8BIT 1337

April 30, 2003

I went to the web page first to order one before paging down. The website said 12 were left, but it looks like only four. But i did get one of the carts, didn't I? Or does this mean it won't be numbered?

April 17, 2003

What's up with the 8 extra scanlines at the bottom? I thought I had miscalculated my little playfield for the *longest* time, but I just realized that Adventure shows the same thing.

Would a normal TV use the "Auto Centering" property that PCAE has? My playfield definitely looks wrong when I use that. But if I have that deselected it looks perfect.

March 2, 2003

That worked of course - Thanks! I must have missed that little tidbit somewhere along the line!

First hack, here I come...

March 2, 2003

I'm in the beginning stages of playing around with graphical hacks. Before I actually do anything I want to be comfortable with the disassemble and reassemble stages.

I've used Distella to dissassemble a 4k rom, using the -a option, and when I try to use dasm on the resulting file I get an error for *every* line: "Unknown Mnemonic."

What idiotic thing am I doing to cause this? I'm using version 2.12 of Dasm. I've tried 2.02 as well with the same result.

Any help will be appreciated!

February 19, 2003

I picked this up from the AA store not too long ago. Before I actually tackle hooking it up I was wondering what, if anything, you guys did to cover the circuitry?

My only PC at home is a laptop, so I don't really have the option of just having it connected all the time to a desktop. I need to be able to connect and unconnect it.

Thoughts?

February 19, 2003

I'd definitely take the XL over the original. Having more RAM means having to pass through disks less often (i.e. when I use Copymate 4.4 on my XE it only has to read the disk once - if I use it on an XL or my 400 it takes two passes to read the disk).

I don't even like the XE keyboard as much as I do the XL keyboard and I still use only my XE at this point.

February 6, 2003

Unfortunately I'm not in the UK - I'm in the Great White North (aka Canada). I appreciate the offer though.

February 5, 2003

This is the XL my dad bought back in the 80s so it's the only one I've known. I know my 400 doesn't have that sheilding bit on it's built in RCA wire. I've got three of these things kicking around (I can't remember for sure if one came with my recent 7800 purchase or not, but the others are definite 8-bit cables).

February 5, 2003

Makes sense.

Would it make much of a difference over a regular RCA cable? I have an Intellivision and another extra RCA cable with the sheilding bit on it. Is it worth digging out?

February 5, 2003

heh heh - I'm probably not describing it well enough.

I'm talking about the cable that *goes* to the switchbox. My 800 XL RCA cable isn't just a wire - it's got a box of sorts (it's recangular in shape) near where it goes into the 800 XL RCA spot (and it actually says 'To Computer' on it). If I was at home I'd attempt to take a picture but I'm at work. If I think of it tonight I'll see what I can do (I'm not sure we have the digital camera at home - my wife uses it for business).

February 5, 2003

Just wondering what's in that box near the end that goes into the computer. A booster or something?

I bought a "Coaxial to Female RCA Adaptor" from the AA store and used my 800 XL RCA cable (with that box) to connect my 7800 to my TV. Everything works I just wondered why that box is at the end of the cable.

January 22, 2003

Just wondering where you ST collectors would recommend I start looking to acquire the machine and such to get me started? Obviously I don't want to pay an arm and a leg - I just want the machine and a drive and maybe some software to get me going.

I don't have any experience with the ST outside of playing with STeem a bit (and seeing it at a friends once as a kid). Which is why I'm coming to you guys and gals.

January 10, 2003

I've finished the game before (with some help admittedly) but never could figure out what had happened.

Today I stumbled across a review of it, and it mentions that you might want to have your printer online as you're playing it.

So, has anybody done this? Can anybody try it out with a walkthrough and report back here? I'm dying to know what happens. I'll buy a printer if I have to.

January 8, 2003

For both Barnstorming and Grand Prix it's all about memorization.

For Barnstorming I lowered both difficulties (different bird pattern, don't have to go through the bottom of barn) and then just kept playing and playing until I had memorized the pattern.

For Grand Prix again it's just memory work. And I try to keep moving against the top or bottom because you don't have to stop precisely in order to miss the cars passing around you.

January 7, 2003

As much as I like Ken and the Anthology, the controllers for Decathalon needed a SERIOUS re-think.

BTW nice avatar. And is the Nature Boy thing a coincidence or do you actually like Ric Flair?

I tried using a golf ball on the d-pad for the running bits but it doesn't help overly much unfortunately. If anybody has any other ideas I'm all ears (outside buying a fighting stick that is).

Thanks about the Avatar BTW

Actually, the Nature Boy thing comes from a net name I used back in my university days (which I stole from a Primus song), but I actually *do* like Ric Flair. Joe at DP tagged me with the "Suspected Hippy" tag a couple of years ago (on ezboard), and with the switch to the new forums it was all too perfect not to adopt my old name again. Thankfully, nobody had taken it here either

January 7, 2003

For Atlantis I *swear* I've hit 30k on both A and B difficulties, but I'm probably mistaken. I'll have to have another go at it. It's killing me not getting it because with it I've cleared the first two racks finally.

Decathlon and me aren't speaking. I had made it all the way to the last event and then accidentally hit Select while running. I haven't played it since

January 7, 2003

(but at 20 a pop, they aren't THAT expensive even if you did get a clunker).

The problem (for me and other Canadians) is that it's $20 USDs a pop, which is more than $30 CAD with today's exchange rates. And then shipping.

I do agree though - if it was $20 CAD I wouldn't be nearly as hesitant as I am spending more like $40 after all is said and done.

Having said that I would *never* complain if a ROM didn't get released. I don't feel like anybody owes me anything. I don't feel left out. And I refuse to get that caught up in my hobby that those feelings change.

January 3, 2003

For Dragster you can cheat to get it by continually blowing up your engine.

For boxing, I got my patch after beating the computer, but not knocking him out. I've read one other similar account (and in each of our cases, we had played beaten the computer first by KO, and in a future second game just beat it).

I personally can't get Atlantis to unlock. I've hit 30k a few times but no go. Anybody?

December 20, 2002

@Cafeman: I'm *thrilled* at the opportunity to try your game on my 8-bit. I don't have a 5200 and I've always regretted missing out on the homebrew market for that system. I actually hope *more* homebrewers consider it in the future as well.

I always wondered who Glenn was. He seemed to have it in for Atari (I recall reading "Another cart buried due to the mismanagement of Atari" as one of his conversions booted). Maybe he worked there and had left under poor circumstances?

For the record: I still use my disk drives (I have 3 working 1050s currently). Almost exclusively actually (I have very few carts (hard to come by for me) but *tonnes* of games on disk). I can't be the *only* one still using them.

December 20, 2002

Excellent idea!

Of course now I feel silly for not figuring that out myself, but live and learn I guess.

December 20, 2002

I was wondering that too. I'm pretty sure that the stuff I gave him that didn't work would've been formatted using ED. I was hoping that somebody would suggest that the Trak can't handle that ED formatting and I'd have to resend him stuff in SD since I don't have any DD capabilities (and I believe his Trak Drive is SD/DD).

December 19, 2002

I gave some disks to a friend of mine that don't work on his Trak Drive. My stuff would've been formatted on a 1050 drive, and a good chunk of is stuff I've been using for years (but were dupes) so I know the disks *work*. Any ideas as to why he's having problems? Is it SD/ED/DD related?

He has suggested that his SIO cable looks a bit shoddy, so that could be it (but some games do load, so I think it's the disk formatting or something). Is it possible that sending disks through customs was the problem? Wouldn't that affect everything I gave him? (some of the stuff does work).

Unfortunately I don't know which Trak drive he has yet. I'll edit this post when I get that tidbit. Any help is appreciated. I know nothing about the 3rd party stuff. He'll probably get a 1050 *anyway* but I'd like to give him the option if I can.

December 19, 2002

Mousekattack is it - thanks!! Out of curiousity, did they actually capitalize the K? That would've been rare back in 1981 methinks.

@Nukey Shay: extra thanks for that bit about picking up the cats and moving them. I had no idea. That's the problem when you have pirated stuff with poor labeling and no title screen (and that wasn't yours originally) You're right about the broken pipe bit - I played a quick game of it and that drives you nuts.

FYI: I've recently inherited all my dad's and uncle's and dad's friend's floppy disk collection (all pirated stuff), so I'm going through it, labeling things properly, and trying to determine which stuff needs XL Fix and which is okay on it's own. Which is how I came across this gem.

December 18, 2002

You play what looks like a ghost from Pac-Man in what is essentially a Pac-Man clone. That fact is cleverly disguised because you're being chased by mice and instead of eating dots you lay down pipe.

Once the whole level is covered in pipe you move to a new board (as far as I know it's also like Pac-Man in that the board never changes). There are these squares that make me think of fly paper (if they're mouse traps they're crappy looking ones) that you can lead the mice into and they freeze for a few minutes. This fly paper stuff only appears on one spot and it comes and goes.

There is the typical Pac-Man tunnel except it runs up and down. And where you would think would be power dots are little icons that look like cats but I have no idea what they do (they just connect to the pipe).

I can't think of the name and it's killing me.

November 25, 2002

Missile Command, Dig Dug - Should work on any machine. Are these disk versions?

Yup, they're disk versions. I probably should have mentioned that - oops

Miner 2049'er - Should also work.There was a bug in an early version, but did not think it was OS related.

Could be - I think I have a few versions of it. But I definitely own one that wouldn't work without XL Fix or I wouldn't have noted it.

Monty's Revenge - I've have played it on an 800xl. Is it the Parker Bros version or the earlier one ?

I have two versions of Monty and to be honest I'm not sure which one requires XL Fix but I'm willing to bet both of them don't. I think one of them is '16k' and the other is '48k' or something like that. I have no idea which, if either, are the Parker Bros. version.

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Posts posted by 8BIT 1337