Lumpbucket

Hey Eric! Looks great, and thanks for supporting videobrewery.com!

I'm not so sure; if you compare the Playstation launch titles with the ones just before the launch of the PS2, there was a definate improvement in the quality of the graphics, as developers had learnt their way around the hardware.

Well... don't forget, they could all be buried under a ton of concrete with all those E.T. carts

Yeah, I'll email him. It would be really nice if AtariAge could sell me a copy with the label not applied (ie still on a paper backing), so that I could install the PAL ROM and then apply the label without causing it any damage. I guess i'll email them too

Hmmm... an idea. If I were to buy an NTSC cart now, but someone did an PAL version later, are the EPROMs socketed, and is it easy to open the cart without marking or ruining the label? I have access to an EPROM burner, so I could blow any future PAL version myself, but I would want to keep the label in perfect condition.

Hmmm... it seems to me that less scrupulous collectors probably rip the label off of commons, so that they can sell them as "mystery" carts in the hope of getting a couple more bucks for that Pac-Man...

:-( Thats a real shame. I do have a PAL60 capable TV, but I sometimes plug my Atari into the TV card in my Amiga, which requires a real PAL display.

Hi, I want to buy a copy of Space Instigators, but I live in a PAL country. I know a while ago Chris said he intended to make a PAL edition, but the AtariAge store doesn't say what formats are available with the carts. So, my questions are: Is there a PAL edition of Space Instigators, and if so does the AtariAge store sell PAL carts?

A similar technique can be achieved with the power switch. This is known as "frying". Hmm.. does anyone know exactly what happens when the processor is "fried" in this manor? I presume it is to do with it not going through a full reset that happens when the console is powered down for more than a few ms, and then powered back up. I'm wondering because maybe a "fry" button could be implemented in Z26, which would find this sort of thing without risking damage to real hardware.

Yeah modding mine was a simple EPROM swap-out. I had a sneaky "it can't be THAT easy" suspician, too, but it was fine. Fortunately for me, the line of work i'm involved in enables me access to EPROM burners... I would offer to burn one, but I'm sure it would be quicker and cheaper for someone on the same side of the planet to do that for you

Great! I can't wait for the full write-up of this mod. Are both the TIA and Maria outputs crystal clear? From the RF output I have at the moment, both are bad, but the TIA is significantly worse than Maria (darker, noisier, just horrible), so I'm looking forward to a nice, clear output

Yeah, but those rumours were fairly firmly squashed by Nintendo. They say they're a console manufacturer, and thats what they'll be for the foreseeable future. I hope they continue; I'm really happy with my GameCube. Great little machine, great games. Anyway... this is now off topic Swerving back on topic, I don't think the climate is right for "yet another console", with or without the Atari name.

Yeah, all my TV's can play PAL Atari games; but then I live in the UK, so its not so surprising What is interesting is that they all play NTSC games fine. The only exception being the TV card in my Amiga, which expects a true NTSC signal, not PAL60 (which is what PAL Atari's generate with NTSC games). In fact, european televisions generally support 50 and 60Hz signals without any need for vertical hold controls or anything; they just work.

I'm not 100% sure i'll definately buy one, but I know I would only buy it if there was a serial connection; If I was developing a game I wouldn't want to have to keep moving the memory card back and forth, so a permanent connection would be wanted (as I have now with my DevOS BIOS equipped 7800). I'd go for 2 or 3.

Yeah. Really I want to be able to control it with two actual paddles, but its difficult. The Amiga supports two mice, so when I've finished the Amiga version, you'll be able to play with them. And yes, it is a 'simulation' rather than an emulation... Also, the Catweasle MkIII Flipper (a PCI card that allows you to read old disk formats, as well as various other cool stuff) has two Atari/Commodore style joystick ports, so I might be able to write a driver for actual Atari paddles. I've also bid on a real pong system on eBay so that I can accurately emulate all the games, and I'm going to use a photo of the pong-console in the game, so you select all the options by clicking on a picture of an actual pong console.

I just tried it on my 7800, and i'm really impressed (although the colours are all wrong on the PAL system; blue grass and brown water? ). Great stuff! Incidentally, why isn't this on videobrewery yet, Paul?

Hey that looks cool I wouldn't have thought this sort of thing would be possible on the 2600. But then, homebrewers always seem to find a way!

Just a quick note to let you all know about a little project I started. I was bored this evening, and decided to write a realistic Pong-console emulator. Click here to go to the homepage. Currently its only available for Windows, but it uses SDL and is quite portable. Eventually I'll port it to Linux and AmigaOS. Also, once i've added sound and some other features, i plan to opensource it. Enjoy

Hmmm... thats odd! The PCB appears to have tracks going off the edge!

Interesting that it has Polyvox, Activision and Atari listed, yet it is a Parker Bros. game!

A few months back, someone sent an mp3 of the Yars Revenge theme from an album that Atari released to tie in with some of their Atari 2600 games, and I posted the link here. Well, now I've done a remix of it. Hope you enjoy it! http://www.pgordon.clara.net/yars_remix.mp3 (2.7Mb)

Doom 2600, Duke Nukem forever 2600, and now Atari 2600 render farms... http://www.ann.lu/detail.cgi?category=foru...=1049220639.msg Atari 2600 must be popular with April fools hoaxers...

I have made a GIF anim of the frames which makes it easier to see how it moves. http://www.pgordon.clara.net/turbo_anim.gif

Its most likely that the Atari won't have an RF selector switchbox. Most games consoles in the UK don't have them (i've only ever seen them with Intellivisions and Master Systems. None of my Ataris have one). Usually, they just plug into the aerial socket on the telly. (i think european tv's have different connectors to american ones). Once again, I don't think these are too useful in the UK, since the aerial input on UK televisions is already coax. I would try a different Atari to TV cable though, I've got a few bad ones. Luckily most old systems use the same cable, so if you have another atari or commodore system, try the cable from that. Alternatively, you could try the composite video mod on VCSp site, and connect it to your TVs SCART socket.

Thats cool! If you wanted to create a full-on development diary for this game, don't forget you can do it at videobrewery.com for free (ok ok... i know.. shameless plug )