YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)

[level42]

Nice score Andre

What level you did you reach for this score? On the arcade (us Rom).this is around level 8

Yes I think 7 or 8 here too.

[level42]

Mmmmmm, some very interesting info.....looks like it's possible to switch a PAL XL to NTSC "speed".....



Thomas Richter mentions another NTSC vs PAL issue:
Another point is that the popular pseudo-colors used in the ANTIC-F
(Graphics mode are not colorful at all when displayed on a PAL TV, because
of differences in the color encoding for the TV. The schematics of
the XL computers include however a hack how to change the PAL version to
the NTSC version (the PAL versions include two crystals, one with 5/4th of
the frequency of the other. One is used for the system clock, the other for
the color clock), but I never dared to apply it.


Thomas Richter ?? Mmm, familiar name !!

[level42]

....even better.....Mr.Atari (Sijmen) just offered to lend me a NTSC 800 (Not XL ) so no-one can debate about it in any way

[level42]

If anyone's interested, doing some DK again today.....


http://ustre.am/15J6e

[level42]

Couldn't focus properly......restarting session now.......

[level42]

Seems I have "camera fear"......it's not in it tonight.....more later

[level42]

Giving it another go.....

http://ustre.am/15J6e

[level42]

Not my record tonight, but a nice 226,800 score. you can skip to 16.00 to see the game on the last video.

There was one tight situation near the last levels of the game that I solved nicely! It's at 31.38.....

I reached almost 150,000 with my first Mario which was a first AFAIR.

Anyway you can check out the recording on the link above...

[Etienne MacGyver]

That was indeed a cool way out ! 

[level42]

Today by sheer luck I had to visit the city where Mr. & Mrs. Atari live for work and since it was near the end of the day I contacted Sijmen to ask if it was OK to pick up the NTSC Atari 800 he said I could borrow for my WR try.

We had a great time and I could have stayed there for hours. The collection of Atari stuff he has is unparalleled, at least in The Netherlands! maybe Atarimania has more, but anyway, since Im such an Atari fan I felt like a kid in a candy store !!!

Apart from that Sandra and Sijmen are totally cool and friendly people. check out his site and especially his videos: http://www.mr-atari.com

Sijmen was also so kind to prepare the MY-IDE cartridge that I have had for some time, for me with loads of brilliant games on it ! Sijmen developed The hard- and software for MY-IDE cart, he is a walking encyclopedia of A8 inside and out knowledge !!!  http://www.atarimax.com/myide/documentation/

The NTSC 800 is their "spare" one, but it looks like it came out of the factory yesterday ! It even has those tiny "approval" labels still on it !!

Such an awesome machine.....

I hooked it up with the video cable Sijmen kindly included (the power supply is NOS !) but it's S-VHS so all I got was a B/W picture on the Philips monitor, which is normal as chroma and luma are separated. Not sure if it has inputs for that on the SCART or the DIN input! but I guess I'll just bring down the Commodore 1701 which I normally use with the A8 machines as this has the correct inputs.

The speed difference is MAJOR. I think it's easily 20%..... This will definitely have some effect when it comes to tight situations and that will/could influence my score. Remember I'm used to PAL speed since 1983 or so....
I gave it a couple of tries and it didn't feel that bad actually, it makes the game even smoother, but man it is fast, I think it is actually more realistic compared to the arcade version at PAL speed.

However, I also tried f.i. Joust which I always felt was pretty slow compare to the arcade version! well not anymore !

I might want to look into getting my XE('s) switchable between NTSC and PAL, if that is at all possible....

[level42]

Well I tried the gorgeous NTSC 800 on the Crommodore 1702 monitor with both composite and Y/C cables and whatever I do, it's B/W only.

Did some googling and it looks like the NTSC color encoding is already different from PAL in these signals. I always thought the differences only started when the HF part came into the process.

I have one idea, which is try routing it through a NTSC capable (or semi) VHS recorder that I still have here, maybe this does something. Or I could hook it up to my TV, that would probably work, but that's not ideal for a WR attempt.

SO, I guess I'll just have to accept the situation unless someone can borrow me a real NTSC monitor/TV of small size

Tried some games tonight. Highest score was around 185k.  So yes, you bet the game is a lot harder on NTSC.  But I'm sure it must be possible to reach the WR. Just need more practice....

[level42]

Doing some practice on the NTSC Atari 800 tonight, come and watch !

Oh, picture is B/W on the monitor, that is normal because the old PAL monitor doesn't understand the NTSC color encoding

http://ustre.am/15J6e

[Belike]

It is fun to see you playing, especially when you speak with yourself.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Nice music 

[Vond]

I've been following your progress since you first made this topic and realised I haven't even commented on it!
You go girl I'm really enjoying following all of this. Good luck mate!