Jump to content

Blogs

016 - YARS: RECHARGED

YARS: RECHARGED (VCS) Published 2022 (Atari) Developer: Adamvision Studios, Sneakybox Retail: $9.99 YARS: RECHARGED is a modern take on Yars' Revenge, the 1982 smash hit for the Atari 2600.  Programmed by the incomparable Howard Scott Warshaw, Yars’ Revenge went on to become the best-selling original title for the platform.  This is quite a legacy to live up to. YARS: RECHARGED is available on multiple platforms, including VCS, Switch, XBOX Series X/S, XBOX One, PS4, PS5

Sabertooth

Sabertooth in Retro-Modern

Quick update on the ITC

Just wanted to give those that might be curious, an idea on part of what my project has been lately that has taken up much of my time as of late. These photos show 13 different 2600s that I recently serviced and installed UAVs into along with all the needed AV jacks installed as required by the client. An no...these do NOT have two sets of audio outputs. The red/white on the left rear next to the 4-pin s-video mini din, is actually separate chroma/luma connections. This is handy for co

CrossBow

CrossBow in Service Work Stories

Installing a UAV into a heavy sixer

The process to install the UAV into a heavy or light sixer is pretty well known and documented. In summary you basically set the jumpers on the UAV for the 2600 setup and then solder a socket ontop of the 4050 IC chip and header pins into the UAV and plug it into the socket. Job done...  However, there is a caveat to this method that doesn't become apparently until you find yourself moving consoles around a lot. And when I mean moving the consoles, I mean as in them being packed up, stacked

CrossBow

CrossBow in Service Work Stories

Gamebox Systems GBHD consolizer kit:- Playing Gameboy - Gameboy Advance games on a big screen!

I bought this kit a few months back as a pre-order and had to wait since I wanted a different colored shell. But the kit allows you to use a donor GBA mainboard from a standard GBA and essentially turn it into a small console to play your games on a modern big screen display using an SNES controller. Here are thoughts on this: The small ribbon cable that has to be soldered to the GBA CPU is tricky and requires a lot of patience to get soldered into place. The pitch of the soldering is quite

ITC Temporarily Suspending Services to the Public

So as the title states, I'm temporarily suspending my console services for repairs, refurbs, and upgrades until about the fall timeframe. This is to ensure I have plenty of time to work on a large project that has a strict timeline. Anyone that has already sent their systems to me will still receive their service requests and will take priority to get them done quickly. But for others, I'd rather hold off and have them wait because I'm not comfortable with my client's systems sitting at the ITC

2022 Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 14-16!

After a two year hiatus, the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) is back, taking place Friday, October 14th through Sunday, October 16th at the Oregon Convention Center! We're excited to see the show's return, and AtariAge will once again have a large booth filled to the brim with an assortment of new homebrew games for the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar and 8-bit computers, along with demos of many games currently in development. In addition to all the new games we'll be releasing at this year'

AtariAge News Feed

AtariAge News Feed

Magneto Bugs (A8 Game)

Magneto Bugs is a one player, dot munching, maze game.  The objective of the game is to get as many of the white dots as possible while avoiding the bugs in the maze.  As you move you leave behind red dots that can attract the bugs.  This game is played with a joystick controller. I have spent my weekend trying out this game along with two others I picked up.  I kept coming back to this one.  While it might look like a Pac-Man clone it is far from that game.  The back of the package me

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in A8 Software

Star Raiders (360/PS3/Windows)

Oh man.  Where to start?  I reckon I should start at the beginning.  Star Raiders, as any Atari gamer would know, is the iconic first-person space action adventure game published by Atari in 1979 on their Atari 8-bit home computers and later porting it over to the 5200 and 2600 game consoles.  It is the game that defined that genre which others would follow.  Star Raiders II (the published one and the one that did not get released) took the basics and attempted to improve on them.  Solaris for t

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in XBOX 360

My Summer Decided

I believe I have my summer gaming all figured out.  I plan to participate heavily in the forum's Pizza Party with what games I do have PLUS it will be nice to revisit Zelda again...a game I have not played in decades. Just tonight Microsoft, for whatever reason, gave me a $5.00 gift card on my account.  I wondered what $5 could do and browse the 360 game store first to see if there was anything of interest there.  My nephew informed me of 360 games that were now free including Crackdown 2,

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Casual

First Steps

Hello and welcome for my first blog entry. I am going to discuss the rpgs I am currently playing and the progress I am making. Don't expect and complete walkthroughs or detailed step by step descriptions. I want to keep things a little more casual than that, and besides I'm not that good of a chronicler. The last thing I want to do is keep constant notes of every step of the process. I will also do reviews here including games that I have already finished. So, what am I focusing on at the moment

nester

nester in RPG Progress

The First Co-Op Video Game?

I probably know what you are thinking.  Let me try to guess.  It's probably the first online multiplayer video game.  It's most likely on a computer of some sort.  It was either on disc, disk, or placed in an obscure place making it hard for people to find.  Am I close?  To answer those: no, no, and no.  And this game might be closer than you realize. Long story short my nephew and I decided to play a game together.  The problem was that he wanted to play split a screen on XBOX.  I wanted t

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari 2600

Decision In The Desert (A8)

When it comes to Microprose games I immediately think of those 386 PC days when I spent countless hours on Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action, and Lightspeed.  I never knew that Microprose really started with the C64 and Atari computers making tons of WWII based simulation/strategy games that I missed.  So I started collecting just Microprose games for my XEGS.  Today I write about one of those games called Decision In The Desert. I'm not familiar with any of Microprose Commander Series games. 

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in A8 Software

MY RETRO GAMING CORNER officially complete ! 😎🤟🧐

I consider my RETRO GAMING CORNER officially complete ! 😎🤟🧐includes 14inch TOSHIBA CRT / ColecoVision w/ AtariMax Flashcart / Retrobit SuperRetroTrio (nes, snes, genesis w/ Everdrives for each) / TG-16 w/Everdrive 😎👍as well, I can hook up the 2600 module to ColecoVision or even play Master System using the Everdrive on the RetroTrio. Happy covering 7 platforms with 3 consoles. Wanted to cover as many platforms with what I already have in the space I am limited to.  

Tempus

Tonight I thought I would research applications in attempts of finding anything to allow writing programs for the Atari ST.  I do enjoy writing small programs every now and then.  I turned to some magazines to see what turned up before having to turn to Google.  Doing a Google searched turned up a recommendation for an app called Tempus.  The only one I have on hand is version 1.10 but there are other versions out there. What grab my interest right off the bat were the file types it support

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

ST Virus (Not a Review)

I thought about making this just a standard forum post but decided instead to make it a blog post.  This way I have a document on my findings while learning more about the ST.  And now...the rest of the story (I miss Paul Harvey). I was doing research trying to find out if Konami actually went through with releasing some games on the ST computers.  One issue of ST Action mentioned it but the next issue that was to continue the story was missing.  My research turned up something more and I l

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

Bombjack (Atari ST Review)

Bombjack on the ST kind of reminds me of Bomberman Jack on the NES.  Whether they are one in the same or just share similar qualities I can't say but the arcade style game play is fun.  I was only able to accomplish a few rounds because, for me, the controls were wonky which I will get to in a minute. The graphics are arcade like as are the controls and sounds however the background music gets repetitive pretty quick.  Thankfully the developers were kind enough to give the player an option

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

F1 (Atari ST)

This review will be short because this is Vroom's younger brother.  If you haven't read it already I would suggest going and reading my review of Vroom, then come back here. F1 has new tracks and a few new menu items.  Missing is the lap timer.  It no longer tracks your lap times.  Tracks include Monaco, Spain, and many more that are part of the F1 World Championship...in 1993, making this an official FIA licensed game.  The animation is still as smooth as Vroom, sounds are the same, cars a

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

Hot Wheels (Atari ST Review)

When I saw the name Hot Wheels pop up in the tons of ST images I found I thought, "Cool!  Hot Wheels has a racing game on the ST".  So I thought I would try it out.  Then the title screen appeared. Not the Hot Wheels I was expecting but looks good at least.  I grabbed the controller and tried it out.  It's another top down racer and it doesn't look half bad but it is a bit jittery.  And it has tons of settings you can perform.  But don't take my word for it...see for yourself

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

Atari ST Conclusion (So Far)

I have tried many games.  Some with great success, some with not so great results.  Overall I have come to a conclusion on how I see the ST computers.  Close to the end of the ST production run I was heavy into the 386 computer scene.  Good old' MS-DOS commercial and shareware games kept my time occupied.  I never knew nor heard about Atari making ST computers at all.  Atari simply didn't exist. In hindsight that was a good thing.  I managed to learn the IBM PC side of computing.  Games I h

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

VROOM! Literally

While going through some ST game images I came across the words "Vroom".  No explanation. I have already seen some weird games on the ST so far so why not.  Couldn't be any worse than some I've tried so far, right?  In goes a blank disk, on it goes Vroom which I assumed was some sort of racing game with motorcycles.  Disk done and to the ST I go.  Insert disk, power on. Once I saw the title screen and heard the music my spidey senses started going off.  What did I just feed my ST?  Where di

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

Favorite Atari ST Games (So Far)

Let's cut out the introduction and get right to it.  Be advised that most of these picks are based on images I've transferred back to disks when possible. Bubble Ghost - a game I once played on GameBoy, this game involves guiding a bubble through single screen mazes filled with obstacles that can burst your bubble.  Pop the bubble and it's game over.  Very colorful and enjoyable.   Buggy Boy - The ST is the only system I've come across that has this simple little driving game.  C

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

AtariAge Day 2022: LIVE on ZeroPage Homebrew Sat May 21, 2022

AtariAge Day returns for 2022 with all the latest Atari 2600, 5200, 7800 and Jaguar games from AtariAge! This online event via ZeroPage Homebrew will not only have the unveiling of the latest homebrew from AtariAge but will also have your favorite Atari homebrew developers LIVE on the stream talking about their latest games! Saturday, May 21st 2022 12PM PT/3PM ET/7PM GMT https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ Make sure you don't miss this huge event and mark it on your calendars! All the

AtariAge News Feed

AtariAge News Feed

Discovering The Atari ST

Long story short, I've had my Atari 1040 STe for a few years now but I've never had the urge to do anything with it. Over the last few days I've attempted to find something to spark my interest in it of which I have found a few things. Most of which are games but at least I found something. As a music machine it simply can't be beat in my opinion.  The native MIDI feature of the Atari ST line is very solid and I use Sweet 16, a program I'm very familiar with from the Windows 98 days. This m

Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Atari ST

×
×
  • Create New...