mactari

Just curious, since your original post was over two years ago, how many Pac-Man carts are you up to now? ..Al You know, I got exactly zippo Pacs from begging on this forum. Even usenet's results (admittedly done back in usenet's height) proved more productive. Musta been all those NES carts in that pic putting my poor project to shame. I'm still stuck at a few hundred, collected at random by myself. If I ever make it to a classic gaming expo, I'll have to bother you for the extra PacROMs!

Okay, realizing I'm nearly two years late to this party, the Mactari Tools Page (may it nearly rest in peace), is only for Classic Mac users using OS 9 or below. So yeah, unless you've got Classic installed, downloading MPW and friends is going to do an OS X user diddly squat. Now that said, at least the Classic Mac tools have a GUI for DAsm! (Though I can't take credit for it...) http://rufwork.com/mactari/dasmtut.html (down near the bottom there's a screenshot; very basic, but fairly useful) At some point I really should fix those pages up. Many of them are unchanged since 1998, just a few months after I was using RAsm and ResEditing the Activision Action Pack for my emulator. (Walking uphill to school in the snow without shoes, too, I'll wager.)

Though writing Crazy Insane Tank Battle from scratch wouldn't be all that difficult. At times, it seems that the hardware in the 2600 was specifically chosen so that you could play Combat & Video Olympics. Two players, two missles, a ball, and some playfield (not to mention the score flag to make the playfield color match the player) spell those two games perfectly.

EDIT: Argh, Super*chip*. For those of you who read this when I had misread the above as "SuperCharger", my apologies. We need different acronyms in this case, I think -- SC!= SC!!

Ha, sorry to return to the thread years later like this, but yep, noticed you were joking. My apologies if my reply was too dry It sure is a shame the homebrew scene grew to the point the Pac-Mans are actually worth something now. I keep meaning to find time to meet Albert at some convention to take some broken down Pacs off of him, but have yet to make the time. But don't let that stop you, the AA Forum frequentor, from sending your unwanted Pacs my way! AIM away!

I'm giving a talk at the "Playing the Past" conference (http://academic-gamers.org/gsg/) at U of Florida next month, and wanted to include the game hidden in BS2k for Lynx. Anybody have one they wouldn't mind parting with, for research purposes, of course? Condition beyond 'playable' not horribly important. Though I'm looking to buy, if someone's trusting enough to try it, I'm open to 'renting' it as well. I'd also trade, but don't have too much that's quite as rare. Have a medium sized 2600, 7800, Genny collection. Thanks!

http://www.atari2600.org/dasm - Latest release of DASM (2.20.07) now released, including a Mac-binary. Whoa. Hang on. This is just an updated MPW tool -- it's still for Classic Mac. Updated version: DASM V2.20.07, Macro Assembler ©1988-2003 vs. the most recent before now: DASM V2.02, ©Copyright 1988 Matthew Dillon, All Rights Reserved ... but still an MPW tool. You'll still have to follow the usual Mactari tools tutorial, give or take, to get it running (though you really only need the MPW application, not the entire Golden Master, though the GM version gives you quite a few more tools). I notice we've also lost our commando interface, which I think is useful to beginners. But enough looking at horses' teeth! Ruffin Bailey

I don't know that the "Stella Excuse" holds too much water! ;^) There's plenty you can do with Stella, and it seems list members are usually able to coax Stella into playing even their fanciest games with the right Stella.pro file or what-have-you. At any rate, even if it's missing some illegal opcodes, which seems to be all the rage recently, there's still an infinite number of games to be made that run on both an Atari 2600 & Stella! Macs work just fine, I think!

I would say, "Now we're getting somewhere," but then I've had the Classic Mactari tools for years and still haven't made a game... :^( Regardless, thanks Andrew! I'll have to break out jEdit and update the site! Maybe even throw distella under the gcc train and see what happens. Ruffin Bailey

Looks like it might be better right now to serve as a quick-sketch tool, but really pretty neat. Perhaps you could add rectangle tools and circle tools like a drawing program? I think that'd help make some sharp playfields. It also appears you can't undo a block you've drawn. Is that right? Last question -- What's it written in? If it's REALbasic you ought to be able to get it onto OS X pretty easily (not that I've gone through the trouble to port DAsm to OS X yet... wish I was more C-savvy).

Realizing this is months after the last post, here's a picture anyhow: http://www.atarihq.com/museum/2678/2800.html

I actually got the Kaboom! and Dragster patch (didn't save either -- didn't earn em) by doing something wacky with the instructions. Just to save time, here's a quote from my quick write up at Curmudgeon Gamer (http://curmudgeon.linuxgames.com/article.p...021228121934768) Not sure if that counts as a real cheat, but it's gotten me a couple of patches. Haven't experienced the other "cheats".

Man. It's obvious you have a problem. Get help. Your best first move would probably be to send me your hundred Pac-Man carts. TIA. Ruffin Bailey

You can grab the non-OS X'd tools at this overly-long URL: http://www.angelfire.com/mac/mactari/mactari/mact.html Let me know if you find broken links there. It's in need of some clean-up, but this is the latest version of the site. I wish AOL would take the old one down; it's awful misleading. If you just want a hex-editor, they're a dime a dozen. If you're just changing a few lines of graphics, you might try a search at versiontracker.com. Seems like I stumbled over a decent freeware hex-editor for OS X there last time I tried (on PC now, I'm afraid). Good luck and let me know if you have any trouble! Ruffin Bailey

I tried AIMing Albert asking if I couldn't convince him to send me the Pac-Man boards from donations. No reply yet (afk), but don't let that stop you from telling him you'd like to dogear your donated Pacs' boards to the 2000x2000 project! Luckily Albert's not using the boards from the donations, and I'll promise not to use them to make a new game myself. They'll stay Pacs till the bitter end. Shameless Pac begging; that's what 2000x2000 is all about.

I've been told I needed to move this to its own thread, so here goes! Hey folk, the 2000 by 2000 project has been revived! Scant details and a few pictures here: http://www.angelfire.com/mac/mactari/2000x2000/ See Pac-Man carts that have been treated all their life as meat saved and protected in a new, Pac-friendly environment. Yes that's right. Some idiot thought he'd try to collect 2000 Pac-Man carts before the year 2000. That goal might not *quite* have been achieved, but better late than never. I mean, (cut and paste text restarted)... let's face it, there's something, um, not-quite-special about the 2600 version of Pac-Man, and only a collection of 2000 of these critters displayed for all to admire would really do that, um, not-quite-special version justice. Functioning, not-quite-functioning, and, of course, fully playable (that's a relative term in this case, of course) Pacs accepted. So if you're interested in donating your Pacs to a *great* cause, drop me an email. Cheapskates will have fourth-class postage reimbursed if it's requested (up to a reasonable amount; don't pack in a brick or fill the carts with spackle!) and a small finder's fee will be paid for Telegames/Sears or late release Pacs. That's right folk, not every Pac-Man is an automatic piece of trash! Protect your late release or Sears Pac-Man by sending it to the 2000x2000 shrine/museum/whatever you'd prefer to call it. What more deserving cause could you help in this holiday time? Okay, better yet, what more deserving cause could your 2600 Pac-Man carts help?!! :^) Thanks. And do note that AtariAge is trying to collect Commons for another project: http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...=asc&highlight= Also note that this project is actually not competing with this one. I'm more than happy to salvage just the Pac-Man boards as long as they're playable. AA *isn't* using the boards. And remember, I promise not to turn these boards into new games. They will be stored for posterity FOREVER!!! Or as close as I can get to forever. (Please note that this is a very tongue-in-cheek project, though the postage reimbursement and finder's fee claims *are* true. I actually am trying to collect 2000 Pac-Man carts. Help me. )

Pshaw. At the very least people need to be educated that not every Pac-Man is a common. Not sure about Space Invaders, etc, but just because it looks like trash doesn't mean it should be discarded quite so quickly. Check the label -- you might have something that's relatively collectable. And if you think I'm going to be upset if someone ignores what's pretty much a tongue-in-cheek project to begin with... :^) Certainly sorry if I stepped on any AA toes. Humorless Pac killers for AA credit. All of you.

Hey folk, before you get too giddy committing your commons to a cruel death dealt by Atari Age to ripping them to shreds, you should know the 2000 by 2000 project has been revived! (Scant details and a few pictures here: http://www.angelfire.com/mac/mactari/2000x2000/) Let's face it, there's something, um, not-quite-special about the 2600 version of Pac-Man, and only a collection of 2000 of these critters displayed for all to admire would really do that, um, not-quite-special version justice. If you're interested in donating your Pacs to an even better cause than ripping them apart to be made into carts for sale, drop me an email. Cheapskates will have fourth-class postage reimbursed if it's requested (up to a reasonable amount; don't pack in a brick!) and a small finder's fee will be paid for Telegames/Sears or late release Pacs. At the very least, don't accidently sign the death warrant on a late release or Sears Pac-Man thinking it's a simple common! What more deserving cause could you help in this holiday time? Okay, better yet, what more deserving cause could your 2600 Pac-Man carts help?!! :^) Thanks.

Sorry guys, I don't traffic AA much and didn't think to look for posts like these until today. That AOL site is long since dead. Here's an updated location: http://www.angelfire.com/mac/mactari/mactari/mact.html Sorry for the mix-up. Ruffin Bailey

Oh, come on! The real Crackers would have said, "I've never had any cause for complaint FROM HELL!!!!" What has the hobby come to? First this mess, then people start masquerading as long-time rgvc posters. I hope Bira Bira visits you in your sleep. :^)

Welp, on eBay we've got one with 3 and half days left with a price of over $700, with a buy me now for two grand. Sheesh. I'll never get one of these. :^) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&item=714744974 fwiw, ymmv, etc

And look how GUI it is... Ron emailed me that he'd posted here asking for this sort of app, and, wouldn't Jung be proud, I'd just made one. It's a Java app, so you'll need a virtual machine somewhere on your box to run it. For those of you who hate readmes, download this, unzip the jar, and take a command line to the directory where you place the jar. Type this... java -cp grpxRad.jar frmGrpxRad ... and voila. URL: http://homepage.mac.com/mactari/mactari/grpxTool/ Hope that helps someone. One afternoon's coding right now, but will hopefully get better. Email me if you need more help or a Java 1.1.x version of the app (like for Mac Classic). Ruffin Bailey