Author Topic: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)  (Read 79393 times)

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #90 on: February 05, 2014, 11:47:41 PM »
Dankjewel !  ;D

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #91 on: February 06, 2014, 08:24:11 AM »
Just voted also  ;)

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #92 on: April 30, 2014, 09:02:42 PM »
Sweet! I had no idea you were into this, 42! I'm coming for you!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYfeIsSIEtA

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #93 on: April 30, 2014, 11:36:21 PM »
Great video John !

The best 8 bit computer ever and the best DK ever !

Doesn't that TV have a composite video input ? You really need to ditch the RF set-up, it sucks even if you could get rid of the static.

Or get a Commodore 1084 or similar monitor for a few bucks and use that,although I understand the nostalgia for your TV.

I bought a 600XL and a 1010 cassette recorder after having owned the 2600. It was my first computer and buying it sent tingles up and down my body. Here I was buying the latest that technology could offer, it was like stepping into another world.

Loved the ATASCII art, kinda forgot about that. ASCII was (still is ?) a standard code that represented characters in a binary format. f.I. The letter A is 65 in decimal, 1000001 binary (ASCII is 7 bits). The system dates back from the very old computers that used punch tape for storage. apart from defining all the letters and numbers there were also lots of codes to control stuff like the cursor etc.
Atari extended on the basic ASCII and used 8 bits IIRC so they could add 128 characters.

The biggest benefit is that an animation like you showed took up very little storage space and thus could be easily transferred over the slow modems of those days.

When I started with the XL I knew nobody at all with the same machine. I decided to go with that machine because I liked Atari (the 2600 and arcade games) and I had seen the C64 at my cousins and didn't like a lot about that machine. However, the definite moment that I decided I wanted this machine was when I played DK for the first time on it. I just HAD to have that, because it blew away the Colecovison version which I considered the best home version until then. It was also one of the rare original cartridges I bought very quickly.
I learned a LOT from this machine because basically I couldn't get any pirate software for it for some time, but very soon an Atari club was erected in Holland and I got in contact with local guys (one is still a good friend) and soon the tapes and later the floppies were going around....we ended up having contacts in the US and Australia and floppies were flying all over the globe :):):)

Really hope you'll do more A8 videos, may I suggest showing some of the best games on it: Alley Cat, Star Raiders, Bounty Bob Strikes Back, Dropzone, Mr.Robot, Berzerk and the countless of great arcade conversions.

By the way, I never knew Gauntlet got released for it. Not that I'm a big fan of that game.

Drol was one of my favorites too ! I first found the name vey weird though because in Dutch "drol" is a pile of shit  ;D

I am VERY jealous of your Indus GT drive. I clearly remember seeing an ad for it in American Atari magazines that I bought here and I was like drooling over that page sized ad for sometimes like 10 minutes. All we got here was Atari's 1050 which wasn't bad bit still very expensive for a school kid, it took years before I could buy one.

You need a better joystick to come close to my WR buddy, get a Suzo Competition Pro ! :)

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #94 on: May 01, 2014, 09:08:02 AM »
Yep, ASCII is still used, especially in nfo files that you many time get on usenet  ;D

_                    _     ___  _____
| |                  | |   /   |/ __  \
| |     _____   _____| |  / /| |`' / /'
| |    / _ \ \ / / _ \ | / /_| |  / / 
| |___|  __/\ V /  __/ | \___  |./ /___
\_____/\___| \_/ \___|_|     |_/\_____/



 _       _   _         
(_)     | | | |         
 _ ___  | |_| |__   ___
| / __| | __| '_ \ / _ \
| \__ \ | |_| | | |  __/
|_|___/  \__|_| |_|\___|
                                                                 


oooo    oooo ooooo ooooo      ooo   .oooooo.         .oooooo.   oooooooooooo
`888   .8P'  `888' `888b.     `8'  d8P'  `Y8b       d8P'  `Y8b  `888'     `8
 888  d8'     888   8 `88b.    8  888              888      888  888        
 88888[       888   8   `88b.  8  888              888      888  888oooo8    
 888`88b.     888   8     `88b.8  888     ooooo    888      888  888    "    
 888  `88b.   888   8       `888  `88.    .88'     `88b    d88'  888        
o888o  o888o o888o o8o        `8   `Y8bood8P'       `Y8bood8P'  o888o        
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
      .o.        .ooooo.     .oooo.     .oooo.  
     .888.      d88'   `8.  d8P'`Y8b   d8P'`Y8b  
    .8"888.     Y88..  .8' 888    888 888    888
   .8' `888.     `88888b.  888    888 888    888
  .88ooo8888.   .8'  ``88b 888    888 888    888
 .8'     `888.  `8.   .88P `88b  d88' `88b  d88'
o88o     o8888o  `boood8'   `Y8bd8P'   `Y8bd8P'  
                                                
                                                
                                                
oooo    oooo   .oooooo.   ooooo      ooo   .oooooo.    
`888   .8P'   d8P'  `Y8b  `888b.     `8'  d8P'  `Y8b  
 888  d8'    888      888  8 `88b.    8  888          
 88888[      888      888  8   `88b.  8  888          
 888`88b.    888      888  8     `88b.8  888     ooooo
 888  `88b.  `88b    d88'  8       `888  `88.    .88'  
o888o  o888o  `Y8bood8P'  o8o        `8   `Y8bood8P'
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 09:11:32 AM by Etienne MacGyver »

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #95 on: May 01, 2014, 11:07:21 AM »
LOL!!!!. Reminds me of some of those HUGE chain-paper printouts that my mum brought home when they first got a computer at her work which showed a picture of Snoopy using just ASCII characters, pretty amazing really. I totally wonderen How they made that and if that work was all done by hand :):)
That was probably the first print-out of a computer I ever saw, must have been somewhere mid to late 70s.

Naturally there were also less child-friendly drawings like that :)

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #96 on: May 01, 2014, 11:44:49 AM »
This ASCII logo reminds me the ones you've seen when login to *warez* BBS during the Amiga era  ;)
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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #97 on: May 01, 2014, 12:35:26 PM »
Waha, yep, BBSes rocked :)

I don't believe I had a MODEM during my A8 period, think I started when I had the ST, same era like you Bruno :)

My first modem was a 300 baud thing that looked like it was a hobby box. The great thing was that it also supported "viditel" speed, 1200 download, 75 upload, which was great for downloading uhhhhh, public domain programs.man 1200 was SO fast....I mean I could read along at 300 baud but not at 1200 ;););)
Of course I had to connect to a BBS that was in "our" phone region because else you'd get high phone bills.....thank god my dad's phone was paid by the company :):):)
And you had to make sure no-one used the phone when you were connected :)

Remember using Kermit, X,Y and later the amazing Z-modem protocols ? :):)

In the last days of the BBSes some were already running simple graphics protocols, a first baby step to the internet I guess :)

johnsarcade

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #98 on: May 01, 2014, 06:26:49 PM »
Great video John !

The best 8 bit computer ever and the best DK ever !

Doesn't that TV have a composite video input ? You really need to ditch the RF set-up, it sucks even if you could get rid of the static.

Or get a Commodore 1084 or similar monitor for a few bucks and use that,although I understand the nostalgia for your TV.

I bought a 600XL and a 1010 cassette recorder after having owned the 2600. It was my first computer and buying it sent tingles up and down my body. Here I was buying the latest that technology could offer, it was like stepping into another world.

Loved the ATASCII art, kinda forgot about that. ASCII was (still is ?) a standard code that represented characters in a binary format. f.I. The letter A is 65 in decimal, 1000001 binary (ASCII is 7 bits). The system dates back from the very old computers that used punch tape for storage. apart from defining all the letters and numbers there were also lots of codes to control stuff like the cursor etc.
Atari extended on the basic ASCII and used 8 bits IIRC so they could add 128 characters.

The biggest benefit is that an animation like you showed took up very little storage space and thus could be easily transferred over the slow modems of those days.

When I started with the XL I knew nobody at all with the same machine. I decided to go with that machine because I liked Atari (the 2600 and arcade games) and I had seen the C64 at my cousins and didn't like a lot about that machine. However, the definite moment that I decided I wanted this machine was when I played DK for the first time on it. I just HAD to have that, because it blew away the Colecovison version which I considered the best home version until then. It was also one of the rare original cartridges I bought very quickly.
I learned a LOT from this machine because basically I couldn't get any pirate software for it for some time, but very soon an Atari club was erected in Holland and I got in contact with local guys (one is still a good friend) and soon the tapes and later the floppies were going around....we ended up having contacts in the US and Australia and floppies were flying all over the globe :):):)

Really hope you'll do more A8 videos, may I suggest showing some of the best games on it: Alley Cat, Star Raiders, Bounty Bob Strikes Back, Dropzone, Mr.Robot, Berzerk and the countless of great arcade conversions.

By the way, I never knew Gauntlet got released for it. Not that I'm a big fan of that game.

Drol was one of my favorites too ! I first found the name vey weird though because in Dutch "drol" is a pile of shit  ;D

I am VERY jealous of your Indus GT drive. I clearly remember seeing an ad for it in American Atari magazines that I bought here and I was like drooling over that page sized ad for sometimes like 10 minutes. All we got here was Atari's 1050 which wasn't bad bit still very expensive for a school kid, it took years before I could buy one.

You need a better joystick to come close to my WR buddy, get a Suzo Competition Pro ! :)


Yeah, I'm gonna buy one of those joysticks! Are they easy to find?

I traded my friend my Atari 1050 for his Indus GT. To this day I still don't know why he wanted to do the trade. I remember those ads for that drive in Antic magazine. They really made the thing seem like a sports car.

I need to go through my games, I don't remember what was good. I do remember LOVING Mr. Robot, though! That game was great. Also, I remember Gauntlet being REALLY good.

Anyways, I will be doing more A8 vids soon!

BTW -- there is a guy local to me selling a Commodore 64, floppy drive, and the c64 monitor for $150.00. I'm thinking about buying it for the monitor and selling all the c64 stuff. I wonder if it's worth the effort. However, I did buy an Atari Video plug cable on ebay. I wonder if that will fix my static.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 06:30:44 PM by johnsarcade »

johnsarcade

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #99 on: May 01, 2014, 06:28:26 PM »
Waha, yep, BBSes rocked :)

I don't believe I had a MODEM during my A8 period, think I started when I had the ST, same era like you Bruno :)

My first modem was a 300 baud thing that looked like it was a hobby box. The great thing was that it also supported "viditel" speed, 1200 download, 75 upload, which was great for downloading uhhhhh, public domain programs.man 1200 was SO fast....I mean I could read along at 300 baud but not at 1200 ;););)
Of course I had to connect to a BBS that was in "our" phone region because else you'd get high phone bills.....thank god my dad's phone was paid by the company :):):)
And you had to make sure no-one used the phone when you were connected :)

Remember using Kermit, X,Y and later the amazing Z-modem protocols ? :):)

In the last days of the BBSes some were already running simple graphics protocols, a first baby step to the internet I guess :)

I just bought a XM301 modem on eBay for $15 shipped. I'm gonna try to connect to some BBSes that are still around. If I'm successful I'll make a video of it!

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #100 on: May 01, 2014, 06:35:16 PM »
You mean you still have an analogue phone line there ?  :o :o :o

Mmmm, well .....maybe it will work through a cable or ADSL phone connection too.....interesting really :)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 06:39:55 PM by Level42 »

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #101 on: May 01, 2014, 06:43:17 PM »
This ASCII logo reminds me the ones you've seen when login to *warez* BBS during the Amiga era  ;)
US Robotics powaâââ!  8)

+1 great memories!!!  :'(

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #102 on: May 01, 2014, 06:58:35 PM »
Wayyyyyyy, to modern and fast that one ;)

ATDT 010-51234558

Man that was a luxury....the modem being able to dial numbers that is (for the younger people here). With my first modem I had to dial with the phone, then throw a switch on the modem as soon as I heard the answering tone of the "receiving" modem on the other side of the line :)


I remember my digital electronics teacher showing a calculation using bandwidths of telephone lines showing what would be the absolute maximum transfer rate over telephone lines. He arrived at something like 1024 baud IIRC. The funny thing was that I had already read that 9600 baud modems were on their way by then. Naturally I told him (lesson learned => teachers do not like students to be smarter then themselves) and he didn't believe me (after all he just "proved" it was impossible).
Next day I showed him the magazine :)

Little did he know about the complicated modulation formats that were necessary for those "faster than possible" speeds :)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 07:10:49 PM by Level42 »

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #103 on: May 01, 2014, 07:57:39 PM »
You mean you still have an analogue phone line there ?  :o :o :o

Mmmm, well .....maybe it will work through a cable or ADSL phone connection too.....interesting really :)

My phone is through my cable company. Will it not work!? Why not? It's just beeps. :)

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Re: YIHAAAAAAA, I AM THE KING OF KONG !!! (On the Atari 8 bit platform)
« Reply #104 on: May 01, 2014, 08:49:56 PM »
If the A/D conversion is good enough I think it should work :)
But maybe they use some audio compression schemes that screw up the beeps signals....no idea....only one way to find out :)

I guess the slower the baudrate the more chance it works. Since the XM301 is 300 bps you may have a good chance :)