Todd Rogers banned from Twin Galaxies and records removed

[Todd Rogers banned from Twin Galaxies and records removed]

Five point fifty-one

Cheating for little reward

And watching has none

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

Lacking any pithy Ataribox comments to contribute right now, I thought I'd mention that we found a couple more varieties of El Yucateco hot sauces (the Caribbean and Chipotle) at the semi-local supermercado last night.

 

The Caribbean is... Kinda meh. Not bad, but also just not anything really outstanding. It's far more vinegary than their other sauces, and the slight carrot flavour doesn't really stand out as anything special. It might work well as a cooking sauce, though. We'll keep it around and eventually finish it off, but it's definitely not a go-to.

 

As for the Chipotle, it's pretty good. Doesn't have the heat of their habanero sauces (to be expected), but the spice is pretty reasonable. Not vinegary, which is a plus. Nice smoky flavour to it with definite chipotle taste. Pours thinner than their other sauces, but not in a watery way like Tabasco.

 

The only one of theirs we haven't tried at this point is the jalapeño. It looks as though the same supermercado may carry it but was out; will check again in a few days.

 

Lol penny stocks, etc.

[Funspot Arcade]

There's always the potential for a Donkey Kong killscreen at Funspot, if you want to see one.

[Paperboy Genre Query]

Isometric shooter, similar to Zaxxon in its use of perspective.

 

'Shooter' is generic enough that the type of player (person, anthropomorphic figure, vehicle, etc.) doesn't really matter in relation to the description, IMHO.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

The Swedish national team in icehockey!

 

The only hockey that matters is this hockey.

 

[Best solution for playing NTSC games in Europe]

One possibility: there used to be VCRs on the market that would play back NTSC videotapes on PAL TVs without requiring any intermediate conversion. You might be able to find one and use that; if it works, the advantage would be that you could potentially use it with multiple NTSC devices should you end up buying others.

 

There is a caveat to that, though: some VCRs would only convert playback from tape, not signals received via RF or SCART, S-Video, etc. To figure out which models do and don't do that, you'll need to do some research.

 

A number of modern LCD televisions will also play back NTSC (or PAL, or SECAM) natively. However, you'll need to do your own research on that as well since I don't have specific model numbers to hand. However, the cheaper ones generally seem to be more likely to do this than more expensive ones.

[What is *YOUR* Biggest Retro-Computing Hardware Disappointment?]

In my case, it was probably the Atari 1020 plotter.

 

When I finally received one as a birthday present, I was thrilled. For about a week, I used it to draw all kinds of interesting things.

 

Then I got tired of having to use glue sticks to paste its output down into the things I was continuing to print off on the Epson FX-80 because the 1020's text output was so damned slow.

 

Then the pens started to run out of ink. No matter how many tubes of replacement pens I ordered, at least one pen would have a damaged ball point (one of which tore through the paper) or no or dried-out ink.

 

Then the paper became a pain to obtain. By then I was over it and wanted space back on my desk for the ST that had ended up next to the 800XL.

 

I seem to recall trading it for a couple of cartridges. Something tells me that I made out best on that deal.

[Post-Apocalypse Atari 2600]

In the Orson Scott Card short-story "Salvage" (1986), an unspecified disaster has impacted (at least) the Southwestern United States -- Salt Lake City, Utah, is almost entirely submerged under water. The main character of the story makes a living salvaging old computers and other electronics. This includes an Atari 2600:

 

"Lehi never took his eyes off the screen. He jabbed a a button on the black box and twisted on the stick that jutted up from it. A colored blob on the screen split into four smaller blobs. [...] It's an Atari. From the sixties or seventies or something. Eighties. Old. Can't do much with the pieces, it's only eight-bit stuff. All these years in somebody's attic in Logan, and it still runs."

 

Was the cover of this book the one where there was a hand coming out of the water that was clutching a licence plate?

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

These are all real quotes!* Honest!

 

How about:

feargal-macdaddy.jpg

* Note: Quotes may have been taken out-of-context for marketing purposes and may not actually imply an endorsement of That Ataribox™.

 

If it's not a phone box, it doesn't count.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

Was rewatching Police Story, and spotted a 600XL.

 

 

That's like half a 1200XL, amirite?

[Todd Rogers Signed Dragster Cartridge Goes for $830 - New Twist]

 

Super insulting to call Germany part of the Eastern Block, but I like it, because some prick probably did sell fake pieces.

 

They did. The irony: the people selling them were mostly from ex-Eastern Bloc countries.

 

I've got a chunk of it somewhere as well. Can vouch for its authenticity as I took it off of the wall myself.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

 

Happy two-month anniversary of the Ataribox crowdfunding campaign biting the dust!

[Atari XE Game System sales?]

I have a hard time accepting that 100K figure, especially considering the 1200XL, which was only in production for about 7 months, is widely reported to have sold about 225,000 or so (and a number of active here on AA have more than one!). Surely the lower-priced XEGS was made in greater numbers.

 

My guess would put the number closer to 200,000.

 

I'm including European sales in this. In the 1987-1989 timeframe, there was a last-gasp 8-bit sales burst in Europe, largely driven by price. By '89 it was more or less finished, but '87 and '88 did have something of a bubble in that regard.

 

In mid- to late-1988 I can recall seeing XEGS systems being sold with the keyboard and XC212 tape drive as a bundle for the equivalent of around US$129, and seeing new users turning up at users' group meetings with them.

[Todd Rogers Signed Dragster Cartridge Goes for $830 - New Twist]

I thought the twist was going to be the revelation that this is the most attention Todd Rogers has received in the public eye since King of Kong.

 

But no! The twist was a different twist entirely.

 

What a twist!

 

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

How many states are there again?

 

Binary, trinary, or quantum?

[Trying to find a specific bootloader menu]

 

 

Hello

 

Maybe pal/ntsc problem 50/60 hz.

If it is pal and play on ntsc it will go faster and if it's ntsc and play on pal it wil go slower.

Please us the rob c menu maker and make a new disk and load a sound maybe it will work.

 

Grt marco

 

I was wondering about that as well, but my memory of the speed of the tune was formed on a PAL system . I wasn't using NTSC until relatively recently.

 

Either way, mystery solved.

[Trying to find a specific bootloader menu]

 

That's it at the speed and pitch I remember. Had no idea this was ripped from a game for the bootloader; will have to check the game out.

[Trying to find a specific bootloader menu]

http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/Holmes%201/ATR%20Programs/Applications%20A-Z/index.html

 

Hello check here on this side look search at rob c ........ all files to download.

 

 

Gr. Marco

Thanks for the suggestion - I found it

 

The tune was 'Masters of Time' from the Rob C Menu Maker-Diskey II-Musical Menu Maker disk. When I heard the high trilling part, I knew that that was it. The tempo is slower on that disk than on the one I had, but I now understand why the video I posted above sounded so familiar.

 

One thing I don't understand, though, is how I managed to have a copy of Diskey without having that particular menu maker disk (which is why I didn't think it was a Rob C. disk to begin with). Certainly had others, to be sure, but that one isn't ringing any bells.

 

It's also been a very long time since I booted any of those disks, so my memory could possibly be wrong as well.

 

In any event, thanks for the pointer, and I'll have to see what I can do to come up with something closer to what I remember, but that is definitely the tune!

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

https://tinyurl.com/SpeakerhatDouchebags

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

some say Ataribox is dead

I said that!

 

I say Ataribox will be born thanks to Apple

But I did not say that.

 

There are other things that I have said, however. Some of them involved tacos.

 

Saying things is fun! Yay!

[Trying to find a specific bootloader menu]

I have a feeling I might have it on a floppy. But I've not got a machine setup at the moment to check.

Very possibly it's one of those annoying non-Dos types.

 

I'm almost positive it was non-DOS. For some reason I have a vague recollection of trying to extract something from one of those disks and it ended up being a very annoying bit copy process.

[Trying to find a specific bootloader menu]

Hoping someone can help me figure this out - I've been spending the past couple of hours trying to dig it up on YouTube but with absolutely no luck at all.

 

There's a bootloader menu I can recall having on a few disks. Background was the usual scrolling color bars (gold, I think) under a graphics 0 text screen. There may have been two versions: one with the flying swan from the Xanth demo, and one without the swan. Music was very similar to (but not the same as) the music in this video:

 

 

Does anyone else know which one I might be referring to? I'm trying to figure out if a short piece of music I remembered was from that bootloader or not.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

Today, I made a discovery that can only - and I state this with no hyperbole - be described as being of monumental importance. It's likely on par with the discovery of radium or perhaps the invention of the Ronco Pocket Fisherman.

 

Setting out from the house earlier, my intention was to run a couple of errands and pick up some tacos for lunch. However, as I was going about my pre-lunch business, I came to realization that I hadn't been to the local (and rather excellent) Greek takeaway in some time. Despite the inherent splendour and allure of tacos, my course was clear: a gyros plate was to be obtained.

 

Having brought the repast home, there was no doubt that previous experiments involving the Mayan hot sauce would be repeated: it was already known to greatly enhance the taste and enjoyment of gyro meat. But what was unknown was that a discovery to rival those made in all of art, science, and invention was about to take place.

 

For reasons that are not entirely clear, I removed the top from the container of tzatziki (not pictured below) and placed it on top of the gyro meat and fries as I was sprinkling the Mayan sauce onto the food. Some of the Mayan sauce landed on the tzatziki. Curious, and using a french fry as a tasting implement, I carefully sampled the Mayan sauce / tzatziki mix.

 

So profund a flavor experience it was that I attained instant understanding - no, a consciousness - of what it must have been like to witness the huge thuderclaps and gurgling rock formations found inside of solid matter, and wept.

 

Tacos remain inviolate; nothing I have described here diminishes their position or prestige. But the Mayan / tzatziki mixture has a transcendent nature beyond mere tastes and flavors; it is simply of the essence of delight and amazement and wonder.

 

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

So was there ever any update as to what is happeneing with the AtariBox?

 

Yes.

 

This Valentine's Day, celebrate the two-month anniversary of Atariboxcorp, Inc. cancelling their crowdfunding campaign and keeping completely mum as to any future plans for the Ataribox.

 

And remember: there's no better way to say 'I Love You' than with the gift of a taco.

[Why does Yars Revenge]

The Flashback consoles are outputting composite video, not RF. That does help with video quality.

 

Out of curiosity, which Flashback are you comparing to? I have a Flashback 2 so am moderately curious as to what may have changed over the various iterations.