From "What's New Now from Ziff Davis" Newsletter (commentary below the excerpt):
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2071091,00.asp

Microsoft seems to have won over skeptical robot developers with the release of its new Robotics Studio product. The product's pretty neat, it lets you program real robots, or virtual instantiations of them that live inside your PC. Even better, it's free to download and play with - you'll just pay when you actually use it to control an autonomous mechatron of your own design. Our story is chock full of details on how Microsoft won over the robotics community, what's new inside the software, and where to download it yourself, for free.

Our friends over at AtariAge have incredible online store deals for the Atari VCS 2600 and Atari 7800 Pro System going on now. Check out the new homebrew stuff! Information below:

ANDRE brings us the latest of his regular updates for the world of ZX81 and Timex Sinclair 1000/1500 fans:

NEW EMULATORS:
New ZX81 emulator for the Nintendo DS! Yes, Nintendo DS owners can now

Spike's Sea Snap Safari: Concept ImageThe prolific homebrew GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex game developers, Vectorzoa, known for cartridges such as "Logo", "Star Sling" and "Spike's Circus" (which I've mentioned previously on Armchair Arcade) have an interesting way for ANYONE to contribute to their next game, "Spike's Sea Snap Safari". While label art and level design contests are popular at AtariAge, this is one of the few times that I've seen one for a non-Atari system.

This looks like fun and hopefully some of the Armchair Arcade faithful will take up the challenge and report on their results. From the Website:

Four-Play (2006, Atari 2600): Title screen for level 1It looks like yet another high quality homebrew title has been released for the venerable Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), this one based on the famous board game, "Connect Four". Nothing terribly earth shattering, but it looks great, has slick packaging and is priced at only $20 through our friends at AtariAge.

Four-Play is a classic board game that has finally made its way to the Atari 2600. Four-Play has easy to learn rules, but don't expect to become a master as easily! Red and Blue take turns dropping marbles into an upright board. The first player to align four marbles horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins! Pit your wits against the computer A.I. at four difficulty levels, or play against a friend in two-player mode.

Includes cartridge and full-color manual. Available in NTSC and PAL60 television formats, please specify above when ordering.

Alien Mind for the ZX81/Sinclair/Timex Computers (16K)ANDRE is back with his regular updates for the Sinclair ZX81/Time Sinclair 1000 series of systems:

"SUDOKU" is available NOW at "http://www.zx-team.de/andre". You can now
play the game on your ZX81 or TS1000. The coding and the graphics are
from Stafford White and the speed from ANDRE***.

A2 News and Notes September, 2006

INDEX
* Just Cloning Around
* Home Expansion
* Curling Up With A Good Book
* Wish You Were There?
* Socket Makeover
* Software News
* Emulation News
* SignOff

-- While making new clones of old Apple II computers has become popular,
clones of Our Favorite Computer aren't new. Apple II clones, especially

Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels (2006) screenshot: ColecoVision - Adam formatNot much more to say here than in the blurbs provided below, but two new cartridge games, "Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels", which is loosely based on the 1981 Rock-Ola arcade game, "Fantasy", and "Schlange CV", which is a "Snake" remake, are available in cartridge form for the ColecoVision/Adam in limited supply from the GameConsoles.com Website. Downloadable trial ROM versions provide a nice demo-before-you-buy option in the emulator of your choice or for direct transfer to a flash device.

Ocean Depths game packaging: for Atari Jaguar CDAmong other updates, prior Armchair Arcade interview subject Carl Forhan and his Songbird Productions is making, among other things, the "Ocean Depths CD" and "Bomb Squad CD" homebrews more widely available for the Atari Jaguar and its CD attachment. Both games are from Starcat Developments in Germany and require a modified Jaguar that can play encrypted CD's or the use of a bypass cartridge (which is the solution that I implement).

The full update with more information is here: