Herbarius

Okay, then I take back my previous statement... the logo actually IS an improvement.

I'll take the actual Atari logo over the infogrames logo any day... Maybe I didn't get that right, I'd been looking at the pictures here... So that's actually the old Flashback 2, and the 2+ has got the classic Atari logo?

Well, the logo is hardly an improvement... Are there any hopes it will come out as PAL as well this time around?

Just to make that absolutely clear: Is emulating the NES on a GBA legit? Yes, you already said Emulation is okay, and it also was apparently allowed on previous seasons, but I just want to rule out any possibility for a mistake. Of course, provided the game is emulated well and not using any special options like slow motion or autofire. To make sure it's emulated well it's a good to activate the framerate-counter to see if the game runs at full speed, and if not try different settings (speed hacks, VSync, ...) to make it run fast enough... It would be nice if someone could always post information like that for the less technically skilled. I may do that, but don't count on me being around every week. For example: This week's Gradius runs at a constant 50 fps on default settings, to get it back up to the 60 fps you have to enable the "PPU hack" option in the Speed Hacks section of the menu. I didn't recognize any side effects of this option in the game. Also, you may disable the "JMP hack" option, which is set to ON by default, as it doesn't seem to provide any speed benefit - at least not with PPU hack already on. (I like to think the best way is always to use as little "hacks" at possible) Do NOT disable V-Sync, as it will jump to speeds beyond 100fps. Or, in short: PPU hack ON, JMP hack OFF, (no other speed hacks), V-Sync ON Oh, and speaking of framerates, what's the policy about PAL/NTSC games this time around? PAL obviously runs at 50 fps while NTSC uses 60 fps... And while some NES games, like last week's "Super Mario Bros.", have the PAL version adjusted so it plays at the same speed as the NTSC version, this doesn't seem to be true for the majority of NES games, so a lot of them run considerably slower (in my previous example, the PAL version of Gradius would propably had run at full speed without adjusting any setting, as coincidentally 50fps seems what was possible without enabling PPU hack.)

You think so? Okay, it may be well organized, but the overall knowledge appears to be missing from the web. I for myself have felt frustrated trying to hunt down information, stuff I thought it HAD to be out there, but just was extremely hard to find. Generally, everything not very game-related has this problem. E.g. software. Either you find the description of some program, but no disk image. Or you find some disk images, but you don't have any idea how to use the program properly, because you can't find any documentation. Information concerning development is another such thing. Sure, you find the most important books around, so those already help a lot, but I always felt, that can't be all. The C64 had and is supposed to still have a huge fanbase, and it was a time when being a computer user almost automatically meant that you knew how to program (even if not very well)... I suppose the knowledge is "out there" but it's not on the web. It's inside the C64 fans' heads. Well, generations will come and go, and eventually this knowledge will be lost. Part of it will be, as long as there are still working machines around, rediscovered again and again by younger C64 fans, when needed, but rarely made publicly available... There is the C64 wiki, but it's seriously lacking as well. (Yes of course, I shouldn't complain about that when I could just add information myself. And I will do just that. But I think measured on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being a C64 newbie and 10 an uber-wizard, I think I'm still a 4, maybe 5... So what are the 6s to 10s waiting for to contribute what they know?) There is very little "in-depth" information on there. Except maybe for games. Yes I know, games were the major selling point for the C64 and when you hear the term "C64" you automatically think "8 bit games"... But as far as I see it, when you (back in the 80s) had one of those at home, having a manual which introduces you to the basics of BASIC (and does this VERY well, I rarely saw such an easily understandably introduction to BASIC), every time you power it up you see the Interpreter smiling at you... it's hard to imagine many people could resist the temptation just to program something... And although most people propably didn't get past the "let the user input his name and age and then give back some funny comment" type of program, there has to be still a significant number who made non-trivial programs... So and then about the enthusiast, who kept their C64 when everybody else got their PC, or even those who discovered it when it was "already old"... those are computer enthusiast, so programming it is the logical consequence of even having it. Yes, the games are great, too, but to use it just for the games? You'd propably get an NES, VCS or some other "retro" gaming console if you're after that...

Oh yeah, I don't like that at all, but have learned to live with it. I often thought about if it would be feasible to make a joystick "switchbox"... It should work like this: You have that little box, which has a little switch on top, two controller cables (labeled 1 and 2) come out of it, while it also has two joystick inputs, also labeled 1 and 2. If the switch is in his default position, joystick 1 will be directed through cable 1, and joystick 2 through cable 2. If you throw the switch, joystick 1 will be directed through cable 2 and vice versa instead. It sounds really simple, and even the possibility of a strictly mechanical solution comes to mind, but I don't really know if that (mechanical approach) is advisable, especially because of the sensitivity of the C64... But I really don't have the knowledge to tell how you would make that a circuitry and if it's as trivial as it sounds. If it works, this could even be used on other machines, like the Atari 2600 - even if it wouldn't be that much use as on the C64.

Does it have a 34 pin connector labeled "FDD" like this one? It's often located near the IDE connectors and looks similar, although it's shorter (IDE has 40/39 pins)... If it has this, then you can indeed hook up both 3.5" and 5.25" drives, if you have the appropiate cables, regardless of how "modern" the mainboard is. Note that you can only connect up to two drives ("A" and "B"), even if the cable has 4 connectors (for 3.5" and 5.25" drives). Also there are other cables in existence, but usually you can look at the "Cable" twist to determine, which connectors are for the "A" and which are for the "B" drive (e.g. I've seen cables that only had a 3.5" connector for the "A" drive but both connectors for the "B" drive, so I guess there's all kinds of combinations in existence). Of course, you could be right anyway, as many modern mainboards don't have any floppy drive support anymore - because with USB sticks, SD cards, etc. nobody uses diskettes anymore.

The whole soundtrack of the original Wing Commander, one of my all-time favourite games, and while the soundtrack alone could have made it memorable, I think in this game, everything fits and is crafted by hand (literally, as most/all of the graphics are hand-drawn bitmap art) and with love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsWcy2M_EgI Related link: Wing Commander CIC: Music

Oh wow, thank you... Somehow I already was on that site, but I downloaded the disk for January 1985 instead of July 1985 (propably only looked at the "J" ), and it of course didn't have the files... So thanks for pointing me there again.

I already found that, yeah it's based on Compute!'s version, but unlike the Compute!-version it's VIC-20-only. TI99Kitty, thanks for you offer, I just downloaded a bunch of d64 files which contain "turbo tape", I'll check them all and if none of those is Compute!'s version, I'll send you a PM. Also I think in the next couple of days I'll upload a d64 image carrying a small collection of all the tape fastloaders I found. Small hint for looking for C64 software on the web: google with the added option "filetype:d64" (just put it into the search field together with the search term)... It definitely raises the propability you find anything, however you'll have little means to determine if it's exactly what you looked for without downloading and trying it

As far as I know every PC that supports 3.5" floppy drives will also support 5.25" drives, you just replace the cable with one that has the plugs for the 5.25" drive (inside the PC). You could propably use both the cable and the drive from the PCjr. Windows up to XP still supports the 5.25" drive, then Vista dropped the support.

Well, topic title and subtitle say most of it. We know of both the PS/2 and OS/2 didn't have very much success in the market. The PS/2 couldn't compete against the cheaper AT clone machines, and OS/2 couldn't compete with an already strong Windows. I thought: What IBM should have done is bundle the PS/2 with OS/2 - eliminating all problems with Hardware support, I suppose they could have managed to support their own hardware - and attack the Mac market. The IBM PS/2, the more cost-effective alternative to the Apple Macintosh. They could never compete with cheap PC clones price-wise, but they surely could have competed with Apple's prices. They would have a compatible and compact hardware/OS combination like the Apple Mac, a GUI like the Mac, perhaps a little bit harder to use, but nothing they couldn't have sorted out, ... and so on. And on top of that, they'd have compatibility with MS-DOS applications - something you could only dream of on the Mac back then. I think with this approach they surely wouldn't have wiped the Mac off the face of the Earth, but they may have managed to establish both the PS/2 and OS/2 in a way that gives them some acceptance and commercial success... What do you think?

For those home computers that could use standard cassette decks, I'm curious: How did you connect them?

Oh yeah, I know what you mean... Isn't it fun to go fishing at the Raspberry Pond? The lack of shielding is another issue, no other cartridge I own produces that much fuzzy line interference on the TV. Also the actual cartridge case has two rectangular holes in it, near the cartridge port, underneath the label, for no apparent reason. The label on mine already started to fall apart because of those holes. Anyone has any idea what that is all about? For the game selection thing: With a little soldering, it is possible to replace it with a simple dip-switch to choose the game, somewhere on the web you can find instructions how to do it. I plan on doing that to mine eventually.

It seems to me that Compute! also had a program they offered for the C64 called "Turbo Tape," in the 1983-84 issues. Yes, I'm actually trying to look for that exact program, but only manage to find ones which have the same name, but are obviously different, both in how they are used as well as how they seem to work... i.e: The description of Compute!'s Turbo Tape says you do not need to load turbo tape first, if you want to load a "turbosaved" program - while all tape fastloaders I found require you to do that. (This includes the "turbo tape" program pasted by SpiceWare in this thread.) So if someone has a copy of that program by Compute! - even if it is only a scan from the magazine and I'd have to type it in - I'd be grateful to get it

I agree...

I am not sure, but couldn't that mean either the channel selector switch or something inside the RF modulator is damaged?

Yes, thanks again JamesD. I will look into it, but from the sound of it its too complicated for my purposes. EDIT: Found "Multi-Tape" and "Supertape", I will see if I'll use it... Depends on how big my small program actually will become when it's finished, of course it'll only be worth it, if it's significantly bigger than the fast-loader itself

Thanks for the quick answer, JamesD, even if it was a little disappointing to hear that I really could have used something like that. I just thought maybe the speed of normal loading and saving with tapes on the C64 might be lower than what the hardware actually could handle - maybe for reasons of better reliability. After all, the C64 does control the tape motor, but I don't know whether it can control the speed as well.

Can you do something like this on the C64?

As brandondwright already said, you can't really make it out... but... It's maybe just my imagination, but I think it's Combat... the "t" at the end seems so stick out, and the overall layout of the label and the length of the title seem to fit... then again, it could just as easily be something else. I enlarged it and tried some filters, but of course no miracles there... (unlike to see on TV, where someone just says "can you enhance the image?" and magically out of a 4-pixel-blur, a closeup of the sniper (or whatever they're looking for) appears)

Wow, totally cool, Random Terrain! I think that already helps a lot. I'll try to click on your Ads now and then, if I don't forget. Effective immediately, I added your site to my AdBlock "whitelist", so it won't block the ads on it anymore.

If man is still alive, If woman can survive...<<click me>> GAH! You get a +1 for thinking of that before I did! I was just about to post that! You both passed the test. Your reward is a bullet through the eye because that's the only way you'll get that song out of your heads. Would you believe it? We actually discussed that song back in school, it must have been in English (as foreign language) class...

I guess that's some kind of "placebo" effect... before I figured out you just have to stop pressing UP when the screen changes, I felt like moving around in the pit before floating out would influence the propability for falling back in... Of course now that I know how it really works, I can only laugh about that, but when I was still clueless I really believed it helped.