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salzmafia.com

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Posts posted by salzmafia.com

  4. Posted

    7 hours ago, Spector said:

     

     

    Oh no!!!  :)

     

    Fair enough, I wrote that line about the writing being amateurish without thinking about the writer actually reading my comments! There are quite a few mistakes though. In saying that, having looked at your kindle download of issue 20 where you talk about Space Invaders, the standard is clearly higher. Maybe I was unlucky and looking at bad pages, I don't know. But thanks for giving us those downloads to begin with. 

     

    If it's any consolation, at least understand that when I criticised your books, it was because I thought they were worth talking about. They are informative and give really useful advice on the dipswitches and skill levels of each game. It acts as a reference guide to the games as well as a review. I have already got the kindle version of your first Arcade Compilation guide, and I may now go for the other one too. The Parker Brothers one looks tasty as well. But one piece of English language advice: "it's" only has an apostrophe when it is an abbreviation of "it is". Don't use an apostrophe otherwise ie. "on its own". There! I had to say it! :) 

     

     

    Thank you.  If you email me corrections that you noticed, I'll let send ya something nice 🙂

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    On 8/25/2020 at 2:35 PM, Spector said:

    I've also noticed that Michael D. Salzman has written a lot of paperbacks in his "Unauthorized Atari Companion" series that are very similar in style to the Brian Matherne books I was talking about earlier, and they cover individual software houses as well as arcade conversions in general:

     

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=unauthorized+atari+companion&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

     

     

    I think they look quite good, but judging by the sample pages, the writing is terrible! Virtually every sample page has grammatical and/or spelling errors that make it look like it was written in high school. Surely someone has told Mr Salzman about this so he can fix them? They are so amateurishly written. Such a shame because I would be interested in purchasing some of his books otherwise.

    Oh and for the record, Brian's books are based on mine, not the other way around.  The content and formatting, particularly in his early books are based on mine, further I've designed all the covers for his books except for the Christmas/winter themed ones.

    • Like 2

  6. Posted

    On 8/25/2020 at 2:35 PM, Spector said:

    I've also noticed that Michael D. Salzman has written a lot of paperbacks in his "Unauthorized Atari Companion" series that are very similar in style to the Brian Matherne books I was talking about earlier, and they cover individual software houses as well as arcade conversions in general:

     

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=unauthorized+atari+companion&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

     

     

    I think they look quite good, but judging by the sample pages, the writing is terrible! Virtually every sample page has grammatical and/or spelling errors that make it look like it was written in high school. Surely someone has told Mr Salzman about this so he can fix them? They are so amateurishly written. Such a shame because I would be interested in purchasing some of his books otherwise.

    Very well balanced criticism.  Thank you.  But why buy something so "amateurishly written" when you can get issues 20, 21, and 22 of the Throw Back 'Zine for free from now until Sunday evening?  https://www.patreon.com/posts/40952588  Enjoy and thank you for the plug! 

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    On 8/27/2020 at 6:13 AM, atarifan88 said:

    As far as the Michael D. Salzman books are concerned, I started out with the zines which are mini game magazines in full color.  They are nice, but short, so I went for a few of his books.  I recommend the following:

     

    The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Arcade Companion Volume 1

    The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Arcade Companion Volume 2

    The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Activision Companion Volume

     

    These are the ones that cover the best Atari 2600 games.  They are really written to give you an intro, history, and strategic tips for each of the games.

    Thanks!

  9. Posted

    On 8/25/2020 at 2:35 PM, Spector said:

    I've also noticed that Michael D. Salzman has written a lot of paperbacks in his "Unauthorized Atari Companion" series that are very similar in style to the Brian Matherne books I was talking about earlier, and they cover individual software houses as well as arcade conversions in general:

     

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=unauthorized+atari+companion&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

     

     

    I think they look quite good, but judging by the sample pages, the writing is terrible! Virtually every sample page has grammatical and/or spelling errors that make it look like it was written in high school. Surely someone has told Mr Salzman about this so he can fix them? They are so amateurishly written. Such a shame because I would be interested in purchasing some of his books otherwise.

     

    Every book encourages corrections.  Those who have submitted corrections have not only been thanked but also rewarded.

     

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

     

    You forgot to mention the The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Imagic Companion and The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Coleco Companion.

    Both are great booklets for $5.

     

    I hope one day Mike will also publish "The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Parker Brothers Companion", as they've created some really great Atari 2600 games (Frogger, Cobra Strike, Q*bert, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Super Cobra, etc.)

     

    The day has come. The Parker Brothers Companion: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1717741517

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    I recommend using RevEng's custom score_graphics.asm. I've done this to have blank spaces at certain points in my project. Let me know if you need any usage examples that aren't explained in this thread:

     

    http://atariage.com/forums/topic/147450-custom-fonts-for-bb-all-in-one-score-graphicsasm/

     

    Not looking to change the font, or artificially "remove it" as a sprite. I just don't want the 2nd digit drawn. I found the original thread I was referring to here. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215110-three-two-digit-scores/?hl=score+graphics&do=findComment&comment=2804136

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    Thanks for the replies thus far. Perhaps I'm not explaining myself well (which I often do :-) ) All i want to do is make the 2nd (or 2nd and 3rd digit) of the score not show. I don't want to change the numbers into an inventory system - I need the number sprites to remain as they are. In 2013 years ago I had posted a similar question about removing the center two numbers, and someone provided some ASM to do this and it worked great. Unfortunately I don't have that code anymore, I can't find the thread, and even if I did I don't know if would help in this situation.

  23. Posted

    I've never programmed for the Atari 2600 so going about this may be completely different than what I would be thinking. But I would think if I have a 6 digit number I would want to divide the number by 100,000 and that without the remainder would be the digit to the left that a variable would be assigned to for use with that one digit by itself. Then for the other I would take the the total score and subtract the (that variable times 100,000) and what would be left would be the the 5 digit number, then divide that by 10,000 and that gives you the value for digit 5 and store it as a variable, so then you could take the 5 digit number and subtract the (that variable times 10,000), which will leave you with the 4 digit number that you can then display next. Like I said though I've never programmed on the 2600 and there are other ways to do that also but I was trying to do it thinking of an easy to understand way to do it, if it can even be done like that on it I have no clue.

     

    Thanks for the reply. I have no concerns with the values of the score, I just need that 2nd digit to not be on the screen. Even better - to have the 2nd and 3rd digit removed.

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