Superkitten

Price stickers go away on all my collectibles, if possible without damaging them. I consider the store stickers to be damage to begin with. I'm an Atari fan, not a K-Mart fan. Listen, no one buys a game off ebay and asks the seller to affix an ebay price sticker(s) on it to help it go up in value.

These are great! Thank you all for sharing these shots of things I didn't know existed. ❤️

Question: How did you choose which games / hardware to include in the Atari set? I'm not sure I need a card for kids controller and a card for Alpha Beam with Ernie, among others. I realize people's tastes vary, and this could be a perfect selection for most. What I consdier to be shovelware might be someone else's holy grail. I realize this might be designed this way in anticipation of making additional atari sets and not wanting to leave the less-popular ones for the later sets. I do see an attempt at a balanced selection from various eras and categories, however - though nothing from Imagic, for example. I've thought about how it might be nice to have reference cards with info on game selection, difficulty switch settings and controls for the Atari games - something quick and durable no bigger than the catridges. The previews for the cards are too small to really see what is offered - I assume just screenshots and a concept blurb? I think the confusion people may be having is that they're looking for confirmation that if they buy the $15 Atari pack, they will get the complete set of 35 Atari cards for the volume. $15 for a nice Atari collectible isn't too bad - good luck with it!

For anyone interested, this is my current Atari playlist for favorite single-player games that I'm playing often. There are still a lot more out there for me to explore, and I'm still seeing new things in many of these games. I keep finding more games that intrigue me.

They were hit or miss back in the day, and we often saw the "rewind tape" frequently even in the 80's. For nostalgia, I loaded up a few from my walkman and played them, ran around my Mindmaster Maze; but, it's never really been a reliable format to begin with. The idea that "cassette tapes from the 80s are going to be dust by now" is a myth. All my 80's music cassettes still work just fine, though if not stored properly they can get mold on the tape reel, at which point you don't want to get that mess into your player. By the 80s, most pre-recorded cassettes were pretty good quality, though I can't speak of the quality of tape Starpath used - I don't know. Given the option of mp3 vs cassette for supercharger, I'd use the mp3 to save on rewind times in case of a failed load, as well as putting less wear on the actual tapes. However, the best option is to load the roms onto SD card and load them via Harmony Cartridge, in my opinion. If you want to try out the tapes and get the authentic experience, then any cassette player with a headphone jack will do. I've never found stereo vs mono to be an issue: A mono cassette will just output the same thing into left and right speakers, so if youre reading only one channel, that's fine - there is no "blank" channel being played that you might accidentally jack into - it does not work that way. I guess if you want to use the tapes "for the authentic experience," then if it fails half the time, you're really getting the authentic experience you asked for. It was always exciting watching the load bars slowly close as we cheered it on, only to have the REWIND TAPE pop up at 90%. But when you got it, you cheered because you could sit and played the most awesome game for a few hours. But, to quote Tom Petty: "Some places they get mildew And others get too hot Some places are so damp that Everything you got just rots All kinds of condensation A direct result of rain They're not much compensation When everything's been stained Some have sentimental value That cannot be erased Go store it in a cool dry place"

I made a few more faux covers for some hacks I enjoy. I hope the programmers that edited these games don't mind.

I don't really hunt for games based on rarity, but I'm glad we bought these when they were originally released. These have a rarity rating from 4-8, but based on how much the Rarity 4 Supercharger games go for on ebay ($20-30), I wonder if they should be reclassified as 6, or if the prices on the rarity guide are out of date.

I really hope you can find a way to keep it. That's pretty cool! This is why I try to keep 2-3 copies of things I make. Maybe someone would offer to buy it so they can play with it, with an option for you to buy it back when you're recovered - perhaps a youtuber who reviews these things. I've never seen this one before. Or, you can post it with a high reserve or buy it now and just try your luck, can always relist later for a lower price.

Oh, neat! I used the old mac version of those on Stella on OX 9. I don't miss "configure input sprocket." Even if it functions, it might not be the right controller for every joystick-based game. See how you like it, but some games may be harder or easier with those than on joystick depending on how your hands work.

Someone else will have to comment on that specifically, but I would be curious to see if sending the signal through 3 boxes and 3-4 cables before it reaches the TV works well or not. I tried two different "RF modulators" from Radio Shack, and both just totally shredded the signal. I use my original Atari cable with electrical tape over the frayed parts, with an adapter at the end to screw it right onto the cable jack, and then coiled up the excess with a twist tie and hung it on a nail and I get a near perfect picture unless it's a complicated signal like Vanguard. For my commodore, I was getting an insanely wavy picture, but I used a short coaxial (cable) cord left over from the cable guy years ago, and put an adapter on it and it cleaned up pretty well. I was very surprised that I could get such a clear picture with the original cord (as you can see below, my RF cord is beat to heck) - coiled and not laying against any power cords, I guess. Mileage may vary. Obviously you want to go further than I did, but that's all I know, but I can refer you to others such as this blog post:

When you say "map," I think maybe you want Stella to open to a certain folder when you start it. If so, try options > user interface settings > launcher > rom path. I had to poke around for a while to find this.

Just to be clear, Trooper 2 is the usb version. Trooper has the original port for the console. If you try this or another brand, let us know how it feels.

New to these forums, but not neither new to Atari not to game dev, I realize this topic might be old to many, but was very interesting to me, and I imagine to others who are discovering this community. While I won't enter a debate out how Atari programmers should identify (taking a hint from the LGBT community to let people identify as they like), I can share my own experiences. From a brief glance of what's going on now, I see a few things, but I won't draw any conclusions. - Homebrews seem to have started after the Atari VCS / 2600 was discontinued and abandoned by it's parent company. - Many homebrews are done by fans for curiosity, challenge, or fun, and often an interest in the challenge of learning to do it, as opposed to being paid. - The emulator, Stella, keeps getting better. Replacement controllers and parts are more widely available in higher quality than last time I checked. - A commercially available Atari console called Retron 77 became available in 2018, ending the gap from 1992-2018 (check my date) where we only had abandoned consoles and emulators. My point is that it will be interesting to see how this classification grows or changes as the scenery changes around it - like many things, I expect it will be a spectrum of characteristics, never requiring all of them to be present. If the term helps reach its target audience, then good! But how can one reach the potential audience that hasn't realized to search for new atari games at all, thinking it's still dead? I came to this site to figure out which roms I wanted, and to look up instructions, etc. Frankly, I am blown away and astounded by what I found here. ❤️

You should be able to find the originals on ebay fairly easily. [EDIT: Yes, there is the risk of getting one that suffers from age and isn't as good as it should be without work.] I use the USB Hyperkin Trooper 2 on my computer with the emulator, and it works comparably and feels pretty good. However, I do prefer my restored original Atari controller on the actual console. Hyperkin's regular Trooper joystick is made for the console use, and I imagine it works comparably. Part of why I chose Hyperkin as opposed to numerous other "imitation" sticks, beyond reading reviews, was that Hyperkin released the Retron 77, an emulator console, and the success of that requires them to package joysticks with it that actually function properly and feel right. Other generic companies just have to sell their controller and not worry about a lack of quality making their console look bad, as they dont produce one. It made sense to me, and after using the trooper 2 on the computer, I would be comfortable getting the regular trooper for the console. MY Trooper 2 does occasionally give off a slight squeak if the stick starts to uncrew, but it is classy and solid, and it functions - and the stick can be easily re-tightened. I have not found an equivlent controller for the Atari Paddle games. You can get originals, but they may suffer from "jitter" in their old age and need to be restored. Atari age has a nice list in their database of games that require the paddle, but there aren't that many. I dont know of a comprehensive rating system for all the brands of joysticks, but I agree that having one like the original helps give the play experience the games were designed for. I have joysticks that I happily used on my Commodore that just dont have the reflex accuracy I need for Atari.