matzieq

I just bought a Darth Vader for 5 zlotys (around 1$. It looked like after two world wars, but as I cleaned it inside and outside, and plugged it to the TV, it appeared to be fully functional! However, there's one more problem: the switches. All of them work properly, but very roughly, especially the "game select" switch. Is there any way to clean them or do something to make them function more smoothly? And one more question: it displays different colours than my other consoles (for example, red sky and lightblue cars in pole position:), but besides, plays all my PAL carts without any problem. What the...? Could it be secam, or what?

Demon Attack!!! Also Space Invaders, Galaxian, Missile Command, Berzerk, Defender, Asteroids Pole Position, Dig Dug... Sky Diver and Combat are awesome too

(but still, this one may be interesting too:))

Yes, I mean a regular Atari owner's manual, not the technical one. Is it somewhere to be found?

Hello there, I've got a question. Is there an Atari 2600 Owner's Manual anywhere on the net? I looked for it on this site and haven't found. I'd like to read it, just for fun:)

As mentioned above, Atari Computers scene is really strong here; in the Atari Age we had a considerable number of companies that wrote and published great games & programs. I think the greatest achievment was LK Avalon's adventure games like Klatwa (Curse) and Wladcy Ciemnosci (The Lords Of Darkness). At that time, I was a happy owner of C64, but, happily, they also released Commodore versions of these games:) But Atari consoles - that's a different thing. We simply missed them:( The most popular 8-bit console here was (is?) Pegasus - a pirate Famicom clone, but very good (I still have one, it's around 10 years old and works like new:) For a clone it's quite impressive I think). From time to time you met someone who had an Atari clone, but that's it - no original ataris, no cartridges at all:(

You know what I got to know last times?... I spent some time looking for another people interested in 2600 and programming it in my country, and I learned that: 1) There are around 100(!) users of Atari 2600 that really do know "what blues is all about" in Poland... 2) I am probably ONLY ONE (in Poland) who EVER DID write a single line of code to make the 2600 do anything... It makes me a bit sad...

Well - yes, that's exactly what I was talking about. My junior has been sold in Germany, though (it still has the price - 129,99 DM!!!).

Ah, I forgot to mention that I just love them! They're most comfortable controllers for me.

I just bought a boxed junior with two joypads, what seemed a little bit strange for me - there's nothing said about joypads being available for the 2600 on this site. I found out only that identical joypads were sold with 7800 in Europe (according to this site). However, these mine were definitely sold with this junior - their picture appears on the box. So do the 7800 controllers work with 2600? Or are these special joypads for the 2600?

How do you think: what is children's attitude towards A2600 and classic games nowadays? My younger brother (8 years), fan of Pokemons, Harry Potter, Ricky Martin etc., just loves Sky Diver, Human Cannonball, Bowling, Frogger and Enduro;) He likes also Air-Sea Battle, Miniature Golf, and Activision's Boxing (while I have all Mortal Kombats and two Virtua Fighters on CDs!!!). Seems that some games will never get beaten by time...

I made it!!! I re-connected the wires as in the article - great thanks to you all. Just a minute I've beaten my records in Defender and Missile Command. Now I'm a happy gamer! ) BTW, it was just in time that I opened the joystick - one of the wires was almost loose and it broke in my hands. Somehow, I managed to connect it and now it works brilliant! Thanks again. One last things - as I said before, I'm one of the few that actually like the original atari Defender. Yes, it does flicker. But which game doesn't? I think, that in most Atari games (especially early, combat-like) is't their inner soul that counts - not graphics and stuff. And that's the reason why modern games suck...

Don't you think these original Atari joysticks are a nightmare for left-handed? They just didn't care and put that red button on the left! I must do acrobatic tricks to play anything with this controller;) Any other left-handed here? What do you think about these joysticks?

I've managed to make the enemy shot a little bigger (I just had to throw away one stupid STA WSYNC - shame on me!), also I made player missile another color, and colored the ufo. Yes, I can see, that it still needs a lot of work. On the other hand, the vblank and overscan are completely filled with code (inefficient is my second name). I will think it out and maybe sometime... I thinked of a 'bonus stage' - some meteor shooting, or something like this. I still need to dig through the stella archives and these forums to find out how all this magic is done Does anyone know where can I find information about 'reusing' the sprites? (I mean, making 234234 aliens just by using two players). Anyway, what do you people think of it's difficulty? Isn't it too difficult? I've never scored over 414 or something... but I don't want to make it too easy, after all who enjoys easy games?

Actually, I couldn't be "brought back" to Atari, 'cause I never had one. When I was a child, here in Poland you couldn't dream of any console, and don't even mention computers. I got my first computer at the beginning of 1990s (when capitalism was brought to Poland) and it was Commodore 64. It was too late for Atari... Couple of years later my parents bought a 486DX. To me, that was a "gold age" of computer games (with games like Prince of Persia etc.). Dissatisfied with most of todays games, I finally discovered Atari 2600 and bought one on an auction. By the way, the polish auction portals are nothing like ebay - there's really REALLY not much Atari stuff. It's hard (and expensive) for me to get any console, controller, or a game, but I'm trying to get what I can. When I look at ebay, I get mad, that I can't have all the stuff they're selling (as I can't have a PayPal account, and $50 here in Poland, is a large amount of money). But it's just too great fun to give it up!

Actually, I have thought of bigger enemy missile, but when I did it this way, the code checking if objects are visible didn't fit into 2 scanlines! This code definitely needs optimization. Anyone could tell me how it is made "professionally"? I use the "playerbufferstuffer" method, mentioned by Kirk Israel in his tutorial. Maciej

This is no hack, I've written it alone, basing on Kirk Israel's and Andrew Davie's tutorials, the SPG and Assembly In One Step. So watch it and please, don't laugh :-) I'm just a beginner... And another note: on the stella for windows it doesn't work properly. Don't know why, perhaps it's a bug of some kind. I tried to make it PAL, but I could misscount the scanlines somewhere... Maciej aotmafos.zip

Hi there, I'm Maciej, from Poland, and I'm new here. Recently, I began programming (or better: trying to program) the 2600. I have just finished my first attempt of making something playable: a little game called AOTM AFOS - Attack Of The Mighty Aliens From Outer Space (this is not meant to be funny, just a kind of title that people invent at 3 A.M. trying to make the 2600 emulator play music :-) It works fine with the z26. Of course, it's code is probably nowhere near efficient, and full of mistakes and things I could do better. But still, it works. I was wondering if I could post the .bin or source code here. I'd be extremely grateful if some more experienced people would look at it and give some comments. Is this the right forum? If not, where could I post it?