AAA177

Thanks for these replies, I appreciate it. I was about to try and contact MSFT as suggested when something popped into my head...a lot of my history seemed to have disappeared, so I tried looking at the history of other Bing-chat questions I did that had no relation to the topic at hand, thinking maybe on a certain day on record, it would only show one search. That seems to be what happened, so this one was located under a stock-market-related question (i.e., it essentially was hidden from me). If you get what I mean. I will now copy and paste the output. I think doctorclu what happened is I had worded the other questions differently and the system thought I wanted to make a clone of the game, and that may have indeed set off copyright issues. The question here was, write an Atari 800 assembly code that approximates the shape of Pitfall Harry. This can't possibly be accurate, correct? By the way, too, on some Atari-related questions, AtariAge is cited as a source... ****** ; Pitfall Harry Shape (Atari 800 Assembly Code) ; Written by ChatGPT ; Set up display list DLIST .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 .BYTE $70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70,$70 ; Character set for Pitfall Harry CHARSET .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 .BYTE $00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 ; Main program loop MAIN LDX #CHARSET LDA #0 LOOP STA $D800,X INX CPX #256 BNE LOOP ; Infinite loop WAIT JMP WAIT ; End of program

I'm not a programmer and I don't know a lot about AI. But I fool around from time to time with the Bing Co-pilot thing for fun. The other day I asked it something like write an Atari 800xl assembly program to approximate Pitfall Harry. It spit out some code. Unfortunately, I didn't capture it at the time, thinking I could do it later and post it here to see if it was accurate. Usually it stays in the history. But this request disappeared. I'm curious: do you think it disappeared because I asked it to do something related to a copyrighted IP? Because I have made other requests such as write an Atari BASIC program to draw a line, or write an Atari assembly program to draw a pumpkin...in both cases it generated code. But when I tried to repeat the prompt for Pitfall Harry, it now no longer does it. In fact, just checking history now, all my repeat attempts are gone. I wanted to copy the code and post it here for review like I said, just out of curiosity. I believe it was not correct; even though I cannot program in assembly or any other computer language, I'm fairly certain the fact that it seemed to repeat the same thing on just about all lines - it wasn't this, but something like .byte $08 over and over again - means it was wrong. On the contrary, the pumpkin and BASIC line seemed right. (I base this only on the fact that I like to sometimes read assembly language listings of Atari games, because I find it cool to see what a game actually began as in terms of abstract, incomprehensible-to-me writing.) Anyway, just wondering about thoughts on this. I can understand the system restricting stuff, but I thought this perhaps somewhat odd...

Thanks for the replies. I am in US. I will check AMZN...

If I order the + unit from Atari's shop site (if it is still available), does it ship from overseas or from the US? Has the unit been in stores? I ask because I plan on trying to acquire this when my tax refund comes in, probably beginning of April. (Or, have I missed the boat)

I did not know about Arcade Animals...I will check that out. (Just did a preliminary search, and I guess this received capital via crowd-funding? Interesting.) In terms of who should host a reboot of Starcade...honestly, it should be an unknown (read: cheap) graduate out of media college. I wouldn't go for a name as I would not want it to be a host-driven show...make it a games-driven show first, with player-driven being a secondary consideration. And I would use a new host every season (again, for cost-mitigation). Really surprises me Nintendo and other companies haven't explored this kind of thing given that electronic-sports was supposed to be a disruption to the zeitgeist at one point. Anyway, just my opinion...

Surprised something like this took so long to happen. Also wonder where it will land...a broadcaster? Cable channel? Streamer? What's the strategy here? Now we just need other variations...a Shark-Tank-like show where game ideas are pitched, either for 2600, arcade, mobile, whatever? Imagine David Crane as a judge. A collector-focused show? A fictional anthology that involves stories that feature the games/consoles in some fashion (picture an episode where someone time-travels in the past to warn Atari execs about Pac-Man and E.T.)? Love the news, wish Atari the best...(I'll also add that we need another Starcade series, still focused on old arcade games)...

Okay, I actually will have to alter the game that blew me away honor: you've got to be kidding me...I was searching to see how many versions of The Immortal were on the service (three, it turns out) and for some reason, the following came up: a game called Lee, as the fourth result. I said to myself, it can't be...but it is! Bruce Lee! Presumably called this for licensing reasons! Wow. Wish it was the Atari version, but perhaps there is no difference with the C64 (although I find that hard to believe, C64 always was a bit different on some games). Will have to try this later tonight. (And I hope I find Zorro too, perhaps renamed!). I've always wanted to see older games renamed to avoid the licensing issue...

Hey, I am back at the thread. I have subscribed for a year to Antstream after considering everything here. So far, things have been fun. But I do have one problem, so I will ask here: Is there any way to adjust mouse sensitivity on the service (while keeping my normal setting elsewhere)? I don't see a way, and if that is the case, then the Lucasfilm games cannot be played. A bit of a disappointment, but as was mentioned above, there are some bugs here and there (as far as I can tell, I cannot use the controller to move the point) And just want to quickly say to Lord M thanks for additional color on the YouTube notion. I suspect you are correct. For those interested, the game I was blown away to see : Law of the West by Accolade! Now that brings back memories. Vampire's Empire I used to have for the ST but could never figure it out, but that might be a close second. I find the inclusion/exclusion of certain games odd. The SNES Indiana Jones title is there, but not the Atari 2600, or the arcade Temple of Doom? And why not Defenders of Dynatron City? The three Star Wars arcade games, but not Willow. I'm surprised Disney just doesn't say, pay a little more and get everything, all the licensed games we ever did (would love to see that Ned's Nightmare title). And I wish one of my favorite arcade games Congo Bongo was included. I'll have to find a suggestion form on the site... Thanks again for all the help...

Thanks for all these replies. Seems there is more to this than I thought. And I guess, as someone said, I cannot pay $80 for a lifetime membership. If I understand correctly, maybe I can sign up for less for a year and give it a go. I too am always interested in the economics as someone mentioned. I was wondering how on earth can the company license 1300 games...unless there are only a few licensees licensing whole libraries of games, in the same way a film studio will license a movie package to a cable channel. Multiple licensees would be a more complex situation. And do they require advances, or take a cut of minutes played (i.e., if a game is never played, it generates $0 for the licensee), in the same way an author will receive money for pages read on Amazon's Kindle unlimited program. And then there are similarities to the FAST model of content distribution (Pluto TV, Tubi, so forth). Speaking of which: if a company like this can collect licenses for 1300 games, why hasn't a concern such as NFLX figured out something like this? Or even YouTube...now that I think about it, the latter is way more of a mystery because of the implied synergy: watch videos of creators playing old games or talking about them (e.g., John Hancock), then playing the actual games (for some sort of fee, of course, or ad-supported). One would figure Alphabet/Google would be smart enough to figure out a model for something like this...

Just wanted to add one other thing: I am surprised that game could fetch that much. I actually like that game and probably wouldn't want to part with it, but if that is for complete in box and not sealed, it might make me consider selling...

Just getting back to this thread...just wanted to say the additional posts have been helpful! I am still strategizing and researching this. I am hoping to start selling this month if I am able. One reason for not doing it right away is something I sure everyone here struggles with: as jhd said, we all need the space, but...it is hard sometimes to part with any part of a collection. Thankfully I will start off with some I just absolutely no longer have an interest in playing, as well as primarily the duplicates. Again, thanks for all the assistance...

Not sure where to place this precisely, but since it does include Atari games, I figure I would throw it here. Just wanted to ask if anyone has used this yet for PC, the Antstream 1300 game collection. Seems too good to be true! At least for someone who is not too adept at installing and figuring out emulators. I wanted to confirm if this is true or not because as far as I see, I cannot get this info at the site unless I go through the buying process: for PC, according to articles at other sites, the one-time fee for lifetime membership is $80, which includes the ability to access more games as they become available? That seems impossible to me, especially the fact that as more games are added, one does not have to pay anything else. Maybe I am misunderstanding. (In fact, when I go to the promo page on the site, it says now there are over 1400 games available, if I am reading this correctly.) Also: I believe I am using an Xbox 360 controller for Steam, and for most games, that works fine...however, will it work for Antstream? I am very strongly considering buying this at the end of the month when I get some extra money...thanks for any info...

Thanks for the reply. It would actually be the 2600 game. I mistakenly placed it here...

Any idea of a reasonable value for a sealed "Pitfall" game? Thanks... edit: Wrong forum, sorry! If it can be moved by a moderator, would appreciate...

Tanooki and Fiddlepaddle, thank you very much for these great replies. Lot of useful info in them. I have to admit, I have a lot of anxiety about going into a store and negotiating...not my personality at all. Very illuminating was the issue of fees on ebay/AMZN....honestly forgot about that. The 60% rule and comparison to time/other costs makes sense. I was surprised by the concept of visiting the same store multiple times...I though perhaps that would annoy the potential buyer who might look at me as trying to maximize the collection by selling in pieces. That's good to know. Thanks again...

Just curious if anyone has a link to a resource or a video that walks one through the process of selling a collection. In particular, if I wanted to go the lazy route and utilize my local game store, I'd love to know what to expect for valuation and liability (i.e., if I have a sealed game, what happens if the eventual buyer opens it and finds an empty box?) and any other deep-dive stuff (e.g., when someone buys a collection, do they debt-finance it, offer a mix of cash/credit?); also, what personal information do I have to give to the local business (is social # required, as an example)? I'd also love to know about the possibility of an auction and the pros/cons. Thanks (I will of course do my own searching, but I also wanted exposure to a curated set of knowledge since any search I do will be biased toward the top results). One other question too: am I correct to assume that some of the larger asks on eBay for certain games (e.g., Zombie Nation, or even something like Goonies II, both for NES) are completely unrealistic, not only for those sellers but for the act of selling to a local store owner? Thanks again...(and just to be completely clear, I don't want to bother anyone here with all these questions, links or advice to where I can find the answers and do the work for myself is fine, especially if someone has put out their own video on the subject and wants some monetization from it, as I will watch all ads...perhaps maybe with the exception of the unrealistic price issue, that is hard to figure out even after searching).

Playing this on Steam. Anyone happen to know how to get back to the map screen in the game? Hadn't played in a while and loaded up the scene with the seance. I don't have what is needed for it (I believe a flashlight and mask). I need to go somewhere else, Algiers I'm pretty sure. Or...am I essentially stuck and have to go to an ealier save point? Thanks...

I just noticed there is a channel on YouTube that has four videos on it, posted a couple weeks ago, called "Starcade Atari 1" through 4. These appear to be videos of some sort of Atari documentary raw footage, maybe a PBS-type thing. Just curious what it is and what it is from, it's probably something others here already know about and is just new to me. To be honest, I have not watched all of it yet - just saw it basically a few minutes ago - but from what I have sampled, I see no explanation or credits. Thanks. (Also, any more type of stuff like this? What I have sampled is pretty damn cool.)

Good points from both (my like on the one from CC is because it is something to concede on my part, obviously I would rather the customer pool not decrease, for any reason, certainly; reminds me of Danny Devito's speech in Other People's Money). Let me amend and say perhaps the company can make 26/52/7800-type stuff but from the point of view of making games that appear to be from that era but more advanced in the way that the later games were. For instance, something like Montezuma's Revenge, which to me holds up today, and is as appealing as the PC versions were. Or, as the homebrews are doing now, make them with the larger memory to properly make the titles. Another possible revenue stream: adapting stuff from higher platforms to the 26/52/etc. aesthetic. Imagine if a Disney game such as Castle of Illusion were to be given the old Atari treatment... I do concede that I am obviously biased in my enthusiasm here, what I suggest may not work. But maybe it could be a part of a business model, with the other part being as you say trying to find the next Resident Evil or Call of Duty. Lastly, to CC...I like the Candy image. Uncle Buck is one of my favorite films...

Law of the West was an Accolade game, I believe. Anyone know if that one is part of the purchase (the list that was posted previously did not include it, but I assume it was incomplete?)? This is a very interesting thread, touching on the business model. To me, Atari should continue to purchase IP, as well as develop new games for its platforms (and thus of course PC) but ... do it in the original way it was done before. Hire programmers to write these titles in assembly code, produce cartridges for the original systems (2600/5200/etc.). Hire Audacity Games to make titles, and re-release some of these systems (Circus Convoy could certainly be the in-game cartridge for a new release of the 2600). Some partnership with ATVI could be pursued such that perhaps Audacity could work on a true third Pitfall!. I would then agree with the release that perhaps the IP - and any new IP as I have described - could be turned into other ancillary opportunities, such as films/episodic. (As I always say, can anyone tell me why there has never been a Pitfall! live action movie? Always wanted to see Bruce Campbell in that role, but maybe Chris Pratt or Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd or even Downey Jr., could take that character...and this from someone who has never seen a Marvel film in full, and is not really a fan! Or I suppose Illumination/NBCUni could work its magic on that IP the way it just did for the famous video-game brothers)

Thanks for the replies. Based on both posts, I will not be getting either item for now and save some cash. Really appreciate the help and the great info (and that's too bad that Hamster decided to not go the Steam route, perhaps would have generated some decent revenue)...

I'm thinking of buying a Switch this week (my refund is in) because I am very interested in the Arcade Archives stuff (Swimmer, Kangaroo, that kind of stuff). I'm sort-of still up in the air though - after all, there's always the opportunity cost of instead buying Berkshire Hathaway stock and that sort of thing. No matter what, though, I would like to keep the cost down as much as I can. For those who have a Switch and some of the Archives games, can I get away without buying a memory card? From what I have read, the resident memory of the Switch is 25 gb. Am I correct that this will be enough storage for a bunch of these old arcade titles...how big can they be, anyway? Also, can I eschew for now getting what I think is termed a pro controller? I guess the one that is pretty much the only one worth it is around $70/$80, and for now, I'm wondering if I can get by with the included controllers. Thank you...(if the Archives were on Steam, I probably wouldn't be asking...surprised they are not)...

Thanks for these replies. Here are the links: Atari CEO makes 'friendly offer' to acquire control of struggling games publisher | PC Gamer Atari’s New Gaming Console Isn’t Dead Yet (howtogeek.com) Atari VCS in Jeopardy After Atari Pull Manufacturing Contracts (Updated) | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com) Here is a sample of what I have read, by way of Google News search, simply using the keyword Atari and nothing else. I then used Yahoo finance to check out a couple of other stuff I am not necessarily clear on (especially enterprise value). Yes, I would bet too on Atari if I had the cash; that's what's odd, there's no one out in Hollywood, some celebrity actor, maybe an eccentric one, that grew up with Atari and would simply buy it? On the comically-high price: see, I can understand that, because that's what the guy is probably counting on: someone buying it out of love, and love can lead to irrational pricing beyond normal goodwill. What is the price in dollars that he wants, if you happen to know? Activision does not seem into retro games, you're correct. Besides licensing, the one direct thing I believe the company did in recent times was some sort of Wii game that took place at an amusement park that featured updated versions of a few titles...can't recall them necessarily, but were two of them maybe Kaboom! and Megamania? I agree on a weighted-average-capital-cost/ROI basis (not an expert, mostly speaking metaphorically here) Atari is probably expensive and an on-paper losing proposition. But the catalysts for me would be simple, yet potentially innovative, ideas: aggressively license out IP, perhaps taking on risk by not asking for advances or very low ones, re-releasing the Atari systems including computers, selling to educational institutions Atari computer platforms (800, ST, etc.) with assembly languages to teach game programming as part of a game-designer/computer-science curriculum, and so on...all of which would rely on social media, especially Twitch and YouTube, to promote and propagate a new generation of hobbyists. I agree, though, I am very biased, and that is probably more risky than I care to admit (then again, Atari investing in crypto/blockchain was arguably goofy as well). I don't know, though...what if Atari launched new arcade/eatery establishments? What if it either opened or partnered with gyms to offer arcades that were free to use - using all the IP, of course - as an added incentive to join? Be no different than Amazon offering original/licensed content to attract Prime shipping subscribers, or Apple offering Apple TV+ gratis on hardware sales. I have to go back to rounding-error price tag though...Microsoft wouldn't buy it, or Netflix, or Apple? Two of those companies have incredible free cash flows. And the third, NFLX, is improving and honestly could see a lot of synergy with that IP and the fact that it does want to eventually get into streaming gaming (at least it seems that way); I would assume Atari 2600/5200/7800/800XL and so on titles would be technologically simple to stream. But I do understand: once you breakout a spreadsheet, Atari is doomed. (Someone should send a message to Musk asking him to buy it, but then again, would he really do right by it? Probably not. Too bad Atari Age couldn't crowd-fund an acquisition offer...)

I happened to be reading in the news about Atari's recent financial problems (I guess too the modern VCS may possibly be ending or is in trouble if not ending entirely, but I am unclear on that, don't quote me). I believe these are recent articles, although sometimes much older ones pop up (the dates seem to be recent, but I am willing to stand corrected). I've been having a hard time interpreting an enterprise value for the company as it is foreign, but it can't be too much. Why do you think some other company hasn't stepped up to buy it? I know the CEO and his own company (not sure if that is an investment firm, I think it is called Irata, but again, hard to get good info that I can interpret properly) have announced and perhaps executed some sort of tender offer on friendly terms, but what I am getting at is, wouldn't Atari and its content library be attractive to some media/tech company? Activision Blizzard could buy it, and even after the MSFT acquisition. Netflix for certain reasons could or should be interested. Maybe a retail store like Walmart? What about Gamestop? Private equity, hedge fund? (The latter would not be ideal for us, though.) Some celebrity Atari fan, perhaps, whether multimillionaire or billionaire (Musk?)? Hasbro/Mattel? Toys R Us, Party City? Not a big deal, certainly, it is what it is, and we here focus on collecting/playing vintage items attached to the legacy company...more of a curiosity question, because I assume Atari is now firmly in rounding-error territory. Thanks. (If this topic is somewhere else, feel free to transport this post there.)

Just out of curiosity, who programmed Airworld, and was it done in assembly, and in the same manner as back in the 70s/80s, or was it with new tools? Any idea how long it took to complete? Thanks...