NoahsMyBro

For those of you that attended PC4 - In the back/center of the room there was a square of tables that had a couple of Wal-Mart black/teak-colored plastic shelving units at 2 of the corners. Placed on the shelves were several different consoles, and the tables between the shelves had 4 or 5 TVs setup on them. One of the guys operating this set of tables was Adam. Does anybody know what his website is? I thought he told me www.parrygaming.com, but that doesn't resolve. Thanks, Steve

Well, I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but... Two or three years ago a multi-generation dime store near my house finally gave up the battle against Target & Wal-Mart and went out of business. At their Going-Out-Of-Business sale I picked up an old 'Le Stick', an unusual mercury-switch motion-detecting controller for the Atari VCS (2600). I had only seen them in magazines during the 80's, and it was exciting to get. It even had what appeared to be an authentic layer of 20 years or so worth of dust on the packaging. Well, last summer I was driving somewhere one weekend with my Dad, who had flown into town for the weekend. In front of us I saw a plain looking white GMC Astro van, with a stack of boxed Atari 5200s in the back. I could see at least 3 piled up. I pointed it out to my Dad and wondered aloud how the guy in the van had gotten them, and what he was doing with them. I mentioned I'd like to have them, and my Dad, very much out of character, suggested I ask the driver if I could. SO at the next light I pulled alongside the van and motioned to the passenger to roll down his window. I mentioned I was interested in the Ataris in the back of the van, and the occupants of the van pulled over in a parking lot with me so we could talk. It turns out the driver was the owner of the now-defunct dime store (!) and was moving stock from the backroom of the store to storage elsewhere. He had 4 boxed systems, as well as a few controllers and one of the pack-in games (Super Breakout). I ended up buying one of the 4-port 5200s (I'd never had a 4-port before), complete in the box, with not 2 but 3 controllers and the originally included Super Breakout, still in it's box as well. The seller thought he was selling too low, and I thought I was paying a little too much, so it was probably a perfectly fair price. I don't know if this wil make it to your column, but if it does see if you can fit in a 'Hi' to Elissa Gitlow and Jason Hecker . Thanks, Steve Jacobs

Well, I'm tuning in to this thread awfully late, and I haven't time to read through the whole thread right now, but it looks like you guys and gals are looking for a dinner/bar spot to hang out after the show. If so, I'd like to suggest Maggiano's. It's an Italian restaurant & bar, with immense portions, that I've been to a couple of times in Atlanta. In December I learned it was actually a chain & since then I've been looking forward to hitting the location in Philly this weekend. It's supposed to be somewhat close to ValleyForge.

I'll be there all 3 days. My son Nate will be with me for a few hours, probably on Saturday. (He's only 2 so I had to type in his response for him here on this thread.) - Steve

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...ighlight=thrust I received mine (#4) in November. - Steve (Stephen) Jacobs Good Luck guys. I may have lucked out in this case, but I'm rooting for you!

Well, I passed on the CC because of finances, and while this thing looks absoultely awesome I don't think I'd be able to buy one of these either. So, count me in your list of very entusiastic, interested admirers, but unfortunately don't count on me when you're estimating potential sales. But, hell, if you have a contest with one of these as a prize, I'll likely be all over it!

WOW Does that suck!!!! I didn't know about this. Did it happen recently?

Leonard - you mentioned Paul Oswood/The Core - did you get burned on that? I thought I had been screwed in that fiasco, but 2 or 3 years ago, out of the blue, I got an email from Paul to confirm my mailing address, so he could send me a refund. A little while later (I honestly don't recall if it took days/weeks or months), sure enough, I received a refund in the mail covering the full amount I had sent in for The Core. I figured Paul 'made good' with everybody. Steve

I'm pretty sure you're misjudging dougy, seemingly to provoke some sort of argument/disagreement. As I read his post, he is simply stating his belief that if repros are made, the market resale value of rare original carts (or protos) will decrease. The counter-argument states that the availability of reproduction versions of the program cartridges will have no effect on resale value of the authentic original cartridges. Personally, I agree with dougy76's opinion. While it might not be a good thing for the owners of the few BBSB carts or Super Pac-Man protos, I think reproductions will affect the resale value of their games. And, fwiw, I don't own either, my multicart can't run either, I'd love to get a copy of BBSB as I love Miner 2049'er and have heard good things about it, but I'm not going to spend more than $50 for it. And if it is reproduced, for $50 (if that's the price) I'd expect a level of packaging equivalent to the nicer homebrew releases so far - Songbird stuff, Battlesphere, Koffi, etc... OR, if the original wasn't packaged that slick/well, I'd expect packaging identical to whatever it originally had.

Well I'll be! I'm a huge B5 fan. I can't believe I couldn't place that. But it all came flooding back as soon as I read your post. Thanks, Steve

Albert - Your tagline - "Well, look at that, the sun's coming up..." looks awfully familiar. I suppose it could just be a regular old phrase, but is it from some movie? If so, which one?

Something about it made me think of the Color Computer, but it the TI99/4a feels right also.

Last I checked his webpage, Dustin Sullo still had one listed - http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dsullo/nes.htm I recently bought a couple of items from him and am a very satisfied customer.

I'd have to say either Thrust+ or SCSICide.

Man, I used to love that game! I'm pretty sure it exists on some Namco Museum collections for more modern systems - Playstation, PS2, etc... http://psx.ign.com/articles/150/150702p1.html

If you're serious, I suspect you're in your mid-20's or younger. Am I right? Or were you just joking?

I have 2 Wicos, bought new. I never really liked them much, but I haven't used them in a very long time and would be willing to give them another chance. I'd assume they would benefit from new pots as well, considering their age. SO, if the pots are indeed around $5 each, and assuming the sticks use 2 each, you can put me down for 4, if you end up doing this. Only 996 to go! Steve

I'm almost positive Best Electronics sells the Atari-distributed retrofit kit that the Authorized Factory Service Centers ® themselves used to perfrom the modification, for $5.00. The only drawback is that, at least the last time I ordered, there was a minimum credit card order of about $15, I think (but it might have been $12, might have been $20). The kit includes detailed instructions, as well as a few specific resistors and wires. Just to be clear, it is the 5200 that is modified, NOT the VCS adapter. Best Electronics

Well, knowing I wasn't going to be in time to take a shot at this contest, I just went into it beginning at about 11pm, figuring I'd go through it leisurely, and once I was done I'd look at the results/answer. WOW! That was an amazing, excellent contest. Sniderman, that showed an incredible amount of ingenuity! I had fun even knowing I didn't stand a shot. It reminded me of my old Games Magazine days. (Just as an avid subscriber, not actually involved with them.) I figured out step 1 easily and quickly, studied the pieces for stage 2 for a couple of minutes and then printed the page out, cut the pieces up, and rearranged them, and then bogged down on step 3. I knew the phrase, but couldn't figure out the alt.games.atari... code. Of course, I was impatient and didn't really allot much time to it before giving up and jumping back to the thread to see what the results were. But I might not have gotten it anyway. I dropped out of newsgroups almost completely once the Dreamcast group imploded over the summer, and except for the sci.electronics.repair group August through October (they helped me repair a 5200), I haven't been back to the newsgroups. So they are completely out-of-sight-out-of-mind, and it's unlikely I would have thought of them. BUT, WOW! Great contest, dude! I hope I have a fighting chance tomorrow.

Dec. 22, 2002

AAArrrrggghh!!! Almost every single one of these has been long over before I saw it, and now that it's announced, I'm previously engaged! I'll be at a client's house tomorrow evening. Oh well, I know you're trying to please everybody Sniderman, and I hope the contest tomorrow is rewarding for everybody involved. Steve _________________________________ DARN! That's the end!

I've searched Digitpress, AtariAge, and groups.google. I can't find any posts from anybody who has done an S-Video mod on the 5200. The FAQ has info on doing an A/V mod, but not S-Video, although some people have pointed out that to do S-Video you would just do the A/V mod and not tie together the chroma & luma signals. However, even the A/V mod looks pretty involved. Have any of you actually done the A/V mod, or an S-Video mod? Is it as tough as it looks in the FAQ?

Just another update - Before hitting the sack last night I managed to get to Pyro's Mom 2 before dying. I think my score was around 27,000. Cafeman - I noticed that the top left of the display indicates 'P1:' ; does that represent Player 1? Assuming so, was there an intent to have 2 players possible? Also, as much as I've always liked the 5200 controllers (when they work, obviously), I find my left thumb (the fire button thumb) joint gets very cramped up very quickly once I start playing. I think I need to find a different way to hold the controller.

YAY Ron! I knew the game was good when my wife tried it out. She has very little interest in videogames, and had agreed to give this one a shot (after my pleading and insisting) with one of those tones that generally means 'I'll try it to humor you, but then I'm only planning on giving it 2 or 3 mintues, after which I'll say 'It's OK' and go do something else'. Well, she tried it, and quickly died. I explained what she was doing wrong, and she tried it again. For about 15 minutes she would paly, die, and say 'OK, this is my last game. No, I mean it this time. Really. Just one more try.....' Then I knew you had her! I like the game too, but so far I'm not very good at it. Steve

I got mine this afternoon as well. I can't wait to try it out - hopefully tonight! As far as the packaging - I must say I think Songbird releases and Battlesphere spoiled me. I thought the box was very similar to the Castle Blast box, and while it is admittedly far superior to anything I'd have managed, it isn't quite 'professional' when compared to the above-mentioned homebrews. BUT,the manual was as good as any I've ever seen! The production quality, the slick paper, the colors, etc... were all outstanding, first-class, grade-A stuff. Very impressive. Looking forward to a great game, and to Adventure II! Steve