~llama

How hard is it to find a Model 100 in good shape these days? I've heard they're great but never had one. If they're built as well as the PC-2's, I'm sure they're all holding up pretty well.

The Game Gear arrived today in all its AA-killing glory. Awesome! Thanks so much for doing this!

Would this be like the Basic Programming and Magicard stuff on the VCS? If so, that could potentially be very interesting, especially with the XM's added RAM.

Wow. That looks incredible so far. Inspiring as a n00b homebrew programmer, but it's kind of like listening to the Beatles while trying to record an album: so good it just kind of makes you want to quit.

If that was your first post ever to AtariAge, (1) welcome and (2) you should get some kind of medal for that idea.

"Strands of Gold" sounds like a Mystique game.

Yeah, I think the material on the site is strong enough to stand alone, without the Google news stuff.

I think the PC-2 is generally regarded as the pick of the litter, but it's also the only one I have any experience with.

On second thought, the guitar thing is probably a bad analogy, other than to say that they cost a lot of money because, well, that's how much they cost. As for the limited run homebrew thing, factor in writing and editing a 150+ page book of essays and having "leather casebound, foil embossed ... with color detail" copies professionally printed into your price, and while $500 is probably more than enough to cover it, you'll still probably want to sell it for more than the average homebrew sells for. I dunno. I agree that $500 is a lot of money, but I don't think the fact that it's a limited run of cartridges is the only motivating factor behind the price. I guarantee you that the book costs an order of magnitude more to produce than the Atari cartridge. I guess I also don't really get the venom directed at calling it "art." I'm not saying that in a condescending way, either--I genuinely don't understand what's wrong with calling something a piece of art with the Atari 2600 as the medium. Is that not allowed? Too pretentious?

I was pretty amazed that graphical games are even possible on the thing, given the nature of the display. It's a really cool little machine, if you've got the patience to type everything in. I don't have any of the accessories for it, or I'm sure I wouldn't have to type the things in, but hey, that's the old-school spirit anyway, right? Typing in BASIC programs, hoping you don't have a typo on line 120 that blows the whole thing up?

This site is a pretty cool resource: http://www.pc1500.com/

I've got one of these, which I think is awesome. Typing in games isn't so fun, but once you get them typed in (after an hour or so of trying), you can get it to do some fun stuff. Does anybody else here have one of these? How rare are they? I picked mine up for $10 a couple of years ago.

herewith, some disorganized thoughts on this topic: Everybody hates the fact that it costs $500 (myself included, because I'd love to own this), and is doing all sorts of general moaning about "what passes for art these days" and such, but I think it's an interesting idea You see the same kinds of discussions on forums for musicians. "Why does Guitar X cost $4000 when I can get Guitar Y that plays and sounds just as good for $499?" Well, because Guitar X is Guitar X and Guitar Y is Guitar Y. A lot of times, what makes a guitar expensive is (1) where it's made and (2) how much people are willing to pay for the name on the headstock, and if people are willing to pay the sticker price, what's wrong with that price? The fact that Guitar X costs $4999 isn't going to price people out of being able to buy Guitar Y. I understand the concern about this sort of project bringing people into the homebrew scene who are looking to make money, but I don't think that's going to happen here. Ian is a writer, with his own audience (I really enjoyed Racing the Beam, FWIW) and this thing comes with a book of essays--what was the last homebrew game that came with a bunch of essays? Or a 152 page book? I would imagine the printing costs of the book have something to do with the price. I think this project is something else--not "just" a homebrew game aimed at enthusiasts. (I use "just" in quotes because I think homebrew game authors are just as creative as any other artist, and their work just as valid). It's sort of aimed at a different audience of people, and that's why it's priced the way it is. The whole package is what's interesting to me--the fact that the game has a companion book. I find something about that depth of thought and the commitment to take Atari programming seriously as an art form very compelling.

I won the Game Gear! Time to rapidly deplete some AA batteries!

I just played this in Stella for a while. Super fun I agree with the comments about the difficulty of lining up a vertical shot being much more difficult than a horizontal one, but I sort of see that as part of the game's panic-inducing strategy. This game is great at building tension, creating a feeling of entrapment. Good work! I'm interested to see where this one goes!

How RF interference should the audio be causing? Any time there's a sound generated (it's especially noticeable on Astrosmash with its background pulse noise) the picture gets a little wonky. This is on the just-arrived, new-to-me INTV System III. Other than that little annoyance (it's really not so bad), wow. First impressions: the controllers feel flimsier than I thought, especially the keypad buttons. The disc is really intuitive, though; I love the fact that it rotates. I always heard the discs were the worst part, but I kinda like 'em. ...now I really want an original Intellivision Master Component. And a Super Video Arcade. As for the games, I'd played them all in emulation so I'd have a rough idea of how they were, but Demon Attack caught me off guard. Addictive! Haven't figured out Safecracker yet, but it seems interesting. I just played the thing for two hours. Color me impressed! Should've gotten an Intellivision a long time ago.

It really is a shame it's sort of a crappy computer, because I agree with you; it's a beautiful piece of hardware.

I'm thinking about porting Desert Bus. That should be fun, right?

I didn't have one "back in the day;" I actually started out on an Apple //e, which is about thirty times the computer that the T/S 1000 is from the looks of things. Sounds like it's almost too much trouble to actually try to get things to run on it--especially since I don't have the RAM upgrade for it. Seems like the same sort of scenario as the TRS-80 MC-10, except for that one the keys are actually buttons and I do have the RAM expansion I guess I'll keep it for the vintage factor, but man, it's sort of a bummer that it's not really useful/fun for anything when you have any other computer that's (even just slightly) less crappy.

Yeah, I didn't expect the graphics to be very good. I hooked it up yesterday and was, shall we say, considerably underwhelmed. Also, the keyboard isn't very good. Seems like a system better suited for text-based work than for games.

Turns out I have one of these complete in the box, which I found when I was sorting my computer collection this weekend. Anybody know of any good games for this thing? (IIRC, it's just a rebadged Sinclair ZX-81, right?) I think I've only had it hooked up once, and since I have it, and it's in good shape, I might as well play with it, right?

The original for NES is great, but I love Super Adventure Island on the SNES even more. I think it's underrated, but not by much. Seems like it's pretty well regarded.

I have a couple of questions on this topic: What kinds of games tend to take the best advantage of the Intellivison's hardware (that is, what kinds of games are best suited to the way the graphics hardware works and to the controllers)? It seems like the specifics of any system's hardware design are such that some types of games work better than others... what are the Intellivision's strong suits? Which games really show off the system's capabilities more than others? It seems like one thing homebrew games are really good at is pushing systems beyond where they were taken during their original lifespans, and as somebody who wants to write homebrew games for the Intellivision (but is a total INTV n00b) I want to know where the limits are of what can really be done.

Anyone know anything about this?

Somewhat off topic, but has anything ever surfaced of these "Intellivision III" demos? I remember seeing some screenshots or something on the Blue Sky Rangers page, but they were really small images.