RSS Bot

You can't do THIS on Nintendo. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/3/entry-15877-genesis-does-dynamite-duke/

Tomorrow is trash day. When neighboroughts throw away their stuff, something pays me attention. Someone throws away a painting. Probably his/her first try. I can't tell what is it and who drawn it. The author thinks this painting does not have any values and belongs to trash. Maybe he/she has personal reasons to not keep it. I decided to left the picture. It's not worth to have trouble by stealing garbage stuff. It's not happen often to find paintings in a trash can. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/56/entry-15876-trash-day-what-is-it/

Two nights ago, I had a dream idea. Sometimes I get an idea for something to do while I'm sleeping. Sometimes they're good ideas, sometimes they're bizarre. This fell into the bizarre category. I dreamed I was trying to make a crossword about apples. I was only half-asleep as I was trying to figure out the word placements and stuff. I told my mom about my dream and we spent the next few minutes trying to think of words containing the word "apple". And then, last night I dreamed it again. So I woke up at 3 A.M. to try and make a crossword about apples. Sounds really crazy, right? Luckily the crossword wasn't very big, 11 × 3, and all 3 of the across answers had to do with apples. At 4:30 A.M., I finished my first-ever Apples Crossword. I went back to sleep and woke up at about 9 A.M. with the phrase "Adam's apple" in my head for the basis of another one, and so I went to work. An hour later, it was completed. So what did I learn from all this? Just about anything can be a word to use in crosswords. Googling "Maa" came up with the name of an airport in India. And that I have really weird dreams. I feel like I'm half-asleep when I have these weird dream ideas. Perhaps it is because of this, the fact that I don't sleep well, is why I need 12 hours of sleep every night, and even then, am sleepy when I wake up. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15875-strange-recurring-dream/

As of right now the countdown timer should be over for Steam and PS4 users! From all of us at the Bubsy Bobcat Fan Blog, and friends, Have fun out there Bubsy gamers! Picture from SpongeFox.. Blog originally here: https://atariage.com/forums/blog/234/entry-15874-we-are-go-for-launch-for-bubsy-paws-on-fire/ Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/234/entry-15874-we-are-go-for-launch-for-bubsy-paws-on-fire/

After the comments on the blog entry Increased Backup Reserve I was curious how well this would work: As a reminder the circuits for the AC and the 14-50 outlet for my Tesla are in a new sub/side panel, which gets disabled if the grid goes down. My uncle had been visiting Texas. First week was here in Houston, then he picked up a rental at Exotic Car Collection by Enterprise and drove to Bandera for a week. He dropped the car off on Sunday so we picked him up, had a late Mothers' Day lunch, then dropped him off at the airport. When we got home I lowered my charge point to the lowest option of 50% so I could do some charging experiments on Monday. I waited until the Powerwall was full, which occurred sometime after 10am, then plugged the car in via the dryer outlet from which the car charges at 24 amps. 240 * 24 = 5,760, or 5.76 kW. Per the Technical Specs at the bottom of the Powerwall page, the Powewall can output 5 kW continuous, with 7 kW peaks. So charging should be possible with a full battery + some solar. It was, though it turned out to be mostly solar + some Powerwall. Actual voltage was 246 so charging was using 5.9 kW, meaning the rest of my home was using .9 kW at the time (all my work computers and lights in my office were powered up). So solar with fully charged Powerwall can handle this with ease. If solar wasn't producing enough I could lower the amps drawn via the screen in the car. I tried 16 amps, which results in a 4.0 kW draw for charging: That kept total usage below 5 kW, though it saw a significant reduction in charging rate from 23 to 7 miles per hour, so not the most efficient use of limited power in an emergency. I didn't try it at the time, but 5000 / 240 means about 20amp can be meet from the sustained draw of the Powerwall. That results in 16 miles per hour of charging, so quite a bit better. Finally I plugged the car back into the 14-50 and was pleasantly surprised to see that Solar + Powerwall was able to handle it without tapping into the grid. For some reason Tesla limits the draw when using the Gen 2 Mobile Connector with the 14-50 adapter to just 32 amps rather than the allowed 40 amps (a 14-50 circuit is rated for 50 amps, but for continuous loads like car charging you're only allowed to draw at 80%). If I had the older charging cable, or the Corded Mobile Connector (hardwired for 14-50), I could use the full 40 amps, which would increase usage 1.9 kW usage. So even that could be could still be supplied by Solar + Powerwall under ideal conditions (sunny day without clouds). I then headed out for lunch, plugged the car back in when I returned and allowed it to fully charge from 50% to 90% (max to charge to for daily use). I didn't monitor it, but by 5pm I could see in the usage graphs that grid hadn't been utilized, the car was full, and the Powerwall was full. I should have taken a screenshots of the graphs, but didn't think to at the time and the detailed info is no longer available (can only see today and yesterday). Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-15873-car-charging-via-solar-powerwall/

Kid’s games are exceptionally difficult to make, which is why so many of them are terrible. Many companies vie for the tried and true method of making a few cookie cutter minigames and plastering a well-known children’s character/icon on it. Some companies like Humungous Entertainment and Disney found ways to make kid’s games that kid’s will actually enjoy playing; they’re complex without being too difficult and not too easy to the point of being condescending. Unfortunately this is 1983 and we’re stuck with whatever Spinnaker is releasing on the Commodore systems and a few sporadic releases on the current consoles like the Electric Company: Word/Math Fun and a few Coleco releases based on the Cabbage Patch Kids and Smurfs (I’m sure there are more on home computers but I only know of these few on console). Enter Parker Brothers who released a slew of licensed games between 1982 and 1984, but all of these were for the most part based on characters and products aimed at boys or were at the very least marketed to kids in general, but what about the girls? Well the girls got what is probably Parker Brothers’ worst released game, Strawberry Shortcake Musical Matchups, holy crap this game… Let’s begin where we always do, the graphics. I’ll be honest here, the graphics are actually incredible, the spritework done is absolutely top notch. All five characters are colorful and complex to the point of actually looking like the character they’re meant to represent which is good frankly astounding for the 2600. The strange trellis gazebo thing they’re standing under is a bit odd looking, it resembles an extremely tall pink cupcake, or something I’d rather not talk about with kids nearby, the detail work is good and is passable as a whole. The background is okay the sky is blue and the sun is happy, the only other thing of note is the decent text they managed to get, it’s not often that you get legible writing on the 2600. It may seem odd but I think more care was placed into the music that was into either the graphics or gameplay. Each character has a decently long harmonized tune that plays when they are matched, more on that later, each song is split up into three different parts, more on that later again. Some of the music is excellent with different instrumentation for each song giving each it’s own feel to fit in with its respective character, the rest is a series of high pitch squeals that rends all the flesh from your ears. My personal favorite tune is the Purple Pieman’s because it is the catchiest and is far different from the rest. And now for the gameplay… Um… Where is it? I can’t seem to find any… This is a matching game where you put together three different parts of a character, head, torso, and legs. Upon matching all three parts and pressing the button you’ll hear the character’s complete song. If you don’t match the character parts but press the button anyway you’ll be treated to a messed up mish-mash of garbage, which would be an apt description of the game coincidentally. The manual for this game, which is a whopping four pages, is filled with the different game variations which simply add more things to match and a time limit. In one variation you have to match a character to the name displayed at the bottom and in another it’s the same thing but with a time limit, another is the same thing but with a faster time limit. I believe the final two variations have you matching the character and name to the song played at the beginning which is a bit more difficult but nowhere near engaging. This game is boring, this game is repetitive, and worst of all its condescending. “Here kids, match these same five things for an hour, and do it again tomorrow too”, a game like this would be ideal for ages 1-4 not 4-7 like the box says, I know Strawberry Shortcake was big back in the 80’s but this just wasn’t the way to go about making a game about it. Actually it would have been better if they’d copied what Coleco was doing and make a basic Pitfall! Style platforming game but with Strawberry Shortcake characters, not a matching game. If you want to buy this game (for some reason) it’ll cost you around 12 dollars for a loose cart and anywhere from 20-80 dollars for a boxed copy, I got ‘lucky’ and got mine boxed off Etsy for 15 dollars. If you have any self respect then don’t buy this game, it’s just stupid and rightfully goes to the Collector’s Zone. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15871-strawberry-shortcake-musical-match-ups-parker-brothers/

Today is the big launch day for Bubsy: Paws on Fire. First off, this bit of art from SpongeFox And a little word from the Bubster. Looks like we are now at his birthday... And with that link he gives you can hear tunes from Paws on Fire! https://twitter.com/Stemage/status/1128378944690868231 And finally, another picture from SpongeFox inspired by the talk on the Bubsy Discord server on that Bubsy is to DeeDee if Virgil Reality is Dexter. It works... Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/234/entry-15872-launch-day-for-new-bubsy-game-paws-on-fire-may-2019/

I got a new (well, as new as a console from 1976 can get) Channel F console in the mail today. And I am happy! I can now play Tic-Tac-Toe on it. I can play just about anything I want on it (that I have anyway). But I did find out as I suspected, my Alien Invasion cartridge does not work. But other than that, I am happy. Sounds come out of the machine. My Kevin Vs. Tomatoes game makes noises. It's lovely. It came with the owner's manual, which is huge. And also, a little notice that talks about it ONLY working on channel 4. "Because TV broadcasting varies from area to area and to assure you of the best possible reception and the most enjoyment from your Fairchild Video Entertainment System your console has been specifically calibrated to work ONLY when your TV is tuned to channel 4." Why did they do that? If I had this back in the day, I would have said "OK" since we had a station on channel 3 (KVDO) in Salem, but I don't know why they did that. It is a cold day here. I had to turn the furnace on because it was cold. And I got another shape working in my "Oh Well" INTV game. I've decided to work on one shape per day. Five more shapes to go. Fixed a few bugs on it. I guess, but it would pain me to do so, I'll put a copy of Alien Invasion in the pile of carts to convert to Killer Heads of Lettuce cartridges. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15870-my-channel-f-came/

I rewrote my wall checks for t-states and removed the IY and IX registers which should also improve speed. I also added an extra check so now walking through walls has been fixed in 4 directions. As soon as I implement the 4 diagonal directions I will post another update for you to test. Plenty of advice, some from Nanochess....thank you... I incorporated some of his input with what I already coded because I have to use IN A, (DATA_PORT) In order to use different pattern sets for the Super Game and different types of barriers. The Bridge is still a problem but I think I have a solution that may work. If not then it will just be a skinny bridge. I think I will be forgiven as long as it works. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/763/entry-15869-been-a-few-days-since-updates/

So I've been spending a long long time with INTYBasic these past few days. First I was going to create a game kind of like Castle of Doom only with a top down perspective. But I couldn't get the guy to move correctly. So then I thought "4-Tris is now in the hands of trolls who charge $500 or so on eBay, how about I make an obtainable version of that?" So that's what I've been doing today: Making a version of Tet**s on the Inty. Mine is called "Oh well." And since the well is only about half the height it should be, I don't know if I should go any further. Thinking of this as a challenging version of You-know-what-game or not. I got one shape in there. And you can turn it with the button. And you can move it left and right and even down. You'd think making a game like this would be easy, but no. It's way harder programming this than it looks. Making the blocks move left and right and blocking the blocks if other blocks are in the way. Same with down. And if the block can't move down further, making a new block appear at the top. What's really going to be challenging is programming the turning of all the other blocks (well, except the cube. It can't turn.) Just something to do to widdle the time away until my Channel F comes in the mail. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15868-oh-well/

Ladies and gentleman it is time for a true classic, AstroBlast… Originally released on the Intellivision as AstroSmash by Mattel the 2600 port followed soon after. Normally I’d do a comparison review for something like this but in the case of AstroBlast there is no comparison, the 2600 version comes out the victor, here’s why. AstroBlast uses the Paddle controllers which are a huge step up from the INTV’s rather clunky control disks, allowing for smooth and fluid movement and more engaging gameplay, the game does have the option to use the standard joystick but the Paddle is recommended in the manual. While the graphics on the INTV version are undoubtedly superior, the 2600’s zoomed in perspective makes the game a bit more challenging and fun. With the zoomed in perspective you have less time to react to incoming objects which makes the game even more frantic without having to increase the difficulty. I guess that’s my issue with the INTV version, it’s just a bit too easy, and games can go on for a very long time, they even built in a pause feature because of this. With the 2600 version the games are short, frantic, and challenging, just what I want from a 2600 shooter. Copies are fairly common and you shouldn’t have any issue finding a copy in the wild for a couple dollars. But if you just can’t find a copy to save your life then they go for 4-10 dollars on Ebay with boxed copies going for 7-20 dollars. It’s just an excellent game to play in short bursts, and is everything that I need from a shooter. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15867-astroblast-m-network/

I believe in truth in advertising. Also - I'm nostalgic for this setup as I filmed it before I tore up my rec room. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/3/entry-15866-a-stack-of-gamecube-games/

Hello everyone, AtariAddenture here. I'm finally back, and senior year is just a few days from ceasing and graduation is on Saturday. It has been awhile since I have been on here and I wanted to update you all on my personal collection! I'm up to 64 games excluding doubles of Haunted House (3), and Asteroids (2). I bought a few lots of of friends. I added some new titles to my lineup: Video Pinball Superman Spider Fighter Grand Prix Freeway Laser Blast Boxing Sky Jinks Reactor Name This Game Demons To Diamonds Night Driver Football Super Football Jungle Hunt E.T The Extraterrestrial Towering Inferno Yars Revenge (with Box) Dodge 'Em (with Box and Manual) Slot Racers (with Box and Manual) Demon Attack Star Voyager (with Box) Cosmic Ark (with Box) Atlantis (with Box) Breakaway IV (Sears Breakout) Target Fun (Sears Air-Sea Battle) Race (Sears Indy 500) I hope to increase the collection more in the future, mainly with Activision and arcade ports. Happy gaming! http://atariage.com/forums/blog/735/entry-15865-my-collection-has-increased/

So I just bought another Channel F on eBay. Let me explain. The first one I bought a couple of days ago is the first model. The one I just bought now is a model 2. Plus it has a joystick. And it's in Phoenix, so it doesn't have quite as long a trek over here as the other things I bought. Plus it is free shipping. You can't beat free shipping. As a result, I may have a spare Channel F to keep just in case one breaks. My Odyssey 2 broke and I'm using the spare one I had and I don't have any spares, but I don't use it all that much any more. So now I have 3 broken Odyssey 2s in the garage. I think I should go in there and see what can go to the great recycling place in the sky. Plus, I have a digital camera now. I was using my phone, but I finally found the cord (after MONTHS of searching in various places) that I use to recharge the digital camera so I recharged it and now it works great. Interesting that a small house can have tons of places where things can hide. The guy that I bought the first Channel F from hasn't shipped it yet. And all I want is a working Channel F. Apparently that's too much to ask for. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15864-channel-ff/

Game: Draconian System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Developer: SpiceWare Publisher: Atari Age Programmed by: Darrell Spice, Jr. Graphics and Level Design by: Nathan Strum Sound Effects, Music, Digitized Voices by: Mike Haas CDF Driver co-written by: Darrell Spice, Jr., Chris Walton, Fred Quimby Cartridge Size: 32K CDF Copyright: 2017 Genre: Shoot 'em Up; Multi-directional scrolling Homebrew Port (Bosconian) Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1 Rarity Rating: H (Homebrew) FROM THE ATARI AGE STORE PAGE: Enemy forces have had the audacity to invade our galaxy and set up occupation forces, operating from space stations that have been strategically placed throughout the five quadrants of our galaxy. (We’re aware that there should only be four quadrants, but interplanetary gerrymandering resulted in there being a fifth one.) Your mission is to choose one of the quadrants, then clear out the enemy forces, one sector at a time. This is an excellent port of the arcade classic Bosconian. It fact it's two ports in one, as it replicates the levels found in the Namco original, and those found in the North American release by Midway. Actually, it contains even more Bosconian goodness. The game includes 5 Quadrants, with 4 Difficulty Modes for each. Kids, Easy, Normal, Hard. The 5 Quadrants are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. A = 17 Midway sectors, last 6 repeat (after sector 256 it goes back to sector 1). There are a few repeated sectors within it, 13-15 are a repeat of sectors 9, 5, then 10. B = 22 Namco sectors, last 6 repeat. Likewise there are repeated sectors within it, including some from the A quadrant. Γ = 9 Tribute sectors, all 9 repeat. Stations are arranged to render the initials of key contributors within the radar. Δ = 16 Contest sectors, all 16 repeat. E = randomly generated sectors. These are not repeats of any of the other 4 quadrants, 8 stations are randomly positioned at the start of each sector. Additional Info has been added to the above breakdown of the 5 Quadrants, and was provided to me by SpiceWare. Each Space Station has 6 Weapons Pods, except for the DELTA Quadrant, where there are some sectors with Mega Space Stations (my name for them, as they aren't mentioned in the manual). These larger stations contain a secret hidden inside, which I won't spoil for you here.* Delta Quadrant sector levels designed by Anders Carlsson, Alessandro Ciceri, Steve Damon, Chris Derrig, German Gonzlaez-Morris, James Earl O'Brien. SCORING: All of this lined up properly when I typed all of this in. How it posts is a different story entirely. Asteroids ..................................................10 Points Cosmo Space Mine...................................20 Points I-Type missile............................................50 Points P-Type missile...........................................60 Points E-Type missile...........................................70 Points I-Type formation Leader...........................100 Points P-Type formation leader...........................120 Points E-Type formation leader...........................140 Points Spy Ship.....................................200/400/800 Points Destroy Station Weapons Pod.................200 Points Destroy Station.......................................1500 Points Destroy all ships in I-Type formation........500 Points Destroy all ships in P-Type formation.....1000 Points Destroy all ships in E-Type formation.....1500 Points You begin each game with four ships. You earn extra ships at 20,000 and 70,000 points. Thereafter you earn an additional ship every 70,000 points. So at 140,000, 210,000, 280,000, etc. In an earlier Blog entry I asked what would happen if the player should reach 1 million points, as the font used to display your score during game play appears too large for the additional digit.+ Well, today I found out while playing in the ALPHA Quadrant in the Kids difficulty. In fact I hit 1,332,030 points. The game continued displaying my score just fine. Something that I found interesting was when I earned a 10th Extra Ship. Up until then the game displayed a single digit, as you'd expect, however when I earned the 10th one the game displayed something else. I paused the game long enough to get my wife from the living room. I gave her my Smart Phone and asked her to take a photo of the screen. She took several, but all were too blurry to go by. I thought that it looked like a Capitol H, but my wife said no, it was the Roman Numeral 10 (looks like a Capitol X)**. Since I'm dyslexic I'll go with her assessment, especially as it makes more sense than an H. This is an exceptionally good game. The Melody Board's CDF mode is put to good use, allowing for Digitized Voices without the need of an AtariVox. Features also include TV-Type Detection. Cartridge is compatible with the NTSC, PAL, and SECAM Standards. It should auto-detect which standard you are using, however if for some reason that fails to work you can manually select which Standard to use via the menu. The game also includes a pause feature. If played on a 2600/VCS toggle between Color and B/W to pause. On the 7800 ProSystem simply hit the pause button. Hitting the fire button will un-pause the game. SOUND This homebrew port of Bosconian includes the following voice clips: Blast Off! Alert! Alert! Battle Stations! Spy Ship Sighted! Condition Red!! PACKAGING: Excellent For $35 you get the cartridge, 8 page color manual, and 10" x 14" poster by Nathan Strum. The Box Upgrade is only $15 (while supplies last), bringing the total to $50 (not including Shipping, or Atari Age Annual Subscriber's discount). Of the games for the 2600 that I've reviewed so far, this is easily the best. RANKING: 1 (out of 9) Draconian (Homebrew port of Bosconian) Worm War I Demolition Herby Allia Quest (Homebrew) Naughty List (Homebrew) Tapeworm (with the sound turned down low) Bell Hopper (Homebrew) Alligator People (Prototype) Fire Fly ATARI AGE DRACONIAN PROMOTIONAL VIDEO YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEW OF DRACONIAN AtariLeaf REVIEWED GAMES IN THE DATABASE AT HIGH SCORE http://highscore.com/ Allia Quest Bell Hopper Demolition Herby Draconian Fire Fly Naughty List Tapeworm Worm War I So only Alligator People is missing from the HS database, although I have requested it. ATARI AGE DRACONIAN STORE PAGE https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1107 OTHER GAMES BY DARRELL SPICE, JR. INCLUDE Medieval Mayhem Stay Frosty Stay Frosty 2 Space Rocks *"A number of the levels entered in the Draconian Δ Quadrant Sector Design Contest have names. Level with the Mega Space Stations is named The hunt for the 4 mukors as the stacked stations appear similar to the boss in the arcade game Blasteroids." -SpiceWare **"It's an X and stands for eXceeds 9 lives, shown if you have 10 or more lives remaining." - SpiceWare +The Maximum Score displayable on the Title Screen is 99,999,999. However while playing only 7 digits will fit on-screen. Additional information added to this review came courtesy of SpiceWare. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15863-game-review-9-draconian-atari-2600-updated/

Game: Draconian System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade Developer: SpiceWare Publisher: Atari Age Programmed by: Darrell Spice, Jr. Graphics and Level Design by: Nathan Strum Sound Effects, Music, Digitized Voices by: Mike Haas CDF Driver co-written by: Darrell Spice, Jr., Chris Walton, Fred Quimby Cartridge Size: 32K CDF Copyright: 2017 Genre: Shoot 'em Up; Multi-directional scrolling Homebrew Port (Bosconian) Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad Compatible) Players: 1 Rarity Rating: H (Homebrew) FROM THE ATARI AGE STORE PAGE: Enemy forces have had the audacity to invade our galaxy and set up occupation forces, operating from space stations that have been strategically placed throughout the five quadrants of our galaxy. (We’re aware that there should only be four quadrants, but interplanetary gerrymandering resulted in there being a fifth one.) Your mission is to choose one of the quadrants, then clear out the enemy forces, one sector at a time. This is an excellent port of the arcade classic Bosconian. It fact it's two ports in one, as it replicates the levels found in the Namco original, and those found in the North American release by Midway. Actually, it contains even more Bosconian goodness. The game includes 5 Quadrants, with 4 Difficulty Modes for each. Kids, Easy, Normal, Hard. A ALPHA {Midway arcade levels} B BETA {Namco arcade levels} r GAMMA {Draconian contributors} ^ DELTA {Submitted by Atari Age members} E EPSILON {randomly generated} Each Space Station has 6 Weapons Pods, except for the DELTA Quadrant, where there are some Sectors with Mega Space Stations (my name for them, as they aren't mentioned in the manual). These larger stations contain a secret hidden inside, which I won't spoil for you here. Delta Quadrant Sector levels designed by Anders Carlsson, Alessandro Ciceri, Steve Damon, Chris Derrig, German Gonzlaez-Morris, James Earl O'Brien. SCORING: All of this lined up properly when I typed all of this in. How it posts is a different story entirely. Asteroids ..................................................10 Points Cosmo Space Mine...................................20 Points I-Type missile............................................50 Points P-Type missile...........................................60 Points E-Type missile...........................................70 Points I-Type formation Leader...........................100 Points P-Type formation leader...........................120 Points E-Type formation leader...........................140 Points Spy Ship.....................................200/400/800 Points Destroy Station Weapons Pod.................200 Points Destroy Station.......................................1500 Points Destroy all ships in I-Type formation........500 Points Destroy all ships in P-Type formation.....1000 Points Destroy all ships in E-Type formation.....1500 Points You begin each game with four ships. You earn extra ships at 20,000 and 70,000 points. Thereafter you earn an additional ship every 70,000 points. So at 140,000, 210,000, 280,000, etc. In an earlier Blog entry I asked what would happen if the player should reach 1 million points, as the font used to display your score during game play appears too large for the additional digit. Well, today I found out while playing in the ALPHA Quadrant in the Kids difficulty. In fact I hit 1,332,030 points. The game continued displaying my score just fine. Something that I found interesting was when I earned a 10th Extra Ship. Up until then the game displayed a single digit, as you'd expect, however when I earned the 10th one the game displayed something else. I paused the game long enough to get my wife from the living room. I gave her my Smart Phone and asked her to take a photo of the screen. She took several, but all were too blurry to go by. I thought that it looked like a Capitol H, but my wife said no, it was the Roman Numeral 10 (looks like a Capitol X). Since I'm dyslexic I'll go with her assessment, especially as it makes more sense than an H. This is an exceptionally good game. The Melody Board's CDF mode is put to good use, allowing for Digitized Voices. Features also include TV-Type Detection. Cartridge is compatible with the NTSC, PAL, and SECAM Standards. It should auto-detect which standard you are using, however if for some reason that fails to work you can manually select which Standard to use via the menu. The game also includes a pause feature. If played on a 2600/VCS toggle between Color and B/W to pause. On the 7800 ProSystem simply hit the pause button. Hitting the fire button will un-pause the game. SOUND This homebrew port of Bosconian includes the following voice clips: Blast Off! Alert! Alert! Battle Stations! Spy Ship Sighted! Condition Red!! PACKAGING: Excellent For $35 you get the cartridge, 8 page color manual, and 10" x 14" poster by Nathan Strum. The Box Upgrade is only $15 (while supplies last), bringing the total to $50 (not including Shipping, or Atari Age Annual Subscriber's discount). Of the games for the 2600 that I've review so far, this is easily the best. RANKING: 1 (out of 9) Draconian Worm War I Demolition Herby Allia Quest (Homebrew) Naughty List (Homebrew) Tapeworm (with the sound turned down low) Bell Hopper (Homebrew) Alligator People (Prototype) Fire Fly ATARI AGE DRACONIAN PROMOTIONAL VIDEO YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEW OF DRACONIAN AtariLeaf REVIEWED GAMES IN THE DATABASE AT HIGH SCORE http://highscore.com/ ATARI AGE DRACONIAN STORE PAGE https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1107 OTHER GAMES BY DARRELL SPICE, JR. INCLUDE Medieval Mayhem Stay Frosty Stay Frosty 2 Space Rocks Please feel free to comment. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15863-game-review-9-draconian-atari-2600/

Sometimes, I think cats are aliens from another planet. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/56/entry-15862-scary-cat/

I thought my MIDI I had made of Dream Theater's "The Count of Tuscany" was awful sparse, so I am trying to remake it. The first time around I had just copied the sheet music into the MIDI making program, but as it turns out after listening to the song, there's a lot more notes that are missing from the sheet music? How many? I'm almost up to the original's size after just 1/4 of the way into the song. I actually had to give up once due to the stupid software (and the complexity of the song). But I tried again. You see, the stupid program allows different tracks to have different measure times. A track that is 4/4 in one spot, on another track could be 9/8, etc. Also taking into account is the fact that Dream Theater in general likes to change its measure times. A lot. So I'm having to change six tracks' times one by one an awful lot. And I can't imagine I'd have to limit myself to just 6 different tracks (instruments). I bet a lot of the other long songs I've made MIDIs of have lots of time changes and key changes, but since I didn't have sheet music to follow along to, I kept things simple. But about a year ago or so, I went into the music store and got some blank sheet music (I don't know why), I was looking at the sheet music books for different bands and stuff and found a book about Dream Theater's "Black Clouds and Silver Linings," so even though the book cost $22.00 (!) I bought it because I thought doing "The Count of Tuscany" (A 19-minute-long song off the album) would make a good project. I have all these makework projects so I don't get super bored. And when I get super bored, I go to work on one. Some are video game coding (like my Channel F Golf project), some are music-related. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15861-remaking-a-midi/

Dammit Mystique! I thought I took you behind the utility shed and put a slug through your miserable skull a long time ago. As it turns out I’m a fool, Mystique never dies, it is a zombie of a company, shuffling around and vomiting its wares into any store that would take it. Mystique! What do you have to say for yourself? “It’s a joke?” My boy, this isn’t 2015 YouTube anymore that shit won’t fly, it didn’t fly in 1982, and it sure as shit doesn’t fly now, that being said I don’t care. Bachelor Party had long eluded me as the final game I need to complete the Mystique trilogy of Adult games and I wish I could say that I just found this one on Ebay but I actually forgot about reviewing it for a solid month until I remembered I had it prominently displayed on my shelf and was completely ignoring it. I really wish I had a clever segue to transition to the bulk of the review but this came is just sapping the life from me. Behold depravity thy name is Bachelor Party. The graphics on display here are actually quite inferior to the games that came before and after it. I’ll admit that Mystique usually did a good job when it came to the graphics in their games; they’re usually complex and colorful but Bachelor Party is only colorful. The game consists of only three main graphical elements, the bachelor, the lovely ladies, and the paddle. You’ll be able to figure out what the lumpy blob the is supposed to be the bachelor is without much complex thought, the lovely ladies are strange messes of pixels that look like graphical corruption and the paddle requires the manual to figure out what it is. The rest of the visuals are just colorful borders, the life counter, the score counter, and the Mystique logo, this is seriously a graphically lacking game. If there’s one thing the programmers didn’t skimp on it was the music, actually I wouldn’t be surprised if more space was dedicated to the sound rather than to the graphics. When starting the game you’ll be treated to a short but well done rendition of Auld Lang Syne. When you start bopping your bachelor around, like a big bubbly balloon, you’ll be treated to 1.5 seconds of Flight of the Bumblebee and when you ‘score’ with a gal you’ll hear that all too familiar Charge. The sounds aren’t actually all that bad it’s a pity then that they’re attached to this train wreck of a game. Normally I’d start with an overview of the game premise but Bachelor Party is pretty self explanatory and besides I’d rather talk shit about it instead. This is the perfect example of how not to make a Pong/Breakout game, starting with the paddle. The paddle is too tall and too narrow when compared to the size of the object you’re hitting around, the paddle is about half the height of the bachelor. You’d think having a large object is a good thing and makes the game easier but it actually has the opposite effect and makes the game incredibly difficult to play since you have absolutely no room for error when positioning the paddle and too many times I started the game and just missed the bachelor without even hitting him once. Since the paddle is so narrow it is incredibly difficult to influence the direction of the bachelor, unlike in Pong or Breakout where hitting certain sections of the paddle will make the ball rebound at a different angle, if you’re lucky the bachelor will hit all the ladies in a row otherwise you’ll be stuck on a loop for the rest of the game. The second game variation is probably the most fun you’ll have in the game, two rows of ladies slowly advance toward the left of the screen and you just have to hit as many as you can before they vanish and a new row appears. Due to the changing position of the ladies you’ll be rebounding at different angles constantly which means you won’t get stuck in endless loops, but that still doesn’t save the game from being absolutely terrible to play. This game just doesn’t work, you cannot have a Breakout style game where the ball is twice the size of the paddle, actually you can’t have a Breakout style game where the ball is as big as the targets it’s trying to hit. In both concept and execution Bachelor Party fails miserably, and I’m not even taking into account that this is an adult game; just in general this game is absolute trash. Both Beat ‘em & Eat ‘em and Custer’s Revenge had some element of challenge and difficulty, they could actually be classified as games, I do not think Bachelor Party is a game and I will not classify it as such, it is a mess and nothing more. Do not buy this thing, I will not even quote a price for it I think so lowly of it, get this trash out of my sight. Also the paddle is called a Spanish Fly in the manual and according to Urban Dictionary ‘Spanish Fly’ is a “Aphrodisiacal elixr made from the crushed body parts of the blister beetles Cantharis vesicatoria or Lytta vesicatoria. Purported to arouse those that ingest it. Toxic in large quantities.” Great visual Metaphor guys. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15857-bachelor-party-mystique/

The twitter Bubsy just posted this for mother's day... Also I've we've been having fun with a group of great Bubsy fans on the Discord server. Here is the link! https://t.co/PwAjl0FXh3 ---------- And BTW, Sponge Fox has had other doodles that we've been meaning to share but there has been so much good Bubsy news going on. More news coming up soon as the digital copies of Bubsy: Paws on Fire open up on the Playstation and steam in just five days!! Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/234/entry-15860-cruisin-discord-and-happy-mothers-day-may-2019/

...Well, new to me anyway. I finally got fed up with my semi-functioning one that I bought one off of eBay. I've always wanted to play the version of Tic-Tac-Toe. I don't know the problem of the Channel F I have now, but the buttons are screwed up and I can only do games 3 & 4. Or perhaps that is what it is only on Cart #1. See, it's so screwed up I can't figure out what its problem is. So if the one I bought comes and works properly, I'll be very happy. I took the Channel F apart and tried to see what was wrong with it but I couldn't figure it out. So I'm wondering if it is recycling-worthy. I like my golf game and am wanting a snazzy label for it because I feel it deserves one. I need hole ideas for holes 6-9 and then I can call it finished. I tried to redesign the guy but the golf ball got misplaced so I couldn't. Apparently it always needs to be at the lower left hand corner of the other sprite for it to work for reasons I don't know. I also want to release the lettuce game, but it's not finished yet. e5frog is apparently still working on it. What I also did is I got a Neo Geo Pocket Color. I spent most of the time playing Bust-A-Move. I got to level 20 before I quit. I am wondering if there is a way to always have the preview line on all the time so I don't miss shots and misplace my ball. That would be nice. I played Sonic a little bit. Luckily the cart got to level 4 so I was able to play some of the previous levels the other guy beat. They are hard. I could not beat Dr. Robotnik in the Casino zone. And it's odd that I always start with 0 lives. Why? http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15858-a-new-channel-f/

This is the box for the unreleased game Astro Grover for the Atari 5200. The front art and texts are from the CBS release for the Atari 8bit series. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/375/entry-15856-astro-grover-atari-5200/

One thing about having the Tesla App for my Solar and Powerwall is I'm more aware of my power usage, which reminded me that my floor lamps use 300w halogen bulbs. Over the past few years I've on occasion looked for a suitable replacement for the lamp, but never had any luck. This time around I found an LED Replacement bulb that looked interesting, it's even dimmable. Only 200 watt equivalent though, so I ordered 1 to try it out: Halogen: LED: Looks good, and the dimming feature works well with my Insteon smart switches, but I like to read in the living room and the decrease in brightness is enough that I don't care for it in this room. However, I have 2 of the same lamps in my TV room and those are always dimmed so the LED replacement will work fine in there. So I plan to order another for that room, and keep looking for something for the living room. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-15855-led-replacement-for-halogen/

http://anthologyone.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/986721 http://atariage.com/forums/blog/757/entry-15854-space-roanoke-31/

And my home video arcade grows! Last time, I added three new Tiny Arcade games: Galaga, Dig Dug and Frogger. This time, it's Q*bert and Tetris: In my first review of these, I mentioned Q*bert as a good candidate for becoming one of these Tiny Arcade games. I didn't think they'd make it though, because it requires the joystick to be turned 45°. Well, they actually did it - and it plays really well! Q*bert moves pretty quickly, and Ugg and Wrongway come out almost immediately in the second level, so the difficulty isn't quite right, but as I've mentioned before, these aren't meant to be exact, accurate re-creations of the arcade games. They're novelties and collectibles. They're completely playable, but really not intended for hours-on-end of gaming. Tetris is a little odd to have as one of these, because I never really considered it an arcade game (although it certainly was). I always just considered it a computer or console game. But of course, I had to buy it anyway. It plays perfectly, although because the controls are backwards (I'm used to playing Chetiry right-handed), I keep accidentally fast-dropping pieces when I don't want to. My muscle memory is refusing to be re-trained. These are still fun little cabinets to collect, and if anything, the playability is improving. Super Impulse will be releasing two more of these in June, too: Pole Position and Rally-X. And of course, I'll buy them. I'm going to need a couple more inches of shelf space though... (The hardest part of taking this picture was to get all of the cabinets to stay on long enough. They go into power-saving mode pretty quickly once a game ends.) I wonder what they might make next? Xevious? Scramble? They've already licensed some games from Namco and Konami. Berzerk and Phoenix would be great, too. There are a lot of possibilities. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/118/entry-15853-and-yet-still-another-small-diversion/