eric_ruck

By 8-bit carts do you mean Atari 400/800/1200/etc? Any particular 8-bit or Lynx carts you had in mind? I'm looking for T2K, don't really care about the box or instructions, I'm giving it to a friend of mine with the flakey Jag I don't really want so he can relive his past for a bit. Eric

Wow, talk about biting the hand that feeds you. I can understand if a system administrator removed the files (anus protectus) but some company that's supposed to be representing current video game vendors? If I was a current vendor I'd withdraw my support from these yoyos for ticking off my best customers. Eric

You could also develop for Nokia's forthcoming NGage, which also has free tools and docs you can download, and they're even official. Actually Palm and PocketPC are somewhat viable game platforms. And if the price scares you, you can get a reconditioned Zaurus off eBay for around $200. Can't get any more open than it's Linux OS. Eric

I just got Metal Slug for the NGPC, and it is really worth the fuss. Man is that a neat game. Still can't figure out how to survive the skydiving parts though, I keep getting blasted from the ground. I can see how SNK is definitely likeable...it's been awhile since I found anything worth plugging into my GBA. Eric

I think Project Gotham Racing is still lots of fun, and pretty simple (steer, gas, brake, handbrake). Easier than Sega Rally and nicer to look at, I think (although racing the Lotus Europa in the Sega game was fun). Eric

I made the questionable decision to start a new company in a down economy and I've been a bit busy pushing two projects out the door, so I haven't touched the code since about the end of January. But I'm hoping once these projects get out to reward myself with some Lynx development time. When last I left off the basic gameplay was working and the option screens were complete, and I did some of the paddle and movement options. I left off working on the "Advanced" moving bricks, as well as started work on power ups. But there's still plenty left to do. Eric

I would guess that the only way you'll get this game to play is if you boot your PC from a DOS disk first. The Command Prompt box is not the same as DOS, by any stretch of the imagination. Windows doesn't let programs take "protected" actions, such as directly accessing hardware or memory. These are things that were really common for DOS games to do, and even their setup programs. In the days before DirectX and graphics coprocessors, games would write directly to the video cards' memory for the best performance. And of course that memory was mapped between 640k and 1M. Eric

Wow, the good old days of 2d platform games on PC's...I remember it like it was yesterday. (Of course I was just playing the not-dissimilar Metal Slug on NGPC as recently as yesterday.) It's funny, pretty soon we'll be using MAME to run 486/VGA games on our 128 bit PC's. Eric

While personally I hope there's a rush to upgrade (my company builds PC's for our clients -- union-made PC, anyone?) the amount of software out there to use 64 bits will be about zero for awhile. I guess a couple of companies are supporting Linux on 64 bit architectures, so they will make damn fine web and database servers. Of course, the next version of Doom will probably require an Opteron. Eric

If you get any PM's please share. Right now my game fits entirely into memory but I'll be dealing with ROM space pretty soon as I add levels and options. Eric

If your 1200 is dead, wanna trade for just the keyboard? (I can take the whole dead unit if you don't want to take it apart, but I just need the keyboard to fix my computer.) Eric

Could be a home made cart in which case the thing has no real value, but perhaps the seller is trying to unload it as a "real" prototype, i.e. something the original developers made for the press or testers? Or maybe they're just crazy Brits. Eric

Pro wrestler? Really? Neat. Yeah, my work schedule hasn't gotten any better, but I'm hoping I see the light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of a budget to hire another programmer in 8-12 weeks. Then hopefully I can take a nice little break, get some stuff done around the house and make some serious progress on my otherwise stalled Lynx project. Eric

I would say no as well, because emulating the video and sound would be a lot of work, and the two systems function very differently. On the other hand, rewriting most 2600 games for the Lynx would be pretty easy. Eric

How about best designed? The easier it is to make games for it, the better the games will be. Eric

I'm sort of hoping it goes higher in case I ever need to liquidate my Lynx collection to raise money. Of course, I have all the games shrinkwrapped -- it's a disease. Eric

I know this thing is fixable, if you still have the knob. Is it still floating around inside the Lynx? That's the good news, I damaged by Lynx by dropping it on the edge of the table, where it hit the contrast knob just right, with the same end effect. The bad news is that I gave it to one of the techs at my former company to fix, and didn't watch what he did. I know it took him less than 2 minutes to figure out how to take the Lynx apart (including the screws under the grips), open it, fix it, and put it all back together. I think the wheel thingy may just snap back into place. Eric

It's been awhile since I've played Ishido but I've beaten it before. I do remember it being hard as hell. I think you have to really like puzzle games to get into it. If no one else gets around to scanning the manual, somebody PM me and I can do it. Eric

A friend of mine rescued the following from the trash: "Compu-Mate MIDI software" (floppy disk and some kinda dongle thing that looks like it goes in the cart port. Says something about Kawai MIDI editor. Don't know anything else about it. Free to good home. The shopping bag of Genesis carts he found with it are mine, all mine, bwa ha ha haha. Sorry. Eric

Which 2600 games do you need, and what Jag games do you have? I don't have too much in the 2600 department but most of it is fair game, since I'm not really into that system (hears gasps in the background). My immediate Jag need is modest, a Tempest 2K cart, loose is fine, bad label is fine, so long as it works. Eric

To emulate a Lynx you'll need a lot more machine than that. P3-500 min, I would say. I imagine emulating a 2600 would take less power. Why a laptop? You can get a perfectly good PC and monitor adequate for emulation for less than $500. Eric

For some here, that question is like "Nutter Butter or Oreos", can't lose any way. But I would go for the Lynx, more games that I feel are worth coming back to, with the added advantage that good games are also plentiful and cheap, and you can take the thing with you. Eric

OK, so this isn't traditionally a job board or anything but so far I've had good luck with hiring people from the video game community so I thought I'd try again. I'm looking for an all-around good IT tech around either Los Angeles or San Diego. My company is small and underfunded but growing with a good base of customers who are actually spending on IT in the current business climate. Likely looking for part-time at first, hopefully growing to full time after two or three months. PM me or e-mail with interest. Perhaps I'll sweeten the pot with a bonus from my trade box for anyone who stays with us two months. Eric

I like the look, and don't mind the frames. Comes through fine on Mozilla 1.3. When you click on the cart titles and get a JPG that's not wrapped in a page that's a little cheesy though. You can spare yourself the trouble of making a separate page for each cart if you have access to a little programming. You could, for instance, change the link for each title to something like showcart.jsp?img=et2600.jpg, then insert the image into a showcart page in script. Of course, that requires a little progarmming as well as a hosting company that supports it. Eric

I'm assuming this is an April Fools joke but I would have guessed that the download .lnx file does something other than crash my copy of Handy...anyone? Eric