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FujiSkunk

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Posts posted by FujiSkunk

  3. Posted

    I kind of wish the game (both versions) did give you more control over the resolution, but they are hard locked to 16:9. My monitor, and a lot of other monitors, is 16:10, so either I get black bars, or the image gets stretched out a bit. I have to fiddle with it a bit to avoid getting scaling artifacts, which look pretty bad any time the camera moves around (which is not toggle-able on certain tables).

     

    Have you tried the DX11 version, with its independent X and Y resolution settings? Does it still give you borders if you select X = 1980 and Y = 1200?

     

    I do have a lot of issues with the menu/controls in both versions (most of the menu is very broken and requires a mouse), but I've never had that issue come up. But I play in fullscreen-window mode (which helps alleviate input lag in most setups), so maybe that's the difference?

     

    No, both versions are set to play full-screen, and the DX11 version will always start full-screen. But if I hit the escape key, a window border forms around the game. Curiously however it doesn't seem to do it for all resolutions, as I discovered while doing a test for 1600x1200. I usually run the DX11 verison at 1366x768, the highest 16x9 resolution I can get away with before it starts dropping frames. Maybe it's just something about that specific resolution that the game has a hard time accommodating.

     

    So, using this with a 1600x1200 monitor is out of the question then?

     

    My guess is it might work, though you may have better luck with the DX11 version. The DX9 version does not offer a 1600x1200 setting, but with the DX11's independent X and Y selections, you can choose X = 1600 and Y = 1200.. Unless Asaki is correct and the game assumes all monitors are 16x9 regardless of resolution, this should work.

  4. Posted

    The 5 isn't good? That's entirely opinion, and a fairly weak one at that.

     

    There are arguments to be made about emulation vs. hardware recreation, but I agree with you in that those are largely matters of opinion. What makes the Retron 5 especially unattractive to me and many other people is how they blatantly ripped off code from open-source projects to build their emulation cores and their front-end. Then when they were called out on it, they said, "Oh, yeah, we were going to be open-source compliant all along, honest!" One could almost buy that argument were it not for the suspicious timing and the fact that some of the code they used wasn't just open source; the authors specifically forbid its use in any commercial project. Hyperkin has yet to try and explain that part away, and since the average emulation author can't afford a decent lawyer to fight an extended legal battle, they probably won't say anything. More info here.

     

    I have a NES clone at home that I need to test a bit more. The last time I tried it, I was surprised it actually would play The Legend of Zelda without puking up stray graphics. I need to play with it some more and see just how compatible it really is. I have a Retron 3 and a Yobo to compare it to, and I know the usual suspects that won't play on most clones (Gauntlet, Paperboy, etc.). If these work I'll pass along its make and model.

  7. Posted

    LOL, old video showing TPA running on my exact CPU/GPU combo.

    This video was obviously done well before they implemented the DX11 lighting improvements. The GT-430 is technically capable of handling DX-11, but how well? I also wonder how it scales to a 1600x1200 screen resolution?

     

    I'd say give it a shot, but be prepared to fiddle with the controls, of which there are a lot more in the DX11 version. I have an HP laptop and an Asus-based desktop, both previous-gen i7 systems with onboard video. I was pleasantly surprised to discover they could handle the DX11 version of Pinball Arcade. I had to adjust some sliders down, and knock the resolution down as well, but even then I thought it still looked better overall than the DX9 version running at full detail. The good news is, if you do have to knock down the resolution, the app handles that itself, so you don't have to worry about changing your computer's resolution, or setting it back afterward.

     

    The only real downside is the DX11 version is a slight bit buggier than the DX9 version. Be careful about hitting the escape key, or you'll find yourself playing in windowed mode, and the only way to get back to full-screen mode is to restart the program.

     

     

    I can't decide which DX version I like better...DX11 kind of looks better, but at the same time, kind of looks worse also. DX10 is a heck of a lot more colorful, but maybe not quite as realistic. So sometimes I'll swap between them, probably annoying my Steam friends =)

     

    DX9. They didn't do a DX10 version. I agree DX9 makes it easier to see table detail, because you're not seeing the wash-outs and other effects of the lighting tricks that make the tables look more realistic and yet darker in the DX11 version. Still, I like those lighting tricks, so I play the DX11 version more.

  8. Posted

    I didn't/don't like kids loitering either, but would always rather see them *playing* something vs. obnoxiously going from game to game, looking for coins/cards/tix underneath and behind the machines. Some of the kids that truly had zero dollars, but insisted on hanging out in the arcade while their parents were doing who knows what in the hotel room... I'd put to work performing minor tasks like wiping down the games/picking up around the room but then rewarded with credits on their own swipe card. Never met a kid that ever turned that offer down. :)

     

    That was cool of you. I have a sort-of similar story about a trip to New Orleans where I ended up in a magic shop. The guy there was really good and wowed us all with card tricks and disappearing hankies and the like. Then, he asked me if I'd do him a favor and grab lunch for him since he was the only one in the store. Impressionable kid that I was with nothing else to do, I figured why not? In exchange he showed me how a lot of his tricks worked. In the end he still came on top because I was impressed enough with the trickery behind the tricks that I bought a couple of things from the store. Still, he was fun to talk to and listen to, and he seemed to like how some of us were taking an interest enough to know how to impress others.

     

    As for the topic at hand, I've never been thrown out of a computer store, or even an arcade. I was thrown out of a music store once, but that guy was just an uptight salesman who I guess was getting tired of looking at some kid who wasn't buying anything. Granted, that wasn't too far from the truth, but that didn't stop me from getting along with everyone else in the store, including the manager, who seemed not to mind a kid who actually was interested in the electronic keyboards and how they worked, and even bought a songbook now and then. Then there was Wal-Mart and their selection of music keyboards. I'd be there every weekend playing on them. Sometimes the employees tolerated me and the rest of the kids that hung around. Sometimes they didn't. They never threw us out, though. They'd just yank the master power strip when us kids weren't looking and then claim the keyboards were taking too much power and had to "cool down a while." Funny guys. I got the last laugh, though, when one of the managers was impressed enough with my playing that I was "hired" to play one of the keyboards for a few hours one day during the holiday season. My fee was another batch of songbooks.

    • Like 4

  13. Posted

    What everyone else said: it's an attempt at 3D graphics to create a first-person perspective (or "psuedo" first person, since the camera is usually behind your car). No doubt you've noticed how in real life the road seems to shrink to a point on the horizon when there aren't any hills or other obstacles blocking your view (like this).

     

    The Atari 2600 can't do this perspective quite as convincingly as other consoles, mostly because there aren't enough resources to shrink the shoulder or curb graphics as they get closer to the perceived horizon. Pole Position's road shoulders look they're getting fatter the further off they are. Enduro makes up for this by using one-pixel-wide shoulders, but even a single pixel is pretty thick on the 2600.

  14. Posted

    Depending on the composite mod you used, and especially if these are heavy sixers, RF looking better than composite isn't too surprising. Composite should always be better, but people have frequently mentioned how great the heavy sixers look over RF, and some A/V mods are better than others. I can't really say more myself on that, but if you give details on the mod you used (or link to where you gave them elsehwhere), and also mention what models of 2600s you have, someone may be able to help more.

     

    As for the audio, are you using an A/V mod with mono or stereo audio? If stereo, and the mod works fine elsewhere, my first guess would be either a bad cable or a bad audio jack on your CRT TV.

  17. Posted

    As long as there is some company called Atari, those copyrights are still alive and well. And even if the current Atari (or Ataris) ever do shrivel up and blow away, somebody will still own those copyrights. "Abandonware" is not and never was a legally recognized status.

     

    Having said that, it is a good question where some of those copyrights are now. If I recall correctly, a lot of properties were sold off as part of the bankruptcy restructuring. Battlezone, among others, is now owned by some other company. Without bothering to do any actual reading, I speculate that Atari stipulated that they at least retain rights to the original games, so they can keep making money off of Flashback consoles and the like. But new games and use of the logo in a modern setting, etc., is now for some other company to pursue.

     

    Okay, I did some Googling after all, and found myself right back on AtariAge:

     

    https://www.engadget.com/2013/07/22/more-atari-ip-auction-winners-announced-stardock-plans-star-con/#continued

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

     

    True. Miyamoto designed DK, and that team coded it. So are you thinking SEGA designed Zaxxon and contracted that team o tcode it too? I thought SEGA just bought/licensed the game and had nothing to do with its design. Similar to Frogger which was originally a SEGA game too, although created by Konami I believe.

     

    Zaxxon, at least legally, is wholly Sega's property. It's not like Frogger where Sega was just an overseas distributor for Konami. Whether that means Zaxxon was actually created in-house at Sega, I don't know.

  23. Posted

    Zaxxon on the C64 in the USA, if my old 80's gaming mags are telling the truth, was done and/or published by a company called Datasoft.

     

    Datasoft published the Atari 8-bit and Apple II disk versions of Zaxxon. Synapse published the C-64 disk version. There's a picture of a Datasoft catalog here which shows no entry for Zaxxon on the Commodore.

     

    Also, interesting read on the lawyer shenanigans. I rank that up there with Universal's (the movie studio, not the shell software company) attempts to bully Nintendo and Coleco into paying up for Donkey Kong, after they themselves got out of a similar lawsuit by successfully arguing King Kong is in the public domain. Thanks for sharing!

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    Gamestop!

     

    It's so funny I never think of them when I think of videogames!

     

    I'm not even trying to be funny...Once you stop following modern consoles, they become a nonentity.

     

    Wasn't Gamestop going to dip back in older consoles again? Supposedly they were even offering relatively good prices for systems they'd stopped carrying, like $25 for PS2's.

     

    I've yet to see any Gamestop actually make good on that promise, and that was one or two years ago.

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