GRay Defender

Added a star field and captured via Fraps for clarity...
 

 

I know it no longer worth anything beyond as a collectible, but it's still cool to have!

Hi everybody,
 
You may have noticed that Atari Chat is offline. If you go to the chat room you're greeted by an error message "There was an error connecting with the chat room. Please notify an administrator." We've run into this issue before and in the past it's always been our provider performing maintenance, and the chat would come back online pretty quickly. Unfortunately this time, this isn't the case.
 
What's going on with the chat room?
I received notice from Invision (the company who created and hosts IP.Board, the suite which our forums run on) that they've decided to "retire the IPS chat service to better focus their resources on the rest of the suite". In other words, they've taken away the chat room and still plan on billing me the same amount every month. Sounds great, right?
 
I'm now forced to find an alternative. Chat will return, hopefully in time for Summer. I kindly ask all of you to sit tight and to be understanding while I integrate a new chat system into the site. 
 
Why the chat room is important to us
Atari Chat is a huge aspect of Atari I/O and has been a central commons area for our community. Many of us have gotten to know each other on a more personal level in the chat room. Lifetime friendships have been formed, friendly contests hosted, prizes won, late night chats and so many great times together. Atari I/O has always been like an "Atari home town" and Chat has been one of those little things I've been most proud of at the site. The idea of a chat room also seems kind of retro, something genuinely personable from the earlier days of the web that seems to have gone away with time. I'm going to ensure that the chat room continues, hopefully bigger and better.
 
Potential for a super duper chat room
The possibility exists here to potentially include voice, video and text chat into a new chat room, while also integrating chat to be accessible from the main area of our website. I'll be reviewing what alternatives are available at what cost and evaluating their user friendliness.
 
Upgrading the site to IP.Board 4 and what that means
Our forums run on IP.Board 3.4.8, their tried and true version of the suite which many of you have already experienced on other sites. Lately Invision has been pushing us towards moving to IP.Board 4.1, the new version of the suite which looks and feels different from what we have now.
 
I have put off moving the forums to IP.Board 4 for the time being, for multiple reasons. Mainly because the forums would look and feel entirely different from the Atari I/O we know and love and we're very happy with the site as it is. Potentially, and at great expense, I could have a custom IP theme designed which would better integrate the forums into the main area of our website, which at this point is most likely what will happen. I have not wanted to upgrade until a similar theme became available that was a good fit for us and "felt like home." The last thing I want is for our members to log into the site one day and find that it looks and feels completely alien from what you've come to know.
 
So much to do, so little time
Our members here are great and I love working on the site. It can be a lot of work though. I am now forced to address the chat issue while also having to address the issue with our YouTube channel being down, keeping the blog up to date, managing the daily goings on of the forums, and approving new members as they sign up - all while working a job, living life, etc. and there is only so much time in the day. I am working to address these changes and I ask for your patience and understanding.
 
Thanks everybody!

Have you ever stopped to think about how many things Atari got right with the 2600?  This was a time when the home video game market was just starting.  They made several home-run design choices.  But even more amazing is how they later "forgot" and totally screwed up.  Examples:
Cartridge end labels.  2600 end labels are pretty much perfect.  Easy to read.  Colorful.  Perfection.  Their next system (5200) had no end labels at all.  Atari computer carts had no end label at all.  Arcade ports.  One of the very first licensed ports -- Space Invaders.  Not identical to the arcade, but very close graphics, sounds, and gameplay-wise.  This game sold a lot of systems.  I know the 2600 was limited, but some of the later arcade ports were not even close.  Pac-Man got the colors all wrong.  Defender, with the ship that disappears when you fire, eroded confidence in Atari. Box art.  They didn't have to spend the money on such beautiful box art.  Considering how tight money must have been, it's amazing they had an art budget at all.  Yet they did, and the end result was glorious.  Over time, they cheaped out.  Either using much simpler art, or borrowing from past releases.  Controllers.  Atari 2600 joysticks and paddles are iconic.  They did change the joystick innards, but the functionality remained the same.  Later sticks...5200 and 7800 were not so good.  Any others?

I'm sure many members in chat have heard me lament the loss of my "perfect" red original Nintendo DS.  I bought it from Goodwill for $20, and loved it because the case and hinges were in such nice shape.  Shortly after purchase, one of my kids commandeered it.   He had an old blue original DS whose hinges bit the dust years ago.  It was no big deal, I had a DS lite already. 
 
Fast forward a few years...and Jr. is cleaning up his room.  Garbage can and recycle bins are full of old stuff...and on my desk he puts "Ol' Red" and also a sweet Canon credit card calculator. 
 
It's still in great shape.  Welcome back Ol' Red!
 
 

As some of you know, I was able to get my hands on an Intellivsion Demonstration Cart.
In this video I talk a little about it and show it in action.
 

So during the chaos that has been my life the last few weeks, I managed to hit up an event on a day I actually had off, and I picked up a few things about a couple weeks ago. One was this boxed intellivision.
 

 
I got a pretty good deal on it and I was happy with my purchase.
 
The unit is very very clean with just one small scuff in the console.
 

 
It's a very nice looking console.
But check out the back!
 

 
Picked up a promotional use only console!
Does anybody know if these were like store demo units or something? Does it increase value? Even if it doesn't, I'm still pretty happy with my purchase!

Hi,there is a demo version of Matteo's Land. 
Here there is the link to download Matteo's Land  
  http://download1337.mediafireuserdownload.com/9iu5uihi8ijg/b8ak300jdzpxpgq/matteo%5C%27s+land+demo+%282%29.d64
Who wants to do a gameplay on youtube?

Or as he calls it ....migraine machine

Hi everyone, I recently purchased the game Minesnake by a company called Sharpworks.  I like snake style games and I thought I would support the developer.  The problem is, I thought it was for the Commodore 64, but it is instead for the Sharp MZ80-A.  I wasn't even drunk, to the best of my knowledge, lol, I don't drink...  It is in a cassette tape format. 
 
I would like to offer it up to any Atari IO users who would like me to send it to them for free in the US, so that I can get it into the hands of someone who can actually appreciate it.
 
If anyone would like it send me a PM and I will send it to you. 
 
 

Hi everyone, I recently purchased the game Minesnake by a company called Sharpworks.  I like snake style games and I thought I would support the developer.  The problem is, I thought it was for the Commodore 64, but it is instead for the Sharp MZ80-A.  I wasn't even drunk, to the best of my knowledge, lol, I don't drink...  It is in a cassette tape format. 
 
I would like to offer it up to any Atari IO users who would like me to send it to them for free in the US, so that I can get it into the hands of someone who can actually appreciate it.
 
If anyone would like it send me a PM and I will send it to you. 
 
 

Received my physical cart from Sigflup (Thea), today containing her compo demo for the Sega Genesis titled Day Trip! It is a really neat demo that of course showcases several impressive effects graphically with music. Here is my YT link showing the cart and the demo running on my actual Genesis. Information for contacting Sigflup to get your own physical cart copy are in the video description.
 

So I have an Atari 7800 with a very tight cartridge port, BUT:
 
This is NOT the usual cartridge port tightness that can be cured by cutting or removing the plastic band around the cartridge port.
 
This is not the usual "Activision/Imagic cartridges are a tight fit" situation.
 
Atari 2600 cartridges are absolutely fine. They go in and out without a care. Just like on any Atari 2600.
 
But Atari 7800 cartridges? Forget it: they're so tight that I actually popped the motherboard out of place just by removing a cartridge. I even tried completely removing the plastic band around the cartridge port so that all that was left was the bare cartridge port, completely exposed. Still nothing. It's got a death grip on the cartridge PCB and doesn't want to let it go.
 
Anybody know of a way to fix this problem? I posted about this on AtariAge, and most I got was, "I heard there's a way to fix that." But nothing further...

So this past week i have found a few handhelds that i was happy to find. I could feel that there were batteries in them but i didnt have a screwdriver so couldnt see the condition of em. Anyway they all had popped / leaked batteries in them.
 
My question is what is the best method to clean the battery compartment out? I was reading online and i see either backing soda or white vinegar are the best methods. What do yall use?

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/michael_becker/interview_michael_becker.html
 
This interview was a long time in the making, but I think it was worth the wait.

I spent more than a little time playing Lode Runner on my C-64 back in the long ago.

This actually looks like a lot of fun:




Anyone else a fan of the classic?  

Hey,
I have been studying up on "Black ICE/White Noise," the cyberpunk RPG thriller for the Atari Jaguar CD, that was never completed before Atari's demise in 1996. It has been intriguing looking up information on it. It really interests me about how much effort was put into making this game. Well, I really don't know how much of the game is out there, if anything significant at all. I know that there are interactive video scenes compressed into Cinepak code when the player interacts with NPCs to get information and other things in the game. I have watched videos on YouTube about scenes from this still embryonic-stage game (or, maybe fetal-stage, if you might want to get technical about it). There is a documentary about the game that is coming soon, but I have only seen the trailer on YouTube. I am sure that some people are most curious about this obscure, incomplete game. I obviously am. Does anyone else know anything more about this topic? I assume it might be very little. Atari kept it really under wraps. Thanks for listening. 

Lets check out one of these 1/12th scale arcade machine statues!

Mystic Castle looks like a great game!

I recently picked up the Intellivision game board for Mystic Castle from David Harley.  In this video I demonstrate what to do with the game board and have a little bit of terrible game play of Mystic Castle. I also show off Mark Thompson's website where you can pick up some homebrew manuals+overlays.
 

This video was made by my nephew but this is not a plug to his channel, more so sharing a cool game he hipped me to!!!!
 
The game has a classic 80's horror text adventure/Stranger Things vibe. After seeing part 1 I played through it because I could not wait for him to finish all 4 and enjoyed it quite a bit!!! He has since finished all 4 and I think its worth a watch or better, play on your own. That said there are spoilers in the video so if you do not want to know much I say just get the game off Steam and have a go!
 
Check it out if it look interesting to you and should you sub him be sure to tell him the Creep sent ya!
 

Hey gang BTB here and I wanted to share my sons new adventure.  He recently shot and edited his own Youtube show Wakko TV.  He will be covering all the things that he likes such as video games, food and unboxing videos.  Here is is first video and he did a pretty good job.  I taught him how to use the editing program and he's off to the races - I even gave him a camera upgrade after his first episode. More to come 
 

Now this is more my speed   
First Attempt - 95,050
 

 
 Ice Broken!  

"Yea you know me!" LOL

Awesome video!  The petscii graphics reminded me of the c64 boards bitd - it really wasn't too different than the internet but not centralized; we had to hang up and dial the next address to follow a link. Forums, Email, chat (usually just with the sysop), playing online text games, simple online graphics games and of course downloading all the warez
 
GPAC Defender (with the cracktro of course, probably a view different cractros - the different boards really liked to personalize) would have been on many of those 80's boards if you could send it back in time!
 
I liked the red C64c too - I only remember ever seeing those in white, is it a custom job?