Oxyron releases invite intro
This was a big surprise for me. Oxyron have just released an Atari ST invite intro for their coming multi-platform party in Germany. The intro is pretty small but features nice fx, gfx and zik.
Download the invite intro http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/oxy-party.zip
Visit the Pouet.Net page http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=48529
Download an MPEG-4 video of the invite http://movies.dhs.nu/avc_st/oxyron-oxyron_party_2008_invite.avc.mp4
Watch the invite on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb1Ba9n5iTo
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
Pixel t-shirts bring back Atari 2600 memories
These great 8-bit inspired t-shirts remind me of the wonderful simplicity and joy of the early days of video gaming.
Designed by Stuart Witts, the shirts feature big, bold, blocky images of either a pair of black and white race cars or a bright green soccer player. While they’re not based directly on any specific retro games, they really take me back to the mood and style of the classic gaming era.
You can find these and other cool shirts from Witts over on Bountee for the rather odd price of $21.24 each.
Link: http://www.bountee.com/user/stuartwitts
From: http://technabob.com/blog/2008/01/17/pixel-t-shirts-bring-back-atar...
Atari flashback 2 mod help
Q: Can anyone tell me where I can find a good guide that will tell me how to mod my flasback 2 to play 2600 games? I want it to thourghly explain how to do it, what parts, and tools i need and where to get the parts to mod it at. thank you.
A: Well, typing "atari flashback mod" into Google gives you this as the first result. It's also the most popular guide.
Link: http://www.atarimuseum.com/fb2hacks/
From: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111940
PSP Review - 'Atari Classics Evolved'
Atari Classics Evolved features timeless games such as Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout, Tempest, Warlords and Pong. These titles, presented in both an original and an evolved version, will maintain the original gameplay while adding up-to-date graphics.
You suck at Pong.
No, seriously. I know, I know, you're pwning newbies on Halo 3 every night until the wee hours of the morning, nobody can match your crazy Tekken skills, and everyone on Xbox Live lives in fear of seeing your screen name as one of their opponents, going so far as to plead and offer their firstborn to avoid having to face off against you. But trust me on this: You suck at Pong … and Breakout, Warlord and any of a number of other games you've probably only heard of in news articles about arcades (places where people used to put quarters into machines to play games in a loud, crowded building — they really did exist once!). No matter how many frag grenades you pitch at unsuspecting opponents' feet, the simple act of bouncing a ball back and forth will almost certainly elude you if you're under the age of 21 (and wow, is that ever depressing).
Atari Classics Evolved is a new title from Atari, the folks who brought us such arcade classics as Centipede, Battlezone, and Tempest as well as the very first console system, the Atari 2600. You might even say that Atari is the grandfather of all console gaming, the progenitor that allows you to enjoy the lifestyle you so relish today, and you wouldn't be at all mistaken in that assessment. Props to the oldest video game company for creating the video game industry as we know it. Atari has brought 11 of their hottest arcade hits to this PSP disc for your enjoyment, and their execution is impressive, to say the least. Each game has been painstakingly recreated and moved to Sony's portable fun box with meticulous care and an eye toward historical accuracy to appease the old-school arcade buffs among us. More interestingly, each of the 11 titles has been given an "evolved" version, an updated adaptation with improved graphics, better sound, and, in many cases, improved gameplay and more options...
Link: http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=49055&mode=thread&order=0
Atari Coldfire Development Project
After 18 months of experience on Coldfire M5484LITE board where the TOS, MyAES and MINT works under a Radeon PCI board, the idea is to use the lastest Freescale M54455EVB board for accelerate the Coldfire migration:
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=M544...
It's a complete board with a mini-ATX box who use u-boot for start Linux under the latest Feescale Coldfire:
* Freescale MCF54455 ColdFire microprocessor
* DDR2 SDRAM (256 MByte)
* Two NOR flash memory devices (16 MByte, 512 KByte)
* Serial flash
* U-Boot bootloader
* MRAM (512 KByte, accessible through FPGA Flexbus interface)
* Four PCI slots
* Two-port Ethernet interface 40-pin
* ATA connector
* Audio interface (I2S mode of SSI module connected to audio codec)
* Multiple USB interface options
o FS/LS Host via on-chip transceiver with host support (Type A receptacle)
o HS/FS/LS dual-role via external ULPI PHY (Mini-AB receptacle)
* Two RS232 serial ports (RS232 transceivers on UART0 & UART1)
* One USB serial port (UART0 serial converted to USB converted on UART0)
* Built-in P&E Micro USB Multilink debug interface
* Standard 26-pin BDM header
* Serial interface header for access to timers, interrupts, DSPI, I2C,
and more
* Clock generation logic adjustable via I2C
* LEDs and 7-segment display programmable via CPLD and FPGA
It's possible without lot of work (one or two months) to rebuild a Coldfire TOS 4.04 (like here http://ctpci.atari.org) for get an Atari clone (a base of work) booting under a Radeon PCI board.
The coldfire MCF54455 V4m at 266 MHz is faster than the MCF5484, like the v4e has an MMU but _NO_ FPU (look at Kronos capture here http://ctpci.atari.org).
But there are some advantages like USB host, ATA 6 Ultra DMA Interface, I2S sound port.
There are also 2 Ethernet ports, 2 serials port and a 3rd serial port in 5V who can use the original Eiffel interface with just a cable or a why not TT keyboard. In a 1st time use host USB is another story, but Eiffel exists for mouse and keyboard.
Actually the TOS 4.04 for the Coldfire not need external driver for get drives on CompactFlash, so it's easy to get ATA working with the same method.
The SCSIDRV protocol is also implemented under TOS but not tested because a CompactFlash cannot replace a DVD drive with Extendos.
There are also an lwIP Ethernet stack under TOS who works fine (TOS GlueSTick, TFTP / HTTP / FTP servers, and also a VNC server unfinished), where I need just to update the Fast Ethernet Controler file for this new Coldfire.
From: http://www.atari.org/
6th Annual Scene.org Awards voting time
Scene.Org writes: The Scene.org Awards is back for the 6th time! The big show is taking place during the Easter weekend on 22nd of March at the Breakpoint demo party in Bingen am Rhein, Germany. While the jury is still working their way to nominate the very best demo releases from 2007 you can also affect the results by voting for your favourite demoscene release from last year, perhaps all the way for the public choice award! You can also make a hint to the jury of noteworthy releases through Pouet .
The deadline for the public choice voting is 29th of February and all the Scene.org Awards nominations will be announced right after that on the 1st of March 2008.
Scene.Org vote page (use your Pouet account) http://awards.scene.org/voting.php
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
Remake These Games!: A Look Back At Some Atari Classics
Some longstanding gaming franchises made their mark (or their debut) on the venerable Atari 2600. Pitfall, Pac-Man and even Mario showed up in one way or another, stopping by the wood-grained console on the way to bigger and better things. Alas, not every cartridge had the same experience. More than a few games burned brightly before inexplicably sputtering out. While the system was home to a number of titles that should stay buried (Freeway), there were several noteworthy releases that deserve to be updated. Without further ado, here are 15 Atari 2600 titles that deserve modern-day makeovers:
Adventure
Combat
E.T.
Haunted House
Kaboom!
Keystone Kapers
M*A*S*H
Maze Craze
Sky Diver
Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space
Stampede
Swordquest
The Texas Chainsaw Massascre
Warlords
Yars' Revenge
Full article available at http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200801/N08.0124.1757.54294.htm
Atari Running on Any Machine 0.9.6beta2
Atari Running on Any Machine is a virtual machine that allows you to run existing and develop new Atari ST/TT/Falcon applications on your computer. Just released is version 0.9.6beta2. License: GNU General Public License (GPL) Changes: This release adds a rewritten video backend for faster graphics, various bugfixes and improvements, and greatly-improved MacOS X support.
Link: http://aranym.org/
New High Score Forum for JAGUAR on Atariage
Doctor Clu reports: With the fun success of the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, and more over the Atari 8-bit computer High Score Clubs, Atariage has recently added a club for the Jaguar.
Every two weeks a new game is picked and Jaguar fans from around the world work to top the other Jaguar fan's scores. The current game contest is for Raiden till February 1, 2008, and the next game is up for vote now.
There is even a year long "King of the vortex" contest for Tempest 2000. How long can you keep the top score in this contest of escalation?
Link: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showforum=98
From: http://www.atari.org/
Atarigames.com Updated for 2008
If you're a fan of Atari's old arcade games (and if you spent a significant portion of your youth in arcades, how could you not be?), you owe it to yourself to head on over to AtariGames.com and learn more about the "Unofficial" history of Atari Games. Atari Games was the division of Atari responsible for producing coin-op games for arcades, releasing one innovative hit after another. AtariGames.com is dedicated to preserving the history of Atari Games Corproation, where you'll find a wealth of internal Atari documentation, photo albums, movies, and more. AtariGames.com was previously known as Safestuff.com, featuring a wealth of information on unreleased Atari arcade games (this content has been copied over to the new site).
Link: http://www.atarigames.com/
From: http://www.atariage.com/
