|
| 
Well, the setup is done and the systems are tested. basically set all this up in five episodes of Northern Exposure. :) Now to see what the high score contests are on Atariage.com and see if I can beat the best there.
| | |
| Retro Challenge 2009: The Atari Consoles
For this year in the retrochallenge I have decided to wrap up a goal of mine of having a setup for all the Atari consoles and the ability to play any game. I have the 7800 which also plays 2600 games. I have a 5200, an 800, and Jaguar, and all of these have flash solutions. I have a flash solution for the Lynx on the way.
So today I was getting the stage set for the console placement. I have an entertainment center that originally was wide open, only shelves, but with the use of boards I found, and in some cases use of hard drive magnets, I have come up with a creative way to hide all the DVD cases, wires, and and games. Here we have the cabnet closed, and then the game part opened.. at least an early stage of the gaming section. What you see here are hours of work on the table saw:
 
Yeh it's currently a mess. This is what's known as my Retrochallenge work in progress.
Naturally no retrochallenge would be complete without the implementation of something modern into the retro world, like in this case an LCD screen. I have plans to show the Atari systems, at least the Jaguar, at anime conventions so people can see what the Atari systems were like since many are used to Nintendo, Sega, and beyond. Atari is as mythical as King Arthur to them. Did Atari really exist? Sure it did!!
So at the First Saturday Sidewalk sale there are these guys who buy storage lockers when people let them expire, and go to other auctions, and it was here that I found a LCD screen without the power suply. A Samsung SyncMaster 150mp. Since it was untested and lacked a power supply, I bought it for $20. I found that a GameCube power supply had the 12V DC that the LCD called for, plus more than enough amperage (LCD needed 3 amps, the GC power supply had 3.25 amps.) And I found that if you buy the type T adaptplug from Radio Shack, that sucker will plug right into the GC power supply and be ready to go for this monitor. Sweet eh? Just make sure that the tip is POSITIVE.
So this is the monitor, didn't get the snap shot of the Atari symbol when the 7800 powered up, but it works great! So hopefully in future installments we'll see how all the Atari systems share the same cozy space in the entertainment center. Later all!
| | |
| Surviving Ike...Well, as we here in Dallas all know, Ike was nothing.
It was looking very very threatening.. this hurricane the size of Texas
coming into shore and up I-35, with sustained winds of 30-35 MPH and
gusts to 60 MPH. We were worried.
Galveston got hit good, but now where near the destruction we thought.
And Houston not so bad either.
My friend in Austin said it barely rained. :D
So when it got to Dallas, we got a good shower. Nothing like what we
expected. But MOST disappointing...we get 5 mpg winds, a little rain,
and BOOM the nearby transformer blows, and I'm without power. This
pissed me off that such a little bit could take out my power.
What's more, it did this two more times that day, and once last week. I
was going to complain, but the people who had to keep coming out and
fixing this REALLY traced down the problem this time, and cut the hell
out of a tree along the power line that belonged to a 80 year old woman
[C]ontinue, [N]onStop, [S]top? [C]
two houses down. This seemed to fix the problem.
And me and two other neighbors were working yesterday to chop up the
tree slaughter the electric people did. I mean, they must have cut off
half a tree there. Probably be there again chopping up parts tonight
too.
So I was ready though. I bought batteries to power a radio, and more to
power a TV to run games on my portable Sega Genesis and have my gaming.
My only shortfall, I couldn't find the A/V cord. Well I didn't look
that long. Truth is I was looking at an interesting section in my bible
I've had since I was five that my mom gave me, and it was a section
talking about all the books of the bible. Never noticed that there
before. Started reading it and ... ZZZZZzzzzzz...
Books do that to me. :D Especially when it is raining outside.
We were also doing well... got my 10 pack of tacos from Taco Bell, and
had ice to preserve the frozen foods.. which I only used in the end to
cool some drinks. I've been buying more organic drinks like "Hansens"
Root Beer is pretty good. No Sodium in a lot of cases and good
ingredients. My blood pressure was getting high there for a while, but
it's come down to the normal ranges lately.
Anyway, should have seen me when I went to church this weekend. I was
recording my shows at home, and the power goes off. I turned off the
laptop and grab all the stuff I use to record shows with it (Antenea and
encoder box), raced to church, set things up in a hallway that doesn't
get any traffic, and had the laptop back there continuing to record my
shows. Got one show, and the other was covering hurricane Ike.
Grrrr!!! They pre-empted EMPEREOR'S NEW SCHOOL for coverage on Ike.
Yeh the whole morning went that way. There was another show I record on
Saturday called GOD ROCKS which was pre-empted by a pledge drive. And
unfortunately the race to church from 10 to 10:30 I missed KIRBY. That
kinda sucks.
But it was fun singing at church. I got an IM from a friend of mine out
of the blue, and since Ike was coming in, my other plans (helping a
friend demolish his trailor... or the plans to run the live action
medeval combat society I'm in) were canceled. So I let my friend know I
might be at church this weekend. And naturally she told another friend,
who roped me into singing. Mannnn... I manage to visit for the first
time in two months and they rope me in to sing. :D Wow.
(I'm actually attending a church in another city till Decemeber while I
run that medeval combat thingy I just mentioned, but I do plan on
returning to the church mentioned above. Apparently I've been missed.)
:D
Singing at the church is something I do because I like to kareokee.
This is a lot like that. You stand on stage, which is like kareokee,
and look at words on a big screen, which is like kareokee. So yeh hard
for me to turn this down. :D
Oh yeh, speaking of Kareokee, I really raked in the money Friday. We
had a company picnic, I got $5 just for volunteering to sing, then I got
another $20 for being the first singer. I sang DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW
WHAT TIME IT IS? by Chicago. Later that night, after practicing for
church and doing that Kareokee, I stopped off at a mexican restrarant,
hung with some people I know there, and sang song after song. Got the
$5 prize for being the first non-family member to sing there too. I
really should not accept it in the future since I'm kinda family there
now. But yeh $30 total for singing. Not bad. Still can't quit my day
job. ;)
Doc Clu
| | |
| Good and sad news....Dr. Horrible... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/07/joss-whedons-dr.html And that’s exactly his problem. The title character of the landmark new Web musical, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” played by the lovable and unmenacing Neil Patrick Harris, dreams of gaining admission to the vaunted Evil League of Evil, home of the baddest baddies in the land. But he’s kidding himself. Dr. H. is too skittish to harm innocents or wreak much havoc. The ray guns he invents never seem to work that well, and his cackle is so wimpy he’s hired a voice coach.  Plus, what kind of criminal mastermind has a blog?
[Well ahem... me...] -Clu :) Sad news... Robert Asprin, book writer of the Myth series, Thieves World, Fool's Company, and recently "Dragon's Wild" passes away. :( http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/22/rip-robert-aspirin.html Rest in peace great man who brought us such wonderful escapes from reality, and much laughter that we'll continue enjoying for years to come. | | |
| July 15, 2008Well, this retrochallenge has been fun. For the most part I continue to use my G3 Wallstreet since it is within the bounds of the retrochallenge. The only exception is my G4 Aluminum when it powers up to be my "tivo". I honestly tried to get a G4 card for a 8500 and had bought a firewire card for the 8500, but the G4 card was snipped in the last 3 seconds of the auction, and the G3 doesn't have that fast a refresh. So much for that idea. And like I'm going to miss "How I Met Your Mother" or "Big Bang Theory", or even the Star Trek remastered releases on the weekend. :)
But yeh, viewing YouTube and the graphics heavy MySpace pages of my younger friends has been interesting on the g3, but oh well, I think if there is one thing I like about the Wallstreet it's the keyboard. The G4 aluminum has a cool keyboard, but the G3 Wallstreet just feels better put together, and more sturdy. Didn't realize how I missed that till I started the retrochallenge. I think even after the challenge the G3 will be used for the workhorse machine... typing, playing Mp3's... and I'll leave the video creation and movie watching to the G4.
Always like the Retrochallenge because I find uses for older computers. I think I found the Duo 2300 will be kept at work for audio recordings of radio broadcasts. That will be good. More tinkering on that last bit before this month ends hopefully.
(I plan to repost this on the bClu blog, my TRUE blog, on the retrochallenge BBS. I acutally have more entries there, but didn't want people reading my blog here to think I had been inactive.) ;)
| | |
|
