Jetboot Jack

Mine arrived today 🙂 The slightly puerile/sexist writing aside, and other engaging edition... sTeVE

I've just got this latest version up running - awesome. Because I am awkward I tried under Big Sur, had to jump thru a few hoops, but eventually got it to boot 🙂 sTeVE

My shop from late 80's to early 90's... sTeVE

I saw Winter Games running on an XEGS at Atari UK in Slough, alongside UFO... Sadly I have no evidence of my experience (it was a way before camera phones) - and to be honest I was there to sign a contract for some software I was developing, little would I know the games I saw would never be released. sTeVE

Outstanding - really nice work! sTeVE

Very nice! Not having played/seen this game before is the burst scrolling part of the original product? sTeVE

That's very sad to hear, a real loss to the community... I really enjoyed Business Is Fun. sTeVE

I guess I am over dramatic 🙂 The original Genesis game is was so smooth and animation rich that every time play a lesser version I am always reminded what is missing. So for me the low frame rate, small enemies and visually indistinguishable scenery all makes it so meh on the GB... sTeVE

"PC original" - nope Genesis/Medgadrive original 🙂 Have you played the gameboy version OMG it's horrific, very little of the magic of EWJ left in that! sTeVE

Might as well start with a system closer to ours for comparison - look how crappy the Master System conversion was - and that machine is way more powerful (10Mhz custom Sega VDP) than an A8. It can put 64 hardware sprites on screen and addresses unto 4MB of cart space! sTeVE

I will go and have a look - being UK based I may have PAL memories 🙂 sTeVE

But they are all in mode 8 and so artifacted, not mode E 4 color (Ralf Bertenburg hack)... I wonder if that red is purple on XL/XE? sTeVE

I beg to differ - the Broderbund original is 100% colors by artifacting in the play area - it just has a black backdrop. There is a HACK that uses Antic E so you get a 160 horizontal resolution and 4 non artifacted colors on screen... sTeVE

So that's solved it - if I select Open GL or DX11 it works perfectly - thanks for the help... However if I have DX9 checked alone or combined with any other options - my system soft locks every time with 60HZ or NTSC video settings! sTeVE

Thanks for the suggestions phaeron - I will try the various options to see what happens! sTeVE

Thanks for the suggestion... I tried running Altirra from windows w/o my FE or CL options - booted to an NTSC 800 - loaded an xex (DK) - selected File/Exit and my system soft locked 😞 Now it does NOT lock up if I am in window mode when I exit, only exit from Full Screen causes the lock up. I get the same behaviour if I try 5200 games (which when loaded force NTSC) - File/Exit - locked up PC 😞 If I select Config System from the menu bar sometimes the FS switches to a window the the dialogue appears and sometimes the screen turns grey and the system is soft locked again. At this stage I understand it is my system, but where to start to look to fix it, I have no diagnostic information from the lock ups, I don't know where to look. I am running Windows 10 and I am on the insider program for updates... sTeVE

So - I am still trying to understand under what circumstances the use of File/Exit causes Altirra to hang and soft-lock my system. I believed I had tracked it down in my last post and now find if I run an instance full screen with PAL-60 as video mode on exit it hangs too, always using File/Exit and sometimes when I use ALT-F4. If I set the emulator to PAL it works perfectly 😞 Has any one else had any issues with Altirra like mine, I launch from a FE (Launchbox) largely so invoke with a command line, the programs always run just fine, whatever the format, including multi-disc games. sTeVE

I thought named after his son... sTeVE

What a great game - awesome, huge thanks for bringing it to the wee Atari! sTeVE

I use Xpadder to do that across a number of emulators - map the second analogue stick or the face buttons to keyboard inputs defined in the emulator (like Altirra) for the 2nd stick and then use a hotkey toggle on the controller in Xpadder to switch between regular mappings and Robotron mode 🙂 sTeVE

Ok - I did as you said, and discovered that there are no errors in the console window, as far as I can see, it seems to close instantly on exit so I have only seen the startup log, and that looked fine. BUT the lock up is limited to one configuration of the Atari Hardware, specifically if I run a full screen NTSC 48K 800 with the patched (or unpatched) OSB rom and artifacting enabled. When you exit, either by the File/Exit or ALT-F4 the screen turns grey (or if you invoke the Config menu) and the PC is unresponsive until you sleep and wake it. If I use PAL OS or no artifacting the system is fine! sTeVE

I have a query about 3.90... If I exit the emulator (usually launched from a CLI with portable or portablealt arguments) using the File/Exit dropdown it hangs my PC for a variable amount of time, I see my desktop, but nothing can be controlled. Basically Windows become complexity unresponsive and Altirra is sat in the menu bar as if still running, despite being exited. Task manager cannot be invoked to close the app either... I have to sleep my PC using the hardware button and then waking it from sleep 100% restores the system to my control and Altirra is closed... I am willing to believe it is a quirk of my machine, but wanted some corroboration 🙂 I have a pretty standard intel and Nvidia based system (i9700K OC at 5Ghz and a 2070 GPU) running windows 10. Is there a log file somewhere I can open to see what is happening? sTeVE

I would also 100% recommend Jon's work - he did a lovely Jon on a rather kitted out 1200XL for me 🙂 sTeVE

Not a solution to your Hatari problem, but more a comment on ST emulation via Launchbox - I gave up on Hatari (and the Hatari Retroarch core) as my ST emulator of choice and switched over to STeem SSE. I just found Hatari awkward to configure and use (the GUI is painful TBH, issues like you experienced). I found STeem easier to configure and work with in Launchbox - works well with multi-disc games and HD images, emulation seems more accurate (sound is MUCH better IMHO) and I found it easier to use (particularly the use of profiles to setup unique configs, like say an STE or Falcon for individual/awkward games). I also use xpadder to configure the Xbox One Pad'd right stick as a mouse with shoulder buttons as mouse buttons to get thru them pesky crack intros... I am using the STeem SSE 3.9.4 Win64 with the latest version of Launchbox - and have a library of pretty much every ST game running just fine... sTeVE

Fantastic - thank you so much! sTeVE