Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store
  • entries
    945
  • comments
    4,950
  • views
    1,219,514

About this blog

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

Entries in this blog

It should look easy

Well, I think I'm nearly done with the RPS label. I sent a copy off to Billy to see what he thinks of it, so hopefully I'll know soon. There are just a handful of tweaks left to do at this point.I forget who said it, but there's a saying that goes something like, "Art is never really finished. But at some point you just have to put it down and walk away."I have no idea how many hours I've put into RPS, but I'm sure it's more than any other label I've done so far. By a wide margin.The irony is -
Guest

Guest

0

Weeks have "ends"?

Looks like I'm going to be keeping busy for awhile.In addition to working on the Solar Plexus artwork (which now has the shading done) and the accompanying tutorial (which is taking more time than the actual artwork), I've also got another couple of projects just handed to me:One is the manual for RPS. I haven't done a 2600 manual before, but my background was originally in graphic design, so I'm looking forward to it. I've got a couple of ideas for it I'd like to try, and it will be nice to hav
Guest

Guest

0

Realsports Baseball

I'm not that much of a sports fan. But I still watch Seattle teams when they're on TV (especially if I'm up there on vacation), since that's where I'm from originally, and it's my hometown.   Although I couldn't care less about basketball. Never liked it.   But that's okay, since the Sonics left last year anyway. Now, even though I consider that a plus, a lot of people thought losing the Sonics was a "bad thing".   2008 was a year of "bad things" in Seattle sports.   The Seahawks were pl
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

8

The most useless blog entry - ever!

Well, after being on vacation for a few weeks, it's about time to dust off the blog and start updating it again.   However, this isn't that update.   But I'll have something in here soon.   I'll post some opinions on the Flashback 2, write up a way-too-in-depth look at why the XBox 360 is going to lose out to the PS3, maybe add some thoughts about Apple's move to Intel, and also start up another "how-to" series - this one being about creating animated sprites for the 2600.   Meanwhile, t
Guest

Guest

0

And then...

I've just been buried at work lately.   And by lately, I mean since early August. Non-stop. Tons of (unpaid) overtime.   I worked 90 hours one week. 20 hours in one day.   And those weren't even in the same week.   But things are starting to calm down. A little bit.   I had to supervise two major construction projects, including the building of an all-new computer lab for running Maya. We were put six weeks behind schedule due to construction issues (and asbestos removal), but fortun
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 7

A friend and I decided to check out a place the other night that reportedly had classic arcade games: Let's Play Cafe in Monroe, WA. Admission was $20 and everything was set to free-play. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of actual classic arcade games they had there - most of which actually worked!   I played: Joust, Defender, Robotron: 2084 (all three part of a Williams multi-game cabinet), Qix (which had a slightly wonky joystick), Gorf (very reassuring to see that we nailed
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

17
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 4

So... the 7800 isn't back to "working" yet, although I have made some progress. In the sense that "I've spent more money on it" and "I took it more apart".   Let's look at the pretty pictures! Here are some fresh parts from Mouser: I may not use the RCA jacks... I'm more inclined to use the short "pigtail" type cables I used on my own 2600 as well as John's. You just plug them into your monitor's (or AV system's) cables using barrel connectors, saving wear-and-tear on 40-year
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

4

Bill & Ted Face the Music - Spoiler-free review

Continuing on with the continuation of my blog (and because I've only written 5 episodes of Artie so far), it's time for the return of the Spoiler-free review!   Unfortunately, because of the Coronavirus pandemic, there aren't any movie theaters open around here. And even if there were, frankly, I wouldn't go into one right now unless the audience members were all sealed up in giant Ziploc bags and wiped down with a bleach solution, which would kind of negatively impact the whole ambie
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

5

Down on the farm

Today is National Popcorn Day!   I'm ashamed to admit, I wasn't aware of this until a couple of hours ago.   There are few things I like better than good popcorn. All of that fake-butter-soaked microwave crud is not good popcorn. About the only microwave stuff I like is Jolly Time's Crispy 'n' White Light. It actually tastes like popcorn... not chemicals.   No sir... I like my popcorn soaked in real butter. (Well, not soaked... but certainly well-drizzled.) Hey - indulge in moderation, rig
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

7
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 3

When we last left the 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup™, alex_79 helpfully suggested: We'll get back to the transistors in a minute. Meanwhile, I decided to rip out the HDMI "mod" as a first step, because: 1) It's horrible, and 2) I did find a short between ground and the composite video output that I traced back to that mess. I didn't take pics of the process, suffice to say it involved cutting wires, desoldering and re-soldering, chewing through a glued-down HDMI connector with side-cutters, a
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

3

Free cartoons!

This years' showcase of student films from where I work has just been posted on our school's website.   This is about 2 hours and 15 minutes (2 hours, 43 minutes Canadian) of the best films from the Character Animation program, as selected by our faculty. The entire Character Animation student show (which is not online) ran a whopping 7 hours 30 minutes this year. While there were some films that I think should've make it into the showcase that didn't, I think this is a pretty good representat
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1

The Sixer Fixer-upper: Part 3

And now... the conclusion of my 2600 repair blog thing!   Or rather, the conclusion of this particular 2600's repair. Oooo... foreshadowing!   If you're looking for Part 1 or Part 2, well, there are links to them around here somewhere.     With the holes repaired, it was finally time to put everything back together. As with James' console, I wrapped the wires around the front of the board, and underneath it. Flat-taping them together, and using a little unshrunk hea
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1

Review To-do

And the latest batch of goodies from AtariAge has arrived.   Looks like I've got some reviewin' to do...     ...and I still haven't gotten to the previous batch of reviews yet.   I think in order to catch up, I'm going to have to go back to writing shorter reviews. I don't think anything quite as epic as the Last Ninja/N.E.R.D.S rant is really necessary anyway.   The AtariAge store is starting to run out of stuff I don't have yet. I'm starting to dip into the hacks now. What do I do
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
7800 repair

Doin' the Hacky POKEY

Some time ago, I was planning to order a Concerto cart for my 7800.   I didn't have a POKEY to install in it, but figured I'd either order one from Best, or wait until the HOKEY was available to order the Concerto.   Around that same time, James mangled the daylights out of a POKEY, trying to remove it from a poor, unsuspecting Ballblazer cart. I offered to attempt to fix it, if he wanted to send it to me. So he did, presuming it to be DOA anyway (he subsequently bought a rep
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

4

Back to work

Sorry Bob, couldn't resist.   Well, the second wave of the tsunami known as "work" came in, as I had to create and duplicate DVDs of our end-of-year shows the past couple of weeks. Last year, we sent them out for duplication (although I authored the masters), but we discovered that it was actually cheaper to buy a DVD duplicator, and make our own, than send them out.   Plus, ours look way better. I was never really happy with the printing on the discs last year.   So, I haven't done much
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

1

Tiny Arcade gets bigger

As I've posted before...   Oh, right. No categories. Hang on, let me search my own blog for the links...   Okay, I'll start over.   As I've posted before here, and here and here and here, I've been (and I'm loathe to admit it) collecting video games. But not cartridges. Not prototypes, rarities, or anything like you'd typically expect on AtariAge.   Nope, these are arcade games! Tiny little ones. Only 3 1/2" (about 9 cm) tall. Made by Super Impuse, I'd alr
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2023 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...