The Official Atari Age Secret Santa 2020 thread

[CaptainBreakout]

Whew!  Everyone participating should now have their Secret Santa info in their message inbox.

 

Please let one of us know if you don't see it!

 

Anyway, all the Secret Santas from my side of the list got their letters sent to them through my cell phone and data plan.  My power was shut off mid afternoon, along with a lot of the state, for wildfire prevention. 

 

But the show must go on, as they say.  (And thanks to chicgamer setting up our operations in the cloud, it did.)

 

Enjoy finding gifts!

 

[carlsson]

Hm, I just begun shopping around and found an item on eBay... too bad it is priced $100,000 which is a little above my Secret Santa budget unfortunately.

[Torr]

1 hour ago, carlsson said:

Hm, I just begun shopping around and found an item on eBay... too bad it is priced $100,000 which is a little above my Secret Santa budget unfortunately.

If you drew me, I won't be upset ???

[adamchevy]

[chicgamer]

I love that little CRT. I used to have a really small black-and-white CRT (the one that came with the PXL 2000) by my bed that I would use to play games. I wish I still had it.

[carlsson]

I have something similar to this in the basement (can't recall exact model number but same style).

[chicgamer]

Very cool! I remember really wanting one of the combo portable TV/radios when I was a kid.

[adamchevy]

I thought it would be a lot of fun to share your favorite games to play during the Holidays.

 

Games I like to play with my friends and family during this time of year are:

 

2600:

 

Circus

Millipede

Stay Frosty 2

Galagon

Juno First

Beamrider

Lady Bug

 

7800:

 

Centipede 2 player

Asteroids 2 player

Robotron 2084(to show off my mad skills and make my daughters boyfriends cry a little)

 

Dreamcast:

 

Street Fighter Fighter Alpha 3( and kids think they can pull off combos on old Dad, good luck)

 

 

 Wii:

 

Just Dance (any version)

Super Mario Galaxy

House of the Dead 2/3

Super Mario 1-3 all stars(once again to make little children cry and have some momentary respect for their elders when it comes to gaming)

 

 

 

[chicgamer]

I want to get all of the AtariAge Christmas-themed homebrews this year and play them. So far, I just have Toyshop Trouble (which is awesome!). I also want to get:

 

Reindeer Rescue

Stay Frosty 2

Stella's Stocking

The Byte Before Christmas

 

Someone needs to make some 5200 and 7800 Christmas-themed homebrews. If only I knew how to code (well, code anything other than HTML) ...

[CaptainBreakout]

Yeah, they are great Christmas games!  I have Stella's Stocking and Reindeer Rescue, and always bust those out this time of year.

 

There's also Mean Santa from The 2600 Connection (got a numbered copy!). It's fun to force friends to play this one. Someone at AA was working on a ColecoVision port of this I think.

 

Yeah, funny the 5200 and 7800 don't have any Xmas games. Most other platforms have at least a few. Even the CD-i has a good one!

[carlsson]

Last year in the Atari 8-bit HSC we played Weihnachtsspiel which is a little bizarre and not necessarily good game, but fit the seasonal theme.

[adamchevy]

I want to get all of the AtariAge Christmas-themed homebrews this year and play them. So far, I just have Toyshop Trouble (which is awesome!). I also want to get:
 
Reindeer Rescue
Stay Frosty 2
Stella's Stocking
The Byte Before Christmas
 
Someone needs to make some 5200 and 7800 Christmas-themed homebrews. If only I knew how to code (well, code anything other than HTML) ...

I feel the same way. I would like to purchase all of the Christmas Homebrews as well. Maybe that could be a theme next year to only give Christmas homebrews and play them as a group during the holidays!

I to wish I could code really well, especially in Assembly. I’ve read a lot of books( first 20 or so pages) on assembly language. I recently started watching some YouTube Videos on the subject and that has helped a lot. Mainly I was stuck on learning binary and Hexadecimal Math. All the books I’ve read say that if you don’t have that down pretty well then don’t continue. So I haven’t continued.

I also get stuck on the idea of dedicating a large sum of my time to learning a dead language for the most part. When I could much more easily learn Python or some other modern language. I’m always held back because of my love for Atari games, and the history behind how they were created. Learning to code feels more like just for fun to me, so why not learn assembly first?

[+CyranoJ]

4 hours ago, chicgamer said:

If only I knew how to code (well, code anything other than HTML) ...

 

4 hours ago, adamchevy said:

I also get stuck on the idea of dedicating a large sum of my time to learning a dead language for the most part. When I could much more easily learn Python or some other modern language. I’m always held back because of my love for Atari games, and the history behind how they were created. Learning to code feels more like just for fun to me, so why not learn assembly first?

 

 

Why not try RAPTOR Basic (rB+) on the Jaguar?  Its a nice structured BASIC with a powerful API behind it (If I say so myself!) - that way you aren't trying to learn something while also bashing your head against extremely limited resources.  Call it a gateway drug

[chicgamer]

12 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

Why not try RAPTOR Basic (rB+) on the Jaguar?  Its a nice structured BASIC with a powerful API behind it (If I say so myself!) - that way you aren't trying to learn something while also bashing your head against extremely limited resources.  Call it a gateway drug

If I thought that I could actually learn it and produce something playable, I would consider it. It would be very cool to release a game on the Jaguar. 

[adamchevy]

 
Why not try RAPTOR Basic (rB+) on the Jaguar?  Its a nice structured BASIC with a powerful API behind it (If I say so myself!) - that way you aren't trying to learn something while also bashing your head against extremely limited resources.  Call it a gateway drug [emoji6]

If I had more interest in the Jaguar and Basic I would go for it. I really like the idea of constraints when it comes to creation I think it helps draw focus. But I also know that Racing the beam is just that, Racing. I work with very limited constraints often times as a machinist so I’m used to it.

If I don’t figure it out in the next year I will certainly jump to something like Batari basic.

I am amazed that anyone can produce a video game on any of these older machines. I don’t think basic is basic by any means. I’ve just had a serious desire to learn assembly. I’m not even sure why exactly. I might need some therapy after the next 6 months of learning assembly, but atleast it will be for a good reason.

[+CyranoJ]

The package has been placed into a bottle and throw onto the ocean....

 

Well, that's what the postal service feels like these days, anyway

Let the fun begin!

[chicgamer]

10 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said:

Even the CD-i has a good one!

Christmas Crisis or Christmas Country?

[CaptainBreakout]

Christmas Crisis.  My son and I have woken up in the middle of the night to sneak out and play it in our little garage game room, around this time of year of course.

[roberto]

7 hours ago, chicgamer said:

If I thought that I could actually learn it and produce something playable, I would consider it. It would be very cool to release a game on the Jaguar. 

 

Some quick recommendations from my personal experience: 

 

I still like AMOS on the Amiga, though I confess I did not code any game on that platform since my sophomore year in university (but I plan to get back to it soon or later!  ).

 

For a new platform where to learn how to code in the old-school way, the ZX Spectrum Next is a great choice, if you can manage to get one.

 

On the other hand, I never tried anything on the Jaguar but, again, that's something in my ever-growing to-do list!   

 

Cheers!

[Chuck D. Head]

Doh! I missed out again! Starting earlier was a good idea, I just missed the posts somehow. Well, there's always next year!!!

[Torr]

Too bad... I coulda got you as my Secret Santa.

Great Avatar/Username, DecapAttack is on my want list! First game I ever bought with my own money, first game I got for my Genny besides the pack in Sonic 1!

Regret selling that! It was even the multilingual Canadian version. (Something I collect nowadays)

[chicgamer]

3 hours ago, Chuck D. Head said:

Doh! I missed out again! Starting earlier was a good idea, I just missed the posts somehow. Well, there's always next year!!!

Sorry about that! If we get one more person interested, you and that person could still swap gifts ... but it wouldn't be very secret, then.

[ClassicGMR]

[Chuck D. Head]

13 hours ago, chicgamer said:

Sorry about that! If we get one more person interested, you and that person could still swap gifts ... but it wouldn't be very secret, then.

Well, that's what I wound up with last year and it worked out ok. Although, we each gifted the same kind of gummy bears, but my counterpart gave me a much bigger bag, that I portioned out into a bunch of snack ziplocks.  I just recently finished off the last portion.

[Chuck D. Head]

13 hours ago, Torr said:

Too bad... I coulda got you as my Secret Santa.

Great Avatar/Username, DecapAttack is on my want list! First game I ever bought with my own money, first game I got for my Genny besides the pack in Sonic 1!

Regret selling that! It was even the multilingual Canadian version. (Something I collect nowadays)

Nice. Last week I made a big push to actually finish the game, but still crashed and burned in world 6 (of 7). After 27 years, I finally gave in and broke out the Game Genie. The last world is insanely difficult.