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Laner

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Posts posted by Laner

  4. Posted · Edited by Laner

     

    Exactly. Atari should have released the 5200 with normal joysticks that people actually want to use. How does such a poor design choice even happen? You'd think that Atari would have play tested the heck out of something as important as the controller for their new console.

     

    I always thought it was a poorly-considered attempt to one-up the Intellivision. You've got 16 directions? Well, we have 256!! The lack of auto-centering and poor build quality didn't help things either.

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

     

    And no disrespect to the VIC fans, but that computer always felt to me like it found its legs when Commodore was liquidating it cheaply but hit the wall when the Commodore 64 took off.

     

    1982 was the Vic's best selling year. While the C64 was release the second half of the year, it wasn't until late '83 that it really started taking off.

  10. Posted

    I think a video forum would be nice.

     

    AtariAge also has to expand and accommodate the changing scene. Other systems are beginning to replace the VCS by way of different demographics of the members. 8-bit machines are suddenly very simple. Fans of those machines are approaching their twilight years, and newcomers have a more diverse interest. Newcomers are also embracing new forms of communication more advanced than simple BBS-like "forums".

     

    Twilight Years?

     

    tumblr_okrqplpjNj1uv4w0ro5_500.gif

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    Ultima V is the one I keep wanting to go back to.

     

    The C64 version is fine, but 8 disk sides and no music hurts.

     

    Playing it on the C128 with two drives is better, but still a slog (and the "step" sound effect really affects the music, IMO).

     

    The Amiga version restarts "Stones" every time you perform certain actions, which is maddening.

     

    After messing with all the various ports, for my money the best one is the MS-DOS version with Pix's MIDI patch installed.

    • Like 1

  21. Posted · Edited by Laner

    I have a MiST, and enjoy messing around with it from time to time. It's nice for goofing around with systems I'll probably never own the actual hardware for (ST, ZX Spectrum, etc.).

     

    It works fine, both PAL and NTSC on the three monitors I've tried it with - a Dell 2001FP flat panel, a late model Compaq CRT, and a Sony PVM (though that requires the DB15 -> SCART adapter and turning off the scandoubler in the mist.INI file). I have a couple more VGA compatible monitors, but I haven't tested the MiST with it.

     

    The main thing to keep in mind is that while there are lots of cores to mess around with, they are all in various states of completeness. And development has mostly dried up in favor of the MiSTer. I bought mine about 6 months ago, and don't regret it.

  24. Posted

    The Commodore 128 was my first computer. A couple of years ago I tried to fire it up again and it was dead. I had the itch to play with an 80s computer again and after reading up on threads here at Atari Age, I bought an 800XL.

     

    I find the C64 (which is how I used my 128 90% of the time) pretty comparable to the 800XL. I do find that in 2018, there seems to be more interesting resources for the Atari, between this site, the documents and software all curated at AtariMania, stores like Best still selling replacement parts and lots of interesting hardware expansions from guys like Lotharek.

    For me it’s more about which system is more reliable and interesting to play around with in 2018 than in whatever minor hardware advantages each have over one another.

     

    On the (C64) flipside, you have the Lemon64 forums, GameBase64 and the CSDB for documentation and software, the 1541 Ultimate and SD2IEC for drive replacements, the Reloaded Mk2 and Ultimate 2 motherboard updates/replacements, the easyflash cart, Ray Carlsen power supplies, numerous SID and PLA replacements, JiffyDOS, Lumafix, etc.

     

    Both ecosystems seem to be well represented in {current year} - mainly depends on where you choose to focus.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted · Edited by Laner

    In early '84 I went through two or three 64s that failed in rapid succession. Though the one that worked, worked for a *long* time - it lasted for over a decade of heavy use before I needed to replace the motherboard (and still works to this day)

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