NovaXpress Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 First sugestion: never ask for a ROM site. If its 2600-related and its not on Atari Age then there is a good reason why not. AtariAge generously offers every 2600 ROM unless they make a smart choice not to for legal or ethical reasons. There are still some ROM sites with forbidden goodies out there, but anyone can eventually find them if they really want to and why would we want to draw attention to it? If someone wants to play Activision games on the PC, I would suggest that they buy the official package. We want companies to make money and continue to promote classic gaming as Activision as done. But as one loyal to the spirit of video gaming and not to Activision, I think the ROMs should be available somewhere. If someone is broke, truly cant afford the $30 and wants to play Megamania on Z26 then I think they should be able to, it just makes for a satisfied gamer who may make classic gaming purchases in the future. Maybe I'm on a borrowed PC and I feel like a game of Stampede. I happen to have already paid (full original price) for the cart version as well as 3 separate Activision compilations. Nobody loses if I download Stampede from a "secret" site so I can play it that day on that machine. I want those ROMs to be out there if needed. But we can't just advertise them openly here. Activision could easily find all the ROMs out there and shut the sites down, but they don't want to waste time and legal fees while angering serious classic gamers by doing so. They just flat out NEED to protect their copyright. We know that at least one Activision rep takes a look though this board. If he happens to see a thread which tells where to get his company's ROMs then he could be obligated to tell his bosses and they would be forced to protect their property by shutting the site down. Nintendo went ballistic shutting down every little ROM site for the NES (that sure eliminated Nintendo ROMs didnt it, heh heh) and caused a lot of headaches for those fans. So we want the ROMs to be available, but can't have them advertised to the board at large. That's fine. Newcomers to classic gaming can damn well download a few Atari or Apollo or whatever ROMs if they want to check out the 2600 emulation experience. By the time there's nothing left for them to play but Activision and Supercharger ROMs, they are enough of a classic gaming fan to pay for the products or to take the time to seek out a ROM themselves, it just takes a few tries with Google until you know what you're doing. If one truly can't find a desired game for whatever reason, someone on the board will help. Again, why be obvious and why name the people who gave you the "illegal" ROM? We are all classic game fans and we love to see others enjoy a game that we love. People always help each other out. I think the best way to ask for a ROM was one I found unintentionally. I casually mentioned a game for MAME that I said I had never seen or played and was very curious. Within a half hour the files I needed were in my Message Box. I hadn't even asked for the files but a fellow gaming fan wanted me to check out a game that he enjoyed just to spread the fun around. That's gaming spirit at its best right there. It didn't need to be done publically, he would have just caught hell for posting the files and if he pointed out a ROM site he risked shutting it down. Everyone will help a sincere fellow gamer here, we don't need to be blatant about it. Just use some decorum. I do tend to be overly-cautious however and am weary from insomnia at the moment, so what do the rest of you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cootster Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 I'm sure the good, reliable, pop-up free sites can be easily found . . . Mind you, I only know of a few, but I found them via Google . . . And an "all languages" search would be useful, too, people . . . Near as I know, every site worth checking is in another language, although most have English pages . . . So, yeah, go to Google before you ask here . . . And definitely buy the Acti compilation, which has better emulation than z26 anyway, even on the GBA (version I have) . . . But even they can't do a clean Pitfall II . . . What's up with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 even some non commercial emulators that have been in development for YEARS cant pull pitfall 2 off properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Anytime people ask for roms, I give my definitive answer: Usenet. It's up to them if they listen or not Here.. let me pull up a newsgroup I literally NEVER check, alt.binaries.emulator.atari. And hey what do you know, within 10 seconds up comes: How friggin easy can you get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmi Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Anytime people ask for roms, I give my definitive answer: Usenet. It's up to them if they listen or not Here.. let me pull up a newsgroup I literally NEVER check, alt.binaries.emulator.atari. And hey what do you know, within 10 seconds up comes: How friggin easy can you get? or just ask NE146 for the roms ya need Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Z26 handles the 10K dump of "Pitfall II" perfectly. It also runs "Kool Aid Man" and "G.I. Joe" w/o a hitch, which I would doubt that the Activision emulator could handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susuwatari Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Some of us has all the ROMs and we *may* send a PM if someone politely ask for a certain and unavailable game. The person shall never reveal the sender's name anywhere. Google is yopur friend as well. I had no trouble finding the entire Starpath audio files last year. (sorry the site I got it from is now MIA, probably shut down due to copyright issues) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamerz Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Kazaa lite was my friend for 585 roms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Some of us has all the ROMs and we *may* send a PM if someone politely ask for a certain and unavailable game. The person shall never reveal the sender's name anywhere. Google is yopur friend as well. I had no trouble finding the entire Starpath audio files last year. Google seems to send me to a multitude of links that advertise ROMS that end up sending me to the same site. That site always seems to have a shot of a chick bent over bared to the world. When you try to click on a ROM site, it says "Oh, that site is unavailabe - try this one instead.." That's the kind of crap I think that steers people away from Google. (Not to say I dislike chicks bent over, tho) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Kazaa lite was my friend for 585 roms. I think I downloaded the same one you did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~llama Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 yeah, i only asked for a ROM when i got set up with Stella on my iMac and couldnt find a certain game, but... I politely asked for someone to PM me a link, then deleted the PM after i got the game. That's the way it should be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Kazaa lite was my friend for 585 roms. I think I downloaded the same one you did. Better use eMule now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 You can find a ROM site by mistake just looking for Atari 2600 info with Google. I've bumped into a few looking for other information like what "CCE" means. I've seen people use "CCE" next to Atari 2600 titles in various posts and I still don't know what what it means. It's not in the glossary: http://www.atariage.com/glossary.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanglyman Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 looking for other information like what "CCE" means. I've seen people use "CCE" next to Atari 2600 titles in various posts and I still don't know what what it means. It's not in the glossary:http://www.atariage.com/glossary.php CCE is a company in brazil that made alot of bootleg carts, I think they made maybe 1 original game, CCE next to a title just means it's a dump of one of their carts http://www.atariage.com/company_page.html?...00&CompanyID=97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 Oh, OK. Thanks hanglyman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 So, yeah, go to Google before you ask here . . . And definitely buy the Acti compilation, which has better emulation than z26 anyway, even on the GBA (version I have) . . . But even they can't do a clean Pitfall II . . . What's up with that? If you had said, that the commecial emulator packages have a much nicer user interface than z26, I would have wholeheartedly agreed. I have to admit, that we are seriously lacking in this department. But the comment about the emulation quality surprises me. I'd be interested to hear which games you think the Activision Anthology emulates better than z26. Or at least tell me which games play so badly on z26 that you prefer the GBA version over it with all the compromises that had to be made on this system. Having our PC program outperformed by a GBA is such a shame that I probably can't sleep until the problem is fixed. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 the comment about the emulation quality surprises me. I'd be interested to hear which games you think the Activision Anthology emulates better than z26. {snip} Having our PC program outperformed by a GBA is such a shame that I probably can't sleep until the problem is fixed. See my post earlier in this thread but I think he's out and out wrong. (Although I know that there was some "cheating" involved in running Kool Aid Man. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 On the boards I moderate for, asking for or providing ROMs has always been a no-no. While I can see how it might be different here, I can understand why Activision seems so intent on protecting their copyrights. Ever since they released the classics compilation for PS One, and then PS2, PC, and GBA, the games are still technically available, meaning that the copyrights are still in active use. On the other hand, I've played just about every Activision game at least once (most of them on the 2600, the rest through classic packages.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackjax Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Thouht... probably stupid tho... why not post "ROM NOT AVAILABLE" on the Activision games and then maybe link to a page offering the different Activision Anthologies available for sale? Win Win - Atari Age profits, so does Activision Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cootster Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 So, yeah, go to Google before you ask here . . . And definitely buy the Acti compilation, which has better emulation than z26 anyway, even on the GBA (version I have) . . . But even they can't do a clean Pitfall II . . . What's up with that? If you had said, that the commecial emulator packages have a much nicer user interface than z26, I would have wholeheartedly agreed. I have to admit, that we are seriously lacking in this department. But the comment about the emulation quality surprises me. I'd be interested to hear which games you think the Activision Anthology emulates better than z26. It seems, the simpler, the better . . . I think Kaboom! and Freeway just feel a lot closer to the real thing on GBA. And most games are close to equal, hard to make a call on. Z26, however, does a far better job on the Imagic games and homebrews, for sure. Of course, a lot of HBs are written on it and probably wind up better there than they are on hardware . . . It's not that they play badly so much as it is control, I think . . . Odd that the GBA's L/R buttons make better paddles than an analog PC controller . . . Ought to figure out how that was done, since it totally owns mouse-as-paddle, IMO. The only game that irks me with Z26 is Casino (another paddle game, of course). It just seems way less responsive than the original. And actually, I like the interface or lack thereof. But one question (maybe you answered this in the Communist Mutants thread, but that's way down the page now). . . How are multi-load Supercharger games handled? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 I think emulators are just a matter of personal preference. I like the way that Z26 does it, so thats my emulator of choice. I hear others argue for Stella (which I don't care for) so I guess we have our own quirks that we need satisfied. I still recommend Z26 to everyone interested in the hobby. Once they get into emulation, they'll want the real games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I think emulators are just a matter of personal preference. I like the way that Z26 does it, so thats my emulator of choice. I hear others argue for Stella (which I don't care for) so I guess we have our own quirks that we need satisfied. I still recommend Z26 to everyone interested in the hobby. Once they get into emulation, they'll want the real games. I also think Z26 is the best, and has many options that let you play commavid games and also the Kid vid games with audio files. Stella won't let you do that. I think z26 is the least choppy also, but it is lacking .avi video creation like pcae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shep Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 oh how I love Z26.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 ...and also the Kid vid games with audio files. Are you really playing those "games"? Man, you are even tougher than I thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 ...and also the Kid vid games with audio files. Are you really playing those "games"? Man, you are even tougher than I thought! Not yet, but I read about z26 supporting it in the readme file. I thought I read that you were responsible for that being in there. I don't think I even have the roms for the B. Bears and Smurf. But I know where the audio files are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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