misspent_youth

It's true, though send the letter to his webhost, not him. I believe that's the DMCA process - then they send him a letter telling him to fix it in a few days or they'll take his site down. He had a chance to do the right thing, so eff him. There's likely template letters all around the net.

Though I love the system, I'd have to mention 3DO just because the 'console' was really a set of specs that 3DO licensed to whatever hardware manufacturer wanted to produce one. I mean, a console with Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar's name attached to it? Ugh. On the other hand, it was a novel idea for it's time, and pretty well executed, until Sony came along with the better overall package and the timing that was mentioned earlier. Also, I don't know if it counts as a console, but 32X gets on here. Saturn deserves a dishonorable mention, since it was rushed out with an ill-conceived final design just because they wanted to keep up with the Jonses/Sonys.

I think that a game that is not exactly scary, just really tense, is Space Hulk. It was tense in that kinda way like in Alien or Aliens where you know that there's a ton of aliens out there, your scanner tells you they're close, and you know there's nothing you can do but sit there and wait for them to come. There's many a time in Space Hulk where a particular strategy you've tried is just starting to fail and all you can do is sit there and watch (and listen) as your squad gets overwhelmed. It's tense in a cool way, in that once you complete a particular stage you feel relief as much as you do accomplishment. Mind you, this is just going by memory from 15 years ago or so, so it may not hold up, but I really enjoyed that game.

I just checked my Tac-2, and it is indeed a Robertson Number 1 (the green one). There are 5 sizes of Robertson head screw (the size of the 'square' is different). I know this about Robertson head screws because I'm Canadian, and so is the Robertson head screw.

He could plug them all in at once and use the heat they generate to fill a hot air balloon and sail around the world.

duh. sorry for not reading a little further down in your earlier post kool kitty.

I second this opinion, and also extend my thanks to Yurkie, seeing as how I just received my refurb'd ball-top, straight cord controllers today. Thanks Yurkie!

I'm wondering, I use the variation of this setup that is the RCA-Male to F-Type female (picture below) because it allows you to use a co-axial cable instead of an RCA cable. Is that a better setup than the one you mentioned? I assume co-axial cable is shielded, but frankly I have no idea.

Hi Al, Once you offer this service for ColecoVision, I'm interested in getting repros of Pac-Man, Dig-Dug and Joust. I've already purchased these from you a few years ago, but back then I asked you to send me some uncut labels because I wanted to see if I could put the boards into Atarisoft shells to make them look more authentic. That wasn't possible because the Atarisoft shells join via a screw in the middle, and the carts you made use Coleco-style shells with screws on either side of the board. All of this is a long way of asking if, when you offer this service for ColecoVision games, will you be able to make copies in Atarisoft-style shells? I'd even send you Atarisoft shells if need be, and I'd obviously want the labels to say 'repro' on them somewhere (I'm not looking to rip someone off, I just want a cool set of Atarisoft carts). Whadya think?

I figure the 'franchise' has such a limited appeal that just about anything other than bigger mazes would be blasphemy to the franchise. By limited appeal, I don't mean it's not a fun game, but just that what makes it fun kind of defies any attempts to 'evolve' it. That being said, this seems like another attempt to shoehorn Pac into another gaming genre, like turning Pac-Man into a platformer or slapping on a pinball game.

Thanks to thebiggw for sending these along to me! Way to spread the Atari love around. Great work by the way from the Legacy Engineering team!

I think to carry on in the classic (or should I say "classic") car analogy, switching the cart for a better looking one could be analogous to switching out the beat up seats on a car. The seats aren't numbers matched, and it's just that wee bit more impressive when you can say 'all original' and mean it. However, it's only impressive if you can say it and the car looks good. Honestly, I don't follow classic car auctions very closely but I'd be surprised if swapping out the seats with a better condition (but still OEM) set affected the value in any appreciable manor. I'd rather have nice looking seats than keep the beaters just to say the car is all original.

Tempest, the Iris 6 drawer cabinet you have your 2600 and CV loose carts in, have you had it for a while? I notice that in your picture it fits cartridges nicely standing on end, but most of the ones I find now seem to have smaller drawers that would only ft a cartridge on its side. Granted, I'm in Canada, but even in browsing the Office Max and Staples websites the drawers seem smaller than a cartridge, and the measurements match those of the ones I've seen in person here that don't fit. If at some point you happen to be in your collection room with a tape measure, could you measure the height of the unit? Feel free to tell me to take a flying leap. Still, thanks for the info, as it has at least spurred me on to hit up various office supply stores with carts in hand...Sales people look at me funny when they notice what I'm doing...

Curt, Marty, will this thread get a mention in your book? It kinda merits something (a sidebar maybe?), since it involves some heavyweight pioneers all in the same 'place'.

Curt, of all the cool things I've read about you being involved with over the few years I've been on this board, semi-regular hanging around with Ralph Baer is the coolest. You rock.

Guess this thread got jealous of all the attention Tanner's Air Raid thread generated. TTT

The SuperBowl had more total viewers, but still had a lower rating and audience share than the MASH finale. There are approximately 70 million more Americans now than there were when MASH aired and 30 million more televisions, yet only 500,000 more people watched the SuperBowl than the MASH finale. Of course, this is only what Wikipedia tells me, so take that for what it's worth, but I still think the MASH finale is the champ. I liked the show, but I think the movie was better.

That is pretty effin' cool Santai. Any chance you'd want to run the contents of the binder through a scanner at some point? I would love to look at that stuff!

I don't know about that: Asteroids, Missile Command, Centipede, Pole Position, Gauntlet to name a few. Atari was responsible for some pretty well-known arcade games. Of course it's completely true that Atari is much better known or its consoles, but still. Who would you (not directed at you personally atari2600land) pick as the best known name in arcade games? Bally? Midway? Namco? Taito?

I see Albert in his own tv show, like pawn stars. People bring in their Atari gear, and he tells them what it's worth. You just need an old guy with uncanny accuracy and a fat guy that everyone treats like crap to round out the cast. Bonus points: chime in on what AtariAgers should be on Albert's tv show.

I apologize if this movie has been linked before, but I searched and couldn't find anything. A neat little mix of real world and CGI footage using classing game characters. Pixels by Patrick Jean

I loosely remember the scene where the LSD/PCP freaks eat the dead guys intestines.

"Beware, I Live!"

I think it's simply a poorly worded sentence. The 'lower left' could be interpreted as the furthest away from one's vantage point, which is where the button normally is, and the 'toward your television screen' would correspond with the normal position of holding the joystick too. I think they mean that you hold the joystick like normal, they just mangled the (or should I say another) sentence. As Al said, the illustration is clearly wrong.

Ummm... Mame? I'd say the XBox 360 version. It IS the arcade version, the same thing you'd play in MAME. I'm going with Opcode Games' Pac-Man Collection for ColecoVision. Pure perfection. Includes Pac-man and Ms. Pac-Man, about as perfect as you can get, and on almost 30 year old hardware.