Atari @ 50

[Stephen]

Got the PS4 version and it is absolutely worth it for T2K alone. Love the interviews too, not shy about telling things as they were but all very jubilant nonetheless.

PVB pointed out to Digital Eclipse on Twitter that the Game Over screen is a lot faster than on the real hardware. They acknowledge the bug and are working on it.

No web flicker from what I can tell, also this old video of it being played on a T2K emulator (presumably Dio's one) shows a similar crazy Game Over animation speed. Not that I am wishing to query the provenance of Digital Eclipse's emulator, but is the lack of web flicker a canny observation of the GPU bug by them, and the Game Over speed a tricky consequence of Jag emulation, and both a coincidence, or... ?

Good to hear they are working on this bug.

So, I finally got to spend an hour before work and fired this up for the first time. I started watching the Arcade videos and tried Pong and both Breakout games. I was getting random pauses. WTF??? I am running it via Steam on Windows 11 64-bit. My hardware "should" be up to the task of emulating Pong, as it's a core i9-12990, 64GB of RAM and a GeForce 3080 vid card.

[Misfit]

So, I finally got to spend an hour before work and fired this up for the first time. I started watching the Arcade videos and tried Pong and both Breakout games. I was getting random pauses. WTF??? I am running it via Steam on Windows 11 64-bit. My hardware "should" be up to the task of emulating Pong, as it's a core i9-12990, 64GB of RAM and a GeForce 3080 vid card.

Everything I've tried runs perfectly on a Steam Deck, which I think is just a little less powerful than that!

[MattyP]

The image is from ebay but I have the very same thing in a stack on my desk!

Thats the one... and likewise have this disk kicking about somewhere too!

[MattyP]

So, I finally got to spend an hour before work and fired this up for the first time. I started watching the Arcade videos and tried Pong and both Breakout games. I was getting random pauses. WTF??? I am running it via Steam on Windows 11 64-bit. My hardware "should" be up to the task of emulating Pong, as it's a core i9-12990, 64GB of RAM and a GeForce 3080 vid card.

Odd... Windows 11?

Loving T2K its great. Keep pushing the score up bit by bit... forgotten how well this all gels together. I also reassigned the jump and superzapper to the triggers as they seem to work better there for me.

The Xbox Series d-pad feels a lot like the Jags D-pad too which is handy...

[Misfit]

Worth pointing out that in this week's Jeff Gerstmann podcast he's talking to Mike Mika (President of Digital Eclipse). They're talking about this collection and the next projects. Mike specifically called out that he'd love to do a Llamasoft collection, dig out things from the baa-kive, get interviews etc.

Jeff, Giles - get on this!! The way these guys work you wouldn't even need to code a thing. :-)

Video version of the podcast here - chat about Atari 50 is bookmarked but comes in around 1:04. Jeff and Llamasoft get mentioned around 1:45

I'm guessing the guys know about this, not least because Yak has had this collection a few months before release so there must be conversations somewhere.

And he's going through all his archives at the moment.

I think the problem will be how commercially viable is it? The appeal of the Atari collection is a lot bigger than an LL one. Although I'd rather have an LL one.

[MattyP]

I think the problem will be how commercially viable is it? The appeal of the Atari collection is a lot bigger than an LL one. Although I'd rather have an LL one.

Indeed however it could form part of another collection like this in format but focussed of the 8-bit computer scene from the early 80s to perhaps to mid 80s. So a mix of popular games and memorabilia of that era? Interviews with key developers etc. Think this would be great some iconic games of each major platform all in one place and perhaps some iconic pieces from the demo scene etc.

[Rhythm]

I'm guessing the guys know about this, not least because Yak has had this collection a few months before release so there must be conversations somewhere.

And he's going through all his archives at the moment.

I think the problem will be how commercially viable is it? The appeal of the Atari collection is a lot bigger than an LL one. Although I'd rather have an LL one.

That thought did cross my mind, although I thought efforts were still underway by D0kk to get Heart of Neon out

[r1ckyrock]

Playing T2K on Switch - has anyone else noticed the soundtrack, seemingly randomly, completely cutting out? Strictly speaking, not cutting out but volume reduced to zero. Can be brought back by pausing the game, bringing up "actual" T2K options (not options overlay) and bringing music volume back up, although I'm not entirely certain of the keys needed to do this - seemingly the "jump" button adjusts the soundtrack volume? This is all I've discovered, so far, on my train journey to work this morning...

[Misfit]

Playing T2K on Switch - has anyone else noticed the soundtrack, seemingly randomly, completely cutting out? Strictly speaking, not cutting out but volume reduced to zero. Can be brought back by pausing the game, bringing up "actual" T2K options (not options overlay) and bringing music volume back up, although I'm not entirely certain of the keys needed to do this - seemingly the "jump" button adjusts the soundtrack volume? This is all I've discovered, so far, on my train journey to work this morning...

Not got the Switch version, but that would stop me from buying it! (although that is in a future sale, so probably a way off)

[WiteWulf]

Playing T2K on Switch - has anyone else noticed the soundtrack, seemingly randomly, completely cutting out? Strictly speaking, not cutting out but volume reduced to zero. Can be brought back by pausing the game, bringing up "actual" T2K options (not options overlay) and bringing music volume back up, although I'm not entirely certain of the keys needed to do this - seemingly the "jump" button adjusts the soundtrack volume? This is all I've discovered, so far, on my train journey to work this morning...

I'm sure I remember Giles addressing something very similar as a bug around the time the game was originally released....

[Misfit]

Playing T2K on Switch - has anyone else noticed the soundtrack, seemingly randomly, completely cutting out? Strictly speaking, not cutting out but volume reduced to zero. Can be brought back by pausing the game, bringing up "actual" T2K options (not options overlay) and bringing music volume back up, although I'm not entirely certain of the keys needed to do this - seemingly the "jump" button adjusts the soundtrack volume? This is all I've discovered, so far, on my train journey to work this morning...

I'm sure I remember Giles addressing something very similar as a bug around the time the game was originally released....

I think that was related to some more recent releases having a volume issue. I don't think Giles was around for T2K

[WiteWulf]

Oh, of course it was, my mistake...

[MattyP]

This is great.. still has me gripped....

I've been trying out some of the new things on here.. Vctr-Sctr is a bit addictive isn't it?!

Also never really played Yars' Revenge before and loving this.. simple concept but really addictive. Also went and checked out its origins which was Star Castles by Cinematronics. All this is drawing me further and further into games gone. Used to think it was rose-tinted-glasses syndrome but once you look past the sound and visuals there is some great gaming here. Miss the immediacy and simplicity of what games once were. Also having less controls. I mean Defender was rated as a complex game back in the day if only they'd have seen what was to come with our 16+ buttons on modern controllers!

My little Series S console is a lovely bit of kit for sticking all this retro gaming in one convenient place too. Have Konami Arcade Collection on here, Midway Arcade Origins, Ikaruga, Radient Silvergun, NeoGeo games, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, R-Type Final 2, Rare Replay etc. Everything runs lovely and smoothly and loads up quickly...

Oh and if you have the Switch version of this it allows you to use the touch screen for paddle controls which is nice!

Also to add if people don't already own them Midway Arcade Origins and the Konami Arcade Collection are currently on sale at the Xbox store for around £3 a piece. Picked up the Konami collection as I think the Xbox is the only device I haven't yet got a copy! Love a bit of Nemesis and Salamander!

[punkrulesok]

I wonder if they used readily available emulators for this? On the Jag, there aren't that many out there, and speaking commercially, it would take a long time to develop one.
Was anybody on here involved in the dev of it?

[MattyP]

Long shot but has anyone played this on a PC with the Steam controller? Just wondering if the touch pads on the controller work with things like Pong? Might be a more intuitive way to play finding using the analogue sticks not!



Kind of related and sad. Arcade centres are shutting down in Japan. One of the things on my bucket list is to visit Japan and the places. Would seem I need to get a move on.