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AtariAge is proud to announce that Defender of the Crown and Treasure Island Dizzy are coming to the Atari Jaguar! Both of these chart-topping classic games are now available to pre-order in the AtariAge Store. Each game includes a high-quality, professionally printed box, manual and label, and each is being released in limited quantities (300 copies for Defender of the Crown and 250 for Treasure Island Dizzy).  Defender of the Crown IT IS A TIME OF LEGENDS. A time for heroes. A time of bitter strife, when great men rise above their peers to perform great deeds. A chapter of history is in the making. Your liege the king is dead, the throne vacant. Britain enters a season of destruction, a winter of killing that can end only when the last brave Saxon knight lies dead or the castles of the Normans lie in heaps of rubble, emptied of the foul oppressors that have enslaved your people. It is a time when foreign invaders shall learn truths administered by the shining blades of Saxon swords. It is a time when heroes are made, and legends are born. Defender of the Crown was Cinemaware's first game, making its debut on the Commodore Amiga back in 1986. A strategy computer game designed by Kellyn Beck, it raised the bar for computer graphics in home computer games. Defender of the Crown would be ported to many computer systems and game consoles over time and has now been realized on the Atari Jaguar. Treasure Island Dizzy Dizzy was looking forward to his round-the-world cruise. When he told the other Yolkfolk about the good deal he found, they wondered just what lay ahead of him. Dizzy enjoyed the cruise at first. The captain, Long John Silver, was a lovely old bloke with a kindly manner, good at insulting and degrading the fare paying punters. He was well-balanced -- he had a parrot on one shoulder and a chip on the other. Dizzy thought he would organize a game of cricket on the aft deck. In a fit of blinding stupidity, he used LJ's spare leg collection as makeshift stumps, and when they ere lost overboard he was made to walk the plank! That was how he came to find himself gently poaching on the silent, sun-kissed beach of a seemingly deserted island... He had to somehow find a way back to the Yolkfolk and lodge his compensation claim with the travel agent... Dizzy and The Yolkfolk are characters created by the Oliver Twins, and these characters would appear in many games during the 8 and 16-bit eras. Most of their appearances were in multi-screen platform adventure puzzle games, however, they also appeared in some great arcade games as the title characters. Slowly, over the course of the series, we learn more about this odd little family and help them out of the tricky situations they find themselves in by visiting the many varied locations of their magical world. You can learn more about Defender of the Crown and Treasure Island Dizzy by visiting the AtariAge Store. Discuss online: 69 comments in Atari Jaguar Forum
You've surely seen QR Codes all over the place in the last decade. QR codes are a means of encoding information into a compact, square graphic that can be scanned (usually by cell phones these days) and decoded. Most often these codes are a link to a website, but they can be used to store any manner of information. Atari 2600 fan Seth Robinson recently embarked on the challenge of encoding Atari 2600 games as QR codes stored on paper cards, and then using a camera to decode the game and run it in an emulator. As QR codes can store about 3K of 8-bit data, a 2K Atari 2600 game can easily fit in a standard QR code. Larger 4K games can be encoded using two QR codes, one on each side of the card. You then have to flip the code to load the second half of the game. As a large percentage of Atari 2600 games are either 2K or 4K in size, this allows you to run quite a few games from QR codes. Seth used a Raspberry Pi and a Picamera and open source software to read the "PaperCart" Atari 2600 game cards he printed, and once decoded they are run in the RetroPie Atari 2600 emulator. For all the details about this PaperCart system system (including how to create your own), please visit Seth's Code Dojo page. Discuss online: 53 comments in Atari 2600 Forum
We know that not everyone cares about paying extra for a box when buying new homebrew games. We've updated eight of our latest games for the 2600 and 5200 in the AtariAge Store so you can now buy them without the box. These games still come with a high-quality label and manual, but the box is now optional. Here are the games: 
Here's a list of the games:
Discuss online: 28 comments in Atari 2600 Forum
 A new release of the A7800 Atari 7800 emulator is now available. A7800 is a fork of the MAME Atari 7800 driver, with several enhancements and fixes added:
Discuss online: 56 comments in Atari 7800 Forum
Last fall we released Jeff Minter Classics for the Atari Jaguar, containing two of Jeff Minter's most popular classic computing titles: Llamatron: 2112 and Revenge of the Mutant Camels. The excellent Atari ST versions of these games were brought to the Jaguar by Lawrence Staveley (author of Rebooteroids), joined together by a beautiful menu illustrated by William Thorup. Stunning artwork was also created by William Thorup for the box, manual, label and included double-sided poster. In celebration of Jeff Minter's announcement of a Playstation 4 port of Gridrunner, we're excited to reveal that Gridrunner has been hidden inside all copies of Jeff Minter Classics sold to date! We've put together a video that shows how you can unlock Gridrunner. Once you've done so, Gridrunner will be displayed on the menu when the cartridge boots up, so you only need to unlock it once: As an added bonus for Gridrunner, you can choose to use an Amiga or Atari ST mouse (with a proper adapter) to control your ship, in addition to the stock Jaguar controller. Playing Gridrunner with a mouse is a blast! If you don't already have a copy of Jeff Minter Classics, you can pick up a copy in the AtariAge Store. Happy Easter to all Atari Jaguar fans! Discuss online: 51 comments in Atari Jaguar Forum
 Fans of the Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64 and other classic computers may fondly remember the game Stunt Car Racer, a 3D racing game that takes place on an elevated track. In the game, you are dropped onto the track by a crane, and you compete against other computer opponents in a race with no walls to prevent you from going over the sides! There are also gaps in the tracks that you must jump and clear, and care must be taken not to inflict too much damage on your car or your vehicle will be wrecked, causing you to forfeit the race. Now, nearly 30 years after Stunt Car Racer's initial release, it is finally available for Atari 8-bit computers! AtariAge members Fandal and Irgendwer have crafted a fantastic port of the game for Atari 8-bit computers, using the Commodore 64 version as a starting point. This new version of Stunt Car Racer contains all the features of the Commodore 64 version, as well as:
Discuss online: 468 comments in Atari 8-Bit Computers Forum
 AtariAge members MortoffGames and Clint Thompson are exploring the possibility of recreating the highly sought-after Jaguar Pro-Controller. The Atari Jaguar Pro Controller is similar in appearance to the standard Jaguar controller, but adds three new action buttons (X, Y, and Z) as well as two shoulder buttons (L and R) at the top of the unit. These new buttons are mapped to buttons on the keypad. The dpad and buttons on the Jaguar Pro Controller are also improved over the original controller. Several later Jaguar games include support for the Jaguar Pro Controller's button configuration, but even older games such as Alien vs. Predator benefit from the additional buttons.
Jaguar Pro Controllers are currently selling for over $200 on eBay. The price for these new controllers will be $60, and they will be sold in sets of two to help meet the minimum manufacturing requirements. If you'd like to express interest in purchasing one or more sets, please send a message with your full name and e-mail address by December 31st, 2017 to jagprocontroller@gmail.com. You can learn more details about the project and track its progress in our Atari Jaguar Forum. Discuss online: 460 comments in Atari Jaguar Forum
 Free Play Florida 2017 is a three day celebration of the history, artistry, competition, and creation of electronic gaming of all kinds driven by the enthusiastic gamers of the south east. Free Play Florida features 200 arcade and pinball games, hundreds of consoles, and countless things to learn, play and see! This November 17th thru the 19th, Free Play Florida is being held in Orlando at the beautiful DoubleTree Sea World by Hilton right off I-4 and International Drive. Many current and classic and current pinball and arcade games will be on display, all set to free play! Join the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) sanctioned pinball tournament and compete with the best in the state of Florida, sit in on speaker panels that include industry icons, and visit vendors selling parts, memorabilia, and some of the coolest themed art on the planet! AtariAge will be present for the first time at this year's Free Play Florida, with all the new homebrew games we had for sale at last month's Portland Retro Gaming Expo, as well as games that were released in the AtariAge Store back in June. We'll also have several systems setup so you can play our latest homebrew games. If you're an Atari 2600 fan, be sure to check out the FPF 2017 Atari Cartridge being made available at the show. This is a limited edition hack of Midnight Magic (modified by Scott Dayton of NEO Games), complete with cartridge, manual and box. Proceeds benefit Free Play Florida (a non-profit organization), to help them continue offering this great event in the future! A few copies are still available for purchase online, and once those are gone, the only way to obtain a copy will be to purchase one at the show. To learn more, please visit the Free Play Florida website. Hope to see you there! Discuss online: 28 comments in Events Forum
If you're an Atari Jaguar fan, we have three new Jaguar games we'll be selling for the first time at this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo, taking place October 20-22! The three titles are Jeff Minter Classics (containing Llamatron 2112 and Revenge of the Mutant Camels), Escape 2042, and AstroStorm. Each game features a high-quality, professionally printed box, manual and cartridge label. Jeff Minter Classics also includes a double-sided poster featuring the stunning box art created by William Thorup for the package. 
More information about each game below: Jeff Minter Classics For the first time on the Atari Jaguar, experience Jeff Minter's classic games "Llamatron 2112" and "Revenge of the Mutant Camels". Both games have been brought to the platform with the full blessing of Jeff Minter himself and are contained on a single cartridge. Llamatron 2112: You play the part of a totally hard laser-spitting llama. Your mission is to collect all the tiny sheep, llamas, camels and goats you see on each wave. Standing in your way are great herds of unintelligent but numerous Grunt enemies, plus a veritable menagerie of nasty creeps which fire at you, dodge your fire, emit fire hydrants, try to ram you, murder your llamas and shoot your ass off with lasers. Kill them deadly. Not everything can be killed, and some enemies take more than one shot to destroy. Your ultimate objective - destroy the Ozric Tentacle of level 99 and get to Herd Heaven on level 100. Revenge of the Mutant Camels: You are a rather threadbare-looking camel. If you are playing CPU Assist or Two-Player, you are accompanied by a large shaggy goat creature called an Ancipital. You are the Good Guys. Your mission is simple: stay alive through 42 zones of 7km each. These zones are populated by rampant telephone kiosks, skiing kangaroos, butch Greenham Common Peace Women, manic Minters, flying sheep and all the usual nonsense. These are the Bad Guys. They try to kill you off and you, naturally, and in keeping with the traditionally calm, rational, and thoughtful nature of videogames, get to waste them with lots of spectacularly destructive weaponry. AstroStorm Sometime in the future, aliens arrive. A high quantity of large rocks have started raining from the sky causing devastation all around Earth. You must command the Earth Defense Craft to search our solar system and destroy any anomalous rocks or aliens before it's too late. Is this our last stand? AstroStrom features a campaign story with 40 levels, skirmish mode with random levels, arcade modes for quick pick up and play, a mix of gameplay styles between shooting and space flying, powerups you can activate at strategic moments, separate scoreboards for each game type, and more! Escape 2042 In the year 2042, a socialist government is in power, but nobody had foreseen the progressive dictatorship that settled in. The elites of the government hid behind a sham democracy, disconnected from the life the people were leading, and acted solely in their own interests. The regime considered the dissidents as conspiracy theorists, treated them like terrorists and locked them away in highly-secured prisons. You are Shun, a computer engineer and member of the Truth Defenders coalition. After a clandestine operation to inform the people, you are locked away in the highly-secured prison Bulor 24. But your knowledge on security systems will enable you to escape. Your turn now to escape as fast as you can from this place! Escape 2042 game takes place in three different environments (prison, desert, forest) and is interspersed with two mini-games, including a reversed “Shoot’em Up” and an original rappelling game! Avoid the security cameras, collect grenades to get rid of your enemies, and exercise your working memory by hacking the computers of the prison to unlock the doors or to deactivate the safety systems. For those unable to attend the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, we'll be adding all three of these titles to the AtariAge Store in November. Discuss online: 84 comments in Atari Jaguar Forum
AtariAge will introduce several new homebrew games at the upcoming Portland Retro Gaming Expo, taking place October 20-22! For the Atari 2600, we will be selling three new titles: Super Cobra Arcade, Space Cactus Canyon, and Draconian. Each game features a high-quality, professionally printed box, manual and cartridge label. Draconian and Super Cobra Arcade also include 10" x 14" posters featuring the beautiful box artwork created by Nathan Strum. The first 30 who purchase Draconian at the show will also receive a 3D printed model of the space stations that appear in the game! 
You can learn more about each of these exciting new games below: Super Cobra Arcade  Super Cobra Arcade is a sequel to the classic arcade game Scramble in which the player must navigate their helicopter across a side-scrolling terrain through eleven unique stages. Each stage has its own challenges and obstacles, including tanks, targets, rockets, guided missiles, falling mines, fuel tanks, flying saucers and meteors. The player must avoid or destroy these hazards while maintaining the ship's limited fuel supply. The objective is to reach the end stage, invade the enemy's base and carry away the booty while trying to earn a high score.
Super Cobra Arcade was crafted by John W. Champeau of Champ Games, whose previous Atari 2600 endeavors include Conquest of Mars, Lady Bug, and Scramble. Space Cactus Canyon  The year is 2543. You are the last cactus on earth.
You live in the scorching deserts of the Rocky Mountains in what used to be Alberta, Canada. The heat is nearly unbearable and wildfires are common. The rest of your fellow cacti have moved to a more temperate climate ... on Mars. They have sent a final spaceship to transport you there. Reaching it won't be easy. Water has become Earth's most precious resource, and although you are a cactus, you need every drop. You'll collect the water as you move through the canyons on your way to rendezvous with your rocket. Every so often, you'll even find a bucket of water, and you'll be able to rest for the night. But watch out for the humans! The few that remain after World War XII think they need the water even more than you. And they'll do anything to protect it. Draconian  As pilot of the Space Fighter Draconian, your mission is to destroy enemy space stations – sector by sector – until they’re all wiped out! Your task won’t be easy - the enemy stations will relentlessly attack you with aggressive missiles and a barrage of defensive fire. Formations of missiles will gang up and hunt you down. But if you take out the lead missile, the others will scatter! If you see one of the enemy’s Spy Ships you need to destroy it immediately! If it escapes, it will report your position, and then...the enemy will throw everything it has at you. Can you survive long enough to move onto the next sector? Good luck! The galaxy is counting on you!
Draconian has all of the excitement you’d find in a classic arcade game! Featuring digitized voices, a radar scanner, enemy formation display, over 48 unique sectors, and much, much more! Draconian was created by Darrell Spice, Jr., whose previous works include Medieval Mayhem, Space Rocks, and Stay Frosty 2. The first 30 who purchase the game at the show will receive a 3D printed Draconian space station, courtesy of AtariAge member Tarzilla. If you're not able to make it to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, we'll be adding these games to the AtariAge Store for everyone in November. Watch for another announcement soon for another batch of games to debut at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo! Discuss online: 93 comments in Atari 2600 Forum |
September 24, 2018Did you know?Space Invaders for the 2600 was released with four different labels - Picture, Text, Red, and Silver. AtariAge StoreContestsMailing List |
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