tyranthraxus

Awesome post man! Never heard of the device before but I don't think I could've convinced my parents to buy it! I couldn't convince them of the need of a Fast Load cartridge! Whats more interesting is the company selling it was based out of my home town. Thanks for the insight to some local history I also recommend the Atari 800XL, great games system but I feel that for me the prominent use of cartridges removes a bit of the classic computer feel of using just disks. If the Apple II was the computer you grew up on then its worth the trouble/money to get a IIc, you'll get more enjoyment out of it than learning another antique computer system that can be managed easier on an emulator.

Ask on the Lemon64 forums, I cross posted the release on that forum where it got some attention. BTW Thx for uploading this, wasted many a day on RSR, havn't tried this version myself as I never was that great at the regular game but these contest releases are really cool bits of 8-bit history. One thing interesting about this game was that it was an adaptation of a book, other than various comics, Tolkien and Holmes, I can't recollect many other instances of game adaptations of a novel that didn't involve cross promoting a movie/tv show adaptation.

I think Ultima V was the most prominent release to take advantage of the 128 but IIRC it was only additional music. I'm partial to the 64C but the 128D is a very good looking machine, the peak of the Commodore 8-bits.

I know the Atari Video Music is a rare bird, I was wondering if anyone knows what they sell for and how much trouble they are to get working with a modern television/stereo?

Okay, I was under the impression that because they didn't get forced to use the Microsoft name on Basic until the 1985 C=128 release that they were using the same old Basic. I didn't realize they monkeyed with code for each computer. Anyhoo the real point is they didn't pay MS any royalties.

I believe the story is that Tramiel paid a flate rate to use Microsoft Basic in all his machines, something like $5k or $10k, because Microsoft needed the cash and didn't anticipate the boom in home computers. So when the Commodore 64 came out with Basic in ROM, MS never saw a dime off of the millions of 64s sold. Gates never made the mistake of a flat rate again. The downside for Commodore (and their customers) was because of this deal they never got an updated Basic and had the same aging version in all the computers.

Maybe this has come up before but I recently stumbled into CBC's online archive of TV reports, they have a good little section on 1980s video games: http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/media/topics/3607/ Among the reports is a short clip about the release of Custer's Revenge and a good one on the arcade business. EDIT: I was just testing the link and it doesn't seem to be working well. But google "cbc archives arcade" and you'll find the section at the top.

I had the same attitude when I was a kid too. I had no interest in 2600 games, Pong or anything with vectors, they were all just too primitive. All I cared about was the latest arcade games, Colecovision, then Commodore 64 and then NES when that came out, etc. Gaming has always been about the cutting edge and abandonment of the previous generation. Nowadays I love the vector games, and all the early stuff like Pong. Partly for the simplicity and partly in admiration of an era of games that were the creation of one or two people rather than the huge crews of today.

I just got to see this. Pretty good documentary and an interesting companion piece to the King of Kong. I've never paid much attention to the Twin Galaxies scores so its pretty fascinating to learn a bit about the community around TG and its origins and the story behind the famous Life photo. Lots of great archive film of arcades and great tidbits like that failed arcade circus in Boston. IMDB message board has a post listing all the broadcast dates: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479879/ or torrent the rough cut.

I love how the end label has been a consistent problem with an easy home made solution since 1982. When encountering 5200 carts I've always enjoyed seeing the crude 80s end labels that are often on them. Funny how kids realized this was a problem but Atari's engineers didn't. The only thing dumber is that they made the mistake again with the Jag.

100% agree with you. I think its become a pet peeve of mine the way people wave the 1985 NES flag. I remember Xmas 1986 was the big push for the NES which meant that 1987 was the first year for most of those families. That year was also when classics like Metroid and Zelda came out here and pushed the system to further heights. It'd be interesting to compare the Sears Catalog between the years of 82 to 87 to observe the shift.

Bagman Donkey Kong 3 Too bad Joust and Pac-man never got finished.

Gotta tip my hat to anyone who can stick with a system all those years and not lose it. One question, how did you cope with the joysticks over the years? Did you learn how to fix them or is there a huge box in the attic full of all the dead joysticks you went through

Battletech is the only one I've beaten. Despite its flaws, I just loved that game! The text games I never did get too into. I fooled around with Zork I a fair bit, and got quite far in Hitchhikers but got stymied trying to get some Tea! I've since learned that you needed to feed the dog near the beginning of the game or you hit a dead end late in the game so I would've been screwed anyhow! Damn you Douglas Adams! There was a few others and some non-Infocom text games I got into but essentially Zork and Hitchhikers were the ones I spent the most time with on my 64. I've been getting more and more interested Infocom and text adventures these past couple months and I think I will make it a goal this year to finally sit down and conquer Zork!

Across various platforms I have decent Dan Bunsen collection: MULE, Seven Cities of Gold, Heart of Africa, Modem Wars and Command HQ. I also seem to have most of Sid Meiers games as well, which most computer game collectors probable do too, since he has so many titles that can be genuinely called classics.

And the Jag shared the no end label problem! As a teenager at the time of the Jaguar release I would agree with the statement that Atari had a bad rep at that point. The Saturn and new Sony system were the ones we talked about. I remember Atari still had a bit of an arcade game rep in those last glory days of the arcade (of course we were ignorant of Atari Games being its own company) but no one really thought of Atari as a home video game player anymore, they were a bit of a joke having supported the 2600 for so long. You'd go to the store and see the NES demos and the Atari 2600 demo side by side, damage done.

That Vectrex looks pretty dope turned on like that with the other screens running. Makes me want to pick up one of those babies...

- Leonard Herman (rolenta) - Matt Reichert (Tempest) - Curt Vendel (Curt Vendel) - Al Yarusso (Albert) All of which have contributed to expanding my own enjoyment and knowledge of Atari related miscellany.

I've never attempted what you're doing but I have had success digitally recording old home videos on Hi8 by connecting the Hi8 camera to the VCR then connecting RCAs to a DV camera which has a FireWire to the computer. I can't see why a similar setup wouldn't work for an Atari. Are you using a tv switch box? That could be the problem. It might work better if you mod your Atari with RCA jacks which several people on the net can do for a reasonable price if you're not up to it. Alternatively couldn't you accomplish what you're doing by running an emulator on your computer?

Its a really nice little article but the comments section (while lengthly) is the most interesting thing. Seems that all of the individuals mentioned in the article responded to it. Its not often that someone responds so directly to an article questioning the quality of their work. Now that its confirmed that copies of this archive have leaked out of Activision's vaults I wonder how long it will be for it to end up on bit torrent? I imagine the entire hard drive could be smaller than what most computer's use for RAM these days. Could be quite a revealing source on how a software company operated.

I don't think its typical for people to be paid to appear in a documentary. I think what they do is put an 'expert' on the payroll to act as a liaison and researcher but the stuff that appears on screen is free unless its some vintage stock footage or similar.

I dunnno about that. I always felt that part of what made DD so much fun in the arcade was the two player action. NES DD was just another beat em up game without the co-operative play.

I bet there is a guy posting on DP about his great trade getting a Midway cab for some DC copies. I've got a box of PS1 copies that I'll trade for Tempest

Ahh, the joys of the brotherhood! I bet it amuses him that he can still get your goat after all these years! Its obvious he doesn't share the same love for the classics as you, so just don't bring up the subject around him anymore and don't let his remarks bother you because obviously he doesn't know his stuff! As for Empire Strikes Back, personally I hate it when people talk during a movie, especially if they are talking about that crappy 2600 game. Arcade ESB OWNS that POS by Parker Bros!

I remember that thread too... As I recall wasn't there two different Atari 8-bit computer versions? One was a disk release (possibly a crack of an prototype) and the other was a cartridge version?