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We should have a thread dedicated to advertising of our beloved classic games, computers, consoles, etc. We can share television commercials, print ads, circulars, etc. I'll start us off with this Commodore 64 television commercial. I remember seeing this commercial on television that touted how amazing of a gaming machine the Commodore 64 was. Of course, if those kids came knocking down the door at my house, I'd call the cops.
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I had this machine for a very long time in my collection of weird clone hardware, this one is probably among my rarest ones. Is a 64k pc similar to an commodore 64, that has a famicom built in, its a weird specimen even for famiclone standard, it uses a specific 5v ac adapter, wich makes some games have sound error's and visual glitches. Uses nes ports for the controllers, and has an expansion port that i still have no clue whats for, i have two of these but this is the only one that i have that has a fully working keyboard, the machine was bought in 1992 from a magazine number in CDMX, is a very interesting piece of clone hardware, and the last of the 3 bit corp computers. Im thinking about trading it for other weird clone console, or maybe another Gentry sufami clone to fix mine, if someone is interested pm Anyway, has someone ever heard of these computers by BitCorp before?
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MAME 0.220 In a world of uncertainty, perhaps you can derive a little comfort from MAME 0.220, our delayed release for the March development cycle. This month has seen fixes for some old bugs in Final Star Force, Ribbit! and Night Slashers, emulation of Crab Grab (the other Game & Watch title with a colour overlay), the acquisition of Solite Spirits (an early version of what became 1945k III), and preliminary work on the Naruto TV game running on the XaviX 2 platform. There are some big software list updates this month, including a lot of Apple II software aimed at North Dakota schools, and the latest VGM music packs. Speaking of which, the VGM player can now show pretty visualisations while you listen. Newly supported peripherals include the Baby Blue II CPU Plus card for PC compatibles, serial and CP/M modules for the HP 85 and HP 86, more sound and disk expansions for the TI-99 family, the CoCo PSG cartridge, and a variety of 8-bit Acorn expansions. We’ve added ROM dumps for a lot of synthesisers in this release, and while most of them are not working yet, they’re there to tinker with if you’re interested. As always, you can get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.
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I always wanted to ask: why were there such great games (original and ports) for Commodore 64 that never made it to Atari XL/XE series? Was the reason only hardware issues? What are the key factors that determined this situation? Forgive my ignorance, - Y -
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MAME 0.211 As we pass the half-way point of 2019, it’s time for MAME 0.211, with all the excitement that brings. In this release, SGI Indy and MIPS RC2030 workstations have been promoted to working. This is a major milestone in RISC workstation emulation. If you’re feeling nostalgic, why not try one of them out, and install IRIX or RISC/os, respectively? This release also includes better support for the China Education Computer Apple II derivatives, along with a preliminary software list. This opens a window to Chinese classroom technology in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Speaking of software lists, we’ve added over five hundred cleanly cracked Apple II software titles, and imported a whole lot of ZX Spectrum cassette images. Looking away from computer emulation for a moment, Game & Watch preservation keeps progressing, with the addition of Ball (the earliest Game & Watch release) and the panorama screen version of Donkey Kong Jr. The Gaelco/Salter Pro Cycle Tele Cardioline exercise system has been promoted to working, and the Pro Stepper system has been added. System 573 MP3 audio has been greatly improved in this release, and support has been added for more Bally pinball sound boards. ClawGrip added example programs from the V.R. Technologies VT03 software development kit. Gemcrush, a rare brick breaking arcade game, has been added in this release. There are lots of other improvements, including a fix for the fatal error when switching away from MAME in Direct3D full-screen mode. You can get the source and Windows binary packages from the download page.
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If you're wanting to build a 2-stick Robotron controller or a large-scale 3D Printed single-player console, you may want to check this out: For even more detailed information, please see this video for how to print/wire everything up: All the latest information can also be found at : http://wagnerstechtalk.com/opencade
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We TI'ers have a LOT to be thankful for here at AtariAge. There are so many people who contribute their time, expertise and experience helping others. We also have the software, hardware and 3D printer gurus that make us all the cool toys and accessories, and so much more! The fact is we have so much to be thankful for and so many people to thank, we cannot cover them all in one simple post, so I thought a devoted thank you thread was a good idea. To start this thread off, I'm going to thank both Sparkdrummer & Shift838. Those two guys have spent literally years bringing us their awesome newsletters. This has taken a lot of time, energy and devotion. I personally enjoy their newsletters so much that I print every single issue, before reading them and storing them for posterity. They have contributed much to our enjoyment of the TI-99/4A hobby. THANKS GUYS!
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I've been getting a lot of questions about why I'm getting out of hardcore collecting. I decided to write an editorial on Armchair Arcade to answer those questions. This AtariAge topic was a big help in getting me to finally make the right decision, and here's the link to what I wrote on Armchair Arcade, which I'm duplicating here. Hopefully in some small way this might help some other hopeless collectors who are looking for a way out. --- After I made the announcement on social media that I was auctioning off my videogame and computer collection, I received a lot of questions both public and private simply asking, “Why?”. Before I answer that, some background. I was born in 1972, so grew up as personal computing technology in all its forms grew up. Whether early videogames or early computers, I was pretty much there every step of the way. As I’ve recounted in multiple interviews, one of my earliest memories is sitting on my mother’s lap and happily playing with some type of pocket calculator. I couldn’t have been more than 3 (I also loved messing with the kitchen phone on the wall; I even accidentally called the plumber once). After we got our first Pong system a few years later – a Sears Tele-Games model – my passion for this type of emerging technology was well and truly set. Even then, I couldn’t get my dad to hook it up to the TV enough times (for some reason it wasn’t permanently attached) to satisfy my desire to play it. Fast forward a few years to age 7 and using my Communion money to buy my very own Atari Video Computer System (aka, 2600). My mom thought the purchase foolish and that it would be something I’d soon tire of like my other toys. Even with initially only having the two player-only Combat cartridge, I absolutely did not tire of it (many articles, books, and a movie later, and helping to work on the latest versions of the Atari Flashback systems, I’d say that initial investment – and continued passion – paid off). I was a voracious reader of Electronic Games magazine, a publication that was extraordinarily influential to me, starting with my initial purchase of the June 1983 issue in a local Foodtown supermarket. It covered just about every noteworthy videogame and computer system of the time, and I’d often “drool” at the various screenshots, or, fairly common for the time, artist renderings/mockups. Between the magazine, the occasional arcade game, and my Atari 2600, my interest in getting to experience all of the other games and platforms grew ever more intense. Naturally, being a kid, my ability to actually use all of that stuff, let alone buy it, was supremely limited. In any case, I got my first computer, a Commodore VIC-20, when I was 10, which was soon replaced by a Commodore 64. My friends also started to get systems of their own around this same time, with Apple II’s, Atari 8-bit’s, TI-99/4a’s, Mattel Aquarius’s, Mattel Intellivisions, and others being added to what I would get at least some first-hand experience with. At a local Odd Lots, I was able to get a ColecoVision. Without adding more length to the story, needless to say, my appetite for this stuff was never really sated. Even before it really had a name, I was a videogame and computer collector. I had little interest in letting go of the systems I had and getting to experience other systems either at my friends’ houses or at school, only added to my desires. Here and there I would get more games and soon enough, more systems, particularly as the 1980’s wore on and other people were moving on from them. Into the 1990’s, it was still fairly easy to find great stuff at yard sales, flea markets, computer shows, and the like, sometimes for just a few dollars. My collection continued to grow, although what I could acquire was slowed by college and not really having the time/space to make use of much of it. Even when I first moved out of my parents’ house at 23, my first apartment could maybe hold four or five systems comfortably. Eventually I was able to move to a condo with my future wife, then a house, then a bigger house, being able to liberate the rest of my collection from my parents’ basement and garage along the way. After getting my first book deal in 2005, I used that as an excuse to greatly expand my collection since I could now also have a dedicated room for all my stuff (this is the “then a house” one). It was indeed for “research” and “first-hand experience” and what-not, but it was also because I really wanted it. Of course, by this time, eBay was already a big deal, so that became both a blessing and curse to collectors everywhere. You could find far more stuff easily, but it was no longer for a low price. That also effectively killed most other value-based sources that proved so fruitful in the 1980’s and 1990’s, like the aforementioned flea markets and computer shows. Although my collection grew dramatically in that time, it was still relatively self-contained to just one room. That didn’t make moving to the next house (this is the “a bigger house” one) any easier, though. In fact, my collection was among the last things we moved, with help from various extended family members. It was definitely a burden. Unfortunately, the bigger house we moved to was yes, bigger, now with an enormous partially finished basement. My collection could and would now get completely unhinged, particularly as Armchair Arcade grew, I wrote more articles, and of course, worked on more books and the movie. More excuses to make use of my stuff meant even more stuff. Now, as I implied earlier, I’ve pretty much had an interest in every aspect of videogames and computers. I’d say the vast majority of collectors and enthusiasts limit themselves to one or a handful of platforms to focus their attention on. For me, that was never enough. I truly loved it all. My collection encompasses systems from every part of the world and every era. I’m equipped to run systems with just about any power or display requirement. I could satisfy every curiosity. What I think would probably be most surprising to those not into this kind of stuff, is that not only is there all the original hardware, software, accessories, etc., available, but practically every system – including some of the most obscure stuff imaginable – has thriving communities creating new things. Yes, new software, new ways to better use the old equipment in modern times (flash carts, connectivity, etc.), and more. That only adds to the things to get. While this can be manageable if you limit yourself to a handful of platforms, multiply that by hundreds of platforms and you see where the problem comes in. Now, we get to the crux of the matter. I was always pretty organized with my stuff. This was relatively easy for me even into the early 2000’s. Unfortunately, once I had that basement to fill and different rooms to work on and use different systems, that’s where the problem came in. As demands on my time grew – at one point I was working on three books at the same time – as I would use these various systems, I’d either be too tired or too disinterested in putting everything back neatly. The more stuff, the harder it is to easily use without unpacking a bunch of stuff, moving other stuff, etc. My basement hasn’t recovered since, since I haven’t had the many days (or energy) to devote to getting it in order. And even with as large as my basement is, I don’t even think I have the room for everything that’s there anymore. That’s what leaving stuff around does — makes it seem like you have room where you really don’t. The floor is not a storage place. I have a full-time job and several side jobs (fortunately, passion, not necessity), as well as a wife and three kids. My passions for videogame and computer stuff has never waned, either, so I have all the latest consoles and a great gaming laptop. All of those things take time and it’s time I want to spend on them, which leaves very little time left for older stuff, particularly older stuff that’s just not easily accessible and/or quick to set up. In fact, one of the reasons for my comfort in moving away from physical items now has been the trend in modern consoles and computers to be all digital. Digital stuff – no matter how many thousands of items you actually have – takes up no physical space (let’s ignore for a moment what ownership of something digital really means). That’s in sharp contrast to how things previously worked. It also helps that I genuinely enjoy how the modern stuff works, and in my middle-aged adult life, convenience is something I prize since my time is more precious than ever. One thing I’d like to stress through all of this is that I never put my collection ahead of more important things. I always placed my wife and eventually kids as my first priorities, and never sacrificed working hard at a good job and doing right by both me and my family. I resolved to succeed at my passion projects/interests without sacrificing the stuff that I deemed truly important. And even as my collection became untenable, I never let it spill out beyond the basement (at least much!). So yes, while I have an all-consuming passion, I still made sure it had its limits. So what does all this mean? It means that psychologically I’m in a great place since I can continue to pursue my passions, albeit with far less stuff bogging me down. By partnering with Bodnar’s Auction, I can get rid of everything, save for a precious few systems with minimal extras. I no longer have to feel guilty about keeping stuff I’ll never get to use (no matter how much I want to) out of the hands of people who might make more use of it. Unfortunately, I’m not taking requests for individual items, since that defeats the purpose of doing this all in one shot. Bodnar’s Auction has agreed to put my 100 best items up (although, honestly, that’s going to be hard for me to figure out) for auction online as well as at physical auction. Everything else will be strictly physical auction. The timetable right now looks like the auction will take place some time in March or April 2018, and may be part of their grand opening event at what they expect to be a new permanent location (still in New Jersey). As always, I’ll be happy to answer any questions. I also ask that when the time comes, to please help me spread the word. I’ll definitely be posting about this again once the auction is officially scheduled. While obviously I have a financial interest in making this a success, I’m still first and foremost a member of the community, and I really do want to see the people who would appreciate this stuff the most get it before anyone else. As good of a decision this is for me, it was definitely not an easy one. For those interested, here’s a small selection of the platforms that should be part of the auction (of course there’s tons of boxed software and accessories, collectibles, etc.): 3Com Palm IIIx Acorn BBC Master/Micro/Electron Amdek PC Amstrad CPC464/6128/GX4000/PPC640 APF Imagination Machine/M1000/MP1000/TV Fun Apple II/IIGS Apple Mac Arcade Retro Collecting Multiple Classic Computer (MCC-216) Archos 7 (6700) Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101-A1/EeePC 1000HE AT&T PC 6300 Atari 8-bit/ST/Stacy/Falcon/2600/5200/7800/XEGS/Flashback/Jaguar/Lynx/Portfolio/Video Pinball AtGames (various) Bally Professional Arcade (Astrocade) Briel Computers Altair 8800 Micro/Micro-Kim/PockeTerm/replica 1 Cambridge Computer Z88 Coleco Adam/ColecoVision/Telstar Commodore 128/64/Amiga/PET/CDTV/CD32/Plus-4/C16/SX-64/VIC-20 Compaq Deskpro Cyberpower GUA290 Cybiko Wireless Entertainment System/Xtreme Dell (various) Dick Smith Wizzard (VTech CreatiVision) Dream Authentics Excalibur Home Arcade Machine dreamGEAR Plug ‘n’ Play 50 in 1 EB Excalibur Fox Sports Football Key Chain Emerson Arcadia 2001 Enterprise 128 Entex Handhelds Epoch Cassette Vision/Super Cassette Vision Epson HX-20/Epson PX-8 Exidy Sorcerer Fairchild Channel F System II/Video Entertainment System (VES) FC Mobile FC Mobile II Franklin ACE 1200 Gadgets Small, Inc. Spectre GCR Game Consoles Worldwide GCW Zero Game Sporz TV Wireless Boxing GamePark Holdings GP2X F-200 Gateway CX210X Tablet PC GCE Vectrex Generic PCs Generic Pocket Arcade 256 Games in 1 Generic Talking Brick Game 118 in 1 – E-118T Gold Leopard King (GLK) GLK Book Education Computer M08 Grundig Super Play Computer 4000 (Interton VC 4000) Heathkit HERO JR RT-1 (robot) Hewlett-Packard HP TouchSmart IQ524/HP-85/Pavilions Hyperkin GenMobile/NES RetroN 1/RetroN 5 IBM 5155/5150/PCjr indieGO Odroid XU4 Intelligent Game MPT-03 Home Entertainment Centre Interact Home Computer System (Model “R” – 16K) INTV Corp. Intellivision III Jakks Pacific Dora the Explorer TV Game/Namco TV Games/Star Wars Blaster Strike Video Game jojoultimate Mini Universal Supergun (SuperGun, super gun) Kaypro Kaypro 4 (Kaypro 4 ’84)/Kaypro II Konami Konami Live Online Game Controller!/Handhelds Laser 128 EX-2/Compumate2 Leapfrog Leapster2 Lego Robotics Invention System 2.0 Magnavox Odyssey/300/Odyssey2 Mammoth Toys Commodore 64 30 Games in One Joystick! (DTV) MatchMaster MMDB04 Mattel Aquarius/Radofin version/Baseball/Enhanced Computer System (ECS)/HyperScan/Intellivision/II Maximite BasicBoxX (BBX) Computer MBR Control Dynamics S-100 Bus Chassis Memorex Spongebob Media Player Memorex Video Information System Player (VIS) MFJ Video Effects Titler 1480B MGA Entertainment (various) Microsoft Xbox/360/One Midway TouchMaster 5000 (arcade machine) Milton Bradley MBX Expansion System/Microvision Multitech Micro-Professor 1 (MPF-1) MX Plus Android TV Box Navman PiN Pocket PC NEC Mobile Pro 750C/PC Engine Super Grafx/PC-6601/PC-8001A/PC-FX/NEC Trek PC-6001(A)/Duo/Express/16 Next Thing Co. PocketCHIP (PocketC.H.I.P.) Nintendo 3DS/64/DS/GBA/GB/GBC/GC/SNES/NES/Famicom/Wii/Wii U Nixdorf Computer LK-3000 Nokia N-Gage QD Ohio Art Etch A Sketch Animator 2000 Ohio Scientific Challenger 1P OnLive OnLive Game System Oric Oric-1 Osborne Executive (OCC-2)/Osborne 1 (OCC-1) Oscar Vermeulen KIM Uno/PiDP-8/I Packard Bell Platinum Palm Z22 Panasonic FZ1 3DO Interactive Multiplayer/JR-200U Personal Computer/RL-H1400 HHC Philips CDI/Videopac G7200/Videopac+ G7401 Pimoroni Picade Pioneer LaserActive Pro Tech Video Game System Radica Sega Menacer/Space Invaders Radio Shack Color Computer/2/3/LCD Space Rescue/MC-10 (Micro Color Computer)/TRS-80 Pocket Computer (PC-2/PC-4) Raspberry Pi RCA Studio II Home TV Programmer REP Electronics GameMid (Game Mid) Retro-Bit Retro Duo V2.0 Black (RetroDuo) Royal (TA) Alphatronic PC (CP/M) Sears Video Arcade (Tele-Games) Sega 32X/CD 2/Dreamcast/GG/SMS/Saturn/Genesis/Nomad/SC-3000 Sharp MZ-800 (MZ-821)/Twin Famicom Sinclair QL/ZX Spectrum/+2/+3/ZX80/ZX81 SNK Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System (AES)/Neo Geo Pocket Color Sony CD-I CD Interactive Intelligent Discman IVO-V11/HB-75P/HB-F1XD/PS1/PS2/PS3/PSP/TV Sord Creative Computer M5 (Socius, CGL M5) Spectravideo CompuMate/SV-318/SV-328 Tandy 1000/2000/Model 100-102-200/4/4P/I Tano Dragon Tapwave Zodiac 2 Tatung Einstein 256 Team Ubi Ubi TeleGames Personal Arcade DINA 2 in One Texas Instruments Compact Computer (CC-40)/T-58/TI-74/99-4a Thomson MO5 Tiger Game.com Tiger R-Zone Tiger Telematics Gizmondo Timex Sinclair 1000/1500/2068 Tomy Tutor 16K Computer Toy Quest Go Go TV Video VISION Toymax Activision TV Games Unisonic Champion 2711 Series Valentin Angelovski Flea86 (rev 2.1, prototype) Velleman Classic TV Game (MK121 NTSC) VideoBrain Computer Company VideoBrain Family Computer Model 101 View-Master Interactive Vision Vizio Co-Star Stream Player/I.Q. Unlimited Computer/Laser 310 Color Computer/Laser 50/PC-5/Socrates Educational Video System/V.Smile/VZ200 Watara Supervision Worlds of Wonder Action Max XaviX XaviXPORT Yamaha CX-5M II/128U Music Computer (MSX 1)/CX5M Music Computer (MSX 1) Yobo Gameware FC Game Console ZAPiT Games Game Wave Zenith Z-100 (ZF-120-xx All-In-One Computer)
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What do you do with broken stuff? I get most consoles repaired these days, but I have a few controllers I really like (a six button w/turbo genesis controller, multiple 2600 controller, and a translucent green N64 controller) that I just can't figure out what to do with. I also have an extra Apple G3 laptop that I should sell for parts or repair. As I see it we have a few options with any given item. -Hoard until parts become available and you can fix item -Fix item -Sell for parts -Toss I'm torn. I hate throwing away something thinking it could be fixed, but also don't like having broken crap taking up space in my collection. What do you do for various items?
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From the album: Crimson Gallery
Another pic of my *vintage* workstation. -
From the album: Crimson Gallery
My 1987 Epson Apex running Windows 1.01. -
Best Classic Computer to keep investing in.
simbalion posted a topic in Classic Computing Discussion
First off, I want to say this: I am still working on finishing my collections and, sadly, am no good at rebuilding stuff. Also, I mostly play games on my vintage computers as I started late into the computer game (Windows 98) and most technical stuff goes right over my head. Still, I think there is room to further invest in one of the lines of 8-bit computers I have to make them daily drivers for more than just games and I have narrowed the field down to two makes. Atari and Apple II. Now, which one is the best choice? Atari 8-Bit: Several models to choose from, both computers and disk drives seem to have that famous Atari durability to them. Nice graphics and sound. A lot of programs on cartridge and most will run on the earlier 800 that uses the near bullet-proof 9 volt power brick. Diskettes seem to be durable as well. Downsides are: You need a separate power supply for every accesory you hook into the 8-bit line, which can add up to a lot of wires and power bricks. XL series is very closed-box and the XE series is a bit shakey due to cost cutting the Tramiels did. Black ingots! Apple II computers: Built in one form or the other and supported from roughly 1978 until at least 1993! Very easy to work on, just power down and pop the top. Units seem fairly rugged and the Disk II drives seem durable. I've had even better luck with the later 5.25" unidrives. If the power supply smokes, it doesn't seem to take the computer with it and it also seems it can be repaired and put back into service. Most diskettes boot up by themselves, with no need to fiddle with DOS. Just power up the computer or hit reset. First computers I can remember getting to touch and see when in grade school. Just seems like an overall workhorse and there is an odd friendliness to the design. Downsides are: You can't just plug these in to a TV. (Well I don't think so at least.) So, you need to find a working monitor which is getting harder to do. All programs are on aging diskettes which need to be run through aging disk drives. (I think there is a work around for that though.) Keyboard keys are REALLY easy to break off compared to the Atari. Graphics are ok, sound can be kinda meh. Oh, and too many of them and their parts are still getting ground up! Downside of both: All are getting older and will eventually need rebuilds of some sort. I currently have three dead and one spare power supply for the Apple II, but those come out in one chunk and probably could be shipped to someone for rebuilds. Power supplies in the Atari models seem split between power brick and on the board. So, which of these two makes would be the most practical to make into a daily driver? A computer that might still be able to have use in our modern world? I'm not ditching any of my vintage computers, but I would love to see if I can make one do practical things while still remaining what it is. Anyways, thanks for looking and sorry for the long post. -
Here's a list of my current 8-bit collection, starting with the working units! One working 400. One working 800. One working 600xl. Just put together a working 800XL out of two junkers. One working 1200XL. And one working XEGS. Just enough 'safe' power supplys to go around for the XL's and the XEGS. Along with these, I have a couple 1050 disk drives, an 810 drive, and some other pieces parts floating around that I need to gather up again. I also have parts 400, another 800 that MIGHT move up to working status if I can get a keyboard, and another 1200XL that is in beautiful shape, but the keyboard currently does not work at all, not even the option buttons. Might have to try and take that keyboard apart like I did my first 1200XL and clean all the contacts. A very TEDIOUS process! Oh, I also have ingots... three or four so far.... Bleah...
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Sharing a post I made to Livejournal just to potentially get more responses. I'm mostly just looking for suggestions and opinions at this stage, I'll be doing my own research throughout the summer anyway before I start trying to buy components likely 1/month.
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Many of you already know about this, but just in case, I wanted to start the topic for my upcoming book, Vintage Game Consoles: An Inside Look at Apple, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, and the Greatest Gaming Platforms of All Time, which will be released in February, but is available for pre-order now. This is the next entry in the Focal Press Vintage Games series, which started with the critically acclaimed 2009 release, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time. In contrast to Vintage Games, which covered 35 of the most influential computer, console, and handheld games of all time (up to the book's publication date), Vintage Game Consoles covers 20 of the greatest game playing computer, console, and handheld platforms of all time (up to 2001, which means no platforms still actively sold (i.e., their history is still being written)). It's full color throughout, with 400 images, an extensive preface, and major section introductions to complement each platform chapter, which provides a thorough history of the industry through the lens of the very platforms that helped define it. Any questions? Ask away! (also be sure to check out my other recently released book, CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer, and the next book to see release after Vintage Game Consoles, My Xbox One; March will also see the first unveiling of our major feature film documentary on the history of videogames (based loosely on the Vintage Games series books), Gameplay: The Story of the Videogame Revolution) Contents: Preface Generation One (1971 – 1984) Arcade (1971) Apple II (1977) Atari 2600 VCS (1977) Atari 8-bit (1979) Mattel Intellivision (1979) PC DOS Computers (1981) Commodore 64 (1982) Coleco ColecoVision (1982) Generation Two (1985 – 1994) Nintendo Entertainment System (1985) Commodore Amiga (1985) Sega Genesis (1989) Nintendo GameBoy (1989) Nintendo Super NES (1991) Generation Three (1995 – 2001) PC Windows Computers (1995) Sony PlayStation (1995) Nintendo 64 (1996) Sega Dreamcast (1999) Sony PlayStation 2 (2000) Microsoft Xbox (2001) Nintendo GameCube (2001) By the way, the cover art is by none other than Nathan Strum, long-time AtariAge member and renowned homebrew cover artist. For those not familiar with the style, it's meant to evoke my first (and favorite) childhood magazine, Electronic Games. I think he nailed it:
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Hey everyone. Ive been working on my new video game channel on YouTube for a little while now and wanted to share that with this forum. Most of my videos are Atari 8 Bit related ( hence the name ). But I also try to include games from other consoles that I collect. Some of the systems I collect and you may find on the channel include the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, 8 bit computer line, NES , SNES, Gameboy, Genesis, and any other system that is cartridge based. Each week I do at least 2 videos. - One based called "The Gaming Moment Back In Time" which focuses on a game from my collection that either I grew up playing and enjoyed or something Ive added to my collection and has been overall a big hit to play. - The other video is my Thursday pick up video that covers all the finds Ive picked up from flea markets, garage sales, eBay, Atari Age,or other gaming forums. The channel can be found here : http://www.youtube.com/user/atarian83 I hope you all will enjoy these videos and like usual it's a learning process for me. Feel free to subscribe, like, comment or share personal memories of the games featured. Also I'm learning as I go and sometimes make mistakes; feel free to drop a line with comments, suggestions or ideas. The more I can learn and share the more everyone benefits. Look forward to sharing amazing memories and gaming finds. Jason
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came across this great sight on some of pioneers of computers and computer gaming. Articles on Bill Budge of pinball construction set, Dan (later Dani) Bunten of MULE and other interesting people are profiles. As well as some insightful articles on the early days of EA, Atari, the LISA and C64 (with a big mention of the TI99). http://www.filfre.net/ PS. some of his older post go over how to play some of the classic games. well worth a read.
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I've got it up on kickstarter leading towards the onespark event here in jacksonville, where it is also registered. check it out at www.theimagic.com thoughts and input welcome!
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- atari 2600
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Do you all think that we all are out of this 21st century World? Do you think that 80's was that, was the Time that never will came up again... Do you think that we are different from others and that we was a time that will never happens again? This is because today I know a guy from 80's/90's Amiga... And was the first I known for Years... Today Windows buil all the stuff and kids just play but they don't know nothing about computers, even with compuetrs at school. I am from the time that in school we learn to 'key' a Type Writer with the 'Keyboard ASDQ'. Do you think that all of ours computers A8, Zxs, C64, CPC,.. learn or turn us like we are now?
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I've recently taken the 486 computer I've had in storage since 2004 and put it back together. For the most part, it works! Well, as much as it ever did. The only thing of note is that the left ALT key on the keyboard doesn't seem to function. I'm not sure if there's just something wedged under it or if it's outright broken. *checks* Could be either. I'll know for sure if the crap I blew away from it was causing the problem the next time I turn it on. The right ALT key works fine at any rate so it's not that big a deal. There are things on it I'd like to get off like old qbasic programs, etc but to do that I needed 3.5" diskettes as that's about the only way to take anything off of it's 400 megabyte harddrive. Luckily I found some of those at Future Shop today! Might start using the comp just for fiddling around with qbasic rather than messing around with some other basic in a more current console. I've got ideas of what I want to test out, and I know that they should be within my capability since I've already done similar programs with qbasic back in the 90's. So the question is whether or not I'll remember enough of it to do anything productive.
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The graphics and the setup for my table at the upcoming OVGE this weekend is complete but I still have one very important task to complete before I'm ready: making sure the Altair computer works. So, the other day I connected the cables and powered up the system. The fan started whirring and the lights flickered on: Next, I need to run some programs to make sure it works. Although the Altair has Microsoft's Altair BASIC on ROM, there is no code to properly set up the serial port for the machine (lack of a BIOS, sort of). The only way I can do that is start flipping some switches on the front panel: Although I pretty much know the bootstrap code by heart (I'm sure I entered the bootstrap hundreds of times by now), it's always nice to have it handy just in case I forget a byte or two: Once I entered and checked the code, it was time to hit the START switch. Will the systems work? Yes! (The Memory size question is to see if I want to use all the available memory or reserve some for non-BASIC programs). Next, I need to answer some questions and I'll be all set: Oh boy! 31 K bytes are free! Plenty of room for all sorts of cool programs. So, what program should I load and run? Hmmm...oh I know! Star Trek! My favorite program on the Altair! Excuse me, I have to go now and destroy some Klingons.
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In early April, a few days before my last two finals, my PC Hardware and Software Administration class had an open lab. By open lab I mean the students were encouraged to bring their own computers to repair or, at the very least, mess around with. I decided to take this opportunity to show my fellow students what computers were like before most of them were born. So I brought a couple of Altairs to the lab. The bottom one is an Altair 680: You can program it via the front panel switches or by running the monitor installed in the on-board ROM. To talk to the monitor you connect a terminal to the serial port in the back of the Altair. I have an old ADM-3a "dumb" terminal at home that I use mostly for this but, for the demo at school, I connected the Altair to my old Toshiba laptop: To talk to the Altair, I used the Kea! terminal emulation program. It works really well and I've used that program to talk to my other computers including my VAXen, Alphas and other Altair computers. One cool feature of the Kea! program is the built-in macro programming language. You can program key sequences in Kea! and you can program it to respond to certain key sequences from the remote host. Thus, I could have whole Altair programs stored on my Toshiba and upload them to the Altair by using a macro program I wrote. It beats to hell the old fashioned method of flipping switches. I cut short the demo with the 680 because there appeared to be something wrong with it. Instead of giving me the monitor prompt (the "." character) the computer was repeatedly sending the same character to the terminal. Either a piece of hardware has busted or there is something wrong with the code stored on the EPROM. How long do the bit patterns stay on an EPROM anyway? Twenty years? Thirty years? So, I hooked up the other Altair: This is the Altair 680b which has the same motherboard as the 680 but has a much simpler front panel. Only two switches instead of the 25 or so on the 680. This means I can only program the 680b through the terminal. However, this computer worked just fine and the "." prompt showed up without much problem. The monitor program for the 680b isn't very sophisticated. It only takes up 256 bytes (that's right, BYTES not Killobytes) of EPROM and it only has a few functions: show memory location, store data to memory, jump to a memory location and other simple functions. I didn't have a program handy to load and so, after showing the basic monitor functions, I shut down the Altair, took off the case and showed off the innards of the machine. (FYI, I took this and the following pictures later at home). As you can see it's a simple layout. Just a motherboard connected to the front panel and the power supply. Here's a closer look at the mother board: These computers are capable of expansion. You can see the expansion card slot on the right which follows the S-100 bus format. Just plug a riser card into the motherboard slot and then the expansion card into the riser card and you're good to go. I have a memory card I can install but I have to assemble and test it first. On the right you can also see where the motherboard connects to the front panel. The two chips that power the mother board are seen here: In the upper right is the 6800 CPU. In the lower left is the 6850 UART used to connect the 680 to the serial line and the terminal. The 6800 uP runs off a 500 KHz clock which means it is only capable of, at most, 250,000 instructins per second (it's been a while but I think the 6800 can execute some instructions in only two clock cycles). This picture shows the memory of the computer: On the right is where the EPROM resides. Up to four EPROMS can be insalled but currently there is only one in place. That chip holds the on-board monitor program and is, essentially the OS for the machine. As I mentioned before, the ROM monitor is only 256 bytes in size. That fact alone tells you how limited the monitor program is and how tightly the code was packed into the memory. On the left are the main memory chips. Each chip is a 2102 1KX1 static RAM. This gives the machine a total of 1 KB of RAM. Not much room for anything sophisticated which makes the installation of the 16 KB memory board more important. Here's a picure of the power supply for the Altair 680: Pretty simple, really. It provides 8V and 16V to the motherboard. Components onboard the motherboard regulate the voltage to the 5V necessary to run the chips. The power connects to the motherboard via the white wires. The yellow wires with the red connector connect the motherboard to the RS-232 serial port. So why did I take the 680s instead of the more famous Altair 8800? Mainly because they were easier to carry. The 8800 is twice as wide, twice as deep and weighs a lot more than the 680. I was able to carry both 680s and a laptop to class in one trip. If I took an 8800, it would have taken one trip for just one computer. Those 8800s are big and heavy! It small size also means the 680 had much less computing power than it's bigger sister. Here are the stats for the 680: 500 KHz CPU clock 1 KB on board memory 256 Byte ROM monitor On board serial port Riser card allows up to three expansion cards Compare that with the specs of my 8800a: 1 MHz clock 32 KB of memory Altair Basic stored on 16 KB ROM board 2 serial ports Motherboard allows up to 8 additional expansion cards (4 slots are currently in use: one for the CPU card, two for the memory and one for the serial I/O board). As you can see the 8800 is much more powerful and a big reason why the 680 series never became as popular as the 8800. Only about a third of the class showed up for the open lab and so I was only able to show it off to a few students. Most of the younger students were unimpressed but a couple of the older students thought it was mildly interesting. One student, who was in his fifties, was interested and started telling me how he used to program compuers with punch cards back in the day (I had to program punch cards for only one semester in college - YUCK! - and I was glad to get it over with). My teacher showed the most interest in the Altairs. When he first started teaching at TVI there were Altair computers in his lab. Even though most of the people there weren't all that interested in the Altair computers, I'm still glad I brought them to school. It was the first time in nearly ten years that I powered those boys up and I'm glad at least one of them was still working (though I thik I can get the other one working pretty quick).