homerwannabee Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 I paid only $1.25 for a boxed supercharger with Phaser Patrol. My 2 thoughts are this. 1.) It is darn hard to find a tape recorder I went to 5 thrift shops and found nothing. 2.) when looking at what the rarity was on atariage I noticed that there are no roms for the Supercharger. Doing some searching on Atariage someone said a mutimedia company owns these roms and probably asked Atariage to not put them out like Activision did. Here's my thought about that. I am totally fine with Activision not wanting to have their roms made public and free. They have a few video games that have basically all there roms on it for the Playstation 2 and I think the PC as well. Here's the problem, as far as I know this multimedia company has never tried to package and sell these games for any system or platform. I understand that if there is money to be made reselling these games in some format you have the rite to control these games, but if you are sitting on you're hands doing nothing with these roms. Not even selling them in any form, then you are basically depriving a lot of people who would want to play these games who do not happen to have a Supercharger. How are these people supposed to get to play these games unless they have the Supercharger. Atleast create a website and sell the roms. This ticks me off because they are saying no, yet are doing nothing to help people enjoy these games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 They were being sold a little while back: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698/cy...getsbrain2.html Check with 4jays I think they may still have the cd collection available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Csonicgo Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 I have a great vintage tape recorder... looks just like the ones in the illustration! Now I need a supercharger to go with it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Atari Man Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 First off, I can't BELIEVE (what I thought to be) the obvious one here: I paid only $1.25 for a boxed supercharger with Phaser Patrol. Holy CRAP!!! You can't get a much more excellent deal than THAT! Anyway... More: 1.) It is darn hard to find a tape recorder I went to 5 thrift shops and found nothing. Try a tape-player walkman, that'll work, I've done it before. Or look for a portable boombox with tape decks in the thrift store search as well, which is what I use, and plug the Supercharger cord into the headphone jack. 2.) when looking at what the rarity was on atariage I noticed that there are no roms for the Supercharger. Doing some searching on Atariage someone said a mutimedia company owns these roms and probably asked Atariage to not put them out like Activision did. Here's the problem, as far as I know this multimedia company has never tried to package and sell these games for any system or platform. I understand that if there is money to be made reselling these games in some format you have the rite to control these games, but if you are sitting on you're hands doing nothing with these roms. How are these people supposed to get to play these games unless they have the Supercharger. Atleast create a website and sell the roms. This ticks me off because they are saying no, yet are doing nothing to help people enjoy these games I don't think it's the obvious "share the joy" thing here, it's more of a business deal to the company than anything else. I don't know a whole lot about business anyway, but I think it basically looks good to stockholders of the company for them (the company, I mean) to have diversified interests in something other than what they produce (like I said, I don't know much about business, so I might have the terminology wrong, but I think I'm somewhat on the right track). It just looks good for the company background, I think. However, sometimes that could end up killing you, as Marvel Comics almost went out of business, filing for bankruptcy in 1996, due to bad investments that weren't in regards to comic books. Luckily they recovered, of course, and I doubt owning the Starpath library would sink this company in any way, of course. Anyway, excellent/lucky buy there, and keep in mind the walkmans and all and let us know how it worked out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic George 2K3 Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 The Old Computer Dot Com website has Starpath Supercharger ROMs for your playing pleasure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 -Edited- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-T Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Homerwannabee, I just got a new Supercharger too, and I was asking around about utilities for it. Since I was lucky enough to read about a limited-release, homemade device called the Cuttle Cart for the VCS, made by Mr. Chad Schell (who I believe uses the handle 'CPUWIZ' in these fora), people were nice enough to point me towards software which can be used to load programs into the Supercharger. The best deal in the world, I think, would be to own one of Mr. Schell's upcoming Cuttle Cart 2 models, but since he has already stopped taking orders for them, it might be too late. However, his original Cuttle Cart was a modernized version of the Supercharger, and it used audio, input from a CD player, I think, to load games, much like the Supercharger used cassette tapes. Here is a link to some software that might be useful to you: http://members.cox.net/rcolbert/makewav.htm Some kind souls here in the AtariAge fora pointed me there when I asked about a program that one could use to convert VCS ROMs to .WAV files able to be uploaded to the Supercharger. I haven't had the opportunity to test my 'charger or this program yet, but people said that the device can load many 2K and 4K ROMs, though not all, depending on the type of bankswitching used in the ROMs. I hope this helps you out. Essentially, it seems possible to convert some ROMs into audio format and use your computer or a CD or tape player to load games into the Supercharger, that were never originally Starpath/Arcadia releases. So the Supercharger can play some games released by other companies in cartridge format. But again, if you can manage to get your hands on one of the original Cuttle Carts or if you can land a CC2, they promise to be way, way better and more compatible than the Supercharger. Congratulations on your purchase, though. That is an unbelievable price for a boxed Starpath unit. Best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dones Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 About the tape recorder: Radio Shack still sells them. If you go to a store you will have to ask for the item, as it probably won't be in display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xot Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Okay, so I've been trying to do this for a while. I confirmed that my Supercharger works (it loaded Phasor Patrol off a cassette no problem) but I can't make it load from a CD. I used makewav with the -Ts tag to convert some Supercharger bins into wav's. I burned the wav's to CD using iTunes. The noise will play through the CD player, so I know the CD is good. But all the Supercharger does is flash once when the track begins, and then goes to back to the "rewind tape, press play" screen. Any clues? I REALLY don't want to keep playing from the tapes as I'm concerned they will break on me. I have old, crappy tape players. TIA!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Okay, so I've been trying to do this for a while. I confirmed that my Supercharger works (it loaded Phasor Patrol off a cassette no problem) but I can't make it load from a CD. I used makewav with the -Ts tag to convert some Supercharger bins into wav's. I burned the wav's to CD using iTunes. The noise will play through the CD player, so I know the CD is good. But all the Supercharger does is flash once when the track begins, and then goes to back to the "rewind tape, press play" screen. Any clues? I REALLY don't want to keep playing from the tapes as I'm concerned they will break on me. I have old, crappy tape players. TIA!! have you tried playbin? I thought that was the tool everyone uses first by default... http://www.schells.com/cuttlecart.shtml#Download Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xot Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Not what I need for two reasons: (a) Playbin is to play directly from the computer to the Supercharger, and I want to burn a CD with Supercharger-compatible sound files on it. (b) It's not for Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Adjust the volume of the CD. It takes just the right volume to make it work. Too loud or too soft, and it overwhelmes the Supercharger. Actually, there should be some Mac OS 9 programs to make Supercharger files. They were included on the Stella Gets A New Brain CD. They have to be out there on the internet somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrizzLee Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 He could always pick up a copy of "Worship the Woodgrain" and save some trouble -Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Do you have an iPod? I've converted the WAVs to 128bit AACs and put them on my iPod. It's way easier to select a specific game with the iPod's interface than it is to select "track 80" off a CD player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Okay, so I've been trying to do this for a while. I confirmed that my Supercharger works (it loaded Phasor Patrol off a cassette no problem) but I can't make it load from a CD. I used makewav with the -Ts tag to convert some Supercharger bins into wav's. I burned the wav's to CD using iTunes. The noise will play through the CD player, so I know the CD is good. But all the Supercharger does is flash once when the track begins, and then goes to back to the "rewind tape, press play" screen. Any clues? I REALLY don't want to keep playing from the tapes as I'm concerned they will break on me. I have old, crappy tape players. TIA!! Adjust the volume of the CD. It takes just the right volume to make it work. Too loud or too soft, and it overwhelmes the Supercharger. That was my first thought. Tony, shoot me a PM if you're still having troubles after playing around with the volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapdash Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Actually, there should be some Mac OS 9 programs to make Supercharger files. They were included on the Stella Gets A New Brain CD. They have to be out there on the internet somewhere. Or get the CD for $5 (shipped!) from: Randy Crihfield P.O. Box 1332 Pepperell, MA 01463 That way you get the whole games collection too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukasa Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 ...... Mr. Chad Schell (who I believe uses the handle 'CPUWIZ' in these fora)...... Actually, I think Chad uses the name cschell. BTW Great deal on the supercharger! I got mine used with all documents Phaser Patrol and the box for $40 freakin' bux. What type is yours, Arcadia or Starpath? Mines the Arcadia version. It even has a sticker on the box that says Arcadia has changed it's name to starpath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari_wizard Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Actually, there should be some Mac OS 9 programs to make Supercharger files. They were included on the Stella Gets A New Brain CD. They have to be out there on the internet somewhere. Or get the CD for $5 (shipped!) from: Randy Crihfield P.O. Box 1332 Pepperell, MA 01463 That way you get the whole games collection too. does this cd come with all the wav files for all 12 games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Not what I need for two reasons: (a) Playbin is to play directly from the computer to the Supercharger, and I want to burn a CD with Supercharger-compatible sound files on it. (b) It's not for Mac. Mac OS X version of MakeWav ftp://ftp.groessler.org/pub/chris/stella/makewav/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xot Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Cool. Do I have to convert the .WAV's to AIFF to burn them on an audio CD? Is there another way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolt Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 There are 2 versions of the CD around, and the more common one has all 12 games in NTSC and PAL formats, documents of the company, ad scans, manuals, history of the company, the game development software they mentioned and more. I have the earlier version, which has a ton of Vectrex stuff on there for no apparent reason other than that they could so why not. Either one is a bargain if you own a Supercharger! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 Cool. Do I have to convert the .WAV's to AIFF to burn them on an audio CD? Is there another way?I'd add the WAVs to iTunes and make an audio CD from there. I didn't make my CDs on the Mac though, the only burner I have is in my OS/2 system. It's a SCSI burner or I'd have moved it to my G3 already. One thing I did have to do was set the option to make the WAV file stereo. By default it makes it 8 bit mono and my software under OS/2 wouldn't burn them. iTunes might convert it on the fly, like it does with MP3 and AAC files, but I can't try it w/out a burner. from the Makewav Instructions -k -> (default = 1) Sets the .wav file format to use. Format 0 is 8-bit mono 22khz, format 1 is 8-bit mono 44khz, format 2 is 16-bit stereo 44khz. You really don't need to use format 2 unless you are creating a CD and you recording software insists on having a 16-bit stereo 44khz .wav file. The format 2 files are much larger than the other formats and do not provide any increase in quality over format 1 files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xot Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 Cool. Do I have to convert the .WAV's to AIFF to burn them on an audio CD? Is there another way?I'd add the WAVs to iTunes and make an audio CD from there. I didn't make my CDs on the Mac though, the only burner I have is in my OS/2 system. It's a SCSI burner or I'd have moved it to my G3 already. That's what I did last time without success. Hmmm. Maybe I'll give another try since last time I made the WAV's with the PC version and copied them to my Mac to burn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted June 15, 2004 Share Posted June 15, 2004 That's pretty odd that there's not software for you guys to burn wavs directly to audio cd.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted June 16, 2004 Share Posted June 16, 2004 That's pretty odd that there's not software for you guys to burn wavs directly to audio cd.. My OS/2 software burns WAVs directly to an audio CD just fine However, the WAV must be 16-bit stereo 44khz as that's what the CD specs call for. By default makewav outputs 8-bit mono 22khz, so my software refuses to burn it. If I use makewav's -k2 option then WAVs it generates will burn just fine. Some burner software will convert the WAV to 16-bit stereo 44khz on the fly for you, similiar to how it converts MP3s to WAVs before it burns them on an audio CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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