More Fun With the Commodore 1084 Monitor!

A while back in my Atari 8 bit project, I covered our main solution to video display, the mighty Commodore 1084 Monitor.  http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2011/11/lets-play-party-like-its-1987-lets_19.html  (If you want to go back and look.)

And even further back I covered various video options for the Super Nintendo : http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2010/07/retro-video-game-video-part-1-quick.html

Well, the Commodore 1084 (sadly mine isn't the boss as hell S Stereo model.  Heck, I believe I spotted one of those in Paranormal Activity 3.  It was like the only good thing about that movie.  And I didn't even have to pay to see it!  That or I am a really big dork.) continues to prove it's worth.  Those composite/Chroma/Luma cables on the back continue to be my friend.

I did both Chroma/Luma and Composite tests with the Genesis that came out quite nice to the point I am not sure which is which:

I didn't write down which one was which but.. both look very good.  See, the Genesis has the same video out pin system as the Atari 8 bit so I gave it a try and it works.  Sadly the S Video cable from the Atari did not seem to work with my October 89 Genesis.  Oh well.  I can play Genesis and Master System and Sega CD titles nicely now.

Yet there is another system I can muck about with that I have a cable that does let me do S Video.  I already said which one, the SNES.

So I hooked up this Gamestop Universal Cable Thingie I got for under 10 bucks a couple years ago and saw if my SNES would be groovy with it.  Now, I am unsure if it is doing proper Chroma/Luma inputs or standard Stereo A/V Composite.  It does have S Video output though.  So maybe?

Well, with my shoddy camera pointed at the screen and a couple of recent retro pickups, let us see how it looks eh?

(As always, click for larger.)

 Batman Returns was my first try.  Now the colors and brightness had to be adjusted, which the 1084 makes a snap.  However with a proper suite of vivid colors and a fair brightness there is a little bit of color bleed.  But.. it is sharp and crisp even as a camera pointed at the screen.  I mean the text is all fully readable.

 The character select screen for Ninja Warriors (a hidden classic IMHO).  Plenty of sharp detail here too.

 The Kunoichi's reds kind of bleed a lot but.. tons of detail and all the text is readable.

 Heck, you can see the buttons on the telephones!   I had trouble getting any cool action shots as the game dims when you pause.  So the few shots I could get were ones without anything going on.

 Me about to beat the final boss (after a half dozen or more tries to figure out his gimmick).  

 And the blue Ninja character in Hard mode.  Again a little bleed on the bright blue but otherwise it is sharp and clean.

Mode 7 scaling and rotation graphics look good too!  Some bleed on the bright red biplane but you can make out pixels and everything.

So a good monitor with RGB, Composite, and Chroma/Luma inputs like the Commodore 1084 can be a great authentic feeling while still looking good solution to much of your retro gaming and computing needs.

Perhaps I will cover this again soon with more Genesis/SMS titles and maybe even test out some light guns? Possibly the Nintendo 64 which also uses the same video output plug as the SNES as does the Gamecube?  Maybe even get the Super Game Boy and compare the Game Boy Gamecube player and the SNES one?  Maybe do a little 3d polygonal test with the 32x, SuperFX Chip games, and the one big 3d game on the Genny itself?

See not only is it good to see what great video output you can get, but its more time PLAYING the games as you try things out.

But here is some info that started the Genesis thing.  Info from an old source:

Back in the 90s, the hated Electronic Gaming Monthly had extra magazines.  One of which was this one dedicated to Sega systems.  (I hated them because their way of doing things effectively killed the superior Videogames and Computer Entertainment, a magazine that reviewed the games out NOW with in depth writing and coverage as opposed to EGM which had tiny paragraph scores and was more interested in THINGS COMING OUT IN THE FUTURE MOSTLY FROM JAPAN YOU WON'T EVER PLAY.)

 And there was this little article.  It was in fact the first time I had ever heard of S Video.  It was something to ooh and ahh over.  And then go back to playing on a cable ready RF jack.  For the next decade plus.

(What shames me is the living room TV we had from the mid 90s till I replaced it in 06/07 with a HDTV had  S Video and I NEVER KNEW IT.)

And here is the Atari 130XE manual's picture of it's monitor jack plugs.

Knowledge is power folks.  I bring you that.  And also a lot of swearing because the 6th and 7th level bosses to Ninja Warriors were cheap SOBs.

Game Collection: MM OH NO LET'S GO CRAZAAAY,

Let's spend 10-15 dollars a month!  Let's put money into a grindy and pointless array of online multiplayer games where you lose everything if you quit paying or the game goes defunct!

Yep.  Today we are covering the most maligned and embarrassing set of games I own.  MMOs.

Short for Massively Multiplayer Online , these games were something new and exciting in the late 90s to mid 00s.  Now?  Most fail miserably unless they are free to download and have you spend real money for in game things.  And I generally have trouble even enjoying them throughout their free trial sections.  It is another genre of gaming that I just don't care about any more.

Outside of the game that will show up whenever I cover one of the most important and beloved RPGs ever to be put on silicon and magnetic disk, this is all of the physical copy MMO software I own.  Much of which is completely useless outside of being a collectible or giving me maps and stuff I could mine for tabletop RPGs and the like.

Here we have America's Army, which was a multiplayer FPS mostly paid for by taxpayer funds to try to kind of promote joining the Army.  As this came out during the GW Bush administration they needed any help they could get.  Anarchy Online was a sci fi RPG mostly famous for being buggy and unplayable.  By the time I bought this version it was pretty playable and amusing for a month.  Asheron's Call Dark Majesty was the updated Asheron's Call.  An RPG with very bad graphics (even for the time and this rendition's updated textures), but it had one of the best and least grindy character advancement systems ever.  You could basically spend XP on anything and improve it.  Want to run faster?  Ok, spend XP on your Run skill. Jump higher?  Likewise.  A very fun game in spite of looking like a high res PS1 game.  Plus the game world changed as the seasons did in real life.  Dark Age of Camelot was an ok improvement on the Everquest Dikumud mold but I played it for a single month, mostly to support Lum the Mad, a guy who wrote the funniest and smartest things about the early MMOs before working for the company that made this game.  He was working on it so I wanted to support him.

 City of Heroes and its main expansion City of Villains were RPGs with the BEST real time combat system and amazing character creation to make your own super hero or villain.  The problem was that was really all there was to do.  Kill stuff with cool powers and combos, get a few more, do it again.  It is now defunct.  Everquest is the first MMORPG to really get the genre rolling taking out many of the flaws of Ultima Online but using the Diku Mud format to make it a brutally hard and grindy experience where you made your basic class and race and got new stuff and level upped only to be required at a certain point to team up with people and then spend hours on boring raids against bosses who were super hard to kill and needed dozens or more people coordinating to kill it to get one silly item that didn't always drop off the corpse.  Also you could die within minutes via falling off walkways with no railings from the start of the game.  Yeah.

And did I mention you would lose XP if you died after a certain point?  And in many cases one death could wipe out HOURS of XP gain?

 Final Fantasy 11 is the anime version of Everquest that is slightly less abusive while still being slow, grindy, and full of raiding and XP loss on death.  As one person from a Lum the Mad spinoff community put it, "The game for furry midget lovers".  Guild Wars is the only game here I may go back to.  It was a mixture of a free to play game and an offline title based around multiplayer combat but with a storyline mode you could do solo or with friends.  But always online.  The design concept is you would keep buying new expansions to keep the game going.  Buy the game and no subscriptions.  Neat. Star Wars Galaxies (V1) was the slow and BOOORING MMO in the classic Star Wars timeline.  Everything you did required other people.  From healing wounds to fighting anything it was anti solo player.  Even buying any gear.  Yet there was almost no content otherwise.  The entire game was a social experiment where the players were basically tasked with making the content by hanging out and roleplaying with a handful of things to shoot and a PVP faction mode that was rarely used.  They made an action space expansion that was buggy and bombed and then the entire game got a revamp to make it play more like the Diku Mud style nearly every other game in this installment followed to some degree or another.  Which then ran off anyone still playing who liked this style of game and failed to get anyone back who wanted their Star Wars game to involve Jedi and Stormtroopers and not you know, being a Wookie Hairdresser.

And then the final MMO I bought.  The end of the line.  The king of the genre that itself is now leaking players like a spaghetti strainer with water.  The game that did the Diku Mud styled game right so well nearly every other MMORPG that followed it basically copied it and failed miserably, subscription or free.  World of Warcraft.  It looked great with a cartoony style that ran well on most systems.  It was playable on Macs and PCs.  It had practically zero death penalties.  It was fun to play solo or with friends and even had a fair number of PVP options.  But like all these games for me and many others they got boring.

What happened with me?  Well for one I rarely joined up in any guilds or communities.  The few times I played it was either with small forums who weren't on much especially my mostly late night EST availability, or with friends who were almost never on with me or would be on for less than an hour, sometimes falling asleep at the keyboard at 9PM on a weekend!

I am a relatively shy person.  I have trouble reaching out to others and in many cases didn't know or look for communities to join.  And most MMOs, especially RPGs are designed to be hard to play alone, and get boring and tedious as they want to keep you playing as long as possible.

Even though in the end?  THERE IS NO POINT.  No real end to the game unless you count fighting super big bosses or engaging in PVP combat against players who are mostly equated by their equipment as you are.  Nothing you do matters honestly.  There is no real effect on the gameworld for whatever you do.  You might stop a great monster but then "Baron Von Boner", "Bluekakke", "Chronicus Tokesdabong", "Choadbacca", and "Jenna Jameson the Sausage Queen" will be right behind you to kill it in 10 minutes when it respawns.  (By the way.  Only one of those names isn't a name I saw in an MMO.)

And actually role playing in your RPG?  HAHAHA NO.   Almost nobody ever did outside of idiots cybering.  While there was the odd guild or group I hung out with who did some RP it was generally just tryhards wanting to get better gear and kill faster, or people being nimrods.

Games with no point full of people reminding me why I am alone a lot, and others sometimes making me happy about it that always require you to play online and usually pay a fee?

Yeah I think I will stick to cheap offline games thanks!

[Review Corner] Geforce 660 Review

As anyone who possibly might care and read this blog knows, I went from being a Mac user from late 05, to  once more back to the game laden arms of the PC in early 11.  Well, when I did this I had to choose an ATI 5770 card as opposed to something beefy because I simply could not afford further.  I have added in more RAM since then and the odd goodie but the video card was my only real bottleneck.

I worked some extra days a few weeks ago so I could get a new card.  Did a little in store web browsing to check prices and info, and chose this special little guy for 250 bucks at Best Buy:

An EVGA Superclocked Geforce GTX 660.  A mixture of price and performance that is right now probably the best card for the money.  While the Ti series is a touch faster, the 660 costs a good 75 dollars less.  Now this card is ONLY sold at Best Buy.  Why?  See sites like Newegg have better prices and selection.  But Best Buy to try to save its flagging fortunes now price matches.  Well instead of selling the normal EVGA card with matching price at 220 they have one that the week I got it was on sale for 250.  What makes it worth the extra?  It is overclocked to run faster but still be stable (something you can do yourself), and it has better chips inside of it.

You see electronics chips sometimes have quality variances of chips on the line.  Some are better than others.  So the Best Buy EVGA cards got better chips, giving you somewhat better performance.

Enough to be worth 30 bucks?  Probably not but being able to drive back to the store if there was an issue, and instant gratification does have some advantages.

Installation:  This was super bloody easy really.

We open up the box and get these goodies.  (Lego Santa not included.)  A pair of simple manuals, a driver disk, a silly metal sticker plate for your PC, and 2 bags of connection wires I didn't open.  

 Of course we should probably read the requirements before buying it right?  My power supply is 650 watts so I am set.  And a Sandy Bridge motherboard (sadly the original one with the possibly defective second hard disk connector..) is gonna have a PCI Express slot.  Power connector too.

 Sadly the box back is mostly a pile of horse pucky and doesn't really TELL you anything.  But we have PhysX for pretty physics stuff in games?  Yay?

 I have to unplug all this stuff from the back of my machine, plus take a few things off the top front USB connectors of my machine, and use the "Tool Free" screws to open up the side, and put it on my sink semi precariously so I can discharge static from my personage and clean out some dust.

 I unscrew the back metal plate from the old card (top), and pushed a tab on the PCI card slot so I can take it out.  See the right tab thingie?  That's what gets locked.  This new card is obviously a bit heavier and longer but it does juuuust fit.  This is also helped because of the power plug being on the long side than the end.  Also the card looks nice and isn't this half opened thing like the 5770 is.

                                 (Push Tab here!)    

                                                                                               (Power cable goes here.)

My monitor uses the DVI-D connector so I put it there.  The covers are a nice touch.  I still feel kind of overwhelmed though.  So many new formats and terminologies while I was in Mac Land.  If I have issues I REALLY feel bad for Joe and Jane Average Consumers!

My Windows 7 Score is pretty good with the 5770.  But the hard drive is kind of pokey and Solid State drives are still too expensive for the price.

 With the normal free version of 3DMark 11 my score in it is kind of meh.  It isn't awful and the tests are generally not slide shows but they are slow and obviously so.

Neverwinter Nights 2 with first expansion in the opening room is 35 FPS before any movement or camera stuff at maximum everything for me.  (1080p)

In this cut scene where I can make a choice I am getting sub 20 FPS.  It gets even worse when the action gets heavy and I am outside and can see a whole lot.

In Dawn of War 2 the test gives me 53.82 average FPS, with 101.19 high, and 14.76 low.

I uninstall all the ATI bits and make it a standard SVGA card thing.  Do the super easy installation I mentioned above, and install the drivers but NOT all the special software for overlocking and whatnot.

The online driver update is.. quite a few versions beyond what the card shipped with.  So more updating.

Ok.  Done.  What sort of heat am I getting?

Graphics is now the maximum score Windows 7 acknowledges.  Sweet!

 3D Mark11 gives me more than DOUBLE the score with a lot smoother graphics.

 Dawn of War 2 shows things weird though.  My average is now 73.29, and a high of 149.1, but my low is 10.96.  Curious.  One would think the card would have sped up the minimum as well but perhaps the demo test is more erratic than it should be for a benchmark tool to pick the best settings to have a good experience.  Or the PhysX thing is actually causing a call that gives the demo a second or two of hard disk access to slow things down.  Still, an average of 73 FPS is super smooth.

 Neverwinter Nights 2 jumps up to 130+ FPS!  WOW.  That is a major improvement.  Major indeed!

Outside in the cut scene is now 66 FPS.  Again more than triple the performance for a card that costs roughly what the 5770 did in early 11.

 This is as slow as Mechwarrior Online gets when things are chaotic.  Normally its nearly a seamless 60 frames per second as is the limit the game imposes.  But not only does it run faster and smoother, but.. it looks better!  Textures I never noticed before, extra shine on surfaces.  More environmental things happening.

I have now had this card for 2 weeks and no trouble.  Doesn't seem to be increasing the noise of the machine or causing any troubles or instabilities.  For less than the price of a Wii U or the price of a PS Vita I made my computer much better at running cutting edge games at higher resolutions at better speeds.

I can HIGHLY recommend this card as it currently stands.  So on my Good-Ok-Bad scale it is solidly GOOD.  If you have a card with a gigabyte or less of RAM on it and are not in SLI or Crossfire mode with it (two cards of the same type linked together) you might really want to consider this card.

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part 4 of 2013: Shall We Play a Game?

The spirit of CREATION got into me so my thoughts in the previous post made me think about finally playing and talking about what I have.  So it is time for us to rock out mightily!

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part 3 of 2013: 18 or so Month Retrospective and Follow Up.

My it has been a damned while since I updated this little project, discounting this mini double update that finished here: http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2013/02/lets-play-party-like-its-1987-lets.html .

I am calling this update a basic "what have I done and where am I going?" post.  I will show off my entire collection as it currently stands, talk a little bit about my experiences, and what I will do next.

First off, my mostly alphabetized and organized games:

When I started my Summer 2012 game organization and photo thing (some of which has appeared on my blog, others still just as photos on Facebook) I tried to organize alphabetically and by type.  At this time these were my cartridge titles.  Centipede, Gateway to Apshai (one of the first action RPGs!), Miner 2049er, Pac Man (a good game.  How the computers could get this amazing title and the Atari 2600 got such an awful port is beyond me.  OH WAIT CORPORATE STUPIDITY.), the best version of River Raid, a good version of Up n Down (but C64 is better.  Prettier sprites and not the flicker.) for the loose cartridges.  For the boxed we have the action strategy classic Archon, the ok Gauntlet clone Dark Chambers which is MUCH prettier on the Atari 7800, an interesting turn based wargame in Eastern Front, a "Frig it, its cheap and I am getting other things from the seller" deal flight sim in Jumbo Jet Pilot, and the unfairly maligned Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle, a game I loved as a kid on the 2600.  I still think it is a fun bit of blasting.

And my loose disks.  Ghostbusters which is solid but not a patch on the C64 version (itself outshone by the Sega Master System), Operation Whirlwind which is another wargame, Pole Position which is a great port of a classic arcade game (and honestly more playable than most emulated collections of it today!), Rescue at Rigel which is another Apshai Engine RPG, 3 freeware titles thanks to a fine Texan from Atari Age sending me disk versions.  (Crownland which is technically amazing but is almost unplayable if you aren't on a PAL machine due to sprite flicker, His Dark Majesty which is a buggy but great wargame, and Yoomp! which is an absolutely BRILLIANT game.)  The Temple of Apshai Trilogy which is a vastly improved remake of the first 3 Apshai games (at least to 1986 standards), and the Microprose WW2 Submarine simulator Silent Service.

Combat Leader is one of the earliest Real Time Strategy titles, F-15 Strike Eagle was the first major Flight Simulator release from Microprose, Gemstone Warrior is an Action RPG that is buggy as sin, Jupiter Mission is a weird but innovative series of minigames (programmed in Basic because Avalon Hill were slackers) set up into a grand adventure over a buttload of disks, Ogre is an amazing rendition of the tabletop classic, Pinball Construction Set is the real founder of the Construction Set and video Pinball subgenres, and Pitstop II on the Commodore 64 is an amazing arcade racing game.  Sadly my SEALED COPY had somehow been stored in a way that rubbed and ruined the disk.  Poopy.

Panzer Jagd is another wargame as is VC. (I think we can guess the topic of each.)  Star Raiders is the amazing for its time first person space flight simulator.  Wargame Construction Set does what it says on the tin.  (It is just less pretty than the ST version, but still way more flexible than WCS 2 and 3 would be on DOS/Win 9x era PCs.)  And then the at the time 3 Cassette titles of which I got Fort Apocalypse to load ONCE because tape loading is pure hell.  I covered Fort Apocalypse as a pair of Youtube videos you might want to watch on my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CaptainRufus .  Zaxxon I never got to load at all.  Temple of Apshai is the original A8 bit version of this founding member of the electronic RPG family.  And it was the apparently rare single tape side loader.  And my annoying 1010 drive ate it.  RAAAGE.

Now for the games I got after this organization.  Now that my collection is getting to the point it no longer fits at all in the small plastic storage tub with lid.  (Even though the disk holder for the loose games sits on top.)

Again, forgive the non Atari 8 bit game pictures in the shots.  I try to save picture space and count this way.  Plus as I tend to get games piecemeal here and there I would have even longer gaps between pictures taken.

First off is Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!  Its a semi real time strategy game using the Apshai engine (again!) where you play as a giant monster getting to stomp around cities.

Great American Cross Country Road Race is an ok for its time racing game.  Mail Order Monsters I haven't gotten to try out yet but its a mixture of Archon, Pokemon, and the previous Crush, Crumble, and Chomp.  Telengard is another AVALON HILL ONLY PROGRAMS IN BASIC game, this time an RPG which is one of the earliest in the genre, another Roguelike styled game based on many of the early mainframe and PLATO type network RPGs folks in our Defense, Science, and University industries might have putzed around with on lunchbreaks.  (We would all never play videogames during work time, especially not with taxpayer dollars.  Nope.)

We see some Tandy Color Computer games that I have before owning the system (I learned my lesson from this Atari mayhem!) and then into the A8 yet again!  I haven't even loaded any of these up so I don't even know if they work.  I have too many projects both fun and essential, not to mention some days and times I just don't have the heart to do anything.  Depression is a BASTARD. :(  Eidolon is one of the first FPS titles as we might know them today, Jumpman is a classic puzzle platformer that was hugely popular in the early 80s, Curse of Ra is an Apshai Engine expansion that seems to have a pirated copy of actual Temple of Apshai meaning my ownership of the eaten tape copy now has some use due to the manual and stuff, and Battle of Chickamauga is another wargame.

And of course those games from my February Ebay shenanigans:  (And friends.  Those being Autoduel and International Karate.  Got em elsewhere.)

Auto Duel whose character disk sadly isn't working right (it is an action RPG based on Car Wars and was one of the first Commodore 64 games I wanted but never got.), Chicken which is a fun little Paddle type game in a lovely translucent red cartridge, Dig Dug the classic arcade game, Flight Simulator II which is the legendary simulator whose installments kept coming up as far as last year's Microsoft Flight, International Karate which is another damn tape game I can't get to bloody load (think a Karate Champ sort of fighting game), Ms Pac Man which continues the Atari computers getting good Pac Man ports, Summer Games which is that old classic sports series that isn't the wagglefest of Track n Field, and Super Huey which is a combat helicopter simulator that isn't half as good as Gunship which was what I got the Christmas I got my Commodore 64 instead of Auto Duel.

Here we have Racing Destruction Set which is the classic arcade racer/construction set that much like Pinball Construction Set would get later sequels from Electronic Arts in the Genesis/SNES days, Realm of Impossibility which is a neat action strategy adventure game, and Superman which is confusing and stupid.

Oh and a few more:

GORF on cartridge with now proper digital joystick controls instead of the gonzo 5200 analog play, and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein!  A game I have been hunting for a good year but it usually goes for 2-3 times what I am willing to pay.  Even though this is just a budget rerelease it will cover me nicely.

Where I am so far:

Well, for one thing I need more time/mental energy to not only try out the games to make sure they all work (so far only Autoduel and Pitstop II don't work and Autoduel may be my fault.  Power strip stuff when it was saving my character.  I just need a new Player disk!) but to properly learn and ENJOY the games.  Right now most of these titles I haven't played for more than 20-30 minutes each outside a few of them.

But that is an issue with my game and media collections as a whole.  I buy more than I make use of, which is probably one of the reasons I am so cheap with how much I am willing to pay.  And then add in storage space, self loathing for buying such silliness, and time to utilize it and its a big give and take situation.

Sure I could just go to one of the great sites full of Atari games and documentation and use like the excellent http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html emulator, but I prefer to be legal and legit as possible.

Even though some games I want like Bounty Bob Strikes Back, Wolfenstein 1 & 2, H.E.R.O., Ultima Series, and SSI RPG/Wargames all tend to go for more than I am willing to pay.  (Activision's Pastfinder is another case.  A case where I have basically decided I probably won't ever own it even though it looks cool.)

For me, 10-25 dollars is around my sweet spot for boxed and complete games.  I am very happy to go under that (obviously) if possible but some of the above even loose go for twice that!

I am trying to be a bit smarter and all.  Heck I am also collecting for the Tandy Color Computer 3, and Texas Intruments TI 99/4a and I won't buy either machine till I get the games I want for a good price.  Same with the MSX 2, Lynx, and Jaguar.  Once I get the games I want for the prices I am willing to pay I will investigate getting the machine.  Or just feeling like I can then emulate the games since I own the game and all.

(Of course I also have other retro electronic game collecting sub themes I do too.  Like Alien franchise, Batman, Castlevania, Hobby Game conversions, and Ultima.)

And yeah, I should probably get a solid state drive solution for the machine too.  http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=23 to use for when even the floppy drive decides to die or the magnetic disks fart out.  As is my cassette games almost never load period and I am always unsure if its the drive, the tapes, or BOTH.  

But it is all part of the fun and challenge.  Its not just about playing the games.  Its not just about amassing a good collection.  It isn't just about the history.  It is all of it plus the DO IT YOURSELF aspect of maintenance and the authenticity of playing on real hardware.

It is a serious love/hate relationship.