davidcalgary29

Yes, I really don't like Ninja Gaiden III, and Gauntlet: the Third Encounter is just really underwhelming. I love Gauntlet, but this is just a meh dungeon crawler without the monster generators.

Wow, the version I bought as a kid has much uglier graphics, took forever to load on tape, and constantly crashed on me. I had no idea that there was a re-do!

Just the Thomson M05 and M06. I repeatedly saw them when I bought my monthly copy of Micro V.O. in the mid-'80s, and really wanted to try one out. I'd add the Apple IIGS to the list, as I sort-of thought about buying one in 1989, but I didn't like the Apple II family, and even then you could see that that computer was going nowhere fast. Years later, I thought that the Archimedes computers looked pretty interesting, and thought about hunting one down, but cost was (and still is) prohibitive.

I've never heard of this game! Thanks for giving it the spotlight. It'll have to represent the category of "bizarre science-themed puzzle games" until someone ports Phozon to the system.

Rampart? Tempest? Road Riot 4WD? Crystal Castles? Moon Patrol? I enjoyed your video.

Not much, unless you've got a rare variant or a one-of-a-kind. Pics?

I'm interested in one

Now that's just criminal. The Lynx port is the best available on an Atari system, and the best home version in my opinion. There are what -- nine or so characters to play -- (even though I always seem to end up as Mr. Eeez) and heck -- you can even play as the Snotterpillar when comlynxed! And it has Festors! It's an awesome and amazing game. You actually have only one crappy and one mediocre game on your list -- the rest range from good to outstanding. Time to get playing!

Ugh. Such an ugly-looking game, and I hate the sfx as well. I quite like Ninja Gaiden, but this "sequel" is one of the worst in the library for me. All of my games in my "gaming queue" have been there for decades, like when you throw the same tiles up the Klax board on higher levels, in the hope that you don't have to play them and the round will end first. Do I actually have to play these? Can't I just pretend that I already have? World Class Fussball European Soccer Challenge (still haven't bought it!) Hockey (although I should, just to say that I got to represent the wonderful Manitoban city of "Winepeg") NFL Football

I'd be in for one as well.

Yes, that's the actual gameplay, although the actual command on the last one was "strip", and not "kill cupboard". While you actually do have to order your heroine to take off her clothes in order to advance in the game, if you do this at the wrong time the game responds with "on a ship full of pirates?...Mama would be ashamed! ("Mama would not approve" appears elsewhere). Text adventures are wonderful things for avid readers. While it can take some time to get used to command limitations, the game's responses are often fun and witty, and it can be quite satisfying to solve a puzzle. The writing can also be very compelling and the descriptions more evocative than what would be capable with these computers' graphical limitations. I'm still not sure that a modern computer could do much more to convey the stench of a pirate ship's hold awash with bilge water, garbage, and rats, even with true colour at 1080p. And Infocom became quite sly about withholding critical bits of information in order to increase difficulty and to tease foolish players with the knowledge that they can't actually see their way around a problem, like you can with a graphic adventure. If you LOOK AROUND the captain's quarters, you'll get a general description of the room along with some potential exits. You won't be told, though, that you can go fore (getting past that cupboard) or up (a ladder after you smash a window with a coffer). In earlier text adventures all of these possible directions would be clearly listed for the player. You can't smash and run your way through these games, and that's a refreshing change of pace.

I bought my first 400 (and modded, too) a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised by the keyboard, which is pretty responsive for what it is. Then again, we've been trained to accept crappy, flat, non-mechanical keyboards for quite a few years by laptop makers and smartphone screens, so maybe the 400 was just way, way ahead of the curve.

Well, they already did. It was called the PSP.

I convinced my Dad to get an 800 because I pointed out that Consumer Reports had rated its keyboard as "excellent". He rated touch-typing as an important skill, and I assured him that I would learn to type properly. I did learn QWERTY touch-typing, but that was later on a Royal manual typewriter. The salesperson we spoke with tried to convince us to wait and get a Commodore 64 (this was April '83). I said NO, and am so glad that I did.

At these prices I'd really just save up for a VBXE-equipped 1088XLD. It's just so much more flexible than a stock machine these days.

Yes, $600 for an unmodded XEGS is really, really expensive. They're certainly not as cheap as they used to be, but that's a stratospheric price for this system. "Inventory" is an interesting question. The A8 was a moderately successful computer line that was produced for a very long time, and while I'm sure quite a bit of old stock ended up in landfills (or on random episodes of Hoarders), I don't think that the current sticker shock on eBay is a result of low stock -- it's more like you're running up against the inflated expectations of resellers, and not finding owners of original equipment who want their stuff to go to good homes. Just post in the Wanted section.

Tried once more with the electrical tape, and bingo! Thanks for the advice!

ST: Plundered Hearts Struggling with the parser in Plundered Hearts, 45 minutes THE DOOR IS BLOCKED BY A LARGE CUPBOARD. YOU CAN PROBABLY SQUEEZE PAST IT. -Squeeze past cupboard -I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS -Shoot cupboard -AND HOW DO YOU PROPOSE TO DO THAT? -Kill cupboard -MAMA WOULD NOT APPROVE. Ugh.

Okay -- wow. Electrical tape it is! I'll go back to my setup next weekend after I return home.

Well, crap -- it might be too late for that. The computer doesn't recognize the UltraSatan on startup, although the light is on. Could I have fried it?

I've just received my cased (of course, as I thought I'd be flexible) ultrasatan...and found out that the male DB19 connection won't fit flush with the Mega STe case because of the VME port. I bought this when I should have bought something like this. I don't see anything on the Lotharek website -- does anyone sell a flat DB19 male/IDC 20 cable anymore?

What are you using for your display?

Does anyone have contact info for Alan Reeve? I'd like to make a standalone v. 3.0 cart myself, but would prefer to seek permission first. And I can't find an unbroken link to the ReeveSoft website.

I'm curious -- what are you looking for?

It would certainly be an...interesting choice for a hardware project. I'm not sure that anyone would want to replicate the unusual (ie. limited) architecture of the XEP80 when so many other directions could (and should have) perhaps been pursued. I'd first get rid of the joystick connection, and make it a true PBI/ECI "plug 'n play" device. And I'd certainly would have wanted some type of graphics co-processor to create true, usable 640x240 bitmapped graphics instead of the squashed, crippled graphics 8 we (sort of) got with the XEP80. You'd then have to assemble a team to ensure compatibility with software that does not solely use graphics 0 or 8 (or 8 + 16), or could not originally access screen commands in BASIC (like DRAWTO) with the XEP80. Because surely this new device would support all the other native graphics modes, right? Parallel port? I mean, it was nice to include it as a bonus, but it's really not used much these days. Let's replace that with a SIO2USB port combo. And a couple of extra SIO ports would be nice for daisy-chaining. I haven't tried my XEP80 on a modern LCD, but we could surely do better than its standard output. Something like the Brewing Academy's BoB box would be great, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be without really complicating this type of project. And...yeah. I think I'll stick with my VBXE-modded XEGS and modern peripherals.