Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store
  • entries
    945
  • comments
    4,950
  • views
    1,219,532

About this blog

Mostly Atari-related projects, and other ramblings. Home of the Artie the Atari comic strip.

Entries in this blog

Homebreviews index - part 1

Here's an index of all 61 Homebreviews to this point, arranged alphabetically, by score.   And based on the number of games slated for release this December, this isn't the end of it.   Not even close.   5/5 2005 Holiday Cart: Reindeer Rescue 2005 MiniGame MultiCart Conquest of Mars Fall Down Four-Play Hunchy II Krokodile Cartridge Lady Bug Medieval Mayhem Oystron Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) Power Off! Qb Seawolf Star Fire Strat-O-Gems De
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6

To-Do Redo

Well, it's time to consolidate my To-Do list, so I can actually update the thing without getting hopelessly confused.   Homebrew stuff: Manual and label for another 2600 homebrew - In progress Sprites for Moon Cresta homebrew - In progress Sprites for still-yet-another-arcade-port - In progress Sprites for yet-another-arcade-port - In progress Atari logo on a Mac folder icon - Starting soon Sprites for Wizard of Wor Arcade - In progress Revised sprite for Thomas - In progress T
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

32

b*nQ bl*G

Well, I was working on something completely unrelated... and decided to throw together another entry (or two) for the Q*bert b*nQ contest.   The other project I'm working on (another label and manual) is much more abstract, and uses flat, geometric shapes for the most part. So I decided to try that for b*nQ, seeing as how the approach is pretty much the opposite of what I already submitted.       The colors aren't as intense as in my earlier entry. Also, with a lighter background, ther
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7

Homebreviews - part 18

Dark Mage 4/5 You are facing a blog entry. > Look You see nothing special. > Scroll There is a game review here. > Use You can't use this item. > Eat You can't eat this item. > Read Dark Mage is a text adventure, in the classic style of Zork. I spent many hours in the early 80's at my friend's house, with the two of us logged into the University of Washington's VAX, playing Zork through a modem hooked up to his TRS-80. I don't recall how long we played it, but it seemed
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Roughin' it

Well, I wasn't originally planning to enter the Q*bert b*nQ label contest, for a couple of reasons. First, because I felt that Q*bert had been done to death. Not the original game (see also here) - which I've always liked - but the property. Q*bert was everywhere in the early 80's, even having his own TV show. So he's been drawn on various advertisements, products, game re-makes, and quilts for 25 years, and I didn't really think I could come up with anything particularly different. Second, I'd
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6

Homebreviews - part 17

Climber 5 4/5   Climber 5 is an adaptation of a game (also called Climber 5) originally created for the Atari 8-bit computers. I downloaded and tried out the original version prior to writing this review. The object of the game is to climb up a building that's under construction, and retrieve a baseball that's been hit up there. You have to climb ladders, and avoid girder beams moving back and forth. That's about as far as the original game went, and an adaptation of that version is included o
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5

Feelin' blue

It's been awhile since I posted some Photoshop hints, so I thought while I was finishing up the Gingerbread Man manual (Gingerbread Man-ual?) it was as good of a time as any.   The more I draw, the more I keep exploring different ways to draw. In the last year or so, I've really gotten back into drawing on paper, as opposed to starting off in the computer. Using paper and pencil is just infinitely more manipulatable than even the best computer drawings programs. I still use computers for what
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2

Homebreviews - part 16

So much for the "shorter reviews" theory... Elevators Amiss 3/5 Elevators Amiss was inspired by a game for the Atari 8-bit computers called Elevator Repairman. I even played Elevator Repairman to check out the original, and Elevators Amiss does do an excellent job of paying homage to that game - right down to the way the character's tiny little feet shuffle along. It's just that I don't care for either game very much. The object of the game is very simple - move your character across the scr
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7

Revisiting Juno First

So, I was looking through my folder full of WIP homebrews, and came upon Juno First. When last seen, Chris had put together a nice looking title screen:   But as was mentioned in the comments, it would have been nice to make the scores a single color, instead of multicolored:   So I was wondering if this would work... (I think this is what Bob mentioned in the comments, but I'm not sure):   First, you have the title and some of the text, made up of sprites, as before:   But then, t
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

13

Homebreviews - part 15

Not homebrews this time... but more unreleased prototype reproductions (like the UA Limited games). I've noticed my reviews keep getting longer and longer. So after these two, I'm going to try to write shorter ones again. 3D Rubik's Cube 2/5 This unreleased and long-lost prototype is an accurate simulation of a Rubik's Cube, even extending to the ability to rotate it in apparent 3D space. Unfortunately, it's even more maddening to solve than the real thing. While a visually impressive feat o
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Fog Blixed!

Thanks to Albert, my blog is fixed!   He was able to update the AA database to re-link all of my image files to their new server. Very cool.   This also fixes all of the linked images that I've left scattered throughout the rest of the forums as well. So it's nice to have all of that taken care of. Thanks Albert!   And, all of this is just in time to show a sneak-peek at the label I just finished for Batari's Gingerbread Man!   Enjoy!  
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

11

Brog Bloken

All of the image links in my bloke are broggen.   Well, you know what I mean.   Anyway, this is because as of this morning, they changed the DNS lookup at work, so it's no longer resolving to the server where all my stuff is kept.   They still haven't sent out the e-mail telling us they're going to do this yet, either. To me, this should qualify for the "a good thing to know ahead of time" category.   Anyway, so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to deal with this. The easiest t
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Would you want to move here?

This is the kind of photo the Santa Clarita Chamber of Commerce doesn't want people to see:   (Top number is outdoors, bottom number is indoors.)   I used to think 89 degrees was unbearably hot when I lived in Seattle. That was 20 degrees ago!   Fortunately, the forecast says it will be back "down" to 99 next Monday.
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Homebreviews - part 14

I started writing a parody of the "Theme from Gilligan's Island" to introduce these, but that was too much work. Well, that... and it wasn't turning out to be very funny.   So here, with no additional fanfare, are "the rest..."   Go Fish! 4/5   In Go Fish!, it's eat or be eaten. You play a tiny yet hungry little fish, and must eat other fish to survive. But you can only eat fish your size or smaller. Try to eat something bigger than you, and you'll end up as its dinner. If the bigger fish
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

13

I'm running out of games

Here's my latest haul from the AtariAge store. Not sure I'll review the two Atari prototypes or not, since they're no longer in the store, but thanks to Albert for making those available one last time.     After this last batch, there aren't very many games left in the AtariAge store that I don't have.   Several of these aren't even "games", as such: Amiga Boing! Demo 2.0 Backfire Crazy Valet Dark Mage E.T. Book Cart Euchre GoSub INV+ Mental Kombat Okie Dokie Poker Sq
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

2

Wheeee! We? Oui.

I had the chance to play with a Wii at a friend's house this weekend. We played Wii Sports and Wii Play, and I was blown away by how fun some of the mini-games were. Sure, not all of them were to my liking, but there were enough keepers in there that the Wii has moved onto my "must have" list.   The interactivity of the games is completely addictive. For example, Wii bowling really "feels" like bowling, except without having to put on the smelly rental shoes or trying to find a ball that fits
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

11

172.42 GB

The digitizing is complete! Stella at 20 is now in the computer, backed up to a second external drive, and backed up to DVCAM tapes.   172.42 GB is how much space the source footage takes up. That translates into roughly 14 hours.   Wanna see it?     What - you thought I meant the actual video? Sorry. I don't have that kind of web space.   Also in that list you'll see Stella at 20 volumes 1 and 2, which I digitized as an editing guide.   After having watched all the footage, I can
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

9

Pixar's best?

I just went and saw Disney's Pixar's Ratatouille last night.   Even though Surf's Up was a good movie... Ratatouille is a great one. It's an order of magnitude better than anything else out there. (Sorry, Jeff.)   Pixar has set a new standard for animated films. Not merely CG animated films, but animated films, period. The animation is absolutely incredible, and would be, regardless of the medium. Computers do not make animation this good - people do. Pixar has the best animators, and in Bra
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

4

100th Stupid Blog Entry!

Somehow, I've stuck with this whole "Blog" fad long enough to crank out 100 entries. And much to my surprise, just this past week, I passed Manuel's Blog as the "Most Viewed" at AtariAge:     So to all of the people who have been reading my blog, all I have to say is...   ...don't you have something better you could be doing??     Seriously though, thanks for reading. Hopefully some of it has been interesting, and maybe, occasionally, even useful.   Pffft! Ha! I knew I couldn't k
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

6

Go Speed, Go!

In case you didn't know, the Wachowski brothers (of the Matrix films) are making a live-action version of Speed Racer.   So... okay then.   This project has kicked around Hollywood for years (once rumored to have Tom Cruise attached to it as Speed, to give you an idea of how long ago this was), and although I've been a Speed Racer fan since I was a little kid, neither of the two series' revivals were any good (although the Japanese one wasn't nearly as bad as the American one), so I've alwa
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Great... now both thumbs hurt

After some time away from it, I'm playing in the 2600 High Score Club again (not to be confused with the 2600 Mile High Club), and this week's game is Activision's Robot Tank. Not sure why I never bought this one back in the day. It's much better than Atari's 2600 version of Battlezone (yes... I know people disagree with me about that), since to me - it's closer to the arcade version of Battlezone. The tank is first-person perspective, instead of sitting above and behind it, and you're only deal
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Encavedavators Amiss

Recently, I had the good fortune to win the Elevators Amiss label contest. I say good fortune, because in addition to some really good labels from other entrants, I was having no luck coming up with an idea for the label, until the last day of the contest. Finally, the idea of having the maid falling into the elevator shaft and clinging onto the cable struck me, and after a half-dozen sketches, I finally came up with this one:     There are a few things that are kind of odd about the sketch
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

4

Blog's Up!

Well, I've been pretty busy lately, but things are finally starting to calm down now.   Except for the electrical fire in the server room at work yesterday. But hey - that wasn't my fault.   Anyway... the school year at the college I work at ended a few weeks ago. This time with a twist - I graduated along with everyone else!   Well... not everyone. But the graduating class of 2007. Even though I haven't been a student since 1994.   It's a lonnnng story, but I was supposed to graduate in
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5

One and Only

About a month before passing away last Summer, Maynard Ferguson recorded what turned out to be his last album. It's just been released, and is now available exclusively through Maynard's website (and iTunes).     I was rather disappointed with his previous album, MF Horn VI: Live at Ronnie's. Of course, recording live albums is always hit-or-miss. However, since that album was recorded, Maynard had gotten into better shape physically, and his playing had improved dramatically, according to
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

3

Homebreviews - part 12

Continuing with the latest batch of reviews. This time: Puzzle Games! AStar 4/5 AStar is a puzzle game with a unique play mechanic. The object of the game is to move a yellow pie-shaped character (Bob) around a maze, and collect various items. What makes it unique, is that you can only move in straight lines, and can't stop until you run into something. To help you navigate the maze, you can switch over to another character - a yellow square (Alan) - that moves the same way. Using the two char
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2023 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...