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jaybird3rd

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Posts posted by jaybird3rd

  1. Posted

    2 hours ago, vongruetz said:

    My biggest complaint about "video games" these days is that they're not GAMES!  They're interactive video experiences, but I do not see how they're games. The Last of Us 2 is a prime example.  It may be a great story, but it's not a game. You're not competing against anyone. There isn't a winner and loser. There isn't a score. 

     

    Obviously that's not true of all games, but for the most part, 90% of video games these days aren't games.

    I've noticed this, too.  The term "video games" has been stretched to include a multitude of different entertainment products, whose only common trait is that they offer some degree of interactivity.  I'm reminded of the taxonomy suggested by Chris Crawford in his book "Chris Crawford on Game Design" (which I'd highly recommend):

     

    ccogd.png.c11db061abe3906aef983c35629f885f.png

     

    By his definition, many of these interactive video experiences aren't really video games in the sense that we have always understood the term; they would be better classified as "toys" or "puzzles."  That's not to say that they're "bad" or that there isn't a market for them; it just makes it difficult to discuss video games qua video games, because so many other forms of entertainment are being lumped into the same category.

    • Like 10

  2. Posted

    On 6/15/2020 at 7:50 PM, Savetz said:

    Claudia Cohl, Editor-in-Chief of Family Computing and K-Power Magazine

    Thank you!  I read Family Computing for years; my grandfather had a subscription, and I got one myself for a short time during the "Family & Home Office Computing" era.  Looking forward to the interview!

     

    On 6/16/2020 at 11:05 AM, tschak909 said:

    I have some issues of Family Computing, if people want them. Have been trying to sell them on eBay for two years.

    I might take you up on that!  My remaining back issues are in pretty bad shape.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    10 hours ago, sanguinesonata said:

    Those of us who understand what's really going on recognize that this is only just the beginning, and that it's going to get much, much worse from here on out.

    I think it would be better if we avoided discussing COVID-19.  Discussing how it is impacting this project is one thing, but if the other COVID-19 threads we've had here are any indication, too many of us are not yet in a place where we can rationally discuss the subject directly, and I don't want it to derail this thread any further.

    • Like 17
    • Thanks 2

  4. Posted

    1 hour ago, Relicgamer said:

    Be careful these guys are watching😳 you lol. They get triggered pretty quickly

    Frankly, I do not care what they think or how "triggered" they get.  The fact that the "bacon thread" existed at all—not just once, but twice!—shows how far we went to accommodate those people, bending over backwards on multiple occasions to ensure that whatever "concerns" they claimed to have were voiced and addressed, while staying within the bounds of our community guidelines.  They blew every opportunity they were given to be taken seriously, and in the most blatantly disrespectful and ungrateful ways possible, until they simply ran out of chances with us.  Whatever it was about this project or the people involved that originally stuck in their craws, it created so much festering resentment that it drove some of them completely off the rails—and as much as they like to blame Tommy or me or whoever else, they did it entirely to themselves.  Months later, even after everything else that's happened in the world, they still haven't gotten over it.  They're still at it now, in fact, posting trolling comments on every Amico-related YouTube video they can find, and refreshing this thread every five minutes so they can take selective screenshots and respond with their nasty little quips and barbs and amateurish memes on their anti-Amico blogs.  (I know of a few of them, and I have a pretty good idea of who's doing it.)  I suppose they truly have nothing better to do with their time and energy.  Fortunately, nobody outside of their miserable little circle jerk is paying them any attention, and I think it should stay that way.  Let's just ignore them.

    • Like 13
    • Thanks 2

  5. Posted

    1 hour ago, ivop said:

    Ten years ago @jaybird3rd sold me 16 Ballblazer carts without casing for $25.75 USD including postage and packaging overseas. I kid you not. Had to desolder the Pokeys myself. I'm still very grateful I could acquire so many Pokeys at once. Have used a couple for stereo upgrades and gave a couple away. I think I have about ten left. Thanks jaybird3rd :)

    You're very welcome!  I'm so glad they went to a good home!  I only wish I had more of them to offer, but my stock ran out some years ago.

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    52 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

    I'm guessing that when it comes to you searching for TRON stuff on the internet... it may not be as much of a coincidence as one may think!

    Surely I can't be the only one who checks every day to see if they've un-cancelled Tron 3 ... :ponder:

     

    52 minutes ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

    💿💫🧞‍♀️🍊🧿🏍️🌌🌀❄️🖥️

    p.s.  c'mon... the ORANGE in the emoji's!  I nailed that shit!!

    Heh ... I haven't asked Albert, but I'm pretty sure that every time someone uses the orange emoji, the words "ROM YORI / KEY YORI / PRIME" flash by on the AtariAge server console.

    • Like 4
    • Haha 2

  13. Posted

    1 minute ago, Intymike said:

    No, there is also a Floppy Bird game on cart.

    I believe you're referring to BL-Bird, the Flappy Bird clone that Martin v.d. Steenoven made as a proof of concept for BL-Basic.  It was released as a cartridge image, but it never got an (official) release on physical cartridges, although I did make a few copies at cost for collectors who wanted them.

  14. Posted

    15 hours ago, stupus said:

    Yes, zero in and chess are both white boxes with a color sticker applied only to the front.

    I actually had another zero in that was just a white box with a tiny sticker printed in dot matrix that just said zero in.

    So i believe these last 2 titles only came with the white boxes with the color sticker and when they ran out of those stickers they just put the small name sticker on the front.

    But i could be wrong there could be full color boxes of those 2 as well but i have never seen them.

    Interesting!  It would be great if we had a more definitive answer to that question: I had never seen evidence of a Zero In box before that one collector's picture (which I dearly wish I'd kept!), and as far as I'm aware, Chess never got a full box.  (I'm designing a "mockup" Chess box for my website, so at least we can get a 3D view of what it might have looked like!)

     

    Quote

    I am curious if chess had controller overlays too as mine doesnt have them and the manual doesnt mention them.

    I think every other title had them besides the 4 utilities.

    Chess did originally come with overlays, but only for the keyboard, since the game does not support hand controllers.

     

    Quote

    I would be happy to get scans of the stuff you miss.

    I also might sell a boxed 16k module if you wanted 1 still.

    Thank you very much!  I'd like to take you up on that, especially for the Space Speller and Extended BASIC boxes.  If possible, when you scan them, it would be ideal if you could fold the boxes flat against the scanner bed, with all flaps extended and with a book large enough to cover the entire surface area placed on top to make them as flat as possible.  (If you fold the boxes flat with the front face facing downward and the seam facing upward, the boxes should fold naturally and should not be damaged by additional creasing, since this is how they were folded when they were originally assembled.  Folding it in this way will allow you to capture four of the six sides in one scan; then, simply flip the box over and re-scan in the same way to capture the remaining sides.)  I've tried to preserve all printed materials in their best possible state, and full color scans of at least 600dpi would give me as many opportunities to fix as many flaws in the boxes as possible.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    1 hour ago, Relicgamer said:

    But you are 100% correct it dies off it you don't feed them. 

    Yes.  So, I maintain that the best policy is not to feed them.  I would even go so far as to say that we shouldn't continue to post or discuss critical Amico videos here going forward.  In a sane world, there wouldn't be anything wrong with respectfully engaging with these video creators and their points of view, offering reasoned counterarguments or corrections where necessary.  Several of us here have already proven that we're more than capable of doing that, and I don't think we need to prove it again.  Unfortunately, we are not living in a world when a majority of people can peacefully abide any kind of disagreement, even over trivial issues.  Anything you say is likely to be immediately picked up and taken out of context, and no matter how dispassionately or impersonally you say it, it is likely to be deliberately misinterpreted as an "attack."  What everyone does outside of AtariAge is their own business, but I don't think it's a good idea to even attempt to comment on these videos on YouTube (or wherever else they're posted); even if the video creator is genuinely mistaken and you're only trying to offer a correction, you'll only get swarmed by the trolls.  There aren't many of them, but they don't seem to have anything better to do with their time.

     

    It's unfortunate that their histrionics have created this situation, but that's where we seem to be right now.  I think the best we can hope to do is to avoid anything that would make an already ridiculous situation worse, and to keep our discussions here as positive as possible.

    • Like 9
    • Thanks 7

  16. Posted

    Beautiful collection!  It makes my mouth water to see all the Aquarius cartridges together at once.

     

    It looks as if your Zero In is a white box with an instruction manual cover on the front.  I was already aware that Chess was shipped this way, but seeing a white box Zero In is very interesting.  I've seen evidence that some of the latter-day Aquarius distributors were shipping Aquarius games with incomplete or replacement materials as their stocks started running low: photocopied keyboard overlays, missing hand controller overlays, etc.  I have a scanned brochure from Bentley Industries with notes to that effect written in the margins, presumably by a customer who called them in the mid-1980s to make inquiries about what was still available.  I've also seen evidence that Zero In had a printed box at some point: the collector's website is offline now—and the Wayback Machine does not appear to have saved a complete snapshot—but I distinctly remember that he once had a picture of a complete Zero In box in a stack of other Aquarius boxes, viewed from the side, with the title printed in orange like Melody Chase.  (He was kind enough to provide a scan of the manual for me for the Aquaricart project, but I'd really love to see that box!)  So, I'm now wondering if certain games were shipped in full boxes and later in plain white boxes; if so, Zero In would appear to be one of them.  It's one of the mysteries that makes Aquarius collecting so interesting!

     

    On 5/30/2020 at 3:56 PM, stupus said:

    I am curious how close some other collectors are? Would love for those getting close to post how many they have and what they miss if they want.

    The only cartridges I'm missing are the hardest ones to get: Space Speller, Zero In, Chess, and Extended BASIC.  An original 16K RAM module has also eluded me so far, but since I can make my own 32K modules, I haven't been in too much of a rush to get one except for archival purposes.  I'd love to get complete scans of all of these boxes for my website (still under construction!).

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    3 hours ago, vongruetz said:

    I didn't see the movie until I was in college.  I had heard about it, and of course knew about the light cycles and such.  When I borrowed a VHS copy from a neighbor, I sat down and watched it.  I was blown away.  It quickly became my favorite movie.  I was amazed at how it worked so well on so many different levels. It had interesting visuals, battles, and light cycle races that kids would enjoy. But it also had a really deep story about the creator of a world being brought down to his own creation. It's just so good.

    I didn't get to see TRON during its original run in theaters, but I saw it not long afterward.  I would have been about six years old and just getting into computers, at a time when almost nobody around me understood anything about computers or even had one in their homes.  I was similarly blown away by TRON for all the reasons you mention, but the movie also had a spiritual quality that made a profound impression on me.  I could never have explained it in these terms at that age, but even then, I understood enough about programming to know that when you write a program, you really are putting a part of yourself into the computer: you are devising your own solution to a problem, something that is as unique to you as a fingerprint, and you're codifying that part of your own thought process in a way that a computer can understand and replicate.  In the movie, the Walter Gibbs character explicitly says this to Dillinger using very similar language: "You can remove men like Alan and me from the system, but we helped create it, and our spirit remains in every program we design for this computer."  So, I thought that the nuanced way in which the movie portrayed the relationship between the electronic world of TRON and the real world, even to the point of showing the programs to actually resemble their creators, was a brilliant masterstroke.  Even the action sequences were profound to me, because TRON was shown as a warrior whose shield and whose weapon was his identity disc, his accumulated knowledge and experience.  Seeing that movie was probably my earliest transcendent experience, and it never left me; from that time on, the practice of programming took on a magical quality for me—not just as a way of giving instructions to a computer, but as a way of getting in touch with the best of myself.  I don't remember if I had ever thought before about what kind of work I would commit myself to—probably not, at six or seven years old—but from that moment on, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

     

    So, I would definitely be another one of those with "TRON issues."  I have a standing rule that, whenever I adopt a new home video format, TRON is always the first movie I buy in that format: it was my first VHS, my first LaserDisc, and my first Blu-ray.  (I would have bought it first on DVD, too, but somebody gave me the 20th Anniversary box set before I could buy it with my own money.)

    • Like 15

  18. Posted

    I'm glad to see that the thread is back on track!  Nevertheless, after the exchanges we had the other day, I think it's worth reminding everyone—myself included, since I had a hand in them, too!—of something I said earlier about keeping the discussions here focused on the positive and not on perpetuating arguments, particularly with people who are not inclined to be convinced anyway:

     

    On 4/29/2020 at 12:29 PM, jaybird3rd said:

    Unfortunately, engaging with them at all—particularly here—is becoming a losing proposition for all of us.  The prevailing narrative among the people on the "other side" of this thing is that this thread is being used as a platform for attacking Tommy's critics and critics of the Amico, and even that Tommy is actively encouraging the people here to attack his critics on other venues.  If we try to persuade them, or if we try to demonstrate that they're arguing in bad faith, or if we speculate about their mental health, and especially if we quote their comments from other platforms for the purpose of responding to them here, it all feeds into that narrative, whether that is our intention or not.

     

    I can understand why you're all motivated to do this: we're all enthusiastic about the Amico, and some of you have had to put up with a lot of abuse for it—I have, too!—and I know that you all feel a natural need to respond to it when it happens.  But I'd like to ask everyone to exercise more restraint, and to refrain from engaging in this kind of discussion in the future.

     

    [...]

     

    Remember that this is Tommy's Q&A thread, which is supposed to be all about positive and productive things as Tommy continues to take us on this journey.  I think we're building an enthusiastic community here, made up of people who have come to enjoy each other's company, particularly during these difficult times.  I predict that, after the Amico is released and we're all having fun with it, all the noise and the negative energy from the critics will quickly disappear.  So let's try to retain that positive spirit, and not allow the negativity to get us down now.

    • Like 10
    • Thanks 2

  19. Posted

    Welcome back, @barnieg!  I've been working over the summer on a new Aquarius website which I hope to use as a launchpad for several Aquarius projects—including homebrew games—but a few other minor projects (like building a new house!) have preoccupied me.  I'll be sure to let everyone know when it's ready.

  20. Posted

    1 hour ago, Ez G said:

    @jaybird3rd  I just want apologize because I thought you locked me out of my account. Because yesterday at 2:00am I was signed out of my account & received an email that said my account was lock for security purposes. 

     

    I assumed you locked my account after the warnings. I didn't check my email again to see any other messages. I just did and it wanted me to reset my password. 

     

    I just want you to know that this was not a stunt. I never came to the forum to get ban or troll. I just wanted to talk to Tommy.

    Apology accepted.

     

    (The next time you talk to them, which I'm sure won't be long, please give my regards to the other members of my "fan club" on YouTube.  I follow their comments regularly, and I've found them to be very enlightening.)

    • Like 2
    • Haha 6

  21. Posted

    1 hour ago, haplo13 said:

    I had a suspicion his goal was to get banned so he could go back and say "I told you they ban anyone disagreeing". His pigheadedness was a bit too much to believe about the crowdfunding thing. He got his warning and probably figured that was good enough. SMH

    Amazing, isn't it?

     

    I've said before that we should do our best to remain positive and productive, so I don't want to give these losers any more attention than necessary.  But perhaps we can better understand what "positive" and "productive" mean, and can better appreciate the people who exemplify those qualities, by occasionally taking a moment to compare them to their opposites.

     

    Here on AtariAge, we have a whole community of imaginative people who are always working hard to create constructive passion projects—not just Intellivision fans, but Atari fans and Coleco fans and fans of all the other classic entertainment platforms that have a following here, and modern platforms too.  Whether they're podcasts or homebrew games or hardware upgrades or high score contests, what these projects have in common is that they're all about bringing joy to other people who share the same passion.  Compare that to the way these losers have chosen to spend their time, and the kinds of people they choose to associate with.  How can anything constructive or creative or imaginative or positive ever come out of that miserable camp?  They join other like-minded people who couldn't cut it here on AtariAge for various reasons—most of them having nothing to do with the Amico—and I can tell you that they're all a pretty pathetic and vindictive lot.  I know who I'd rather spend my time with!

    • Like 8
    • Thanks 1

  22. Posted

    At the risk of stirring up more drama, I just thought I'd share something I saw on YouTube from our friend "Ez G":

     

    ezg0527.thumb.png.a20a2691d727dd79f2b9e45dfcde5554.png

     

    Uhhh ... no, he wasn't.  I just checked, and he has not been blocked or banned, either from this thread or from AtariAge, nor has he ever been.  He received a warning, nothing more; if he hasn't come back since, it's because he has chosen not to.

     

    The people who are conversing with him and high-fiving each other in that particular comment thread—as a courtesy, I'm not linking to it or showing their names—are among the same handful of people whom we ultimately did have to show the door ... and their claims about how and why that happened are equally lacking in credibility.  It just goes to show the kind of character you're dealing with when you deal with that particular group, and how small and insular the group really is.  I just wanted to clear that up, in case anyone here was concerned that someone was banned or blocked unfairly.

     

    EDIT: Just in case he tries to be a turd and deny that he's lying, here's some proof for anyone who's interested.  One of our new moderating tools produces a list of everyone who has ever posted to a given thread; with a single click, we can block anyone from the thread as needed.  Normal, unrestricted users are shown in the list in green; blocked users go to the top of the list and are shown in red.  Here's the relevant part of the current list, as of two or three minutes ago:

     

     

    99669262_Screenshotat2020-05-27225613.thumb.png.ce1ce8351d806feebe479e89482de190.png

     

     

    Guess what?  He's still green.  Only a few of us have access to this list, and none of us have touched it in months.  I just hope his friends on YouTube aren't too upset that he lied to them to try to make himself look like some sort of "martyr."

    • Like 7
    • Thanks 9

  23. Posted

    Just now, haplo13 said:

    Question for @jaybird3rd or the other moderators...  at what point will the Amico get its own section in the forums under the "Modern Gaming" area?  When the Amico is officially released?  Will this thread just get locked at that point and refer folks to there?

    We've been discussing a few ideas along those lines.  At the very least, I'd like to see a FAQ section with a categorized list of all the questions and answers that have been generated in this thread, to make them easier to find.  Ultimately it's up to @Albert, of course, but I don't foresee doing anything with this thread except moving it into the new section when the time comes, along with all the other Amico-related threads.

    • Like 7
    • Thanks 1

  25. Posted

    1 minute ago, Ez G said:

    @Tommy Tallarico First, show me the trash that I been spewing. Plus, if I was unbias why would I come here to talk to you man to man. I could have stayed on youtube.

    Coming here to talk "man to man" has nothing to do with being unbiased.  Lots of people have signed up here specifically for the purpose of trolling someone ... but they tend not to last, because we don't put up with that kind of behavior for long.

     

    1 minute ago, Ez G said:

    I am ready to talk all things amico. I am a potential customer with other retro gaming friends. Explain to me why their is no problems with the amico.

    I doubt it.  You've been talking "all things Amico" for a few pages now, and every time someone addressed a point that you raised, you ignored their counterarguments and immediately moved on to another point, or reiterated the same point over and over as if nobody said anything.  Somehow, I don't think you'll be lined up on Day One to be the first in your town to own an Amico, after harboring such a negative attitude toward it that you've spent who knows how much time writing critical comments here and on YouTube.

     

    1 minute ago, Ez G said:

    @jaybird3rd  No, I am not trying to redefine the terms. If someone wants a conversation I am more than happy to have that conversation. But if we are having a conversation why tell me I am wasting your time.

    Perhaps they've said you're "wasting their time" because you raised specific points, they took the time to thoroughly address them, and you've willfully refused to listen.  If that isn't a waste of time, I don't know what is; the fact that you didn't give them an engraved invitation to respond to your posts doesn't change anything in the slightest.

     

    Our community guidelines state that, "when an individual member repeatedly disrupts threads in a negative fashion, that member will be warned."  Consider yourself duly warned.  Please do not continue this behavior or we will have to take steps.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 9
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