Atari 5200 Guy

Hey Guys,
I'm posting this here because I found a free racing game with online and party abilities called Trackmania.  I thought it would be neat to have a PC game I can play with Atari IO members.  You can also design tracks on the free version and it has solo play as well.
https://trackmania.com/
Simply visit the page, scroll down to the Trackmania Forever banner and click on that.  At the bottom of the next page, on the right, you can get the FREE version or opt to buy the Universe version.  The Free one will be above the one to buy.
PC Requirements are pretty low.
Operating system: Windows XP SP2/Vista SP1/Windows 7 CPU: Pentium IV 1.6GHz / AMD Athlon XP1600+ RAM: 256 MB (XP) or 512 MB (Vista/7) 3D graphics card: 16 MB, 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Sound card: 16 bit DirectX compatible Hard drive: 1.7 GB free disk space Check it out and I hope to see you guys on the tracks!

I don't own any CEDs or players, sadly.  All that stuff got ransacked when mom passed away in 1998.  Her funeral was in another town at least 4 hours away from where she lived.  Before I could get back to retrieve some things someone one broke in the house and took some items then destroyed what they couldn't take.
But, yes, CEDs are the record-like videodiscs.  I owned 7 players.  Three of them were SJT-100 mono models, 1 was an older SGT-100.  It wasn't self-loading.  I had two SJT-200 stereo models and an SGT-200 which was also a stereo model but lacked the self-loading mech.  All of them played very well for their age.  My personal player was one of the SJT-100.  The other three just like it came from my grandmother, my aunt that lived with us, and my cousin.  All of which were put under my grandmother's bed to be forgot about.  I finally got brave and asked about them shortly before my mother passed.  Dust city but they still functioned.
The movies combined from all family members totaled over 1,000 titles, some were duplicates so if one didn't want to play I had other copies that did.  My family always wondered if there was a way to clean them so they would play better.  I spent years trying various methods.  One method I discovered did clean them where they would play again but it also removed the oil coating that protected both the disc and the stylus during playback.  I ruined a needle just playing a disc after I cleaned it.  I found a somewhat solution to that problem when my grandmother's sowing machine oil spilled on a disc I just cleaned.  I wiped off what I could but it spread all over the disc surface.  It offered protection, and the discs did play, but the spin slung any excess oil all over the inside of the player.  Imagine that mess.  It did save a movie I had that refused to play that was the only one like it, without a duplicate, in that collection.  I never shared my findings with any one.
I'd love to get my hands on an RCA player and some CEDs again.  Great animated films on those things.
 

FINALLY!  An F-Zero challenge!  

Well...I meant FINALLY after being able to get my SNES up and running and getting F-Zero for it Second time for you guys, first time for me  

My first attempt.

Shaved 2 seconds off my first attempt.

F-ZERO was the only reason why I asked for a SNES when it released stateside.  That was one of the launch titles.  I didn't care what game it came with...I HAD to have F-ZERO.  Wipeout came out on the PS1 and, as much fun as it was, I didn't like it as much as I did F-ZERO.  Actually, all of the F-ZERO installments on systems after the SNES were better than Wipeout in my opinion.  F-ZERO is one of those games where everything just works.  It has a nice balance of easy to pick up and play and track challenges.  Each course has its own learning curve that depends on the vehicle one is using.  It has managed to retain replay value that most games of this nature don't have.  Those that own a Super NES but don't yet own F-ZERO...shame on you!  LOL.
Zelda on the SNES is very good, too and my favorite of the Zelda series.

Believe it or not, VHS did see a short-lived HD addition to the format...but it was very costly.
LD was the better of the analog video formats...it just was a more expensive way of obtaining movies and playing them.  I had three movies decades ago on LD before I gave up on the format.  Those were Independence Day in a nice, double album-like cover.  Gorgeous artwork.  Heavy Metal was in a chrome cover with a plan, ordinary, clear plastic sleeve. And I had one more movie I can't remember the name of now.  But I do have to hand it to laserdisc for bringing over what people liked about vinyl audio LPs over to LD.  There simply isn't another physical format that allows you to enjoy the packaging as well as the movie contained on the disc.
The only thing VHS allowed for was recording your favorite shows from their TV broadcasts...something the other formats didn't do for consumers.  There were LD recorders but those were mostly used by stations and such.  If you use VHS on a standard definition TV they really are not all that bad.  Laserdiscs are great for those widescreen presentations but, again, play best on cathode-ray TVs...and there are a few of those that were widescreen models.  I know for a fact Sanyo made one with a crap load of connectors on it that eventually became popular choices.
Believe it or not, VHS was also used for multi-track audio recording. I knew someone in my home state that owned a 16-track recorder that used standard VHS tapes to record on.  Weird gadget but the sound was impressive.
Space?  Yea, VHS takes up more space than DVD/BD for sure.  But take up far less space than those CEDs RCA came out with.  I don't how many CED movies my family owned but it was in the 1,000s total as I inherited those when they switched to VHS.  Hauling just the movies caused my friend's truck to sag on the backend and we had to make two trips simply because his truck couldn't tolerate the weight of those things.  Those things weigh a ton and just 10 movies alone can cause a weak shelf to bow.  We never stored those movies on shelving...they were best kept on closet floors.  A large tote full of VHS movies is light compared to those things.  But I still like the CED format.  Some rare movies not found on today's formats resides on that old format.
Unlike you, RickR, hi-def stuff is nice but I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to movies and TV shows.  I don't mind having to flip a disc over or dealing with tape-eating machines.  I'm use to it.  Besides, even the earliest DVDs only put out 480.  As long as I have a decent stereo TV I will continue to enjoy VHS and LD.  They are nice to have.  LDs I only have about 10 movies, some my family and I could never find on VHS.  It's the only format I've been able to find The Glenn Miller Story, one of my favorites.  And no commercials!

F-ZERO was the only reason why I asked for a SNES when it released stateside.  That was one of the launch titles.  I didn't care what game it came with...I HAD to have F-ZERO.  Wipeout came out on the PS1 and, as much fun as it was, I didn't like it as much as I did F-ZERO.  Actually, all of the F-ZERO installments on systems after the SNES were better than Wipeout in my opinion.  F-ZERO is one of those games where everything just works.  It has a nice balance of easy to pick up and play and track challenges.  Each course has its own learning curve that depends on the vehicle one is using.  It has managed to retain replay value that most games of this nature don't have.  Those that own a Super NES but don't yet own F-ZERO...shame on you!  LOL.
Zelda on the SNES is very good, too and my favorite of the Zelda series.

I still own and use a JVC Hi-Fi VCR from the mid-late 1990's.  Still works well.  I like the fact I don't have to worry about scratches.  Just put the tape in and let it play.  I use old-school CRTs with it, though, as modern HiDef TVs simply don't get along with it.  I have nothing against HiDef stuff but it's nice to see just how well an old 20" True Flat Screen Sanyo CRT TV and that JVC VCR work together.  Bright, vibrant pictures with stereo sound.  If I want surround I can always look for those older receivers that offer 5.1 surround.  That works for me.
Copy protection was not limited to just VHS tapes.  Shortly after my family invested in VHS movies they wanted to copy the CED movies they liked the most.  All we had to start with was mono systems, no stereo sound at all, even the CED players were mono.  None of the CEDs we had would copy because of copy protection.  I take that back...I finally got Annie to copy to VHS but it wasn't easy and I'm not sure now exactly what VCR I used to do it.
I believe in 1998 my grandmother's Curtis Mathis VCR crapped out on us and CM was long gone.  So we sat down with a JCPenny's book and flipped through it.  We found a Go-Video HiFi dual deck VCR for like $600.  The guy we talked to on the phone about it said he owned one and loved it.  Everything he threw at the machine it would copy.  So Granny ordered one.  Next thing we knew everyone who wanted a tape copied came to Grandma's house.  It was the only deck that could copy any tape, commercial or otherwise, and it also copied those CED discs.  Very easy to use, too.  We loved that thing.  Not sure what happened to it after she passed but I didn't get it.  I'd have another one except no one rents VHS any more and VHS tapes in good shape are about a buck now...$3 for Disney movies.  It's now cheaper to buy the movies than it is to try to get the gear to copy them.
You know...480i doesn't look half bad.  I know I keep seeing newer LCD TVs go in our dumpster because they quit working while my older CRT TV is still rocking it.  I'd love to see some of this old tech make a comeback.  

Thought this would be interesting for our computer users.
 

We are sitting about 50F but it is suppose to start raining tomorrow and then switch over to freezing rain followed with 3-5" of snow.  Suppose to last til Saturday or Sunday.  We could have went swimming on Christmas Day here.  We were in the 60s.  Been warm days and cool nights here.  Very little to no precipitation.

Hey Guys,
To the point, I have been seeing what all this old PC graphics card can and can not do.  I've tried a few XBOX Game Pass games.  Out of the five I tried only two actually did anything...but those games are games also available on Steam.  The only difference is with being a Game Pass member I don't have to buy the games to play them IF I use the Game Pass service.  Those games were Mudrunner and Farm Simulator '17.  They played but there were some huge frame rate drops in spots which made the games difficult to control even on their lowest settings.
The Steam games I have tried are American Truck Simulator (no surprise), Euro Truck Simulator 2, Car Mechanic Simulator 15, and Saint's Row 2.  All of these games have done well with CMS 15 being the one struggling the most.  Saint's Row 2 plays and looks like the 360 version...as long as I turn down it's settings to a mix of low to medium.  The only time these two games struggle are when there is a lot on the screen at once.  CMS 15 has issues if I have more than one car in the garage.  Visiting the testing tracks, no matter what the settings are, are unplayable.
The truck simulators are where I was able to pull the most out of the GT 210 I am using.  I was able to set the scale to 50%, textures to max, vegetation to max, and the weather to ultra on both games...and all without making the game unplayable.  In fact it seemed like it didn't affect the game play at all.  Only when I turned on the shadow textures did I start to have issues.  I can have shadows set to low and no problems but I have to keep the texture of those shadows either off or very low.  But, for the most part, I am able to see these games in full glory for the first time.  Of course I took pics but only of ATS as it's my most played game right now as it is the one I'm concentrating on the most.
There is one downfall.  OBS.  OBS is an open-source, completely free, desktop recording package.  I can capture anything my computer is doing and save for editing later or I can do live broadcasts using multiple camera angles (of which I'm still learning) without having to worry about anything.  Except video frame rates.  It's not the fault of the software or games I play...it's the simple fact that doing both at once is too much for the video card to handle.  It can do the games with decent settings really well, and I can record the desktop if it isn't doing much, but it can't handle both.  
For that reason I'm thinking I will reschedule ATS YouTube series until I can pick up a GTX 750.  That's what the game recommends and I've seen its performance.  That's the one I am going to wait for.  Until then I am enjoying the games I'm playing in ways I couldn't before.  The GPU I am using does work and works well as long as I don't push it too hard and if the developers don't try to make medium graphics look like ultra graphics.
 
 

Well...I meant FINALLY after being able to get my SNES up and running and getting F-Zero for it Second time for you guys, first time for me  

Epic Games is giving away three games for free until Jan 9th.  Two are part of a series.  Darksiders Warmastered Edition and Darksiders II DEATHinitive Edition.  The third game is a snowboarding game called Steep.  I'm not familiar with Steep but it looks interesting.  All three games are for PC and require the Epic Games Launcher app to be installed on the end user's system.
I have played both Darksiders on the 360 and have enjoyed them immensely.  I never completed the first one yet but I have completed the second one.  These were free games as part of XBOX's Games With Gold with the second being free before the first one.  That is why I played Darksiders II before Darksiders but I recommend doing it the other way.  These games offer a well balanced mix of hack n slash with challenging puzzles and boss battles that follow an interesting story.  I highly recommend them.   

My mother's first boyfriend had a white one just like that.  Those things were cool in their own way.  Did not like to climb hills, though, and we lived out in the country where there were lots of hills.  Maybe I ought to put a bee sticker on my graphics card.
I'd have one.  A family friend of mine had one and was too drunk to drive home one New Year's Eve.  So I had to drive him home in one of those.  It didn't have the "Honey Bee" emblems, just a plain Datsun 210.  Automatic, sucked going up hills.  A few times I thought one of us was going to have to get out and push the thing up the hills.
Mom had 280Z when her boyfriend had that B210.  Hehe...guess which car I like better?  Mom never had trouble out of her 280Z but traded it in for a 280ZX.  It wasn't bad but we had more issues with that car than she did the 280Z.  It remained in the family for 15 years.  
Those 210s would be a sleeper to try to find.  I know I miss my Mazda 323 sedan I bought for $100 once.  Fun car to drive.  Refused to do anything one day, no power, no nothing.  Never figured it out.  Lasted a year.  I'd love to restore my Plymouth Acclaim and I keep my eyes open for more that are cheaply priced no one wants.  If those are found with the little four cylinder in them they can be reliable cars.  I'd avoid the V6 models because the motors in those are know to be unreliable.  Mine just turned 194,000 miles and I've had it for 11 years now.  She has issues but still runs.  Issues are more body and accessory work than mechanical.

FINALLY!  An F-Zero challenge!  

Thanks to RickR for the computer motherboard donation.  And power supply, optical drive, and the SATA cables.  Without the donations this would not be possible.  I ended up with a great gaming computer without a case.  That and a graphics card upgrade are going to be my New Year's resolution. 
In the meantime I spent about two hours trying to figure out how to piece stuff together just enough to hold up until then.  What I came up with was poster board and hot glue...and a whole lot of imagination.  I guess all of those childhood years playing with LEGOs paid off.  Not pretty but it won't overheat.

Nothing is fastened down.  All I did was cut pieces of poster board to help hold things where I wanted them.  My biggest restraint was the power supplies cords as they did not leave room for much play or ideas.  But, it works for now and I can pick it up and move it if/when I need to.
I even got the plate on the rear mounted.  Held in place with tape to poster board so I can remove it easily when I get a case.  I like it.

Hard drives were a bit of a challenge as mounting screws were way too short to go through poster board and the mounting holes on the drives.  So...this is what I came up with.

Nothing fancy but it works.  We now return to our regularly scheduled gaming already in progress.

If they are getting 30+ fps in BL3 with a GT 630 then that's amazing.  The XBone struggles with that game.  I don't know how many times the game freezes up for a few seconds, especially when looking at menu items.

Well, surprise!  Maybe I ought to go with the 630?  It's playing Borderlands 3, a game just released last year.
So if it can play that then it should be able to handle the games I play.  All I'm after is better frame rates really.  Some visual improvements are just a bonus.

The ZOTAC 210 I'm using is not too bad really.  Games are somewhat playable on low to medium settings depending on the game's demands.  Screens I'm including are taken from the game Car Mechanic Simulator 2015.  Settings are using high textures at 1280x720.  Everything else is turned off.  I tried turning on the floor reflection and the game framerate made the game unplayable.  The 210 is trying...I'll give it that.  Framerate is the same no matter what texture setting I use so I left it on high.  I haven't tried Ultra yet.  I might be getting 20-30 fps if I'm lucky.  I wish I knew what benchmark those YouTubers are using where you see the information on the screen during game play.
 

Hi Guys,
I'm asking for something simple, nothing complex.  I was blessed this holiday with a new-to-me PC motherboard.  A very nice one.  But the graphics card I am trying to use is struggling and I don't have anything newer.  I'm also not familiar with more modern GPU cards other than I know NVIDIA and ATI/AMD are the brands.  I am currently using a ZOTAC GeForce 210 w/ 1 GB of DDR3 RAM.  Nice card but not powerful enough for this setup and for the games I play and would like to play.
So, I'm asking those here who game on PCs to list the graphics card they are using.  I'm trying to get a bit of an idea on what to try to look for.  I'm also trying not to get too pricey.  The cheaper the better.
Games I play are:
Euro Truck Simulator 2 American Truck Simulator (a bit of a struggle with this one) Saints Row 2 (Some issues but not much) Games I would like to play:
Ark (this game is very demanding) Forza 7 Forza Horizon 4 Mudrunner The games I enjoy state a minimum of a GTX 750 which I found a cheap one.  Others require a video card with 2 to 4 GB of memory...one game wanted 8 GB of video RAM.  How much have I missed over the years?  
So if those here would help by telling what graphics card(s) they are using on their PC I would greatly appreciate it.  It will give me more to research.

Superman on the N64 was a lot less playable than 2600's E.T.  Let's see...what else was there?  Two Worlds on 360.  Thought I was getting something good with this GameStop find for $3.  Limited edition set.  Complete for 360.  Yea.  Graphics suck, voice overs are amateurish at best, the damn story makes no sense, and there's no way to tell where you are suppose to go.  Nothing to guide or point you in the right direction.  Absolutely horrible.  The package is the best part of that game.
Warshaw blamed ET's demise due to putting players in a world where they became disoriented.  I was at first but once I read the manual it made sense.  Did the same with Krull, read manual first...love the game.  
The 2600 has done some impressive stuff but it still leaves the player having to use imagination to fully appreciate its more complicated games.  Modern games can present better visuals and sounds but there are still some that are worse than ET.  For some reason hearing ET is the worst game in history gets my blood boiling.  Its one of those things that was misunderstood...or someone popular with a lot of followers said his opinion about ET and then all of their followers did the same without having played the game first.
Personally I think ET is a positive milestone in the 2600's history.  It was a decent adventure game.  You had to learn the game before you could help ET.  A concept often missing nowadays. I'm glad to have it in my collection.  One of my top 10 favorite games of all-time.

ET was not to blame.  Blame Warner if you are pointing fingers.  It was their decision to change marketing strategies.  Letting engineers have time to do what they do best was working in Atari's favor.  Someone didn't get it.  It made money because great care went into making sure what was being worked on was top notch stuff.  All Warner cared about was turning that ET license into quick cash and it bit them in butt instead.  Sadly, it took HSW with them for a while.
ET had flaws of course but its still not the worst video game of all time.  There are others I can think of that are far worse than ET ever thought of being.  ET is easily the ancestor to adventure type games that came long after it.  The multiscreens could be influence to Zelda which did a similar thing.  It was a puzzle game, you had to find and assemble a phone.  Once built you had to find the spot where ETs mother ship was going to land.  It had a lot going on for a 2600 game. Full of depth and no two games ever play the same.  I honestly believe that the design and the concept done in such short time is incredible.  I'd like to see modern game developers try doing a game in that same amount of time...just one developer let alone many.  I bet they couldn't.
Once I learned how to play it it became a favorite.  Tough as hell on skill 1 and 2 but still fun.  It is one of my most treasured 2600 games.

A good complement to this article would be the documentary titled "Atari: Game Over". The 66-minute doc focuses on the 1983 video game crash along with the unearthing of some E.T. cartridges.