jaybird3rd

I think I can understand that. Now that I've been a network admin and jack-of-all-trades IT guy for a few years, I don't enjoy tinkering with my computers/network at home nearly as much as I used to. When hobbies grow into careers, somehow some of the fun goes out of them. That's one reason I'm enjoying getting into development for classic systems so much ... they're such a refreshing change from the tiresome and overdesigned machines I work with every day, and there's little to no chance of turning it into a full-time job! Anyway, I'm grateful for the chance to own a HSC, dated design or not. I'm looking forward to the 7800 Computer Keyboard, too!

I agree, but that's actually been attempted at least once before. When JTS was in negotiations with Hasbro to sell the Atari properties in 1998, John Skruch approached Midway in an attempt to reunify the company and sell them the properties instead. Hasbro offered $5 million, which as we all know was almost nothing considering what they were getting, but Midway wouldn't even match that; Hasbro's offer was half a million dollars greater, so they got Atari. Skruch later said that Midway was "even cheaper than Jack" Tramiel, and I can't seem them putting up the kind of money Infogrames will want for Atari (which will almost certainly be more than the bacon bits that JTS took for them).

Thanks Curt ... I appreciate your taking the time out of your busy schedule to get these built and shipped. I'm eagerly awaiting mine!

Just a few quick updates: First, I've come up with a new idea for wiring the action buttons that I wanted to get some feedback on. The 7800 has two independent action buttons, but the Space Invaders controller has four buttons on it (one pair on each side of the joystick). I've typically wired the two pairs to mirror each other, just as they are labeled. As an experiment, I decided to wire the righthand pair on my own sticks to the left and right joystick directionals, which gave me a "left button" and a "right button" as well as the regular 7800 action buttons. I've found that the directional buttons work great on games (like Space Invaders and Track and Field) that used buttons in the arcade instead of joysticks; it's like having an Atari 7800 joystick and an Atari Track-and-Field controller combined into one unit. I put my directional buttons on the right because I'm right-handed, but I could put them on the left just as easily for left-handed players. For anyone thinking about getting a stick, let me know what your preference is and I can make them any way you want them. Also, the wireless Space Invaders joystick I mentioned a while ago in this thread now has a new friend: I finally got around to converting both wireless joysticks in my set, and as you might be able to tell from the picture, the power LEDs on these joysticks are active; I spliced the LED into Atari's original design so you can tell more easily whether the joysticks are switched on or off. These particular sticks are wired with the right-hand directional buttons that I described above; both buttons on the left side are wired together and map to the 2600's single action button. I actually need to fund some other Atari purchases that I have in mind, so I'll probably be putting this wireless set (with a new receiver) up for sale in the Marketplace forum sometime this week.

I believe Radio Shack actually bought out TI's entire spare parts department after the 99/4a was discontinued. You could get 99/4A keyboards, power supplies, and other parts directly from Radio Shack, either as replacement TI parts or as generic parts for projects totally unrelated to the 99/4A (which is how Radio Shack marketed them). I couldn't believe the $4.95 price when I first saw it on Mike's site. After it arrived, I learned that it was actually manufactured by Mitsumi, but it was in like-new condition and was an exact match for TI's gray 99/4A keyboard. Installation was very easy, and the only issue I had was the fact that some keys didn't work at first while others would "stick" (the keys themselves didn't stick, but one keypress would send a whole stream of characters to the screen). I simply exercised each of the keys repeatedly for a while, and before long they all worked normally. That sort of problem is inevitable with new-old-stock replacement parts of that age, and might even be specific to the particular keyboard I got. I wasn't disappointed or unpleasantly surprised at all, though; I'd buy another one like it in a heartbeat.

First of all, welcome to AtariAge! There are unfortunately no distinguishing marks that would tell you whether you're getting an "A" or a "B." The best way to tell is to simply buy it and hook it up and play Quadrun; if you get voice, you've got a "B." At this point, I'd say that your chances of getting a "B" the first time are very good; only the earliest ones (which have most likely been sold off by this time) were "A"s. You may also know that there is/was a "C" in development, which supposedly fixes some of the inferior built-in games and corrects some other issues, but with the present troubles at Atari there's no way of knowing whether "C" will actually become a product.

I stumbled onto this site a little while ago myself, and recently received the first of what I hope will be many orders (some games and replacement keyboards and cartridge connectors). I was very pleased with the quality of the merchandise and with the service that I received from Mike Dudeck, and I would highly recommend his site also.

I think that Intellivision Productions has the right idea on how to handle classic game properties. They've put out excellent emulation compilations (with technical information and other nostalgic goodies) on handhelds, consoles, and computers; they've got free game downloads on their site; they've got Intellivision-branded merchandise (t-shirts, etc); they've put out a series of TV-game handhelds (not the best quality, but they're still out there and have sold over a million units), they're on cellphones, and according to their CGE2K4 keynote, they're even looking into doing 3D treatments of some of their classic Intellivision games. It seems to me that these are the areas where the Atari properties would really flourish. It would just take somebody with the vision and the resources to pick them up and take them in that direction, and I'm actually starting to wonder if a big video game publisher would be the right place for them if that is to happen. Maybe a company that's already in the TV-game market (Radica, for instance) would be a better place for Atari at this point.

Definitely go by pin numbers instead of by colors. I would use a continuity tester to determine which color goes to which pin, and write up a little table containing the pin number, the Atari color, and the Sega equivalent. That way, when you read any Atari-specific documentation that references a particular color, you can simply refer to the table to find the correct color for your cable. Speaking of documentation, I really need to dig out the list of instructions that I use to build 7800-compatible Space Invaders joysticks (somebody asked me for them once but I forgot all about it until now). I wrote them up for myself to make the process as quick and easy as possible, and I've done it successfully dozens of times. I'm still offering my assembly service for anyone who's interested, by the way, but for those who can't afford it or who already have a stick and don't want to send it out for modification, I'd love to get that information out there. No sense in having people spending hours trying to reverse-engineer something that's already been figured out.

Nope, Activision never bought them (see my earlier post in this thread about this). Toward the end of its life, Imagic was actually headquartered in some space subleased from Activision and was trying to get bought by them, but because of the crash, they didn't have any money at the time either. Well, that's a screwed-up arrangement! Atari doesn't even own the Atari properties?! Maybe these are some of the licensing headaches that the FB2 guys have talked about; at least Hasbro Interactive had the sense to keep everything under one roof (even though they didn't do very much with it). The IP that Atari has built up under Infogrames' ownership is flash-in-the-pan junk compared to the classic properties, so I can't see that making them any decent money.

That's probably my biggest concern at this point. The FB3 has already made it to the prototype stage and I really want to see it become a finished product, but I'm afraid its chances are now in danger of being snuffed out with all the turmoil and uncertainty at Infogrames' Atari. They'd be smart to push it through, since it's probably the one product that they have in the pipeline that has a chance to make some money (and that isn't a piece of crap).

A little diaper with the name written on it would probably be more appropriate.

Atlantis was also on one of Activision's old Atari 2600 Action Pack compilations (Volume 3, I think), and I'm sure there are more examples. They probably got away with it because nobody is actively enforcing Imagic's ownership of its games, but they certainly don't belong to Activision.

He's probably too busy trying to keep uWink above water these days; as much as I respect him, I can't see any investor giving him enough money to pick up Atari. Infogrames might sell it, but for something much more substantial than the paltry $5 million that JTS took for it back in 1998. http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...ndpost&p=966620

Their entire lineup of games for current consoles always seemed mediocre for me, certainly nothing worthy of the Atari name ("The Matrix: Path of Neo"?! Come on!) Atari's back catalog of properties and their Flashback line are their only really bright stars. I'm not surprised to see their CFO leaving; I think she once said something to the effect of "Atari would be a great company if we could stop shooting ourselves in the foot," so I'm sure their situation has been frustrating to the people inside the company for a long time. To look at this from as positive a perspective as possible, I think Atari would be a natural acquisition for a company like Activision at this point. Activision already has modern platforms covered, so they won't have to put the Atari name on half-assed products for modern systems where it wouldn't have any marketing value anyway. Under Activision's ownership, perhaps Atari would have an opportunity to "get back to the basics." They could profitably operate as the "retro" wing of Activision, mining the back catalog and selling Flashback 3 consoles and game cards and giving Activision a foothold in the TV-games market. Activision could even use the FB3 to market its own classic game properties without all the licensing complications that Atari encountered in getting Activision games on the FB2. Regarding the Imagic titles: Despite popular belief, I don't think Activision owns or has ever owned any of the Imagic properties. If you listen to the November/December 2005 episodes of Retro Gaming Radio, you'll hear an extensive interview with Bruce Davis (the CEO of Imagic at the time it went under and later the CEO of Activision). According to him, Imagic went into bankruptcy in 1985 after selling off its fixed assets, and still exists as a California corporation "in bad standing" because it hasn't paid its debts to the state in 20+ years. If those were to be cleared, Imagic could be revived and would continue to hold all the rights it previously had. Because there was no buyer, and because Bruce Davis had no successor as CEO of Imagic, he technically still owns the properties but hasn't been approached with a serious offer for them yet. You weren't impressed with the hard work Curt and his team did to put genuine first-party 2600 consoles on store shelves in 2005? Personally, it impressed the hell out of me: if someone had told me in 2003 that I'd see new 2600 systems and games on the market within two years, I'd have called them crazy. With gratitude like that, you're starting to sound like an Atari Jaguar fan.

I saw another seller who claimed his Atari 2600 game was in its original shrinkwrap, but the picture showed a LOOSE CARTRIDGE that was shrinkwrapped with one corner of its worn and yellowed label folded over underneath the shrinkwrap. Somebody actually bought it, too, so maybe shrinkwrap does make people lose their minds.

I've bought most of my Atari stuff from them for a few years now, including two Jaguar consoles and CD units, and I'd recommend them highly. If I remember correctly, the consoles I got were two of the "boxed like new" ones, and they arrived in VERY good condition.

That's what I meant; VTI reverse-engineered the TIA and built their own workalike chip. As I understand it, that's one reason GCC chose them to manufacture the MARIA chip for the 7800: MARIA needed to be integrated into the existing 2600 architecture and VTI was familiar with the technology.

The "adapters" were really just self-contained units that sent A/V output through the console. If I remember correctly, they used TIA clones; I know VTI built a clone at some point, and I'm sure there were others.

Here's my guess: part of the reason the Famiclones are so inexpensive is because they are all essentially built around the same hardware: pre-built ASIC chipsets that were designed to be cheap rather than 100% accurate. The same level of inaccuracy in a VCS would make it almost useless because of the extent to which the original design was understood and exploited, so maybe a working VCS clone inside an ASIC was too difficult/expensive for those shady companies to do. True, there were Brazilian clones and clones marketed by Coleco and Mattel as "adapters" for their systems, but those used off-the-shelf components that were readily available and affordable at the time, not custom ASICs that had to be designed and built from scratch.

I don't believe in keeping games wrapped up as an "investment." Games are meant to be played, so I have no problem opening them up and playing them. I do recognize, though, that shrinkwrapped game packages contain all their original contents and are usually still in good shape, so I tend to slit mine open just enough to get the game/manual out. I try to keep everything together and in like-new condition after that, and I usually leave the shrinkwrap on (even though it's been opened) to protect the box from dust.

I've never had the pleasure of playing Fast Tracks, but I suspect that a 2600 version of GACCRR would look and play a lot like Enduro (not necessarily a bad thing, but also nothing new). Little Computer People is probably too much to attempt on the 2600 (it would be a very boring-looking house), but I can imagine Master of the Lamps working with some tradeoffs: I'm just thinking out loud here, but maybe the gates in the magic carpet ride could be implemented using something similar to the star portals in Star Voyager. If you limit yourself to six gongs, the note-matching game could be done, too. That might require some flicker depending on how the screen is laid out, though, and I don't know if there would be enough time for enough color changes to make the gongs different colors. That background looks like it could be done with playfield.

I'm afraid I must agree. The DOS version of XFormer was my first A8 emulator and remained my favorite for years, even though I wasn't happy with the clunky UI, but I abandoned it in favor of XL-It (in DOS) and eventually Atari800WinPLus (in Windows) and haven't looked back since. I remember that sound emulation was especially pitiful and compatibility wasn't too great, which is puzzling considering that Darek is a gifted programmer who was part of the A8 scene for years. But, on a more positive note, APE has been the single most amazing piece of software I've ever bought. My compliments to Steve for such a versatile and high-quality product. I still use the DOS version more than any other, but I've been a happy customer for about six years now.

Governor of NY, actually, back in 1998. I remember hearing a little bit about it when it happened, but until I read his bio, I had no idea he also had a Ph.D. in child psychology. He was an interesting actor who created a unique and memorable TV persona. RIP

I'm curious to know whether the hard drive (or even the hardware to mount it) was installed by Atari, or if it was added by someone else later. If it's any kind of IDE drive it was almost certainly added later; as I recall, IBM-compatibles that even had hard drives in 1987 usually used MFM drives. The PC1 looks almost too small for even a half-height MFM (which is what my PC4 came with), and the PC4 was released some years later. Posting some pictures might be helpful; I've always wanted to get a good look at the inside of a PC1 anyway.