Shaggy the Atarian

It would be great to have a sort of converter that on one end it's the Atari 7800 PS adapter and on the other end it's a regular VDC adapter so you can easily plug in a regular power adapter to the 7800 without having to hack the 7800 PS (which I'm no good at). I imagine that such a tiny device would be simple to make...perhaps I should give it a shot.

I would love to see any type of networking brought to the 7800, whether it be a ComLynx module or built-in ComLynx port to the 7800 ROM boards. Then we could add Slime World BattleWheels Super Skweek Double Dragon (the 7800 can do better than what showed up on it, right?) Robo-Squash And then (non-comlynxable) Kung Food Pounce (haven't played it, but it looks like a decent platformer) Any RPG that was supposed to be released for the Lynx, whether it be Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Slayer, Distant Lands, they would be good to have.

I'll have to check that setting out and see what happens. I'll also have to take a digital camera as it may be a little while before I can find a data cable to transfer the pics from my phone. :wink:

Here at work we have a few of those new Windows Media Center PC's and I decided to bring in my 2600 to see if it would work. We have a nice setup here where a Media Center PC is connected to a projector and since it has media center, the machine of course has a TV tuner with a coax port on there, so I figured that I could hook up my switch box to it. I had to fool around with the TV settings so it would pick up channel 3 but I did manage to get it working on the projector. I found out that it's pretty futile to use a 2600 through Media Center though. For one thing the screen quality is horrible...and there is a 5-20 second delay that develops thus making it unplayable. Thought I would give it a shot though. So it's possible to do but not pratical. I'm not sure if anyone else has already tried this...if so I apologize for bringing up the subject again. But it was an interesting experiment (I did take pictures of the setup with my camera phone, but I don't have a data cable to upload the pictures to the net yet either )

Wow, that looks great in MESS. I imagine that on the real thing it's even better. This is a great tool It could make for some interesting projects, especially if you wanted to add a storyline to your game with pictures. :wink:

That game pictured in the demo is one fun game. Using this tool it looks much better on the 7800. Awesome work Schmutzpuppe!

I'll try and finish my label and have it in by Monday, although I'm not too confident about it. Oh well, these labels are fun to make.

Hmm, the 3D isometric view of a Pac-Man style game may have done well (and would have been fun). It certainly would have beat falling into numerous pits...

I'll be able to play my 5200 again as soon as my replacement switch box arrives. My other one was fried a long time ago. Not only that but I won an auction on eBay about a week ago for two 5200 controllers with the holder, so that should arrive here shortly (then I can finally play Space Dungeon in all it's glory). Even though it's just an 'Atari 400-in-a-box' it has enough going for it to make it different and fun to play. I didn't realize that there were so many conversions available. Can any of these be purchased in cart form from anywhere?

There are a few systems for sale on eBay at the moment. Just do a search for Atari 5200. I did find one in the wild once (a 2-porter) but it was DOA

I wouldn't say give up on the idea. I'm just saying that until another platformer comes out on the 7800, SD should be good enough to fill in for it. I don't ever plan on seeing SMB on the 7800 due to copyright laws but I wouldn't rule out seeing some games like it. After playing SD, I'm pretty sure that it could handle games like SMB. @Drac The jump I died on was World 1 Level 3 where you have those pipes you have to jump onto and there's that pipe that's far off. I was expecting it as it was the first time I played the level and I fell into the sewage It just so happened that I was on my last guy so I had to start all over again.

No the programmer was sent over to watch filming and come up with ideas for the game, then it was scrapped and made into a 2600 game. I don't believe Atari ever saw the arcade game. Tempest Interesting stuff to know. Thanks Tempest.

I just got stuck on the first hard jump in the sewers. I wasn't expecting it and I was on my last guy and of course I fell a long ways. I don't even see how you can make it. The fast scrolling is impressive. I wasn't expecting the game to scroll along like it does as I'm used to things being a little slower on the other 7800 games I have. It's perfect with the 7800 joypad. If Atari does release anything like the Flashback in the future, I think it would be very smart to include this game.

While I've never really gotten into BluePrint I agree with Tunnel Runner. It's a pretty impressive game and it's very addictive on top of that. I can't remember how far I have gotten on that game...level 13 perhaps (the game goes lightning fast around there )

Was the 5200 version supposed to be like the arcade version? Even still, I really like the 2600 version. For the 2600's capabilities it's a great looking game and is fun on top of that. I wasn't able to top my score yet. But I could hardly imagine sitting there for a half hour trying to fend those things off.

Well I received my copy of Scrapyard Dog today (thanks CV!!!) and now I'm wondering why this game is so overlooked. It has great graphics(better than SMB IMHO) and it's a pretty fun game to play(from what I've played so far). If you haven't played SD yet and want a SMB game well...get Scrapyard Dog! The 7800 can obviously do a side-scroller very well, I imagine that anyone who knows the 7800 inside and out could produce a great looking game.

I miss Bidiots.com and it's lack of fees.

I miss Bidiots.com and it's lack of fees.

As I mentioned in another thread, I just got Krull the other day and I have been enjoying it throughly. It was definently a good effort on Atari's part and is the best movie-to-game translation I've played on the 2600 (ok, so there aren't many of those to compete with). One part I've been practicing on is the first screen where the slayers come to steal away your fianceé. How many slayers have you managed to kill before she gets carted away? Last night I was able to get a score of 3400 on that first part after several attempts. I'll have to see later if I can get higher than that.

Wow, that really does look like crap. Of course, it looks like they strayed far away from the first two Pitfall's.

You forgot two games I think are worth mentioning: Sky Diver and Krull. I just received Krull in the mail and I've been playing it non-stop pretty much. And I can't really explain why, it's just a lot of fun

How did Pitfall on the NES turn out? I've never played it, it seemed to be rather obscure... Something along the lines of Pitfall 2 would be great. That was always one of my favorite 2600 games. If you gave Harry a whip(or allow him to duck at least) and put some bosses in the mix and it certainly would continue to be a fun game. I'm just starting to really think about how such a project would turn out to be on the 7800 though.

This one looks great. How close would you consider it to done ken?

What we need here isn't another arcade conversion. Rather, we need something new and original (such as SMB was on the NES). Remember, it took original platformer games to get the NES off the ground and running. The 7800 has precious few of these side-scrolling gems. So that's what's needed. Not necesseraly a SMB conversion or even a clone, but a side-scroller of some kind. I agree with this statement. Although I have yet to play Scrapyard Dog (CV, where are you?) I think that if anyone is going to make a side-scroller game, let it be original. Can one be made that is just as fun, if not funner than SMB? Of course. It would make for a great entry in the homebrewer's contest :wink: I just need to dedicate myself to studying assembly and then I'll make one.

Hmm... I am not familiar with Z26 for Windows. I use Stella for Mac. For printscreen in Windows I am pretty sure you can hold down a key and take a snapshot of just the active window, or the whole screen. Which way were you trying to do it? Try the other way. At any rate ShaggytheAtarian, I believe you when you say you beat the game. Send me a PM telling me how much of a hint you want: hard or tell you step by step how to get to it. Cheers! Perhaps I should download Stella as well. Every time I've tried to take screenshots in z26 they come out very strange, if at all. Sending a PM here in a second...