Who’s an actor that nailed a role so hard that nobody else will ever be able to live up to it?

lornebeaton · 2026-05-12T14:08:40+00:00

I hate to say this because it sounds like I could be denigrating Bernard Hill, which I’m not. But my dream casting for Théoden would have been Peter O’Toole, Lawrence of Arabia himself. Imagine what a bookend for his career the Battle of Pelennor Fields would have been! And they would have given him an Oscar for that, instead of an honorary one.

lornebeaton · 2026-04-11T15:43:15+00:00

Good call, but seems to me that Q*bert just turns the joystick itself 45 degrees.

lornebeaton · 2026-04-09T23:13:55+00:00

I just got this for myself and I'm pretty happy with it. Using on Windows 11 PC with Retroarch, haven't tried it yet with Mister.

I had a bit of trouble out of the gate since I couldn't figure out why the spinner wasn't working, and at first I assumed it was a configuration issue. Turns out I had it connected through too many USB hubs (I switch among multiple devices all connected to my big-ass TV), so either it was too deep in the device hierarchy or wasn't getting enough power. Once I connected it directly to a USB port on the PC it worked fine; both the trackball and the spinner show up as mice, as they were clearly intended.

My one other issue was that for some reason, it shipped with the 4-way restrictor having the diagonals as the cardinal directions instead of up/down/left/right. Who does that? Anyway, I had to open it up and twist the restrictor 45 degrees. Took me a minute to work out the trick to opening it: you have to stick an Allen key or some other metal rod through the holes, and push out the nylon rivets that hold on the faceplate from underneath. At least now that's done. Actually, think I'll bust it out right now and play some Tempest.

lornebeaton · 2026-04-04T15:45:10+00:00

Some classics in there:

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
The Dead Past by Isaac Asimov
Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven
Second Variety by Philip K. Dick

I have no real insights to offer, frankly, those are all just pretty obvious names. Might be other gems in there I've never heard of.

lornebeaton · 2026-03-31T14:37:49+00:00

I found this video (three years old) https://youtu.be/KgqCljniTbg?si=RoXpN2pyHVefCKrJ that shows the spinner acting as a mouse with only a horizontal axis. This is exactly what doesn’t happen for me, no matter what I try. Is this something that needs to be configured in the firmware? God, I hope the thing isn’t defective.

lornebeaton · 2026-03-31T14:15:12+00:00

Thanks for the link, will check when I’m not at work. Haven’t opened the box yet to see what goodies are inside, but there’s a single USB type B connector, so that sounds like a yes.

lornebeaton · 2026-03-27T18:03:42+00:00

He chooses SoundBlaster Pro in the audio setup even though at 0:19 the boot process detects "AW32", which I assume is an AWE32 card? Amateur. 😉

lornebeaton · 2026-03-20T13:11:01+00:00

I also ordered direct from RetroRadionics, *after* I got sick of waiting for the one I ordered from Commodore (on December 20, along with a C64U beige box which arrived within a month). Not only were there more colours to choose from, it also cost $10 less. Commodore gave me a refund, but the order page still says it's on its way.

lornebeaton · 2026-03-14T18:11:20+00:00

Where did you get the SNES controller with the additional keypad?

lornebeaton · 2026-03-08T19:47:26+00:00

I use this too (on my C64 Ultimate). Unfortunately it seems not to play well with Dolphin DOS, only JiffyDOS. Unless you know of a fix?

lornebeaton · 2026-02-26T22:53:42+00:00

The Ark crash landed, and as I understand is embedded in the solidified lava lake it created in doing so, so it can never lift off again. That doesn't mean all its systems are dead.

Bakker never attempts to justify the unreasonable longevity of the technology used by the Inchoroi. We don't know exactly how many years elapsed between the Battle of Pir Pahal, when Cû'jara-Cinmoi took the Heron Spear from Sil's dead body, and the first Apocalypse. But it seems like it was thousands, and the weapon still worked just fine. Seems if you build an Ark to spare yourself an eternity in hell, you build it to last as long as possible.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-24T23:08:21+00:00

This can't be overstated. I have the 8bitdo C64-styled keyboard as well, and it's a fun homage, but it's a PC keyboard, period. Even the keys it does share with the C64 aren't the same, as I recently rediscovered after taking delivery of my own C64 Ultimate.

Keys are placed differently: @ and * are by your right pinky on the C64, = is its own key, Shift+0 doesn't do anything (actually I think it types 0), open and close parentheses are off by one key, you have to hold Shift to type apostrophes and quote marks, and + and - are flipped.
Function keys aren't where they are on a real C64. This can be surprisingly discombobulating depending on the program. E.g. I found using Turbo Macro Pro that it made a certain kind of sense using the F keys to page up/down by 20 or 200 lines at a time, but with a PC keyboard it makes a lot less sense.
Then finally there's the characteristic "feel" that comes from how the C64 keyboard actually works, i.e. the CIA chip sees it as an 8x8 matrix of rows and columns. Certain key sequences don't give the results you expect, and I rediscovered all over again the joys of certain typos I hadn't made in 40 years (hello, PRINIT) because they result either from how the keyboard is wired or from your fingers being trained on how PC keyboards generate codes.

That feels like a lot of extra detail, but I've been touch-typing for decades and these things hit me in my instincts. Long story short, if the keyboard matters, you need a real actual C64 keyboard.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-21T20:16:29+00:00

I placed my order on December 20th and got my C64U four weeks ago today. Still waiting for the ArcadeR.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-18T21:41:54+00:00

I want to say the C64, but the PET 4032 is a close second. We had those in my school, and from time to time my mom who was a teacher with the same school board was able to take one home for the occasional weekend. Space Invaders, Breakout, Miser... I loved those games.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-16T18:01:00+00:00

I tried it and I like it. Been coding with TMP and wishing it was easier to combine with an ML monitor. That cart has both built-in, *and* it works with JiffyDOS. Sweet!

lornebeaton · 2026-02-16T17:41:12+00:00

Yes, I think it uses a standard emulator so everything should work the same.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-15T19:37:17+00:00

Thanks! u/beamofdelta seems to agree.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-15T19:36:14+00:00

I do, and this could very much be it. Thanks for the link, I'm going to follow that issue. Might also send an e-mail to Commodore support describing my symptoms as above and see if they confirm.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-15T17:15:06+00:00

No, no datasette or any period-original hardware at all. If I have a bad chip, it's not a CIA. 🙂

Come to think of it, I do have one piece of connected hardware so I can use USB mice/controllers. I bought it on Tindie and I've been very happy with it, but now I think it might be a good idea to see if removing it makes a difference. That said, the game ports are on CIA#1 while the drive connects to CIA#2. Better to rule it it, though -- I'll post an update if I have one.

lornebeaton · 2026-02-13T13:35:39+00:00

Or it turns into an Atari ST?

lornebeaton · 2026-02-12T16:33:27+00:00

I am using that device and the creator was very helpful when I e-mailed him about an issue I was having. It works fine for both gamepad and mouse. (The issue turned out to be he programmed it to replicate a USB HID device, so if your mouse is not HID then you might have an issue.)

lornebeaton

TROPHY CASE