Jacob Rose

Wow, convincing. I'm voting Kaboom. I think it fits the zeitgeist of the "Homeland Security" (jawohl!) era.

Too late. Note who's playing Jor-El. 970836[/snapback] That wasn't the first...this one probably isn't either: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/ Note who's playing Dr. Totenkopf (literally, "Dead Head" but not as in "The Grateful," more like "Deceased Head" ).

These are quite good! I especially like the swinging animation. I guess I won't bother making any attempt. =)

Also, how many directions?

How many frames of animation, and just how few pixels are we talking about here (what are the exact dimensions of the sprites)?

I thought the only reason color CRTs needed degaussing was because they have a metal color mask that can acquire a magnetic field. No?

I like your 2600 version better!

I'm guessing this is the Zektor Vector Generator running BattleZone in emulation, attached to a Vectrex?

I'm getting into Web Wars, too. I wish the controls were analog, but it's very speedy, and the feeling of depth and speed are pretty compelling. Lots of dodging to do, too.

Mind Game and myself play lots of teamplay Centipede, so 2 player games would definitely rock. I'm probably going to get 2 sega genesis controllers preconverted to vectrex controllers. 969785[/snapback] Cool! Most games don't care about the analog input (which is strange in many cases!), so that shouldn't be a problem. These games all have two player cooperative modes: Star Castle (two player variation 3) Rip Off (any two player variation) Armor...Attack! (any two player variation) I can definitely recommend the first two. Armor...Attack seems to have a lot of collision detection bugs. Reminds me of the way your tanks can fall through walls in 2600 Combat, but seems less charming somehow... The only two player competitive and simultaneous game I've played is Space Wars, and that's a classic! I've been told that Blitz (the American Football game with the underwhelming graphics (X vs. O)) and Heads-Up (the Soccer game) are simultaneous two-player too. There are probably homebrews that have two-player simultaneous modes. I'm sure VecSports Boxing does, for instance. A lot of Vectrex homebrews are not easy to find, though.

Wow! You *have* to get some more games Berzerk isn't so hot (I played the arcade every chance I could as a kid). I really like these original games for one player: Solar Quest - sorta like Space War but with a dozen enemies. Ship movement is very interesting, reminds me of insects. Cosmic Chasm - I loved this in the arcade, and finding out it was a port of the Vectrex game made this a must-have. The map does not display well in the MESS emulator, which makes the game hard to play - does anyone know of an emulator that shows intensity? Without that you can't even see where you are on the map. Like probably all Vectrex owners, I wish they'd ported BattleZone =) Mark Shaker (who toils away making cartridges at no personal profit) will sell you any game you like for about $10-$12: http://vectrexcarts.com/ And he includes a sturdy plastic box with nice cover art at that price (no overlays, they're rare in new Vectrex games - but note that he'll make almost any game ever made). I was surprised to really enjoy Tour De France, which I got from him, as I've never played a bicycle racing game on any other platform (but then I do like to cycle, so maybe that's just me). Alex Herbert's Defender clone Protector comes on a dual cartridge with YASI, his Space Invaders clone, which you shouldn't pass up. I also really like Rockaroids, which feels so much like having your own personal asteroids machine (not that I know what that feels like). Sorry, I shouldn't have started typing that, I knew I would ramble. I can make some two-player recommendations if you're interested (I like cooperative games).

I hate to warn you off of those, but I paid Clay in July for two of those, and he hasn't produced. He is impossible to get hold of via e-mail (I got one reply at the tail end of PayPal's refund period, which stopped me from recalling my payment, but since then, nothing). I don't mean to badmouth the man, clearly he's made lots of neat things people appreciate, but I'm out $100 and nothing to show for it. I recommend you confirm a shipping date within the PayPal 45 day limit, and get that refund if he doesn't come through.

I picked up Rockaroids *and* VecMania, because I like Asteroids, and the version Mark Shaker is selling is significantly different (easier to get to a game of Asteroids, for one thing, since you don't have to go through the menus, and the asteroids don't rotate, which makes it more arcade-like, though I do think the rotating asteroids are cool...).

Maybe it would run in Q?

Nice photos!

And use the Negative/Neutral Feedback tool at http://www.toolhaus.org/ to read all the negatives of any seller of any item (no matter how small) you are considering bidding on. If I had known about this tool years ago, I would have avoided a really unpleasant experience with one of those persons who "sells in lieu of a job." If you see similar complaints over a significant period of time from different buyers, you know to avoid that seller, because she or he simply doesn't care to improve and correct his or her mistakes. It also helps you understand the person's character to read his or her comments about other people. In my opinion, eBay aides people who provide poor service and/or misrepresent what they're selling by forcing would-be buyers to page through thousands of feedback entries with no filter. It's impossible to get any sense of what people "are saying" about a seller without a tool like the one toolhaus provides. I suspect many buyers, even if a they're unhappy with how things went, would rather not risk retaliatory feedback, and will just leave a positive even when they feel ripped off. Ideally, eBay would also *weight* the feedback of parties in several different dimensions, to raise the contrast on the miscreants who hide behind 3000+ scores. I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to redesign eBay's feedback system...

I thought Barnstorming was boring, too, until I figured it out. To play any game, you have to try to reach the goals! Barnstorming is only boring if you're not trying to beat the times to win the patch. From the manual: It's easy to come *close* to 33.3 seconds on game 1, but it's *hard* to get your time *under* the limit. Learning to negotiate the obstacles adeptly enough to beat the time makes it fun.

Fantastic! I can't wait to install the OS X version on my iBook and get cracking on my segmentation problem!

When I saw Juston's knight I was sure his was The One. And when I figured out it was only 4 frames, I was amazed. Good choice, and congratulations!

Two more nice things about it: 1) it could be made into a product that could be widely distributed 2) no need to modify the original joysticks I've seen the paddle-as-joystick idea before somewhere, but I can't recall where.

I really like the way the blue stick lights up - reminds me of playing Discs of Tron in the arcade - but what about the base? Are you planning to make a clear case replacement too? That would look amazing. Did you consider clear cable insulation, maybe even with EL wire in it? Keep it up! I'll be watching for your finished project! P.S. Sorry to hear the Falcon PC was stolen! That's awful.

Groovy! How much of this is dynamic?

But then you can't turn around...

You could have a time limit at the beginning of the game where there are no opponents and you can gather supplies from around the domed city. Then your disc starts blinking black and the Deep Sleep men come after you... ...of course that's assuming a Raiders style, big scale game.

I bought mine at Radio Shack. They only have one 9V adapter, and it's gigantic and not cheap, but it works fine. Best might have a better price. On the other hand, Best makes you spend $50 if you want to use PayPal, and doesn't have a secure checkout otherwise (that I saw). On the other other hand, Best sends their stuff out with cool "Atari" branded packing tape all over it. That has to be worth $10 right there, right?