What's new Pussycat too?

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That's a fine looking version of Commando, Andy. How does it play?

 

One word, Al, one word... slowly!
Still, it gives you chance to plan your rugby-like weaving runs through the bad guys whilst filling them with lead sent out in slowmo arcs of deadly fire whilst dodging their taking forever to reach you return fire...
The Elk is no Beeb speed-wise - more like a Beeb with a limp, mate ;-)
Aw, I lurve her all the same - it's retro, retro, retro micro with us lot aint it??!!

 

Yeah that’s the only thing with the Electron the speed compared to its big brother. Because of the way the memory is configured it only reads a Nybble at a time so it takes two cycles to read a complete Byte which combined with RAM contention with the Display means it is around 4 times slower than a standard Beeb. That said compared to other 8-Bits it has a very fast BASIC and is not too bad compared to other U.K. 8-Bits.

 

As you say, Rich, it still is a fine computer for programming and learning to use BBC Basic with all its procedures and there are still some smashing software titles to try out... maybe not ELITE, but I can't wait to have another go on Dare Devil Denis before Mog gets it back. Cheers, my mate. Great fix and smart new feet! Many thanks, Rich.

 

Good to see the Electron up and running guys

As for the VCS Matt, lovely looking system and I like the idea of the VCS and sandbox modes. I've kept my eyes open for one in the UK but they sell for silly money. Bit of looking on Amazon US though and including import duties it works out around £340 delivered for the woodgrain version with the joystick and pad. I'm giving it some thought!

In the meantime though, I did purchase another of my 'grail' items off EBay. Finally found an Atari branded calculator at a reasonable! The question is, do I break it out of it's sealed packaging like I would normally do? Or as I have no intention of using it for any practical purpose do I keep it intact and looking cool on my wall of Atar....

 

It's annoying as I get emails from Atari constantly trying to get me to buy a Console or a limited edition 2600 cartridge but they don't ship outside the US.
I like to ST styled calculator though Al, I think I saw one on feeBay recently. I have an Atari 800XL related item due in at Chez Farrell this week so I'm looking forward to that arriving.

 

Don't forget to share the arrival with us in pics and a little story, Rich - and lovely Atari calculator acquisition, Al... so tempting to open...so irritating but sensible to keep it sealed!!

 

This is my childhood version of Commando and I always thought it plays pretty well.

 

Here is my new Atari item, a CX-77 touch tablet. Guy wanted £40 for it but I knocked him down to £30 including shipping so in effect was £25. Doesn't have an AtariArtist cart but I was using my Uno Cart to test it and it works OK. The button on the stylus didn't work right away but after working the button it's okay now.

 

Lovely jubbly, Rich.

I have one too - doesn't get much playtime but must give it an airing this autumn and report back on my artistic masterpieces after visiting Paris and Monet's inspirational lily ponds at Giverny - thanks for the heads-up, Manu!

 

That Speccy version is playing a good 3-4 times faster than the Elk's, Rich - god, it's like in turbo mode compared to my "slow but sure" gameplay!

Never seen the Speccy version of Commando before - a very good effort and no wonder it was one of your formative year faves - nice conversion indeed.

 

I have a touch tablet as well. Interesting thing is the address on the outer box is for one of the newspapers that used to based in Fleet Street. I wonder how many papers were prepared with Atari Artist

Commando on the Speccy is a top conversion. My favourite one though is the C64 reboot a couple of years ago, really excellent. But for it's release year the Spectrum one is/was class.

 

When I switched to the 64 this became my goto for a Commando fix.

 

Like it, Rich.
Did we ever get a half decent conversion on the Atari classic... or Oric, of Commando or a clone of it?
For some reason I've got LA Swat on a budget label going around my head but I could be miles off with that particular game title.
Help me out, lads... senior moment.
Again ;-)

Becoming worryingly more frequent...

 

LA Swat was decent fun. Think it came out on one of the Mastertronic labels.

 

Who Dares Wins II came out on the Atari XL/XE and was released by Tynesoft.

 

Cheers, Rich.

Never seen that game before - seems to play OK - graphics are a bit browned off but there again, khaki brown is the general army uniform and desert kinda colours so I shouldn't complain!

Remember Tynesoft alright but never that particular game and it sounds like I was on the right lines with LA Swat as Al seems to be backing me up on that one. Was that like a street backdrop and cop / shoot the guys on the rooftops as you made your way down the street / overhead view caper?

 

Spot on Andy!

 

Who Dares Wins II I wanted to like, but the controls were very clunky and movement was restricted to 4 directions as I recall.

Atari was going to publish Commando, developed my Sculptured Software, for the 8-bit line around the same time the 7800 version was published, and though finished and an excellent version, it was never published by Atari. however, it was released on XE style cartridge in the early 2000's by B&C Computervisions (now MyAtari on eBay) and is still available for purchase. I have a complete XE style cart with box and manual I bought from Ndary several years ago, but I also had the 320K file version before that which is available for download on most 8-bit software archives, as well as the rom version that can be used with most flash cartridges available for the 8-bits. The file version has a DLI enhanced title screen and better title screen music in stereo Pokey converted from the C64's SID title music. Also one with a Rastaconverter version title screen converted from the C64 version. Below is a video showing both enhanced title screens (C64 first followed by Atari DLI enhanced original)






Also recently the C64 version was ported and enhanced for the 8-bit VBXE upgrade too.



I prefer the Atari version graphically myself, and though in the videos it looks a bit clunky and slow compared to the C64 version, and most people in the community think it's clunky and slow, they are half wrong. If you play the game in novice or normal gameplay modes it is slow, but if you choose expert level instead (which 99% of players DON'T DO) the speed is drastically increased. Below is a video of it in expert mode.

 

Brilliant.

Quite literally, thanks for bringing us up to speed, Matt (and Rich, Paul and Al).

1st video clip Atari version - good b'ground music, lively and quick gameplay - sound effects of the bad guys being shot - annoying!

2nd video down - Pokey music enhancement - very nice - a jolly japester's rendition.

3rd vid - VBXE enhanced - wow, silky smooth and so quick - just about arcade quality (no sound - is this just in the vid or no sound on original?)

4th vid - EXPERT level - being played like it should be played - a proper challenge and is excellent in terms of speed, playability and smooth action.

That's what I like about this group - you get great feedback from you guys. Fast and friendly.

 

Nice one Matt. Think I'll need to have a little play with the various versions over the weekend at some point.

 

@M.D.Baker Matt, how are you getting on with the VCS 800? I'm getting more and more tempted by it as a potential purchase sometime in the future so keen to hear any of your views good or bad.

 

Do you know what, Al, I should be packing me case (with Manu's 1200XL taking up more space than my Spiderman pants and socks put together), BUT I must find time for 15mins of COMMANDO on the Atari 8bit.

Anything else wouldn't be sensible or cricket.

 

I am enjoying the VCS immensely. From the Atari Vault #1 that comes installed I've been enjoying some classic arcade titles, especially ones that were never in arcades near me as a lad, like Major Havok (Havoc?). For new modern games, my nephew and I have been enjoying Rally Racers (yes Mario kart clone, though multi player seems to be online only. But I purchased the game Guntech 2 also, that up to 4 people can enjoy on one console, and we spent a couple hours in a blast fest on it. I dedicated a 32Mb micro SD and adapter as a storage extender to the internal drive that is only about 20-25 gigs and already using up over 15. Of course larger drives and memory are internally upgradable too.

Guntech 2 is available on both the VCS and Xbox One X.



On the PC side I am planning to set it up this Sunday and I'll get back to you on it. Any OS you want can be used (PC), and I really want to set up a Linix&Ubuntu PC, but so far there are only instructions and videos for Windows 10/11 made by users, so I'll have to learn Ubuntu&Linux from other PC sources. Of course with drives being external for the PC side, one can have thumb drives or USB to SD flash drives and more, so you can have all the operating systems you want on separate drives. I purchased a USB 3.0 to IDE/SATA interface to transfer files from all the old HDD's I've been salvaging from broken PC's of mine over the years, and I have a mini 160G HDD drive laying around from an old laptop that I'm going to use as my main VCS PC drive.

I printed out a C64 style cartridge case that my small HDD fit into. Now I just need a cool label for it.



Atari also has some mainline titles that look impressive that they have or are developing for Steem, as the VCS audience is still small, so I'll be checking that out once I get sandbox PC mode up and running.

Downloading on the VCS is a nightmare with the larger modern games if you have a older/slower internet speed like 2.4G, but connected to 5G turns 15 hour downloads into 15 minute ones. So...I hope you have 5G or better speeds. The streaming gaming services are also useless at 2.4G or less, but fantastic with little or zero lag at 5G. I only have tried Antstream so far, but there is also Nvidia and Xbox streaming services among many others to play PC and Xbox games on the Atari OS side. But apparently Steem isn't available for the Atari OS, only for PC mode as far as I can see.

Is the all-in bundle worth the $225 Atari has it on sale for? Yes. Especially since the console alone still sells for $199. There are over 100 games on the VCS store, though half are 2600 and 7800 games, but the other half is loaded with modern games and plenty of genres to choose from. Though I heard (after my purchase) that last year shops like Gamestop, Best Buy and others had Black Friday (after Thanksgiving holiday Christmas season opener here in the states) sales with the all-in bundle for a mere $99! so you may want to wait until late November. You may be able to track one down for less if you search sites instead of buying direct from Atari like I did. Speculators on e-Bay are still trying to sell new and used for full or near full price still though, so don't bother looking there for a deal.

 

That Guntech 2 looks a bit good ;-)

1 Question:
When's it coming out on the Oric?!