Justin

Jaguar aficionados might also enjoy our celebration of 30 years of the Atari Jaguar by participating in our cross-platform TEMPEST 2000 Squad Challenge hosted by @Sabertooth in Club VCS! You can play the game on Atari 50, BigPEmu or on original hardware! Join us here:

@- Ω - Should we talk about thread vandalism too?

This makes me think so much of Blue's Journey on Neo-Geo 🕹️

I've been following Axanar too, ever since Prelude to Axanar was released. It was stunning. I was really looking forward to seeing the final film, particularly Tony Todd and J.G. Hertzler . Unfortunately that's not going to happen, and what has happened since has been odd at the very least. Robert Meyer Burnett, who edited Prelude, has covered this extensively on his YouTube channel. That said, Atari I/O isn't the place to drag outside drama and negativity into the forums. It's not a complaint department or group therapy. You have the whole rest of the internet for that - Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, everything. Just keep things lighthearted and fun! That's all we ask. I'd rather have an adult-level discussion about Axanar in general, than one specific to complaining about what's going on in the comments section of their YouTube channel. I created this place as a fun escape from the headaches of the rest of the world that we can come to at the end of the day to chat about Atari history, play games with old friends and make new ones along the way. (FYI - Axanar's comments section is a headache.) We come here to get away from the negativity of the rest of the net and world. I hope everybody gets that. I've made it exceptionally clear in the House Rules that Atari I/O keeps outside drama and corrosive negativity from rotting our community from within. People will come into our forums, take a 💩 on our floor, and call it "censorship" when I have to clean it up. It's my responsibility to keep Atari I/O beautiful 🖖

This is a MONTH LONG Squad Challenge! You have through November 30th to post your High Score! Let's GET THE WORD OUT about this Challenge!

Yars' Revenge Atari 2600 Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: GAME 6 - ULTIMATE YARS! Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Compilation / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST November 30, 2023 Nominated by @RickR Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between October 1st through October 31st, 2023. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, officially released compilation, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds, updated and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level ULTIMATE YARS: GAME 6. Ultimate Yars features a bouncing Zorlon Cannon, plus some wild twists that distinguish this version of Yars' Revenge from all the others. What should you expect? First, you must bounce the Yar against the left side of the screen to make the Zorlon Cannon appear. Also, to make the cannon appear, you need five TRONS. TRONS are units of energy which you can collect at the following rate: Eat a cell from the shield: 1 TRON Touch the Qotile: 2 TRONS Catch a Zorlon Cannon shot after it bounces off the shield: 4 TRONS If a Yar bounces on the left side with less than five TRONS, it will not get a shot, but it won't lose the TRONS it has either. (Each time a Yar is destroyed, it loses its TRONS). Each Yar has a capacity of 255 TRONS. If a Yar tries to take on more than that, it will short out and the Yar will lose all its TRONS. The count of TRONS is not displayed on the screen. Yar scouts understand the count instinctively. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other dishonest advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 151st Squad Challenge! This month we're playing ULTIMATE YARS! - which is what we call Yars' Revenge for the Atari 2600, being played on Game 6, the most challenging difficulty settings. Special thanks to @RickR for nominating this game! PDF Instructions are attached below. A note about ROMs in High Score Squad: as the Atari landscape is quickly changing, we won't always be able to attach a ROM file for High Score Squad Challenges in the future. I will always do my best to include the best PDF Instructions available, and a ROM when possible. If you ever have trouble locating a ROM and need one, you can always PM one of us and we can help point you in the right direction. Good luck! Yars_Revenge.pdf

Congratulations OniDensetsu! Congratulations to @OniDensetsu on an incredible victory! OniDensetsu takes the top spot in our Final Standings with an outstanding score of 143,100 points. Incredible! @Atari 5200 Guy is coming in hot, and just crossed the 6 figure line to close things out with a high score of 100,100 points, taking 2nd Place in the standings! @socrates63 fought valiantly for 3rd Place and takes it with a solid 41,100 points. Rounding things out for our R-TYPE event is "The Don" @RickR with 35,200 points in 4th Place. As always I'd like to encourage @OniDensetsu to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations once again to OniDensetsu for his BIG WIN, and I want to thank @Atari 5200 Guy for nominating this game, as well as @Sabertooth for hosting this month's VCS Recharged Squad Challenge in Club VCS! 👉 Be sure to join Club VCS this month to participate in our Recharged Squad Challenges for the new Atari VCS! COMING UP NEXT IN HIGH SCORE SQUAD: Our November game will be announced shortly. Be there!

That is the spirit of High Score Squad

You're not thinking 4th Dimensionally. The thief is likely a member of the Q Continuum. Possibly a Ferengi.

For me it's Yars' Revenge and Asteroids. Those will always be my go-tos.

I keep saying - a 4/5 scale Atari XEGS (in the spirit of the 2600+) with full-size keyboard and joystick, capable of playing all Atari 8-bit computer cartridges, with a second cartridge bay on top capable of playing Atari 5200 cartridges.

I like that the Pac-Man Arcade 1-Up is an "XL"size and looks more like a real arcade machine. That looks fantastic. I hope it's constructed well.

Welcome to the forums, @ElectricLab!!

lol I love how they moved the Intellivision cartridge slot to where it always should've been 😭

Konnichiwa @OniDensetsu! Correct 🙃 This is true. This is how Sega originally released the game in its stock retail form that you could buy from the store. No, FM audio would not be considered an Enhancement. The FM audio was built into the cartridge and does not affect gameplay or scoring. Sure! "Using enhancements" refers to playing the game (ROM) in a way which modifies it from its stock retail form as originally released, in a way that would affect gameplay or scoring. An example of an "enhancement" would be using a Game Genie or Pro Action Replay to alter gameplay, using emulation to achieve the same enhancements as a Game Genie or alter gameplay speed (to slow down or speed up the game) anything to alter scoring, using a "Rewind" feature, etc., or playing a hacked or modified cartridge such as "Centipede TB" for Atari 2600 gives the cartridge gameplay abilities not originally included at retail, which is likely not widely available to everybody else playing. In the case of R-TYPE, Sega included the FM Audio capability when the cartridge was sold. Additionally, it does not affect scoring or gameplay. In the case of a game like Berzerk - Enhanced Edition for the 2600, we would likely allow that game to be included in a Berzerk Squad Challenge as that game is also using enhanced audio which does not affect gameplay or scoring, and like R-TYPE is now also an official release. Using a rapid-fire controller is not considered an enhancement as the game itself is not altered. Most Squad Challenges say "PLAYERS CHOICE" for Controller, and unless stated otherwise, you can use whichever controller you choose. GOOD LUCK! We look forward to seeing you join us with a High Score

I'm holding off on a purchase, but I don't mind waiting. It's important to support the VCS and the new Atari 😀

That's a really good point @Atari 5200 Guy. I had a Power Base Converter that I inherited from a friend, but I always used the Master System power base to play games. The Power Base Converter felt very light to me. I've never found a photo of a Power Base Converter disassembled, but I know in other regions where the Master System was more popular, there was a "Power Base Converter II" cartridge available - it was a basic cartridge adapter that fit both the Genesis model 1 and 2, and converted Master System cartridges for play on the Genesis. Someone else is making Power Base Converters and the PCBs look so simple and clean, it makes me think the Genesis is able to handle playing Master System games almost entirely on their own. And if that's the case, it makes me wonder why they didn't just go all the way and make the Genesis play Master System and Game Gear games, or why Game Gear didn't use a modernized version of the Sega Card and let those play in all systems, similar to the TurboGrafx-16 HuCards and TurboExpress:

I really love what you've built with 7800 Pro Gamer

The general public in 1989 doesn't understand Memory Address Size, Clock Speed or Video Processors. They understand that Genesis has 16-Bits while Nintendo NES only has 8. "It's toasted".

Does the current iteration of Activision still retain the rights to all the classics, Pitfall, River Raid, etc.?

FYI - We have an entire forum dedicated to sharing eBay auction listings: https://forums.atari.io/forum/45-ebay-auctions/

I received mine at 2:18 via phone. Nothing on Sirius XM, nothing on Pluto.