Pixelboy Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Hello people! I spent all my free time this last summer working on a special project, and today, I'm finally able to show the fruits of my labours: Pixelboy's Unofficial Companion Guide to Activision Anthology for Game Boy Advance! I prepared this guide for people who own the Atari 2600 compilation developed and published by Aspyr. It contains the fully illustrated instruction manuals for all 56 games, and best of all, IT'S COMPLETELY FREE! ^_^ You can download it from this web page: http://www.colba.net/~lucm/pix_aa_guide And that's not all! While I was working on this project, I used the material found on AtariAge.com - which was a huge help in speeding things up - and I thought that giving something back was the least I could do. So here are a few gifts, which I hope that the AtariAge webmasters will accept and integrate into the web site: 1) Ever noticed that the text version of the manual for "Space Shuttle" offered on AtariAge.com is incomplete? You can find the complete version here: http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/shuttle.txt 2) The entry for "Tomcat - The F-14 Fighter Simulator" in the 2600 rarity guide doesn't offer the manual in text format, so here it is: http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/tomcat.txt 3) I didn't look thoroughly through AtariAge.com, but I haven't seen the text versions of these two companion booklets: "The Power of StarMaster" and "How Your Partner Bids on Bridge By Activision". So, here they are now: http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/power_star.txt http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/how_bridge.txt 4) Last but certainly not least, here are the scans of the manual for the Atari 2600 version of "Pete Rose Baseball", which AtariAge.com doesn't offer (yet): http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_1.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_2.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_3.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_4.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_5.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_6.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_7.jpg http://www.colba.net/~lucm/gifts/pete_rose_baseball_8.jpg I hope my Activision Anthology guide and the "gift material" listed above will be useful to some people. In any case, feel free to post your comments right here. :-) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Nice job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kencrisis Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Wow, that's quite a project. Thanks, I'll definitely be printing this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Hi Pixelboy and welcome to the forum! Great job on the PDF you put together, and I'm glad you were able to find AtariAge useful while you were putting it together. If you want me to mirror it here, just let me know. Also, thanks for the additional materials you provided, I'll put them up on AtariAge soon. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 18, 2005 Author Share Posted September 18, 2005 Great job on the PDF you put together, and I'm glad you were able to find AtariAge useful while you were putting it together. If you want me to mirror it here, just let me know.Sure, I'd love that! Also, I have a high-quality version, where the annotated screenshots look much better. It's 5.3 megs however, so I don't know if you'd be willing to host that version too. I can't host it on my personal web space because of space and bandwith constraints. Also, thanks for the additional materials you provided, I'll put them up on AtariAge soon.That's good to know. Sorry if the Pete Rose Baseball manual scans look kind of bluish and washed out. I was working with a rather old flatbed scanner that didn't like the kind of paper the manual was made of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxglove9 Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Very Nice!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted September 19, 2005 Share Posted September 19, 2005 Man, that rocks! I've been looking for a nice pritable version of all of those maps for days. Thanks, and welcome to AA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 19, 2005 Author Share Posted September 19, 2005 Man, that rocks! I've been looking for a nice pritable version of all of those maps for days. Thanks, and welcome to AA! 934098[/snapback] Yeah, I made all those maps myself. I believe I'm the first guy on the net to make detailed maps of Private Eye. And it wasn't easy, let me tell you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128bytes Posted September 19, 2005 Share Posted September 19, 2005 Nice job, pixelboy. I own Activision Anthology for the GBA, and I have to say thank you! Welcome to AtariAge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted September 19, 2005 Share Posted September 19, 2005 (edited) Very nicely done! I know this applies to the GBA game, but the guide also works for the original releases. Now you can do the same for the Imagic titles! Edited September 19, 2005 by Lord Helmet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 19, 2005 Author Share Posted September 19, 2005 I know this applies to the GBA game, but the guide also works for the original releases. Now you can do the same for the Imagic titles! 934302[/snapback] Actually, if you look take a closer look at my companion guide, you'll see that, in each manual, I replaced the original control references (joystick, fire button, Select, Reset, Difficulty switches) with GBA equivalents (D-Pad, A button, Select button, L button + UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT, etc.) for clarity purposes. So my guide really applies to the GBA version specifically. Adapting my guide to the PS2 (or whatever) version of Activision Anthology would therefore be a LOT of work, and I'm really not interested in going through all that trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted September 19, 2005 Share Posted September 19, 2005 That is really nice. Thanks for sharing your hard work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 Yeah, I made all those maps myself. I believe I'm the first guy on the net to make detailed maps of Private Eye. And it wasn't easy, let me tell you... icon_smile.gif No kidding! I thought of doing that myself, but I just don't have the time. One of my long term 2600 goals is to beat the game on level 5. I've never heard of anyone doing it, actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillenterprises Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 What an incredible project! I can't imagine how long this took you! Nice Job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 20, 2005 Author Share Posted September 20, 2005 (edited) No kidding! I thought of doing that myself, but I just don't have the time. One of my long term 2600 goals is to beat the game on level 5. I've never heard of anyone doing it, actually. 934779[/snapback] I only finished the first two cases. I could never get to the end of case #3 in time. Some say that it's a rather easy, but I just don't see how to do everything in the short time allowed. I never even TRIED to finish case #4 and #5, I just drove around town to make the maps. What an incredible project! I can't imagine how long this took you! Nice Job! 934840[/snapback] Thanks. It took me pretty much all summer. I started the project last May, if memory serves me right. But I wouldn't have done it at all if AtariAge hadn't offered all those manual scans. That made my life so much easier. (Speaking of which, I'm still hoping to hear from the admin about mirroring the guide - possibly both the low-quality and high-quality versions...) Edited September 20, 2005 by Pixelboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 Holy macaroni! This is amazingly comprehensive, and looks great too. If I had to gripe, my only complaint would be that it's over 300 pages and a lot of that is white space, so it's not the kind of thing one would like to print in hard copy as is. I guess one could print some of the text-only pages with 4 panels to a page to save trees, and print duplex on both sides whenever possible. Completists take note: THIS is how it's done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 20, 2005 Author Share Posted September 20, 2005 If I had to gripe, my only complaint would be that it's over 300 pages and a lot of that is white space, so it's not the kind of thing one would like to print in hard copy as is. I guess one could print some of the text-only pages with 4 panels to a page to save trees, and print duplex on both sides whenever possible. 934912[/snapback] Point well taken. I designed the guide to be printed in "double-sided" mode, with each manual starting on an odd page, so the guide can be completely printed on 164 sheets of paper. Of course, no one should do that needlessly. People should only print out the manuals to their favorite games, or for the more complex games, like Space Shuttle, StarMaster and Tomcat. For the rest, just burn the PDF file onto a CD and keep it handy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 Hello all. Just wanted to mention (to Albert, and to anyone else concerned) that the gift files (Pete Rose Baseball manual scans, Tomcat text manual, etc.) which I made available in my first post in this thread will be removed from my personal web space within the next 48 hours, because I need to clear some space for other web material. I sent a PM to Albert some weeks ago, but he never replied, so I thought it would be best to post this news here. I have no personal backup of these gift files, so once the files are gone from my web space, they'll be gone forever. So Albert, please download them now if you still intend to add this material to AtariAge.com. (Also, if you still want to mirror my Activision Anthology companion guide PDF, please let me know.) Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Is there a working mirror to this file? It was so awesome, it should live forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markimus of K. Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm just getting a 404 not found error when clicking the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devwebcl Posted August 27, 2013 Share Posted August 27, 2013 PixelBoy has sent me the PDF, now they can be downloaded at: http://devwebcl.atarionline.pl/gba/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 God I love this document. I'm keeping a copy safe if anyone needs it while I'm still alive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_afternoon Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Thanks for rehosting it the AA was both my first ever GBA game I imported from the US and it also brought me back, after over 10 years of hiatus, to love the Atari 2600 again 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 It belongs in a museum! Or at least on AtariAge. Unofficial Companion Guide to Activision Anthology for GameBoy Advance.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TF14 Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 It belongs in a museum! Or at least on AtariAge. Unofficial Companion Guide to Activision Anthology for GameBoy Advance.pdf Thanks for posting! Really great content and the maps are awesome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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