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Want list...
So here's a list of games and controllers I'm looking for, some ultra-rare, some not so rare.
Games:
Millipede
Kool-aid Man
Basic Programming
3-D Tic-tac-toe
Dragster
Asterix
Plaque Attack
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
Star Wars: Death Star Battle
Star Wars: The Arcade Game
Swordquest WaterWorld
Music Machine
Secret Quest
Phoenix
Snoopy and the Red Baron
Checkers
Chess
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Home Run
James Bond 007
Chuck Norris Superkicks
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man
Star Strike
Bump 'n' Jump
Burgertime
International Soccer
Super Challenge Football
Tunnel Runner
Omega Race
Atlantis (Day scene label)
Controllers:
Tron controller
Keypad controllers
Video touch pad
Track and Field Controller
Trackball
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Time to make some Enemies!
Reading fellow member Mili's blog made me realize that the Politics and Religion ban doesn't extend to my personal blog. So I'm going to vent!
For the most part, I'm a fairly left-leaning guy who doesn't like the fact that both the United States and Canada are drifting steadily further to the right. Part of the problem for me is that the political right doesn't even stand for the things it was conceived to stand for historically. If you've taken any Political Science courses at school, you know that on paper, principles of the classical right should include smaller government. So what does that mean exactly? It means that the government keeps its hands off as many things as possible. This policy of non-interference can be broken down into two broad categories: economic non-interference and social non-interference.
Economically, a classical conservative believes in a free market, with as little government regulation as possible. Businesses are allowed to create a natural environment of competition, where in theory they will compete to offer the best products and services to the customer at the best prices. Some people believe this philosophy works, and some don't; that's not where I'm picking a fight.
So far it might sound like contemporary conservatives are sticking to their guns; after all, vehement Republican opposition to things like universal health care and government takeovers of bankrupt corporations and financial institutions rings true to the principles of the free market, right? The problem, however, is that conservatives don't just support the freedom of the corporations; they support the corporations themselves. As in, financially.
In both Canada and the United States, conservatives are in the pockets of corporations. Tax break after tax break for oil companies, banks, multiconglomerates and the super-rich are a continuing conservative mandate, even during an economic recession where those tax dollars should be allocated to the relief of struggling working-and-middle-class families. In states like Wisconsin and Ohio, the scale has been tipped in favor of corporations over employees with the stripping away of collective bargaining rights and the crippling of unions. Big corporations get richer while small ones and individuals suffer. Markets are no longer truly free when the biggest businesses have the political and financial backing of the government, at the expense of small businesses which either go belly-up or are bought out by the big guns.
The principles of small government also extend to the social sphere. A small government keeps out of your home, out of your place of worship, and out of your bedroom. Modern conservatives, quite obviously, do none of these things.
Both American Republicans and Canadian Conservatives support practices like wiretapping, arrest without a warrant, and legislature that discriminates sexual preferences. Information is collected and used against you when they don't approve of your behavior. Two weeks ago, two girls were thrown out of a Conservative Party rally in Canada by the RCMP solely because a Conservative employee had screened their Facebook profiles and found photographs of them with the rival party's leader. At the same time, while conservatives want all of your information, they do not want you to have any of theirs. This is why Julian Assange and Wikileaks, who have tried to expose the international crimes of governments and businesses, has been vilified by both the American and Canadian governments, and slandered with false charges to tarnish his name.
Both of our constitutions promise freedom of religion and equal rights to all peoples regardless of background or belief. But some beliefs, as you know, are more equal than others. Evangelical Christian denominations exert a disproportionate amount of influence, while minority groups like Muslims are continuously demonized and discriminated against. If I am to judge all Muslims by the actions of Osama bin Laden, shouldn't I judge all Christians by the actions of Ted Jones, or Fred Phelps? Furthermore, guess what American leader is responsible for hundreds of times more civilian deaths than Bin Laden? I'm not going to give you the oft-repeated contemporary answers; try Harry S. Truman.
Ultimately Evangelical churches are the wealthiest religious presence in North America, and so in this regard, conservatives are in their pockets just as they are in the pockets of corporations. As such, they attempt to dictate the social values of everyone.
Additional points of complaint: conservatives by-and-large don't believe in the perils of climate change, or at least profess not to because they are in the pockets of oil companies. I don't even have to prove climate change to demonstrate the dangers of this sort of ignorance. One side believes that human influence will ultimately damage our climate and environment to the point where even basic survival is not guaranteed. The other side believes that human impact on the environment is negligible. If we listen to the first side and make the necessary changes to our society and infrastructure to make it more sustainable, and that side later turns out to be wrong, are we really that much worse off? Either way, we are still alive. On the other hand, let's follow the naysayers and make no changes whatsoever to our sustainability. What happens if they are wrong? Simple: we die. Climate change thus becomes a better-safe-than-sorry issue.
Speaking of ignorance, I am terrified by the intelligence and qualifications of up-and-coming conservative politicians such as Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. These people know about as much about political science as Avril Lavigne does about punk rock.
In closing, then, conservatism in its classical sense no longer exists. Conservatives no longer care about small government, free markets, and the rights of the individual. They support corporate theocracy.
Why my sudden frustrations? Canada is having an election, and for the first time, I am worried. The Conservative Party of Canada as it exists today is an amalgamation of the older Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance Parties. The Canadian Alliance was a re-branding of the Reform Party, which sprang up in Western Canada in the late 80's as a response to growing sentiments that Western Canadian interests and values were under-represented at the federal level. Throughout the Reform party's existence, they support and attracted the support of racists, homophobes, sexists, religious fundamentalists, and oil companies. That same party now occupies most of the positions of power in the modern Conservative Party; the old Progressive Conservatives were the last true "Classical Conservatives" insofar as they support market de-regulation, social non-interference, and small government. Most of those "Red Tories" quit when the corporate Evangelicals moved in.
Stephen Harper, the leader of this Conservative Party, is now asking Canadians for a majority government. He supports stripping the funding from other political parties, the de-regulation of banks to mirror the US model that collapsed in 2008 and took much of the economy with it, he has rolled back Canada's commitments to international environmental pacts, he won't let the same-sex debate die, he has slashed funding to liberal arts programs, he has ignored both Aboriginal and Francophone issues, he turned Toronto into a police state for the G20 summit and arrested 900 people without charges, and he tries to keep media coverage out of parliament. His party supports wiretapping and has left a Canadian who was arrested as a child solder in Afghanistan at age 14 to rot in Guantanamo Bay, where he faces torture, terror, and hopelessness. He downplays the environmental disaster that is the Alberta Oil Sands, he wastes money on bleeding-edge military jets, and avoids direct questions. Four members of his party are facing charges of election fraud, and his government was found to be in contempt of parliament. He is continuously voted in by the zealous, the wealthy, and the ignorant.
If he wins a majority, I can no longer be proud of my country. Canada will just be another corporate theocracy.
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Sonic X Blog: Depths of Danger (Season 2, Episode 3)
It's been almost a week, but here's the Sonic X blog again. In Depths of Danger, Sonic and his friends try to retrieve the fourth chaos emerald from a sunken ship. However, Robotnik has his heart set on the emerald as well, and Sonic's dislike of water presents problems.
What's to say that hasn't been said? It's another worthy episode, and it's got a few unexpected things in it. Seeing Sonic trying to overcome his hydrophobic tendencies was pretty entertaining, too.
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A Plea to the Jaguar Community and a Call to Action
Ah the Jaguar community. Without a doubt, the most hostile of all the gaming communities... this is my personal story of the Jaguar community. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I've been a member of AA since 2005, and for 6 years managed to weave and dodge my way around all of the foolish nonsense. From double accounts, to heated discussions regarding roms, a blind loyalty to the system and it's games, and the constant bickering and antagonizing of members that don't fall in line with the "norm." At times it has been downright toxic.
Two forums emerged from the 2 "factions" of the divide, one being FreeJag and the other being private. Neither has picked up any steam. Leaving AA the premier place for Jaguar enthusiasts, which seems appropriate.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Since I had the internet, approximately 1998, I've loved the free flow of information and the sharing of knowledge. One of my earliest obsessions was with the Sonic community, and I was huge into that scene around the time the Sonic 2 Beta was released. There was so much information being shared and discovered. And the rom was released to the public! Instead of an elite few controlling the flow of information, it was available for the whole world.
From there, FAQs, hex charts, and documentation was shared and more great things happened. With Hex editing alone (meaning no source code) awesome hacks of the Genesis Sonic games were released. Beta levels were restored, beautiful palette swaps were released, and previously undiscovered badnicks were restored. Sonic Mega Mix, which is a terrific hack of Sonic CD, is freely available for you to burn to a CD and fire up on your Sega CD. Nothing is required to play this gem. You don't need to be a member. You don't need to donate money. The community is still thriving, and Sonic Retro is a HUGE forum, and even has an official relationship with Sega. You read that right, a rom hosting, sonic hacking, IP violating, group of people have an official relationship with Sega.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are hundreds of examples of bending, and sometimes breaking, rules/laws resulting in wonderful things. A more recent example was a very dedicated chap who disassembled the original Super Mario Bros. (NES), reworked the code into a fully documented source code. I can't even fathom the amount of time and energy that went into this project. And it was released free to the community.
And you want to know what happened when some gave away there hard work asking nothing in return? Someone took the source, and ported it to the Sega Genesis. And you know what he did? Released it to the world, free of charge, free of obligation. And from there, people started helping with the project, donating source code and other files to help make the Genesis Mario even better, and more accurate. This is what happens when people share their work. Wonderful things happen.
But for some reason, these types of things quite simple don't happen in the Jaguar scene. Perhaps it's because the Jaguar is not terribly popular, and does not attract enough people to warrant the time and energy it takes to do such great things. But my gut tells me it's something else.
Avoiding the drama that was the summer of 2009, and to keep with this blog's terms of use (specifically, not naming anyone) let's just say there was a shake up. A perfect storm of sorts was brewing. And when the dust settled, there were casualties. Member of the Jaguar community started rejected the "norm" and Jag fans started wanting a piece of that community pie. People wanted to download roms without being shunned. People wanted to talk about emulation. People wanted to hack, crack, explore, share, the games they've loved for years.
But during this renaissance, there was resistance. The ugly term "piracy" reared it's ugly head.
Now I must take a brief break from story for a disclaimer. This story and my thoughts are not meant to offend, anyone. If you are offended I offer you my sincerest apologies. If you think any of my comments are directed at you personally, they are not. And now to continue our broadcast.
The term piracy reared it's ugly head. Yes, downloading roms of commercial games is illegal (unless the developer released it's rights... and speaking of that, check out the Amiga CD32 community, awesome). There is no doubt about it. But what does that really mean? I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Generally speaking, developers and publishers do not want their intellectual property released for free to the public. Piracy is a real problem, and does negatively affect companies. But this very website is host to thousands of commercial roms. The owner of this website has not been sued. Draw your own conclusions.
This leads me to my first problem with the Jaguar community. If you visit other game forums and mention how you played Darxide (rare 32x title) via an emulator, no one is going to berate you, no one is going to call you a pirate, no one is going to threaten litigation. In the summer of 2009, you couldn't mention you downloaded Rayman and played it on a Jaguar emulator. A vocal minority of the Jaguar community wouldn't allow such talk.
This leads me to a personal lesson. Live and let live. Not everyone agrees with you. You won't agree with everyone. Chances are very high that nothing you say will change the other persons mind. The point of debate is not to "convert" the other person. It's not even about persuading the other person to believe what you are saying. The point of debate is to understand the other side. Not agree with the other side. Live and let live. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go round. And yes, that means I empathize (but not sympathize) with those that disagree.
So here we are today. Coming up on the 2 year anniversary of the Jaguar's renaissance. Things are moving slowly, but I believe the community is slowly moving towards a new era of sharing and discovery. We've seen a few interesting hacks, including extracting Art and Voice files from the bubsy rom, and some work disassembling the code. Perhaps someday we'll have Bubsy hacks with tweaked controls, new sprites, and other things I can't even imagine.
We've also seen some hex editing (very crude hacking) of Checkered Flag to start to tweak it's horrid controls. Who knows, if enough people show interest, share there findings, maybe someday Checkered Flag could be playable, maybe even fun!
A Call To action
If you've made it this far, perhaps you are wondering what the point of all of this is. Up until this point, I've been bobbing and weaving my way through the Jaguar Community, only stepping out of line once and a while to voice my opinion. But some recent experiences have made me want to step out of the shadows. It's something that I, and many others, should have done a long time ago. It's time for the Jaguar community to be a community. You don't even have to do anything if you don't want to!
1. Be civil, not everyone agrees with you, and you can't change there mind. That is ok!
2. Support emulation. Piracy and emulation are NOT the same thing. Emulation makes programming and debugging easier. Emulation can give you a way to play freely released games without dedicated hardware. You can support emulation by supporting those who are writing emulators. Get involved, test them, offer feedback, offer support.
3. SHARE I can't express this enough. Share your findings and your discoveries. The more you share, the more others will share. The more they share, the more you get. Some people will object to sharing for "legal" or "moral" concerns. And that's fine, everyone is entitled to there own opinion.
Dig through roms and find sprites that were never used in game. Take those sprites and make animated gifs and share them with the world. Find hex edits to give games unlimited lives. Find sound clips. Document and share. If whatever you are doing violates forum rules, then start your own website! Blogger and Wordpress (among others) make for great ways to document and share.
As I said at the beginning of this blog, there are 2 factions of Jaguar fans. Those who like the status quo, who refuse to allow any new ideas, and stand on what they perceive as the moral high ground with a firm stance against any sort of "hacking." The other side wants to see the Jaguar flourish in it's after life, like most classic gaming systems.
Which side should you be on? Neither. There is room for everyone. If you strictly want to play commercial games on your actual system, and nothing else. That is fine! I support you! There is room in the community for you. I will not try to change your mind. And you should not try to change mine. If you want to see emulation, rom hacking, sprite ripping, and game modifying, there is room for you to! All we have to do is respect each other, from the people on the extreme ends, to the the quiet majority in the middle.
So please, end the hostility. Who knows, maybe we'll see the Super Mario Bros. source ported to the Jaguar. Now wouldn't that be awesome?
-Kris
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Played some TETЯIS today.
The Tengen version, of course.
Well, it's a lot better than the cruddy NES version that Nintendo made, and I got about 30000 on my first try. Just need to make my emulator save information.
Graphics are nice, sound is nearly perfect (I want the theme A from the Nintendo NES version in it and for it to increase in tempo if you're too high), and controls are decent. Pick this up if you want a good Tetris game.
Or to increase your collection, these are R5.
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bB 1.1 beta build release B
Here is another release that should be close enough that programmers can get started on some games.
This release requires a test version of Stella, posted in the previous blog entry.
Included in this release:
- Support for 10 sprites (player0-player9)
- pfcolors: now works
- Background colors per line supported (uses new bkcolors: command)
- scorecolor: command to define score colors per line
- Comments with semicolon now supported
- C-style multiline comments with /* and */
- Use of extra RAM in DPC+ (described below)
A demo is included that shows some of the above features, except the extra RAM.
Sprite 0 is flicker-free and uses player0, while sprite 1 is flickered as needed for player1-player9. Use the left joystick in the demo to move the sprites and the button to change the sprite to move to see the flicker engine in action.
pfcolors: can specify from 1 to 255 colors for the playfield. Use DF4FRACINC to determine when the colors will update (the number of lines is determined by 256/x). For example: to update every 8 lines, use DF4FRACINC=16.) DF4FRACINC=0 will show the whole playfield in a single color, while DF4FRACINC=255 will update every line (but needs a "priming read" - more about that another time.) In the demo, use RESET to change DF4FRACINC.
In a similar fashion, DF0FRACINC-DF3FRACINC control how often each 8-pixel swath of playfield columns gets updated. In the demo, use the right joystick can independently control these.
bkcolors: works like any other color command. It uses DF6FRACINC to determine how often to update. In the demo, use SELECT to change DF6FRACINC.
Some other things that RevEng pointed out have been fixed (though I'm not sure if all have.)
Lastly, use of the extra RAM is via a stack as that's how the RAM is structured. You have a 256-byte stack. You can push and pull variables from the stack to effectively increase your available RAM, as follows:
push a monsterX t
will push variables a, monsterX and t to the stack, and you can use them for other purposes. To get them back, use pull:
pull a monsterX t
You can also push or pull a range:
push a-f
will push variables a-f. To get them back, use pull a-f.
When you push variables, the pointer is decremented and pulling will increment. A third command to handle the stack pointer is also available. The default value for the stack pointer is 256. For example:
stack 200
will set the stack pointer to 200. You can also use a variable here.
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Fish and Chips and Mario
Lent, 1981....The video game craze is in full force and my brother and I are relentlessly pummeling my parents to get us an Atari because it's educational, everyone has one and whatever other brainwashing tecniques we could think of....an effort that would pay off at Christmas time. As per usual for us at the time we headed down to my Grandparents house in Lorain, Ohio for Easter weekend....a 3 hour trek from our suburban Detroit home. We arrived on Thursday night at 9:30, my brother and I consumed the usual over teh top sanwich platter my Grandma would prepare for our arrival and headed off to bed. The next evening we all went to the Slovak Home in Lorain....which can best be described as a VFW hall kind of place with the atmosphere which you would expect from a place like this. They had a good fish fry according to the locals. We walked in teh place and immeiately the smell hits you....I love fish fries to this day and I could tell this one was going to be top notch. We went down a worn carpet staircase to reach the basement. From a sensory standpoint it could be described as uber smokey, loud, wood paneled and packed to the gills (pun somewhat intended) with mainly 40+ year old locals getting after it hard as you do when you see the words "all you can eat". We sat down at the checkerboard covered round table for 6 and I was just about to pick up a greasy dirty menu when I noticed it. A Donkey Kong. Holy cow....A Donkey Kong!!! Let me stop right here and mention that allthough we lived a non deprived childhood...my brother and I were yet to play a video game of any kind. Pathetic...I know...but what are you gonna do? I immediately shifted my attention from the glorious batter dipped golden heavenly fish to the electric joy of the light blue stand up arcade machine less than 20 feet from my clutches. I blurted it out without thinking like ralphie going for the Red Ryder..."can I have some quarters?"...before my parents could even look, my Grandma gave my brother and I 6 of them....oh baby it was on like....Donkey Kong! I being the oldest went first....the first video game I ever played! I was just happy to be there...taking it all in....and the game went predictibly. Turn 1 - I watched in amazement as Kong ascended the building with his hostage....the graphics made my jaw drop. I took some steps got stuck on a ladder and got hit by a barrel. Turn 2 - this time I got up to the second floor and a really poorly timed jump caused my demise. Turn 3 - OK...I have the hang of this thing...I made my first successful barrel jum and then my second...got to the middle somewhere when fate dropped one on my head. GAME OVER. But I was hooked. Although my brother...only 7 at the time had no success, I, on my last game of the night, cleared level 1!.....And the fish was great
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Chapter 8
Several weeks have passed. Tom sits in his dimly lit dorm room. His eyes scan the digicenter for the time: 5:40 P.M. He feels slightly sick, his bones weak. His wrists feel numb. He wishes he could disconnect his hands from them. If it could free him. In his mind he screams. There is nothing to be desired. He has already looked upon the face of God. Or is it just that he cannot decide? Paralyzed, no movement of the body but no peace of mind. Only scratching and screaming. The darkness is coming down again. Like the flick of a switch, the heavy veil casts its shadow upon all his thoughts and perceptions. There is a small fire burning in the center of his chest. Here where old Light once sat a false light burns. The animal hatred reigns. Let it come upon you and have its way with you. Biting flesh. His head is on fire. Sweat and rage. He wants to kill his family. He wants to kill his roommate. Sit there. Sit with it. Watch the tiny snake, the size of pinpoint, squirming through the wood in the floor. Bite. Bite. You feel the wounds of Christ. You are my stinking flower. Pleasure – beast – pain – rebirth. You’ve destroyed your religion, you’ve destroyed your mind. He glances at the clock: 5:50 P.M. as the digits crack. A shattered diamond. Hear me backwards: Raul med sin. Climb. Wire. Belt. Symbol. Crack. Shatter. High. Get up on the bed. Worship me. Worship me.
“Tom?! Are you ok, man?!”
His roommate Chris interrupts.
“You look pretty sick, dude. Maybe we should call someone…”
“FUCK OFF! GET AWAY FUCKER!” Tom snarls.
“Alright, man, I was just going to ask you to come out to the bar...Jeeze...what’s up your ass?”
“YOUR FUCKING MOTHER’S CUNT!” he screams.
“Dude, you really need to relax. I’m leaving. Fuck off.”
Tom just sits there growling, occasionally barking, biting the flesh off his lower lip, causing it to bleed into his mouth.
“Piss, fuck, cunt,” he grumbles softly.
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My Pool of Radiance Quest Comes To An Unexpected End
I was just starting to really get into it. I was originally worried about how much grinding would be needed - I mean, the D&D ruleset doesn't exactly let you level up quickly. My mage with 3hp was always a sitting duck as well. However, I made it in and out of several treks through the slums, and even completed a fetch quest for a wizard named Ohlo.
I levelled up my fighters and clerics (I had 2 of each in my party), and only needed a few XP more for my magic user. I decided that my Fighter/Thief was just a bad choice, because those dual class characters take so long to level up. It only took a few play sessions to get almost everyone to level two, and I only had to restart a few times. That's not bad. I also started getting some nice magic items - a Bracers of AC 6 and Ring of Protection +1 - perfect for the mag -and a few enchanted swords and bows. Good times. I like the fact that you don't really know what you have right away. It adds some mystery and suspense.
I also like how the map view doesn't really show you everything. I stumbled on that wizard by chance, and had to find my own way to the rope guild based on his instructions (it's SE of here). Most modern games would put a waypoint marker on the map, or show the door to his room in a different color or something. The fact that you don't see details is kind of a plus in some ways because it makes you explore. You can't just look at a room and say "that floorboard is a slightly darker brown, of course there's something in there." In PoR you just have to walk around, search, and see what happens. In a way, the lack of detail makes for a more realistic game.
On the downside, the interface still seemed clunky after a couple weeks. You can't just cycle through your players when at a shop, to see what each one has, you have to back out, pick the new guy, then go back into his "view" screen. And of course, it hits the disk every time it has to load a player picture. If they had an option to not see the pictures by default, it wouldn't be nearly as bad.
Another frustrating aspect is that if you're in a hopeless encounter (like a half-dead party getting attacked by 20 orcs), there's no option to quit. You either have to reboot (ugh) or bide your time while all 20 orcs attack your party, and hopefully kill them quick so you can reload.
On that topic, I do like how you can save anywhere you can camp. It's a long enough process that you don't just save every few steps, taking the consequence out of exploration (like trying to bash down the door I should have left alone), but it's convenient enough that I don't have to sit there and tool around trying to find a save point. I'm busy, I don't have tons of time for gaming, so when I'm done I need to be able to save, quit and stop playing.
Anyways, I trekked back into the slums, killed a few more kobolds (including one big party that was a great strategic battle) and got enough XP for Wyzria to hit level 2. I sold a bunch of stuff, levelled her up, got my new spell, and started walking back to the slums to explore deeper.
*beep*
Guru Meditation Error.
Huh? Crap, game crashed. Well, it wasn't that long since I saved - I think I did it right before I levelled up my mage. So I power cycle the Amiga.
*unexpected disk error 103 - unable to load program*
Huh? Let me try again.
*unexpected disk error 103 - unable to load program*
Well, apparently my disk is fubar'd. I can no longer boot the game at all. The internets say error 103 is "out of memory" but I'm not sure how that could be booting from the PoR disc. Something got really screwed up. I don't think the boot disc was in the drive at the time, so I'm pretty confused... I may keep poking around with things - if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. But for now, my adventure has come to an end. Too bad, since the game was just getting good.
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An Idea for a new pacman game
I have no problem with the various pacman games (original, ms pacman, pacman jr etc), however i noticed the one failing in the game, it's too samey and linear
My idea is to tweak the original (and variations) by adding somethings and making it more challenging
I like to call the new pacman game, pacman X, pacman TNG or Anti pacman
The main difference between this pacman and the original trilogy is that not only pacman can eat the dots (pills), the ghosts can eat the pills too
Additionally, there will be several modes of difficulty, at the basic level only pacman can eat the power pills, but unlike the original trilogy where the ghosts turned edible for some seconds, in the new version the power pills can have differing affects, like level skip, invincibility (for a few seconds), ghosts become edible (like the oroginal) and no ghosts (they stay in the centre for about a minute) in the next level of difficulty the ghosts can eat the power pills to give differing affects to the game like sudden death pacman (pac looses a life), invisible ghosts (for a few seconds) , disabled pacman (pac stays still for a few seconds) and faster ghosts (for a few seconds),,,obviously the power pill effects will be random for each power pill and for each completed level (both for pacman and the ghosts) and for the highest difficulty level there are no power pills
Another twist in the pacman game would be the use of bonus items (in the original it was placed underneath the ghosts home in the later pacman games it scrolled in from the left and exited through the right) in the new pacman games bonus items will be replaced with power ups that will benefit either pacman or the ghosts (depending who reaches the power up first)
Another twist in the game would be random effects from eating certain random numbers of dots/pills in each level, in that these effects either speed up or slow down or remove pacman or a ghost (remove pacman/ghost means you/the ghost become invisible but can still be eaten) pacman or the ghosts (whoever eats that pill/dot with that side effect)
The level completes when one of two scenarios happen, pacman has eaten more dots on the level then any other ghost (individually) or if pacman has not eaten the most dots he can still complete the level after the last dot is eaten by finding the randomly placed exit within a set time (about 30 seconds) since after the last dot is eaten, if pacman hasn't eaten the last dot the normal pacman exits are closed and one exit is randomly opened, if pacman exits within the time limit the level will end and new one begins, if pacman doesn't reach the exit in time, the four ghosts will re appear one circling the exit and the other three coming after pacman moving at super spped
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Putting things in storage
I'm just trying to sort some stuff out in my own mind. There are lots of more interesting things to read on AA. Don't waste your time.
I've recently purchased an N64 and an Odyssey2 and now I'm wondering how to fit them into my existing gaming spaces. The N64 is an easy one, since my wife likes several games on that system. It will be hooked to the TV in the loft. The Odyssey2 poses more of a challenge.
I have no more room for consoles. Both TVs in the game room/library have as many systems hooked to them as space will allow. So my plan is to see how much I like the Odyssey2 and then decide which system to box up and put in the basement. At this point, it seems most likely that it will be the 7800. That's the system I play the least frequently.
Still, I'd like to find some way to avoid boxing up any system. It seems a waste to do that.
On the other hand, I feel it's a waste to even own systems that I don't play more than once or twice a year. That would include the 7800, the Lynx, the NES, and the SNES. The Genesis and Turbografx don't get much play either. Nor does the Jaguar. When it comes down to it, I'm really a pre-crash gamer.
But I'm also a battle-scarred veteran of videogame collecting, and I know that chances are good that I'll regret getting rid of any system. In the 90s, I had most of the systems I have now. Then I ran out of space, found that I wasn't playing them, and got rid of most of my collection. Then about 8 or 9 years ago, I started buying it all up again (we'd moved to a new house and had settled in by then).
So most likely I'll put the 7800 in the basement, perhaps along with one or two other systems. Then I'll have to give them a few years, and see if I have the urge to bring them back upstairs. If not, then maybe it'll be time to sell them.
That's my current thinking on the subject, anyway.
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Knock Knock on the Door!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XgdpQooAWk
Remembered hearing this on 8 track in 1979 today and had to look it up
AX
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Snake (2600)
It's been a while since I posted anything here, so I thought I'd share a mini game I was working on recently. It's a simple clone of the popular game Snake. Every 30 points, a new round starts with an increased snake speed. I still need to add sound effects and change the color of the score, otherwise it's pretty much done.
I originally planed to release a multicart that included Adventure 1K, Assembly Line, Pong 256 bytes, RAM Combat, and RAM Helicopter but decided that Pong and the RAM games were not good enough to release. I already had a menu system all done with some cool title screen music, so I decided to remove those games and come up with a game to put in place of the others with the ~700 bytes I had freed up. I have about 100 bytes to play around with still, so if you have suggestions, let me know! I will probably do a small release in the future of the new multicart, which will include Adventure 1K, Assembly Line, and Snake.
Here is the ROM, let me know what you think! Merry Christmas and happy new year!
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My Early Playstation 3 Games
As I wrote in my last entry, I recently decided to get a Playstation 3...partly because a new gaming system interested me but mostly because it gave me a Blu-ray player. I've already bought a half-dozen Blu-ray titles with another 7 coming via the mail soon. But I have 3 PS3 games now...with anaother on the way as well. So here are my first 4 games for the Playstation 3...
Red Dead Redemption--I also mentioned in my last entry that this could be my first game for the PS3 and it was indeed. I have only played this for a few minutes (lots of stuff going on)...I arrived in town, took a horse ride to an abandoned fort where my bad brother had taken it over...and then my cat brushed against my system, pulling the cord out of the wall. Bad cat! But I enjoyed what I saw and I plan to get back to this game very soon.
The next two games were Christmas presents from my nephew Derek...
Bioshock
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Bioshock becomes my first "Greatest Hits" title for the PS3...wow, that didn't take long! I haven't been reading gaming mags in a couple of years so I'm not sure what this game is all about. I have a couple other LEGO games...one of Star Wars (on the Xbox) and one of Batman (PS2) so I have an idea on what to expect.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is the game I recently put in an order that also included a couple Blu-ray titles. I have heard from several people that this is the best Batman game yet...of course, some would call that faint praise since most feel most of the Batman video games to date have pretty much sucked...though there are a couple I have enjoyed playing (mostly on the SNES). This game must have come out awhile ago since it only cost me about $22. And a sequel is already on the way.
So what will be PS3 Game #3? I'm not really sure but it's taken all my resistance to keep from buying MLB: The Show 2010. I love baseball and I want to play it on this system, but it doesn't seem to make sense to get this game since the 2011 edition will probably be out in just 3 more months or so. But I will have at least 4 other games to keep me busy until that time.
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BERNIK VOICE SYNT. FROM 1986
I HAD THIS ITEM TOGETHER WITH MY LAST LOT OF ATARI ITEMS BUT I`M NOT ABLE TO FIND ANY NEWS ON THE NET ,NOTHING AT ALL...NO PICTURES ,NO NEWS FROM THE COMPANY WHO`S MADE THE ITEM...WELL I`M WONDERING TO KNOWN IF SOMEONE KNOWN MORE THAN GOOGLE!!!!!!
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2600 Homebrew Author Impromptu Gathering
Wow, just through sheer good fortune I got to meet in person with cd_w. Since vdub_bobby is close by, the three of of us got together last night to talk shop and have a beer. :-)
cd_w on the left and vdub_bobby on the right. Chris was visiting Seattle and just happened to be doing work at my company. Through some small talk about homebrew he found out that I was there. It's a games company and he was a little surprised to find me there.
I have now met in person almost every person who I've collaborated with on various 2600 projects. I almost met Tommy in Portland but in that case bad fortune somehow kept us in different areas of the show over the course of two days. Seems impossible but it happened. :-)
Hey guys, that was a lot of fun! It may have been the beer but I agreed to help vdub_bobby with RPS and I think also vowed to help cd_w with his projects as well. :-)
Cheers!
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Reworked FOD title screen -- courtesy of tokumaru
tokumaru was kind enough to inject my title screen concept with steroids
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Bifröst is finished
I'm calling Bifröst complete (see Homebrew forum). I know it's a simple little game, but I'm quite pleased with it. Doing something completely in asm has been my long term goal since I joined AA back in '05. And of course I'm proud of everything I've done along the way.
Time to take a sabbatical I think.
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Geo-wars atari 2600 XD
I'm a big fan of the game on the wii, i thought, hey a port of this downgraded on the atari 2600 would be pretty Awesome,so today i began drawing the sprites, game label and started on the programming for the game XD
heres the Label art for the title. hope you Geo fans out their enjoy this when i finish it and cart it XD
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Well geeze... it's been awhile.
I'd like to apologize for neglecting this blog, which I thought would become more of an ongoing thing. I see that my last post was around November '08, which is around the time I started a new job. I'm still employed with the same company, though now I'm up in the strange (not so), exotic (still not so) land of Alaska.
I've been active on a few other sites as of late, so I thought I'd pop back on AtariAge in order to see if I can pick this up again. Maybe an entry here and there, possibly a forum post or two if I find time. Ugh, so many games to play these days and there's never enough time.
As for my general game collection, it's currently soaring. I haven't been able to find as many Atari games as I'd like, but in total I have about 500-600 games from different systems. Not the most impressive amount in the world, but I like to think it's pretty significant. Hopefully I can get reacquainted with some of you folks in the next few weeks, I remember everyone being so nice when I first came around - including a neat lil' logo from Random Terrain
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Mirror's Edge finished
It's rare but it happens. Sometimes I actually complete games. This actually happens much less than it should, so the list of games completed is probably something I can list off the top of my head. (Though with my memory, maybe not.)
Granted, Mirror's Edge is a short game. Only nine chapters, so really all that's needed is some determination and intent. Plus I played on easy. So really it's not the completing of the game that's the amazing part, it's the fact that I actually played a game like this at all that is the miracle.
I hate action games and FPS. Just can't do them without getting nervous, and I don't really know why. A lot of the time I'm sure that someone is going to sneak up behind me or pop out from around the corner. Part of the reason I started playing Mirror's Edge is because it seemed like other games out now with beautiful graphics and good action, but not FPS.
But there are parts where it did become a FPS. Sure, the first time I over came my fear of the SWAT guys and took out a whole team, I was flying high that morning. "Look at me go!" I thought. But then as the levels progressed, I got over that. By the time I was on the last chapter and taking things out with the sniper rifle, I was a nervous wreck and I was done. Towards the end, I'd only play in quick bursts because I'd end up getting too nervous and need to hide under blankets. Or curse profusely. (Poor cats and their innocent ears.)
But now that I've completed the game, some part of me thinks it's ready to go back. It seems to think that shooting things was kinda fun and that with a little practice, it could get better and be more awesome.
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We bought the new cable to hook it up to the newer tvs.. it works and all 7 games do too
-Smurfs : The rescue of gargmels castle
-E.T
-Asteroids
-Space invaders
-Star raiders
-Combat
-Pac Man
Each game is probably worth 20-50 dollars
I am starting my price at 900. Or best offer. Please Email me if you are interested otowndreamer06@aol.com I also have pictures of it so if you need to see them ask me in the email and ill send them. thanks
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Atari 2600 game list. (not in alphabetical order.)
1.Swordquest Earthworld
2.Dragster
3.Combat(x2)
4.Video pinball
5.Video chess
6.Kangaroo
7.RealSports volleyball
8.Kaboom
9.Tank-plus
10.Super breakout
11.Pac-man
12.Midnight magic
13.Super challenge football
14.Keystone kapers
15.Pong sports
16.Fishing derby
17.Maze craze
18.Street racer
19.Berzerk
20.Chopper command
21.Asteroids
22.Bowling
23.Mega force
24.Astroblast
25.Sky jinks
26.MegaMania
27.Football
28.Breakaway IV
29.Pitfall
30.Galaxian
31.Defender
32.Crystal castle
33.Circus atari
34.Surround
35.Demons to diamonds
36.Dark cavern
37.Pigs in space
38.Donkey Kong(x2)
39.Roc'n rope
40.Frogger
41.Amidar
42.Casino
43.Freeway
44.River raid
45.Space attack
46.Cosmic ark
47.Ms.pac-man
48.Yars' revenge
49.Mouse trap
50.Advenure
51.Haunted house
52.E.T
53.Phoenix
54.Mario bros
55.Space invaders
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Hidden "treasures"
EB Games was famous for taking trade-ins (at usually sucky prices for mad markups later) and a big trade-in item was the Playstation 2. As many know, there was a space inside to put a hard drive. After one particular experience where the customer asked for the system back for a moment, opened the door on the back and grabbed something out of it, I made the crew start opening the door to check for anything we probably would not want other customers to have before resale. Here is the top ten list in no particular order.
1. new condoms
2. used condom (we all skeezed on that one and refused to take the system. The person called the corporate office and they said he was sick. We laughed.)
3. 2oz bag of pot (and they came running back next day)
4. small bag of cocaine (never came back. We sent that crap down the toilet)
5. $1000 in cash (Them I called and they came in and gave me $100 of it for my honesty, which then I distributed amongst the crew...they made sucky wages so why not)
6. pictures of a naked woman (who apparently ended up being his mom and he was selling the pics at school)
7. cheat sheet for a calculus exam
8. half a PB&J sandwich (We didn't ask)
9. report card (while the system was checked, the mother was standing right there. Fail (in more ways than one))
10. pair of women's panties (Older woman in her 60's said for my employee to "keep those as a bonus"...he ran in the back room screaming and then dry heaving).
And now, the 3 best and worst companies for free swag at EB manager conventions!
BEST!
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1. Microsoft - Free Xbox one show, free multiple games every year and bonus swag, sent us Xmas presents. God bless their hearts
2. Sega - Free Dreamcast one year, multiple games, cool doo-dads every show
3. Nintendo - Free GBA with multiple games one year and free N64 and Gamecube games
WORST
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1. Sony - Nothing except some 989 sports the final show I was there. They said we didn't deserve free PS2's so they were pariahs at the vendor show until EB forced managers to go to the Sony booth
2. Acclaim - The gave lots of games (in store as well) but it was all crap. Lots of Mary Kate & Ashley GBC games, BMX XXX and just a whole lotta suck
3. EA - Copies of Sims which by that point everyone who wanted it had it. Never anything else any other show.
I can't ever complain about the shows themselves. Free rooms and food at the MGM Grand and Bellaggio in Vegas is nothing to sneeze at. Florida was cool as well staying at both Disney hotels, the Swan and the Dolphins. We had one show in Philly to see the corporate office and we were all pissed because we missed a Vegas turn. Worse was the 1st Vegas show I would go to was a month or so after 9/11 so people were scared. Some managers didn't even show for the flight. The DM asked if I was scared and I said "Yes...scared I won't have enough time at the blackjack tables!". All anyone ever looked forward to was the vendor show and classes for the free swag. I remember when Sony said "no free PS2's" but Sega gave us Dreamcasts and games, every class would chant "SEGA SEGA SEGA" and the Sony reps would look sooooo pissed. No company more than Sony treated us like were less than crap and honestly, the sales reflected that. A little respect from them and things would probably have been better and they learned than next show around (my last and worst show ever). Nowadays, Gamestop brings people to either Texas or Florida and from what I understand, people can't even leave the hotels they stay in. Pretty ridiculous.
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