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Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Atari 7800 Powering On / Off issues...

As stated in another blog, I have a few 7800 sent to me for repairs and eventual upgrades. This 7800 had an interesting problem where as soon as you plugged in the DC power to the console, it would immediately power on and would NOT turn off. While there are a few components in the mix that can cause, this, I've found really only two components well technically 3 that should be looked into as possibilities: The first component and the one most people already know about, is the power switch
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Very dark and poor RF output? Look to the 74LS32 IC...

A few 7800s have been sent to the ITC for repairs and eventual upgrades. Before any upgrades are done, I always get the consoles back to fully working stock condition first. This 7800 was working but had very dark, fuzzy, and as such very poor RF output. Now yes, RF output doesn't look that hot on modern displays to begin with, but this was obvious something was wrong. After looking over the board for a bit, it became apparently that someone in the past had replaced or tried to replace the 74LS3
my projects

X vs. O - the main game

With the minigame completed, I thought I'd move on to the main game. After fiddling around with the grid lines with little success, I remembered I had attempted something similar before and it was better. So I put that code in the game. After realizing I couldn't have random numbers be generated with this, I thought up of that code I saw for a random number generator. So someone was kind enough to "translate" it into 8048 assembly and I put it in the game and now I can have random numbers!
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my projects

X vs. O

I'm calling this minigame finished. This took a while to do. It's for the Odyssey² and it's part of a larger project that I need to think up of. I like this a lot better. Stuff I changed yesterday: got rid of the Cedar Games grid and replaced it with just text. changed it so instead of changing the grid color, it now displays who won or if it was a tie. Stuff I changed today. made it so the main game will start with a fire press instead of pressing o
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my projects

That explains it.

So I've finally figured out why I was having so much trouble trying to get four characters in the Pokemon Mini display. As it turns out, I've been told I can't with the method I'm using. So I'll have to stick with three colors, which is okay with me. I got the bird gray instead of black, which was something I wanted to do. So despite being stuck with three colors, I'm happy with the game's direction so far. What I'm trying to do is a Fast Food clone for the Pokemon Mini. So now that I
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my projects

What I've been up to.

I've been attempting to put in a 4-color Pokemon Mini display. A few days ago, I made another minigame to my Virtual Boy minigame collection. I tried unsucessfully to try to change the Super Game Boy palette for the Game Boy. I found my letters I use to make my "26 Squares" puzzles and made another one of those. I went to the post office today to mail my Odyssey games I sold. So I guess I've been busy with all my various projects. I've been really sleepy lately and I don't know why. I got u
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my projects

Working on what I already have

I worked on the first two minigames I had and attempted to make them better. I made both games speed up until it reaches a fatest speed, and then it's about surviving as long as possible.   Next time I work on this, I will put in a new minigame. People are talking about the old Game and Watch game Fire and hearing how people like it, but I don't know if I could be able to program something like that. Also, the people were asking why is the soup marked at 99 cents. I don't know how muc
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Famicom

To Mod or Not to Mod?

That is the question.  I received a NES Classic Mini which makes it the second one in my collection. It has a controller and that’s it.  No box or anything.  My other one remains little used and stays in its box with all original packaging material. I have been debating whether or not to mod the thing by adding more games to it.  I don’t know how many different ways there are to mod it, if it’s an easy process or more trouble than it’s worth.  But it would be nice to see the games I grew up
Atari 5200 Guy

Atari 5200 Guy in Famicom

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my projects

Upmonster for Virtual Boy

Made the seventh game for Minigame Mayhem. It is a Doodle-Jump-type game called "Upmonster." I've decided that there will be six minigames starting out. If a player gets a high enough score on one of them, it will unlock another game. Each game will have an additional minigame to unlock, so there will be a total of twelve minigames.  
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Nintendo 64

Diddy Kong Racing

Master Code Must Be On DE0004000000 50 Balloons 801FCBED0032 Enable Cheat Menu For Tracks Mode 810DFD9EFFFF DIDDY KONG RACING VERSION 1.1 CODES Master Code Must Be On DE0004000000 50 BALLOONS 801FD3DD0032
1Littlebeast

1Littlebeast in Nintendo 64

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Misc

Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is the first open world Sonic game. I put around 34 hours into it and got the platinum trophy on PlayStation. What I loved about the game is there was a good mix between old and new. While exploring the worlds you have side quests with the koco the residents of the islands if you bring Hermit Koco hearts and seeds you can make Sonic stronger and raise his defense. If you bring Elder Koco the Kocos that you gathered while exploring you can get other perks to make your Sonic ring c
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my projects

Mouthing off (part 2)

Worked on Minigame Mayhem: Mouthing Off some more. Added some food for the mouth to get. But avoid the puple pickle, it is deadly. There is more stuff to add, like: game progression: game throws more purple pickles at you as you advance. game progression: food speeds up perhaps add another food or two to the game. I'd like to show a picture but apparently I can't upload pictures any more. I tried twice and it said "upload failed." Fine then, be that way. Went to
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Trip blog

Day trip to Barlow Wayside Park

A quick blog entry just to share the beauty of Oregon.  My wife and I took a 40 minute drive in our new car to Sandy, OR, at the base of Mt. Hood to visit Barlow Wayside trail.  If you ever visit Oregon, expect very nice people and some spectacular natural areas.  This park has some very quiet, serene trails for a self-guided tour of a forest.  It looks like that third moon of Endor.  In any case, stop and enjoy the peace.  Breathe in the crisp, clean fall air.  Refreshing.  This one is consider
RickR

RickR in Trip blog

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my projects

Mouthing off

Work resumes on Minigame Mayhem. I am beginning work on a new game for it. It is like "Fast Food" for the Atari 2600. So I designed a mouth and put it in the game. But then I thought it was too small. So I made it bigger. The mouth has a four frame animation with two frames being the same (this one). It is able to be moved around in 8 directions. And, most importantly, it works on a real Virtual Boy. I could make a background image, but I don't know if it would be easy to s
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my projects

Three bees!

I thought one bee was too easy. So I added two more bees. The bees and the fly all move randomly around the screen. I also changed the game's name. People were thinking that I was going to make 54 minigames. So I changed it to "Minigame Mayhem." If you swat the fly, another one comes on the screen from one of the edges. The game ends if you touch a bee. Now after looking at this, I'm wondering if I should make the bees bigger. This is kind of what I was imagining with my Atari 26
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my projects

Virtual flyswatting

Today I worked on my VB game again. I put in pause functions in the games and began work on a fifth game about flyswatting. So now what I need to do is make the fly move and add a bee to avoid. I woke up at about 12:30pm. It's about 8:45pm and I am struggling to stay awake. I guess I don't really need to be awake, but it would be nice to be awake all day and sleep all night. Right now I go to sleep around midnight and wake up at about noon or 1 pm. I found Gogurt yogurt to b
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my projects

Virtual Boy

I resumed work on a Virtual Boy game I last worked on in 2016. It's a collection of mini games. I worked today on finishing one of them. I have a new minigame idea all lined up to begin work on the next time I work on this. In the game "Cranberry Capers," Craig the Cranberry must rescue his fellow fruit from evil monsters. Here, Craig is about to rescue two cherries. Other fruit include watermelon, strawberry, and tomato. While working on this, I accidentally made it so Craig mus
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my projects

A rainy Sunday afternoon.

For the first time in a million years I can finally say that. Yesterday I worked on my GB game. I added the first things of the actual game: The history teacher. He can move around. He has a little animation for moving around. He's in color. All lovely things. I also got around to cataloging my PSX games. I thought I had Crash Racing but I can't find it anywhere. And also of note, I am going to update my apples crosswords site again starting October 1. You see, in 2019 I had a dr
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my projects

Messing around with Game Boy Color.

I have for testing my Game Boy creations a Game Boy Color, a Game Boy Pocket, a brick Game Boy (in case I need one), and Super Game Boy. I decided to mess around with Game Boy Color programming. I found a way to change the light gray color to yellow on GBC while still making it work on the GB pocket, with the lemon displaying as light gray. Now that I have this, I don't know what to do with it. Perhaps I could make a Fast Food type game with food coming in all directions. I'd like to
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personal musings

Playstation games.

So I got a haircut. After I got my hair cut, I stopped by my local game store and walked out with three Plyaystation games, knowing full well I would need to find it when I came home. I also stopped at Subway and got a salad. One of the first things I was asked was "Do you want lettuce in your salad?" I'm wondering what would happen if I said "no." Isn't a salad just a bunch of lettuce with some other stuff thrown in? Well, on the car ride home I ate the salad. I usually didn't like salads, but
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Wumperdinkle Sniy in personal musings

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Lance's Laboratory

HOW I SURVIVED 4 INCARNATIONS OF ATARI IN 40 YEARS

THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ATARI DISTRIBUTOR Monday, September 18, 2023     Hi and welcome to Lance’s Laboratory! This is the third entry of what will be my personal blog, sharing small slices of life with you from within my Lab. For those who are new to Atari I/O let me introduce myself. My name is Lance Ringquist, I’m from Minnesota, and I am the world's oldest surviving Atari dealer. You may have heard of me before as Video 61 Atari Sales which I have consistently operat
Video 61

Video 61 in Lance's Laboratory

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