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Albert

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Posts posted by Albert

  1. Posted

    Hi Steve,

     

    quote
    However, I'm still getting the PHP/SQL errors. Took 9 reloads to get to the front page just now, and had a few errors on the way to the message board. I was quite suprised, because its 10:12GMT, and the main bulk of your audience would still be in bed, so whether its linked to excessive hits I don't know.

     

    Oh well, I had hoped my host provider fixed the problem, but if you saw that (very early) this morning then something is quite screwy with the server this site is running on. We'll keep pressing them for a solution to the problems and hope to get a solid resolution from them soon. In the meantime, I'm still pursuing other options, although if we were to move the site that probably wouldn't happen for a few weeks.

     

    Thanks for the kind words regarding the site. It's somewhat frustrating to have all your hard work thrown awry when the computer serving your site starts acting screwy! Hopefully this will all be resolved soon..

     

    Take care,

     

    ..Al

  2. Posted

    quote
    I sent a copy of 7800 Xenophobe along with Winter Games and Tank Command to Alex a couple days ago. I guess he must be holding out on you.

     

    Okay, I'll go shake 'em out of him.

     

    Thanks!

     

    ..Al

  4. Posted

    It looks like our host provider fixed the problem as I've been using the site for the last 20 minutes and haven't had any errors. In fact, the site seems to be quite a bit snappier for me than it was before, so I'd really like to know what they did!! I did get one message saying they were investigating the problem, but haven't heard more than that yet.

     

    ..Al

  6. Posted

    Hi Twit,

     

    These problems actually started this morning. We have seen this before, but only for short periods of time. At present the machine AtariAge is being hosted on is also used by other websites, any of whom could be abusing the poor machine. I'm going to open a trouble ticket with our host provider to see if they can do something about the MySQL errors being generated (which are probably responsible for all the problems, including the PHP errors you're seeing). The code isn't very graceful right now about handling failed connections, which is something I intend to clean up.

     

    Long-term, we'll likely have to move the site to a dedicated server. It's looking like we're going to blow by our allocated bandwidth in May, so we might have to find another solution fairly soon. Unfortunately, alternate solutions are fairly expensive and right now Alex and I are paying for everything out of pocket.

     

    Neither of us wants banner ads on the site. But if it does end up costing several hundred dollars (or more) to host the site, we'll have to come up with some reasonably way to pay for it, without resorting to banner ads. If that's possible.

     

    In the short-term, if you see this problem again, the best thing to do is to reload the page (repeatedly, if necessary). The problem can occur on *any* pages, since they're all using MySQL to some extent. I'm hoping this is just a temporary issue and it goes away Very Soon. If not, we'll probably have to scramble even sooner to find a hosting solution.

     

    ..Al

  8. Posted

    quote
    I assume this is the same as that disk based version (not having seen it I can't be sure). Was that disk legit or was it a pirated copy? I don't think Atari ever released TLSF but I'm not 100% sure. From what I've heard it was a pirated version that got leaked out of Atari's labs over the BBS's (remember those days?).

     

    I know I never purchased a copy of The Last Starfighter, so it must have been a pirated copy. I don't think it ever got released commercially. However, Atari did modify it a bit and released it as Star Raiders II. Not sure why this was done, perhaps to capitalize on the popularity of Star Raiders? To prevent having to pay licensing costs for the movie?

     

    ..Al

  9. Posted

    Tempest,

     

    I've played a disk-based version of The Last Starfighter, but that was *eons* ago back when the Atari 8-bits were still in production. It was a pretty cool game, although I don't remember the details. But I'm pretty sure I was able to use the joystick with it.

     

    If you want more info on the Arcade game, take a look here:

     

    The Last Starfighter Move and Videogame FAQ

     

    and here:

     

    KLOV - The Last Starfighter

     

    Enjoy,

     

    ..Al

  10. Posted

    Hi Bill!

     

    Collecting for 22 years! Wow! I've only been collecting 5 or 6 years at this point. I have a pretty sizeable collection (and I collect label variations), but I don't have very much in the way of UR or prototype carts. If I only collected for the 2600 then I'd probably be further along, but I collect for just about every classic cartridge-based system out there (yes, I need help).

     

    Welcome to AtariAge and hope you have fun!

     

    ..Al

  11. Posted

    Hi Günther,

     

    It'd be nice to get higher-resolution scans of those two Romscanner ads, which I can eventually link to from a Romscanner page. I can't read the ads, but it's always interesting seeing what products were released overseas and how they were advertised.

     

    Thanks!

     

    ..Al

  12. Posted

    Hi Phantom,

     

    Flattening boxes is a good compromise when space is a consideration (as it is for me right now). It pains me to think of damaging boxes, so I would only flatten boxes that I can do so without inflicting harm. Considering I have hundreds of boxes in storage, I'll probably do that soon to save space.

     

    Someday when I have a huge house and I can devote a (very) large room to my classic gaming collection, then I'd love to have a great display of boxed games. They do look considerably nicer sitting on shelves than cartridges do sitting in plastic drawers!

     

    ..Al

  13. Posted

    Hi Marco!

     

    I'd love to see scans of the prototype boxes you have! I went to the link with the Tempest box, but didn't see pictures/scans of any other boxes. It'd be great to get high-resolution versions of these to put online here at AtariAge!

     

    ..Al

  14. Posted

    Hi Karl,

     

    Crab Control is a game produced by a company called "Action Hi-Tech". It appears that they produced the following games:

     

    Crab Control

    F-18 Vs. Aliens

    Galaxy Invader

    Space Grid

    Tank City

    War Zone

     

    It seems their games were pirate releases of other commercially released games (as you discovered with Crab Control). I've seen reference to these as Taiwan releases. I assume this is a PAL game?

     

    I'd love to see a scan if you want to post one.

     

    Thanks,

     

    ..Al

  15. Posted

    I bought one from eBay myself a few years ago, complete in the box in mint condition (was never used as far as I could tell). I don't remember how much I paid for it now, but I think it was around US $50. I wish eBay kept their transaction history around longer than they do, even if access to old transactions was slower.

     

    Not sure what these are worth in Germany, might be rarer there if the Romscanner was never released overseas. Perhaps someone else has more information?

     

    ..Al

  16. Posted

    If anyone does come across pictures of Imagic employees or the company, please share them with me! One of our goals is to provide pictures of as many of the programmers as possible, as well as pictures of company headquarters when possible. I may drive around Silicon Valley someday just taking pictures of all the present-day locations where many of the classic gaming-era companies used to live. I already have pictures of Atari's old headquarters at 1196 Borregas Avenue in Sunnyvale (I live in Mountain View, which is next door!) And Activision used to be here in Mountain View somewhere!

     

    ..Al

     

    [ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: Albert ]

     

    [ 04-29-2001: Message edited by: Albert ]

  17. Posted

    Hi Günther,

     

    I dug up the Atari 8-bit FAQ (which will someday be posted here!) and found the following useful information:

     

    quote:

    Subject: 10.2) What is the difference between NTSC and PAL machines?

     

    Software written for NTSC (North America) will always work on PAL machines, but software designed on PAL machines (Europe) won't necessarily work on NTSC machines.

     

    Wayne Booth, mailto:[email protected] writes:

     

    The differences with PAL and NTSC have to do with the number of lines displayed on the screen and whether they are using 50 or 60 Hertz.

     

    If I remember correctly, I believe PAL has 625 lines/screen and they refresh the screen 50 times a second doing 1/2 the lines each refresh so they effectively repaint the screen 25 times a second. NTSC is 525 lines/screen with a 60 times a second refresh - again only half the lines each refresh so a 30 times a second frame rate. This would change the amount of time available during vertical sync pulse, and the number of lines that need to be redrawn each time.

     

    Graham Thornton, mailto:[email protected] adds:

     

    I use both a real PAL Atari 800 and a PAL-ANTIC 1200XL here in the US.

     

    Replacing the ANTIC chip with a PAL version changes the screen refresh rate to 50Hz which allows most of the PAL-only European software to run. Your system will still report itself as a NTSC machine, unless you change the ROM (see the Nir Dary upgrade), but most software doesn't care.

     

    But James Bradford responds: (7/19/00)

    Not true. the PAL Flag is in the GTIA chip, not in ROM. The NTSC and PAL roms are the same. Only Rev A ROM was had different versions. I am not sure if Rev B ROMs had seperate versions.

     

    Graham continues:

    The one problem you might run into is your monitor. Replacing the ANTIC will mean your North-American Atari is now generating an NTSC signal at 50Hz, instead of the usual 60Hz. Some people will tell you that modern TVs and monitors don't care but that isn't actually true. My brand-new Sony Trinitron 15" colour TV/monitor goes bezerk with the upgraded 1200XL, but my 15-year old 10" Texas Instruments color monitor (designed for the TI-99/4A) is fine.

     

    You can also use real European equipment here in North America, provided that you have a PAL-compatible TV/monitor. The frequency of the power system is irrelevant, as I use my 800 with a 110V/60Hz 1050 power supply.

     

    Hope this helps!!

     

    ..Al

  18. Posted

    Okay, I've replaced the bad ROM dump with the 16K dump. Of course, everyone reading this thread already has a copy of the good image, but hopefully this will save others frustration in the future.

     

    Thanks!!

     

    ..Al

  19. Posted

    When I first started collection 2600 cartridges I sought out boxes when I could get them. But after a time I decided that collecting boxes was a lot of work, so I toned down my hunt for boxes and instead concentrating on getting as many loose cartridges as I could. There are several reasons for this:

     

    1) Boxes take up lots of space! I can store cartridges in convenient plastic drawers (see this page in our storage tips section) and keep all the games relatively organized and easy to access (for playing!) Boxes were just taking up way too much space, I was storing them on bookcases and as my collection expanded found I had quite a few bookcases just for boxed games!

     

    2) Boxes are expensive! If you can find them in the wild that's great, but on eBay boxed games rightfully tend to run more than their loose counterparts. So I figured I could have a much larger loose collection for the same price as a boxed collection.

     

    3) I knew I'd *never* collect boxes for probably even half the games out there, so I drew the line at collecting just carts and manuals. I like to collect manuals to have the instructions for the games and they don't take up much space (I store them in comic book sleeves with backing boards).

     

    4) One of my goals in collecting was to get all the cool games I couldn't afford as a kid, which was most of them. I don't need the boxes to play, plus I'd feel somewhat awkward opening up a shrinkwrapped or sealed game just to play it, so then I'd need to collect a *loose* cart in those cases. With loose carts I just grab it and go!

     

    I still have all my boxed games, but most of them are in boxes in my storage unit. I also collect for non-Atari systems, so I have many large boxes just full of boxed carts, taking up valuable space in my storage unit. I haven't yet decided if I'll keep them, put them on eBay someday or just use them as trade fodder. They did come in handy when we had to scan boxes for AtariAge.

     

    ..Al

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    I'll update the ROM here on AtariAge later this evening. I noticed there are two files in that ZIP and I want to find the one that works before posting it! Has anyone tried these yet?

     

    Thanks,

     

    ..Al

  21. Posted

    I actually prefer it the way it is now and just use my mouse wheel to scroll to the bottom. I'm used to this from other UBB boards I read, so it doesn't bother me. I prefer to have the thread in proper chronological order.

     

    If you feel strongly about it, maybe we can get in the ring and duke it out.

     

    ..Al

  22. Posted

    Hi Nostalgic, and welcome aboard!

     

    I think this is a great idea! I can update the pages for these three individuals and add the URLs.

     

    Ultimately we plan on having pictures of the programmers (easy for the Activision guys!) along with a brief bio. In which case any current URLs will be part of the writeup. Just not enough time to do that before launching the site (unless we pushed out the launch again, but we did that often enough as it was!)

     

    Thanks,

     

    ..Al

  24. Posted

    quote
    Anybody know about any conventions here in Texas? I know that a few of you also live in Texas, and I haven't met another Atari collector in my area yet.  

     

    You missed me, as I moved from Austin last August! Alex is still in Austin, though! I'm not aware of any classic gaming conventions there, though. Time to get one going! Given the high-tech nature of Austin there must be a good number of collectors there. And the fact that I could never find anything decent in thrifts there!

     

    ..Al

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