BBG Boulder Dash will cease being sold on AtariAge on December 12th 2024.

A little while ago I turned 60 years old. I don't feel 60 - that's old man age!

But, turning a certain age does give one pause to think about "what's next", and what one's true priorities are. I feel like I've been central to Atari 2600 for almost 30 years now, that I've been a significant contributor in helping keep the platform remembered, relevant, and loved.

I adored creating new and interesting graphical effects and "showing off" my work. I also loved helping others program the machine, and sharing my knowledge. Over the years I've seen brilliant programmers come and go, who have left me in awe at their prowess and creations. And I've forged partnerships with some in various fields of Atari 2600 hardware and software. It's been a great pleasure working with Thomas, seeing ZPH thrive and survive, working with Wolfgang on the PlusCart, Rob on the MovieCart, seeing Albert build up AtariAge into the behemoth that it became - Bomberman for his testing, and many more. How could I forget JetSetIlly - and his amazing Gopher2600 emulator, which it has been my great pleasure to be a tester for. Apologies if I haven't named you all individually - there are so many over such a long time. What a great community of people.

And of course, I've had very unpleasant dealings with Atari the company. I'm not a fan. They did offer an "apology" which I found superficial, insulting, and self-serving. Pretty much the ubiquitous "straw" for me; they could have fixed things with a bit of genunie sincerity, and at no cost. So sad.

I am delighted to have as my last formal "release" the "Boulder Dash 2 DEMO" that I did a few months back. It's got some nifty stuff happening. Although benefiting from ARM on the cartridge, I still feel it is a genuine '2600 title which used the TIA in innovative ways to create amazing gameplay and graphics. That one will be my legacy, I think - although very very few people seem to know about it. Probably because by that stage I had abandoned AtariAge forums.

Writing such software is not easy, but of course nobody owes me anything for doing so. I did that sort of stuff for my own enjoyment. And yet, the feedback (or even "thanks") I received from those recipients was minimal. And I kinda feel hypocritical for saying that - on the one hand yes I do it for me, not for plaudits -- but on the other hand how much do you give before feeling you're being "used". One has to ask "why are you doing this stuff?" So, with that said I think anyone reading will realise I've decided to retire from Atari 2600 development. Call it an extended break, if you like. But at this stage it feels permanent.

I'm putting this out there in public because I've had a few enquiries asking if I am OK.  No, I am definitely not OK really; this feels like a loss of a longtime friend to me. But it's time, I'm pretty sure.

Excellent presentation. I learned about C.A.V.E Apocalypse. I had not noticed it before and the ability to share levels is a great idea.

Here's the video of my talk about the PlusCart.

That's great, I'm also looking for this solution, thanks.

Thanks! RL intruded, need to get back to this to finish it up.

Quote from: Thomas Jentzsch on 03 Oct 2024, 02:42 AME.g. Is it really a good idea to put everything into one device? If an important part fails, can you repair it, or is everything lost then?

I think the main appeal of something like that would be the aestetics: the style of this monitor fits better on top of a vintage computer than a modern black 16:9 flat panel with a converter/scaler on the side.

The real question for our user case (the 2600) is how well the scaler can cope with the out-of-specs signal from some of the 2600 games (variable VSYNC timings and framerate). AFAIK the ones currently available are hit and miss, and I feel this device isn't introducing anything new in that regard, but just integrating existing solutions into a new nice looking package.

I'm more interested in functionality over aestetics (and in any case I find it too expensive for my tastes), so I'd prefer the convenience of a separate converter that I can connect to different TVs or monitors.

Quote from: JetSetIlly on 03 Oct 2024, 03:39 AMWhat I didn't realise when I posted the video this morning, was that you can buy standalone RF-to-HDMI converters for relatively little money. In hindsight, I'm more likely to be interested in one of those.

AFAIK those are no better than the RF tuner built into modern digital  TVs, so useful if your TV doesn't support analog RF (or if you want to use it with a monitor) but not ideal for retroconsoles. For example, they typycally don't recognize the progressive signal from the console and treat it as interlaced, applying a deinterlacing filter which degrades the image and produces artifacts in case of game using flickering.

Quote from: Thomas Jentzsch on 03 Oct 2024, 02:42 AME.g. Is it really a good idea to put everything into one device? If an important part fails, can you repair it, or is everything lost then?

It seems pretty modular by the looks of it. But that's maybe it's downfall. What I didn't realise when I posted the video this morning, was that you can buy standalone RF-to-HDMI converters for relatively little money. In hindsight, I'm more likely to be interested in one of those.

Still it might be a good solution for somebody.

Quote from: Bomberman94 on 02 Oct 2024, 07:25 PMNo input lag? And what is still missing: the possibility to rotate the screen 90 degrees.

There's little input lag according to the video but I suppose there must be some lag when compared to a real CRT.

Hm, I am sceptic.

E.g. Is it really a good idea to put everything into one device? If an important part fails, can you repair it, or is everything lost then?

Also I partially felt like being in a home shopping channel.

Very nice!