What's new Pussycat too?

Yeah, the old adverts are a little joy gold mine...I sent my Expert cart to Richie and that has a load of old Trilogic adverts with it. The presentation was naff looking back at it, but they just evoke 'the day' really well.

 

Sooooo…. This week I picked up a copy of Atari ST user from 1994. It still has the cover disk attached LOL. This issue reviews the Atari Jaguar and they wax lyrical about it. Saying it was going to be a strong contender in the console wars. They gave Cybermorph 90% FFS Still it’s interesting to read all this with the benefit of hindsight.
I also picked up a ASCI2STM hard drive for my 1040STFM so been messing around with that for a bit this weekend. It was a lot cheaper than the UltraSatan, it would seem however, that you need 2MB or more to really get the most from it. So I may need a 4MB upgrade after all

 

Ha ha re the Jag, how they got it so wrong..Such a shame, using BigPEmu I've had a chance to play some Jag stuff and some of it's pretty good, BUT most of it isn't to be honest. Have fun with the ST Richie, as always, nice to see the old gear getting the love it deserves.

 

Splendid, Rich - keep enjoying and sharing the lurve, as Paul says.

They are a goldmine the old mags in terms of unearthing long-forgotten reviews, ads and opinions and as you say, fella, with the benefit of hindsight we can see where they hoped it was all heading but can also see the pitfalls, the strong competition and where they made a pig's ears of things being late to market/not thoroughly testing/lack of investments/promotions etc... all those If Onlys come swimming into view but of course the world was a different place back then and we were all different people - fascinating all the same - keep sharing the lurve and if I can chip in with extra RAM - after your recent Oric help, Rich - please just PM and send me some further details of the memory upgrade please, mate. Continue having fun with the ST, the hard disk and SATAN stuff - it really does give us all a buzz hearing how you (and Al) are getting a helluva buzz playing with, properly using and enhancing this long-neglected Atari machine. Keep up the gReat work, fellas.

 

Excellent stuff Richie. I'll be dusting off the ST in the next week or two as I play with the cartridge emulator and start shifting throught the ST Format magazine bundle I bought on EBay. In fact, I had better get those issues added to my spreadsheet and see what ones I still need

 

I would do these mods and dashboard to my classic Xbox, but between my Dreamcast for emulation and modern dashboard with browser and all the latest frills, and my Atari VCS 800 with it's modern dash and emulation, Antarcade, streaming, etc, plus the PC side with Steam, it would be redundant twice over. But I love what you've done with yours. I'll continue to use my Xbox classic for playing titles that aren't compatible with my Xbox 360's emulation.

I'll take photos of my upgraded Dreamcast and it's new bells and whistles and dashboard if I find the time. Too busy, as usual working the business by day and fixing the revolving door of equipment breakdowns evenings and weekends.

I just spent the entire weekend swapping the entire engine out of one lawn tractor to another. I purchased a used lawn tractor a couple weeks ago and on Friday the transmission went out on it. Well, I purchased it to replace the other lawn tractor with a broken motor, but it has a good transmission! Still one step forward and two back with all the projects I need to do, which have nothing to do with my hobby projects, unfortunately, which continue to collect dust.

I have managed to squeeze in a few minor hobby projects in the last month, I'll show and tell soon. It's all to do with audio/video though, not vintage consoles or computers. I have also added to my audio/video collection and will show those items soon as well. Maybe later this week after I catch up on my work schedule.

Keep the flame burning fellows, I shall return!

Matt

 

Definitely need at least 2MB of RAM to load some of games off HDD especially ones that needed 1MB on disk. Seems to be the general rule of thumb that you double the RAM needed when running from a hard drive. Exxos’s shop has two versions of 4MB upgrade so will have a think. I think there is a way to disable the onboard RAM by tying some resistors to 5v, I don’t fancy desoldering the original onboard 512KB. It’s a neat little gadget this ACSI2STM. It has a RTC as well as 3 micro SD slots so in theory you could have 9 partitions I think. Loads games in seconds ( Pera’s site has HD ready games to download ) can copy downloaded games from PC to SD Card just by drag and drop.
I was going to get a PiStorm for my Amiga but you’re straying into the realms of emulation and I could have the same performance or better using Amibian on my Pi 3+. So I was looking at Terriblefire Accelerator or ACA500Plus instead but they are not cheap. So that’s for later, I tried to buy an A590 HD yesterday but was outbid sadly so I’ll keep trying.

 

After my latest raid across the border I managed to pick up a few retro goodies. I'm sure either Paul or Andy made a joke about making 5 purchases. Well, I managed it lol



The majority of the above I picked up on the last day or two. So we have from top left clockwise;
1) an Atari ST mug
2) couple of copies of Raid Over Mosco for the Amstrad CPC (that might give a clue to what is going to in the next photo...)
3) Galaga 7800 - I saw this on a Gumtree advert and it was only a 40 mile or so diversion on the way home so just had to go pick it up, good condition box and came complete with manual. One of my Holy Grail titles.
4) F1 for the Megadrive. I didn't realise berfore that this was based on Vroom so had to snap it up when I saw it fully boxed in CEX
5) Striker for the Megadrive, because it's a football game and I love football games
6) a floppy disk created out of bead art
6) Warlords 2600, really chuffed with this as I think it's a great game and although I already had the cart on it's own this was a sealed copy complete with manual. Got it from one of my favourite retro games shops, in Scarborough, for a bargaintastic £8.
7) Saroo SSHD loader - this was something I ordered online from eBay before going on holiday. An SD card solution for the Sega Saturn that plugs into the cartridge slot so you don't need to remove the cd drive or open up the console. So far it has ran everything I've tried and the load speeds are amazing. It also acts as a ram and save cartridge as well as running both import and UK games.
8) North West Computer Museum user guide - on the Holiday Monday I made a trip to this great computer museum about 40 miles from Blackpool. It was amazing. I'll do a seperate post about it when I get a chance as it is worthy of it's own thread.

and now to reveal....


Yes! I managed to get an Amstrad CPC 464 again. This was something I'd been keeping an eye on from eBay and when it hadn't sold I contacted the seller and managed to agree an offer and pick it up near Leeds on the way home. It came with a box load of around 30 games on cassette (belt recently replaced) and the colour monitor. Haven't had a chance to set it up yet, but will give it a good clean and hopefully manage a little play at some point over the weekend.

With all the above it means I spent a little bit more than I really should have so have cancelled my planned trip to Blackpool Play Expo in October but think this lot will keep me busy anyway

 

Brilliant, Al.
You never fail to hit the target on these cross-border raids of yours - another huge success by looks of things! Paul, clearly that Hadrian geezer who you put up to put a wall up with a bit of bish bosh brickying and plastering aint done a very good job has he, pal? He's bleedin letting Al and his retro troops kilt their way through our collections

Eeh, what's he like? Anyhow, I'm gonna start in reverse order - I lurve to see someone splashing out a bit and buying a system and the Amstrad CPC464 all-in-one set-up never fails to impress and I like the back-story too - you were patient, made an offer and picked up on yer way home - you'd done your homework and you deserved that little win with a little beauty you've got there (and 30 games tapes PLUS those Raids Over Moscow should be loading up before very much longer!)

And what else have you got in there - some of it I aint got a clue but get the general gist eg. Saroo and F1/Vroom. So, the former's a Sega Saturn SD card solution - and more and the other is a racing game for the Megadrive? Reet, got it - check point - extended play - Al, select top gear and play yer heart out, my good man. Oh, and Striker too - was this out on the Amiga too? I seem to recall the title... maybe not.

PLUS! Bead art - snazzy and an ST mug and Warlords - a fab 2600 title. Mate, you've done your Xmas shopping early this year - that haul is full of personal treats and why the hell not, I mean what do we work for - just paying bills? I think not - excellent purchases and do tell us more about the Blackpool / North West museum in your next post, mate.

By heck, pal, both you and ya wallet must be...

KNACKERED!?

I know what - brew on, feet oop and get that Amstrad booted THEN relax!

 

Hehe, mug of Yorkshire's finest tea in hand at this very moment Andy
It was a really good haul this trip,everything just seemed to fall into place. Looking forward to trying the CPC once I give it a little clean up. Warlords and Galaga really were two games I've been searching for a while so getting both in the same week was amazing luck.

I had to take a little video of the computer museum especially for you guys so I'll post that up as well. Suffice to say the place is AMAZING. Every sort of 8-bit micro and peripheral you could think of, a classroom of BBC Model B's, a few arcade machines, a working Apple Lisa and a great little cafe onsite.

I'm still heading down to North Yorkshire at the end of September/October if yer up for another Atari Owners Club meeting at Rage Quit bar again. Need to sample that food menu when the kitchen opens

 

I have a handful of CPC Games if you want them Allen. I have a disk version of Red Sunset ( copy 50 of 50 ) if you ever get a 3” drive.

 

You got it, Al.

I'll be there, fella.

You pick Rich up and I'll nip down and pick-up Paul from Ull International... tram shed (we aint got an airport, Paul). We did have then someone ran orf with the runway...

 

Thanks Richie, very kind of you to offer. I'm going to try and pick up an SD card solution though as I am rapidly running out of space with well over 200 original software titles. Have barely been able to look through the box of games that came with the CPC but think there might be closer to 60 tapes.

Is the DDI-5 still the best SD solution for the Arnold?

 

If you want a really good expansion get an M4 from Duke on the CPCWiki group ( WiFi & SD Card )

 

Does that also act as a memory upgrade as well?

 

No you would need one of them as well but you can have 30 Rom banks that you can use and switch in and out. You can get a 1MB RAM expansion fairly cheap and then then get a M4 expansion board so you can have several expansions connected at the same time.
I have one of these boards kicking around. I might have a RAM board as well in my spares bin. I’ll have to check.

 

Started to give the 464 a clean and remove the stickers that had been put on the monitor casing. Had time for a quick game of Storm (budget Gauntlet style game) earlier and it's looking and sounding good. Still got another box of tapes to work through but after some research think I'm going to save up for the DDI-5 SD card and memory expansion as it seems to do everything I want with the minimum of fuss. The cave has now reached it's capacity just about!

 

Thanks for the update, Al, and confirmation there that all is well in terms of tape loading etc.

Funny you should mention Storm - it is a really good (Mastertronic?) budget title and I believe it was converted for the Oric by the Oric legendary programmer Jonathan "Twilighte" Bristow & called Stormlord.

Quick feedback, Al - how would you say the humbler Oric version compares to the CPC464 presentation / gameplay, mate?

Oric:



CPC464:


Ah, not the same game at all - my mistake!

Always thought that Jonathan had modded it from the Amstrad version (can't have ever ported it as CPC is Z80, yeah, and Oric is 6502 CPU) and so it would appear that I've got me wires crossed somewhere - doh

I've just had a word with mesen.

Here we go, Stormlord was an entirely different game:

 

Oh dear Andy, so excited to find a game on the old Oric that you mix it up with a totally different game on another 8bitter

Oric Stormlord looks pretty neat for the system, have you played it? I've not played the CPC version but I did find a video of it on YouTube and it looks a right cracker, very colourful land good chiptune music.

 

No, I'm still to properly engage with this little beauty on the Oric, Al.

It looks a work of art on the CPC464.

Have only watched the You Tube clip a few times and keep saying, like I do with the Klyde's Collection post, I MUST GET ROUND TO DOING THIS ONE DAY!

Unfortunately, right now folks like my uncle Russ need support (his wife still very ill in hossie with a hazy patch on her lungs), as does me mam (less confident, more anxious and doddery by the day) and even uncle Harry relies on his weekly fish n chips courtesy of yours truly making a trip out to his, so there's always somewhere I'm dashing to after work.

As you guys'll know, some days there just aint enough hrs in the day to be a retronaut...

 

Too true Andy, that's why it's nice to be able to jump on here when we do have a bit of time and share our bits and bobs with like minded folks

 

Finally made my way through the bundle of tapes that came along with the CPC 464. Sixty six titles in total including some right gems such as Batman, Rainbow Islands, Harrier Attack, Kane and Storm. Have kept around a dozen titles including the must haves mentioned here and will take the rest along to my local vintage store at the weekend. Want to see if I can find Oh Mummy, 180 Darts, and 3D Death Chase. That will keep me going while I save for the DDI-5 SD card reader.

 

My mate at work was an old Amstrad fanatic back in the late 80s, Al...

His fave choices - Oh Mummy and Harrier Attack! Great bundle you've picked up there.

Enjoy!

 

Managed to get Oh Mummy and 180 Darts at my pals shop today, bargain £1 each. He has a pile of cassette games for the Atari, Speccy, C64 and Acorn.

I also just found out that Deathchase isn't an original eighties Amstrad title. It was only made about 15 years ago so no chance of getting that!

 

Lovely jubbly... any chance of a list of these £1 a pop titles,Al? I might be interested in 1 or 5?!