CrossBow

Granted I've not played the 360 version but I did just look up some gameplay video of it on youtube. The beginning story already screws up things by making the game title 'Star Raiders' refer to the group of elite pilots that you are playing as. Far as I remember...it was called Star Raiders because the Zylons were..uh... raiding star systems of their resources and you were trying to take them out before they could succeed? So already they have hosed up the title's meaning for me...
I won't watch anymore and wait for your review take on it.
 

I didn't know there was a Star Raiders on the 360? Definitely let us know how it is..etc.
 

There are a few other home brews that could be added but might not yet exist in physical cartridge form and are only ROM files. One that comes to mind is another of VHZC's games... Slide boy. That has an ending as well since I've beta tested it quite a bit although I still prefer the control overall in his 2600 version of the game.
I'm sure there area some others that escape me, but wasn't sure if you are limiting yourself to just physical released games or not?
 

Yes, you can short out the momentary switch, but it will still act the same as it did before because it is the 4013 IC chip that is toggling the on/off state to the rest of the circuit. But what you could do is wire up some sort of secondary switch after that point that would kill power to the rest of the system and have it be remotely activated. I know such devices exist as I've heard of people wiring up non smart appliances so they can still operate them using a phone app to turn them on/off etc. through the use of a blue tooth receiver and relay. But... I think I'm good with just keeping the 5200 nearby and power cycling it like normal.
Okay...wait now that I'm thinking about this more. You are wanting to just short the contacts on the power switch so it acts as if it is always in the down pressed state then? Yes, I suppose this is possible but not sure what that would do long term with the constant voltage going to the signal pin on the 4013 like that? But in theory...yes. And then after that point you would wire up a standard spst on/off switch to either complete the +5 or disconnect it.
 

Thanks! Not my fastest time though. When i was really testing it out, I was routinely finishing with over 35min left. I've lost some of my timing since then LOL! The game used to be MUCH easier before Vlad added in his patented "Anti CB Traps" on many of the screens.
An example is the first room that has the little red and blue orb things that move left and right with the ladder on the left of the screen? There is a big wall of spike to the right of the ladder. Originally that wall of spikes didn't exist and I found out that as soon as you entered the room, you could just jump off that ledge and clear both of those orbs easily. So...yeah stuff like that, that he saw me doing in my private play testing videos to him, is what made quite a few of the screen designs become the way they are.
As you saw though, he still left some of the stuff I do be possible to still get through some of the tricky stuff easier on the back tracking.
 

Here is the latest stuff I got...















 
 

Well I already have the original UAV install guide for the 7800 I did several years back. The only difference here is that there aren't any wires to attach the UAV up itself. Just the wiring that still needs to be done to run to your AV jacks on the console where ever a person happens to install them etc.
I would honestly like to keep this board set for myself as a mark of my installs so to speak. But I haven't the resources to make these on a large enough scale I don't think and Brewing Academy actually own a pick n place machine for making their stuff. So they can have bare PCBs made and populate and make them in a fraction of the time it takes me. 
Really as long as everyone knows where and whom designed them, I think that is all that really matters.
 

What is interesting about you saying that, is The Brewing Academy actually thinks this will make the process so much easier and less daunting for budding DIY types they fear it will take away business from me if I make these publicly available and have them as part of a kit already? My intention with the work I do was never to make it a full time job as I have a full time job already. My intentions on the console work has always been to help people get their systems working again and perhaps offer a means to make it easier for these classic and vintage consoles to be enjoyed on both CRTs and modern displays.
TBA really seems interested in being able to make and provide these. So we shall see if I'm able to work out something with them. If nothing, else the next 9 atari 7800s that should come in for UAV upgrades, will at least have this initial idea installed into them.
 

What is interesting about you saying that, is The Brewing Academy actually thinks this will make the process so much easier and less daunting for budding DIY types they fear it will take away business from me if I make these publicly available and have them as part of a kit already? My intention with the work I do was never to make it a full time job as I have a full time job already. My intentions on the console work has always been to help people get their systems working again and perhaps offer a means to make it easier for these classic and vintage consoles to be enjoyed on both CRTs and modern displays.
TBA really seems interested in being able to make and provide these. So we shall see if I'm able to work out something with them. If nothing, else the next 9 atari 7800s that should come in for UAV upgrades, will at least have this initial idea installed into them.
 

I've spoken about this in a blog previously and even updated the blog to show the actual PCB and sample of it installed. While I did make a very tiny error in my trace layout design, it isn't huge and is something that can be fixed in situ when I'm putting these mount boards together. So..what is this all about?
For sometime now I've been wondering about different ways to install the UAV into 7800 systems that might make it easier and look more professional as a result. Several ideas came to my mind and I also knew of at least one other person working on something similar. But as they hadn't made any progress towards it and eventually got out of the modding business, I decided a few months ago to look into this again.
The UAV is an amazing upgrade board. But as it was mainly designed around the Atari 8-bit computer line originally, the UAV design and installation are simpler on the 8-bit computers and 5200 as a result. But for several 2600 system revisions and the 7800 installs, wiring and quite a bit of it is needed to have a working UAV. But in the case of the 7800, most of those needed wire connections are actually all along a straight line in one portion of the 7800 main board. So it seemed that something should be possible to come up with an easier way to install the UAV. Additionally, if I'm to design something, then perhaps it could also be designed so that some other ideas could be added for consistency and to correct for some deficiencies in the UAV in regards to 7800 use.
That leads us finally to these:
 
 
Above is a pair of ready made mount boards. The board is designed so that it sits above the resistor ladder section and provides fairly easy to solder board interconnect pins that solder to the resistor legs directly. In addition, the design also has the audio inputs from R5 and R6 for the Pokey and TIA to be attached to as well. From there the UAV then sits onto the pins pointing up and align with the vias on the UAV. Initial testing is possible by appling light pressure onto the UAV to ensure a decent connection with the pins so that you know the UAV and your soldering on the mount board is good. Then, you solder the UAV to the pins for a semi permanent install. As I didn't see a need for a large empty board to mount the UAV onto, I also added the chroma fix circuit along with the added resistors and capacitor for proper audio mixing and a convenient solder pad for the audio output wire to attach to. 
So in essence, you just solder your wiring to the output vias on the UAV for whatever you plan to use either composite or s-video or both, and after soldering the UAV into place, you run a wire from the audio output pad to your RCA jacks or whatever you decide to use for audio output jacks.
Here is the first one of these I assembled where I used single pin sockets so that the UAV could be taken on/off the mount board easily. This was only for testing and actual install would have the UAV soldered securely in place. This also means that the UAV won't stand quite as tall off the mount board as you see in the picture below because it would only be about half the height off the mount board soldered directly.

Here you can see where the pcb interconnect pins are soldered to the resistor legs on the board.

 
Here is the 2 pins that get soldered down for the audio signals for Pokey(External audio line) and the TIA.

 
Here is the test board with the UAV installed on top. Again the actual installs and use of this board will have the UAV sitting half as tall from the mount PCB.

 
I also designed vias for the +5 and GND that line up with the +5 and GND from the RF modulator interface board. This was so I could use right angle headers to solder on top of the original pins off the RF modulator and then go into the mount PCB. But this isn't as simple to do as it might seem so those vias doesn't even have to be used. Instead power and ground wires could be soldered to those vias more easily or even to the large +5 and GND pads on the UAV itself to power everything. 
I've already started talking with Marlin over at the Brewing Academy about making these available as either separate boards or as part of a larger all in one complete 7800 kit. Nothing set in stone with them yet but I do think this will make DIY types more apt to try and install UAVs into their own 7800s without having to worry about everything being in the right place or worry about wiring coming loose from the resistors etc. Only wiring really needed here is from the output side to your AV jacks.
Any thoughts on this? Anything that seems confusing? Or perhaps it is overkill? 
 

I've spoken about this in a blog previously and even updated the blog to show the actual PCB and sample of it installed. While I did make a very tiny error in my trace layout design, it isn't huge and is something that can be fixed in situ when I'm putting these mount boards together. So..what is this all about?
For sometime now I've been wondering about different ways to install the UAV into 7800 systems that might make it easier and look more professional as a result. Several ideas came to my mind and I also knew of at least one other person working on something similar. But as they hadn't made any progress towards it and eventually got out of the modding business, I decided a few months ago to look into this again.
The UAV is an amazing upgrade board. But as it was mainly designed around the Atari 8-bit computer line originally, the UAV design and installation are simpler on the 8-bit computers and 5200 as a result. But for several 2600 system revisions and the 7800 installs, wiring and quite a bit of it is needed to have a working UAV. But in the case of the 7800, most of those needed wire connections are actually all along a straight line in one portion of the 7800 main board. So it seemed that something should be possible to come up with an easier way to install the UAV. Additionally, if I'm to design something, then perhaps it could also be designed so that some other ideas could be added for consistency and to correct for some deficiencies in the UAV in regards to 7800 use.
That leads us finally to these:
 
 
Above is a pair of ready made mount boards. The board is designed so that it sits above the resistor ladder section and provides fairly easy to solder board interconnect pins that solder to the resistor legs directly. In addition, the design also has the audio inputs from R5 and R6 for the Pokey and TIA to be attached to as well. From there the UAV then sits onto the pins pointing up and align with the vias on the UAV. Initial testing is possible by appling light pressure onto the UAV to ensure a decent connection with the pins so that you know the UAV and your soldering on the mount board is good. Then, you solder the UAV to the pins for a semi permanent install. As I didn't see a need for a large empty board to mount the UAV onto, I also added the chroma fix circuit along with the added resistors and capacitor for proper audio mixing and a convenient solder pad for the audio output wire to attach to. 
So in essence, you just solder your wiring to the output vias on the UAV for whatever you plan to use either composite or s-video or both, and after soldering the UAV into place, you run a wire from the audio output pad to your RCA jacks or whatever you decide to use for audio output jacks.
Here is the first one of these I assembled where I used single pin sockets so that the UAV could be taken on/off the mount board easily. This was only for testing and actual install would have the UAV soldered securely in place. This also means that the UAV won't stand quite as tall off the mount board as you see in the picture below because it would only be about half the height off the mount board soldered directly.

Here you can see where the pcb interconnect pins are soldered to the resistor legs on the board.

 
Here is the 2 pins that get soldered down for the audio signals for Pokey(External audio line) and the TIA.

 
Here is the test board with the UAV installed on top. Again the actual installs and use of this board will have the UAV sitting half as tall from the mount PCB.

 
I also designed vias for the +5 and GND that line up with the +5 and GND from the RF modulator interface board. This was so I could use right angle headers to solder on top of the original pins off the RF modulator and then go into the mount PCB. But this isn't as simple to do as it might seem so those vias doesn't even have to be used. Instead power and ground wires could be soldered to those vias more easily or even to the large +5 and GND pads on the UAV itself to power everything. 
I've already started talking with Marlin over at the Brewing Academy about making these available as either separate boards or as part of a larger all in one complete 7800 kit. Nothing set in stone with them yet but I do think this will make DIY types more apt to try and install UAVs into their own 7800s without having to worry about everything being in the right place or worry about wiring coming loose from the resistors etc. Only wiring really needed here is from the output side to your AV jacks.
Any thoughts on this? Anything that seems confusing? Or perhaps it is overkill? 
 

I'm not sure that I can post the roms. Someone over at AA asked about it there and was met with crickets. So I'm assuming there is a reason the roms aren't easy to find these days. Just another reason why when I find someone has posted something they are offering to others, I jump on it and download it at that time. Let me see if I can do a little digging.
Hmm..yeah I found the original thread at AA where it was first posted back in 2015. But the links are now dead and I can't find any other places hosting them or even mentioning it. The Bad Apple one link still works so I will post that one here:
 
badapple.zip

Another thought to having the collectors or limited editions offered through LRG is that is adds a bit more legitimacy to the project since. While LRG can take a LONG time to delivery on product, they always do deliver eventually. Actually SLG might be worse on the delay times for project releases but yeah.
 

Lots of questions on this one floating around out there. The price for one being the most discussed aspect. I'm assuming LRG is only going to sell the collectors editions at the price they have listed. But it also calls to question about when the release of the standard edition and other pre-orders is going to happen? It seems odd for LRG to suddenly be offering and doing a run on these when Atari-XP hasn't even released their initial batch of the games from pre-orders last year?
 

It is a light sixer. I can tell by the thickness (or lack thereof in this case) of the sides. Heavies are very obvious as the thickness of the sides is nearly a half inch.
 

@TrekMD I sent the email for the second Zark Stars game, but I really cannot justify that pricing. Especially with the issues I have with the first game not even working on 7800 consoles. To be fair, I've borrowed other copies of the first game that did work on 7800 systems including my own, but yeah... I just can't. They quoted me a price of well over $100 USD shipped for it this time around and I just can't swing that this go around.

April has been a really good pickups month for me. I was able to get several items that have been high on my list to get for several years now. And while this month isn't over, I don't have anything else on the way or that I'm aware of to add. So... here we go!
 
April was both a Sega Saturn and old table top games month mainly. It all started at the beginning of the month when I purchased and installed a replacement BIOS for my model 1 US Saturn. It was something I'd been meaning to do for a number of years and I finally got around to it. I installed a region free BIOS and figured I would have it made with what I consider to be the best startup graphic for the Saturn systems that were released. Here is a direct capture of how the ITC Saturn now boots up:
 
And then I was busy using my Buyee account to get some stuff out of Yahoo auctions Japan. I picked up a Saturn game I've been wanting for a long time that usually is crazy expensive on ebay but I only paid about half the cost for it from Japan directly. That game is Bulk Slash. Really fun 3rd person shooter type game with full 360 degree movement and pretty detailed graphics for the Saturn. In addition, I've been trying to get away from having to use my Action Replace cart as it is getting more finicky to use. As such, I also picked up a 4MB RAM expansion cart for those games that need it, and an official Saturn save cartridge for storing save games onto.

 
I then received shipping notice for a new controller I ordered from Castlemania Games a few months back. It is a nice controller that can be used on either the Saturn or the Genesis and it is called the BrawlerGEN:

 
Then to shift gears a bit, I also got shipping notification a week ago from Limited Run games that my copy of Axiom Verge 2 was on the way for the PS4. I've not opened it or played it yet but I really liked the first game. Although I wasn't able to complete the first game as I got seriously lost at what I believe to be just over the halfway point in the game and go super frustrated trying to figure out where the heck to go.

 
That now takes us to two old table top games from the 80s that I had been wanting for at least a decade now since I first found out about them. The first one is Astro Thunder and it is a pretty big and fairly complex game of these types for back in the day. First pic is of the machine with the flash on to show detail and the second pic is without flash so you can see the game play screen.


 
The last item for this month is another table top game that was NOT released stateside and in fact I believe was exclusive to Japan only. It is made by TOMY and uses the same case shell design as their TRON and Caveman games. The game is called Lupin and while the box art for it doesn't look it, I believe this is based on the Lupin III character from the mangas and TV shows. This was another Yahoo auction Japan purchase using my Buyee account. This game also just arrived today after a 10 day wait in customs in Chicago. Here is what it looked like when I got it. Decent shape, but very dirty. Notice there is some Kanji written across the top of the shell. No idea what it said as I was unable to get google to translate it.

 
A little Dawn dishsoap and some warm water and I've got it looking as good as I think I can. I did have to use a light scouring pad and my De-solv-it to get that Kanji off the top of the case but all in all. Lupin cleaned up pretty well...

 
And here is what the game play looks like for Lupin in all of its VFD colorful glory! It is very fun game to play with 3 separate game stages you go through.

 
And those are my recent pickups! Quite excited to have these items as again they have been high on my collection want list for many years.

April has been a really good pickups month for me. I was able to get several items that have been high on my list to get for several years now. And while this month isn't over, I don't have anything else on the way or that I'm aware of to add. So... here we go!
 
April was both a Sega Saturn and old table top games month mainly. It all started at the beginning of the month when I purchased and installed a replacement BIOS for my model 1 US Saturn. It was something I'd been meaning to do for a number of years and I finally got around to it. I installed a region free BIOS and figured I would have it made with what I consider to be the best startup graphic for the Saturn systems that were released. Here is a direct capture of how the ITC Saturn now boots up:
 
And then I was busy using my Buyee account to get some stuff out of Yahoo auctions Japan. I picked up a Saturn game I've been wanting for a long time that usually is crazy expensive on ebay but I only paid about half the cost for it from Japan directly. That game is Bulk Slash. Really fun 3rd person shooter type game with full 360 degree movement and pretty detailed graphics for the Saturn. In addition, I've been trying to get away from having to use my Action Replace cart as it is getting more finicky to use. As such, I also picked up a 4MB RAM expansion cart for those games that need it, and an official Saturn save cartridge for storing save games onto.

 
I then received shipping notice for a new controller I ordered from Castlemania Games a few months back. It is a nice controller that can be used on either the Saturn or the Genesis and it is called the BrawlerGEN:

 
Then to shift gears a bit, I also got shipping notification a week ago from Limited Run games that my copy of Axiom Verge 2 was on the way for the PS4. I've not opened it or played it yet but I really liked the first game. Although I wasn't able to complete the first game as I got seriously lost at what I believe to be just over the halfway point in the game and go super frustrated trying to figure out where the heck to go.

 
That now takes us to two old table top games from the 80s that I had been wanting for at least a decade now since I first found out about them. The first one is Astro Thunder and it is a pretty big and fairly complex game of these types for back in the day. First pic is of the machine with the flash on to show detail and the second pic is without flash so you can see the game play screen.


 
The last item for this month is another table top game that was NOT released stateside and in fact I believe was exclusive to Japan only. It is made by TOMY and uses the same case shell design as their TRON and Caveman games. The game is called Lupin and while the box art for it doesn't look it, I believe this is based on the Lupin III character from the mangas and TV shows. This was another Yahoo auction Japan purchase using my Buyee account. This game also just arrived today after a 10 day wait in customs in Chicago. Here is what it looked like when I got it. Decent shape, but very dirty. Notice there is some Kanji written across the top of the shell. No idea what it said as I was unable to get google to translate it.

 
A little Dawn dishsoap and some warm water and I've got it looking as good as I think I can. I did have to use a light scouring pad and my De-solv-it to get that Kanji off the top of the case but all in all. Lupin cleaned up pretty well...

 
And here is what the game play looks like for Lupin in all of its VFD colorful glory! It is very fun game to play with 3 separate game stages you go through.

 
And those are my recent pickups! Quite excited to have these items as again they have been high on my collection want list for many years.

April has been a really good pickups month for me. I was able to get several items that have been high on my list to get for several years now. And while this month isn't over, I don't have anything else on the way or that I'm aware of to add. So... here we go!
 
April was both a Sega Saturn and old table top games month mainly. It all started at the beginning of the month when I purchased and installed a replacement BIOS for my model 1 US Saturn. It was something I'd been meaning to do for a number of years and I finally got around to it. I installed a region free BIOS and figured I would have it made with what I consider to be the best startup graphic for the Saturn systems that were released. Here is a direct capture of how the ITC Saturn now boots up:
 
And then I was busy using my Buyee account to get some stuff out of Yahoo auctions Japan. I picked up a Saturn game I've been wanting for a long time that usually is crazy expensive on ebay but I only paid about half the cost for it from Japan directly. That game is Bulk Slash. Really fun 3rd person shooter type game with full 360 degree movement and pretty detailed graphics for the Saturn. In addition, I've been trying to get away from having to use my Action Replace cart as it is getting more finicky to use. As such, I also picked up a 4MB RAM expansion cart for those games that need it, and an official Saturn save cartridge for storing save games onto.

 
I then received shipping notice for a new controller I ordered from Castlemania Games a few months back. It is a nice controller that can be used on either the Saturn or the Genesis and it is called the BrawlerGEN:

 
Then to shift gears a bit, I also got shipping notification a week ago from Limited Run games that my copy of Axiom Verge 2 was on the way for the PS4. I've not opened it or played it yet but I really liked the first game. Although I wasn't able to complete the first game as I got seriously lost at what I believe to be just over the halfway point in the game and go super frustrated trying to figure out where the heck to go.

 
That now takes us to two old table top games from the 80s that I had been wanting for at least a decade now since I first found out about them. The first one is Astro Thunder and it is a pretty big and fairly complex game of these types for back in the day. First pic is of the machine with the flash on to show detail and the second pic is without flash so you can see the game play screen.


 
The last item for this month is another table top game that was NOT released stateside and in fact I believe was exclusive to Japan only. It is made by TOMY and uses the same case shell design as their TRON and Caveman games. The game is called Lupin and while the box art for it doesn't look it, I believe this is based on the Lupin III character from the mangas and TV shows. This was another Yahoo auction Japan purchase using my Buyee account. This game also just arrived today after a 10 day wait in customs in Chicago. Here is what it looked like when I got it. Decent shape, but very dirty. Notice there is some Kanji written across the top of the shell. No idea what it said as I was unable to get google to translate it.

 
A little Dawn dishsoap and some warm water and I've got it looking as good as I think I can. I did have to use a light scouring pad and my De-solv-it to get that Kanji off the top of the case but all in all. Lupin cleaned up pretty well...

 
And here is what the game play looks like for Lupin in all of its VFD colorful glory! It is very fun game to play with 3 separate game stages you go through.

 
And those are my recent pickups! Quite excited to have these items as again they have been high on my collection want list for many years.

Kinda surprised no one started a topic for this one yet?! 
Wife and I have our airfare, hotel, and tix purchased. Anyone other .IO members planning to attend in October?
 

I previously attended the 2018 and 2019 events. We are staying at the new Hotel next door so if we find we need to go much further than a few miles, then we uber as needed. At least, that is what we did in previous years. Will only be there for the Friday - Sunday time frame so no extra to look or check out much of Portland.
 

Kinda surprised no one started a topic for this one yet?! 
Wife and I have our airfare, hotel, and tix purchased. Anyone other .IO members planning to attend in October?
 

The email I saw shared from game stop stated they were cancelling the order due to product cancellation from the vendor though? To me, that pretty much confirms it isn't going to happen at this point.
 

The email I saw shared from game stop stated they were cancelling the order due to product cancellation from the vendor though? To me, that pretty much confirms it isn't going to happen at this point.
 

Yes I know... I actually purchased mine from the Nuvitron website. But I bought it back around 2016 as that is when I took the pics and I hadn't owned the clock that long. And yes, it was... expensive LOL! I also bought about a dozen nib replacement nixies for that clock just in case. But given how it still looks as good today as it did 4 nearly 6 years ago when I bought it tells me that the extra Nixies may not even be needed.