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Lord Thag

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Everything posted by Lord Thag

  1. That's a shame, I hate it when I lose stuff like that. You're probably right, but yeah, hard to say now. When I have some time I will delve into this dump further and see if there are any other differences. I'd be hesitant to assume this was the same without actually comparing the two though, even though I suspect you're probably right.
  2. Ah ok, I think the confusion comes down to terminology. You listed the above screen as the title screen in your write up, and I was assuming that meant 'the screen that the game boots into' by that, as you have to hit the 5200 '*' key to bring this menu up. The game actually boots into the cockpit view on Level 01, as I detailed above. If this is how the 2/13 rom behaves as well, then I agree, they are the same so far as I can tell so far.
  3. Yeah, I think so. Your site has the 2/13 title screen as text only, where it lists levels, score etc with the ‘Behind the Jaggi Lines’ at the top. This is entirely lacking in swlovinist’s version. The one posted here just has ‘Behind the Jaggi Lines’ written beneath the normal boot up Atari splash screen, just above the copyright, and does not have a text only title screen. It boots directly to the cockpit view, as in the final version, minus the title up top, and defaults to level 1, rather than 4 like in the final version. The other differences are the same as the 2/13 version you wrote up, so far as I can tell. The lack of a title screen, and the differences in the cockpit view make this a legit different rom, I think. There may be more small changes, I will be checking when I have some time.
  4. Good to know, I was just basing it off the write up on your site since there’s no available ROM. Title screen is definitely different, and it lacks the text menu/start screen on there as well. But all the other stuff is the same, so I’d guess it’s probably very close in time to that dump.
  5. Swlovinist sent this to me for testing, here are my observations so far. It is definitely a unique build. Despite being earlier than the 2/13 and 2/29 builds on Tempest's site, it seems to contain elements midway between these two builds: Splash screen has 'Behind the Jaggi Lines' between the Atari Logo and the copyright. Defaults to Level 01 rather than Level 04 like in the final version, and does not say 'Rescue on Fractalus' above the cockpit window. Stars to not fade out when landing There is no flashing indicator on the gauge when you are in range to land and pick up a pilot
  6. I've got two or three of these, TAC being one. I think Close Assault is the other off the top of my head, and this may be the one you're thinking of, as it's straight up old school chit and hex stuff with the Atari telling you where to move the chits (all keyboard commands). Tanktics was also a board/video game hybrid I think, but I don't have that one. Close Assault is further improved by running a modern basic like Altirra, as it drastically speeds up the 'thinking' of the Atari, if memory serves. Honestly, given how big Avalon Hill's wargames were back then, I am surprised we didn't get more of these hybrid games, particularly AI opponents for their popular titles like Third Reich, Panzer Blitz or Squad Leader. Panzer Blitz in particular would have been pretty easy to implement, I think, if they had picked smaller scenarios. I suspect these would have sold much better if they actually had popular/known games as hybrids, and maybe advertised the AI being available in the actual popular board games as well.
  7. Nice to see someone else who likes these early board/video game hybrids. A couple of the Avalon Hill ones are pretty good, as is Epyx' Oil Barons. I got stuck on this exact same screen on TAC, and for the same reasons!
  8. I know right? The fact that I've been posting here on AA for almost ...(ulp)... twenty years now is mildly terrifying lol. This thread is one of those rare ones that sparked an interest that turned into a gaming focus. I've always liked classic RPGs, and I've had an Atari 8 bit hooked up in my home, wherever that was at the time, since 1990. I had fun with the system as a kid, and I enjoy seeing where RPG games all started. Apshai, for whatever reason, was something I always wanted to try but never did back in the day. I believe I encountered it in a book of Apple II game reviews that I 'forgot' to turn into the Library as a kid. This thread got me to actually boot it and play it, and I was surprised at how easy it was to get into. Many old RPGs are pretty arcane, even once you learn the weird control schemes, but Apshai is just simple and accessible enough to pick up and play, if you can look past the crude character creation and town, and the awkward controls. I liked the room descriptions and the huge, puzzle filled maps. I strangely found myself playing it after work every day until I'd completed the whole original trilogy. That's never happened before. I never expected to get them all in box, but I started looking and frankly, got very lucky. I got Ra and Acheron sealed for $50 or so each, having found two ebay auctions with bad titles that no one else bid on. I picked up Temple and Upper Reaches at PRGE, and Drindisti and the same booth a year later. The rest I hunted down on ebay, the last one being Hellfire Warrior, which took ages to find at a reasonable price. Never thought I'd see them all for sure. I'll post a pic or two once I get home, as I've been out of town on vacation.
  9. Yeah, I've been in and out of this thread for years, you may remember some of the stories I posted way back about my experiences with the games. This thread got me hooked on them, and I have everything but Moreloc's Tower in the box pretty much due to this thread. I'd previously overlooked the series. While CC&C is a very different beast (basically a whole new game using the Apshai engine, which is much better using a newer basic that gets rid of Atari's shit floating point routines), Rescue at Rigel and it's sequel, Starquest, are very much Apshai games. Rescue is like an evolved, sci fi sequel to something like Datestones of Ryn or Danger in Drindisti, only I find it a bit more fun. It's a bite sized quest, where you're playing the Admiral from the earlier Epyx Orion games, Sudden Smith, at an earlier point in his career. Basically, you're infiltrating a randomly generated enemy base, rescuing the captured prisoners, and getting out alive as quick as you can. You're given a rating at the end of the game. The dungeon and the prisoner location are different each game, and there are multiple difficulty levels as well. It's pretty fun, and feels more polished than some of the other 'one off' games in the series. It also has a different weapons system which forces you to use dwindling energy reserves to power shields and/or ranged weapons, as well as a death ray thing with limited power. I'd highly recommend you revisit at least this game. It's very much an Apshai game in sci fi clothes. Interestingly, most of the map room sections stay the same, they just can connect one of several ways each game, but the hidden exits and whatnot stay the in same spots -they just connect differently. So you could map this one, detail each 'section', doors etc. Given the number of secrets, hidden teleporters, and unexpected exits, this would probably be super helpful. Star Warrior is a different beast. It carries over some of the combat systems from Rigel, but it's trying to be a strategy/rpg hybrid. The goal in each scenario, and there are several, is to cause as much destruction as possible (you're a crack elite unit on a battlefield) to one of the several maps included, while traveling north towards your target. Combat is mostly against infantry and tanks and other military units. It's an interesting idea... but to samey to make a good rpg, and given that your just one unit, it's not a terrible compelling strategy game either. It's an interesting hybrid, but more for historical value than fun. It feels very half baked. That said, no random maps here. Each outdoor area is the same, and the game actually comes with cards depicting each. I may need to give this one more of a chance, I only have a first impression. CC&C is more of a 'movie monster simulator'. You pick (or create) a godzilla-style giant monster and see how much of a major metropolis you can demolish. With a more modern basic, it's fairly quick to play too. The game is pretty tactical and fun, with a lot of variety between monster abilities. Each city has it's own dedicated map too. Fun game, but it's about as far from Apshai as can be. Thanks for the Morloc link, I missed that post, I'll check out your pdf.
  10. Another bit we still need to dive into is Morloc's Tower, now that we have a working ROM. I also spent some time playing the two Rigel games and CC&C last time I dove into Apshai. The latter Rigel game is an interesting strategy hybrid, while the former is great for bite sized sessions. It has a lot more randomization too, making it much more replayable than some of the other stand alone, one dungeon Apshai games. I should really dig them out and add some detailed descriptions or a guide. I got pretty good at Rescue. I also found that Altirra basic makes CC&C a muuuuch more playable game these days, it's no longer dog slow.
  11. I tested it and it boots to the title screen fine, then crashes when I hit start. This is on Altirra with standard 5200 settings.
  12. It’s well earned. This really is one of the most fun homebrew games I’ve played, and one of the only ones that’s a sequel to a true classic that betters it in every way. Thanks for finishing it. So many of these projects just fade away, never to be seen again. Really glad this wasn’t one.
  13. Very much so. Last time I popped it in the Genesis/Mega Drive, I think I ended up losing like 2-3 hours. Pretty rare for a homebrew game. Quite addicting, it's hard enough to take serious effort, but you make just enough progress on each run to think 'I'll do better THIS time'.
  14. It looks like an Atari port of L' Abbaye Des Mortes (hence the ADM). It's a really good homebrew platformer that's out on Genesis, Spectrum and a bunch of other things. Think a tough as nails metroidvania style game where you are exploring the secrets of an old Abbey filled with death, monsters, and some kind of pact with evil. It's very fun and atmospheric. Really cool to here the Ataris are getting a port.
  15. To do it, you must download and mount the funjinet tools atr, and boot some version of Spartados. You'll need to boot with [ALT]-[F2] on the NUC, and either ratchet down the SIO speed on the Fujinet web portal (setting 9 in the dropdown) for Sparta 3.2 or use the high speed SIO Sparta disk hack from www.thebrewingacademy.org TNFS server, with your 3.2 Sparta hard disk as D2: Once you've booted to spartados, copy the files from the Fujinet tools disk (from whatever slot you mounted it from) to a directory on your Sparta hard drive. Navigate to that directory. Once you do, there are .COM files that allow you to directly access all Fujinet connections from the command line, including the N: device and TCP/FTP/HTTP etc. It's super easy, and you can do all kinds of things like: HTTP BBS Access: N:HTTP://yourbbsaddresshere.org or TCP BBS Access: N:TCP:some.bbs.net:1234 or Access, browse and download from FTP: N:FTP://[username:password]some.ftp.site:1234 or Load/run programs directly into a development environment like Basic or Action! or Assembly: RUN "N:HTTP://some.tnfs.server.online/someprog.bas" Accessing a BBS just prints directly to the Spartados screen, no client needed. It's awesome. In addition, accessing an FTP or TNFS file server gives you a whole slew of commands to browse, change directories, mount disk images, download files and all manner of awesomeness. You can even directly access your FAT32 partition on your SD card to mount atrs or download files directly to sparta, from the command line. It's crazy. I'll have a fully set up Hard Drive image for everyone to play with soon.
  16. No, but that really isn't necessary. It's basically a roguelike: you play a game in a single setting and beat it, and the next time you play, it's totally different. You'll occasionally run into a particularly tough game on a very large map set to very random that could take you a couple of hours or so, but generally, you are not playing that if you don't have the time.
  17. Check out post #11 here. Great writeup btw, always enjoy your site.
  18. Both carts are available on the 8-bit section of the Atariage store: Atariage Store
  19. Oh of course it runs CP/M too. Heh, you literally CAN be George R.R. Martin lol. I'm still learning all the features. Thom and Co. have certainly been busy! I swear this thing is like one of those old 'as seen on TV commercials'. But wait! There's more!
  20. Sure thing, I'll try and cross post them there in a bit.
  21. Mine has arrived as well, I'll post some pics later. This thing is amazing. Not only is the unit itself an incredibly cool piece of kit, the built in Fujinet is mind blowing (first time owning one). I mean... I'm literally typing simple commands in spartados and detecting wifi, easily joining networks, and immediately jumping online, mounting disk images, directly accessing BBS without using bobterm or ice-t, printing to pdf and all kinds of stuff. It's just freaking crazy. The network protocols also allow me to directly browse my SD card and mount disks without mucking about with drivers or configs. This setup, if you wanted to, allows the old Atari's to be a lot more useful. Last word combined with the PDF function would allow you some George R. R. Martin style old school writing possibilities, and developing on an actual Atari has never been easier. Listing your programs to PDF is brilliant too. I'm steadily working on a really nice Spartados hard drive (there's another thread around here about this) that should have everything you need just plug and play. Should have something pretty soon to post. If you're looking to get into Atari, or struggling to get an older unit at a fair price, just get one of these. They're amazing.
  22. It's been a great week to be into Atari. My NUC+ showed up a couple of days ago, and yesterday, after a very trying day at work, I get home to find my long-delayed birthday gift from the wife had arrived... and that turned out to be Adventure II and Scramble on cart. Way to go wife! That just made my day. I have to say as well, the production quality on these is through the roof. Box, manual, cart etc look like something I purchased at a big box store. The cart uses a smoky gray translucent plastic with a high quality sticker. They look nicer than any of the original carts from back in the day. This oft-delayed order was definitely worth the wait. For those who haven't ordered these two games yet, here some thoughts: Scramble: I have a ton of home ports of this game, on a ton of consoles, both original and homebrew, and this one is probably my favorite of them all. It has a ton of options to change challenge level, ship size, level vertical size, and several other options to tweak the game to your liking or make it more kid friendly (<--- spousal selling point for those that need one lol). The game plays wonderfully well, and will take advantage of a second button if you're rocking genesis stick like I am. Control is tight, graphics are sharp, and the entire package feels very arcade-like. If you like scramble, this one is a must by. If you are not a scramble fan, this one may not win you over. Personally, I feel this is near the top of the list of arcade ports, up there with Bosconian and Donkey Kong. Adventure II: Where to start. I love this game, let me get that out of the way. I played the hell out of this on my old 5200, and this one is by far the superior version. For those that haven't played it, it's basically a direct sequel to the 2600 game, but with Zelda graphics, a much bigger map (absolutely huge on the very large map modes), and dozens of variations of varying difficulty. If you at all like the old 2600 titles and hacks, you'll love this. The 5200 one did have some bugs, suffered from a lack of randomness, and a few other things. The 8-bit port fixes all of that. There are 22 different game modes, multiple characters to chose from (the square, a couple of knights, a crab, the bat etc), multiple difficulties ranging from beginner to advanced, and a much welcome 'super random' setting you can enable that will ensure you end up having to use your noggin to win, including taking advantage of the troll (this games version of the bat, only with some extra behavior logic that can make him occasionally useful), and other tricks to win. There are three 'bat eggs' (like the hidden easter egg dot in the old adventure) that can give you extra powers, along with a couple of other power ups you can get by completing in game things. There are three dragons, a minotaur and a troll, and on the right mode, the dragons can resurrect into a much tougher variant. There are more castles, more mazes (and some of these can change in game by getting caught by the Minotaur), more secrets and frankly, more fun than the original. The small map modes are good for a quick pre-dinner game. The largest modes on super random can take you hours to beat. New to this version is the fact that the different characters actually have their own special abilities: the knights are fatter and hard to maneuver around tight obstacles, but take more hits from dragons. The crab can slowly climb over walls, and the bat can fly. The super random mode is fantastic, and greatly increases the long term replayability. Basically, this is now one of the 8-bit's 'desert island' games. Can't recommend this enough. tl/dr version: both of these are absolutely worth the price. Adventure rivals many modern console roguelikes in terms of fun and replayability. Get them, if you can swing it.
  23. I have been playing with one for exactly 24 hours and I can say, my thought process has gone exactly like this: "That's it? I'm downloading files to my atari with less steps than my laptop? Wow, that's EASY." ... "*read website* ...wait. You can DO that? Shit, that's amazing" ... "You can access BBS' from the command line with a simple command, in any dos!?" ... "IT PRINTS TO PDF AND DOES SSH!?!?!" I was expecting it to be good... I had no idea it was going to be anywhere near as cool as it is. Networking, PLATO, disk drives, DOS command line access, printing ... this thing is pure magic.
  24. Well, that saved me reading up on it. That is simple, thanks! That'll get the old non HSIO image to boot easy, I am sure. I will still try and convert the image to a high speed Sparta hack though, just to take advantage of the modern speed boosts. In fact, I may just offer both as a download so users can just plug and play.
  25. I won't. I'm the 'bang my head against it until it gives up and works' type anyway. ? I've already got more than a few fancy new X tools that run quite well on 3.2. Xedit runs very well, as do the ATP tools, and several other useful commands etc. Hopefully when I'm done, this thing will be the end all, be all of 3.2 hard disk images, and everyone can then customize it to their liking. My main issue at the moment (I just got my NUC+ in the mail) is getting Spartados 3.2 to run at all. Like it was with my older SIO2SD, it's a SIO connection speed issue. Unlike SIO2SD, it's not a simple speed setting since both the NUC and Fujinet need to be dialed down a bit. I can turn off HSIO with an [Alt]-[2] boot on the NUC+ easily enough, but Marlin wasn't sure how to get Fujinet to do the same. I'm going to fool around with it tonight to either get Fujinet configured, or redo the entire setup with the high speed Sparta 3.2 hack from brewing academy, probably the latter. We'll see how it goes.
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