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 Curt Vendel of the Atari History Museum and Legacy Engineering has been hard at work reconstructing several proprietary Atari chips, including the GTIA (used in the Atari 8-bit computers and 5200), the MARIA (used in the Atari 7800), and the TIA (from the Atari 2600). There is great potential for creating new Atari machines in a variety of form factors, based on Curt's work. When asked about these new developments, Curt had the following to say:
"Many in the Atari community, myself included, have cobbled together one thing or another to keep our systems alive. A dream for everyone has always been the possibility of perhaps a new Atari 8-bit system. As many know, I have most of what was Atari's mainframe archives, among them are what are called "Tape Outs"--these are 9 track reel to reel tapes that in the 1980s and early 1990s would be sent from a chip design firm--such as Atari's "ASG" (Atari Semiconductor Group) to a place called a "FAB" which is a chip fabricator. The final layered data files are in a streaming binary format called "GDS" and this data instructs the FAB on how to process and create actual IC chips.
I've been spending a great deal of time as of late recovering the data from the tapes, having to massage them to process and create a viable GDS and/or DB file so that the actual chips could be plotted and tested with some software that I use. The effort has been successful for the most part and several of Atari's proprietary chips are coming back to life in simulation. Now we need to see if they can be recreated in a FAB at a reasonable cost. What is the potential of this? Doing the chips in smaller SMT packaging, and potentially bringing back to life some of the later CMOS designs of combo chips which could lead to a SoC - System on a Chip. This is all very early work, but the future just got a little brighter in terms of preserving and continuing the legacy of Atari's custom IC chips."
You can read all about Curt's hard work over in our Atari 8-bit Computers Forum. In addition to technical discussion (which includes Curt Vendel), you'll find various high-resolution images of the reconstructed chips.
Discuss online: 110 comments in Atari 8-Bit Computers Forum
 Mean Santa has arrived just in time for the holidays! Created by John K. Harvey (Propane13 in our forum) and released by the 2600 Connection, Mean Santa is a new Atari 2600 homebrew game that reveals Santa’s dark side. Instead of delivering presents he’s taking them away! Mean Santa is being sold in a serially numbered limited edition of 100 copies. It comes complete with labeled cart, plastic case and manual.
As of this writing there are only about 30 copies left, priced at $25 each. Ordering information can be found at 2600connection.atari.org, and you can discuss the game in our Atari 2600 Forum.
Discuss online: 70 comments in Atari 2600 Forum
 Panic, a longtime developer of popular Macintosh OS X applications, has unveiled a fun project they put together completely unrelated to their Mac development efforts. Apparently they are big Atari 2600 fans, as they commissioned artist Lukas Ketner to produce original artwork for four Atari 2600 Panic games, had Panic been around during that time. The resulting artwork mimics the style Atari used for many of their releases (examples here, here, and here). Not only did Panic commission this art, they have actually produced boxes based on this artwork and have made them available for purchase! To learn more about this wonderful Atari retro art, please visit the Panic Blog, which includes some backstory as to how these boxes came into existence. You can order these boxes, as well as posters adorned with the art, directly from the Panic Store. To discuss these creations please visit our Atari 2600 Forum.
Discuss online: 39 comments in Atari 2600 Forum
 If you grew up with the Atari 2600 as a kid, you're probably familiar with the Atari Force Comics that Atari included with some of their games (Defender, Berzerk, Star Raiders, Phoenix, and Galaxian). DC Comics would later create a second series of Atari Force comics, published monthly in a more conventional comic-book format. This second series takes place 25 years after the first and comprised 20 issues as well as a "Special" issue released in 1986. AtariAge user Thumpnugget has painstakingly gone through all 750+ pages of these Atari Force comics to build a complete PDF collection of all 21 issues, and he's made the entire collection freely available for everyone to enjoy. Each page was photoshoppped by hand and required unique handling to remove all the dirt and filth accumulated over the years.
You can download the entire Atari Force collection via BitTorrent, and you can learn more about this effort here. If you're an AtariAge Subscriber, you can download the entire 600MB file directly from AtariAge. If you've never read the original Atari Force comics that Atari included with their games, you can view those here.
Discuss online: 34 comments in Classic Gaming General Forum
 The Christmas 2009 issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly is now online. Highlights from Issue #67 include:- High Score Monthly! Profile
- Christmas Memories From The Golden Era
- 1982: The Best Christmas Ever
- Fooling The Stores: A 1984 Guide To Videogame Return Policies
- Apple II Incider - My Apple II Wishlist
- Pitfall!: A Homebrewer's Journey
- Looking Forward Into The Past
- Please Save Christmas Santa!
- Dual Perspective - Super Mario Brothers
- All Eyes On Mega Man III
- Modern Retro - Tekken 3
- Old Wine in New Bottles: Taito Legends 1 & 2
- A Pixilated 21st Century!
- Video Game Tattler
You can read these articles and more inside the Retrogaming Times Monthly, now running 147 months in a row! You can also browse the RTM archives to catch up on past issues.
Discuss online: 0 comments in Gaming Publications and Websites Forum
 Classic Video Gamer Magazine (ClassicVGM) has announced they are now accepting pre-orders for Issue #3, due to be released in January. ClassicVGM is a full-color, professionally printed magazine about classic video games. The third issue covers Shield Shifter and StripOff by GDG, and Zaku by SuperFighterTeam (among others). We also have a fantastic article covering 30 years after Pac-Man; it is a retrospective on Arcade gaming. Column favorites like What’s on Tap will be returning as well. Pre-Orders for ClassicVGM #3 end on December 28th, 2009. You can view the full-size cover here and learn more about ClassicVGM by visiting their website at www.classicvgm.com.
Discuss online: 10 comments in Gaming Publications and Websites Forum
 The multi-platform Atari 2600 emulator Stella has recently seen a significant upgrade to version 3.0. This latest version includes major improvements to emulation of the Atari 2600's TIA chip, allowing for more accurate emulation in many games. Several debugger improvements were added as well, making Stella an even more invaluable tool for Atari 2600 game developers. You can view the changelog and discuss this latest version of Stella in our Emulation Forum. To download this new version of Stella for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, please visit the Stella home page.
Discuss online: 76 comments in Emulation Forum
The November 2009 issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly is now online. Highlights from the Issue #66 include:- Press Fire To Begin
- Retrogaming News
- High Resolution - NES
- My Life Of Cyber Crime
- All Eyes On Wolverine: Adamantium Rage
- Apple II Incider - Lode Runner
- Vectrexenstein - Mine Storm
- Dual Perspective - The Legend Of Zelda
- Modern Retro - Speed Freaks
- Video Game Tattler
- Gaming Advertisements
- Game Over
You can read these articles and more inside the Retrogaming Times Monthly, now running 146 months in a row! We missed posting news about last month's issue (October 2009), so be sure to check it out if you haven't already. You can also browse their archives to catch up on past issues.
Discuss online: 0 comments in Gaming Publications and Websites Forum
 The Houston Area Arcade Group (HAAG) is holding their annual arcade expo on November 6th and 7th at the Crowne Plaza Houston Reliant Park hotel. Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 150 arcade games and pinball machines all set to free play! You can also participate in arcade and pinball tournaments, win door prizes, try your luck at a game raffle, and partake in the full bar. There aren't many opportunities to enjoy large collections of classic arcade games, so if you are in the Houston area (or can get there!), you should be at this expo!
AtariAge will be at the show, and we'll have a slew of classic gaming systems setup for play! For more information, please visit ArcadeCenter.com.
Discuss online: 32 comments in Events Forum
 AtariAge will be attending the Portland Retro Gaming Expo taking place on Sunday, September 20th in Portland, Oregon. We will be introducing several new homebrew games for the Atari 2600 (including Juno First and Dungeon), and we'll have some surprises in store for attendees as well! If you're in the area and into classic gaming, you won't want to miss this event! Please be sure to stop by our booth and say hello if you're there! If you're not able to attend the show, information on how to pre-order these new games and have them shipped to you after the show is available here. We look forward to seeing many AtariAge visitors at the show!
Discuss online: 43 comments in Events Forum
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December 28, 2009
Did you know?
Lord of the Rings, featured in a Parker Brothers Catalog was never commercially released, although it does appear to have been completed.
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