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AtariAge News Archive
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 The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World by Steven L. Kent, is now available for order at Amazon.com for only $15.16. This is an updated and renamed version of the sold-out First Quarter: A 25-year History of Video Games. We're told the changes include a new ending, a new chapter, new art, an index, and a timeline. Here is the description from the publisher:
Based on more than 500 firsthand interviews with the creative geniuses and inspired crazies who transformed a backroom novelty into a cultural phenomenon, The Ultimate History of Video Games is the definitive account of the brilliant, quirky, wacky world of electronic entertainment. You’ll discover the behind-the-scenes story of the games you grew up with--from Pong, Pac-Man, and Mortal Kombat to Pokemon and beyond. Author and gaming historian Steven L. Kent chronicles the exploits of eccentric designers, insanely great programmers, and maniacally driven entrepreneurs who wagered everything on a modern-day art form that no one thought would succeed. Entertaining, addictive, and as mesmerizing as its subject, The Ultimate History of Video Games is a must-have for anyone who's ever touched a joystick.
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 Digital Press has a review and interview of Van Burnham and her new videogame history book, Supercade. Van talks about the evolution of the book, her favorite video games, and provides the latest info on the 2600 game Escape from Supercade.
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 John Saeger and Eckhard Stolberg have released a new version of z26, version 1.49. This excellent emulator can be downloaded from the official z26 site. Updates for this version include:
- A faster Pentium optimized routine for video modes 0-2.
- A sideways video mode for games like Merlin's Walls that can be used in video modes 0-2. This is enabled with the -z command line switch.
- You can now toggle through the NTSC, PAL, and SECAM palettes on the fly by pressing the "-" key.
- Some other improvements to PAL game detection and the CPU emulator.
- A more descriptive error message when z26 thinks you need VGA.
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 Blackjax has posted screenshots and ROMs of the recently released Dig Dug and Pac-Man Atarisoft games for the Colecovision at his site, System Failure. Pac-Man looks like a particularly good port of the arcade game, something the Colecovision was known for. While you're there, check out all his other protos for systems ranging from the 2600 to the SNES.
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 Retrogaming Times Issue #49 is now online for your viewing enjoyment. This issue contains lots of great features, including:- Interview with Tim Snider, creator of Venture II
- Review of Venture II
- Interview with Leonard Herman, author of Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames
- An article on the many versions of Gyruss produced for home systems
- ...and more!
You can read the above articles and more by visiting the Retrogaming Times website.
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 Chad Schell has announced that he's started production on a second run of Cuttle Carts. The Cuttle Cart is special cartridge that allows you to download ROM images into an Atari 2600 using an audio source such as a CD player or your computer. If you enjoy playing games on a real 2600 instead of through emulators, we highly suggest you pick one up. It's also a great tool for development of new 2600 games. Also included is Cyberpunks' Stella Gets a New Brain CD, which contains all the Supercharger games. The first batch of 100 Cuttle Carts sold out quickly, so if you missed out the first time around we suggest you visit the Cuttle Cart Site and put in an order as soon as possible.
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 If you're a hardcore collector, you may have heard of Xante before. A handful of cartridges have been found over the years, but very little has been known about them. Until now, it has generally been assumed that their cartridges were some kind of prototypes or retailer samples. We tracked down the founder of Xante and got the scoop on the company, and why their cartridges are so darn rare. Read all about it in our new Xante entry, where you can also see scans of a Xante cartridge and box.
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 We all know about the tragic and senseless attack that took place on September 11th. To do our small part in helping with the relief effort, AtariAge is organizing a Classic Gaming Relief Auction with proceeds to benefit the United Way September 11th Fund. We are looking for donations of unique and rare Classic Gaming related items which we will organize into a large, one of a kind auction that we hope will raise a significant amount for the relief efforts. To help contribute to this cause, please visit this page, which has all the information on what we're doing and how you can help.
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John Saeger and Eckhard Stolberg have released a new version of z26, version 1.48. This excellent emulator can be downloaded from the official z26 site. Updates for this version include:
- Screen capture now works in all video modes. If you hold down the = key, you get a fairly continuous stream of pcx files.
- New fast video modes. These are accessed with the -e (for Eckhard?) command line switch. This allows the Mode-X routines to do 32-bit accesses to the video card. On my computer this more than doubles the speed of the emulator when running in these modes. Unfortunately, they may not work on all video cards. The -e command line switch also enables tall and narrow 160 pixel video modes for modes 0, 1, 2, and 3. These are very fast modes, and they give your games a Vectrex like feel.
- Added support for a couple of new ROM images.
- Fixed a stack overflow bug in the GUI.
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 The past month has been a great one for new Atari 2600 games and binary images becoming available and we're glad to bring you the first news of another game being made available for the first time. Joe Grand, creator and programmer of SCSIcide, has released the binary images for the final version of SCSIcide that has previously only been available in cartridge form. SCSIcide was released in limited quantities at the 2001 Classic Gaming Expo. Joe then made another run of 50 copies available to those who weren't able to purchase the game at CGE2K1 and has since turned over production of the cartridges to Hozer Video Games, where you can buy a copy of SCSIcide for $16. Joe has also released source code for all three versions if you're interested in learning how Atari 2600 games are programmed. You can download all three binaries, the source code, and view the history of SCSIcide's development on the official SCSIcide website.
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 We just finished putting some new submissions online that have been sent our way over the past month. By my count there are eight new manuals, five new boxes, three new cart scans and some new screeshots. Many thanks to everyone who's taken the time to send us scans of items for us to put online! Please visit our Change Log page for all the details on what we put online, who sent us what, and links to the individual items so you don't have to dig around on the site for them. We always welcome submissions and if you'd like to send us some scans or images, please visit our contributions page! Thanks!
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 Joystick101.org has posted an interview with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. The questions Nolan Bushnell answered were submitted by Joystick101.org's readers. Here's Nolan talking about what we can expect from arcades down the road:The future gamerooms will have a tremendous amount of group games, games that are interactive, and games that don't take a PHD in mortal combat to be able to play, so that they become more inclusive. Right now, game rooms have become the exclusive domain of the heavy duty game player, focused right at the 18-26 year old male, that's not a big enough demographic. You can read the rest of the interview here.
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 We've just put our second batch of Classic Gaming Expo 2001 pictures online. These pictures were taken in the museum, which was a room off to the side of the main hall containing an impressive collection of rare classic gaming hardware and software. While a good portion of the items on display were Atari-related, most other classic gaming systems were represented as well. Nearly 100 pictures are available for your viewing pleaure, enjoy!
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 We've made a few changes to AtariAge to make the Rarity Guides for each system more useful and easier to access. First, we've added a Search field to the navigation bar on the left side of every page. This search field allows you to search for titles in the rarity guide from just about anywhere on the site. Next, when you click on 2600, 5200, and 7800 you'll now be brought directly to the Rarity Guide Search Page, instead of the page displaying the history for each system. The Rarity Guide Search Page is new and gives you much greater control over searching the rarity guide. You can now search on title, company, region, rarity, label, and other values. The search results pages are also more streamlined, so results will be returned faster than before. We hope you enjoy these changes and as always if you have any feedback please don't hesitate to contact us.
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Supercade : A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971-1984, by Van Burnham, will be released on September 9th according to the official web site. You can pre-order Supercade right now at Amazon.com for $34.96. We'll have more about this book after we get our hands on it. From the publisher:
From the first interactive blips of electronic light at Brookhaven National Labs and the creation of Spacewar! at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to the invention of the revolutionary "Brown Box" and the myriad systems of Magnavox, Atari, Coleco, and Mattel that followed. Through the rise of the Golden Age of videogames and forward into the imagination of millions SUPERCADE is the first book to illustrate and document the history, legacy, and visual language of the videogame phenomenon.
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 Tim Snider, author of the self-published title Venture II, has given us the green light to release the Venture II binary image. Venture II was released in limited quantities at this year's Classic Gaming Expo. Tim has also given us permission to put the Venture II manual online, which makes a good read if you'd like some back story for the continuing adventures of Winky the Archer. You can purchase a copy of Venture II for $16 from Hozer Video Games.Tim Snider has just announced the title of his latest 2600 project, They've Risen. You can follow its progress here.
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 Following the wonderful label he made for the unreleased Activision prototype Kabobber, Christopher Drum has done it again! We're proud to reveal Christopher's latest creation, a label for the recently released Activision prototype Thwocker. Christopher's Thwocker label follows the style of Activision's earlier labels to the letter--it could easily pass as a production label if you were to print it and slap it on a cartridge! If you'd like to download the high-quality, uncompressed Thwocker label, please visit Christopher Drum's Atari Page. In addition to the new Thwocker label, you can also browse many of the other Atari labels Christopher has created. Enjoy!
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We've just finished adding all the Atari 2600 games released at the 2001 Classic Gaming Expo to our online database. The eight games released at CGE were Allia Quest, Combat Two, Crazy Valet CGE Edition, Elevator Action, SCSIcide, Secret Agent, Vault Assault, and Venture II. We've put cartridge scans, box scans, and screenshots online for all of these games. Click on an image below to be taken straight to that game's Profile page.
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 You can pre-order ToyMax's forthcoming Activision Classics TV Game handheld console at EB Games. This is similar to the TV Boy most often seen in Europe, except that it's a legally licensed product and it's NTSC compatible (that means it's made for North American TV standards). The unit is roughly the size and shape of a modern game pad, with 10 Activision 2600 games built-in, with AV jacks for connecting to your TV. The price is set at $19.99 with a release date of 9/28/01.
Update: We've been sent an exclusive picture of the actual project, although this is a preproduction version so it may differ slightly when it hits stores. The games included are Atlantis, Boxing, Crackpots, Freeway, Grand Prix, Ice Hockey, Pitfall!, River Raid, Spider Fighter, and Tennis.
Update: This product has been pushed back to October 29th, 2001, according to EB's web site.
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 We are pleased to make available the binary image for Thwocker, an unreleased prototype originally programmed by Charlie Heath at Activision. It was recently discovered by one of our readers, d8thstar, who found a copy at a local thrift store. While Thwocker looks fairly polished, it reportedly is only around 80% complete. Which is unfortunate as it's a great looking 2600 game with interesting gameplay to boot. We worked closely with the authors of z26 to ensure that z26 recognizes Thwocker automatically. You'll want to make sure to download the latest version of z26, 1.47. See the news article below for more information.
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