Paul Westphal

Figured this would be a fun topic and shed some light into the lives of everyone here and their background or experiences with Atari as a whole. Looking forward to hearing everyone's stories!
 
My first Atari 1040ST I lucked out and found at a local Goodwill for less than $20, which was in incredible deal!  Not only was it in really good condition, it also seemed to work flawlessly. Mind you, this was before the eBay and scalper or flipping days where people would buy things just to turn a profit immediately because they knew it was retro/vintage or what have you. I think I only owned the ST for a few years as I didn't have much software and this was before I had learned about LGT, which unfortunately now charges for all downloads. I want to say I remember the disks being downloadable for free at some point but maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. That was my first and last Atari ST and the plan is to get an 4MB STe sometime in the near future to fill that void.
 
Sometime in early 1999, I received my very first Atari Falcon, which I had always wanted since seeing them in the Toad Computers catalogs around the . At the time, I also had what I was finally happy with as a very fast PC as well - with an AMD K6-II 450Mhz and 64MB of RAM, WinTV card and eventually a 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 16MB AGP card. Anyways, back to the Falcon - it arrived COD and I had no experience with cash on delivery. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly cash on delivery as I would soon learn lol and they had to re-deliver the next day because only money orders were accepted. So due to my own ignorance, I had to delay it another day. Had that machine for several years and enjoyed the many demos and capabilities of the machine for what I could use before selling it off. It had a BlowUpFX and some other board installed which made it highly incompatible with a lot of the software I wanted to try, as it turned out.
 
To kind of extend on that story, later on I would end up with yet another Falcon which was also modded unfortunately, as it had a Centurbo II installed and something was wonky with the DSP as a result and I also re-sold this unit as it just had problems. I remember learning from that point on to make sure I would only get another Falcon if it wasn't modded. I would finally end up with a really nice unit sometime in 2001 or 2002, upgrading it myself with an FPU and maxed out the RAM to 14MB. Foolishly, I would sell it years later due to financial constraints and still regret having to had done so.

RickR  Yeah I remember GIJoes on 82nd ave having a HUGE 2600 display kiosk with multiple games you could try. There were two game stores down at LLoyd Center mall. When the great crash hit, they had games for $10 and under. I think I got Space Jockey for $5.

That's some random pic off the internet with my 53 year old Brothers' face badly photoshopped 🙂

Sears sold my parents a non-working unit and we had to wait for what seemed like an eterniity to get the replacement. After that rough start, there were many game trades with friends during my childhood that became kind of a social thing for us. I eventually ended up with a 800xl and 1050 disk drive. Now I repair and restore all Atari. Funny how that works out.

Hat Trick was written in Fourth.. 🙂

RickR  Yeah I remember GIJoes on 82nd ave having a HUGE 2600 display kiosk with multiple games you could try. There were two game stores down at LLoyd Center mall. When the great crash hit, they had games for $10 and under. I think I got Space Jockey for $5.

Sears sold my parents a non-working unit and we had to wait for what seemed like an eterniity to get the replacement. After that rough start, there were many game trades with friends during my childhood that became kind of a social thing for us. I eventually ended up with a 800xl and 1050 disk drive. Now I repair and restore all Atari. Funny how that works out.

The other beneift to the UNO is that you don't have to hard reset the computer. There is a button on the UNO cart that you hit first, then RESET on the Atari for a nice warm restart. ( Menu pops back up ) This is less hard on the system over time.

Here is the Eiffel 3 from Belgium. You can connect a PS2 mouse, PS2 keyboard, USB mouse, and two joysticks. It was around $30 shipped.

Ok Guys, I posted two videos of games running in 16mhz. More to follow.
 

Hi all!
So a buddy and I picked up two Megs ST2's. They both came with a 16mhz accelerator + switch. No Keyboards.
We both have an Eiffel 3 coming.
So I did some testing with games that would auto boot, with the switch on for 16mhz, and off for 8mhz, respectivley.
HOLY TOLEDO! Buggy Boy runs like its a Genesis game and the Time Bandit demo runs WAAAY to fast. 🙂
So at this point I'm thinking any game that is either 3D or that has many sprites on the screen will benefit.
When the Eiffel3 comes in I will do some more comparisons and post them here. I think I'll start with painfully slow shooters.. maybe Star Wars and R*Type2..
Paul

I just tried Encounter and No Second Prize in 16mhz mode. ENCOUNTER IS SWEET!! It plays fast and buttery smooth..

Hi all!
So a buddy and I picked up two Megs ST2's. They both came with a 16mhz accelerator + switch. No Keyboards.
We both have an Eiffel 3 coming.
So I did some testing with games that would auto boot, with the switch on for 16mhz, and off for 8mhz, respectivley.
HOLY TOLEDO! Buggy Boy runs like its a Genesis game and the Time Bandit demo runs WAAAY to fast. 🙂
So at this point I'm thinking any game that is either 3D or that has many sprites on the screen will benefit.
When the Eiffel3 comes in I will do some more comparisons and post them here. I think I'll start with painfully slow shooters.. maybe Star Wars and R*Type2..
Paul

One of the few games that has some originality and shows what the 7800 is capable of. Good Video Dudes 🙂

One of the few games that has some originality and shows what the 7800 is capable of. Good Video Dudes 🙂

Thanks Lance!
I picked up a Mega ST2 with 4 meg I can try it on.

Hey guys,
I can't really find any info on the Expansion Bus on the Mega's. Was there ever anything desireable made for this port? ( Top of pic and Tan )

One of the few games that has some originality and shows what the 7800 is capable of. Good Video Dudes 🙂

Hi all!
So a buddy and I picked up two Megs ST2's. They both came with a 16mhz accelerator + switch. No Keyboards.
We both have an Eiffel 3 coming.
So I did some testing with games that would auto boot, with the switch on for 16mhz, and off for 8mhz, respectivley.
HOLY TOLEDO! Buggy Boy runs like its a Genesis game and the Time Bandit demo runs WAAAY to fast. 🙂
So at this point I'm thinking any game that is either 3D or that has many sprites on the screen will benefit.
When the Eiffel3 comes in I will do some more comparisons and post them here. I think I'll start with painfully slow shooters.. maybe Star Wars and R*Type2..
Paul

A new game is being released for the Atari 8-Bit computers:  "ADAM IS ME"
ADAM IS ME is a puzzle video game for 8bit Atari XE/XL computers. The game is heavily inspired by the award-winning "Baba Is You" by Arvi Teikari and "Robbo" by Janusz Pelc, but with original puzzles, levels and game mechanics. In the game you interact with physical objects and words that when connected set a new game rules.
Game Story
Earth scientists have created ADAM. A modern robot with implemented AI. They have sent it into deep space, so it could find cure for Virus that had appeared on Earth out of nowhere, and gradually began to decimate the population of our planet. ADAM's task is to collect vials of samples from nearby planets, in system far away from home. Gathered materials and data, could help science, and scientists believe that its discoveries will finally reveal a drug, that will save humanity.
It turned out, that in this system, one of the stars collapsed, and this event had created a black hole. This object slowly sucks matter from another neighboring star and from nearby planets. In threatened system, which stood on the brink of destruction, various anomalies began to appear and the laws of physics known so far ceased to work correctly... ADAM has to change these laws accordingly, and find a way through all 8 planets.

Game Features
64 levels to complete 8 worlds with unique graphics 5 music tracks Original puzzles Ability to revert time New game mechanics Outstanding intro and outro Works on Atari 800XL with 64KB of RAM and 1.77 MHz CPU PAL and NTSC supported    
Full Details and Ordering Info
 

The Uno Cart will work on Atari 400's that are upgraded to 48k. I tested this on 4 of these machines.

The Uno Cart will work on Atari 400's that are upgraded to 48k. I tested this on 4 of these machines.