Anyone know the total number of screens in 7800 Traveller? So far I've only made to the 5th screen. 
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7800 Traveller
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Running PAL A8's at NTSC speed
I know this has been discussed before and several ways have been suggested but I was wondering about this again.
I live in PAL territory and thus all but one of my A8's are PAL.
However, since I've played the older (cart) games on NTSC speed I really wouldn't want to play them at PAL speed again. But yet....I don't want to have NTSC only machines because of the more recent games and demos needing "standard" PAL or having PAL/NTSC detection.
My goal is to be able to play the old games (let's say pre 1986) at NTSC speed on a PAL machine. Nothing more. Of course I'd prefer the set-up to be switchable.
As monitor I use a Bang & Olufsen MX4000 TV which can display both PAL and NTSC composite and/or Y/C signals without problem.
I know there are two crystals in PAL machines but I don't know much about the details.
I did find this interesting little PCB from Adafruit which can be programmed to deliver any clock between 8kHz and 150Mhz. It can also provide 3 clock signals, all independent from each other:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-si5351-clock-generator-breakout/overview
The one thing I don't know for sure yet is if it can run stand-alone, the Adafruit people seem to say not, but the datasheet of the SI5351 says it has NVRAM for start-up so that's a bit unclear...
ANyway, if we can calculate the speed difference between NTSC and PAL games.....could we adjust one (or both) clock signals in a PAL machine to get exactly the right speed without getting display problems ?
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Microelectronic Ricochet pong
I was looking at the Ricochet pong console which has two big controllers with all the switches on it. The AVGN's shows a yellow border ,one red paddle, one blue paddle , and a purple ball. The other video shows a green border , one purple paddle , one red paddle, and a purple ball. What color is the game supposed to be?
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Need source of 8-bit cart shells
I need some Atari 8-bit cartridge shells for an upcoming project. Does anyone know who's produced new shells and still has them available? Preferably the shells would work with standard Atari-shaped PCBs.
Thanks!
..Al
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Matt*Edit
Does anyone have a copy of Matt edit? I have check all the rom sites and all my archives but that is missing.
Any help appreciated.
Any help appreciated.
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Best cassette program recorder for 800XL/XEGS in 2017
I have read that belt rot is common in cassette program recorders like the 410, 1010, XC11 and XC12. I've heard the 1010 was the best built, but is likely almost a decade older than the XC12. Which type of program recorder are people having the best luck with these days, 30 years later? Is it reasonable to replace bad parts like the belts? Can good parts be found reasonably.
Is there some alternative that allows you to play and/or record on a typical tape recorder (also currently slipping in to obscurity).
Thanks.
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Bringing Cyberpunk to Atari
This game was never made on the Atari 8bit. but it was made on the Apple IIGS and C64.
It has no fast moving grafix or so.. Its just an adventure...
or.. ?
Its a cyberpunk adventure.. Neuromancer.
Is this possible to make on the Atari ?
here is the link to Apple IIGS version of the game (including background voice by a female)
and this is the C64 version (background voice by a male)
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My new favorite hand held joystick
Sega control stick modded for 7800 with Atari cx40 handle
Attached Thumbnails
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Who owns a 7800 adapter for his 5200 system?
Hi Guys
who owns a 7800 adapter for the 5200 system?
I own it and it works fine 😁
greetings Walter
who owns a 7800 adapter for the 5200 system?
I own it and it works fine 😁
greetings Walter
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Anyone have "Risk" in their Top 10 ST games list?
I was playing Risk with family last night - using our android and iphones while the board was projected on the TV, and it occured to me that one of my favorite games on the ST was just simply the game of Risk.
The ST had high enough resolution graphics, and enough colors and speed to make the game quite fun against a number of computer controlled opponents, and I know I kept playing Risk throughout my time owning the ST (and even again a few years ago after I got the Mega STE).
Did this make anyone else's list of personal favorites?
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Fried Enhanced Joystick Pin?
Hi Guys
I've been trying to connect up a timing system to the enhanced joystick port on my STE.
Circuits is essentially
Pin 11 -------- o / (Switch) ------ 150 ohm ------Pin 9 (ground)
Seemed to work for a while and then it stopped sensing changes.. that is it now considers Pin11 to be permanently pulled down.
Have i fried the pin?
Is there anything to be done?
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Short interview with Mr. Steve Cartwright
Hello,
I did a (really) short e-mail interview with Mr. Cartwright for a little article I´m writing about "Megamania" for a local magazine. Nothing fancy, six short questions, but you guys might like it.
1- You were the first designer to join the original Activision founders. How did that happened? Did you have previous programming or game development experience?
(The end of this answer is going to surprise you.. )
I had gone to college with Dave Crane. He was a semester or 2 ahead of me. After college, Dave got a job at National Semiconductor. When I graduated, he arranged for a job interview in his group at National - so ended up following him to the Bay Area.
Now Dave was a big tennis payer - and his doubles partner was a guy named Al Miller. Al worked at a little startup called Atari. Al was a program manager in the arcade game division. Al had one particularly creative designer - but he was also a very difficult employee — impossible to work with — didn't get along with anyone. Not only that, Al discovered this difficult employee was actually paying his friend under the table to do his work for him. So Al fired this employee - and hired his friend Dave to join Atari.
Shortly after, the Atari 2600 hit the stores and was a huge success. But Atari was already working on the next generation of products - the Atari 400/800 home computer.
But Al was having more problems with employees. A contractor they had hired to do the operating system never delivered (turns out he was working for IBM on the side on the operating system for the first IBM PC) Al & Dave worked 24/7 for a month to write the entire operating system from scratch. After that, they had had enough of Atari and quit to start their own company. They didn’t really know what they wanted to do — but they decided to make some video games in the meantime. That company was - of course Activision.
Six months later, Activision was booming - and they needed to expand their design efforts. Of course there really was no such thing as an experienced game designer back then - so Dave suggested to Al that they hire me. If they couldn’t teach me to program - they figured I could do the soldering on the development systems..
Oh by the way… that difficult employee All fired to make room for his friend Dave? None other than Steve Jobs. And the guy Steve Jobs was paying under the table to do his work for him? You guessed it — The Woz.
And finally — the contractor that had been hired to do the Atari 400/800 operating system - but never delivered? The one who was working on the operating system for the first IBM PC? Bill Gates, of course…
2- Activision had creative liberty and developer´s recognition as cornerstones. How was the work environment on those first years? Was there a free flow of information and ideas? Did new game ideas get discussed in groups or formal meetings, or did every programmer had full liberty to work in whatever he/she wished, from start to end?
Back then, we pretty much made things up as we went along. We took a lot of inspiration from the arcades (I think we went to Chuck E. Cheese 3 times a week)
We all sat in a room on stools at work benches. Everyone could see everyone else’s screen. We discussed ideas freely — and everyone had input into everyone else’s game. Nothing was formalized. The business was so new there was really no roadmap to follow.
3- Activision´s "developer´s recognition" policy made the "golden age" game developers public figures. How was that back in the day? Did people recognized you in public places and asked for autographs? And how do you feel today being known all around the world as one of the best game developers of your time and the responsible for games that gave so much players so many great moment?
The recognition of the designer was the idea of Jim Levy - Activision’s president. Jim had come from the record business - and thought the designer’s work should be recognized just like a recording artist.
As for being recognized in public? Not really. I think the waiter at Chuck E. Cheese recognized us once — but probably only because we were all wearing Activision t-shirts..
We did sign autographs at trade shows — but mostly for sales reps who wanted it for their kids.
4- You developed five of the most influent and praised games of the Atari 2600 Age, three of them (Megamania, Frostbite and Seaquest) frequently listed among the "top ten A2600 games'". Did that crossed your mind back in the day? Have you imagined such a legacy, with your games being played (and re-released) some 35 years after launch?
Considering the amount of time and effort what went in to “tuning” the playability of those games - it’s extremely gratifying to hear people say they still hold those 3 particular games in such high regard. Many times I’ve run into people who say something like — “Oh… you worked at the original Activision? Do you remember a game called “Megamania”? (Or Seaquest.. or Frostbite) That’s still my favorite game of all-time!” Of course they’re completely blown away when I tell them it was, in fact, my game..
5- Megamania took an innovative approach by being a "humorous" shooter with cartoonish enemies instead of the classic "alien invaders". Where did that idea came from? What were your influences? How did the game creation evolved?
At the time, the games market was flooded with “space” games. But the company thought we were sitting on something that was a generation ahead of the competition in terms of playability - and we needed some way to make the game stand out. So they decided to try marketing it completely different than other space games. The first title marketing suggested was “Gadzooks!”. We (the designers) loved the idea in general — but felt “Gadzooks” wasn’t quite it.
The next idea was “Megamania - A Space Nightmare.” Marketing thought all the enemy ships actually looked like hamburgers, bow ties, tumbling dice, etc. Of course they were originally designed to look like enemy ships — but with 8-but graphics there was only so much I could do..
6- The VCS extremely limited resources forced game developers to perform "magic tricks" on their code in every game. For instance, the questions i´m sending you use more memory than the games you made. How was it like creating games in such arid conditions? Did you have to gave up a lot of ideas? How was it like to make a game from scratch, developing the idea, graphics, audio and game kernel?
It’s true — a screen that takes a few hours today to mock up using Photoshop and Unity used to take month to build pixel-by-pixel… line-by-line.
I remember one day in particular - I had been up all night trying to squeeze about 30 bytes out of the Seaquest code to make room for some sound effects. It was a process by which you starred at a computer printout of assembly language and hex codes looking for duplicate bytes… rewriting code segments to save a byte here… another byte there…etc. When I came into work the next day, I said to Dave “there’s only a handful of people in the world who know how hard this”. We both laughed — and still remember that comment to this day because it was so true.
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Anyone have ROM dumps of Omniview 80 for 400/800, not XL
There was a post or two on here that said it was the 400/800 version, but they both turned out to be the 16K XE version. I'm looking for the ROM dumps for the 400/800 Omniview. Someone has to have them.
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Need opinions on how to best divide up Basic XL set
Hi, if you were going to sell the items in this picture, would you sell them all together or break them up and sell them as separate (manual/cartridge) sets? Or I guess I could ask the same if you were going to buy, would you prefer just one (manual/cartridge) section or would you rather have the entire thing? This isn't my wheelhouse and I've heard conflicting information from people who know more about this than I do.
Thank you
Attached Thumbnails
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BASIC For Android
Just found this. Of interest here because it's by the author of Atari BASIC. Cool.
http://rfo-basic.com
http://rfo-basic.com
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ST Monitors Free for Pickup
So I'm moving and decided to clear out my unused ST monitors.
There are 6 SC1224 and 1 SC1435.
Free for any user here but must be picked up.
Location is Beckley, WV.
*Edit* Will be in Charleston, WV on Saturday the 26th if that is closer for anyone. Willing to meet in Huntington, WV that day if that works for anyone.
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NES Batman - Laboratory Ruins (Atari POKEY Chiptune Cover) [Stage 4]
That intro is naaaasty
Attached Files
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![Attached File]()
Batman_Stage4_01a.xex 9.45KB
15 downloads
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![Attached File]()
Batman_Stage4_01a.zip 2.04KB
12 downloads
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5200 with no POKEY chip.
I was replacing a bad pokey chip in one of my 5200s and I thought I'd power it up with no pokey installed.
I put in Galaxian and it came on with a strange starfield in the backgound.
Of course it can't be played, but it shows that the pokey chip is also used for random star-field effect.
When I get time, I'd like to try other games.
If I remember right, the pokey chip had the best random generator around!
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question can someone make a
repo of what might have been swordquest airwold cart id like to have one as a conversation piece any ideas ? thx for any help
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Team Play - Anyone Interested?
I've been rolling this idea for team-based play around in my head for something to do after the season. Here's the basic concept: teams of 3-4 players paired off playing a single game. Players earn 1 point for their team for each member of the other team they beat. The team with the most points wins the match. The team with the most wins at the end is the champion. We'd most likely keep the season short, 4-5 weeks depending on the number of teams. What does everyone think?
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