|
|
 |
AtariAge News archive for March 2002:
Here's something I wasn't expecting to see anytime soon: SPIKE the Percussionist has created a rack mount Atari 2600 called noizSPIKE - 2600/R for use in his music studio. SPIKE makes frequent use of an 2600 as a musician and was tired of dragging it around and finding room for it in his crowded studio. Finally, he took it upon himself to hack apart a 2600 and mount it in a rack enclosure. All the switches and ports are on the front, as well as the cartridge port. For pictures and more, please visit SPIKE's Homepage and click on the noizSPIKE 2600/R link.
Brien King has released version 2.0 of Cart Commander, an excellent and full-featured program for managing your classic (and modern!) gaming collection. Version 2.0 adds a large number of new features and improvements over the previous version. Some of the highlights include:
Track Hardware as well as Media Track All Media Types: Cartridges, Disks, CDs, etc. New Collection Explorer to easily manage your collection New Collection Groups for flexible grouping of your lists Now Track 25 attributes for Media and 20 for Hardware Over 100 Platform Names pre-configured New Master Lists added
You can download Cart Commander and read a detailed list of everything that's changed at the Cart Commander Homepage. You can discuss Cart Commander with Brien King and other AtariAge visitors in our Clasic Gaming Forum.
Ben Larson, author of the upcoming game Incoming! for the Atari 2600, has made several recent updates to the Incoming! Development Page. These updates include a new two-player demo that you can download and try, as well as news about Ben's recent progress. Incoming! is a Sabotage style game in which two opponents shell each other with cannons over a variety of terrains. You can discuss Incoming! with other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 2600 Forum.
We've just put six new hacks online for your Atari 2600 gaming pleasure. Five of these are graphics hacks of existing 2600 games, while the sixth, Combat Rock, is a rather unique hack that we'll let you explore on your own. The newly added hacks are:
Beanie Baby Bash (hack of Beany Bopper) Combat Rock (hack of Combat) Cybergoth Galaxian (hack of Galaxian) Lumberman (hack of Pac-Man) One on One (hack of Basketball) Space 2002 (hack of Space Jockey)
You can find all of Atari 2600 hacks we have online here. Enjoy!
The Castle Blast Label Contest draws to an end at Midnight, Sunday March 31, 2001, so if you're planning on submitting a label or three, now's the time to get crackin'! Nearly thirty labels have been submitted in the contest thus far. After the contest ends, voting will take place to select the top three labels, one of which Castle Blast's author Ronen Habot will select as the winning label. The winner of the contest will receive a limited Special Edition version of Castle Blast. You can discuss the contest with Ronen Habot and other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 5200 Forum.
Hans Reutter has sent us word that he's posted a new issue of Cyberroach Magazine detailing the recent NWCGE Meeting. There are tons of great pictures of the event as well as a nice description of what took place. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you should visit the NorthWest Classic Games Enthusiasts homepage for more information about this group of Atari enthusiasts.
Atari emulation on the Dreamcast is certainly heating up! First, Christian Groessler has ported the Atari800 emulator to the Dreamcast. There is no sound yet, but it's nice seeing progress being made in this area. Second, after Christian Groessler ported the original 8-bit code to the DC, Reaper then modified the code to allow you to emulate the Atari 5200 and 8-bit computers, with sound. Please visit Reaper's DC Emulation page for more information. You can learn how to create bootable DC discs over here and can also discuss this emulation effort in our Atari 5200 Forum.
Atari800Win Plus 3.0 has been released. This is an Atari 8-bit and 5200 emulator for Windows, based on the Atari800 kernel 1.2.2. Some of the newest features include:
Supports 22 types of cartridges Supports BBS software thanks to R: device emulation Can read cassette images as well as raw files DirectSound driver available to music lovers Can save video with sound track to an AVI file Emulates Atari trak ball Will boot any Atari software using one keystroke Fully emulates second button of an Atari 5200 joystick
For more information and to download the latest version, please visit the Atari800Win site. You can discuss Atari800Win in our Emulation Forum. Thanks to Debro for the news.
Fans of Atari 8-bit computers should head on over to the AtariArchives.org website, where they'll find that Kevin Savetz has put another Atari-related book online. This time it's Compute!'s Second Book of Atari Graphics, one of the many books Compute! published for Atari 8-bit programmers. The full text of the book is available, and the type in programs are included for easy downloading and viewing. When I was learning to program the Atari 8-bit, these books were an invaluable resource. I recommend them to anyone who'd like to learn more about what makes the Atari 8-bit tick.
Eduardo Luccas and Saulo Santiago, members of the Brazilian classic videogame and computer collectors club Canal 3, have sent us the binary for the previously unavailable game Pizza Chef. This game was originally created by Zimag, but was never released under that brand. We're not sure how CCE got their hands on it, but they somehow did and then released it in Brazil. You can download the binary image as well as view screenshots of Pizza Chef here. To discuss the game with other AtariAge visitors, please stop by our Atari 2600 Forum.
Thanks to Matt Reichert, who let us borrow a slew of Atari 5200 manuals, we've just put twenty more 5200 Manual Scans online. These new additions bring the number of scanned 5200 manuals to 55, with plans to put more online in the coming weeks. The icing on the cake is this has finally gave us incentive to scan and stitch together the huge Bounty Bob Strikes Back poster, which is well worth looking at if you're a Bounty Bob fan. If you have any 5200 manuals we're missing and would like to scan or loan them to us, please don't be shy!
Kevin Savetz, who maintains the AtariArchives.org website, has informed us that The Best of Creative Computing Volume 1 is now available in its entirety on the web. Published back in 1976, this 300+ page book contains articles and programs from the first six issues of Creative Computing magazine. While there isn't much Atari-related content contained within, this book is a true classic and well worth the time spent reading for anyone who has any interest in computing during that era. You can find the entire contents of the book here. Enjoy!
While researching his upcoming website AtariProtos.com, Matt Reichert (aka Tempest) made an interesting discovery: The prototype believed to have been Alligator People all these years is actually Planet of the Apes! And after reading his description of the game, along with the screenshots he's taken, we support his conclusion. You can download the binary here, and we encourage you to visit the AtariProtos.com Planet of the Apes page to read more about this game. You can discuss this game with Matt and other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 2600 Forum.
For our European visitors who would like a better way to hook their PAL Atari 2600 Jr. to their television, Oliver Radford (aka Radfoo) has created a composite modification that you can perform if you're handy with a soldering iron. You can find Oliver's modification on his Atari 2600 Page, which includes detailed instructions and photos to guide you along. You can discuss this mod with other AtariAge visitors in our Hardware Forum.
Taking a cue from other Atari 5200 homebrew authors, Ken Van Mersbergen (aka Dutchman) is now soliciting pre-orders for the upcoming SwordQuest AirWorld game. AirWorld is the unofficial finale to Atari's SwordQuest challenge, being written first for the Atari 5200 with plans to later port it to the 2600. In addition to an authentic looking AirWorld label, plans are afoot to also include a box, manual and comic book. You can learn more about the project by visiting the SwordQuest AirWorld Development Page. To reserve your copy of the game, please send email to airworld@atari.net. To discuss AirWorld with Ken Van Mersbergen and other AtariAge visitors, please visit our Atari 5200 Forum.
We've got a treat for those of you who are fans of Activision's H.E.R.O. for the Atari 2600. Adam Lewis has created a complete set of maps for the first 20 levels of H.E.R.O. (after level 20, the maps are reused). Adam has also created a movie showing a playthrough of level 20, a screenshot of what happens when you complete the game, and a savegame created with PC Atari that allows you to start at level 20 with six lives. You can find all of this great H.E.R.O. content here. Enjoy!
MyAtari.net has announced the short list of nominees for the MyAtari 2002 Awards. Each category has been pared down to five candidates, based on nominations submitted by MyAtari readers. These categories include Best Atari Web Site, Programmer, Commercial Release, Shareware Release, PD/Freeware Release, Game Release, Hardware Upgrade, Atari Supporting Company, Atari Magazine, and Outstanding Contribution to the Atari Community. AtariAge is honored to have been selected as one of the five nominees for the Best Atari Web Site award (thanks to everyone who nominated us!) Voting ends on April 7th, 2002, and winners will be announce in the April issue of MyAtari magazine. You can visit MyAtari.net to cast your vote today!
Lee Krueger of ResQsoft Productions has announced that he is now selling the four games introduced at last weekend's NWCGE show. These games are: X3V0LuX and NWCGE Invaders for the Atari 2600, and NTSC versions of Sentinel and Klax for the Atari 7800. Each game comes complete with a unique label, instructions and box. In addition, Lee will convert PAL Sentinels to NTSC if you already have a Sentinel cart. You can find detailed information about these games here, and make sure you read the full story of X3V0LuX while you're there.
The dates for this year's Classic Gaming Expo have been announced as August 10th and 11th. The show, now in its fifth year, will be held at the Jackie Gaughan's Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas. CGE2K2's organizers are promising this will be the best show ever, and with the 30th anniversary of Atari and the 25th of the 2600 this year we expect it will be a great deal of fun. Many previously unreleased games as well as many new homebrew titles are expected to make their debut at the show. It's not too early to pre-register, and you can read the full press release here.
James Higgs has released a version 0.6 of his Atari 5200 emulator Jum52. The latest version, available for both Windows and QNX, has several new features and fixes over the previous version released over a year ago. Several more games are playable in this version, including Wizard of Wor, Megamania, Dig Dug, Frogger, Frogger II, and H.E.R.O. You can download the latest version of Jum52 and get all the details about what's changed at James Higgs' Homepage. Thanks to Belgarath for the news.
It's time once again for you to fire up your favorite graphics program! AtariAge is sponsoring a contest to create a label for Ronen Habot's upcoming Castle Blast for the Atari 5200. Castle Blast is loosely based off the fifth wave of the classic Centuri arcade game Phoenix. Ronen plans to release Castle Blast at the Classic Gaming Expo this August, complete with the winner's label, box, and manual. The winner of the contest will receive a limited Special Edition version of the cartridge. For more details on how to enter, as well as keep up on label submissions as we receive them, check out the Castle Blast Label Contest Page. You can also discuss the contest with Ronen Habot and other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 5200 Forum. Good luck!
Jeffry Johnston (aka Calamari) has created a set of utilities to assist programmers in creating music for the Atari 5200. His POKMUSIC suite is a collection of three applications:
MIDI2POK - Converts MIDI file to 5200 format POKEDIT - GUI-based editing tool for POK music files BIN2INC - Converts binary file to an assembler format
Also included is the full source code and a binary example of a 5200 POK music player. You can download these tools and more from Jeffry's 5200 Programming Tools Page. To discuss these tools with Jeffry and other AtariAge visitors, please visit our Programming Forum.
John Dullea has released version 2.6 of his PCAEWin Atari 2600 emulator. Here are some of the new features and improvements in this version:
Added Kaillera net-play support Added ZIP file support Greatly improved sound emulation Many improvements to windowed zoom mode Added support for Spectravideo Compumate Added support for CommaVid RAM-cart Added an FPS counter
You can download the latest version and view a complete list of changes at the PC Atari Emulator Homepage. You can also discuss this emulator with other AtariAge visitors in our Emulation Forum.
To top off the wealth of Jaguar news this week, Songbird Productions has announced the imminent availability of their latest Jaguar release, Protector: Special Edition. This new version of the popular Jaguar game adds many new features and enhancements, including 40 all-new levels, gameplay improvements, new landscapes and backgrounds, new songs, and more. Included with Protector: SE is BJL (an open hobby protocol for downloading Jaguar games to RAM), JagFree CD, and a glass-mastered Native Demo CD. You can read the full press release here.
It seems like ScatoLOGIC Inc. has been pretty busy lately! They've just announced the availability of BattleSphere Gold, an update of the popular BattleSphere for the Atari Jaguar. The ScatoLOGIC design team has packed many refinements into this new version, while maintaining backwards compatibility with the original BattleSphere for network gaming action. Here are some of the refinements you can expect in this version:
Most animations have been completely redone Nearly triple the number of cheat codes A new alien menace has been added to Gauntlet Small bugs have been corrected Reworked menu system Enhanced rendering efficiency Two hidden bonus games JUGS-DD JacCD Encryption Nullifier
BattleSphere Gold is contained in a clear cartridge shell to further distinguish it from the original. Also included is a complete JUGS Development Kit and a ScatoLOGIC Demo CD. For more information, please visit the ScatoLOGIC Homepage.
Ron Lloyd (aka Cafeman) has released a demo of his upcoming Atari 5200 game Koffi: Yellow Kopter. Your goal as Koffi, a little "Kopter", is to save the forests from an evil stormcloud named Pyro. The current demo represents a roughly 50% complete version of the game. To download the demo and learn more, please visit the Koffi: Yellow Kopter homepage. You can discuss Koffi in our Atari 5200 Forum with author Ron Lloyd and other AtariAge visitors.
ScatoLOGIC Inc. has announced the immediate availability of the ScatoLOGIC Demo CD for the Atari Jaguar. This $14.95 CD contains several never before seen demo programs, including JAZ 3D and Sound Demo, Sinister Development's Asteroids and Slam Racer, the ScatoLOGIC Music Player Mark II, and more. To use this CD you will need to have a CD encyrption defeater for your Jaguar CD. For more information, please visit the ScatoLOGIC Homepage.
Sony Ericsson has teamed up with iFone and Synergenix to bring Atari games to mobile phones. This partnership will allow Sony Ericsson customers to download games from iFone's game catalog onto their cell phone. The iFone game library includes several classic Atari titles, including Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Gravitar, Pong, Tempest, and more. You can read the full press release here. Thanks to ClassicGaming.com for the news.
Vault Assault creator Brian Prescott has announced that he is going to have two new versions of Vault Assault available for purchase at April's PhillyClassic3. The first is Vault Assault Tournament Edition, which Brian has tweaked with some graphical improvements as well as making the game more difficult. A tournament will be held at the show, with the winner taking home one of the limited Vault Assault TE carts. Brian will also be offering Vault Assault carts with a customized splash screen. If you send Brian $30 and a 48x50 monochrome bitmap image by April 15th, he'll create a version of Vault Assault encoded with your graphic that you can then pick up at the show. Please visit the Vault Assault Page for more detailed information about these upcoming releases.
Joe Cody of Atari2600.com has sent us word that a previously unreleased version of the Atari 2600 game Bugs Bunny will be released at next month's PhillyClassic3. This version of Bugs Bunny is straight from programmer Bob Polaro, who will be on hand at PhillyClassic to hand out copies of the game as well as sign autographs. According to Joe Cody, this version of Bugs Bunny is more complete than the current version available, with a simultaneous two-player mode being one of the biggest additions. Included with the game will be be a full color reproduction box, color instruction manual and cartridge label. More detailed information, including a picture of the box and a screenshot, can be found here.
As a reminder for all of you living in the Pacific Northwest, the NorthWest Classic Video Game Expo is this upcoming Saturday, March 16th, 2002. The NWCGE Expo is an event aimed at all classic gaming enthusiasts, and whether you want to play, buy, sell, or trade classic games they promise there's something at the show for you. This year's show will see the release of two new 2600 games, X3V0LuX and NWCGE Invaders. You can see preliminary box artwork for both of these titles here. In addition, Lee Krueger will be selling Klax and Sentinel for the Atari 7800 in NTSC format. For more details about the show, please read the NWCGE2K2 Press Release. You can discuss the show with other AtariAge visitors here.
Lars Hannig sends us word that the Star Alliance Homepage has been updated with a new screenshot and news that Michael Neihs of SULU Express will be creating music and sound effects for the game. Star Alliance is a shooter for the Atari Jaguar, set in space where you must destroy all enemies that get in your way. For more information and screenshots, please visit the Star Alliance Development Page. You can also discuss Star Alliance in our Atari Jaguar Forum.
Ronen Habot (aka "OldGuru") has announced that he is taking pre-orders for his upcoming 5200 game Castle Blast. Those of you familiar with the fifth wave of Atari's Phoenix for the 2600 (or the original Centuri version) will immediately identify with Castle Blast. Ronen estimates the game is 80% complete and he is shooting for a release at this year's Classic Gaming Expo. The price should be in the $30 range and will include the game, manual and box. To reserve a copy, please send mail to ronen.habot2@verizon.net. To learn more about Castle Blast, please visit the Castle Blast Development Page. You can discuss Castle Blast with Ronen and other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 5200 forum.
AtariAge is proud to announce the arrival of the newest system to the site: the Atari Lynx! We've put together a comprehensive collection of Lynx information and images, broken down as follows:
Lynx History Rarity Guide Box Scans Cartridge Scans Manuals Screenshots Cartridge Style Guide Lynx Catalogs Hardware & Accessories Tips & Cheats Lynx Emulation ...and more!
We have plans to put additional Lynx content online in the near future, but we feel this is a good start. If you have any suggestions for how we can improve the Lynx section, or AtariAge in general, don't hesitate to ask. And don't forget we have a Lynx Forum where you can discuss the Atari Lynx with other AtariAge visitors. Enjoy!
Collecting Classic Video Games is a new book by Billy Galaxy from Schiffer Books. Here is what the publisher has to say:
"Here is a grand review of the home video games that entertained the nation, and much of the world, during the 1970s and 1980s. In over 1000 color photographs, many of the video games for the extremely popular Atari, Colecovision, and Intellivision systems are displayed, ranging from Asteroids and Donkey Kong to Pac-Man and Zaxxon. Games from less familiar systems, such as Bally's Astrocade, GCE's Vectrex, Magnavox's Odyssey, and RCA's Studio II, are featured as well. Also included are examples of each system for which games are displayed, a wide variety of hand-held, table-top, and stand-alone games, video game memorabilia, an engaging text, and current market values both in the captions and listings in the back of the book."
You can visit our forum to read more about this book, or purchase Collecting Classic Video Games at Barnes and Noble. In addition, you can find a review of the book at the NorthWest Classic Games Enthusiasts website.
If you've wanted to play Atari's Realsports Basketball prototype on a real 2600, you'd have to be living in Europe and own a PAL television, or have an NTSC television that's tolerant of extra scanlines. To remedy this problem, Thomas Jentzsch has converted Realsports Basketball into a title that will play fine on NTSC televisions. You can download the binary image here, and discuss the game with other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 2600 Forum. For more PAL to NTSC conversions that Thomas has created, please take a look at our 2600 TV Format Conversions page.
Version 2.2 of the Steem Engine Atari STE emulator has been released. Steem is an Atari ST emulator for Windows and Linux that runs the majority of Atari ST software, including games. It's easy to setup and run, just make sure you grab the necessary TOS images first. I've run it full-screen on my laptop, and it's almost like having a modern day Stacy! This new version has several bug fixes and new features over the previous version, which are detailed on the Steem Engine Homepage.
Video clips of the unreleased Jaguar game Black Ice White Noise have been posted in the video section of the JagCube website. Black Ice White Noise was a sophisticated RPG Atari was developing for the Jaguar that showcased what the system was capable of doing. In the game you explore a large, 3D texture-mapped city, interacting with other people you encounter along the way. The people you interact with are displayed in full-motion video, which works fairly well for this type of game. You'll need to make sure you first have RealPlayer installed to view these videos.
The March 2002 issue of MyAtari is now available for your online viewing. Features in this issue include a world exclusive tutorial of ACE (a new music synth for Falcon computers), a feature on how to create Calamus fonts from Postscript Type 1 fonts, an article that asks the question, "Have Atari users got a future?", and more.
In addition, MyAtari is holding its 2002 Awards, in which you can vote for your favorites in many categories, including: Best Atari Web Site, Best Programmer, Best Commercial Release, Best Game Release, Best Supporting Company, Best Atari Magazine, and more. Go cast some votes today!
If a version of Solitaire for the Atari 5200 sounds interesting to you, Jeffry Johnston (aka "Calamari") has announced that he is now taking pre-orders for his upcoming Calamari's Solitaire. Jeffry is trying to garner how much interest there is in his project to get an idea of how many carts he'll need to produce down the road. Each cartridge will be individually signed and numbered, and a copy of the source code will be included as an exclusive to those buying a cartridge. For more information and screenshots, take a look here. For details on how to pre-order, as well as give Jeffry feedback on Calamari's Solitaire, please look here.
Thomas Jentzsch has created two new controller conversions for your 2600 gaming pleasure. His creations this time around are Battlezone TC and Robot Tank TC. The TC in these titles stands for Tank Control. To control your tank in these games, use two joysticks with up and down movement to simulate real tank controls. For more information on each of these modifications, please see their respective pages linked above. You can also discuss these conversions with Thomas and other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 2600 Forum.
We missed this initially, but we felt Macintosh owners would be interested in knowing that a new version of MESS (Multi Emulator Super System) was recently released. This new version, 0.56, brings the Macintosh versions of MESS up to date with the Windows version. MESS emulates a large number of classic game systems, including the Atari 5200, 7800 and 8-bit computers. You can download the latest version of MESS for the Macintosh (Classic and Carbon versions are available) as well as other platforms here. The MESS source code is also available if you want to learn how it ticks and even make contributions to the project.
Anthony Bufort is developing a version of the popular word game Scrabble for Atari 8-bit computers. This will be a full-featured version of Scrabble (even including a dictionary) and will be comparable to versions of Scrabble found on the PC. One and two player games will be supported, with the computer opponent wielding varying degrees of AI. Anthony plans on making Scrabble available for free once it is completed, and hopes to also make cartridges available for a fairly low cost. For more information and an early screenshot, please visit the Scrabble entry in our In Development section. You can discuss Scrabble with other AtariAge visitors in our Atari 8-bit Forum.
In order to gauge interest in the upcoming Atari 5200 homebrew games Koffi: Yellow Kopter and Adventure II, Ron Lloyd (aka Caféman) has announced that he is now taking pre-orders. Both of these 32K games are expected to be finished in 2002 and should cost somewhere between $25 to $35. There will only be a single production run for each of these games, so if you're interested in purchasing them it's important to let Ron know now. For more information on how to pre-order, please read this message from Ron, posted to our 5200 forum.
For all you fans of Atari 8-bit computers out there, Kevin Savetz has posted a large batch of APX (Atari Program Exchange) programs on AtariArchives.org. The APX program was created by Atari to encourage end users to create software for 8-bit computers. Atari sold these programs through the APX catalog and paid royalties directly to the programmers who created them. Kevin has put in a good deal of effort to preserve these programs and obtain permission from the original authors to them online. You can learn more about over 250 APX programs and download over 80 of them from AtariArchive.org's APX Archive.
Randy Crihfield of Hozer Video Games has given us word that he is performing a label recall for XYPE and several other homebrew games. Randy is now producing laminated labels for these titles, which results in, "gorgeous plastic coated labels". This recall affects all XYPE games (Gunfight, Jammed, Thrust, Qb, and Oystron) as well as TPS, Video Simon, Venture II, SCSIcide and the HozerQuest Thrifting Simulator. Anyone who wants to replace their existing labels with the new laminated labels can get them by mailing Hozer Video the end label from each cart and a self-addressed stamped envelope. You can get Hozer's address here.
If you've ever wanted to look at the source code for an Atari 2600 game with an eye towards creating your own someday, now's your chance. Roger Williams has pored over the existing Combat source (first disassembled by Harry Dodgson and later refined by Nick Bensema) and put together what he calls the Definitive Combat Dissassembly. This is a very heavily commented version of Combat that leaves no stones unturned. Roger's goal with this version was to finish the disassembly so the purpose of every instruction, memory location and table is completely clear. Even if you're not a budding 2600 programmer, you may still enjoy having a look at what makes the first Atari 2600 game tick!
|
 |