Yesterday saw the release of issue number 13 of Atari User magazine. The cover indulges the seemingly traditional theme of scantily clad, CGI-rendered women for this publication... but one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, as they say!
Cover of the latest issue of Playb... I mean, Atari User
As well as the other features promoted on said cover as shown to the left, this issue includes BASIC programming tutorials for the XL/XE, recent activity in the Atari Homebrew scene, ST arcade conversions, and reviews of both old games and new - namely, Atari's Facebook RPG "Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter"
Ever fantasize about working at Atari back in the pioneering, halcyon days of the 1970's and 1980's? Working on exciting new games and pulling that market share back from Nintendo, Sega, and Commodore? Marching into Jack Tramiel's office and telling him he's RUINING THIS COMPANY!!? Well it's too late to do any of that! However if you would like to actually work for Atari (fo reals!) they are currently advertising a number of positions, ranging from mobile phone game development to marketing.
If you don't believe me (would I lie?), go over and check it out for yourself!
I'd be the keeping this a secret and applying for the development jobs myself, but I never got past "hello world" with the Flash, iOS, and Android development kits I downloaded long ago!
ST Offline Tournament Number 4 has finished! The fifth season will start in early 2012, but in the meantime there won't be any games on our agenda (at least for STOT purposes!). Discussion on the games selection list for 2012 here.
Andrew was able to represent MACE in the last round playing Son Shu Shi
Andrew showing them how it's done in Son Shu Shi!
The Atari Flashback 3 went on sale in KMart at the beginning of October. Unlike Flashback 2, the hardware of which was the original 2600 circuitry shrunk down and implemented on one chip, the Flashback 3 console runs an emulation engine on an Arm processor. This makes the hardware virtually impossible to hack and modify, and hence adding a cartridge port to play original 2600 games (as was frequently done with the Flashback 2) is not possible. However, the Flashback 3 retains its 9 pin joystick ports and the ability to use any original Atari compatible joystick. Perhaps we can sell the MACE stockpile of joysticks after all!
The Atari Flashback 3 went on sale on Australian KMart stores at the beginning of the month
Atari scener Grey, who you may know if you visit such sites as DHS made a recent appearance on Polish TV along with his Atari collection. It's all in Polish but you get the idea!
You would probably have had to be living under a rock (or on holidays!) to not have heard the sad news of the passing of Steve Jobs last week. Less difficult it would have been, perhaps, to miss the news that the equally influentialDennis Ritchie, co-creator of C, Unix, and the famous "K&R" had also left us.
Finally, I should mention that Andrew and myself had a great time at Monty's last Sunday! We managed to solve Monty's Falcon issues, and expect a spate of Falcon creativity from Monty in the near future ;-)
The tune we well know. It's epic resonations saturated the steamy, clingy air of countless cinema's worldwide in the late 1970's; from those first renditions its faint echo's reverberated into loungerooms in the 1980's and 90's, tones laden with the shifting pitch imbued by dirty VHS player heads and 8th generation pirate copies of rented videos. Now, in 2011, it is sung by a new voice - the humble 3.5 inch floppy drive!
Whilst we here at MACE would never suggest that this shows the ST actually possessed a secret, better-quality tone generator than the YM2149 so frequently utilised (but I think I just did!), we do wonder if the two could perhaps have complemented each other better in a bid to rival the (regrettably) superior sound abilities of the Commodore Amiga.
With that thought, I shall leave you with some more examples of the genre as follows: Phantom of the Floppera, Imperial March (Solo), and Fur Elise on an HP scanner.
Thanks to Andrew for getting onsite early to open up as usual, and for sending out this communique which wraps up the last get-together, and puts a few things on the agenda for the next! Looks like I missed an interesting meeting!
In summary, it looks like we had a new piece of Atari hardware turn up; There was some more ST Offline Tournament activity with Ork and Son Shu Shi; Monty invited to host us (and show off his new magical music production den, I hope!) before the next meeting. Hopefully we can figure out what to do with his Falcon monitor requirements at the same time; and finally, courtesy of Roger we had a tinker with some Nintendo hardware and games.
Over to Andrew for the details!
Thanks Tom! Just to wrap up from our September meeting, I wanted to let everyone know that Reinhold and I had difficulty finding space in the cupboard for the Atari STE computer that Graham brought in, so it went back to my space. I intend to bring it back next time we meet at 479 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin as I have confirmed it is working, unfortunately this is more than I can say for the third party mouse that was with it, I have a feeling that when they do the quality testing at that same factory in Taiwan, those that pass get branded Atari those that don't get re-branded and shipped to Australia. There is a small switch on the bottom that is marked with Atari/Amiga and I made sure that was set on Atari, I figure it is there so that when it doesn't work instead of taking it back to the store, you'll give it to a friend with an Amiga.
In regard to the ST Online Tournament (STOT) hosted by www.atari-forum.com I went to post a score for the game Ork yesterday and realised that the cut-off was Saturday and they have moved on. For the next 3 weeks you can submit your scores for the game Son Shu Shi. A shame really as I discovered by accident that one of copy-protection question codes is actually eight zeroes and managed to get it to work after 2 goes at the meeting, just a fluke really. Quite a nice little platform romper. If you're planning to have a play around with it on one of the ST emulators I suggest you take a memory snapshot after completing the code to save yourself from frustration as I haven't been able to get it after 2 goes since.
Also the plan for the 9th of October, 2011 is to meet at Monty's Place. It would be handy if someone can bring along their technical expertise as I understand Monty has been trying without success to run an Atari Falcon computer through a flat-screen. The 'it's not working part' may have something to do with the Falcon only supplying a 60 Hz refresh rate, is this correct or have we both missed something. Perhaps if we can get a working Falcon to Moorabbin at some stage we can try running it through the overhead projector and see if that may offer some sort of solution. Along a similar vein if we are going to link 2 Atari computers together through MIDI cables I suspect we'll need another color monitor on hand.
And finally Roger has kindly offered to do the shopping for anyone who is wanting what looks like a battery powered Nintendo N64 controller that plays what appears to be a stack of NES games, what was the exact number again Roger? Roger has informed us they cost $4.95 if they're available and as demonstrated at the meeting they plug directly into a standard Video In socket such as found on most video equipment. Also we're informed that the little unit comes with a 2nd controller, a 'light' gun (like in the old days of Duck Hunt) and a 110 V power pack. Some of the timeless classic games to be found included Galaga, Bubble-Bobble and Space ET. So if you weren't at the meeting and are wanting one then let Roger know.
