justclaws

I found a definite difference betwen my 2 VCS systems which seem to be on the same firmware. They are both run#1 collectors editions, before anybody suggests it's a hardware difference, btw. System 1 (not working) System 2 (still working) Both have the same firmware and BIOS, so it must be a Chrome settings issue, as both systems also of course have the latest Chrome 93.x installed, from Atari, possibly because the first system was in use since January, and the 2nd, only July. By July, there were signficant improvements, to the system, when clean-installed. You can verify the OpenGL functionality also on this website. https://get.webgl.org/

Yes, I see the ordinary page only has USA as a shipping option. I want a 2nd modern controller, and missed-out on the backers-offer previously. I'd contact Atari customer-service, because they have plans for international distribution this year, as I recall (but maybe delayed due to Covid), so maybe it's not that far away. I'll dig around too and see if I can find an active international shipping option somehow. Australia and New Zealand got first international distribution, but with a huge local mark-up. I hope that the European distributors don't add such a huge mark-up once it gets here too!

I don't understand why, at all, but AirConsole works perfectly still on my other VCS. The game is also a link, not a binary, and all the games work; the one which fail on the other VCS with the error. Obviously, I'm not leaving it that. I want to know how that's so. (However, playing a driving game where you have to shoot at the same time as driving, both using the phone touch-screen, is awful. I hope one day they add controller support.)

I forgot to mention this before, but a few days ago I got the Backer-Kit notification by email. I was able to choose Atari VCS as my beta-test platform, set my name for in the game, etc. The full-game is getting closer! I'll post when I have more news. 🙂

I believe he said that cartoon violence would be OK, but not violence with blood and gore etc.. There was a stated focus on 2D/2.5D, no 3D, so I guess the no-violence actually means no realistic violence? I think the "no violence" in games rule is explained OK with the ESRB E10+ rating, explained here, for example. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/gameratings

All my games work on both consoles, with my account. Games are saved locally though. Since the last VCS user-interface update, save-game data can be seen in the Storage tab, also, and deleted also. What does not work yet but Atari are working on, I believe, is to enable "family" access to games on one console. (Not an official term - but what I mean is, if my kids want to play my games, on my console, they should be able to, but they cannot install games. At the moment, each account has it's own games, even on the same console, which is not logical. However, a secondary player on console 1 should not be able to add those games if using console 2.)

Since a few weeks, I have two VCS consoles, and my test was done on the VCS at my home. However, yesterday evening, I tried Air Console on the other VCS, and on that I got the error. That's crazy, as both systems are up-to-date, and were using the same account and games. I am sure that originally AirConsole was a binary, but I see now that it's a web-link on machine 2. I hope to check the other machine this afternoon, or this evening, and see if a) it still works, and b) if the app is different, or c) that the app worked yesterday, and without update, fails today. 😕 Yesterday, it was running fine on the other VCS. So puzzling.

I had an original ZX81, also, but I didn't get it until later in 1982, after getting my ZX Spectrum. My ZX Spectrum needed a repair, and was away 2-3 weeks, so I got a new ZX81, still available at retail, to fill the gap in my life. 🙂 Back then, game music was special. It could be anything you wanted, with the ZX81, because it had no sound/speaker. After loading the game, we could just put in a cassette, and press <play>. 🙂 The ZX Spectrum music was generated by the CPU, through a piezo speaker, so it was a single "channel", but some could be OK, and 3rd-party add-ons and later machines (e.g. ZX Spectrum+ 128) had an AY-3-8910 chip installed for multi-channel sound. 🙂 There is an add-on for the ZX81 which also updates it with sound, flash storage; perhaps it also works on the Timex T1000. The success of the Sinclair machines in the UK, and Europe, in particular, was the way anybody could code or build for them. Here is also a tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair; one of many created so far; an icon.

Sadly I don't have my ZX Spectrum any more. I think my ex gave it to charity a few years ago, post divorce. More sadly, I think a super-rare copy of my first commercial game, and the source-code cassette, got binned. In the 1980s, in the UK, very few people bought or considered consoles; there was such diversity back then, in the UK, for gaming. Computers! Sinclairs, Commodores, BBC/Acorns, Dragons, Amstrads, and so many more. We also couldn't afford console games back then; games on cassette were affordable at least; new every week. I didn't know any friends who had any console; I rarely saw them. Much later, I really wanted an Atari XE/GS, as it seemed so well to combine computing and console, but I'd just got married; there were other priorities. I literally never saw an Intellivision in the UK back then! All my friends had computers; we wrote games too. I did read about the Intellivision, but before I saw one, the equally unobtainable Colecovision was announced. The other thing, besides family consoles, which is missing these days, is high-street electronic stores. In the UK, systems sold in Dixons, Rumbelows, Tandy, WH-Smiths, Boots, dept. stores, and even computer shops! Now, where to buy a family games console in NL? Only video-games stores, toy-shops, or (rarer) MediaMarkt. My first console was a Binatone B/W games system. (Which sounds worse? Players 1 & 2, or left & right?) Easy controls. For the shooting games, it had a light gun.

Absolutely... for my first computer, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum (16K, expanded to 48K), from Christmas 1982. Sadly, if you missed it, the inventor/entrepreneur, Sir Clive Sinclair, died this week. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2021/sep/17/clive-sinclair-zx-spectrum-offbeat-brilliance The cleverly designed VTX-5000 1200/75 baud modem, included software to access Prestel, and other services. https://worldofspectrum.org/hardware/feat24.html Then, for my next computer, a huge leap to a 2400 baud modem, but uploads were still restricted to 75 baud. If people still had to have a verified account, and pay to post their stupid comments online, there'd be fewer. 🙂 The VTX-5000 definitely opened the door to online for lots of people, because it was literally "plug-in, dial-up", for Prestel, with an on-screen timer, because even local-rate dial-up was a serious expense in the UK then. Prestel - https://bt.kuluvalley.com/view/AxB2TlJ032M?start=71#/ I loved the look of the acoustic-couplers; but my dad got a cool "Trimphone" which would not work with one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimphone

Another podcast episode (#2) of the Atari Recharged series, with Megan McDuffie.

Well, I have just played Mega Monster Party with the app on my VCS. Before that, I played the racing game Burnout 5, and also worked fine. Perhaps there was a temporary glitch, at the server end, or it's regional, but here in The Netherlands, the game works from my VCS, no problem. I hope it does for you now, too! If it still doesn't work, I'd contact AirConsole support, not Atari for this, as it is an issue you found in the browser, also. AirConsole seem helpful. (They did have an update for the VCS app a few weeks ago as I recall.)

No, no problems with what I've used. On the VCS, AirConsole has it's own display app to install; it's not a browser app there. I also just tried it on a PC with Windows 10, with Opera, and Chrome web-browsers, and no problems. It works as before. Maybe you can give a specific example of where you get the error? Maybe I can reproduce it then.

A couple of days ago I ordered myself this trackball, and I'm now eagerly waiting for it. https://coolgods.nl/draadloos-programmeerbare-ergonomische-trackball-muis.html

No problem with system/games loading times - it takes physical media - actual Intellivision cartridges! Dial-up via a combined 300 baud acoustic coupler and charging station in one, as per this prototype. (No tangle of wires to your display, as I'm sure it casts the game output to a Chromecast at 60 FPS.) Wouldn't that be a thing?