Jetboot Jack

Well It would be nice to have the "working" stuff on the 8bit: Frisky Tom Meebzork Tempest Xari Arena But yes, it is mostly junk sTeVE

Wouldn't it be best to pick original ATARI own characters rather than characters from games made for the Atari?? Only problem being that Atari were not like Sega/Nintendo and into "character brands" in that way... What about: Peter Pack Rat Paperboy Bif and Jet from Toobin' Jake and Duke from Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters etc.. Did Atari publish or licence Kangaroo 'cos Kanga would be cool... sTeVE [ 05-06-2002: Message edited by: Jet Boot Jack ]

APE allows your PC to act as a HD (a very flexible and powerful one too, with loads of neat and unique features) for a real 8bit... sTeVE

Choplifter and Mario Brothers were re-written for the XE. Crystal castles was just "sorted out" - not reprogrammed - from teh old XL/5200 unreleased version... DK - that's easy... Whilst the 87 ocean C64 version is pretty, and despite the fact that the Atari 8bit version has a girder too few on the 1st level the 8bit one wins hands down in playability IMHO and is miles better than the 7800 and Colecovision (yuck) versions!!!! sTeVE

The APE "PRO" system is good - it backs up all types of protected discs and acts as an regular SIO2PC cable too... sTeVE

The only 5200 games I don't have running (on the real iron) for the XL/XE are: Barroom Baseball Boogie Demo Frisky Tom Meebzork Meteorites Micro-gammon Minature Golf Spitfire Sport Goofy Tempest Xari Arena Yellow Submarine All the other 5200 titles are available and work perfectly, most are disk based copies, but a few are hacked Roms too... sTeVE

I think after those kind words from Mr Davies I shall retire from this group... Sorry if Harlequin's releases were lackluster David - after all we were only doing it 12/14 years ago... I have uncovered most of the Harlequin stuff, and I will be setting up a web archive,for those who would like to see what we tried to achieve... sTeVE, yes I am pissed off....

Those new shots look FANTASTIC!!!! I played it again just now - ya know I'm totally in awe of this conversion.. Having dug out some of my dev projects now, thanks to an old 8bit chum from the UK, I'm just plain embarrassed they way my 1988/1990 stuff looks! sTeVE

There was no 8-bit port of the Great Escape sTeVE

Avram said - "Can any of you remember the Turrican rip-off that was Universal Soldier? I was a fan of Turrican 1 and 2 on the Commodore 64 and was shocked when I saw this direct copy playing in a branch of Virgin Megastore. " Universal Soldier was the re-release of Turrican by Accolade on the Gensis etc - it was not a "rip off"... sTeVE

Oh yes I've plenty of expereince with the several models of PSX dev kit - multilayer ISA boards (BIG), CD emulator card etc... On the last project I worked on for the PSX (2000) - I went through 6 systems - just kept failing - getting old and worn out now

For 5200 games playing I have to recommend the latest version of Atari800win - it plays games well sTeVE

Heaven, I get corruption in both demos - a blank line randomly appears in the ship in the 1st demo, and the "junk" frames in the second... sTeVE

Crossbow, Thanks for the offer, I'm afraid I've nothing to trade right now ( just consolidating my collection ) sTeVE

Ok - I hooked up my 4 port system, and I cannot get a picture on my TV... The powerlight comes on the 5200, the switchbox will pass thru my Intellivision just fine, but flipping the switch, and powering up the 5200 results in no picture - I suspect the Switch box... Any ideas if I'm thinking right here??? sTeVE

I have no CLICK!!!! Thanks for the help & detective work guys - its a New Switchbox for me fer sure (Best sells 'em for $12)... I'll order in the morning sTeVE

Charlie, Thanks - I did what you suggested - I tried channel 2 and changing the standy switch position - still nothing - there is no signal - just snow sTeVE

I would not dislike the 5200 sticks half as much if Atari had released games that were designed around them, rather than take games designed for digital input and fudge them for the 5200 sticks... Star Raiders, Pole Position, Centipede, Missile Command etc all play really well with the analog sticks - but Pengo, Kangaroo, Popeye, Moon Patrol etc play awfully! Atari needed to both provide self centring mechanisms and/or a digital mopde for the sticks too (like PSX sticks - Dpad and Analog stick)!!! The fact the buggers break too quickly is a sad fact of Atari's lack of QA!!! sTeVE, new 5200 owner!

Steve, Maybe I was imprecise in my previous post, let me explain... I have a 4 port switch box and a 4 port 5200. The power goes into the switchbox then one cable links that to the 5200. If I press the powerswitch on the 5200 I get the power light on the console, but I get no picture on channel 3 or 4. The pass thru connector on the 5200 switchbox allows my INTV to connect to the same TV - and that signal is passed thru just fine... sTeVE

Mine is actually a 21": SONY TV Yes its from the UK - where scart dominates as the connector type and you get Composite video/RGB and Svideo plus PAL/NTSC on almost every thing I had a look at SONY style and the 14" US Wega's don't get SVideo BUT - this does - plus component for yer Gamecube and is great 14" TV: Toshiba Flat Screen 14" TV sTeVE [ 04-27-2002: Message edited by: Jet Boot Jack ]

ooh - by the way SONY has sold 7 million PS2 machines in Europe so far - in just two years!!!! Looks like PS2 is gonna outsell PS1!!!! sTeVE

Does that mean someone else will be the "Resident Gaming Scientist"? Amongst many stupid tag lines people assign to themselves that annoy me - Adrian's one alsways made me mad! sTeVE, who may indeed be a gaming scientist

hehehe - nice try - a PC game pad and an upside down driving controller

You can get cheap 14" flat screen TV's inc a Wega. The biggest advantage over something like a commodore composite monitor is that the new tubes are MASSIVE improvemnts over older types - in gemoetry accuracy, color management and sudio. I find my Atari 8bit games look awesome on a 14" SONY - much better than they ever did on my older (circa 1988) Philips Monitor.... sTeVE

Heaven, I dug up a ZR cart and had a play - I see what you mean - that really is a pretty fast engine both on PAL and NTSC systems - they seem to use the same sprite masking technique as Donkey Kong - giving neat overlap colors when s/w sprites are overlaid - can't wait to see your stuff! sTeVE