grant74

Hi guys - hope all fellow Atarians are doing ok and enjoying whats left of summer time! - Just a quick one - I accidentally stumbled across some interesting pics on the net the other day (dont worry - just Atari!) - so here is a link for you guys - see what ya think - its only a mock-up, but hey, if one of us wins the euro lottery and buys Atari............ I know, I know - its a nice dream though! http://pichaus.com/atari-st-computer-concept-@1eec8d6be466eb2d7969d848cbb7bc6d/ comments welcome please guys! Cheers all.

Hi Guys, has anybody played Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon? its an old adventure game for the ST. I remember seeing it in an issue of Page 6 sometime in the late 80's, and wanted to play it but only had an 8-bit machine at the time. There are a couple of copies for about £10 inc p & p on Evilbay, just wondered if its worth playing at all, or are my childhood dreams about to be ruined by a rubbish game? ha! Cheers for any input guys!

cheers for the feedback guys, think I'll just carry on running it on my old CRT tv for a while, till I can treat myself to a bigger tv - I've heard Samsung are pretty good for running old skool stuff on? will test it on my mates Samsung first though! lol, or ask Currys if I can plug my ST into their display tv - sod it, if they want the sale, I'm sure they'd let me! ha! cheers again Atarians - some of the best people around!

Hi Guys, cheers for the feedback, yes - I did nearly consider painting the function keys and masking off the tiny letters but in the end decided it was too much hassle and had a big potential to look poo! - in the end I decided on removing the keys and giving them a going over with some cream cleaner, "cif" - or "Jif" as is known to us over 30's! (apparently it was changed cos "Jif" is rude in another language?) - anyway, I divluge, it did make them look a lot better and the keys look worse in the photo than they really are. As for the retro-brite idea, to be honest, I know it works, and I've seen it when it has been done - looks a million dollars, but this ST was one that, for some unknown reason reacted badly to it when the previous owner retro-brighted it, and in fairness, he'd done loads before with great results, but yes, it went from tired looking to "patchy / blotchy" looking, so rather than risk trying to retro-brite it again I went down the route of painting - Interestingly enough, the same shop I got my paint from had some other colours that looked a good match for 800xl colours - and I almost went down that route, making a 8-bit look ST which I thought would be cool, the only major hurdle would of been what to do with the keyboard, though I guess I could of painted the keys and re-applied the correct symbols on the keys - mmm, maybe one day - sounds like a big job though!

Hi fellow Atarians! hope ya all enjoying the summer holidays! After getting countless valuable snippets of help from you guys I finally have something to give back to the community! Sort of..... After recently getting my Atari ST1040 from Mick - aka Preppie! - I decided the outer casing was looking a little tired and discoloured, and I wanted to re-vamp it. Luckily the keyboard was not discoloured, so that made the job a lot easier! originally I was going to paint it in 800 xl colours and make it a bit of fun, but decided to go down the boring route and put the ST as close to original as possible (maybe I can pick up a cheapo tatty ST and give it the 8-bit treatment in the future? - will report back on that one!) - So, after perusing through countless cans of spray paint at various stores, I came up with a solution, see the attached pictures for pics of the spray cans I used. They are made by a manufacturer called "Rust-oleum" - and the variety I used was Plastic Primer - white matt finish, and Painters Touch - Stone Grey, Satin Finish. I found these paints in our UK hardware store - B & Q, so I dont know if our american and european friends can find the same paints locally? but I'm sure us fellow Atarians can help. After painting a couple of coats of each paint, then leaving to dry in front of the radiator, the finish was excellent and in my opinion, so very close to the original it'd take a bloody keen eye to spot the difference! I'd just like to add - I dont work for B & Q! lol! and the paints should be available in quite a few stores, maybe Evilbay? but B & Q is where I found them anyway! Also its worth bearing in mind that the job will only come out right if the paints are applied according to instructions! And all parts are cleaned and dried correctly prior to painting - paint dont like dirt and dust. Dont blame me for any bad paint jobs! ha! Unfortunately I didn't think to shoot pics of the dis-assembly of my ST but I'm sure that info will be on the forum somewhere anyway! So there you have it, hopefully it helps a few people with tired looking Atari ST's! Finally I should mention, dont forget to mask important areas, for example the Atari logo. The led covers on the facia (power on indicator and disk drive "busy" light) can be removed from the back with a sharp knife (carefully!) and put to one side whilst painting - its much easier than masking as they're so small its nigh on impossible! They can be superglued back in once the paint is dry - this is how I did it, how you wish to do it is up to you guys! Happy painting!

Thanks a lot guys - will look into those titles - just out of interest - what is the magnetic windowing system? not heard of it. I heard Another world is a good game - although my copy dont work! - will look out on evilbay - is it just me or are the disks for the ST not as reliable as the old 5" jobs they used on 8 bit machines? 99.9% of my A8 stuff works - where as I'd say only 75% of my ST stuff works - mind you - most of it has come 2nd hand from the bay of evil! lol! - cant complain though - my last lot cost me about £15 and for that I got a box of about 50 games - about 40 of which are working - may offer the remaining ones for free to fellow Atarians to see if they'll work on other machines.

Hi Guys - this should be a quickie, but I fear I maybe taking the can opener to the proverbial can of worms! - I'm looking for Graphic/text type adventures for my ST - you know the type - Level 9 did a few for the A8, wondered if they also did ST adventures too? or any other good writers for that matter? Hopefully adventures on the ST would have a bit of a better parser than the old "two word" commands of adventures on A8's - thats not to say A8 adventures were crap - some were awesome! So, any ideas folks? and also can you name and shame some stinkers too? Cheers all!

Hiya again! Just had a quick look on Evilbay - can get composite cables but the sellers say they are for "M" model Atari ST's only - I'm pretty sure mine is an STe - any ideas Mick? Which model have I got or has it been modded anyway? failing that - what ya reckon bout VGA cable? or am I barking up the wrong tree? Cheers dude.

Hi guys! thanks for the replies! - Hey Mick how are ya? ya right - the Bravia is junk! lol! Maybe i should just con the missus into letting me swap it for a nice Samsung LED tv! ha! will try the cable ya mentioned. Also, on Evilbay I seen a VGA with sound cable - and my Bravia has a pc input on the back - the plugs look the same - will it work at all? even if not in high res? the only problem I got with using my st upstairs on the old crt tv is that sometimes the text on games is blurred and unreadable - any ideas? apart from chuck the tv through the window! ha! its ok in the main to be honest but I'd love to get my ST working ok on the Bravia so I could bugger the PS3 off to somewhere else! I wouldn't get rid of the PS3 but I do tend to mess with my Atari gear a lot more - maybe cos every time I turn the PS3 on i have to sit thru a half hour "update" - modern tech? my arse! - PS......Mick - PSP games will be posted to ya tomorrow - keep ya eye out for the postie! Enjoy!

Hiya fellow Atarians! hope ya all doing ok - Firstly my condolences to the family of Atarian Ally - a sad loss to the community - I'm sure all our thoughts are with those who loved her right now. My Question if anybody can help - I have a 1040 STe with a 2mb upgrade - And the prob is this, I am UK based, so have PAL tv's, and on my Sony Bravia in the lounge I cannot get a picture - well, I can but its unwatchable - rolling and totally incorrect colours. The ST is being connected to the tv via a scart lead with a standard scart block on the end, yet on my other tv's upstairs it works fine, one of them is an old Samsung crt jobbie and the other is a no name supermarket special 19" lcd tv - but my Sony just wont play ball - have tried fiddling with tv settings - to no avail - any ideas guys? maybe we should start a list of which tv's work with which hardware! Thanks in advance for any help received!

Hi guys and gals, I'm looking for a Jaguar cd player which will work on a "pal - uk" system. Anybody have one for sale? Reasonable prices please guys! Any replies gratefully received! Regards Grant

Hi fellow Atarians! Hope 2011 is treating you all well so far! A quick question for those who may be in the know. Does anybody know any links or sites where I can find a good A8 emulator and roms etc that will run on a Sony PSP? I have had no joy so far. If it helps, my psp is hacked and running software version 6.31 - Any help with this is much appreciated - especially if you can tell me where to drag/n/drop files etc and get the damn thing working! ha! It'd be so cool to have 8 bit gaming on the move! Thanks in advance to any replies! Keep it A8! Grant.

Wow - some interesting ideas and points you make there guys - some unfortunate truths too! For example the one about Sony losing hand over foot with the PS3 console - and if they couldn't get it right then Atari would have a snowball in hell's chance! (Prove us all wrong Atari!). Maybe the way forward is, as many people say, pin our hopes on a re-release of an 8-bit style console with a few nifty features added - of course it wont be a market leader but I'm sure it would sell well as a simple plug and play unit to please us folks who remember the 8-bit the 1st time round! I think we ought to all make a pact - if one of us becomes a mega rich lottery winner - lets buy bloody Atari - sack all the blood suckers, get some of the clever and enthusiastic people from our great forum to run it and give us the 8-bit machine we're wanting and maybe make some cash whilst we're at it - we wouldn't need outside help from software companies as I'm damn sure we already got some fine coders on here who would do it just for the love and glory! Thank you so much to everybody who has commented - more are always welcome! It just proves that you guys really are true Atarians thru and thru! Something tells me that Atari as a brand is still as popular as ever amongst our circles and hopefully we can all recruit new and younger members to our ever-expanding Atari-army! cheers everybody! Hope ya'll have a Merry christmas and Happy new year - and maybe some Atari related gifts!

Ha! the post has only been on half hour and already had plenty of readers and some replies! I knew it might be a bit of a "hot potato!" - I gotta say, I know where you are coming from with the 8-bit thing - I have an 800xl (modded to 320k - thanks Mike! Aka "Preppie!"), with a 1050, a 1010 (for when i'm feeling sadistic!) and a load of games, and I do prefer it to my PS3 at times, of course the graphics are nowhere near equal etc but more often than not the 8 bit games surpass the PS3 stuff in playability, and even loading times if I use the 1050 on the 8-bit. Me personally, I WOULD like to see a new console from Atari - just to see what they could come up with! As in previous years they always seemed to come up with stuff ahead of others - even if their sales and marketing department needed lining up and shooting! Atari 2600 - ahead of its time, and quite easily Atari's most popular and well-remembered console (albeit not their best in my opinion - that goes to the 8-bits) - the 800xl etc - in 1983....64k and "proper" sound from your tv? whilst Sinclair were happy with 48k and a beeping annoyance of a crap in-built speaker! (although I was always envious of its software base compared to our beloved 8-bit) - then how about the Jaguar? 64 bit power and cool graphics a year or so before the Playstation 1 was even born! and I may be wrong but didnt Atari do the first "laptop" as such? think it was just some rebadged jap thing but hey! Keep the thoughts and comments coming guys!

Hi Bob, I may be a bit late in the day for this as I have only just found out from my friend mike aka "Preppie!" or "mike1200xl" about your surplus stock. Do you have any 1200xl's or 1050's left? If so may I ask how much the shipping to the uk is? Many thanks and Happy Christmas Grant.

Hi fellow Atarians! Hope you are all doing well and looking forward to the christmas holidays! Ok, down to business then! I'm sure the following question will stir up some emotions and thoughts amongst you all so here we go........ and its simple....... will, or could, "Atari" ever return, as an award winning, console manufacturer, as opposed to a software publisher? where does all the money go? have too many fat cats got their fingers in the Atari pie? Would my fellow Atarians like to see a brand new Atari console, even a hand held PSP type appear on the shelves? More importantly - would YOU support it? Yes, I know we've had Atari Flashback etc - which was a jolly good effort and seemed to be everywhere a few years back - but I'm talking about an up-to-date, totally new, all singing and dancing machine! Sure - it would never have the backing or the customer base to come anywhere near the current market leaders, but surely it could make a dent in their pride a little and steal a little thunder? Lets be honest - Atari have had some fantastic products (Atari Jaguar vs Sony playstation 1 anybody?) but have fallen flat on their faces with the marketing and backing up the consoles with enough software of a decent quality. In an ideal world a few mega rich oil sheiks (who happen to be Atari fans!!) would buy up the brand and re-launch it with a new console boasting PS3 and 360 beating capabilities and a pile of awesome games! Maybe - just maybe.............. So, now you've heard my rant.......any thoughts, rumours or otherwise? A merry christmas and Happy new year to all the good folks on here!

Well personally I think the Jag rocks! It pee'd on the ps1 in many ways - and its not JUST idle slander either - I had both systems. Guess which one I went out recently and bought again so I could relive the 90's? Well, it wasn't the Sony - just an opinion so I dont doubt people will raise eyebrows - but I'm sure that Atari would STILL have the console market sown up had they not been run by blood sucking leeches who had no real idea about media advertising or even the money to promote consoles properly - or even build them properly either - shame the name probably wont ever grace another console again - come back Atari - all is forgiven! (I know Atari still exist in some form, but nothing like the heydays!) Cheers for listening to the rant guys! READY 10 IF ATARI = NONE THEN NO PLAYSTATION 20 IF ATARI = NONE THEN NO XBOX 30 IF ATARI = NONE THEN NO NINTENDO Wii 40 GOTO 10 RUN

noooo dont butcher an A8! they're worth at least ten c64's!

Pitfall II was a great game - as you say - underrated too! although back in the day I was partial to a go on "Jet set Willy" - although I now dont play it anymore as I've heard its not actually finishable - therefore almost pointless! But did enjoy it back then tho. Also - "Whirlinurd" - a game I did used to enjoy playing - good graphics too - but for some reason, my copy seemed prone to crashing - hence losing where I'd gotten to in the game! Arrgghh!

Hi Guys and Gals! Any fellow Atarians got an Atari XG-1 light gun that they want to sell for a reasonable price? Cheers folks! Grant.

Hi guys and gals - just a quick one, does anybody have an email or contact address for Les Ellingham, the editor of Atari's Page 6 magazine from back in the day? Any help appreciated.

Some cool posts on here guys - thanks a lot - keep em coming! God I feel crushed now I realise I wasted so many hours trying to complete jet set willy when I couldnt of done it anyway! arrgghh! Ah well, got a walkthrough for spellbound now so will try that one instead! £2.99 and 25 years to complete - who said games were a waste of money! lol! cheers guys !

Hi Atarians - just wanted to see what interesting bugs/glaring programming errors people have found whilst playing good old 8 bit Atari games? Is it true that its actually impossible to complete Jet Set Willy? Come on folks - lets hear what you've found! I'm sure shocking collision detection will be mentioned more than once!

cheers for the links guys! will check em out! and believe it or not the items for sale on Ebay for £7.50 each were individual old stock magazines, yes, you read that right - £7.50 per issue! lol!

Hey Guys and gals! - Does anybody know of a link to download .pdf format files of page 6 and or Atari user magazines from back in the day? Quite fancy having a read! seen some mags on ebay but at £7.50 a go - they can bloody stay on Ebay! lol! cheers folks.