Dancing Bear

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sun May 23, 2004 8:44 pm

IN case you didn't know there was a battle for the Dancing Bear cart on ebay. Item number: 8106195530

And the winner is...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon May 24, 2004 7:19 am

Never seen it before for sale. Might never see it again. You know the drill

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:42 am

Whats idea of this cartridge ?

Bear dance on screen when you press koala pad buttons and other bear play piano ?

Post by **Jeff-20** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:06 am

I wanted it just because it is so strange. You have to play the rom and see. It wouldn't make much sense without the pad.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:19 am

Jeff-20 wrote:I wanted it just because it is so strange. You have to play the rom and see. It wouldn't make much sense without the pad.

Maybe i should try roms one day.. But I like real thing lot more..

--

Tryed it.. for some reason Win Vice works only on full screen for me.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Tue May 25, 2004 3:11 pm

As I hadn't already got a Koalapad and had been meaning to get one, bonus two for one win here really.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed May 26, 2004 2:43 am

While being slightly off-topic, I have a disk with music software for the C64 that requires a Colortone controller (IIRC). It makes absolutely no sense trying a joystick, and I guess neither paddles would work. Dunno about Koalapad, if it holds any similarity to other joyport devices.

It probably was an excellent way of copy protection and making your product unique, but 20 years later when the hardware supposedly is broken or missing, it is much a pain in the butt.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Wed May 26, 2004 2:46 am

Whats 'colortone controller IIRC' ?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed May 26, 2004 2:50 am

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly, a common English acronym on Internet.

Here is a review of the Colortone keyboard (or controller):

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n2/ProductReviews.html

I don't have an image of the unit though.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:39 am

I got my own Dancing Bear and Koalapad boxed from Canada today..

Dancing bear cartridge was little broken, half of connector was inside cartridge, couse little piece of plastic inside cart was broken/lose.. But I could open and fix it. Thanks to Super Glue..

vic user · Post by **vic user** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:54 am

I would love to hear more about the koala pad, and hope you can use it for other programs, especially ones that you write.

chris

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:26 am

Well.. I dont write.. I use.. But I wonder if Dancing Bear was only Vic20 software that used Koalapad.. There must be other software too..

C64 has Koalapaint.. But How about Vic20..

Post by **Jeff-20** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:20 pm

I had a Koala pad, but I didn't know what it was for. I assumed it was a c64-only item and I sold it! (thus increasing the probability of finding a loose Dancing Bear cart)

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 2:32 am

Hm.. I know that one of two control ports on the 64 has slightly more functionality ("light pen" support?) than the other, but I don't know if there are devices you could connect to it which would not be possible to read or address on the VIC.

Koala Paint I dunno, maybe a very limited one using screen fixed colours. I assume there are few docs how the signals work, but maybe one can figure it out yourself and then write software according to the empirical analysis?

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 3:36 am

The KoalaPad comes in 4 flavours... one of which works both on Vic20 and C64, so you can swop them about.

@Mika - how did you open your cart? I had a go and couldn't seem to prise the two halves apart. Mine is suffering the same problem - a broken peg inside so the circuit board is loose. But apart from that, everything was in good condition, even the overlay.