Search the Community

Prices include shipping. May potentially consider trades, though my wants are minimal at this point - feel free to check my post in the wanted section! Reluctant to split up the lots, but who knows - wow me. Photos available upon request, thanks! TRS-80 - $110 -CoCo 2 (model #26-3134A) with one joystick, Mega Bug, Space Assault 2600 - $40 -Poker Plus (picture label) 5200 Lot - $35 -Kaboom -River Raid -Super Breakout Sega Master System Lot - $45 -Double Dragon -Penguin Land Both CIB Sega Genesis Lot - $90 -Dynamite Headdy (cb) -Landstalker (loose) -Mortal Kombat (loose) -Sonic 1 (nfr - cb) Computer Game Lot - $25 -TI-99 - Alpiner (cib) -TI-99 - Munch Man (ci) -Vic-20 - Pirates’ Cove (ci) -Vic-20 - The Sky is Falling -TRS-80 - Space Assault Astrocade - $30 *Both are repro carts* -Sea Devil (with case / manual) -Sneaky Snake -1 controller with partial functionality - $10 O2 / Videopac - $20 -Loony Balloon Colecovision Lot - $20 -Gateway to Apshai -Tutankham* —I could not get Tutankham to load on my console, but as it was a second copy, I did not try for long. Perhaps after a thorough cleaning, it will come back to life? Basically, this is a freebie, with my hope that someone gets lucky. RUN Commodore Vic-20/C64 Magazine -Issues #1-5, dating 01-05/84. Clueless on this kind of thing, so offer..?

I have the following items for sale. Please see pictures for condition. I will be adding more items in the near future, so check back! Shipping: Currently I can only ship to USA. You are responsibly for Shipping fees, and Insurance if you choose to have the package insured. If you don't get insurance, I take no responsibility. Some items are marked as untested, I have not tested these items. Either because I don’t have the equipment, time or expertise. I believe my prices are within a reasonable range. I’m always open to offer, especially if you have proof of lower prices. Payment - PayPal Please PM to purchase. thanks for looking. Click on pictures to see bigger images. APF MP1000 Brickdown/Shooting Gallery - $30.00 $20.00 Hangman/Tic Tac Toe/ Doodle - $20.00 $12.00 Atari 2600 SwordQuest EarthWorld - sealed $25.00 $18.00 Atari 5200 Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom box, inst(wrinkled), cart - $15.00 $10.00 Popeye box, cart, missing inst - $10.00 $7.00 QIX box, inst, cart missing ovrls - $9.00 $6.00 Radio Shack Color Computer Appliance and Light Control $15.00 $10.00 Backgammon $6.00 $4.00 Checkers torn label $6.00 $4.00 Color Baseball $6.00 $4.00 Color Cubes $8.00 $5.00 Football - torn label 5.00 $3.00 Gomoku/Renju - torn label 6.00 $4.00 Microchess 2.0 no label 18.00 $13.00 Micro Painter - no label 10.00 $7.00 Pinball 11.00 $8.00 Pinball - no label 7.00 $4.00 Quasar Commander - missing label 9.00 $6.00 Spectaculator 4.00 $3.00 Spidercide 20.00 $15.00 TypeMate $8.00 $6.00 Wildcatting $12.00 $9.00 Amiga - UNTESTED GVP DSS 8 Digital Sound Studio - $40.00 (ebay sold prices are $52) $30.00 $15.00 Apple – UNTESTED Apple IIE 80Col/64K memory expansion 1986 – $15.00 $10.00 $7.00 Disk II Interface Card 650-x104 1978 – $20.00 $15.00 $10.00 Microsoft Softcard 1981 - $60.00 $40.00 $30.00 Software Dimensions Inc Firmware ID Card SerNO SD-12595 - $15.00 $10.00 $5.00 MacRecorder Farallon Computing - $10.00 $7.00 Atari ST Navarone battery backed clock Untested - $60.00 $50.00 $30.00 Video Digitizer untested - $50.00 $30.00 Game.com Game.com Internet - $50.00 $30.00 Scrabble Complete - $5.00 $4.00 Tiger Web Link NIP - $80.00 $60.00 Vectrex Tour De France CGE - $25.00 $20.0 V-Frogger CIB - $50.00 $40.00 SNES PIKO Super 4 in 1 multi-cart CIB - $30.00 $22.00 Astrocade WAR from the 1st run of 20 - $85.00 $73.00 Intellivision ABPA Backgammon gatefold box, cart, overlays (1 ABPA) – $9.00 $7.00 Atlantis box, cart, inst, overlays – $4.00 $3.00 Beauty & the Beast CIB – $10.00 $8.00 Boxing gatefold box, cart, inst, overlays – $5.00 $4.00 Bowling 4 x overlays CIB – $15.00 $10.00 Checkers gatefold box, cart, inst, overlays – $4.00 $3.00 Chip shot box, cart, inst – $13.00 $9.00 Chip shot “NEW” label box, cart inst – $15.00 $10.00 Donkey Kong Jr box, cart, inst – $18.00 $13.00 Donkey Kong box, cart, inst – $6.00 $4.00 Lock ‘N’ Chase box, cart, inst, overlays - $4.00 $3.00 Mission X box, cart, inst, overlays, warranty card – $7.00 $5.00 Royal Dealer box discoloration box, cart, inst, overlays – $3.00 $2.00 Skiing gatefold box, cart, inst, inst update, overlays – $3.00 $2.00 Space Battle gatefold box, cart, inst, overlays – $4.00 $3.00 Super Pro Tennis box, cart, inst, overlays, unused labels – $200.00 $165.00 Tennis CIB box rough - $18.00 $14.00 The Dreadnaught Factor box, cart, inst, overlays – $18.00 $14.00 Triple Action gatefold box, cart, inst, overlays – $5.00 $4.00 U.S.C.F. Chess gatefold box, cart, inst, recommendation sheet, overlays – $13.00 $9.00 World Championship Baseball CIB - $18.00 $13.00 $9.00

The people at triple jump tried to rate every console made everywhere in the world, of all time I know I like 92 rankings. the title for the worst console went to the dedicated system which only played one game which describes everything except the Odyssey 1 at the time of the Odyssey 1. I personally think I have good judgment on video games because no video game in that list was current generation when I first got it until we got to number 38 I believe, the Sega 32x. Before we got to number 38, there were four consoles did I happen to pick up at thrift stores before Macklemore hit the charts (my candidate for the BC and AD of video game thrift shopping eras). These four systems ranked below the 32x and Triple Jump admits that they used mostly system sales figures, game library quantity, game sales, metacritic charts (which was weird because they didn't have metacritic until like either of Dreamcast or PlayStation 2 so how would older games qualify for a metacritic high score?), and historic milestones. Those 4 systems were, in alphabetical order, by the name of the company, Atari Jaguar, Bally Astrocade, Emerson Arcadia 2001, and the Xavix. Let's just say, the Bally got the worst of the 4. 4. But that pull didn't factor in something that many Bally players known. (Has this guy never seen a Bally Fitness commercial? I'd say yes, because he wants to pronounce it "Bolly", like the Indian movie making capital.). There was fans and enthusiasts and programmers who were (and even still now) writing and buying new programs with Bally Basic, (and even better versions of Bally programming software) by selling them as almost a cottage industry of new games, passing tapes to each other. Plus I think this is the lowest ranked system that has a fan URL dedicated to system, as the name BallyAlley.com was bought by this group. If you did not voluntarily purchased any of these previous games that were listed before Bally back when they were considered new, then you have good taste in video games. I dare you to find a system with a worse ranking on that triple jump list than astrocade that has a fan URL. even some of the ones that are better ranking don't have a specific fan URL. they did not figure in the afterlife of these systems and probably Baliy has one of the best afterlives of a system. Obviously if they did factor in cottage industry games then the Bally would have ranked higher. It takes a special kind of person to be a Bally owner at the time when I was out. I think it got released before I was born and I got a ColecoVision when I was 7, pretty close when it first came out, so I admit I was not a Bally person back in the day. But I was aware that Cap'n Video was renting Astrocade as well as 2600 intellivision, and Odyssey 2 games as well as VHS, Beta, LaserDisc and Selectavision movies. We went there for Beta movies. But I didn't rent anything there gamewise because I was a Coleco guy. That was when Atari was starting to sue people for renting games. By the way, BallyAlley.com referred to this atariage sub-form as one of two official Bally Alley continuations of their old forum. The other one seems to be on groups.io email list. I currently receive the emails but can't find how to post.

Got an Astrocade without having any guarantees about it working and … wouldn't you know … no worky. It teases. It taunts. Sometimes on boot I get garbled but mostly visible screen, other times a screen like figure 3 here, which then does various strange things. I've attached image and video here. Is it a doorstop? Or is there hope? I haven't gone through the service docs yet or opened it up - it's totally new to me. It came with two extra controllers as well as a nice selection of games, the box, and several game manuals. Thanks for any tips / advice! Atrocade-NoWorky.mov

Hi! Long time member, but first post here. You might recognize the Verdana font often used on Yahoo! Group Bally Alley, where I'm known as "fangs301@..." - real name at the bottom. Saw in Marketplace where someone is selling new copies of Kenn Lill's Ulti-Multi Astrocade Multicart - with My "LIFE" & 8 Beatles songs (note: all Arranged by George Moses) on it. Also included was my Prototype "PSEUDOKU 2008" featuring screen-shots attached in-line - Where the Red cursor is can ONLY go a '3' so ... Solved! Notice the fixed numbers are wider, placed numbers narrower. Missing is the Instruction Sheet, as seen here : ; pSeUDOKU for the BALLY/Astrocade (C) 2008 by Richard C Degler ; ; To use: Use clue squares to determine which number to place. ; Position red CURSOR on un-numbered square, pull trigger, then ; turn knob (1) to desired number or blank, and release trigger. ; Also enter the number directly from the keypad (1-9) and/or ; over-ride clue squares with the numeric keypad as follows: ; ; '1' '2' '3' 'x' <-- toggle clues using BPA keypad ; '4' '5' '6' 'x' ; '7' '8' '9' 'x' <-- 'x' is dead key for now [or test] ; ; '1' '2' '3' 'x' <-- set numbers using BPA keypad ; '4' '5' '6' 'x' ; '7' '8' '9' '0' <-- "=" (EQUALS) key clears cell ; ; Incorrect guesses WILL be allowed, but they will prevent you ; from solving the SuDoKu. Note that any changes you made to ; the clues will be obliterated if you change a placed number. ; ; Click on "NEW" for a new (well, a different) puzzle, and on ; "UNDO" if BLACK to restore to the original un-populated state ; or when RED to position cursor on the first incorrect entry. ; To get a "HINT" turn the Knob to select the number to isolate ; and hold the trigger in to show where missing digits might go. ; Nothing there about strategy - play it just like any other Sudoku puzzle. There were to be more than 2 to solve and each can be permutated so even repeats would not be recognized - but having the clues there took away the challenge … you might as well write a spreadsheet to solve it for you. PS Hi, Mario - who turned me on to this site almost 12 years ago!! Richard Degler

Notes from a 2019 Interview with Jamie Fenton By Adam Trionfo May 3, 2019 I've been listening on and off to "They Create Worlds," a podcast devoted to the history of videogames, for a couple of years now. On April 23, 2019, Kevin Bunch sent me a private message via Atari Age. He said that Alex Smith, one of the two hosts of the podcast, did an interview with Jamie Fenton. Jamie was heavily involved with the creation of the Bally Arcade and programmed Bally BASIC, "Astro BASIC," and the extended BASICs, as well as various other software for the system. Kevin sent me an excerpt of the interview. I asked Alex if I could share this information and on May 2 he gave me the okay. I want to make it clear that Alex Smith and Jamie Fenton are the original source of this information. I am passing along the information as it was given to me via Kevin Bunch. You can listen to the "They Create Worlds" podcast here: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/ Alex is writing a book on the history of videogames. I mentioned to him that I didn't expect much coverage of the astrocade. His response surprised me. He said, "While you are correct that the Astrocade will not get a great deal of coverage in my book (though more than you might think as I have 600 pages to tell the story of 1971-81 and try to give everything of note at least some attention), preserving and spreading the history of all facets of the industry is a personal passion of mine." He also said, "I certainly admire your work, which has been invaluable to my own research." It's great that perhaps a little bit of the work that has gone into the archiving of the astrocade by me and others is being disseminated to a wider audience. Kevin told me that Alex spoke to Jamie Fenton specifically about Astrocade software, BASIC, and possibly ZGRASS. I guess he spoke with her a couple of weeks ago, possibly in early April, about the hardware side of things. Kevin went on to say: "Oh, Alex tells me this is actually for the book they're working on, not the podcast (though that could happen at some point). Said in total they have 2 hours of conversations about the Astrocade for this. If there's anything you'd want to share, I suggest reaching out to him at some point - I'm sure he could accommodate to some degree without undermining their manuscript I imagine (or at least give you an idea when the book might come along)! This is just scratching the surface of what they talked about. "That said, he passed along the following items to me, which you might find interesting: "The BASIC cartridge actually was originally created due to laziness. Management wanted a demo program for the system, Fenton didn't want to write one, so she decided to write a BASIC version instead. That was finished so fast that she ended up having to write the demo program anyway. Additionally, the Bally BASIC version that was sold was actually version 2.0 - the first version didn't have any command shortcuts. The usage of video memory and the ability to send calls to the hardware for specific graphical uses are why she considered it to be a fairly successful project. "As for the add-under, Fenton told Smith that she was interested in ZGRASS because it reminded her of BASIC - simple to use but with better graphical abilities. But towards the end of the process she soured on the language, feeling it was too slow. The final version of the add-under actually used Forth, not ZGRASS, which was later adapted to Terse for writing arcade games. Which makes me wonder if the unit that the NVM [National Videogame Museum] may have bought actually has ZGRASS, or if it has Forth." My response to this information from Kevin was that "I am glad that Alex is able to do an interview, or a couple of them, with Jamie. When I spoke to her in 2001, she would not allow me to record conversation. "I can't think of anything in particular that I can add to Alex's book for the astrocade. I presume, since he will be covering so much in the book, that the astrocade will be all but a footnote. I do hope, at least, that he brings up that the astrocade was the least expensive computer upon its release to be able to run BASIC. I guess that is debatable, depending on what you consider a 'computer.' [...] "I have heard that the BASIC cartridge was created as a stop-gap measure while Z-GRASS was in development hell. It was a quickie conversion from Tiny BASIC. Although the language has Tiny BASIC at its roots, at the time, Jay added many of the graphical features which allow programmers to create games in less than 2K of RAM. "I'm not sure what you mean by Bally BASIC was the second version of language. What are the 'command shortcuts' that you mention? Do you mean the graphic commands like LINE? Certainly, the CALL command is what eventually allowed programmers to access the onboard ROM subroutines. That was a hidden command that was only let out of the bag by Jay himself via the Hacker's Manual that was available to/through the newsletters. "I consider Jay's hack of allowing screen RAM to store a program to be extremely clever. Many people seem to misunderstand how this 'trick' works. "I can understand why J soured on Z-GRASS, but I would consider it a success, as many of the students at the University of Chicago seem to have loved the language. In the examples of its usage on YouTube, the language does seem slow. However, in comparison to BASIC, it seems about the same speed. Plus, it has access to much more memory and many more commands. "I do seem to have a faint memory that the add-under was going to use Forth in some way. The add-under, as designed by Bally, seems to have been pretty much scrapped in favor of the version that Alternative Engineering was creating and was sold to the National Videogame Museum a few years back. That version of the Z-GRASS add-under certainly was supposed to have Z-GRASS in the ROM. Now, whether or not the NVM has even tried to boot the system is something I do not know right now. Have you ever been able to get in touch with them about this hardware?" Kevin responded: "I'm actually not familiar enough with using the BASIC cart to know what Fenton means by command shortcuts; my initial thought is the keypad shortcuts. I did note the uploads you made to archive.org when you made them, so he should be aware of them (I also sent him my raw notes of the Defanti interview I did). "You know it's funny, I spoke with John Hardie at the NVM the other day about a couple other research questions I had and completely forgot to ask about the ZGRASS add-under! Supposedly he wants to try and make VCF East in a couple weeks - if he does, I'll check in with him there. Otherwise I'll just call back about it. I maintain that if the add-under works and does have ZGRASS in its rom, it would absolutely be worth dumping and trying to build an emulator for." These few tidbits of information are enough to whet my appetite for more and I hope that at some point the interview with Jamie that was conducted by Alex is made public. Perhaps after Alex Smith's book is published that will be a possibility. I'm glad that Kevin told me about this interview with Jamie Fenton that was conducted by Alex Smith. Special thanks to the three of them for their work with the astrocade and videogames in general. Fenton's work, in particular, is still used by me on a weekly basis whenever I use my astrocade. Long live the astrocade; long live Bally BASIC! Adam Trionfo

I just tried the newest official release of the 64-bit version of MAME (0.208) for Windows 7. Tape support for "AstroBASIC" is now part of the official distribution! This is a major step in using the emulator. I think tape support for 300-baud and 2000-baud under expansion basics (i.e. Blue Ram BASIC) is supposed to work too, but I have not tried it yet. You can download MAME, as always, here: https://www.mamedev.org/release.html A general video for setting up astrocade emulation with MAME is here: The above video doesn't talk about how to load/save using the "tape interface" in MAME. I guess I'll make a video like that in the next couple of weeks. One last thing, as always, the colors under astrocade emulation are off. When you press the red color key, the screen appears gold. When you press the blue key, the screen appears light purple. This can be a little confusing, especially since red acts as the red key should, but the screen is the completely wrong color. Anyone care to give it a try? I'd love to hear from MAME users who use Linux or Mac computers. Adam

I've been interested in video art for the Bally Arcade/Astrocade for the last year or two. I doubt anything like this existed for the Intellivision back in the 1980s, but does any video art exist for the Intellivision today? Here's an example of video art for the Astrocade that I uploaded today: Here are a few examples of video art for the astrocade that I've uploaded to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJdViXGk3iI&list=PLADcQ67H2uU0R8npUnSmT6X8Ad6mKh_3o This sort of art can be created relatively easily on the astrocade because it has a bit-mapped screen and BASIC was available on cartridge. Could intyBASIC be used to make video art like these examples? Adam

While going through the Astrocade patents I stumbled upon a lawsuit that is Magnavox vs. Bally from 1975. It deals with the Odyssey patent. Or, at least, I think that it deals with that "console" from 1972. Does anyone know the details about this lawsuit? Here are some possibly helpful links: Magnavox Vs. Activision (1983): https://www.ipmall.info/sites/default/files/hosted_resources/Activision_Litigation_Documents/12-29-82_to_02-04-83/Civil_Action_C82_5270_Teh_10Am_10Jan83.pdf Copy Game for High Score: The First Video Game Lawsuit, by William K. Ford (2012): https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1035&context=jipl Can anyone find the original lawsuit? Did Bally get a license from Magnavox/Sanders to make the Bally Arcade home system? Adam (The was originally posted Nov 6, 2018 as BallyAlley Yahoo Group message #16138.)

The Astro-daptor is a USB interface for connecting Bally/Astrocade controllers to your PC/Mac, Raspberry Pi, or game console that supports USB HID. No driver is needed as the Astro-daptor is recognized as a USB HID (Human Interface Device) joystick. You can buy one here: http://www.2600-daptor.com/Astro-daptor.htm Michael Matte wrote instructions on how to get this astrocade hand controller adapter to work with the MAME emulator. SETTING UP THE ASTRO-DAPTOR FOR USE WITH A HAND CONTROLLER ON THE MAME ASTROCADE EMULATOR 1. Plug your hand contoller into the Astro-daptor and then the Astro-daptor into your computer. 2. Initialize MAME and display the Astrocade menu. 3. Press your keyboard "Tab" key. 4. The Tab menu will pop up. Point to "Input (this machine)", then double-click or press the "Enter" key. 5. The Inputs menu will pop up. You will see a listing of 8 parameters for each player input. Below is a listing of 6 parameters for use with an Astrocade hand controller showing the desired settings, plus 2 parameters for an optional keyboard paddle motion setting. P1 up Joy1 up P1 down joy1 down P1 left joy1 left P1 right joy1 right P1 button 1 joy1 button 0 Paddle analog joy1 Z rotation Paddle analog dec Z* Paddle analog inc X* * This input setting is for an optional paddle motion using the keyboard. 6. The desired input parameter to change must be highlighted in yellow. Use your keyboard down/up keys to point to the desired input parameter. 7. The current input setting must be deleted, unless you want to ADD your new setting to the current setting. Avoid double left-clicking your mouse to change the input setting, because you may experience setting problems. To delete the current setting and enter a new setting: A. Press the enter key to display left/right pointers. B. Press the Esc key so the input setting reads "None". C. Press the enter key to display the left/right pointers again. D. Move joystick, pot or pull trigger to display desired setting. E. If you make a setting mistake, go back to step A and repeat the procedure. Notes: If you can't set a joystick input setting, it is likely the Astro-daptor is not sensing that input. Confirm your hand controller is fully functional. This same procedure in above steps 6 and 7 can be used to change or add keyboard settings. 8. To exit this Inputs menu, move up or down to "Return to Previous Menu" and double-click, press Enter key or pull joystick trigger. 9. To exit first Input menu, move to "Return to machine" and select it. HOW TO ACCESS "DEAD ZONE" AND "JOYSTICK SATURATION" PARAMETERS 1. Go back to the Systems listing by pressing the "Esc" key. Right click "Bally Profession Arcade". 2. A "Configure Machine" menu will pop up. Point to "Advanced Options", if necessary, and double-click or press the "Enter" key. 3. Move down or up to the "Inputs Options" area within this menu. You will see within this area, Joystick Dead Zone Joystick Saturation. It looks like the default settings for these two parameters are 0.3 and 0.85 respectively. You do NOT have to change these settings. The default settings seem to work fine. The Astro-daptor recommendation is 0.0 for the Dead Zone and 0.85 or 0.90 for the Saturation. To change a setting, point to it and highlight it, so left/right pointers appear next to the setting. Use the keyboard left or right keys to adjust the setting. 4. To exit this menu, move down to "Return To Previous Menu" and select it by double-clicking or pressing the "Enter" key. End of document MCM Design Feb 2019

With the help of Jason Scott of the Internet Archive, I have finally added the 26.8 GB of scans from the Bob Fabris Collection to the Internet Archive. These are scans that are NOT on BallyAlley.com. These are from my half of the Bob Fabris collection. Paul Thacker has the other half of the collection. His files were uploaded to Archive.org a few years ago. All of the files are organized by the box from which the documents were scanned. This is how the files are organized on my hard drive for simplicity of finding the original document, if I ever needed it again. A few years ago, I realized that my task of putting all of these files on BallyAlley.com isn't ever going to be finished. Last week, Paul Thacker made a personal request of me to finally get these files online before they get lost or forgotten about on my local hard drive. At my request, Jason Scott zipped all of these files by "box" and the files can be downloaded as nine zipped archives: one zip archive per "box." This is the simplest way to distribute the files. It doesn't make the files easy to search, but it does put them out there for those that are curious to be able to go through them all at their leisure rather than waiting for them to, possibly, appear someday on BallyAlley.com. In these nine "boxes" are 8,487 Files in 931 Folders. The zip archives are here: https://archive.org/details/Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo Here are the file names and sizes: 1) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_01.zip - 2.0GB 2) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_02.zip - 407.7MB 3) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_03.zip - 640.4MB 4) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_04.zip - 2.3GB 5) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_05.zip - 990.8M 6) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_06.zip - 2.5GB 7) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_07.zip - 8.7GB 8 ) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_08.zip - 1.9GB 9) Bob_Fabris_Scans_Collection_by_Adam_Trionfo_Box_09.zip - 3.5GB Over the next few days, weeks (and possibly months), I'll be describing the contents of these archives. Indeed, I may resurrect the Astrocast and make a few solo-host podcast episodes just to talk about what's available here. These files aren't just "locked" in these archives. Jason will also be placing the files on Archive.org in more accessible formats that can be easy viewed, but for those that are curious and want a local copy of the files, then this is your one-stop destination to pick up all of these documents that are sitting out in my garage. In the meantime, I'd like a few people to download these archives, just to test them out and make sure that they work okay. Also, any and all comments about their contents are appreciated. If you find some neat files, then please point them out to us, for even I haven't looked thoroughly through the contents of the Bob Fabris Collection. Adam P.S. I'm currently uploading a directory to archive.org's FTP site that is called "To-Upload." It contains 10GB of data in 3,572 Files and 613 folders. These are even more files that I plan to someday add to the BallyAlley.com website. These additional files are from various places on the Internet and with many additional scans from both halves of the Fabris Collection.

Today a friend asked me to look at a private WordPress blog that he has for his books. There are only four people who have access to it, and I had to join WordPress to see his blog. Since I'm now a member, and WordPress heavily promotes users to start a blog (that is the site's forte, after all), on a whim, I started a Bally Arcade/Astrocade blog today: https://ballyalleyblog.com/ I already made my first post. Will the blog continue? Who knows, but it's easier to continue it if it exists, right? Adam

It's Halloween... so I figured it was time to upload a few videos for this super-scary holiday. Here's the first one... Halloween Graphics with Flying Witch Demo By David Ibach and Steve Walters ARCADIAN 3, no. 12 (Oct. 05, 1981): 126-127. (BASIC Listing) ARCADIAN 4, no. 1 (Nov. 10, 1981): 3. (Loading Method Explanation) General Video Assembler Package (Flying Witch Sample) You can watch this video on YouTube, here: You can watch or download this video from Archive.org, here: https://archive.org/details/HalloweenGraphicsFlyingWitchDemoDaveIbachSteveWaltersBallyAstrocade Unlike most of my other videos, this program, to get it out in a timely fashion, doesn't have any background or an overview. It doesn't even have opening and closing credits. Maybe I'll make an overview of this program later. This program is for the Bally Arcade/Astrocade, a video game/computer system released by Bally in 1978. Halloween Graphics, written in Bally BASIC, and Flying Witch Demo, written in machine language, are two separate programs running together. Halloween Graphics is called "BOO" in the Arcadian. It runs with "AstroBASIC" and no expansion RAM. It draws a pumpkin, a haunted house, a skull and a witch. It runs for about two minutes and then repeats. The flying witch demo requires at least 4K of expansion RAM. A witch flies around a blank screen. When these two programs are combined, as in this video, then a witch flies around a haunted house. The program runs twice in this video. Enjoy this holiday program. Oh, and what's the deal with the pumpkin being yellow and not orange...? Adam

I have uploaded to Archive.org a collection of the 46 patents cited by both of the Bally Arcade/Astrocade patents 4,301,503 and 4,296,930. It's pretty neat reading/browsing the patents referenced in the Astrocade patents. Some of the referenced patents go back as far as 1958. Also, some of the patents are for systems from Atari, Magnavox's original 1972 Odyssey or even very obscure computers like the VideoBrain. Here is a link to all of the patents: https://archive.org/details/46PatentsCitedbytheBallyArcadeandAstrocadePatents Here is some general information about both the Astrocade patents and the patents that are cited by them. ------------------------------ Bally Arcade/Astrocade Patent 1: "TV Game Apparatus" United States Patent #4,296,930 Inventor: Jeffrey E. Frederiksen (Arlington Heights, IL) Assignee: Bally Manufacturing Corporation (Chicago, IL) Patent Granted October 27, 1981 Abstract A TV-type game employs a raster screen television for presenting game symbols. Player operated control switches are encoded to move the symbols. A microprocessor reads the switches. A dually addressed random access memory is employed as the interfacing between the screen and the processor which otherwise function as essentially separate and distinct devices. The memory provides a static storage of the screen pattern for each point in the raster lines with a portion assigned as a processor scratch pad. The memory may be dynamic with periodic refreshing and constructed with individual chips for each of the several bits in a word. The chips are grouped for alternate refreshing and powered during access periods. The processor updates the memory during idle display access periods. The memory is accessed in multiple bit words or bytes for display and processing. For display, a parallel to serial output latch is employed. The previous symbol position and pose is stored in the scratch pad and is erased and rewritten in a new position and pose. The controls may provide encoding. A hardwired bit shifter with programmed shift level rapidly shifts the symbol bits before placing in memory. A high speed memory and low speed processor are shown with separate clocks and a special synchronizer unit. ------------------------------ Bally Arcade/Astrocade Patent 2: "Home Computer and Game Apparatus" United States Patent #4,301,503 Inventor: Jeffrey E. Frederiksen (Arlington Heights, IL) Assignee: Bally Manufacturing Corporation (Chicago, IL) Patent Granted November 17, 1981 Abstract A home computer system provides a video processor for use with a television receiver. The video processor can selectively perform a variety of modifications to pixel data under the direction of the CPU of the computer system before the pixel data is stored in a random access memory to effectively increase the speed or data handling power of the system. ------------------------------ Here are links to both of the Bally Arcade patents: Bally Arcade Patent 4,296,930 (Oct. 27, 1981) "TV Game apparatus" Filed: July 05, 1977. http://www.ballyalley.com/documentation/Astrocade_Inc/Bally%20Arcade%20Patent%204296930/Bally_Arcade_Patent_-_(4296930)_(Oct_27_1981).pdf Bally Arcade Patent - 4301503 (Nov. 17 1981) "Home Computer and Game Apparatus" Filed: May 30, 1978. http://www.ballyalley.com/documentation/Astrocade_Inc/pdf/Bally_Arcade_Patent_-_4301503%20(Nov%2017%201981).pdf ------------------------------ 46 total patents are cited between the two patents. It breaks down like this: 15 Patents Cited by Bally Arcade/Astrocade U.S. Patent 4301503 ("Home Computer and Game Apparatus") 31 Patents Cited by Bally Arcade/Astrocade U.S. Patent 4296930 ("TV Game Apparatus") Here is a list of each of the 46 cited patents: Rectangular coordinate point data display Charles F Althouse U.S. Patent #2847661 1958 Translation system Dick Co Ab U.S. Patent #3017625 1962 Training appliances for marksmen Bolkow Entwicklungen K G U.S. Patent #3046676 1962 Symbol generator circuit George H Balding U.S. Patent #3122607 1964 Method for the representation of the movement of two bodies by means of electron beams and apparatus for carrying out this method Bolkow Entwicklungen K G U.S. Patent #3135815 1964 Digital storage and generation of video signals RCA Corp U.S. Patent #3345458 1967 Digital storage and generation of video signals RCA Corp U.S. Patent #3388391 1968 Display systems RCA Corp U.S. Patent #3422420 1969 Arrangements for indicating the state of adjustment of optical components in a television camera Fernseh Gmbh U.S. Patent #3435136 1969 Digital marker generator for cathode ray tube Us Navy U.S. Patent #3462639 1969 Logical expansion circuitry for display systems Sperry Rand Corp U.S. Patent #3497760 1970 Means for limiting field length of computed data Fairchild Camera Instr Co U.S. Patent #3577130 1971 Computer for generating animated images with overlap prevention and animation recording Computer Image Corp U.S. Patent #3585628 1971 Character generator for cathode ray tube display device IBM U.S. Patent #3657716 1972 Television gaming apparatus Sanders Associates Inc U.S. Patent #3659284 1972 Television gaming apparatus and method Sanders Associates Inc U.S. Patent #3659285 1972 Video data display system Viatron Computer Systems Corp U.S. Patent #3685039 1972 System and method for the continuous movement of a sheet having graphic subject matter thereon through a window of a display screen IBM U.S. Patent #3716842 1973 Method of perspective transformation in scanned raster visual display Singer Co U.S. Patent #3725563 1973 Graphics display system Atomic Energy Commission U.S. Patent #3736411 1973 Digitally controlled computer animation generating system Computer Image Corp U.S. Patent #3747087 1973 Source data entry terminal Sycor Inc U.S. Patent #3760375 1973 Circle or arc generator for graphic display IBM U.S. Patent #3789200 1974 Video image positioning control system for amusement device N Bushnell U.S. Patent #3793483 1974 Television combat game Magnavox Co U.S. Patent #3809395 1974 System for generating orthogonal control signals to produce curvilinear motion Hughes Aircraft Co U.S. Patent #3809868 1974 Portable computer terminal using a standard television receiver Digi Log Syst Inc U.S. Patent #3822363 1974 Special effect generator for a simulator visual system Singer Co U.S. Patent #3826864 1974 Visual display system Raytheon Co U.S. Patent #3872446 1975 Electronic device for the simulation of an animated game, in particular the game of football Rosalba Ariano U.S. Patent #3874669 1975 Waterborne vehicle trainer visual system Us Navy U.S. Patent #3895183 1975 Method and means for reducing data transmission rate in synthetically generated motion display systems Sperry Rand Corp U.S. Patent #3899662 1975 Apparatus and methods for computer graphics Nat Res Dev U.S. Patent #3906197 1975 Synthetic terrain generator Singer Co U.S. Patent #3911597 1975 Preprogrammed television gaming system Sanders Associates Inc U.S. Patent #3921161 1975 Method and apparatus for generating character patterns Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. U.S. Patent #3936664 1976 Computer automated information system DMA Data Industries, Inc. U.S. Patent #3949375 1976 Data display terminal having data storage and transfer apparatus employing matrix notation addressing Lear Siegler U.S. Patent #3955189 1976 Microcomputer terminal system Zentec Corporation U.S. Patent #3973244 1976 Multi-channel data color display apparatus Midwest Analog And Digital, Inc. U.S. Patent #3978470 1976 Multi-microprocessing unit on a single semiconductor chip Burroughs Corporation U.S. Patent #3980992 1976 Digital video modulation and demodulation system Sanders Associates, Inc. U.S. Patent #3993861 1976 Television display control apparatus Alpex Computer Corporation U.S. Patent #4026555 1977 Method for generating a plurality of moving objects on a video display screen Atari, Inc. U.S. Patent #4116444 1978 Digital joystick control interface system for video games and the like Texas Instruments Incorporated U.S. Patent #4142180 1979 Computer control of television receiver display Umtech, Inc. U.S. Patent #4177462 1979 ------------------------------ One of the two Bally Arcade/Astrocade patents (U.S. Patent 4,296,930, "TV Game Apparatus") references 31 patents. Among them are two by Ralph Baer, usually referred to as the father of home video games. These both refer to patents related to the original 1972 Odyssey home video game system. Here is some information about them: Preprogrammed Television Gaming System Baer U.S. Patent #3921161 November 1975 Abstract Apparatus for playing games on the cathode ray tube screen of a television receiver is disclosed comprising a gaming device having components for providing location controllable spots on the screen, a source of prerecorded modulated audio frequency control signals, and means for demodulating those control signals and for supplying them to selected gaming device components to thereby provide gaming capabilities where the progress of a game is in part controlled by the recorded signals and in part controlled by the actions of a player. The signal source may be a magnetic tape or record/disc player and a selected prerecorded game tape or disc with control signals recorded thereon as a plurality of modulated audio frequency signals to thereby allow signal separation based on frequency and waveform control techniques and subsequent demodulation of each so separated carrier to provide a plurality of control signals. Here is a link to the above patent (check out the cool drawings of the console!): https://patents.google.com/patent/US3921161 ------------------------------ Digital video modulation and demodulation system Baer U.S. Patent #3993861 November 1976 Abstract In a television system, a digital video system permits the transmission of data along with the usual television picture. The television picture field includes one or more selectively addressable areas and the data is impressed on these areas as digital, binary-coded brightness modulations at rates greater than the vertical field rate. At the receiving end of the system, the viewer positions one or more light sensors opposite these screen areas. The light sensors respond to the binary-coded brightness modulations by developing corresponding binary-coded digital electrical signals. The data stream from a light sensor can then be decoded by a demodulator/decoder operated by the viewer. Here are links for the second patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3993861 ------------------------------ I have opened and glanced through all 46 of these patents, but I have not really read them, nor even browsed most of them. If you find anything interesting, then please leave some comments. Adam

I added an in-progress Z80 disassembly of Gorf to BallyAlley.com. You can download it here: http://www.ballyalley.com/ml/ml_source/ml_source.html#GorfArcadeDisassembly Here are some additional details about the game: Gorf, is a fixed space shooter arcade game with five different screens. Jay Fenton designed and programmed Gorf for DNA (Dave Nutting Associates). It was published by Midway in 1981. Like Wizard of War, The Adventures of Robby Roto! (and others), Gorf uses what has been dubbed the "astrocade chipset". In 2018, Jamie Fenton (formally Jay Fenton) donated documentation and hardware items to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. This included Gorf source code and other documentation related to the game. Gorf was not written in machine language, it was written in a Forth-like language called TERSE (Terse Efficient Recursive Stack Engine) that was developed at DNA. After the TERSE source code for Gorf became available, David Turner, an avid fan of the game, began to use the game's source code to disassemble Gorf and comment it. Details of his work, as well as his in-progress Z80 disassembly for Gorf is in this archive. In Dave's notes, he refers to TERSE and Gorf related documents which are available at the BitSavers archive, here: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/nuttingAssoc/ In July of 2017, I reviewed the Gorf arcade game: It's great that the recent archiving of the TERSE source code for Gorf is already bearing fruit. Adam

It pays to revisit and scan the Bob Fabris collection once in a while. I'm currently scanning in the last box of material that I have in my garage. This box contains the cut and paste versions of the Arcadian newsletter. This box has been very low on the to-scan priority list, as (so I thought) everything in it was scanned already in another format. Well, I was mostly right. I have found a few neat tid-bits in the box so far: this is one of them. Today, I added to letter to Bally Arcade/Astrocade venders that Bob Fabris wrote on January 1, 1983. On December 30, 1982, Astrocade, Inc. declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bob Fabris wrote this letter, hopefully of opportunity, to many of the vendors who wrote software and created hardware for the Astrocade. Bob hoped to be able to carry the thousands of Astrocade users through the coming drought brought on by the declaration of bankruptcy. This one-page letter describes Bobs ideas on how to do this for Astrocade owners and distributors. You can read the letter here: http://www.ballyalley.com/newsletters/arcadian/arcadian_misc.html#LetterAstrocadeDistributors I OCRed this letter. Here is the complete letter (a few comments from me follow): ---------------------------------------- ARCADIAN 1-1-1983 OPPORTUNITY (?) Well, Astrocade bit the dust Thursday, asking protection from creditors under the provisions of the infamous Chapter 11. The latest news report from Nitron is attached - they stopped trading on Friday "pending news", and there is a possibility they may drop as well - see your papers. So where does that leave us? Well, of the various options, it seems to me that there is opportunity here for the third party vendors (TPV) to step in because the only game in town now is the TPV GROUP (pun intended). Only you fellows have material for the unit. There are lots of owners out there, and they will either be 1) left in the lurch if the whole thing collapses never to be seen again. 2) left in a hesitancy period while a Receiver is chosen and restructuring of the 'new' Astrocade company is completed. 3) same as 2) until a new company buys out the assets and starts up. Under any one of those three - or anything else, I would guess - there will be a void that can be filled by the T --- an opportunity to step forward and present wares to ... who? Timing - the CES is right now, who's there? All those distributor guys who know where dealers are - the ones still in step. The best time/place to get in touch with outlets. It seems to me that a best-foot-forward approach to the distributors, etc., that will be there is the only thing to do. Dick Houser and I plan to function as your collective agent, essentially representing everyone in the Sourcebook. We will be pushing the Sourcebook to the distributors - whoever is left - with the message that we can be the bridge of available stock that can tide the dealers over until the reconstructed Arcade is back in production. This representation scheme is only temporary, to take advantage of the opportunity presenting itself. We've been noodling about in this area in a sort of wishy-washy way - now we can be definitive and make those contacts that are available. Who else? Well there are thousands of machines in owners' hands and we can get at a few of them through advertising in the game publications. What have been the replies from the Electronic Games ad? This kind of advertising should be looked into as a possible on-going thing. And also, we can make contact with 8 or 9000 owners that I have from mailing lists, for direct mailings. These are not subscribers, so they are not normally contacted. Also, I'm sure a number of them are no longer interested or owners. Anyway, a package of literature can be shipped to alert these people to TPV existence. OTHER STUFF------ Game Production: The Alternative Engineering people are now geared up to produce cartridges for the Arcade unit, utilizing EPROMs. They will also handle distribution - contact them if you have a program that you would like to have prepared in the cartridge format-- certainly a better way to get a program into a machine than tape, and there's more capacity. ---------------------------------------- To me, this letter exemplifies the ways in which the Astrocade community pulled together to keep software and hardware available for users of the, soon-to-be, defunct Astrocade game console/computer system. Adam

I posted this to the Bally Alley Yahoo group, but it might get more traction here. Plus, the AtariAge forums are much more popular-- and you don't have to be a member to view most of them. I'm using my library's special services to search the Newspaper Archive for Bally Arcade/Astrocade material: https://newspaperarchive.com/ This is a pay site, but I can use the website for free using my library card. I've come across some newspaper ads that I've not seen before now. I've noticed that in 1978/79, there are a number of ads from mom and pop TV stores around the country who are selling the Bally Professional Arcade for $300 (the retail price at the time). If you buy it from them, then they would throw in the Tornado Baseball cartridge for free. Here is an example of such an advertisement (This ad is from page 29 of the December 2, 1978 issue of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph newspaper): (Don't those kids look like they're having so much fun? Man, I love ads from the 1970s!) I've never seen this Tornado Baseball promotion anyplace. Since the promotion seems to be from different stores in various area of the United States, I wonder if this was something that Bally pushed when the system was first introduced. I've also noticed some ads from the same period of time promoting Tornado Baseball World Series tournaments at bowling alleys! Anyone ever heard of that before now? I may post an example of this separately. Did anyone here get a free Tornado Baseball cartridge with their Astrocade when they bought it in the 1970s? Adam

Every once in a while I'll just type in the word "Astrocade" (and remove my BallyAlley.com website) in Google and see what I find in the deep links, you know, the ones that no one ever clicks because they're dozens of pages from the top of the searches. The recent links that I've been posting are coming from these not-at-the-top search pages. It's fun to find "hidden" Astrocade links! Bally Astrocade RGB Schematic I came across this Bally Astrocade RGB schematic by someone named "hotdog6394." https://easyeda.com/hotdog6394/Bally_Astrocade_RGB-4W86GgdNn Can anyone vouch for this hardware? Does anyone know if this is an original design? The Bally Astrocade, A True Hidden Gem Here is a blog post about the Astrocade called "A closer look at the Bally Astrocade, a true hidden gem among game consoles." This was posted by zadoc on April 11, 2018. The "article" is quite general, but I like the pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/tQJJI Not too bad, right? Revived Astrocade by drunknretro! On June 24, 2016, a blog post was written by "drunknretro." He fixed his Astrocade that had bad video and he shows pictures of the steps that he followed to do it. https://drunknretro.blogspot.com/2016/06/up-from-crypt-bally-professional-arcade.html It's always nice to see an Astrocade live again! Twitter has Astrocade Hashtag?!? I'm not a Twitter user, but maybe I should join the "fun." There are several people that use #astrocade. I didn't expect it to be about the Bally Arcade/Astrocade, but the "tweets" (I hate that word) all seem to belong to the little console that could(n't). https://twitter.com/hashtag/astrocade Does anyone here use this tag on Twitter? 3D Moveable Model of Astroade Here is a link to a 3D moveable model of an Astrocade: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/ue9c95c6f-746c-4cc9-9eae-882e23ac2289/Bally-Astrocade This is kind of cool. You can move the Astrocade console around in 3D! "Meet me in the Astrocade" Lecture (June 2018) Rachel Weil gave a lecture at the Joy of Coding 2018 conference on June 8, 2018 called "Meet me in the Astrocade: peace, love, and 8-bit hardware hacking." You can read about it here: http://joyofcoding.org/2018/rachel-weil.html I met Rachel a few weeks ago when she was passing through town. We had a three player game of the homebew game "War" together. Great fun! If anyone else has weird or unusual Astrocade links, then please post them here. Adam

I wrote these notes for myself this morning, since it took me a while (too long!) to remember how to clean a non-BASIC WAV file. I thought that the notes might be useful for other people, so I cleaned them up a little and I'm posting them here. This document presumes that you're familiar with process of archiving Astrocade programs already. If not, then I advise you to try archiving an "AstroBASIC" program first and then come back to this document. Cleaning a RAW Binary (Non-BASIC) WAV file with BallyBin and AstroWAV By Adam Trionfo Version 1.0 July 10, 2018 Summary: These are general instructions, written mostly so that I'll remember the process, on how to clean an Astrocade's RAW 2000-baud binary recording created with the Blue Ram Utility. I used the tape version of the Blue Ram Utility 3 by Perkins Engineering. I loaded the utility from a WAV file into my Blue Ram 16K unit. In this example, I converted the 2KB Machine Language Manager (MLM) cartridge by Bit Fiddlers to a WAV file that can be loaded with "AstroBASIC." Here are the steps to load the Blue Ram Utility: Load the Blue Ram Utility using Blue Ram BASIC using :INPUT. (Do not try to load it using :INPUT %(24576). This will not work.) 2) The version of the utility that I used is in the file: Blue RAM Utility (Perkins Engineering).zip This file is located here: http://www.ballyalley.com/program_downloads/ram_expansion_required/perkins_engineering/Blue%20RAM%20Utility%20(Perkins%20Engineering).zip The file contains a zip file called Blue RAM Utility and Instructions (1982)(Perkins Engineering)(2000 baud)(Blue RAM BASIC).zip The Blue RAM Utility files in that zip file are called: 1) Blue RAM Utility (1982)(Perkins Engineering)(2000 baud)(Blue RAM BASIC)(Load 1 of 2).wav 2) Blue RAM Utility (1982)(Perkins Engineering)(2000 baud)(Blue RAM BASIC)(Load 2 of 2).wav 3) Blue RAM Utility Instructions (1982)(Perkins Engineering)(2000 baud)(Blue RAM Utility).wav Load loads 1 and 2 one after the other into BRB. The program will run automatically after using :INPUT. My intent was to create a loadable WAV file of the Machine Language Manager cartridge. First, I loaded the Machine Language Manager cartridge into the Blue Ram Utility using the COPY command. Then I verified that the load was correct using VRFY. After that, I saved the 2KB MLM program to a "tape" (WAV file) using the Utility's SAVE command. I will not go into details about how I did the above steps. It's easy once you know how, but is beyond the scope of this document. If you are curious about how it's done, then the detailed instructions for how to use the Blue Ram Utility are available online here: http://www.ballyalley.com/perkins/docs-blue_ram_utility3.pdf After I had a RAW WAV file on my computer that was output from the Utility, I used Audacity to amplify the file. I saved this amplified file and then used Ballybin 2 on the WAV to digitally archive the file. Here are the general steps on how to clean a non-BASIC binary file saved in the Astrocade's 2000-baud WAV format using Ballybin and AstroWAV 2. First, there are two versions of BallyBin and AstroWAV 2. Make sure to use the following version of these two files: AstroWAV and Ballybin 2 (2004)(Bob Colbert)(beta)[Feb 27 2004] Once you have these files on your Windows PC, use the command line to clean the saved RAW WAV file. It is presumed here that the RAW WAV file is called input.wav. First create a BML file of the RAW file using the following command: ballybin -l3 -v2 -i1 -bcleaned input.wav Next, make a cleaned WAV file: astrowav -h3 -f1 -woutput.wav cleaned.bml This WAV file is stereo. I used Audacity to make it mono, but this step isn't required. This cleaned WAV file can be loaded into an Astrocade with expansion RAM by following these steps: 1) Insert "AstroBASIC" into Astrocade. 2) Make sure that you're Astrocade RAM expansion has the switches in the 6K area and is set to RAM. 3) In "AstroBASIC," type: :INPUT %(24576) 4) When the program is done loading, hold down Reset and keep it down. Switch the RAM expansion switches to 2K and ROM. Then release the Reset button. After releasing the Reset button, the cartridge (which was saved as a WAV file) should load perfectly. The "AstroBASIC" cartridge which is in the slot will be ignored. [End of Document]

Has anyone here used the Music Maker cartridge for the Bally Arcade/Astrocade to create music or sound effects? I'm referring to this cartridge: The above picture is for the version of Music Maker with the built-in tape interface. However, this program can be used without the interface. Music Maker is included on, I think, all of the Astrocade multicarts. Here is the manual for this "game:" http://www.ballyalley.com/cart_manuals/pdf_manuals/docs-music_maker.pdf Here is a video of Music Maker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzV7mS_lk1E The above video just shows the program being used, rather randomly, for a couple of minutes. I've never seen a video that shows the program being used to create music, which also requires, I think, use of the following keypad overlay: If anyone has experience with music, then I'd love to watch a narrated video of someone using Music Maker to create even a short piece of music (even Camptown Races would be fine!). Is anyone up for the challenge? Adam