Last Atari Arcade Game - Hidden Accessibility Feature
"I found this out by reading the manual for [Atari's] SF Rush 2049 one slow day at the arcade I managed. There is a section there where it states that the game has an option where players that don’t have the use of their feet can play where the game will do the gas for you. I checked it out and it’s an option that can be set by the operator - the only problem is that it takes a couple of seconds of not stepping on the gas for it to work (I tried it out of curiousity) but either way it lets someone enjoy the game [who might not be able to otherwise]."
Link: http://switchgaming.blogspot.com/2008/04/last-atari-arcade-game-hid...
I've Wasted My Life (And Other Unreleased Atari 2600 Gems)
We're certainly not above giggling profusely at some retitled Atari 2600 box art. While the cover artwork on Atari published titles was nothing short of spectacular stuff -- the Defender and Haunted House paintings expertly tricking my young mind -- it's clear that some of these games were given unspectacular titles. I've Wasted My Life, however, is brilliant. And Tim Curry's Magic Board? I'd have played that. These more accurately titled and described Atari 2600 classics are possibly the best box art jokes you'll see all week. Unless there's a Photoshop Phriday on the matter...
Link: http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/21/fun-from-yesterday/
Unreleased Atari 2600 Game Found At Flea Market
I was at the flea market in Oakland yesterday when a pile of EPROMs caught my eye. When I got them home I found that they were prototypes for Colecovision games. A few were unpublished or saw limited runs, like Video Hustler (billiards). Others were fully released, like WarGames. But the crown jewel is what look to be a number of chips with various revisions of Cabbage Patch Kids Adventures in the Park for Atari 2600. This game was never released and has never been seen. It was a port of the version for Colecovision, and this lot of chips also included the Coleco version. So now I have to find someone who can dump EPROMs gently onto a PC so we can play this never-before seen game, which is almost certainly awful.
Link: http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/04/22/0010234.shtml
2600 game ending screenshots
Heya guys, I finally started taking snapshots of Atari 2600 endings (with 5200 and 7800 to follow). Using the search feature I found a lot of topics from people asking what games had definite endings. Endings in the present day sense of some sort of animation or screen you wouldn't ordinarily get unless you completed your mission.
Maximizing your score, black screens or crashes, deaths or time outs don't count as endings in the present day sense.
Anyways, here's the link with all the Atari 2600 endings I have. I'm working on a lot more and I'll will post them as soon as I finish them. Some of those endings won't make sense if you don't play/see the actual game since there are a few endings that's just a repeat of the title screen, and some are just a character standing in an empty room.
Link: http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/2600/
Tower Toppler SDL-Port to *fast* Atari systems
I finally managed to do that port for atari. It´s one of my favorite games ever and all Nebulus (Tower Toppler) versions won´t run in 060 mode AFAIK and so the idea was started (beside that thought it would be easy to do *g*). Port is slow, but playable on a fast machine (CT60, Milan).
Link: http://members.fortunecity.de/060falcon/downloads/TOPPLER.ZIP
From: http://www.atari.org/
Links Atari Web Browser
I have compiled and build GEM interface to Links, you need a fast atari 020-060 with FPU with/without graphic card, under MiNT.
Link: http://links.twibright.com/
Link: http://didier.mequignon.free.fr/files/links-2.1pre33.m68kmint.tgz
From: http://www.atari.org/
Youtube: Jack Tramiel in the 25th Anniverasy of C64
Very interesting to watch. Jack talks about his life before, during and after Commodore. Atari is mentioned several times.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk
From: http://www.atari.org/
Czech Atari 8bit Diskmag Flop 51
New issue (#51) of czech Atari 8bit diskmag FLOP has been published. Free download is on Flop website.
Link: http://flop.atari.org/
From: http://www.atari.org/
AtarICQ 0.172 is released
It was originally planned to wait until this summers NAS before releasing a new version av AtarICQ. However, after a rather hard hitting bug was recently discovered and fixed it was instead decided to get a new release out as soon as possible.
The biggest noticeable addition to aICQ 0.172 is the ability to view GIF images as background in the contact list. This was made possible through a cooperation with PeP, who has been kind enough to supply a very, very nice OVL that decodes and processes the GIF data. Cheers for that!
A somewhat thorough complete list of changes:
* Implemented support for loading graphics via external load modules in
form of dedicated overlays. (Look into the preferences dialog to set
this feature up properly)
* Caching of background images implemented. By default AtarICQ will use
a subdir (/cache) in its own workdirectory for storing the data. To
change this, you need to tweak the cache dir within preferences dialog.
* After loading the GFXGIF.OVL the CPU cache will now be flushed before
the client calls any functions within the OVL. Applies also to aicq.ovl!
* When put in compact mode (F10) the contact list will now use the native
sliders of the AES, including a SIZER widget.
* Clicking the CLOSER widget on contact list while holding ALT-key, will
trigger aICQ to remove the window TITLE.
* More optimised redraws of the TABs, resulting in much less flickering
when toggling between open TABs.
* Cookie jar is now read utilizing Ssystem() under MiNT. Under TOS/MagiC,
the old method is still used.
* Under large gfx resolutions the scrollback setting could easily be defaulting
to a much too small value, in case the message window height
was increased. A check for this is now added after reading the config
file. This problem could be noticed as a very serious scrolling problem,
causing aICQ to lock up pretty good.
* In case COLOR_SELECT is not specified in the environment, AtarICQ looks
if COLSEL.PRG is present in its workdir. (This prg is included in
the zip file as of the 0.172 release)
Find the new release on the official AtarICQ website:
Link: http://www.ataricq.org/
From: http://www.atari.org/
Retrogaming Times Monthly #47 Published
The April 2008 issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly is now online. Highlights from Issue #47 include:
* Apple ][ Incider - Space the Final Frontier
* Many Faces of Robin Hood
* Mastering Sega - Emulators
* Game Archeologist
You can find all these and more inside this month's Retrogaming Times Monthly, which has now been running for 127 months in a row. If you've missed any back issues, you can also look through their complete archives to get all caught up.
Link: http://my.stratos.net/~hewston95/RTM/RTM_Home.htm
From: http://www.atariage.com/
