GeekGod

I have used a SCSI-to-IDE bridge adapter with both a Link2 & AdSCSI Micro ST and it worked fine. Once while messing around I hooked the AdSCSI Micro ST to a SCSI-to-IDE adapter, then an IDE to Compact Flash adapter, then a Compact Flash to SD card adapter, and I was able to format and install the ICD SCSI Pro Utilities on an SD card and boot my system. The SCSI-to-IDE adapter I used was an old Acard Tech AEC-7720U. The IDE to CF adapter was some generic one off of ebay, and the CF to SD adapter was the type-2 from Mittoni. I currenty have an old 2GB Quantum IDE drive in my Mega with the AdSCSI Micro ST & SCSI-to-IDE adapter.

And what does that have to do with the Marine scenario, and something that was written over 13 years ago when the game was still fresh and new? Oh, I forgot, you're Gunstar, the god of all video games. All right, dude, you win. You can play every game ever invented better than anyone that ever existed. Are you happy now? Sheesh, get a life.

Here's a mini guide I did in the way-back-when days... ================================= Jaguar help file: 10-25-94 (Tim Patrick, Kailua/Hawaii) ================================= The shortest way through the AvP MARINE game! It's possible to complete the MARINE scenario with only the level-6 and 10 security cards. Not easy... but possible. This is not a complete "walk through," but it does outline the steps needed to do it. I have finished the game in a single sitting, WITHOUT SAVING, in under 2 hours. Ready? Okay... Go through AIRDUCT-4B (from the "food" room in the Barracks) to the level-4 Training Maze, and then through AIRDUCT-4C to the level-4 MEDLAB to get the LEVEL-6 SECURITY CARD. There is also a Pulse-Rifle to be found a little north and west of the exit from airduct-4B, "Bug Soup!" If you didn't get the Pulse-Rifle in the Training Maze, stop by the ARMORY and get it, then go to the PREDATOR SHIP on level-1 and get the SMART GUN, "Rock And Roll!" Go to level-5 and get the MOTION TRACKER, "Run But You Can't Hide!" Then go to the ALIEN SHIP and find the Queen Alien, the LEVEL-10 SECURITY CARD is at the back of the Queen's egg room. By the way... you don't have any smart gun ammo, but there's some to be found on the Alien ship. With the level-10 card you can go to the MEDLAB and restore your health to 100%, then go to the Armory and get the FLAME THROWER, "I'll Tell Ya About Killin'!" Also, LOAD-UP on ammo! And last but not least, you can go to the COMMAND CENTER on level-2 and set the SELF DESTRUCT! 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... BOOM!! Finishing the game with only two security cards is difficult. You tend to run out of ammo before reaching the medlab. To make life a little easier on yourself, get the #1 card and go through airduct 3C from the kitchen to find the pulse-rifle, that'll give you a little more fire-power. (Or if you really want to do it with just 2 cards you could just go to level-1 and make a mad dash to the room north of the elevator. There's a pulse-rifle there, and you don't need a card to get in.) Also, when you go to level-1 to get the smart gun, get the level-7 security card from the room south of the elevator and stop by the armory to get the flame thrower on your way to the alien ship. Or, you could get the level-9 security card from the Predator ship and load up the smart gun while you're getting the flame thrower. This should allow you to finish the game in one sitting, without saving. Yes, there really is a PULSE-RIFLE on level-3. Airduct-3C (in the Kitchen) leads into a small room that opens to a small hallway on the back side of a "jammed" door, and another room with a dead body at the door. Walk over the body. There's another one on level-1 in the room north of the elevator, and yet another one in the level-4 Training Maze south, south and west of the east elevator (near the armory). These can all be reached with no more than a level ONE security card clearance. Aloha, from the Happy Hacker <><><>< Alien inside ><><><>

I was one of the fortunate ones that did get a Catbox. I knew Tom as well from many years of business dealings and although I don't remember the details, I recall there was some crazy stuff going on in his life back then and all the stress and problems finally got the better of him and he had to walk away from it or lose his sanity. It was an unfortunate situation, and believe me he was very hurt by it all too. Tom was one of many who got caught in the vortex of Atari's collapse and tried to stay in the game longer than he should have. He and ICD were once highly respected supporters of all things Atari, but now he is remembered only for his unfulfilled Catbox orders. I'm sorry for all the people that did not receive their Catbox. It really was a great product, as was all of the many ICD products I purchased over the years (most of which I still have, and still work). ...and speaking of my Catbox; hey Crash, were you able to troubleshoot yours?

Crash, Call me or email me to remind me about the Jag video info. I've got the Jag pinouts in my archives somewhere (probably on the MonSTer 520's hard drive). I probably still have the Jag VGA cable I made a long time ago, too. If not I've got the parts to make another easily. OT: the DVI-HDMI cable should work between your computer and TV. It's just that the HDTV is not a full multi-scanning display and only operates at specific frequencies. You need to make sure your video card is set to a compatible output mode before connecting it (you can't count on Plug-n-Pray to detect your TV reliably, trust me on this). I've run my computer on sets just like yours, so I know it works. I've also still got that old Sony RGB monitor that syncs in the 15KHz range. Sould work on the Jag. Hmm... I probably have a cable for that one too. I know I have a PSX cable for that one... can't imagine I didn't make a Jag cable as well. Gotta figure out where I put all that stuff. Aloha, GG (Tim)

Mine has a slightly older serial than that. K144005502 So it seems like I may have the ADC as well. Aloha, Tim

I won every game Datasoft had for the 8-bit at the time. (Which wasn't much, and most of which I already owned...) I also recall getting a letter or award certificate congratulating me. I'll have to look around and see if I still have that. The conest was for the best Good and Evil players. The guy that won for Evil called himself Orion, and was only level-10 (if I remember right). My Good character was level-13 when I won, and got to level 14 after that. I played The City mostly on an 800 with a pair of drives, but The Dungeon was played on my 256K modded 1200XL with 3 modded 1050 drives (2 Happys and a US Doubler). Much better game play with the extra RAM and drives. At one point I even wrote a special OS that set up the extra RAM as extra drives, and I would copy the back sides of the game disks into the RAM drives before playing. That worked really well! (Hmmm... I wonder if I still have the code for that anywhere?)

I didn't find Jag Doom much harder than other versions, except maybe PSX Doom. For me the Playstation controller just worked in Doom, and that made it easier to beat. I actually thought AvP was easier than Jag Doom. Doom is really just a twitch shooter. It's fun but requires more reflexes than strategy. I enjoy shooters, but have never had stellar reflexes and often have to use strategy to compensate. There is a lot more room for that in AvP. I completed all 3 scenarios, and found some interesting bugs in the game (like how to get the Queen to chase you out of her egg-room). And I even figured out how to finish the marine scenario with only 2 security cards! All in all I liked Jag Doom. I hacked together a home made Jag link cable (still have it, actually) and was playing Jag-Doom Deathmatch long before most others. After linking a bunch of different Jags together I found that the closer they were in manufacturing date the better they linked, and later model Jags were betther than earlier ones. There was no combination that linked error free, but with 2 late model Jags you could often play for hours with only a few errors (and no, the Catbox RS232 null-modem link didn't help). I remember hauling the Jag over to a friend's house for some Deathmatch action, only to find he didn't have an extra TV. He only had one big TV, but it had a PIP option. So I suggested we try it with 1 Jag in the Picture-In-Picture window, and he said, "Fine, but YOU get to play on the small PIP screen with no sound." So we hooked everything up and started to play, and he soon discovered that playing on the main screen was not the advantage he thought it would be. Everytime we would see each other and start shooting, I would run behind the PIP screen so he couldn't see me (hehehe).

Oh and a big Aloha to everyone else here on the forum. Noob here. Just signed up after stumbling across this place while searching for info. I was also a huge fan of the Alternate Reality series. I played both The City and The Dungeon a lot, although I have to admit I liked the Dungeon more [ducks]. In fact I became quite the Dungeon guru. I was the first to kill the Great Wyrm. I had a very high level great-good character (level-14, as I recall) that won the DataSoft character contest. I was the first to crack the character checksum protection and create custom characters (RoboCop was one of the more popular), and I wrote the first resurrection program to restore (rejoin) dead characters. I later updated that with a utility that could delete and even undelete accidentally deleted characters, and show both earned and bonus stats as well. And no, the character that slayed the Great Wyrm and won the contest was not hacked. I played that one legit. I still have a lot of my Atari stuff from way back when. Most of it is up in the attic, but I keep my heavily modded 520ST and 1200XL downstairs to play with from time to time. The 1200XL has 256K of RAM in a fully 130XE compatible upgrade that I made myself. It has a dual OS with 130XE OS for new stuff (with built-in revision-C Basic), and if you switch the channel 2/3 switch it changes to an old 800 OS-B for playing older games. The ram upgrade uses bits 7, 6, 3 & 2, but still keeps all the original functions, including the diagnostic ROM routines (normally controlled by bit-7). The control circuit is based on a design by Bob Wooley, but I added and extra logic gate that monitors the ram control bits, and when the default 64K is selected then bit-7 functions normally, but when any extra memory is selected then the dignostic ROM is disabled and bit-7 is used as a bank select bit. I wrote lots of cool little utilities back in the 8-bit's heyday, including the Ultra-Translator; a translator disk that ran way more stuff than Atari's own translator (it could even run cartridge programs) and the Happy-XL stuff. Aloha, Tim

Hey Gary, Long time no read. Wow, what a blast from the past. Glad you're still alive and kicking. I hope things are going well for you. I knew Phillip through some mutual friends, and I believe we met, but you probably don't remember me (my name is Tim, and they used to call me the Happy Hacker). Too bad you don't know what Phillip is up to nowadays, it would be nice to hear from him. I also knew Dan Pinal, who you worked with on The Dungeon. Any idea what he's up to now? I lost contact with him ages ago. Hey, do you remember Kris... or crap, what was her maiden name... um... Ching. Do you remember Kristine Ching? I'm still in touch with her (she lives a few minutes away from me). Anyway... nice to hear from you. Thanks for the AR music. Very cool! Aloha, Tim

Actually the high score was well over 650,000. I routinely scored higher than that, and my highest score was over 900,000! I remember once at an Atari club meeting someone saw my high score and accused me of hacking the score. His high score was around 275,000 and he thought he was good at the game. He just couldn't believe anyone could score that much higher than he could. So I sat down at his computer and played the game on his disk and got a score of something like 725,000, and SAVED the score to his disk! [heh] He was pretty pissed, but that's what he gets for accusing me of cheeting. Man, I wish I had been here when this contest was running. I played this game to death way back when. Oh well... I'm an old fart now, so I probably couldn't score anywhere near what I could in my younger days. If anyone's interested I can dig out my 8-bit and boot the disk to see exactly what my highest score was... Aloha.