FujiSkunk

I love it when things come in fully usable bundles... A Tandy CoCo 2 with joysticks, several boxed games and a tape deck. The only thing missing is a power cord for the tape deck. But that's okay because it also runs on... These are collector's items now, right? I mean, sure they're dead as doornails, but it's pretty impressive they weren't corroded, no? A little more seriously, I have to wonder: Who in their right mind would trust their data on a cassette written by a tape deck running only on batteries? Those things were bad enough even on wall power! Then, while this one wasn't quite a "fully usable" bundle, but I still deem it good enough: I'll take my bundles where I can get them!

Edited bump. Indigo Game Boy Advance, fully functional. The screen does have some scratches, but these do not distract from game play, and for the most part are only obvious in direct light. Asking $12. Sold!

Edited bump. Super Mario Sunshine for the Game Cube, with manual and original case. Asking $20. Sold! Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for the Game Cube. I'm calling this "loose" but I'll include the Hollywood Video rental case if the buyer wants it. The disc has just a few very minor scratches that do not interfere with game play. Asking $20. Sold! Coraline for the PlayStation 2, with manual and original case. Asking $5. Sold! Kinect Star Wars, one of several new 360 Kinect titles now available. This one is complete with its case, manual and bonus demo disc. Asking $3. Sold!

That's not an option for the DX11 version, which fortunately doesn't have the lag that the DX9 version does when run full-screen.

Yep, that's a Commie cart.

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? 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. 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.

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.

Oh what the hey, I'll bite.

I'm curious. Where did you read that they were planning Kangaroo for the NES?

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. 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.

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.

Probably because Art Garfunkel was singing and they wanted to keep open the possibility it might get some airplay on easy listening radio.

XBox One is getting Season 6 as well, finally. No announcement for Wii U or XBox 360, sorry to say.

I'm still impressed by the family-friendly alternative they came up with for that line in As Good as It Gets. "Life's a counterfeit when you look at it."

If you have any spare Dig Dug Famicom carts for sale, I'm interested!

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.

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.

I just checked The Cutting Room Floor. Somebody did in fact find Ikegami's logo hidden in Zaxxon's code. That seems to confirm they handled the actual coding of the game.

Several someones did, though like I said, I think Atari managed to hang on to a few rights regarding the original games everyone knows and loves. It's the rights to remakes, sequels, etc., that now sit with other companies, at least among those properties mentioned in the linked article.

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

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.

Well played.

Something silly occurred to me last night. The official "HDMI" logo uses almost exactly the same font Nintendo used for "NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM". Only the D is really any different, and that's only a slight change. No wonder Nintendo was gung-ho about going the HDMI route!

You're drooling again.

It's possible for book-smart people to be comically stupid otherwise. I've seen it in person. Throw in the greed of your stereotypical lawyer, and you have a recipe for hilarious(ly sad) disaster.