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 AtariAge and Digital Press are proud to announce Retro Rumble, a joint venture aimed at joining retrogaming communities in a little spirited competition as well as co-op play. Retro Rumble will debut in Las Vegas at the Classic Gaming Expo 2010 on July 31st. The AtariAge and Digital Press exhibit areas will be mirror images with plenty of the great products you'd expect, but between the two booths will be a gaming area where various tournaments and challenges will be hosted throughout the 2-day event.
Are you the king of the road in Indy 500? Can you fend off the competition in a round robin Warlords tournament? Are you a better Mario in Mario Bros? Prepare to test your skills in an unforgettable union of gaming communities. Watch all THREE sites for more info and hints of what's to come: AtariAge, Digital Press, and Classic Gaming Expo in the days that lead up to the event. Naturally, we'll see YOU there! Discuss online: 13 comments in Classic Gaming Expo 2010 Forum
 AtariAge Forum member Gulag Picture Radio is better known as Bohuš Blahut, co-editor of retrothing.com. The madmen behind Retro Thing have teamed up with Legacy Engineering to come up with a limited edition product that's cool enough for serious collectors, but affordable and fun enough for anyone who remembers classic video gaming.
The Clear Classic USB Joystick is modeled after the iconic joystick from the 70's and 80's, but the similarity ends there. This joystick plugs into a USB port to play retro games on a modern PC or Mac. The stick is transparent plastic with a blue circuit board and a blue LED that illuminates the stick from within for a slick retro-futuristic look. The Clear Classic stick works with almost any emulator, so now you can play your Atari, Amiga and Commodore 64 favorites in retro style. The stick is a limited edition item, and is bound to sell out fast. The complete package sells for $29.95 and includes the stick, numbered certificate of authenticity, USB cable, and a copy of the excellent Stella 2600 emulator on CD. You can learn more at Reflex Audio Systems. Discuss online: 25 comments in Classic Gaming General Forum
 The February 2010 issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly is now online for your viewing pleasure. Highlights from Issue #69 include:
Discuss online: 0 comments in Gaming Publications and Websites Forum
 You're probably familiar with the original Flashback 2 console that Atari released a few years ago. It's basically a small Atari 2600 console with 40 built-in 2600 games and includes two 2600-compatible CX-40 style joysticks. The Flashback 2 has been out of production for some time, but Atari has just added the Flashback 2+ console to their website for pre-ordering. This revised Flashback 2 contains a slightly different assortment of games and features Atari's reversion to the original-style Atari logo that is now featured on their website. The box and manual have also been completely redone. Expected ship date is February 22, 2010 and the price is $29.99. Those who pre-order now will receive a free t-shirt that features a 4-switch Atari 2600 console with two CX-40 joysticks. You can learn more and pre-order the Flashback 2+ here.Discuss online: 234 comments in Atari Flashback Consoles Forum
 The War Continues...
After the successful elimination of the terrorists and their missile silo complexes, we have heard through various sources that they have relocated, and have doubled their security! Once again you must invade enemy territory and prevent the missile launching aimed at Washington D.C. and stop the terrorists once and for all! FailSafe is a new Atari 7800 homebrew game by Bob DeCrescenzo (aka, PacManPlus), who has a stellar track record in releasing a variety of high-quality arcade ports under his belt. FailSafe is an unofficial sequel to Atari's original game Countermeasure for the Atari 5200. AtariAge and Bob DeCrescenzo are sponsoring a contest to create original artwork for FailSafe. This label artwork will appear on all copies of FailSafe, which will be made available for purchase in cartridge form after the contest has run its course. This artwork will also be featured on the cover of the manual created for FailSafe. Click here to learn more about the contest! We've extended the contest a week--it now ends February 7th, 2010! Discuss online: 59 comments in AtariAge Sponsored Contests Forum
The first Retrogaming Times Monthly of the new year is now online! Highlights from Issue #68 include:
Discuss online: 2 comments in Gaming Publications and Websites Forum
 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: 123 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: 90 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: 41 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: 35 comments in Classic Gaming General Forum |
February 9, 2010Did you know?2600 Asteroids was the first game to use 'bank-switching' that doubled its ROM space. Mailing List |
