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1. 

   atari2600land's Blog

   A blog by atari2600land in General

   • 5399
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   Recent Entries

   • Legend of Helga 3/10/2026 update
   • Doing my own stuff
   • One more chance.
   • craziness.
   • insomnia does weird stuff to your brain

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Legend of Helga 3/10/2026 update

   I was busy working on Legend of Helga this morning. Here is a list of changes I made to the program.

   • Got rid of the fade out/fade in part.
   • replaced bird chirp with actual music.
   • lots of bug fixes.

   In case you didn't notice, I'm up fairly late. This is because I woke up at about 5pm last night. I was so sleepy, I went to sleep at 9pm and woke up at 3am. But I'm so sleepy you could tell me any time of day "hey chris, go to sleep" and I probably could. But then that would really mess me up and I was working to get myself asleep all night and awake all day. But I doubt I could do that because I really want to go to sleep now. (it's a little after 9am right now.)

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2. 

   J.Russell Retro Gaming's Blog

   A blog by J.Russell Retro Gaming in General

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   Recent Entries

   • My ROM Conversions / Colour Remastered Entry in th…

   

   Latest Entry
   

   My ROM Conversions / Colour Remastered Entry in the ONE BLOG - READ and DOWNLOAD

   G'day AtariAge members.
   
   I am still on hiatus as I type this. But I decided now is a good time to organise my Blogs here so I can happily keep on top of what ROM conversions and Remastered versions of my ROM Hacks here in this blog entry.
   This blog will have all information and updates of my ROM Hacks, I will do my best to update from here from now on.
   
   Here's all the colour remastered and NTSC-PAL conversions / PAL-NTSC conversions with new entry hacks.

   
   
   
   BATTLEZONE - PAL Remastered
   During my hiatus when I wasn't busy attending to my Mum's around the clock care from her surgery. I been doing some remaster of 2 Atari Games.

   First one. I managed to hack the NTSC version of Battlezone and successfully converted the game to PAL 50Hz to give it a remaster look whilst running in PAL speed.
   
   CHANGES
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL

   
   SCREENSHOTS OF BATTLEZONE:
   
   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   Battlezone (1983) (Atari) PAL Remaster.a26

    

   COSMIC COMMUTER - PAL Conversion v1.1

   This is the one I been wanting to run at proper PAL 50 for quite sometime. But managed to do it with big thanks to JetStellly
   Now the Blue offsets and Green offsets are now had more tinkering around on this version since January 2026
    

   
   CHANGES
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen which now runs perfectly at 50.0fps at 312 Scanlines 
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL
   - Fixed the Blues and Greens on this version

   
   SCREENSHOTS OF COSMIC COMMUTER:
   
   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   Cosmic Commuter [1984] [PAL50] Conversion [J.Russell] v1.2.a26

    

   CRACKPOTS - PAL Conversion v1.2

   Decided to go ahead with doing this hack from scratch on this version using my NTSC copy that I legally own to do this NTSC to PAL 50 conversion of Crackpots. This PAL conversion version is no longer using

   the Unknown Publisher PAL clone version ROM.

   
   CHANGES
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen which now runs perfectly at 50.0fps at 312 Scanlines 
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL
   - Fixed the sky texture to be a mid blue without the purple tint to it.
   - This is a whole new conversion from scratch using the official NTSC retail release of Crackpots I own and convert this to PAL 50

   
   SCREENSHOTS OF CRACKPOTS:
   
   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   
   Crackpots (1983) (Activision) (PAL) (Hack) (J.Russell) v1.2.a26

   THE ACTIVISION DECATHLON - PAL REMASTERED v1.3
   
   Hack is now v1.3 to fix up the scanline count which is now at 312 rather than 314 like the official release in 1983.
   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen at at 312 Scanlines
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL
   - Sunset Sky has been tinker around with more
   - Shadow is now blue rather than purple to match the blue track course
   - Green grass field is now a proper green rather than a yellowish green

   
    SCREENSHOTS OF THE ACTIVISION DECATHLON:

   
   
   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

    

   Decathlon (1983) PAL Remastered Hack v1.3 FINAL (Josh Russell).a26

    

   DOLPHIN - PAL CONVERSION v1.2
   
   Altered the colour improvements done on the giant squid that I forgot to do on v1.1
   as well as the super sonic soundwave arrow by changing the aqua green to a normal green
   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen at 312 Scanlines
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL
   - Colours for the squid when transitioning had fix the aqua green to normal green, as well as the orange colour become pink like the NTSC version now.
   - Aqua green arrow for super sonic soundwave now a proper green
   
   
    SCREENSHOTS OF DOLPHIN:

   
   
   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

    

   Dolphin (1983) (Activision) (PAL) (Hack) v1.2 (J.Russell).bin

    

    

   FROGGER - PAL Remastered
   Although this one was definitely not on my list of games to do a PAL colour remaster. But I thought I may as well remaster this and give the colours more of a better look so it would look a bit identical to it's NTSC counterpart

   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Improved the colours and darkening it than it's vibrant light colours.
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF FROGGER:
   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   
   Frogger (1982) (Parker Bros) (PAL) (Hack) (J.Russell).bin

    

    

   Jr. PC-MAN - PAL & NTSC Colour Remastered
   Another one I wanted to improve the colours on. whilst i could've left the NTSC version as it is. But I thought I will improve that one so that the maze colours match like the arcade version.
   plus I made Jr. Pac-Man a proper yellow (Especially on the PAL version) seeing that the colours did have a green tinge to it, the PAL retail version makes him look a bit vibrant green than being yellow.
    

   
   
   CHANGES:
   - have the copyright set to 2025 as this was the year I done the colour improvements on
   - Improve the colour palette values for PAL and NTSC
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF Jr. PAC-MAN:
   PAL

   
   
   NTSC

   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   
   PAL:Jr. Pac-Man Remastered (2025) (Atari) (PAL) (Josh Russell).bin

   
   NTSC:Jr. Pac-Man Remastered (2025) (Atari) (NTSC) (Josh Russell).bin

    

    

   KABOBBER - PAL Conversion
   A well known Prototype Activision game which not only was never published. But was made available as a digital copy by the Designer himself (Correct me if I'm wrong)
   As you know. I gone and converted this prototype game from NTSC to PAL to run at 50.0fps

   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen at 312 Scanlines
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF KABOBBER:
   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   
   Kabobber (1983) (Activision) (Prototype) (PAL).a26

    

   MARIO BROS - PAL Remastered
   An old arcade classic Published by Nintendo for the Atari 2600. Gave this game a good colour remaster so it would look as close as it's NTSC counterpart to make the colours look a bit well polished. 

   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Polished the colours up so it is looking a lot more better.
   - Koopas are now green
   - Crabs are now blood orange
   - Fly is now a cool lavender colour

   - Icy floors are now blue and not dark purple
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF MARIO BROS:
   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

    

   Mario Bros. PAL Remastered.bin

    

    

   MY GOLF - NTSC Conversion
   Before you ask. Yes there is another NTSC conversion of this game out made by Thomas Jentzsch from years ago (Which BTW is still a great conversion by him though.)
   The difference is. With my fresh conversion. I made sure that the LDA instructions are dead on even at 262 scanlines during gameplay in order to play in proper smooth 60.0fps
   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen at 262 Scanlines
   - Change the colour palette values for NTSC
   - Golfer has a proper colour skin tone and not light pink.
   - Grasses are  bit more warm green
   - Sand is in a rich light yellow

   
   SCREENSHOTS OF MY GOLF:
   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

   
   My Golf (1990) (HES) (NTSC) (Josh Russell).a26

    

    

   PAC-MAN - PAL Remastered
   Well now. I thought I go ahead with polishing up the colours on this PAL version release of Pac-Man.
   Now the ghosts have their own different colours now just like the NTSC version.

   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL to polish them up a bit.
   - all four ghosts now have their own colours
   - Ghost are now a proper blue that pops out when Pac-Man eats a power pelette.
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF PAC-MAN:
   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

    

   Pac-Man 1982 ATARI - PAL Remastered.bin

    

    

   PITFALL II - LOST CAVERNS - PAL Remastered v1.4
   This is out of all, my very First PAL colour remaster and the best one I ever did. The reason this is my favourite one of them all than the others is that this was NOT an easy task considering that this game is not only one of David Crane's best treasured sequel of Pitfall! But the only game that uses the DPC chip to add music to it whilst playing.
   
   The official PAL version could use some improvement so that it has the elements that was missing on it which the NTSC version had.
   
   CHANGES:
   - Added the sunset sky

   - since v1.4 i've slightly lightened the green tree leaves a bit so it looks a bit better.
   - Lighten the water in the caverns to a proper mid blue as well as the waterfall
   - Pitfall Harry now has the same colour palettes like the first Pitfall! PAL version game for this port

   - Added back the missing second rock boulder wall that was missing from the Official PAL release
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF PITFALL II - LOST CAVERNS:
   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

    

   Pitfall II - Lost Caverns PAL Remastered v1.4 (Hack) (J.Russell).bin

    

   POLE POSITION - PAL Remastered
   I have gone and hacked the PAL version of Pole Position and have the colours look pretty close and identical to it's NTSC version. As much as I like the official PAL version. I feel it would look better if the game screen was a bit more centred to the screen.

   Unfortunately one thing I could not do was to change the speed bar from violet to blue because changing that using the Stella debugger would have resulted with a graphic bug cause it also used the NUSIZ0 coding. I had no choice but to leave it as is. But the red speed bar was fine as that is now red.

   
   
   CHANGES:
   - Set the LDA instruction adjustments for scanline count and centering the screen at 312 Scanlines
   - Change the colour palette values for PAL
   
   SCREENSHOTS OF POLE POSITION:

   

   DOWNLOAD FILES BELOW:

    

   Pole Position PAL remastered.a26

   
   That is about everything here you guys.
   Have a read. Give these a go. HAPPY GAMING!
   
   Take care,
   Stay Safe, most of all.
   GAME ON!
    

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3. 

   "Oh Shoot!" Development

   A blog by Piledriver in General

   • 54
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   Recent Entries

   • Commercial
   • Easter Eggs
   • Extreme Optimization!
   • Reviews!
   • Oh Shoot got hacked + Merry Christmas!

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Commercial

   Atarians,

    

   I probably should have had this ready for when Oh Shoot launched... Oh well, better late than never?  Cool music eh?  Now you can bust a move while learning about Oh Shoot's key features.

    

   AI directed me to a free video editor that seems to be just as good as Adobe Premiere Pro.  Crazy world eh?  This video helped me out a lot.

    

   Cheers.

   Phil.

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4. 

   Ablogalypse Now

   A blog by Kai Ninjiki in General

   • 23
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   • 18
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   • 19101
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   Recent Entries

   • Monster Cables are actually worth the money.
   • About Magic The Gathering
   • Recent game purchases:
   • My entertainment budget is close to $0.00
   • TAKL

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Monster Cables are actually worth the money.

   I don't really feel like arguing with people about this, that's why this is in my blog and not on the forums.

    

   It has been basically what is considered 'common knowledge' by gamers for decades now that Monster brand video cables are just marketing and not actually significant upgraded video cables. 

    

   After purchasing and testing various Monster brand cables, I can definitively state that this is a false belief. I upgraded multiple s-video cables for various consoles from standard cheap cables to Monster brand, and saw very significant, almost extreme improvements in video signal quality. Even I wasn't expecting the quality of the video output to be so drastic, because like most, I also thought that a cable is a cable, it's just transmitting a small electric signal, after all.

    

   I actually had the opportunity to dissect a Monster s-video cable for SNES/N64/GC because it wasn't functioning. These are the purple colored cables you can still find on Ebay. The shielding inside here is quite impressive. Each stream of the Chroma and Luma is heavily shielded, with thick strands of copper for each stream and heavy shielding around each one. Compared to the extremely thin cheaper option that I was using, I began to wonder if the super thin cable leading to the S-video was even in fact an S-video signal, how could it be, when it was so thin? It's supposed to carry to seperate streams after all.

    

   After switching the SNES to Monster S-video cables, I saw a marked improvement in color, an absence of any interference at all, which I was getting before.  Now the color is deep, the lines sharp and an overall improved gaming experience because of it. I never new the SNES could look so good. I was getting by all these years with cheap S-video cables that were probably not even real S-video.

    

   Know this, I do understand that it's not just the brand of Monster with the magic. But that it is important that you look for a double shielded assembly for S-Video cables, as it makes a huge difference in the clarity of the signal output.

    

   Monster cables are expensive yes, but it is my humble opinion that if you are trying to maximize your video signal, the Monster brand cables are worth it.

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5. 

   Karl's Blog

   A blog by Karl G in General

   • 19
     entries
   • 43
     comments
   • 12072
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   Recent Entries

   • Penult Hints
   • Extreme RAM Saving Techniques
   • Dead MacBook and Lost Data
   • RPG Character Death and Penult
   • Penult Conversations and Transactions

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Penult Hints

   I am using this blog entry as a place to collect hints for my game "Penult". Using a blog entry here on AtariAge will allow me to use the spoiler tag, which will make it easier to browse the document without accidentally getting more spoilers than are desired. In general, I suggest talking to everyone you encounter, searching for hidden areas in town, and taking notes. Sometimes these notes will help you when you feel stuck later.

    

   General

    

   Q: I have made it to level 6, and the Queen has asked me to seek other trainers, but I haven't found any. What gives?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   The other trainers are available, but in places that you probably can't yet access.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Do you know how to walk across lava, or through magical force barriers?

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   You will almost certainly need to complete at least one of the dungeons to access any other trainers.

   (Nearly) full answer:

   Spoiler

   One trainer can be found in Stoneheart on the other side of a pool of lava. Another may be found in the Royal Prison. At least one more will require a ship to access the area where they may be found. Learning to walk over lava or across magical force barriers will only happen once you complete certain dungeons.

   
   Q: I have been asked to find fire acorns. Where can I find these?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Acorns usually grow on trees.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Fire acorns would probably grow on trees in a fiery area.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   There is a single forest tile in the lava area near the Dungeon of the Phoenix. If you have been tasked with finding fire acorns, then stepping on this tile will grant you fire acorns.

    

   Q: I keep getting attacked by trolls when crossing bridges! How can I avoid this?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   The bartender in Waters may know something about trolls.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Trolls are cowards, and don't start fights that they think they will lose.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   If your character's hit points are below the maximum, trolls are much more likely to attack while crossing bridges. The exception is the bridge near the castle, which is usually safe regardless of your character's hit points.

    

   Q: Where can I find the best melee and ranged weapons in the game?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   You have heard that dwarves make excellent weapons.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   The greatest weapon smiths of the dwarves probably don't make weapons to be sold in shops.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   A smith in Stoneheart speaks of Riswynn as being the greatest weapon smith in the world.

   Hint #4:

   Spoiler

   Try looking for hidden areas in Stoneheart.

   (Nearly) Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   There is a secret door on the east wall of the weapon and armor shop in Stoneheart that leads to the forge of Riswynn. She offers to make a superior weapon for you if you bring her a spirit stone. Spirit stones may be found in a special cave not on the mainland.

    

   Q: Is there better armor in the game than plate armor?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Yes.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   There's a smith who could make you better armor, but he doesn't live on the mainland.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   He lives in Freehaven, actually. He's not very friendly, though.

   Hint #4:

   Spoiler

   It would help break the ice if you had a mutual acquaintance.

   Hint #5:

   Spoiler

   Have you been to the city of heroes yet? Talked to everyone?

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   Find the dwarven hero Avil in a cave on the western edge of Spiretop, and talk to him. After talking to him, go back to Freehaven and talk to Jaylan the smith again. He will be more helpful now.

    

   Dungeons

    

   Q: I entered a dungeon, but it is dark! How am I supposed to see?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   The bartender in the Castle basement may know something about this.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   You will need to cast the "Sun" spell to light the dungeon.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   New spells may be learned at magic circles.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   You will need to learn the "Sun" spell, and cast it once you are in a dungeon to create light. The mountains to the south of Acadia have a path to a magic circle. Stand on the magic circle, and cast any spell to learn the "Sun" spell.

    

   Q: I made it to the last level of a dungeon, but I am not able to exit. What am I missing?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   There is an Oracle located in the Castle basement that has information related to this.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   For each dungeon, you need to find and touch a hidden orb that will allow you to successfully exit that dungeon.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   In Dungeon of the Phoenix, the orb is hidden behind illusionary walls on dungeon level 3.

   Full Answer: 

   Spoiler

   For each dungeon, you need to find and touch a hidden orb that will allow you to successfully exit that dungeon. The orb is never in plain sight, and can be found on a specific level behind illusionary walls. The levels where each orb may be found are:

   Spoiler

   Phoenix: Dungeon level 3

   Spoiler

   Enchantment: Dungeon level 4

   Spoiler

   Secrets: Dungeon level 5

   Spoiler

   Passage: Dungeon level 2

    

   Q: I have found the Dungeon of Passage, but I can only access levels 1 and 8, and not any in-between. How do I access the remaining levels?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   This dungeon is actually optional, as there is a different path to victory that doesn't involve this dungeon.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Some spells may be used in multiple ways.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   It would be nice if there was a way to use magic instead of stairs to traverse dungeon levels.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   The "Hop" (teleport) spell may be used to ascent or descend one dungeon level as a time using the "Hop" (teleport) spell. in order to work, the space directly above (or below) the character's position needs to be empty. If the space contains a wall or other dungeon feature, then the attempt will fail. Multiple attempts may be required to find a spot that will work.

    

   Ship Travel and Islands

    

   Q: I found a place that sells ships, but they won't let me buy one. What should I do?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   As noted by Deckhand Jordan, only those who are deemed worthy may purchase a ship. What noteworthy deeds have you accomplished?

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Have you checked out any of the dungeons yet?

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   You may only buy a ship if you have successfully completed one of the dungeons on the mainland, or if your character is level 7 or higher (which is difficult to obtain without completing one of the aforementioned dungeons).

    

    Q: The game just told me that I learned "divination". What is divination, and how can I use it?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Divination gives you the ability to use one of your existing spells in a new way.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Divination only works in dungeons.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   If you cast the "Sun" spell when the dungeon is already lit up, you will get a moment of magical sight, which lets you see behind walls, and see hidden dungeon features like illusionary walls and traps that are in your immediate area.

    

   Q: I found the island town of Duskgrove, but I keep getting attacked when I try to explore. Is there any point in me going there?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Queen Avaline mentions in her letter to you that there is a healer in that town that knows the secret to making dust of disguise.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   If that healer is still alive, then they are probably in hiding.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   The ogre attacks are frustrating, but if you are high enough level, then you should be able to handle them.

   Hint #4:

   Spoiler

   Have you looked for any secret doors, or other hidden things in the town?

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   In the Northeast corner of the town, there's the ruins of a bakery that has a secret door along the East wall. This leads to a basement where the healer in question may be found. He asks for a donation of healing potions. If you donate three potions to him, he will give you the disguise dust in gratitude.

    

   Q: I found the city of (spoiler), but I'm stuck here now! How do I get out?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   What else have you found near Spiretop apart from the city and the dungeon exit?

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Have you cast a spell at the magic circle?

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   What new spell have you learned?

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   Casting a spell at the magic circle near Spiretop will cause you to learn the Hop (teleport) spell. Casting this spell while standing on a magic circle will cause you to hop to another magic circle.

    

   Endgame

    

   Q: I found an island that has a path that leads to where I can see a magic circle, but there's no way to reach that circle. How can I get there?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Have you learned a way to travel between magic circles yet?

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Do you know the "Hop" (teleport) spell yet?

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   Is there a magic circle from which you haven't tried to teleport from?

   Hint #4:

   Spoiler

   Have you find the Dungeon of Passage yet? It may be aptly-named.

   Full Answer #1 (the easy way):

   Spoiler

   You need to cast "Hop" (teleport) from the middle of the circle of water stones while in your ship to reach this magic circle.

   Full Answer #2 (the hard way):

   Spoiler

   After completing the Dungeon of Passage, you are given the choice of exits labelled "back to surface" or "no return". Picking the latter will transport you to the other side of the mountains where the magic circle may be found.

    

   Q: I've reached a city named (spoiler) but I keep getting attacked by (spoiler). What am I supposed to do here?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Thana's Hold is a city full of goblins, ogres, and demons. You are a human intruder. Did you expect a warm welcome?

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   It would be nice if you looked like the other residents.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   Have you found dust of disguise yet?

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   Without dust of disguise, you will continue to be attacked by demon guards every few steps you take within the city. See the spoiler for Duskgrove if you don't know where to find it.

    

   Q: I'm now in (spoiler) with dust of disguise active. I tried to talk to the prisoners, but they won't talk to me.

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   You look like one of their captors. Why would they want to talk to you?

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   If you go to the prison in Thana's Hold without the dust of disguise active, the prisoners will talk to you. You will have to fight a few battles to get to them, but after you are done, you can use the dust to get through the rest of the city.

    

   Q: I have finally made it to (spoiler), but I can't get in the side entrance. What do I do?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Well, if you can't figure it out, there's always the front entrance to the Keep of Shadows. 

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Have you tried speaking a password?

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   You don't know the password? Maybe someone who hears a lot of news and gossip might know it.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   To get in through the side entrance, you must first learn the password. This may be learned from the bartender in Thana's Hold. You do not need to be disguised to get this information, though it does make it easier. Once you know the password, you can enter the Keep of Shadows from the west side. Once you get to the marked square, choose "Talk" to speak the password. You will then be teleported into the keep.

    

   Q: I have made it all the way through (spoiler) and am confronting (spoiler). I don't see any way to proceed from here?

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   Have you talked to the mysterious hermit on the mainland lately?

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   The mysterious hermit that lives in a cave on the mainland will tell you that Fulk was the wisest of all sages, and you should seek him out at the Cave of the Dead.

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   Have you checked out that cave north of Thana's Hold?

   Hint #4:

   Spoiler

   Do you know the mantra to dispel magic? If so, now might be a good time to speak it.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   The Cave of the Dead can be found North of Thana's hold. There you can find a ghost known as Fulk the Departed. He will give you a mantra that can be used to dispel magic. Once you are in the central room of the Keep of Shadows with Thana and the portal to the Shadow Plane, you can speak to Thana to find out that the portal is protected by a force field. You can choose the "Talk" option to speak the mantra to get rid of this protective force field.

    

   Q: Okay, so I have gotten rid of the (spoiler) that was protecting the (spoiler), but I don't know what to do next.

   Hint #1:

   Spoiler

   You have gotten rid of the protective force field around the portal. you probably want to try to destroy that portal, though.

   Hint #2:

   Spoiler

   Thana is warning you not to do something. Perhaps the lady doth protect too much?

   Hint #3:

   Spoiler

   Perhaps you need to use your magic? Take a look at the Queen's descriptions of spells to see if any sound appropriate.

   Full Answer:

   Spoiler

   If you cast the "Sun" spell after the forcefield is down, you will trigger the destruction of the gate to the Shadow Realm.

    

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6. 

   Mark W's Old Games on a Weekday

   A blog by NeonPeon in General

   • 33
     entries
   • 14
     comments
   • 167063
     views

   Recent Entries

   • Winter Sports Games on Mark W's Old Games on a Wee…
   • Unboxing/Setting Up/Playing the Commodore 64 Ultim…
   • Some good luck in Nethack last night!
   • GAUNTLETAK on Mark W's Old Games on a Weekday
   • Long Island Retro Gaming Expo!

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Winter Sports Games on Mark W's Old Games on a Weekday

   Next week on my Old Games on a Weekday stream, my son, Mr. Rob Bob will be joining me! The theme will be Winter sports games played on the Commodore 64 Ultimate, in honor of the ongoing Winter Olympics in Italy. I'm looking forward to introducing Rob Bob to the wonderful Winter Games by Epyx! Winter Games, as well as sports games in general, are much more fun with a second player. 😁

    

   

    

   But what are some other winter sports games that might be fun to try? I'm thinking of at least trying one of these Ice Hockey games, but there are so many! Does anybody know which hockey games are good? I remember playing Slap Shot back in the day which was pretty good. Other suggestions for winter sports games are welcome.

    

   There's also apparently a Garfield winter sports game as well. Right up the alley of my man @Charlie Cat. 😁

   

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7. 

   TP's Blog

   A blog by Tickled_Pink in General

   • 10
     entries
   • 2
     comments
   • 57435
     views

   Recent Entries

   • Forgot I even had a blog!
   • Triggered by historical inaccuracies! [Spoiler Ale…
   • Archipelagos Remake - Ideas Central
   • Archipelagos Remake - Energy bars and trees
   • Archipelagos Remake - More Unity quirks but more p…

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Forgot I even had a blog!

   Just doom scrolling AA before bed and noticed a section on Blogs that I always skipped. WAIT! I HAVE A BLOG!
   
   Well, that Archipelagos game never got finished. My S7 finally went Kaput and I lost my Gear VR for a while. Now have a Meta Quest 2 that I don't use. No idea if I still have the source. But there are already versions out there for VR, apparently.

    

   And then there's the first Blog entry:
    

   
   Holy Moly. That screaming brat is currently in her room suffering with Covid - and she has an online meeting tomorrow with her lecturers to discuss the PhD she wants to do next year.

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8. 

   The Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast

   A blog by Shinto in General

   • 41
     entries
   • 22
     comments
   • 60675
     views

   Recent Entries

   • 33 - JaguarCD and VLM (and MemoryTrack and Tempest…
   • s03 - Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration
   • 32 - Rayman
   • Episode Guide
   • My Retro Video Game Jack-O-Lanterns

   

   Latest Entry
   

   33 - JaguarCD and VLM (and MemoryTrack and Tempest 2000 Soundtrack)

   Download or listen to the podcast episode at https://atarijaguargamebygame.libsyn.com/33-jaguarcd-and-vlm
   
   It's rare, it's controversial, and it completes the Jaguar picture. Atari's JaguarCD peripheral saw limited release after numerous delays, but was packed with a remarkable audio visualization feature called the Virtual Light Machine, and bundled with a non-trivial percentage of the Jaguar's total commercial CD library.
   
   In this episode, we dig through the development timeline both for the hardware itself as well as the Virtual Light Machine, go into perhaps a bit too much detail regarding the 81 VLM effects, marvel at Edge Magazine's JaguarCD coverage, talk about the Tempest 2000 Soundtrack CD also included in the box, and cover the separate-but-necessary MemoryTrack cartridge and it lofty ambitions for game data storage.
   
   Also included is feedback from Troff, Graymane Shadow, Editorb, and Aritheus! All that plus Storytime can be found in this slow-loading installment of the Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast.

   Show Notes

   
   General Links

   • jaguar.gamebygamepodcast.com
   • gamebygamepodcast.com/1/jaguar on Gopher
   • Jaguar Game by Game Podcast Store
   • Podcast Episode Guide
   • Michael Current's Awesome Atari History Timelines

   
   Forums

   • AtariAge
   • atari.io

   
   Developer, Distributor, and Development

   • Jaguar press conference video
   • Associated Press newspaper article
     
   • Psychadelia
   • AEO: Delphi discussion
   • AEO: GEnie roundtable
   • Electronics Boutique, Christmas 1993 courtesy of Hugues Johnson
   • AEO: Press release: "Atari Announces New Signees"
   • AEO: Jeff Minter interview
   • AEO: Jaguar specifications / European Jaguar developer conference / Virtual Light Machine update / Colo[u]rspace 2000
   • AEO: Cinepak, Sigma Designs, more VLM
   • AEO: Laury Scott interview
   • Tech Flashback: The CD+Graphics Format
   • The CD+G Museum
   • 3DO Blaster and more 3DO Blaster
   • AEO: VLM talk in GEnie roundtable
   • Biff's Gaming Videos: Jeff Minter interview at 5:43, Cinepak footage at 46:50, VLM footage at 48:43
   • The application of optimal transputer architecture to concurrent processing in the implementation of vision processing algorithms
   • Atari ATW-800 Transputer
   • Psychadelia, Popular Computing, 1984
   • Re-constructed VLM source code
   • YaK's Quick Intro to VLM Hacking

   
   Encryption

   • Jaguar encryption released at CGE 2001 (Lynx, too)
   • Glenn Bruner's Encryption Analysis
   • Matthais Domin's CD Encryption Guide

   
   Reliability

   • Linkovitch's CD Repair Guides
   • Cubanismo's CD Repair Guides

   
   Advertisements

   • Advert 1
     
   • Advert 2
     
   • Ion Finland courtesy of Atarimania

   
   Previews

   • Electronic Gaming Monthly, June 1994
     
   • GamePro, October 1994
     
   • Electronic Gaming Monthly, May 1995
     
   • Unknown source (found by Arethius)
     
   • Edge Magazine's JaguarCD explosion coverage
     

   
   Reviews

   • GamePro, November 1995
     

   
   TV/Movie/Game/Music/Book References

   • "I speak, of course, of karaoke."
   • Pink Floyd - On the Run
   • What do you do, hotshot? (poorly paraphrased)
   • "Sixty-nine, dudes!"
   • "Highlights!"
   • From Worlds of Wonder, stadium not included

   
   Vendors

   • Best Electronics
   • Bravo Sierra Computers
   • Eight Bit Fix

   
   Podcast references

   • Atari 5200 Podcast

   
   Listener Feedback

   • Jaggy Maguire (sorry)
     
   • Wired-Up Retro's coverage of the Bliss-Box adapter
   • JEO: Jeff Minter, VLM loves Pink Floyd and Ozric Tentacles
   • Retrogaming Roundup interview with Rob Zdybel
   • Songbird Productions' Atari Karts reprint
   • Atari hoodies (though the Jaguar logo one I have doesn't seem to be available any longer)
   • Jems Ultimate Party Mix
   • Wes Powell's Tempest 2000 Superzapper Remix
   • Aritheus' picture
     

   
   Storytime

   • No Man's Sky
   • Sliders
   • Twister
   • Dark Side of Oz
   • Bandcamp: the best way to buy music, especially digital music

   
   
   Next up: Blue Lightning!

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9. 

   For whom it may concern

   A blog by Thomas Jentzsch in General

   • 45
     entries
   • 648
     comments
   • 151602
     views

   Recent Entries

   • Animated German Flag
   • Union Jack
   • Sinerunner V2 Demo
   • Watermarking ROMs
   • Experiments with Plasma

   

   Latest Entry
   

   Animated German Flag

   The German flag is drawn very easily, even on a 2600. But I wanted to go a little further and animate it. Here is the result (ROMs for NTSC and PAL 60, plus source code attached). The code could be very easily adapted for other simple, three stripe flags.

    

   With left difficulty you can switch the background color.

   

   Germany (NTSC) 1.0.bin Germany (PAL60) 1.0.bin German_Flag.asm

   jtz_macros.h

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10. 

    Bubsy Bobcat Fan Blog

    A blog by doctorclu in General

    • 305
      entries
    • 234
      comments
    • 437396
      views

    Recent Entries

    • Cruizin’ Atari.com - The Neon LED Bubsy - February…
    • Cruizin’ the Atari Website - Pre-orders are open B…
    • Cruiz'in Youtube - Year of the Bubster - January 2…
    • Cruiz'in the Unofficious Bubsy Discord - Happy Bub…
    • Cruiz'in Youtooz - Launch day for the Youtooz Bubs…

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Cruizin’ Atari.com - The Neon LED Bubsy - February 2026

    Hello Bubsy fans!  How are things?!  Well things are looking much brighter now that the Bubster has his own NEON SIGN!!

     

       I can’t help but think this checks some personal box for Bubsy.   

     

    You can get that at this link:

    https://atari.com/products/bubsy-neon-led-sign-10-6-x-15-8?_pos=3&_psq=bubsy&_ss=e&_v=1.0

     

    It is fairly big.  As you can see compared to the power cord behind it.  It is bright and nicely lit up.  Hopefully being LED it will last a while, and it is powered by a 5v USB cord.

    And it all is backed by a rigid plastic.  So the only thing I will point out is the “!” not being lit up.  However, this almost harkens to this Fractured Furry Tales for this fan of the game in how the “!” color code (which would switch from red to green depending on which player was playing in Bubsy 1, and FFT was built off the Bubsy 1 code) was not working in FFT, leaving the mark to look a pale yellow (a null field).

     

    And as a fan of FFT, Atari’s first Bubsy game, I find this to be to be fitting.  

     

    If you look at Atari.com you’ll see quite a lot o Bubsy merch out there.  I have to say, especially in the time of our Bubsy Bobcat an Blog, aside from the #BubsyNation shirts sold during Woolies Strike Back and Paws on Fire days there has not seen Bubsy merch at all, much less all this...

     

    

    You’ll notice that there are some items that are sold out.  We can also say the Bubsy Exclamation Point shirt is quite nice and if you are a Atari fan as well as a Bubsy fan it is puuuurrrfect!!   You have the Exclamation point of Bubsy, and the Atari “fuji” as people call it on the back.

     

    -------

    Recently when I asked someone "what got them liking Bubsy?" over at the Officious Bubsy Discord Server they mentioned that Bubsy 4D and a fan game Bubsy Mystery Dungeon Claws of Destiny was what got them hooked on the character.  So that might be worth checking out!

    https://projectpokemon.org/home/forums/topic/67578-bubsy-mystery-dungeon-claws-of-destiny-complete/      

    archive link

    

    -----

     

    Bubsy continues to release little Shorts on YouTube.

    And one of the Shorts features the voice actor for Bubsy, Sean Chiplock!

     

    

    You can find these Shorts as they come out and others at this link:

    https://www.youtube.com/@atari/shorts

     

     

    Sooo much news for Bubsy at the moment.  So I’m sure there will be more fan blog posts soon so stay tuned!

     

    In the meantime, do what blows your hair back!

     

    - Bubsy Bobcat Fan Blog

     

    Some cool Bubsy art sent our way...

     

    

     

    And from our pal SpongeFox, who has been illustrating Bubsy since the early 00s… (at least)

    

     

     

    Original post to see the pretty pictures of this post at:

    https://forums.atariage.com/blogs/entry/19761-cruizin’-ataricom-the-neon-led-bubsy-february-2026/

     

     

     

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11. 

    Ivory Tower Technical Notes

    A blog by -^CrossBow^- in General

    • 4
      entries
    • 2
      comments
    • 2376
      views

    Recent Entries

    • SpikeMorrissey's 'evil' 7800 the hopeful possible …
    • Lumacode - The ultimate upgrade option for retro/v…
    • Intellivision 2609 Mini Din Mount PCB Information
    • There is another way... (5200 controller ...mod?)

    

    Latest Entry
    

    SpikeMorrissey's 'evil' 7800 the hopeful possible fix....

    @spikemorrissey posted sometime back in the 7800 section about his Pac-man double feature cart not working properly in his OG 7800. After some messaging in PMs and email, the console was sent to me along with their copy of the game to look things over and see if I could verify if the cartridge was the issue or something in the console. Here is the link below to the thread where it was first reported so you can see examples of the screens and crashes Spike was getting:

     

     

    Well, I'm not going to keep any suspense on this. The issue does indeed appear to be the console itself. @spikemorrissey's copy of the game works just fine in my lab 7800 (also kinda evilish on its own). So that ruled out the game being the issue in my experience. That meant trying to see if I could figure the cause on the actual 7800 side.

     

    My gut was telling me the CPU was the most likely candidate as some of the pics that Spike was showing were things I'd seen before when other home brews I've tested would crash on actual hardware and consoles with different CPUs would usually not have these problem.

     

    So my first bit of work was to remove the NCR CPU off the main board. It was soldered in. As a result a new 40pin socket was installed to make replacement in the future easier. But that is when things got interesting really fast. For some reason, I tried no less than 5 different 6502 Sally CPUs. 3 of them were NOS I had purchased online a few months back and all tested good in my chip tester. But it didn't matter if I used one of these or 2 removed from working 7800 consoles. All I would get is a white screen when powered up that would then turn into some odd colored bars horizontally across the screen and looking like the Sync was out of spec. In the end I couldn't get any other CPU to work on this 7800 besides the original NCR it came with?! I've never seen this before in a 7800.

     

    That meant working with the original CPU to see if I could figure anything out. BTW, something else that this console had in place that was NOT mentioned was that it has the Asteroids PAL BIOS kit installed. If it was mentioned, I must have missed this in the thread. I did revert the 7800 back to a stock BIOS to see if it made any difference. It did not! It still crashed in the same places and replacement CPUs still didn't want to work. 

     

    I then noticed at one point when I was handling the main board and had everything powered one, that the game's demo came up and looked correct without any maze element corruption on it and was playing without locking up?! I then noticed that I had my fingers around the right hand side of the CPU. I'd seen this before with a Rockwell CPU that had graphic corruption and would cause lockups on games after a while. That Rockwell required the deglitch cap to be placed on pin 25 of the CPU to ground. So I tried the same here because I've seen that deglitch cap added from the factory on many NCR CPUs in the past. But it didn't change anything here. So I then set about using my index finger to try and isolate the area on the CPU that seemed to magically made everything work. Finally narrowed it down to pin 17 on this CPU. That is the address 8 line on the CPU. I added a small 1nf MLCC capacitor from that pin to ground and sure enough, that seems to have gotten Pac-man Double feature working again on this console. 

     

    Not sure what if any impact this will have on other games so I will be doing some testing with it today and over the next few when I can to see if flash carts, and a smattering of originals still work as expected. I didn't take any pics of the issues while it was happening as Spike has done a good job of that already. I should note that most of the time when it would lock up for me. It was always when the self playing demo would come up. Only, instead you would get a blank maze with a few corrupted graphic elements in the maze walls. No dots or sprites characters would be drawn. I could also speed up checking this by simple pressing reset when the title screen would come up. 

     

    Here are some pics to show the original NCR Sally in a socket now and the MLCC cap I had to add. And yes, this mainboard is very bad about pads coming off. I was using my desoldering gun at the lowest setting and making sure I didn't touch the pads directly and the pads would still lift right off the board when applying the suction. Luckily it was only pads not attached to traces on the bottom and only attached on the top side. So this main board is among the more fragile I've had to work with and I've services... a LOT of 7800s at this point.

     

    

     

    

     

    I've done a few other things on this console as well. Corrected the audio wiring output on it that likely had the POKEY being way too low in volume. Replaced the current resistor on the power LED from the default 120Ω do a more reasonable 2K to extend the life of the bright laser blinding blue LED that had been added in the past. Also redid the BIOS wiring to tidy it up a little more. I also found that both of the controller trigger resistors on the main board were reading low. Player 1 was only at 215Ω and player 2 reading about 218Ω. And yes, this caused Pac-Man plus to start coming up immediately to the game select menu soon as it was powered on after a bit. I've now got a pair of new 220Ω resistors in place to hopefully mitigate that issue going forward.

     

    Well, time to test it a bit more and see how it does...

     

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12. 

    Stuff

    A blog by Wayler in General

    • 1
      entry
    • 0
      comments
    • 56
      views

    Recent Entries

    • Bugs

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Bugs

    I guess I could try this blog thingy. Haven't had the energy to post anything meaningful lately, as we've been battling against the dreaded Carpet Beetle for a few weeks. My wife knits and sews, so there's a lot of yarn, cloth and other natural fabrics around the house. Hence maximum freak-out mode:
    
    
    Luckily it's the perfect time of the year for this war, as we've had a constant -15 ºC (5F) outside during this time. So we dumped as much of stuff there that we don't need for a while. Because quite surprisingly it takes weeks to knock them down with that method, tough bastards.
    
    But the real game changer has been the sauna. Just a few hours in 80ºC (176F) and the carpet beetle is no more. I'm sure there are other bugs that will survive that though. Like a cockroach would just grab a beer and enjoy the warmth. But I don't know how you guys in saunaless warmer climate deal with this stuff. Just poison every inch of the house and make it inhabitable for a month?
    
    As a final touch, we rented a textile cleaner machine for this weekend for the big stuff like sofa and mattresses. It's simultaneously fascinating and disgusting how much invisible muck is deposited in these things over the years. Oh, and we've also placed bits of red cedar all over the house because the carpet beetle hates that with a vehemence. So not only is it nice and clean, there's a pleasant forestry smell lingering about.
    
    In other bug news, our oldest daughter caught the flu on Friday and I can already feel a shiver myself. At least the employer is happy because I'm yet again sick on a weekend and probably in tip-top shape when it's time to climb the hamster wheel on Monday. What fun.

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13. 

    Dionoid's Dev Diary

    A blog by Dionoid in General

    • 1
      entry
    • 1
      comment
    • 64
      views

    Recent Entries

    • Starting a new Atari 2600 game. Codename: "The Orb…

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Starting a new Atari 2600 game. Codename: "The Orb"

    I've just started working on a new Atari 2600 game, with codename "The Orb". The game is being developed as a pure 4K ROM, using only the standard 128 bytes of RAM.

    
    It's still very early days, but one thing already makes this project a bit special: it features an optional custom controller.

    Since this controller didn't exist yet, I had to build it myself. I took a small wooden box, mounted three large arcade-style buttons (Red, Green, and Blue), and wired everything up to a DB9 connector so it plugs straight into the 2600. Button mapping: RED = Left + Fire, GREEN = Fire, BLUE = Right + Fire.

     

    The Orb is fully playable with a regular controller, but the custom one opens up some new possibilities that I'm really excited about. More details on the game itself soon.

    For now, here’s a first look at the controller prototype:

     

       

     

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14. 

    (Insert stupid Blog name here)

    A blog by Nathan Strum in General

    • 978
      entries
    • 5050
      comments
    • 1672869
      views

    Recent Entries

    • Doing the math!
    • A "To-do" list without a clever name
    • When I get to be Herb Alpert's age...
    • Basket Case 2600s - part 2
    • Basket Case 2600s - part 1

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Doing the math!

    Well, here's a blog entry you've all been looking forward to! It's been years since I've posted about this! All of you fans get ready!!

     

     

    It's time for...

     

     

    Rallying news!  

     

     

    What? You were expecting something about the Jaguar?

     

    I'm not covering that.

     

    I don't even get the connection there with "Doing the math". If you want to learn about the rally-spec Jaguar, you can read this article.

     

    This is about Subaru.

     

    I've been a Subaru fan for a long time. I've owned an Impreza 2.5 RS (which I refer to as "The slowest car in the world" due to its excessive weight and under-powered, NA, gas-guzzling, gasket-blowing, 2.5 liter lump under the hood) for over 23 years now - but I still love driving it.

     

    As with any corporate fandom though, there have been ups and downs. Too many gutless econoboxes and downright outright ugly SUVs over the years. Although it hasn't bothered me all that much, since I haven't been able to afford to buy a new car in all that time anyway.   It's been more along the lines of, "Well, if I *was* going to buy a car, it's too bad they don't have any that I'm interested in right now."

     

    My hope had been for Subie to return to making a hatchback with some "oomph" to it. Since 2015, the WRX and STI had been limited to just the sedan model. My RS is a sedan, and that's the *one* thing about that car I wish I'd done differently: I wish I'd gotten the hatchback. The trunk opening is so short, it effectively makes that space unusable. I've never been able to haul anything of any significant size in the car, and anything even slightly large usually has to get stuffed into the passenger seat, assuming I can get the door open wide enough (which usually involves rolling the window down for extra clearance). The STI was entirely canceled in 2021, and the stock Impreza - which you could always get in a hatch - has been pretty gutless. (They did revive the 2.5RS in 2024 though, but I have yet to test drive one.)

     

    So... rallying. Subaru hasn't participated in the World Rally Championship (WRC) since 2008. So to get my Subaru rally-watching fix, I tried to keep up on the Rally America championship. However, coverage hovered between sparse and non-existent. Subaru of America would post highlight videos here and there, but there was a bigger problem than just finding a way to watch it: it was boring. Sure, it was nice seeing Subies in action on rally stages - but the results became absurdly predictable.

     

    Subaru won the championship nearly every year from 2005 - 2018. Then that championship folded, and the American Rally Association (ARA) championship started up, and again, Subaru won nearly every year. They just didn't have any real competition. Subaru Motorsports USA (SMUSA) was building high-spec Open Class rally cars, and competing against independent drivers who just couldn't match their budget. It became as boring and predictable as the WRC had been from 2004-2021 when a couple of drivers named Sebastien kept winning year after year after year. After a while, it doesn't matter if your team is the one winning or not. It's just... boring.

     

    SMUSA's Open Class car fully dominated again in 2025, wrapping up the championship well-before the season ended. Which, again, was boring. In fact, it was so boring, that the driver, Brian Semenuk, *looked* bored winning it. It just wasn't a challenge for him anymore.

     

    And then, he quit. After winning four championships in a row, he walked away. He wanted new challenges, and dominating every race wasn't doing it for him.

     

    But, SMUSA had done something else that *was* interesting in 2025. Their other driver - Travis Pastrana - wanted to drive a lower spec car. He wanted to try to grow the sport, by bringing attention to a more affordable class of cars, and challenge himself in the process by playing on a more level playing field. So Subaru built a Limited Class WRX, and entered that in addition to their Open Class car.

     

    While Semenuk looked bored, Pastrana looked like he was having a blast. The competition was closer. There were teething issues with the new car which they had to work through, adding to the challenge and uncertainty. Rallying seemed fresh again. And this new car opened up more opportunities for SMUSA's parent company Vermont SportsCar as well, as a more affordable entry point for competitors. More stock Subarus could be sold for racers to build from. They could sell more rally-spec parts to build with or even fully prepped rally cars. Subaru's success and the popularity of the ARA has started generating more interest in the championship from other manufacturers who are reportedly planning to participate: Toyota, Honda, Mini, Stellantis/Peugeot, Kia, and possibly others. Rally is growing in America. Who'da thunk it? Even Subaru of Japan has taken notice.
     

    Then, after the season ended, SMUSA did something unexpected. Rather than hire a new driver, they dropped their Open Class car entirely for 2026. They're just running the Limited Class. This is where the most interest is, and the most potential for growth. Bring on the competition!

     

    This is also where doing the math comes in.

     

    With Vermont SportsCar/Subaru Motorsports USA focusing only on their Limited Class car, this frees up time and resources for other projects.

     

    They've built some pretty insane/impressive projects already:

    • The 862 hp Airslayer for Gymkhana 2020.
    • The record-setting Project Midnight.
    • The (also 862 hp) Family Huckster for Gymkhana 2022.
    • And most recently, the (relatively reserved 670 hp) Brataroo for Gymkhana 2025.

     

    In addition to all of their rally cars, of course. So... what might they work on next?

     

    In this video... they drop a few hints:

     

    1. There's discussion of a potential US round of the WRC in the future. (News to me! Bring it!)
    2. Subaru of America's Chairman and CEO Yoicihi Hori is a rally NUT and he's committed to maintaining the legacy of high performance and driving passion at Subaru.
    3. Subaru debuted the concept Performance-B STI hatchback. This looks ready to roll off the production line now!
       Wait... what?
       How did I miss that one? Well, I guess I haven't been paying much attention to news and rumors about new cars, since I haven't had any plans to even consider buying one. But yes - this is the car I wanted 15 years ago. (Too bad I'm old now. I'm really not inclined to buy a sports car anymore.... maybe.)
    4. They mention increased future collaboration with Subaru of Japan.
    5. They hint at something else... "The viewer's going to have to do that math... because I can't talk about what's down the pipe."

     

    That something else is what has me intrigued enough to dust off this blog and actually write something about cars again.

     

    But before we do the math, here's one more variable: The WRC27 Rally1 concept. The WRC is changing the specs for its top-level rally cars for 2027. There are several stated goals with this new spec:

    1. Reduced cost (more than 50% reduction over the current Rally 1 WRC platform)
    2. Greater freedom within the regulations as to what cars are permitted
    3. Increased manufacturer participation

     

    So... what does this all add up to?

     

    Subaru is returning to the WRC.

     

    I'm callin' it.

     

    Look for them to join the fray as early as 2027 with a WRC27 Rally1 car, built, at least in part, by Vermont SportsCar/Subaru Motorsports USA. And it will be based off the Performance-B STI hatch proto. (WRC27 cars no longer have to be based on a production car, and VSC/SMSUSA excels at building that very thing.)

     

    Now... all they need to do is find a driver. Someone who can spend the next year testing the new car and putting it through its paces during development. Someone who isn't currently driving, but has the necessary rallying experience. Wonder who that might be?  

     

    - Nathan

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15. 

    TURGEN Tape Adventures

    A blog by baktra in General

    • 12
      entries
    • 0
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    • 846
      views

    Recent Entries

    • Codeblast from the past - libataricas
    • Photoblast from the past
    • CAS2Audio 1.0.4
    • TURGEN 9.4.2
    • Towards 9.4.2

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Codeblast from the past - libataricas

    Around 2008, I was developing a C library named simply libataricas. The intended purpose of the library was to provide a reusable programming interface to access .CAS files.

    The library then went into limbo for some time. Later, in 2010, the A8CAS project emerged out of nowhere. Given how much the initial A8CAS 0.1.0 could do (compared to libataricas), the only viable solution was to abandon libataricas and give way to the much better A8CAS. If you can't beat them, give way to them.

     

    When reviewing the code, it is a reflection of the state of affairs in 2008.

    • I was still at university, young and naive
    • My primary development operating system was GNU/Linux. I am not sure if it still was Mandrake Linux or if I've already switched to openSUSE. Probably the latter.
    • My programming had a lot of room for improvement. I was in the C/C++ zone at the time.
    • One of the targets for the library was DJGPP. That was old-fashioned even for 2010
    • There was no standard for storing turbo records in the .CAS files yet. My library used trXX chunks originally proposed by Vladimir Tichý (a Czech Atari enthusiast). The trXX chunks went into oblivion a few years later.

     

    Affairs have changed somehow

    • Now I am in a large corporation, older, distrustful, and suspicious
    • My primary development systems are Windows 11 and z/OS.
    • I program better. I'm still using C and C++ to develop. Spiced with Assembler, Java, and Python.
    • No longer programming for DOS. The DJGPP project is still alive, by the way.
    • Now there is an established standard for storing turbo records in the .CAS files. The pwmX chunks introduced by the A8CAS project.

    libataricas_0.9.6.tar.gz

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16. 

    Out of the Pack

    A blog by k-Pack in General

    • 102
      entries
    • 64
      comments
    • 79705
      views

    Recent Entries

    • Monty Hall Paradox Simulation.
    • Korg NTS1 BASIC Editor for the Atari 8
    • Prelude #4 of10 using MMS and Yamaha TG-33
    • SAM1982 does HAL9000
    • Irish Washerwoman - Another Jig

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Monty Hall Paradox Simulation.

    Paradoxes - Philosophical Paradoxes from Archilles to Zeno by Garth Southwell (2019) is not the kind of book you would want to read without taking pause to reflect on the paradox's meaning. The Monty Hall Paradox from the game show "Let's Make a Deal" sparked some debate with my son. 

     

    Three doors are hiding a prize.  One prize is a CAR and the other two hide a prize with a much lesser value. We can call the low value prizes GOATs because that's what Garth did.  The contestant picks one of the three doors; Monty shows a GOAT and asks if the contestant wants to KEEP or SWAP for the remaining door.  Swap the door; odds are you'll win 67% of the time.

     

    A simulation program was needed to prove the validity of this paradox.  A program loop was written to simulate this procedure as many times as you like.  I let the loop run 10,520 times, representing over 40 years of TV shows. 65% is close enough that makes me believe there is an advantage.  A count of number of times a door was picked by the contestant was used to make sure a bias was not introduced by where the CAR was placed.

     

     

    

     

    Run the program for yourself and press START button to end.  Your results may vary. 

     

    (Line 110 -120)  Clears the doors and randomly one for where the CAR is placed.  Both Monty  and the stage crew know where the CAR is to be placed.

     

    (Line 130) The contestant randomly picks a door. This gives the contestant a 1 out of 3 (33%) chance of picking the CAR. While Monty has a 2 out of 3 chance (67%) chance of having the door with the CAR. Monty knows.

     

    Pick One	Contestant	Monty	Monty
    Outcome1	CAR	GOAT	GOAT
    Outcome2	GOAT	CAR	GOAT
    OutCome3	GOAT	GOAT	CAR
    	1/3	1/3	1/3

     

    Monty then opens a door that hides a GOAT, taking it out of play. This is not a random act and does not change the 66% chance of him having the CAR door. 

     

    Contestant Pick	Contestant	Monty	Monty
    Outcome1	CAR	GOAT	X
    Outcome2	GOAT	CAR	X
    OutCome3	GOAT	CAR	< X
    	33% CAR	67% CAR

     

    Monty then offers the contestant a chance to trade doors.  By the rules set above,  the  contestant MUST trade to improve their chances to win.

     

    Swapped	Monty	Contestant
    Outcome1	CAR	GOAT
    Outcome2	GOAT	CAR
    OutCome3	GOAT	CAR
    	33% CAR	67% CAR

     

    But….. What if a random choice is made between trade and keep?  There are four possible outcomes that give 2 different results. (Line 510) - Pick trade or Keep.

     

    Line 530-560

    Contestant Starts with	Decision Keep Trade	Outcome	Win/Loose
    CAR	Keep	CAR	WIN
    CAR	Trade	GOAT	LOSE
    GOAT	Keep	GOAT	LOSE
    GOAT	Trade	CAR	WIN

     

     You might think that each of the outcomes will be  25% of the time. The percent  for each outcome chance because of 50% WINs when you add up  the two Win options.

     

    Line 530-560

    Contestant Starts with	Decision Keep Trade	Outcome	Win/Lose	%  WINs
    CAR	Keep	CAR	WIN	16%
    CAR	Trade	GOAT	LOSE	16%
    GOAT	Keep	GOAT	LOSE	34%
    GOAT	Trade	CAR	WIN	34%

     

    

     

    I have come to believe that it really doesn't matter from the contestant's point of view because they only have one chance at winning the car.  The end result is dependent on how lucky they feel on that day and at that time of the day. Any real bias may come from how Monty makes the contestant feel about your luck.

     

     The real paradox may be the difference between statistics and probability.

     

    monthall.atr

     

    Mont

     1 REM Let's Make a Deal-Monty Hall Simulator - Kevin Packard 10/2025

     10 N=0:REM NUMBER OF SAMPLES

     11 WINS=0:REM NUMBER WINS

     13 CAR=1:REM WIN A CAR

     15 GOAT=0:REM WIN A GOAT

     20 DIM DOOR(3):REM HOLDS DOOR PRIZE

     25 DIM NDOOR(3):NDOOR(1)=0:NDOOR(2)=0:NDOOR(3)=0:REM SUM DOOR HAS CAR

     30 DIM OUTCOME(4):FOR X=1 TO 4:OUTCOME(X)=0:NEXT X:REM OUTCOME-RANDOM SWAP

     50 ? CHR$(125):REM CLEAR SCREEN

     70 SWAP=0:REM DECIDE TO PICK OR KEEP DOOR

     80 POSITION 2,3:? "MONTY HALL SIMULATION"

     90 POSITION 2,5:? "ALWAYS SWAP DOOR"

     100 N=N+1

     110 FOR X=1 TO 3:DOOR(X)=0:NEXT X:REM CLEAR DOOR TO GOATS

     120 DOOR(INT((RND(0)*3)+1))=CAR:REM PUT CAR BEHIND RANDOM DOOR

     130 PICK=INT((RND(0)*3)+1):REM PICK DOOR

     140 REM PICKER WILL ALWAYS TRADE WITH MONTY. IF CAR IS PICKED PICKER MUST TRADE

      FOR GOAT.

     150 IF DOOR(PICK)=GOAT THEN WINS=WINS+1

     430 POSITION 2,6

     440 ? "DOOR PICKED    = ";PICK

     450 ? "NUMBER SAMPLES = ";N

     460 ? "NUMBER WINS    = ";WINS

     470 ? "% WINS         = ";INT(WINS*100/N);" "

     480 NDOOR(PICK)=NDOOR(PICK)+1

     490 ?:? "DOOR PICK = ";NDOOR(1),NDOOR(2),NDOOR(3)

     500 REM OUTCOME IF MAKING SWAP RANDOM

     510 SWAP=INT(RND(0)*2):REM SWAP=1,KEEP=0

     520 PRIZE=DOOR(PICK):REM GOAT OR CAR

     530 IF PRIZE=CAR AND SWAP=0 THEN OUTCOME(1)=OUTCOME(1)+1:GOTO 600

     540 IF PRIZE=GOAT AND SWAP=1 THEN OUTCOME(2)=OUTCOME(2)+1:GOTO 600

     550 IF PRIZE=GOAT AND SWAP=0 THEN OUTCOME(3)=OUTCOME(3)+1:GOTO 600

     560 IF PRIZE=CAR AND SWAP=1 THEN OUTCOME(4)=OUTCOME(4)+1:GOTO 600

     600 ?:? "RANDOM KEEP DOOR OR SWAP"

     610 ? ,"C-KEEP","G-SWAP","%"

     620 ? "WIN",OUTCOME(1),OUTCOME(2),INT((OUTCOME(1)+OUTCOME(2))*100/N);"  "

     625 ?:? ,"C-SWAP","G-KEEP","%"

     630 ? "LOSE",OUTCOME(3),OUTCOME(4),INT((OUTCOME(3)+OUTCOME(4))*100/N);"  "

     700 POKE 53279,8:IF PEEK(53279)<>6 THEN GOTO 100

     

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17. 

    NeonPeon's Console Repair Journeys

    A blog by NeonPeon in General

    • 1
      entry
    • 4
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    • 112
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    Recent Entries

    • Console Repair Journey: the Family's "Darth Vader"…

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Console Repair Journey: the Family's "Darth Vader" Atari 2600

      

    I thought I’d start blogging about my personal video game console repair journeys. I like to take notes so I can keep track of facts I've learned and discovered - I've found if I don't keep good notes, I forget half of what I've learned and have to repeatedly look it up or figure it out again. I used to keep notes only on private Google Docs, but what better place than AtariAge to share my notes with the world. 😁 

     

    I have far too many of these console repair works-in-progress, and I'd like to complete one or two of them during this holiday break.

     

    Let’s start with one of my works in progress, the Atari 2600. I cleaned up an old one dropped off by my dad in 2022, but left the project there. I’d like to try to get it working, and I’m especially inspired to do so since picking up some physical homebrew games such as @cheezywhiz's awesome Axercise, a couple of games from the Audacity Games folks, among a few others.

     

    When my Dad gave me the family’s old Atari 2600 unit in 2022, it was quite dusty and gross from sitting uncovered in the basement for so many years.

     

    

     

    Not so attractive huh? 

     

    I looked up information about the unit, and while I was not aware of this term growing up, these days it is called the Atari 2600 “Darth Vader” model. This is as opposed to “heavy sixer” and some others. Some of its distinguishing characteristics is it is all black (no wood grain) and has four post-like switches, instead of 6. 

     

    It is a model number CX-2600A, usually called simply 2600A, as confirmed by the label. I’m not sure whether all Darth Vaders are 2600A. A Google AI result says yes, but I don’t trust these things fully 😜

    Quote

    Yes, the all-black Atari console released in 1982 is the "Darth Vader" model, specifically known by the model number

    CX-2600A, making it a version of the Atari 2600, not a separate console entirely, but the first to officially carry the "2600" name and have that distinct black look. 

     

    

     

    Fun fact: it is a display only copy, not for resale. My dad said he got it from Service Merchandise. Not sure in which year he purchased it, but my guess is 1980 or 1981. Edit: Looks like the Darth Vader came out in 1982 (see AI quote above) but also it is confirmed with videogamesmuseum.org.) As far as I can personally remember - I likely existed but but was not yet a person cognizant of these things yet - this console always existed in my household, and I was born in the very late 70s. 🙂  So we likely got it when I was 3 or 4 years old, but it was mostly for the entertainment of my older brother, I believe, possibly for my slightly older sister as well.

     

    

     

    Wonder if anyone else has an Atari 2600 with this sort of etched-in notice? And who put it there - the manufacturer? Probably not Service Merchandise, right?

     

    With some wipes, IPA and Q-tips, it’s looking pretty good, at least aesthetically, inside and out. I don't know if the machine works yet, and I’m going to perform some maintenance before I try to hook it up.

     

    

    "I am your father!"

     

    I also applied some DeoxIT contact cleaner to the various connections such as joystick ports and switches.

     

    

     

     

    

     

    Opening it up, on the board we can see it is Rev 16. This matters with respect to the kinds of parts you should order for replacement when maintaining the machine. I personally order from console5.com. You can also see it says copyright 1980 underneath the revision number.

     

    

     

     

    Therefore, because it’s Rev 16, it already has the 820 Ω resistor, so no need to purchase/install that part. Per console5:

    Quote

    820 Ohm Resistor - Blanking resistor - (Tech Tip 4, 11/17/82)

    Improves color. Incorporated on Rev 16 PCBs and above. Earlier PCBs should have an 820 Ohm resistor added to the solder side between pin 6 and pin 9 of A201 (TIA). This part is missing from Rev 14/15 2600A PCBs. Early revisions may have a 680 Ohm resistor on the board already.

    Source: https://wiki.console5.com/wiki/Atari_2600#Blanking_resistor_-_(Tech_Tip_4,_11/17/82)

     

    I do not have part “4050 static protection mod: pair of zener diodes & ceramic capacitors - Service P/N C010816” already. So that could be worth installing.

     

    

     

    I have ordered a cap kit and other parts from console5.com, including the base kit (mostly capacitors) and:

    • a power supply, which is advertised as “NOISE FREE” which makes me wonder if the original was noisy? 😀
    • Replacement pads for those 4 switches that look like posts
    • Replacement switches for 1 player/2 player difficulty. (See bottom of the board in the above photo.)
    • The static protection mod from console5. (Not sure how necessary it is, but why not?)

     

    Once I receive and install those parts, I’ll need to figure out how to hook up the console to a TV. The machine has a hardwired RF cable. I got a video converter a few years ago for hooking up old consoles to a modern TV, and was successfully able to do so with my Neo Geo AES and Intellivision II. The converted looks something similar to this unit, though I can’t remember all the input connections it has. (I have yet to locate in my house; couldn’t find it where I expected it to be, but it should be around): https://www.newegg.com/jansicotek-oz1000-hdmi/p/2VR-01U8-00093?item=9SIAD8FJSK0040 (photo not mine)

    
    

    I believe for those other consoles I was able to use RCA or coax as my input to the converter. (Those consoles aren’t quite “working” yet but I could tell the video was outputting and displayed by the TV at least. But that’s another story.) I think this is the box I used for the Intellivision - it actually came with the Sega Genesis. (Photo not mine.)

     

    

     

     

    But the Atari unit has RF hardwired in, so I’m probably good just locating and purchasing a simple RF-to-coax adapter like this (photo not mine):

     

    

     

    I wonder how often the hardwired cable goes bad and how easy it is to fix. Likely it’s not too difficult – locate a replacement cable on the interwebs + find the soldering point. I bet some clever folks out there have made their own jack that you can drill out in the case and install, so that the RF cable is no longer hardwired.

     

    Alright so that's where I'm at. I realize this post is newbie-level stuff compared to what some of you guys are up to. This post is mostly to keep my own notes organized, and hey if it sparks some conversations at the same time, then cool.

     

    Edit: you can ignore the images below. I keep editing them out of the post and AtariAge puts them back. 🤷‍♂️

    

    

    

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18. 

    My Atari Projects

    A blog by SlidellMan in General

    • 15
      entries
    • 22
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    • 4848
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    Recent Entries

    • Mockups for a Turrican Clone
    • The games that inspired Heofonfīr
    • Demon Lands character design ideas
    • Atari Jaguar Font Templates
    • My Furnace Tracker instruments

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Mockups for a Turrican Clone

    I thought I would share a little work in progress.

     

    

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19. 

    HLO projects

    A blog by hloberg in General

    • 88
      entries
    • 47
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    • 105015
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    Recent Entries

    • Geneve 5 image done
    • UPDATED !!! TI99/4a mechtronic Extended BASIC II f…
    • all but done
    • One step back then several forward
    • Copied over MAME directory to Linux laptop + .desk…

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Geneve 5 image done

    Finally it is done. Here is the Geneve 5 raspi 5 v1b image. go to https://ti99resources.wordpress.com/emulation/ to download. below is a image of the setup. 

    

    here is a video of the startup:

     

    Working on and some day, before the heat death of the universe, I promise, I will post version 2.0 which will have latest BIOS, MDOS, Tipi (hopefully), Fortran 4640 and more games and apps. 

     

    Enjoy, HLO

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20. 

    Musings of the White Lion

    A blog by simbalion in General

    • 18
      entries
    • 52
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    • 12246
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    Recent Entries

    • Sitting Out This Holiday Season
    • The Lion King 25th Anniversary That Wasn't
    • Goodbye to My Little Pony Friendship is Magic 2010…
    • They came from Cape Suzette
    • Goodbye Toys R Us

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Sitting Out This Holiday Season

    Wow! I haven't posted here in ages! After a bummer of a trip to North Canton, OH today to try and do a little holiday shopping, I have decided to sit out this season. I saw an Atari Gamestation Pro at the hole in the wall Game Stop up there, but just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on it. Also they had some Pixel Pocket Pro units, but only in Tetris and Baseball. Really, none of the new retro items are exciting me this year. What had me excited last year and earlier this year was the big, My Arcade Atari 50 Mega Player they kept showing. It's the big, tabletop, mini-arcade version of the Gamestation Pro and something I thought would be more fun to play. Not sure if that is even going to happen now and I can't justify the Gamestation Pro with already having the Atari 50 collection on my Switch.

    I guess I am in an odd mood this year. Even the new handheld offerings do nothing for me as I actually would get more excited over an actual reproduction of one of the old tabletop games like Tomy's Pac-Man than the new stuff. Personally, I want the old style handheld games, but on new hardware that I can continue to enjoy without fighting with aging plastic and controls. I want the old attempts at mimicking the game sounds instead of exact sounds like the new games have. How about a faithful reproduction (or at least as close as we can get to it) of a rare system like the Entex Adventurevision? I realize we couldn't do the mechanical version, but there has to be a way to mimic it with an LCD screen and add some more games. Anyways, I think I am going to just sit back and save my money this year unless something really exciting does pop up.

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21. 

    Caféman's Blog

    A blog by Cafeman in General

    • 71
      entries
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    Recent Entries

    • 21 boxes
    • Dreamcast revisited, SEGA Bass Fishing. And skull…
    • Fall in PA
    • Dreamcast revisited, Chu Chu Rocket
    • Dreamcast revisited, Mr. Driller

    

    Latest Entry
    

    21 boxes

    
    It looks like I have 21 boxed Atari homebrews. I have more homebrews, but those ones had no boxes. Loose. 
     

    

     

    I was never a big fan of game boxes because I struggled to find room to store everything.  All of my 16-bit and later games I have in CD wallets or cart bins, and I have all their boxes and cases in bins in my attic.  
     

    This past weekend I had a nice time cleaning and organizing my hobby stuff, which includes my video game collections, but also a lot of guitars & amps & stuff & too many magazines with tablature.  It is time that I get a powered pedalboard instead of having my pedals all over the floor all the time!

     

    

     

    I have the Homebrew manuals in a plastic sleeve with cardboard protectors to keep them flat. It’s too easy to destroy the box opening and closing its flap all the time, so I keep the carts and manuals elsewhere. I’ve been enjoying going through some older game manuals, especially appreciating the art and designs.  
     

    

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22. 

    EricBall's Tech Projects

    A blog by EricBall in General

    • 349
      entries
    • 914
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    • 380167
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    Recent Entries

    • Who is the Steam Machine for?
    • One Console to Rule Them All
    • some thoughts on the Neo Geo AES
    • Archiving DVDs
    • Escape From Duckov

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Who is the Steam Machine for?

    Valve has announced they will be selling 3 new hardware devices next year - an updated controller, a VR headset (the "Steam Frame"), and an updated "Steam Machine".  The Steam Machine is basically a very custom PC which runs SteamOS (a customized version of Linux) similar to the very popular Steam Deck handheld.  Naturally the Steam Machine is more powerful than its portable predecessor, but not as powerful as a gaming PC can be.  Valve has stated the price will be comparable to a similarly spec'd PC, but the hardware won't be sold at a loss (as there's no reason the Steam Machine couldn't be configured to be a normal PC rather than a game console).

     

    However, I'm not 100% certain who the target audience is for the Steam Machine.  The Steam Deck had an obvious audience - people who want to play games in their existing Steam library (or PC games in general) on the go.  Whether people had a gaming PC or not wasn't relevant for buying the Steam Deck.  But the Steam Machine is a PC, so people with an existing gaming PC (especially one with better specs) are not very likely to spend $1000 to buy one.  People without a gaming PC are likely to be price sensitive and the Steam Machine will be competing with dedicated game consoles and even smartphones.  I just don't see the Steam Machine being a runaway success and becoming a fourth entry in the game console space.

     

    OTOH I think the Steam Frame VR headset has a real potential to make VR headsets mainstream due to it's ability to be used with or without a PC or other device.

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23. 

    masseo1's Blog

    A blog by masseo1 in General

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    • 🎄 “Christmas 1981: The Year Intellivision Won Me O…

    

    Latest Entry
    

    🎄 “Christmas 1981: The Year Intellivision Won Me Over”

    If I close my eyes, I can still see it — Christmas morning, 1981. I was sure I was getting an Odyssey² that year. I’d seen the commercials, dreamed about  Quest for the Rings and that keyboard,   and had already picked out where the console would sit. But when I tore off the wrapping paper, there it was instead — a shiny new... Intellivision???

    At first, I was confused. But then I remembered trying one a couple of months earlier at a family friend’s house — some guy named Greg — and how different it felt. The grpahics were good, the controls odd, but Baseball was awesome, compared to the 2600 or Odyssey. I really didnt think that intellivision was an option. That morning, I fired up Astrosmash, Baseball, Boxing, and Space Battle. By the end of the day, I was completely hooked.

    A few kids in my neighborhood also had Intellivision, and we’d trade games like precious artifacts. Most of my other friends were loyal to the Atari 2600, and they’d roll their eyes at the “telephone keypad controller,” claiming that’s why they never did well on Intellivision games. Maybe they were right… but that didn’t stop me from getting creative.

    One day, curiosity got the better of me, and I spliced an Atari 2600 joystick into an Intellivision controller port. To my surprise, it worked — the eight directions and main action button lined up perfectly for certain games. It wasn’t exactly elegant, but it made for a great neighborhood tech flex.

    Looking back, that Christmas didn’t just kick off my love for Intellivision — it probably planted the seed for my lifelong curiosity with how things work. Every cartridge, every controller, every wire was an invitation to tinker, program and break… and I’ve been doing that ever since.

     

     

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24. 

    Stories from the -: ITC :-

    A blog by -^CrossBow^- in General

    • 69
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    Recent Entries

    • Atari 7800 - When I have to redo previous work don…
    • Atari 7800 - When I have to redo previous work don…
    • Atari 7800 - When I have to redo previous work don…
    • Atari 7800 - When I have to redo previous work don…
    • Atari 7800 - When I have to redo previous work don…

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Atari 7800 - When I have to redo previous work done by others... Pt.5 (Last upgrade and conclusion)

    This will be the last blog going through the process of servicing this particular 7800 console. In my previous entries I've discussed in detail how I've redone the original UAV wiring and AV outputs. I've talked about how I lowered the brightness on a blue LED that was swapped in from the original Red power LED, and I've gone into some details on the changes I did when redoing the power port on this console. Now it is time to talk about the final upgrade that was provided and show the completed project.

    I hinted in my last blog about one of the pictures having a hint on the final upgrade. In reality, there were two pictures that hinted to this. That is because I already had this upgrade done and in place when I took the pictures but just didn't want to talk about it until now. So, which pictures had the clue?It was the pictures showing the new AV jacks.

    If you look at the RF port in the previous pictures. You will see that a small 3.5mm jack is in place of the RCA type normally found here. And that is because of the last and main reason why this 7800 was even sent to me. It involved the MARIA IC. I think there might have been another picture I leaked in a previous blog that also shows this but here it is in detail:

    

    

    The above shows the new MARIAdigitizer board installed that provides Lumacode output as an option from the Atari 7800 console. For those not familiar with Lumacode, in summary:

    It is a new composite level video output that only sends out the Luminescence brightness data along with some digital data out of it. In short it only shows a black and white striped looking composite output. But, when you feed that video output into the RGB2HDMI converter specifically designed for Lumacode. Then you end up with a fully digital full color HDMI output with audio. So yes, this console from that little 3.5mm jack, is now able to produce an HDMI output through a separate small converter box. I've been testing this new video upgrade platform for a while and helped to finalize the settings needed to make it work. This 7800 is the first 7800 in North America that isn't mine and belongs to another collector to have this fully working setup. Because I'm hopeful there will be more of these in the near future. I designed a new PCB for this output to make installations more standard and easier to do. 

     

    This PCB is designed to fit in the space of the RF modulator to provide a No cut option for someone that just wants Lumacode only upgraded on their 7800. Obviously a no cut wasn't required on this console given that it already has the RCAs mounted for the UAV. But since the RF was already removed from the previous tech and the UAV also already in place. I just decided to go ahead and make better use of the space with my new PCB anyway. Nothing fancy about it. Just straight traces from the vias where you wire up the lumacode to back to the 3.5mm style audio jack to provide both the lumacode video and audio at a single point. The audio in this case has been designed to be taken from the north leads of the R5 and R6 resistors and then run a single wire back to the PCB. Because my mount board for the UAV replicates these resistors and because they had been removed by the previous installer, I have the audio wire being routed from before the filter cap on my UAV mount since I also have a capacitor for audio on this new PCB. So in the future, a Maria digitizer will only need the PCB for the MARIA to be installed and just a total of 3 wires ran back to this PCB to provide everything needed. Here is what it looks like with the UAV behind it for a total profile picture.

    

    The wiring from the digitizer to the PCB is also being kept as short as possible since Lumacode is pretty susceptible to outside signal noise that can cause video quality issues from that output. 

    And that is it. This 7800 console is now complete and ready for some final burn in testing and to back home to be enjoyed for many more years. As a reminder here is what we started with:

    

    And this is what we have now:

    

    

    If you have read all of these, then I thank you for following me on this journey. I'm pretty pleased with how this 7800 turned out. While the case shell isn't in stock condition and it has some new holes, I think the current results look a little better and will be more usable for the owner going forward. And with the addition of Lumacode output, they now can enjoy playing both 7800 and 2600 games in full digital HDMI quality output on their modern displays.

    

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25. 

    Press START to Die of Dysentery

    A blog by Torq in General

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    Recent Entries

    • Atari 2600 HDMI: Software & Configuration
    • Atari 2600 HDMI: Installation & Cable Routing
    • Atari 2600 HDMI: Electronics & Soldering
    • Atari 2600 HDMI: Chassis Modifications
    • Atari 2600 HDMI: Bill of Materials & Tools

    

    Latest Entry
    

    Atari 2600 HDMI: Software & Configuration

    Atari 2600 HDMI: 2600 Heavy-Sixer w/ Fully Internal HDMI - Part 7 - Software & Configuration

     

    The final piece for this build is to get the software for the RGBtoHDMI unit, install it on the device, and configure it.  This is very simple and only takes a couple of minutes (so this will be a fairly short post).  You also cannot mess it up; worst case is you reformat the microSD card and recopy the default software.

     

    Core Software & Default Configuration:

     

    While you can go straight to the final step without doing any further testing, it is worth doing a test with the default, un-configured, software to make sure everything is working.

     

    To start, you'll require a microSD card.  The size doesn't really matter, software itself is only 45MB (un-compressed), unless you want to play around with many different configurations and have lots of screen captures on the card.  The smallest card I could buy, new, for this was 16GB ... which is massive overkill but works fine.

    • Format the card as FAT32.
    • Next, download the latest version of the RGBtoHDMI w/ Audio software release (beta 66, as of 10/4/25).
    • Extract the contents of the Beta66.zip file.
    • Copy the extracted files/folders to the ROOT of the microSD card (you can just drag/drop the unzipped folder contents over).
    • "Safely Eject" the microSD card.
    • Insert the microSD card in the microSD Card reader in the back of your modified Atari 2600.

     

    And that's it for installing the software.

     

    You can now connect the power, boot everything up, and if you've done everything correctly you'll see the initial RGBtoHDMI menu on your HDMI display.  Choose the appropriate "Atari" Profile and "2600" Sub Profile from the menu, using the Fire, Up and Down inputs on a controller connected to your "Config Port".  Whatever cartridge you have in your 2600 should now be display, in clear, crisp, color, on your HDMI display.

     

    Some things you may see, that can be easily adjusted, are an incorrect aspect ratio (stretched image) and slightly muted colors.  The RGBtoHDMI interface makes it easy to adjust these things.  Most of what you'll need is in the "Preferences", "Settings", "Geometry" and "Palette" menus.  The "Sampling" menu is also useful if you see visual artifacts.  In fact, almost everything is adjustable - there are myriad options to play with, and you'll want to read at least the Quick Start Guide to understand them and what's possible.  More advanced options and detailed settings are covered in the full Reference Guide.

     

    If you want more information, the project Wiki is here and the main RGBtoHDMI project code can be found here.  

     

    Simple Pre-Defined Configuration:

     

    I've attached a .ZIP file of my initial configuration, as just the changes from the above, default, install.  It does a few things, including provide a new, custom, saved profile for this setup.  The changed settings put the aspect ratio (geometry) in the proper state for my display, turn off the genlock (to avoid certain games from rolling/blanking out) and bring up the saturation on the colors so that they (visually) match those I get from a 2600+.  You may want them more or less saturated; the defaults looks a little muted vs. my 2600+ and my mental reference to how I saw these games on a real 2600/CRT back in the 1980s.

     

    While the settings I used in testing may not work 100% as you want them, if you want to try them:

    • Download the attached .ZIP file.
    • Extract the file into a folder.
    • Insert the microSD card from your RGBtoHDMI into your computer.
    • Copy the extracted files into the ROOT of your microSD card, allowing the OS to replace or overwrite any conflicting files.
    • Safely eject the microSD card.
    • Insert the microSD card back into your 2600.
    • Boot it up.

     

    If this causes problems, you can revert simply by following the steps from the start of the post again, so it is safe to experiment with.

     

    A handful of screens captured from this setup (screen captures are made by hitting DOWN on the controller you have connected to the "Config Port", and can be found on the microSD card in a "Captures" folder, within a sub-folder for the profile/sub-profile in use at the time (note that I've cropped the captures here, but depending on your settings the captures can be different sizes, have black borders, etc.):

     

    

     Space Invaders  - in "Screen Saver" mode.

     

    

    H.E.R.O.

     

    

    Pac-Man 8K

     

    --

     

    Additional Considerations:

     

    In some cases, you may need to perform calibration (start with automatic) or adjust Sampling settings (usually Phase), but so far I've only had to do such things in some experiments for future enhancements and features for this setup.

     

    What's Next?

     

    This is the end of the primary build series.  All that remains is any tweaks or discussion on the configuration of the RGBtoHDMI (which can vary by display) and then to cover some variations of this build, including using a single USB-C power supply - which was part of the original goal, and a variation that doesn't require cutting the switch board PCB).

     

    The single USB-C version I originally did wound up requiring a different buck-converter to feed the RGBtoHDMI as, in some situations, it was drawing more power than the original one I specified could reliably deliver.  I've explored several such units, and finally settled on one - so I can write up that part of the build next.  It is worth noting that is a simple matter to go from THIS build to the new one, and nothing from THIS build needs to be changed except unplugging the USB-C to micro USB cable to the RGBtoHDMI - everything else is additive and doesn't require undoing anything else in the build.  So, it is 100% fine to do this build as-is even if you want to add the single USB-C supply mod afterwards.

     

    And That, As They Say, Is That ...

     

    Questions, comments, etc. welcome, and I hope this is interesting, useful or both to others ... was a lot of fun for me to do and the end result is now my primary way to play 2600 games.

     

    RGBtoHDMI Beta66 Delta.zip

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