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Nebulon

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Posts posted by Nebulon

  2. Posted

    Mr. Do's Castle is decent and doesn't quite fit the thread's criteria IMO, but the mechanics of smashing enemies while they're on blocks doesn't quite work like they should. Plus, the duration of unicorns turned into letter monsters is WAY too short!!!

     

    Here's what I do.

     

    - First, I knock over a ladder to force the baddies to approach a skull bridge from one side only.

    - Then I knock out the skull on the far side and a few of the middle blocks on the bridge.

    - Next I wait for them to stand on the bridge and then knock out the other skull.

     

    Instead of trying to hit them directly when they're on a block try

    - knocking out blocks on the level below

    - then go up to the level above, and when they're trying to fill in the hole drop the block above them onto them.

     

    For the letter monster thing, activate all three keys and then stand right next to the flashing symbol at the top of the screen. Just before they reach you, grab the symbol and whack 'em before they can get away. This makes up for the limited time that they stay in alpha-monster form.

  3. Posted

    I hooked up a Golden Image external disk drive to my Atari 1040STe.

     

    When I start the system up, the Golden Image drive LED shows the number "08" for a second -- so I know it's getting power and seems to recognize the computer. Anyone know what the number 8 means on one of these?

     

    However, if I try double-clicking the Floppy Disk B icon, it tries to access the internal disk drive instead. Same thing happens when I double-click the Floppy Disk A icon (but that was expected, of course).

     

    Thoughts?

     

     

  4. Posted

    Gunbird II: I've heard that serious players consider this much improved over the original. It's a great-looking

    game, but the punishing difficulty makes it too frustrating for me to play compared to the early Psikyo shooters.

     

    Mr. Do's Castle: Doesn't quite have the charm of Mr. Do.

     

    None of the Bubble Bobble sequels captured that crazy chaotic fun of the original.

     

    Raiden II or II DX are the high point of that series to me. The Raiden Fighters series are OK, but you can tell

    they were a renamed game from a different series. The style is very different.

     

    Super Cobra: Like Scramble, but you spend much more time ramming into walls.

     

    I'm crazy about Mr. Do's Castle. Of course, I spent zillions of hours playing the original Mr. Do as well. Both are great in my book.

  9. Posted · Edited by Nebulon

    I think I picked up a replacement ballast for my Star Wars marquee light from Home Depot.

     

    Mitch

    Thanks. I've been meaning to check there. Is you ballast one with a built-in starter? I see that the dude who worked on mine pulled the original ballast and separate starter socket right off the bracket and replaced them with a self-starting ballast. It also seems that there are 4 wires coming out of the self-starter ballast and only 2 wires on the original ballast.

  10. Posted

    Well, this is bizarre.

     

    I got an Archer analog joystick for my Apple IIe today and tried it out (connected to the DB9 port).

     

    It worked fine. I tested it out on Moon Patrol.

     

    Then I reset the machine to try a different game. The screen was scrambled on reset.

     

    I powered the Apple off, unplugged the stick and powered it back on again. It worked fine. Plugging the joystick back in again causes it to scramble the screen again. Odd.

     

    I've also tried switching autofire off and every combination of analog calibration settings to see if something about those settings had anything to do with it. No go. Same scrambled display.

     

    Does anyone know why this might be happening?

     

    How are Apple IIe computers with joysticks being unplugged and plugged while powered on? I know some older computers don't like that too much, so I thought I'd check before I tried it -- just in case.

  11. Posted

     

    It's two, here's a more closeup of the ballast. Sorry it's slightly blurry.

     

    Mitch

    Thanks very much for that! After looking at this new photo, it looks like there's hope for my good ol' TRON machine yet.

     

    The electrician replaced the ballast that you see there with a larger ballast with four wires. It worked, but then the Corcom filter died. I pulled the filter out of the loop and it stopped working. Then someone else did some work on it, and it worked for about five minutes. It seems that the ballast he used started to flake-out somewhere along the line. Now the wiring is looking pretty different than it did originally.

     

    The good news is that I managed to source out a replacement filter and a ballast from a Bally slot machine. The ballast looks just like the one in your photos (makes sense, since it's a Bally Midway machine after all).

     

    So, the next thing is to make sure I wire everything back up properly again.

     

    ;-)

  16. Posted · Edited by Nebulon

    The upper-rear light assembly on my TRON (1981/1982) upright full-size machine went haywire and I took it to an electrician. He did some weird stuff to it and now it's pretty different than it used to be. That, and his repair job didn't work for long.

     

    So now I need to fix it. The problem is, I don't have any reference of what it looked like originally.

     

    Please -- if there's someone out there who has access to one of these machines in its original factory configuration (and likes taking techy photos) -- I really need pictures of the light assembly that's at the back of the machine at the top. No need to remove it. All I need to see is on the under-side of the L-shaped silver bracket. The panel that reveals this is the top-rear wood panel (the one with the key-hole in it). Please be careful not to touch the back of the cathode ray tube. The tube's set quite a way in there, so that shouldn't be an issue. Of course, if you're an owner of one of these, I'm reasonably sure you're already well aware of this.

     

    What I'd need are:

     

    - Photos of where the wires go into and come out of the Corcom filter.

    - and where the wires enter and exit the ballast.

    - Perhaps a picture of the ends of the light fixture.

     

    Thanks a bunch!

  18. Posted

    Space Harrier - Not only is this a technical accomplishment, it's also really fun to play.

     

    Donkey Kong - This is REALLY fun. It handles really well. A good example of finely-tuned game play.

     

    Pac-Man - I actually enjoy this version even more than the coin-op. Great response on the controls and properly graduated skill level.

     

    Galaxian - I never liked the arcade version of Galaxian (I prefer Galaga). However, I can't seem to stop playing this on the A8.

     

    Demon Attack - This is one of the most inherently-playable games I've ever seen. Clever use of sound, too.

  19. Posted

    Thanks for the help everyone.

     

    The next day, I walked up to the 800XL, flicked the power switch to on, and it worked again.

     

    I didn't touch anything else. So I'm thinking it's likely something to do with the power supply (and I'm very happy that the computer is okay).

     

    Regardless, I'd rather not use that particular power brick anymore. I ended up ordering the modern power supply for a negotiated price of $25.00 (including shipping).

     

     

    P.S. I do have a volt meter, but I don't know what settings to use on it or which pins to connect it to (I'm not all that great at the nitty-gritty of electronics).

  22. Posted

    So there I was happily playing a game on the Atari 800XL when the screen suddenly went blank.

     

    I looked down at the computer and the power light was out.

     

    Instantly reverting (regressing?) back to an 8-year-old, the first word out of my mouth was, "Noooooooooo!"

     

     

    Has this ever happened to anyone else? Do you think it's just the power supply, or could the computer itself be at fault?

     

    Snif. :?

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