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Ransom

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Posts posted by Ransom

  1. Posted

    Is it normal for 8bitdomain to be unresponsive to email and telephone inquiries? I've tried to contact them about my order several times via email and telephone messages over the last week, and there hasn't been a peep out of them. I'm thinking of reversing the charges, but wanted to see if this is normal for them or if maybe the guy died or went out of business or something.

  2. Posted

    What great responses! Thanks to all who voted, and especially those who posted their thoughts.

     

    After toying with the idea of collecting just carts and manuals (and putting them in those nice Atari vinyl game cases), I finally decided to begin my collection with boxed carts only. If, later on, that becomes too expensive or takes up too much space, I'll switch. But for now, since I'll be collecting common carts almost exclusively, it'll be OK to start with boxed games....I think!

     

    Thanks for all the great responses! It's been very interesting to see the different ways that people view their collections.

  3. Posted

    It's probably something simple, like dodgy cart slot, or dirty contacts.

     

    Try disengaging the interlock on the carts - that will allow you to push the protective flap in, to get access to wipe the contacts.

     

    The only other thing I can think of is that maybe the system doesn't like 16K carts.

     

    Do you have any other 16K carts that do work?

     

    All my other carts seem to work fine. I have just just about all the carts Atari produced for the 8-bit line. I'm not sure which are 16K, though. Any suggestions?

  4. Posted

    The only one of those carts I own is Millipede, and it doesn't work on my (heavily modded) 1200XL. I just get a black screen, though.

     

    Same cart works fine on my 800 or 800XL, but runs with graphics glitches on my 64K modded 600XL (all other carts work fine on the 600XL though). Running the same game from disk works fine on all of the above...

     

    Oddly, BASIC XL doesn't work on my 1200XL either (messed up screen display, lockups).

     

    One of these days I really need to get a stock 1200XL and see what happens...

     

    I think you're onto something. My 1200XL is upgraded, too.

     

    It still doesn't make sense why this is only affecting these four games, and only when they're loaded from cartridge.

     

    Hmm. Since removing the RAMBO XL upgrade (which meant swapping three chips plus all the RAM) had no effect on solving the problem, all that's left is the super video upgrade and the powered SIO port fix.

     

    Does your 1200XL have both of those mods?

  5. Posted · Edited by Ransom

    ANTIC does refresh for you. The PAL may be bad. Those are U20 and U14. Try all the chips, one at a time. Not very elegant, but effective. The delay line is soldered in, I'm afraid, so you can't try that very well. It usually just croaks, anyway.

     

    Does the spare motherboard work? You don't want to end up with two bad 1200XLs... try your spare for a while.

     

    Bob

     

    The spare works, but I haven't done the video upgrade on it. I'd prefer to get the current board working if at all possible.

     

    I suppose I'll try more chip swapping this weekend and see what happens.

     

    I still don't understand why it only affects four games out of 50+, and only when they're in cartridge form (as opposed to files loaded from floppy disks). It makes no sense to me, really.

     

    Thanks for your help!

  6. Posted

    Sounds like a hardware problem - refresh/memory failures act the way you describe. All those carts should work fine.

     

    Bob

     

    I replaced the RAM and that didn't help. Is there something else that's the likely culprit (I have a populated 1200XL MB that I can draw from as needed)?

     

     

    -Joe

  7. Posted

    I know Galaxian works because I just happen to have it and tried it on my 1200xl.

     

    Thank you for the response!

     

    In my case, near the end of the first wave, I start seeing the background stars occasionally lining up diagonally in the upper right hand corner. By the second wave, the effect is more frequent and pronounced. Eventually, it just freezes up.

     

    So yours doesn't do any of that?

  8. Posted · Edited by Ransom

    Is the 1200XL compatible with the cartridge versions of Millipede, Galaxian, Pole Position, and Jungle Hunt?

     

    I've been using the 1200XL since it was introduced, and I'm embarrassed to say that I no longer remember if these games ever worked in it. They don't now. But I don't know if it's always been that way, or if there's something wrong!

     

    The carts work fine in the 800XL, so I know they're not the problem.

     

    And when I load the same games from disk, those games work fine in the 1200XL.

     

    So I'm kinda stumped.

     

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  9. Posted · Edited by Ransom

    When it comes to games for the 2600, do you collect them in boxes or as bare carts?

     

    If you care to share your reasoning, I'd appreciate it!

     

    For some background, I've always collected everything BUT the 2600 games in boxes. The 2600 games collection I amassed in the early 90s (and later sold) was 100% bare carts (although I did get instruction booklets for most of them). Of course, my original collection in the early 80s was 100% boxed games.

     

    Now that I'm getting back into it, I'm debating whether to go with boxes or bare carts, considering that nearly all of what I want is fairly common. Still, even that subset of the huge 2600 catalog will end up taking up a couple of shelves in my games closet if they're in boxes!

     

    So are there advantages and disadvantages to collecting 2600 games in boxes that I may not have thought of?

  10. Posted

    I'll be 40 this year...can I play, too? :D

     

    I just had my first encounter with AA-sold homebrews when I bought Castle Crisis for the Atari 8-bit. Wow, what a great game!

     

    I look forward to getting some 2600 homebrews once I get my system together. It'll be hard to choose, but I'll keep reading the forums to try to figure out what I might like.

     

    Have a good weekend everyone!

    Sure you can play, I hit the big four oh in January :(

     

    Thanks! :) As others have said, it's kinda weird to be playing the same video games we played when we were 10 years old -- and find that they're still a lot of fun!

     

    Actually, as I get older, I find I have less and less patience and time for the long, drawn-out games like Zelda and the current 3D games. Sure, I enjoy them, but I just don't have the time to sit down and monomaniacally play them until I get to the end.

     

    The older games tend to give me much more fun and much less frustration. I can sit down and in 30 minutes play three or four different games a few times each. Since it's impossible to finish them anyway, it doesn't matter that I stop after a few minutes. :)

     

    Anyway, belated happy birthday. I hope to join you in that category later this year. :)

  11. Posted

    I'll be 40 this year...can I play, too? :D

     

    I just had my first encounter with AA-sold homebrews when I bought Castle Crisis for the Atari 8-bit. Wow, what a great game!

     

    I look forward to getting some 2600 homebrews once I get my system together. It'll be hard to choose, but I'll keep reading the forums to try to figure out what I might like.

     

    Have a good weekend everyone!

  13. Posted

    Would "Combat" be considered a port of the various tank and airplane games that preceded it, or would it be considered unique?

     

    Some other good unique games would include FlapPing, Hunchy II, Oystron, Splatform, and Toyshop Trouble.

     

    I'd say Combat's not original enough. Similar to Chopper Command -- not a literal (and licensed) port, but an obvious attempt to replicate a given arcade game at home.

     

    But it sure does get squishy fast when considering these things. At what point does Pac-Man become a port of Dodge 'Em to the arcade? :P

  15. Posted

    8bitdomain was offering this but I dont think he delivered any despite some people putting the money up front :roll:

     

     

    Yea, I remember that lol! I saw that some people actually put up over a 100 dollars for that fake adapter.

     

    Is the 5200 mod from 8bitdomain real, or is that fake, too? I'd like to buy one, but I'm not sure the place is legit, based on what you're saying.

     

    Real. Many people have it here on AA and it is excellent. I like it better than the 7800 because there is no soldering and you can easily move it from one 5200 to another if your 5200 dies.

     

    Allan

     

    Thank you!

  16. Posted

    8bitdomain was offering this but I dont think he delivered any despite some people putting the money up front :roll:

     

     

    Yea, I remember that lol! I saw that some people actually put up over a 100 dollars for that fake adapter.

     

    Is the 5200 mod from 8bitdomain real, or is that fake, too? I'd like to buy one, but I'm not sure the place is legit, based on what you're saying.

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