-^CrossBow^-

Another good cleaner to use is at Wal-Mart. It is called De-Solv-It. It is a citrus based acidic cleaner. It will clean just about anything...however, keep it off the painted surfaces...and never use it to clean labels!!! It will rub em white otherwise! Also I discourage the use of the dishwasher for cleaning the case shells because I for one like to keep the serial number sticker intact. And even though your 13...I actually fixed my first Atari 2600 VCS when I was only 8. Turned out the silicon heat compound used on the +5 regulator had turned to a milky liquid that was shorting out the regulator. A little alcohol and some q-tips...and that VCS was still working last I checked. Hell when I was 13 I was taking stuff apart and getting use to the new nick name my parents gave me (Mr. Destructo). That is how you learn... If you plan to keep your vintage gaming stuff working for years to come...you need to learn how to maintain it and possibly work on it should the need ever arise.

Have to Ask Carl at Songbird productions about that. He basically is THE man behind all the newer Lynx released from Songbird. I am sure he could tell you much more than I could.

Okay so the sound works great on my P3-500 at the office under Atari800win plus...it was just ultra low volume so I had to crank it up to hear it. otherwise it sounded great! Too bad the lasers on level 5 don't actually hurt you and only act as more of a shield for the castle. Would be cool to have some beam sound with them too. Also the collision detection probs asside...the shots to the left and right need to be scaled back. It seems unfair that I can have a shot travel that far and hit the tank on the opposite side of the screen. If the shots had a limited range to the sides...that would add challenge in that i have to get closer to the tank first before I can toast it...and that might be possible due to other other shots in the way...or laser beam fire. BTW...when are the extra men scored? I received one after crossing the 3000 point mark... are they every 3000 points? Looks really good so far...I just wish that Atari800win would support the primary fire button on the keyboard..so I didn't always have to use my mouse. Try Playing moon patrol with the mouse!! Doesn't work.

That first pic I have seen before...but in Color. I believe that is a picture taken from the Atari section at a Toys R' Us back in the day. Gotta tell you I really miss not seeing a whole section or wall filled with Fujis...

While we are at this...Toys R' Us also has some of the games...They sell them here locally for 9.97 each. That is how I got my super Battletank. Impressive to look at...but not much in the way of a challenge..at is was beaten in one sitting my first time through. Still...having a portable Sonic on the go rox!

Brig back in the days when this stuff was being done new...and I am sure that Carl from Songbird can confirm...Heck he may still do it this way. But originally most of the games for both the Lynx and the Jaguar were done from Development kits used exclusively on Amiga computers (Probably 500s and 1000s). The lynx kit was cool because it also included a basic lynx attached which didn't have all the hardware of a real lynx in it. But it would allow you to port your code to it to see how it actually looked and played. Not sure if these Dev Kits are avail anymore. But proof of the Amiga being needed is that the encyrption keys for the 7800, Lynx, and Jaguar are all from Amiga ADF images.

Moycon, There is actually a loose sprint master here in town at the local fleamarket. But I wasn't please with the $5 quote they gave and are firm on. I think I would rather snag their Dark Chambers for the 2600 for that price except that I want the 7800 version... Anyway, I haven't got much trade wise. I have a spare loose Sonic 3 for the genesis that's in great shape. I have a 5200 Gyruss that's in good shape, and I have an 8-bit Zaxxon cart...but I am not so sure about it as I think it contains an eprom (Many Zaxxon carts did...). It basically comes up just fine. But then after about 30 seconds or so...the playfield graphics mess up...and then a few seconds later...it locks up. Only game I have that has ever really done anything like this. My 800xl passes all it's diagnostic tests...so I think the cart is actually suffering from some bit rot. Oh...I do have something else of interest...I have a Sears Picture label Yars' Revenge. So...just let me know if any of that is anything you might want. Later,

Tep37: Word of warning...that same guy has auctions on Ebay also...but he uses a different name. Things to look for are his ultra cheap Lynx games with .50 cent BIN...he charges like 4.50 or $5 bucks for shipping regardless..and he states that if you don't like it...then you don't bid. He also won't take Paypal unless the bid is over $20...so that leaves Bidpay and Money orders as he won't take checks either I believe. I avoid him simply because when you calculate his shipping with the item price...it works out the same as one who charges $2.99 for the same game but only has a 3.50 shipping. Therefore, to me it is obvious that since he states the shipping can be lower than the actual shipping paid...that he pockets the rest to offset the costs of running the auction.

Exton! Next time your looking for Atari stuff and find some Lynx stuff...let me know if you encounter any Xenophobes for the lynx out there! I would love to have this game but ebay pricing on it usually gets outrageous...

Moycon, so ummm...what do you want for one of those sprintmasters? hehe...

nope the difficulty switched will work fine. what gets me though is why the manual clearly states not to! Also if you ever play shuttle (activision). you will discover that you can't use your primary engines either since thay are on the b/w switch. thank goodness the game also has backup engines which can be used and are controlled via one of the difficulty switches.

no way to take that switch out and apart and just give it a good cleaning can you? Most of the switches get corroded over time. So a little reforming...and a pink pearl eraser...and BOOM! Your good to go... I know the reset has a spring but otherwise it shouldn't be too big a deal. Also, I have looked for the exact switch but I bet one of several electronic hobby stores around town would have this switch for a couple bucks or so... Just need to know exactly what kind of switch it might be called.

Okay Dan, I am not trying to start and flames or piss anybody off. I for one appreciate your 7800 efforts more than most I think. Without your current support there would be no 7800 emulation. However, if the pokey is 100% then there is a another counter melody missing on Ballblazer that is in the rom itself... Also where is the music for Commando? There is a pokey on that cart yet there is no music in the game on emulation? I didn't even know the music was there until I got a commando cart myself. I knew there was a pokey on it...but didn't know what it was doing. Now I can hear it! So either we have bad dumps or there is still something amiss in the 7800 driver on Mess for the Pokey support. I am going to say that is might be a bad dump. That being the case I will try and remember to dump those two myself tonight and add the headers to them to see if they play the background music correctly or not.

Mine are the Silver Atari Carts... Imagic Carts... and then finally Parker Bros.

I'm lucky in that most of the stuff I get from Funco is actually in really good shape. Or better yet there are usually multiples of what I want and I can sift through until I find the best looking one. The Wing Commander I picked up Saturday along with Lemmi's BigNose cart were both in really good shape. His big nose cart has some rubbing on the corners as normal for NES carts. But considering that his cart came from a video rental originally...I think it is in really good shape. Scanners cannot do any justice to the shininess of these carts. They tend to only show the flaws. Still, while I didn't have to...I still took Lemmi's BigNose cart apart and cleaned the contacts internally before testing it. They actually looked pretty dern shiny to begin with but I still saw some crap attached to them that I wanted off of there. Guess, I am just lucky to find the stuff in this good of shape. My Tetris is near mint near as I can tell, and upon looking at the contacts for it...it looked hardly used as I couldn't even find scrape marks on the contacts from previous insertions into an NES in the past. Lucky me.

BUMP!!! Lemmi...look at the new scan...I cleaned her up for ya...and tested it last night. The cart seems to work just fine. I am getting scrambled game graphics...but I blame my NES connector..and not the game. Still, I will send you my receipt that way you can exchange the game at your local Funco should anything go goofy with it. Enjoy!

Which is why I only bid on auctions which ship via Priority Mail usually. This way, the price remains fairly fixed (3.50) and the items usually come in much better shape than they would if Jim Carrey were carrying them.

Eckhard, I won't disagree with you on the pokey support in MESS...but if it is supported then is counter melody on BallBlazer not heard in MESS? I didn't even know the counter melody was there until I got my own copy for my 7800 and heard it for myself. I also noticed it when using Atari800win Plus and played BallBlazer on the 5200 side of things I noticed the countermelody there as well. Fire them up and check it out. If Pokey is supported...then it isn't support completely.

Lemmi!!! I believe this belongs to you?! Shoot me an email with your address so we can work out the final details... New scan just completed after cleaning it off and getting rid of the sticker goo. Enjoy Lemmi!! Bump! [ 02-18-2002: Message edited by: -^Cro§Bow^- ]

In answer to the question regarding the channels...the answer is yes. Proof is in the Mess emu. Commando and Ballblazer both have Pokey chips in them. But the Mess emu doesn't support the pokey sound just yet. however, the rest of the sound works just fine. Keep this in mind...Mess doesn't support POKEY on the 7800 games...and yet we still can hear about 75% of ballblazer music!!..Meaning that all of it...except the countermelody is being done via the TIA!!! That...is programming!!!

The secret to the landmines on the first map is to basically hit that section full speed. It sounds crazy but you can jump over two of them most of the time going full speed. Then the rhythm pattern that Stan spoke of will work great here. Those mines are easy compared to the tanks Stan also spoke of. Also the missle begins to appear on you after you clear that first map and start the second. Amazing conversion the 2600 one is...amazing!!!

Hmmm...Lemmi, I need to hire these guys to extract the Crown, Philosopher's Stone, and SwordQuest Sword from Jack Tramiel's home. I have been looking for an elite squad to assist us in extracting those items.

Well..I just read up on it and there was a multiplayer and single player modes on the board game. So a single player mode is totally possible. BTW...reading up on this board game, I vaguely remember the actual game but never played it nor knew anyone who had it. I think this game today would be good to re-release even if somewhat primative looking just because the whole concept and idea was fantastic. I am sure that if I could...I wouldn't mind getting one of these games today, Time to start looking at board games now at the thrifts too I see.

The Gamegear doesn't come in a Pal or NTSC format. The GameGear is a global handheld in that all GG games work in all GG units. So in other words any GameGear is all you need.

Eric you the one!!! hehe..just kidding...Alien Brigade is about the only 7800 game that I truly want now. I have the other greats like Ikari Warriors, Commando...etc...but Tomcat and Alien Brigade are about the last 2 and then I will be happy with my 7800 collection.