at the time.  But it really didn't sell any significant number, as far as I am aware.  Didn't it basically disappear because Atari never marketed (even less than everything else they did?)

    I have seen as many ST Books for sale as Commodore 65 prototypes so there's that, but really I would never use it. The 260ST is the same as a 520ST with TOS loaded on disk (marketing thing) and the Atari PC-1 just turned up in a lot a local ebay reseller got and offered it to me before listing it (but again I don't have an EGA monitor for it so again it's for display only). If the Mega STEs were boxed then it's a no brainer, but they are loose and have some yellowing (or a bit of damage) but are all full spec HD floppy, Hard disk drive and 4mb RAM etc so make nice machines for music/graphics/games (especially Gauntlet 1 that could sure use that extra oomph of 16mhz). 

     

    The Atari PC1 uses the awful 8088 type of tech, which is about 400% slower on executing code than an 8086 at the same speed like the identically priced Amstrad 1512 of the time so it's not ideal for playing games or running code in DOS BUT I think in the era of CGA to EGA 8086 or 286 gaming if you have any taste you would play the Amiga version or C64/Atari version (Defender of the Crown and Rocket Ranger are classic examples as are classics like Zaxxon/Buck Rogers etc ditto Atari 8bit computers of course). What IS nice about the PC1 is that it makes all other budget XT class PCs look like a palette of concrete blocks  :) 

  8. Posted

    If I had to sell my stuff and was only to keep one Atari 16-32bit model for playing games it would be either an ST Book (don't have one of those!) or one of my two Mega STE units. The 16mhz CPU comes in very handy, not just the blitter. There is an excellent site that has many fixed/trained games to download so 16mhz compatibility isn't that important.

     

    If it was just for display and not actually use it then probably my boxed Atari 260ST. Would keep that over my Atari PC1.

  11. Posted

    There is a fractal documentary where Loren Carpenter himself explains his original algorithm so you could use that logic and write in your own machine code etc for various host machines. Whatever he did he did it in one night, at the start of which he had never written a single line of 6502 machine code or used the Atari 8bit custom chips on the Atari 800 they loaned him. It was tweaked to get 2fps extra, that part nobody really knows.

  12. Posted

    I may have only just got a Vectrex yesterday out of the blue! This was my experience playing on this mint condition very well looked after setup

     

     

    The problem for me is NOT the lack of instant centering on the analogue stick, there is a dead zone in the centre where it takes a about 5 degrees of movement on the stick before the console actually registers any change in resistance, which seems like a design problem not an age related issue. THIS makes Hyperchase really unplayable sadly (game reviews in the 3rd video in the linked play list).

     

    How do you fix THAT issue, free play in the joystick central position like a dodgy steering rack on a classic car with some 'play' in the steering mechanism. Playing Hyperchase feels like driving a knackered old 1982 BMW 3 series.....when I want it to feel like the 36 month old BMW 3 series I owned in 1989

     

    Every other game, including Scramble, was absolutely fine to play and the machine looks hardly used (as can be seen just about in the 2nd video in that playlist) but Hyperchase uses the analogue stick like a paddle/driving controller on the VCS rather with position of stick = your position on screen.

     

  13. Posted

    Fixes to the keyboard handler were been put in place, though the A8's keyboard is still not ideally suited to the game as keyboard only.

     

    With the C64 port I've enabled the launching of the ship from the space-station but the circle drawing routine needs sorting out and the star plots don't see right either so need addressing.

     

    attachicon.gifelite_wip_feb2019.png

     

    [Edit] I might have also patched the key fixes to the BBC port in the version attached here

    Beat me to it, thanks for the update :)

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    Wrathchild is behind one of the best attempts to port this to Atari imho.

    Think problem turned out to be "simple" stuff like keyboard reading etc.Will ask him for details and why it isn't done yet :)

    Thank you :)

     

    I never liked the 16bit conversions, artistically they are horrible and even identifying ships at a distance useless (they are simple circles until it is too late). With a nicer bitmap memory layout and fast 6502 it is as ideal a machine for Elite as it is for the awesome Rescue on Fractalus.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    Jurgen (aka on here as: tf_hh) sells D9 adaptors for the beeb, which allows D9 joysticks to plug in and work with BBC micros and Masters.

     

    Cheers. There is also a rare Competition Pro joystick for the BBC controller port which is much the same as the one they did for PC DOS era also analog game ports (resistors to hard wire hard left/right/up/down) but Elite on Acorn BBC only really works with analog input for playability unlike all other 8 bit ports for machines with Atari digital joystick interface which is a problem and down to the fact in 1984 BBC users only had the choice for those analog Phillips Videopac/Pong console type joysticks with no self centering.

     

    More of a software issue just like A8 Elite is a software [MIA] issue :)

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    Red Rat software gets my vote, any potential Atari 800XL/65XE purchasers seeing a Red Rat game on display monitors would pay the extra and get a C64 (Sinclair machines are not of the same class as A8/C64 at any price but you needed the 128k Spectrum which cost MORE than the 800XL just to get some freakin sound hardware).

  17. Posted

    Elite was one of the greatest games of all time, the code for the C64 version apart from the bitmap screen rendering engine should be identical but I have never heard anything for years.

     

    Who is working on this, if anyone, right now?

     

    If it is not being worked on I need to purchase a BBC Master 128 to play it on but the A8 should be able to do a version 90% the speed of the BBC as it doesn't have Commodore's ridiculous bitmap screen layout (which is effectively nothing more than 40x25 UDGs). The problem is the Acorn computers never had D9 joystick ports and playing this game with keys on the BBC Micro series isn't as fun but all other released/homebrew versions are too slow.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    I remember I had a deprotected version of Elite for my ST and then I changed the palette [and the game when running] on the control panel bitmap loaded in by the game to give a nice monochromatic / metallic look to it.

     

    There have been a lot of hacks to Elite on 8 bit releases but was there ever a version for the ST that turned off the filled polygons and replaced them with simple wireframes etc? It's not really a speed issue more a visual style I prefer.

  19. Posted

    You forgot two 16-bit platforms: Atari ST and Amiga

     

    They were really badly coded on both, arcade conversions with motherboards past the mid eighties really needed two completely independent and highly talented groups comprising of coders, engine designers (using hardware design limitations to your advantage somehow) and of course totally independent musician and artist.

     

    I can't really comment on the ST release, except to say games like Enchanted seem to show a stock STFM is far more powerful than Ghouls and Ghosts would have you believe. What I do know is there are game engines written in BLITZ BASIC 2.1 for the Amiga that are more impressive than the Amiga release.

     

    Releases like these fuelled the idea of getting a Megadrive in the UK, we'd all rather pay 50 quid and get something a lot more useful than a pair of fancy packages future blank floppies for 25 quid! UK Probe Software developed Turbo OutRun for the Megadrive clearly shows how bad such shoddy game development can make people think the host hardware is.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    Thanks for the video. According to the copywrite that Amiga version of Donkey Kong was released in 1993 which is around 10 years after the ADAM version was released. The Amiga version looks very nice. I would have to play both versions side by side to see which one is better.

     

    That Amiga game is a port of the Atarisoft C64 game that was free and even had the option to play with C64 graphics, an arcade game port it is not. Bignonia did Popeye and Zaxxon (Synsoft version I think, the tape release anyway) C64 ports/mild updates too.

     

    It's a shame the ADAM is not catered well in the emulation department, I do remember getting Donkey Kong ADAM specific enhanced release working on the only emulator for PC but the sound was really scratchy and horrible (perhaps because it was not Windows 95 or DOS but running in XP). I wouldn't mind an ADAM but they're not PAL native machines so no point really for my collection but they do look cool.

     

    However, it's not quite technically the best 8bit computer of the time, it's not even the best computer using that Z80 CPU and those TI sourced MSX style graphics and sound chips, no sir that would be the British Memotech MTX line of computers famous from the movie Weird Science, the same hardware as ADAM pretty much but with a 4mhz not 3.5?mhz CPU as the only difference. So whatever the Coleco ADAM can do the MTX could do 12.5% better or identical :)

     

    The RGB signals are the same analog and sync signals wired up to the port on ST/Amiga but on the older Amigas like 500/1000/2000 you need to use an external modulator to get composite video or RF, which of course was not the case with the STM onwards. The Amiga uses 23 pin D sub because that's where all the genlock related stuff needs to be I guess.

  23. Posted

    There was a version of Windows on ROM for a Tandy PC in the early 90s, the only instance of Windows being in ROM on a PC I ever heard of. It was meant to be sort of like Commodore's full blown CDTV package (the one with the mouse, keyboard, disk drive as a bundle and Amiga OS on floppies). I think it was a 286, was definitely black like the CDTV and may have been Windows 286 variant.

     

    I am not 100% sure it was ever released commercially despite a picture of the machine in the news section of an old magazine I read back in the 90s.

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    There might be some service manuals for it floating around the net which might help.

     

    The components inside just can not last much longer in most real hardware from the 80s, I don't know if it matters if you use them constantly or hardly ever. Happens all the time, I bought a Commodore 128 once and powered it on for a quick check then left it switched on whilst I finished off something and it just crashed and never booted up again when I turned it off and back on. Sign of the times really.

     

    I had a similar thing happen to my only SC1224 due to a faulty Mega STE, the fault being even when a colour monitor is connected it still tried to output the 70hz/32khz mono mode on the SC1224 and smoke started to come from the back and the 'lovely' smell of the magic blue smoke escaping :) I was lucky because I turned it off immediately. Monitor worked fine for years before I got that Mega STE from a car boot sale for 50 quid more than a decade ago.

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