In this episode, John and Dave dig into the one John has been waiting for: Atari's full-size THE 800XL reissue from Retro Games. It has a mechanical keyboard, a working cartridge slot, Atari BASIC and M.U.L.E. built in, but no SIO port, no networking, and a white joystick John can't stand. He preordered it anyway. The guys compare it with the C64 Maxi and the upcoming A1200, debate the price, and wonder what that cartridge slot is really for. John also shows off AtariBoy, which runs Game Boy games on his 800XL from a $5 Pico cartridge, and the guys cover the wave of jailbreaks hitting the PS5, Xbox 360 and Switch 2, plus the rumoured $1,800 Xbox.

Then they take on AI and the retro scene: Wind Waker running on an iPhone, synth firmware rewritten in days, and why working with AI feels more like being the foreman than the laborer. Dave follows up on his long-running Commodore 64 recreation of the Mattel handheld football game. With help from Claude, Pro Football II is finally finished and released for the C64, with a VIC-20 version too. Plus Dave's Atari 2600 to C64 conversion of Mr. Run and Jump, a brand-new C64 version of Hatris with original SID music, and John's FPGA video synth with a Commodore 64 filter.

Topics discussed in this episode

- Atari THE 800XL, the full-size reissue from Retro Games, up for preorder

https://link.amazon/B0gVPkWSB

- Pro Football II, Dave's C64 remake of the Mattel handheld football game (free on itch.io)

https://dzille.itch.io/pro-football-ii-c64

- AtariBoy, a Game Boy emulator for the Atari 8-bit that runs from the A8PicoCart

https://github.com/nosty3/AtariBoy

- XDA: Nintendo Switch 2 jailbroken for the first time, with help from AI

https://www.xda-developers.com/nintendo-switch-2-jailbroken-for-first-time-with-help-from-ai/

- Xbox 360 PeerPressure, a software-only softmod

https://github.com/grimdoomer/Xbox360PeerPressure/wiki/Installation

- Destructoid: the next Xbox could cost up to $1,800

https://www.destructoid.com/next-xbox-console-reportedly-2028-could-cost/

- Wind Waker HD Recomp on GitHub

https://github.com/ZeldaWWHDRecomp/ZeldaWWHDRecomp

- Podcast + Discord + Contact

https://the8bitfiles.com