New "History of Gaming Platforms" article!
Bill Loguidice has posted another new article on Gamasutra taken from his forthcoming book, A History of Gaming Platforms, written with Matt Barton. This article is about the Apple II, and can be read at Gamasutra, with some companion images not available on the original article visible here. http://armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1700
The next article in the series will be on the Atari 2600 VCS!
Link: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3527/a_history_of_gaming_plat...
From: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/
PSP2600: Atari 2600 emulator for PSP v1.1.2 (who said final?)
Everyone's favourite emulator creator, zx-81, has released an update to his port of Atari 2600 emulator Stella, specifically for the PSP version. It's a satisfyingly large version number, but that doesn't mean there aren't loads of new fixes, tweaks and additions!
The update includes, amongst other things:
* Auto-fire mode, press RTrigger+X to switch it on/off useful for games
such as space invaders!
* Speed improvements while using GU render modes
* IR keyboard support !
* Add .a26 as valid rom extention
* Bug fix in the low battery watchdog
* Increase memory heap size in 3.x
And more besides! Get it from the homepage today!
Link: http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/serendipity/index.php?/archives/279-PSP260...
From: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/
Casio Sk-1 Atari 2600 circuit bending project
I have modded a casio sk-1 keyboard with a circuit bent patch bay which is linked to the switches on the atari part of the controls. The two silver dials control a pitch bend and a poly voice filter bend. I also installed a 1/4" guitar jack out and a red reset button as sometimes the bends cause the sk-1 so freak-out and freeze requiring a deep reset.
The casio still works as usual, and I'm sure lots of people know just how great these little things can sound, but I can patch in bends with the patch bay and activate them with the switches. The bends offer me anything from light tremlo to strange ghost notes to full on distortion and random noise generators and stange musical passages...some of the bends are stable enough to use live (which I shall be exploiting soon) but as is the nature of circuit bending some of the really amazing sounds this thing comes out with are a little random and not quite live friendly.
The sampling section of the keyboard still works and the bends can be used to warp the samples as well which is awesome....
Link: http://perthbands.com/forum/index.php?topic=6147.0
From: http://www.getlofi.com/?p=938
EmuTOS version 0.8.3
EmuTOS version 0.8.3 has been released. EmuTOS is an open source replacement of the original TOS, and can be used with allmost all available Atari ST emulators.
Changes since the last release:
- Support for the PUN_INFO structure for block devices
- Bugfixes in the i18n functions
- The VDI function v_clrwk() has been fixed
- Improved VDI color palette functions
- The standard etos512k.img can now also be used on Aranym (no more special
build required)
- EmuTOS can now be compiled with GCC 4.2, too (not very well tested though)
- Fixed off-by-one bug in VDI mouse driver
- Improved XBIOS clock functions (IKBD clock is now working, too)
Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/emutos/
From: http://www.atari.org/
Very important update of MyAES
I'm happy to announce that MyAES 0.90 is out!
Near 8 month of hard work to fix a lot of bugs, add lbox_xxx() function from wdialog to not need use Ndialog, add compatibility with Mint Memory Protection, add some effects of transparency.....
Better than words, I have made a small video demonstration you can find here: http://myaes.lutece.net/myaes090avi.zip Warning! it take 14Mo and it's DIVX coded (so actually not readable on GEM system at my known)
It was test on TT, Falcon CT60 and Aranym
You can find this new version at: http://myaes.lutece.net/
From: http://www.atari-users.net/
The 2008 Video Game Summit
The Video Game Summit, now in its fifth year, brings together retrogamers from all over the country to swap stories, games and to compete in sanctioned tournaments. The event is open to the public and people of all ages with an interest in video games or computers are encouraged to attend. According to the event’s organizer, Dan Iacovelli, “we plan to have several gaming consoles set to free play and a trade room where collectors will be free to swap their extra games.” Best of all, admission is free!
The Video Game Summit will run from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. July 12, 2008 and will be held in the Heron Point Building adjacent to the Fairfield Inn located at 645 West North Avenue in Lombard, Illinois.
Link: http://avc.atari-users.net/VGS.html
From: http://www.atari-users.net/
The 2600 Story: Part 1
CG.Com's Marty "Retro Rogue" Goldberg brings in the new year with The 2600 Story: Part 1. Celebrating its release during the holiday season 30 years ago, the three part series will take you behind the scenes of the development of the console and the people that started the modern video game industry.
At this time 30 years ago, Atari had just released its "Video Computer System" and sat at a major crossroads in both its place in the industry and its own internal development as a company. The video game market that Christmas was facing its first industry crash, with many of the dedicated PONG clone manufacturers dumping their product on the market to leave the business. Scared by the release of Faichild's microprocessor based console, the Faichild Video Entertainment System in 1976, they saw a pending technology shift that was to costly to enter in to. Getting out while they still could, the market was flooded with cheap PONG clones. Cheaper and portable LED based hand held games by companies like Mattel and Tomy were also beginning to dominate the already crowded consumer electronic entertainment market of the late 70's.
Atari had just been purchased by Warner Communications the year before, and was in the midst of being transformed from an engineering firm to a large electronic entertainment corporation. Here was Warner's new acquisition, now facing massive uncertainty and potential losses after investing a significant amount in the launch of their new console. Nobody at the time could have seen what was to be the future of the VCS or the company as a whole. Its ironic that a console that started off as a small side project with so many road blocks would go on to define the modern gaming industry, and play such an important part in history.
This article, as with my previous Atari related articles, is based on excerpts from a historical book on Atari being written by myself and my good friend (and über Atari historian) Curt Vendel. I present to you, the faithful ClassicGaming.Com readers, a look at the full story behind the development of the Atari 2600 (in three parts). Enjoy!
Link: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=401
New game from Paradize released
Christos / STOT writes: We are very happy to announce the release of the game PAIRS by our good friends of Paradize! Pairs is a very good puzzle game and will be the game of Round 12 of the first season of the ST offline tournament. We'd like to thank Paradize, and especially Cooper for contacting us and making it an exclusive STOT release. So download and enjoy Pairs by Paradize and don't forget to show us how good you are at the contest!
Download 'Pairs' by Paradize http://files.dhs.nu/files_game/pairs.zip
Visist Paradizes homepage http://paradize.atari.org/
Visit the STOT page http://www.atari-forum.com/viewforum.php?f=53
Visit Weltanschauung http://212.23.5.145:8081/welta
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
New No Extra release
505 wirtes: NOEXTRA-team has released a new compact disk featuring a collection of TRSI cracktros for the Atari ST/Falcon. Some of them are of pretty high quality and surely worth to have a look at.
Download the No Extra collection http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/extra_v1.zip
Visit the No Extra homepage http://www.noextra-team.com/
Visit the prods Pouet.Net page http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=49308
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
