Emehr

Kaboom: 2nd player controllable Mad Bomber Barnstorming: realistic plane physics which includes... - ability to shut off motor - variable motor speed - rotating sprite (for pitch adjust visual) - wind sock at the bottom of the screen - fuel gauge/ability to land and refuel (may be a stretch but it'd be cool ) Pressure Cooker: near perfect as it is but maybe... - a bonus stage where you have to assemble dessert (e.g. catch falling scoops of ice cream or something). Chopper Command: different difficulty advancement - give the enemy planes/'copters more height variation in lieu of just making them get faster and faster. Keystone Kapers: make the bad guy more evasive - instead of making him head straight to the roof, have him hide behind merchandise or take an elevator down every once in a while to throw you off the scent. His goal is still to make it to the roof, he'll just be more clever about it. - Jason

I was kind of disappointed (and a little annoyed, I'll be honest) that a column in the price guide was devoted to action figures. Otherwise it was a pretty good issue. - Jason

Earlier this year... * Zelda: Ocarina of Time In the past week... * Metroid Prime (at 75%) * Zelda: Windwaker (w/13 heart containers) - Jason

Uhhhh... it'll say "4116" on it? (as opposed to 8116 or some other number) Oh, I thought you meant "plain" 4116 as opposed to some variant of the number (e.g. 4116-xx or whatever). Thanks a lot for your help! My quest continues... Jason

So _that's_ what the "- 29" after the snippet was: a reference to the original author! Sorry 'bout that! *smacks self in forehead for hastily skipping through the FAQ looking for a quick answer* Thanks! I just emailed Clay at Multigame.com about his 4116 chips (not sure if they're plain or not, I gave him the info printed on the chip). Do you know of any other sources for this chip. I've been Googling but not having much luck. Also, how will I know a plain 4116 if I see one? Thanks, Jason

Thanks for the tip. I just tried it. No luck, unfortunately. I desoldered the switch cover and cleaned the contacts. For grins I even jumped the connections and got the same scrambled result. The power supply was obtained from eBay as the one that came with the system was used as someone's dog's chew toy. The one from eBay looked like it had never been used so I don't suspect it. Jason

I'm on a quest to get my broken systems fixed. This time it's my Colecovision giving me trouble: the graphics are scrambled, including text. I did a search (here and on Google) for Colecovision troubleshooting and repair and the closest solution I get is from the Colecovision FAQ. Just a note: there is no Section 10.3 in the FAQ(!) All 4 of my Colecovision games exhibit the same behavior so I'm certain it isn't a problem with the cartridges. My test subject is Q*Bert and it has screwy letters on the startup screen (i.e. "P*BDRT, RDLDBT F@LD" instead of "Q*BERT, SELECT GAME") as well as disjointed graphics in-game. I'm guessing (from the FAQ) that the problem lies with one (or more?) of the 8 Mostek 4116 chips on the board, but the FAQ is cryptic. So... D0 (U17) D1 (U16) D2 (U15) D3 (U14) D4 (U13) D5 (U12) D6 (U11) D7 (U10) ...and each chip (U1x) is a 2K VRAM location? accessed by the appropriate data (Dx) pin from the video display processor? It does? How is this figured? Or are all problems with scrambled text associated with D2? If not, how do I go about determining which line is bad on my system? Should I just replace them all (considering availability of these chips)? Am I on the right track here? Thanks! - Jason

I sent an email with my responses (and a case for E.T.). I hope this magazine doesn't join the oh-so-trendy "E.T. is crap" brigade. I enjoyed E.T. as a kid and enjoy it to this day. It was one of the 9 games our family had and got as much play time as Combat and Space Invaders. I own over 120 games for the 2600 and agree that it's one of the better games for the system. I wonder how many people who say they hate E.T. actually got to the point in the game where E.T. is lifted off in the spaceship. Jason

Thanks for all the responses. I took apart my controller again and cleaned the contact surfaces with an eraser. I am able to get an audio response from my ohmmeter when I complete the circuit with a piece of metal (e.g. I probe pins 4 and 7 on the controller's plug and press "Start" with the piece of metal). However, when I use the rubber pad to simulate a button press, I get a reading of around 500 Ohms. Granted the rubber pads aren't as conductive as my knife blade, I was wondering if this is a normal reading. If so, my controller is operational. So, for example, pins 4, 7, and 15 (GND) would have to be jumped to effectively press Start? Before I was just jumping 4 and 7. In any case, neither method seems to work. I referenced Jay Tilton's page for the pinouts (since I can't seem to find my notes)... http://users.erols.com/tiltonj/games/tech/...h/5200cont.html @joeybastard: Unfortunately I don't have any other controllers for my system (except the extra controller I used for parts). The only 3rd party game I have is Gyruss. My 7 other games are first party commons. I tried 'm all using every button on the controller. @MrRetroGamer: If I can't find someone locally to check out my controller I may just take you up on your offer! Jason (still plugging away at it)

*bump* (Wow, can't believe it's almost been a year.) Anyway, I've since acquired a rather nasty 5200 controller from a used video game place and, together with my original, have managed to cobble together a clean, lightly greased stick that looks practically brand new (after much cleaning). It even kinda self-centers. Alas I am still left with a controller that doesn't operate the 5200. So...before I plunk down the coin for a rebuild kit for a system that I'm not sure will work even with a perfectly operating controller, I thought I'd bump this thread in the hopes that someone has tried this: is there any way to test the 5200 without the controller? My 5200 still powers up fine and everything. Beyond that I'm not sure if there's something internal that will keep it from functioning even with a working controller. Thanks a lot for any help! Jason

I never minded the game back in the day. I was probably 7 or 8 when our family got it. The manual was soon lost but we (my brother and I) managed to understand the game enough to play and win. I don't ever remember being confused by it. It didn't take long to learn that you should never exit the well at the north edge (assuming north is up). That's just asking for it. And there were some screens that should never be entered from a certain direction. Beyond that, the amount of falling into a well is totally dependent on the player's ability to avoid them. Plus, the game had some great and memorable sound effects. I suppose it's popular to talk trash about the game but all this talk about it being one of the worst games ever makes me...well.... @Random Terrain: nice site! Jason

That was an EGM April Fools trick from the 1991 issue for TMNT II. But here it is anyway for the record... There's even a caption in the same article spoiling the joke: "After you've tried this 10 times read the name of the person who sent this in." - Jason

I highly recommend the LucasArts graphical adventures such as 'Day of the Tentacle' and 'Full Throttle' (if you can find them). 'Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis' is a good one too. And speaking of LucasArts games, if you get a hold of a joystick don't miss 'Tie Fighter'. I'll also second the 'Warcraft' and 'Marathon' games and throw in some 'Prince of Persia'. As I am partial to flying games, I have to also mention 'A-10 Attack' and it's sequel 'A-10 Cuba'. - Jason

My PS1 library isn't all that huge (28 games and counting) but the games I logged the most hours on (and had fun doing it) were... - Final Fantasy VII - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Gran Turismo - Metal Gear Solid - Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee Jason

Actually, yeah I'd like to see your set up. I always imagined the tuner upside down with some homemade stand when used with an SP. Hmm, maybe we should move this to the hardware forum...

Make sure the RF cable is plugged into the bottom of the tuner (by the antenna base), not the top (where it says "A/V in/out"). That was my first mistake when I started messing around with it. Also, tune it to channel 3 (somewhere between 60 and 62MHz). I can post some pics if you're still having trouble.

Yeah, it's a Pelican GBA Tuner. Quite the versatile accessory. You can feed it an RF or A/V signal. I've since modded my GBA with an afterburner and have yet to try it with that.

It's best just to stick with the original :-)

Be sure to download the Atari 2600 Support Files from the DASM site and put 'em in your project directory. They're VCS.h and macro.h. And it is possible to use MPW on OSX. Runs fine in classic mode. Jason

I recently acquired a 4-port 5200 from eBay. It came with all necessary hookups, a few games, and a controller that was advertised as non-working. The system powers up fine and I get a nice picture on the television but, as expected, none of the controller buttons seem to do anything. I took apart the controller and gave it a good cleaning, reassembled it, and tried it again. No luck. So I disassembled the controller once more so I could map out the pins. Once I knew which pins did what (and cross-checking my work with online docs) I attempted to do some troubleshooting. Now if I'm not mistaken, jumping pins 4 and 7 on the console is the same as pushing "Start" on the controller. However, when I did this nothing happened. I even tried other combos (like pressing "2" (pins 7 + 2) for 2 player). Nothing. Is there something I'm missing? Do I have a semi-working 5200 or is my pin-jumping method incorrect? Thanks in advance. -Jason (who hopes he didn't fry his 5200)

Woohoo! My new (v1.06) high score! BTW, I like this new version. The drop rate is perfect. I have a habit of putting the letter "o" at the end of words for fun, so here's my next contribution to the name game... "Tunnelo!" -Jason

I like free stuff.

While playing a round I thought of a deliciously evil play mechanic: invisible walls . But then I backed up a bit and thought seriously, "We're in a cave. It's dark. Where is the light source coming from? The helicopter!". How about, at random, the helicopter's headlight starts to go out? It flickers on and off, less frequent at first, then more so until it's finally dark. To keep the light alive, the player has to pick up more "juice" for the light. If the light goes out completely, instead of total darkness, just make the playfield and wall graphics a dark shade of grey making flight more difficult, yet not impossible. This can be but one of the obstacles in the game as it could wear thin if it were the only. I just thought it would intensify the already stressful game play if a wall suddenly appeared in the middle of the screen . Just a thought. Jason BTW: "Cave Chopper!" (It's difficult coming up with a single-word name that best describes the unusual situation of a helicopter flying in a cave .)

I'll put in another vote in for Warbirds. It was also the reason I wanted a Lynx (ever since I saw the Lynx insert in EGM #28 (Nov '91)). Just recently I acquired a second working Lynx...10+ years later I can finally play multiplayer Warbirds! Woo! Can't just name one great Lynx game so I'll name a few... Klax (masterpiece) Chip's Challenge Steel Talons Ninja Gaiden (although my thumb wouldn't say so ) I also like Xybots and STUN Runner. Both are games I played in the arcade and both translated very well to the Lynx. Love that Xybots music...just wish the robot voices from the arcade would have made the transition. Jason

Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus both came out for PS1. Both are excellent but I like the first one (Oddysee) a bit more. It just seemed like a tighter game, and Abe's voice wasn't as annoying (they changed it slightly in Exoddus). The second one seems a bit easier than the first though I have yet to beat it (I'm near the end at a timed level...ugh). Whichever one you pick up, though, be sure to allocate plenty of time to play. There are some tough puzzles ahead... Jason