Nathan Strum

Be sure you've got your AtariVox hooked up!

Wonder if they're paying Warren Robinett and Rob Fulop anything...? You know... out of courtesy. Respect. A tiny little "thank you". That sort of thing.

Thanks for posting it - really great panel discussion. Sounded like there was a decent crowd there (based on the applause).

The revamped launcher is certainly appreciated - it's a big improvement. The other UI enhancements are also appreciated. I suppose some of them get easily overlooked because they're often bypassed quickly by those of us just looking to load up a game and get playin'. I suspect if they went away though, people would really miss them. I do want to give a huge shoutout for Time Machine though. I gave some feedback during its development, and I use it a lot. For helping devs track down bugs it's irreplaceable. If I encounter a bug, just rewind, take some before and after screenshots and save states, and they can see exactly what happened. But where it comes in really handy for me specifically, is in recording games for AA's YouTube channel, or capturing screenshots for game manuals. I don't have to hit F12 and hope I get a decent screenshot for a game manual now - I can play a game, go back to a specific "scene", and get the exact screenshots (or video recording) I need. For videos I used to have to screen capture entire (long) games then fuss around editing down the video. This is so much better! At my job, when I make technical improvements or enhancements to the spaces that I'm responsible for (computer labs and classrooms), I often don't get feedback either. But usually, it's because what I set up is working and the faculty and staff are just able to get their work done. More often, I get feedback if something isn't working. So I usually take silence to mean I did it right. (Of course the big difference here is - I'm paid to do this.) - Nathan

Or even a post-event livestream replay with commentary.

He does: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/314517-concerto-sd-card-multicart-ordering-info/?do=findComment&comment=4963232 Search is your friend.

There was a 2600 MasterMind homebrew years ago. Doesn't appear to ever have been released (or finished?).

I think that's probably the likeliest scenario. Even when PageMaker came out, it took a few versions before it became properly useful, plus you still had to have access to a PostScipt imagesetter to make any professional use out of it. As I recall, it didn't even support color separations for some time. Given that Atari had been creating printed materials for years at that point using traditional methods, they would've been unlikely to switch until the technology behind desktop publishing had been thoroughly ironed out, in order to avoid unforeseen production delays. If you have a system that works - you're likely to stick to it, especially under deadlines. Even then, in the early years of desktop publishing, it wouldn't have been an all-or-nothing proposition. They might have done the typesetting and simple things like page borders or boxes in an application like PageMaker, but color graphics, illustrations and photos would have been done traditionally. Desktop publishing was initially used to bypass the traditional process of speccing type and having it phototypeset somewhere, so you had direct control over your type (WYSIWYG). I was learning graphic design in college starting in '87. The college had a Mac lab, and at the time Pagemaker (nice history of it here), was the layout application in use. In our first year, we were taught everything traditionally (typography, layout, paste-up, prepress), but after that we could take an introductory course in desktop publishing. It was quite a revelation moving from a traditional workflow (speccing type, hot wax, ruling tape, rub-on type, amberlith and Zipatone) to digital. I loved it though, and dove into it head-first. I ended up working for an imagesetting bureau right out of college after graduating in '89, and it was really interesting watching the lightning speed at which everything changed. The first version of Photoshop was released while I worked there (we were one of the first places to get it, since we had connections at Adobe) and I remember going into the office that weekend just to play around with it. But I was always glad I learned all of the traditional methods first, because it gave me a better appreciation and understanding behind the digital tools that replaced them (I wonder how many people understand why the cropping tool icon looks the way it does). As I've created reproduction boxes and manuals for AtariAge, that knowledge has come in very handy in reproducing the look of those materials - how type was set, the sorts of fonts used, how color separations were typically created (useful in determining the CMYK value of something, when you realize they were laying things out using pre-made screens of fixed percentages). Anyway, that was all kind-of long-winded and rambling. But I suspect that they weren't using page layout software until the very late 80's, except perhaps on fairly simple documents. And even at that, the early typographic capabilities of the software would've been fairly limited. If you're trying to match typesetting of that era, understanding traditional typesetting would help. One thing which might help get the spacing correct - it's all going to be measured in picas and points. Not inches, millimeters or "lines" (like single-line, double-line, etc). Word processing applications likely won't get you there.

Update: 6-15-22: Elevator Action renamed to Elevator Agent. Thread added to Homebrew forum.

Stephen, Christian and Thomas - Thank you all for contributing so much to Stella! It's my daily driver for all things 2600, and I couldn't contribute to homebrews without it (plus - I just really enjoy playing games on it ). I haven't given any feedback, since I really didn't have any to give. It all just works brilliantly for my needs. Plus, I knew that some things (like CDFJ+ support) were already in the works, and nobody needed to hear "is it ready yet" from me. I suppose I'm guilty of taking Stella for granted, but I really do appreciate all of the hard work you all put into it (and I just did again). Please do enjoy taking time away from working on it. I know that hobbies can start becoming a chore after awhile and it just sucks all the fun out of them. Hopefully, that sense of fun or satisfaction will return again. Stella (and those of you who work on it) are an invaluable part of this community, and I hope you know that the work is highly appreciated, even if we don't always remember to say so. Again - thank you!

You have to first collect Virus Cores (before they start flashing), then you can press the Fire button to activate Absorbing State. While Absorbing State is active (your ship morphs to a circular shape and the music changes) you can clear off the other Virus Elements (the striped blocks) by running into them. The yellow bars at the top right of the screen show how many Virus Cores you've absorbed, and how many more times you can activate Absorbing State. You can get a look at it here (at 0:55):

Updates: 6-3-22: Boom! previewed on ZeroPage Homebrew. Demo version now available for download in the AtariAge forums. 6-5-22: Elevator Action label artwork is in-progress.

Updates: 5-21-22: Galaxian packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew. 5-21-22: Pac-Man Collection packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew. 5-21-22: UniWarS packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew. 5-21-22: Gorf Arcade packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew. 5-21-22: Qyx label artwork (by David Exton) previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew. 6-3-22: New project added: "Two-fer"*

That's a very special time! Because June 3 is a Friday.

Cartridge Sprite Bit Byte Nibble Vectrex Syzygy Kee Go Sente Fuji* Sears Homebrew Pong Playfield *(already suggested)

You do realize Al is 127 years old, right? Doesn't look a day over 115.

...maybe...

For the past two years, our annual student film screenings for the Character Animation Program at CalArts haven't happened. At least not in person. (For those reading this in the inevitable, distant, dystopian FUTURE and may have no knowledge of what happened in 2020 - this was due to a worldwide outbreak of e-coli brought about by some undercooked Chicken McNuggets at McDonald's. For those who don't know what Chicken McNuggets were, they were "extra parts" genetically engineered and grafted onto chickens that could be repeatedly harvested for foodstuffs without killing the host chickens (although the process itself was horrible and needlessly cruel, but not nearly as bad as their "Cow McNuggets" or "Rhesus Monkey McNuggets". For reference, search the historical archives for: "pink slime"). For those who have no knowledge of what McDonald's was, it was a global, dictatorial empire that ruled the entire planet. Everyone worked at McDonald's, lived at McDonald's, were educated by McDonald's (search historical archives for: "Hamburger University"), ate at McDonald's, and were ultimately "served" by McDonald's (search archives for the historical documentary: "Soylent Green"). The empire ultimately met its demise when they stopped putting "toys" in their "Happy Meals". And yes, that's a euphemism. And no, you do not want to search the archives for what that actually means.) It's hard work preserving history for future generations, but somebody has to do it. Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to... something or other. I forget what. Look it up on Wikipedia, I suppose. Anyway... In 2020, our shows were cancelled outright. We had an online screening in the fall that year, but it was kind of a stop-gap. In April and May of 2021, we had online-only versions of our two shows, but it felt weirdly disconnected without live audiences. Our Open Show had a live chat, so there was some sense of people watching it... but there was no such chat for the Producers' Show. I sat at my computer, keeping an eye on the live stream... but there could've been 100 other people watching, or 1000, or one. But this year... we were back. Not 100% back-to-normal, but back-in-person anyway. The Open Show (comprised of all of our student films for the year) is usually held indoors in the Main Gallery on campus. Typically, this runs in one day, with around 320 people watching it. Not exactly COVID-compliant. Or perhaps, pandemic-prudent. Even though mask requirements had become optional in LA County, our college still required them whenever in the building. That close to the end of the academic year, we kind-of didn't want to have an outbreak right before graduation. So with that in mind, we made the decision to move the show outside. Hey - it's Southern California! So weather shouldn't be an issue. Right? But too much sunshine, however, was. We usually use a video projector for the films, starting at 11 AM to fit it all reasonably into one day, which works fine inside where you can control the light. But outside, you can't really use a projector unless the sun is down. So we did three things to address this: First, we ran the show at night, starting at 6:00PM after the sun had gone far enough over the main building to put the courtyard into full shade (although the sun wouldn't set for at least another 90 minutes). Second, because we usually have 7 or 8 hours of films (before adding intermissions), we split it over two nights (Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23), so the show wouldn't be running until 3 AM. This year we had 186 films, running 8 hours and 13 minutes - so we definitely needed both nights. Third, and the biggest change, was we hired a company to set up an 11'h x 20'w LED wall, plus a sound system, and run the show for us. The LED wall is visible in full daylight (and incredibly bright at night), and hiring a crew to handle all of the setup, teardown, and the screening itself was a huge relief, and saved us a ton of work. Well... I should say it was a huge relief after they finished setting it up and we knew it was going to work. We'd never worked with this company before, nor seen their LED wall in person. Plus the work it saved was offset this year because the show started on Friday - not Saturday - which meant I had an entire day less to edit the entire thing together. So it was still a highly compressed and stressful week. But for once we didn't have to build an impromptu movie theater in the Main Gallery. Here's the 11' x 20' LED wall (with enough subwoofers to make your ears bleed from 30 yards away): The panels do have some variation, but generally it evens out when they're all on (although there was one noticeably more-blue panel than the rest, but it's something most people likely wouldn't pick up on). The back of it: We chose 11' x 20' for two reasons: 1) This is the same size of the projection screen we used indoors and we didn't want to step down from what we previously had, and 2) to go any larger requires that a custom support truss be engineered which dramatically increases the cost. This is their largest standard size. It was plenty large enough. A close-up of the LED matrix (once you're about 20 feet away, you don't see the individual pixels anymore): And as for the weather? Well, 24 hours before the show - it rained. Not just a little either, but a torrential downpour. But it cleared out and the day of the show it was bright and sunny! But windy. And cold. That night got down into the low 50's. Maybe even the upper 40's. But everyone just bundled up, brought blankets, and we handed out foam floor tiles for people to sit on, so they wouldn't be on wet grass. Saturday night was better - the wind had died down and it was a good 10 degrees warmer. (For those wanting to know it in Celsius - subtract 32 and multiply by 5/9. I ain't gonna do it for ya'.) Cold weather aside, the show went really well. The LED wall is pretty cool technology, although it doesn't have the same kind of dynamic range we're used to on typical computer monitors, so some films suffered a bit, and there were the aforementioned color inconsistencies between panels. But it was still impressive. When it's turned on, the image almost looks Photoshopped during the daylight because you don't pick up any reflections or shadows (the moire pattern was caused by my phone, and isn't visible in person): At the most, they ran the wall at only 60% brightness. When the show started, they were down to around 40%, and 12% after the sun went down. They also brought more sound gear than we usually use (four subwoofers plus six powered 12" speakers, vs. our normal two subs and four speakers), so there was plenty of volume available. I estimated around 200 people were there each night, which is pretty good considering the cool temperatures and it being outside at the back-end of the building (instead of just inside the main entrance in a high-traffic area). My iPhone absolutely refused to take a picture of the audience without the video completely blowing out: In reality, the video looked more like this: Splitting it over two nights certainly cost more for the rental, but I think it was worth doing. With 30 minute intermissions at the two-hour mark, it made each night's runtime pretty reasonable (although it's still like watching two feature films back-to-back, two nights in a row). Any downsides? Well, the temperature for sure. Bathrooms were also a bit further away. Plus we had no concession stand this year since the Theater School wasn't doing their usual fundraising, and for some reason, we weren't allowed to have food trucks (although another event just the other evening had them... so what's up with that?). Will we do it outside again next year? Beats me. The cost was significant, and there were certainly some compromises made in terms of comfort and presentation. But splitting it over two days is something I definitely think we need to keep. Sitting through eight hours straight of anything is painful. I still haven't watched The Batman yet for that very reason. Right. So that's one show done with. The Producers' Show for this year was held on May the 4th (which as every fan of pop culture knows, is Dave Brubeck Day) and this year we were at a new theater again. But not just a new theater for us, but a brand-new theater period! In previous years, we were originally at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theater at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. But when they decided to renovate it and it was shut down for construction, we ended up moving to the main theater at the Director's Guild of America. When they decided to renovate that one (I don't think we were doing anything to cause this...), we ended up moving to the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Fortunately, they'd already just been renovated, so we felt safe for awhile. And then we had a pandemic. Which really could've been completely avoided, if people had just gotten their chicken nuggets from Burger King instead. They're way better. Or better still: Chick Fil-A. Love those. Especially with their Buffalo sauce. (Made, as far as I know, from real buffaloes.) When we started looking into theaters again for this year's return to being in-person, there was a new contender. And because of various factors (including capacity, availability, and proximity to world-famous Hollywood landmarks), this year's show was held at the David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. It only just opened in the fall, and it's as absolutely state-of-the-art as a theater can get. The signs on the seats are "reserved" signs for sponsors (we have quite a few of them): The whole thing is inside a giant concrete ball. Kind-of looks like the Death Star. Funny nobody mentioned that on the day of the show. Since, you know, I'm pretty sure Dave Brubeck liked Star Wars. They even have the requisite C-3PO Oscar statues: The theater holds 1000 people, but our target was around 500-600, so we could still have some social distancing. Everyone was required to wear masks and have proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. Apparently, it worked. I haven't heard any reports of anyone getting sick that evening. In the end, we had over 500 people. For our first year back, I'd call that a win. Here's a rather clunky composite of several photos as people were getting seated. My iPhone absolutely refused to capture a panorama that was actually usable: I stayed in the back for the whole show. By then, I'd seen every film multiple times, so for me, it's more about watching the audience (especially students) react to the films, rather than watching the films themselves. Even then, I found myself watching the show because the sound and projection in the theater were absolutely first-rate. And we got some great compliments from the technical staff at the theater about our preparation and the quality of our DCP which is always nice to hear. Especially since this is THE Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It's kind-of like Apple telling you, "Hey - nice computer!" The show was by all accounts a complete success. The audience had a lot of fun, the films all got great responses, the students got terrific industry exposure, and everyone enjoyed being back together and seeing friends and colleagues again for the first time in years. You can read the official CalArts blog about it here. (Although the list posted there doesn't actually link to any films.) If you want to watch some of the films, check out our Vimeo channel our or YouTube channel. (Not all films have been posted online yet. That's up to the students.)

I had to use a TBC when capturing video for my mods comparison page (ages ago) just to stabilize the 2600 video enough to capture it. Since broadcast TV went digital, professional analog TBCs are all over eBay now.

I suppose I should check mine... I wonder where it is? I should see if my GBA-SP works, too. I always intended to buy the reissued one with the better screen, but never got around to it. Maybe I should just do this instead: There's a nice how-to article here. Apart from carving up the case, it looks pretty straightforward. I really like how my Lynx turned out with its new screen. Could make for a good project. (Even though I still have a few Atari consoles that need fixing. )

Here's the back of my tuner - the BNC adapter is sitting in front of it on the left, the RF adapter on the right: With adapters connected - the BNC twists and locks into place with a 'click', the RF screws on: With the cables plugged in - yellow, white, red are video, audio left and audio right out to the TV; the fourth cable on the far right is the stock RF cable coming from the 2600: Note: if you use the stock RF cable, you're likely to pick up noise from interference. You can reduce this following some of the suggestions in my blog entry (bundling up excess cables, moving the RF cable away from power cords, etc). This shows the tuner with the replacement RF cable I installed in this blog entry: Hope it all works for you!