RetroGaming Radio January 2008 Episode Now Available!

[Shane R. Monroe]

Thanks for the correction, Bill. I'm so glad I was incorrect - because the TS 1000 sucked monkey butt

MMC64 looks KICK ASS. Let's get that into the next bits & Bytes.

[Bill_Loguidice]

Thanks for the correction, Bill. I'm so glad I was incorrect - because the TS 1000 sucked monkey butt

MMC64 looks KICK ASS. Let's get that into the next bits & Bytes.

I'm sure our British friends will want to castrate me, but the ZX Spectrum really wasn't much better all things considered. It had an advantage in the UK by being home grown and cheap, particularly since you could use any off-the-shelf cassette recorder. Really though, it can't hold a candle technically to either the Atari 8-bit or C-64 from over here. Of course the former was a non-factor like the Apple II over there, while the C-64 was similarly big over there like it was here. It fascinates me how all the major markets - North America, Europe and Japan - were so different in the late 1970's and mid-80's and how over time those differences began to minimize until you get to today's all but homogenized worldwide market.

And yeah, the MMC64 is pretty great, though obviously not a 1:1 replacement for the 1541-III. Even the first revision several years ago was pretty good, but since the BIOS and other flashable elements get regular updates, it has really evolved into a wonderful, powerful product. Personally I love flash card solutions for classic systems as they're obviously very convenient. Top of my head, from my own collection, not only does the C-64 have one, but also the TI-99/4a, Amiga 600/1200, Color Computer 3 and Apple II/IIgs. And oh yes, our friend the ZX Spectrum... ;-) Of course the list does go on and includes many other types of cable/device transfer solutions, as you're all too aware. I bet it would be pretty useful if someone compiled all the different options for the various systems in one centralized place (and threw videogame systems in there too). I'd love to do it, but have to call "not it" due to time limitations...

[Shane R. Monroe]

Of course, the DTV one would be most convenient .... and all in one C64 ...

[miner2049er]

Thanks for the correction, Bill. I'm so glad I was incorrect - because the TS 1000 sucked monkey butt

The production quality of ZX81s (TS1000s) was so poor that failure rate was high. Even more so with those shipped to the US. The failure rate was estimated to be around 60% of all US units broke, maybe even out of the box.

I'm sure our British friends will want to castrate me, but the ZX Spectrum really wasn't much better all things considered.

It was C64 or Spectrum in the playground, and never the twain shall meet.

[Darksol]

Of course, the DTV one would be most convenient .... and all in one C64 ...

I really wish I had bought more than one DTV. I would have a liked a few more to 'experiment' with.

[Darksol]

Thanks for the correction, Bill. I'm so glad I was incorrect - because the TS 1000 sucked monkey butt

MMC64 looks KICK ASS. Let's get that into the next bits & Bytes.

Shane, the MMC64 has been refreshed and enhanced and now is called the MMCREPLAY.

Check it out

http://www.vesalia.de/e_mmcreplay.htm

[OldSchoolGamer]

Shane, the MMC64 has been refreshed and enhanced and now is called the MMCREPLAY.

Check it out

http://www.vesalia.de/e_mmcreplay.htm

Wow! That's amazing! Just imagine we had such products back in the day!

[Bloodcat]

Good show overall!
Spent the first half printing up some stuff for Heroquest and the latter half doing dishes and eating a small meal.

(I've lost a bit of the poundage myself. Around 50 in a year's time with little extra exercise. The trick? GET RID OF THE SNACKABLES. If I can't nibble, I can't be Mr Piggy.)

Cool bit on those C64 virtual drive solutions. Too bad I got rid of my 64 16 years ago and have seen little need to rebuy one. With floppies and all its easier to just use an emulator. Faster too.

(I could also mention Armchair's Apple 2 retrospective except Apple computers always were overpriced underpowered suck machines. Everything Apple 2 had the C64 had BETTER. It wasn't till OSX that Apple finally had a machine worth their obscenely high prices.)

Old disk computers are just too annoying to use these days.

Admitted if I had unlimited time and money I would probably have an Apple IIGS with an extra 5.25 drive, a C128D with a 1581, Amiga 2000 with 2 drives and a Video Toaster (That I would never have the ability to use...), a Mac 2, a Pentium Pro 150 with MS Dos 6.0, and an 800mhz Pentium 3 PC with Windows 98SE and a Voodoo 5 5500 all arrayed in a computer room setup so I could retrogame my little heart out. (Course I would have a sick XP machine for current PC games, and my current iMac for actually doing stuff.)

Then I would have the mega console set up too.

But I have neither the time nor the money, so this little dealie won't ever happen.

Hell, I hardly play current games I buy, much less going back to the classics for anything more than a quick bit of nostalgia..

And it sounds like Shane actually had GOOD memories of his computer gaming days.

Most of mine involve people trying to steal/destroy my disks, or me sitting alone playing them by myself...

[Galaga will never die]

Very strong season opener, with good balance of content, nice work guys once again.

[BydoEmpire]

Go to listen to most of the show this weekend - great as always! I loved the 'c64 friends' editorial. I think almost all of my friends growing up were through either computers or video games. Trading c64 and Apple 2 games was big for years, and later on we'd drag our Amiga's to Steve's house for some linked Psygnosis games.

One nitpick for Shane - there were more Intellivision arcade ports than you give the system credit for. Most Coleco titles like Donkey Kong and Carnival were available on the Inty, as well as a bunch of Parker Brothers games like Frogger and Q*Bert. Later in its life it even got some Atarisoft titles like Pac Man. Of course, Intellivision Burgertime is one of the best home->arcade ports of its day.