socrates63

If we're talking about the same person (Machine) then he doesn't make repro patches for games that received official ones. I believe all his patches are for games that did not have official Activision patch. All his patches are shown here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308314-activision-atari-patches-new-patches-12-12-2020/ But if it's someone else then let us know 🙂

2" 31' 64 A one second improvement 😆 That thing about a journey of a thousand miles starting with a single step? Yeah, that's me and my F-Zero gameplay 🤣

My parents never played. It was always a mystery to them why I would waste my time playing video games growing up. Thankfully, they never discouraged me or prevented me from playing. My father was always about enabling me to pursue whatever I was interested in. As for my kids, dad was the one who introduced them to video games. My kids still talk about the time I played Halo on my PC with them sitting on my lap (I turned off the blood). They also mentioned sneaking out of bed to watch me play. When they were older, we played multiplayer Halo but that lasted less than a year. I asked them why they don't play with me, and they said and I quote, "You suck, dad." They'd probably answer that I liked Halo games and games with old blocky graphics. Mom doesn't play games, and her favorite pastime is watching Korean shows on your iPad. Wii Sports was the only game that we played regularly as a family that included my wife. This would have been when the kids were 6 and 3, so they probably don't remember much if at all. The only other game that she plays when given a chance is Galaga, a game my kids know nothing about.

The home office was my dad's when my parents lived with us. The piano and desk were always in the office, after my parents moved out a few years ago, I added a stereo rack, bookshelf speakers, shelves for CDs, and most recently, the TV and my consoles.

So, there's hope? That's good to know. I've a friend who plays guitar. She looked at my hands, and she shook her head and said nope. I tried trimming my nails and failed that too.

Yes, @HDN there's a piano in the office where my CRT TV sits. No, I don't play any instrument actually. The piano was a gift from my dad to my wife when we married. I briefly gave it a try last year, and I even bought a book (You Suck at Piano) that was supposed to teach non-musical adults. Learning to play piano is hard! Learning to play guitar is a bucket list item for me. I tried two times (once when I was in college and a second time a few years ago) and failed both times -- these short fat fingers but more than that, it's these nails that grow beyond the finger tips.

Yes, I noticed some warp and color distortion -- nice funky colors that went well with the pink/magenta sky 🙂 I moved the speakers slightly and that helped. I also put rubber/cork pads under the speakers and they lift up the speakers an inch, and that has solved the issue. There's also a chance that the piano in the room gets moved to a different part of the house, and that'd allow for me to move everything, so speakers aren't on top of the TV, and that'd be the optimal solution. This corner space is a bit small especially for a 27" TV.

I only have experience with the original Pac-Man on the 2600 and Atari 8-bit, Ms. Pac-Man on the aforementioned platforms, and 2600 Pac-Man homebrews. For the longest time I despised the 2600 Pac-Man until some conversations that were had on the I/O about it. I was convinced by others that it was the color that I was mostly reacting to, and they were right. I tried the blue and black version and found it to be a fun game and aesthetically pleasing. I even challenged for the high score on I/O and set a new high. I favor the original 2600 Pac-Man <gasp, can't believe I'm saying this> and the reason is simple -- the maze. The original Atari Pac-Man is a different game because the maze isn't a copy of the arcade game. All the other Pac-Man games are trying to replicate the arcade game and arcade maze, and well, they don't feel as fresh. The original 2600 Pac-Man maintains the same simple game play design and introduces only a new maze layout.

As strange as it may sound in this community, my answer is the 2600. I can say with certainty that I am more excited by it now than I ever was as a kid. Sure, I loved it and practically begged my parents to get me one as a kid in the early 80s, but the mainstream 2600 games couldn't compete with the coin-op games of the arcades. While some games were a lot of fun (Activision Starmaster immediately comes to mind), I don't recall a game that really held deep interest or love. I think I owned eight to ten 2600 games as a kid (I had to save for three months to buy one game). Video games that I have most fondness for as a kid were all arcade games. The writing was probably on the wall when I got the Big Trak for Christmas, and I had a lot of fun programming it. By the time I discovered computers and programming in sixth grade, I lost interest in the 2600. I practically ignored all consoles after the 2600 because I was playing games on computers. While I briefly owned the Vectrex and GameBoy during the late 80s and early 90s and got a PS1 in '98 to play FF7, I played very little on consoles until I got a Xbox 360 in the late 2000s. After learning about this thing called retro gaming four years ago, I started learning about all the consoles and games that I passed on, in particular the PlayStations and Xboxes. A year ago, I started looking back on the 2600 and started playing Atari games again only this year. I bought the 2600, 5200, and 7800 just prior to joining the I/O in August and have since added an Intellivision, Jaguar, SNES, Genesis, and CoreGrafx to my console stable. My ability to appreciate past consoles has grown significantly the past year or two, and I now see I missed out on a lot of console gaming goodness especially during the 90s and 2000s.

2' 32" 34 I was regressing hard yesterday night, but finally saw an improvement today. Woohoo!

🤣 ❤️ haha me too

Thanks for posting the video link, Rick. It was a fun nostalgic trip. I had no idea that there was a remake -- very nice!

Making some changes to my CRT setup... this morning I picked up from a local gamer his JVC AV-27F577 TV to replace my Sony KV-27FS12. I think quality-wise, it's a lateral move. I did it primarily because it's in better physical shape, and I like the aesthetics of the JVC over my FS12. Another change to the setup is the addition of the Denon AVR-3806 home theater receiver. This particular receiver up converts composite and s-video signals and outputs a component signal, so I'm excited about that. But that aside, I added the receiver for two reasons. The first was to expand the number of inputs because my console stable has grown recently. Second, I wanted better sound. The speakers on the Sony were not good. I'm not sure how the JVC sounds as I hooked it up immediately to the receiver. I had a pair of unused Paradigm speakers. They're currently sitting on top of the TV until I can figure out a better placement. My CRT setup is in a small corner of my office, so there's not much room to work with. I also intend to watch DVDs using the PS2, so the speakers will help with that as well. This CRT A/V setup will serve up goodness from Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar, SNES, Genesis, CoreGrafx, PS2, and later on, Wii and Atari 800XL. The Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800 output s-video, PS2 and Wii output component, and everything else is composite. I am currently using a passive switch box to handle the 2600, 5200, and 7800. I am getting another passive switch for the composite consoles. The passive switch boxes are connected to the receiver. PS2 and Wii will connect directly to the receiver. I also have a passive component switch box if I decide to add more component devices. The area is a bit of a mess right now, but things are finding their homes, and I'm happy about that. One last thing to note is the small Ikea desk that is sitting above the TV stand. The TV stand is an inch too wide to fit between the legs of the desk, so it is turned slightly to fit under it. I moved the desk out of my home theater room where the more modern consoles are, and the vacated space will be occupied by a new standing desk when I get a chance to put it together.

2' 34" 54 Logging in my first score!

I grew up watching the Rudolph stop animation and Frosty cartoon. The Frosty cartoon was always a bit of an emotional experience when he melted. As an adult, I always plan to do something on the day of a holiday, but things never turn out the way I envisioned. I realize now that that's been my mistake. Something always come up on that day -- family get togethers, impromptu errands to go to the grocery, etc. EDIT insert--> I should have scheduled to do things leading up to the day and not on the day of. <--| And to think that my day job is a program manager who manages risks and unexpected interruptions. But then again, at home, I just do what my wife tells me to do, so there is that 🙂

Actually, loose cart prices for these seem to have come down in recent months compared to a year or two ago especially for Cosmic Commuter. Boxed copies, however, looks to have gone up in price. I've heard good things about Cosmic Commuter. Take a look, Harry.

With the addition of HERO and Cosmic Commuter, I have completed the NTSC Activision games for the 2600. All my other Activision games are complete in box copies, and I hope one day I can upgrade these with CIB copies at a reasonable price.

I got a Core Grafx from a local gamer/collector this morning. He gave me a nice deal, and it came with an AV adapter that outputs composite and RGBs. It was $25 more than a PC Engine, but I was willing to pay a little extra to go with the dark gray case. Very nice looking console and it is tiny -- just the size of a CD case. This is the second console I bought in order to play in the I/O high score challenges. The Everdrive should arrive in a few days.

Was there an option to send it in? I'll have to go back and re-read. I've had an extra Ball Blazer set aside to serve as a POKEY donor for a while.

Nice! Looking good, Rick. The best thing for me is that using an SD cart means I don't have to deal with the death grip of my 7800.

I don't recall pulling off any feats worth remembering in all my years of playing video games. Sad, but then again, I've never considered myself much of a gamer skill-wise. The only thing remotely in-game feat-worthy is something that's not really a feat 😂 I've been playing Halo Reach in Firefight mode (waves and waves of enemies, no story) for about ten years. Earlier this year, I finally up the difficult from Normal to Heroic (Easy --> Normal --> Heroic --> Legendary), and I managed to finish classic firefight mode (set to one round) a couple of months ago. I felt pretty good about that, and it gave me the courage to try Legendary difficulty (that experiment was extremely short-lived).

Me, too -- loved Gorf in the arcade. It was quite the departure from Space Invaders gameplay. I remember being thinking "what's this?" back in the early 80s. I hear ya about the wallet. It doesn't help that Al releases all the new games in practically a single batch.

I haven't watched any ST series outside of TOS and TNG. I started rewatching both of them earlier this year and stopped. I'm planning to rewatch them next year. "Picardo" -- interesting name 🙂

No backpedaling allowed! 😇 😈 Go for 🥇 You're currently in first 🙂