Emehr

First I gotta say that I really appreciate the Mini-Dig. It's an invaluable resource. I've been a [stella] lurker for a while now and I've even coded some demo stuff just to get my feet wet. I just have a few Mini-Dig suggestions... I second this. Maybe submissions to the mini-dig can be sent to the original authors (or volunteers) for some heavy commenting. Even a brief comment before each code block like "Do this during variable inits" or "This goes in the kernel" or "Do this during overscan" etc. would help a great deal for beginners. Brief comments describing variables to the point where there's no second-guessing would also be great. Lastly, a brief summary of how and why something works would be fantastic. For example, the line in SkipDraw: bcx .skipDraw When/why does the math clear the carry flag? I'm the type of person that likes to figure stuff out for himself but some things just elude me entirely. Also, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it now but I searched all over the [stella] archives and 6502.org looking for the 'bcx' opcode, not figuring out until a little trial and error that it can mean either 'bcc' or 'bcs'. D'oh! One more thing: is there room in the Mini-Dig for an explanation of how to use pointers? I did a write-up in HTML on my site but I can convert it to plain text if it's submissible. Here's the link for review... http://home.earthlink.net/~jjrein/stella/a...s/pointers.html I also did a quick write-up of how to use pointer tables... http://home.earthlink.net/~jjrein/stella/a...ntertables.html Just my 2 bytes... - Jason

Gotta toss in another vote for the 7800 version. Even better with a Sega Arcade Stick! - Jason

20eyes Albert ATARIeric bones CosmicJoke CPUWIZ DreamTR gamesnat hindsr1976 HolmesA8 Jibbajaba Jofu legeek mcgrail0007 RickHarrisMaine Starscream superomni [edit: another belated update; now in alphabetical order!] [edit: yet another great trade (thanks Rick!)] - Jason

Show me the games. Show me something I can't live without. Sell me the system based on the games, not who makes the system or what the system is capable of. Show me smarter AI. Show me a frickin' flight simulator for crying out loud. For years the 8-bit/16-bit consoles overworked their little processors to give us but sub-par flight simulators. Now that the machines have the ability, where are all the flight simulators? How about a driving simulator with cars from previous decades? Show me a game with smarts, not just a pretty face. /rant mode off - Jason

Damn. Well there goes my paper'n'dice RPG using sanity points that's at least, um, 12 years old. I snoozed. I losed. Didn't think that was something I had to patent for crying out loud . Maybe I'll switch it to 'bladder control' points. When your BCP's hit zero...sploosh! Now don't nobody go patent that ya hear! - Jason

I remember the "screenshots" in the Atari catalogs and how a lot of the sprite graphics were *huge*! I'm thinking of Space War and Sky Diver in particular. Gotta love the cover art though! - Jason

I know it's not the true arcade DK, but GameBoy DK is one fine version not to be left out, although it would've been really cool if there was an option to have the levels repeat after #4 for that true arcade DK experience. - Jason

Haven't played Contra Force or any PlayStation (1 or 2) flavor but I gotta go with the original Contra on NES. It's one of those games that never gets old even after destroying the vile Red Falcon for the umpteenth time. Love that electrocution sound effect in the base levels. - Jason

Wow... sorted by label color. Nice! 920465[/snapback] Maybe nice to look at, but when I want to play a particular game, the first thing I think of is its name. Do people really find sorting by maker (or rarity, or even label color) to be the most convenient way??? Sometimes I don't even remember who made a given title. 921785[/snapback] When it comes to Atari 2600 games I sort by color. At most I had about 140 games now I've trimmed back to around 90. At this quantity it's not too difficult to remember who made what or which game is a red label or text label, etc. Plus it just looks nicer on a shelf, especially when there are different cartridge shapes thrown into the mix. Not to mention Atari and Activision had standard fonts for their labels, making it more aesthetically pleasing to group them together. Same goes for INTV games. When it comes to everything else, though (NES, Genesis, PS1, etc.), the games go in alphabetical order. - Jason

I just checked on the real thing. No problems for me. Again, I cannot repeat this (Jacob, your SC is modded, right?). Anyone else having similar problems when testing on real hardware? 919591[/snapback] I do. Same setup: Supercharger w/4-switch woody. My SC is unmodded, however, and I have a joystick in the left port. Same symptom: during the death sequence in Splatform the screen rolls a bit. I actually noticed this back when Splatform was an individual 1k binary and just figured it was a feature . BTW, great to see "The 1k Three" in a single binary. Nice menu! - Jason

1. Never read the manual when I was 7 years old but still managed to figure the game out and beat it. There aren't *that* many game elements that it should take more than 5 minutes of experimentation to figure out. 2. When you realize where the holes are and that you can actually *steer around them* this doesn't become a problem. Also, there are two screens that you should never enter from a certain direction: don't go east of the woods or west of the buildings. If you do then you'll automatically fall into a hole (not sure why this was programmed in but there it is). - Jason

LOL! I usually don my cricket codpiece, my bowler hat and a fake eyelash and commence to tolchock my videogames in the most ultra-violent way. But not before taunting them with accusations of not having any yarbles. Naw, the worst I've done was grasp both ends of my controller and act like I was going to snap it in half hoping to see defeated, broken wires shooting little arcs of last-gasp electricity. But before I can muster the low-level rage hormones necessary for such a task, I usually set it down, do something else, and completely forget about it. - Jason

Video Pinball Pull the plunger, launch the ball, and go make a sandwich. Come back and you'll have 9000 points. - Jason

Yes, The Tick sucks very badly. I bought the SNES version a year or so ago thinking I would get a fun game based on a funny comic. Stage 1: fight a billion ninjas. Stage 2: Fight a billion ninjas that are colored differently from the ninjas in Stage 1. Stage 3 (I keep playing at this point thinking something has to change): Nope! More ninjas! Fight a billion of them. Spoon! What mindless nonsense. You could play all of stage 1, reset the game, and play stage 1 all over again and not miss anything the rest of the game has to "offer". - Jason

Based only on the titles I actually own. Please excuse my non-traditional categories, it's more of a "What am I in the mood for?" system than anything else. Drive 'n' Blast 1. S.T.U.N. Runner, 2. Road Blasters, 3. Hydra Fly 'n' Blast (1st or 3rd person) 1. Warbirds, 2. Steel Talons, 3. Blue Lightning Job Simulators 1. Paperboy, 2. A.P.B., 3. [vacant] Recreation Simulators 1. California Games, 2. Lynx Casino, 3. [vacant] Side-Scrolling Beat 'm Up 1. Ninja Gaiden, 2. Rygar, 3. Batman Returns Sci-Fi Action 1. Slime World, 2. Xybots, 3. Xenophobe Play It For Points! 1. Klax, 2. Pinball Jam, 3. Blockout Tile-Based Puzzlers 1. Chip's Challenge, 2. Crystal Mines II, 3. Super Skweek Bird's Eye View Adventure 1. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, 2. Gauntlet III, 3. [vacant] Racing 1. Checkered Flag, 2. Hard Drivin', 3. [vacant] Some Thinking Required Action 1. Lemmings, 2. Rampart, 3. Shadow of the Beast No Thinking Required 1. Rampage, 2. [vacant], 3. [vacant] Oops, ran out of games. - Jason

I generally dislike any controller that has action buttons on the side. I'm lookin' directly at INTV, Colecovision, 5200 and 7800 controllers when I say this. Extra points off if the side button is made of squishy rubber. I like the PS1/PS2 controller EXCEPT for that D-pad with the pointless divisions between up, down, left, and right. Pulling off combo moves in a game like Symphony of the Night is next to impossible with those. Put a SNES or Gen 6 button D-pad on that controller and it'd be just right. The Z button on the Gamecube controller is awkwardly positioned and the D-pad is way too small. Playing emulated NES games with that controller is annoying: HUGE action button, tiny D-Pad. Too unbalanced. Beyond that I can use just about any other controller out there. No complaints. I really like the stock Gen 6 button and SNES pads. Very nice! And for 2600/7800 gaming it doesn't get much better than any flavor of Sega stock controllers: 3 button, 6 button, or the Sega Arcade Stick. - Jason

*insert Dr. Evil's amount here* Aww, I can't sell Lil Pac. He's been around since I was, like, in 3rd grade. I still wind him up every now and then. - Jason

After seeing the Lynx insert in EGM's Nov. '91 issue I knew I had to have a Lynx. The GameBoy library left something to be desired for me at the time. Never owned a GB system until 2002 when I got a GBA. Anyway, no other system had my favorite Atari arcade games like Hard Drivin', STUN Runner, and Xybots. That fantastic page full of Warbirds screenshots had me sold. I got the Lynx (2nd model, no pack-in game) that Christmas along with a copy of Warbirds. I was one happy camper. - Jason

I picked up an O2 about 2 years ago at a yard sale and have since amassed 15 games for it. Unfortunately it's more of a conversation piece than anything else. The problem with having over 500 video games is deciding which ones you want to devote playing time to. After all, that's precious time you're taking away from the other games (not to mention normal "life" activities like "working" and "taking a shower"). Unfortunately what this all boils down to is...the keyboard is *not* the key. Compelling game play? *That* would have been the key. - Jason

I used my Max back in the day for certain games. It was horrible for Zelda (kinda like using the GameCube's analog stick when playing Zelda Collection) but I liked to use it for Contra and Metroid. The turbo came in handy for those games. The only thing I didn't like were the two little nubbins behind the controller that left dents in my fingers. I think that was their sole purpose. - Jason

My vote also goes to Junior. This was a late 80's liquidation purchase for me and I remember being highly impressed with it. Still am. - Jason

I don't remember anything about a crash. Didn't even know there *was* a crash until much much later (circa 1999 or so via the online community). I was 8 in 1983 so I wasn't too concerned with much. I was happy with the 9 games we had at the time! I do remember cleaning out either KayBee or Circus World in 1988-89 when Atari games were $2.50 a pop. Must've scored almost 20 games back then. Ahh, Solaris... -Jason

How could I forget Warcraft II? Fantastic voicework. The narrator before each scenario was a bit over the top but the units' voices were so good and memorable. Those developers (Blizzard) used sound effects and voice to great effect...really added to the atmosphere. "They're destroying our city!!" - Jason

Here's one for the great game/horrible acting archives: Castlevania - Symphony of the Night. "Die monster! You do not belong in this world!" says Richter in a tin can. and "What is a man?" Dracula says as he dramatically tosses his glass to the ground. These performances actually turned me completely off to the game initially. I didn't rediscover its true greatness until about 2 years after. - Jason

I mostly find it annoying ("It's a-me...Mario!!"). The Prince in Sands of Time was good. The voices in TIE Fighter (Mac/PC) were also good. On that note, I can't think of any games where voice acting is completely necessary. Nope, won't miss 'em. They'll just have to go back to using the programmers as voice actors. It's not like there'll be a dramatic change in quality . - Jason