Atari Hero: Play Atari 2600 like a rock god
This is not my first console mod, but I think it’s the neatest. As far as I know it hasn’t been done before. I wanted to be able play Atari 2600 games like you play Guitar Hero… With a guitar . With this mod, you just pop in your favorite 2600 cartridge, and play the game on your guitar. The screen is right in front facing you as you hold it. Instead of strumming, just use the small joystick on the upper right, or for games like Breakout use the paddle controller below the screen. The fire button is the top button on the neck of the guitar, so yes, you really hold it in guitar fashion as you play.
I had originally intended to make an NES-Hero, taking advantage of all the guitar buttons, but didn’t have a spare laying around. Which was just fine with me because this Atari-Hero turned out just awesome. It took me about 2 months more or less, simply because it was hard to find the time with my duties here at the ‘Brick, but it’s finally finished. I incorporated actual pieces of the Atari console itself, like the faux woodgrain front panel with logo and the grill from the top of the console, even the cartridge slot itself. The circuit boards all had to be fabricated and custom shaped, then put in place. The Atari console combined with the circuit boards makes for a stunning look in person. (Sorry about the crappy pics. It’s so shiny it’s hard to get a good shot) More pics below.
Currently I have it running on 8 AA batteries , which is probably overkill. I have to say, playing the old Atari 2600 classics on a guitar feels a tad strange, but at the same time the games are a breeze to play and it feels natural in your hands. I’d still like to make a Nintendo version one day, but I may just let someone else tackle that one until I can get around to it. So, now I’ve unleashed it onto the world. I can’t wait to see how this inspires other modders. I’m gonna go rock out while playing some Frogger.
Link: http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/09/atari-hero-play-atari-like-a-r...
These Guys Have Sold Two Million Atari Cartridges From A Cave
In 1990, Atari (the original Atari) were in bad shape. So they sold off their inventory of old cartridges. O'Shea Ltd bought them. All 3 million of them.
They bought them so they could sell them on to you, the public. And where do they keep these millions of Atari cartridges? Why, in a 20,000-square warehouse carved from a limestone cave, of course.
In the years since 1990, O'Shea have sold two million of the carts to customers around the world, leaving, yes, around one million of them left. There are carts for the 2600, 7800 and even a few for the Jag.
Best part? These being "new" carts, and O'Shea being specialists in the closeout business (ie selling crap after a company goes bust), the games are going for a flat rate of $5 each.
Link: http://www.oshealtd.com/
Link: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/02/gamesetinterview_atariclassic.php
From: http://kotaku.com/5154759/these-guys-have-sold-two-million-atari-ca...
UK University Making Universal Game Emulator
Techradar reports that researchers at the University of Portsmouth in England are working on a project to create a game emulator that will "recognise and play all types of videogames and computer files from the 1970s through to the present day." One of the major goals of the project is to preserve software from early in the computer age. David Anderson of the Humanities Computing Group said, "Early hardware, like games consoles and computers, are already found in museums. But if you can't show visitors what they did, by playing the software on them, it would be much the same as putting musical instruments on display but throwing away all the music. ... Games particularly tend not to be archived because they are seen as disposable, pulp cultural artefacts, but they represent a really important part of our recent cultural history. Games are one of the biggest media formats on the planet and we must preserve them for future generations."
Link: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/uk-uni-developing-massive-game...
From: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/12/0830230
Site update: VideoDB
After working hard for a long time, we are now able to present the latest addition to dhs.nu: VideoDB
VideoDB is a database of Atari demos, intros and cracktros captured and encoded in the best way we're able to. All videos are captured with 50 FPS framerate and encoded with H.264/AAC.
We've built a little mini-section around these with a Flash player, easy to use comment system (no login needed) and of course download of the video files.
Please read the FAQ before sending mails why this and that doesn't work, thank you :)
Link: http://dhs.nu/video.php
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
Fake Atari Games 2.0
Fake ports of modern games? Yeah, it's been done before. Same with cart labels. But someone stuck them on actual carts, which will be hilarious once the next yard sale rolls around. Redbeard Math Pirate on Flickr created 15, spanning the range of cart art on the Atari 2600 - original VCS, second generation, third generation, early Activision, and original Imagic.
Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redbeardmathpirate/sets/72157614485515...
From: http://kotaku.com/5162344/fake-atari-games-20
Atarimania ST Public Beta is open
Atarimania welcomes you to take a look at the Atari ST / TT / Falcon030 section public beta. The purpose of ST-section is to provide information from not only ST(e), but also Falcon030 and TT games, utils and demos in their original unmodified form. We don\'t offer any cracked or otherwise modified software (excluding so called hacks). Just pure original fun!
Our goal is also to be as accurate as possible. All the credits and information has been taken from software or from their packaging only.
What you see here is a result of our team working hard and not sleeping much in last 5 months. We started from scratch and it\'s still very much work in progress but we already have about 3200 games titles and 30 or so utilities in our database to show you our dedication to this project. We are adding new titles and especially screenshots, reviews, scans, videos or Pasti-images daily so keep checking it often.
I would like to thank the whole Atarimania team for suggestions, ideas an supporting the ST-section during last months and especially the numerous people around the world who had scanned or donated material for us. Keep them coming!
Please take a look and tell us what you think about
it. We would like to hear your comments, suggestions, corrections etc. to make it worth your bookmark list.
And before you ask why we made another ST online database: We are Atarimaniacs, and for us that\'s a good enough reason ;)
Link: http://www.atarimania.com/
From: http://www.atari.org/
Hemoroids launches website
sink of hemoroids write:
hello boys and girls,
We are back in town 'cauze 18 years later, we decided to create a website in memory of the group Hemoroids (HMD) for people to remember the good old days and that more young people to know too. The group was muti-machines ATARI,AMIGA,PC but started on the atari scene..
Come visit us!
Preparation H is good for you!
Link: http://hemoroids.eu/
From: http://www.dhs.nu/
ScummVM 0.13.0 Delivers New Adventure Games
As we turned to a 6 months release cycle, here is our newest and best ScummVM version for you!
A couple of new engines were added, and besides 2 Humongous Entertainment titles, we now support The 7th Guest and Bud Tucker in Double Trouble.
Among other notable things there is a completely new vector-based GUI, which is a merged work of our last year GSoC student Vicent Marti, as well as a General Main Menu which adds a common save/load interface to most of our engines, adding the much awaited Return to Launcher feature along the way. It was the work of another successful student, Chris Page.
We welcome the addition of the MADE engine by Activision. Four shiny new games are now supported: The infamous Return to Zork, Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2, The Manhole and Rodney's Funscreen.
What is ScummVM? ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!
Link: http://www.scummvm.org/
From: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/06/0650242
Atari clone "Suska" now in prodution
Wolfgang Förster reports on the website for the Suska Projet that they have sent the Suska board into production! First version to hit the production line is the Suska-III-C (classic) series. Wolfgang states that if everything proceedes according to plans, the very first boards should show up around March 20th.
The websites elaborates that Suska-III-C is a circuit board intended to be a platform for Atari ST/STE/Mega-ST/Mega-STE/Falcon computer emulation. Wolfgang and friends also plan for another version of the board further down the road.
Link: http://www.experiment-s.de/en
From: http://www.atari-users.net/
2 retro game DVDs announced!
Classic Gaming Expo 2K7 is a complete document of the 2007 Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, spread across 4 DVDs encompassing all of the keynote presentations. The founding fathers of the video game industry tell their own stories - and answer questions from the audience - and theLogBook.com Media captured every moment with multi-camera coverage, spruced up in post production with game footage, broadcast-quality graphics and a concise DVD menu system. Pre-orders for this 4-DVD set are being taken now, with the first discs shipping toward the end of February.
And in April, Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2, the follow-up to the successful Phosphor Dot Fossils documentary timeline DVD released in 2008, will make its debut. The new DVD will premiere on Saturday, April 11th at the Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo, on the Oklahoma City Community College campus in OKC.
Link: http://www.thelogbook.com/media/cge/
From: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/
