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.

Get the harmony cartridge and an SD card, download the games and pdf manuals you want, buy whatever physical items you can afford that make you joyful to display, hold, use, or own. I know that some PAL games have been converted to NTSC as roms, and there may be the reverse, so the harmony cartridge would give you the tools to play games on your console that never saw the light of day as a PAL cartridge, much less a cartridge at all. It really depends on whether you are collecting to play games, or collecting for the challenge of collecting. Most of the rarest, most expensive games are neither actually well made nor much fun. But, sometimes the fun is in the hunt and the having. But you're looking at paying sometimes hundreds for a CIB rare game that is just a low quality, barely finished game that was rushed out the door in low quantities by a company that went right out of business in a year. I'm with Juan Solo... the only CIB games I have bought are some Imagic titles for the shiny boxes... most of the rest I see for sale seem so worn, they're not even pretty to me. I find myself more likely to hunt down the manuals than the cartridges, to be honest with you. I'll be looking into getting some packs of the manual plastic sleeves, soon. A lot of the newer games (homebrews) are even available for sale on this very site in PAL or NTSC, complete in box, and you can get those in pristine condition while supporting current creators. So... is the fun in playing them, or owning the physical item. How much space and money do you have for this? Take a look at this if you ever think you might want to use the word "all" or "every" game in any way. Have fun and let us know how it all goes! There's sooo much fun to be had aith your Atari and you get to do it whatever way makes you happy.

I mostly play my Atari games on Stella with by Hyperkin Trooper, or on Harmony Cartridge on the 1981 console I've had for 40 years, but I have a modest physical collection that makes me happy to have. And this is how I organize my digital collection...

This is such a lovely thing to do, thank you! I'm going to pick through your list, learn them, and give them a spin.

I love the word play, whether intentional or not, with "Burg" meaning "City."

I've been refurbishing old consoles and building a new retro gaming center for myself, this year. I figured I would dump the photos here from the past few months so I don't lose them. It all started when I found this really nice old Sylvania flatsceen TV that is still old enough to not be widesreen ($7 Goodwill). After that, it was a matter of cleaning dust and grime off the old consoles, which had been sitting dormant on bookcase shelves, and diagnosing which controllers worked, and which were defective. At this point, my Atari controllers were stuttering or intermittently unresponsive. The Atari was still dusty, and lots of cartridges really needed to be jiggered around to get them to work. Without any cleaning for this, the problem resolved on its own after some use swapping cartridges on the console over a few weeks. The Intellivision II functioned, but still needs serious jiggering to get cartridges to load, but none of them were found to be dead. The playstation 2 works beautifully, but none of my memory cards were recognized. Some of the controllers turned out to be broken, especially the "clear red plastic" one seen plugged in here. I found a nice woodgrain cabinet for a stand at goodwill for 5 bucks, and used an old xetec Amiga hard drive casing for the stand to raise the TV up a bit. Next, I took apart the 2 sets of Atari paddles, which suffered from "Jitter," and cleaned them. Reassembled after cleaning the residue and grease with alcohol and swabs, they worked perfectly. The next challenge was to open up both joysticks, remove the clear adhesive over the boards, clean them, and reassemble with packing tape over the boards. Both of them worked very well, aside from an issue with one of them: The cable plastic seemed pretty stiff, and would lose control if it was not held in a certain position - ultimately a small tug downwards of the connector end plugged into the back of the console got whatever connections were loose to connect. But, this one went into my "museum" for non-use, ultimately. Next, I took apart the console and cleaned the case. I found three areas on the RF cable where the plasic cord exterior had torn, but it seems that the cable is still working perfectly, so a little electrical tape was wrapped around the frayed parts to protect them. Ultimately, I want to replace the cord and fix the connectors in the B&W switch, and get a second Atari joystick, but this is good enough for now. After the next photo was taken, I popped the caps off the paddles and cleaned them some more. Next, I identified two playstation controllers that still functioned, though only one PS2 dualshock controlled worked, so a PS1 controller was borrowed from the old console which is in my "museum." I added a VCR to the mix, running the PS2 through that. Finally, I set up a spare tablet to be able to quicky hit a website with atari manuals on it, for reference if needed, and bought myself a Harmony Cartridge for the Atari for loading games from my organized rom library on SD card, which I continue to explore and learn about. My Atari Keyboard Controllers needed no maintenance - so they will be nice to have for Star Raiders. Finally, the Commodore 128 (64) computer and accompanying Commodore 1571 (Disk Drive) were set up as part of my functioning retro gaming center. It's still going to need some refurbishing to get it all cleaned up and "retro-brighted", with the 128 boot not functioning, lots of keys lacking spring or being loose, and the old RF video cable lacking proper RF shielding to prevent interference. But, it functions and I have access to all my old files and games. This was my primary computer literally from like 1985-1998. I'm making good on my "perpertual student" label for myself. Pacing myself, but aside from some repairs on this and the Atari, I still have two Commdore 64's and an Amiga 500 that will need to come back to life. The Amiga will need cleaning and retrobrighting, keyboard fixes, proper video cable, and a boot disk. The 64's with need to have their problem diagnosed. I have a Timex Sinclair 2068 with no cables, and an Atari 5200 that has a rusted end to it's RF (Power?? WTF) cable, which sparks when turned on. My playstation 1 is probably fine, but with the PS2, there's no rush on that. I'm definitely going to need a proper belkin surge protector instead of these two cheapo power strips. Projects for much later.

Hey, thanks! I will poke around!

That's really interesting. I never noticed that the cats' AI is based on the maze shape and location of other cats, as they will not move into the vertical row where there is already a cat. With 4 cats on the difficulty setting B (dumb cats), they spend a lot more time just moving back and forth, not really going anywhere. They don't chase the player, they just bop around according to maze shape and the locations of the other cats. Edit: Even on the Difficulty setting B (Smart Cats), they can get boxed in vertically by the other cats.

That's sort of amusing. I wonder if they have noticed their membership has stopped growing, yet? I took a few hours to save new copies of my gamemaker games... 3 disks, 8 games, 1 "prototype" unfinished game. Sadly, my aquarium simulator is unfinished/ missing pieces. But, I should be able to use Fast Load to make copies if I find someone over there that wants to convert them to roms. Thanks!

Cool, thanks! I see that Gamebase 64 has a couple of my games listed, but some of their info is wrong on them - I was like 12 years old when my dad helped me release the ones they have, and whomever made the roms and listed them would have had no idea. I would have released more, but people on Quantum Link complained about the file sizes. Sadly, I can't get past their anti-robot question to get in to the forums to give them more. I knew I was a robot all along! It seems like SEUCK is well-regarded even now, which is nice to see. It also seems that the process of converting Commodore disks to roms is a bit beyond my current capabilities.