tkarner

It's always bothered me that the turtles in Parker Brothers' Frogger are just ellipses. So, after 5 minutes with Hackomatic I present Frogger with real turtles... FroggerTK.bin

How does 7800 Super Pac Man (and Jr Pac Man for that matter) compare to the 8-bit versions? I already have the Super and Junior Pac Man 8-bit prototype repro cartridges and they're great arcade conversions. Jr Pac Man is missing the intermissions but I'm guessing the 8-bit versions have better sound.

First Atari game I played had to be Air Sea Battle because that's what Sears used in their store display unit.

I stopped by at the Digital Press store this weekend. I had some store credit burning a hole in my pocket when their homebrew display caught my eye. At first I was reluctant to get the Pac Man Collection since I already have some version of Pac Man for every single platform in the house. But I got it anyway and I'm glad I did. This version probably has the best look and feel of any version on a classic platform. The 8-bit version was ok for its time. The NES version looked good but it just doesn't feel right. But this version hits all the marks. And all the extra features... The random mazes in Plus mode will keep me occupied for a while.

Just checked, actually I do. I have one box of DSHD still shrinkwrapped. I have six additional boxes of DSHD that look new but are not shrinkwrapped. Then I have two boxes of DSDD, also, no shrinkwrap. Make me an offer.

I guess I should have made it clearer, these are mostly blank disks I'm talking about.

While cleaning the attic I found a ton of 5.25" floppy disks. Some new, some used, some high density, some double density... Is there a market for these among the vintage computer crowd? If so, what would be the going rate?

I've been away from Atariage for a few months so I didn't know that Nukey and Kevinmos3 were also working on Galaxian, but here's my version. My hack is less ambitious than theirs. I simply tried to create the most arcade authentic version by only altering sprites and colors. I hope I succeeded. Perhaps down the road some of my changes could be incorporated into their version for the ultimate 2600 Galaxian. I started with the Atari version and first removed the orange border. Then I borrowed the Galaxian sprites and score font from Jess Ragan's Galaxian Arcade because he did a fine job with those. But then I took it couple of steps further. Galaxian Arcade, and most other previous hacks only changed the sprite of the ships in convoy formation but kept the original Atari sprites when the ships were in attack mode. I made them both consistent. I also changed the colors of the ships to better match the arcade. I also made the colors consistent between the convoy mode and attack mode. The convoy sprites are still multicolored and the attack sprites are still monochrome but at least the base colors match. Also, I made the movement of the ships in formation a bit less jittery. The score was changed to red because that's what the arcade used. I changed the player's ship a bit. It always bothered me that it was assymetrical, it fired off center. I also changed the reserve ship graphic a bit. And finally I replaced the Atari copyright with a Namco logo just for kicks. You may have noticed that the player's ship is now a pale yellow. This is a problem with the original program. The byte that governs the player's ship color is shared by the Galaxian flagship in attack mode. Therefore both must be the same color. It's probably why in the original Atari verson the flagships were white instead of their iconic yellow. I decided I really wanted them yellow so I have to deal with a yellow player ship. Enjoy... GalaxianTK.bin

This video ( ) says that only heavy sixers had gray power supplies. I've never owned a heavy sixer but I have a gray one. And it's different than the one shown in the video. It has a black sticker with a reflective fuji. Also, on the back it's labeled Atari Incorporated and Made in Japan. Any thoughts? I supposed my collection could have gotten mixed up over the years...

That must be Schroedinger's Dig Dug. It is in a state of quantum uncertainty, both red and silver, until you open the box.

The yellow/orange outline around the switches is well worn. This looks like a high mileage model to me. So the woodgrain wallpaper theory is a possibility.

Is there a schematic of the Booster Grip floating around? Thinking of making one myself (or something like it).

Games like ET and Pac Man did not contribute directly to the crash in a financial sense. Atari made money on them. But what these cartridges did was make people ask themselves "I just paid $30+ for THIS?!" And then they thought twice before buying the next cartridge. There's this myth about the crash that people stopped playing video games until Nintendo came along. Really? Here's what we really did. We got ourselves home computers (Apple IIs, C64s, and Atari 8bit) and started playing far better games which didn't cost $30 a pop (in fact they cost no more than a blank floppy disk). The NES only became popular because we didn't let our little brothers use the computer. We cleverly convinced our parents that it wasn't a toy. So they bought an NES for them for the sake of domestic tranquility. So it's my opinion that there was no real video game crash. We never stopped playing. There was instead a first generation console crash caused by a combination of too many crappy overpriced cartridges and the rise of home computers.

If you just need a cart gaming machine, I'd suggest an XEGS (with or without keyboard). That's what I use for 8 bit cart gaming. It's compatible with more carts than a 400.

$31,600 Actually I use my Game Brain sometimes. Usually when I have visitors that want to play Atari, I grab 6 games they may remember (Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pitfall, etc...) and let them have at it. But for my personal use I use a Harmony Cart.

Wasn't there one of those TV plug 'n' plays that had Game Gear games? Probably not what the original poster had in mind but it would allow you to play at least some GG games on a TV. Yup, found one: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 260577692115

Did you go in and ask the clerks if they remember selling this game to anyone in 1985?

Men-A-Vision? Rainbow logo? Big pink letters on the side? Looks so Village People to me. (Not that there's anything wrong with that)

"Hold your controller with the red button to your lower left toward your television screen."??????????????? I guess it really was printed in Taiwan.

Last time I was at the Digital Press store in NJ they had one. It was boxed but not sure if it was NIB. Price was $25, if I recall. So I'd say, probably not something you'd find at an average garage sale but not expensive to acquire if you're looking for one.

Go to a Chevy dealer and ask the parts department to order you the shift knob for a '93-'96 Camaro with manual transmission. You'll get exactly the same thing (but leather).

If this is one of those 2600 Jr look-alike clones then I think the easiest thing to do is see if the clone motherboard fits into a real 2600 Jr case.

To keep the menu neat and manageable I put only about 200 games on my SD card; the 200 games I am most likely to play on a regular basis. The files take up 1.4 MB. They would fit on a floppy. I'm guessing the Harmony ships with 2GB because that's the smallest SD card you can buy nowadays. The Harmony is a good place to use old SD cards that are too small for modern uses. I have a 16 MB card from and old camera that is perfect, and still mostly empty.

Well, with the Harmony you no longer NEED a Supercharger... But the Supercharger allows you to score major geek points when you set it up like I do: -2600 connected to a Supercharger -Supercharger connected to a laptop running wplaybin -laptop networked via wifi to a server storing the ROMs With this setup, the 2600 reminds me of the Voyager probe at the heart of V-ger (or a Rube Goldberg device).

Well sorry if my suggestion seemed too obvious. Just trying to help. Getting cables crossed up happens to the best of us. I'd certainly check that first before swapping out the CPU or RAM.