What's new Pussycat too?

Hey, many happy returns, Al - you've got a sunny one I hope - the weather is much better as we towed it back from France!
I know next to nothing about Apple Mac gaming but that volume looks a class act.
Enjoy, mate, and post us the best bits!
Hope you get out and have a drink or four with friends/colleagues/family etc or just celebrate in with a wee drop of good whisky, that book and boot up Commando!
Cheers, fella.
All the best
A&B.

 

Thanks Andy. I know nothing about Mac gaming either so looking forward to finding out more.

Quiet day here, had a walk and Celtic just about to kick off on Sky Sports. Got an early rise tomorrow as I head down to Blackpool - looking forward to visiting Arcade Club

 

Absolutely - always a curious pleasure dipping into "other" systems, Al, and you're sure to take a lot of pleasure from Blackpool's bracing prom and seafront, mate. Me dad's heading there shortly with his missus to take in the lights. I'll tell him to join you in Fight Club... I mean Arcade Club.
He'll be the one at the door raging - don't waste yer money, suckers, they're just a bunch of bugger bastard ping pong machines (what he used to shout in me mate's faces whenever they turned up at our front door and he wanted rid of them/me!).
Enjoy, me ole muckah - many happy returns, Al - 23 again?! ;-)

 

Many happy returns old man...One year closer to slippers and a blanket for the legs..

 

Already got both packed for my week away Paul

 

Again? Do you even remember where you work?

 

Just about lol.
Overnight in Blackpool for Arcade Club before five days in Wales and next weekend in my old favourite, Scarborough

 

In the little free time I've had of late I've been trying to get back into my hobbies. It's been long enough that all my nice shiny refurbished and modified computers and consoles are going to need a thorough cleaning again with dust caked into every seem and key/button. All stacked up in a giant "junk" pile as I moved stuff out of danger's way as the puppies have grown.

Of course my new Atari VCS, and HMD unit for Jag MC3D (VR) and new games for the Jaguar have helped to jump start my can-do ambition to get it all back in order. But in the mean time, it's been the Atari VCS, HMD and Jaguar I've been "hobbying" and playing on.

VCS:

Though I haven't gotten around to upgrading the VCS memory yet (I see no reason for an internal drive upgrade since I have USB ports and thumb drives), but I've been adding the peripherals and OS's.

Different from my previous pictures posted, in this one I have a second modern controller (aftermarket XBOX 1) for $10 and when I got it home I noticed how closely the design matches the Atari controller! Did I just happen to purchase a controller from the company that made the Atari VCS modern controller?!? IIRC, the brand is PDP.

Anyway, I also upgraded to a premium quality mouse, slim profile with RGB LED backlighting to match my Atari keyboard. I also purchased Atari's Linux USB stick for the PC side. I made a 64G thumb drive boot loader Windows XP and two more thumb drives formatted for use with the VCS for game storage. I only use internal storage for the VCS apps and emu's and streaming services.

I also got a USB 3.0 to Sata/IDE adapter and added a 2.5" 180G mini IDE HDD and 3D printed a case for it using a model done for C64 cartridge that I modified slightly to fit. It is for Windows 7. Also a 500G SATA 3.5" drive with Windows 10.

Lastly, I got a USB 3.0 4-port hub. Picture below.

As for the HMD, I'm still working on upgrades and mods for it and will let you all in on it very soon. And I'll do a review/comparison of the original 1996 Towers II: Plight of the Stargazer and the new 2023 Towers II: Enhanced Stargazer Edition.

 

Loving the VCS additions Matt.

 

Some great quality additions, Matt. Your collection just goes from great to greater! Enjoy those machines and take a well-earned break from the work, mate. You must be gagging for a proper play sesh (don't forget to give Commando a hammer!)

 

Hello my friends. After spending yesterday evening working on my HMD, it's coming along great, but I'm doing it right so I ordered some items to help to do that, so no pictures of my mods and upgrades yet. Then I spent most of the day watching news on Youtube streaming networks about the new war in Israel!

But later this evening, I need a break from the tragedy and so I'm posting now. After much trial and error, I was able to capture a decent enough screen image of the Dynovisor/Scuba/JagVR HMD.

Most people like to rag on these early HMD's due to low resolution screens. And they were lower resolution than even the standard PAL and NTSC TV's of the day, but so were all the video formats and gaming consoles until the Sega Dreamcast! I'm not saying some, including the Jag, weren't capable of higher resolutions, but for 99-100% of all the games on all the consoles of the era didn't use a resolution higher than 320x240 (or PAL equivelant), so standard-def TV's were too much for 20th century console definitions!

So I have to ask the nay-sayers; "what are you planning on using the HMD for? Console gaming, right? So then the only question is if the screen on these HMD's had a higher resolution than the graphic modes the consoles of the day (and before) used, right?

Well, there was no direct 111x222 pixel resolution numbers given in the specs of the Dyno or Scuba. BUT, the Dynovisor's specs do say two, 180,000 pixel, Sony active TFT LCD screens. The Scuba specs say 400 lines of resolution. So dividing 180,000 by 400 gives a horizontal resolution of 450. So is 450x400 resolution screens enough to display up to 320x240? Yes, so nay-sayers go pull your heads out of your asses. The cherry on top is that everything plays at full screen, not in a window, so the HMD is actually upscaling the 320-240p image to 450x400p, which in fact causes an anti-aliasing side effect so everything is perfectly smooth in a progressive scan.



Down below is that screen shot I promised, now keep in mind that the distortion and blurriness is due to a poor quality picture, taken through a magnifier in a very hard spot to get the camera eye to, not the screen itself. But the brightness, contrast and brilliant color of these little screens magnified to a 120" virtual screen is caught! I think it's fantastic and it couldn't have been the low resolution that is the reason Atari told Virtuality to go back to the drawing board, but because Atari already knew the Jag was dead by then and were getting ready to lay-off, liquidate and sell out! There is no need for a higher resolution screen for the Jaguar's 320x224 99% games resolutions (Doom is 160x224!).

Now the real issue with these HMD's that do make them practically unusable is how uncomfortable they become to wear in short order. But in my case, I don't cry and give up, I make it into what I expect it to be, and my new padding worked wonders and it is extremely comfortable now for longer gaming sessions. But it's not ready aesthetically, so no photos yet!

 

Like you, I have been watching the escalating war over there, the human shield scenario that is inevitable disgusts me.

As for your project, no nay-saying from me, you have given this considerable thought and hard work. The picture looks great, you won't get the detail that is there via the way you are taking the picture, which is totally understandable. Epic work..

My stomach and head have been so bad I put off replacing the 120G SSD with my brand new 2TB Samsung SSD. The dementia at the in laws is so bad it's causing problems here, numerous overly repeated phone calls, attitude towards Cindy who is doing a 101% sterling job of supporting them, and still it's not enough in their minds. Dementia is a nightmare to deal with, I've had to do it twice and now a 3rd time that I'm partially involved.

Anyway, as always Matt, you are re-enabling this old gear and giving it new life, hats (if I had one) off to you. I'm hoping the extended summer (of sorts) has meant a bit of extra work for you (hey, more cash = more new additions )

Have a wonderful time over there, always good to see all of us having a bit of fun..

 

Here, here, guys.

The new war is another terrible tragedy.... whoever threw the Israelis/Jews and the Palestinians side by side together in the first place need their heads examining... us Brits in 1948? Probably - bad, bad, bad mistake. It'll never heal.

Again, in full agreement with Paul on this re-working of great innovational tech from back then made possible now with a new twist, new angle and new lurve of the usage for the hell of its sake - you always find a way, Matt and again, the screen pic you've provided is the best poss in the circumstances - a wonder you squeezed that out - again due to your devotion and perseverance and the lurve of these things.

Many many thanks again for finding time and the spirit to push through with these projects - they make the improbable come true and the rest of us give out a resounding WAHAY in goddamn admiration!

More power, once more, to yer elbow, mate.

Another fine fine project pushing forward - just remember to take an anti-sickness pill for those all day/all night seshes! ;-)

 

It's so maddening re this and past wars between them. They both grew up in the exact same place, and basically almost believe in the same faith (ie Jesus etc). I don't know the history too well, but I believe some of the land was taken by Israel and this is where it's lead to over the years. I'm not a big fan of extremists and sadly there's mega extremists on both sides of that coin.

Anyway, sorry to derail the thread more, keep the work up Matt...

 

The more current issue with the Mid-East situation stems from the 6-days war back in the late 60's or early 70's some time when Israel was attacked on multiple fronts. The resulting win by Israel gained them land that wasn't initially given by you Brits as part of their state (however was part of Israel back in Roman times), and they kept it as a "buffer zone" against future attacks & wars and over the years Israel colonized it all. But that's just the Palestinian excuse, as they really want Israel completely gone and turned back into Palestine. That bit goes back to thousands of years before the Romans and Christ. And has been changed between Israel and Palestine for hundreds of years and many different wars since before the Roman occupation and eventual rebellion quelling. After that the people of Israel were scattered until 1948 and it was Palestine from post Roman to 1948, and Israel again since.

 

Surprisingly I didn't really make any retro game purchases when on holiday last week. Got a couple of books and some music cd's and that was it. With my left over holiday money though I've made a couple of buys in the last few days.

Got Pixel, Amiga, and Amstrad Addict magazines. They're all really good reads, Pixel Addict being my favourite. Now prefer them to Retro Gamer which I think difficult to read because of the paper stock and font they use (the old eyes ain't what they used to be fellas).

The other purchase was a C64 Mini. Yes, I already have a full size The Vic20 which does the same job but I was looking for a new joystick for 2 player games and it wasn't much dearer to buy it complete with the console!


(the observant amongst you may notice a car mag creeping into the back lol)




One last thing I just remembered is a Steam purchase called Tiny Football from Microprose. It has been on my wishlist for a while and was down to £5 in a sale so I snapped it up. Love my football games and this one reminds me of Sensible Soccer but a bit easier to play. Very nice

https://https://www.microprose.com/games/tiny-football

 

Looks great, Al, the Tiny Footie and all those acquisitions... mags, bits n bobs, esp the C64 Mini - hours of fun guaranteed with that little lot and I know what you mean about certain print styles/fonts and sizes... it's another sign that we're slowly pegging out, me old mate.

One day nearer now... ;-) PMSL!

Enjoy, fella - great buys, mate and you've done well getting it all on a decent budget without breaking the bank.

 

Cheers Andy

Keeping my retro 'habit' on a tight budget at the moment but that just makes things more fun to be honest

I bought a second hand book from Amazon (retro but not computer related) which I think you and a few of the guys would like. I'll start up a new thread later this week around it

 

I really like Sensible soccer on the Jaguar, I'm told it's a direct Amiga port, and it does show, graphically, but I thing the sound was enhanced.



The Jaguar has two footie games for you Brits and Europeans, the other is a more arcade style game rendered in isometric perspective and playing and looking very Neo-Geo like.



My all-time favorite Footie game though is the 3DO version of Fifa Soccer. (Go to 3:12 to skip all the FMV and see the gameplay)



I will have to check out this footie game on Steam as I've recently set up my PC VCS and Steam is the main reason for that, even streaming and basic apps and internet with Chrome already exists on the ATARI VCS side...though I'll have my choice of browser on the PC side, and apps whereas on the Atari side you get what they give, and that is Chrome and google apps.

 

I was referring to all the old magazine reviews and other game review sources online from over the years in which every single one complains of a low-res screen...when the *ucking games are lower res than the screen! Morons! The picture is as good with a Jag game on the screen as a full-size, full-standard definition Sony LCD screen with the same Jag game on it.

Now DVD's onwards in media and Dreamcast resolution onwards the Dynovisor/Scuba/JagVR HMD's would be too low res for...but that's not what they were made for either!

 

Liking those footie clips you just sent the You Tube vidz for, Matt.

They improve in the order which you list them - my personal opinions on (International) Sensible Soccer are the same as I;ve always had - it;s OK but really, compared to the other two you show there, it looks a joke - it's like watching ants that all rush around as one and it is so unrealistic. It's almost like watching bar football where the player spins a handle and all the players on a particular row all spin together - it's not very convincing from my viewpoint. I cannot for the life of me work out why it is such a fave amongst so many (mainly Amiga) gamers when for me - and I accept this is just IMHO - it is so arcade-like, unrealistic and simplistic in its gameplay. Kick Off 2 (on the Amiga) beats the pants off it - it looks so much better, plays so much better and I believe demands greater skills from the player and the controller used.

Anyhow, I digress - this portion of the What's New Pussycat Too thread is all about some super Atari Jaguar footie action and the other two titles, Fever Pitch and FIFA International, are really really impressive - particularly the latter - as the players and gameplay are leagues above Sensi!!

Many thanks for showcasing em, Matt - some ab fab games which I had no idea existed on this platform and I sure as hell would get drawn into playing those last two offerings - soccer sensations!

 

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.

 

Lovely, Al - brilliant for you and fans of this game but for me, it's Alien Ant Farm!

 

That art would make for a great mouse pad.

My latest procurement is a Mad Catz brand steering and pedals for the PS1/2. I decided I wanted a steering wheel for my Dreamcast, saw some crazy prices for Sega and Madcatz wheels for the DC though, starting at $100 and up to hundreds. So knowing that the Mad Catz brand used the exact same steering wheel for every major console release, I figured it would be an easy design to just buy the cheapest version for any console from the 90's to today and wire it up to use with my Dreamcast, 3DO and OG Xbox myself.

Though I did find controller adapters for the DC to use with multiple console & PC controllers/keyboards, including PS1/2,but they cost more than either a DC keyboard or steering wheel! A PS1/2 wheel popped up for $35 in that Madcatz list with free shipping, so that's what I bought. I already have it working on the DC too, using a DC cable from a broken Madcatz DC controller I have. As suspected it's child's play for me with a cross-over wiring board inside that I can just splice into for every system I want.

It will have 2-4 cables protruding in the end, but will work with all my wired controller consoles just by plugging in the correct cable.

 

That's a great shout, Matt.

Al, are these available as mouse pads/A2 sized posters etc?

Guess they might if they're going out on canvas.