Most liked posts in thread: What's new Pussycat too?

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.

 

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?!

 

Thanks Andy...

One more thing, if the proper 4:3 screen ratio is chosen for Atari Commando, instead of the horizontally stretched 16:9 ratio screens every video on Youtube uses, it looks much better too...also, if you have a CRT monitor that allows the adjustment of the screen width, like my Commodore 1084S(and some modern LCD displays like my projector), the Atari screen window can be further adjusted to closely match the original arcade screen graphic ration of 3:4! Sorry no picture of 3:4 ratio Atari Commando screen atm, I'll take a photo of it on my projector tomorrow and add it in below for comparison (so you know it's coming if you see this post before I edit tomorrow afternoon by Britain's time). Though the screen window displays less of the scrolling graphics vertically to the arcade version still since it was designed for a 4:3 ratio home computer screen instead of the arcade monitor display with a vertically mounted screen 3:4 ratio.

Proper 4:3 screen display of Atari Commando (left) and distorted screen in 16:9 widescreen mode (middle) and proper 3:4 arcade display (left).

 

The latest BigPEmu also supports stereoscopic playing in various ways, add to that, its the BEST Jaguar emulator by a long way..

Sure, it will never beat the real thing, but it's got amazing compatibility..

Nice catch there Matt, I bet it cost a few sheckles... (you don't need to say how much)

 

I recently found that out when I downloaded Shoot'em Up 3D by Doctor Typo and read the text attachment. It said don't press OPTION to try the VR mode on a real Jag...unless you have a Jag VR headset or the image will be off to the side and upside down. So now I will have two games to use with the HMD!

The next step will be to paint all the purple bits (it looks more blue in my photos, but in real life more purple like the box art) of the Dynovisor red and slap a Jaguar VR logo overtop the Dynovisor logo to match my Jag system.

As to the sheckles it cost me, I say $130 is a lot cheaper than the $10,000+ the prototype Jag VR sold for the last time it was up for sale! So, stereoscopic 3D and head tracking for 10 grand, or just stereoscopic less head tracking (which I can still turn my head following my controller direction if I chose for the feeling of immersion) for $130. Both ways have one compatible game and now one homebrew game...so did I get a good deal in comparison?

 

Transformation of the Dynovisor HMD back into a Jaguar VR like HMD.

Step 1:
Get rid of purple color in favor of red.

 

Welcome back Andy

Haven't taken any photo's of the 1050 or 1029 yet, but here are some of the 800XL. Working okay apart from being a bit discoloured and having a comma key that doesn't always respond.

 

My birthday today and I got a new retro book courtesy of an Amazon gift voucher from my lovely friend in work





Over 400 pages!

 

Keeping on the topic of Sensible Soccer, I received another holy grail retro item today. A signed custom canvas by none other than Stoo Cambridge who created so much of the artwork for Sensible Software.

 

SANTA VIC ARRIVES EARLY AT BAZ's BIOME...

Hey, I must have been good this year, boys (or I've managed to wing it/hide me numerous goofs n screw-ups all year) - Santa Vic has brought me all these goodies in the past week or two - I'm such a lucky fecker:

First up - Richie's expanded VIC memory board:



You may well have got a glimpse of this on a previous post but I just want to highlight again what a smashing bloke our mate Rich is (OK, I know you knew this already ). Not only did he put me right with the right PSU required (as did Paul with a v useful link to a good supplier as my old Vic model pre-dates the later ones which take a standard C64 DIN fitting), he also "threw in" this fab memory module which means when my mate Chris gets a fantastic VIC-20 for Xmas, he will also have all the mem combos he needs to run a stack of software he'll get with his C2N = job's a good one all round - thank you so very much once more, Richie. Class as always and his shipping packaging and packing quality... god, Rich should run a masterclass How To course - he leaves nothing to chance in terms of foam, polystyrene, double boxing, double-bubblewrapping, padding etc etc and so everything arrives as it should and if you've got an issue with a dodgy PSU (ie. my 130XE also needed Richie's help of late) - he usually makes sure he sends you a spare one of those as well etc etc. Mates like you are truly hard to find, Mr Vyper - you are the creme de la creme of the retro repair and Atari Owners scene. This arrival scores 20/10. You won't beat that!

Secondly, thirdly, fourthly/Forthly, and many more 'lys' to follow are all sub-posts and all software arrivals for the lovely ol Vic:


This arrival was brilliant value, fellas. One of the old Beau Jolly compilations featuring one of my fave shoot em ups of all time, ARCADIA! There are also some other smashers on there too incl Wacky Waiters and Invaders. What's not to like with this little lot and all for approx £6-7 incl p&p.


There's one naff title, IMHO, Jumpin Jack, which is a very slow and unresponsive Frogger clone but overall this purchase was a sure fire winner - I'm giving it 9/10.

Next, this crazy caboodle just oozles (is that a word?) BIG BOX retro goodness and you know how much I lurve me big boxes (bollox, Baz):



Just simply the biz and will pair up with the VIC to give Chris some ace "starter software" to either load or type-in (and believe me, just like us, Chris has golden memories of keying in code for hours and then being as frustrated as hell as a 14yr old shouting "IT DOESN'T FRIGGIN WORK, FATHER!" after typing RUN and the bugger crashing and losing everything... "You did SAVE it first to tape and VERIFY it didn't you son? Son? SON? Put that sonic pulse rifle down!!!"



This little lot came to just under a tenner and again, you can't go wrong for value for money so this needs a firm 9.5/10 in the Baz ratings. NB: Flowchart stencil alert! Do you remember these from Computer Studies classes back in the 80s???

Next up:

These came yesterday but I'd ordered em about a month ago - bit of a delay as the bloke on SellMyRetro (Japster) had experienced illness in the family so fair's fair and we need to understand that and just be thankful it aint us ill etc.
Any road, here we go - these came from a nice guy called Den who you can tell also enjoys the buzz from replaying these old games and getting involved in trading and selling our old micro memories:



These came to about £12-13 but I think I've done OK as one of the titles is a ROM cart. I haven't tested these yet. I'm hoping they are decent games which again will give Chris a buzz come Christmas.

Right, so that's my little Vic stocking full and to sum-up, aint it great to explore some software (and hardware) on a system that we weren't so familiar with beforehand but once tried you realise you have more than a passing like for and for me, the Vic-20 is such a quality (keyboard oozes class), flexible (numerous add-ons) and user-friendly micro which manages to still bring pleasure to us retronauts decades after retiring from the scene. I can only dream of still being useful after I retire as I'm feckin next to useless now! PMSL ;-) Enjoy your retro weekend, fellas, and I look forward to seeing what Al's got for us and what you might have next time around...

 

Jag-Wahr (there is still an "R" pronounced at the end) would be closer to the way we say it actually. As far as correct pronunciation, I say when in Rome...so if it were English, then Jag-U-R, if American, then Jag-Wahr. But the Jaguar was designed in the UK and built in the US, so in this case it's correct to say it either way.

Now, technically, being an English minor in college, knowing old, middle, classic and modern English, I do agree that proper English pronunciation and spelling originate in England.

As to my Jaguar system, thanks for the compliment, and I have pondered selling it all over the last few years, since my collection could fetch around $3,000 or more. But I also know I'd be missing my Jaguar collection, and I know once that money is spent, I couldn't afford to ever buy it back again for such prices, and even if I did have the money to buy it all again.

So I'll leave it all to someone as an inheritance after I'm gone and they can sell it all for probably about $20,000 (counting all my electronic & media stuff, not just Jaguar), by today's prices and probably much more if I manage to live another decade or two. I would only ever need the money myself (aside from emergencies) if the economy completely collapses, and ironically due to that collapse, no one will be able to afford or care about such stuff, and it would essentially all become worthless at that point anyway...

I'm too logical to spend comparatively astronomical prices for essentially frivolous entertainments as well. That's also why I buy and restore "junk" the majority of the time, instead of paying top dollar for the stuff in good condition to start with. So it isn't getting sold unless it's for financial survival.

The same applies to most of my vintage electronics at this point and I'd rather have my vintage stuff than selling it all off and replacing with modern crap. I've already sold too many of my prized electronic toys before and re-acquired them again to know the cycle all too well, but before prices weren't as insane and I could. If I let them go now, I know I won't ever see them again as I won't ever pay what they all sell for these days and I suspect prices only to increase.

 

Yeah, nice stuff there, the new Retro Gamer has a 2600 spread. Enjoy the fairs with your daughter, make sure she gets a look in

I know what you canny Scots are like when looking for a bargain

Nice to hear everyone having a decent time, Matt with his superb creations, Andy with his gear, Al with all his treasures. Richies feeling better so that's good. Best wishes from my lot to all the folk on here, my your Xmas be the best

Most of all, stay safe, there's some weird and not so wonderful flu variants going around and the old weather is freaky. As we start to age, none of this is great for us..

Keep warm, keep cheery

Paul, Cindy, Serena and Felix..

 

Righty, Jelly monsters about to be played.

Unzip any zip images, make sure it's showing the .crt image, this also applies to .prg files which I'll deal with at the end (and .d64 files too)

Go to File menu and choose Attach Cartridge, browse in the new window to jelly monsters and make a note of the address in the crt file name (A000) in this case. Now select the cart but don't double click, once highlighted look at the bottom left of the page, there's a little spinner box saying Cartridge type, spin the arrow until you see Generic, not the use cart as generic, just plain old generic. Then you will get another spinner box to the right of it called cartridge class, spin that until it matches the number you had in the name, ie 4/8K game at A000, choose that and now click attach to the right.. Jelly monsters should be up and running..If not then check that you did set the spinners boxes 100% right, it's easy to think you selected it but didn't or selected the wrong value. With carts, the first box is always Generic and the second class box must point to the load address from the file.

There's some files with 2 numbers in, I've not worked those out as yet..(Obviously I will and let you know.)

By far te easiest way is to use a Gamebase compilation, all the various load routines are preset, you just click on the game and play away..

If you want that set up let me know, it's not that large and all point and click..

With prg files, it's easiest to drag and drop them on the emulator main screen..They then load and run for you..The same works for .d64 files..Save you all the typing

You may see some with a SYS command in the name, these simply won't autorun and need that command and number typed in, I'm sure you have done this in the past and iirc things like the scott adams stuff needed a sys to start

Only crt files need the faffing about as the emulator cannot sense the load address as standard..

 

Nice screens Al, looks good, shame about the lack of A button for the Snes, really needs it, that and the PC Engine have some crackers on them as you know. Never owned a PCE, my brother did and I'd borrow it and his big collection of HU cards and keep it for ages. I'd sit and play Gunhead for HOURS and HOURS..Still a top shooter. I'd also play Atomic Robo Kid as the Amiga version was awful..

 

Glad you got some nice little ditties from the folk, we just never got into the habit of sending stuff. Most likely down to Cindy's mums annual send 200 cards out to her family. She of course wrote none of them, it was down to Cindy. As you can imagine, it put you off doing a load for yourself.

 

I'm just waiting for Matt to link up an 8-track (if he hasn't already)..

As Bruce Willis's character Harry Stamper says in Armageddon, "bring back 8-track, although i'm not sure how that's going to work out"..

As Andy says, excellent detail Matt..

 

God bless you, Tim and Richie & Sonia, and Matt of course - so sorry to hear of all the sad news that this life too often brings us.
Know that those dearly beloved will always live on forever in your hearts and minds and so will always be with you.
You remind us how we must give thanks and cherish what we love and hold precious right now and live everyday like it is our last as we never know what fate has in store for us around the next corner.
Thank you once more, Tim, for allowing us all to share special moments on the Atari Owner forum... it's definitely become much much more than that to us all.
Take darn good care, folks, and enjoy your weekend ahead with nearest and dearest X

 

The best version of Ballblazer bar-none, and Joust looks and plays as good as the Amiga/ST versions. Stay clear of Karateka though; while it looks good they totally screwed the controls so it plays like shite. Xevious is the best of any 8-bit version too, even decent sound despite only using 2600 TIA chip. Desert Falcon rocks too, if you have a craving for some Zaxxon type gaming goodness.

 

Finally picked up a Plus1 expansion for my Acorn Electron last week. It came boxed with the Polys and manual and is a perfect colour match for my Elk. So now I can get a disk interface for it and use a Gotek. It does seem odd that BBC Micro's and Elk's don't seem to be plagued by the level of discolouration experienced by other computers ( my C128 is terrible for this ) They do go yellow if left in direct sunlight and if they have been sat in a classroom for years they do yellow a bit but most seem to age well. One thing you can't fault Acorn for was build quality... Sinclair Research on the other hand ; )

 

You are lucky, you put something on your balcony here, and it's gone in minutes..When we first moved in we put a flower on a saucer on the balcony, was gone the next morning..We have turned it into a way to easily get rid of old unwanted stuff. Just leave it outside, and it's taken, saves humping it to the bin area.

 

I've said before that I also found the ST lacking, I have to admit that the nicer colours and great sound of the Amiga was the simple reason I liked it more, but I got lucky, and it WAS the more powerful machine. We all liked Buggy Boy, I even remember the intro on the disk I had it on, it was a spinning ATV logo type thing with interference like you had just found a blank channel on a TV, this and a funky drum beat just stuck in my head. Great fun little game, Carrier Command looked nice to me, but I'm not a simulation / war type person, but it was impressive.

I do want one of those 400 mini's, just for looking at in all honesty, I gave up on getting a real one a long time ago. Mind you, I don't have the little a500 out on display because of space being tight, so the 400 may have a little wait.

I love the commitment to the old computers on here, I myself have lost a lot of it as you know, but I'm having a console revival here, be it emulated or the PS5, it's getting a serious bash when the old neck and shoulder allow it. Apart from a brief stint on the glorious SuperFrog on the Amiga (a proper good game, who says the Amiga can't do a multi level scrolling platformer that looks lush) I have not tried any other retro computer stuff. I will, but the urge isn't as strong as it was. I guess I'm losing some of the rose tinting in my glasses, some of the games I played I now realise it was simply because they were one of the few games I could get and not that it was a good game. Don't worry, the Bruce Lee's, Spelunkers, Jumpman and the like are still firm faves, but some games were just liked because of memories around their time and not them as a fine game.

Remember, all this is personal, I'm not trying to convince others that they should think the same, what I think is right for me, at this moment, it can change, so enjoy your gear..

 

Ouch, good luck with the neck, it's soooo limiting and awkward, let alone bloody painful. I hope yours goes on it's own, mine is here to stay...

All the people on here love their machines, but I always find Al's passion re the stuff so enjoyable. Like all I LOVE hearing old stories re the times, it's not about who you knew or what you did, I just enjoy reading about how you enjoyed yourself, what games gave you a buzz, how you enjoyed a root around Boots BITD. Sure a bit of celeb goss is nice and adds to the depth, but at the end of the day it's about how you enjoyed it all.

I used to love nipping down to the Popular Book Centre to rummage through the comics, hoping to find a rare one. Then back home to fire up my machine and use Omnimon to hack and cheat. Kept me amused for hours but not so much I made Cindy a computer widow.

 

I love my racing games, especially arcade racers like Ridge Racer, Sega Rally and Burnout. Decided to go hunting locally for a Nintendo 64 today to play some of the driving games only available on that console, mainly because I've never been fully satisfied with the results when trying to emulate it on my pc.

The plan was to visit a branch of CEX and look at a couple of the discounted ones they had in stock, but stopped at my small local retro games unit at the Barras Market first and struck a deal for the console, joypad and leads. Not the first time I have used this particular seller and always been happy with the prices (after a little haggling) He has a decent range of stuff for sale including a nice looking 800XL at the moment (which I really should have take some pictures of).

Anyway, picked up a couple of cheap cartridges from CEX and have now given the N64 a quick try. Top Gear Rally is pretty good, so would ExtremeG be if I had any idea what I was doing in it! At first glance though it seems a bit like Wipeout. I was disappointed with V-Rally as it's more of a simulator and doesn't have those tight controls you get in arcade racers.





Also went down to my friends warehouse, Forgotten Worlds, and picked up a couple of random bits. He has some nice books in about arcade games so I took the Sega one. Surprisingly it also featues lots of screenshots from home conversions which is a bonus. PacMan JR was an impulse buy for my 2600+ and also goes into my little pacman shrine Finally, someone had traded in a lof of Zzap C64 micro magazines, in amongst which I found an Amiga issue.



All in all it's been a good weekend of retro hunting