MayDay

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, and if not, please feel free to move it. I remember a while back that I read on here about a guy who could burn off Nintendo ROMs if you sent one to him. I've searched a bunch of forums and can't find anything on this, so I was hoping someone might know who I was talking about. Or if anyone else has the ability, let me know. Thanks, JD

I have played around with the javascripts playfield generators and the sprite generators and such. I was just curious if anyone had ever considered writing a program that would take point and click to the level of writing an entire game, and not just segments? I realize this may not even be possible, but was just wondering if it had been considered. I think this would be a great tool to the Atari community. I have not given up my dream of teaching it to myself and getting my game together, but have found it quite challenging thus far. I also know this probably would have very low optimization and a real programmer would have much more potential (on a machine that is severely limited to begin with). If it was possible, I wonder what limitations there would be? I would think such things as 1 or 2 players choice, title screen, maybe a standardized music package (if someone were willing to write an original), and a multitude of options could be available. Maybe a simple menu of options upon collision detection, that sort of thing. It could be added to and updated as time went on. Is this topic of interest to anyone? I think a community-wide project that was updated and notated (much like DASM and Distella are now) would be a welcome gift to those of us that are hexidecimally challenged. Let me know what you guys think. -Jason

Hello again, fellow Atarians. I have not posted to this board for a while, but thought it was right proper time to check up on this thread to see what had been found. I would have liked to help further in the investigation, but have been in the process of trying to start my own business and am thus short on time, money, and cell phone minutes. Frankly, I would like to say a couple of things. First, I'm somewhat disappointed that no one seems to have come forward with first-hand knowledge of the event. The article in the paper was nice, but seemed to just be a re-hash of what we already knew (except spud's real name ). That is not to say nothing has been accomplished, as it appears moycon and others have crossed off a few people from the list of potential witnesses. It's really too bad we haven't gotten anything from Ms. McQuiddy yet. And to Moycon, I feel I owe you an apology. I think I missed the sarcasm from one of your posts, and took it to mean you had crossed over to the side of believers. This is something that's unfortunely kind of hard to pick up in type. That left me not understanding your next post, and thus my response. It seems you were after all willing to put in the work to find the truth; despite the fact that contacting these people would have more than likely proven the opposite point of view if it yielded any tangible results. I base that from the thought that no one would "know" that it was just a rumor (unless they were the ones that started it or contributed to, or somehow tried to counter-act it). Anyway, this has been a fun thread to be a part of. I still disagree with your point of view Moycon, but hope you can accept my apology, though that remains to be seen. And for the record, I was thinking in terms of a movie instead of a book. Of course, we could do both...maybe co-market them? That's all for now... will hopefully check back in a couple weeks from now. Thanks, -JD

First off, I pointed that out because I thought someone may be able to recognize what the boxes would be if that was indeed a logo. I wasn't. And, I obviously spent a lot of time looking at it, drawing by hand is so time-consuming. For all the nay-sayers, I now have proof even they will not be able to deny. I used the speed-dial feature on my phone to give my friend Ray a little-ringy dingy. He used to work at Atari, and I think he was even fairly high up in the company. I was shocked when he told me he was present on the day they actually did the dumping. Unfortunetely, the spooks (CIA) came in and took all of their photos and evidence. The good news is the hippies finally got something right. Using the freedom of information act, I was able to get both a copy of the photograph as well as a memo my friend Ray sent out shortly afterwards. Now we will all know the truth. -JD Oh, and sorry, I haven't got the ones of him standing on one leg, or holding a number two pencil, or a sheet of paper yet. I'm still working on it, though.

Dude, your pics are broken. -JD

Did anyone notice this? I would guess the ones on the middle are game cartridges, as the shape fits and they are all marked the same. Maybe these boxes could be paddle controller cartridges or something. If one of the boxes were smashed flat (the other appears somewhat intact), the logo would also appear in the same spot on the boxes and looks relatively the same size. If we had the actual photo to analyze, I could probably tell for sure if that's what I think it could be. And just curious, have you tried to get in touch with Marian McQuiddy yet nudicle? I'm curious what they remember and what they might be able to contribute to the cause in way of photos or anything like that. Marian could probably also provide us details as to how it was percieved locally, as the reports sound like the village elders weren't too happy. They apparently had the law changed in less than 72 hours. Something else that hasn't been considered... If Atari had more stuff to dump that got banned from Alamogordo, could there be a second dump site somewhere? That's all for now, there's a national championship on tonight. -JD

Spud- personally, if people don't believe by now, they never will. I say thanks for what you've already done, and don't waste your time with anything else. As for moycon, I can't tell where he is being facetious and what he actually now believes. His posts on whether he believes or not cover the entire spectrum of the issue. For (him?) and those who do not believe, what more proof is needed? I say that because... it's in print. It's verified to have been in print. To dispute the claim that the event happened, I see three possible explanations. 1. The Alamogordo paper & the NY Times simultaneously made the stories up, and Spud is in actuality a Hollywood fim effects supervisor. 2. Atari went to great lengths to fake the dumping. 3. Aliens abducted Albert Einstein in the 1920s and gave him the information for both the theory of relativity and whether the atomic bomb was possible. In exchange, one of his criteria for him helping the US government was to have them fake this event 60 years later (they used their magical time travel wand so they already knew about Atari). The aliens then kidnapped the town's residents in 1983 and replaced them with androids so they couldn't dispute the events. I say any one is as possible as the others. Nothing in science and math can technically be proven. People still believe gravity exists, and one plus one equals two because logic would lead one to believe it. So what possible arguement can be made that the events in question never happened? It's not even April Fool's anymore, this is rather absurd. As a former reporter, I have left a few stories behind, sometimes with the intention of returning, a couple of times, not. The kids are there... and wouldn't be hard to find. I just don't happen to be in NM. And, while I could be mistaken, I really doubt you're going to get what you are asking for. How many people had camcorders laying around in 1983? Few... including the newspapers. Remember, these are not tv stations we're talking about, newspapers have little reason to shoot video. I can't find you any exact statistics, but if memory serves correctly I believe only about 10% of homes had VCRs at that time. The majority of these were bought for the sole purpose of playing pornography. And no offense to the NM crowd, but I doubt even they would dispute that they aren't exactly on the technological cutting edge. Remember, this is a time when ATARI was the leading game console. Still pictures were the name of the game, and the only ones available to the general public are ones that were going to have been used in the newspapers in 1983. With some work, you may track down quality (if you consider 1983 cameras quality) photographs, but this is as good as you are going to get. Was a tv station really going to drive from Pheonix or somewhere to tape this? Please stop wasting our time with unfounded and illogical arguements. I doubt even Atari would have had the proof, unless it was a representative on site to supervise/verify everything was done correctly. Even if they filmed it, what do you think the chances of ever recovering it are? They obviously were so forthcoming with reporters at the time. They might as well have dropped a "We can neither confirm nor deny the dumping is taking place" or a "we plead the fifth". There's some good PR for them, releasing a film of them crushing games. You may be insulted at the mention of the horrors of WW2 or the moon landings being faked. I'm insulted by lack of logic. I believe posting to annoy someone or to simply be arguementative is called trolling. If you contact a warehouse worker/former Atari executive, or come up with some other proof that it isn't true, let us know. Otherwise you are just insulting the people who actually took the time to try and figure out the validity of the story. -Jason PS- I realize this is going to sound harsh to some. I tried to think of a way to lighten the mood when I was done typing it, because I'm not an angry person, nor is it my intention to bring anyone down. However, when I stopped to think about it, this is exactly what's being done now so I don't feel so bad about having done so. Enough evidence has been presented that I don't even think it would be a huge tragedy if this thread got locked, fun though it has been to this point. I really hope it doesn't have to come to that, I would really like for people in the NM area to be able to move forward with it and show the rest of us even more evidence. moycon: Are you saying the ones posted are fake then? Or is that some sort of tricky April Fools double (triple) negative? I keep telling myself not to read further into this thread...but the original story is just too good. Thanks again spud, for the work you have brought forth. I'm going to get some ice cream and watch a movie, and not think about Atari anymore tonight.

atari-con in alamogordo... good idea. picnic at landfill... bad idea. when's the last time anyone brought a shovel to a classic video game expo, btw? -JD

Geoff's Gender Guesser says it's 8.527 times more likely for Marion to be a girl than a boy. There's a big formula they use, but basically it takes all instances of the name from google and compares it with the salutation used for the name. Far from perfect, but I've found it's pretty accurate when I get ready to call people at work. So I'm 89.5% sure Marion would be female. It works on who wants to be a Millionaire! -JD

We're not sure if M.E. = Marion or not. Marion is never associated with the Alamogordo Daily News, but we found that she (?) wrote several articles for the New Mexico Journal or something like that, and all focused on Alamogordo. It's reasonable to assume they're the same person, but not yet confirmed. The exact name is listed somewhere earlier in the thread. S/he has been contacted by e-mail, as also discussed earlier in the thread. A listing was found for them two hours east of Alamogordo somewhere in Texas. If e-mail fails, that same dude was going to snail mail them to see if it was the same person. Nice work on the new article, but we completely need an edit button back. I would have liked to use it a few times myself too! -JD

pmpddytim Ask and you shall recieve... -JD *beep* Hey Alex *last name?*..how you doin man? This is uh, this is sam with *inaudible* I'm calling with the uh..the ad for the..uh.. for the ..uh.. the videos here. I got the.. uh.. I got some Cartridges for the COLECO! These uh, I got... uh... i got four pancake boys.uh.. That's the game that was a..uh hard, hard game to find. I think they only did it back on the East Coast. Which is ..uh..what, I think most of my players. Uh, I got uh, the pancake boy, I got the..uh..Snapperoo..I got a couple copies of Snapperoo. And uh.. I also got uh Sunshine Lady, the one for the kids. Uh and I'm trying to unload these things really, really quickly. Cause uh, especially the pancake boy uh my kids are driving me crazy playing it, I've I've got several ColecoVisions of my own. So uh, you can get back to me down here, I'm down uh, I'm at the Marriott, I live down here. So uh just call up the desk, they know the *inaudilbe* I'll be down here. Uh, I'm eating mostly melons these days. And you know, that's uh, that's been a big difference in the way I feel, I'm up early. You know, usually you couldn't get me before noon, but now I'm uh strictly honeydews, cantelope. I'm regualar for the, the first time in about 25 fucking years. So uh, anyway, give me a call. I hope you guys are doing just having a great day doing whatever the fuck you're doing ever there. So uh, we'll be good like that with the uh pancake boy. Uh.. I'm asking about 400 a cartridge for those things. Uh, I hope we're good like that, and uh, okay, I'll see you, probably on the Hike and Bike trail. Alright, bye.

Yeah, we know a lot about promos here in KC... at least 12 every month for the Royals, which ends up being a lot of sponsored products. In fact, the Royals give away their best players in a giant promotion every year about June-July. First you have the Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, and Mike Sweeney bobbleheads, then you give away the real player to one special grand prize winner. *mutters incoherently*. If the Pirates c1980 were anything like the Royals c2000, then there was probably a limit to the first 20,000 fans or so. Of course, not even all of the 20,000 are probably given away. I'm sure most of them were played with by kids and no longer exist in any recognizable condition. You could always check with the team itself, I'm guessing the marketing department may have a history of long-past promotions. I'm so glad I grew up a Cardinals fan... I caught a lot of smack in my 1985 Kindergarten class, but I'm the one laughting now! Okay, not really, as the Royals are (were) my second favorite team when I finally forgave them for cheating us about 10 years later... n/m, I still haven't forgiven them. Salary cap, anyone? Oh, and one last off-topic note. My boss at work had an ingenius idea for a game, when he heard I was working on Atari stuff. "All-Steroid Baseball League". I might work on a Pete Rose hack when I get some more time! -JD

I was about to tell you they could be ordered from the AA store... but I guess they can't! I'm positive hey were still available last week, and I had planned to buy one after I got paid at the end of the month. I guess I would now like to be added to that pre-order list as well. -Jason

Where's the double ender Nathan? If enough cases could be found/made, that would have to be the way to go (IMHO)!!

Spud, here did you get that pic from? Just curious. Also, to the people who are saying "even if this is an April Fools joke"... stop. It's not. We don't need to wait until midnight, everything that has been posted has checked out, and there is plenty of evidence available to you with mimimal effort on your part. The only way this could be "fake" is if Atari had the gumption to "pretend" to dump a billion games in a pit. Add that to the fact that kids were then walking around the town with games... impossible. Anyone posting that it could still be fake shall be added to my previously unused ignore list. -JD

Wow... this thread really scares me. I'm currently working on a 2600 version of dodgeball, and didn't realize so many people had such disdain for the entire sports genre. I think the key to sports games is to keep them fresh, not just rehashes of polygons like all the new games. The classic games for most people were the first ones to capture the spirit of their sport (Tecmo Super Bowl), or newer ones that brought a fresh take to old ideas (Mutant Football, NFL Blitz). There are also a few titles that made amazing jumps in realism from what previously existed. Compare say "Madden 95" for Genesis to something like "Game Day 97" for PS1! Talk about a difference! With that said, I thought I would list some of my favorites. Football- Super Tecmo Bowl (NES), NFL Blitz (PS1) Basketball- still waiting... NBA Jam is okay. Baseball- RBI baseball, Base Wars, SNK Baseball (NES), SlugFest Series (PS2) Hockey- Blades of Steel, Ice Hockey(? [one with fat/skinny guys]) (NES) Soccer- Red Card 2003. I have no idea why this game wasn't on full release, I played soccer in college, but still can't believe I would play it on a video game. I am American, after all! Well worth whatever you have to pay for it! (PS2, btw) Boxing- all realistic titles suck. Mike Tyson's punch-out is awesome. (NES) Racing- Pole Position (not PP2), RC Pro Am (NES), F1 Racing (PS1 or 2, can't remember). Wrestling- is this a sport? I say none, but play them occasionally with my brother. Only "fun" thing about them is he knows the secret combinations to make them say dirty words. Veeeeeeeeery mature. Oh, Pro Wrestling for NES is kinda cool. I'll give it a shout-out! I think the reason I like sports games is for the head to head challenge features. Playing against the computer isn't really fun at all for me. However using my favorite teams against my friends is a total blast. I like a lot of other games too, RPGs for example. I'm a big fan of the original Dragon Warrior. It took me about 15 years to find the Cursed Necklace! I also like action games like Shinobi or Tenchu, and fighting games like Tekken. I play chess online almost daily, but "puzzle" games like Tetris bore me to tears. Give me a Zelda or Mario any day! For those of you who don't care much about sports games, would you still be willing to support a homebrew in the genre? Not that I'm creating it to be rich, just curious. I'd hate to spend a year creating something that very few people would enjoy anyway. -JD

vdub_bobby: Only obvious to people with a functioning brain. Unfortunetely, I think this eliminates me! (especially when you eluded to this in your first post) It all makes sense to me now... batari: I agree... but an emulator/computer would be. Why not just provide a network for (legally permissable) games people could play on? We did this in college, allowing us to play Tecmo Super Bowl (among other non-legal NES stuff) across campus. It should be just as easy to do with the 2600 games. I figured they already had this somewhere, and I'm sure they probably do. While it's not the nostalgic console, it does allow you to link up. And if no such network does exist, I may have to recruit some people to help me get one running! Of course high-speed internet would be desirable/mandatory to avoid lag, but something is better than nothing, no?! Would also make a good marketing tool for homebrew games, maybe bringing outside people back into the world of Atari. With all the rankings and cool stuff they do now on these sites, wouldn't it be awesome to say "I've got the best Combat ranking out of 35,000 on the internet!" Would bring new life and interest to the console, as online games have done for Xbox and PS2. Of course we would need to license the classics somehow to get the broadest appeal, something which may be difficult/impossible to do. Anyone have further ideas/feedback on this? -JD

Sorry, didn't specify better. It makes more sense to have one cable connect the two consoles than having controllers with two cables. I'm just curious if this is the kind of game/reasoning you had in mind. Thanks, Jason

I'm not sure about the possibility itself (why not though?) but I can't see any reasoning for this. If you hooked two machines together, you would still only have two players (only advantage would be avoiding splitscreen, if you had a game designed for this). To add more players, you could use four machines, one player per machine. However, there are already 4 player game(s?) out there (Warlords being the only one I can think of off the top of my head) that don't need all the extra machines and titles of the same name. If you had 8-16 machines, I think you're getting beyond the capability of each individual machine to display what is happening. I may be totally off on this though, with my lack of hardware/programming knowledge. Just curious what you had in mind. The reason I've dug this up is because of a discussion about the possibility of Spy vs. Spy for the VCS. Something I had thought of was having a specialized controller (here we go again, right?) that had two plugin cables. One would go to each machine, player 1 in the first, and player 2 in the second. The computer could display the screen for the correct player, but also track the other user with the second controller line. Then each player could have his own screen, could be in whatever room, and avoid screenlooking to find each other (if TVs were back to back). Thoughts?

nudicle: It's hard to say, but I would guess they were managing the dump, so this figure would only reflect the cost of the back end of the dumping. Atari probably owned the trucks for distribution purposes anyway, so you'd only be paying for the diesel from Texas to NM... which would have been a lot less in 1983. Maybe in total they spent up to $30,000 or $35,000 to get rid of the stuff, but the important thing is that it's still a finite number, and nothing too spectacular for a multi-million dollar business. If they thought the bootlegging would cost them more, then it would have been a good decision to get them all crushed/destroyed. And for the record, I have only contacted the newspaper...if you have any contact information for McQuiddy, I say go for it! I found the information for the new dump site there, but haven't done anything with it (searches for maps and old dump site information have so far came up negative). -JD

The ROM for Space Invaders can be found here: www.atariage.com/2600/roms/SpaceInvaders.zip As for #4, I'm not familiar with them. I would guess they are simple graphic hack programs. If that is the case, here's the link to two others that I've used: http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...light=bithacker The second message in the thread has a link for Bithacker and the third message has a link to HackoMatic 2.0. xian106: I'm not sure exactly what you mean here, but if you have a scientific calculator handy or on your computer it's not really hard... just time consuming. -Jason

Dolt: I considered that as well, and it is possible. That particular section though is in reference to no security guard being present and DPS recieving calls that kids were walking around town with games. That's my point here, which is that this is poor journalism, because without tracking (or knowing) that name we can't actually tell what department (or company for that matter) it is. To me, dept. of public safety is most likely, but anything is possible here.

RichG1972: *gulp* That's uh... uh... er... terrible. Especially when everything else in this thread checks out, it's people like that who make the whole thing seem suspect. I can only assume you're being serious here, so I can only offer two small pieces of advice: watermark anything you post, and since it obviously can't be unposted, just be honored that someone would be interested enough to use your stuff. I'm sure he wasn't trying to take credit for anything and meant nothing by it. Albert: My first impression as well... but did anyone notice he's going 145 in LO gear? I'm not positive, but don't think that's possible on PP8. Nukey Shay: I'm not 100%, but I *believe* I overheard them say something about a Knight Rider arcade game. It looks something like this: http://www.counterfrag.com/screenshots/kni...t%20rider/1.jpg NovaXpress I'd buy that for a dollar! *looks for corner to hide in* -JD

I've been spying on hardwork, and he's way too busy to bother posting. 2006 is right around the corner you know. I waited until his team fell asleep, and then used my secret ninja skills from the government to get a screenshot for you guys. Unfortunetely, I think the cart I picked up was the PAL version. Anyway, this is KITT from behind in a car chase. I can't wait for the release! -JD

i was typing distella -a bowling.bin > bowling.s instead of what you had. When I switched the -a to -pafs and the .s to .asm it seems to work fine for Vball and Bowling. I don't think the .s/.asm should make much diff, but what does the -pafs vs. -a do? Both games also play fine in z26, btw.