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ActiveX downloads can be disabled, if that's what you're referring to. Go to Tools->Internet Options->Security and click "Custom Level" for the internet zone. Then disable downloading of activeX controls, signed or not. Maybe you already knew about this, but it's hidden away enough that many people aren't aware of it. The default setting of "Prompt" is definitely a disaster waiting to happen. That way IE won't ask you to install stuff just because some web site wants you to. Instead you'll get an annoying error message, but you don't have to worry about clicking the wrong button anymore, the only button is "OK". If you're running Flash then this error won't come up very often. It's also possible to hack shdoclc.dll so that message box no longer appears, I've done that and it works well. This link explains a bit more about how to fix the error message: http://www.newbie.org/common/turnoff_activex.html

If Tetris keeps its high scores in cartridge RAM, then this might be possible. But I doubt Tetris needed more than just the console RAM. The idea might work for other games though, depending on whether the data of interest is kept in cartridge RAM.

I heard that Flash is hard to make games with. It would be cool if it wasn't that hard since I'd love to make a few online games. 867780[/snapback] My problem with the idea of writing games in Flash is that there's a fair number of people who would prefer not to install it. The problem is there's no apparent way to selectively allow Flash only for selected web sites. So since Flash is all-or-nothing, I'd rather not run it. I think Java is the same way, but for whatever reason Java usually doesn't get used for ads, while Flash is almost constantly used that way. Besides the annoyance, Flash ads also cause a significant slowdown, but maybe people running newer systems don't notice it. My niece and nephew have asked me to install Flash for some online games, but I've had to turn them down because of the performance impact it would have on the rest of the internet. If only those games were written in Java it wouldn't be a problem. I think a lot of people would prefer to install Java rather than Flash, simply because Java seems to have a better signal-to-noise ratio, while Flash mostly just adds noise. Even neglecting that issue, I'd still recommend Java between those two, since Java is a useful programming skill that could come in handy in other areas. Graphics programming might be easier in Flash though, I really have no idea. edit: After looking at the original question I can see my reply is somewhat off-topic. Well, if you get to the point of deciding to learn a language, then I endorse Java over Flash for the reasons stated above. But as far as easier game-making tools go, I don't have any particular recommendation.

I've never seen one in real life, but there is apparently a visual difference. http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/consoles.html The moulding beneath the woodgrain is U-shaped on the heavy version, but V-shaped on the others.

From what I've read, my understanding is that the MARIA chip controls the clock signal in the 7800. The 6502 and 6532 run from the same clock. When the 6502 is running at 1.79MHz, the 6532 is clocked at that speed as well. However, when the 6502 signals an address that maps to the 6532, then the MARIA slows the clock down to 1.2MHz. Somebody correct me if this is wrong. According to a data sheet I was reading, the 6532 was available at speeds of 1MHz and 2MHz, so 1.79MHz should not have been a problem. Not only that, but the 7800 in fact does clock the 6532 at 1.79MHz when its not being accessed. The 6532's timer functions run at the higher clock speed most of the time, only to slow down when read or written to. So if the 6532 can run at 1.79MHz most of the time, why does it need to slow down at all? Seems that the speed should only be keyed on whether the system is in 2600 mode, and be indifferent to the address. What am I missing?

In 1985, the only thing I knew about Nintendo was that they had their name on my Donkey Kong Jr. cartridge. Thinking back... I was in 3rd grade then! That's definitely long before I or anyone in my school heard of the NES. It was all about Intellivision, Atari, and Commodore 64. I don't think it even caught on where I lived until 1987. But I grew up in Wichita, deep in flyover country. Yeah, they are pretty silly. I wonder how many schools even remember they have them. If they ever open them, I bet the kids find it pretty dull. It would be more fun to go back as adults and open your own time capsule.

I think a simultaneous two player mode would be excellent. Whenever a frog reaches the goal area (whatever its called), it could be colored to indicate whose frog it was. Alternating two player wouldn't matter a lot to me.

You maybe have already seen this, but somebody was having similar troubles on an 800: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=66856 I don't have any experience with the SpeakJet or serial I/O though. I don't think anything would interrupt the CPU during vblank, at least nothing I can think of. Maybe it's just a timing issue like you mentioned.

Very good packaging, that should get a lot of people's attention. They show some paddle games on the box, yet the system comes with joysticks. Those must not be original binaries. Hopefully the joystick games are unaltered. Are the joysticks removable DB-9s? That would be nice, but given the price reduction, I wonder if they're hardwired serial devices. If the system really is binary compatible, that might also explain the price reduction since they wouldn't have to pay for much reprogramming outside of the paddle games.

It's 128KB, and also has a 32KB RAM chip on the board, yet it can only use 16KB of it. I guess they had a surplus of 32KB SRAMs?

There's little point in installing a cartridge connector and then trying to pretend it isn't there. It costs money to install, so if Infogrames doesn't want more than a few hundred people to know about it then they have no reason to spend money on it. Even if they did try this, it wouldn't work. It wouldn't take much imagination for people to realize what the connector might be for. Word would get around pretty quickly. However, I think it would be pretty cool if they included the connector and proudly advertised it. Not being limited to the built-in titles would carry a lot of appeal. I bet a sizeable number of people have old Atari games they'd like to play again. They would take interest in a small modern A/V equipped console to play those old cartridges with. I imagine most people don't feel like messing with their old VCS units, if they still have them, because either they've misplaced some pieces or they can't hook it up. But their willingness to buy retro units shows they are indeed interested in having a way to play those old games.

I agree that the ROM and RAM space makes a big difference, but I think the available CPU time is also an important factor. The 7800 does have to talk to TIA at the same speed that the 2600 does, but the 7800 has a lot more free time after graphics are rendered than the 2600. As a result, it can spend more time holding the TIA's hand through complex sounds. I don't know if this comes in to play in typical cases, but it's at least an enabler for the PCM sound in Jinks.

The CC2 doesn't give you all the games, it just gives you a place to copy them. No seller is going to bother competing with the price of CC2+MMC storage. It would be like comparing the price of an A8 game with the price of a blank floppy disk. If having the real cartridges doesn't matter to you, then naturally the CC2 is more economical, and that would be the best way to go.

I ordered several games from the Sears catalog in 1987 - early 88. The cheapest games included Galaga, Xevious, Choplifter, and Dig Dug that I can remember. Games like those were $10. Some games were $15, I remember Impossible Mission was one of them. The most expensive games were $20, those included Winter and Summer Games. This was all before I had a NES, and I remember where I lived at the time, so I'm sure it was no later than early 88. The system itself was also ordered out of that catalog in 1987. I'm not certain of the price progression. It might have been $10, $20, $30 instead of $10, $15, $20. But I remember there were 3 price levels and it started at $10. I remember the $10 price level very well, I used my allowance money to buy some of those, and I remember looking at that catalog page a lot. The next page had the NES stuff, and it was all 2-3X as expensive. I'm sure that's a big part of why my dad suggested a 7800 when I told him I wanted a NES. The other reason of course was compatibility with our 2600 games. Given who the customers were, it seems sensible that Tramiel's low-cost approach should have worked. But kids aren't rational about their money. After I got a NES, my parents used to be incredulous that I would save my money for 2 months and blow it all on a game that I'd have beaten in a couple days. The NES just seemed so revolutionary that I couldn't help myself. Adjusting for inflation, and the income level of the customer base, I think the NES must be the most expensive system ever to succeed in the mass-market. Nowadays there's a lot more adults playing video games and prices have actually remained stagnant and even gone down. I won't pay $50-$60 for a game *today*, yet I happily did so when I was younger and poorer.

Yeah, I had it early, and it was a very solid game. 840513[/snapback] I'll third that. I remember finding this game at a record store in the mall. My mom complained about the price but I ended up with it anyway. The graphics and sound were very intense I thought, I went nuts playing this game. It had great visual effects, such as the glowing colors on the energy shield, the warp screen, and the explosion was always exciting. I used to sometimes sit and wait for the death star to finish being built just because I even thought that looked cool. It's still one of my favorite games on the system. The label fell off though.

I don't remember ever cleaning it, but its been like this on every play ever since it was new. All my other games seem to work fine. Winter Games is the only game that differs from what I get in MESS. However, Winter Games is also the only bankswitched game I own, so maybe that's significant. Agreed. I had played the Epyx games on a friend's C64 and was hoping for something similar. The shortage of sound really bugged me. Yes, I'm getting much more sound from a ROM image that I downloaded from the internet, most likely from AA. I'm running it in MESS. I wish I had a way to dump my cartridge's ROM, it would be interesting to try it in MESS and see what it does. I've only played my cartridge on one console, a newer 7800 which does not have an expansion port. The first console I tried it on was an older model with an expansion shell (don't know about the port itself), but that console died on the first try so I don't know what the sound would have been like. My cartridge uses a "C100339 Rev. A" PCB with 8 jumpers. W2 and W5 are shorted, the rest are open. I noticed that Dan Boris documented a C300565 version of Winter Games in a document he typed up. Maybe these are different. http://www.atarihq.com/danb/7800cart/7800cart.txt The back of the board has a 41 87 date code on it. The ROM says C031231-001 SHARP JAPAN ©1987 ATARI 8737 D I'm now second guessing my memory, and on further recollection I feel confident that I got the game in December 1988, not 1990. In any case, this is clearly a 1987 version of the game.

I've learned not to trust newspaper quotations. I've often seen press conferences on TV, then later read about it in the paper and noticed misquotations. I guess reporters aren't as idealistic as I am about quote marks. Quote marks are supposed to contain *exactly* what the person said, but they often don't.

Many years ago (1990 I think), I received 7800 Winter Games as a birthday present. I hadn't used the console for a long time, so I had to hook it up before I could play the game. I finished setting everything up, plugged the game in, and pushed power. Nothing happened, then a second later I heard a pop, and a bit of smoke rose out of the 7800 near the power connector. That console was thrown out and replaced with a new one. I still have the 1990 unit and the game has always seemed to work fine. I have recently noticed that the Winter Games ROM download doesn't match my own cartridge. My cartridge seems to have a lot of sounds missing that are present in the ROM. I'm not sure where the ROM came from but it probably came from this site. Here's a list of what the sound is like on my cartridge: +Theme song at startup is present. -There is no beep when selecting items on the menu. -The swoosh sound when you ski in the biathlon is missing. +The rifle sounds during target shooting are present. -The jingle during biathlon results doesn't play. +The starting signal sounds in speed skating are present. -There are no crowd sounds in speed skating. -No sound effects or crowd noise in ski jump. -All sound effects during the bobsled are missing. -Jingle at the end of a bobsled run is missing. -The theme might not play at the end of a competition, but don't remember clearly. I'm guessing my cartridge was damaged and I just never realized it. But I don't see how my cartridge could have been damaged in such a selective way that the game still runs but with merely some sounds missing. Is there a version of the game with less sound, like I described, or is my cartridge damaged? I had thought of eventually fitting this cartridge with an EPROM socket, but if it's been damaged I should find a different one.

http://gccprinters.com/corporate/history.html That's their history page, but I don't know if its the same one you remember. The only part that relates to video games is this paragraph: Aren't they understating the Ms. Pac Man bit? I thought Ms. Pac Man was *the* best selling coin-op, period. They just call it "one of the the top-selling".

Do you happen to have a really old VCR handy? Some of those have manual tuning adjustments on them, you could manually try to dial in the correct frequency. I suppose old TVs might also have something similar.

You can definitely just pull it off. I did that when my system was a couple weeks old, as soon as I realized you could. Made everything shiny for a little while.

Yeah, and a role-playing game with no game, if Final Fantasy VII was any indication. Stringing a bunch of cut scenes and full-motion video sequences together is NOT a game. JR I guess some people still think that stuff is cool, like they've never watched a DVD before. I used to like Final Fantasy on the NES and SNES, but it turned to crap when they got hold of optical discs. This is what ruined the Sega-CD. The worst ripoff I ever suffered was Genesis Sword of Sodan. I was looking for a fighting game and the box looked cool. So I paid something like $50 for it, took it home, and I was in shock at how horrible the gameplay was. 1 player Combat is more fun than that game. I really felt like it was a fraud, a game whose only design-spec was impressive graphics that look good on the back of a box. I sold it at a garage sale some years later for $4, and I felt like I had conned him.

I used to have an original model CD. It died within a year or 2, it wouldn't power on at all. I got it repaired (I think it was still under warranty), and it worked for another couple years or so. Then it died again. I replaced it with a model-2 from FuncoLand, that unit still works. I threw out the model-1 when I moved a few years ago, though I wish I hadn't. It is more impressive looking than the cheaper model-2. Reliability wise, I obviously had better luck with the model-2. Maybe I just had a lemon - any model 1 that still works nowadays might be pretty solid. But the motorized drive may be getting tired by now. If you have a model-2 Genesis, you need the model-2 CD for it to fit properly. Back in the day, my original Genesis was giving me fits so I got a new one, and I found that the model-2 genesis sits up too high to align with the connector on the model-1 CD. I guess Sega assumed nobody would try that combination. I removed the rubber feet on the genesis but it still was hard to fit. I got it to work but I bent a pin on the female connector at first. Model-1 is cool, but in my opinion its also more likely to give you trouble.

I think the NES connector problems are a result of having so many pins, and the amount of tension involved. A lot of people seem to dislike this design, but personally its my favorite since it is easy to restore to like-new condition. The female connectors are isolated on an easy to replace component, making the unit very serviceable. What Nintendo did is about as sensible as building a car with replaceable brake pads. My 7800 and Genesis work okay but can be frustrating sometimes, and they're only going to get worse. The NES will probably be trouble free for life, so long as I hold on to a few extra connectors.

Its almost a sure thing that the cartridge connector just needs to be replaced. When you push the cartridge down, it causes tension which is supposed to provide good electrical contact. But over the years that tension gets too soft and isn't adequate anymore. Try using your hand to hold the cartridge all the way down and power the system on. If it works better that way, then the connector must be the problem. Fortunately the connector is replaceable, you can buy new replacements on eBay or from MCM Electronics, part number 83-3785. The connector just plugs into another connector on the NES motherboard. No soldering is required, the whole process only involves a screwdriver and maybe 3 pieces. You won't be overwhelmed by it, really. http://mcm.newark.com/NewarkWebCommerce/mc...SKU=83-3785&N=4 If you're afraid of opening the unit yourself, I'd still order the part and give it to a friend to install. If you have to take it to a shop, having the part in hand might help keep them from overcharging you, and more importantly will help ensure they fix it properly. If they aren't very competent they might expend labor time just trying to clean it and that won't fix it very well. They may also claim the part isn't available if they don't know where to get it. Honestly though, you can do this yourself. Once you've installed the connector the games should work as good as when the system was new. You should clean the games before using them with your shiny new connector, but considering how easy it is to replace that might not even be worth the trouble (depending how many games you have). The new connector will probably be so tight that you don't even need to push the games down for them to work. If that's the case, don't push them down. There's no reason to wear out the connector by using more tension than necessary. For the same reason, its adviseable to remove the game when you're not using the machine.