Gunstar Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) @Turbo Laser LynxCartridge, Tape, disk...all nostalgic formats. Most U.S. A8 users moved on from tape to disk by the mid 80's, but tapes were still popular in England and Europe and other parts of the world where disk drives were often times still too expensive for the average user. I've been collecting tapes from England myself over the last few years, since I turned my 1200XL into a PAL machine. I love any and all media, and still use everything from tapes to flash card solutions these days. I've upgraded my tape and disk drives to "turbo" speeds, but still use both at standard speeds for original software too...my software loads anywhere from 600 BPS to 127K BPS! Edited September 25, 2019 by Gunstar 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) On 5/13/2019 at 11:29 AM, sixersfan105 said: Probably true, and maybe I'll do that when my schedule allows in the future. I still think flash carts are a little like cheating and obviously aren't as true to the original hardware, which I try to be. Well, you can always get an eprom burner; a vintage XL/XE epromBurner re-imagings from BitsOfThePast for XL/XE, or a TL866 for a PC and burn your own cartridge eproms with 2732/64-27512 eproms covering 4K-64K (XL/XE burner) formats and larger carts like XEGS 128/256K with larger eproms and the TL866. Buy cartridge boards from B&C Computervisons or eBay and make your own, print reproduction labels, etc. I'm dabbling in this myself, though so far the eproms I'm burning are for internal use, not cartridge, yet. Atarimax flashcarts are more economical though as you can put 128K or 1024K worth of rom images on one cartridge. The there is The!Cart, which can hold 128MB worth of rom images, as well as .xex files and ATR disk images. Edited September 25, 2019 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 4 hours ago, Turbo Laser Lynx said: Many of these look really fantastic! Are there any homebrew games released or being released on tape? I've really started to love those C Cassettes and tape loading again (when I can spare the time). It seems perhaps cart is the nostalgic format for A8 computers? Or was it U.S carts / tapes in Europe? I'm an A8 noob, but I love the sights and sounds of the Atari 8-bits. Looking to get to know them better asap. There are these, not really homebrew I guess... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 3 hours ago, Gunstar said: Well, you can always get an eprom burner; a vintage XL/XE epromBurner re-imagings from BitsOfThePast for XL/XE, or a TL866 for a PC and burn your own cartridge eproms with 2732/64-27512 eproms covering 4K-64K (XL/XE burner) formats and larger carts like XEGS 128/256K with larger eproms and the TL866. Buy cartridge boards from B&C Computervisons or eBay and make your own, print reproduction labels, etc. I'm dabbling in this myself, though so far the eproms I'm burning are for internal use, not cartridge, yet. Atarimax flashcarts are more economical though as you can put 128K or 1024K worth of rom images on one cartridge. The there is The!Cart, which can hold 128MB worth of rom images, as well as .xex files and ATR disk images. The eprom burner is a cool idea. I have purchased some PCBs of games that @Wilheim made for me last year. I'm assuming that's how he does it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) There are some homebrew cassette games. There is a collectors edition of Yoomp which includes a tape release, but I don't know if it is still available. https://yoomp.atari.pl/index.htm And there is 1k Atascii blaster / Floppy bird That one is still available here: http://www.phobotron.de/1KAtasciiBlaster.html And I am working on a homebrew package myself. Not a cassette (or disk), but a cartridge with 12 games. All games (including the Polish ones) are in English and 3 games have stereo sound. I hope my homebrew package is impressive enough It will be available soon for 24.95 euros excluding shipping. I has full color packaging and a 20 page (English) manual featuring the original artwork of the games. Edited September 25, 2019 by Fred_M 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 12 minutes ago, Fred_M said: And I am working on a homebrew package myself. Not a cassette (or disk), but a cartridge with 12 games. All games (including the Polish ones) are in English and 3 games have stereo sound. I hope my homebrew package is impressive enough It will be available soon for 24.95 euros excluding shipping. I has full color packaging and a 20 page (English) manual featuring the original artwork of the games. Woah, Fred, this is the first I'm hearing of this. Which 12 games are included? I can't make all of them out on the box. Looks fantastic! Mark me down for one CIB, please! Super exciting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) The problem with the c64 cart case used on here is that some don't stack well and are not properly centered stressing the cart port and flexing the pcb inside the cart it only off by a slight amount but it's narrow and doesn't all ways insert fully as the two notches need to be cut into the front of the cart, just like on AtariMax, OSS, ICD, and AVG carts... the card edge is almost always right up to the bottom or even slightly protruding from the bottom of the cart.. It's all correctable but it's a far bit of extra work... shave the PCB slot area on the inside a sixteenth or so, notch the front, and make sure the pcb is slightly recessed. Lastly tighten just enough to counter sink the screw but not so tight the PCB is clamped and cant mover at all. Edited September 25, 2019 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) I have been working on this for months (together with Nir Dary, Steve Green and Guillermo Fuenzalida). I have only posted some pictures on my Facebook pages and I have not made an official announcement yet The games are: Draconus (stereo), Fred, Inside (English version, pal only), Johnny the Ghost (stereo and fixed for NTSC), Mines, Mission Shark, Sh*t!, Simple Minds, Thinx, Whoops, Whoops 2 and Zybex (stereo). All games are the versions by Dutch software publisher/distributer A.N.G. Software and we have completely rewritten all manuals (so they are in correct English now). I will make a separate topic when it is available Edited September 25, 2019 by Fred_M 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 2 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: The problem with the c64 cart case used on here is that they don't stack well and are not properly center stressing the cart port and flexing the pcb inside the cart it only off by a slight amount but it's narrow and doesn't all ways insert fully as the two notches need to be cut into the front of the cart, just like on AtariMax, OSS, ICD, and AVG carts... the card edge is almost always right up to the bottom or even slightly protruding from the bottom of the cart.. It's all correctable but it's a far bit of extra work... These cases work fine in the XL and XE series (except the 1200XL). In the official announcement will be stated that this cartridge is not to be used on 400/800/1200XL. I have chosen this shell to keep the costs down. I don't want to ask 40 euros for a cartridge 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 I had to loosen the screws to let the cartridges spread apart to insert into my 800XL and 600XL.... because it's thin but wide it wedges around the white cartridge guide tabbed opener... it's not a good fit for the Atari.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 6 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: I had to loosen the screws to let the cartridges spread apart to insert into my 800XL and 600XL.... because it's thin but wide it wedges around the white cartridge guide tabbed opener... it's not a good fit for the Atari.... Sorry, but I honestly did not have that problem with these cases. They are the same cases used in Poland in the nineties (a.o. A/D converter by Mirage) and homebrew games like Ridiculous Reality. I have tighten the 1 screw in this case and it stays tight when I insert it into my various computers. I makes good contact every time. Maybe the PCB makes a difference? The PCB I use is specifically designed for this shell by Nir Dary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 I guess we can just 3D print cases as it doesn't cost much but time and recase them if there is an issue, it's possible a thicker PCB might keep it from pinching so here's hoping for the best... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred_M Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) It is a thick PCB indeed and I tested it on multiple 600XLs, 800XLs, 65XEs, 130XEs, 800XEs and the XEGS with no problems as you describe ? But I recommend not to use this cartridge on older systems, many of the games won't run on the older systems anyway ? Edited September 25, 2019 by Fred_M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwilove Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 I have only used an 800XL with Atarimax 8mbit cartridges and find they are simple enough to use to sample whatever games I want to revisit. I'm not that keen on getting a disk drive when I can do without it. I don't know if all the disk based game can run this way? I'm not interested in running every old game that was released. As the decades go by I can imagine flash carts to be more and more useful with disk drives failing and giving up the ghost. I'm all for developing new games and to use anything that makes the process easier and quicker - that we are yet to see games that shows how far this old hardware can be pushed. Harvey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo Laser Lynx Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Thanks for the info @Fred_M and @Mr Robot ! Great collection cart you've got going on there Fred! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 On 9/25/2019 at 12:54 PM, sixersfan105 said: The eprom burner is a cool idea. I have purchased some PCBs of games that @Wilheim made for me last year. I'm assuming that's how he does it. That's right. I use a TL866 eprom burner that I purchased via AliExpress to burn the EPROMs. I also purchased an UV eprom eraser. On the other hand, the binary images were made using my own XEX loader and/or personal adjustments, depending on the game, in order to make them work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted December 22, 2019 Author Share Posted December 22, 2019 Star Vagrant (2019) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 20 minutes ago, Philsan said: Star Vagrant Wow looks incredible! Just watched a YouTube video of gameplay. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted December 22, 2019 Author Share Posted December 22, 2019 Dungeon Hunt II (2019) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 The Rescue Expedition (2019) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devwebcl Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 I thought there was a pac-mad package too. And where I can get Rescue Expedition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 30 minutes ago, devwebcl said: And where I can get Rescue Expedition? You can simply shoot @Duddie a PM or buy on eBay here. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matosimi Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 This thread reminded me we have never released final boxed version of RR... You can see Silly Venture edition on the picture... if I remember well, it was sold in cardboard box with some level cards and game description. We had box design done, but then it was decided to change the design and I don't even know how it all got lost. Still, I have never seen nor touch RR cartridge...that's kind of sad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Errrrm, but I have the Silly Venture edition of RR (cart. + box + manual + level cards) at home. The box has the same size as the early GR8 boxes. So it fits well right beside them. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 18, 2021 Author Share Posted July 18, 2021 The Last Squadron (2021) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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