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

My 'what's new pussycat' entry for today is a bit of old junk I found in a junk bin and salvaged. It's an old Karaoke machine. It's missing it's microphones and the holders for them are broken, but everything else seems to work, even the B/W CRT monitor! I'll have to tune-up the monitor as it's vertical hold needs adjusting and the exterior controls are only horizontal hold, brightness and contrast.

I grabbed it for electronic salvage, but I have decided instead to repurpose the entire thing as the main torso of my robot. I've always envisioned a robot more like an R2-D2 droid than a C3PO robot, since even the corporations making robots still haven't perfected one that stand upright and move like a man. And I've no gyroscopes on hand anyway. It will certainly save a lot of time and trouble from building a torso from scratch, even if this cabinet needs some re-enforcing on the inside.

Of course there will be plenty of structural and aesthetic changes to this karaoke cabinet, as I build a robot around it, so it will hardly be recognizable as one in the end. Much more robot/droid looking and much less electronic cabinet looking.

Making use of the B/W monitor with the Atari 800 inside, I could make the monitor double as a graphic display for a face/mouth that moves with synthesized speach, like S.A.M, etc. as well as a "field screen" in case the robot's 800 brain crashes or something. I just thought it would be cool to have it on the robot.

Repurpose the buttons on the machine for control or settings or whatever on the robot, and repurpose any other I/O ports or install different ones in their spots. Make/add some new places to mount sensors and cameras, etc. I won't need the big speaker at the bottom, so I may use that area to mount the robot arm I have (may decide to mount the arm elsewhere like one of the sides or top too), and tracks underneath it all. The CD player on top will probably be tossed aside and use the space for something else or area to mount other hardware (like a head or laser gun), etc. Maybe just gut the CD unit and leave the spring-loaded hatch door for access to the inside of the robot.I haven't opened the cabinet up yet, but these things are usually mostly empty space inside so it should easily house the 800 mobo and more.

Currently, the machine stands about 20 inches tall. My robot arm will stand about 18 inches tall or long from wherever I mount it. I imagine the mobile tracks will be 6" or more tall, and then if I add anything on top of the karaoke torso, my finished robot will stand at least 26" tall with an 18" reach from wherever the arm is mounted (I might mount two arms in the end). It will probably end up being about 3-4 feet tall or about a meter, give or take.

Anyway, the ideas on using this salvage are flying at 100 miles an hour!

 

My latest acquisitions are a CoreGrafx-Mini from Amazon so I get to play some PC Engine favourites like Gunhed and Darius.
More relevant to 8-Bitters is my ARMsid chip, this replaces the 6581/8580. I was talking to Paul about it this week and it’s really very good. Commodore SID chip prices are going up and up and there are a few alternatives but I went with this one. There is a dual/triple SID version available as well but you need a dual SID socket in your 64/128 but the single SID was only €28 + shipping.

 

I say go with the contemporary look. I don't think my "XL Command Center" looks 70's at all, or 80's. To me it's a simple, time-less modern style. Honestly for myself, I always thought even these vintage computer systems looked much more out of place in a traditional or era room setting anyway. Computers, from the beginning have always looked out of place to me in 70's, 80's or even older era settings.

We remember with nostalgia, and that's what's drawing you, I think, to a 70's look, not because our vintage computers look right with the decor of the times, which they never did to me personally. Now the Atari VCS with the wood grain and switches fit right into the 70's style closest, but my honest opinion is that all computers, in fact most electronics, including stereo's and whatnot, have looked space age since the 60's, except for the odd wooden stereo console disguised as furniture of the era.

I especially feel that from the first micro/personal/home computers onward, all would have always looked more at home in an Arthur C. Clark film. I of course have decorations and other trinkets from the by-gone eras like a lava lamp and plasma ball, etc., but again, they look space age to me and always look better in modern/post modern decor than the traditional decor style we all grew up with as average blokes born with a tin spoon in our mouths.

Go with the contemporary white-gloss cube style, and if possible, do ambient floor lighting like in the end of 2001 I've dreamed of having that type of lighting and maybe some day...) , with just a smattering of classical art or furniture here or there for added sophistication. Like I did with my globe and more to come later.

By the way, I don't know if I've ever really shown a picture to you guys of the globe stand I got for my globe. It also now holds the Lava Lamp underneath. It's Cherry wood, to match the globe, with a marble top.

 

Bloody marvellous, Matt.

Yeah,some good observations and pointers there.

I know what you mean about computers lending a space age feel to any of the previous decades as they always seemed a little more progressive than the times they appeared in so getting a match for furniture at any point presents some interesting challenges.

I like your reference to Arthur C Clark and I'd also go for HG Wells and I guess the steam punk decor / style scene might even be able to lend some ideas to give us the 'quirky' feel that we all look to re-create.



Plenty of food for thought there, mate.

Cheers and have a top weekend, fellas.

Al's mentioned the football so I ask - will England flatter or deceive tonight in trying to fulfill their tournament winning ambitions as one thing they are very good at, over the years, is thinking they have done the hard bit (ie. beating Germany) then falling flat on their faces when faced with a so-called inferior opponent (remember Iceland!!!)

We will see.

Enjoy and I hope Graham&Pam, Rich and Paul are all feeling better - take it steady, guys and here's to some summer - as the ruddy nights start to pull in again!!

 

Well the pundits already seem to have it in the bag for England despite slating them after drawing with Scotland. Hopefully they do enough to win tonight but I don't think it will be as easy as people think. Yes, a Scotman supporting England

After last night's performance my money is on Italy to go on and lift the trophy though.

 

Italia are Bev's team from the off in any tournament, Al. Summat to do with them all being shaggadelical or something?! I don't get it, mesen, I mean what's wrong with my milk bottle, knock-kneed legs rather than their well-tanned, well-honed physicalities?? Any road, I echo your sentiments in that the world will come crashing down around their ears now if England don't go all the way. The press are quick to build you up - and knock you down in this country. Another peek at someone else's groovy 70s orientated retro den -



I lurve it from the 70s curtains serving as a table cover to the space man tv - get in there - you can't beat a game of Pong.

 

If I had the space and money, my little bit of kit would get a glorious display, posters from the era, cabinets etc, but I'm just grateful to have the gear to play with. Would I want a basement like Archer Maclean, with wall-to-wall arcade machines....Nahhh...Maybe an Asteroid cocktail table...

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing vast displays, but it always leaves a nagging feeling at whether half of the gear is getting a use...Ever...

As for the machines, the 400 and 800 look timeless, very spacey, very sci-fi, but the XL range look more like 80's office gear to me.

 

I too, am often torn between H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clark styles and decor, I'm a huge fan of both "extremes" of either the sleek modern look or the heavy-machinery look of Victorian age machinery with all the gears and ornate decor. I'll have to collect and make a .zip file to post here of the many Steam-punk and Diesel-punk art I've converted to Atari with Rastaconverter. I'll post a couple examples below. These aren't necessarily my best, just what I could find in a minute or two. The Steampunk watch is a real item you can buy, with separate hour, min., and sec. faces &hands. The girl in top-hat image is a horizontally oriented image conversion; which means if you view it on an Atari or emulator, the monitor will have to be turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise or you lean your head get a stiff neck.


View attachment 2147

 

The picture of the steampunk Dalek has been replaced with the one after a Rasta conversion, like what you'd see from the .xex on an Atari or emulator. The first was the original image that it was converted from posted by mistake this morning when I was replying and running late for work!
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But before @Timothy Kline gave me a case for my 3rd 1200XL, if you all may remember, from threads on the old forum site, I was planning on making a custom case out of cherry wood and gold leaf accents. I mentioned at the time, IIRC, that there was more but I wanted to keep it confidential until I was done, it would have been Steampunk design, replacing function keys with gold or brass levers, and I even was going to look into the possibility of a keyboard that looked/worked like the antique type writers of the late Victorian age.

It's just as well since I decided to go with an attempt at a "timeless modern/post modern/space-age" motif, with a touch of the classical. I've got too many different projects planned with snail-like progress anyway. I need to clear the table of some of it first at least before I add more.

But maybe I should revisit the Steampunk look with my robot, instead of using an old Karaoke machine for it's torso area....

 

I never like the 70's style even when I was in it though, it was always too busy looking, with awful colors too me. I can appreciate it to a degree, and respect and appreciate other's wanting to go that direction, but it's not for me. That suit case under the B/W TV has to go though...(I'm pretty sure that it's from the 60's anyway, not a 70's suitcase). I prefer some of the post-modern 80's decor more. Not the ugly pastel colors that were in fashion, but I did appreciate the business/office and lounge type of post-modern styles in use, very sleek looking, and yes, I agree with Paul that the XL styling fits better in the 80's if it's 80's post-modern business decor. I'm not referring to the cubical office spaces and mazes and whatnot, but the modern decor of the executives, like in the movie Tron, for one example, but that's because that decor is "space age" to me personally as well.

That's the look I'm sort of going for in my command center area, not as successfully as I'd like, but the best I can within my simple means and what I can make myself.Of course I'm far from finished with it furniture-wise; There's more I want to add and some details still missing.After deciding on a color of paint for our kitchen and living room and hall areas, we think a grey-wood tongue and groove flooring would look better, instead of a darker tan or brown I originally envisioned. I'll be replacing the flooring in my room with the same grey flooring. We planned on being done with it all by now, but life just hasn't given us the time yet. Hopefully before the end of summer.

 

Totally agree with your last post Paul. Normally avoid politics but now I'm beginning to think Boris is even better at avoiding them than me! Calling him a muppet is doing muppets a dis-service I reckon!

On a slightly brighter "what's new" mode, I opened up an old 2600 VCS box wondering if there might be a console in it. Well there wasn't, but I did find a lovely set of excellent condition paddles, an original Atari joystick and quite a nice quickshot type controller as well

Plus, I've got a couple more Atari related books on the way just now. I think my 'retro library' might be worth more than the actual comptuers now lol

Keep fighting the good fight guys, on both sides of the Atlantic. Incidentally Matt, I mentioned where you live to my other half and she is going to be visiting a friend near you in the next couple of weeks. Small world!

 

Ouch! Glad it arrived Matt. But yes, looks like it may have been kicked across the Atlantic by the courier. I promise the box was 100% intact when I posted it!

So, any games in particular you are going to try on it? It's a small library but there are some real classics amongst them. Enjoy

 

Well, I used to own one up until about 15 years ago when I sold it during a time of unemployment, and just after I had done an S-video mod to it too! My favorites were Ikari Warriors, Commando, Ballblazer, Xenophobe, Motor Psycho, Pole Position II and Deluxe Asteroids of course. I've got 3 or the first 4 on the A8 now, of course, versions every bit as good, IMHO, with a slight drop in color. And the Asteroids emulator we have on the A8 can't be beat now, it's the Arcade version after all. But Motor Psycho and Pole Position II have no equal on the 8-bit. Fatal Run is another good one that never came out on the A8.

I will of course indulge in a few of the new Atari Age 7800 releases, though most so far don't interest me, there are a few gems. And luckily, since I've got Pokeymax's in both my "everyday" A8's now, I have 4 extra Pokey chips to use in some of those AA games that use, but don't come with one included.

 

Wow, just shows the shit-heads in the courier industry, clearly targetted because it said fragile...

Just glad it survived almost without blemish..

 

Of course all these new toys I've gotten over the last 6 months or so. I won't get to really use or play with most of them until late fall and winter. I just have the money to spend this time of year, with business being busy again this year, and time to use what I buy in a few months.

Honestly, about half of the stuff I've gotten was due to over-zealousness at the announcement of pre-ordering on a bunch of different stuff and forgetting about it until the old invoice comes in...on a lot more stuff than I remembered!

Though the rainy season finally ended a few weeks ago and as per usual August is hot and dry and the grass is going brown. So for about a month I may have extra time on my hands just because business is slow to lack of rain. I have my first full weekend off this week for the first time since April. Of course I have long-overdue improvements to make around the house.

 

This device parallels most closely to the SIO2SD devices for the Atari 8-bit in that it has an LCD screen on it and controls to scroll the menu instead of on-screen menu's and control with the keyboard/joystick.

There is one other SD "drive" for the 7800 called the Concerto, which I do believe uses an on-screen menu and joystick control, but it is not compatible with 7800 cartridges larger than 144K (that means era commercial release only), and the Dragonfly is compatible with all cart banking systems out there for the 7800 up to 1024K.

The Concerto also only allows for a Pokey sound chip, so the games that use YM2151 sound (right now 'The Pacman Collection' with arcade actual sound reproduction) will probably work, but missing all the sounds coming from the YM chip. And no support, AFAIK, for Pokeymax either which also means no Covox which the Dragonfly also supports on Pokeymax chips. Dragonfly also upgrades the 7800's 4K ram to 16K that some new home-brew games use, usually included on the game cartridge like the Pokey. The Concerto does not upgrade ram.

They say Concerto has 512K, but that for rom area that the Dragonfly comes with 1024K already, and the Concerto will have to be upgraded to 1024K to be compatible with all roms like the Dragonfly and it will have to be sent back to be upgraded, and that's once the firmware is completed. No 16K ram upgrade in Concerto's future either.

The Dragonfly is basically an alternative to the 7800 XM module upgrade that died with Kurt Vendal in the proto-stage. except no keyboard and 8-bit peripheral support, but the Pokey and YM2151 were part of the XM module. The Pokeymax Stereo/Quad+Covox is bonus that even the XM module would have to be upgraded with Pokeymax to support.

So it was a no-brainer for me, even if the Concerto eventually gets updates for it as they suggest for larger roms.

 

Some really nice stuff there Matt. I think you have made the right choice in the DragonFly

Paul, the FujiNet is really nice but if it helps put your mind at ease I also have an AVG and use it way more. Just such a well rounded device.

I see Retro Games have brought out a mini Amiga today. Well, it's not actually on sale until March 2022.
May have been tempted if it was a full size recreation but who wants an Amiga with a fake keyboard and a gamepad instead of a joystick? For those reasons, I'm out

 

This is what it has been like for me for most of the past decade, this is really the first year I've had disposable income and I sort of went over-board even for me this past year, between free government money from the pandemic to a successful business season post pandemic. But I feel so guilty about it and am thinking I better make sure I enjoy the stuff ASAP, because come winter, business is almost non-existent and I may wish I had the hundreds I've blown on stuff I really don't need. But I also was thinking boon-and-bust and that I better grab all the stuff while I can, because the money won't last and I may not have the disposable income next year! But I still feel guilty...so I decided to "share the wealth" a bit...

Plus, my birthday is the day after tomorrow...

Life can change in a moment though Paul, so you never know a new toy or two just may be on your horizon.

 

I do literally sweat my arse off working. True manual labor, but I love using my hands and fixing things and if I can do it in the great outdoors, all the better! And yes, I already had enough projects to last me a few years and now even more. And yes, first always comes the debts to pay and utilities, food, transportation, etc.

Luckily the land is paid for and I built the house myself and is also paid for, and I drive old vehicles I maintain myself; payed for. It's bollocks some times with the transportation, but over a life time I pay far, far less repairing and maintaining myself rather than constantly making car payments or paying ridiculous prices for "professional mechanics" that I generally know better than. Not to mention insurance is so much cheaper, because you drive old vehicles not worth scratch on the market, so it's liability insurance only and if I total my car, I go buy another old vehicle.

I'm certainly not rich, or even well-off by most people's standards, and I bet many of you here make considerably more money than I, at the moment, but living single and "on the cheap" in utilitarian ways in everyday living allows for more toys. After a few years as a young man paying others for everything at prices I could nary afford, always being self-confident, I decided that there was nothing another man can do that I cannot, if I set my mind to it. That philosophy and learning to do what needed to be done for myself has made me self-reliant and a rich man in that I have everything I need and want (except for my electronic toys). I think I have more pride in that fact than I'd could ever feel if I was a millionaire just buying and having everything done for me (except the part that made the millions, so there is that, unless it's inherited old-money)

The only new vehicle I ever owned was my first motorcycle when I was 18. The only new lawn tractor I ever bought for the business is my Craftsman I just got done restoring and is making me money once again. My other mowers I bought used and repaired. I built my own trailer out of an old boat trailer I paid $200 for.

The DIY life means lots of elbow grease and time, but it's a fraction of the cost of always paying others to do for you which leaves more disposable income or for the future. Of course the DIY life is also much easier to pull off when you are single.

 

Here, here, Paul n Matt - exactly my motto -
you get out of life what you put in and it sounds like you guys give it yer all.
You deserve the fruits of your labour.

 

Seems to me Matt you embody the pioneer spirit that helped create your country.

Up until 2005 I had worked all my adult life and was in warehousing, driving fork lift trucks and a lot of manual handling. Then my back problems started, and gradually deteriorated until it came to a head in January. I am now on Ill-Health retirement so my income has dropped by half but we do okay between the two of us. So it lets me get some of the things I always wanted to get for my Atari and other formats and I have the time to spend on the projects now as well.

 

Well, happy birthday to me, one of 3 pre-order items I was still awaiting arrived today, right on time for my B-day.



What it is all about:

 

Thanks, I personally think the tractor and trailer look better with the colors I chose than the original colors. And originally all the control handles were black, I thought the red would really make it all "pop" and ties in the rims and red hood logo. Below are pictures of the tractor and trailer with their original colors. The trailer shown below is a smaller version than mine, but the colors were the same.

The hood on my mower is still the original color, under different lighting than the one below. It was still in good condition and I didn't want to ruin or have to replace the decals, so I just sprayed it with a high-gloss clear coat to bring it back to it's original luster. I dig my two-tone look though with the metallic grey hood and the lighter nickel grey I chose to repaint with.

 

Many happy returns Matt, no going skinny dipping etc etc..

To quote a certain Queen song title...Who wants to live forever?....Not me...

 

And as I sit here, just finished setting it up, cleaning it up, taking pictures and posting for all of you to see, it just occurs to me that the 1200XL and 7800 I wanted it most for, are PAL and I'd be very surprised if this TV was PAL compatible, I'm sure it's a 60Hz NTSC only TV (I'll have to check the manufacturer's sticker on the back to verify) but I doubt it. Damn!

I do have a 2600 and the Bally Arcade I can use with it, and I suppose my 3DO console and Ms. Pac-man 4-in-1 games arcade joystick. But the main reason for wanting a CRT is for my 1200XL and 7800, and I forget that normally they are running through a 50/60Hz video/S-video converter-scalers that output at 60-75Hz VGA! I need a large VGA monitor for my CRT display! Doh! And if I want a Trinitron, I'll have to find either a VGA Trinitron monitor or a multi-scan monitor that can handle both PAL/NTSC 50/60Hz like my 1084S monitor does.

That's my fifty-something brain farting again!