Please catch me up on the last 2 years

[Blackjack]

Hello,

 

I used to be very active on the forums (member since '04), and for the last 2 years I haven't been able to keep up. I've only been able to "poke my nose in" briefly, but I still collect and play some(any system, but mostly 2600 and Mame), and I'm always interested in significant finds/developments in the community.

 

So I was hoping that someone would be kind enough to catch me up on the really significant headlines from the last 2 years. I did some searching, but with so much missing time, it's a little inadequate.

 

Like:

Swordquest Airworld been found yet?

Status of the Red Sea Crossing thing

Status of Pink Panther

I have a Krokodile Cart, and I see that the Harmony Cart has released. How's that going, and are there any more flashcarts done now? (any system)

Stelladapter - I've got 2. Anything new and significant like that.

Other super-rare, interesting unreleased prototypes, previously only rumored games that surfaced.

Amazing new homebrews.

Anything else that an "out of the loop" Atariphile like me might really like to know.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help.

Edited August 20, 2011 by Blackjack

[AtariBrian]

hey blackjack. no Airworld, but they did make Halo 2600!

[+Random Terrain]

Albert gave AtariAge to me so he could spend all of his time playing pinball while riding an exercise bike.

[user42]

It would not be Atari Age without a page full of sarcastic answers so....

 

RomHunter shot and killed a hunting partner while trying to take down a wild Airworld. They say it was an accident but only him and the roms know for sure....

 

 

[bomberpunk]

i tried to learn assembly and laughed until i cried.

[Cebus Capucinis]

We discovered the Atari hot tub Nolan Bushnell sex tapes, but anyone who had ever seen them was sued into the ground and we had to give up all of our combined collections to pay legal fees. Pac-Man is thus now an R6.

[Armonigann]

Back in '89 is really Shatner.

[Trinity]

The Harmony Cartridge!!!

[Dino]

Air Raid Box found and sold on ebay for over $30k

3 copies of Pink panther surfaced this year (no ROM publically available yet)

Power Lords discovered, dumped and released

Good luck Charlie Brown discovered and being released

[Deteacher]

I would agree that the Harmony Cartridge is probably one of the biggest (if not the biggest) accomplishments in the past two years.

Another huge step forward is the demo release of Boulder Dash

[Animan]

Pancake Boy and Snaperoo cartridges were found on the ocean shore in Kansas.

[+RevEng]

In no particular order, with links...

 

• Halo 2600 was released. Ed Fries - a former VP of game publishing at Microsoft and all-around really great guy - coded it with legal blessing from MS.
   
  
• Albert opened a real-life arcade, Pinballz.
   
  
• A decent-looking version of Star Castle 2600 was developed, and the author decided he only wants to sell a single copy for $32k, and he won't release the binary until he gets his price.
   
  
• The Harmony cart was released. Batari has since announced he's working on a 7800 Harmony cart.
   
  
• Harmony/Melody DPC+ cart tech is slowly taking hold and enabling games that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Notably, Spiceware has started coding a sequel to Berzerk and Frenzy called Frantic, and a new batari Basic beta with DPC+ capabilities has spawned batari Basic games that Imagic and Activision would have been proud of: Charge!, Epic Adventure, and Eggventure.
   
  
• The demo of Atari 2600 Boulderdash was released. Legal permission to use the name and assets was obtained by Andrew and Thomas, from First Star Software.
   
  
• The 7800 XM Expansion Module is nearing completion.
   
  
• Cebus Capucinis was given a promotion from cart janitor to AA moderator.
   
  
• Other complete or near-complete 2600 homebrews: Chetiry, 21 Blue, and Army of Darkness. I'm sure I'm missing some here.
   
  

[+Nathan Strum]

Glad you're back. We've been holding off on releasing any Holiday Carts until you returned. Of course, any future releases are predicated on you staying around.

 

The Turbo prototype was released in both its original form and an enhanced version (on the same cart).

 

Chetiry was also the subject of an April Fool's joke this year, including a Gameboy-inspired preview version.

Edited August 21, 2011 by Nathan Strum

[SlowCoder]

I joined. Isn't that enough?

 

That, and what the other guys said.

 

AND ...

- It's a no-no to simply reply to a post by quoting the post with "this" or "that".

- NE146 still likes to masturbate constantly, 2nd only to playing video games. Or maybe it's the other way around?

- It's also a no-no to modify your console in any way, including video mods. You are only allowed to clean and repair, and parts must be original.

- Random Terrain is still a hoot to read. I look forward to his crack-up posts.

- Apparently CMart604 and Revolutionika are online lovers, or at least like to look at each other's packages.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Cebus Capucinis was given a promotion from cart janitor to AA moderator.

 

My promotion didn't include an upscale in duties apparently, as I have just completed a huge Uhaul box of carts for Al..... Maybe I should get a flunky to cart janitor for me!

[LS_Dracon]

Racer, an unknow game/project from early 80's was found and reproductions was made.

BallBlazer started to be coded for the 2600 and the parallax effect looks damn good.

I did progress on Prince of Persia project, with animation demo to run on real hardware.

 

Nothing new on the Red Sea Crossing novel.

Edited August 21, 2011 by LS_Dracon

[SRGilbert]

Cebus Capucinis was given a promotion from cart janitor to AA moderator.

 

My promotion didn't include an upscale in duties apparently, as I have just completed a huge Uhaul box of carts for Al..... Maybe I should get a flunky to cart janitor for me!

 

Well, you are pretty close to the border, maybe swing by Home Depot in the morning? Probably find some guys that will work cheap....

[Cebus Capucinis]

Well, you are pretty close to the border, maybe swing by Home Depot in the morning? Probably find some guys that will work cheap....

 

I've thought about it, actually, and I'm on the border of not-kidding territory. I was going to round up a couple thousand carts and get a group of 5 guys to work for minimum wage or something to clean them, but I don't think you can trust anyone who isn't an Atari-nerd to actually clean a cart properly. It's not a complicated procedure, sure, but it's definitely very meticulous.

[Impaler_26]

The latest awesome new homebrew game is Bell Hopper.

[Animan]

And I've been working on a sorta-kinda-like-but-isn't-quite-like Minecraft homebrew for the 2600: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/186169-terrain-editor-thing/

[Syntaxerror999]

Reading though these posts and realizing a lot has gone on under my nose. Hey Random, if your runnig the site now, how bout more updates to the news section of the homepage. Please?

Edited August 22, 2011 by Syntaxerror999

[CPUWIZ]

Reading though these posts and realizing a lot has gone on under my nose. Hey Random, if your runnig the site now, how bout more updates to the news section of the homepage. Please?

 

You need to read more of R.T.'s posts, to fully understand his sarcasm.

[jaybird3rd]

Knight Rider 2600 still hasn't been released, in case you were waiting for it.

[disjaukifa]

This was a good thread for me as well, I haven't been activate for about a year now, basically since my daughter was born. Finally beginning to have time to get back into the swing of things here. Pulled out my 2600 tonight and been having a blast with it.

 

-Disjaukifa

[Cebus Capucinis]

This was a good thread for me as well, I haven't been activate for about a year now, basically since my daughter was born. Finally beginning to have time to get back into the swing of things here. Pulled out my 2600 tonight and been having a blast with it.

 

-Disjaukifa

 

Welcome back! I've been wondering where you'd gotten to!