The almighty hamburger. A hot sandwich starting with a beef patty, topped with trimmings like lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese, and smothered with ketchup and mustard. A monetary staple for fast food drive-ins and a popular item to cook for some outdoor grillin'. It's also one of the easiest food items to cook where almost anything on it will compliment it. Almost. That is until you come across evil food. Hot dogs, eggs, and pickles are tired of being on the menu and have gone on strike! Tha
Video games were once considered a novelty and a source of entertainment. No one knew how long they would last or where they would take us. Most of the older generation of gamers will most likely be able to tell stories of lining up quarters on popular arcade machines as a marker of when it would be their turn at the challenges awaiting them. I'm one of them. Feeding those machines quarter after quarter for a few minutes of entertainment never felt like enough. Sometimes it wasn't enough to
This is just this year and just for the Atari VCS/2600.............
2019
Homebrews / Hacks released
Jan. 2, 2019 - House on Haunted Hill, The (Taz hack) by Salem Frost Video Games {2nd run} thru Repentless VG $29
Feb. 1, 2019 (pre-orders) - Rally Racer by More Work Games (Brazil) $79.90
Feb. 1, 2019 - Jay Walker by Ross Adkin "TidusRenegade" sold by Scott Dayton (NEOGames) thru the Atari 2600 Homebrew Games FB group $35 or $55
Feb. 25, 2019 - Westworld (Berzerk hack) {new label
The SMURFS. Arguably one of the most popular cartoon icons of the 1980's. These little blue people took America, if not the world, by storm literally overnight. Once the cartoon aired it wasn't long before stores started loading down their shelves with everything from lunch boxes, vinyl records, figurines, dinnerware, posters, and many other items too numerous to mention. Seriously, anything you could think of to put SMURFS on was available. The Saturday morning cartoon series ran a full 9
Grab that joystick, mash that button as we go on a journey digging underground to collect vegetables, pump up Pookas, and dropping rocks on Fygars. This is Dig Dug -- the strategic underground arcade digging game that took the video game industry by storm in the early 1980's. Released by Namco in Japan, the game was brought to America and Europe by Atari's arcade division. It wouldn't be long after that when Atari's console division made home versions of the game for the Atari 2600, 5200, and
What to write about? I know I want to write about the 2600 but I just don't know where to begin. Do I talk more about the iconic woody console or the Junior model? I don't have much to say about controllers because it's either paddle, driving, keypad, or more joystick designs than anyone could fathom. Games? Do I talk more about games that I have managed to pick up since my last post? I might have to think on this a bit more. While I'm thinking...
As I sit here writing this there is
I love taking something old and giving it new life. That said when it is a creation from someone else past it can be a bit touchy. Anxiety on red alert. This kit was someones work of art, their creative outlet in the time in witch it was created. No matter, some things need to be restored and given new life. I am more than happy to do so. In fact it's an honor. Someone its giving you something VER PERSONAL regardless if they feel so or not. Regardless of the extent I do or do not put my spin on
Welcome to the second "annex" entry of the Gaming Notebook. In this entry, I'll discuss the PenguiNet game Rikki & Vikki for the Atari 7800.
Rikki & Vikki was a surprise release on Steam (12/2018) and the 7800 in February 2019 from PenguiNet. Some of you may be familiar with PenguiNet for their amazing work on Zaku for the Lynx; arguably one of the best original titles on the platform. Zaku really pushed the Lynx and stands as a tremendously fun, graphically stunning and amazin
Welcome to the first "annex" entry into the gaming notebook. I'll post reviews of homebrews, community projects, and other goodies here. First up, my review of the Robotron 2084 controller for the Atari 7800 by Mike @RetroGameBoyz
I ordered my controller last week after reading about it on the forums and received it on Friday. It was shipped in a plastic mailer with plenty of bubble-wrap for protection.
As many of you know, the Atari 7800 version of Robotro
In my first blog post here, I talked about how I wanted to use this blog to document so many of the wonderful memories I have of growing up.
In thinking about that, I've often wondered the best way to do that. By year? By topic? Some other way? I don't think there's a right or wrong way, but I think I've come up with an interesting way.
I'm going to sort them by the homes I've lived in & others that are special to me.
I'll be starting with my first home and end with my current
Once a year one of the largest gaming events sets the stage of what's to come. And XBOX has always put on a good showing with exclusives, releases of popular game franchises, XBOX firsts and much more. This year the concept behind XBOX's E3 show seems to be more about finally bridging the gap between console and PC gamers. But more on that later. Here are the highlights I found most interesting ... so far.
Sega is bringing one of the most popular RPG franchises of all time to the X
It is no secret at all that one of my favorite franchises is the Terminator Flicks. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING will ever beat the original no matter how much people try to tell me T2 is a better film. The original had everything. SciFi, action, a bit of noir and a hint of the slasher element from horror films of the time. Most important the film had the greatest villain (next to Darth Vader) in cinematic history, Cyberdine Systems 800 series Terminator model 1 0 1. A cybernetic organism with li
I'm just going to put this right out there without any introduction (I'll save that for another related article) and pick the 10 games I play most on the 7800 in the small collection I have which is now at 16 games. We start with number 10.
10. Centipede
Mom's favorite...but on the 5200. She tried playing the 7800 version when I got the system and a few games for Christmas around 1990. I have to admit that even though it gets more play time than others it doesn't quite capture ever
I already had Monday, October 29, 2018 circled on my calendar. It had been for months. That was the day for me to cash in my birthday present from 5 months prior. Tickets to see Metallica in concert, 26 years after I saw them for the first time. No band I had seen since then has been as good live (and I saw a lot, working as an usher in an arena, but that's a story for another day).
I woke up at my normal time, a little after 7 AM. Before getting out of bed, I checked my email and hopped on
The FPS/RPG series Borderlands has become a favorite modern game with my wife and I. In anticipation of Borderlands 3 coming in September I decided to do a video series on Borderland 2 to revisit the game and to showcase the game in its raw form. There is no commentary as I lack the equipment to capture both at present time. The first of this series starts in the video posted below. More will follow when time allows.
Parental Warning: The game play presented in the video below has been
As a young kid spending time on Fishers Island (my current home), I was fascinated with the natural history of the island. The main focus of my attention was on the area of the island that used to be the home of Fort H.G. Wright.
Fort Wright was part of the coastal defense network & protected the eastern part of Long Island Sound. It was active from 1898 through 1947.
I loved playing in and around the gun pits (the cannons were long gone) and other buildings, including lookout to
So recently I was in talks with a fellow maker, he had asked if I would be willing to make a trade once I finish one of my soon to come figures. I looked over his shop and noticed he sold one of his figures in a kit form. I inquired about maybe doing a toy art swap where I sent him a raw casting of one of my figures and he would send me one of his. Here is the build video of that trade.
STRONG LANGUAGE!
I thought it may be interesting to share what happens when my pager goes off for a fire call.
Thankfully, I've only had false alarms to respond to, aside from two minor car accidents. (Since October 2017).
We average one call per week. Thankfully, most of them are during the day, but there have been the occasional middle of the night calls. (The pager also goes off for any ambulance calls, which I only assist if the EMTs need help lifting the stretcher onto the ambulance boat.)
Te
World Tour Racing
Published: 1997 by Telegames
Developed: Teque London
Polygonal racers were all the rage in the mid-90s. At the time of the Jaguar’s release, Sega’s Virtua Racing ruled the arcades. Atari’s answer was the lackluster Checkered Flag; a game notorious for its low frame rate and horrible controls. The innovative but visually bland Club Drive also failed to impress gamers. By 1994, the Sega 32X had an excellent port of Virtua Racing. The release of the Sega Saturn
2018 Homebrews:
A Very Galactopus Christmas (bB) by Ric Pryor “KaeruYojimbo”
Alien Attack by Edward A. Smith “easmith” - available at Good Deal Games
Alien Greed 5 by Chris Read “atari2600land” – available thru 2600connection NO “Public” ROM available
Alien Revenge! by Edward A. Smith “easmith” - available at Good Deal Games
Apollyon (bB) by Fehér János Zoltán “MemberAtarian” will be available thru Retronics
Asteroid Rescue (bB) by Ross Adkin “TidusRe
A common sentiment found among retro-computing enthusiasts is that there's nothing quite like the real thing. It's understandable, computers and game consoles (i.e., computers disguised as toys and appliances) are physical items and our happy nostalgic memories are complimented by recollections of touch and heft: the feedback of button clicks, shunting cartridges into slots, and so on. However, there's a particular aficionado - we've all met him, he's a member of every fan group and forum - whos
Busy month, but I'm elated to have, finally, nailed down the hardware design and have working firmware!
A few words on USB ...
In ye olde' days, such as when the Jaguar was developed, connections with the outside world were often turn-key and very simple. On the Jaguar controller, a selection of pins are used as address selectors and each data pin is tested in turn. Easy to code for and cheap hardware to build, little more than latches and diodes. However, such interfaces are not
