Justin

It may not be appropriate here, but we booked a trip to Disneyland in Feb because of the awesome sale going on right now at Alaska Airlines.  It is going to be a good week to book your 2024 spring trips if you have any planned.
 

I would say that there are a ton of great games.  Atari (and others) made really good arcade ports on cartridge, and then there was an unbelievable world of disk-based games.  Electronic Arts, Epyx, Datasoft -- so many classic games.  Literally thousands of the very best 8-bit games.  All that with super simple controls and great graphics/sound. 
 

It sure is!  And the community that supports it is just as cool. 

Today we compare the ported Commodore Plus/4 version (2023) to the original Commodore 64 fan version (2022) on real hardware. How will the Plus/4 hold up against the superior C64? Let's find out.
 

Digital Eclipse recently released a "director's cut" of the groundbreaking game Karateka that was published originally on the Apple II and later ported to many other platforms. In addition to providing an extensive exhibit of developer Jordan Mechner's development of Karateka and a few other earlier games it also provides a modern refresh of Karateka and one of Mechner's unreleased games.
VIDEO INDEX:
00:00 - Intro
00:38 - Demo: Karateka for the Apple II
03:57 - The Making of Karateka Review
08:01 - Game Library 09:14 - Prototypes
10:19 - ModernrReimagining of Karateka and Deathbounce
12:45 - Conclusion
 
 

This very same artwork was used for "Super Asteroids/Super Missile Command" for the Lynx. I noticed that. It looks really good, by the way.

That's fantastic!😲👍🏻

The 5200 Asteroids artwork is my favorite. I like it so much that I chose it for my custom 5200 cart and box and also have it in my Atari room (Art of Atari Poster Collection). The 5200 box is by Marc Oberhäuser. If you like this box, there's one left on Marc's Etsy site.  

This 2023 plug-and-play console brings plenty of Atari gameplay to your living room, but it's not perfect. In this video, we run through the top five problems users tend to experience with the GSP, and more importantly, how to correct those problems.
 

I guess I haven't been keeping up, I didn't even know this product was a thing... 😂

Vectrex is so cool. I wish I had picked one up years ago.

Vectrex is so cool. I wish I had picked one up years ago.

Thought a little late, I just learned of this game for the Vectrex, Trick-Or-Treat-O-Tron.  It's a single stick or twin-stick Halloween themed shoot-em-up.  If you're interested in a copy, you can find them on ebay:  Trick-Or-Treat-O-Tron (Vectrex)
 

I feel like they need an Atari historian with a background in graphic art advising their box and label designs. Tim Lapetino would be ideal, if not someone from original Atari themselves.

I feel like they need an Atari historian with a background in graphic art advising their box and label designs. Tim Lapetino would be ideal, if not someone from original Atari themselves.

This is a thread to discuss the development and ask questions about the PlusCart(+) open source project.
The Atari 2600 PlusCart is based on Robin Edwards Unocart-2600 , and the extensions of DirtyHairy's fork. The PlusCart has no SD-Card, but an ESP8266 to connect to a local WiFi Network and the Internet. The PlusCart downloads the ROM-files from a server in the Internet called the "PlusStore". The way this is done is similar to the way the Unocart-2600 loads ROMs from the FAT filesystem on the SD-card, while the VCS is performing a wait routine in RAM.

Additionally the PlusCart has one more interesting feature. It offers internet access to the ROM Developers, these functions are called "PlusROM". In the first bytes of a PlusROM the path and the backend hostname or IP address has to be encoded (as strings both terminated by '\0'). Sending and receiving bytes to the host does not need a waitroutine in the VCS RAM! At the moment the PlusROM functions can be used at 2K, 4K, 3F, 3E and 3E+ cartridges and any standard bankswitching cartridge with or without 128 bytes of RAM (@ 1000 to 10FF) and a 'Standard' F4 Bankswitching (@ 1FF4 to 1FFB).

more info at: https://pluscart.firmaplus.de
Source: https://gitlab.com/firmaplus/atari-2600-pluscart
Shop: https://pluscart.onlineweb.shop
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@pluscart7741
 

Overall, the execution is better than the XP standard edition carts. The compatability, quality of the label, box and general layout are all better. The slip cover is a cool addition. The exclusion of a manual can be excused at the $30 price point.

For some reason this photo keeps uploading upside down. 😊
You can see the layout is definitely closest to the red boxes.
 

It's definitely closest to Red Label. The typeface is bolder.
Here are comparisons with silver label, red label and XP standard editions.
 

I think a comparison of the Mr. Run and Jump box in between the 1986 red Atari 2600 cartridge boxes would be fitting.

Here are more pics. All contents... and compared to classic boxes. As you can see, the font is smaller and the Fuji logo is set lower.
Also, a slight crease on the spine of the box (the "N" in "AND").
I guess the crease adds to the authentic vibe of a 46 year old platform?

If you were talking to someone thinking about getting into 8-bit computing, what things would you tell them about the Atari 8-bit computers when explaining why you loved it and still do?

I was totally on the Commodore side of the fence in my early computing days but I always LOVED the design of the Atari 400 and still do! 

OH!  And of course I have a 400 in my collection now.  This one is on my "never sell" list.
 

My dream computer was the Atari 400.  Improved Atari games and those cool store kiosks made me drool. 
I ended up with a VIC-20 instead due to lower pricing and loved it.  But my dream came true a few years later when I found an Atari 800XL/1050 disk drive/1025 printer bundle on clearance at Sears.  The computer did not disappoint.  I loved it and still do.