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Well, I’m still alive. If I can ever get past my weakness I’ve got many YN’s to upload. cancer sucks, so does chemotherapy.

Hi All, Sorry for the delay. It took me a little while to write up the project. You can find all the files (& source) for the project on the new github page: https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart I don't think I'm going to do a production run this time to recover costs, so please consider donating if you build and enjoy one of these nice little devices 🙂 EDIT - if you spot any typos, mistakes or something needs more explanation - please ask and I'll update the page. Regards, Robin

New version of doom - fastest drawing sprites, walls and change jamb textures to correct key color !testdisk.atr

Good news: I just got confirmation from Plaion that it is the latest version 6.7.

I did preorder one, but did request a review unit and will do my best to test the 2600+. I also have a Retron 77 and am currently updating it to Stella 6.6. There is a lot of buzz about this console. It may not play everything, but I am excited to see what it DOES play.

😆

Great detailed report. Unfortunately, there is no 'unfuckupmess' patch available. However, here are some other patches to look for and install under OSX that might fix the issue. Reporting back to the thread and posting the associated log file, after applying the respective patch or patches, should the experience still persist, would be appreciated: -There is OSX 'missionarypositiononly' patch that might align the application experience better to what you were expecting. -If that does not work, try the 'noménageàtrois' patch. -The more encompassing 'setorgy2no' patch may be needed, if the messiness still did not clear. -OSX is notorious for incorporating felines, and dependent on how the OS is behaving with the application, it may require the 'thundercatsho' command to get the desired results aligned, or if the issue worsens, the 'stopthebestality' update may be required. When all else fails, there is a last measure to try, which is pretty extreme, the 'restorehymen' fix. Honestly though, I have not come across any claims of success with it. Looking forward to some additional fantastic feedback after all the above is tried.

I started a project way back in the 80s. The premise was to get all software on disk (must have been after I acquired my first disk drive). Later I continued that project on my new Black Box. I set up 720 sector mini hard drive disks and sector copied software to them for easy access. Recently, I have been converting cassettes to disk with a lot of success, both ML and BASIC. With the advent of ATR's, I am now going to continue that project that I wanted so bad in the 80's. So my plan is to get all software on easily bootable ATR's (those that can be) and have them implemented on my TNFS server (see sig). This will satisfy the project I started so long ago. I want the cleanest copies I can get, so I will be following these procedures: A8SP is my source listing for getting all programs. Only one copy and the latest version of any program will be used. Unprotected versions will be preferred I will not use menu disks, if possible. "Greatest" and "Hits" disks will not be used. The individual programs will have their own ATR's. Source programs will come from these places only, and in order of preference; [cr CSS],Other Cracks by SB(me), A8SP,TOSEC,AtariMania,AtariOnline.pl, (ABBUC) Anything can be modified to make the booting easier, this is one of the main goals. I added some indicators on each file I am using. They are the last indicators in the filename: [A8SP] - Sourced from A8SP [TOSEC] - Sourced from TOSEC [AM] - Sourced from www.atarimania.com [AO] - Sourced from AtariOnline.pl [CC] - Sourced from CharlieChaplin (Games 20) [RRA] - Sourced from AtariAge member rra (Anschuetz-Weisgerber-Anschuetz Games) [SB] - Sourced from SoulBuster, provided to A8SP [MRGH] - Mr Robots Game Hacks Collection [ABBUC] - Sourced from ABBUC [A8MAG] - Sourced from Atari 8-bit Magazine [U] - Uknown Origin [K XXXX] - K-File extraction [B2B XXXX] BAS2Boot Extraction [X XXXX] - Sourced from an ATX [B XXXX] - Changed to boot program, or changed method of booting [O XXXX] - Changed AUTORUN.SYS, or other change, to remove "OS-B/OS-A/BASIC Rev A/BASIC Rev B" requirement(s) [CA XXXX] Sourced from a COM (or XEX, or EXE] to make an AUTORUN.SYS for an ATR [C3 XXXX] Sourced from a COM (or XEX, or EXE] to make a 3 sector boot ATR. This is done when it does not load under CA above [cr CM XXXX] - Cracked by me and Chipmunk [cr CM1.61] - Cracked by me and Diaperboy's Chipmunk (Games)(Chipmunk 1.61D.025) [cr CSS] - Cracked by CSS, sourced from A8SP [cr DM5] - Cracked by me and Duplicator Module 5.0, sourced from A8SP [cr BM3] - Cracked by me and Backup Master 3.0, sourced from A8SP [X CSS] - Fixed by CSS [T XXXX] - Sourced from a tape, menu may have been made by me or modified to load and save to disk. [F XXXX] - I fixed the ATR to a full single density ATR, whether it had more or less than 720 sectors, or other alteration of the ATR [R XXXX] - Removed Crack Screen/Notation I have finished programs that begin with numbers through the letters 'Q' and 'R'. When I finish another letter, I will post another file. This zip file mirrors my TNFS server, hopefully these are useful for others. All ATR Thread v.18.zip Full Directory Listing v.18.txt

It is my great pleasure to introduce you my entry for ABBUC Software Contest 2023. Time Wizard is a platformer game where the player can manipulate time. In-game story: Robots from the future are trying to change history to rule the world. The only salvation for humanity is you, the Time Wizard. You must go to the future to the world of robots to prevent the disaster. Your task is to collect all the energy stored in hourglasses so that robots cannot back in time. The mission is difficult but your advantage is the ability to manipulate time. You can stop it, rewind or restore the history. But be careful! Some objects are resistant to time manipulation and you cannot control them. During the game, press the fire button on your joystick to start the manipulation. With the button pressed, move left to rewind history or move right to restore the saved history. You can change the speed of the time shift by moving your joystick left or right. Release the button to restore the normal passage of time. If you die, press the fire button and move left to rewind. Press Start key to restart the level. Press Select key to go to the main menu. Additional description: In the main screen, it is possible to select one of the 15 levels. At the beginning all levels except the first one are locked. You must successfully pass the level to unlock the next one. To do it you must collect all hourglasses and go to the time portal. You have limited time to pass the level but remember that you can rewind time if you need. The time you don't use is your score for the level. The greater the value the better result. Sum from all levels is your total time visible on the main screen. Minimal requirements: Atari 8-bit computer or emulator with at least 128kB RAM. The additional RAM is required to store and restore the history of gameplay. Joystick or other manipulator in port 1 to control the game. Unprotected floppy disk to store the high score and unlocked levels is highly recommended.

Yeah whenever I buy an Atari either from eBay or from a thrift store such as GoodWill, I never expect it to be 100%, and always assume that I'll need to do something to it. Of course if it does work perfectly I'm ecstatic As its already been mentioned several times in this thread... knowing how to troubleshoot and solder really is a prerequisite if you don't want to keep emptying out your wallet to pay someone else to do it for you And of course nobody is born with this knowledge, and we should always keep that in mind when someone new arrives on the scene. However they too should exert an equal amount of patience when looking for help in these forums, and at least show enough initiative to search and read what is available here on AtariAge. Because there is a wealth of knowledge here, and most likely a thread exists that talks about whatever it is that they have encountered or need assistance with. BTW, I feel sorry for whoever gets my Atari hand me downs

Thanks @evietron, Donkey Kong is as awful as I had always imagined it to be. The Donkey Kong cartridge has been sitting in my collection taunting my Intellivision 2 for the longest time. But now I can experience it as no one should have done. As an owner of the 2600 port during the 80's, I can now feel the pain of my newly adopted Intellivision family on original hardware. Thank you, I think. Seriously though, anyone looking for an Intellivision flashcart should take a look at this project along with @5-11under's upcoming batches of RTO. https://streamable.com/r0vdo2

Entitled much ?

I am sure everybody is looking forward to your findings. For testing the dumper, maybe have a look at the R77 compatibility list. Some games fail, even though the dumper should support them. This is because of a flawed cartridge port design and we should verify that Atari did not make the same mistake. Also the supported controllers would be interesting (not sure if that part can be updated). How well do the paddles work? Driving controllers? Keypads? Trackballs? SaveKey? ...?

Off ya go Garfield.

You bet! Albert was pushing me with the Bot&Tom artwork. Now that this is done, the manual is due. Hurry!

It's okay, we renamed it Ramphage.

I suppose I should get started on the label art...

I'm in YN withdrawal! Get better already! You've got every TIer here rooting for you, so hang in there and fight like hell.

Eh, good for them, they got the short end of the stick in the 90's while the vanilla Jag version is still good.

We need more of these comments! Thank you to all who have given your time, most of us appreciate it!

Almost lost my basement gameroom to a flood due to tornadoes going through causing a power outage (power was out for about a day). Thankfully my neighbor noticed me trying to manually drain my sump with buckets and offered to let me plug my pump into his generator. If he hadn't my gameroom would have been under several inches of water. As is I was losing the battle (sump was filling faster than I could drain it) and some water seeped into the carpet tiles. Thankfully soggy tiles can be dried and nothing was damaged (although the room is a mess as I had to move everything off the tiles very quickly). It's going to take a while to get everything back to normal but it could have been worse as one confirmed tornado hit a few miles from me and two 'rotations' formed less than a mile or so north of me. It's been a fun couple of days...

Well, I look forward to this, whenever it comes out. CJ and Sporadic, you do you in your own time. I'm already a fan of your work.

@Irgendwer, you are completely right. For me, Braid is one of the greatest platformer I ever played. Time Wizard is inspired by Braid in terms of controlling of time. But it is not a conversion at all. My idea was to create a new game with more arcade elements which would fit to spirit of Atari 8-bit computer. The game world is also different and contains unique items like force fields, teleports, etc.

Maybe because if you access the official site from outside the US it looks like this? Sure, if you scroll down the page there's an "International Availability" entry you can click to get the international distributors, but I think that replacing that big red "This product is only available for shipping in the United States" note with something more informative would help a lot to avoid spreading that idea...

I have lots of original and aftermarket things that I will test with the unit, if I do get one to review(not guaranteed). Now I just have to update my Retron 77 to Stella 6.6. Is that easy to do if I have already updated it past 6.0?

Inspired by my Spamalot musical I started to write a text adventure together with @gambler172 in the Monty Python spirit The game is also an experiment for using 320 graphics on the 7800. Due to Silly Ventures a week ago I was a bit rushed to publish the game so it is still WIP. Here is a screenshot. The binary will be out on 3rd of september so there is still a week for us to fix the code. And add the dragon that Walter requested. You have found an ad in the newspaper with the text: "Cameltoe lokks for a male, experienced in lap-dance for tonight. Pay is $200. Inquire at the theater." Obviously this sounds too good to be true so you head up to the theater nearby and get hired... I hope that the game can show a bit of the hectic life and need for creative solutions bahind the stage. Have fun and break a leg. PS. The game is a 48k single button game using TIA sound only. So it should be playable on NTSC and PAL units.

Hey! Ok, this is what is happening: The BUP emulator, like ProSystem, is allowing for left and right simultaneous presses. The 'left + right' keypress is the 'select' button on the flashback joystick. It will take you back to the menu. This will not happen on the real thing (with a multicart, or the new bin) unless you are using a controller that allows for left+right simultaneously (i.e. all buttons) which normally is an impossible combination. I know A7800 does not allow for this, as that's the emulator I always test with. (I tested it on the real thing as well). Bob

ADoom - Silly Venture 2023 version:

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

Thanks, I had already thought so. Actually the Stella team got contacted by Koch Media mid of last year. Since we had no time to actively participate, we (the Germans ) gave our best advice, especially based on our experience with the R77. And their feedback was positive. We even got offered a prototype for testing earlier this year, but that never went through. They are definitely using Stella. And based on our discussion, it seems the dumper MCU can be reprogrammed.🤞

I recently inherited a 5200 Retail Display Stand. My father was able to acquire this from work and it’s been in our family’s garage for 40 years untouched. Needs a good clean out for the dust but I’m curious, are these still in demand and worth refurbishing? I’m not necessarily attached to this system since it pre-dates me but if it still has market demand, I’ll put the work in to clean it up. Not a lot of threads or details about these things so hoping I can lean on the enthusiast community for a realistic idea of what I have.

The joystick ports of the R77 only support joysticks and paddles (see below). This cannot be fixed. Original paddles have problems in Stella version 6.6. We have not found the reason yet. But since the Ranger works, we suppose that it doesn't work like an original paddle. And the firmware (or worst case the MCU which cannot be updated) has somewhere been adapted to the new behavior. A fix is planned for the next release, but there is no schedule for this. Yes, you need a 2600-daptor and an OTG cable for attaching other original controllers. Then the paddles should work fine too (just like they do on any other computer when you run Stella with a 2600-daptor). IIRC you can plug two controllers into the front port and combine them with 2600-daptors. But their signal might interfere and you get random input. Yes, you can map any OTG controller to left or right port in the settings (Input Settings). And use the other R77 port for the other controller. Usually Stella knows which games use which port and switches the ports automatically. If not, you can edit this per game in the settings (Game Properties). Hope this helps.

Oh, almost forgot. This is the "karaoke station" This is mostly for my wife but I have been known to belt out a little Hall and Oates on occasion 😄

Hmmm.... Ok new idea. When i get home later, I'll change it so the 'menu' button is 'select' (that one is up+down). I'll change Galaxian to be that too. Which means that only the left / right joystick games will have fb button support. (And there's very few of those): - Astro Fighter - Meteor Shower - Galaxian - Moon Cresta - Space Invaders - UniWarS

If we performed as badly as Larry, we'd be fired on the spot. What is he holding over the Government? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_(cat)

We will be awaiting your triumphant return. Take the rest you need, just try not to test our patience

This is a really sophisticated stealing technique to avoid to be intercepted until the modified and improved idea has skyrocketed in popularity. After that phase you have earned enough money to sustain a long trial, continue to earn money and, finally, eventually pay some royalties. Do you know the story of Facebook? 🤣🤣🤣

So sad it's not FPGA based, even though as I previously aforementioned, such a weird marketing move either way. Just another ATGames unit .... with no inbuilt games! Anyways ...

Darn, is it that time the year already? I better buckle down and finish the game if you're going to go through the trouble of doing the artwork... now that would be awkward!

Hello guys Fujiama 2023 will start next Wednesday, real, real, REAL early (milliseconds after Tuesday is over). Sincerely Mathy

And you wonder why the people bringing these things in their own time just don't care anymore?

Mate ... if you're confused in German I'm f**ked if I know what's going on in English.

We'll, let's be honest, if Kirk's proving anything about Mode 0, it's that it was about as appreciated as it should have been. Everything he shows just looks like three NES games got into a fight and none of them won. Can you imagine being a developer back in the day, trying to advertise your game in a magazine and the screenshots looked like that?

BrushUp v5.8 (attached!) ... Two fixes, corrected since 5.7. From: BUREADME.BXE on Brushupv58.atr Bug Fix/New from v5.7 * Hex offset toggle value was incorrectly showing E value twice, Now shows D value correctly. FIX * Dup/Cut/Paste was corrupted when Hex offset toggle was on. Offset now disabled when in use. FIX -- end -- BrushupV58.atr

Early update this week, I need to move on to a couple of long overdue soldering projects, the stage of the work is really good for that. The scull spawning Sea Hags have been added, the game got somewhat more difficult upwards of round 4, even with no Bluto As usual, I also fixed a couple of bugs. But there is one more quite visible change, if one has the right equipment and internal computer configuration, after another epiphany I had earlier this week, talked to @Simius to confirm and also get one technical detail out of him (that triggered his recent update to Sophia 2 documentation) I got a proper interlaced mode functional in the game, something that (only!) Sophia offers. That is, it provides a true interlaced sync signal that the video output, including VBXE's one, uses to generate the TV signal. This means that no Rybags hack is needed anymore, and the picture shows OK on *all* displays. Including upscalers, I got it to work with RetroTINK with more than satisfying results, see the photos. The game now, when it detects Sophia, non-permanently turns on the interlace mode, sets up its internals properly not to use the hack, and also disables SELECT for odd/even field swapping, as that can be confidently set to the right value from a Sophia register. But yes, you need Sophia+VBXE combo in your computer for that (and for that reason my only Sophia had to change its home from my 800XL to the 130XE). Another small side development for this game is that I want to make it S_VBXE.SYS Sparta DOS X driver friendly. When the driver is enabled and CON: driver turned on to use 80 columns VBXE mode, the game loads from SDX, just the loading screen gets blank (due to me doing some VBXE preinitialization needed for loading VBXE graphics data in) and progress messages are not printed, and starts, so this direction could be fine, and I could stop there. Resetting the computer though crashes SDX (with no S_VBXE it just gets back to SDX), so this is no good. Switching to 40 column mode with "CON 40" before starting the game ends up with a working SDX prompt after reset, but doing "CON 80" does not work anymore. So it seems I have two problems to solve (if I can be bothered), one is probably to use some XIO call to disable the 80 column mode for the CON: device (had so far problems finding what those XIO codes and parameters would be, only found ones for S_VBXE), and then also have clean-exit key for the game and reset the VBXE configuration to something that would make the CON / S_VBXE combo not to crap itself. Perhaps @drac030 would know the right way to deal with this? (Right selection / order of closing / probing the S/S2/E/CON devices?). I essentially wipe out the whole of VBXE memory, so it might not even be technically possible without full reinitialization/reloading of S_VBXE, don't know... Uff, wrote a bit too much today , pictures for the eye, WIP binaries for the curious popeye.xex popeye.atr

Pretty sure this thread is supposed to be about actual hacks that exist, not more hypothetical BS.

Nothing illegal about modifying it. Distributing it, that's not legal. Of course it's still owned by someone. We've no idea who, but there's no commercial software that has just fallen out of copyright, the period is too long. The difference between "is it legal" and "does anyone care" is vast, however. And so using one to prop up or tear down the other, in either direction, is a strawman argument that comes up all the time. This is all just opening up the same usual can of worms about "legal", "not legal", etc. All that was requested was the courtesy of asking any authors still in the community before messing with their productions. If that's too much trouble, skip their production. They might well come to you. It's not a difficult thing, but it's being made one.

Yes, it is different, and it was not derived from the version sold in the AtariAge Store. Here are the differences between the original version of Berzerk (as produced by Atari in the 80s) and the new Berzerk Enhanced version: • Modified graphics to look more like the arcade • Robots fire diagonally • Extra life bug corrected • Startup bug corrected • Five digitized speech samples from the arcade The version of Berzerk Voice Enhanced sold in the AtariAge Store only has three digitized speech samples, and I don't believe it has any of the other changes listed above. Also, Berzerk Voice Enhanced is 16K, and Berzerk Enhanced as sold by Atari is a 32K game. ..Al

I think it's a depressing idea. But you could just put "Game Over" there I suppose.

I don't suppose anybody is using my public domain ACTION! runtime package anymore since the official runtime package from OSS is freely available. I wrote it back in the late 80's and haven't thought about it since then. However when I saw your post about SETBLOCK being so slow, I wanted see for myself. You are right. It is 3x slower than the cartridge. MOVEBLOCK is also slow, but only about 2x slower than the cartridge. I suppose it shouldn't bother me that something I wrote 36 years ago was less than optimal, but it does. I guess I wasn't that concerned about execution speed at the time. Anyway, I was bothered enough by the slowness that I wanted to fix it. Fortunately I was able to find the source code (which I lost decades ago), the required tools and the Altirra emulator. It was kind of fun to revisit Atari 8 bit programming for a weekend. I've attached an updated runtime source file with much faster versions of SETBLOCK and MOVEBLOCK. I didn't make any other changes. I'm calling it revision B, hence the lower case b in the file name. RUNTIMEb.ACT