Level42

I had never played the NTSC version before either....I didn't think the difference would be so big ! PAL: 256300 index.php NTSC: 181100 => http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/40136621 .....can't seem to break that limit somehow..... Follow this for more info: http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=4881.0

Thanks, but I still suck on the NTSC. PAL is a lot easier....

Now, and GMT+1 (Netherlands).....coming back online in a minute or two !

Doing some practice on the NTSC Atari 800 tonight, come and watch ! Oh, picture is B/W on the monitor, that is normal because the old PAL monitor doesn't understand the NTSC color encoding http://ustre.am/15J6e

Comparing 1979 hardware to 1984 hardware is hardly fair.....

Power without the price was a Tramiel slogan, naturally..... I remember they launched it right when the ST AND XE were announced.

Same problem here. Got to check if it's the carts or the machine, I've got a 800 NTSC next to my PAL XEGS at this moment. My XEGS was close to NIB so it can't be of a lot of use, I guess that also rules out bad solderings ? Card-edge connectors do loose spring tension over the years as I've experienced on many arcade games.

So funny because I had started WoW for the first time in like many years on my XEGS and I was "tricked" by it too.....but I did remember it after a second or two. Reminded me about the C64, I think for some reason it was quite usual that games used the 2nd port on that machine....but I don't remember why.

Wor.

Just saying I listened to your podcasts today while driving through The Netherlands and it really made me enjoy some traffic jams I especially liked the interview with the man behind Antic. Antic was an expensive magazine to buy here BITD, but it was by far the most professional one. It had to compete with local and UK magazines here. Chris Crawford's interview was interesting although I never played any of his games, not even Eastern Front.... Keep it up !

Thanks Yes it's a brilliant port, I honestly think that is better than the original arcade version for various reasons. DK gave me the final push to buy an Atari 600XL BITD. I had played the Coleco version and was already in awe by that, but I HATED the controller. I had been looking to buy a C64 or something, but I already owned a 2600 so I was already a bit Atari minded. The slow C64 floppy drive, the lack of support of graphics and sound in it's basic and some other things pushed me towards the XL, but DK gave the decisive push in the right direction and despite not having much software in the beginning I never regretted it. It is still the system I love most of all consoles and computers that I've owned. I started at the default level (barrel). I didn't keep track enough but I think it was L7 or L8. I have a feeling that the game might not be getting much harder after that but I'm not sure. It's still hard enough then though In all honesty, I am living in The Netherlands so I'm running a PAL system, which makes the game a bit slower than the US guys experience. To settle things officially, Mr.Atari (Sijmen) kindly offered me a NTSC 800 (not XL) to borrow for practicing "NTSC speed" and hopefully record on video an official record session I'll focus on this for now, but the HSC looks like fun Something I wondered what you guys have experienced. I have a feeling that the game keeps track of how long it's been running OR the number of "starts" were done. I say this because when I freshly boot up the machine, the first game the barrels almost NEVER come down flying (only the first one that always goes straight down of course). However, if you've kept the machine on and do a couple of games after each-other (wether you re-start a running game or simply finish all your lives) it will give much more random flying barrels. Of course this _might_ be simply an effect of the pseudo-random generator that probably is used to "generate" these flying barrels, but I have a hunch the programmer somehow tricked this in on purpose. It's not something I have felt only recently, even when I had 600XL and cartridge new BITD I noticed this effect. Anyway, I'll keep doing some practicing and hope to arrange the NTSC 800 soon (LOOOOOVEEE the 800, I'm the proud owner of one, but it's PAL (which makes it rather rare ) Most 800's that arrived here BITD were self-imported NTSC machines. I don't think Atari Netherlands (Benelux) ever imported the 800 officially, they only started with the 600/800XL as far as I know. Anyway...I'll keep you guys updated !

I think I broke the WR on Donkey Kong for the A8 (at least I broke the one that is mentioned on TwinGalaxies): http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4881.0;attach=4980;image My set-up ( LOVE the XEGS ): http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4881.0;attach=4982;image

I just tried the Retrolink adapter with Stella on the Mac and it works just fine. So Mame works, Stella works..... I am positive that Atari800MacX is at fault, but is this still being supported by anyone ? I need to play my A8 games on my Mac !

I have the same problem, but I don't think OS X is at fault. Which emulator are you running ? I use Atari800MacX and think the problem is there because when I am running MAME the joystick and Retro-bit works absolutely perfect. The controller settings are totally confusing me and I've tried loads of combinations but it simply won't work 100%

My brother bought a 2600 after it's first major price cut. It was still DFL 499, pretty damn expensive for those days. After some time the Colecovision was released and all we did was drool over it's great Donkey Kong port.... The first computers I touched were a Commodore Vic-20 (just playing a game on it) and some Osborne machine IIRC that was out our school. My uncle had bought a Commodore 64. My cousin and I played around with it. What I didn't like about it: 1) The power supply on which you could fry an egg 2) no Basic commands for sound and graphics 3) the ultra slow floppy disk drive around the same time I first saw an Atari home computer, the 600XL at some fair in Rotterdam. It was running......Donkey Kong. That version simply blew the Colecovision version away in both graphics and playability plus it had all 4 screens. That was the killer app for me and I made up my mind: no C64 (Which was too expensive for me anyway) but a 600XL with a 1010 tape drive was all I could afford. The fact that I really liked the 2600 and a number of Atari arcade games did really influence this decision. At first I had very little software for it. Of course that DK cartridge and some other tape games. In a strange way this was actually great: it forced me to type in a lot of listings from magazines and by doing so I also learned a lot about Basic and how the system worked, also reading some great books of course. Soon enough I wrote an amazingly simple basic program to copy bootable cassettes, which worked right away to my own amazement. It was only after becoming member of the Dutch Atari Users Group that I discovered there were actually older Atari homecomputers (800) and also that was when the software started "to become available". I never regretted my decision. I still think the Atari 8 bit machines were superior over the C64, especially if you consider that the original machines were released in 1979 while the C64 only arrived in 1983, and 4 years in those days meant an incredible difference in technology progress those days. The only thing better on the C64 is the sprites. Many will say the SID produces better sound, but I simply prefer the Pokey sound. It also had 1 more sound channel. The graphics apart from sprites have always been better on the Atari, more colors, hardware scrolling etc. etc. The menu-driven DOS system, the fact that you could boot floppies, the much faster floppy disk drive (which I could finally afford after a couple of years). When the 130XE arrived I sold the 600XL (I regretted it much later but I needed the money for the XE). And then came the ST. Of course I wanted that. Amiga's were too expensive, and I really liked the monochrome mode of the ST. I never realized then that the Amiga had been designed by about the same team as the Atari 8 bit machines..... I liked the ST and used it well into the late 90s, but I never had the same love affair with it like I did with the 8 bit machines. I had sold off all my 8-bit stuff to get the 1040STfm, but again regretted that much later. I bought 2 130XEs later, got an old 1050 floppy drive and 800XL from my brother in law, scored an original 800 PAL version (pretty rare and something I had always wanted) and the latest addition is a near NIB XEGS system. When I installed the XEGS I showed a couple of games to my 10 year old son. The one game that grabbed him totally was..... Star Raiders. A game written in 1979. The same year that a simple black and white 2D game called Space Invaders was a huge hit in the arcades around the world.. Here is a 3D game, with strategy and action gameplay in 3D with great sounds and (for the time) amazing color graphics. Compared to later games the graphics were simple, but it truelly showed that the Atari 8 bit machines were without any doubt the most powerful machines when they were released, and at least a couple years on....

I'm looking if it would be possible to do some EPROM reading/burning with one of my A8 machines. The reasons why I want to/can use an A8 solution: 1) Instant running (or almost) if it is cartridge based (like CSS's Super E-burner) 2) compact near my (to be created) workbench) (In fact, it will be in that room already) 3) stable 4) my goal is to ONLY burn EPROMs of older types, my main goal will be using it for (my) classic arcade machines 5) fun Some questions: 1) Maybe someone is having a CSS Super E-burner around that he never uses, I'm interested. Mind you, not going to pay the original price....my alternative is an el-cheapo Willem burner that I'll run on a laptop... 2) the info says it can handle EPROMS from 2732 upwards. Won't it also handle 2716/2516's ? (Maybe need an adapter ?) 3) Were there any other EPROM burners for the A8 ? Maybe a magazine project ?

Early tapes is great, but my 2 favorite albums are True Colours and Forever Now About the attitude. Well, I guess then (and still) there is a feeling of "shabbiness" about the coin-op industry across the "main public". We, as fans, draw a pretty clear and straight line between amusement machines (pinballs, videogames, EM games) on one side and money gambling (fruit)machines on the other. Also, remember that videogames then were already linked with addiction (just like money gambling machines). I think the truth is and was that people can get addicted to them, but now we have videogames around for 40 years, the view at it has changed. The videogame is much more widely accepted "thing" than it was then. Even today there are loads of game addicts, and I'm not saying that is a good thing, but there will always be people addicted to something. I'v seen the documentary a lot now and I still wonder what the real "goal" of it was. I think they tried to be as objective as possible, but what they ask is what the "major public" would ask. In fact, I think they liked the games when they tried them (they even mention it) and when they went "fishing" for the "bad things" happening in the business, they didn't find much. Or they complained that they weren't getting any answers. I think there were a number of sleazy coin-op operators then in those days, and there were decent one's as well. The fact that the man from VAN (the Dutch coin-up industry association) was speaking while sitting in a fair booth with 3 bootleg machines is already an indication that the business was not 100% clean in every way.... The bottom line is that even I was brought up that "putting a guilder into a machine is a waste of money", although my parents weren't _that_ strict about it, but they did try to explain where to draw the line and I'm still thankful for that and try to bring up my son likewise (it's OK to spend some money on those machines, but not too crazy). Also, in the early 80's there was a pretty big recession going on with a lot of unemployment (it's not half as bad in this country now really !). The whole society was different and this reflects in the documentary. I don't really feel they tried to "judge" the industry, but give a pretty open minded view of what was really true about what other media published about that industry. O well, any way, it's some great and unique material and I'm VERY glad that we could make it available for everyone to see. Cheers, André

Glad you liked it Apart from all the arcade stuff I loved seeing a minty fresh Atari 800 Funny that he mentions it was still "a couple of months" away until it would be available in Holland. That's almost 3 years after it's release....and the cost !!! 5000 guilders.... I bought my first Atari 600XL with a 1010 tape drive for about 900 guilders I think, although I'm not sure what year that was... @Random Hah, another Level 42 classic

As a belated x-mas present, I am extremely proud and happy to be able to offer you classic arcade addicts some great video material from the early 80‘s !!! Below you will find a documentary that was made by and for Dutch national television and was aired on january 11, 1982. The broadcasting company AVRO has given permission to publish this on the internet in a streaming form. Please do not publish this on Youtube or likewise sites or we may get in trouble ! I translated everything said as best as I could. There will definitely be some “strange” translations but this is what I could do and as long as you understand what is said I think that should be fine. Some notes: 1)The very first part (until 0.01.02) is NOT from the “Driester” documentary but from another (much later) TV item 2)The “Driester” (=ThreeStar) documentary starts with host Ruud ter Weijden talking with Star Raiders playing behind him. This is a brilliant game (with a lot of history) on the Atari 8 bit homecomputer. 3)The guy interviewed at [00.12.00] is R. Hommerson. Hommerson arcade(s) still exist to this day at Scheveningen, The Netherlands !! 4)[00.16.27] The man from the Dutch Gaming Machines association (VAN) is speaking about legal issues in the arcade business in front of at least 3 bootleg machines !! 5)I made a list with all the games that I manage to ID with timecodes, I will upload this ASAP.....there sure were some treasures in there ! HUGE thanks go out to “Gyruss” and “Etienne”, without them this wouldn't have been possible at all !!! Check out the videos here: Arcade42 Note: For now, the video's are only available in Flash format. This means they won't be playable on all (mobile) devices. I hope to add H.264 versions of these videos soon, which will offer better quality at a lower bit-rate and lower processing load. Extra note for the Atari 8-bit fans: The intro starts with the host speaking in front of Star Raiders running. At the end of the documentary he is also demonstrating some (lousy Thorn-EMI) games on a Atari 800 with a 810 disk drive. As he mentions this was a couple of months before these were officially available in The Netherlands !

New here, but a long time Atari fan (From 2600 to ST and everything in between). Although I still have several of those machines, I'm mostly into arcade collecting now though. I wonder if a DIL Pokey would be possible and commercially interesting ? Pokey's are still widely available today. They are used heavily on arcade games (F.I. my Star Wars cockpit has 4 of them). Although I personally never seen one go bad, it does seem to happen. At least, it's great to know that it would be possible to reproduce them....if we ever run out of them....