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

I love the series and for various reasons know almost all the abbreviations but I love when they get used...

 

Hi Matt, the machine under the PS1 is a PS4 and yes its a PS2 but side on

 

Huh, I thought I'd seen a PS4 before, but I guess not.

I'll have a new set up for my consoles soon, having moved them to a more convenient location to connect to the projector. But currently they, and the projector are only temporarily set up in a hap-hazard fashion until I get the projector mounted from the ceiling and shelves for the consoles installed. This opened up a lot more room for my 8-bit stuff over at my 'XL command center' though. Even room to move my 3D printer over there and give me badly needed workbench space back, and I still have more space on the upper shelves. Everything is currently in disarray though, atm, as I had to stop dead in the middle with too much stuff to do surrounding my business. But, hopefully I'll get time to finish sorting it all soon.

 

I'm with you there Paul. Playing 8/16bit machines with a 14" crt gives me a warm retro glow. Much like the display itself

 

Here, here. The old uns are the best for the old kit, fellas.
Reet, bed time...I'm up at 5 for my 1st polling station duties ever.
Wish me (and the Monster Raving Retro party) well!

 

Matt,

That's a wicked hi-fi set-up to hook up to your newly acquired thing of retro techno electronic synth beauty the good old STYLE, sorry Stylophone - brilliant combo, matey.

By god, I bet all the lights in Oklahoma County dim when you crank that up to 11!

Here's the original post, mate:

https://atari-owner.com/club/thread...-at-you-from-out-of-the-future.500/#post-4116

Please do let us have some vids/recordings of your new musical magnificence in full flow when you get chance.

 

Hi, Matt.
Stories which take us back to our wonderful childhood days (I remember visiting my gran's with my home computer and being so happy there just chilling out and having a different 'freedom' to that normally granted to me at home) seem to appeal to us greatly. I can just imagine you and your kid bro experimenting with creating sounds by clanging one metallic object off another and... well, letting our imaginations run riot.
You're gonna have so much fun with all this kit once you start unleashing those creative juices.
Do let us see and hear the results, bud!
It's a terrific acquisition - I am right now being transported through time and space to...

THE FORBIDDEN PLANET!

 

Yep, all of those sound effects in that scene I can recreate on my Stylophone, except maybe the electrical current discharge effects.

 

No tunes from me, I'm to music what Michael Jackson was to child care...

The stylophone was just a retro kick but a nice one..

Shame its dented by the thought of Rolph Harris saying "can you tell what it is yet?"

Yes I can Rolph, its your hard on..Piss off you nonce..

Talking of slapping little balls around, I really would love to have embraced subbuteo more as a kid, liked it from the miniature model stance but was rubbish at it. As said I liked to make model aircraft and space ships and then light them with grain of wheat bulbs etc..

Hey ho...

 

All I'm doing is making noise and sound effects with it so far. Though musical talent runs in my family, I only ever learned a few guitar cords in my 20's when I was hanging out with a friend and his band in California in the 90's. I had an acoustic guitar at the time, but I think that was lost in storage in Texas. I've long forgotten it all anyway. Besides doing sound effects and maybe digitizing them into the Atari at some point, for be to actually play music on this thing like in the videos, I'd have to find some sheet music made especially for Sytlophones (or analog synthesizers) that show the right place to touch the Stylophone for the notes and since I have a version with adjustments, I'd also have to find what the normal Stylophone is set at to make it sound the same. I can't read music, though that is something I want to learn, with my Atari, if such a program exists, I don't know if any of the musical creation programs actually teach musical notation or not. And I also want to get that guitar tutor program Thunder Mountain published for the Atari to learn to play the guitar again, once I get another guitar. I'll probably just download ATR's though, and see what's what before I look for a genuine article.

And on that note, I received a couple new toys again today, the first being Atari's Planetarium that I decided to get a complete copy of for $15 after playing around with the ATR. And the other item is a smart watch that I can use with my Android phone to keep up with calls and texts and not have to have my expensive smart phone in danger's way while on the job. I got the smart watch on clearance for $15 too! So if it's a piece of shite or gets broken on the job, I'm out $15 and not $200. I have yet to turn it on and set it up and try it.

 

Basically, the smart watch is a remote extension of your smart phone and connects and syncs with your smart phone via bluetooth and it notifies you of voice messages and texts and calls and you can answer and dial your phone remotely, it has a camera on it and pictures are sent to you smart phone, clock, calendar, anit-lost location search for phone on watch or watch on phone, timers for reminders,pedometer for exercise and a sleep monitor, built-in MP3 player or connect with phone through BT for music playback (it only has a USB input on the watch, so I'll probably have to get a special BT or USB headphone set to use with it for that), and you can connect with facebook, twitter and Whatsapp if you install a SIM card in it(none of which I need, so I won't) and apparently it has a web-browser that I can surf the net with, again, if I install a SIM card. I don't know if it's just for memory and I can use any old SIM card, or what, the instructions are pretty thin and in broken English coming from China. But all I need it for is all the stuff that doesn't require a SIM card anyway, just BT syncing.

 

Well, the 800XL arrived today. After a few teething problems getting a decent picture it's now setup in its new home.
The only thing not working is the LED power light which is kind of annoying as my other XL has the same problem lol



(please ignore my balls)

I'm going to try advertising the 130XE on Facebook and Gumtree first so that I can show it working to any potential buyers. If you know anyone around Glasgow looking for a new old Atari I will give a finders fee

https://www.gumtree.com/p/atari/atari-130xe-computer-with-sdrive-max-complete/1405453222

 

Fabtastic, Al.

Shame about the power light but other than that, she looks a beaut your new 800XL.

Your 130XE ad looks slick too - I reckon you will receive offers as the SD max certainly offers so much more for the retro games player in terms of instant gaming action and if the offers are anywhere near your required £175 then I'd accept, matey.

Good luck with all that and balls to anyone who doesn't like your Subbuteo collection - they obviously haven't lived and flicked to kick...



Quiz question, fellas - name these two 70s/80s ex-football larkers - one played for Scotland and one for England.

 

I was half right, Channon, had forgotten about the other guy (been a while since I heard his name)

 

I bought my complete, but used copy in excellent condition for $15 on Etsy, and shipping was a bit more, all in it was under $20. But I could have done better. I was browsing Video61's disk software list yesterday and I see they have NOS copies of it for only $12.95. That might not be a bad price for even you, depending on shipping.

http://www.atarisales.com/compdisk.html

Orders these days are all through e-mail, no phone calls or online checkout. But Lance is a great guy to support.

 

How is the Pokey 3, it was one I wanted to get but real life ended that, still keen to know what its like though

 

Well, I have yet to get it fully installed, they've released no clear wiring instructions yet for it (though Duddie said he would the next day about a week ago!) all there is posted is a general pin-out, which I could figure out, but it means dragging out the old FSM and following schematics, but I've been busy again with work and haven't had time to continue things from my last post; my 800 is still showing it's guts waiting for me.

But I can tell you about the Pokeymax V2 Quad +Covox, at least the Pokey part as I haven't had time to investigate Covox yet either. But I love the Pokeymax because with the configuration program you have quite a bit of control and my favorite part is that EVERY SINGLE ATARI GAME can have stereo sound of you set the settings for it! It will use the extra Pokey's and you can assign the 4 original Pokey voices used in games to output on the second Pokey too and choose L or R speaker for any one voice to come out of. This is actually my favorite thing so far about the Pokeymax, even though stereo games still sound even better with 8 voices. Now we just need more that use 4 Pokeys which should start happening now the Quad pokey is the standard on V3 and beyond!

 

GREAT to see Matt's XL Command Centre going from strength to strength. Whenever I see a fellow retronaut's bootiful collection taking such great shape it always helps to kick my butt out of a sense of stasis (been seemingly making no progress at all for bloody months now) and gives me a feeling of hope and a better set-up in the future.
If mine ends up looking half as good, I'll take that for now.
Thing is I'm torn between a new contemporary gloss white cube type storage / display solution (with neon ambiance lighting etc) but then finding my old gear sticks out like a sore thumb style clash-wise so sticking to some old style furniture but then seriously testing Bev's wrath as she will kick off if I turn one of her new looking rooms into a 70s MDF / Habitat throwback! Oh, the dilemma, my fellow retro gear chums!!

 

Yes, as you said, we chatted about it and its deffo on my want list..

Love the PC Engine, thought I was going to get my brother's one, but that went south. Signed up for Magic Engine back then just to play Gunhead again, cracking set of shooters on the PCE.

R-Type was almost a perfect conversion..

 

I love the steampunk look, I used to go to all the cosplay events as my daughter was a performer, steampunk was a big thing at them, obviously anime was the biggest.

 

Best of luck with all your side projects, Matt, you need another 24hrs in a day

And yes, 60's stuff just isn't right..Gaudy is the only word I can use for it..

 

Tell me about it Paul! I'm always feeling like the days are too short or time is flying by too fast. Another 24 hours a day, and having Tony Montana for a neighbor might help me move things along too. I do tend to spread myself to thin with many planned and half-finished hobby projects. But this time of year it seems more-so because I'm busy with the business and trying to squeeze in time for a 1001 projects that still need to get done on the house and land. And this has been one of the wettest springs on record, with weeks straight of rain. So I can't run my business, I can't do most of the work on the house, even in-doors, because too much of it requires open windows and exhaust fans for ventilation.

Plus, I've got no shop for my business yet either, so all mechanical maintenance has to be done outside. But the few days in-between rain and waiting for the ground to dry were the only days I have to catch up on entire weeks of missed lawn and other outdoor services, and of course that's more difficult because of irregular care and over-growth. Then throw in Murphy's law when it comes to all of our equipment and continual break-downs on the days we can service customers. I've been going crazy this spring! You wouldn't believe it if I told you all the break downs and unusual mechanical issues that hit us right after another. I dream of a day with a semi-ordered day and regular routine leaving a bit of time for relaxation and hobbies. I did take advantage of the rainy days for some electronics projects, but not enough to finish anything yet.

Anyway, I've been taking it all in stride as my experience and wisdom allow. I may get stressed in the moment, but I don't worry, I just keep running against the wind.

 

Sounds like you are up against it, my friend, but your attitude towards it is exceptional.

Having Tony Montana as a neighbour may not be a good thing, running around with flared white nostrils at a million miles an hour might get more work done, but I suspect shooting the already broken machinery when it's not going right may be a negative

Hope the weather lets up, the world seems crazy, Canada at 49C, you're getting flooded and my daughter's Uni roommate went home to Cyprus and now suddenly half the island is on fire from a heatwave..

Here, it can't decide if it's summer or spring.. Seems constantly mild to cold, overcast and wet with the very odd warm sunny day thrown in..

I hope things sort themselves out for you and you get to complete one part of it all at the very least.

All the best to you and the pups..

 

I echo Paul's sentiments, mate.

Some days/weeks/seasons are sent to test us and it sounds like your Spring sprung a leak somewhere along the line. That many fails on equipment makes you feel like you must've run over a dozen black cats or something bloody unlucky.

The weather is officially.... nuts. Nothing adds up, nothing is consistent and nothing seems to work anymore. We do seem to be in an ecological crisis with these flash floods, fires and god awful news about disaster upon disaster.

All we can do, gents, is give it our best shot (Matt ticks that box), boot up our old beauties (he gets a tick there too) and relive our glory days of the late 70s/early 80s (and 90s too if you like your 16bit/later game consoles etc) so I don't think there's much more to be said, really.

We're both self-isolating as our poorly neighbour Nick has tested positive for the old Corona/Covid evil biscuit germ when he was admitted to hospital after suffering a mental breakdown...

I tell ye what, I've never known times like these, fellas.

Dig in and keep smiling through, one and all - treasure and adore whoever & whatever you are lucky enough to have that makes you happy as god knows there's plenty of grief and suffering out there.

 

Nice alternative discovery there, Alan...

My daughter was telling me this morning that the kids use lemon juice on the lateral flow test swabs, so they get time off to isolate Little gits..

And as they will be doing the in school tests in a booth by themselves, I dare say the practice won't stop.

I wonder who found out that little fraudulent practice..

As for those goons in Westminster, all they care about is shagging, apparently there's a list kept by those in charge of who the top shaggers are, seems Gove and Hancock were the top two..

Poor Boris, can't even win that one..

Good luck England, not talking the footy (but good luck to them), I'm talking England, Scotland and Wales after the 19th, I give it two months max before we are in deep do do...