Pioneer4x4

I just found this in my desk at work. I used to have it on a shelf and forgot it was even here! I think I made a total of 10, and this is the last one, I sold the other 9. I wonder if anyone still has them or use them. This also shows the outside of the "manual" I made. The label still looks good after 8-9 years. I bought them from Al, and thought they looked great then.

Cool, then the one I have may be intact. I need to see if I can find it!

I have about 300 unique 2600 carts, most have instructions, few are boxed. I also have 2 Intellivisions, and stuff for them as well (speech thing?). I am considering selling most of it all off, and only keeping 2 2600s or so, and a handfull of common but good carts, and selling off the rest. I know there are guys that buy up the whole lot, but I know what everything is worth seperately and would rather eBay it all myself than just sell it all to a re-seller. I think the highest I have is a couple of 8s, and not a lot of 6s and 7s. I still want to keep up with it, but no need for me to hoard all of it when it will never get used by me or my family. I would guess about 450 or so total carts for 2600, then all the rest. Maybe a van load in all. Not fishing for offers, just curious if there is a process already in place for some people.

I live in the east suburbs of Pittsburgh, and I recall them. I have a Pittsburgh Penguins Atari Hockey Stick somewhere. I think it has the blade repaired with a nylon blade.

As for Keystone Kapers "Take That" as you weild billy club to the head, and a playful sound as you jump over something, maybe an "AHHH" as a plane gives you a haircut, and a "COME ON!" waiting for elevator. But what I would love is Starpath games updated. Speaking out "The Mindmaster has declared you to be Awesome!" (or quaint, and all the other options) And Phasor Patrol "Sheilds Engaged" when flipping the switch for the shields!

Well, I found my pause kit, so I got that going for me!

I have a 36" WEGA sitting in my basement on a furniture roller. I will only pick it up 1 more time in my life. Either to dispose of it, or to put in on a cabinet in my basement man cave if I ever build it. It is as awkward as can be, and I think it is over 240 pounds. I had a JVC 36" that was super nice, almost flat and about 168 pounds, it was a beast, but I could move it by myself, barely. It was $850 new a year or 2 after my inlaws got the 36" WEGA, and the WEGA is nicer. When they got a "modern" 60" TV years ago, I got that 36" and gave my 36" to someone else. It is, by far, the best tube TV I personally ever used, and I consider it the ultimate for classic systems. https://www.crutchfield.com/S-iMYUY7TAFJu/p_15836FV27/Sony-KV-36FV27.html has some info. They can change scan lines and do full "widescreen" without losing resolution. I think they do 480P as well. Also, back in early 2000s I briefly had a 38" widescreen HD CRT TV (I've never seen another one). It also was a beast, but couldn't compare to the WEGA, and I ended up returning it, it had some weird video problem.

I think I will stop working on gameplay (actually I stopped 9 years ago) and work on 2 console communication, if that works, then I'll go back to gameplay.

I found some code, and some bins I made of gameplay interface, and I have a 8K "set romsize 8kSC" and I fired them up. I forgot I actually got a side by side screen working. Looks like crap, but works. I'll attach screenshots, and try to explain them. The left is your ships. The right is enemy ships. Each grid position is a stack of 3 cells. The left side has the ships arranged already, and each ship's location is defined by cells 1,3 and shots are marked in #2, so a hit is all 3 cells in a grid position. This crappy screen actually shows 10x10 your ship grid with 5 ships in place. And a 10x10 grid to shoot at enemy. The working model I made just shoots on your self to test what it would look like. The red square is your cursor, and you move it to a grid position on the right and fire. If a miss, just the center cell shows, if a hit, all 3 show. I went and made an x from each corner to corner, and you can see where it hits and misses based on the left screen's ship positions. This is all from exactly 9 years ago, so I don't remember a lot of why I did what, but it is coming back to me. I also have a similar but even crappier looking 4k one, but not enough vertical lines to do the ships, only shots.

I like the use of the console switches, 6 switchers are the best. You can use the diff switches as controls, like in Phasor Patrol. Maybe bw/color for "Your Ships/Enemy Ships" And use something else to trigger ready to fire. Actual gameplay code should be quite simple, bascially housekeeping.

OK, here is the new thread with what I am working on/dreaming about. Some info on what I was asking about is in this thread. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/288438-extra-ram-batari-basic-and-hardware/ When I realized you can effectively send data and read data over a controller port it reminded me of a program I wrote back in 1982ish for my TRS-80. It was a head to head BattleShip game with each person at a computer and you make your move, and one person would hit a key to receive, and the other would send. It used cassette cables linked together and the basic save command for writing data to a tape. It worked great, and the only real limitation was the crude graphics of the TRS-80 at the time. SO, what my idea was, is to do the same thing with 2 2600s. Each player would have a 2600,TV,Game on cart. And a simple cable linking 2 of the controller ports. For the game you would need a 10x10 grid showing your guesses of the other person's location with 3 color options, unguessed, guess-miss,guess-hit. And on the screen of your ships, you would potentially only need 4 options empty, ship, miss, hit, you don't need a hit&ship in the same square, since they are technically redundant. I envisioned gameplay to have a setup phase where you place ships, (I think I had that working years ago) then the combat phase. During combat, you would toggle one of the switches to be in "fire mode" then after choosing your shot, flip a switch (b/w-color, or a diff...) then your console will send a signal on a pin and listen on another, when both consoles know that both have fired, they send/receive the shot, then either a timer, or a handshake and display/sync the result. It was the best case of head to head, turn based, with minimal data going back and forth without need for instant timing. assuming 10x10 grid, only a couple of bytes of data need sent every turn. I figured using "nibbles" or 4 bit chunks over the data pins, so only 2 nibbles for a shot fired, and 1 nibble for result... But storing the 100*3+100*4 grid possibilities needs 700bits of data so at least 80 bytes by the time I organize it, probably more like 128, and then getting it to look recognizable on the screen needs something with a nice resolution. BUT with all that, I think it really isn't that much of a reach to get it working. SO , back to my hardware needs, for me to get it working, I need 2 copies, and I only have 1 Harmony, but I have 2 superchargers, 1 is modified. And if anyone else ever wanted to try this, they would need 2 of everything. I think a LOT of us have multiple consoles, but not multiple Harmony carts.

OK, screw it. To make this simple, I'm starting a new thread with my actual idea, all comments and suggestions can go in there. I will put a link into after this, please reply in that thread. It will be called "Head to Head Battleship with 2 consoles" http://atariage.com/forums/topic/288508-head-to-head-battleship-with-2-consoles/

Excellent. This may be what I have been looking for then.

I just read through the files in the Virtual World Basic, and it looks VERY promising. The scrolling split screen display is almost made to order. Can you output to the Controller Ports with it? Like I did with bBasic to read keyboard controllers, or when I controlled 3D goggles. I think it was with the SWCHA command?

I assume not, Supercharger has 6K of ram in it. (when modified) is just straight 4k normally addressable and won't back switch. But for actual supercharger programs, they can use more ram on the cart than any other style, I think they can use most of the 6K as actual ram, but I really don't know. And sorry guys, I can handle bBasic OK, and just getting the routine added for keypad controller was a bit for me. I don't understand any of the "inline code" assembly code, type of stuff. I guess if I can make it work as a CBS RAM on my Harmony, then I can look into it being functional on harmony carts. But I will also look into supercharger basic, that may be just the ticket. I guess I really need to learn more, and also define my needs/wants more. BUT, first I need to get proof of concept working (I can do that in standard 4K no problem), post a video, then see if anyone really cares. Thanks again everyone.

OK, thanks all. I will have to think through and see how much ram I need I remember needing to store/read the state of approximately 250 items in one of 3 states so without advanced math that is 512 bytes, but I could simplify it greatly for proof of concept, then worry about making it fun/usable.

Sooo, assuming that Supercharger is out, and I need it, what is the cheapest way to make carts with extra ram? (This idea is useless if it can't run on real hardware.)

Thanks, I do remember that thread. I need to figure out what I actually require. Then go from there. Think of it like my Non-Tendo R.O.B. project, more of a proof of concept but will be pretty dang cool if it works.

I remember, totally unrelated. I was working on using a GameBoy as a "file server" for the Atari 2600 using a modified supercharger. I wanted to store games on a programmable GameBoy cart, and have it play back the audio to the Supercharger. I believe that he added that -r option so that I could have the info to send and then just write a simple tone generator for the GameBoy, and the games would be stored in fairly small bit of data, less than the actual sound files.

There was an option added into makewav let me dig deeper from WAY back.

I was asking about "Supercharger" (6k, all ram) not "Superchip" if they are compatible with each other I didn't know that.

I want to get back to making something I tried years ago, but I needed more ram. I only care about running it on real hardware, and for someone to make their own/or sell whatever I want to limit the actual hardware needed. Obviously the Harmony is the way to go, but... This is something I think I asked back in 2011 or so when I was active on here. Can you use batari Basic for a supercharger type rom/bin, and get access to extra ram that way? I have 2 superchargers, one modified one not, in addition to my Harmony cart.

I wonder when I saw her, I didn't think it was 5 years ago... As for Indy 500, I took my Atari Cart to the race one year and took a picture of it with the Speedway Pagoda and Scoring Tower in the background. First attempt... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/163985-i-could-screw-up-a-2-car-funeral/?p=2024713 I did take it back another year and get the picture, I'll look for it tonight. I forgot about the funny labels I made. I should make a game based on my dad.

I actually saw her at the Indianapolis Festival Parade for the Indy 500 a couple years ago. The Hurst Olds that she was riding in overheated and pulled out of the parade near where we sit. Like the Atari, time marches on.

When the Atari came out, They were EXTREMELY expensive to the average family. $200 would by a lot. $200 in 1978 is like $800 now. I didn't get one until maybe 1982, and I got it used from pennysaver I think. I did buy a Jr new for maybe $50 and a 7800 new but forget the price.