CrossBow
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Posts posted by CrossBow
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3 hours ago, BlackCatz40 said:
Hey, Kamakazi, does your particular A5200 need to be modified to use it? I only ask because isn't the VCS adapter just plug-and-play? I also want to collect the following A2600 systems:
Heavy Sixer
Light Sixer
Darth Vader
Junior (Long Rainbow version, since I have the Short Rainbow version already)
most 4 port units required a factory mod to allow the VCS adapter to work on those older 5200 units. You can still purchase these in kit form from Console5 but again with 2600s all over the place and so many ways to play 2600 games, I've never wanted much less seen the need for the vcs adapter in my collection. Some later 4-port units and all the 2 port units should work as it with the VCS adapter. Later 4 ports that work with the adapter were stamped with an asterisk on the serial number sticker to indicate they had either been modded for the VCS adapter, or were using the newer mainboard revision to account for the VCS adapter. However, the units that weren't originally and were then sent back for the factory mod or had the modification applied by a local atari service center I don't believer were marked that they had been modified. So it isn't unusual to see posts at AtariAge where someone has taken the cover off their 5200 to adjust the pokey or color and freak out a big when they see these stray leads soldered to components going in under the shielding.
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4 hours ago, Justin said:
I'm really partial to the original 4-Port 5200 design. Its designer Regan Cheng said he wanted to give it a "nasty" look, something kind of mean looking but also something that felt like it would've been bought in a Bang & Olufsen store in the world of Blade Runner. The warm glow of the red light was inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think it's one of Atari's best looking systems.
What would I have done differently? Make it the size of the 2700. It's a little smaller and easier to handle. I also would have made the plastic 100% black, like the 7800.
I agree that is might be a bit too big. But I really really like the wedge look of the 5200. I still think it is one of the best looking consoles not just from Atari, but ever released. I also wish it were actually black and I tend to forget it isn't until I'm cleaning one up for a client and then with my overhead light I'm able to clearly see the brown coloring that the console actually is.
The glow from the power LED is cool, but also a pain for those that might want a different color LED. The smoked plexi will obscure some colors. So I've found that UV LEDs just look blue and Yellow will just look white. So the only colors that work well are Red, Blue, White, and ...I think thats it because even Green ends up looking white through the plexi. I found all of this out when I tried to put a UV one in my 5200 years ago as most of my personal consoles all have UV LEDs in them but it just looked blue, so I just put a blue in it.
- DegasElite and Gianna
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On 5/22/2020 at 2:53 PM, RickR said:
IMO, the main reason for the crash was piracy. Anyone with a Commodore 64 and a modem could find any game for free via a BBS. Why pay for an Atari cart when you could get a much better version of any game for free?
I've seen this before but for me, I only had one friend who owned a C64 and that was back around '86 well after the crash. Even then, he and I still played on our 2600s more than on his C64. But he didn't have a modem for it so I'm sure his access to games with it was far more limited than some. But yeah, I honestly never even knew a crash occured when I was kid. I picked up my copy of Ms. Pac-man when it was new in like '83 at a TG&Y in the small town we lived in at the time. And they always had Atari games at full price. I didn't see cheap Atari games until the late 80s when I started to find some new in box games like Space Shuttle, Star Master, etc for like $5 at corner drug stores...yeah. But the revivial of the 2600 and release of the 7800 also meant that I saw quite a bit of Atari on store shelves then as well. So honestly I can't really recall a time when I couldn't still pick up new Atari games here where I lived. It wasn't until around '89 that I then began to notice a serious decline in games for sale. Course by then the Genesis and TG-16 were out and were the new Hot systems. That is also when I got my first IBM clone computer and for the next decade, I didn't even look at console games or systems.
My point to all of this was that if piracy was so rampant, I never saw it where I lived or from any of my friends. We all had at least 20 or so games each and many of us didn't have the same games so we would borrow each others games for days at a time. Doing this was like never needing to purchase your own version of the game. -
Yes...both this and the VCS adapter are basically separate consoles inside a small box with only the power from the 5200 being used to run them. The video was still being generated from the onboard TIA inside the VCS adapter and I'm sure the same for the 7800 prototype as well. This is also why all the current AV mods for the 5200 kill the ability to use these adapters. The AV mods do NOT take into account the video signals from the VCS adapter and so you end up with a blank screen when trying to use one. I wonder how much the VCS adapter was original BITD. Be curious to know the cost of it vs just getting a 2600 you know? Because you still had to plug 2600 sticks to it and it didn't have a B/W - COLOR switch so some games wouldn't have been as playable through the adapter.
- Justin, DegasElite and Gianna
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5 minutes ago, BlackCatz40 said:
I think that the A7800 version of Commando outdoes the NES version. It is more like the arcade version than Nintendo's version. Also, the Nintendo version added underground bunkers to it to rescue POWs. I think that if you are going to make a game close to the arcade, stick to the original layout of the original game. Nintendo's version is just a different game. Atari tried to make their conversions like the arcade counterparts. I can see why Crystal Castles for the A2600 is different, though. It was due to the limitations at the time. But, the XEGS version looks more like the original translation. I like arcade conversions that try to reproduce the arcade versions.
Actually I think you have it backwards. The 7800 version has the hidden openings you can find by using grenades at the right spots and that takes you to underground sections to rescue POWs for bonus points. The original arcade game (Which I own) and the NES version do not have this. So in this instance, it is an added gameplay element not present in the other ports that I'm aware of. Having said that, I prefer the 7800 version of the game to all other ports I've played on home consoles. However, it can actually be a bit too easy because there are plenty of spots where you can safely stand and just keep taking out soldiers as they enter the screens and rack up unlimited points and extra lives in the process. As the game doesn't have a time limit to it, it makes it easy to spam this exploit.
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I'm woefully behind in replying to this. I didn't get my own Atari until Christmas of '82 but my friends down the street certainly had them and I would play on those all the time. Most of my friends had Pac-man but it wasn't played that much. I do remember us playing it sure but it wasn't played as much as Pitfall or even Combat was.
Having said that, I also don't recall us ever talking about Pac-Man being a bad game or not looking like the arcade perfectly. Back then none of the ports really looked like the arcade (Space Invaders was probably the closest back then). So we just accepted it for what it was I guess? Now, I can tell you that once I got my Atari 2600, that Pac-Man was NEVER purchased until much much later when I got it used from a pawn shop in the late 80s for like $1 or something back then.
Do I think it was part of the ruin of the game industry? No... it was pac-man and still had the same gameplay elements in it. And again we expected the games to not look exactly like the arcade because none of the ports did. I also do not believe E.T. brought down the industry. I think the general lack of quality control and soo many games (Many of which being clones or rips from other games already it seemed) had more to do with it than anything. And I know that most adults back then thought that video games were just a phase and lost interest. Also many kids grow up even today and what toys they had that were awesome yesterday...collect dust and do not get played with tomorrow.
Curious if any demographics have been compared on the age groups playing Atari in the late 70s to early 80s and see if there might be a correlation to most of the gamers back then just growing out of it?
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Anyone test these WIP builds on a CRT yet? I saw Bob's comment where most games didn't use these modes because apparently they look horrid on CRTs and he was curious what this game looks like through a CRT. So it has me wondering if this new Pac-man Collection XM might be the first game designed around video mods for use on flat panel displays? I do have an old JVC that has composite and s-video on it that I might have to try and see how this looks on it.
But was curious if anyone else had done that first.
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Ohh....Omega Race with Booster?! I'm interested...I naturally have the game but not the booster.
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ITC# 68 is public as of this morning. I'm very late getting a video out since the last one and this one features yet again the "Big Sexy" 5200. But I think the 5200 is a great console with a lot of good games for it and it is an oft misunderstood system. In this video I go through the troubleshooting I used to find out why my top fire buttons weren't working on a controller that seems to actually be fine from using a simple controller self test for the fire buttons. This might be a boring video to most since I break out the old BK 1474 scope on this one to look at some quick readings to help isolate the issue. But I had a lot of fun making this video and hope it can show you that it isn't always the controller to blame if something isn't working right with it. It could very well be that your 5200 itself isn't behaving properly. Enjoy!
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I published ITC#67 this morning and this video goes into detail the process to install what I would consider an essential upgrade/modification to the 4-port 5200 system, the RF power bypass kit from console5. As I'm sure most of you are aware, the earlier 4-port units used a unique for the time automatic RF switch box that also doubled as the power input source for the console. At the time this all-in-one cable solution Atari came up with for power and video was pretty cool! But..over the years, this is more of a hindrance since the switch box is unique to the 4-port units and they go back and become hard to find like anything else. This modification is relatively easy to do but some confusion can be had on where what components go where. Hopefully this video is helpful for those looking to do this mod themselves and make it all clear. Thank you for your time in watching!
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Probably another well known movie that she was in was Dark City. She has quite the filmography.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000124/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0#actress
I believe she is Maverick's new love interest in the upcoming new Tom Gun sequel as well.
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In ITC#66 I go through the process of installing a UAV (Ultimate Atari Video) upgrade board into an Atari 5200. Yes, this was discussed and a video also made of this exact topic 33 videos ago. But I was never quite happy with the final results of that video and the fact that there seem to still be some confusion regarding the overall process of what is or isn't required to do this. So I took the opportunity to redo this with in a more detailed and hopefully more logical manner this time around.
- Justin and Sabertooth
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Well, I was never really content with this old video and had seen questions regarding what is or isn't required in the UAV installation process for the 5200s in other groups I visit. So..with that... I recently installed a UAV into a 2-port unit and made a newer and I think a better detailed video about how to install the UAV into 5200 systems.
I also wrote up a new installation guide that follows the same format as my 7800 guide I wrote about 3 years ago. Hopefully now and in the future, these are useful resources to others...
5200 UAV Installation Guide:
5200 UAV Installation Video 2020:
- socrates63 and Justin
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18 hours ago, kamakazi20012 said:
I knew her name was Jennifer...I just couldn't remember her last name. I use to think she was hot. Sorry if a bit inappropriate but it's true.
You aren't the only one... I still try and watch everything she is in!
As for icon 80s movies...look to my avatar as my #1 pick!
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I do things a bit different and more technical in ITC#65, out first video for the new year. In this one, instead of detailing the DIY steps for a particular mod or upgrade, I instead go through the steps used in fixing a damaged audio circuit on an Atari 5200 using the board layout diagram to identify where components are located in addition to the schematic of the audio section to help isolate broken traces that need repaired. The repair itself didn't require too much but I thought I would detail the process for others to see some of what is required in troubleshooting and repairing classic consoles like these. You also get a look at my entire work space which, until now has never been shown due to how messy it usually is! LOL! As always, thank you for watching!
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BTW as we were talking about this before. BennVenn has his Jpn assembled LCD kits in stock for the LynxII again. The price went up but that is because the kits include the 3D printed bracket now instead of that being a separate purchase. Looks like Benn took my advise on that since I really think the bracket should have been included to begin with.
Anyway, I've installed a few of the BennVenn kits now and they really are comparable to the McWill with really the only feature missing being that the BV kit isn't able to do VGA out.
Anyway, I've got two on order and wanted to pass along the info in case anyone else was looking to get one for their Lynx II systems.
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Well..no go on the old video card my co-worker was using. He ended up putting it into his media server in his living room. Too bad and overkill because that card is a GTX970 and it would have been quite a boost for you. Sorry if it might have gotten your hopes up.
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Buddy of mine at work just upgraded to a whole new PC setup for his Xmas present beginning of this month. Part of that was getting himself a new RTX2080 Super. The card he had before was a GTX900 series card that would have been a bottle neck for the his new system. I wonder what he did with that old card? It actually used to be my old video card and I sold it to him for cheap about 2 years ago when I got my GTX1070. Point being that old 900 series card should be able to handle the games you want to play at medium to high setting at 1080p in many cases. Let me see what he did with it and how much to get it off his hands...
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On 8/6/2019 at 8:32 AM, RickR said:
It is possible that they "change the curve" so that the newest PC's don't exceed 100% on the main 3 values. That probably explains why your CPU went down a little.
Pretty sure this is the case. I rebuild and added the missing components I took from my old PC to offload it to a new home and ran the benchmark again after a clean OS load and only the minimal drivers needed. It scored lower than it did in my first post with scores and yet, I actually have faster all SSDs in that build now and was able to get the aging i5 up to an always constant 3.8-3.9ghz clock speed shutting off the C states on the CPU.
Point being is that it should have scored the same if not higher than it did in my first scores results post but yet had dropped. Additionally my new build I posted the scores for has also dropped. So yes, I would say they scale this thing as more and more higher end systems get tested and added to the DB for comparisons. Basically over the past year, more and more people are building up PCs like I did and similar or better and that causes the rest of the scores to scale down accordingly.
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I've beaten a few games this year...here is what I can remember right off the top of my head:
- ION Fury This past weekend
- The Outer Worlds (PS4) this past weekend
- Odin Sphere (PS4)
- Borderlands 1 & 2 GOTY (PC) for the 2nd time now
- Song of the Deep (PS4)
- Grim Fandango (PS4)
- ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove (PS4)
- Uncharted 4 (PS4)
- Doom 2016 (PS4)
- Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
That is all I can recall off the top of my head for this year. While it does appear that the PS4 gets all the attention based on this list, it still doesn't get played as much as my Genesis and Atari systems do. But most of those games do not have actual endings...LOL.
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In ITC#64 I talk about a common issue that plagues many Sega Saturn gamers today. That issue is none other than the gave save juggling required between external game save carts and the Saturn when the internal coin cell battery goes dead. Sure you can change the battery, but aside from Dreamcast VMUs, the Saturn has to be one of the most hungry 2032 battery eaters that exists. In this video I show you that this can be remedied by removing the old battery backed sram memory chip that the games save are stored onto, with the use of a non-volatile ferroelectric or FRAM memory chip instead. This mod doesn't take long to do, but as the chip is semi small and an SMD device, this isn't something I'd advise for beginners. Still an inexpensive and very worthy/needed upgrade to the Sega Saturn. Enjoy and thank you in advance for watching!
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There is also the BennVenn LCD upgrade. It is only available for the model 2 version of the Lynx, but it is also half the cost of the McWill kit and in some respects, I like the way it looks over the McWill kit along with being much easier to install. But the BennVenn kits sell out pretty quickly too so it can be a challenge to snag one.
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The reality is that we never really 'own' our games in this day and age. We are only allowed to use and play the game with our purchase but never own it. We only own a license to use it. This is what is stated in all the agreements that one has to sometimes scroll through when first starting a game or installing something on your computer etc. This is why when games like the new Ion Fury came out, I was totally on board to get it but only wanted the physical DRM free version of the game directly from 3D Realms themselves.
This will become a common trend going forward and is pretty much 100% with anything that will be using cloud gaming since the main core of the game itself only exists in the offline server you are accessing the content from with your game system being nothing more than a terminal to interact with the game.
What grocery stores did your family shop at growing up?
in Off Topic
Posted · Edited by CrossBow
Well I've pretty much lived in the same place my entire life. But in that time I've seen a few different chains of grocery stores come and go.
When I was very young, we had a store called Sipes and my mother seemed to favor that store. It closed up and was turned into a May's Drugstore or something by the late 80s. But we also had a number of Safeway's. We also had Skagg's Alpha Beta along with GIANT and likely a few independants.
Then in the 90s, this all began to change drastically! It started with all the Safeway's basically shuttering overnight. In their place opened up Homeland. I later found when working at Homeland, that it was in fact...Safeway but they changed their name as they felt Homeland fit this part of the world better or something. I just know my paychecks were on Safeway letterhead with the Safeway corporate offices listed on them. Skagg's changed their name to Skagg's Albertson, and then eventually to just Albertson's.
GIANT and IGA disappeared completely from here and only existed in rural towns at that point. In their place we had the rise of Price Mart, Buy 4 Less, and the one independent in the area that was starting to expand a bunch...known as Reasor's Foods.
Then by the late 90s and into the 2000s, all the Albertson's closed down and for a brief time became Food Pyramids. Reasor's eventually bought out and acquired all the Price Marts converting their stores into Reasor's and doubling their empire pretty much over night. Homeland which used to have about 40 stores in the area...completely disappeared and their buildings either being raised for different structures, or converted into Wal-Greens which was now on a huge rise.
Today, we pretty much only have Reasor's (Still has the most grocery stores in the area), Wal-Mart super centers and their neighborhood markets, Super Targets, and... that is pretty much it. I'm sure we might have some smaller independents but they don't exist in the main city with the exception of Reasor's. My wife gets most of our stuff from the closest Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market but we try and get our meat from one of the local butchers. I've heard of Kroger, Publix, and others but those stores never existed that I can remember where I live and they certainly don't exist here currently.
I was forgetting that we do have a few Aldi's that have sprung up but we don't personally shop them. We also have two Wholesale Food Markets but they are in the hipster part of the city so again...not our bag. We also have an independant that alongside Reasor's has been here a long time and used to have quite a few stores. They were called Warehouse Market and had been around since the 60s but as the last family member of the company decided it was time to move on, they were bought out and now known as Cox Savers. But most of them are on the other side of town and not near where I live so again for us it mainly the choice of the Super Target, Wal-Mart, or Reasor's. Reasor's is the nicest of the bunch but they are priced to match so we rarely go into the one just a mile up the road unless there is something we need and they are the only ones to carry it.