The Goofiest Game Gear Ever Made
A game controller that reads brain-wave patterns? Sci-fi sweetness, incarnate. Reality, though, hasn't quite caught up. Way back when, Atari promoted (but never completed) the Mindlink in its heyday. Granted, it was supposed to read muscle movement on the head, not brain-wave patterns, but it was a start.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Mindlink
From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/166888/the_goofiest_game_gear_ever_m...
Missle Command vinyl soundtrack
It's like retro on top of retro! If the Atari game Missile Command wasn't retro enough, how about a Missle Command vinyl soundtrack?
This rare 33 RPM, 12" vinyl LP from the 1980s contains the score [hah!] to this classic game. You get a whopping three tracks, with one of them being the "Atari Theme." So really two tracks. There's a running eBay auction for the vinyl album with the Buy It Now price of $100. I don't know that I'd pay $100 for this, but I'd definitely pay some money to hear what this sounds like.
Link: http://www.gamesniped.com/linkto/H_KAcC%296_L2t%2Cn0%60rZLgkVr%3AVI...
(ended)
From: http://www.destructoid.com/talk-about-retro-missile-command-vinyl-a...
Denver Teen Opens Retro Video Game Store
Denver teen, and Kotaku reader, Elijah Taylor opened his own video game store this week in Denver.
Taylor tells us that the store specializes in rare, old-school collectible video games like Earthbound, Mario RPG and Bubble Bobble 2. The store stocks games for the Genesis, N64, SNES, PS1, Dreamcast, NES, Saturn, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, PS3, Wii, 360, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, DS, Game Gear and Atari.
When Taylor's single mom passed away about a year ago he dropped out of school, got his GED and landed a job at a local video game store. Last week he and a friend decided to launch the store together.
He told 9 News that he and his mother used to game together and that many of the titles he is now selling came from their collection.
"I could look through here and be like, 'Oh, I remember playing that with my mom when I was just kid,'" Taylor said. "I hope, you know, she'd be proud of me. I hope that, you know, if she were here now, she would be proud of all this. This is a store that she would like, you know, she would shop here."
From: http://kotaku.com/5295187/denver-teen-opens-retro-video-game-store
Choplifter to fly again?
Bard's Tale creator Brian Fargo's InXile Entertainment trademarks name of classic Broderbund action game for "downloadable electronic games via the Internet and wireless devices."
Long-in-the-tooth gamers who can still remember the early 1980s will likely have fond memories of Choplifter. Partially inspired by the disastrous 1980 attempt to rescue US hostages from Iran known as Desert One, the Broderbund-developed game had players rescuing hostages from a fictional evil empire and fighting off air attacks in a helicopter.
First released in 1982 for the Apple II, the 2D airborne action game was eventually ported to the Commodore 64, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, MSX, NES, and Sega Master System. Sequels and remakes would eventually make their way to the SNES, Game Gear, Game Boy, PlayStation 2, and arcades.
Now it appears that Choplifter may be once again taking to the virtual skies. Yesterday, developer InXile Entertainment filed a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the title "Choplifter." The filing locked down use of the title for "downloadable electronic games via the Internet and wireless devices," raising the possibility of a digitally distributed version of the game for consoles, handhelds, or possibly the iPhone.
If a Choplifter remake is in the works, it will be the second time InXile has resurrected an Apple II-era classic. Started in 2002 by Brian Fargo following his exit from the once-mighty publisher Interplay, the California-based shop was most famous for its comical 2004 remake of the dead-serious 1985 role-playing game The Bard's Tale. The company is currently developing the retro-action game Hei$t, due out this fall, for British publisher Codemasters.
From: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6212150.html
Atari Game Cartridge Compacts
Sweet use of the old Atari game cartridge boxes- turn them into compacts for the ladies. Open it up to reveal the mirror inside. Unfortunately this is an old DIY project that was sold by someone called Yakmala! who doesn’t appear to have anymore. So if you’re geek crafty, you could probably easily rig one of these up for your geek lady friends. Just for the record here, obviously it’s not just the ladies who could use a compact mirror, we fully support anyone out there who wants to be looking good at all times. We love Vanity Smurf, the happiest of all Smurfs and one who is particularly fond of mirrors too. We also love all the other Smurfs except for Brainy Smurf…he’s so full of himself and always wrong. Bite it Brainy Smurf, get out of Smurf village.
Link: http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2009/06/video-game-compact...
From: http://nextspyfind.com/atari-game-cartridge-compacts/
Gadget game controllers
They're called "control" for the reason. They're suppose to help you control the game. Oddly enough, far too much control do otherwise only: They actually hinder play. Although far from the only one perpetrator, there are definitely five main offenders: Microsft xbox, Sega Master System, Atari Jaguar, Atari 5200, and Power Glove. Hey! Atari got mentioned twice! Full article and some pictures at link below.
Link: http://gadget-devianty.blogspot.com/2009/06/gadget-game-controllers...
Atari 7800 ProSystem with RGB Encoder inside (Peritel version)
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in June 1986.
The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 was designed to replace Atari Inc.’s unsuccessful Atari 5200 and later to re-establish Atari Corp.’s market supremacy against Nintendo and Sega.
With this system, Atari Inc. addressed all the shortcomings of the Atari 5200: it had simple digital joysticks; it was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600; and it was affordable (originally priced at US$140).
The link below provides several good pictures of the internals of the 7800.
Link: http://nightfall.xbox4fun.com/?p=1738
Machine Learns How to Play Pitfall
No, not "is programmed to play Pitfall." It actually learns.
Watch the video below, and then give your nearest loved one a hug, because this could be the harbinger of humanity's ruin. As GameSetWatch reports (via Kotaku), researchers at Rutgers University have developed a new method of reinforcement learning using "Object-Oriented Markov Decision Processes." And to demonstrate this complicated-sounding breakthrough in an easy-to-understand way, there is the video above, which shows how a machine used this method to learn how to play Pitfall on an Atari 2600 emulator.
As you can see, on the first run, this frightening artificial intelligence appears to make a few mistakes as it stumbles through the obstacles in the game. After doing so, however, the program appears to remember what it has done, and uses this information to clear the obstacles with ease on the second pass. All on its own.
As impressive and horribly disconcerting as this is, the most disturbing portion of the video is at the end: After clearing the obstacles, this robotic mind appears to celebrate, making the character jump up and down over and over in what can only be described as a demonstration of joy. So not only does this thing think and learn, but it apparently also feels. This should however be considered good news, because it means that if a day comes when this machine and its kin rise up against humanity, we know psychological warfare will be effective.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5JpGYflCj
From: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174930
Atari 2600 Slim
it all started when i was playing on my atari 2600. the video mod i had done to it wasn't the best, colors on it are off with some games. so i started looking for better video mods so i could play my games with no disturbance, then stopped and thought that i wanted it to be a bigger project. i went on evilbay and bought an atari flashback 2 and when it arrived i ameditly started playing saboteur but after that i opened it up and looked at it and thought this is gonna be fun. i grabbed some extra parts i had left over from a previous project and soldered on the cartridge slot select/reset power/bw switches and popped out the front piece of the flash back and replaced it with the new...old buttons. i also added av output on the back and switched the bw switch to a cartridge or built in games switch, crammed it all back in the small case and started playing atari games with crisp graphics and clear sounds :)
Link: http://www.chris-koopa.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=6034585
From: http://hackaday.com/2009/06/22/atari-2600-slim/
Retro Atari Cartridge Desk Clocks
Last week we saw the fun Atari cartridge wallets, this week we have some funky desk clock made from recycled Atari cartridges.
There are quite a few different ones to choose from including Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Pole Position and Ms Pac Man.
If you want one, these fun recycled Atari cartridge clocks are available for $20 each from Etsy.
Link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6087090§ion_id=5622898
From: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/atari-cartridge-clocks/
