x=usr(1536)

Check this post - it's older, but I've used it in the past to pass the 128MB limit. Not sure if it still applies or not (most of my Linux virtualisation doesn't require graphics support, so I'll typically run 64MB of VRAM for those VMs), but I want to say that the basic concept is still relevant.

Hey - no spoilers (Seriously, no spoilers, please. Waiting for the print run to pick up a copy.)

On the unconsole? With its open Linux and suchlike? Say it ain't so! Realistically, the reason for enabling secure boot was probably so that people would keep their grubby little fingers out of the BIOS. Fingers in BIOS == bricked systems == greater support load == denied warranty claims == (another) PR nightmare waiting to happen. Think of it this way: by locking it down, any responsibility for screwing up the system is now moved onto the user who bypasses Secure Boot. If Fauxtari didn't do that, the press would have a field day with them for releasing a device which people had broken without effort and who were now being told to go pound sand when requesting a replacement. I'm 100% positive that this had nothing to do with controlling the hardware and everything to do with trying to not look completely incompetent. Unfortunately, storing EFI passwords in cleartext in user-accessible parts of the filesystem pretty much negates that philosophy.

*Yawn*

Oh, OK, yep. I've seen those, but remember them as the Konix Speedking. The Speedking could have been either a licence-built or copied version of the 500XJ; the history isn't really clear to me. Wouldn't surprise me if Epyx had them for North America with Konix taking Europe, though, if they were licenced.

Correct, but I wasn't referring to game rights. My question was along the much more fundamental lines of, "Does AA even care to sell games in the VCS Store in the first place?" If the answer to that is no, then everything else is a moot point and we're just farting into the wind.

I'm not overly-familiar with Epyx' sticks, but have you looked into rebuilding / refurbishing them? Could be as simple as replacing a couple of springs; could be more involved. Either way, can't hurt to check.

I'll second this. If you have a stick you like that you're using with physical hardware, it should work just fine for emulation.

Not going to go in circles regarding licensing issues; having done enough of this in my professional life over the years, it's quite frankly mind-numbingly boring to me. What I will say, though, is that it's all a moot point unless Albert wants it to happen. We car argue the minutiae until the cows come home, but if AA isn't interested then anything anyone may have to say on the matter is wasting time, effort, and energy.

Which is nice of them, but the GPL is not the be-all, end-all of licensing. There is nothing that prevents additional licenses also being part of a software distribution, and if the author includes instructions to not bundle ROMs with their emulator, that's as valid as including the GPL on its own. Stella does not represent all (or even most) emulators, and what Stella may or may not do as regards licensing does not necessarily reflect other emulators' requirements. Of the emulation projects that I've contributed to over the past (almost) 25 years at this point, 'don't bundle ROMs' has been a very definite part of their licences, and also for ones that I have not directly had involvement with beyond being an end user.

Yours and mine appear to have been made within shouting distance of each other - I have A3 85 5081592. Kinda wondering how many were rolling off the line each week at this point.

Presumably by plugging and unplugging the PSU, either from the unit itself or the power outlet.

This is all back-of-the-napkin maths, but I'm going to go with @Mockduck and @Chris Brockman's numbers above for my reckonings. Obviously, these are all speculative numbers, but given the figures we have to work with they're as good as any: Assuming that an existing AtariAge Store title is on the VCS Store at $30: Take 20% ($6) off the top immediately as it's a non-exclusive; this would apply to all titles already in the AtariAge Store being sold in the VCS Store. Value: $24 (gross) Take 33% ($8) from the gross value for author royalties (N.B.: I have no clue what this percentage actually is, so adjust as necessary) Value: $16 (gross) Take another notional $8 from the gross value to cover development and maintenance Development: negotiation of terms with emulator authors to package software with their emulator, adaptation of emulator to software and OS environment, testing of final product prior to shipping Maintenance: having to repackage the software periodically when emulators and/or the VCS' OS updates; must be covered in emulator terms to avoid relicensing costs with each release, which can / will become a significant cost Value: $8 (gross) Taxes, incidentals, etc. - deduct 10% of original sale price ($3) from current value Value: $5 (net) Netting $5 on a $30 sale represents a margin of 16.667%. Someone closer to the actual workings of the AtariAge Store would have to comment as to the accuracy of my numbers and / or how this compares to the AA Store's workings (and, quite honestly that's none of my business), but if I were undertaking this particular venture I'd want to see closer to a 30% net per copy. There's one other thing that hasn't been factored in here, and that's how this may cannibalise sales from the AA Store. Unless there's an absolutely stellar return from selling through the VCS Store, it's not worth risking splitting the audience - just because someone buys a digital copy of <insert game here> wrappered in an emulator does not mean that they're likely to buy a physical copy. If anything, my past experience in that regard tells me that people tend to go for one or the other, not both, because nobody wants to buy the same thing twice. Can't see how this would work well, unless there's something in all of this that I've missed.

True, but DOSBox isn't Stella. It's also possible that GOG has negotiated licensing terms with the necessary parties to make that kind of distribution legally-permissible. My guess is that the issue is with including ROMs with Stella; this is usually prohibited by most emulators' licences. Ditto not crediting the original author(s) in forked releases. I'm not using Stella so someone who is would need to verify against its licence, but those seem like the most likely possibilities if selling for profit is permitted.

@-^CrossBow^-: watched the video last night. Thanks for putting that together; despite the couple of things that you caught with it, it's still an excellent overview of the cartridge and its capabilities. @rj1307: good job, it's a really nice piece of hardware Although I'm a Concerto user at present, having options is a good thing and I may eventually add a Dragonfly to the arsenal at some point. It's really great to see how much activity there is for the 7800. For what was for the longest time a largely-unloved console, it sure seems to be attracting a lot of the right kind of attention these days

Looks like I'll be ordering that POKEY tomorrow, then Hearing the proper startup music for the first time was absolutely fantastic. I'm amazed at how well this game has progressed, and in such a short span of time. This very well may be the best home port of Galaxian, full-stop. Hats off to everyone involved!

Hm. OK. Don't know what to say, then - it's possible that they generate the same keycodes, but it's also possible that the software reacts to them as if they do even though they aren't. Short of disassembling the O2 BIOS or game itself to see what's going on, checking the traces on the keyboard would at least rule out a physical connection and give credence to (but not completely prove) the idea that 'Y' and 'N' are generating the same keypresses as 'YES' and 'NO'.

I have a feeling that this comes back to something I recommended earlier in the thread, when POKEY vs. PokeyONE vs. PokeyMAX was being discussed: In other words, my suggestion to only test with a POKEY in place as opposed to a modern replacement seems to have morphed into a recommendation to not use one at all. By all means run a POKEY - just don't use the modern replacements (for now), and be aware that there are POKEY-related issues in the firmware that are still being investigated.

Yes, and as has been said many times over: neither I nor anyone else is obligated to save you from yourself in terms of purchasing decisions that you may make. However, that doesn't prohibit anyone from passing commentary on whatever it is you may purchase, should you choose to make that purchase known. Speaking as a Jaguar owner: so what? Not everyone is going to agree with your (or my) choices. If they're laughing at it, as you put it, let them. We're not in the schoolyard any longer, so someone else's opinion shouldn't have the same effect as if we were. This is something I do take exception to: the idea that those who dislike the device and company behind it are somehow unhappy with others for enjoying the device that they have purchased. Sure, there absolutely have been direct disagreements between people in both camps, but claiming a dislike of the company and its products extends to those who hold opposing views is logically-fallacious at best and disingenuous at worst. Live and let live is fine, but does not create a bubble in which all contrary or dissenting opinion is impermissible. Yet you cannot let opinion of the VCS that's contrary to yours remain without justification for your purchase. Quite a dichotomy there. So what you're saying is that you're in the same boat as everyone else. Got it. It's certainly nice to be able to insulate oneself amongst only those one agrees with, isn't it?

My recollection is that they aren't the same, but by the same token it's been quite a while since I would've been poking around in that neck of the woods. Try this: if you have the Speedway / Spinout / Crypto-Logic cartridge, start up Crypto-Logic. Enter a word with both the letters 'Y' and 'N' in it; see if it works. Now try the same word again, substituting 'YES' and 'NO' for 'Y' and 'N'. I'm reasonably certain that 'YES' and 'NO' will not appear as 'Y' and 'N'.

I want to say that at least one of the Master Strategy games used them - The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt, possibly. I think Blackjack may have as well, but it's been a long time. Out of curiosity, what's giving you the Y/N output for YES/NO keypresses?

If you're using an SD cart and files are not displaying in alphabetical order in your SD cart of choice, there are two utilities that may be of interest to you: Windows: DriveSort Linux / macOS: FATsort (can be installed from at least apt on Debian Linux and Macports on macOS) I'm using fatsort regularly for Concerto testing, and it's making life much easier. These utilities will also work for pretty much any embedded device (MP3 players, car stereos, etc.) that display files in the order that they were written rather than alphabetically, provided that the media they're stored on is FAT16- or FAT32-based.

I wonder if selecting 'I Agree' blows a protection fuse somewhere just to indicate that it was selected. Even if no changes were made to the clock settings, it'd still act as a possibly-silent indicator of someone having at least been poking around in there. If that is the case, I really want to see the look on the face of the first person whose warranty claim for one that they immolated through overclocking is denied after they stated that they didn't know what went wrong with it.