Jetboot Jack

Ron converted Conan, the Apple 2 original is equally precise (just less flickery), so I guess he was re-producing the original design. Goonies was written by Scott Spanburg not Ron Fortier - although graphics in both games were done by Kelly Day. Kelly and Scott continued to work together as they both joined Microprose. sTeVE

Launchbox - simples... I've tried all the usual F.E. for windows (and Mac), from Pegasus to Attract Mode, via Hyperspin and Launchbox, including MGalaxy and Maximus arcade - and for me Launchbox (in BigBox mode for a seamless controller driven experience) is unparalleled in it's ease of use, emulation setup and maintenance. I use it every day - for all my emulators (Computer and Console) and for all my PC games (GOG, Epic Store, Steam, Microsoft Store etc), the ease of adding games, customising emulation setups (even at a per game level) is fab - it has a very good setup for RetroArch and Mame - but is also great with standalone emulators, I use versions of Atari800, Altirra, Stella, Steem, FS-UAE, PCSX2, Dolphin, Nostalgia etc etc I cannot praise it enough, it is fantastic - yes it has a cost for the full version, but then paying for good stuff is never a hardship 🙂 sTeVE

Got my copy - really good, thanks! sTeVE

That is absolutely lovely - such a great 2600 game, and a delightful update/conversion! sTeVE

I rarely used the commercially available tools on the A8 in my A8 projects - either the data they created needed to be munged in some way to make to useful, or the specific project needs (like the map editor for Beast) just did not fit with a generic approach, or were so slow and had such painful file handling that it was just not practical to use. Once I started using cross development then I did use more off the shelf tools like OCP Advanced Art Studio for all tiles, fonts and sprites - as it had great export facilities... In my experience the majority of useful Dev Tools are not things like image editors to be honest, but the tools for specific project needs that do not exist - for instance to convert data into more compressed and differently organised structure for a project. I never found sprite editor of any worth for my games in the A8 - so had my own 🙂 But I remember using GAD (Databyte) to create Antic E images by editing two different images (top and bottom) that I would combine into one single higher resolution image, because it had the best drawing widgets... sTeVE

Interesting - very similar to mine - but I hopped the C64 and went ST/Amiga then off to Microprose at the end of the 80's - and PC/Console ever since! sTeVE

When I started developing games I and my colleagues wrote our own tools on the A8 system - so for Contagion, Beast etc we made custom editors - but rapidly transitioned to cross development with all tools being developed on the ST when it appeared in '84/'85... Running tools on the target machine was painful, and whilst we did use multiple A8 machines they were not "connected" - so we were saving out files onto disc to then pull into a compilation on another machine was the norm, even when we got access to Atari's in house tools. Doing anything that required rapid iteration on the target device was too slow. sTeVE

Absolutely - we lurk a lot, any people do, there is always a risk of getting the odd over enthusiastic gamer on your case, so anonymity can be nice 🙂 It had to be a cuppa - we were mid session at an all day event, beer would have been nice tho... I have often beat up Gary about Ocean's lack of Atari support back in the day 🙂 sTeVE

Awesome - I was doing games for EIDOS in the late 90's when you were on DD etc - I spent a fair amount of time up at the Wimbledon offices (I go back quite a long way with Ian Livingstone) - I was with Hot House and we were doing Cutthroats, Abomination, Gangsters and WWTBAM... sTeVE

Cool - what projects were you on? sTeVE

I have worked with John on several occasions, at Domark, Crystal Dynamics and EIDOS - in fact I had a chat over a cuppa with him last week at an industry event. TBH I have never thought to ask him about his old games, same as the many other people still in the industry who started out on the A8, like Adam Billyard (saw him last week too)... sTeVE

One of the little advantages of emulation is button remapping - in my standard config for Atari800 and Altirra I map one of the (B) buttons to up on the stick so I can get to enjoy the many games that use up as Jump with a button input instead - cheating I know, but it works for me! I also map one button to the space bar - makes defender MUCH better! sTeVE

Thanks to everyone who enquired or bought the equipment, all gone now... Although a sad parting in some ways - it was great to meet so many Atari 8bit fanatics, and put some faces to the names here on the forums. sTeVE

Thanks to everyone who enquired or bought the equipment, all gone now... Although a sad parting in some ways - it was great to meet so many Atari 8bit fanatics, and put some faces to the names here on the forums. sTeVE

Awesome - my second favourite 2600 game (Pressure Cooker being my favourite) - now where is the A8 version 🙂 sTeVE