Swami

Is it on display now, or still in storage?

#3 is becoming an issue. Do you hoard those medium size mailer boxes with the fold in tab lids because they are so good for storing small items and stacking? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BT54XJO/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me= 7) You start putting storage units like 4 rack shelf units and 4 drawer units at right angles to your two crts because the units against the wall are full.

Yo photographer, faster shutter speed.

This would make more sense.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Since the first part didn't make sense, I didn't know how much stock to put in the second part. Even if you replace the first "CX80" with "ST" it still did not make sense from what I'd read in posts here that later production batches of the CX80 were factory modded to be ST compatible. However, if Bruce takes alex_79's view, then it all makes sense. That would mean the posts about factory modded cx80's would be an urban legend. There was a similar phenomenon with the Champ keypad adapter for the Colecovision where some units had a 2- button/2-function mod that werethought to be mostly due to a later factory revision, but could have also been due to all post- purchase mods. Although I have heard the two cx80 versions are externally indistinguishable, I thought they might have some open box stock they had tested. But, sounds like they have none in stock either way. Edit: Here are a couple of several posts postulating "retailer" or factory modded CX80s to ST internals: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/243453-atari-2600-trak-ball-games/?p=3338900 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/19754-cx22-vs-cx80-trak-balls/?p=210999

My question to B&C: Hello, Do you have any CX-80 trackballs that you know are compatible with XE and ST systems (versus the ones that operate like CX-22) and are in good+ condition? Thank you, Their response: The CX-80 is not compatible with the CX-80 or the CX-22. We do not have any for sale right now. This msg is sent to you by Bruce at Atari Sales & Service B & C ComputerVisions. ...how to respond?

Hero!

Stella is looking to improve realistic trackball behavior on their 2600 emulator for the growing number of trackball hacks and I said I would look into getting them a CX80 in good working condition.

Since the CX80 could be either the CX22 or ST compatible version, it is a roll of the dice which it will be if you buy one, so I am wondering if an ST trackball mouse is functionally identical to the "ST compatible" CX80. i.e., is it smarter to just buy an ST trackball mouse rather than hoping to get the ST style CX80 or modding the CX22 compatible CX80? There also seem to be ST trackball mice such as the one below that are ST and Amiga compatible. Will these 2-model compatible mice work with the CX80 hacks?* Thanks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Atari-520-1040-ST-STE-Mega-Falcon-computer-Amiga-500-600-1200-trackball-/152519136477?hash=item2382d954dd:g:dEwAAOxyIv5TlInd* *The 2-model compatible mice use a switch that I think just adjusts the pinout, so should be the same as two separate trackballs.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that I'm now using my CX-80 as my PC mouse.

I found out using Stella that my CX-80 is wired like a CX-22 rather than an ST mouse, but with the right settings in "trackball" mode in "properties" it works almost like the USB mouse in "Atari mouse" setting. The most elusive fix was realizing you had to turn off "grab mouse in emulation" or your speed was kept at at a joystick rate and setting "use mouse" to "only analog" appears to increase trackball accuracy or resolution. Other than that I turned off "use all 4 directions on joystick" and set "mouse range" in "properties" and "trackball sensitivity" to maximum and the crosshairs fly accurately across the screen to where-ever you want them to go at high speed. Only glitch I notice is it seems the trackball "runs out" of x or y axis sometimes and starts "hitting an invisible barrier" a couple inches from an edge of the screen, which you can remedy by giving it a good spin in the opposite direction. I can still do better with my USB trackball mouse, but I think that has more to do with the shape and construction of the trackball mouse versus the CX-80. Mainly, the trackball mouse has more of the globe exposed, so you can use your fingers more effectively, rather than "flat handing" the CX-80 globe which barely clears the surrounding surface.

Not alone... https://www.kickstarter.com/dmca/dreamcade-replay-one-console-to-rule-them-all-submitted-by-lime

So, is this game really fun or is it like Swordquest?

Readme.txtHOW TO PLAY.txtCave_Beta_2.rom

From a friend of a friend. Readme.txtHOW TO PLAY.txtCave_Beta_2.rom

Somewhat related occurence in the news, although this is an actual business not a non-business fan page. Just crazy what these businesses do in litigation. http://www.theledger.com/news/20170828/polk-teacher-entrepreneur-battles-giant-ebay This also reminds me of Kellog's going after the Exxon "tiger in your tank" tiger for being similar to Tony the tiger.

Something about a2600 not having a BIOS in contrast to pretty much every other console requires going through the command prompt rather than accessing files through the GUI like you can with other consoles in MAME64. The main pain is having to use long directory strings or move your files and change file names to remove confusing punctuation marks used in many rom file titles. I don't know if this changed in MAME64UI. Never had to worry about the bitmap prescaling before implementing a2600 in MAME64, so I don't know if this is in MAME64 as well as MAME64UI. I will check into it, though. Thank you.

I think this is true theoretically, but I think in practice it is difficult to keep up with the joystick due to the different mechanics, but that just adds a bit more challenge. I just noticed it was harder to catch up with the ships moving away from your cursor with the trackballs in joystick mode than with the joystick. And with the CX-80 having more friction than the Kensington Expert mouse, it slowed it down a bit more, especially changing directions. The differences are not massive going from joystick to USB mouse as joystick to actual CX80 as joystick, but noticable, like 20% slower each step. I suppose if I really went to town on the trackballs I could keep up with the joystick, but probably get tennis elbow. IIRC, the earlier versions of some trackball hacks were later* sped up due to requests from AA members who tried them, so they may be a little bit speedy by comparison. Edit for clarity*

Hopefully, one day, the XM Module, Hokey, or something of the sort, will minimize this issue.

I downloaded vjoy last night but didn't try it. Not aware of mouse-to-joy, so will have to look into it. Thank you. I ended up figuring out how to run colntsc.bin (colony7 joystick) with a2600 in MAME, which worked with a mouse, although setting up the command prompts is a pain and the resolution is also much worse with a2600 in MAME than with Stella. My USB mouse is a Kensington Expert trackball mouse, so it is similar to arcade style, only smoother. Using the USB trackball mouse to emulate the joystick in MAME is slower than with the trackball hacks in Stella and, as I said, the graphical resolution is much better in Stella. It was faster than using my actual CX80 in joystick mode through the 2600daptor. Mainly, I wanted to see if I could implement a way to play 2600 games I would like to play with a trackball mouse if there is not a trackball hack. However, as Stephen said, the results are not ideal and more just a novelty than a best way to play. From what I have learned, I plan to see how my actual CX80 works in Stella through the 2600daptor II using the Atari mouse setting in Stella game properties > controller. I knew there was some difference between the CX80 and CX22, but had forgotten that the CX80 is actually like the Atari mouse. Basically, the root of my problem was that I was thinking of the CX80 as a trak ball rather than an Atari mouse.

LOL! Just going to post that that is what I've learned after 70 minutes of puttering. Use modern usb mouse with game properties > controller set to Atari mouse for CX80 hacks, trackball for CX22 hacks. Thanks for the effort. Have not found a way to make the USB mouse work with a joystick (i.e., original) version, although an atari cx22 or cx80 will sort of slowly work if you set the 2600daptor and trakball and stella properties >controller to joystick mode. I think what I would need to make this work is a mouse axis to key binder. Several have been made in the past, but they seem to have stopped with Windows 7 and do not recognize my mouse as a controller in win10. The closest I came was something called Pointy's KeyBinder. It could bind the keys but could not recognize the mouse as a controller, oddly enough.

MAME is generally good for controller recognition. You can map pretty much any controller your computer recognizes including weird things like dance mats. It has issues sometimes with using a mouse and some file formats. For instance, I found Altirra works much better with the variety of 8 bit Atari computer file formats. I use MAME for 7800, Colecovision and arcade, Stella for 2600, Altirra for 8 bit Atari computers. I think Bee worked better than MAME for Colecovision trackball games like Centipede, but you have to use the keyboard to fire in trackball mode because Bee cannot map the mouse button last I checked, although I put in a request. Bee seems to have trouble recognizing some homebrew rom files for some reason. Honestly, you may find one emulator works with a game that your day- to-day emulator with better features does not.

Are you okay with getting a used one?

ebay link leads to : "Lot of 29 atari 2600 games untested sold as is all have cases"

Isn't the regular PC/Apple computer mouse supposed to emulate the joystick or CX22/80 correctly? I just get jitter in a small portion of the screen for both the joystick and trackball version of Colony 7 with my mouse. I would have to go back and systematically document with a few different games to see what does and doesn't happen to pin down whether the mouse ever works for me in Stella and to what extent. As I said, however, I was able to get my actual CX80 to work in Stella with the CX80 set to joystick mode about the same as it would on the 2600 console, but the CX80 is rather slow in joystick mode. I have noticed Stella does not appear to map mouse movement. Oddly enough, with the CX80 version of Colony 7, the only "fire to start" that worked was the mouse button, as neither the mapped keyboard or trackball buttons were communicating with Stella (the mouse still produced only small jitter movement). Usually the keyboard always works. I remember I was able to get good trackball movement and fire button communication with the CX80 in trackball mode with the PC's joypl controller tester, but nothing in Stella. However, as I said, I am completely new to trying out a trackball hack in Stella. Edit: Just looking through Stella User Guide, it looks like keyboard (or anything else but mouse) does not function when Stella is in trakball mode, so that explains why only the mouse button would emulate the fire button. However, puzzled on if there is a way to change jitter with mouse to smooth movement in trakball hacks (or joystick versions, as far as that goes).