atwwong Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Toast As long as we don't start seeing another bunch of "I hate Info.......!" posts again... HEYyyyyy.....now I've got a reason to start up with that again The smilie menu won't work for me D'oh! Memo to self - shut up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 (edited) I would love to get an XB360, but I'm in the same mindset, there is nothing really all that incredible about it to make me jump over from my current Xbox, yeah it looks a lot nicer, the wireless controllers are certainly a plus too. Game selection is... lacking, nothing that really excites me, there is no killer-app to make me want the Xbox360. It was Halo that got me jazzed up over the Xbox and I went out and got one. Curt Okay Curt.. question time... what will be the FB3's killer-app? How goes development on this system anyways? I'm a believer in the FB3! Edited March 17, 2006 by King_Salamon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferris Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Im pretty sure FB3 is about as dead as the rest of Atari at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Im pretty sure FB3 is about as dead as the rest of Atari at this point. That's terrible news, if it's true. From what little we've learned about the FB3, it had the potential to be an incredible product that would have commanded space on store shelves long after the Spongebob and Spiderman handhelds landed in the trash. If it's officially dead, I'm hoping that someone can share more details with us someday about what it was and what Atari's plans were for it; I'd love to learn more about the system that could have been. I suppose the speculation and the ups and downs of this thread will make for some interesting reading in a few years, if nothing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Maybe it will end up getting finished by a an individual instead of a company like the HSC and the 7800 keyboard at some point BUT I'm willing to bet $5 bucks it's not gonna hit retail with Atari going to the shitter like it is right now. It sucks I know, but I would rather not get my hopes up. Lets just be happy we got the flashbacks that we did from InfoCrap and hope the next Atari gives us a few cool toys also before they go under too. It seems the name sake of ATARI is a blessing and a burden all at the same time to follow in the foot prints and foot steps of the ATARI before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted March 17, 2006 Author Share Posted March 17, 2006 Atari released the Atari 8bit chipset into PD for me several years ago, so any FB3 project at this point could very well turn into a PD or individual released project/product Talk more on this in a few weeks. Curt Maybe it will end up getting finished by a an individual instead of a company like the HSC and the 7800 keyboard at some point BUT I'm willing to bet $5 bucks it's not gonna hit retail with Atari going to the shitter like it is right now. It sucks I know, but I would rather not get my hopes up. Lets just be happy we got the flashbacks that we did from InfoCrap and hope the next Atari gives us a few cool toys also before they go under too. It seems the name sake of ATARI is a blessing and a burden all at the same time to follow in the foot prints and foot steps of the ATARI before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 (edited) Glad to see it might get done eventually. I think the next name should be "Vendel-Atari" what do you think?? Nice to see confermation also that its a 5200\800 machine also in the FB3. One question, is there any proto development done or was it ever even allowed off the paperwork? Edited March 17, 2006 by Shawn Sr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcrowe Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 What's PD mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightSprinter Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 It is short for "Public Domain". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Atari released the Atari 8bit chipset into PD for me several years ago, so any FB3 project at this point could very well turn into a PD or individual released project/product I'd like to see a non-profit "Atari Preservation Society" formed to take over the curatorship of Atari's historical artifacts. Things like Atari-1000 prototypes or PCB films therefor aren't apt ever to be marketable, and wouldn't be worth the space required to store them from a purely financial standpoint, but for an organization whose mission was to preserve Atari history such things could be quite valuable. Regardless of what people may think of Infograme's marketing and such, I think they deserve a lot of credit for keeping historical artifacts around. Many companies, upon taking over Atari, would have destroyed such things since it's so unlikely any of them could be used profitably today. I do hope that Inforgrames' successor can be persuaded of the historical value of those items or--if worst comes to worst--be persuaded that if it lets Curt take the stuff home it will save the cost of disposal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamwriter Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 I know everyone thinks the Flashback 3 (if ever officially released) is gonna be based on an 8-bit computer...but how about something entirely different? What if the Atari Cosmos were to be commercially made for the first time? I read somewhere that Curt's got one of the only two known working Cosmos' in the world... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 (edited) What's PD mean? Public Domain Also supercat's idea of getting the stuff of the Atari past into the right hands is what I think IMHO is a near perfect idea. Edited March 20, 2006 by Shawn Sr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 (edited) Infogrames/Atari has next to nothing, some boxes of games and some assorted cabinets and boxes of license info and paperwork. Anything technical/historical has been in a work in progress in my possesssion over the last 20 years. Scott Evans of atarigamesmuseum.com has a significant archive of the coin-op side of things. So all the technical data for the Atari 1000 and pretty much everything else has always been in a non-profit Atari effort from Atari under to the Tramiels, through Hasbro, through Infogrames and into whatever the next iterration may be. Maybe you've never been to www.atarimuseum.com ? Curt Atari released the Atari 8bit chipset into PD for me several years ago, so any FB3 project at this point could very well turn into a PD or individual released project/product I'd like to see a non-profit "Atari Preservation Society" formed to take over the curatorship of Atari's historical artifacts. Things like Atari-1000 prototypes or PCB films therefor aren't apt ever to be marketable, and wouldn't be worth the space required to store them from a purely financial standpoint, but for an organization whose mission was to preserve Atari history such things could be quite valuable. Regardless of what people may think of Infograme's marketing and such, I think they deserve a lot of credit for keeping historical artifacts around. Many companies, upon taking over Atari, would have destroyed such things since it's so unlikely any of them could be used profitably today. I do hope that Inforgrames' successor can be persuaded of the historical value of those items or--if worst comes to worst--be persuaded that if it lets Curt take the stuff home it will save the cost of disposal. Edited March 20, 2006 by Curt Vendel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Infogrames/Atari has next to nothing, some boxes of games and some assorted cabinets and boxes of license info and paperwork...Maybe you've never been to www.atarimuseum.com ? I'd thought that those assets were still owned by Atari? Whose file cabinets were you going through when you found the code to Boggle, the Atari 1000 films, and other such goodies? Were those not Atari's files, or had Atari offloaded them to you some time previously? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 The filing cabinets are the ones of my storage area's (currently 3 20x20 units) and here in my office (another 350 sq ft), I have amassed over 14,000 documents over the last 20 years. I've seen what Atari has, its not terribly much, infact I was quite disappointed to see how little Atari owned and in fact I have probably 10 times the materials, not even including the extensive software and hardware inventories that I have. Perhaps Atari should just unload the name to me, I amassed most of the company over the last 20 years and essentially have what was Atari already. Curt Infogrames/Atari has next to nothing, some boxes of games and some assorted cabinets and boxes of license info and paperwork...Maybe you've never been to www.atarimuseum.com ? I'd thought that those assets were still owned by Atari? Whose file cabinets were you going through when you found the code to Boggle, the Atari 1000 films, and other such goodies? Were those not Atari's files, or had Atari offloaded them to you some time previously? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxglove9 Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 It would be great to see the next Flashback console done buy a private group like Curt & Co. I'm sure you could even assemble a small team from people here that'll work on it with you as well (if you haven't done so already). Well maybe that isn't totally feesible but I'd rather that than Atari cancel the project all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Holy crap on a candy cane. I'm not reading 17 pages. Can anyone recap what the FB3 was supposed to be like? Was it supposed to take existing cartridges or just those little memory sticks or maybe both? How about paddles? Would it finally have a separate place for paddles so we wouldn't have to unplug a joystick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 (edited) Holy crap on a candy cane. I'm not reading 17 pages. Can anyone recap what the FB3 was supposed to be like? Was it supposed to take existing cartridges or just those little memory sticks or maybe both? How about paddles? Would it finally have a separate place for paddles so we wouldn't have to unplug a joystick?From what I understand, the FB3 is (or was to be) an Atari 400/800 clone, with a cartridge slot that was pin-compatible with the original but in a different form factor (presumably to make new cartridges smaller/cheaper and to prevent the use of old carts without an "unauthorized" adapter). The packed-in games were to be bundled on cartridge(s) instead of being built into the console, with more games released on cartridges and sold seperately. No mention was made of memory card or USB support, and considering the price point of your typical TV-game I'd be very surprised if it was included in the specs. Like the FB2, the joystick ports would almost certainly have been compatible with the originals, so paddles wouldn't have been a problem (although they'd still have to share the port with the joysticks). Edited March 20, 2006 by jaybird3rd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carpecarne Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 What's PD mean? It's also a very derogative term for a homosexual in French. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 (edited) What's PD mean?It's also a very derogative term for a homosexual in French.Maybe, but I don't think that's what Curt meant (unless you've picked up on some sort of veiled anti-Infogrames French joke, which I doubt). Edited March 20, 2006 by jaybird3rd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Holy crap on a candy cane. I'm not reading 17 pages. Can anyone recap what the FB3 was supposed to be like? Was it supposed to take existing cartridges or just those little memory sticks or maybe both? How about paddles? Would it finally have a separate place for paddles so we wouldn't have to unplug a joystick? 800 computer in a 5200 case function keys/buttons along under the silver strip for pause, select, keypad, etc... FB2 joystick usage Front SD card slot acting as D1: edge connector inside on board to solder an 800 cart connector to for legacy cartridge usage. Built in SIO2PC connection port for transferring to/from console footprint for SIO connector to be added footprint for ps/2 keyboard connector footprint for vga out Composite out Games included would've come on an SDcard That was what was being shot for, much of the VHDL work on several of the chips went through first pass work and I have in fact tapped a few people from the community to help on the completion of the chipset and need to send out appropriate chip schem's on the 800 for some additional work to be done. I just need to wrap up some business through April 18-19 I will be free to more aggressively persue this with the resources in the community to make this happen for us. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Huh?!?!? Okay, well whatever, it was meant to be for Public Domain, a very widely used acronym in most circles. Curt What's PD mean? It's also a very derogative term for a homosexual in French. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathtrappomegranate Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Holy crap on a candy cane. I'm not reading 17 pages. Can anyone recap what the FB3 was supposed to be like? Was it supposed to take existing cartridges or just those little memory sticks or maybe both? How about paddles? Would it finally have a separate place for paddles so we wouldn't have to unplug a joystick? 800 computer in a 5200 case function keys/buttons along under the silver strip for pause, select, keypad, etc... FB2 joystick usage Front SD card slot acting as D1: edge connector inside on board to solder an 800 cart connector to for legacy cartridge usage. Built in SIO2PC connection port for transferring to/from console footprint for SIO connector to be added footprint for ps/2 keyboard connector footprint for vga out Composite out Games included would've come on an SDcard That was what was being shot for, much of the VHDL work on several of the chips went through first pass work and I have in fact tapped a few people from the community to help on the completion of the chipset and need to send out appropriate chip schem's on the 800 for some additional work to be done. I just need to wrap up some business through April 18-19 I will be free to more aggressively persue this with the resources in the community to make this happen for us. Curt Wow! That really would be a great spec. I'd definitely buy one, and if I can help make it happen, I'd be delighted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 800 computer in a 5200 case function keys/buttons along under the silver strip for pause, select, keypad, etc... FB2 joystick usage Front SD card slot acting as D1: edge connector inside on board to solder an 800 cart connector to for legacy cartridge usage. Built in SIO2PC connection port for transferring to/from console footprint for SIO connector to be added footprint for ps/2 keyboard connector footprint for vga out Composite out Games included would've come on an SDcard That was what was being shot for, much of the VHDL work on several of the chips went through first pass work and I have in fact tapped a few people from the community to help on the completion of the chipset and need to send out appropriate chip schem's on the 800 for some additional work to be done. I just need to wrap up some business through April 18-19 I will be free to more aggressively persue this with the resources in the community to make this happen for us. Curt Sounds like a really sweet piece of hardware. I wonder what it would have retailed for... I hope that the community can get this done somehow...think of an AtariAge branded system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 800 computer in a 5200 casefunction keys/buttons along under the silver strip for pause, select, keypad, etc... FB2 joystick usage Front SD card slot acting as D1: edge connector inside on board to solder an 800 cart connector to for legacy cartridge usage. Built in SIO2PC connection port for transferring to/from console footprint for SIO connector to be added footprint for ps/2 keyboard connector footprint for vga out Composite out Games included would've come on an SDcard I guess I'll have to eat my prediction of no memory card support! In many ways, that list sounds like the ultimate evolution of the 400/800 computer series; it brings together many of the mods and hardware hacks that we've been making to our computers for years, and more! Very, very cool! That was what was being shot for, much of the VHDL work on several of the chips went through first pass work and I have in fact tapped a few people from the community to help on the completion of the chipset and need to send out appropriate chip schem's on the 800 for some additional work to be done. I just need to wrap up some business through April 18-19 I will be free to more aggressively persue this with the resources in the community to make this happen for us. Curt It's a pity that Infogrames couldn't see it through, but I would be overjoyed to see the FB3 happen as an independent production. If you need any additional help in completing it, by all means put the word out; I'm sure there are many of us who would love to help out in any way we can, financially or otherwise. I certainly can't help with the hardware design, but I've been using the A8 series for 20+ years and could really put the FB3 through its paces as a tester if necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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