Herbarius

Be careful about statements like "the Breadbox contains this" or "the C64C contains that" about different components. Commodore seems to have had an attitude of "whatever we've got lying around, put it in", so you've got lots of "mixed" components.

Look here: Seems like its quite easy to do. The video is in German, but I think you can propably get the gist without really understanding what is said. Here is the pinout translated: White --> Pin 1 (up) Yellow --> Pin 2 (down) Orange --> Pin 3 (left) Green --> Pin 4 (right) Red --> Pin 6 (fire) Black --> Pin 8 (GND) But note this video is about the "Videopac G7000". That is just the European version of the Odyssey 2, but you never know if maybe the colors of the wires might be different. Maybe someone with the US O2 can cross-check that.

In Europe it was common for the Joypads being packaged not only with the 7800 but also the 2600jr. Just to add my two cents.

Discs are also quite sensitive to being exposed to sunlight. Burned discs are 10 times as bad in that respect. Also, even if you try to exert maximum care while handling them, simply handling them will get you some tiny scratches, which of course accumulate over time... CDs are actually not too sensitive to scratches, as long as they're that tiny, but the higher density types (DVD and above) don't take them well at all... And about this: Not completely true. I was in a discussion on a Sega forum where Genesis carts with loading times were named. There were many, including NBA jam TE, Vectorman, Air-Buster, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Golden Axe, Sonic 2, Thunder Force II, Red Zone, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, etc. Usually loading times with 16-bit game carts were camouflaged with either blank screens or "splash" screens showing a still image. The programmers did not want you to think you were waiting on the game to load, so the screens did not blatantly say "Loading" like newer gen systems. Usually cartridges don't have load times, but sometimes they have them, like you pointed out. How can that be? It's when they have compressed the data in some way, so it needs to be uncompressed (in the system RAM) in order to be used by the game. I guess that was usually used to save costs in producing the cartridge (being able to use a smaller sized ROM)

If I'm not mistaken, the older SID is superior to the newer one. While that may seem paradox it's basically explained because of cost-cutting in the production of the newer variant. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What is that anyway?

Did I understand you correctly in that you now do NOT have 9VAC? That's also needed for the cassette drive (if you want to use that) and, more importantly, the SID chip. So without it, you won't have sound... Support for paddle controllers also depends on the SID.

I had to read his post twice to get it, but I think he meant the 1000 and 3000 were cheaply made, and the 5000 the real thing. Sooner or later I'll get myself a pair of Competition Pros as well. Everyone who had them back in the day says they're the best, so it must be true Currently I primarily use my SIGMA "Arcade style" type of joystick and also the 7800 joypads. I like both, but they have some flaws to them. The actual stick on the Sigma is quite small, and the directional pads on the joypads sometimes get jammed. Oh, and recently I stumbled upon someone mentioning the Technoplus Swift Joypad, which looks quite neat... (Unfortunately there seems to be no zoomed in picture... oh, yes there is, but it doesn't work normally...)

Usually it's the other way 'round and it's called "warm start" instead of "hot"... Cold start is a hardware related reboot (like a power on/off) and a warm start it's some software method. Think of it in terms of an engine that cools if turned off, so if you start it, that's a "cold start" - from the cold state.

It's a similar thing with guitars...

So the term "clicker" really has some background besides just "some people use strange terms for stuff"

I wonder if thats my problem ? my 64c sid died last year, I replaced it and it died again around jan, then again monday it went out, If the first was the 8580 and I replaced it with 6581 would that be a possable reson why it failed 3 times since the first one failed ? ? Yes, I think that's possible. The two chips aren't fully interchangeable: the 6581 uses 12V while the 8580 uses 9V... So in a C64 board which came with a 8580 you can't put a 6581 and vice versa - at least not without modifying the board.

What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made On Drugs?

I've got one. However, maybe the/a previous owner has migrated the board from a breadbox, I wouldn't now.

Well, you can't say that with certainty. Really it's just another case around it, and there may be the newer board in it, with only 2 RAM chips, or it may still have a board with 8 RAM chips.

I think in the 2600 user's manual it says something about how you're supposed to set the contrast on your TV to very low for playing... I wonder how many people, if any, actually did that.

Oh, Max Headroom is a real person? I knew the name from somewhere (though I don't know from where exactly), but I thought it's a fictional character... EDIT: Damn it, it IS a fictional character. How can you do this to me...

In newer DOS versions there was a hotkey to skip config.sys and autoexec.bat entirely, I believe it was F5, but maybe it was F8, not completely sure. You just had to time it so you press it at the correct moment (just when "Starting MS-DOS..." appears). Maybe that feature was already there in 3.3? Then you wouldn't need a boot disk at all.

IIRC, especially this part of the EULAs has been declared illegitimate by courts multiple times. Somehow they still include it, propably just trying to boast how "big" the company is and how "small" the consumer in relation, and hoping that people will just accept the terms without challenging them. Because if they challenge it, there's a good chance that a court will rule in their favor. Another angle to attack the EULAs is by challenging the notion that clicking a button amounts to the same as signing a contract. This too has been done successfully.

Look... GOG.com For those who don't know what this is/was: GOG.com ("Good old Gaming") was an online game distribution platform focussed on (but not limited to) older/classic PC games. The way it stood out in comparison with similar platforms (like Steam) was that they did not use any form of copy protection or DRM on the games. If you bought a game there, you could download it, and in theory copy it for all your friends as much as you wanted, all GOG.com said about it was "Please don't do that." OK, what's your opinions on this? I haven't ever bought a game there, but if I did, I would be pissed, especially if I didn't download it yet or had deleted it believing I could re-download it there anytime.

This walking animation tutorial site seems to be quite nice, despite it being for multicolored sprites... I'm fully in support about new tutorials, if possible not too platform-specific... E.g. on the C64 you have single-colored sprites, too (there are single-colored as well as multicolored sprites, where you have a better resolution if you use single colored)... Currently I am thinking about how to make a walk cycle for this: Yeah I know, with 3 legs you get into some trouble, but Spielberg('s people) could make it look convincing, and propably others managed to do it before... (Yeah, I'm actually going to look at scenes from the 2005 WotW movie with walking tripods frame-by-frame as part of my "research" for this little project of mine... Oh, by the way, don't get too excited, I'm not really planning a game with this (yet), it's just me fooling around with the sprites a little, propably all it's gonna be is a short "video clip")

I had a little dream last night in which I for some reason gave my C64c away to somebody who would do a complete "check" on it, looking if everything is alright, and to fix whatever may be broken. This seemed to have worked fine, but then when I got it back, I also got another C64 (the traditional "breadbox"-case) and an Atari 1200XL "for free" with it. Well, I wasn't exactly sure if I had gotten those for free as a bonus, or if there had been some kind of mix-up and the guy erroneously thought those other two computer were mine, too... So I was reluctant to ask or even thank him for the "free bonus", as that may have meant I'd have to give them back You may comment and also post your own dreams of that kind if you remember any.

The arcade version does the same thing...

Here we go again...

Awesome. awesome game. Sadly, the control scheme hasn't aged very well, but apart from that I'd say one of the best games of all times. You're not trying to tell us you played through all of System Shock in one night? It's such a huge game!