[Mac Studio]

I've been using a Mac Studio for about a year-and-a-half now. It's easily the fastest Mac I've ever used, and this is "just" the M1 Max. It's also rock-solid stable. Apple really threw their best resources into optimizing the performance of the Apple Silicon hardware and their software for it. (Which is another way of saying, they had shifted all of their resources over to it several years ago, and the last of the pre-Apple-Silicon Intel stuff was bug-ridden, unreliable, and in the case of the last Intel Mac Mini: unusably slow and the absolute worst Mac I've ever used.)

 

While I don't have exact comparative figures from earlier Mac Pro hardware, I recently had to render out a nearly 10 hour compilation of animated films to Apple ProRes HQ (24 fps, 1080p, 24bit 48kHz uncompressed audio). To render the entire show on a Mac Studio: 25 minutes. That's jaw-droppingingly fast. I'm certain the Mac Pro (2019 model) took at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours the last time I used one of those a couple of years ago, and that was for a show at least two hours shorter. And that was an $11,000 Mac Pro when it was new.

[Twenty-three Skid-to-doo]

Updates:

• 2-1-24: Turbo Arcade nominated for Best Graphics - 2600 Port, Best Music and Sound - 2600 Port, and Best Homebrew - 2600 Port for ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards.
• 2-24-24: Turbo Arcade won Best Graphics - 2600 Port, in ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards.
• 2-1-24: Elevator Agent nominated for Best Graphics - 2600 Port, Best Music and Sound - 2600 Port, and Best Homebrew - 2600 Port for ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards.
• 2-24-24: Elevator Agent won Best Music and Sound - 2600 Port, in ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards. Congratulations to Pat Brady!
• 2-24-24: Elevator Agent won Best Homebrew - 2600 Port, in ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards. Congratulations to John Champeau!
• 2-24-24: "Zombie Project (etc)" revealed during ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards as the Champ Games port of Rip Off.
• 2-24-24: "WIP It" revealed during ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards as the Champ Games port of Tutankham.

As for the code names:

• "Zombie Project" should be self-evident, since we actually started Rip Off back in September of 2006. The last binary I have prior to the recent reboot was from March 2007. This is a complete ground-up rewrite, with all-new single-line resolution sprites.
• "WIP It" was because 1) Tutankham is a Work In Progress and 2) your in-game character is wearing a DEVO hat. For some reason.   I really shouldn't have to explain it any further than that.

[Twenty-three Skid-to-doo]

Update:

• 2-11-24: Second pass at graphics for "Zombie Project (does not contain any actual zombies)" complete.

[Twenty-three Skid-to-doo]

Nope - not Galaxy Quest. Great movie though!

[Twenty-three Skid-to-doo]

Update:

• 2-5-24: First pass at graphics for "Historical Documentary" complete.

[Twenty-three Skid-to-doo]

Update:

• 1-28-24: First pass at graphics for "WIP It" complete.

[Twenty-three Skid-to-doo]

Some more updates:

• 1-14-24: New revived project code-named "Zombie Project (does not contain any actual zombies)" added to to-do list. First pass at new graphics complete.
• 1-14-24: New project code-named "WIP It" added to to-do list. Graphics are in-progress.
• 1-14-24: "Two-Fer" is on hold. "Historical Documentary" is back to being a stand-alone project for now.
• 12-31-23: First pass at graphics for "Hoosegow" complete.
• 12-18-23: First pass at graphics for "Space Mona Lisa" complete.

[And you didn't have to pay Apple $9.99 to read it]

I was having issues seeing it in my browser too (on a 32" monitor!) I re-uploaded it at half-size, and put a link to the full-sized one beneath it.

[A Ray by any other name]

True - but it's no weirder or more pointless than memes and viral videos are today. Just a different medium.

[A Ray by any other name]

In case you weren't around in the 70's, this was a thing:

 

 

[Revved up like a deuce]

Artie's index has been updated.

 

I guess I'm making up for lost time - I've posted more strips since September than the previous three years combined!

[Try not to think about it]

Warned ya'.

[So, a guy walks into a credit union...]

Funny you should mention that...

https://forums.atariage.com/blogs/entry/18768-43-or-get-out/

[Godzilla Minus One - Spoiler-free movie review]

There are definitely influences from other films. There was even a little

Spoiler

Independence Day

in there. Maybe even some

Spoiler

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

 I think it would be difficult (if not impossible) to make a movie like this today without their being echoes of other films present. But I think being inspired (like this filmmaker was) is one thing, and that's fine. That's why people become filmmakers. What happens all-too-often with other films, is that they lift ideas because of laziness or a lack of ability to come up with something fresh. That's not the case here at all.

[A bargain at half the price!]

To paraphrase someone else (I forget the origin of the quote):

 

"If you've had even half as much fun watching this as we've had making it, then we've had twice as much fun as you."

[And now we have to put them all back]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

You have way too much free time.  

No - I just choose to spend what little I have doing stupid things like this.  

 

Going through all of the episodes though served a twofold purpose:

• Making the "50% off" joke work for anyone who actually checked any of the previous 399 episodes. Because there was no way I was *not* going to do that.  Although about 200 strips in, I was beginning to regret it.   
• Fixing all of the links so they are now https rather than http. The forum no longer supports http links, so anytime you edit a blog (or forum post) that has a non-secure link and don't correct it, it will no longer show that link. So this helps future-proof things a bit.
• I was able to fix some inconsistent formatting in the entries and a few other things that annoyed me.

Okay... that's threefold.

 

As a side-benefit, the strips are now renamed and organized in such a way that working with them in the future is going to be much easier.

 

Fourfold...  

1 hour ago, carlsson said:

I suppose it means that Artie the Atari is a true quality comic strip, as the message is supposed to be self-contained within each strip, not depending on previous or subsequent strips.

Sure, we'll go with that.  

[A bargain at half the price!]

The first 400 strips are still 50% off! Get them while you can!  

[Free password generator]

I'm afraid you'd be at it a very long time.  

 

Spoiler

It's completely random - just me flailing away at the keyboard.

 

[A bargain at half the price!]

The "sale" is for a limited time only.  

[We're nothing if not consistent]

Nope. Artie's monitor up and died.

 

That was (approximately) the sound my real PVM was making every time it started up. The caps were *really* bad in it. While it didn't actually die, my CRT repair tech said that it was about to. Mine is all fully restored now*. Artie's will take a little bit longer, for comedic purposes.  

 

*Also another story for another blog entry.

[That's why it's pronounced "Oops"]

Nope - unfortunately.

 

And neither is tomorrow's. (Although tomorrow's is slightly exaggerated - but not by much.)

 

(I did successfully get the TV repaired though - but that will be a blog entry for another time.)

[There's no place like...]

Nope. But once upon a time...

[I bet the cat didn't have to put up with this]

Artie's Index has been (finally) brought up-to-date.

[Spam Egg Spam Spam Bacon and Spam]

1 hour ago, D Train said:

Poor Artie.  Still stuck in that box.

 

Have any of his brothers been unpacked yet?  I wonder if he's all alone in there...

He'll be out soon! And yes - there's at least one other console packed in that box. (Everybody made the trip... but some will show up sooner than others.)

21 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I got that IMO irritating mail too. You can unsubscribe.

I unsubbed before the page finished loading.  

 

I really wasn't expecting Atari spam to come from AtariAge. But Atari bought it, so they can do with it what they want.

 

Makes you think though... when Atari bought AtariAge, that would have included all of the website's and store's assets, including everyone's email addresses, every physical address orders have been shipped to, phone numbers that were part of contact information, order history... and what else? Maybe payment information? Credit card numbers? PayPal accounts? I would also assume they bought AtariAge's eBay account and all of the information that went with that, and any other avenues AtariAge may have sold products through.

 

Makes you wonder what they'll do with it all...  

[Fix your RF]

4 hours ago, OldPAL said:

Excellent post, OP. Thank you. I have the following problems, are these RF-related or sign of bad capacitors?

 

Vertical bars, but not quite jail bars.

 

Not sure. I'm unfamiliar with how PAL RF issues manifest themselves.

 

4 hours ago, OldPAL said:

Also, bright colors cause distortion to a point where if a screen is very bright the game becomes unplayable.

 

 

This was a new old stock PAL clone with no RF shield inside, and it was never recapped/fixed.

 

Pretty sure the second problem is your TV needing to be recapped. Does it exhibit similar issues with other sources? (I had a Sony monitor with a similar issue.)

 

Also - by a PAL clone you mean not a real 2600? I wouldn't begin to guess how to troubleshoot that. But if you can source the right components, recapping it never hurts.