ballyalley

You wouldn't expect this answer from me, but if you're deciding between these two systems, then go for the Atari Jaguar. If for no other reason than to own and play Tempest 2000. Yes, the hype about that game is totally true. It's not just one of the best games on the system; it's one of the best games ever. The Astrocade is wonderful but, let's face it, it can't compete against the Jaguar, which has some really wonderful ports. Even 16-bit ports to this system are great. A good example is Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. The Jag has the best version of this game. There are many other examples. You'll have fun looking for them all. After you get the Jaguar, save up some coins and buy an Astrocade in a year or two. In the meantime, emulate it with MAME and get a good taste of it by playing a exclusive game like "Solar Conqueror." Adam

I use an Atari 130XE for my main Atari setup exactly because it has 128K of RAM. I have other systems that I prefer for typing on (the 800, the 800XL), but from a pure game playing perspective, the 130XE is a great starter system. I haven't played in the HSC for a few years, but this game might lure me back, as I used to play Prince of Persia quite a bit on my Turbo Duo in the mid-1990s. The Amiga version is also pretty good. Adam

The MISTer doesn't support the Astrocade's 24-keypad, right? MAME supports, kind of, the 2000-baud tape interface in the AstroBASIC cartridge, but it doesn't support the 300-baud interface at all. Nor does MAME support the Blue Ram tape interface. MAME also doesn't have any support for cartridge swapping, which can be done on real hardware and is required for more cartridge-based software than you might imagine. Does MISTer support either the 300 or 2000-baud tape interface? Does it support the extra RAM, and, if it does support RAM, can you choose which type of RAM is being used? Adam

I'm glad that you like the archived website. Keep in mind that I only host Ward Shrake's early-2000s Arcadia 2001 website; he left the classic videogame hobby quite a few years ago. On April 4, 2002, Ward started a Yahoo Groups discussion forum called "arcadia2001consoles" to help with his research into the Arcadia 2001. Yahoo closed down their discussion groups a year or two ago. The Arcadian group was restarted under the same name at group.io in December 2019, here: https://groups.io/g/arcadia2001consoles/ The old messages that were posted to the Yahoo group did not come over to the the groups.io site, although they have all been archived. You can find them via this message: https://groups.io/g/arcadia2001consoles/topic/welcome/60601640 Surely, you've seen Amigan Software's "Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central" website, right? If not, then here is a link to it: http://amigan.yatho.com/ If you read through the old Yahoogroup messages (good luck with that; there are about 2,800 of them!), then you'll see how the understanding of the Arcadia's backstory begins to emerge slowly through a collaboration between Ward and others in the community into at the time, unnamed, 1392 Advanced Programmable Video Game System. I always figured that Phillips had made the original ancestor of the Arcadia game machine and offered it out to manufacturers; I guess my idea isn't correct. I'm glad to see that people are still digging into the history of this game console. There is a book in that history; I can feel it. There is plenty of Arcadia information out there, hidden away here and there: You may find my AtariAge thread called "Arcadia 2001 Star Wars Art Rip-Off!" interesting: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/276893-arcadia-2001-star-wars-art-rip-off/ Try searching through Archive.org for some material I uploaded: https://archive.org/search.php?query=ballyalley%20arcadia You will find 1981's book "The TV Games Computer: An Exciting Introduction to Microprocessors" by Paul Holmes enlightening too. This link has the book and an interview with the author: https://archive.org/details/TV-Games-Computer--Paul-Holmes-1981 I've also created a few Arcadia 2001 game review videos: Space Attack (uploaded October 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO0kWSBoVDc Cat Trax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpuPl0KHlMM Could you point me to the APF MP-1000 article that you're talking about saying that Radofin made the system? This makes some sense, as the MP-1000 and the Tele-Fever actually share the exact same plastic bottom, as Ward Shrake pointed out in a post on February 23, 2008: "Confirmed! Bill L. over on the APF message boards checked his APF and Arcadia 2001 / Leisure-Vision cart cases against one another, and he says the two are exactly alike, in most respects. (He didn't know Arcadia had both styles of "doors" on the carts: sliding and open.) "He also confirmed that the bottom half of the plastic case for the APF machine matches the bottom half of the Arcadia console; and the top is the only part that differs by any significant amount. So ... now we know another piece of a very confusing puzzle! (And as always, it's expanding what else we need to find out, to see it all.)" Ward added these two pictures to the Arcadia discussion group around the time he posted the above message: "APF MP-1000 and Tele-Fever Share Plastic Parts:" and, "APF MP-1000 with 2001 cart inserted:" You'll notice that my primary classic gaming interest is the Bally Arcade/Astrocade, but the Arcadia 2001 is certainly neat! I don't have the console anymore, but I do dabble with it now and then by trying to keep up with whatever historical research into the system is happening. I also, at one time, had a fondness for playing with the console's usual choice of the 2650 CPU. My days of exploring the Arcadia's history are behind me now, but I'm glad to be of some assistance pointing out what has been discovered already. Adam

This is great information. I'm confused by some of it, but that's because so much of it is new to me and seems to go against the conventional understanding of the early history of the videogame consoles of the late 1970s/early 1980s. I'm sure that you're already aware that Ward Shrake looked into the history of the Arcadia 2001 and came up with some of his own theories in the early 2000s. Ward gave me permission to host the latest version (January 7, 2003) of his "Digital Archaeology: Arcadia 2001" website. This site originally was hosted on Digital Press's servers and later at Ward's own domain. Think of this version of Ward's site as a time capsule. It's exactly as you would have viewed it in 2003; nothing has been changed. In some ways, quite a bit of this information is still relevant to this day. https://orphanedgames.com/DigitalArchaeologyArcadia2001/ You will find that the "Director's Cut" of DPCG7 (Digital Press Collector's Guide 7) is full of extremely worthwhile information. The "Director's Cut" is Ward Shrake's console group section, as submitted to the editors of Digital Press for inclusion in their seventh edition of the "Digital Press Collector's Guide." It is in Microsoft Word format: https://orphanedgames.com/DigitalArchaeologyArcadia2001/texts/dp2001dc.doc I suggest printing it out and combing through it to get some additional questions. Maybe now, some of these nearly 20-year-old questions can finally be answered. Adam

Michael has uploaded another video about his hi-res machine. Here is the latest update he sent to me (with very slight edits): ---------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2021 12:19 AM To: Adam and Lance Subject: MCM Design's Modified Hi-Res Astrocades Part 4 My part 4 video is now available for viewing. The search criteria below should point you to my youtube channel. youtube channel MCMs Astrocades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=higsVIfIS30 You will likely have to manually select the 720p playback option. YouTube seems to no longer allow the publisher to set up a video so the recorded video playback will automatically be set to the recorded video resolution. This video is "dry" but details the internal hardware. Sorry, there are no graphic demos in this video. I wanted to document on youtube the hardware for my original custom hi-res DRAM Astrocade. The part 5 video will be similar for my hi-res SRAM Astrocade, but much shorter in time length. Bye. MCM ---------------------------------------- I have not yet watched this video. I hope to watch it in the next few days. Adam

I haven't upload the files there. I got bogged down, quite badly, by trying to figure out which files are duplicates. I haven't thought about this in a few months. I would hate to do a raw data dump of the BELLCOM files... but maybe that would be best before I forget this completely. Maybe later in the week...? (No promises, but remind me in a couple of weeks if this slips my mind.) Adam

Thanks for posting that picture of John. I've seen a picture of his father, but never one of John. About when was this picture taken? I have re-posted this information to the Astrocade discussion group, here: https://groups.io/g/ballyalley/topic/len_pac_man_and_john_perkins/85975543 If you join the group and post that you need some help getting your Astrocade system working, then I'm sure that someone can give you some advice. Adam

That's a very nice looking prototype of the "Pac-Man" cartridge from Perkins Engineering. Thanks for sharing it with us. Do you use the Astrocade that was given to you by John? Did you get other goodies with it? How did you know John Perkins? I looked around the Internet for him for quite a few years and then "found him" when it was already too late; for I discovered he had died via this blog post entitled "Reflections on John Perkins:" http://createandcut.blogspot.com/2010/09/reflections-on-john-perkins.html I notice that you have only made one post on AtariAge. Did you join specifically to post that picture of "Pac-Man?" Adam

Hey, Michael D. S. This S-Video board from Vector Labs is the same one from 8-Bit Domain, correct? http://www.vector-labs.com/index_bally_svideo.html Indeed, this is the one people have been talking about recently on Astrocade forum on groups.io, right? Adam

As Michael has said, I've not seen an s-video schematic either. If you do manage to find one, then let us know here. Adam

Nice work keeping that Astrocade going in the U.K.! It's great to see this NTSC system working in PAL-land. Currently, on the Astrocade discussion group, video mods are being discussed. It would be nice of you to drop in over there (You'll have to sign-up to post): https://groups.io/g/ballyalley I'm curious, which composite mod did you use? Thanks for sharing your pictures; they're great! Adam

For a moment I thought, "Bwian?" Did I spell it wrong? Was the gothic font's "r" mistaken for a "w?" And then... Boom!... I got the joke and my grin spread very wide! Perhaps, one day, my character will across a snake of some kind, perhaps a Giant Python, in the game. Each platform always offers something a bit different. The Amiga/ST series has the best graphics (of course they have that 16-bit advantage, don't they?). My favorite 8-bit version is the Atari "Trilogy." I've already noticed that this Mac version probably has some treasures in different places and also offers some monster variety on the first level of Temple of Apshai compared to, at least, the Atari version of the game. I'm really digging these B&W graphics. In 1985, when the Mac version was released, I would have preferred to play the game in color, but now the B&W graphics that are on display really offer something a bit different. Give the Mac version of the game a try. From my brief experience with the game so far, it plays very-much like the Amiga/ST ports of the game, but the B&W graphics make the game feel fresh to me. I've still got to play through the four "Hellfire Warrior" levels. It's too bad that that true Apshai sequel wasn't included in the Trilogy. It would be nice to be able to play that game with the improved gameplay and graphics that are offered by the machine language remake of the "Trilogy." Adam

Thanks to the help of Mr. Fish (both publically and privately) today, I have got "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy" running on an emulated Mac. I have just created a character on a Mac 128, so the gothic font is shown correctly. I took the first roll of the dice when I created my character, who I called "Brian" (you know, he is Brian Hammerhand, after all). I've equipped my character and I'm about to go exploring. Take a look at my stats; they're quite average (that's what happens when you play by the rules): The emulator doesn't seem to allow for screenshots, so I captured the screen when it was a window and then cut off the outside window so that you can just see only the game screen. I also can't make a screenshot when the emulator is running in full screen mode. I've taken out my printed map of the Atari 8-bit game and I'm gonna see if I can start some trouble. Adam

That looks fantastic to me. I had forgotten that the original Mac only shipped with 128K of RAM. That's the same amount as the Atari 130XE. Amazing! I love the idea that "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy" requires the oldest Macintosh computer to run properly. I wish that I knew someone local to me who owned an original Mac so that I could see this game played on real hardware. If an original Mac is available, then what is required to get the Apshai Mac disk image onto a real 400K disk? Can the later 800K Mac disk drives use 400K floppy disks? Adam

Look at that: a cat. You see that you have also tried exploring Merlis' Cottage in the game "Upper Reaches of Apshai." It's good news that more than the first game works. I like that your testing a bit more of the game. The graphics look crisp, but that cat looks a bit too cute for inclusion here. But, then again, Merlis' Cottage is a whimsical level. Adam

On September 10, I posted links in this thread to part 3 of Michael's modified hi-res Astrocades, which showcased his Hi-Res Multipage Test Demo. You can see that posting here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/254592-hi-res-bally-arcadeastrocade-correspondence/?do=findComment&comment=4903283 Here is Michael's reply to me, which he sent the same day. Adam --------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Friday, September 10, 2021 8:32 PM To: Adam Trionfo Subject: Re: MCMs YouTube Channel Thanks for the cool comments. I agree, the multi-pager has the potential for some really cool hi-res multi-scene games. I'm hoping to finish building my final hi-res Astrocade in say, 10 months? Most of the design schemes have already been tested, so building the final wire wrapped prototypes for boards 1 and 2 shouldn't take too long. All 3 add-under boards will be bread boarded first so I can make quick tests/changes when needed. The challenge will be the pattern transfer board 3, trying to determine precisely how it manipulates graphic patterns. This will be very time consuming. Documentation for the graphics application of this board is sadly very poor. I'll likely have to refer to chip data sheets, breadboard some of the chips separately and write short ML graphic programs to test my understanding, so I can determine exactly how this board utilizes its 5 (or 6?) control modes of bit manipulation. It is not yet clear to me if this board was also intended to write graphic patterns to magic RAM to utilize the custom magic functions. I may break down the machine code for the first graphics page of the Wizard of Wor. Once this 3rd hi-res Astrocade is built and fully tested, I can then focus on writing hi-res software. That will be fun. I think you already know I'm determined to write a hi-res version of the Incredible Wizard. What about a hi-res multi-scene game? Maybe, or at least a multi-scene demo with a lot of graphics. That would be cool. Bye. MCM ----------------------------------------- Ten months sounds like a reasonable time frame for Michael to work on this project. I like that he gives himself realistic goals. Adam

Thanks for that link to the Macintosh Garden website. After reading the comments about the disk dump of the Macintosh version of "The Temple of Apshai," the game seems to work fine on actual early Macintosh computers, but it doesn't run correctly at full speed under emulation using "Mini vMac." Here are some screenshots of the game. These include the title screen and the first two rooms that are encountered on the first level of "The Temple of Apshai." The title screen, in its hi-res B&W glory: Brian Hammerhand enters the Dunjon and his adventure begins! Brian contemplates searching for a secret door on the east wall. You will notice that one screenshot from the game has the proper gothic font, while one does not show the correct font. In the comments area, "Apple2Forever" notes: "I tried this game on the 128k version of Mini vMac rather than the regular Mac Plus version, and it uses a different 'gothic' style font instead of standard Chicago 12 point. I have included another screenshot to illustrate. I assume this is the intended font and some difference in the later hardware prevents it from displaying properly." I checked around YouTube to see this game running on the Macintosh and I couldn't find anything at all. I'd love to see the B&W animation that is offered from this version of the game. "jkheiser" mentions the movements and the sound in the comments: "This game has some epic title screen music that makes good use of the Mac's 4-voice audio capabilities. The dungeon-crawling animation is fluid, too." Does anyone have the knowledge to get this game running and to be able to capture footage of it? Perhaps someone can explore the first level and show some encounters with some of the unfriendly creatures that inhabit all versions of the deadly Temple. At the very least, don't we all need to see how the Antmen look on the macintosh? (This B&W version of the game is a long way from the B&W version that originally came out on the TRS-80!) Adam

I don't think that I've ever gotten deep into a game like I've done with the Apshai series. Possibly the closest I've come is with Miner's 2049'er sequel, "Bounty Bob Strikes Back," on the Atari 8-bit computers. After I looped Miner 2049er two or three times, I tried to perfect playing the follow-up game, but I could never get past the level called "Acid Rain," which seems impossible to me. I didn't want to cheat by looking up how to complete it, but maybe it's time to that now. Adam

That's a nice collection. I like that the fantasy series use black boxes and the sci-fi series uses yellow/gold boxes. I don't think I noticed that before now. Adam

In these two updates from Michael, he describes testing Bally custom chips to Allen. He also explains how his work is going on his hi-res boards. Adam ---------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Monday, August 16, 2021 9:47 PM To: Allen S Cc: Adam T. Subject: ALLEN CUST ADR CHIPS Some time ago, my hi-res SRAM Astrocade failed. The last several days, because I was making great progress in restoring the Astrocade, I decided to try and finish this project. I'm happy to report the hi-res SRAM Astrocade is up and running great again. I tested your first of 6 custom address chips you mailed me, per our agreement, and found it to be operating perfect in both low and hi-res modes. So you know exactly what I am doing with your chips, here is my detailed test procedure. - Enter hobby room with shoes off. - Touch metal light fixture before handling motherboard or components. - Check custom address chip for bent pins. - Clean dull pins using used 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. - Carefully install chip in socket. Use fingers to align pins if necessary. - Make sure chip is all the way down into socket. - Visually check all 40 pins for a bent pin. - Double check 40 pins for good socket connections using an ohmmeter. Note: It is possible (low risk) during installation for the tip of a pin to be bent inward and under the chip. - Use Bally schematic and MCM large data chip diagram to check all 40 pins for a good (zero ohm) connection. It takes nearly 20 minutes to perform this test. MCM Design recommendation: Perform ohmmeter check test to confirm a perfect custom chip installation. Place MCM temporary custom black finned heat sink with Si grease on top of the address chip. This chip can heat up pretty warm when running in hi-res for a long period of time. Use 6" fan to help dissipate heat radiating at address/data chips and power supply components. This cooling option might extend the lifespan of the data chips, Q1 transistor or voltage regulators, which may not have internal thermal protection. I have seen in the past, the custom address/data chips cease functioning when they got too hot, then function again when cooled down. Run the following programs to test for a crash or graphic glitches. Do power on motherboard 2 or 3 times to run all tests. Any power on issues? HI-RES MODE - Original hi-res test demo* - Watch entire multi-page demo (19 minute program) - Hi-res 12 fish (magic writes) demo* - Hi-res screen RAM test (will stop running if RAM error is detected) - Test pattern variation (watch several passes) - Low-res Checkmate on a hi-res map (run a few rounds to see if it will crash) LOW-RES MODE - BalcheckHR Checkmate variation, 100 rounds nonstop (crash test only) - BalcheckHR fish demo** - Balcheck nonstop test ** (will stop running if RAM error is detected) * Run at least 60 minutes ** Run at least 30 minutes Label chip as an address chip and include MCM low and hi-res status assessments (GOOD or ISSUE). Bye. MCM ---------------------------------------- From: Ken Lill To: Michael Matte Sent: Saturday August 21 2021 12:43:55AM Subject: Re: Hi-Res Astrocade News here's a preliminary sketch. tell me what you think. On Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 03:06:04 PM EDT, <Michael Matte> Hi Ken. It just occurred to me that your one SRAM chip idea may work if you wanted to multi-page the low-res mode. However, in the hi-res mode, at least 4 SRAM chips are required because of the way the hi-res mode map is fed into the data chip. Four 74LS166 chips are needed to serially feed the map into the data chip via the SERIAL 0 and SERIAL 1 inputs. Each of the 4 chips has 8 lines wired to screen RAM data outputs, totaling 32 lines for the data out serial feed. I still would like to see a sketch of your idea. Once I see your idea in my head, I might be able to use a variation of the idea. A new idea I have is to feed the output of IC6 in DWG3, which senses when all 4 RAS lines are high for the video scan feed, through an inverter and then to the four 74LS245 enable pins, which should disable the 4 chips from the 4 video data buses during the video scan. Then feed the DATEN line to a decoder to direct the appropriate video data bus for the Z80 screen RAM read or the magic OR, XOR function read. This idea is similar to the 74LS253 application in the hi-res DRAM scheme. I might have to tweak this idea. Anyway, this is an idea I will definitely experiment with. Bye. MCM ---------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2021 2:04 AM To: Ken Lill Cc: Adam T. Subject: Re: Hi-Res Astrocade News Thanks for taking the time to consider, then create a more simplistic SRAM scheme for the custom chip's hi-res mode and for emailing me your documented schematic. I can see you spent a good amount of time documenting your idea, emailing me a pro – grade schematic. It looks like the Z80 would be able to write to or read from your hi-res SRAM scheme. However, the scheme is not compatible with the custom chip hi-res video display scan (read). You should check out DWG 6, which is archived at https://ballyalley.com/documentation/hi-res_packages/hi-res_packages.html Scroll down near the bottom to view DWGs 1 thru 6. DWG 6 shows the entire video display scanning scheme with an overview commentary. There are also some DWG 6 comments just before DWG 1. The commentary will also point you to a doc with an in depth description of the custom address/data chip operation in low or hi-res modes, including the hi-res video display scan. The Nutting Manual system description also provides some info. I could hook up my Kingst LA and save a hi-res sampling that would show the video scan wave forms. I could run my short "Z80 Halt" program, so all you'll see on the sampling are the wave forms related to the hi-res video scan. This program will halt the Z80 so it will just execute NOPs. The Z80 will not write to or read from the screen RAM when halted. Apparently, the video scan also doubles as a DRAM row address refresh, so you probably wouldn't even see an independent refresh attempt in the sampling. I think, if I emailed the saved sampling file, you would be able to view it. Let me know if you would like me to email you a sampling of the custom chip's hi-res video display scanning. My failed hi-res SRAM Astrocade is now up and running great again. This is the Astrocade with the hi-res 128KB, 8 page multi-pager. I now have 2 working modified for hi-res motherboards with a 28 pin dual in line ribbon cable socket mounted on the bottom front of the motherboard. My hi-res DRAM Astrocade utilizes a 24 pin socket. I have begun work on my final hi-res Astrocade which will have 3 add under boards along with a provision for a 4th board. There will be a sliding horizontal rack for boards 2, 3 and 4. I'm utilizing a customized 7 x 8.5" quick connect breadboard first for board 1, so I can make quick changes to run various tests. The breadboard 1 will only have the screen SRAM and its interfacing. I am expecting to have this board running in low-res within a week. I have come up with a really cool building block wiring procedure. This should really help me isolate any incompatibility issues with my newly modified for hi-res motherboard, which appears to have a Z80 screen RAM read issue with my SRAM scheme as documented on the Bally Alley. I have 3 reasons to further investigate the Perkin's hi-res interface, which is also documented on the Bally Alley. I broke down the Perkin's interface schematic into 3 schematics so the interfacing scheme is easier to read. My quick connect breadboard 1 will be used to further my Perkin's investigation and run "Perkin tests". My DWG 5, as documented on the Bally Alley, is set up for a manual low or hi-res selection. A low/hi-res software selectable scheme will require additional chips. My now running low/hi-res SRAM Astrocade is software selectable and works great. In this case, the low/hi-res mode indicator latch is wired on the load side of the multi-pager data buffer. I ran an experiment and wired the D0 bit latch on the line side of the multi-pager 74LS245 data buffer, which was directly connected to the Z80 data D0 line. This simple change creates a black screen power on issue. I mentioned this issue to you previously and you recommended adding a pull-up resistor to this flip-flop latch input connection. I wanted to let you know I have not yet tested your recommendation, but plan to test the recommendation during my breadboard 1 project. I have also bread boarded and tested a simplified 4KB low-res only SRAM scheme that can plug into either of my two 28 pin modified for hi-res motherboards. This scheme works great. The low-res scheme was really created to be used as a diagnostic tool should my hi-res SRAM Astrocade fail in the future. This diagnostic low-res board should help determine if a failure is on the modified motherboard or on the low/hi-res SRAM board. Since there doesn't seem to be much of a hi-res interest within the Astrocade community, I'm debating whether I should spend time recording a video series on my YouTube channel that highlights the building progress of my final hi-res Astrocade. If I do record the video series, watch for a video of this low-res only board running with the modified for hi-res motherboard. I'm sending Adam a copy of this email because of his interest in MCM Design projects. Bye. MCM ----------------------------------------- I have just one more hi-res update from Michael to catch-up on and post here. Adam

During the first week of August, Michael fixed a hard-to-find issue with an Astrocade board that he was repairing. Here are the two email that he sent to Allen and me about it. Adam ---------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 6:53 PM To: Allen S. Cc: Adam T. Subject: Allen BD1 Man, I've been experiencing Astrocade motherboard failures lately. My Allen BD1 had a failure recently. The board powered on with a black screen and the Z80 Check program wouldn't execute. I thought maybe I killed the Z80 when I was using this board to test my new Remote Z80 diagnostic board. Turns out there was no negated 7M clock. This clock was not present at the Kludge board pin 1. Since the regular 7M clock was ok, I knew the crystal and transistor Q2 were ok. I never worked in this area of the motherboard before this failure. - Found a way to remove all that RF shielding surrounding the Kludge board area. - Desoldered the Kludge board. - Desoldered U16. - Soldered in the two 8 and 16 pin pc sockets you gave me. These were really nice sockets in that they had metal contacts on their bottoms to help make contact with the top motherboard solder pads. Do you remember where you purchased these sockets? - Installed new SN75361AP and 74S74 chips. - Soldered in a new crystal since the original was very old. The motherboard works great again. Yippy! Now there are only 3 chips on this board with no sockets. Nice! I plan to use this board as a low-res test board and also as my final "modified for hi-res" motherboard. It's a dual-purpose board. Cool! Bye. MCM ---------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 6:58 PM To: Adam T. Subject: Second Modified For Hi-Res Motherboard. Good news! My second modified for hi-res motherboard is up and running perfect in low-res. This board killed 2 custom address chips. Man, I hate losing a custom chip to a failure. That sucks. Bye. MCM ---------------------------------------- It seems that Michael has really improved his skills troubleshooting nearly ten of Allen's most troublesome-to-repair Astrocade motherboards. Adam

Michael saw this post yesterday and sent me some additional comments about it. Adam ---------------------------------------- From: Michael Matte Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 2:11 PM To: Adam T. Subject: RE: Posted Hi-Res Astrocade Updates: July 21 and 30 Here are 4 photos of the remote Z80 CPU wire wrapped prototype board mentioned in the emails below. Allen now owns this cool diagnostic tool. I do have plans to add this tool to my current BalcheckHR board scheme. I would like to make this upgraded BalcheckHR board available as a professional grade PC board for any Astrocade enthusiast who is interested in using the board's various diagnostic programs to troubleshoot an Astrocade motherboard. I also plan to demonstrate the board's diagnostic programs on my you tube channel. The HR suffix stands for Hi-Res. The 8KB BalcheckHR package does include 2 hi-res diagnostic programs. There are 3 additional low-res diagnostic programs that are included with a multi-carted EEPROM. Browse the Balcheck section on the Bally Alley website for more info. My plan is to work on the above projects after my final hi-res Astrocade project is completed. Bye. MCM ---------------------------------------- Great pictures, Michael! Adam

Cosmic Raider was one of the last Astrocade releases. It came out in 1983. Adam

From time to time, I make a search for the Macintosh version of "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy." My previous searches have always come up fruitless, or, at least, with non-working copies. I just did a search and came up with a site that claims to have an archive of the game in zipped a2r and StuffIt format: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/32357-temple-of-apshai-trilogy I thought that a2r files were for the Apple II, but perhaps the format has opened up to other platforms. I have no way to test these files. Is there someone here who can use it on a real classic-era Macintosh or somehow emulate a vintage Macintosh? Adam