Dripfree

Well I finally had success tonight. I built my SIO2PC RS232 adapter and after a little trial and error I got it to load Sparta dos. I am incredibly excited now because this is going to really open up a lot of doors for me and my little 800xl. I see that I still got a lot to learn and Id like some info from you guys to help me along. First what file types does ape accept? So far I have only tried ATR. files just cuz I noticed that was what the DOS files that came with it were. Can it handle ATX. or XEX.? If not is there a convertor? I would just do the trial and error method like I usually do but I'm using an old Toshiba laptop I had lying around to interface with my 800. Its the only pc I got with a RS232 port plus I didn't have any other use for It so now its gona be a dedicated extension of my Atari. The only way I have to transfer files to it is by burning cd's. So I don't want to work by trial and error or I'm gona make alot of coasters. Where Is the best place to get files known to work well with ape. I have got a handful from http://atarionline.pl I have had about a 50/50 success rate. Boulder Dash and Tetris worked. Ballblazer wont load, and Rescue on Fractalus loaded but then crashed about 30 seconds into the game. I did finish this thing late and haven't had to much time to play with it. I wanted to type this up before I went to bed so hopefully Ill get some pointers I can try when I get home from work tomorrow. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks much Dripfree.

You know you collect to much when you can identify a Jaleco NES game just by looking at the spine of the label. You know you collect too much if you know what I was talking about in my previous statement.

So you just turn on a strobe light in the room where your playing duck hunt? How does that do anything....

It looks to me like it may be the first version of the the tiger handheld game lights out........ Probably not though.

Hmmm something wrong with this the gun shouldn't be able to see a target unless it can see the white square the your tv flashes when the trigger is pulled. I don't quite get this I think it should only register misses? I am curious to see more responses to this. I thought I understood how light guns work? At any rate maybe buy the $5 goodwill TV. I got a color 26" just to play duck hunt on.

Actually I do have a 7800 and that is what I play all my games on right now. My thought is that I never mod a system If I only have one. I'm actually kind of a purest at heart. If I get second one I would like to attempt to mod it..... Not even so much for the end result. I really just enjoy the project and I'm always trying to improve my skills. If I do mod one I want it to be the least collectable because I want the rare one to exist as it was originally intended....... Not to mention if I screw up I don't want to break the rare one.

I just picked up my second 2600 today for $10. It had 2 joysticks, paddles, 2 racing paddles, and 5 games nothing rare, no boxes but not bad for $10. It's a four switch. My first one is a six switch, (not a heavy sixer). I was considering doing some mods to one of them but I wanted to leave the one that's more collectable stock. Are these things pretty equal as far as collectability? And since I'm asking the question could someone possibly give me a list showing me the order of the most sought after 2600's .I know there are quite a few and I really don't know what's rare other then the heavy sixer........ I also know there are a lot of off brands, are any of these considered more or less collectable then an official Atari 2600.

Atarian1 you are correct I misspoke there were no true inaccuracies. I did however find many points of the commercial a direct attempt to mislead the audience. Not that that's wrong it is a commercial after all. I realize I'm going to get a lot of hate for this. But I got to disagree with high voltage with the whole joystick wins thing. While I do agree the joystick is superior for some games the joypad opened up a whole new level of control. I would like to site this video as an example. http://youtu.be/wz3BuYYhnn0 Perhaps its just my lack of skill with a stick but I don't believe this level of control is possible without a joypad. I think its kinda the same reason they put short shifters on sports cars less movement means faster response times from the machine. Oh and as far as the idea of the chip being installed for quality control. That's garbage! I don't think any system had more crappy games than the NES. Almost every game that was based on a movie was garbage and just pumped out to hit a deadline (with some exceptions of course). There are quit a few games for the NES that I would would say are so bad that they are nearly unplayable!!!

Wow I didn't know that even existed. It is so stupid that I love it, now I want one too. It seems like a great way to make your portable system to big to take anywhere. I got a light boy not too long ago from Goodwill for a buck. It's just a light and magnifying lens. It's a pointless device, but it's the things that seem too pointless to exist that are the favorite pieces of my collection. IE the power glove.

Wanted to know how many of you knew what this topic was about just by the title. Who remembers playing against your friends at a dial up game such as Doom, Duke Nukem, or Command and Conquer. The ones where you would set up your dial up modem to call your buddies house so you could battle 1 on 1. The idea is very funny to me now considering how we play multiplayer games today. I remember my friends modem calling my house to make the connection and one of my parents would inevitably answer the phone. I would yell from the basement (where we kept our pc) "MOM DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!!!". Then I would call my buddy up and say "sorry my mom answered the phone lets try again" Of course this all took place after 8:00 pm cuz god forbid I tie up the phone line during the day. Wow kids got it so good these days............ Now I want to play some Duke Nukem 3d. I wonder if anyone made a mod or crack for that game that would allow me to play it over the net nowadays......... Think I'm going to look into that tomorrow.

I thought this video was relevant to the topic. Also pick out as many inaccuracies as possible.................. I say that not to hate on Atari, but lets face it Nintendo deserved to win this battle. Its funny I am a child of the NES generation and my interest in vintage consoles started with my NES collection. Now I spend a lot more time with Atari products then Nintendo, but this commercial is still very laughable to me.

Hmmm real quick and not really in order but. Goldeneye....... surprised this didn't show up more often Bubble Bobble Mario Kart Ninja Turtles the Arcade game......... Id retire if I had those quarters back NHL 95....... Still had fighting Mortal Kombat 2 Mario 3 Contra Tecmo bowl Baseball stars Tetris GameBoy.............. or Ti calc wasted a lot of time in high school with that one Street Fighter 2 Genesis Duke Nukem 3D ........... wow almost forgot that one Warcraft 3 ......... more intelligent then WOW and free DodgeBall That's was a rough list to decide on. Its not in order cuz that would probably be harder then picking your favorite child.

I was watching Wrath of Khan the other day for the fist time in a long time. I assume trekies on here have notice this already, but there was a scene where bones was visiting Kirk in his apartment. There was a discussion of Kirks love for antiques. You can clearly see a commodore pet running in the background. After doing a quick google on the subject I read there was also a C64 sitting on a table that I missed. Since I love thinking about nerdy hypotheticals it made me wonder could that be my C64 that he owns in the year 2285. Also does Atari age still exist in 2285. If so I have to assume Kirk is a member. Yea I know its stupid but its fun to think about....... Also it reminded me that in Back to the Future 2 there was a first gen Mac, Jaws game, and Burgertime in the window of the antique store where Marty bought the Greys Sports Almanac. Not to mention Wild Gunman in the cafe 80's ("you have to use your hands! its like a kids toy" perhaps a prediction of the Xbox kinect?) . It's funny to me that they took these pieces of technology that were cutting edge for the time and portrayed them as antiques, and here we are collecting them as such. If only they were also correct about hover boards!!

Thanks oracle thats very good to know. Sadly I was working on the joystick splitter adapter around the same time I posted this. Now I feel very foolish. I cleaned the contacts no good. Then I opened Ms packman up. I checked the traces all good. I then re tinned all the contacts no good. I added a little solder to the rom chips cuz some points looked as if they were may not be making contact. At this point I decided the rom chips must be bad.... So I gutted Ms Packman and used her case to store my splitter...... After reading your post I turned on my TI...... It is indeed rom version 2.2...... Ugh... Ironically I also own an older black and silver TI that would have played it! I don't use that one just cuz I think my beige TI looks better. Oh well live and learn. At least I got a sweet splitter out of it. I do realy like my splitter. I find it fitting that I used an atarisoft game for my TI to give my the ability to use an atari stick on my TI. But I also feel bad that I gutted a great classic game for no good reason. Thank you very much for the info. Now at least I won't make that mistake again.

DUDE!.......

So that thin plastic protective film that they put over the metal trim of your consoles. I cant help it. I got to peel that shit off! It makes my stomach a little tense and I get a little angry every time I see it. Not to long ago I picked up a 7800 from a thrift store for 10 bucks. Although there is no box the thing is mint! Not a mark on the console or the controllers. The aluminum trim on the console and the controllers still had that protective film, it was almost as if it was never even played! I couldn't help myself I peeled that shit right off. When I got my 1050 disk drive it still had the film..... I peeled that off too. I assume this is going to open me up to the risks of scratches and oxidation. But I just had to do it. I wonder what would you do. Am I a fool. How many of you peel and how many of you just let it be?

Wow I'm actually a little surprised that this is even being debated. I actually thought that it was just agreed upon that the Genesis was Sega's only true console success story. I agree with Torr I like Sega very much. My DC is one of my most played consoles. You can make the argument that Sega gave up on these systems before they should have, but that only proves that the company failed the system and because of that the system failed. A systems success is not measured by how much individuals like it and not even how many are sold. Sega is a company and the measure of success is simply profit. I think that Sega's accounting department would agree that the Genesis was there only real successful console and that's why they don't make them anymore.

Well as I had said in a previous post in a lot of TI 99/4a games I purchased Ms. Pacman showed up dead! After exhausting all of my resources to save her I finally pronounced her dead. But there is good news in this story Ms. Pacman was an organ donor! Last weekend I had built a joystick splitter to use my Atari sticks on my 99/4a. I needed a case to put it in and Ms. Pacman was just perfect. The joystick splitter is a Y adapter and the profile of Atarisoft games for the 99/4a is practically a Y. So I wanted to show this off because it was in many ways inspired by the creativity of others that I have seen on the web and my hope is that this may too inspire someone. Now I can use an Atari stick while playing with Pacmans crackhead cousin Munchman!

Most I keep in drawers. For the ones that I leave hooked up I made spools cuz I'm a firm believer in cord control. I really like Sqoon's idea of wall hooks. I used to have my power pad hanging on the wall in my living room like a sweet tapestry. When I moved in with the girlfriend she had different tastes in decorating so now it's under the couch.

So a while back I bought a real cheep lot of 99/4a games on Ebay. My 99/4a was having Issues with all its games not just the ones I just purchased. So the other day I finally did what needed to be done. I took my 99/4a apart and cleaned all the contacts.... I also removed that piece of felt in there if anyone is familiar cuz it seemed to be coming apart and getting onto the contacts. success all games work first try now. With the exception of Mrs Pacman. She was part of my Ebay lot even though the lot was still a good deal I was looking forward to Mrs Pacman. The computer doesn't even detect the game It only shows Basic. I'm sure the carts most likely toast and I'm just S.O.L. but I thought just maybe someone might know some tricks to try. I opened the cart and checked all the traces they all seem to be good. cleaned the contacts any. Anything else I should try before I throw this thing in the trash?

No actually it didn't work because the connector you used went from a mono rca to a mono 3.5mm jack. A stereo 3.5 jack would have 2 black rings on the tip and 3 gold rings. The 3 gold rings are where the connection is made. One is ground then the other 2 are the left and right audio. That connector is actually used for a video connection. If you wanted something closer to your first adapter I believe something like this would also work. But I think this is the best way to go about it. However the top image would probably be easier to connect to your pc speakers I assume. Also that monster cable would work too but that's a very expensive way to do it maybe find the same cable but not monster.

Yea the top one should work for ya.

Lol yea your right but I do still like the carts in spite of that (I used a label maker to make spine labels for mine and these labels peel off cleanly and wont hurt the cart I checked that first). I once had a friend unfamiliar with Atari 8 ask me "what kind of game is Left Cartridge and why do you have so many copy's"

I've seen some of what you speak of on the net but all mine are pretty much standard. That is very cool though. I think that 2600 has got some of the best art. My thought is that since there was only so far they could push they graphics they really tried to get your imagination going with the art. Often it will show something like a guy in a spaceship shooting lazers at a demon. In the game your character is a red box or something shooting lines at a blue box. Not that I'm hating the games a great and it works for me. As Sheldon Cooper once said these games use the most powerful graphics chip ever created, the imagination.