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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Atari 800XL port of Laser Squad by MariuszW: Strategies doesn't have a rich representation on Atari, we missed a lot... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Squad Fortunately, MariuszW version has more scenario than the original !!! Question: will Christmas come earlier this year? ? Technically, the game runs on a standard Atari 800XL, on the video is a version with colored graphics for VBXE ? Bravo MariuszW, another HIT !!!

I have scanned and uploaded to Internet Archive the three issues of Atari Interface that were not digitized yet. https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-11 https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-08 https://archive.org/details/Atari_Interface_1989-07 So that's all of them!! (Unless there was a July 1991 issue. There probably wasn't, but I'm not 100% sure.) Just for fun, I created "Atari Interface Magazine — The Complete Collection" — a 2,350-page PDF that contains every issue. I OCR'd it all so it's searchable. It's 2GB(!) in size: you can download it or just view/search it at Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/atari-interface-complete-collection -Kay

I beat Soldier Blade tonight!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you in the U.S. and also other countries where it is celebrated!

Cornbread stuffing with broth from a turkey that's been hickory smoked for 8 hours is singlehandedly the most amazing thing I've ever eaten.

Christmas is coming, and what better way to celebrate the wintry season than by taking some time to play your favorite Christmas-themed Intellivision game, Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents. As some of you may know, I had hope to have a new release ready for this year, but as things happen, life tends to get in the way (and maybe also the supply chain crisis). No worries, because the original ROM is still available for free download, and it is every bit (and byte and decle) the same as the 2012 boxed version! Download the ROM right here: Ready-to-run package for Windows -- includes emulator: Christmas Carol - ROM Edition (Win).exe Ready-to-run package for Mac -- includes emulator: Christmas Carol - ROM Edition (Mac).dmg ROM-only, for LTO Flash! or your own emulator: Christmas Carol - ROM Only.zip And for those who wish to have the full "CIB" experience, you can also download and print copies of the assets for your own personal use: Box artwork Hand-controller overlays Instruction booklet Cartridge Label Playing on emulation is fine, but this game was painstakingly designed to be played using the Intellivision disc controller -- it is fluid and responsive in a way seldom experienced on the Intellivision. So make sure to give it a go on an LTO Flash!, CC3, or Ultimate Flashback. ... But you know what is even better than just playing Christmas Carol on the Intellivision? Experiencing her adventure first hand, just as Santa Claus always intended! "Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents" is the book based on the story, inspired by the video game, which itself was inspired by my childhood memories and aspirations of Christmas Time -- and everyone has an opportunity to get their own copy! The book is available for sale for $24.99 + shipping, directly from the promotional web page or from eBay. [ Order on Website ] | [ Order on eBay ] $24.99 + Shipping The book is written for children ages 7 to 9 years old, and for everyone who is young of spirit and retains a fondness for the innocent wonder of Christmas (like myself!). It is the perfect gift for children, whether read as a bedtime story to the young'uns, or read straight through by the older ones Carol's magical tale of adventure is sure to inspire the joy and splendor of Christmas in all of them. You do not have to have played the game in order to enjoy the book; it stands on its own as a full-fledged adventure story, full of action, exciting discoveries, funny character interactions, and heartwarming moments. But if you enjoyed the game, you will love the book, for it will bring Carol's adventure to life in spectacular fashion. Printed in large format and hardbound cover, with beautiful illustrations. All your favorite parts of the game are there -- all those cut-scenes that hint at the antics of Carol & Co. are described in exciting prose. In turn, more than mere levels, each maze in the game is transformed into a cave for Carol to explore, with its own atmosphere, charm and mystery. Experience Carol Greenleaf's journey of adventure as she explores the mysterious Frozen Ice-Cube Caverns. Armed with a crinkly old map given to her by Santa Claus, follow along as Carol ... ... Discovers the awesome majesty of the Haunted Hollow: High above it all, a vaulted ceiling spanned the entirety of the chamber, interrupted only by the richly adorned capitals of ice cube columns. It too was made of ice, carved and polished to a high sheen, glowing softly, and reflecting gently the wintry snow blanketing the ground. “Sweet candy canes!” she exclaimed, so awestruck she could barely utter the words. ... Gets lost in the twisty corridors of the Frosted Maze: Stretching in front of her, as far as her eyes could see, was the main corridor—interrupted every few steps by criss-crossing inlets and alleys. Behind her, leading north-west, was a brief tunnel ending in (according to the map) a small cul-de-sac. “I must explore every nook and cranny in this tangled place,” she told herself, trying to organize a plan of action, “every one of those little rooms could contain a hidden present.” ... Finds the Ghost's hidden stash of Halloween candy in the Candy Cove: Carol ran into the chamber, excitedly waving her arms and jumping up and down. She had never seen so much candy in one place. Along with peppermint candy canes, the room was bursting with all sorts of confectionery: lemon drops, red hots, cherry bonbons, licorice strings, gum balls, candy corns, butterscotch hard candies, sweet caramels, and chocolate-covered-everything! ... Learns the secret of the Ice-Cube Mountain and the ancient magic of the Snowflake Gardens: As she approached the brilliant blossom to take a closer look, she noticed the flowers had no stems and no leaves—just lovely white, fluffy petals, shimmering brightly, apparently just floating in mid-air. “Wait a minute! These aren’t flowers—” she suddenly realized, “t–they’re snowflakes! Prancing reindeers! They’re magical snowflakes glowing with magical light!” [...] Carol was witness to the miracle of the mysterious and powerful forces of ancient lore which shaped and formed the caverns. She could see first hand the wondrous magic of yore in every one of those shimmering snowflakes, and she was fascinated by it all. ... Finds the mother-lode of stolen presents hidden away within the ramparts of the Krystal Keep: At each corner, breaking the perimeter of the wall, stood four tall, circular towers. Each tower was hollowed out to form a small chamber inside, which could be accessed freely from the inner courtyard. However, Carol did not notice the massive surrounding wall, the tall towers, nor the small rooms. Indeed, she did not even notice the courtyard at all—for in the middle of it, capturing her undivided attention in a spectacular way, lay a huge pile of Christmas presents! There were lots and lots of them, stacked up high, all colorful and radiant with their elegant ribbons and festive wrappers! ... Confronts her enemies in an final epic battle of might and magic -- a truly Twisted Toyland: Trapped between the incoming Snowball and the targeting robot, Carol had only a split second to think. She thought of her magical weapon, but knew there was no time to reach in and grab it. In desperation, she ran, looking for a place to hide. Alas! It was too late, for the Bad Toy had already taken aim at her and, with its laser weapon charged and ready, let out a blast of bluish electric light across the field! “Bzzzzzzt!” ... And so much more! So, this Christmas Season, immerse yourself in the wondrous world of Christmas Carol by playing the game, reading the book, and sharing the exciting story with friends and family as Carol Greenleaf embarks in her epic adventure to save Christmas from the clutches of the Evil Snowman! This is your mission. The children of the world are counting on you. Can you save Christmas? ORDER NOW: [ Order on Website ] | [ Order on eBay ] https://www.CarolVsGhost.com/book Copyright © 2012-2021, James Pujals. All rights reserved. “Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents” the book, title, characters, and all other related materials are wholly owned by James Pujals, and are not to be used or distributed, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author. The electronic materials offered for download herein are made available in good faith, strictly for personal use.

It'd be better if it didn't.

Now preparing for Christmas. Let's start out with the season with Garfield.

The intermediate code is similar, so it optimizes down the same way. If you think about the assembly language, there's not really too many ways to do "use A or B depending on C" I've had trouble using it with heavily overloaded templates in C++, though, it seems the preprocessor can get confused about the type of operation.

The windows port is most challenging one for me. Lack of programming experience in windows, many traps I enter. But I'm still learning and making progress slowly. ? Jan

ZeroPage Homebrew returns next week on Fri Dec 3 with a whole slew of amazing NEW and EXCLUSIVE Atari games! In the mean time Tanya and I are trapped in 8-bit circuitry trying to find our way out! Check out these two amazing photos from a recent photoshoot we did! - James

For those of you that just tuned in, the Pinedale shopping mall has just been BOMBED with live turkeys. Film at eleven.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Greetings enthusiasts! I hope you are all well. I dove into game dev. with batariBASIC and it's been a blast. Thought I'd post my first attempt with a playable .bin and the code. It's super inefficient and buggy but only really intended to play around with some ideas and learn batariBASIC in order to do a full game in the future. A WIP Demo: Project Huntmaster - A 2600 survival horror adventure Story: You haven't been home in 10 years, but have spoken to your brother on and off for the last 2. However, your monthly talks suddenly stopped two months ago, so you decided to travel back to your childhood home to find out what's been going on. You've tried calling around, but no one answers. On your way to town, your car runs out of gas...cuz you're lazy and always push the limits. You walk to the outskirts of town where there is a convenient store. The mostly drunk clerk doesn't give you any clues as to what' been going on in the town. SO you decide to hoof it... There are 3 main boards: external store, internal store, and temple. The temple, you do not remember ever seeing. The road past the temple is blocked and there are impassible forest all around, except the way you came. Looks like the only way through is through the gates of the temple. You walk outside of the store and hear a terrible sound, a sound ungodly and oppressive. Your nose rankles and your stomach turns...what must you do? Combat is walking over enemies, Ys II inspired. You can purchase items in the store by hitting the fire button...if you have the funds... prjt_hntmstr_20211125.bin prjt_hntmstr_20211125.bas

No, it wouldn't, especially for a Windows application. All accelerated graphics in current versions of Windows are based on Direct3D 11, and OpenGL does not have the longevity you think it does. OpenGL support in Windows is hit or miss. Windows itself only supports an ancient version of OpenGL (1.1), with the rest being exposed directly by the graphics vendors. NVIDIA is by far the best in this regard; ATI is usually behind in stability and support, while Intel's GL driver is slow and has had some major bugs -- like Inkscape taking a minute to compile shaders on start and then opening stretched. GL support over Remote Desktop is even more hit or miss with it often not being supported, with NVIDIA being the notable exception with the RDP enable in their drivers. Windows on ARM does not support accelerated OpenGL at all, with it only being enabled recently by Microsoft with an OpenGL-to-D3D12 translator instead of actual support to get Photoshop acceleration working. Beyond that, GL mainly has best support on desktop Linux. Mobile is primarily OpenGL ES, not OpenGL, and is gradually moving towards Vulkan. Apple's OpenGL implementation was never very good and is now deprecated in favor of Metal, and when Apple deprecates something, they mean it, with about a 90% chance of removal. WebGL was based on GLES instead of regular OpenGL and on Windows is universally emulated on top of D3D11 through ANGLE by all major browsers. And if anyone told you that a game consoles used OpenGL, they don't know what they're talking about. OpenGL itself is rather old and complex, being based on old API paradigms. It had some significant performance advantages over Direct3D 9 and somewhat over 11, but has problems of its own like excessive state binding. Practical applications built on OpenGL need to use extensions out the wazoo. It's been eclipsed by OpenGL ES for older platforms that need a lighter weight API and by Mantle-inspired APIs like Direct3D 12, Metal, and Vulkan for speed. The result is that industry investment has been moving away from regular OpenGL. Finally, Altirra's OpenGL implementation was very dated. It was based on OpenGL 2.0 with some old extensions and didn't support any of the screen effects or many of the fast color conversion paths. It also didn't use GLSL and couldn't run under OpenGL 3 core profile. Practically, there would have been only two advantages to updating it: (1) accessing Direct3D 11 class features on Windows XP, which was moot as 4.00 dropped XP support and Altirra doesn't use many D3D11-class features, and (2) being able to run with 3D acceleration on WINE in a Linux VM that had working OpenGL but broken D3D acceleration, which was very rare. Neither were compelling enough to warrant trying to update the ball of duct tape and baling wire that was the OpenGL rendering path.

Sorry for the non-Garfield related interlude, but Alan Moore views on magic and art are interesting: I thought he had gone crazy, but it appears he just started calling art "magic".

Here is a zip of clean hi res TIF images for you to read, print, OCR or PDF from TIHOME TIDINGS V3 N2 May 1983 part 2 108 pages, A5, two spine staples. This has a lot of content and is in two parts- part two today. Not in the wht archive yet so please feel free to add it there. Also two pdf files for you- one has detailed contents listing for this magazine, the other one lists the advertised programs, a bit of info about them, and when known where you can find them today. enjoy. Next up will be another thick magazine, from Chicago- their bumper issue for the 5th Chicago TI Faire, with lots of adverts. tihome_tidings_V3_N2_May83_pt2.zip v3n2contents.pdf v3n2swadverts.pdf

Grabbed a few of these tonight since $2 each for the Black Friday sale is a pretty great price. These really do play great too. Food Fight, Dark Chambers and Ninja Golf are now happily on my VCS. I purchased Desert Falcon yesterday at full price...wish I knew and I would have waited Oh well, glad to support these folks regardless.

I beat Soldier Blade on PC Engine tonight!!!

Since it's Thanksgiving, let's enjoy a Garfield's Thanksgiving together folks.

PeBe has joined the team, he designed a very convenient data presentation system, thanks to him the implementation of HSC in games will be even easier (templates) - is also the author of an automatic text generator using ascii characters - several different typefaces - with FujiNET it's already no more than one page of memory on Atari - thanks to Bocianu. On Saturday PeBe will give a presentation, the meeting will be broadcasted on the Internet - those interested should look for it on AtariOnline in the news about "KWAS". An example generated on the fly displayed on Atari as AsciiArt or as a graphic on WWW: If you are interested in adding HSC to your games feel free to contact me on PM (I won't write back here)

Forgive the story but it gives background: as a little kid I saved my allowance and bought the Atari Basic Programming cartridge purely because of the description and picture on the box. I went to the store and asked to see the cartridge many times. Being able to actually program a computer, I remember thinking there's a whole world inside. I didn't even have an Atari (I had an Intellivision). I never did get an Atari so the cart just always was this box of possibility. I had forgotten all of this and it all came back to me when I saw the cart on eBay. So I decided to exorcise this memory trip and make a controller. There are some neat little programs for it on the web but now I really wish there was more memory available with the cartridge. Oh and it seemed logical to make a Synthcart version at the same time. Hope you like it. KB

I'm going through Electronics magazine, a trade journal that covered business computers, semiconductor and software technology, and some consumer electronics. It's available on bitsavers.org, along with Datamation and Mini-Microcomputer Systems. I found this interesting because I've never seen these part numbers in the 80s databooks. They must have been B2B only--this article mentions 100,000 first shipped to Sanyo. It also says the chipset is fabricated in I2L--the technology used for the SBP9900 military version. SBP 99xx chips (but not these) are found in TI's Bipolar Microcomputer Components Data Book for Design Engineers (I read 1981 3rd Ed) and that's a story to itself. Chips shown in the diagram: SN94310N Video Processor: takes composite video, outputs signals and text (serial) SN94311N Character ROM: 5x9 character definitions SN94312N Serial-to-parallel converter (probably a renamed LS595 or such) SN94313N Rounding Logic: said to smooth out character pixel edges SN94314N Display Controller: Stores character codes in 8K RAM. Sends 4-bit row address to ROM. SN94315N Timing Logic: Takes HSYNC and dot clock, clocks serial data and other. SN94316N Output Logic: Reads character from RAM, sends 10-bit column address to ROM, integrates rounding info, and finally generates RGB and Luminance signals. Chip set captions TV programs for deaf [Electronics, Jan 17, 1980, p. 41-42] Beginning this spring, deaf and hard-of-hearing TV viewers will gain new access to prime-time programming, thanks to a captioning project that depends on a custom chip set developed by Texas Instruments Inc. The captions will be visible only on specially equipped TV sets. Project. The Federally sponsored project calls for digitally encoded subtitles corresponding to a program's soundtrack to be transmitted on line 21 of the TV vertical blanking interval. A new nonprofit agency known as the National Captioning Institute will put the caption infor- mation on floppy disks for network use with videotape equipment. TI developed the seven-chip caption decoder over atwo-year period under contract to the Public Broadcasting System. With speed and linear requirements in mind, it uses a variety of bipolar techniques, notes L. Dwain Chaffin, advanced circuits department manager at the company's Sherman, TX plant. The heart of the system is the display controller, which combines linear bipolar circuitry with integrated injection logic on a 47,000-square-mil chip. The controller works in conjunction with a linear video processor chip and a 5,760-bit read-only-memory chip that stores the captioning characters. (see figure above). The ROM is made with Schottky TTL, primarily for speed, says Chaffin. Each of the 96 ASCII and 8 special characters is stored in 45 bits, and access time is 280 nanoseconds. The 250-milliwatt typical power dissipation is low in view of the quantity of circuitry on the 18,000mil^2 ROM, Chaffin observes. Other devices in the chip set are four low-power Schottky parts that handle such functions as timing and output logic and "rounding" logic to make characters easier to read. Chaffin says TI drew upon earlier development work for its Teletext chip set for the British video information system. Prices. Without the chip set, the $249.95 retail price for decoder units would be more than double, he adds. Sears Roebuck and Co. is the sole distributor for these adapters and for the 19-inch color TV receivers to incorporate the circuitry. To be available next fall, the receivers will cost around $500, with about $100 attributable to the built-in captioning circuitry. Sanyo Electric Co. of Japan is making both adapters and TV sets for Sears. TI is shipping 100,000 chip sets to Sanyo. The Public Broadcasting System initiated work on the captioning project in 1972, under contract with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The National Captioning Institute, in Falls Church, Va., is currently operating under HEW grants, but will receive an $8 royalty for each adapter and receiver sold and will charge networks $2,000 per program hour for the coded floppy disks. In addition to proprietary rights to the circuits, the Public Broadcasting Service turned over to the institute 20 Z80-based editing consoles and associated captioning software. As well as the public network, ABC and NBC will participate beginning in March with a total of 19 hours of weekly programming. More programming will come later. -Wesley R. Iversen

I'm not against the idea, but let me ask everyone involved. Thanks for everyone's interest, it means a lot!

These are on sale for $39.99 at Menards until Dec. 5th. They have Aquaventure, Saboteur and Yars' Return on them. Just an FYI.

Canyons: 88! (I should mention I’ve played a LOT of Manhole in my life :))

I have come to the conclusion that women are cows. They have at least two stomachs. One for their main meals and the other for pudding. No matter how full they are, there's always room for pudding.

I placed my pre-order for the Evercade Vs. unit this morning through Songbird.

Yes, those finally showed up on my Ebay search! Astro Invader I got a FPF.

Showdown: 59! I find that I rarely see both numbers and get it wrong. What usually happens is that I make a decision about which it will be and do that. It is actually pretty good as a meditation tool to prevent yourself from prejudging what will happen and to stay in the present moment.

Looks good and nice to see some more VBXE enhanced software coming out.

Showdown: 53!

So I got CRT one of two I recently aquired from Ebay up and running! (I have a B&O MX4000 21" CRT on the way too!! Dunno how I am gonna squeeze that one into my setup! (Hoping my other half won't notice another monitor! )) This one is a mini portable Panasonic TX-G10 10" screen 480p CRT with S-video input. (I believe these were made around 1999-2004). It fits perfectly in a nook I've managed to free up on my ridiculously overcrowded desk space. It has some issues - a few scratches on the screen, very slight distortion on the lower right - and annoyingly the image jumps vertically a little, especially in the lower part of the screen. Can do ya eyes in after a while plus it generally flickers also. (50hz display). I use my Hercules workshop double sheilded S-video cable with it to give the best image output. Also annoyingly I seem to have to re-adjust the colour saturation and sharpness after it has been off each time. I'll delve into the manual. Not a big deal. I got it for a bargain including postage, and sourced an aftermarket remote for it. (Mainly because the TV itself has no way of getting rid of the AV1 text that floats over the screen, but the remote does). The main thing is it has S-video in which I really wanted. I'll use it mainly for viewing RC images and maybe occasional gaming. A few pics Stock photo from t'internet of the model (mine is slightly more "used" than these 3 x pics and hard to take a photo of all angles now in situ ) Mine running off my PAL 800XL (Uav rev D) on S-video with a few games and RC images, (incl some of my favs): On balance, despite issues, I'm very happy with it. Can't wait to see what the B&O MX4000 will look like.

TIdings V3N2 (Complete) - Ready to Print TIdings V3N2 May1983 - Complete.pdf

The 256 bytes at the end are not random. They are a simple barrel shifter where each value is the previous entry shifted left by 1 bit and the top bit inverted and feedback to be the new low bit. eg 1 $95 = b10010101 is followed by $2b = b00101010 eg 2 $01 = b00000001 is followed by $03 = b00000011 In pseudocode they are accessed as: new_value = table[old_value]

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Yes it would get much hotter as it dumps the extra off. I wouldn't suggest running the drive for long at all.

I spent some time reviewing files for a Github refresh and found this "THEMATRIX" demo screen saver. It also is a good demo of how to spawn tasks in low RAM at startup time so you don't take program space the task memory. I think it looks better now and the screen doesn't timeout now (duh!) so I made it into a binary program and it could be a cute screen saver. updated-matrix-screensaver.mp4 THEMATRIX.ZIP

With each update the game only gets better, militarized music and sound effects combine perfectly. The animation of the aircraft explosion was beautiful.

Still available?

Got these over the past week and last weekend at FreePlay Florida...

Sorry, the board has been mailed second day air. So that 'should' put it here Saturday. But this time of year, I'm thinking Monday. I'll take pictures and post them as soon as I get it. I can tell you this: It's for a 1090, but I don't think it ever went to production. As Dr.Venkman pointed out, I think it may have been an R&D board DavidMil

Beautiful work! AAA 100% in Edge and Next Generation.

Some great BLACK FRIDAY deals from Atari here! Use code WALNUTFRIDAY for $20 Off any Atari VCS Black Walnut All-In system. Use code ONYXFRIDAY for $10 Off any Atari VCS Onyx Base system. Also for existing owners: CELEBRATE "FLASHBACK" BLACK FRIDAY Fire up your Atari VCS starting Friday to access our first Big Game Sale! All Atari Games in the VCS Store will be 33% off! 4 Days only! Friday, November 26 through Monday, November 29. Sale includes: All 7800 Titles: Desert Falcon 7800, Ninja Golf 7800, Scrapyard Dog 7800, Motor Psycho 7800, Dark Chambers 7800, and Planet Smashers 7800. All Atari Recharged titles: Centipede: Recharged, Black Widow: Recharged and Missile Command: Recharged Atari VCS Vault: Vol. 2: 14 vintage Atari arcade games, 16 Atari 5200 titles, 12 Atari 2600 M Network games, and 8 prototype/homebrew Atari 2600 games.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Plenty. Current Schematic: Meanwhile, @jeffpiep is hard at work bringing up the Apple ][ version, which uses the SmartPort: and @idolpx is hard at work fusing his work from the 8266 based Meatloaf, into the FujiNet code base, in fact, he was ultimately responsible for the code reorganization which has allowed the FujiNet codebase to differentiate buses, peripherals, and media types. -Thom

I realize now that this is sometimes called the "Elvis" operator. Think emoticon with hair ?:-) So I am still curious is it just a syntax convenience or does it generate different code?

I'm working on a 4 player game using the QuadTari right now. So, those skills will help should the stars align again.

Here's a rather long demo on some of the clipboard and TI Basic integration stuff I'm currently working on. Have some more debugging to do, but it's almost ready for release. Want to have a new release out before Xmas. js99er-20211125200249.webm