jjessop

Maybe you can give a talk on this at the PS2 DevCon coming up The trend with PS2 publishers is to rush unfinished, unoptimized games out the door to make an unrealistic ship date. It's especially bad on PS2 as it's the dominent sales leader so it's titles must get out first. I'm preaching to the wrong person...... jerry

Sounds like you should have just said "PS2 RYGAR SUCKS" and then ranted as to why. Sony didn't write the game, but I'll be sure to pass along your FU SONY to Ken and Kaz if it makes you feel better jerry

This may be a little advanced for you but the best deal in town is www.onedollarhosting.com at $1 per month. There is a small setup fee but after that it's a buck. I have been with them 2 years, the uptime and tech support could be better, but dude check out what you get. What you get for $1 a month www.YourName.com hosted Unlimited Data Transfer Unlimited Hits Unlimited FTP Access Unlimited E-mail Aliases 20MB Disk Space Free E-mail Account Free Tech Support (via email) Free Domain Transfer* Free Personal CGI-BIN Free FrontPage Extensions Free SSI, PHP, RealNetworks Free Web Editor / File Manager *30 Day Money Back Guarantee* My site sucks hard, but some day I hope to use the unlimited data transfer part www.jessopland.com jerry

First a little history lesson on how and why the "personal backup" right exists. It stems back to the days of the very first personal computers and 8" floppy drives. Early drives would trash disks if the media was ejected while running or the field of the head collapsed when power was lost, usually by mistake. It's this 30 year old problem, fixed 25 years ago, that is the current justification for todays personal backups. Todays drives and media are not prone to these problems and almost without exception, scratches and smudges on CD or DVD media can be repaired with products readily availible on the market. I work with CD media all day long and have never had a disk damaged under normal circumstances that I could not easily recover. I have taken steel wool to PlayStation disks and with a product called the "disk doctor" resurfaced each to working order. What other product that you buy will give you a free or at cost replacement forever? BTW: Most game companies do have a reasonable replacement policy, not all, but many. The technical arguments for media backups are long gone. Jerry

I'm not 100% certain but I think they were found illegal in a court test along with the game enhancers for essentially the same functionality. I'll find out and report back..... jerry

Let me second the TIA idea, pretty much all it can be. jerry

I'm not trying to get an argument started or debate the DMCA but please allow me to correct and clarify some of your statements. I have a pretty fair amount of knowledge on this subject. 1: Mod Chips and "Game Enhancers" that defeat copy protection schemes ARE ILLEGAL in the U.S. and Canada. Both have been tested numerous times in court cases and were found to violate the DMCA. A mod chip or game enhancer case has NEVER won in North America. While the DMCA does not apply to Canada, there are anti computer tampering statutes that mod chips fall into. A single victory in a poorly presented SCEE case in Australia does not count as being legal in North America. 2: Backups are not illegal, CORRECT, but ONLY if you personally make the SINGLE backup copy. You cannot purchase it from a "backup" service. This has also been tested in court. 3:Imports are not illegal: Correct.....of course not. Where is the problem? The denial that exists that mod chips are primarily used for legit purposes, in 99.9% of cases they are a piracy tool. Let me aditionally point out that no console manufacturer has ever gone after a company selling purely import solutions. Mod Chips can be made (and some were sold) that only played legit import titles, not CDR's, and none of these were ever targeted for legal action. jerry

What the heck is that weird controller? Is it a third-party controller? I remember those type of controllers for the PC, but they were pretty short-lived. ..Al They say a picture is worth a thousand words, here is what it really is, and it was never sold in Japan! http://www.agetec.com/products.asp?MyView=...SCII+Sphere+360 jerry

Steve must think it's me, but trust me it's not. Users here should be aware that many people in the industry read and contribute to these forums. The AtariAge staff are top notch and not interested in running a pirate board. Users should keep this in mind if they are going to be posting or advertising "warez" type activities here. Use common sense when posting here considering the audience. jerry

I don't think it's done maliciously, it took a bit of thinking and your explanation to jolt my memory that there were 2 style bases. When compared to a 2600A, all six switchers are heavy An Atari buddy of mine just put something up of interest on Ebay, it's legit and I have seen it. He just sent me the link. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=3001024009 jerry

No worries, but yea I was there, and I'm still in the games industry. I'm not sure I understand what your asking regarding a "promotional" VCS? If your talking about a retail display, I think only the thin based consoles were used but I could be wrong. To recap......I think this should cover things that have floated about in recent threads. 2600 production starts: July 77 Switch to thinner base: April-June 78 2600A Production: Early 80 A number of people have asked about the channel 2/3 select switch and or lack of. Honestly most should have one (2600) and those that don't are oddballs......what can I say. For example, some countries did not support a second channel and so the switch was left off the PCB. This is also why the plastic was changed to "A/B" instead of channel 2/3 because it was not always those channels used depending upon where you were. Production control was real sloppy, thank goodness the workmanship and engineering were better jerry

Your correct, I did not think about the change in the base plastic on the original 2 PCB 2600 prior to the 2600A single PCB. I'm pretty sure the heavy base models were produced at least until spring of 78. The thing to remember is that VCS production was pretty minimal in 77, it never ramped up to much output until Oct of 77. From Summer 78 production went crazy, non stop 3 shifts, and that's when the switch was made to the best of my memory. It was honestly a "non event" but I think it was in the timeline above. While 77 things were underproduced, 78 was just the opposite, way to much inventory after Christmas. The first week of January 79 90-95% of production was let go only to start ramping up again in October for the first computer products and the start of 2600A production. jerry

He shoot's........he scores! Game, set, match, jjessop. I remember my days at Atari (77-85) as if they were yesterday. Make sure you know the facts before calling somebody else a liar, OK? jerry BTW: Thanks for coming to my aid Steve

Why not offer some proof to back your statements instead of just calling me a liar? Your other remarks are also unfounded and unwelcomed. Give me facts, don't just resort to name calling..........balls in your court! jerry

Yea right......... If I post something on this board you can place it in two catagories. 1: Completely factual. 2: My personal opinion. You should be able to determine which catagory it falls in. In the case of my original statement, it stands, and very few people would have more knowledge on that subject than myself. If you want to challenge a statement, fine, but just don't yell out I'm a liar........you will be proven wrong Jerry

The pressure to lower fraud is probably why Ebay pulled the auction. Here is a recent auction on a game related item, total fraud BTW. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1949539747 I contacted the owner twice asking him to correct the auction and state the real facts but he basically told me to screw myself. It's stuff like this that screws up legit prototype auctions. Everyone should be suspecious of any proto item for sale on Ebay. I sold a 2700 RC Stella on Ebay 2 years ago so I have been on both sides of auction. Consider every item fake until proven otherwise, that may be the attitude Ebay is now taking. jerry

Ooops, of course, missed that one. Thanks for throwing that out. jerry

Check the easy stuff first, are all 9 pins extended the same length out on the db-9 connector? Many times one or more are pushed in. If that's not it then: 1: Bad RIOT (6532 IC) C010750 I think, man it's been a long time. 2: Bad filter cap (shorted) on one of the input lines. That's about all it can be, good luck. jerry

You could ask the Engineer in charge of the 2800 about it (Joe Tilley) but he was shot dead by the San Jose Police in 1983 around 5:AM on highway 280. He was wandering around the freeway, in his underwear, when he lunged at the police that came up to him......oh yea, he had a butcher knife in his hand. The San Jose Newspaper article the next day was taped to the engineering directors door (Dave Remson) that had fired him a year earlier from Atari. It mentioned how his marriage was falling apart and he was unable to find a job since let go at Atari. The story of the 2800 (Cindy) was quite a mess from an engineering standpoint, a disaster from start to finish. This is one of the reasons very few ever were badged with the Atari logo and only the Sears commitment was met. Before anybody asks, this is an absolutely true story Jerry

I hate to break the news to you, in fact all were assembled by hand. All of the mechanical assembly was done by hand with pneumatic screwdrivers. Most of the electrical components were stuffed by machine and wave soldered, but many of the parts were hand placed and in some cases hand soldered. IC's were placed in socket by hand. The 4.5mhz audio osc coils (the tall red coil) were actually pre-tuned by hand. People with plastic hex wrenches turned the ferrite slug down 10 turns to get it closer for final test and adjustment. The switches, RF modulator, db-9 connectors, cartridge connector were all hand placed. Even the little felt switch dust covers were hand placed Jerry

I have it, great game visually and I always liked the UT engine over Quake gameplay wise. I'm not real keen on all the power-ups added as I'm sort of a UT purist. You need to try out Battlefield 1942 Albert jerry

Damn it.......a tougher problem then my friend jerry Let's see you must be going RF as a 600XL has no monitor output if I remember correctly?

Not rare at all, on many days 20,000 + were produced. Production in Sunnyvale on the VCS ran from mid 77 until 1980. 2600A's were produced in Sunnyvale but not the 2600jr (code named Bonnie). jerry

Can't help with the scratched disks but I too have made the same machine gun observation. I did some deeper digging into some of the online docs (the written one is incomplete IMHO) and they tell you that "short bursts" of fire are much more accurate, don't keep firing as each shot becomes less effective. It's such a great game! jerry

One has to ask....why would the Xbox version look better? In the future Ken let me suggest you get the SCEA developer support guys involved right up front on any "classic" projects. The Director of test, Director of Developer Support, and Director of hardware engineering are all long time ex-atarians there. At SCEA classic compilations are not frowned upon, just the opposite I think, especially on the technical side of the company. Keep up the great work. Jerry