Albert
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Posts posted by Albert
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I'm also surprised that they accept scores from emulators. The source code for most emulators is available freely on the net, and a knowledgable programmer could probably modify the code easily to make games less challenging. And some emulators already have functionality that can allow you to "cheat". For instance, you can often slow down the frame rate to make a hectic game easier to play. Or you can pause the game to take a break, something most (all?) games don't allow. Those two items alone should disqualify emulators.
Plus, screenshots taken from within emulators can *very easily* be modified to show just about any score, and there'd be no way to tell that the shot was faked. This can still be done with photographs of television or even video taken of gameplay, but that takes a bit more talent and time, and is easier to detect if not done well.
I'm sure their rationale is to open up the competition to those who might not own the various classic systems. While I see they list how the score was verified, there's nothing that says if an original system or emulation was used to achieve the score..
..Al
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Oh my god, you have got to be kidding me.
This is a picture of me at E3 next to one of the booth babes in the Infogrames booth handing out bottled water. I guess I shouldn't be terribly surprised that someone is now auctioning these on eBay. I have several unopened bottles myself, I'll have to see how high the auctions go.
Oh yeah, the above image is from our E3 Pictures page, and there's a higher-resolution version of that picture available..
..Al
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I know exactly how you feel as I've been a long-time fan of Atari products. I got my start back with the 2600 like many people, but we couldn't afford to buy many games. So only when I started collecting did I get a chance to try all the games I couldn't get my grubby mitts on as a kid.
Several years later, I became extremely interested in computers when I had the opportunity to play around with an Apple II at school. Then a friend of mine bought a Vic-20 and I absolutely had to have a personal computer of my own. I saved up paper route money and eventually bought an Atari 800XL. I typed in just about every program I could find in Antic, ANALOG, and Compute! magazines and taught myself how to program (in BASIC and then 6502 Assembly). Later I went on to run Phantasmal Alchemy, a BBS running on a large collection of Atari 8-bit hardware -- 800XL w/256k, 1MB ICD MIO board, Atari XEP-80, ICD SpartaDOS X, ICD RealTime 8 Clock Cart, Atari Rev. C BASIC Cart (yes, three carts sticking out of the top of an Atari 800XL!), 2 Seagate ST225 20MB Drives, Adaptec MFM HD Controller, IBM PC HD Case, Commodore 1702 monitor, Magnavox 80 column monitor (Carina II BBS supported the use of two monitors at once, it was pretty damn cool), two Indus GT drives, two US Doublerized 1050 drives, and I went through several modems over time, starting with cheap 1200 baud modems and working my way up to more expensive US Robotics modems (ahh, those were the days!) It was quite a site to behold.
Later I got into the whole Atari ST scene. A friend and I even wrote a multi-user, multi-tasking BBS system for the Atari ST called DMS BBS. DMS stood for Digitally Mastered Software. We never sold it, but we did run a system briefly on it (you could even login from another Atari ST via the MIDI ports). Unfortunately we never really finished the software. At one point we ported it to OS/2 and then later to DOS when Microsoft dropped support for OS/2 in their compiler (*******s!) So that was the end of my involvement with Atari computers.
However, I was suckered into purchasing a Jaguar when they came out. I rememeber paying something along the lines of $250 or $300 (ugh!) for a Jag, only to be disappointed with the extremely sluggish pace with which games were being released. I think this killed the Jaguar more than anything, although Atari was always quite inept at marketing their products. I sure did have a blast playing Tempest 2000, though (so much so that I later bought it for the Playstation!)
I also purchased a Lynx when it was released (you think I would have learned my lesson!!) Fortunately a lot of great games found their way to the Lynx and I had quite a bit more fun with it than my Jaguar. At some point I sold my Lynx, but a few years ago I acquired a Lynx II system with several games for a decent price at a game store in Austin. I then picked up quite a few games on eBay, although I don't have nearly a complete library for the Lynx yet (haven't been actively collecting for it).
It was painful watching the slow demise of Atari over the years. In many cases they had superior hardware over other companies, but time and time again they blew opportunities to surge ahead of their competition. It got to the point where retailers were somewhat loathe to stock new Atari systems, given the company's previous track record. I haven't even mentioned many of Atari's other failures, such as the Portfolio and PC-compatible line (ha!)
It would be exciting to see Nolan Bushnell purchase the Atari name from Infogrames, but I'm somewhat cynical at this point that an Atari 2.0 will ever become reality. But you never know, stranger things have happened..
..Al
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Is there an Atari 8-Bit Cartridge list anywhere? I've started cobbling together part of a list from what I've found offered on eBay and any existing list would be helpful.Please pass along any useful lists you come across, as I'm in the process of building an Atari 8-bit cart list myself. I have a ton of 8-bit cartridges (over 130 unique carts thus far) and am a huge Atari 8-bit fan, since an Atari 800XL was the first computer I ever owned.
After the Lynx and Jaguar sections are done, I'll be working on the Atari 8-bit section. But it doesn't hurt to start collecting information as early as possible!
Thanks,
..Al
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If you look at the blue Ghostbusters detail entry, it's very much broken. (No title, picture, ID numbers, etc.)Thanks for pointing this out, I'll correct this when I get home from work later today..
..Al
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A long time ago a friend made color copies of every issue of AtariAge for me. He was testing new Color Copiers from Kodak (a business they've since gotten out of, I believe). I still have them in a large 3-ring binder somewhere, I'll have to hunt 'em down and see what kind of condition they're in.
If they're in decent shape, I'll start scanning them. It only seems appropriate that a site by the name of "AtariAge" would have scanned copies of "Atari Age" magazine online!
..Al
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Don't be suprised if there are some classic related announcements. I've heard some rumors that I hope to confirm at E3.I'll certainly be hunting down any classic-related items/news I can find during the show. I'll have tons of pictures, video, and commentary posted upon my return!
I'm going for several reasons, 1) Keep my toes in the game industry, 2) Meet up with lots of friends who are going, 3) See all the way-cool games and systems coming out, 4) Collect as many free t-shirts and swag as I can, 5) Get tons of pictures/video that I can later post on the web, 6) Get as much classic gaming related info as I can for AtariAge!
And of course, the parties are always a blast!
..Al
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I'm going down to Los Angeles tomorrow to attend the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game industry's annual trade show). I was wondering if anyone would like information on specific companies and/or games. I'll be armed with both a digital camera and DV camcorder, so I'll be coming back with tons of pictures and video. I'm going to sniff around for any classic gaming-related items, but I don't expect to find much in that department.
..Al
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Would this be Rainbow Walker by Synapse? While you didn't have to collect Dots, the game was extremely colorful. I don't remember many of the details, but I do remember enjoying it quite a bit. There's a small blurb about it here:
Rainbow Walker Review from Antic
If this isn't it, I'll keep searching.
..Al
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Hi JagDiesel,
I'm one of those suckers who bought a Jaguar (for $300?) when they first came out. It was rather aggravating at the time since the time frame between games could be measured in months. My favorite game was Tempest 2000, but I never had any of the later releases, or the JagCD for that matter. I look forward to playing all of the Jaguar games someday..
Heck, I don't even have a Jaguar at present, but I will work on acquiring one soon enough, even if I have to turn to eBay. Anyone have an extra Jag lying around they no longer want?
..Al
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I just finished reading that article for the first time and only realized afterwards that it was posted in September, 1999. Don't know if uWink will be successful, but it sure would be cool to see Atari revived. I think the whole "Retro" thing could work in Atari's favor, but many retailers would probably balk at Atari given their dismal failures with the Lynx and Jaguar.
It certainly would make for some interesting times!! Nolan Bushnell would take advantage of the Atari name much more so than Hasbro has!
..Al
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*just a rumor at this point, passed on to me by a friend in the computer industry, but rumor has it that two of Nolan Bushnell's investors are none other than Activision and EA. Things are definitely getting interesting.This threw me off until I went and read the article in MetroActive mentioned in another thread..
It would be very interesting to see Atari 2.0, that's for sure. However, with Hasbro/Infogrammes owning the rights to Atari, I'm not sure how much that would be a reality. Perhaps he'd start another game company with a different name, but I doubt he'd wrestle the name Atari out of 'em. But you never know, it's certainly been passed around to many companies to this point!!
..Al
[ 05-10-2001: Message edited by: Albert ]
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Okay, I've fixed the link, thanks for letting us know!
..Al
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The scan we have of Marauder is here:
That's definitely a white cart. Maybe it was released overseas with a red cartridge?
The second cart looks like Coleco's Donkey Kong or Mouse Trap.
..Al
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Hi David!
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There really are no way of telling Spectravideo NTSC/PAL carts appart(besides dumping the rom and CRC comparing them with reference Good2600)???
I have several Spectravideo PAL carts and they're all labeled "SPECTRAVIDEO" (on the label and plastic) and have the text "© 1983 SPECTRAVIDEO INTERNATIONAL LTD" at the top. All my NTSC releases are labeled "SPECTRAVISION" and are missing the copyright text at the top.
Now, I don't know if this is a way to differentiate PAL/NTSC carts. It could just be that some carts have a Spectravideo label and others have a Spectravision label. Does anyone have more information?
..Al
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Hi Airwolf,
We do have plans on creating a section of the site that showcases all the catalogs from various companies. But in the interest of getting AtariAge online, we had to put a few things on our "To Do Later" list, this being one of them. I have quite a few 2600, 5200, and 7800 catalogs just waiting to be scanned.
..Al
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I've always wanted to create a coffee table out of 2600 cartridges. The top of the table would consist of as many 2600 carts as I could reasonably fit, then covered with a thin layer of glass. Would be pretty cool and certainly an interesting conversation piece..
Would also be cool to tile a bathroom floor with 'em. I certainly have HUNDREDS of duplicate carts that could serve that purpose well. Will have to wait until I have a house built someday.
..Al
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Mountain King,
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Kabobber's pretty cool. I like making little Kabobbers. Was there supposed to be a concept to this game or storyline. I read the instructions from the contest a few months ago, but I didn't know if the winner made the story up or did he base it on something.Rex did provide us with a little background about the game and I think some names for the different characters. But most of it had to be filled in. I know Rex was impressed with the finished manual, and he's certainly not alone there!
..Al
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Tempest,
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Albert, if you ever see Rex Bradford again tell him Kabobber rules! Do you have an e-mail address for him? Then I could tell him myself (actually, I just want to stalk him).I do have an email address, but he probably doesn't want it published on the net..
I need to drop Rex a line for other reasons, and I'll mention to him that people love Kabobber and give him the URL to this thread. I don't think he's seen the site yet. ..Al
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I was digging around my closet and found a lenticular Lynx pin (a couple actually) that I got from a guy who ran a BBS dedicated to the Lynx.It'd be great to get pictures of those for the Lynx section that I'm presently working on. Are the pins all the same or are there several different ones?
..Al
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I'll be going. CGExpo is held in Las Vegas and takes place August 11-12 this year. The official website is here:
Hope to see some of you there!!
..Al
[ 05-02-2001: Message edited by: Albert ]
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I just want to offer my opinion that having the games sorted by model number is a royal pain. At one time I was religiously collecting label variations by the Giant List and I remember how much of a pain it was looking through all the Atari and Sears carts for a particular game. At least I knew Combat was always at the beginning of Atari.
And if John doesn't allow you to change the list the way you want, I would just create a new list from scratch. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be allowed to improve the list, the original will always be available if people want to look at it.
..Al
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Not sure what happened to your Label Museum link, but here's the correct one:
http://www.msu.edu/user/reicher6/labelmuseum.htm
You've got some great scans of some pretty unusual carts. For instance, all the PAL Red Label Atari carts. It would be nice to get some of those scans for AtariAge. I believe we have some that would be useful on your site as well. For instance, I have an oddball Othello cart that has a Picture label with a Text end label!! I haven't put it up here on AtariAge...
Enjoy!
..Al
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game manuals
in Atari 2600
Posted
As Cro§Bow stated, we do plan on scanning in all the 2600 manuals. We'll leave the HTML manual archive online, but the primary resource will be the scanned manuals. It takes quite a bit of time to scan manuals, crop/reduce the images and update the database to get them online. Even though the 5200 and 7800 don't have nearly as many games compared to the 2600, it took a while just to get those manuals online (and we're still missing manuals for those two systems!)
I will soon have more time available to scan 2600 manuals, so you'll see significant movement in that department soon.
..Al