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Psionic

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Posts posted by Psionic


  1. On 4/13/2020 at 12:03 PM, Rhod said:

    no blues stickers on boxes ?

    On 4/13/2020 at 8:20 PM, Captain_Combat said:

    I don’t see any blue stickers on either box.

     

    I have the Atari cartridge and Commodore diskette versions of Flip and Flop, both complete in box.  The former lacks a media format sticker whereas the latter has a blue one.  The stickers for the Atari versions should actually be red as seen here.


  2. 1 hour ago, cwieland said:

    This discussion made me curious about the copy of Skeet Shoot I have.  The screen rolls when I try to play it on my NTSC system.  I always assumed it was just a PAL version even though it come in the US box.  I decided to dump it.  It's drawing 286 scanlines, which probably wouldn't work well with either PAL or NTSC.

    This was a known issue with the first batch of Skeet Shoot cartridges that was apparently corrected.  It was mentioned in this interview with programmer Ed Salvo back in 2006.


  3. Even using the process I described above for cartridge insertion you may still find the PCB jarring loose occasionally.  It's just a result of poor design and there's not much you can really do about it unless you're willing to do something more permanent like gluing the board in place.

    In reference to your earlier comment, there are no screws in Wizard cartridges and as such they can be disassembled fairly easily without doing damage as long as you pull the two halves of the shell apart slowly and carefully.  That being the case, you might as well just take your cartridge apart completely and give it a thorough cleaning before reseating the PCB if it has a strong odor of smoke.  Or at least open it up enough that you can clean the board and the inside of the shell with some alcohol on a cotton swab.


  4. 12 hours ago, Video said:

    They were sold in book stores, of all things. I remember some of them at a local "christian" bookstore, but never saw them anywhere else.

    Makes sense actually, especially given the lack of parent/teacher-type stores back in those days.  This would also explain why Simage was sometimes referred to as a "religious" company in old Atari collecting circles.  Out of curiosity, when you say "local" where exactly are you referring to?


  5. On 6/8/2020 at 7:39 PM, Supergun said:

    i think Octopussy is in the same category as Ewok Adventure and Journey to Rivendell. A fully playable and pretty much completed game.

    The Octopussy version was supposedly in development at Western Technologies but the problem is that despite speaking with numerous designers and programmers who worked there, I can't find a single one who worked on this title or even remembers anyone else working on it.  This would seem unusual for a game nearing completion.

     

    On 6/8/2020 at 7:39 PM, Supergun said:

    Incredible Hulk was also most likely playable.

    Hulk had an approved game design and was at least started but is not known to have progressed beyond an elaborate title screen.  Although it's certainly possible that it could've progressed further and it is rumored to have been playable, this has never been confirmed.

     

    On 6/8/2020 at 7:39 PM, Supergun said:

    The one that is the biggest mystery and likely the least completed, would be Circus Charlie. Anyone know anything about this one? I know we have the box for it.

    The Commodore 64 version was completed or nearly so and was eventually released by Konami a few years later.  The other ports are known to have been started and their degrees of completion are not known, but I tend to think they were fairly well along in development.  The problem here is that the subcontractor who was working on these ports is unknown (at least to me).


  6. It could have been sold in some shops locally but it's only believed to have been available directly from Simage.  Although no dealer ad or original owner has ever been found that I know of, so it's hard to say for certain exactly how and where it might've been sold.  I know of at least one person who purchased it via mail order from Video Game Take-Out in North Hollywood, who had reviewed the game in their Video Game Update newsletter.  According to that review, the game was available directly from the company.

     

    elrev.png


  7. On 3/4/2020 at 10:05 AM, JTomB said:

    Anyone find a reliable (and straightforward?) way to secure their Halloween board?

    The housing inside those cartridges simply doesn't do a very good job of holding the PCB in place and there's really no 100% foolproof way to permanently fix the issue.   To get the board back in place on your Halloween cartridge without opening it up, carefully pry the two halves of the cartridge slightly apart by hand until you can move the board around freely.  Then properly reseat the board on the housing and press the two halves back together again slowly and extremely firmly using the palms of your hands.  With the two halves back together again, attempt to wiggle the board extremely gently with your finger to confirm that it's wobble free.  After that, whenever the cartridge is inserted into your console you must always use your fingers to apply firm pressure to the top and bottom halves of the shell equally to prevent the board from dislodging again.  It's worked pretty well for me, although I honestly don't use the cartridge very often.


  8. On 5/31/2020 at 11:34 AM, Tempest said:

    Also, how many runs of Lochjaw were there?  It's not like you can get a new ROM made and distributed within a few weeks and Lochjaw wasn't on the market long from what I understand.

    As far as I know, all Lochjaw cartridges contain EPROMs, so changes could easily have been made mid-production despite the extremely limited run.

    • Like 1

  9. 7 hours ago, chewy said:

    who took the screenshots and chip pics for atariprotos site?

    Huh?  The screenshot you posted is the 5200 version.  The 2600 port has not been reviewed on AtariProtos.

     

    7 hours ago, chewy said:

    you know i bet those shots are NOT from vcs vers- didnt many boxes use different screenshot examples that didnt necessarily match, etc

    The Atarimania database has emulator screen grabs of the VCS version.  They weren't taken from a box.


  10. On 2/17/2020 at 5:44 PM, Supergun said:

    The person who has the proto isn’t the only source for that rom data anyhow. Just run the tables with all the programmers that worked at Parker Brothers.

    More than half of the games published by Parker Brothers across all platforms were developed by outside contractors.  The programmer of Astro Chase was commissioned by First Star to do the port, not by Parker Brothers, and the only known prototype is housed in a Telesys cartridge shell.  It's not likely that anyone inside Parker would have ever had access to this ROM, but if so they probably would not have been one of the programmers.

    I'm not even convinced that Parker Brothers would have published the VCS version as opposed to First Star simply releasing it themselves had it actually come out as planned.  First Star published Boing, so they certainly had the distribution channels available for producing VCS titles.


  11. On 3/11/2020 at 5:43 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

    I've watched the videos that TNG has posted. And none of the Atari stuff was show in those vids nor information that would lead anyone to think those games were in the safe. So while the videos do show the safe in the background, there isn't any reason to think the games would be inside there. I wouldn't have thought they were in there.

    It's not his own videos that were the problem.  He showed off the safe and its contents at the end of this video that was posted by Racketboy back in 2010.


  12. 16 hours ago, chicgamer said:

    Play-Asia currently has the Columbus Circle version for $49.99 (supposedly on sale from their normal price of $89.99), and they currently have free shipping on games to the US, if anyone is interested.

    That's a good deal considering that the original list price was ¥5,980 ($55) plus shipping, with most merchants selling it for much more.  It figures they'd lower the price now after I already have the game, but I'll probably grab another copy for trade since I was going to place an order with them anyway.  I was planning to grab the Japanese release of Battle Kid but it looks like it's on backorder now.


  13. 16 hours ago, KevinMos3 said:

    I never saw mention of it being for Japanese consoles on the SRG site, or were you referring to play-asia?

    We were referring strictly to the Japanese release by Columbus Circle, which is listed on the PlayAsia site and elsewhere as being compatible with Asian Mega Drive consoles only but actually will work on an NTSC Genesis.

    The NTSC release by Strictly Limited was intended for use with both North American and Japanese consoles, hence the notch on the side of the cartridge to accommodate the cartridge lock on the Japanese MD.


  14. On 12/5/2019 at 7:48 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

    I have 16-bit Rhythm Land and it is NOT region locked as it works just fine on all of my consoles. Well, the cartridge is a JPN MD shell so you have to have a modded cartridge slot or use a 32x like I do, but the game will work on an unmodded console from what I've tested.

    Weird.  My copy didn't seem to work on my Genesis 3 when I tried it, which is why I assumed it was region locked even though I thought it seemed strange that it would be.  I haven't tried it on any other North American consoles but now I guess I'll have to.


  15. 1 hour ago, Sean39 said:

    I started it in 2013 and now going on 2020. 7 years worth of work down the drain.

    Nothing on the internet can be guaranteed to last forever.  Websites do go away, sometimes unexpectedly.  It's unfortunate but it's the nature of the beast.  At least this time the data is still there in some form.


  16. On 9/4/2019 at 11:04 AM, rasch_C said:

    On another note, it looks like playasia is releasing the Japanese MD cart? (https://www.play-asia.com/ultracore/13/70cuzj)

     

    On 9/13/2019 at 4:43 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

    This is supposedly region locked as well. At least that is what was discussed over at Sega-16 so even if you could order the JPN version, you would need your system region modded to try and play it on a US Genesis console.

    Just thought I would add that unlike 16-Bit Rhythm Land or their reissue of Gley Lancer, the Japanese release of Ultracore by Columbus Circle is not region-locked despite rumors to the contrary.  If anyone was considering importing that version, the game will work on a Genesis 3 or presumably any other North American console using a Game Genie or other passthrough device.


  17. My copies of Knight 'n More and Muncher Mouse have arrived safe and secure but I haven't had time to try them out yet.  The Muncher Mouse box has a minor bit of damage to the top front edge of the box but it's not a big deal.  The games were packaged as well as can be expected.

    I did notice something rattling around up inside the Muncher Mouse cartridge.  It appears to be a plastic object about the size of a Tootsie Roll and wrapped in black electrical tape.  I see the same thing inside the Knight 'n More cartridge except it's not rattling around.  What the heck is that thing?  :?

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