Chris++

Don't forget Quest for the Golden Chalice on the Colecovision. It's a bit slow but the music is wonderful.
 

Misadventure Revised is probably my favorite hack, as it expands the Kingdom more than any other that I've played. (Never mind that the guy misspelled the title as Missadventure. It's the game that counts, right?)
 
Of course, that's if you don't want to get DOSBox and Indenture, and play Game 5, with its hundreds of rooms. Awesome, I tell ya!

Misadventure Revised is probably my favorite hack, as it expands the Kingdom more than any other that I've played. (Never mind that the guy misspelled the title as Missadventure. It's the game that counts, right?)
 
Of course, that's if you don't want to get DOSBox and Indenture, and play Game 5, with its hundreds of rooms. Awesome, I tell ya!

For those interested, I've replaced the nubby knob on my original Colecovision joystick with a nice quality ball knob.  Check it out.
 

 

 
The procedure is easy to do, and easily reversible.  Here are the left over parts:
 

 
There is some great info over on Atari Age in this post.  Although the group order is over, there are a few users over there that have leftovers and are selling them individually.  And if there is a lot of interest over here, I'm sure we could do our own group order. 
 
 

Pasted below is the Tron chapter of the Classic-Gaming Bookcast (without the images). I'm only including it because I thought you guys might enjoy reading it. I didn't realize that there were other huge fans of the film, at least beyond the association-with-old-games interest level. I hope you enjoy it...it was unexpectedly difficult to articulate why the movie means so much to me!
 
---
 
In late 1982 or early '83, we rented the movie Tron for our Betamax VCR. Preposterously, I hadn't gotten around to seeing it on the big screen. I figured out how to copy it, using a borrowed second machine, and watched it over and over again. I bought the VHS tape five or six years later, and the double DVD on the film's twentieth anniversary in '02.
 
Some of the dialogue might have been hokey, even when the movie was new, but I was mesmerized by the visualizations and plot details. I tended to live in my own world half the time anyway; upon seeing Tron, I transformed the real one from inside my head. I didn't quite mean to. It just made the repetitious things in a kid's life cooler. I left solid walls of light along the sidewalk, and the glinting tiles and painted-over bricks of my elementary school became circuited tunnels through which I ominously soared.
 
I wasn't noticeably physical about any of this. I didn't have to be. I'd already filled my skull with video-game images over the prior year. Now the three-dimensional ramifications of living in that universe were absorbed into my mental metabolism. The screens that connected the everyday world to these new ones weren't monitors or television tubes, but windows. Locations from various games flew enticingly past me as I walked by things as formerly ordinary as jungle gyms and chain-link fences.
 
It's not that I didn't enjoy being a kid. There were simply aspects that I found objectionable. Being expected to attend school every day felt like a prison sentence. And I reviled not having the adult abilities to do stuff. This didn't concern unrestricted toy shopping, theme-park trips or other external extravagances. I wanted to play real musical instruments and write real books. I could save odd-job money toward the former, and practice the latter on my mom's typewriter; but I wasn't skilled yet, and I was impatient to truly get started.
 
Something that was possible, however, was to competently explore that limitless other place, finding and doing things previously consigned to my imagination. Tron alluringly blurred the line. I could even learn to create my own parts of that other place, if only I could get my hands on a computer.
 
As I was already acclimating myself to a coexistence with other humans by adopting the crucial society-is-stupidly-funny mindset (I didn't know how to apply words like "absurdly amusing"), it was impactful to see just how easily alternate life could be created. My widening eyes watched Flynn and Alan actually communicating with the humanoid programs they'd "written," using secret messages such as "Request access to Clu program. Code 6 password to memory 0222." Outside the VCR, every spinning thing that I saw reminded me of the Master Control Program, and anything laid out in a grid fashion was an electronic, beautifully unambiguous expanse.
 
When Flynn was sucked into the collective digital world and was able to interact with the walking, talking realizations of his own keyboard work, I was sucked in, myself. The main function of teachers seemed to be to detract my attention from the things with which I really loved to fill my brain. Their inapplicable blather might have prepared me to be a good drone, so it's fortunate that affordable home video games came along when they did.
 
I believe that I initially played the Tron coin-op in the small game room at Uncle Cliff's, an Albuquerque amusement park. (The name has since been changed to Cliff's, but he's not fooling anyone. He's still my uncle!) When I play it now, it strikes me as a continually repeated quartet of largely derivative sub-games that rapidly rise in difficulty. It's blatantly designed to scarf up as much money as possible. In this sense, I suppose, it was technologically prophetic.
 
My associations with the game are so positive that I occasionally play it anyway. I have a great time, notwithstanding any opinions I've formed since the '80s. This is perhaps the only arcade game from which I can't objectively detach my early affection, for the kid Chris was captivated. It was as close as I could get to literally playing a part in the movie, and I watched older players until I memorized their tactics and patterns. I became quite good myself, and still remember most of the maneuvers.
 
In fact, if I'm out on one of my treasured nighttime walks and I get hit by a falling piano or something, I'll be in trouble when I try to recall my blood type. The poor paramedic will hear little more than, "High speed. Forward. Right. Left. Left. Left." He'll be all set if he ever gives up his work to drive a Light Cycle, though. I should know.
 

http://www.orphanedgames.com
 

Pasted below is the Tron chapter of the Classic-Gaming Bookcast (without the images). I'm only including it because I thought you guys might enjoy reading it. I didn't realize that there were other huge fans of the film, at least beyond the association-with-old-games interest level. I hope you enjoy it...it was unexpectedly difficult to articulate why the movie means so much to me!
 
---
 
In late 1982 or early '83, we rented the movie Tron for our Betamax VCR. Preposterously, I hadn't gotten around to seeing it on the big screen. I figured out how to copy it, using a borrowed second machine, and watched it over and over again. I bought the VHS tape five or six years later, and the double DVD on the film's twentieth anniversary in '02.
 
Some of the dialogue might have been hokey, even when the movie was new, but I was mesmerized by the visualizations and plot details. I tended to live in my own world half the time anyway; upon seeing Tron, I transformed the real one from inside my head. I didn't quite mean to. It just made the repetitious things in a kid's life cooler. I left solid walls of light along the sidewalk, and the glinting tiles and painted-over bricks of my elementary school became circuited tunnels through which I ominously soared.
 
I wasn't noticeably physical about any of this. I didn't have to be. I'd already filled my skull with video-game images over the prior year. Now the three-dimensional ramifications of living in that universe were absorbed into my mental metabolism. The screens that connected the everyday world to these new ones weren't monitors or television tubes, but windows. Locations from various games flew enticingly past me as I walked by things as formerly ordinary as jungle gyms and chain-link fences.
 
It's not that I didn't enjoy being a kid. There were simply aspects that I found objectionable. Being expected to attend school every day felt like a prison sentence. And I reviled not having the adult abilities to do stuff. This didn't concern unrestricted toy shopping, theme-park trips or other external extravagances. I wanted to play real musical instruments and write real books. I could save odd-job money toward the former, and practice the latter on my mom's typewriter; but I wasn't skilled yet, and I was impatient to truly get started.
 
Something that was possible, however, was to competently explore that limitless other place, finding and doing things previously consigned to my imagination. Tron alluringly blurred the line. I could even learn to create my own parts of that other place, if only I could get my hands on a computer.
 
As I was already acclimating myself to a coexistence with other humans by adopting the crucial society-is-stupidly-funny mindset (I didn't know how to apply words like "absurdly amusing"), it was impactful to see just how easily alternate life could be created. My widening eyes watched Flynn and Alan actually communicating with the humanoid programs they'd "written," using secret messages such as "Request access to Clu program. Code 6 password to memory 0222." Outside the VCR, every spinning thing that I saw reminded me of the Master Control Program, and anything laid out in a grid fashion was an electronic, beautifully unambiguous expanse.
 
When Flynn was sucked into the collective digital world and was able to interact with the walking, talking realizations of his own keyboard work, I was sucked in, myself. The main function of teachers seemed to be to detract my attention from the things with which I really loved to fill my brain. Their inapplicable blather might have prepared me to be a good drone, so it's fortunate that affordable home video games came along when they did.
 
I believe that I initially played the Tron coin-op in the small game room at Uncle Cliff's, an Albuquerque amusement park. (The name has since been changed to Cliff's, but he's not fooling anyone. He's still my uncle!) When I play it now, it strikes me as a continually repeated quartet of largely derivative sub-games that rapidly rise in difficulty. It's blatantly designed to scarf up as much money as possible. In this sense, I suppose, it was technologically prophetic.
 
My associations with the game are so positive that I occasionally play it anyway. I have a great time, notwithstanding any opinions I've formed since the '80s. This is perhaps the only arcade game from which I can't objectively detach my early affection, for the kid Chris was captivated. It was as close as I could get to literally playing a part in the movie, and I watched older players until I memorized their tactics and patterns. I became quite good myself, and still remember most of the maneuvers.
 
In fact, if I'm out on one of my treasured nighttime walks and I get hit by a falling piano or something, I'll be in trouble when I try to recall my blood type. The poor paramedic will hear little more than, "High speed. Forward. Right. Left. Left. Left." He'll be all set if he ever gives up his work to drive a Light Cycle, though. I should know.
 

http://www.orphanedgames.com
 

Pasted below is the Tron chapter of the Classic-Gaming Bookcast (without the images). I'm only including it because I thought you guys might enjoy reading it. I didn't realize that there were other huge fans of the film, at least beyond the association-with-old-games interest level. I hope you enjoy it...it was unexpectedly difficult to articulate why the movie means so much to me!
 
---
 
In late 1982 or early '83, we rented the movie Tron for our Betamax VCR. Preposterously, I hadn't gotten around to seeing it on the big screen. I figured out how to copy it, using a borrowed second machine, and watched it over and over again. I bought the VHS tape five or six years later, and the double DVD on the film's twentieth anniversary in '02.
 
Some of the dialogue might have been hokey, even when the movie was new, but I was mesmerized by the visualizations and plot details. I tended to live in my own world half the time anyway; upon seeing Tron, I transformed the real one from inside my head. I didn't quite mean to. It just made the repetitious things in a kid's life cooler. I left solid walls of light along the sidewalk, and the glinting tiles and painted-over bricks of my elementary school became circuited tunnels through which I ominously soared.
 
I wasn't noticeably physical about any of this. I didn't have to be. I'd already filled my skull with video-game images over the prior year. Now the three-dimensional ramifications of living in that universe were absorbed into my mental metabolism. The screens that connected the everyday world to these new ones weren't monitors or television tubes, but windows. Locations from various games flew enticingly past me as I walked by things as formerly ordinary as jungle gyms and chain-link fences.
 
It's not that I didn't enjoy being a kid. There were simply aspects that I found objectionable. Being expected to attend school every day felt like a prison sentence. And I reviled not having the adult abilities to do stuff. This didn't concern unrestricted toy shopping, theme-park trips or other external extravagances. I wanted to play real musical instruments and write real books. I could save odd-job money toward the former, and practice the latter on my mom's typewriter; but I wasn't skilled yet, and I was impatient to truly get started.
 
Something that was possible, however, was to competently explore that limitless other place, finding and doing things previously consigned to my imagination. Tron alluringly blurred the line. I could even learn to create my own parts of that other place, if only I could get my hands on a computer.
 
As I was already acclimating myself to a coexistence with other humans by adopting the crucial society-is-stupidly-funny mindset (I didn't know how to apply words like "absurdly amusing"), it was impactful to see just how easily alternate life could be created. My widening eyes watched Flynn and Alan actually communicating with the humanoid programs they'd "written," using secret messages such as "Request access to Clu program. Code 6 password to memory 0222." Outside the VCR, every spinning thing that I saw reminded me of the Master Control Program, and anything laid out in a grid fashion was an electronic, beautifully unambiguous expanse.
 
When Flynn was sucked into the collective digital world and was able to interact with the walking, talking realizations of his own keyboard work, I was sucked in, myself. The main function of teachers seemed to be to detract my attention from the things with which I really loved to fill my brain. Their inapplicable blather might have prepared me to be a good drone, so it's fortunate that affordable home video games came along when they did.
 
I believe that I initially played the Tron coin-op in the small game room at Uncle Cliff's, an Albuquerque amusement park. (The name has since been changed to Cliff's, but he's not fooling anyone. He's still my uncle!) When I play it now, it strikes me as a continually repeated quartet of largely derivative sub-games that rapidly rise in difficulty. It's blatantly designed to scarf up as much money as possible. In this sense, I suppose, it was technologically prophetic.
 
My associations with the game are so positive that I occasionally play it anyway. I have a great time, notwithstanding any opinions I've formed since the '80s. This is perhaps the only arcade game from which I can't objectively detach my early affection, for the kid Chris was captivated. It was as close as I could get to literally playing a part in the movie, and I watched older players until I memorized their tactics and patterns. I became quite good myself, and still remember most of the maneuvers.
 
In fact, if I'm out on one of my treasured nighttime walks and I get hit by a falling piano or something, I'll be in trouble when I try to recall my blood type. The poor paramedic will hear little more than, "High speed. Forward. Right. Left. Left. Left." He'll be all set if he ever gives up his work to drive a Light Cycle, though. I should know.
 

http://www.orphanedgames.com
 

Celebrate by watching the movies, the cartoon, and enjoying all the COOL games!

JR. PAC-MAN

Poor Battlezone's not getting any votes! It really deserves them.

Lance rules, and has ruled for a very long time. I'm endlessly happy to see that Video 61 is still thriving.
 
There's my 2K.

I was wondering if anyone here has tried these out?  They look like a fantastic use of the Pro-Line Joystick model.
 
http://www.atarisales.com/cx30evolved.html
 

That is very cool!  I'll bet they work very nicely and feel good in the hand.  The original paddles are great -- another design that Atari nailed on the first try.  But these look nice too. 

Hi MalakZero,
 
thanks for the nice compliment, i am the one who engineered the CX-30 Evolved paddle controllers.
 
they are out right now, i need to get more built. they work well, and are a bit faster than the original paddle controller. i was almost out of the original paddle controllers, when i thought about all of the Atari 7800 controllers i had left, and what to do with them? then i got a idea to convert them into dual-button paddle controllers.
 
it took a while to find the right pots to use, you cannot use the original ones very well, they work, but just barely, it's tough to get them just right.
 
then there was the glue problem. but in the end, it all came together, and voila! i engineered them, patent pending and all.
 
i bought 1000s of proline joysticks from Atari, that were customer returns from Atari. at one time i thought "what am i going to do with all these?" today with the original paddle controllers disappearing, the CX-30 evolved selling, best electronics gold upgrades, my 7800 grip stick upgrade which requires a proline joystick cable, and another project i am looking at that will require more proline parts, i can see the end coming much much sooner than i ever thought.
 
thanks for your interests 
 
 
Lance
 
 

Here are some more unique sticks:
 
T
 
Top row: (Radio Shack) Archer Deluxe Competition Joystick, Wico Command Control Joystick (5200)*, Gemini Gemstick-Pro
Bottom row: Coin Controls Inc. Competition Pro**, Championship Electronics SuperChamp (with 10' retractable cord), Wico "Famous Red Ball"
 
*This has a 9-pin cable, but it's meant to plug into a Y-cable for the 5200 and is not compatible with the VCS without an adapter cable.  It snuck into the photo when I wasn't looking.
**The Competition Pro is the regular one with leaf switches, not the "5000" model with microswitches.
 
Last but certainly not least:
 

 
I've never seen these referred to with an Atari CX- part number, and the 2800 owner's manual doesn't seem to list one either.  If they have an official name, I'm not aware of it.  Edit: Confirmed, these are CX28 controllers.
 
In case anyone's interested, the Gemstick-Pro and CE SuperChamp are available for trade/sale.  They're tested and work just fine, I just don't like them as much as some of the others.

Wico bat handles
 
 

I'm assuming that among the lot of us, we have a pretty boss 2600 joystick collection.  Please post the unique joysticks you have.  I'll bet that together,  we have every one made back in the day.
 
Here's what I have:
 

 
Top row:  Pointmaster, Quickshot II, Epyx 500XJ, GemStik, Wico Boss
Bottom row:  Atari Flashback 2, Original Atari CX-10 (it has springs inside!), Atari CX-40, Slik Stik, Suncom Tac30, Kraft.

Here is one of the most decent Jaguar video reviews I have come across. It's from a guy named Dan Wood from the site kookytech.net. Despite one or two inaccuracies, on the whole this is a good overview and his assessment of the Last True Atari is right on.
 

Here is another prototype cart for the Atari 8-Bit computer. This game is Super Huey UH-IX which was a cool helicopter game on Atari 7800 and was in development to be ported over to a grey cartridge release for the Atari XEGS.
 
This particular prototype version was not done yet but it was a great looking game.
 
Super Huey was released for the XL/XE on floppy but not on cartridge. If you've played Super Huey on the 7800 you'll remember how serious of a flight simulator it was. It wasn't a normal shooter game like Choplifter where you immediately start flying around and shooting. Since the time that we filmed this video I found original instructions for Super Huey on XL/XE. Once you get in the cockpit, you first press OPTION. Then you type POW to turn on the power to the helicopter. Then you press START to start the engine, and then you need to rev the engine up past 1600 rpm by pressing forward on the joystick. Then you press SELECT to clutch the rotor and being the throttle up to 3000 RPM. 
 
First off, I was wondering what was inside the prototype cartridge. So Steven took it apart for me, and low and behold, what appeared to be a stock Atari ROM, not an E-PROM. So far all of the proto carts I've received from Atari were E-PROMs. ROMs are for mass production. So I told Steven "bummer, most likely it cannot be copied" because it's a ROM chip, the legs do different things on a ROM, than an E-PROM does.
 
But, some can be copied, if its a one time burn E-PROM, which has no window, so it looks like a ROM. There are other versions also that I am not familiar with.
 
So I copied it, ROMs can be copied, but will not run as an E-PROM, and I do not have a ROM programmer. I was holding my breath as it copied. It should have been 64k. It turned out it was NOT 64k, and I was stunned, its 32k. On the floppy it was 48k. So I am assuming this is not a done version.
 
I burned it onto a 32k E-PROM, plugged it into an E-PROM cart, and turned on the computer, it froze solid, blue screen saying ready. Tried it again, got the same thing.
 
So I thought, I wonder if it will run on the Super Huey board, it should not, because of the differences in how the board is wired for roms. i plugged it into the board, put the board into my XE game machine, turned it on, got the same picture as the other one, but with one difference...
 
When I pushed OPTION, we got more action, then I typed in pow, pushed start, and we got lots of action, but both sides of the screen show pixilation. It's not done. Steve and I got it to fly, but it freezes sometimes. We got no further than that. There might be more, but it freezes sometimes. So I looked at the board, I saw some differences compared to other Atari XE Super Cart boards, and of course an E-PROM board.
 
It might be wired for use with an E-PROM, and or what ever type of one time E-PROM, or some sort of ROM chip that i was able to copy, all at the same time. Sometimes boards are wired differently, due to how it was programmed, and where in RAM the program resides.
 
All i know so far is that it's not like other E-PROMboards, or ROM boards.
 
So because of this, I was reading up on ROMs tonight. What i found out was there is a PROM chip. It's a one-time programable chip that is burned like an E-PROM. I bet that is what the Atari XE Super Huey chip is, and why I could copy it. It seems Atari was using three different technologies on their cart boards. This is the first one that I have ran into. Knowing Jack, it was for cheapness purposes. What ever was cheaper at the time, he used. I say this needs to be investigated and filmed.
 
So, I am going to try to get the board replicated, and we will test the game further. It's possible the board may have to be wired further, to tie the programming into certain parts of the RAM. I will keep you informed as we discover more about this game.
 
I filmed this video with the help of my good friend Steve who is an Atari.io member here under the name BlackCatz40. Here's a look at the Super Huey UH-IX prototype cart for the Atari XL/XE Series computers:
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UH_nrLeCkc

Holy cow, you beat Fathom? My hat is off to you sir. Wow.

Yeah I did and I will post a walkthrough video of it later.
However I must admit, I uses a guide for the star locations.
I just didn't have the patience to play levels over and over just to find the stars, especially since you would have to restart the game a lot to do so.
That game must of took a long time for kids to figure out and beat in the 80's!

I used Scott Stilphen's map to beat Fathom back in '02, and I bring this up because, when I had my own channel and did a complete Easter-egg series, my comments on the game were either exactly or very close to: "I started out really enjoying Fathom, but by the time I beat it, I thought, 'Yay! I never have to play this game again!'"
 
It's not as if I "don't like" it...the concept, graphics, smoothness, adventure-game layout, "game world" hugeness, etc. are all great. And I always applaud originality; it's a biggie for me. I admire Fulop for the creative risk-taking alone.
 
But smoothness, precise graphical interaction, etc. are all typically superb on the 2600, so those aren't out of the ordinary. The thing is, those qualities make a lot of games feel good to play. Not this one. "Painstaking" is the word I would use.
 
First off, it has a time limit (a personal bugbear) and calls for too much precision. The half-Jousty controls should have been made entirely Jousty. These elements boost the difficulty to the level of Unnecessarily High, along the lines of something like the eight-bit dog Manic Miner: Don't screw up a single thing, or you're done!
 
If you accidentally leave the sky screen where you've revealed a trident piece, it's gone. You can make it come back, but by that point, you've used up all of the "good clouds" and now lose time for every "bad cloud" you touch. Perhaps a boundary to keep your bird from being bounced through the damn border would have made it more fun. (Say that three times fast.)
 
Still, I wish this level of giddy originality and fantastical invention weren't lost to time.
 
(These aren't show comments, Ferg -- I never see the point of writing in just to share negative opinions. The exception was, of course, Swordquest: FireWorld.)

I used Scott Stilphen's map to beat Fathom back in '02, and I bring this up because, when I had my own channel and did a complete Easter-egg series, my comments on the game were either exactly or very close to: "I started out really enjoying Fathom, but by the time I beat it, I thought, 'Yay! I never have to play this game again!'"
 
It's not as if I "don't like" it...the concept, graphics, smoothness, adventure-game layout, "game world" hugeness, etc. are all great. And I always applaud originality; it's a biggie for me. I admire Fulop for the creative risk-taking alone.
 
But smoothness, precise graphical interaction, etc. are all typically superb on the 2600, so those aren't out of the ordinary. The thing is, those qualities make a lot of games feel good to play. Not this one. "Painstaking" is the word I would use.
 
First off, it has a time limit (a personal bugbear) and calls for too much precision. The half-Jousty controls should have been made entirely Jousty. These elements boost the difficulty to the level of Unnecessarily High, along the lines of something like the eight-bit dog Manic Miner: Don't screw up a single thing, or you're done!
 
If you accidentally leave the sky screen where you've revealed a trident piece, it's gone. You can make it come back, but by that point, you've used up all of the "good clouds" and now lose time for every "bad cloud" you touch. Perhaps a boundary to keep your bird from being bounced through the damn border would have made it more fun. (Say that three times fast.)
 
Still, I wish this level of giddy originality and fantastical invention weren't lost to time.
 
(These aren't show comments, Ferg -- I never see the point of writing in just to share negative opinions. The exception was, of course, Swordquest: FireWorld.)

Very cool. That Elite looks close to the Amiga version; I wish it had come out.