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I worked on Get Out Of My Way, a brawler/beat'em up game for Colecovision. What's new: - More bad guys to punch. Ouch! - You can beat down the ennemies at any order. - Three rooms to deal with. I noted there some lags or slowdown in the game. Bad guys won't fight. They will someday. Here the rom to play with: That's all. Good bye. Attached thumbnail(s) Attached File(s) result.rom (13.56KB) Number of downloads: 0 http://atariage.com/forums/blog/56/entry-15828-goomw-new-demo/

I changed the title screen of Frank the Fruit Fly. I explained you can press the B button to put in a password (passnumber?) or press A to start anew. I also made the title screen song a little longer (it's now about 25 seconds long.) So the picture to the left is what I have for a title screen. And now I'm bored. What do you think about the new title screen? http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15827-new-title-screen/

After my Windows 7 computer died in March of 2015, I got a Hewlett-Packard Windows 8.1 computer from Walmart: atariage.com/forums/topic/236241-array0-degraded-intel-rapid-storage-technology/ Avast screwed up my computer in May of 2018 and the PC magically healed itself, but it never quite acted right after that. I guess my free Avast subscription must have expired or something about a month ago because it kept being blank and not doing anything when I opened it. I uninstalled it, but of course, Avast acts like a virus and blocks the Windows anti-virus from working after Avast has been uninstalled. I wasn't going to fiddle with the registry and risk messing up my computer to fix the problem, so I didn't have any ant-virus protection. I should have re-downloaded Avast, but I was sick of using an anti-virus program that acts like a virus. My old version of Firefox was giving me problems. It was slow so I disabled some add-ons. It wouldn’t load properly after restarting it, so I uninstalled it and downloaded the latest version of Firefox. I forgot that I didn’t have No-Script running and Googled how to get the tabs at the bottom, then got a virus. I unplugged my external hard drive as fast as I could and I couldn’t turn my computer off so I yanked the plug from it. [The Best Buy guy thinks I downloaded a fake version of Firefox from a lookalike web site (thanks to money-grubbing ad happy Google) and got the virus that way instead of visiting an infected web page.] My sister and I went to Best Buy to see what our options were. The guys at Best Buy were trying to talk me into getting my computer fixed, but once I said it was windows 8.1, they quickly changed their minds and said "oh yeah, you do need a new computer." We had a little over $200 left on the Best Buy Card, so we used $200 of that and the rest on my sister's credit card. Here is the computer that we ended up getting: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-desktop-intel-core-i3-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-128gb-solid-state-drive-hp-finish-in-natural-silver/6290502.p?skuId=6290502 HP - Pavilion Desktop - Intel Core i3 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive + 128GB Solid State Drive - HP Finish In Natural Silver $529.99 Windows 10 operating system Windows 10 brings back the Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you markup Web pages on your screen. 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-8100 processor Smart quad-core, eight-way processing performance. 8GB system memory for advanced multitasking Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games and photo- and video-editing applications, as well as multiple programs and browser tabs all at once. DVD/CD burner Reads and writes to a variety of media formats, including DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW. 1TB hard drive and 128GB solid state drive (SSD) for a blend of storage space and speed The hard drive provides ample storage, while the SSD delivers faster start-up times and data access. Built-in media reader for simple photo transfer Supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory card formats. 4 SuperSpeed 5Gbs USB 3.1 ports Ultra-fast data connections to transfer large files rapidly. 4 USB 2.0 ports Quick plug-and-play connectivity for your devices and accessories. Roadrunner mentioned Webroot in my status update while I was away from AtariAge and that’s what the main helpful guy at Best Buy recommended, so we got It for a year. It's nice to have confirmation that we got the right thing. The plan is to put Webroot on the new PC, put the hard drive from my virus-infected computer into an enclosure (turning it into an external hard drive), plug that into the new computer with a USB cable, then use Webroot to kill the virus. I’ll get any files that I need off that hard drive that I haven’t already made back ups of on another external hard drive. Problem is Best Buy didn’t have any hard drive enclosures. I guess I’ll have to order it from Amazon. Please post the one you think might work. Even after the guy carried the computer out to the car, I still kind of felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach and punched me in the chest. It’s nice to have a new computer, but since I can’t remember anything useful, it will be hard to start all over again and try to get a few of my favorite programs installed and set up the way I like them. After Best Buy, my sister extended my birthday fun. We went to a Mexican restaurant, then we went to Dave and Busters to play Wednesday half price games. We played air hockey, ski ball, a couple basketball games, a sit down Jurassic Park game where you shoot dinosaurs, and a couple random other games. I felt better after that. Tip Jar http://atariage.com/forums/blog/120/entry-15826-got-a-new-computer-from-best-buy-2019/

During the day the Powerwall will charge up using any excess solar. It will feed back to the house if solar isn't producing enough, but will stop doing that if it drops down to 16%. It's been very overcast today, so my Powerwall's not gained very much. Just received this: Status shows Storm Watch Powerflow shows the battery's now charging from both AC and Solar, normally it does not charge from AC. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-15825-storm-watch/

http://anthologyone.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/986437 This one is better than I remember... http://atariage.com/forums/blog/757/entry-15824-space-roanoke-30/

There seems to be a lot of discussions about bezel colors when referencing both the Heavy Sixer and Light Sixer. I have spent about a year researching this on the interwebs. combing through many discussion forums, and studying many photos and my own personal collection, I think I have finally have a answer. The quick answer is.....every six switch made in Sunnyvale has more of a "Yellow" coloring on it's bezel, and every six switch made over seas has a more deep "Orange" color (like the Orange coloring of the 4 Switch consoles). EXPLANATION.......... Most people are aware of the Heavy Sixer. The Heavy Sixer was first released in 1977, made in beautiful Sunnyvale CA. I would say 90% of the time, if you have a Sunnyvale H6er, then chances are the bezel coloring is more Yellowish then Orange. The reason for that is because that's the true color. It's not because it's "old faded orange" (I'll elaborate on that later). What people might not know is, in 1978 Atari reached out overseas to continue production of the next variation of Atari (the Light Sixer). These were to be produced in Taiwan. However, in the spring of 78 Taiwan produced a limited number of Heavy Sixers before they completely switched over to Light Sixers. (Yes, there are H6ers out there that were made in Taiwan) Those H6ers overseas were produced with the same dark "Orange" colored bezel that the overseas Light Sixers were. Here is a overseas Heavy Sixer (TOP) H6er from Taiwan with Orange bezel plate (BOTTOM) Sunnyvale H6er with Yellow bezel plate The color difference is also true for the CX-10 joysticks. Since most the H6er's were Sunnyvale, most of the CX-10 joysticks will be Yellow. The color of the joysticks were always made to match the Atari's faceplate bezel. This was also true for the H6er's built overseas. Sunnyvale CX-10 (Left) Taiwan CX-10 (Right) .........the Light Sixer.......... By 1978 full production of the Light Sixer started up. Majority of the Light Sixers were produced in Hong Kong. Sunnyvale Light Sixers were also produced, however they didn't produce as many as the Hong Kong factories. For the Light Sixers, the color variant continued. All Hong Kong produced Light Sixers were a deep Orange Color, While the Sunnyvale Light Sixers Maintained the Yellow tone. (TOP) Sunnyvale Light Sixer (Bottom) Hong Kong Light Sixer Now of course I have found a few Atari's that don't quite match up with this theory. But it's been over 40 years and many consoles have not been kept in original condition, and many people have restored their Atari's sometimes altering the colors. But with my research, I have found this to be almost 95% accurate with every Atari I have owned and seen. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/764/entry-15823-yellow-and-orange-bezel-colors-explained/

A NTSC version of this game shouldn't exist... and yet I'm holding it in my hand. Watch this tonight at 8 PM ET! http://atariage.com/forums/blog/3/entry-15822-genesis-does-mega-man-the-wily-wars/

So after a ton worth of more work, I think I finally have the button pushing problem solved in the password screen of Frank the Fruit Fly for the Pokemon Mini. Also, today is my half-birthday. I want cake. I was looking on the Wayback Machine's archives. I looked up atariage.com/forum/. In June 2006, I was doing this blog. I've been doing this blog shortly after I joined and it's been 13 years since I joined. Out of curiosity, I looked up atari2600land.com, my website. There it was, a snapshot of my website as it was in 2008. It's hard to believe I've been doing this thing for 13 years now. I don't know if that makes me old, or what. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15821-pushing-my-buttons/

Of the nine titles that Atari released in 1977 I have reviewed three of them, them being Combat™, Star Ship™, and Indy 500™, I think it’s about time to add another to that list. Now I think we can all agree that some of these titles have not aged all that well, sure they were well liked back in the day (with the exception of Basic Math™ BLECH) but they were all new and unique ideas that hadn’t really been explored before on a home console, yes the Channel F did it first but Atari did it right. Due to these games extreme old age and dated graphics ‘Atari detractors’/12-20 year olds playing whatever new game is popular today always use them as a reason to mock and criticize the console, and while some of those criticism could be warranted, yes the graphics haven’t aged well and the sounds are very basic (No Timmy CD’s did not exist back then) the core gameplay is still solid. One of the launch titles that always seems to get a bad rep is Street Racer™ and I can tell you exactly why, the graphics are terrible. Well the graphics are almost terrible, yes the ‘car’ does not look like a car it looks more like the drive train of a car rather than a whole car, but this isn’t the whole story. Many people who are inexperienced with the 2600 often forget that there is more to the game than the default game variation; if you had the picture label cartridge and no manual/box you wouldn’t know that this game has 27 game variations with 6 different gameplay styles. Each style has its own set of graphics, so here’s what I’ll do; I’ll write out a separate paragraph about each gameplay style and highlight the game variations that are the most fun out of each of them. Game #1: Street Racer™, variations 1-6 This is a rather generic avoid ‘em type game where you move your car side to side at the bottom of the screen and avoid incoming cars. You gain one point for every car you pass 99 points ends the game if you don’t run out the 2 minutes 16 second time limit first. The default game has one player against the ‘computer’ which really means the other car is moving side to side while accelerating recklessly and missing the other cars out of sheer luck. I would recommend that you play the two player variation, game 2, if you can get another person to play with you. I feel the need to mention the acceleration which is a bit odd to get the hang of. Unlike with other games of this type, think Enduro, you don’t have any reference for your acceleration so you hold down the button and you won’t know how fast your going until you hit the back end a car going the speed of sound. Instead of maintain your momentum letting go of the accelerate actually slows you down so you’ll have to get good at feathering the throttle to maintain your optimal speed while avoiding cars and talking shit to your opponent. There are three and four player variants but I would advise against them since players three and four won’t have a very good time since they’re placed halfway up the screen and have even less time to react than you. The optimal variation is game 1 for one player, game 2 for two players and game 5 for a more frantic two player since there are now two incoming cars on the screen at once. Game #2: Slalom, variations 7-12 This variation is my personal favorite. In essence Slalom is the reverse of Street Racer™, instead of avoiding a large obstacle in your path you must squeeze between two large obstacles, going from around to between. The game is made somewhat easier since your skis are narrower that the car was so you will have plenty of space to weave through obstacles. The game plays identically to Street Racer, same points, time limit, acceleration, and even variations, the only differences are the graphics and obstacles. My preferred variations are 7 and 8 for one and two player gameplay, and game 11 for two players and two incoming obstacles, just like game 5. Game #3: Dodgem™, variations 13-16 Dodgem™ shakes the formula up a little bit, instead of avoiding obstacles to gain points you must make it to the top of the screen while avoiding obstacles to gain points. You control a small buggy (though it looks more like a mushroom of wheels) and avoid moving obstacles, yes the obstacles move side to side, and try to get to the top of the screen. This is my second favorite variation after Slalom since it properly uses acceleration, instead of increasing the speed of the obstacles, like in the previous two games; it increases your speed which gives you far greater control. Dodgem™ doesn’t have any three or four player modes only one and two player. I would recommend all of the variations actually; variations 13 and 14 are just one and two player modes of the standard game while variations 15 and 16 have two obstacles at once making the game more frantic. With either one or two players this game is good fun. Game #4: Jet Shooter™, variations 17-20 This game is pretty self explanatory; you shoot incoming enemy jets for points, and honestly I don’t think this game really stacks up to the previous three. There are two issues that make me dislike this game somewhat. First off is the acceleration, it’s automatic so you’ll have the jets coming at you as fast as they possibly can right off the bat and since you use the only button of the controller for shooting you have no control over this. The second issue is the shooting itself, your shots move so incredibly slowly that if you miss a shot you’ll have to avoid five or six enemy jets before you can shoot, and miss, again. Despite how fast this game moves the action is incredibly slow. The game variations are copied from Dodgem™, but I would recommend that you skip this game and play the jet mode in Combat™ instead. Game #5: Number Cruncher™, variations 21-24 Instead of avoiding obstacles like in all of the previous modes here you actually want to hit what’s coming at you. In Number Cruncher™ all you do is hit the incoming numbers with the tip of your motorcycle that looks more like a man in a wheelchair, the value of the number you hit (2,4,6) is added to your score, first to 99 wins. If you don’t hit the numbers with your head you’ll collide with them and lose time, though you can mitigate this by moving your head into the number when you collide with it so the collision cuts short and you’re on your way muck quicker. This is the fastest paced game on the cartridge as you are actively trying to hit things, which is quite fun I’ll admit. The game variations just add more players as the numbers already come two at a time, I would recommend variations 21 and 22 for the one and two player games as three and four players can get a bit crowded. Game #6: Scoop Ball™, variations 25-27 Scoop Ball™ is more complicated than any of the other game modes on this cartridge. Your objective is to collect balls and deposit them in a Computer Scooper while avoiding obstacles. You can collect points by just collecting the balls (one point) but you can get even more points by collecting multiple balls and them depositing them into the scooper (three points). I noticed that as you collect more points the game gets more difficult, there are fewer balls and scoopers and more obstacles, and even later on the objects and obstacles start to move. Not only does this game have multiple ways to score points it also has scaling difficulty for each player, which is pretty darn impressive. Unfortunately this game has only three variations and none of them are single player, you can play variation 25 but it isn’t as much fun as playing against somebody else. All in all I am amazed at how much was stuffed into this tiny 2K cartridge, frankly it’s incredible. If I were to order my most to least favorite of the games it would be: Slalom, Dodgem™, Number Cruncher™, Scoop Ball™, Street Racer™, and Jet Shooter™. I didn’t even mention that the difficulty switches can be used as well, if you switch them to A you’ll lose points instead of time when you collide with obstacles which changes the game up somewhat. This is an essential Paddle game for everybody’s collection, everybody should own a copy. Thankfully this is an incredibly common game; you can find it in dump bins at every game store that sells Atari for 2 dollars or less. If you’re feeling a bit crazy and want to get a boxed copy you probably won’t have to pay too much, the cheapest boxed copy is sitting at 10 dollars while nicer looking copies are listed for 11-15 dollars. G out and get this game if you haven’t already, I think you might just enjoy yourselves. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15816-street-racer-atari/

Ten+ systems all on one TV! http://atariage.com/forums/blog/3/entry-15820-my-new-rec-room-setup/

I spent all day on Get Out of My way, a brawler game. Believe me: programming is HARD. In the second screen, you need to fight bad guys in the RIGHT order, or the game will allow to go to next room before defeat all of them. I guess because in the first screen, you fight bad guys in the order. Somehow, the game uses the same pattern. Sorry for extra status on the screen. I need them to check where the problems come from. That's all for today. Or tonight. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/56/entry-15819-little-progress-on-goomw/

A few years ago I came across this disk of extensions to XB and was intrigued. It had nice high resolution capabilities and some interesting clock functions. I initially did some research and found it was released by Peter Kull in Germany in the 80s and that he has since disappeared from the TI99 scene. Not much more was known about it. Well, life happened so I put this project aside for a few years. But recently, having gotten back into the TI99,I pulled the old KXBII disk and decided to finally figure out how to use it with what little info I had. What I did was use the example programs that came on the disk a just test out the functions till I figured them out, or as far as I could figure them out with the information I had. What is Kull Extended BASIC II programming package. Well the name makes it sound like it's a XB cartridge but in reality it's a series of XB CALL LINKs that add high resolution and clock functions (oddly enough) to Extended BASIC. The KXBII package is very similar to Harry's Weilheim's TML (TML is much more feature laden). The main difference being that theTML package you live in the TML environment from LOAD. KXBII, on the other hand, once you load the KXBII just lives in the background till the high res graphic are invoked. You actually can run the clock functions without turning on the hi res graphics functions. This is good and bad. Good, you don't have all the memory restrictions of using hi res graphics till you need them. Bad, you have to be a lot more careful with your string and sprite management (see notes in manual). The program can be a little tricky to use (again see notes in manual) but it looks to be stable if you stay within the bounds. Still, there are some nice features; I especially like the multi colored. And it never hurts to have another tool in you tool belt. Anyway, here's and exert from the manual I created and attached is a package with the programs for it (V9t9 format). Enjoy. ______________________________________________________________________ manual Use the LOAD program supplied with the disk. It calls the LOADEX program which loads in the extensions to memory. some notes. Memory restrictions. If you have ever used TML you know of the lack of stack space using high rez graphics can cause. Same here. You have about 1088 bytes of stack space after you load the high rez utility package. From test I found that means about 200+ characters of string space available for strings. That means a two dimensional array of 4x5 with 10 characters, a single dimensional array of 20 elements of 10 chars or 20 x 10 strings of 10. But be warned, if you exceed this limit you may not get an out of memory error but just have the upper limit strings corrupted. Be sure to test and check all large strings. To save stack space you may also want to limit the number of CALL commands you create. I usually add no more than 2 or 3. Another way to save stack space area is keep your variable names short. This only refers to when using the hi rez graphics mode. Be sure to dimension string arrays after you load in the graphics package with 'INITG' and 'GRAFIK. Otherwise it corrupts the string. Using user created CALLS creates a small random character to appear on the screen when the CALL is accessed. Doesn't seem to be destructive. break key. The break key will get you out of any blank screen created by exiting the high rez graphics unceremoniously. You may have to hit the break key twice but I found it always works. Commands: All commands are CALL LINK(“command”....) functions. LOADEX This initially loads the package into memory from the LOAD program. Loading this a 2nd time screws up display. Initialization functions. INITG ("INITG") - initialize high resolution. Always must use before GRAFIK. GRAFIK (“GRAFIK") - opens the hi rez area for use. also can be used to clear the screen in hi rez. TEXT "TEXT" - puts you back in the standard text mode. These command functions DO NOT need 'INITG’ or the ‘GRAFIK’ to work. Timer functions. TIMER (‘TIMER’,output variable) - A timer that if you divide the output variable by 39 will give you roughly one second counter. TIMSET ('TIMSET') - This resets the TIMER to zero. Clock functions. STELL ('STELL',hour,minute) - This sets a clock in the upper right of the screen which stays resident. START (‘START’) - starts on-screen clock. STOP (‘STOP’) - stops the on-screen clock. UHRAUS (‘UHRAUS’) - removes the on-screen clock. UHREIN (‘UHREIN’) - puts the on-screen clock back on the screen. General functions POKEV ('POKEV',memory location,input variable) - pokes data into the VDP area PEEKV('PEEKV',memory location,output variable) - peeks at data in the VDP area These DO need 'INITG' & ‘GRAFIK’ commands before use. Sprit functions. Normal TIXB sprite functions will corrupt the hi rez screen area so always use these sprite commands when using hi rez screens with ‘INITG’ and ‘GRAFIK’ commands. SPRITE ('SPRITE',sprite#(1-27),char$ number(32-127),color,Y,X) - Works like the sprite function in TIXB except you can not define the speed. CHAR ('CHAR',char$ number(32-127) ,’Char def of sprite’) - You MUST define each char used for the sprites with this command. They are not the same as the chars defined for the PRINT command. COINC (sprite#, sprite#, tolerance, output variable ) OR (sprite-number, dot-row, dot-column, tolerance, output variable) - works like TIXB sprite coincidence except no ALL command. DIS ('DIS',sprite#,y,x,output variable) (OR) ('DIS',sprite#,sprite#,output variable) - works like TIXB sprite variable command POS ('POS',sprite#,y,x) - Works like TIXB sprite distance command. DEL ('DEL',sprite#) - removes a sprite from the screen. LOC ('LOC', sprite#,newy, newx) - relocates a sprite on the screen. COL ('COL',sprite#, new color) - changes the color of a sprite. PAT ('PAT',sprite#,new char#) - changes the char pattern of a sprite. MOTION ('MOTION',sprite#,yspeed,xspeed) - changes the speed of a sprite. same values as TIXB. Draw functions. PRINT (“PRINT”,y,x,"string",foreground color,background color) - this will print a string on a screen at Y,X in whatever color you wish. SET ("SET",y,x,color) - turns a pixel on at Y,X with specified color. DRAW ("DRAW",y,x,color) - draws a line from last point (SET or DRAW end) to Y,X coordinates. PAINT "PAINT",y,x,color) Fill command. CIRCLE ("CIRCLE",center y,center x,right y,right x,color) - to draw a circle or ellipse. (OR) ("CIRCLE",cy,cx,ry,rx,color,beginning degree, ending degree) - to draw a partial circle arc or ellipse arc. There are other commands that either I could not figure out how to get working or I found kinda useless. I didn’t post them. Attached File(s) Kull XBII.zip (121.15KB) Number of downloads: 0 http://atariage.com/forums/blog/528/entry-15818-kull-extended-basic-ii-ti-99-xb-extensions/

Just found out from my oldest sister that YouTube had terminated the PurrfectTrio account and it all started with a bogus copyright claim for a song that had nothing to do with Korea whatsoever. The so called copyrighted song translates to F World (instrumental) where the video in question (177 for PC88) had no music. To make things even more fucked up, the channel was terminated for repeated or severe community guidelines. If 177 (PC88) was the culprit then that is flat out bullshit because they allowed us to keep the video with the age restriction enabled so why did decide it was a severe problem? Almost 10 years of YouTube content being taken down for one video showing brief nudity which was pixelated mind you. We got no content strikes like we are supposed to get in these cases but they just jumped straight to termination like we supposed to have no rebuttal about it. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/552/entry-15817-youtube-can-fucking-burn-in-hell/

Changed the title of the game to "Going Banana." I wanted the score to appear on the title screen, so I had to reduce the amount of tiles by a lot so I could fit the numbers and alphabet on the title screen. It now looks like this: I also added a third ghost because I thought the game wasn't hard enough with just two ghosts in there. The ghosts are now deadly. What I want to do next is add a few lives for the guy and maybe some in game music and pause function. I don't know, it seems like something is missing. Perhaps if I also added a timer. The number of lines of code in the game so far? 666. Happy May! Change your calendar. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15815-going-banana/

Game: Sqoon Developer: Home Data (Now known as Magical Company) Publisher: Irem Genre: Side-Scrolling Shooter This game was released for the Famicom and NES (North America only), but would make a great game for either the 2600 or 7800 (I don't own a 5200, so I'm not going there). Porting this game would make a great project for somebody out there. Champ Games comes to mind, but perhaps their plate is full at the moment. Anywho, this game reminds me of Seaquest (barely). Plot / Gameplay from Wikipedia Aliens who rule the planet Neptune realize that they have run out of their primary source of nutrition, "man-ham livestock," and decide to invade Earth to feed off the humans. They melt the polar ice caps, causing entire continents to sink under the ocean. The General of the Earth Defense Army begs a pirate called Narikeen to strike back at the aliens with his submarine, Sqoon. Narikeen, being of an evil nature, laughs at the pleas of the general, but reluctantly agrees to exterminate the aliens. However, in the Japanese version, the message came from the United States of America's Pentagon and the message says in Romaji: SOS...SOS... OTOTOSEIJIN NO SHINRYAKU ARI KYSOKU NI KAIMEN JOSYOSERI SQOON SYUTSUGEKI SEYO KAITEI NI HEIWAO! U.S.A. PENTAGON The player is given Sqoon, a pink submarine, and must use it to destroy the aliens and rescue captured human survivors while trying to avoid coming into contact with enemies and running out of fuel. To accomplish this, Sqoon is equipped with missiles to attack enemies, and an ice ball bomb attack to destroy facilities and release captured humans. When Sqoon has reached its maximum capacity of nine humans, the player must discharge survivors onto an island which will then release power-ups and replenish fuel. Sqoon has a fuel supply which must be replenished every sixty seconds. Failure to do so results in the loss of a life. Play Video AwesomeOgre http://highscore.com/vote/?c=22 Japanese TV Commerical For Sqoon Please. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15814-port-this-game-to-atari-1-sqoon/

The first 3 lines of my code. ; First attempt at real Colecovision Programing ; Adventure port from the Atari 2600 with due credit to Warren Robinet ; December 2, 2018 Start Date. 2 months, 5 versions and 4,000 lines of Assembly Code later I have a bug ridden 80%ish completed game then the lull once I learned that Quest For The Golden Chalice was already a game and it was 10x better than what I imagined to be a strait port. The first idea was to make a completed Adventure clone as a Tribute to Warren Robinet thinking that Coleco came after the Atari 2600 it should be more powerful right? Jeese O Flip what a pain. Also, after discovering TGC I had to make some major changes so instead of trying to trump TGC I decided to make it a Super Game expanded Adventure and this one will be mine and TGC will be theirs. As far as the A2600 Adventure I looked at the source code and despite understanding it I am using a different system under Z80, Sound should be no problem but my first issue started with the colors. Great on an emulator, sucks in real life. Many people on Atari Age have helped me along in logic and understanding of the Coleco BIOS, Graphics and addressing memory. Without whom it would have been a rougher road. Tony at Electric Adventures, Kiwi, Nanochess, NIAD, to name just a few. More to follow. I know my first blog entry is jumbled but I got my thoughts out and I will start to flesh out the process and horror show of over engineering a simple game in order to make it work on a rival system. and a couple of pictures of development and the rom since I took a break in February to work on my house. Attached thumbnail(s) Attached File(s) Project HERO 5.rom (13.48KB) Number of downloads: 0 http://atariage.com/forums/blog/763/entry-15813-day-1-still-tired-from-the-move/

When I turn on my laptop, it spends all morning to update windows 10 then, It starts asking stupid/private questions. I do my best to bypass this polls, but not, I need to answer them. Once it's finished, I noted Java is gone. Any programs who need java won't work. So I need to reinstall it. It's a suck day. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/56/entry-15812-windows-10-updated/

So after a horrible coding session where I wanted the monsters to obey the walls, I had to give up because it wasn't going very well. So, a few hours passed and I said to myself, "OK, they can't obey the walls, so why not make them ghosts?" So here are the banana ghosts, moving through walls around the room. The backstory is that the ghosts are guarding the magic banana that, when touched, moves to a different location. All poor Steve wants to do is eat the thing because he's hungry. I went to the game store. The way overpriced Neo Geo Pocket Color was still there at $150. But there were a few new Game Boy games, something that rarely happens. I got Daffy Duck and The Lost World for the Game Boy. I don't know why, I guess just to have. I wanted to try Daffy Duck, and was surprised that the game uses passwords. So anyway, lots of Game Boy goings-on in my life yesterday/today. Hard to believe the thing is nearing 30 years old. And yet it's still fun. Well, I guess so is Atari. Which is why I'm here in the first place. Attached thumbnail(s) http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15811-banana-ghosts/

We’re back with Commavid today but which game to choose? Mines of Minos… Why? It has the best box art, and it’s unique, and well… It’s fun (Also CaptainBreakout recommended it, so yeah I gotta do it now). Mines of Minos is not a graphically impressive game, Commavid games rarely are they tend to make it up with fun and interesting gameplay. If you want a game to compare the graphics to Entombed by U.S. Games is almost a dead ringer. Enemy design is quite good, they’re large and fairly detailed, and there are several variations as the game goes on. At first glance you’d be forgiven for assuming that all you do in this game is run up and down the single maze collecting dots and bringing them back to the bottom to collect points and extra lives, this is not the case. This game is huge, and far deeper gameplay-wise than I thought possible, and you would never know it if you didn’t read the manual. There are five levels to the maze, each containing more difficult monsters than the last, if you just blitz the game and go straight to level five immediately you’ll find that you are far outclassed and your bombs are ineffective, your power level isn’t high enough. To increase your power level you must score 1000 points, and every subsequent thousand will increase your level by one, Mines of Minos is like a very basic RPG. The longer you spend in each maze the harder the enemies become, getting faster and faster until they just ignore the walls entirely. The method you use to deal with enemies is also unique among 2600 games in that you don’t just shoot them. You drop time bombs and you have to hope that the enemies will walk over them, in the early difficulty this isn’t a problem since the enemies are fairly stupid but later on they’ll start to use alternate routes so you’ll have to start getting smart with your placements. This isn’t just a game about enemy avoidance, that would get boring, you have to collect flashing dots and return them to the center of the top or bottommost passageway, collect three of them and you get an extra robot, basically an extra life. This is an excellent way to force the player out of their comfort zone and make them play the game, I’m sure if the player started off with three or five lives they’d just spend most of their time in the corner bombing enemies until they can safely go to the next level. The game never lets the player get comfortable, and unlike with most games on the 2600, instead of having the game go on forever eventually having the difficulty plateau, Mines of Minos actually has an ending. On the fifth level there are three stationary robots, you must make your way to them and ram them. I’ve never beaten the game, I’ve never even gotten close but I think that this would be an excellent game to spend a lazy afternoon beating. There are several helpful difficulty variations; I would personally recommend either games five or seven for a slightly easier trip. Unfortunately this is the point where we come to the price and Mines of Minos is not a cheap game, like most Commavid games. There are currently no boxed NTSC copies but if you want the game loose you’re looking at 60 dollars for the cheapest copy, and 130 dollars for the most expensive one. There is a loose copy with the manual for 80 so that might be a better deal if you eventually want to get the box or get a reproduction. Yeah this game is going to the Collector’s Zone, no matter how good the game is I can’t really justify spending 60+ dollars on one, I’d recommend you get a Harmony Cart or an UNO Cart and just play it using one of those. Basic gameplay If you want to see somebody beat the game then I'd recommend watching this one http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15810-mines-of-minos-commavid/

If you go to the theater late enough at night... you can still get tickets to Avengers: Endgame. Which I did - going to a 10:45 PM showing last night. Mainly because I wanted to avoid spoilers, and the way articles and videos were popping up all over the internet about the movie, I figured time was running out. (I even ran across what turned out to be an incorrect spoiler watching a ZeroPage Twitch stream the other week. So nowhere is safe. Idiots who think they're funny or just want to ruin the film for others abound on the internet.) Also, my internal clock is all messed up from work, so being up until 3 AM is kind-of unavoidable at the moment. But that's another blog entry for another time. (But if you want a hint... it's this time of year again.) Anyway, onto the movie review. It should come as no spoiler by now that Endgame is intended to be the conclusion to the storyline that has weaved through the MCU movies since the first Iron Man film, which kicked the whole thing off 11 years ago. And the only thing I could think of at first when writing this review was just to type "wow" over and over again. Because that was my response watching the movie. I'm glad I went in with no spoilers, because even though there are some sort-of vague hints that can be gleaned about what maybe the movie is about, I really had no idea where they were going with it, basically right from the first few minutes. And that kept up through the whole film, right through to the end. Even things I suspected might be coming, were so well done, that I was still fully swept up in it anyway. For me, this film hit all the right notes. Humor, emotion, action, and payoff. And the scale of it at times is... incredible. It makes Infinity War pale in comparison. This is a blockbuster, summer, popcorn movie, full stop. This is the popcorn movie. The Russo brothers were asked to describe it in one word, and they said, "cathartic". Yeah, that works. I'd go with "satisfying". If I were to sum it up in a sentence, it would be: What a journey. Now, did I like everything about it? Well, maybe not everything. I felt the CG on one particular character was a bit uneven, but that's in part because they were trying something different. And also there were some characters I'd like to have seen more of. But the core Avengers all got their moments to really shine here, and in that regards it was completely satisfying. If you've seen and liked any of the MCU movies, you need to go see this. Now, if you think too hard about some elements of the plot, your brain will probably break. But really, this is the kind of movie where you go and shut off the analytical part of your brain, and just go enjoy it. I'll give you one minor non-spoiler of sorts, since it doesn't actually tell you anything about the movie itself: Spoiler If you need to hit the bathroom at the end of the film - there are no mid or post-credits scenes. The film ends when it ends. Although at the very, very end of the credits, there's a little something, and I'm glad I stayed for it. But it's not a scene or anything. It's a callback of sorts. But you're not going to miss anything like, oh, someone buying up the old Avengers tower and renaming it the Baxter Building or anything cool like that. Sorry - there's no hint of the FF or X-Men or any of the properties Marvel just got back from Fox. I really, thoroughly enjoyed this movie, on many levels. It's a love-letter to comic books, and superheroes, and everything that makes them amazing and wonderful. I haven't had a movie experience quite like this since Mad Max: Fury Road. So that being the case... Avengers: Endgame gets an 11/10. Go see it. Before someone spoils it for you. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/118/entry-15809-avengers-endgame-spoiler-free-review/

Last night I went and placed another order here at Atari Age for two home brews for the 2600. Typically I order one expensive game or two low to mid-range priced games with each order, although occasionally when money's tight one low to mid-priced game. The $500+ covers games only. I haven't bought any hardware that I can think of since March 6th. Why March 6th, I hear no one ask. Quite simple really. March 6th is when I purchased an Annual Atari Age Subscription, which entitles me to a 5% discount on all Atari Age Store purchases. I wanted to see if an Annual Subscription pays for itself, taking into account my spending habits (I'll renew it regardless of the out-come of this little experiment). Al will tell you how anal I am about maintaining records on my orders. THUMBNAIL IMAGE A photo I took 2 months ago gathering together my then recent shipments from Atari Age and sellers on eBay into one box PRIOR TO PURCHASING ATARI AGE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 09.22.2010 thru 02.28.2019 SUB-TOTAL $1,436.61 This includes 2 orders still being processed at the time of purchasing the subscription, so they weren't eligible for the 5% discount. Order 21876 $83 Order 21905 $83 ORDERS PLACED WITH ATARI AGE AFTER PURCHASING ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 03.06.2019 to the Present Order 21928 $60.35 Shipped Order 21936 $52.85 Shipped Order 21960 $29.10 Shipped Order 21961 $43.35 Shipped Order 21990 $79.25 Shipped Order 21995 $74.50 Shipped Order 22010 $52.85 Shipped Order 22036 $79.25 Shipped Order 22108 $52.85 Shipped SUB-TOTAL $524.35 GRAND TOTAL $1,960.96 Update I received an email from Al. All pending orders have now shipped, so I've edited this entry to reflect this fact. This encompasses 6 orders. So some great gaming goodness is headed my way. Going by past experience they should arrive quickly. While I am now also buying Home Brews and Hacks from Packrat Video Games and Good Deal Games, I'm continuing to buy the bulk of such games from Atari Age. Speaking of Good Deal Games ... Michael Thomasson of Good Deal Games and myself are working to give Home Brews for the Sega Master System physical releases. If you are at all interested in this I have posted info on this at SMS Power! http://www.smspower.org/forums/17452-GetYourSMSHomebrewPublished http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15808-my-atari-age-addiction-500-since-march-6th-updated/

Last night I went and placed another order here at Atari Age for two home brews for the 2600. Typically I order one expensive game or two low to mid-range priced games with each order, although occasionally when money's tight one low to mid-priced game. The $500+ covers games only. I haven't bought any hardware that I can think of since March 6th. Why March 6th, I hear no one ask. Quite simple really. March 6th is when I purchased an Annual Atari Age Subscription, which entitles me to a 5% discount on all Atari Age Store purchases. I wanted to see if an Annual Subscription pays for itself, taking into account my spending habits (I'll renew it regardless of the out-come of this little experiment). Al will tell you how anal I am about maintaining records on my orders. PRIOR TO PURCHASING ATARI AGE ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 09.22.2010 thru 02.28.2019 SUB-TOTAL $1,436.61 This includes 2 orders still being processed at the time of purchasing the subscription, so they weren't eligible for the 5% discount. Order 21876 $83 Order 21905 $83 ORDERS PLACED WITH ATARI AGE AFTER PURCHASING ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 03.06.2019 to the Present Order 21928 $60.35 Pending Order 21936 $52.85 Pending Order 21960 $29.10 Shipped Order 21961 $43.35 Shipped Order 21990 $79.25 Pending Order 21995 $74.50 Pending Order 22010 $52.85 Shipped Order 22036 $79.25 Pending Order 22108 $52.85 Pending SUB-TOTAL $524.35 GRAND TOTAL $1,960.96 Some of the orders are still Pending (although all have been paid for; so says Pay Pal) because of an unusual set of circumstances. The oldest, which dates back nearly 2 months now, is for the POKEY version of Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest. I had to order and pay for it, and then order and pay for a POKEY chip on eBay, which then had to be shipped to me, which I then had to ship to Atari Age. In the future, or as the English say, 'in future,' I will have any POKEY chips that I buy shipped directly to Atari Age now that I know which address to send it to. Secondly, one of the Atari 2600 Custom Reproductions that I ordered was of the extremely rare River Patrol, which is a port of the arcade game of the same name. I didn't stop to consider the fact that this game has music playing throughout, and thus requires a Melody board. While I am now also buying Home Brews and Hacks from Packrat Video Games and Good Deal Games, I'm continuing to buy the bulk of such games from Atari Age. Speaking of Good Deal Games ... Michael Thomasson of Good Deal Games and myself are working to give Home Brews for the Sega Master System physical releases. If you are at all interested in this I have posted info on this at SMS Power! http://www.smspower.org/forums/17452-GetYourSMSHomebrewPublished http://atariage.com/forums/blog/760/entry-15808-my-atari-age-addiction-500-since-march-6th/

Source: Mystery Cart It's Kung Fu Master but I don't want it since I don't have an Atari 2600. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/56/entry-15807-from-mystery-cart/

After hours and hours of programming, I finally got things the way I wanted in the game. It took an extremely long time to make it so the guy doesn't keep the walking animation going when he hits a wall. I had to make lines and lines of code for him to keep doing the walking animation when he hits the wall and moves along it. So now my code is 505 lines long. And yet I still have 6000-7FFF to fill up. A lot of space, which is good, because all I did gameplay wise was make the guy able to get the banana and add one to the score and play a short sound when he does. I still need to decide how to make the game more interesting. I slept most of the day today. I found Yoshi's Safari. I found the Super Scope. It still works. I am wondering though why it needs the receiver when the NES's Zapper didn't have one. Blastris is an interesting game, too bad you only get two shots per shape. It should be infinite. I wonder if a Game Genie could fix that. http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-15806-man-trapped-in-brick-room-part-2/

I don’t think I’ve ever actually done one of these but I’d like to give a few updates on the state of my collection. Let me start off with this, I have absolutely no ideas for future reviews, I’m completely out of them, so if anybody has recommendations for games good, bad, or obscure I’d love to hear them. This happened a little while back but I do feel it’s worth mentioning. Back when I got my UNO Cart I decided to sell half of my collection, some of the stuff I sold earlier too. I no longer have my Colecovision or Sega Master System, I sold 115 Atari games, mostly commons, over half of my Intellivision collection amounting to around 25 games and an entire console. Despite all I’ve sold it seems my shelf is fuller than ever, funny how that works out, you sell a whole bunch of stuff but you end up getting it all back in one way or another. One big bit of news is that the elusive world of PAL/SECAM games has been opened up to me, I recently got a tiny 15” Sharp Aquos flatscreen TV that can display European games, sure they’re in B&W but the fact that I can play them means I can review them. It’s a good little TV, I got it for 20$ at my local game store, it displays all of my games pretty well and is really a big step up from by little CRT. Plus it’s in stereo I rearranged my closet last night; it’s frightening how much stuff one accumulates over time, while it’s not full to the point of bursting it is getting there… http://atariage.com/forums/blog/729/entry-15805-a-brief-update/