MayDay

I'm inclined to say no to both... but given the circumstance, I suppose it's only fair. CiE was short for Chivalry in Exile. As for the source code, I don't believe I have a copy of it myself any longer. I'll have to go back through some old emails and see if there is one with it still there. Even if I did, I wouldn't post it for a few reasons: 1. it was brp's code and not my own, he should be the one to post it. 2. with all the discussion over the public license stuff, I don't want to be the one to actually post something that starts something along those lines 3. on the off chance we actually get back to this game, giving out the source code would be a big help in trying to finish the game. we would of course do that after the game had been out for a while, but it would be more fun to watch people figure it out for themselves. And, as I've seen... situations do change, so maybe in a year or two from now I could get back to it.

Well sir, I'm sorry for having disappointed you. Two quick things on this: 1. In the middle of working on this, my situation changed drastically. I got laid off last January, and was lucky enough to find another job quickly. In the process I went from 40 hours and hardly any commute to working often times double that with an hour and a half drive. While this has been good for my finances, you can imagine how it effects my time spent playing/working on Atari stuff. In the meantime I've lost touch with BRP and haven't tried to contact him in quite some time. 2. This can absolutely be done. There are several kernels that exist now which aptly display RPG type games and could be completed if someone takes the time to finish coding them. Just because of the fact that no one has done it yet, doesn't mean it won't happen eventually. I'd like to tell you I will be the one to do it, but I don't think that's going to happen anymore. There was never any intention to pull wool over someone's eyes, just delusions on my part about the realities of life. -Jason

Thanks for the nice review As to continuing, I realised that once people got to the point where I left off, they were probably able enough to continue on their own. It was really the fundamentals that needed to be in the tutorial. Perhaps someone could write something on sound, though, as that is a glaring omission. Cheers A First off Andrew- your tutorials were awesome. But for me, they left me right at a point where I knew what things needed to be done without being able to figure out how to do them. More information on missiles, sprites, the ball, and how to control them / make them interact more would be very useful. While boring, a game can be made without sound! Again, thank you for the time already invested, but know that further efforts would be heavily utilized. -Jason

Quick! Someone make the player color 3C! ETfreeway.zip

Oh n0es! indeed... that's sure to hurt the ebay value. Bob Saget!

To throw a little light on the "they wouldn't throw away good stuff" arguement... the company I formerly worked for was forced to move locations (because they couldn't pay rent) last week. When they moved, they threw out 25-50 fully functional computers w/ monitors, as well as a lot of good office furntiture that there were no longer employees to fill and use. No helicopters were overhead recording the event. Did it make the local paper? Couldn't tell you, it's possible, but doubtful. Regardless, since most of the stuff was scavaged from dumpsters, I doubt there is little remaining evidence of this incident in the way of photos or video. Only the few eyewitnesses who saw the whole thing go down remain as evidence. Companies throw away stuff because it's easier or cheaper for them... even if the process is dumb. It happens. Did Atari do it? I think so, because there are old stories and grainy photos that (argueably) "recorded" the event. I hope our new visitors can help resolve this once and for all when they go to New Mexico. If not, then I hope some fresh arguements pop up or a new approach to proving/disproving the event happens. -JD

Got mine in the mail today! I had not yet purchased any items from AA, but also wanted to mention how wonderfully everything is packaged. From the actual package which was the right size and had the correct amount of foam peanuts to the manual, cartridge label, cable, CD, etc. Very, very professional in look and style... it's so pretty, I haven't brought myself to actually open the plastic coverings yet. I'm sure that will change very shortly. -JD

Pawn her cell phone, she'll be too distraught to realize you got a new toy. Use the money for your Krok, then you'll also have full opportunity to console her from losing her phone. Also advantagous around birthdays, you know what the perfect gift is. -JD PS- all's fair in love and atari.

oh, you wanna know about air raid? I've got a few million of them out in my garage that I found in an Alamagordo dump... let me just open one of these up and... ooh! pretty! USA! USA! USA! opening up a copy of Air Raid... you've got some big cajones bro. -JD

I doubt you're going to get much response on this... a while back there was a game similar to what you're talking about (redesigned levels, had a few extras in it as well). They got a C&D, pulled all the carts, and you'll notice Combat is now listed in the taboo trademarks section here. -JD

which also means redesigning some stuff for you... I'll get started on it tomorrow, no chance for me to do it tonight I'm afraid.

the "definitive" answer. -JD http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=82555

Do any of them happen to have Ray Kassar and Ronnie Reagan sweetly embracing one another? -JD

After a few years of my mid 20's, I was really starting to get depressed. I wasn't doing the things after college that I thought I needed to be doing. I was in the 8 to 5 thing, and hated my job. A couple of years ago, I decided it was my own fault things weren't going my way. I had done all the things I set out to do in high school, and decided I needed to make a new list of things I wanted to accomplish. Since that time, things have been much more fulfilling for me, and I've gotten a lot of things done that would have otherwise been brushed aside. Having it on the list somehow makes me psychologically responsible to finish it. Here are some of the things left to do on my list: 1. make a full length film 2. publish my own comic book (or rather, to get my comic book published) 3. buy a newspaper/television station 4. learn Spanish and Japanese fluently 5. master playing the guitar I would also list walking on the moon or Mars, but I don't think that's really realistic anymore. I'm too old to control any of my own destiny on that through the military, and about 100 years too early for it to be freely available (if then). And for the record, it's just a guesstimate, I don't care to discuss exact figures on when space travel blah blah blah. I'm just curious what other people have done or want to do with their lives. I think there is just a small window some of us are lucky enough to get where we have both the desire and lack of responsibilities to hold us back from our dreams. If you have the chance, don't let it pass you by... I'm not sure there are second chances for your dreams. -JD

I also like Housecall from Trend Micro (www.trendmicro.com), I used to use it in tandem with another program, but found it worked as well by itself as the two together. Online, free, just follow the prompts. -JD

Only when said skepticism has no legs to stand on. If you read carefully, Bobby went and listed reasons why he thought the game would not be done. It's clearly opinion, and he is entitled to his... plus all of his points are factual which lends credibility to an opinion as being something other than pure speculation. The point that got me angry was that the game wasn't even possible, which is clearly not the case. There is already an RPG demo by Paul Slocum, and I think someone else posted a working binary for an RPG (supercat?) in their blog a while back. Either way, even with one demo, it's already been proven that it could happen. As for the question itself, work is continuing on this game, just at a much slower rate than before. I'm spending crazy hours at work right now, which wasn't really a concern when I started this project. We also seem to be having some email issues, but I'll try to get a status report and post any new development information here in the next couple of days. -Jason PS- it also appears at least some of this thread has been deleted?! I went back through it in it's entirety and couldn't find a few specific things I know were mentioned. I even checked all my other messages since January to make sure they weren't in other threads. Anyone else notice this, or am I delusional?

I had forgotten the perks as well... tickets out the gazoo, chinese food, free shirts, access to lots of sweet equipment, and of course the people you meet (who would otherwise pay you no attention!) It's really pretty amazing some of the stuff they line up as trade outs, and I'm sure it will only increase as summer comes along. Last week: monster truck tickets (passed), royals tickets (should have passed), nutcracker ballet duckets (passed), plus I met the mayor, two councilmen (who incidentally all were defeated in their re-elections), a polo, several personalities from the town, etc. The food, the friends, the fun- no other profession comes close! Trust me, that's several years out of the business speaking. Despite my nice little drive each morning, I really am glad I got back into it. Based on your post, I'm guessing you feel the same. -JD

w00t!! *starts counting his pennies and dimes* -JD

I had a lot of the same kinds of thoughts on my my last job, knowing I would be laid off eventually. In this case you already have some pre-warning, and while that's little consolation, at least it's something. I'm sorry to hear your minigame will suffer as a result. I understand it will take some time to get your feet back under you. Anyway, I know myself and SpaceInvader (see her blog) were in the same boat as you not too long ago. I think that's two good examples of the forced change leading to an eventually improved situation over time. I had been looking for a new job anyway, but you always seem to look a little harder after you don't have your current one to fall back on. Good luck with the search. -JD

Quoted from an email sent to me on friday... Patience, young grasshopper. -JD

lol... you're one of THOSE radio people. j/k... BTW, Kansas City (Missouri, not the copycats to the west) is market 31. Jacksonville is market 52 according to Nielson (television figure). Hope the new job treats you well, and remember to go easy on your production peeps. -JD

That's really too bad. I know we're a little late at this point, but we should get together a card and have digital signatures put in it or something and send to her family. It's pretty amazing the little things we do in life that can touch other people, and in this case it was 20+ years after the fact. I really doubt she thought much of it while she was writing the article back in the day. It's not the answer any of us was looking for. But it does give us some insight into her life and tells us to try a different direction. BTW, I'm assuming since it's been put on the website, you have confirmed this Stingray? Do we have any idea who the anonymous poster was? -Jason

I couldn't disagree with this more. It's becoming more and more apparent that BluRay is winning out (as it should!) and will be the new disc storage standard. And while it's sure to get replaced soon, it will be around long enough to make it worth Sony's while. As storage capacity continues to increase ever more quickly, I think each new standard will have a shorter and shorter life... something we're just off the edge of the cusp from right now. Secondly, Microsoft doesn't really have any games for the 360 yet. Of course they have games you can play, but there is mostly a bunch of EA (another crappy company) style sports games which are largely incomplete- and most still play better on the old standard and year. There are hardly any console specific games which would lend to buying a 360, and definetely no "must haves" within those. Finally a lot of geeks hate Microsoft, myself included. I don't feel I'm letting this cloud my judgement (or saying Sony is better). However, from the video industry I have come to see how utterly reliable their products are, and own very little equipment without their name tattoed on the side. You will of course pay a little more for it, but it's the only one of the six major video brand products which hasn't failed me in some aspect on a shoot. Basically, until 360 gets a game or two that kicks PS2's ass, I don't think anyone except Santa will be running out to buy one. Not that they'd be available, even if you wanted to go purchase one. Sony has owned the games market for the last decade, and I think gamers will repay that with brand loyalty... at least until it fails them in the future. -JD Something that's gone unmentioned here though... I think PC games could cut a much bigger chunk from their dominance than either Microsoft or Nintendo. With MMP online games becoming ever more popular, I think it will start to grab people by the masses away from the console market. Why spend $400 just for the box, when you can buy the game and pay 5 or 10 bucks a month to play on something you already own.

I offered a way to save a couple cycles, but as noted it wasn't needed. The only homebrew game I'm aware of which has any of my directly-contributed code is Hunchy 2 (I contributed the ending). 1025620[/snapback] Just because it didn't end up being used doesn't mean that it wasn't still impressive. So far, so good! 1027273[/snapback] Great to hear. This game is gonna be (IMHO) homebrew of the year. 1027331[/snapback] Wow, thanks for the kind words... but that's a lot to live up to. Especially since we haven't even shown you anything yet. But I really think the number of hours of work that have been put into this project as well as the approach we've taken to ensure it's quality will be reflected in the final product. I know it's something I'll be proud of when we're done, and I can only hope that other people will enjoy it as well. -Jason

Welcome to the world of Atari blogging. I too got laid off around Christmas (right when I got back from my vacation ). In the end, it's worked out to be much better and the change has done me a lot of good. I'm back to working in television again from something totally unrelated, but I've seen a lot of general broadcasting contracts. If there are any parts you're a little unsure about, I'd be happy to take a look at them and tell you what I think. Anyway, congrats on the new job. And, if in the future you're ever looking for information on the industry (market sizes, ownership information, etc.) be sure to look me up, I have a ton of resources (a filing cabinet full) and would be happy to help a fellow Atarian out. -Jason