DegasElite

Agreed. Great job, Lance, and everybody on the V61 team.

I think that Fatal Run should have been full-blown RoadBlasters. RoadBlasters was well known in the arcades and I love it in the arcades. The A7800 would have probably had quite enough horsepower to create a decent 8-bit port that would have blown the NES version away. It was not meant to be, I guess. Fatal Run, to me, was more a road quest game. You had an agenda, you had a mission to save people, it sounds like a quest to me. I don't see Fatal Run as arcade-like, but I did like it to a degree. I have Fatal Run for the A7800 and RoadBlasters for the Lynx. Even the Lynx version of RoadBlasters is very well done. For as small as the game is for the Lynx, it is very close to the arcade version. The A7800 is a great and advanced system for an 8-bit CPU. It could handle it. I just do not understand why it was scaled down so much. Cost, I guess. The management at Atari at the time loved cutting corners for cost. Thanks for letting me share.

If you get a chance to play it, it is actually quite impressive. The graphics and game play are top-notch for a handheld game system of the 1990s. I have played it on and off for two years, and I still have to find and beat the Criminal Brain. It is a maze that you have to figure out on our own. I want to map it, so I can figure it out. That way, I know where everything is. That makes it even more fun, for me anyway.

I think that I might have seen one, but I don't remember. It looks familiar. But, I am not so sure.

Sure. Make it more user-friendly. That would make more sense. The third-party developers you mentioned to sign on would have made it a great force to be reckoned with. It needed top billing. Thanks.

Thanks for telling us this tutorial. Now, if I can, I can create my own floppy disks with titles on them.

If I were in Jack Tramiel's shoes, here is what I would have done. I would have added 4 MB more RAM in the Jag. I would develop the software only on Atari and similar RISC-based computers, and more of the software titles for the Jaguar would have been produced. I would have used a killer marketing blitz, and since I am a graphic artist I might have done well. I would have released Black Ice/White Noise with the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, and I would have made it easier to port ST and Falcon titles over to the Jaguar. That alone would have possibly produced over 300 titles for the Jaguar right away. Also, I would have released the MPEG decoder cartridge, fully completed, for the CD unit so it could play VCDs and other movie discs with MPEG-encoded software. Actually, I would have released the CD unit with a built-in decoder for MPEG compression. Atari had made many blunders, and these actions would have corrected them, IMHO. Well, most of them anyway. But, I could be 180º off on that as well. But, it would have been a better system if these actions were implemented. Also, I would shoot for more developers to be in the know on how to program this beast, which would make a lot of sense since it needed more developers to make games for it. This is a RISC-based system with five RISC processors in it. That is why the Jaguar can be hard to program for. But, hopefully, for home-brewers anyway, languages like Raptor BASIC+ will make it easier than ever before to make games. I would not mind learning it myself and working on my own games for it. But, I need to learn the language anyway, so it is wishful thinking.

For me, I would love the one with "Crystal Castles" in it. That is my favorite Atari arcade game of all time. I love it. The problem is that I cannot get it into my current living space. So, it is just wishful thinking, at best.

Well, yes. What I thought was a ROM scanner for the NES, anyway. Extremely rare stuff. It probably ran about twelve games. That sounds about right. It probably runs on a similar principle. Perhaps.

I also have a ROM scanner myself. It is a different model, not from Marjac. You use it (I am sure you know this) to plug in multiple cartridges. Then, they would all fit in the main cartridge port of the A2600. With a push of a button, switch between games and never have to take them out as much from the main port. Handy item, but I hear that they can be buggy. But, they do work. The only other system that I have seen a ROM scanner for was for the NES at Toys 'R' Us. I was about thirteen years old then. That ROM scanner for the NES is extremely rare, by the way.

It would be nice to see it in an original case, 3D printed, maybe. I can see why he did it this way: cost-effectiveness. It was cheaper to do it with an existing game chassis than by engineering a brand new one. This definitely is a fantastic modification for the Lynx. Maybe, he can make a Lynx-to-TV console that can utilize other types of media. That would be the "Cat's Meow" (pun intended). I would not mind buying this type of console. I would love to see my Lynx games played on TV.

Well, it would certainly revolutionize train travel in the US. We need higher speed rail. They have it in Europe, Japan, and China, of course. Why not the US? Re-tooling the US rail system would be expensive, granted, but it would create needed jobs, needed improvements to the infrastructure, reduce traffic congestion (at least theoretically), and, if they are electric, theoretically would also reduce pollution. In my opinion, anyway. But, it definitely would create jobs. The US rail system is over 100 years old. It needs an upgrade. At least, that is what I believe. In Minnesota, there is talk of a high-speed rail system coming up called the Northern Lights Express (NLX). It would go from Saint Paul, MN to Duluth, MN (the state's third-largest city), and then up to Two Harbors, MN. The train could go up to speeds of 120 MPH. I understand that the train system in Japan is going to be much faster. but, a bullet-like train in Minnesota? I am game, since I live near Saint Paul anyway. I would ride it, if and when it gets built. Thanks for letting me share.

You were mentioning the Supercharger cartridge for the A2600. I have a Supercharger myself. I also have the entire Supercharger collection on CD. I use a portable CD player to play my games on it. Pretty cool stuff, but I also have Phaser Patrol on cassette for it. Fun.

No worries, MaxRD. It looks like, from the frame on the video, it would take some time to put it back together if you did open it again. I will look at your videos here. Thanks.

I once had a ColecoVision with about twenty games. I also had the VCS expansion module with it. It was basically a scaled-down A2600 that ran on the CV's power supply, which of course fit into the expansion port of the CV. I loved that thing, and it did increase its expandability. I think that Atari sued Coleco about the module, but I do not remember all of the details. Anyway, MaxRD, you state that you modded a VCS adapter for the A5200 to work with its own power supply to be a standalone unit. It must not be too hard to do, since I believe the VCS adapter is a small 2600 to begin with, but how did that get accomplished? Did you do it yourself? I am curious.

The Jaguar's controller pad is reminiscent of the A5200 joystick to me because of the keypad. I have AVP and Tempest 2000, and I agree. They are great games. I have about 20+ games for the Jaguar. Some homebrew, most from Atari and third-party developers. I like most of the games myself. Granted, there are some games that have room for improvement. But, games like T2K, AVP, Dragon's Lair, Myst, for example, I think look and play well. I loved AVP. A friend of mine once played the game and was astounded by the graphics and sound. She was blown away by it. I was, too. But, seriously, the Jaguar definitely does have the horsepower, but it is a beast to program. At least, that is what I have heard from other people. I would not mind trying to program on it, but it is a learning curve from what I understand. Well, with assembly code anyway. Sure there are apps like Raptor BASIC+, for example. I have that as well. It is a good piece of programming software. I would try to study it more, but I need to work on my time management before that is a feasibility. Great machine, it just needed more finesse. That's my opinion anyway. That is indicative of ANY game platform, though. Thanks for letting me share, folks.

Just a thought, is there a chance that we could figure out a way to have an RB+ tutorial on this forum? I am curious because I wouldn't mind learning how to use the language. I have a copy of Raptor BASIC+ on my PC at home, hence the inquiry. I know that they have tutorials on AtariAge, but I was wondering about here as well. I, myself, have tutorial files for the program. But, what of other potential game programmers that want to make home-brew game of their titles? Also, it may help to get feedback on a site like this as well. Just a suggestion, that's all. Thanks.

I had heard that there is also a new variant of RB+ that hopefully will soon be released for the public to use called "Bello BASIC." That can be used on Atari 16/32 computers for game programming. I am sure most of you have heard of it on AtariAge right now. It was used to create a mini version of Bexagon for the Falcon, if I remember correctly. It is also being made for the Jaguar, of course.

Is this prototype of "Dark Tower" a completed prototype for the Vectrex? I am understandably curious. Thanks.

I have every A7800 game on the list on the right that was sent from Atari that you received, Justin, in your picture. In fact, I have over fifty A7800 games in my collection, with some still with the boxes. I have had an Atari collection, starting with the A2600, for over thirty-six years now. We started our collection back in 1982, back when I was going to be eight that year, for USD$129.00 in 1982 dollars. Now, over 300 games later for five platforms, I could not be happier. I can relate to the part where people call you "ma'am". They did that to me when I was twelve. I will be forty-four next month. Thanks for sharing, Justin.

You know, judging by the fact that there is what looks like Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Portuguese, along with English, it looks like an International version. I know for a fact that you would never see all these languages on an American box. French and Spanish, maybe. But, not the other languages. I think that you are right, as all evidence points to the possibility of it being an International. It must have been made for all throughout Europe, South America, and possibly Canada, as Canadians can utilize both French and English as their official languages. Well, depending on where you are at in Canada, anyway. It is actually in great shape, considering. Thanks for showing us. CORRECTION: Not Portuguese. It was French. Sorry.

You know, this is great that you brought it up. I have NEVER seen this box variation before. It must be Canadian, but I see the "Short Rainbow" model on the box, so I could be wrong. Great find, Atarileaf. That box seems a rarity, as it is the first time that I have ever seen it. Thanks. By the way, you would think that the box variations would be the same for the United States and Canada, because both nations use NTSC as their signal standard, and are in the North American market. I could be 180º off on that, but maybe this is a Canadian box variation. Another question: your silver box variation, is it also in French and in English as well?

Huh, never thought of that. It might work. Thanks.

Here are some better photos of the A2600 Jr. "Short Rainbow" that I own. You can see the damage and my attempt at mitigating it. It still needs work. But, I am confident it can be repaired cosmetically. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I have an A2600 Jr. "Short Rainbow" console that I bought at SPACE (Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts) in Saint Paul about twenty years ago. The case on the console got damaged from a fall off of a shelf, but it is only moderate cosmetic damage, can be repaired (and I tried with epoxy), and still works well. I need to make more cosmetic repairs on it, but now and then I still play it. Anybody know where I can get some black plastic putty filler? Like Bondo or epoxy, maybe. That would be all I needed to repair this thing. Here is a picture of the console. Thanks.