Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 45

Unboxing and assembly of the AtGames Legends Ultimate Home Arcade Machine – Time Lapse

It took about 48 minutes to assemble the Sam’s Club Special Edition of the AtGames Legends Ultimate Home Arcade. Compare this to around 1 hour and 30 minutes for the Arcade1Up Atari Deluxe Edition 12-in-1 Arcade Cabinet. If you’re a bit handier than I am (and I hope you are) and are better at following directions, you can probably assemble the AtGames cabinet in about 15 minutes or fewer.

The post Unboxing and assembly of the AtGames Legends Ultimate Home Arcade Machine – Time Lapse appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Full Game List for the AtGames Legends Flashback (2019)

What follows is the game list for the 2019 version of the AtGames Legends Flashback console. It contains 100 licensed arcade and console games:

1942
Act-Fancer Cybernetick Hyper Weapon
Aladdin
Artillery Duel
Astro Fantasia
Bad Dudes vs. Dragon-Ninja
Brave Battle Saga: Legend of the Magic Warrior
Break Thru
BurgerTime
Burnin’ Rubber (arcade)
Burnin’ Rubber (ColecoVision)
Champions World Class Soccer
Choplifter!
City Connection
Cluster Buster
Commando
Cosmic Avenger
Crude Buster / Two Crude Dudes /Two Crude (US)
Darwin 4078
DIG DUG
Disco No.1 (Sweet Heart)
Donald in Maui Mallard
Dragonfire
E.D.F. Earth Defense Force
Edward Randy, The Cliffhanger
Exerion
Express Raider (Western Express)
Fighting Ice Hockey
Fix-It Felix, Jr.
Forgotten Worlds
Formation Z
Frenzy
GALAGA
Gargoyles
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
Heavy Barrel
Hoops
HyperDyne side Arms
Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja
Joe & Mac Returns
Judge Dredd 95
Jumpman Junior
Jungle Hunt
Lock ‘n’ Chase
MAPPY
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Meikyu Hunter G (The Real Ghostbusters)
Miner 2049er
Montezuma’s Revenge
Moonsweeper
Nova Blast
Oil’s Well
Omega Race
P-47: The Freedom Fighter
Pepper II
PHELIOS
Pinball Quest
Pirate Ship Higemaru
Pro Bowling
Pro Tennis
RALLY-X
Rod-Land
Rootin’ Tootin’
Saint Dragon
Scrum Try
Secret Agent / Sly Spy
Shoot Out
Side Pocket
Sky Fox
SKY KID
Space Fury
Space Panic
Strider
Super BurgerTime
Super Doubles Tennis
Super Pool III
Super Real Darwin
Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
Sword of Sodan
Terranean
Tetris
Tetris Plus 2
The Astyanax
The Gadget Twins
The Jungle Book
The Lion King
Thunderbolt II
Tinhead
Top Gear 2 (Top Racer 2)
Totally Rad
Tournament Pro Golf
Venture
Victory
Water Margin – The Tale of Clouds and Wind
Zaxxon
Zombies Ate My Neighbors

The post Full Game List for the AtGames Legends Flashback (2019) appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Full Game List for the AtGames Bandai Namco Arcade Blast! (2019)

What follows is the game list for the AtGames Bandai Namco Arcade Blast! (WD3305), available now at major retailers:

Dig Dug (arcade)Galaga (arcade) Galaxian (arcade) Mappy (arcade) New Rally-X (arcade) Pac-Man (arcade) Pac-Mania (arcade) The Tower of Druaga (arcade) Xevious (arcade)



Pac-Man (arcade)

The Blast! series features an HDMI dongle, aka, micro-console, that plugs directly into your display’s HDMI port and is powered over USB. An ergonomic six-button wireless gamepad is used to control all functions.

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Legends Ultimate full-size home arcade machine now available!

The AtGames Legends Ultimate Arcade is now available. Initial roll-out in the US is at Sam’s Club, where demo units and inventory of this special edition is just now starting to appear. These machines should be at all Sam’s Club locations in the US over the next few weeks. Availability of the standard edition from Walmart.com is expected by the first week of November.

For those not following along all this time, the Legends Ultimate is a full-size home arcade machine. There are 350 licensed arcade and console games built-in, as well as all kinds of clever ways to play even more games with the impressive two-player arcade-quality control panel, which features two joysticks, six action buttons each, two spinners, and a trackball.

You can check out the full website, which just went live today, here. More content and features will be added to the site, just like more features and services will continue to be added to the arcade platform itself.

Since it’s a full-size machine, it’s comfortable for two adults to play side-by-side.

The post Legends Ultimate full-size home arcade machine now available! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Full Game List for the AtGames Adventure Flashback Blast! (2019)

What follows is the game list for the AtGames Adventure Flashback Blast! (WD3308), available now at major retailers:

Disney’s Aladdin (Genesis)BurgerTime (Atari 2600)Burnin Rubber, aka, Bump ‘n’ Jump (Atari 2600)Disney’s Donald in Maui Mallard (Genesis)Disney’s Fix-It Felix, Jr. (Disney)Lock ‘n’ Chase (Atari 2600)Maniac Mansion (NES)Tetris (The Tetris Company)Disney’s The Jungle Book (Genesis)Disney’s The Lion King (Genesis)

The Blast! series features an HDMI dongle, aka, micro-console, that plugs directly into your display’s HDMI port and is powered over USB. An ergonomic six-button wireless gamepad is used to control all functions.

The post Full Game List for the AtGames Adventure Flashback Blast! (2019) appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Full Game List for the AtGames Star Flashback Blast! (2019)

What follows is the game list for the AtGames Star Flashback Blast! (WD3309), available now at major retailers:

Astyanax (NES)City Connection (NES)Front Line (Atari 2600)Hoops (NES)Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)Pinball Quest (NES)Polaris (Atari 2600)Rod Land (NES)Space Invaders (AtGames)Star Wars (NES)Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (NES)Totally RAD (NES)

The Blast! series features an HDMI dongle, aka, micro-console, that plugs directly into your display’s HDMI port and is powered over USB. An ergonomic six-button wireless gamepad is used to control all functions.

The post Full Game List for the AtGames Star Flashback Blast! (2019) appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Atari Flashback X (2019) – Upgrade to Support External USB Drives

What follows is a guide on how to upgrade the AtGames Atari Flashback X (2019 model) to support external USB flash drives.

Note that this guide is provided solely as a reference and all responsibility falls on the person performing these actions, including the possibility of damaging your console and voiding your warranty. In other words, you perform these actions solely at your own risk, so make sure you know what you’re doing and are aware of the potential risks.

This unofficial guide is provided as-is with no guarantee or support of any kind (I am not the author). No typos or other possible errors have been corrected and the information that follows is subject to change without further notice.

Begin:

Tools/files you’ll need:

1. Philips head screwdriver

2. “Y cable” (OTG split cable with at least: 1x male 5-pin micro, 1x female 5-pin micro, 1x female Type-A USB, must be able to supply power to the male micro USB):

Tested Y cable Example 1: Amazon linkTested Y cable Example 2: AliExpress link

3. 5-pin Micro to Type A USB cable

4. RKDevTool v2.69 (AndroidTool_Release_v2.69.zip, part of Download Package below )

5. DriverAssistant v4.8 (DriverAssitant_v4.8.zip, part of Download Package below )

6. Firmware image (ar3060_1015.img, part of Download Package below)

Download Package (rename “package-1.pdf” to “package-1.zip” and extract normally, then follow the rest of the steps)Download

7. USB drive

8. Windows PC

Before you start:

Unzip DriverAssistant_v4.8.zip and run DriverInstall.exe to install the driver on your PC.

Step 1

Make sure Atari
Flashback X console is turned
off and use screwdriver to
unscrew the 4 screws at the bottom.

Step 2

Carefully
open the cover without disconnecting any cables inside.

Connect micro USB cable between the console and your
computer.

Unzip AndroidTool_Release_v2.69.zip and run AndroidTool.exe.

Step 3

Press and hold the recovery button on the PCB and power on
the console.

Step 4

Continue to hold the recovery button until the tool shows “Found
One LOADER Device” in its status bar.

Click on the “Upgrade
Firmware” tab and then
click on the “Firmware” button.

Locate the firmware image on your PC, click on
“Upgrade” button and wait
until “Reset Device Success” shows in the status window.

Turn off the console and disconnect it from
your PC.

Step 5

To prepare your USB drive, make sure it uses FAT (FAT32) file system. You can choose this when you format the drive. Make sure your drive uses the MRB partition style*, otherwise the console will not recognize it. (*See Step 5.1 for conversion steps.)

Create a “Game”
directory under the USB drive, make sure the cases are correct or your games
won’t be loaded.

The console only takes game files with “.a26” extension (rename other formats like “.bin” to “.a26” as necessary), make sure you have the correct extension for your files and copy them into the “Game” directory created in the previous step.

Step 5.1 (Optional)

Use the following steps to convert your USB drive to MBR and format it on a Windows PC (Note: This is only necessary if your USB drive is not already correctly formatted for use with the Atari Flashback X.):

Warning: The formatting process means data loss, so please back up anything important before proceeding.

On your keyboard, press “Windows” + “R” at the same time to open “Run” Window, then type “Diskpart” and click “OK” (click Yes if prompted by the User Access Control) to open a command prompt window. Type “list disk” and hit “Enter” to see all disks connected to your computer, and you identify which drive needs to be formatted. Warning: You must choose the correct disk or you risk formatting your PC’s drive. (We will use “disk x” in the following steps.)Type “select disk x” and hit “Enter”, then the command prompt will display a message, “Disk X is now the selected disk”. Type “clean” and press “Enter” to initialize disk.Type “convert mbr” to set disk to use MBR.Type “create partition primary” to add a new partition to the disk.Type “format FS=FAT32 QUICK” to format the new partition to use FAT32.Type “exit” to close the prompt, you are now ready to use the drive.

Step 6

Connect the power cable and the USB drive to the console using the Y cable and turn the console on.

If all goes well,
you should see a new file menu called “Ext. USB Drive” at the bottom left of
the screen with all your games inside.

Enjoy!

The post Atari Flashback X (2019) – Upgrade to Support External USB Drives appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Analogue announces FPGA-based Analogue Pocket handheld – GB, GBC, GBA, Game Gear, NGPC, Atari Lynx, etc.!

Analogue, makers of the Mega SG, Super Nt, and other FPGA-based consoles, just announced the Analogue Pocket, which takes the FPGA concept to a high-resolution handheld. This is exciting news, because, to somewhat simplify the concept, FPGA’s recreate the exact functionality of original hardware. This allows for compatibility that is the same as original hardware with the added benefits of brand new, modern technology.

The handheld, which comes out in 2020, features an amazing 1600×1400 resolution, and native Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridge compatibility. With adapters, it will also work with Sega Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Atari Lynx games! Of course, because it’s an FPGA, it should work with the various flash cartridge options for these platforms as well. Naturally, a dock is also planned, so you can play on your HDTV.

You can check out all the details, including its functionality as a digital audio workstation, on the Analogue website, as well as sign up for notifications.

The post Analogue announces FPGA-based Analogue Pocket handheld – GB, GBC, GBA, Game Gear, NGPC, Atari Lynx, etc.! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Hardware Mod to Support Standard Paddles on Atari Flashback 9 and 9 Gold

What follows is a guide on how to modify the AtGames Atari Flashback 9 and 9 Gold (HDMI versions only) to use standard Atari-style paddle controllers. Without this modification, only Flashback 9-specific paddles may be used. Note that this guide is provided solely as a reference and all responsibility falls on the person performing the modifications, with any such modifications voiding all warranties. In other words, you perform these actions at your own risk, so make sure you know what you’re doing and know the potential risks.

This unofficial guide is provided as-is with no guarantee of any kind (I am not the author). No typos or other possible errors have been corrected and the information that follows is subject to change without further notice.

Begin:

PDF version to download: Atari-Flashback-9-and-9-Gold-HW-mod-for-paddleDownload

The following will guide the user to perform some hardware changes needed for the Atari Flashback 9 products to work with Atari paddles.

Note this guide assumes
you are familiar with soldering electronics, DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU ARE NOT
FAMILIAR WITH THE TOOLS.

Before you start…

Please have the following
ready before moving onto the next section

Soldering ironSolder Philips screwdriverSmall pliers4x 510K 1% 0402 SMD resistors 

Update Procedure

1. Unscrew all the screws from the bottom of the unit.

2. Disconnect the ribbon cables from the PCB boards (pull in the direction of the yellow arrow).

3. Disconnect the second ribbon cable from the PCB board by flipping the black notch indicated by the yellow arrow away from the PCB.

4. Disconnect more screws from the case to remove the PCB board from the unit.

It should look like this once removed:

5. Heat the soldering iron and replace the resistors R103 to R106 on the schematics with the new 510K ones.

6. Follow steps 1-4 to reconnect all the cables and put the unit back together. Your device is now ready for the standard Atari-style paddle controllers.

The post Hardware Mod to Support Standard Paddles on Atari Flashback 9 and 9 Gold appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

fullSTEAMahead365 – One Paragraph Short Stories 2019 – Submit Your Own Story Now!

We’re highlighting this contest from our sister site, fullSTEAMahead365. You can read the post directly on the site, here, and it’s also reproduced below. Enjoy!

Back in 2007, on our sister site, Armchair Arcade, we ran a small “contest” called One Paragraph Short Stories. Although that posting no longer exists on that older version of the website, the Google cache is there for you to check out the original post. Although there were only six submissions at the time, it proved extremely popular, generating around 300,000 views.

Interestingly, several of those stories have lived on and been posted, shared, and enjoyed elsewhere. In fact, I was reminded of this concept because I found out today that one of my stories, A Simple Diversion, has proven popular over in the Philippines as part of college assignments (Perhaps it’s the twist ending and how to properly interpret it from a different culture?).

Although we did run another One Paragraph Short Stories contest that was videogame-themed after the initial 2017 event, I never did revisit the concept again like I wanted to. Now that’s about to change with One Paragraph Short Stories 2019.

I’ll be accepting submissions until November 17, 2019. Although not a contest in the truest sense – this is more for satisfaction, fun, and exposure – I will attempt to have public voting in December so people can choose their favorites.

By submitting, you give us the right to post the story freely as part of this contest/event, but otherwise, you retain full rights to your own work. To state it another way, all we want is the right to post it as part of the event, no strings attached. Your work is your work.

You can post your one paragraph story (in English, please) as a comment to this blog or submit it to me directly via our Contact Us form (be sure to include your full name so we can attribute it to your story). Please make sure it’s one paragraph and one paragraph only on any fiction topic or theme and that you submit your best work, which of course means already having it edited and spell checked. Multiple submissions from the same person are fine. Please note that we do reserve the right to refuse posting submissions for any reason.

Remember to tell your friends and family to participate. Everyone is welcome to submit a story (“bonus points” for creative concepts and titles!), which I’ll release in collated groups in new posts based on submission date and before actual voting begins. Thanks!

For your reference, as well as for the purpose of providing examples, I give you my three one paragraph short stories from 2007 (I hope to submit some more of my own for this 2019 event should time permit):

LOVE RINGS TWICE by Bill Loguidice

Theirs was a true love, thought Tony, one to stand the test of time. Eva, his soul-mate, was somehow even more beautiful than the day they first met, he realized. And even though she always seemed to say something interesting, it ultimately didn’t matter, as he was happy just to hear her soft, melodic voice. Someday soon, he imagined, they would have children together, and their love would blossom as a family. These wonderful thoughts made him feel warm and tingly inside. Suddenly, without warning, Tony was yanked from his daydream by the doorbell. He let out a long sigh, realizing that that would be the courier with the divorce papers.

A SIMPLE DIVERSION by Bill Loguidice

Jack tried to speak, but failed, the tears beginning to well. Angie tried to speak, but also failed, her face becoming flush. “W-W-W-hat do we do now?” Jack finally stammered. “Don’t know,” Angie responded, barely audible. The two sat staring for a long time, sharing a stunned silence, not really hearing the gentle clicking in the background. How had they reached this point? What went wrong? All had been wonderful just a few moments ago, as they worked as one to reach new levels of success. Then, without warning, it happened, “Disk Error”, flashing repeatedly. Though it was like “Game Over” from so many times before, those words now took on their true, sinister meaning. Having nothing left but time to reflect, Jack and Angie called it a night.

SARAH by Bill Loguidice

Sarah was excited by the prospect of jumping back into the holographic synthesizer. Living long-term aboard a space station was not her idea of paradise, but the pay was irresistible, if not the atmosphere. Now her turn was again up to get away from it all, if only for a few hours. As usual, she wanted to simulate a nighttime float in the creaky row boat on the small lake by her old Earth-bound Florida home. The last time she did it, she just laid back and, though the irony was palpable, simply looked up at the stars. While she loved the light breeze that gently rocked the boat, she did not appreciate the simulated insects, with their all too real bites and buzzing about; Sarah had been on that sterile space station a very long time now. Whoever determined that virtual reality would truly fool the senses only if there was genuine environmental interaction, Sarah thought, probably needed to actually get out more. In any case, this time Sarah bent the rules more than a little by getting one of her programmer friends to hack the system for her and override life simulation on her program. Now she could really relax, just her, the boat and those very distant stars. Sarah happily entered the room, ran the program and within a few seconds, ceased to exist.

The post fullSTEAMahead365 – One Paragraph Short Stories 2019 – Submit Your Own Story Now! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.