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Silntdoogood

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Posts posted by Silntdoogood

  2. Posted

    Oh, and Al had commented on the functionality of a paddle controller. I guess the project isn't "done" now until I can get that done.

     

    I'm hosting the pictures my self because I already wasted the time to upload them there for the video description. I might as well save some atariage space while I'm at it.

     

    pictures:

    http://www.silntdoogood.webs.com/atarik1.jpg

    http://www.silntdoogood.webs.com/atarik2.jpg

    http://www.silntdoogood.webs.com/atarik3.jpg

     

    video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0m9AW1EtqQ

     

    Thanks again everyone! :rolling:

  3. Posted

    That was originally what I was going to do, but I have only one clicky Atari controller, and I don't care for the ones that don't click. I really don't want to slaughter my favorite controller, and half the time I find my self using a genesis controller anyway.

     

    No slaughter necessary. Just chop off the end of a joystick extension or DB9 computer cable, and wire that to the traces in the gamepad. Then you can plug in whatever stick you choose at the time.

    When you mentioned the DB9 computer cable, it made me think, I'm merging several levels of computer into one. At that, not being very careful, just kind of using what I need. I'm using a hacksawed off piece of motherboard for the pins for the actual DB9 plug. I pulled the rows of pins off the motherboard piece, and soldered just the leads to the pins. It was much more difficult, and some board would have helped, but it works now!

     

    I guess there was some printed circuitry on the USB pins I had used. I wasn't using much o he board at all, and don't see anything that connects. It either means there were connections in a sub-level, or when I cut it, a bunch grounded with each other on the edge.

     

    I digress, it works :D I'll attach some pictures, and post a video in a sec if anyone is interested.

    Thanks for your help everyone! XD

  6. Posted

    Everyone who is into retro-computing or has had a Computer while floppy disks (especially the 5.25 inch) were still in use has propably heard the standard instructions how to best store and handle your disks to preserve them as long as possible.

     

    One of those things does make me curious: That you are told to store them upright, in a vertical position, as opposed to horizontally. Okay, fair enough, but I'm still curious as to why that is. What exactly are the physical reasons behind this suggestion?

     

    Can somebody help?

     

    This question isn't really about whether it really is necessary to store them vertically or not, but rather to look into the physics surrounding this issue. However, feel free to post some experiences of disk lastability of floppies stored upright compared to ones that were stored lying, if you have any.

     

    I don't know much about floppy disks, but I collect vinyl records, and it is recommended to store them vertically as well. The reason is that the weight of the records can crush the records on the bottom (or at leaste cause some hairline fractures). Could the weight of the disks crush the disks below (maybe not crush, but cause some sort of damage)?

     

    Just my thoughts on your post.

     

    Dusty

     

    Well, if you have enough records to keep some pressure, you store them upright. If you store them upright, but loosely, they warp. If you only have a handful of records and they are lying at an angle, it's better to lay them flat.

  8. Posted

    does anyone have an image or video of the boss at the end?

    If you find one, let me know please. I've been working at it for a few days now and haven't gotten far enough. I looked on youtube, but the site is just spammed out with people doing "play-throughs" and not making it past the first or second stage. I understand the first few videos like that were fine, but it's pointless and irritating to have this may.

  9. Posted

    I was at a store that had a pile of Coleco Donkey Kongs. I don't know if I can still get my hands on them though. They run short hours, and most of them are while I work. It takes an hour to drive there and back, and I'd have to do it before work, cutting time close to clock in, and it's a new job, I'd prefer to make it at least a month before clocking in late. Private message me, and we can arrange stuff. With a bit of effort and luck, I should be able to get you your Coleco carts, and a pile of Pac-Man carts or something like that.

  11. Posted

    Cheap DIY solution? Wire an Atari stick to an old gamepad. People were doing that for years before Stelladaptor came along.

    That was originally what I was going to do, but I have only one clicky Atari controller, and I don't care for the ones that don't click. I really don't want to slaughter my favorite controller, and half the time I find my self using a genesis controller anyway.

  12. Posted

    I think you're going the long, hard way about things.

     

    There's ready made and DIY projects like Stelladaptor, DirectPad and the like. They usually have drivers which allow an Atari stick to be used as a DirectInput device, and possibly even to map joystick movements to keys.

     

    Haha, yes I am. I know that. In my mind this is simpler than any of the projects I have seen. I just can't get it to work...

    As far as buying kits and/or adapters, I've seen Stella adapters go from $30-50. There are probably cheaper out there, but the problem that caused me to start this project in the first place is not having access to a paypal account to buy a physical Halo2600 cart. There fore, I have difficulty in buying an adapter :D

  13. Posted

    With the release of Halo 2600, I started paying with ROMs (okay, that's still the only ROM I have so far) When I have the keyboard controls it just doesn't feel like an atari game. Now, the atari controller works with a simple matrix (I believe "matrix" is the word for when you have many buttons, but the leads combine in ways that you have only a handful of connections where each button has a unique combination, eliminating wires, but keeping functionality. I got the term from an instruction sheet in a project box I bought from Radio Shack years ago. It was long enough ago I may have misread the word, if someone can confirm my definition, I'd appreciate it!) and a keyboard works on a more complex matrix. If I combine the two, I should logically be able to use the actual Atari controller to emulate pushing keyboard keys to run the emulator.

     

    I have messed with this project for about a week, and have failed at just about everything, including painting the case. Originally I connected the Atari controller leads to the keys that the Stella Emulator uses. This doesn't work because in the five keys, there are three different ground connections. Connecting the three sends an invalid return to the keyboard controller. I can accept this. I looked over the board, and found five keys on the same ground. I have adopted them. The 9-pin serial port I'm using came from a '92 desktop PC and has this handy female plug on the end that I'd like to use for two reasons:

    1) Easy disassembley if I ever need to

    2) I spent a half hour finding where all the pin slots go

    To solve the dilemma of "I have no pins for the female plug on the port" I took a hacksaw, and removed the front USB connections of a dead motherboard. It works quite well. Now I have a small board, all the leads running from the keys appropriately into the pins on it. Those pins appropriately correspond with the correct places on the port for the Atari controller to communicate the proper signals, and yet, when I have these connections in place, the keyboard throws errors, and just all around fails at typing.

     

    This is an older keyboard, when I disconnect the connections I have made, it all works fine. I have used two different serial ports, two different boards, three different controllers and new wires each time I resoldered. What is actually erroring varies. I've had it down to as simple as when you push either "G" or "L" it types "GL" to as complex as nearly every key typing two to three extra characters, or in the case of "2" not working at all.

     

    The only theory I can come up with is the board controller measures how much resistance has been applied from the printed circuitry to help determine which key has been pressed. This seems a bit advanced for a cheap-o 1997 keyboard. Like I said, I've been at this for several days, not every day has been devoted to just this problem, but this is one that seems to elude me.

     

     

    ~~Also~~

    As a side note:

    If someone could put my mind to ease by explaining the legality of making your own hardware for the Atari system. I like to stay diligent of copyrights, patents etc. I'm rather new to these forums, if you'd rather this be in a second post, I will do so, and this appendix may be disregarded. I feel like it is something that has a post already, but I can't find one. A link to such a place would be appreciated via PM or post here.

     

    Thanks for taking the time to read my giant story!

    -Spence

  14. Posted

    ...PayPal $20 plus shipping to [email protected] Shipping will be:

     

    US: $5 Priority Mail...

    Paypal my enemy, we meet again. It sucks to be 17 an not eligible for an account yet...

    I can't use ebay either >.<

     

    How long is this offer going to be available for me to find someone to order through? Accept any other payment methods?

  15. Posted

    Knowing now that 2600 carts of Halo 2600 exist I can no longer live a satisfied life without possessing one. Please, please, please make it available in the Atari Age store.

    I will be posting something about this tomorrow.. :ponder:

     

    ..Al

     

     

    :o Thanks for the update! Hope it's good news. I'll log on as soon as I get home from work.

    I agree with kain, I don't have a very large collection compared to other's I have seen, and I'm pretty easy to please with having a pile of common fun games over rare dull ones. This is just an amazing game to play though! While I can make a cart, but it's not the same as a legitimate cart. While I hope Albert's post is good news for getting my hands on one, I kind of hope that there is a difference in this cart and the GCE ones if production is starting again. I respect the people who actually got their carts from the CGE, and looking from their perspective, if I got my cart from there, only to have the exact same one become available online, I'd be a little disappointed. (Unless some actually managed to survive unsold at the CGE :D) I guess I can "what if" this scenario forever, the gist of the post being I'd kind of like to see a second generation of these carts become available, but have some visual difference from the CGE gen.

  18. Posted

    The quote above got me thinking about this though - how is Bungee and/or Microsoft going to feel about this? Will there be legal problems from this release?

    If they didn't get permission, I would think the legal troubles would be limited. They didn't actually use any of the games copyrighted video or audio. I would think the plotline of the game would stray from the original because the 2600 just doesn't have the capabilities to run features the full game has. I don't think they can copyright the idea of the game, but I'm not 100% sure of that.(when you look at the dance they dance when Parker Brothers fights games close to Monopoly [which, I find ironic they are the only company permitted to make the game "Monopoly"] and they've won several cases against knock-off games) but in the Parker Brother's cases, the other companies are not crediting them, or acknowledging Monopoly. I would think this would classify more as a parody, or a "fan art" scenario. I doubt they used the original fonts from the game, or artwork, so they probably avoid any complications with trademarks. The only think I could really see wrong with it is they have "Halo" in the name. But the full name appears to be "Halo 2600", dodging that bullet.

     

    Besides, If the companies get upset over this, they need to learn to lighten up and enjoy the free advertising. I have yet to play the game myself, but if the 2600 clone here is good enough, I might consider an investment (or at least look into it). Now, this isn't going to be a decision breaker for me, but my most advanced piece of gaming machinery is a Gamecube. I don't even think they make those games anymore. It might just be time for an upgrade.

  20. Posted

    So what was it?

    Erm...I have yet to find a cause. I recently got my hands on a copy of the service manual. Now I know what all the little unmarked switches & jumpers do. Just today I found the volume controller. Probably inprobable, but the volume may be turned down. I found the knob initially, but it was seized in place. Mr. Benway (on youtube) was kind enough to give me an annotation at the end of a video today. This is shining a bit of light on the video I had up in front of the community of retro gamers he has gathered. I've gotten some new suggestions from them I will have to try. Thus far, all efforts have been unsuccessful. :(

  23. Posted

    I've been browsing the forums for well over a year, but I'm a noob to posting, this is my first.

     

    In my travels stumbled across a 1986 centipede arcade cabinet. It's in rough shape, the power unit looks like a piece of machinery from WWII(that has been outside since then). I went over the wiring so it didn't blow up in our face when we plugged it in, it looked alright. The keys are MIA, so we are servicing it through the coin hopper door in the front because the lock there is broken. It has a basic instruction sheet, but there is no "book" manual, which the sheet alludes to existing. We were messing with it for about an hour. I tried fussing with switches & jumpers until I found a sheet of paper in the bottom under some cigarette buts that says "out of order". I guess it was dead by the time these owners got it. I thought at first it was a dead screen tube, because the system lights, and you can hear the high pitched CRT whine, but we also have no audio. I tried some of the screen and audio tests, nothing responded. None of the fuses are blown, every thing seems to be on. The system board seems to be fine(fine on the grounds the red LED indicator light lit, and there are no melted points, or scorch marks). I checked the connections to the board, and all seem to be fine. I have some pictures, I can link on request.

     

    If anyone has any idea of why I have no sound or video, I'd appreciate the advice. I'd prefer to not get "your system board is dead, buy a new one". It would appear there are Red, Yellow, Blue and Green wires going into the actual tube, so I don't think I can test the screen with anything I have, but is there is a simple way, I'd love to know how. The screen has words burned into it, but the screen in mounted portrait, and the words are burned in landscape, so I think it's on it's second screen.

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