Simon

Update: - The labels arrived (and look damn good) and were sticked to the carts. - The missing buttons were ordered and should arrive at the end of next week. I'm looking forward to complete this task soon. Simon

Sure. Please find it attached... Later, Simon

Thank you. I assume to announce the ordering phase in about two weeks. My website will show the ordering details then: http://www.quernhorst.de/atari/ The game may work on a normal NTSC console, but the colors are different and the gamespeed is faster (due to a 50 Hz game running on a 60 Hz system). The scanline is constant at 312 and therefore I don't fear a rolling of the tv picture... Later, Simon

Hi, the current issue of the german videogame magazine M!GAMES published an article about EUROCON. It covers a whole side and contains photos, too. The upcoming issue (december 2008) of the austrian retro magazine LOTEK64 will publish an article with photos, too. Later, Simon

Hello everybody, the release for the LIMITED EDITION of this game is getting closer, the following steps were taken: - Cartridges (PAL) are manufactured, shipped and arrived. All 35 copies work fine. - Manuals (8 pages, color) are printed, cut, folded and stapled. - Covers (color) are printed, cut and inserted into the boxes. - Patches are finished and waiting. - Limited labels (serialno. and signature) are printed. Remaining work to do: - Printed labels have to arrive and get fixed. - A second patch/button is planned. - Put everything together in the boxes. I assume that people have their copies before christmas. Later, Simon

Hello, the 2k competition ended yesterday. The voting will start soon. I managed to create a second 2k game for the competition and upload "Pir8!" yesterday evening (just in time). That makes a total of five contributions from me this year (so far). Best regards, Simon

Yes, he still does. http://www.icomp.de/ And I used them for my limited cartridge run, too. Even if I didn't know that at the beginning, because I got them from a retailer of Jens' items. Later, Simon

I just checked my website again and it separates the two categories: LIMITED - 20 Cartridges at 45,00 Euro UNLIMITED - Disks at 10,00 Euro. No more cartridges are manufactured, so there is no unlimited cartridge run afterwards... Thanks, Simon

Thanks for your feedback. I limited the game to 4 kb of total size, because I want to compete in this year's 4k-MiniGameComp. On the other hand SHOTGATE was my first C64 programming after about 7 years programming on the VCS. So I really needed to get started again. Afterwards I started programming other minigames with enhanced graphics (own charsets, multicolor, soft scrolling, etc.). You can read about them here: http://www.quernhorst.de/atari/r8.html Only new material is used (PCB, EPROM, cartridge shell, box, etc.). No old games were harmed or destroyed for the production of this game. Later, Simon

Hello, you can watch a small video of SHOTGATE here now: Best regards, Simon

Mahlzeit! Hotel ist gebucht, Anmeldung ist durch, mein Tisch hat Strom... alles geregelt und ich freue mich drauf! :-) Da wird sich Ingo aber freuen, dass er auf der Attendees-Seite als Österreicher geführt wird. (siehe Thema Deutsch und Fußball von oben) Glückauf! Simon

Hello, by now I uploaded four games to this year's www.minigamecomp.org.uk 1k: KONFL1KT and Elimin8! 2k: AFFILI8! 4k: SHOTGATE I hope that you'll like the games and am curious about the upcoming 1k results. Best regards, Simon

Hello, after years of developing games and demos for the VCS, I just finished work on two little games for the C64. SHOTGATE is a 4 kilobytes game for one player. KONFL1KT is a 1 kilobyte game for two players. Beneath releasing them as an original disk for classic gaming fans, I decided to check out the C64 cartridge technology and made 20 cartridges. Both games will take place in this years MiniGameCompo here: http://www.minigamecomp.org.uk You can read more, watch pictures and order here: http://www.quernhorst.de/atari/sk.html Best regards, Simon

Hello, I found the time for programming another 1k game for the C64 and uploaded "ELIMIN8!" to the website today... it should be online soon. I hope that you'll like the game. The deadline for entering the 1k contest is on july, 31st. The voting will be open about 1 week after the deadline. Best regards, Simon

Hi, the test pcb/eprom from Al arrived and I wasn't able to spot any problems so far. I played the game up to level #15 (out of 30) and couldn't spot any difference to playing the file on z26 or stella. Some people tested the game so far and didn't find technical problems, but some had problems on concentrating on the gameplay itself. I'll test the game some more and play it through (did I tell that a cheat mode is inside?) to be sure that there is no bug in later levels. I would like to hear other opinions about the game and difficulty, too. Best regards, Simon

Hello, I just uploaded a 1k game for the C64 to the website... it should be online soon. Not too easy to return to C64 programming after about 7 years without coding this machine... I hope that you'll like the game. Best regards, Simon

Hello, Yes, this technique is used in my own game Mental Kombat. It doesn't matter if the TV standard is switchable or in two different files: the work of converting an existing PAL game into an NTSC version is the same. Due to the amount of available scanlines (PAL 312 and NTSC 262) the display routine for the canyon would have to be changed totally. This would result in making the canyon more narrow on NTSC than it is in PAL. I'm not sure about an ntsc version somewhen, but at the moment I prefer programming another game first... Thanks, Simon

Hello, I'm not sure about creating an NTSC version right now. It depends on the people's interest in getting an NTSC cartridge from the AtariAge store. I already asked Al about the sales statistics of my last games... we'll see. If people prefer playing the game on an emulator, a PAL version would be enough for everybody, because the emulators can handle that worldwide. And the interested collectors from NTSC area would fetch the game as PAL cartridge, too. Instead of converting the game into an NTSC version, I would prefer working on a new game. We'll see about this topic soon. No. It is thought this way, because the time may be needed to scroll all shown obstacles out of the screen. I.e. if you collide and there is still another object on the far right side of the screen, this is to be scrolled out of the screen first. During that time the volume of the explosion is decreasing to strengthen the feeling of a crashing helicopter. Thanks for the feedback so far! Simon

Hello, the current status of this development (PAL): - the difficulty levels were adjusted (speed, distance between objects, width of holes in columns) - bonus lives after level 09 and 19 added - bug removed: error sound at GameOver/TheEnd screen A bug from an earlier test version (flickering of bar object on a real console) was removed. gambler172 tested the new version on a real 7800 and found this bug removed. A test pcb is currently made by Al. Afterwards I'll finally test it on real hardware and hopefully... Best regards, Simon

Another bug was found and removed (the intro tune didn't loop properly).

Hi, after finishing "4K4U" I returned to "I Project" and implemented the following things: - memory optimizing - increasing level difficulty - ending - logicial bug in object movement delay removed Please find attached the current version. It would be great if someone could test it on real hardware (Cuttle/Croco Cart) and let me know about it. Next steps: the splashscreen may be changed/enhanced a bit and playtesting of all levels has to be done. I will definately make a limited edition of this game again, but it will be a smaller amount of copies (about 30) as more people prefer getting a cart with manual instead of a complete boxed set. I'm looking forward to your feedback. Best regards, Simon 019_igame_sq.bin

Hello, That's right. I added the site for 4K4U and you can order copies of the 26 limited copies now. http://www.quernhorst.de/atari/4k.html Thanks, Simon

Hello, thanks for your kind words concerning the demo. Good to hear that you like it. Someone also uploaded it to youtube.com and to pouet.net (demo scene database). Yes, unfortunately. My brother forgot to pay the annual fee for the webhosting... again. It should be up in a few days again - and until then I'll have the "4K4U" site ready (along with the ordering option). Later, Simon

Hello, While writing a little article about the Hot Shot cartridge for the next issue of the 2600 Connection, I noticed that my cartridge is not one of the four cartridges pictured in the catalogue from Finland. "My Hot Shot cartridge contains the following titles: Mafia (1), Felix Return (1), Squirrel & Snail (2), Astro Attack (2), Tom Boy (3) and Ground Zero (1). The numbers in brackets show to which of the four cartridges from Finland (or “Democasetti” as they seem to call them there) these games belong. As the labels of my cartridge are in German language I assume that they even produced different versions for different countries, mine being number 1 (according to the main label) in Germany." Best regards, Simon

Hi, talking about C64 cartridges: The austrian magazine "Lotek64" published an article about the twelve OCEAN cartridges that were released for the C64 / C64 GS. You can download the latest issue here (article is on pages 21 and 22): http://www.lotek64.com/main/fileretriever....=0&issue=24 Best regards, Simon