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#5 is alive! This is, as usual, top notch production from Songbird. The manual is a thing of beauty, I won't spoil the surprise on that.

And let's not forget the name... Am I the only one who cares? This is the VCAss all over again. No thought whatsoever...They could have come out with a Superior product (For example an HDMI out ATARI 2600 VCS, or A/V Out 2600 VCS, or FPGA 2600 VCS), and called it, well anything...Even, Maybe a 2600 + ,...The Plus implies, of course, that it does MORE than your original VCS, but a more accurate name (for this) would be the 2600 MINUS, 2600 NOPE, 2600 LESS, or 2600 ARRRG FU*K ME! because this thing does LESS than your (Oh here we go again with names so I'll have to call it) original, 70s or 80s, ATARI VCS 2600!! By the time this is over, you'll realize you could have bought a much more compatible VCS with A/V + S-Video mods, and probably had some money left over for Tacos...Or save it for Homebrews... Because you know you'll be able to play them!

Not according to documentation I've found online!

#6 here. You beat me by a millisecond!

I've made a Tetris game for TRS-80

I guess Tommy's ego is so big he counts himself as two people. 😏 Tommy_Haters_Destroy_Intellivision_Shame_on_You.mp4 Shame on you @Tommy Tallarico for destroying it. You also forgot to mention all the investors who you took food off the table from. Don't forget them.

The truth at the drive thru with Garfield and Jon.

Hi all. After one month of hard work, I've completed Thunder Soldier for Intellivision, a run-and-shoot game. All started because I was doing experiments with parallax scrolling and it looked pretty good. It has five stages and their respective bosses. Just shoot everything. Soon to be available from Homebrew Inc. In the meanwhile you can enjoy a video preview of the game

Did a follow-up interview with my heart surgeon today and they finally answered the question nobody seemed to know: My heart muscle itself is solid and strong, it was just the arteries around it were damaged with disease But as far as the overall function of the heart? There's not an issue at all, good squeeze they said, and good squeeze is what you hope for. Thanks for the support and the get well messages via DM. VERY much appreciated. 🕹️ 📺

Just like with the calls for Nolan Bushnell to head up Atari again (something I haven't heard post Fred Chesnais, confirming to me that this latest version of Atari "gets it" well enough), it's unclear if Keith Robinson would have been the right choice to lead and/or make further decisions (although I have no reason to doubt his ethics versus the Amico regime). Because of the debt, SOMETHING drastic would have had to have been done with him here or not. History may have played out the same, with perhaps Robinson being a more amiable spokesperson of sorts to balance out the Tallarico bombasticness. At the very least, Robinson's genuine affection (i.e., with no other overriding motivation like "cashing out") for the IP is without question. ( and I know that's not what you were implying, but I think it's an important point to make)

People who know a bit about the technical aspects had the exact opposite reaction to that compatibility list. What it shows is that the dumper only supports plain 2k and 4k games plus 2 types of bank-switched carts: Atari F8 (8K) and Atari F6 (16K). The same as the dumper in the Retron 77. Games using other bank-switching methods are marked "untested". The list looks quite suspicious, if anything. They tested "Custer Revenge", "Gamma Attack" and "Red Sea Crossing" but they couldn't find a "Decathlon" cart? Why Supercharger games are in the list? Those are cassette tapes, where are you supposed to insert them in the 2600+? Wouldn't the Supercharger itself been there and not the tapes? It has been stated that the dumper software can be updated, so maybe some more scheme could be added before the launch. But at the moment that compatibility list is quite unimpressive.

All Signature Editions will be shipped as of tomorrow morning! Well, except for #1 of course...

So, I emailed Atari yesterday about the lack of shipping to Canada. Today, all the existing Atari 2600+ products are available to preorder on amazon.ca! 🍁 Coincidence...? Anyhow, I'm cancelling my German and US orders. Less hassle with duty and other fees...

Hi @foft, Your board pretty much did everything one could want in a 'NEW' Atari 8-bit machine if I'm recalling correctly. It supported the legacy joysticks , PBI, and cartridge port. Also had a turbo mode, so very much like it had a Rapidus built-in, and I believe HDMI video output. What was the keyboard compatibility like? Stock and PS/2 or was it USB? Memory? Multiple OS and language support? It was a Mini-ITX form factor, so it doesn't seem like there would be any size constraints if laying out a new board with an 800XL footprint (lots of room). And very important your FPGA design was well proven 👍

They did, because that space wasn't needed and by using a partial address decoding they simplified the design. There's no extra logic chip in a 2600 for address decoding: all the various "chip enable" pins are tied directly to address lines from the CPU. By decoding more address bits you could to free some space from the lower 4k area. Since the TIA doesn't have any text capabilities and that there's not a standard way to store the graphics data, a character set or graphic shapes stored in a rom in the console doesn't seem to me it would have been of much use. But the cartridges could use that extra space to have a larger rom without bankswitching (or to have larger banks), You'd need some additional address decoding logic in the cart themselves compared to existing ones, but only in case you wanted to use that extra space below the upper 4k area. ---------------------------------------------------- There are a couple of examples of hardware derived from the 2600 that used a more complex address decoding to free up some space for additional features: The VCS "POP" (Point Of Purchase) kiosk, for example, is a modified 2600 hardware that displays a menu from which the player can select the game to try from up to 47 different ones. Among the other differences (e.g. no console switches, hardwired joysticks and paddles, 3 buttons wired to RIOT pins unused on a standard 2600), the memory map differs a little and TIA mirrors in the $0800-$0fff area don't exist there (A11 is decoded too and must be "0" for the TIA to be selected, in addition to A12 and A7 which have to be "0" in the standard console). Any address in that area maps to a rom select latch (write) or a bank of dip-switches (read). The RIOT mirrors in that same area DO exist, though, and it's left to the menu software to avoid accessing those which would cause bus contention with the latch/switches! The 1978 Atari arcade "Tournament Table" (a cocktail table style cabinet featuring some pong variations) is based on the VCS hardware and it too has differences in memory map: The TIA is active when A12,A11,A10 and A7 are "0". (two more bits decoded compared to the VCS) The RIOT is active when A12 and A11 are "0" and A7 is "1", with A9 selecting RAM (0) or I/O-TIMER (1). (1 more bit decoded compared to the VCS) A second RIOT is installed, active when A12 and A11 are "0" and A10 is "1", with A8 selecting between RAM (0) or I/O-Timer (1). The area from $0800 to $1fff is used by 6K of non bank-switched ROM containing the game code. So that machine has 256 bytes of ram, double the I/O and timers and 6 Kb of ROM in the same 8k address space of the 2600. (For anyone who will care to check the resulting memory map, yes, just like with the "POP" above, there are some memory areas that will cause bus contention between 2 chips, in this case the 2 RIOTs. Again, it is left to the software to avoid accessing those addresses...)

We've already had a chat. It was an impromptu video call at 1am for me, but it was a lovely conversation. Right now the only thing holding me back from getting a Distribution Contract out to Reboot is that the VCS doesn't have a Jaguar emulator built-in, yet. A few options are being evaluated and seeing how certain things shake out. Once I can get Jag emulation on the VCS, I hope Reboot games, and other developers, are swiftly landing on the VCS.

OK, good news: The recent changes made it into the 0.258 release. As described above, this means that the updated DSR of the TIPI is used by default if you put the new ti99_tipi.zip in the rompath. Another fix goes to the HX5102 (Hexbus floppy drive): When you turn on logging with "-oslog" or "-log", the drive accepts DSDD floppy disks. Without the logging, it does not. This is an example of a Heisenbug: It changes behavior the closer you observe it. I found out that the reason was a boolean member variable that was not initialized, so the activation of logging seems to shift memory contents in a way that makes the variable return a false, while without logging, it returns true. Ugly stuff. As always, you can find pre-built packages on WHTech for Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi OS 32 bit and 64 bit. I'll add MacOS as soon as it becomes available. https://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/MAME/ti99/

Asteroid for SN2 cart with YM2612 and hardware VGM player 20230830_225812.mp4

Never mind the thread title, here's the Sex Pistols:

7800 and NES are different systems, each with their own strengths. That said, instead of continuing the usual "NES to 7800" exercise, I think the time is ripe to reverse the comparison to "7800 to NES" and, as has already been shown several times, there are 7800 games and demos that don't can be replicated on the NES without making it look like a second generation game, thus reducing the number of sprites, the size of the sprites, the colors on the screen and sometimes even the resolution. The games I showed you in this discussion are an example but there are many others. Don't just stop at the technical specs, sometimes non-developer people don't have the right insights to understand the true potential of those specs and they get lost in an abstract discourse. As for the Sega Master System, it is obviously the most modern and powerful system among the three mentioned, however it does not completely exceed the 7800 in the sprites and colors department. Compared to 7800, the SMS puts more colors on screen at one time for the background (SMS 31 colors from 2 palettes vs 7800 25 colors) but for the sprites the SMS has only one 15 color palette while the 7800 can use any palette available. I'm assuming it should have some horizontal scrolling to view all of the boxing ring but at least we wouldn't have those little Master System sprites. Both boxers are using only one 160B palette and the boxing ring two 160A palettes (shared in the 160B palette), so there are still additional colors available.

Had a bit of unexpected free time this morning, so what better than to make it Atari time...bit of retrobrighting, 1hr 45 mins ,give or take, in the sun with a splash of diluted peroxide cream.

Finally intensively played the V2.5 at the Fujiama meeting. In the next ABBUC magazine there will be a game test of Space Taxi V2.4, no V2.5, I updated it quickly. Like, there is now V2.6, well there are more ABBUC Magazine issues

Hi Everyone, The ACE demos have been re-released and uploaded to the PlusStore. They now have a bug fix that addresses incorrect sprite positioning on some 2600 JR consoles (see above for details). For all of those who had problems with corrupted graphics on the screen, the demos should now work on your console with the PlusCart. Note, the 3D and PIC demos are 2600 compatible, whilst the RPG demo is 2600 and also 7800 compatible also. They are under: Public ROMs\PlusCart Exclusives\ACE Demos\ Public ROMs\PlusCart Exclusives\ACE Demos\ACE_3D_DEMOS\NTSC Arwing_60HZ_v2.ACE FastHead_60HZ_v2.ACE SlowHead_60HZ_v2.ACE SpinSword_60HZ_v2.ACE Public ROMs\PlusCart Exclusives\ACE Demos\ACE_3D_DEMOS\PAL Arwing_50HZ_v2.ACE FastHead_50HZ_v2.ACE SlowHead_50HZ_v2.ACE SpinSword_50HZ_v2.ACE Public ROMs\PlusCart Exclusives\ACE Demos\ACE_PIC_DEMOS\NTSC AT_DOOM'S_GATE_60HZ_v2.ACE CURE_A_FOREST_60HZ_v2.ACE KMFDM_LIGHT_60HZ_v2.ACE PASSPORT_MID_60HZ_v2.ACE PSB_WESTENDGIRLS_60HZ_v2.ACE VISAGE_FADETOGREY_60HZ_v2.ACE Public ROMs\PlusCart Exclusives\ACE Demos\ACE_PIC_DEMOS\PAL AT_DOOM'S_GATE_50HZ_v2.ACE CURE_A_FOREST_50HZ_v2.ACE KMFDM_LIGHT_50HZ_v2.ACE PASSPORT_MID_50HZ_v2.ACE PSB_WESTENDGIRLS_50HZ_v2.ACE VISAGE_FADETOGREY_50HZ_v2.ACE Public ROMs\PlusCart Exclusives\ACE Demos\RPG_4K_ACE RPG_4K_60HZ_ALPHA_26-11-22_v2 RPG_4K_50HZ_ALPHA_26-11-22_v2 Cheers Marco

Deadline is today After today it's all over! Everything! No more DOS Classics! Ever! I can only advise you to take part now, even if this is one of the hardest rounds of the year. Okay, the Macromedia Flash quiz had even lower answer rates, but in the current round not a single game reaches 80%... ouch! 😕 There are almost 90 players by now, but none of them from here. @jgkspsx @Keir @RangerS @Mikebloke @Trinity32 @jeremiahjt @BydoEmpire @Black_Tiger ...how about it? Deadline is Thursday 31 August, join via retrogamequiz.com. Here's the quiz one last time, now join.exe! link

I'm still working on this...

I just checked the ROM that Igi (http://blog.3b2.sk/igi/post/Atari-XF551-OS-firmware-in-PROM-8050.aspx) extracted from the Atari branded Intel 8050 processor (CO70235) and it is the same Checksum than C101696-002: D438B4D9. It is 4KB of data and 4KB of 0x00. In conclusion, Atari sent this specific ROM for the fabrication of their P8050H processors for XF551 disk drives. So basically, every XF551 has the option to run this firmware if you remove the ROM chip from the motherboard and move the jumper S3 to the S4 position.

The way sprite data is arranged and retrieved in rom is not standard, but it's up to the programmer to define it and so it's specific for each game. Everything is possible, at the cost of increased complexity of the hardware. When developing the VCS in '76/'77, 2k of rom (with the possibility to expand it to 4k) was considered more than enough. No, the "brain" board of the POP contained the same mask rom chips that were found in the cartridges and had 48 separate sockets for them (one was for the menu program). No. I had a look at the rom and the schematic from the service manual, both of which are freely available. No the 3 buttons are the ones on the control panel to select the games from the menu. Those buttons have no corrispondence on a standard 2600 and they are wired to unused pins of the RIOT. The POP doesn't have the "Select", "Reset", "TV Type", and "Difficulty" switches. The console on the top is just for show, and typically was a "dummy" unit, with an unpopulated PCB inside. The "brain" is below the control panel. Here's a video showing a PoP in action. The PCB is shown too with the rom chips.

Would undermine the flow of the game. The fact that you have a continues stream of unlimited ammo is what makes this game brilliant. You have to play it to experience this. It's a trip.

If it brings any levity to the situation, I'll point out that my closest friends know when I use the acronym S.M.B. while speaking to someone I dislike (as in, telling them to SMB) it instead stands for, uh... well... Let's just say it doesn't stand for "Super Mario Brothers."

God damnit. This thread makes me sad for two reasons. One, Kirk is posting. Two, Mario Maker (Wii U). I loved that game so much.. and now I can't upload levels. Screw you, Kirk! SCREW YOU.

Hey all! I would like to announce my second project, Armageddon Johnson, for the Neo-Geo. I’ve been working on this game on and off for the past 2 years. Since I am new to Neo-Geo programming, I plan on Kickstarting this project to hire some additional help to finish the game. Its a shooter, but not in the traditional sense. I’ll include the design documentation that describes the game’s story, etc. I am the lead artist, animator and musician on my project. I am also the programmer, but again - I need to hire someone who has more experience programming the Neo-Geo than I. Armageddon Johnson by Oceanside Software Story: Judgment Day has arrived for planet Earth. Humanity, along with all life on plant Earth, has been descimated by a manevolent Extraterrestrial race except for one person -- Armageddon Jonhson. Equppied with Earthly weapons (and some of Alien origin), Johnson battles the alien menace despite the overwhelming odds. While death is inevitable, it doesn't matter; all Johnson cares about is how many of the 'alien assholes' he can send to Hell before dying himeself. Gameplay: *Stay alive as long as possible * Conserve as much ammo as possible for the boss encounters *Johnson dies when he runs out of Ammo *Kill alien invaders and rack up a high score *Aquire new weapons (including alien tech) the longer you last Simple, but addictive gameplay: Armageddon Johnson stands atop a pryamid-like structure that is high above the ground, where he fights off countless alien invaders. Day & night levels; standard enemy 'waves' like Galaxian and boss battles like modern shoot 'em ups. Armageddon Johnson Catch Phrases "Hell? Already there!" "My name is Armageddon Johnson; don't you forget it!" "You call THAT a gun?" "I didn't know they stacked shit that high!" "ET go home!" "Anal probe this!" "It's a vagina, not a clown car!" -In response to Vagina-like alien that spits out little aliens 15-20 levels Armageddon Johnson stands atop a different structure during each level. For example: buildings; mountains; ancient Mayan buildings; airport radio towers, etc. Gameplay mechanics: The player can run from left to right; fire in 8-directions; jump; and collect weapon upgrades that drop off defeated enemies. Weapon crates containing gernades will randomly spawn on the playfield An extra life is earned when the player survives an enemy wave without dying. Format: Neo-Geo AES, Neo-Geo MVS & Neo-Geo CD Release Date: TBD The main character, Armageddon Johnson:

I'm aiming to have a full beta for Harpy's Curse posted for the weekend - To that end: anyone here 1) beat the game and 2) find an odd easter egg requiring all four keys? This coming build might have something new for you - especially if you think you've explored the whole maze Also, anyone try the save features in the last build posted? How does that seem to be working out, if so? Anyone make extensive use of the passwords? I upgraded my version of 7800Basic, so I *think* I'll be able to post ROMs with full v3/v4 header info, and POKEY-compatible audio working on appropriate SD carts. Lots of testing to do, still... (cross-posting from main 7800 forum)

That's what Wolfy said. That would please me.

At very least you got LF2 dirt cheap, maybe it’s a spiker?

Just happened to be on eBay this afternoon and saw this small lot of loose games for $15.00. Had to jump on it. Wonder what the unlabelled cart will be.

How would you pull off the shadows in the SNES version? Did you adjust your 8bpp backgrounds colors to account for the additional colors you'd need for those shadow graphics and the new Goomba colors? If the answer to that latter question is no, then it's not showing how it would look on SNES at all.

I heard she's proud of Joey Kuras

I had some related thoughts too. But nevertheless, I will not actively support incompatible hardware. If it works fine, if not, not my problem. Make the hardware compatible to the original!

Hi guys, For those that aren't familiar with DaemonClaw that's currently in development from BitBeamCannon, here a quick video on the gameplay of the title that's being developed. . Anthony..

Thanks for pointing that out. I've done the same, and the Canadian order is at least $60 cheaper.

Why are you yapping like that? You're clearly the one not paying attention here as I wrote exactly the same thing.

Pete Rose 2: Sports Gambling Simulator. 🤭 Rampage 2 ala SNK's King of Monsters. Ninja Tennis could be fun with special power ups, bosses, etc.

Hadn't we already decided on a palette? That's what FJC used for his U1MB plugin, right? I mean, it may not have been sent to candle & company but, unless we find a better one, we've pretty much already decided on the palette.

Thank you to everyone involved in getting this moving and making it happen. We Never The Same Color (twice) people appreciate it very much!

Hi all, This is a short post but with an important message... During the fantastic @ZeroPage Homebrew Live yesterday, James experienced a problem with the joystick fire button moving from the title to the selection menu. I really thank him and his ability to find bugs because it was not easy to catch it 😜 Obviously I tested the game with several hardware configurations and devices and all was working fine but finally, using a TAC-2 joystick, I have been able to replicate the problem... and to solve it 😎 For this reason I have just released a 2.6 version absolutely identical to the previous one, except for a minor fine tuning in the fire button reading routine. May be it was already working perfectly for you or maybe not but, in anycase, you can find the new version 2.6 in @Philsan website: https://www.santellocco.com/atari/spacetaxi.htm Thank you all as usual... Andrea

I just bought one of these (waiting now) and the label says made in Hong Kong. Not sure if there’s any significance to it but unlike all of the other labels I’ve seen that have a number stamped after the A1 but before the rest of the serial number, this one is blank. Took me off guard at first since it was listed as a 65xe and it’s laid out with expansion like a 130xe in the back so of course I did a double take and snagged it regardless.

Thanks, but unfortunately I think cc7800 still requires a lot of documentation to explain all the features and macros already available. An expert in Maria and C will probably find it straightforward, but as of today it's far from reach from the majority of game designers. A best starting point certainly is 7800Basic, which is wonderfully documented. But at least it's good to have a choice, especially for people who have 20+ years of experience in C. Volunteers for documentation are welcome ! I'll do everything possible to provide all the necessary explanations and help.

I've updated multisprite.h in cc7800 to implement DMA Masking vertical scrolling, an idea by @RevEng. It's working like a charm. Previously, my vertical scrolling feature was implemented by drawing a black curtain on the bottom of the screen (consuming DMA, ROM memory of the curtain and a palette color for the black). Now, vertical scrolling consumes less DMA where sprites are displayed in the bottom (46 DMA cycles in that zone vs 10 + 32 * 3 + (8 + 31 * 3) = 409 cycles in the DMA Masking zone). This leaves more DMA cycles for displaying actual sprites, and it uses no ROM memory neither palette color. Now my sparse tiling example in 320BD mode can use the P4C3 color (orange), and now uses all the available colors like in Rikki & Vikki ! 320BD_sparse_tiling.mp4