Phosphor Dot Fossils

Not sure where you're getting that (I'd read it before the movie even came out, myself), but I think it's a reasonable assumption that a video game would've been based on the movie license and not the book. Similarly, Dune 2000 for the PC follows the look of the movie as well. In 1984, a property based on a book would've been, if not unheard of, extremely rare. Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide is almost an exception - except, of course, it wasn't originally a book, but a radio series.

Anyone who's just adopted a 5200 and is looking for some library-builder titles, I've got a stack of 5200 dupes sitting here, just begging for a new home. All are fairly common. I'm really just looking for trades of equally common 2600 stuff - you'd be surprised what I'm missing in my "commons" list. (At the moment, it looks like everything is spoken for - that was fast!) Please PM me if interested in doing a trade, as I don't check the marketplace forum too often.

I've seen it, and wrote a review here. It may not be the end-all and be-all of Atari history, but nothing beats this for capturing the spirit of the singular place and time that was Atari's consumer division.

Man, some awesome entries here. I may sit this one out! I REALLY like Joey's...but that's not to say the others are lacking in any way. WOW.

No one can get in today - if I understand correctly, the guy who owns the actual physical server is moving from one location to another, hence the downtime. It'll be back.

With apologies to Chad. Hey, admit it, you'd cower in fear too if there was a giant JOHN EDWARD headed your way.

I'll let everyone know about 7800 compatibility when I get mine; my 2600 died a while back, so all I've got is a 7800 to play this on. (Hey, it's better than nothing!)

I love mazes myself. So yeah, their disappearance from the game world hasn't exactly thrilled me, but then again, it's just one of so many play elements. Some of my favorites don't have mazes.

Yep - although Bushnell-era Atari had a bone to pick with Namco for, of all things, making their own Breakout clones without authorization from Atari for the Japanese market. The wheel turns all the time, it's just that different folks wind up on top of it - or on bottom - depending on how it's rolling. I found one thing more annoying than Midway: Atari suing Bally, Magnavox, and everyone else under the sun for Pac-Man play-alike games that were, on average, better than Atari's own 2600 version of Pac-Man. I've always felt that had less to do with protecting a copyright than it did with "for God's sake, sue the superior titles off the market!"

Thanks for cooking up such a cool game, Chad. I'm looking forward to trying it with a real live Atari joystick - it seems like it's gotta be more instinctive that way than with the emulator. And I think you're gonna dig the manual!

I haven't been able to get on either. Have the game rooms been Slashdotted again? 'Bout time those puppies got their own server.

I've got a complete report, and a few dozen pictures, posted here.

If you guys like how the label preview looks, wait until you see the manual. Albert showed it to me at OKGE, and it is a beaut - well done to all involved (and I supplied some extra spacey artwork for the manual which wasn't among my label entries). Believe me, I just wanted to take that puppy home with me.

I'm about to crash, still recovering from the trip myself - the journey home was a bit of an adventure, unfortunately. It was great to meet everyone who dropped by the PDF tables, Home of the Racin' Light Cycles, and great to see so many families and so many kids there - quite a diverse crowd, and many of them stayed for almost the entire duration of the event. I guesstimated 200, maybe 300 people. But not bad for a first showing in an area that's never seen something like this. The guests were enthusiastic about all of it, from the LAN stuff to the Neo Geo stuff to the favorite attraction at my tables, the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey. Got a look at the Backfire label and manual. The label on the cart is mighty nice, but the manual is a beautiful thing. Wait until you guys get a load of this! Jess and his entire family put on a great show. And his mom owns you when it comes to 2600 Frogger. So when's the next one again, Jess? Next week? Here's some pics to tide everyone over until I can gather my thoughts more coherently. A big, colossal thank you to my friend Kent Sutton, who manned my table with me. I was so exhausted - i.e. no sleep for 30+ hours - that I actually went to sleep in my chair behind my table for an hour and a half. It's not that OKGE wasn't exciting - I was loving having people, and again especially kids and families, come by and play what I had on display, but that I was just exhausted beyond my ability to keep on my feet. Thanks to Kent, I could pull a hairbrained stunt like that without fear. This was my first time as an exhibitor, and I hope it didn't show too badly. More pictures and a full write-up soon!

Get to feeling better soon, man. Just bear in mind that this means the poor AA guys will be stuck next to that Odyssey 2 guy, and that's just beggin' for trouble. We'll keep ya in mind and take lots of pictures!

It's just under 18 hours from showtime. And I'm a little bit closer to being ready to hit the road. See you guys there!

Tunnels Of Doom. Love it, love it, love it.

Yeah, but it's Green Country. Besides, I like that last one in the bottom right. Looks kinda nice.

I'll be a-heading out in just 49 hours for OKGE. And here's just a fraction of the stash-o'-stuff I'm bringin' with me! See everyone in two days!

I'll answer things in reverse order here... 2. The NES was the end of the classic era as we knew it. It was the last console for which there was a steady stream of innovative games. The SNES brought us, kicking and screaming, to where we are now: mostly formulaic games, most of which fit into a handful of genres - sports sims, fighting games, FPS, MMORPG, and so on. And that stuff doesn't interest me! Once in a blue moon I might go for such a game, but my tastes are generally more offbeat. Ever look at what's coming out in Japan? Wacky stuff! Stuff that can't even be nailed down to a genre. I miss those days when such a game could hit the streets here before a console was on its way out (i.e. the current trickle of interesting "twilight games" for the PS1). 1. I don't dig the games or the controllers. Graphics and sound are great, and I don't have a beef with disc-based loading times. But the games just don't grab me. I don't care too much for the violence factor either, but that usually goes back to the "don't like the games" issue. Also, the whole tendency to need to unlock something like half of the bloody game or have to by the strategy guide, that's just stupid. It's a racket is what it is. I hate that. I have a PS1, but 99% of what gets played on it is old-school retro stuff, with old-school controllers attached.

But I do own a horse. Here she is. Isn't she pretty?

I don't own a PS2 because I just haven't seen anything on that console that makes me think "I've got to play that game." Seems simple enough.

Least I wasn't naked. Polite society frowns upon being fried by a damn great space fireball while unclothed. It's just not done around here. Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Holy cow! Thanks, Chad! Hope nobody strips of my prize for revealing this, but the "space pilot cowering in the cockpit" is actually me, in my bathrobe, standing against a white wall. Paint Shop Pro is a beautiful, beautiful thing - good at covering up the fact that I am not a beautiful, beautiful thing!

Sorry to hear you guys are gonna miss it. I was looking forward to meeting the whole AA gang. But when Jess is already saying things like "first annual OKGE" and "next year," I have a feeling we'll still get that chance. Assuming I don't make it to AGE II first. Get to feeling better. I'm sure abundant pictures will be taken!