A View of the RickR Sanctum

[RickR]

A quick look at the 3 "Avalon Hill" games that I have for 2600.  London Blitz, Shuttle Orbiter and Wall Ball.

 

[AtariSphinx]

4 hours ago, RickR said:

A quick look at the 3 "Avalon Hill" games that I have for 2600.  London Blitz, Shuttle Orbiter and Wall Ball.

Nice!  How are these games compared to some of the good/great 2600 games?

[Justin]

5 hours ago, RickR said:

A quick look at the 3 "Avalon Hill" games that I have for 2600.  London Blitz, Shuttle Orbiter and Wall Ball.

 

I'm sure I've mentioned this before @RickR but I've always liked your organization and how you store all of your games.

[RickR]

1 hour ago, AtariSphinx said:

Nice!  How are these games compared to some of the good/great 2600 games?

Here's my opinion on these three:

• London Blitz is a first person maze game with bombs you have to diffuse.  It's most similar to "Tunnel Runner", but not quite as fun.  It also has a second "bomb diffuse" screen, so it's a little more complex than Tunnel Runner.  The graphics are good, and I like the game. 
• Shuttle Orbiter is very much like Activision Space Shuttle.  I have no idea how to really play and I have no desire to spend time on the steep learning curve. 
• Wall Ball is the newest one for me.  So far, it's fun.  I thought it may be another terrible game like Apollo "Racquetball", but this one actually has decent controls.  It's hard though. 

30 minutes ago, Justin said:

I'm sure I've mentioned this before @RickR but I've always liked your organization and how you store all of your games.

Thank you!  I enjoy the organizing.  I really do.  These games have MEANING to me.  That makes it fun. 

I've been spending time getting rid of systems and stuff that I don't like or use. That's been going ok, and I've gotten rid of many things.  But I also have the complication of my children.  They have old systems that I've stored for them.  I feel like the caretaker for them.  Indeed, I've been amazed to see them getting some of the old systems out to play during the COVID pandemic.  It's a nice feeling.  I guess I get stuck sometimes between my stuff and their stuff and keeping track of both.  But I hope that once they get settled in their lives, I can hand all "their" stuff to them.  Kind of like how most of my Atari stuff languished in my parents garage for 20 years after I grew up and moved away.  I'm so glad they kept it all!  Once abandoned, it ended up being pure treasure after the passage of time. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by RickR

[RickR]

Here are some of the unique items I found while digging in the attic.  First of all is the "high score" board my brother and I made for VCS games.  We did it in pencil so we could erase and overwrite new high scores.  And a pic of the SuperCharger and Atari 8-bit tapes I came across.  I still have the manuals for those SC games. 

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by RickR

[RickR]

I've wanted one of these for a LONG time.  Starplex controller for Atari

 

[Sabertooth]

Nice! 

[RickR]

The sanctum has been reconfigured.  Due to global warming, keeping stuff in the attic storage room is no longer advisable.  I've moved stuff indoors onto nice wooden shelves.

 

[RickR]

Plans have been afoot.  Plans to reclaim our bonus room as my retro gaming place.  Well, it's been slowly coming together.  We still have one kid at home (working from home too), but I suspect at some time very soon, this room will be mine again.  In the meantime, we've been moving furniture around, and here is a really nice desk I just put in.  I got it used, cleaned it up a bit, and it's going to work perfectly.

 

[RickR]

VIC-20 stuff.  That is my original VIC-20 purchased back in the early 80's from Montgomery Wards.

 

[CrossBow]

Nice Vic-20! I didn't have one or know anyone with one back in the day, but my wife was able to pick up a complete in box Vic for me a few years back for about $10. It only came with about 3 or 4 common games and the box itself is falling apart. But... the datasette that is also came with works! Although I have NOT been successful in creating new cassette programs by downloading games and saving them in .wav format to record to tape. Some games it will see it and start to load and then just either would give an error or just sit there until the tape ran out essentially locked up. But the actual tape programs that came with it like some financial program do load and work so I know the datasette is good.

 

[RickR]

23 minutes ago, CrossBow said:

Nice Vic-20! I didn't have one or know anyone with one back in the day, but my wife was able to pick up a complete in box Vic for me a few years back for about $10. It only came with about 3 or 4 common games and the box itself is falling apart. But... the datasette that is also came with works! Although I have NOT been successful in creating new cassette programs by downloading games and saving them in .wav format to record to tape. Some games it will see it and start to load and then just either would give an error or just sit there until the tape ran out essentially locked up. But the actual tape programs that came with it like some financial program do load and work so I know the datasette is good.

 

Try adjusting the recording levels if you can (or the volume on the computer program playing the WAV file).  I've had good luck making tapes from WAV, but I use a full sized stereo tape deck with adjustable recording levels. 

[CrossBow]

3 hours ago, RickR said:

Try adjusting the recording levels if you can (or the volume on the computer program playing the WAV file).  I've had good luck making tapes from WAV, but I use a full sized stereo tape deck with adjustable recording levels. 

I was actually using a semi period correct Bell & Howell mono tape recorder when trying this. I had the line out from the PC plugged into the MIC input on the tape recorder. I tried multiple volume levels from lower 1/3 peaks to mid peaks to near max. Nothing... worked. I eventually gave it up and since I don't have any of the expansion carts for my Vic, I'm limited on what can be played on it anyway so it usually stays in its box in the closet. Although I did recap it and repaste it about 2 years back around the same time I did my Ti-99.

 

[RickR]

OH!  It has to be stereo.  Commodore uses both channels for error correction. 

There is a very inexpensive and awesome multicart called "Behr-bonz".  Look it up and give that a try.  All of the commercial carts on one multi-cart. 

 

[CrossBow]

13 hours ago, RickR said:

OH!  It has to be stereo.  Commodore uses both channels for error correction. 

There is a very inexpensive and awesome multicart called "Behr-bonz".  Look it up and give that a try.  All of the commercial carts on one multi-cart. 

 

Interesting, Because from what I read, the Vic tapes were mono and most of what I read said that my likely issue was that I was using stereo cables going into a mono device and I should try using a line out mono cable. But when I did that... it actually blew up my Soundblaster Zxr. I was not happy about that and having to replace the sound card.

I've heard of that multicart and I for a few months I did get to play around with the ultra version cart that is SD based and adds the extra memory. I can't remember what it was called but the AA member known as Skydivin Girl was selling them. Anyway, buddy of mine bought one and the cables etc. and had me borrow it to figure out how to use it while he was in the middle of a move and couldn't get to his Vic at the time.

 

[RickR]

Dang, I think this is another case of my memory failing.  Commodore tapes weren't stereo...they wrote each program twice and had parity bits or something like that. 

In any case, it does work.  I made myself a 90 minute tape full of "greatest hits" for the C64 back before multicarts or disk emulation existed.