Gunstar

Well, I had to wait for 2 1/2 years as my friend decided to wait for the price to drop to about $200. But this past August I finally got my Onyx all-in machine from him for my birthday! Just in time too, as my really old PC finally gave up the ghost, so this replaces it. My first new Atari branded computer/console since 1995! I had to do the OS flashed on a thumb drive update, but after that everything has been working like a charm. I currently have it set up on a coffee table under my projection screen until I'm ready to use it as my office PC. It's pretty portable so it will go back and forth most likely. There is nothing like playing Tempest 4000 on a 150" projection screen!

About a year ago I converted some album covers from the band Rush. I believe this one to be a forgotten conversion I never posted and just rediscovered. Sorry if I did post it before... Rush Signals. 59 colors. RushSignals.xex

I of course meant .xex if there is the rare 8-bit user here that doesn't know Atari executables were once the standard .exe that the internet forced us to change to avoid confusion between MS-DOS .exe's etc., though we weren't alone in having to choose a different standard extension for executables in the face of the Microsoft megalithic MS-DOS/Windows standards.

Yankee Lighthouse. 64 colors. GS_YankeeLighthouse.xex The source image is a tall 90 degree turned camera photo that wouldn't show enough detail with a Rastaconverter conversion windowed within 160x240 at about a third of the horizontal resolution (~53x240) so I just converted approximately the upper half showing the full tower, but only the top story of the house below. I am currently working on a horizontally oriented full photo version (will have to turn emulator window 90 degrees or actual monitor on a swivel stand, like I do, or CRT on its side) like I have done with about a dozen images before. Example below. Actual .exe running on Altirra, with my PC's LCD TV/monitor turned 90 degrees with a near universal wall-mount monitor stand for 32" LCD screens I purchased on Ebay for about $20. I also use this screen & swivel stand for my Atari 800 and view the .exe's like this on the real hardware through Sophia output, but used Altirra for the photo below for convenience, on-the-fly for this post.

I agree with the game being annoying and that it was due to what I believe to be poor or overly difficult (very small area) collision detection. And I always suspected that the game would become repetitive since there were 4 different buildings or levels to play through. But otherwise it was only repetitive because I kept playing the first level over and over and over as I was determined to master the controls/timing, with some success and incremental progress up the first level, but never finishing it before I got too frustrated. But to this day, every once in a while, maybe a few times a year I play it again. The reason I keep going back to it is that it is a great idea for an arcade style platformer, just too difficult due to the controls, control timing or collision detection or a combination, IMHO. And because it seems like I am making progress, if minute, each time I play, generally about half a dozen attempts each time I load the game up for a session. Though I basically start from scratch with getting used too the issues mentioned when I don't play for months or sometimes years (times when my 8-bits aren't set up for various reasons). And as frustrating as the game can be, I still find the concept and animations amusing enough to keep trying, and the desire to see at least one more level without cheats or screen shots or videos. I really think this game is ripe for hacking the controls and/or collision detection to improve them, and maybe even a sprite upgrade by @TIX. All the Cohen games for that matter when it comes to sprite upgrades.

Foundation Trilogy. 94 colors. Excerpt from original cover image is flipped vertically for best color & detail results. GS_FoundationTrilogy.xex

Foundation's Edge. 58 colors. GS_FoundationsEdge.xex

Over the last 5 years I read the entire I-Robot and Foundation series, and other works using my good old library card. I then just listened to the entire Foundation series this past year on Audible while doing electronics projects. I highly recommend the Audible versions, some great narrators and easy to multi-task while doing some other work or project. A classic series, a must for any bucket-list of novels. You don't want to end your life without having experienced the entire Foundation and I-Robot series.

This is an impressionistic art piece from paperback edition reprints of Foundation books in the 60/70's era I believe. There are distinctly different styles throughout the decades of Asimov's Foundation cover and other art. It's quite interesting to see how it evolved from the first edition hardback cover sleeves or later paperback releases and reprints, and collected works re-releases to modern day editions. Sunset on Hari Seldon. 47 colors. GS_SunsetOnHariSeldon.xex

Forward The Foundation. 64 colors. GS_ForwardFoundation.xex Galactic Trader Starship. 47 colors. GS_TraderStarship.xex

Second Foundation. 71 colors. GS_SecondFoundation.xex

I know it's been a month or two since my last post, promising more soon, but with no luck getting acceptable results in conversion attempts, I needed to step away until I got my Rasta mojo back, as well as life delaying things. But here are a few now. This first one is actually a re-do of a conversion I did several odd years ago, IIRC, I titled it Journey's End. It was a familiar image but at the time I didn't recall that it's cover art for one of the many reprints of Isaac Asimov's Foundation books. All are book cover or other art related to the Foundation series of books. These particular ones and a few more I hope to convert are 70's/80's era art from paperback reprints of the era. Foundation's Edge. 86 colors. GS_FoundationsEdge.xex Alien Tree 2. 56 colors. GS_AlienTree2.xex Dirge to Ancient Trantor. 62 colors. GS_DirgeToAncientTrantor.xex

The 1200XL can be the ultimate 8-bit, once a few minor changes and upgrades are made. Atari 1200XL system1200XL internal upgrades:PBI, APE Warp+ 32-in-1 OS, XL/XE MMU, Internal BASIC, Dual POKEY stereo with pre-amp board and stereo headphone output, SuperVideo 2.1 video upgrade, +5v SIO fix, Hi-speed SIO mod, keyboard fix, Pal GTIA conversion board, PAL GTIA, PAL ANTIC, cartridge port mod, Internal RGB LED lighting.1200XL external upgrades:Syscheck XL 2.1 PBI board with custom case: (4 OS switcher, 512K sram (576K total system ram)), Super SDX cartridge (SDX 4.8, battery backed Real Time Clock), MyIDE II cartridge: (full PBI compatibility, 512K sram, MyBIOS 4.9, FAT32 partition, APT partitions for SDX HDD drives 5-15, On-board OSS language carts and diagnostic SALT roms), RIX break-out-box audio/video output.1088K total programmable memory internally & externally!Peripherals:1050 disk drive with Happy double density Warp speed x3 57K SIO, built-in 1050toPC and SIO2PC RS232 com ports, front drive # switch and SIO activity LED's, internal LED lighting1050 disk drive with Happy (see above) and front drive # switch, internal LED lighting.1030 modem1020 plotter1010 tape drive with Rambit Turbo-tape upgrade, Stereo external I/O mod, Power switch mod, SIO activity light mod.CA-2001 DD 180K Indus GT clone drive with built-in CP/M mode with 64K memory. Custom XL paint job"1027" R.D. XL/XE eprom burner supporting 2732-27512 eproms with custom XL case.SDrive-MAX SIO2SD floppy drive emulator w/custom XL casePanasonic KX-P2023 24-pin dot-matirix printer w/custom XL paint job More here

Same here, I like to use ST mouse and Atari Touch Tablet with my 1200XL. Though I've also converted a TRS-80 Coco analog mouse for use with my 800 and anything compatible with the Atari Touch Tablet (as can be seen in my avatar photo and custom 800 blog photos). A simple rewiring job using an Atari controller cable to an Atari controller plug/port's POT and Fire button pins. Outside of gaming, I've only ever used the Atari Track Ball in joystick mode for productivity apps and graphic art apps that only support joysticks for cursor/brush movement. Of course I owned a ST mouse and Atari Touch Tablet before owning an Atari Track-Ball...

I am a box collector myself, and also prefer the big boxes where available, like with Atari cartridge releases I look for the big box versions first, that settle for small box versions if I have too or for later titles that never came in the big boxes. But besides Atari, I prefer to collect software from the publishers that had the sturdy cardboard boxes of the same quality as board game boxes from back in the day. This also includes Avalon Hill, SSI, earlier Epyx titles, etc. Though I only started collecting a few years ago and wait for deals I find, since I see price most of the time on complete boxed games, new or used, on places like ebay from $50 to over $100, but the ones I own that are pictured I found for sale fo around $25 each. Out of the 4 Avalon Hill games I have so far, only Telengard is on disk, the other are all tape. But Avalon Hill was much more popular and relevant in the days of the 400/800 when disk drives were not the standard yet and most people only owned a 410 tape drive. My SSI titles are all disk, and as far as Epyx titles (not shown), earlier titles were tape only, then there was a transition period where tape and disk was included, then disk only, then they came as dual-system titles on disk, generally with C64 or Apple II on the front side of the floppy and Atari on the rear, on rare occasion, the other way around. I have an Avalon Hill game catalog(s) that came with one or more of my games, and the vast majority of Atari titles are on cassette, and it's about a 50/50 chance of them being Atari only, or include versions for other systems as well, like is shown above in the list @Bill Loguidice posted. But I still enjoy using my 410 from time to time and prefer buying AH games on cassette, if available, as I'm collecting them more for the manuals, maps, posters and other extras that come with them, as well as for display purposes. I generally just download ATR's of them a make my own floppy disks to use as well as I don't always want to wait for a cassette to load. I just do it once in a while because I like the nostalgia of using the 410 hardware. I'll also add some of my own audio to the tape for the 410 to play while loading the game, so I have something to pass the time listening too, if the cassette doesn't already include audio tracks for music during loading.