PLAY EPISODE 10 HERE #PA2029, Published by Atari Corp.In this episode, the longest (and the latest) episode of The HandyCast so far, I cover one of the last games originally developed at Epyx, Inc., Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, released in October of 1990. I’ve included vital statistics, credits, gameplay, reviews and ratings, some fun facts and trivia, and some listener feedback about the game. And with the ComLynx cable it’s an eight-player game, so grab seven more of your friends for a
PLAY EPISODE 11 HERE #PA2030, Published by Atari Corp.In this episode I cover the very last game originally developed at Epyx, Inc., Zarlor Mercenary, released in October of 1990. Alphabetically, it's also the very last original-release game for the Lynx. Plus, as far as I know, it's the only Lynx game that has "Mendicants"...or "Medicants"...or "Merdicants." I've included vital statistics, credits, gameplay, reviews and ratings, some fun facts and trivia, and some listener feedback about the g
PLAY EPISODE 15 HERE #PA2034, Published by Atari Corp.In this episode I cover one of several sports titles created for the Lynx, Basketbrawl, released for the Lynx in 1992. Included are statistics for the game and a run-down on how to play it, along with reviews and ratings, some fun facts and trivia, and some listener feedback about the game. BASKETBRAWL VITAL STATISTICS Release Date: Originally scheduled for release in December of 1991, according to this blurb on page 163 of the January 1991
PLAY EPISODE 14 HERE #LX102, Published by Telegames, Inc.In this episode I cover one of my favorite arcade games of the 1980s, QiX (pronounced "kicks"), released for the Lynx in 1991 by Telegames. I've got vital statistics about the game, along with gameplay, reviews and ratings, some fun facts and trivia, and some listener feedback about the game.QiX VITAL STATISTICS Release Date: October of 1991 by Telegames. Initial retail price: Unknown. Cartridge: Stereo curved lip-style cartridge of unkno
PLAY EPISODE 12 HERE #PA2031, Published by Atari Corp.In this episode (better late than never) I cover one of the best games ever made for the Atari Lynx, KLAX, released in October of 1990. It's also the second of three original release titles for the Lynx that is played vertically, not horizontally (Gauntlet: The Third Encounter and NFL Football are the other two). In this episode I've got vital statistics about KLAX, along with credits, gameplay, reviews and ratings, some fun facts and trivia
PLAY EPISODE 16 HERE #PA2035, Published by Atari Corp.In this episode Monty and I cover a "Zero-G Futuresport" game for the Lynx, Robo-Squash, set in either the 29th or 31st century and released for the Lynx in 1990. As Monty seems somewhat confused as to what the game of squash really is, I go about setting him straight. In the meantime, he and I provide statistics for Robo-Squash, as well as a run-down on how to play it. We also go over reviews and ratings for the game, some fun facts and tr
The LaserDisc lasted for over two decades and was very influential on the optical formats that would follow in its footsteps. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast I discuss the LaserDisc from its inception to its demise just after the turn of the millennium.View the full article on the Retroist
This might require its own thread but I actually was working on an NTSC 7800 that was eating my lunch most of the weekend. It was sent in for just a basic composite mod installed into it. When I used the diagnostic roms everything was fine with this 7800. But then not long after I got the composite board installed and tested it again, I noticed some odd flashing lines of colors across the screen. It seemed to do this badly on Dungeon Stalker and Ballblazer. In the case of both games, it would fl
Quincy ME was a groundbreaking show with a passionate and charismatic lead actor, Jack Klugman. It is one of my favorite TV shows and I am happy to cover it as my 250th episode of the Retroist Podcast. View the full article on the Retroist
By the beginning of 2015, I had upgraded to a Lotharek HxC and an F18A, dropped on a Lantronix UDS-10 and started hitting Heatwave BBS...
By the middle of 2015 I added a PS/2 keyboard, and an extra disk drive and WiFi capability to my UDS-10...
Around the middle of 2016 I had a modem, which was not used much, and I think the HDX card (which has since been removed). It was around this time that I obtained a TI compatible Wico trackball and customized it to match the TI. I a
So what do you do when your TI-99/4A system is expanded as far as possible? Simple, start another system! I'm not sure where I'll take this one next, but so far...
.. currently my beige "portable system" has a TIPI/32K with RPi ZERO W and a speech synthesizer. Hopefully someday the F-18A MK2 will finally hit the market. This entry will be updated if/when anything changes!
What drives a guy to use a computer that is 40 years old? Nostalgia & fun are two reasons.
Back in 1981 or 1982 I got myself a TI-99/4A console, later Extended BASIC a "Program Recorder" (Cassette player) and then built it up little by little. This was what my system looked like in 1985...
The peripheral expansion box (as shown above) only had a 90K disk drive, 32K and RS-232 card. By today's standards that's laughable!
By 1987, I had to "downsize" due to my fir
Whoa! It's been a while since I last blogged! Sorry about that, readers!
Today is a special day indeed. It's the one-year anniversary of when I first got my Atari 2600s! I thought I'd post a little something here about my systems in particular. I already made a very long status update about this (which I'll archive here at the end of the blog so it doesn't disappear forever), but here in this blog entry I'd like to touch on the history of these systems from what I have heard through the yea
We see many projects come across Kickstarter, and every now and then we find one that we feel would be interesting to AtariAge visitors, and in this case, those that tinkered with early home computers back in the 70s and 80s. The READY! 100 is a portable solder-free DIY computer kit that features an extruded aluminum shell that accommodates any single board computer like a raspberry pi, 4x4 x86. pico-itx or something more exotic like an FPGA board and other external devices like dongles or batt
Gates of Zendocon gets a solid 10/10 . I never got to experience this game on original hardware but I've been playing it on and off the last few days on my Evercade and have been having a blast. I'm usually not the biggest fan of Space Shooters, Shoot 'em ups or Horizontally scrolling shooters, but this game has held my attention where others have failed. From cool looking enemies to explosions and safe spots like the awesome looking base, this game has it all. This game was released in 1989 an
JagStudio is an advanced development suite for the Atari Jaguar that allows you to code using Assembler, BASIC or C and is based around Reboot's powerful RAPTOR API. Regardless of your programming capabilities, beginners to advanced coders can utilize this flexible package that will fully suit the needs of anyone looking to program exciting new games for the Jaguar.
The benefits of using JagStudio are the Hardware Abstraction Layers (HALs) and the combination of external modules available to u
Had a pre-modded 7800 sent to me with a UAV that had good s-video but was producing some ugly jail bars in composite. But it was ONLY doing this on 2600 games. I at first suspected something in the wiring of the UAV or the UAV itself and first redid all of that and replaced the UAV. No change. It was then I started to look at things more closely and noticed that this '84 main board all socketed chip board appeared to have a TIA I'd not seen before. The company branding on it is IMP and it had a
BurgerTime for me is a solid 9/10. BurgerTime is a arcade game created in 1982 by Data East. In this game you have to help Peter Pepper create hamburgers while trying to avoid Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg. The easiest way to do this is by just focusing on the top buns. You can score extra points by crushing Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg under a falling ingredients, or by dropping an ingredient while they are standing on it. You can use pepper shots to help stun enemies for a few s
Voting is now OPEN for the 3rd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards, celebrating the best in new Atari 2600, 7800 and 8-Bit/5200 homebrew games released in 2020! VOTE for your favorite homebrew of 2020 right now in fourteen different categories such as Best Graphics, Best Music+Sound, Best Packaging and Best Work-In-Progress!
VOTE HERE: https://atariage.com/forums/forum/203-atari-homebrew-awards/
The results of the 3rd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards will be announced LIVE on the ZeroPage Homebrew's Tw
Hello all. Here I am again with yet another weird spinoff entry.
Take a look at this console, the Nintendo 64. Released in 1996, this system helped pave the way for modern 3D gaming with revolutionary titles such as Super Mario 64. It also has an ingenious bit of engineering in it that I have yet to see in any other console. However, on the surface, the thing may not look too terribly well designed, and for the most part that is correct.
To start, let's look at what is by far the
Today's entry of GFBMT is going to be a little different. Today, I will be ranking the Classic 2D Super Mario games from best to worst. I won't be going in-depth here, just listing the games. We'll be ranking the pre-NSMB (New Super Mario Brothers) era Super Mario games that appeared on Nintendo systems (Sorry, Super Mario Brothers Special!). We will also only be talking about the mainseries Super Mario games, not any of the spinoffs. Mainly, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Wario Land: S
We are excited to announce the arrival of several new Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, and Atari 8-bit homebrew games in the AtariAge Store for pre-ordering! We were aiming to have these available several months ago, but everything's moving a bit slowly this year. All the boxes, manuals, and labels for these games have been ordered, and we anticipate having everything in January. Once all the printed materials arrive, we will promptly get all pre-orders shipped.
Here's an image of all the new games:
I'm not a big comic book fan. I remember reading some DC comics (Detective Comics comics?) that came out of a box of cereal when I was around seven or eight and being too bored to finish it. All of my subsequent efforts to get into comics have more or less ended the same way. Most recently, I got some comic books with my 2600 stuff back in March. Four vintage Superman comics were mixed in with the manuals, from around the same time the movies were coming out (as there were a few advertisements i
