else

and what is THIS all about? 947067[/snapback] Probably just means they are an eBay drop-off business. Suprised you haven't heard of places like this before. They seem to be everywhere these days....

Is this just the printer's power supply that is been put in a case, or something different? I ask, because typically that is what you see, so I don't see how "very rare" it can be -- I mean, anybody can do that for themself....

There is a set of three for the Coleco Adam (memory console, keyboard, and printer) along with ones for the Coleco Adam Disk Drive. I'm 99.999% sure I've also seen the for the Atari ST series as well. I might even have one packed away some where....

Just an odd thought.... Given that each controller port has two analog inputs, I'm curious if there were ever any analog joysticks made for the Atari 2600? And there were no games that supported an analog joystick, right? Even if there weren't any analog joysticks made specifically for the Atari 2600, are there any that are pin-compatible with it?

Ah yes, but the Atari 2600 has two analog inputs -- so just use one of those! I also agree that it takes two clicks to measure the speed. One click gives you no information that you can use. Okay, who's got the breadboard to wire this sucker up! 940495[/snapback] 940513[/snapback] I don't agree. There are plenty of times where the user doesn't want to move -- they want to stay in one place. So after two clicks have been seen, you stop timing. Then the user may want to make a rapid move so you want to measure the time between two clicks again. If you are constantly timing like you seem to be saying, I don't see how the user can stay in one place for a while, then make a rapid movement.

Note that the analog lines can't be used to represent more than a 1 and a 0 unless you intend on reading them multiple times during the screen. That defeats the purpose of the microcontroller. So in theory they could be used to boost the information the microcontroller can send to the VCS to 6, or 7 if you also include the fire button. So it can be done. It's just a matter of coming up with a communication protocol that isn't a total kludge. And the microcontroller needs to be told when to reset itself after the read and start aggregating again so it needs to be bidirectional or the data reads need to be automatically detected. It might be easier to just use a serial protocol but that's more overhead on the part of the VCS, especially on the reading end. 940507[/snapback] Analog can only represent a 1 or a 0? I think you're confused.... It goes like this.... Microcontroller calculates speed between two sucessive clicks of the driving controller. Microcontroller then does a D-to-A conversion on this value and outputs it on an analog pin that is connected to the VCS's analog pin. So I really don't see how you say an analog value can only take on a value of 1 or 0? That's not analog by any definition I'm familiar with....

Ah yes, but the Atari 2600 has two analog inputs -- so just use one of those! I also agree that it takes two clicks to measure the speed. One click gives you no information that you can use. Okay, who's got the breadboard to wire this sucker up!

Does the blue text Pac-Man box also fall within this timeframe as another odd (one-off) box variation?

The Adam version is kinda strange. On the initial screen Kong looks different then the regular kong and then once the game starts he is back to his good 'ol Colecovision self. I wonder why they did that? 928964[/snapback] They were probably just trying to differentiate it from the Colecovision version. After all, it's supposed to be "Super" Donkey Kong....

I felt old last week when I saw the Nintendo 64 thread going on in this "classic gaming" forum....

Oh man, don't tease me like that. Talk about the holy grail of Jaguar games....

Awesome! My order has been placed. Thanks Carl!

No, what he's saying is that if he twists the rotor controller all the way around over the course of a half second it will move the player the same distance if he twists the rotor controller all the way around over the course of a minute. In the case of the Driving controllers, there are 16 state changes over the course of 1 revolution. This works well for driving games which feature sprites that rotate in 16 direction, but not so great for a Tempest style game where you are pushing your player around a larger area. Err, you sure about that? I understand the 16 states and all. We're talking about increasing the resolution of the rotary controller to _more than 16 states_ by equating the speed that those states are being cycled through to a variable (non linear) speed of travel of the on-screen object. So I believe what I said is exactly what we are talking about.... Since speed itself is an analog property, you can in theory increase the states to an infinite number. If you're using an 8-bit microcontroller to accomplish this, you can in reality turn those 16 states in to 256 states. It is an interesting idea. Not sure how it would translate to actual twitch-type gameplay, but interesting none the less.

This seems a bit odd. Say I'm playing Tempest, and I want to go all the way around the web. So you're saying if I quickly turn it a small amount I will go all the way around, but if I turn it slowly the exact same amount I might only go partially around the web? To me, this would take quite a bit of getting used to -- it would seem like you would constantly be having to change your grip on the knob.... I'm not exactly convinced that this is the way a mouse works either. I think the pointer moves the same distance whether I move the mouse slowly or quickly. I'll have to do some simple expirements. Not saying you're wrong or anything -- I honestly don't know....

"64-Bit Video Game System!" No wait, there's clearly not enough buzzwords in there. How about "64-Bit Interactive Multimedia System!!!" "It's got so many processors, even we can't keep them all straight!"

Yep, seeing stuff like this makes one understand why the video game crash occurred. People got tired of seeing video game stuff every where they turned....

I would purchase one!!!

Computers were sold without tape or disk drives back in the day. You could have plenty of fun using an Atari 8-bit home computer with just carts. 931382[/snapback] You misunderstand what I said. Atari sold the 810 for the 800, the 410 for the 400, and the 1050 for the XL line, etc. But I'm not aware of a storage device made specifically for the XEGS. Of course, that doesn't mean that each and every person who bought a 800 also bought a 810, etc.

Well, you *could* upgrade it back in the day. You're going to have a hard time finding the upgrade kit in 2005. Furthermore, if you have a ROM 00 I would recommend NOT upgrading it -- they tend to be highly collectible and fetch $$$ on eBay....Are you sure about that? I just did a search on ebay and sorted by price. It looks to me like SCSI cards and systems with built-in Vulcan hard drives are at the top of the list, then larger RAM upgrades. But at the top of the price heap is a Transwarp CPU upgrade. Top of the computer versions seems to be the ROM 3, with one being a Woz lid ROM 3. In other words, the Woz lid taken from an old ROM 0 and slapped on a ROM 3... my two main systems have Woz lids on ROM 1 motherboards (I never found a ROM 3 in the wild) with larger RAM cards. One has a Vulcan, the other has a SCSI card. I know that as a non-rabid collector (in other words, I didn't have one back in the day, nor did I drool over one, as I already had a Macintosh), having the non-buggy ROM, larger RAM, and hard drive support is more important than a crappo ROM 0. The only part of an original version that I care about is the lid. I didn't even bother to pull the ROM, as I could just swap the lids. 930651[/snapback] In case you didn't notice, you answered your own question. How many ROM 0 ones did you find on eBay -- none you say? Why not? Because 99.9% of them were upgraded to ROM 1. That makes the ROM 0 very, very rare. And we all know that means on eBay. I've watched Apple stuff for years and years on eBay and every once in a blue moon a ROM 0 will come up for auction -- and like I said they tend to fetch a good deal of money when they do.... Look at it this way -- why do buggy Atari 2600 prototypes go for so much money when you could buy the release version for only a buck or two? Because Atari collectors are fanatics. So why should Apple collectors be any less fanatical....

I hear you. The only true, I mean true, advantage to the Apple IIgs over the Apple IIe in my mind is that it has build-in support for 3.5 inch disk drives -- whereas it's relatively expensive to add 3.5 inch disk drives to an Apple IIe. But some of the Apple IIc models also have built in support as well, so even that isn't much of an advantage....

Well, you *could* upgrade it back in the day. You're going to have a hard time finding the upgrade kit in 2005. Furthermore, if you have a ROM 00 I would recommend NOT upgrading it -- they tend to be highly collectible and fetch $$$ on eBay....

If you like AvP (Rebellion's second release), don't miss Skyhammer (Rebellion's third release). If you've ever wanted to feel immersed in the movie Blade Runner, this is it. It has unlimited freedom of motion while you're piloting a futuristic aircraft in and around huge cities. It's best played on a cold, rainy, dark, fall evening -- for maximum effect. As others have said, stay away from Checkered Flag (Rebellion's first release). But they definately made up for it with AvP and Skyhammer....

Console. Computers by their nature are sold with some type of storage mechanism (otherwise what else are they good for). The XEGS never had any storage device manufactured for it. Yes, I know that the existing line of Atari tape and disk drives will connect to it, but these were XL / XE devices that didn't match the styling of the XEGS. So I say console all the way....

I had the same question. The Coleco Adam was probably the first system it appeared on and is very well known since it was the pack-in game for it. I emailed the author a few days ago but didn't hear back. Seems like a glaring omission in an otherwise good article....

Yea right!!! You must be new to eBay, son....