johnnywc

I checked out Nathan's site - great job!!! You can clearly see a difference in the CD4050 mod to Ben's - ghosting is minimal (but still apparent) and I can only assume that the signal is stronger (which would correct the projector/INPUT 3 issue). I will patiently wait for the boards to be made available... Thanks!

Question for the videophiles out there: I did Ben's hack to my 4-switch, and, although the picture is nice (much better than RF), I had a few issues: 1) The picture had a "bleeding" effect on some games (for example, in Golf, the sandtraps had a different color outline on the right side). 2) When I hooked it up to my big screen, the "INPUT 3" stays in the upper-right hand corner, as if the TV is not getting enough of a signal (picture is fine) 3) At work, I hooked it up to a projector and the picture was awful unless I routed it through a VCR. Again, probably not enough signal strength. So, my question is regarding the CD4050 hack - does it correct any of these issues? If so, put me on the list for buying one when and *if* they are sold here at AA!!! Thanks,

Decathlon was always one of my favorites - me and my 3 brothers would always have great competitions with it. As for being a joystick killer, we never did break one playing Decathlon. I did have a friend (he's was a bit on the hefty side) break a chair playing Asteroids (not sure if there is any relation) and another "strong" friend actually "ripped" the top off of an Atari joystick trying to run away from Rhindle the dragon in Adventure!! Man - it was priceless seeing his reaction, looking up at me with this suprised, panicked look and the joystick top in one hand, wires dangling, and the joystick bottom in the other. Classic...

My vote is for an XBOX version of the Anthology and any other Anthology. As for a new Anthology, online would be awesome (Xbox Live?) with the M-Network games, Imagic, CBS, Sega, etc. Parker Bros too (although it sounds like that would be a problem). Thanks for letting us give our input!!

Anyone know if an Xbox version is planned?

Ken - Thanks for the info! FYI - I noticed the Bridge release date is 12/1/1988 - should it be 12/1/1980? I didn't notice anything else peculiar. Thanks again!

Now I'm no expert by any means, but I believe the way it's accomplished (in a high level explanation) is by using a combination of RESP0 (reset P0) during a scan line and NUSIZ0 (to make three copies). For 6 players on one line (like Space Invaders), you could use P0 and P1 with the same graphic, both with three copies, but I think there is a way to display all 6 using just P0, NUSIZ0 and RESP0. Here's a link on "The Dig" that has some code. http://www.neonghost.com/the-dig/source/source.php3 Hope this helps!!

Joe, I tried to do that same thing a while back with Hozer. Randy cannot make an NTSC Klax cart because it requires the Sara chip (I believe this is the Super Chip that has 128K bytes of RAM). Here's the thread that detailed my experience: http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7416 I hope somebody someday decides that bringing this game to cart form is worth the effort - I think it's one of the best on the 2600!!! Hope this helps...

Hello, Does anybody have a disassembled listing for 2600 Asteroids? Thomas - I know you did a hack of the game some time ago to support Driving controllers and display the "extra ships" (fantastic job btw). Did you happen to disassemble the game as well (I assume you would have had to). If so and you're willing to share, I'd love to see what you came up with!!! Thanks again,

Hello all, I am a *newbie* Atari 2600 programmer and I have a question regarding bankswitched games; in particular the F8 bankswitch mode used by Atari for 8K games. I have surfed the net and I understand basically how it works (correct me if I'm wrong): Accessing $1FF9 in bank 1 will switch to bank 2, and in that second bank accessing $1FF8 will switch back to bank 1. My question is this: How do you write an 8K game in DASM that will use bankswitch mode F8? I realize that you must have two 4K blocks of code and that only one bank can be used at one time. Is there a quick "shell" that demonstrates how this is done? Can DASM compile and generate an 8K BIN? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Great job on the game!! I've never played the actual game, but I'm learning... Any chance that a game like 'pitch' or setback could be made? It sounds a lot like this game, but has a few different rules: you're trying to capture hi, lo, jack and game and you bid a number of 'points' (2-4). Anyone else ever here of this? We used to play in college all the time (I'm in the NE). Ttoo much time if I remember correctly... Just a thought... Thanks,

I agree - Tempest's site is fantastic. One of the most fascinating things about the 2600 is all of the prototypes (and the stories behind them) and with atariprotos.com we finally have an informative, cohesive, and entertaining resource that brings it all together. Thanks again!!!

Thanks for the info Tempest/MattyXB. I was playing the game on the easy mode FYI. How do the diamonds "protect" you from the bat? Do you ever need to use the button? Thanks again!

Hello all - I've been playing the Snow White ROM and discovered that those white dots in the mine actually seem to be bad to pick up. I collected 9 of them and finally grabbed the orange/brown dot to advance to the river scene. At the beginning of the river scene, my white dots (diamonds?) were counted down and removed, and with each one counted the wicked stepmother (black figure) moved closer to Snow White, making the time it would take her to catch her that much less. Is there any benefit to picking up these white dots? Anyone figure this thing out? Thanks,

Thank you for the binary!! I actually bought this game at CGE but haven't had a chance to play it at home (no time) but have plenty of extra time here at work. First thoughts are: this game is pretty cool! It's not the best, and certainly not complete, but I would rate it at about 75-80% complete. It appears that all 3 screens are functioning (somewhat), there is a goal and ending to the game, all collision detection seems to be working, and there is full sound. There are even a couple difficulty levels. The only thing keeping it from being complete are a few graphic glitches and a couple of bugs. Questions: I know Tempest had said the white dots in the mines are diamonds (makes sense), but what is the brown/orange dot supposed to be? I know it let's you out of the mine, but any idea what it is? I know the white blip in the haunted forest let's you escape - any one have a guess as to what this is? Does anyone know who the programmer for Snow White is? I'm sure they could recollect what they were intending when the game was made. Anyway, excellent find and glad we all get a chance to play this one finally. Here's hoping that Good Luck, Charlie Brown! sees the light of day soon... PS Does anybody else who got the game at CGE notice that the front label is upside down compared to the orientation of other Atari games? I think it's the same for RS Basketball. No biggy - just an observation.

Tempest - Fantastic!! Sounds great - can't wait for the grand opening. Your other site (8-bit rot) only had proto info on Dumbo, Frog Pond, Save Mary, NTSC Klax and Saboteur - sounds like you've added a bunch!! By end of the month, do you mean end of August or September? Thanks!

Tempest - Thanks for the info. When is that proto site going up? I remember peeking at it some months ago (I think you had a backdoor link up on a message regarding Klax) and was very impressed. Not sure what has changed since then, but either way excellent job and great resource.

Hello all, I just got finished playing the Xevious proto ROM available here on Atari Age - I must say that I'm very impressed!!! Anyone know the story behind this one? ie. who programmed it, why wasn't it released, how close it is to being finished, what hasn't been implemented, etc.? It's obviously pretty close to being complete... Thanks!

STARSHIP!!! Seriously though - favorite is Subterranea for one player, Sky Diver for two and Warlords for 3+.

Golf, both difficulty switches on A: The bar has been set...

When's the big day for the auction? I have 5 g's burning a hole in my pocket!!!

Stan - Yes - the dark green border is the "rough". When the right difficulty switch is in the 'B' position, you cannot hit the ball through it - it will just stop. On 'A', you can hit it through, but it slows the ball down considerably. If the ball gets stuff in the rough, hitting it out is almost like hitting it out of the sand traps. I keep it on 'A' so I can cut the rough on hole #1 and #9, but I put the left difficultly on 'A' to make the cup smaller to make up for that little advantage. In the end, I usually miss two putts a game because of the smaller cup, so I don't think it's worth it. The easiest way to play, IMO, would be left diff. on 'B' and right on 'A'. Just don't get stuck in the rough!!! Have fun!!

After an analysis, I came up with the following for Golf. The "Best" is the lowest score I've gotten on the hole, with both difficulty switches on 'A' (the left switch controls the size of the cup, the right one determines whether you can cut through rough). I've never been able to get all 9 'Best' scores on each hole in one game - my lowest score is 29. Hole Par Best ------------------------- 1 3 2# 2 5 3 3 4 3 4 4 2 5 4 2 6 5 2 7 4 3 8 3 2 9 4 2* ------------------------- 36 21 #On hole #1, my general approach is to cut the rough on my second shot for a birdie, but it is possible to get a birdie on difficulty 'B' *On hole #9, with the right difficulty switch on 'B' I have not been able to get a 2 - the lowest I've gotten is a 3. I do not think it's possible to get a 2 - the only way I've done it is by cutting the rough on my first shot with the difficulty switch on 'A'. Good luck!

Ron- Thanks for the info. It certainly makes more sense. Will the golf scores be fixed so that they come up in the right order? If I play the game on difficulty A, would this start another category of scores? Thanks again for your quick reply.

Glad to hear some people are playing Atari's Golf - I always liked this one. My personal best is a 29!!! (i have a screen shot somewhere...) I must admit, though, that I play the game with both difficulty switches on 'A'. This makes the hole smaller when putting, but allows you to hit the ball through the rough (even though it considerably shortens the distance the ball will travel). Not sure what is up at twingalaxies - 46 under par is obviously impossible (par is 36) and you have to hit the ball AT LEAST once per hole, for a theoritical low score of 9 (although this is certainly impossible with the angles and distance the ball will travel). My guess is that it is for 4 rounds of golf, which would make sense, although VERY impressive (46 under would mean an average score of under 25 four games in a row!!!). I have theorized with my tests that the lowest score I can obtain is a 21, which would include a large number of chip-ins from the green. I'll have to fire it up and give it a shot...