justclaws

Unlucky for some!

I totally agree. What I meant is, it was an upgrade from what shipped in the machine! The Quadro 400 is much better than the original HP card, and the PC is only 7 years old! ("The Quadro 400 was a mid-range professional graphics card by NVIDIA, launched in April 2011.") https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/quadro-400.c1317

I keep hearing how a 10-year old PC is faster than my new VCS. Let's see... I thought I'd try the Heaven benchmark on some other systems I have use of. Of course, most people here have gaming PCs, and money to burn, but I don't, and I'm not alone. I tried 3 of my systems, and you can compare them to VCS. Maybe you can add your gaming-PCs and potatoes, for more amusement! https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven I thought my work-provided 15" Macbook-Pro would be interesting for starters. Of course, it runs MacOS. (It's running the very latest version of MacOS Catalina.) It's just over 5 years old, 4 cores, 8 threads, Intel GPU. The laptop display is a bit less than full-HD, of course. I also have an Fujitsu Esprimo q520 mini-PC, Intel i3, Intel GPU, 16GB RAM. I use the machine as a desktop, with virtualisation, and software development. It's just over 5 years old, 2 cores, 4 threads, Intel GPU. (Accelerated driver.) It also ran my Linux Steam game collection. It's running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I also have an HP mini-tower, Intel i5, with an (upgraded!) Nvidia card. (I got this 2nd-hand last year, as a compact mini-tower while I am tele-working.) It's about 7 years old, 2 cores, 4 threads, upgraded Nvidia graphics card installed. It runs Windows 10, desktop applications, with Hyper-V virtualisation, just fine. If anybody has an old gaming PC they want to dispose of, I'm happily accept donations, ha ha, to accelerate some hobby game projects. 🙂 Yeah, I'm not expecting any offers! In The Netherlands, a refurbished Esprimo min-PC is still selling for over 300 EUR. https://www.remarkt.nl/fujitsu-esprimo-q520-usdt-core-i5-4570-4gb-500gb-ssd-hdmi.html Previous VCS (see previous message in this thread) This is a previous VCS benchmark, but it's not 1920x1080, so I will run it myself, when I have time.

Nice setup Zoyx. Now THIS could also make a nice series thread... 🙂 Come on friends, share you new VCS setups with Zoyx. 🙂 My setup right now isn't very eye-catching... it's on little table; for development purposes! My BJL/Skunk Jaguar is connected by USB (Skunkboard) to the VCS, for some fun as well, and a USB SCART/RGB video-capture device for use with the VCS, as well as HDMI capture.

I feel sure that we'll have a positive resolution for the long-term, in the not-too-distant future. Call me an optimist, yeah, but it's not without reason. :-) I've no inside-information. It's a guess! As a result, I'll be patient again.

I hope that COVID-19 is not disputed, at least, in this thread. Surely we're past discussing that...? I hesitate to post! For the millions of people who died, have lost loved ones, or been seriously ill, or lost their jobs, it's certainly serious! I have been working from home for 10 months now, and I've not seen any colleague, even over webcam, even once. https://covid19.who.int/ - What does COVID-19 stand for? ('CO' stands for corona, 'VI' for virus, and 'D' for disease.) On the tech side, I can certainly testify that our supply of hardware from the far-east, was badly affected by COVID. From even before April 2020, we immediately had problems, with orders being delayed, and we're only end-users. Only now is my employer able to be more sure of supplies of urgent h/w systems, but this still sits on a knife edge. The wholesale shutdown in China in Feb/Mar 2020, at the height of their pandemic, escalated prices, blocked shipping. We were offered lead-times on repeat million+ Euro orders of equipment which started at 6 months, and got worse... At the same time, other equipment we needed was sat in warehouses, and the price was dropping, without demand! I think both what Tommy and DigDugNate said on supply-chains is true, without contradiction, their opinions, aside. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-20/a-covid-19-supply-chain-shock-born-in-china-is-going-global I think going to test new hardware now, or start new production, must be a nightmare challenge. It's like a war period. I saw in a video Tommy said the Amico has >100 electronic components, and >700 parts. Just one blocked is enough! A certain other console manufacturer had 2020 production delayed due to supply problems with just one component. That manufacturer, at end of 2020, had to resort to air-freight to bring products from Chinese factories, to market... On shipping too, climate change is starting to have an effect... on shipping price too. If you didn't see the video yet. (Actually, my game about loading/unloading cargo, against the clock, with motion controls, I hope that will be fun!)

Tony posted an update on Facebook. Hello all, I've been silent for a bit. Hopefully, I'll have a full-tilt-boogey trailer soon, but my son said I should post some screenshots, so here are a couple of quick shots. Actually, these are the first shots not in split-screen, come to think of it... Here are the associated screenshots. It's looking great!

The Night Driver reimagining excited me, but it's only on mobile. 😞 I don't like playing on Android; the game is fun, but my finger gets in the way!

The Star Raiders reimagining for Windows, Xbox, from 2011. I actually like the look of the 2011 Star Raiders remake, and bought it for Windows on Steam. I did not yet have chance to buy it. I only bought it since receiving my new VCS.

This is the new Combat from Atari on mobile. The puzzle bit puts me off. 😕 This was the Atari Yars Revenge remake for Windows from a few years ago.

As I understood it, it's a special temporary site, and there is no old password. The <reset password> sets the initial one for you, but only if your email is already registered, from the backer list.

Do you mean you tried to do system update from the System menu? I never tried that. The system update ran automatically at startup and completed no problem, first time. However, because I had changed the BIOS setting relating to secure boot only, I got into a boot loop for the BIOS update. That is, it tried to do it, but could not, and rebooted, and then tried again. (I could have bypassed it but wanted the improvements.) I reverted that change and then it completed OK. Anybody changing the BIOS settings of course needs to know how to revert back. Maybe you have something like that with the BIOS? It's not clear to me where and how it does not work from what you wrote. Sorry.

I was looking at this page, but no answer yet. Gamepad Tester - Check Controllers and Joysticks Online (gamepad-tester.com) I tried a couple of tester programs, but they do not work with ANY controller. Out-of-date. Doh. I will try to write my own, this week. 🙂

As most people probably heard, the unreleased remake of James Bond GoldenEye 007 for Xbox, leaked. Several people have written that for academic interest, they tested this on the VCS, under Windows 10, and it runs very well. That's obviously very interesting, as it was one of my favourite N64 games too. This page describes the Xenia emulator installation. https://github.com/xenia-project/xenia/wiki/Quickstart There are plenty of videos which describe how to download the game, and get it running on PC. I'm not going to post a link to a video on how to download and install the leaked/pirated game! I post here a video of the differences between the N64, and the Xbox version. Very interesting. It's great that we could also do this comparison, as we can run both N64 and Xbox via the VCS. This is also interesting...

For inspiration, this is a link to the (old) Atari games which ship with the VCS. That way, we can all check if the title is something possibly which Atari could do. https://atarivcs.com/atari-vault With the system, we have Missile Command, but I really would like that to have waves as before. My dream I'd like a new Breakout, and even versions of the classics, just modernized to use a high-res TV, even if the game-play was almost the same. Online would be nice, in this time of the pandemic! A "Modern Atari Vault" would be my imagined dream - all games in modern versions with online high-scores, and updated graphics, but not fundamentally reimagined. I know, a niche concept. Of course very few people would want it, and it would be a huge effort, but if the floor is open... Real-world today For now... and in the real-world... There are some previous reimagined games which work with it, but only on via Windows so far. These days, though, cross-platform development tools make conversions to VCS/Linux easier. The ones I know of so far, from Atari, were all Windows-only historically: - Missile Command - Tempest - Star Raiders - Asteroids - Pong - Yars Revenge - Haunted House - Night Driver (Mobile only so-far) - Combat (Mobile only so-far) - Ninja Golf (Mobile, coming soon) In an interview, some time ago, the CEO said Atari have plans to bring more classics, of course. As the developer of Missile Command (as I recall) is now an Atari share-holder, this should help.

Another system finally arrived, after it had some adventures in the postal system.

OK, oops, sorry to Albert for the typo! My colleague Arthur is not involved, ha ha. :-)

For people who want to play popular games on Windows, this video may be interesting. This young owner with big ambitions, and he's trying things out, and playing games! What a great selection of games he's enjoying on his VCS.

There is an interesting update on this subject, from Europe. (It's from the Intellivision President of European Operations, giving more details.) If you do not read German, Google Chrome will usually helpfully translate it for you. https://beta.gamesmarkt.de/details/457689 (i do not find it legitimate for me to copy and paste the article in translated form.) I will quote what Hans Ippisch said (translated), not the journalist writing. "We had no other choice after Covid-19 had already prevented the Europe-wide PR tour planned for February from taking place and we had to cancel the mall tour planned for March due to the lock-down extension and travel bans. That's why we met together with partners and also our exclusive distributor Koch Media agreed and consider a launch in the second half of the year to be realistic." He says as well as well as six installed games, around 30 exclusive Amico games will be available in digital and physical format, including "Mattel Hot Wheels" and "Evel Knievel". All games will contain screen text in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Dutch.

That's weird, because the controllers didn't get an update. I had hoped for one, but better safe than sorry. I was playing Guntech last night, after the update, no problems, but tonight I will try Danger Scavenger. 🙂 An update for Danger Scavenger is coming (I think I read, soon, somewhere) so let's hope it's a coincidence!

This patch was reissued today, of course. I took photos, but I will add updates tomorrow - previous notes apply also. After the update: BIOS version - 05.32.50.0011-VCS.20, updated password. AtariOS - 20210212.195850.production, Build - P#911. 　 I had already done the previous upgrade, so no lost of game data. The big change here is that after software update, the BIOS was updated. However, after the software update, the BIOS password was NOT changed. Only after the BIOS was updated, was the BIOS password also changed. I think the password is present again on the system as before. Tomorrow... Fan control seems again better, less noise, even in Guntech. (It seems so.) WIFI connection good, reliable, faster than before. Bluetooth sync good, 2-3 seconds, a bit longer after sleep wake-up. Quite a lot of system files changed, but I will analyse file system tomorrow.

No drama. I got told they were a problem (not by AtariAge). I didn't know the other console had previously been discussed, and used by a troll as criticism. I could not remove the whole post, so I deleted videos links which could cause a new argument.

Even if it stays in "Modern", I'd love to see a link from the Atari list too, because I've had a few people comment to me, after I told them to check out AtariAge for VCS information, that there is no forum for VCS here, only forums for 2600. That's why I've been sharing a link to the specific Atari VCS forum URL. I try hard to redress claims AtariAge is anti-VCS! It's Albert's decision, I respect it, and for now, he said no. (I'm hoping maybe once it hits USA retail, or 1st anniversary.) 🙂

There are other brands which have the same thing, so that may open up your choice of cables later. PowerA and other brands of Xbox controller also have these. (Maybe all licensed, made by PowerA?) Obviously this is a design decision with mixed reactions, but there are upsides as well as downsides...

Nice, but sad all this MAME discussion could not have been in the "emulation on VCS" thread, or even been in a dedicated "getting MAME working on VCS" thread, so people can find it later.