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dauber

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  2. WANTED: Feedback for Combat 1990 for Atari 7800

    in Atari 7800

    Posted

    I'm looking for feedback for episode 7 of the Atari 7800 Homebrew Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/homebrew78 )

    What are your thoughts on COMBAT 1990 on the 7800?

    You can also e-mail text or audio to homebrew78 -at- fab4it -dot- com

    Deadline is, kinda-sorta, 5:59am CST on Thursday, March 23. Any comments from after then will be addressed in a later episode.

     

    PLEASE NOTE: In doing some searching, I did see a lot of (understandable) flak about Combat 1990. HOWEVER -- please consider that Combat 1990 was (from what I can tell) one of the very first 7800 homebrew games built from scratch, and on top of that, it was done specifically for a contest and ergo there was a tight deadline (and the winner of the contest was actually a hack of an already-existing game). So please take that into consideration when sharing your opinions.

  6. FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Street Racer bare board

    in For Sale

    Posted

    Just what it sez...

     

    The story: I have a Mateos rewritable multicart for the Atari 7800. The multicart is just the board. I took my Street Racer cart from 1982, took it apart, and Dremeled out some of the pieces so I could use the cart shell as a shell for the multicart.

     

    Which left me with just the actual PCB from Street Racer.

     

    It works, it just doesn't have a cartridge shell. :)

     

    It's NTSC.

     

    Again, free....although if you wish to pay shipping, I won't protest. :)  Just let me know if you want it.

  11. WANTED: Feedback for Jr. Pac-Man for Atari 7800!

    in Atari 7800

    Posted

    I know I'm posting this a bit early, but there's a lot of work going into this episode so I want to get what I can get as early as I can.

     

    I'm looking for feedback for episode 6 of the Atari 7800 Homebrew Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/homebrew78 )

    What are your thoughts on Jr. Pac-Man on the 7800?

    You can also e-mail text or audio to homebrew78 -at- fab4it -dot- com

    Deadline is, kinda-sorta, 11:59pm CST on Thursday, March 9. Any comments from after then will be addressed in a later episode.

  12. "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Pac-Man" Finally Released!

    in Radio & Music

    Posted

    Thing is....Al is also a vegetarian. :)  (But I think for different reasons. I think he's veggie because he found it to be a healthy diet; Macca is a vegetarian due to his strong animal rights beliefs.)

     

    I think Al also had a "Black or White" parody that had to do with chicken as well for which Michael Jackson wouldn't grant his blessing, also citing vegetarianism.

  13. "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Pac-Man" Finally Released!

    in Radio & Music

    Posted

    Yeah, the song was released years ago on the aforementioned Basement Tapes CD that you'd get with your Demento Society membership. (And I think you can still order it via The Demento Society.)

     

    It's simply listed as "Bonus track by 'Weird Al' Yankovic." When I played the CD and heard the song, I thought the title was a way of dodging the "Apple Police," as some Beatles fans call 'em. But it turns out that Al's track on the next year's Basement Tapes volume also had the same title, but it was an Al original (don't remember which one off the top of my head), so I guess it might be that the list was made before they decided which Al song would make the cut.

  15. Project Prometheus?

    in ColecoVision

    Posted

    Got a link for us busy but lazy people? I've never owned or really played a CV but I like the prospect of resurrecting old hardware

     

    Better than a link -- here's what they posted on Bookface:

     

     

    Massachusetts, USA – February 10, 2017 – We have been receiving a lot of feedback since we announced the Super Game Module Pro back in January 1st, and based on that we decided to change our plans accordingly:

    1) The SGM Pro is now indefinitely on hold.

    2) Instead the sound subsystem we created was transferred to Project Prometheus, a new super 8-bit console coming from Opcode Games, and it will be fully backward compatible with the ColecoVision and the Super Game Module.

    It wasn’t an easy decision, but let me give you a little background so you can better understand why we changed our plans. We started developing the SGM Pro back in early 2016. The board (PCB) was created way back in March, we even printed the boxes and stocked the clear black cases. That was a considerable investment in time and money we already made. However later in 2016, the opportunity for Project Prometheus arose, the perfect conjunction of many happy factors. Add to that the aforementioned feedback we got where: 1) people were frustrated by a new version of the SGM and the confusion it may cause, 2) people were really looking for a new ColecoVision compatible console. In the end of the day it became clear we had too many hardware products planned, and the SGM Pro was looking more and more like the Sega 32X of the ColecoVision line. So we made the hard decision of pulling the plug on the SGM Pro, even though that represents quite a financial hit to us in terms of inventory. On the other hand we believe Project Prometheus will better provide what ColecoVision and retro gaming general community alike are looking for.

    And what about the regular Super Game Module? Well, that is the good news. Pre-orders for the 4th run will start in just a couple of week. Same deluxe packaging as the previous run at the same $90 price. Moreover, all games you saw during the SGM Pro presentation are still coming for the regular SGM.

    More details about Project Prometheus will be revealed later this year. However please notice we aren’t realistically expecting to release Project Prometheus until late 2018.

    Grazi and Ed.

  16. Project Prometheus?

    in ColecoVision

    Posted

    So...I've never owned a ColecoVision, never played one....although what Opcode Games has been doing lately has kind of made me consider one. Then I saw the actual software and was kind of turned off by the choppy animation....

     

    BUT...I see that they've announced Project Prometheus, an 8-bit ColecoVision-compatible system with the functionality of Opcode's Super Game Module...and this is starting to make me think I should start saving up! The plan is to release it by the end of next year.

     

    Have y'all's heard about this thing??

  18. WANTED: Feedback for Dungeon Stalker for Atari 7800

    in Atari 7800

    Posted

    I'm looking for feedback for the next episode of the Atari 7800 Homebrew Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/homebrew78 )

     

    What are your thoughts on Dungeon Stalker on the 7800? Feel free to share your memories of its earlier incarnations as Night Stalker on the Intellivision or Dark Chambers on the Atari 2600, too.

     

    This game will be covered on Episode 5.

     

    You can also e-mail text or audio to homebrew78 -at- fab4it -dot- com

     

    Deadline is, kinda-sorta, 11:59pm CST on Thursday, February 23. Any comments from after then will be addressed in a later episode.

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    So here I am playing live...

    in Radio & Music

    Posted

    So....here in Chicago there's a place called Old Town School of Folk Music. It's a non-profit organization where, well...you go and take music classes! I've been going there for ten years. I've taken classes for blues harp, fingerpicking, songwriting, stuff like that. Some of the classes they offer are "ensemble" classes, which basically means you and a bunch of other people get together and play songs, and sometimes when the class is over there's a final performance -- often at what they call "graduation," sometimes at an actual performance venue (like a local dive bar or club or something)...

    Well...once or twice a year there's "Beach Boys Ensemble." Now...most classes at the Old Town School meet once a week for eight weeks...Beach Boys Ensemble meets for sixteen weeks because, well, that's how hard it is, what with the vocal harmony arrangements and other things that neeed to be worked out -- Brian Wilson just does not have the simplest arrangements in the world!

    Soooooo...anyhoo...2016 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds, so the Beach Boys Ensemble class was dedicated to that album, and we actually performed the whole thing in front of a paying audience this past June. We played it in one of the performance venues that's actually at the school. And something I found out: whenever there's any kind of ticketed performance at the Old Town School, they record it on the soundboard, unless the artist specifically asks them not to...and I was just given a copy of our performance! woohoo!

    The first tune in the YouTube link here is the title track of Pet Sounds, an instrumental that Brian Wilson was planning to offer for use in the movie You Only Live Twice, but he says it was turned down. (Personally, I believe he never even submitted it for consideration.) This...is my debut on lead guitar. :)  I am SO not a lead guitarist, but I practiced the HELL out of it for weeks on end. I made a few mistakes, but they were minor enough that those who don't know the tune wouldn't even know they were mistakes, and those who *do* know it would think they were just artistic improvisations. :) It also includes the album's last song, "Caroline, No."

    Anyway, just thought I'd share some of my non-gaming life with youse. :)

  25. What's your thing?

    in Radio & Music

    Posted

    Can't believe I missed this thread....oh well...

    I'm a classic rock guy. Just can't get into a lot of the modern stuff. I was a weekend radio jock in the mid-90s though, and so I had to play a lot of (then-) modern stuff then, and I gotta say, there really was some killer stuff out then...Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, stuff like that...

    But what I'm usually listening to is among the following:

    The Beatles (who, to me, are the end-all, be-all)
    The Who (pre-Kenney Jones)

    Stevie Wonder (almost exclusively the "classic five" funk era)
    The Beach Boys (I consider myself a *Brian Wilson* fan, though, not so much a Beach Boys fan)
    The Monkees
    The Doors
    The Byrds
    Wondermints (basically the same kinda stuff as Jellyfish but less well known, undeservingly)

    And I have some controversial musical tastes, too:
    - I love Led Zeppelin, but only their first two albums. When they went all loud and (sort of) metal and mystical, they jumped the shark. And don't even get me started about my disdain for their fourth album.

    - Pink Floyd was ruined when Syd Barrett was kicked out and Roger Waters took over as leader. Yeah, I know Syd was really messed up and started to drive things into the ground, but Waters just made it so effing depressing. The Syd-era material was exciting and experimental, while just dreariness was starting to seep in and overcome starting with A Suacerful of Secrets.

    - I love The Doors, but Morrison's lyrics were basically the kind of stuff any high school student pulls out of his butt when he's bored in algebra class.

    - I don't care what anybody says...the mono version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a disaster. Definitely not the definitive listening experience of that album.
     

     

    Favorite albums:

    - Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys -- nothing will ever. EVER. top that. And when you first listen to it, you really have to be in the right atmosphere to get it, or else you'll brush it off. I just don't know what further to say.

     

    - Who's Next by The Who -- probably the greatest pure rock'n'roll album ever. IMHO, it's way better than its original Lifehouse intention would have been. Great listening on Fridays...side 1 on the way to work, side 2 on the way home from work!

     

    - What's Going On by Marvin Gaye - Marvin was coming out of a really bad time in his life when he recorded the album. His BFF Tammi Terrell had died from cancer, and that put him into a nasty depression. He tried playing for the Detroit Lions to take his mind off things, but that career didn't pan out. He came out of retirement with this album and based it on letters he and his brother wrote back and forth while his brother was off fighting in Vietnam. And when his brother came back home from 'Nam, his overall reaction to the state of the country was, "THIS is what I was fighting for?!" Pretty hardcore emotional stuff here. And it's a tragedy that Marvin just couldn't recover from all the demons he was fighting. They affected himself and those who loved him.

     

    - Destroyer by Kiss -- not a big Kiss fan, but I do have a soft spot for early Kiss. I was maybe four years old, and one morning when my parents had left for work, my brother (ten years my senior) woke me up and said, "Come on downstairs! I got the new Kiss album!" I was groggy and didn't give two whatevers about what album he just got. But anyhoo, it was Double Platinum. He took over the Zenith record player console and blasted the album, and...I loved it! And over the years I became really, really fond of the Destroyer album (and only in recently years realized that "Detroit Rock City" is actually a pretty depressing song!) and found myself appreciating the amazing production more and more.

     

    - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. by The Monkees -- their fourth album. Their third album, Headquarters, I think is generally considered their best, and certainly a favorite because on that album they actually not only had complete creative control but they also actually all played instruments themselves on every track. With PACJL, the Monkees went back to primarily using a lot of session musicians, but they still had creative control, and creative it was. And with "Daily Nightly" and "Star Collector," you have two of the earliest known uses of a synth in rock music; very groundbreaking. Even the always-groundbreaking Beatles didn't use a synth until two years later with...

     

    - Abbey Road -- the last album the Beatles recorded start-to-finish as a group (most of Let It Be was already recorded; "I, Me, Mine" would be recorded after Abbey Road), and arguably their best. My wife pointed out that Abbey Road is basically The Beatles' final thesis, as it puts together everything they learned in their career. You have just straight-ahead rock'n'roll with "Come Together" and "The End." You have the symphonic orchestrations (courtesy of George Martin) in "Carry That Weight." You have a paean to the reliable American rock'n'roll with "Oh! Darling." There's the Donovan-taught fingerpicking in "Her Majesty." There's the Sgt. Pepper's-esque combining of different songs into longer pieces with the two medleys on side 2. You have the multipart harmonies previously known from "This Boy," "Yes It Is," and "Nowhere Man" getting some practice once again in "Because." And those innovative Beatles, although a bit late in the game, did a first-time-ever-for-them thing in "Because" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by using a synthesizer. Really, everything you'd expect from any Beatles era...except tape loops...probably because tape loops were so last year.

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