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Nebulon

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Posts posted by Nebulon

  1. Posted

    Definitely lots of good points mentioned in this thread.

     

    Some food for thought...

     

    Yes, it's true that interest rates started to drop in 1983 and 1984. However, they were still relatively high and didn't get into somewhat reasonable territory until 1985.

     

    There's always a delayed effect due to people (and corporations) using their cash reserves to sustain themselves. Once that dries up, suddenly the real story becomes apparent.

     

    So you have people saying that there was a crash in 1982 (with consumers noticing the effects in 1984) and a mortgage rate crisis in 1980 and 1981 with consumer spending being strangled in 1984.

     

    I clearly remember this when it happened. Plenty of arcades closing down and retailers dumping cartridges in favor or diskette software.

     

    Inflation was mentioned in the discussion and that's certainly another important factor.

     

    North America was home of some of the biggest video game giants in the industry at the time. And that's where these economic shocks were felt the most. It was effectively a localized 'crash'.

     

    With a very difference economic situation in the 1980s, it's no surprise that Japan picked up the slack. The Japanese video game market was going strong throughout the 80s and the lull in North America was their strategic moment to move in on that market. It was only a matter of time before disposable income in North America came back on line and getting the timing right was a gamble that paid off (especially for Nintendo).

     

    As for low-quality games. I agree somewhat. But after collecting all these years (and recalling the early days of the first Playstation), I can see that there were tons of low-quality games on the market. That didn't seem to put a dent into the NES or the Playstation. People just kept on buying. And if there ever was a lull with the NES, I'm convinced it had more to do with what affected the Atari 2600. That is, the hardware was getting long-in-the-tooth. Other systems were hitting the market with more advanced graphics and sound. A platform only has so much longevity and eventually the bulk of the game-playing consumers will be lured away.

     

    Regarding media portrayal of games, I do recall the chatter amongst parents. There certainly were cases here in which parents started to shift toward setting their children up with a home computer instead of a console. Many considered computers to be the more 'respectable' option at the time.

     

    As mentioned already, the 2600 E.T. game is easy to blame. Media likes quick and sensational sound bites. But as Keatah stated, "There were many reasons."

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    Are there any XP computers where you are? If it's an earlier XP PC, it should run Windows 98SE just fine and XP computers are much easier to find. I have a Compaq Presario designed for Windows XP with 256MB of RAM, a Celeron 2.6 GHZ CPU, an 80 GB HDD, a DVD Drive and extra CD Burner, and a decent integrated video and sound card and I've got it running Windows ME just fine. I did install 98SE, but I gave up on it because I had to manually configure so much crap. ME detected nearly all my hardware right away, is much faster, and has system restore in case something goes wrong. I will switch to 98SE at some point, but for now, ME is working great. Also, my ME PC has internet and most websites work fine!

     

    As for the specs you listed, you might wanna stick with 256MB of RAM. 512 is the maximum 98 and ME can support (I've run them on 1 GB and they became very unstable) and while Windows should run fine, some older programs will assume that the high amount of RAM is actually less RAM than the program needs.

     

    Actually, Windows 98se supports more RAM than ME. You can run up to just a hair under 1GB or RAM in 98 (a mo-bo with shared video RAM will allow this to work neatly). ME was dumbed down (likely to make NT look more attractive). I recall all of this vividly since I was a Windows reseller from version 2.1 through XP and have a great memory of the 98, ME, and NT days (some of it I'd like to forget, but I can't).

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    I know this has been done to death, but I have to set the record straight. Numerous documentaries and books (even L. Herman's Phoenix) state that the video game crash of the early 80s was caused by too many games on the market.

     

    This is false.

     

    The second thing to address is the year of the crash. Some are quoting it as 1982. From the perspective of the consumer, this is also false. Perhaps some developers began to suspect the bubble was about to burst at the time. The truth is that the general consumer public didn't feel the effects of the crash until 1984.

     

    Reasons for the crash:

     

    Primary: Home consoles and arcades were slandered by the media. The focus shifted to computers. Video gaming never stopped. Instead of playing at the arcade or on a console, the majority of gamers played on their home or school computer systems.

     

    Secondary: The economic recession and rapidly rising interest rates. People were paying over and above 18% on their mortgages in the early to mid-80s. Consider how this and the energy crisis affected the amount of real disposable income (not to mention investor income). If you were going to spend money at that time, it was no longer enough to purchase an item purely for entertainment. Instead, it needed to serve more than one purpose. I.e. integrate home and office (generate income), educate (build a future), and finally -- entertain. Enter the rise of the home computer.

     

    Once the economy recovered and interest rates dropped, people could again begin to look at consoles. Hence the rise of the NES, Genesis, etc....

     

    http://www.fedprimerate.com/wall_street_journal_prime_rate_history.htm

    • Like 3

  7. Posted

    OG Xbox is boss. Crimson Skies, Otogi 1/2, Panzer Orta, Gunvalkyrie, arcade perfect Outrun 2, JSRF. Honestly, the XBOX is a better Sega console than the Dreamcast. :lol:

    Well, you know -- it is sort of the Dreamcast 2.

     

    Similar controller layout (with the addition of a second analog stick), dual ports on the back of the controller, four ports across the front, Ethernet built in, SEGA signed on as software developer from the start, original intention of being backward compatible with the Dreamcast, and even the head of SEGA USA going over to work for M$ just prior to the launch of the classic XBOX.

  8. Posted

     

    That one's also very outdated. The current MAME driver is here.

     

    Someone familiar with Z80 dis/assembly would need to tear apart the original game, figure out where the screen drawing routines are (the MAME debugger may help with this), and go from there. That's not going to be me, however.

     

    I suppose I should ask though.... Where can you find the MAME debugger?

  12. Posted

    I'm not poking fun, I'm just curious: Colecovision is usually liked for the good arcade ports right? Why do some of you guys prefer playing on the Coleco instead of emulating through MAME? Is it more nostalgia, is it for the feel of the controls, and reduced latency, are the port better than the originals, or something else?

     

    Or just the hassle of doing this whole mame thing, ilegal roms etc..?

     

    In my case, it's a combination of multiple skill levels (although some arcade machines have that too), muscle memory for the controls on the console, the steering wheel for Turbo, and that the ColecoVision games are a bit different than the arcade versions (kind of like playing a remix of a game).

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    I love Mr. Do! Would have loved a 5200 version.

     

    Back when I worked at Namco Networks we licensed Mr. Do! from Aruze for mobile and the developer did a pretty bang-up conversion of it. I had one of my artists do a really nice cartoon Mr. Do character for use on various ads and the title screen, always trying to stay true to the original marketing art, but making the character a little more consistently cute and appealing. We always did a "classic" mode which we tried to make arcade perfect, and an "enhanced" mode with souped up graphics that felt like a higher-rez, more detailed version of the originals. So, for instance, in the enhanced mode the Alpha Monsters would escape from a circus wagon at the top of the screen and where you might see a big top in the distance. Each level was a different landscape.

     

    34052203323_8cfa389f28_o.jpg34019051084_5918f5807d_o.jpg

     

    The dirty little secret we had there was most of us thought Mr. Do! was more fun than Namco's Dig Dug. ;)

    That's really cool.

     

    Which phones did this run on?

     

    Is there a YouTube video of it out there?

  14. Posted

    It truly is. I didn't care for Mr. Do back in the day. I ended up with a Mr Do arcade machine, and it is truly one of my favorites. I remember thinking the SNES version was dead on. It LOOKS great, but the SNES enemy logic is very poorly handled. Due to that major change, it's not possible to properly set up enemy apple traps. The control and collision is also off on the SNES.

     

    When I went back to play the A8 version, I was able to appreciate the small details. The control is excellent, the music is excellent, the collision is very much like the arcade, Mr Do, and all the of the enemies, are full of color. That was something not commonly found on home systems back then. I doubt the ability of an unmodified ColecoVision to handle such an accurate conversion of this game. The 8-bit Computers were so powerful when utilized properly!

     

    Possible "beefing up":(None of these missing are a disappointment)

    1. Add diamond cut-scene

    2. Add attract mode

    3. Letter monster should turn into an apple.

    4. High score save (I hate buying cartridges. I like to select my games from the AtariMax menu. High Score save might sway me to get a cart!)

     

    On a similar note: Did anybody ever notice the ColecoVision and main character appear to match the Prototype of the game??

    Arcade Prototype

     

    ColecoVision

     

    That and the music in the ColecoVision version is based on the arcade prototype instead of the final arcade release with the clown.

  15. Posted

    Any Z80 programmers out there looking for a pet project?

     

    If so, you could make the world a better place by adding more levels to the arcade version of Mr. Do.

     

    You know how levels 2 through 9 each have a path/tunnel shaped like a number?

     

    What if there were additional levels that had paths shaped like letters (A through Z).

     

    Otherwise, exactly the same game. No additional features -- just more mazes. The existing game logic should do the rest on its own.

     

     

    Anyway, food for thought for anyone out there looking for something interesting to hack away at. I'd do it myself, but I'm completely ignorant of Z80 machine language programming.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    I don't know about that. Most of the commercials hyped the ColecoVision as a console where you can play the arcade at home and many of the translations were very good (Looping, Mouse Trap, Pepper II and LadyBug were probably better than the arcade game). We can look back now and pick out the imperfections with Donkey Kong, but BITD it was the ColecoVision's "killer app."

     

    As far as "new and different" - I agree that it's outnumbered when you put it side-by-side with the Atari 2600. But there was a sufficient number of original games for the ColecoVision released.

     

    Agreed.

     

    Decent arcade ports is why I got a ColecoVision in the first place. That was its major selling point.

    • Like 3

  20. Posted

     

    The Falcon has still two digital sound channels (stereo) but because it has a DSP to do the software mixing, the number of channels is flexible. There are even trackers that do 32 channels like Ace Tracker, Digital Home Studio, Graoumf Tracker and Megatracker. And because the DSP does the software mixing, playing music does not impact the main CPU.

     

    On ST/STEs, software mixing takes indeed more time than "plain" 4-channel Paula music, but it is also much more flexible. The four Amiga sound channels are strictly divided with 2 left, 2 right and for me the stereo separation is sometimes too much. With software mixing you can pan a sound channel between left and right softening the stereo separation or have effects where a sound moves from one side to the other side. Thus software mixing has its advantages (flexibility) at the cost of CPU time. For the STE there are various MOD players that can play Amiga MOD files at the same or better quality than the Amiga although it indeed cost more CPU time but not so much that it can't done anything else as many demos (and some games like Obsession, StarDust) prove.

    It is funny that Amiga programmers used Atari ST techniques (started by Atari ST musician Jochen Hippel with 7-track TFMX player used in for example Turrican and Lethal Xcess) to overcome the limitations of the Amiga sound hardware like more than 4 tracks and stereo panning in OctaMED where the hardware has strict left/right separation. But the 7/8 channel mod players had the same problem as on the STE that it took more CPU time so it was usually only used in title/intro screens and not during game play.

     

    @Foebane

    You are right that the Amiga is technically superior to the Atari ST/STE in the sense that its graphics and sound hardware makes effects possible with little CPU time that will take on the ST lots of CPU time. The one advantage the ST has is that it has a slightly faster clock speed.

    But you have to remember that the ST, in the first few years was far more affordable than the Amiga. The Amiga was technically superior but at a price which made it too expensive as "16-bit family" home computer for most. Only after the Amiga 500 was released about two years later, the price came down to a level that made it compete as family home computer. But until that time the Atari ST was the most sensible choice because it gave you the most value for your buck. But in 1990 things were indeed different and the Amiga 500 gave you most value for your buck.

    So for me both are great machines if you put their price/performance in perspective.

     

    Robert

     

    That's a really good response.

     

    To those who haven't seen it, it's worth checking out Stardust on the STe. The in-game and title menu music is pretty much identical to the Amiga.

     

    And yeah, I second the issue of the Amiga's two channels to the left and two to the right. I recall doing a cross-wired four-speaker arrangement to try to alleviate that.

  21. Posted

    Some of you already know about this (since I spotted a reference to the "Plato cartridge" in the forum). However, I had no idea this stuff even existed until today.

     

    Things like the game Empire from 1973, the Plato system from 1972 (and its use of a touch screen as well as on-line multiplayer gaming).

     

    Empire:

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_(PLATO)

     

     

    Which puts me in mind of this later game:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fleet_Battles

     

     

    The Plato computer systems:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

     

     

    • Like 5

  22. Posted

    btw i know that i said that i did not want to post any example.

    but here is some made by ultrasyd he know how to punish the ym

     

     

     

    I'm pretty sure the first and third videos also make use of the STe's two digital sample channels.

     

    As for synthy Amiga music, here's something from an Amiga 500 (albeit with a bit of reverb added):

    http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/otherworld/MP3/JS_Bach%20-%20Brandenburg4%20(Amiga).mp3

  23. Posted

     

    And I am tired of people breaking their PLCC sockets when they can just cut a trace ;)

     

    As for the WHDLoad "QUIT" key, from my understanding the ability to quit is up to the slave.

     

    I'm sorry guys. I'm just grumpy today.

     

    I can safely say that I've yet to harm a PLCC socket.

     

    And yes, I totally second eightbit on the PLCC extractor thing. If anyone wants to work on these sockets, those pullers will save you a ton of headaches (and they're not very expensive).

  24. Posted

     

     

    If you insert the 8372A in an NTSC machine it will still boot NTSC unless you either:

     

    1. Soft boot into PAL mode using some software (as the 8372A is dual PAL/NTSC and can do it)

    2. Or cut a jumper (JP5 IIRC?) to allow the machine to turn on natively in PAL mode

    Just put tape over the metal contact on the PLCC socket that corresponds to the 50/60Hz switch pin on the blitter. Then it'll be permanently switched to PAL until you do a software switch back to NTSC.

     

    I'm tired of people hacking up their mo-bos when they don't have to.

  25. Posted

    Speaking of PAL machines, a lot of people do not realize that you can easily convert your NTSC machines to a PAL machine by simply swapping the Agnus chip with a PAL variant. On later model (Rev 6A) Amiga 500 boards you can cut a trace on the board to do the same thing and even install a switch so that you can hop between PAL and NTSC. On my Amiga 2000 I simply use a PAL Agnus (this was originally an NTSC machine) in my Megachip and it is a PAL system now. Since it has the 3.1 ROM I can go into the early boot menu to switch to NTSC if I want, but I literally never do that ;)

     

    Bottom line is that there are lots of ways to get a PAL machine out of an NTSC machine (even software methods) but I find that simply swapping the Agnus chip is the easiest and least damaging way. This way you only need to import a tiny chip and not a whole machine ;)

     

    No trace-cutting required for PAL mode when using an 8372A on a rev 6A motherboard (same for swapping an 8370 for an 8371 on that board).

    • Like 1
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