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The Lynx is still a great little machine... Could it have been the easiest machine to relaunch as a cost-effective mobile game today? Nearly 20 years after it was first designed it could all probably fit onto one piece of silicon! Coupled with a nice new LCD or LED screen and all the Atari owned Lynx IP's built in, I certainly would by a dozen or so! Karl

FYI Pic shows standard Atari US (Large Gray Box) game releases (and some early Applications also came in this style box), then you have Atari UK style game box (Red) and last but not least the cheap and cheerful Atari UK/Australia (and possibly elsewhere) plastic type game box. None of these titles should be considered rare to warrant those prices - sure, in good mint condition maybe $10-15, anything more is a crime Karl

@Curt: I wasn't amused by your response, but you probably got that already. Suggesting somebody sells a part of his or her body isn't funny to me. Especially if the person who does it, is married to somebody who works at a transplant unit and who should therefore know better. Greetings Mathy Jeez!!! Have we lost our sense of humour... Remember good old fashioned H U M O U R... Lifes a bitch, but we can still laugh at it surely... I'll get you Denis Leary's No Cure For Cancer tape, then you'll be really upset Karl

Hi there Tempest, Can you explain further about the licencing issues, and how you came to have a copy - is this a completed game ready to go? (Apologies in advance if this is some long boring historical fact I'm not aware of!)... Karl Well the EotB license was owned by TSR which was then bought out by Wizards of the Coast. WotC are notorious for actively defending the D&D license, and will more than likely sue anyone who illegally makes a profit from it. This is the same reason why the Intellivision guys can't release any of the 2600 AD&D prototypes they have. To actually legally license it they want an "assload of money", I believe Carl looked into this a few years back. How come I have a copy? I'm the Master of Prototypes thats why! Well ok, I have a copy because I bought it from the guy who bought it from Atari back when they were selling off some of that stuff. I'd have to look at the board, but I believe its a 512K board with a special memory save on it. It would hard, although not impossible to reproduce. The original owner made about 5-10 copies of the game and sold them to a few well known Lynx collectors. I however have the original prototype and not a copy. The game seems complete, but I haven't had time to play it through to the end. Tempest Tempest, Many thanks for the reply. Such a shame the game is lost to the remaining Lynx community over a legacy royalty. Is it just over the name, or are there protected game systems within the code? Perhaps WoTC would release the game under different conditions - I would assume Songbird were offering a financial package under licencing for release, so they haven't said no... They could keep exclusivity if they released the game under a new agreement, especially if game was just released under common licence! (Better if nobody makes money on these old unreleased games after a such a period of time, especially as it is probably fair to say the Lynx will not be making a comeback anytime soon). Congrats on having it though! Karl

Hi there Tempest, Can you explain further about the licencing issues, and how you came to have a copy - is this a completed game ready to go? (Apologies in advance if this is some long boring historical fact I'm not aware of!)... Karl

Check out Scott Steinberg's, the lamest game article, ever. That was by far, some of the worst "journalism" I've read... today. Yet, you should still pick up a Jaguar and play Tempest 2000 on this lame old console. Thanks Scott, now have you any advice on the current equity market options this quarter, 'cos your obviosuly very clever... Karl

Close, but no cigar Although MS wanted Atari to use their "new" windows OS, it wasn't going to be ready for another 18-24 months at best estimates at the time, so Atari found DRI's Cyrstal (GEM) and worked closely with Digital Research and with its team of programmers, migrated CP/M and GEM over to the 68K in record time. I don't know what a "stacker chip" is, but I think you refer to the ST's video "shifter" which was a superb design, taking into account the short development cycle - not an off-the-shelf component. The hi-res display was far superior to Apples! The YM-2149 was also utilised to control peripherals in conjunction with another chip (MFP) and was selected more so on a cost basis than anything to do with sound quality - thus, Atari increased the musical reference of the ST to have MIDI. Initially Atari looked at using their AMY sound processor in initial specifications, but it was left out of the final design. I love the YM-2149 unusual as it seems http://www.atari-explorer.com/articles/art...s-ST-music.html To say the ST was designed with the PC in mind isn't crazy - I think it was designed better than the PC's of the time but used Apple Mac as a more accurate reference. Atari knew what the Amiga could be if Commodore got it out the door (and Atari stalled Commodore as long as possible to stop it from happening!), but Atari needed to get a machine out the door ASAP - Atari depended on the ST to ensure its future, so it was critical. The ST would probably have employed a few more bells and whistles if time and money weren't so tight during the later part of 1984, but the Amiga problems really stuffed the original design hopes, and plan B so to speak was a bloody good result! The Archimedes was designed much later that either the ST or Amiga, and its price and market were not intended to compete with them (although they later tried with the 3010). The Amiga was no different to the ST in its aim, and certainly both companies had a history of making home computers and that legacy evolved to bring newer machines to market, not to reference their systems to the PC standard IBM had founded in 1981. Karl

I totally agree (in part), Even if I had the money and could (sneak) a PS3 or Wii into the house, I have no intention of getting either of these new consoles until at least Christmas '07. The last-gen consoles still have a good 12 months left in them before they are completely left out to dry, and thats fine with me. But I agree, especially with PS3, that it will be technically better to wait until all the bugs are ironed out rather than struggle by and watch your $600 prized console go through all those teething problems (although as I type that, I still wouldn't mind if I HAD to!). A good friend of mine always gets these things as soon as they hit the stores, which is great for me! But there are always, always going to be early adopters like these who just like being first to try out the lastest h/w and s/w products, no matter what the cost. If it wasn't for people like this though, I couldn't wait another 12 or so months to buy my PS3 safe in the knowledge it will still be around to buy So, I think we should thank all these gals and guys who buy early - you are truly gamings great guinea pigs! Karl

Hi everybody! Curt is a little busy right now (surprise surprise!), but you can view the new P.A.M. (Personal Arcade Machine) over at Awesome Arcades Also note that the AC-605 has been upgaded to the AC-605SP and now comes standard with a spinner, but the introduction price ends on October 15th! best, Karl

If you're gonna tell me Mercenary on the C64 was weaker than the Atari version, I'll smack you upside the head Seriously though, it's all going to be opinion here. Isometric type games on the C64 I also liked were Chimera, Entombed and Inside Outing. Now I'm sure many isometric games were multiformat anyhow, though Entombed for sure was C64 only (and easily Ultimate's best C64 game). As for no original true 3D games of any great merit... I think you have never heard of Scarabeaus. Absolutely beautiful. Sure the C64 wasn't quite as suited to vectors as the Speccy was, but it made a far better go at playing that sort of game than the Speccy did with some of the C64's more classic titles (you're gonna hence love the C64 article I've written that will be in next month's Retro Gamer magazine heh!) MayhemUK, Without getting too technical, I thought Paul Woakes wrote Mercenary on the Atari first, and I always thought it was faster than the C64 version - apart from the speed perhaps, the two versions do look the same. That said, Elektraglide (English Software) is far superior on the Atari than the C64 Waiting for my smack upside the head As for the Poll, I'm an Atari 8-bitter fan through and through - although living in Ireland (much like the UK), it was definately Speccy and C64 territory and life as an Atari owner wasn't always easy in the playground Karl

Thanks Sony! Not that I was getting one this early anyway due to the sky-high price Mr Kutaragi! The 360 looks like a good bet this christmas in Europe... Karl

Edumanga, The ST had major board revisions over its lifetime, and with the introduction from STF to STFM, its possible that the area for the RF modulator was already made (in some early ST's this space is there because they axed the modulator before launch) before that sku was introduced. As for the label, that could either be a bottom/full case change at some point, or it was a simple "sticker" error made at the factory. The RF installation should only be done if you know what your doing , but not really worth it - get a new STFM (or STE). Karl

Yep, The Philips are great (and just keep on going!) - The Atari SC1435 is actually using the same CRT as the Philips 8833Mk2. Karl

Wow! Its funny, because although I bought this way back for ther N64 (First version), I never got around to playing it. Then, just before the New Year, I picked it up for PS2 and only just started playing. If you like Wipeout (and to be honest, the older PS1 titles are best) than you will love ExtremeG for PS2. Its speed is amazing, and once you get to grips with the G's you'll be playing this one for a long time. Now, anybody recommend F-Zero on the Gamecube or is that a stupid question Karl

Guys, I'm not sure if this just pertains to eBay's Real Estate section, but you might want to read this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5043572.stm eBay spokesperson says the auction wasn't a legally binding contract???? What does that mean, if all eBay auctions are stated to be "contracts"??? Karl

Hi guys, Perhaps this can help. http://www.atari-explorer.com/jaguar/jaguarend.html Karl

I just keep living in the eighties! Karl

The Jag Duo got more attention (but not enough) - well a Jag unit with a built in CD would eliminate may of the reliability problems and if programmed properly could produce more than competitive games, how far had it gotten? Well a case and unpopulated mother board are known to exist for the Jag Duo as well as detailed housing design drawings which have recently come to light. Fuzzy pictures of a prototype closely guarded by senior Atari Executive at a game convention in the mid 90's - (not sure if its working or mock up) have been around for a while, but new pictures have also recently been unearthed which appear to show plastic production mouldings and from them you can tell it was designed to take the same Philips CDM12.1 CD transport as the Jag CD system. The Jag 2 with Midwinter/Cobweb codename and Oberon/Titania (some say Puck) chipset was still in a much earlier stage of development after speaking to key Atari personell involved with game development - They had no game development plans for any Jaguar 2 system games - was the Jag 2 ever an officially sanctioned Atari project or was it just a secret 'what next' project of Atari R & D dept??? Will we ever know for sure. GB13 We can say that Jaguar 2 and some associated hardware projects were officially sanctioned internally by Atari managaement during this time, although the resources were very thin come mid 1985. Considering the tough budget contraints at Atari, NOTHING was a secret project under that particualr roof! Once Jack came back to look after the business in Sam's absence, many were cancelled and the downsizing began for the eventual sale/merger in 1986. Karl

Sony bashing I find it funny when people rant on about the fact they've never had trouble with their Genesis (Megadrive to others!) or SNES etc after all these years, and that their Playstation has been nothing but trouble. Firstly, there is a big difference between the older 8/16 Bit consoles versus the 32/128 Bit systems. There are more components and moving parts in the newer consoles for one and today's consoles are produced on a massive scale versus the numbers manufactured by practically all the of the "older" video game units put together. While 20% (if that is the number) failure rate seems high for early PS2's, you've got to understand the introduction to market of any new electronics device, especially one which is highly complex with very tight timelines. Teething problems can arise with ANY new product, and a joke in some engineering circles is that the launch is actually the field test phase. From supplier related problems to product damaged in transit, you could take any brand today in the world and get similar statistics on failures etc. If the MTBF on your typical Playstation was a good as some cars, you'd be a happy guy! But hey, thats what warranties and consumer protection is for :-) As far as the PS3 is concerned... I don't think SONY has ever "worried" about the launch date of this system. People will buy PS3 as sure as you need oranges for juice. MS could use this window to lower prices however, and a lot more people will be swayed with the price of a 360 versus its Nextgen credentials. Karl

Hi all, The 2080ST and the 4160ST (2MB and 4MB versions) were usually sent to developers. The 4160ST in particular was also primarily found in musicians hands, and so I assume different sales departments in Atari used the badge designations on special orders etc. It could also be that these labels were ordered for whatever reason and "used up" when required for special circumstances. With respect to the Blue 2080ST and the odd spec and serial ident label under the machine. Atari were very active in the then Eastern Block countries, and under certain U.S. restrictions, some high-tech goods could not be sold through. It is possible Atari got systems together for a local VAR and the reseller added labels. Many computers got through to Eastern Block states via resllers with the full knowlegde of the parent company (I know this first hand!). It would be typical Atari style to use older TOS 1.0 ROMS and other older parts as part of any "non-western" deal - The 800XE is another prime example of utilising obsolete stock. If anybody has absolute knowledge of these odd "blue-label" ST's, please share! Karl P.S. I just noticed the top label uses the Atari Germany "ATARI" lettering, which is more bold than the ROW uses. I would assume they had something to do with these ST orders.

Ferris, Congrats on the first 5 years! Great site! Karl

Yes! Its out in Ireland, so I assume Europe has launched it (xplosiv are the publisher). I also picked up Midway Arcade Treasures 3, so a fun evening ahead when the baby goes to sleepy land! So, there is Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection, Tecmo Classic Arcade and Capcom Classics Collection also to look forward to this year! And, according to the card inside Taito Legends, volume 2 with 40 titles in due early 2006! Sweet! Karl

Hello Karl... how it going... long time no speaks re: your competition/contest, will you allow entries from those that only use demo maker programmes or are you only looking for coders that can program a demo to enter the contest 948199[/snapback] Hi Carmel, Well, the rules are decided by the guys at DHS, but there are all sorts of entries possible. Not sure a Demo maker entry is possible according to the rules. Maybe you could send in a few Atari images in Degas etc, or compose a chip tune or 4-Channel MOD? Karl

Announcement: There is less than 3 weeks left to finish your entries for the Atari ST 20th Anniversary Demo Competition! Prizes from AtariAge, Atari Museum, Atari.Org, Atari Explorer and DHS. Celebrate the ST demo with your entry - music, pictures or an entire screen! For more details please click on the Competition at http://dhs.nu/scene_compo_2005.php POWER WITHOUT THE PRICE!

and... http://www.atari-explorer.com/standalone/touch-me.html :-)