awhite2600

I had a Casio Game-10 watch. I bought it with my own money in the early 80's. My father freaked. He is very "old school" and thought a watch should be for telling time and nothing else. (He's still afraid of most technology.) He made me return the watch. I went back to the store a few days later and bought it again. This time I didn't tell him about it. http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/nerdwatch/1980-casio-gm-10-game-watch/

Frogger for the Intellivision - back in the day. I was a big fan of the arcade game. I have a love for games with good background music. As the Intellivision had great sound capabilities I had (wrongly) assumed that the background music would play during the game. I was so disappointed when I got the game home only to discover that there was just a brief bit of music and then nothing "in game". I tried to return the game the next day but the store wouldn't take it back. I ended up trading it (along with Tron Maze-A-Tron) for another game at a different store.

Could be something as simple as a dirty head. Can you try cleaning the head with isopropyl alcohol? Could also be an alignment issue. If you have a blank disk, or one that you don't mind destroying, try formatting it. If the disk formats and then reads correctly then the drive may have just gone out of alignment in storage.

My entire collection has been found "in the wild". I've never purchased games on eBay or from online sellers. I've never come across any homebrew or reproductions. As for what will happen to my collection when I die... My girlfriend has a slight interest in my games. She knows that there are a few valuable items mixed in with all of the common stuff. We've agreed that should I die unexpectedly (I'm 46) that my 18 year old son will get my collection. He knows what is and isn't valuable and would likely just keep everything.

How about Indy 500 driving controller support? That might be easier to implement than paddle support.

If you look at the pictures in the eBay listing, the ROM chip appears to be a standard ROM, not an EPROM as you would expect to see on a prototype. Are there any lists online that would show the part numbers of the ROMs on production VIC-20 carts? This could just be a misidentified production cart. The labeling was certainly done with a fairly recent electronic label maker.

A big thanks to everyone involved for making the ROM available. I'm a casual collector and an even more casual gamer. I will likely play the game once or twice on an emulator, marvel at the great job that the programmer did and never play it again. Had the ROM not been released I would never get the chance to experience the game. Thanks!

I have a PET 4032 that I picked up years ago at a surplus store for $5.00. It actually has some switches inside that toggle between 4032 and 8032 configuration. The PET will always be near and dear to me as it's the first computer that I ever used.

Looks like bad RAM. Could also be a problem with a data or address line between the RAM and the video chip. I'm not much of a hardware guy so not sure what you might be able to do to fix it. Hopefully another member here can offer some advice.

Thanks for the offer. I do appreciate it. However, I'm going to stick with my small wooden case for now. The case is very small same footprint as the RPi and about 2" high. The RPi will be removable so I can always change my mind.

I wouldn't want to destroy a Flashback. I want something as small and portable as possible. I considered using a common 2600 cartridge shell. Unfortunately 2600 carts are too wide for all of the connectors to be accessible, a bit too short and have the screw holes in the wrong places. I'm in the process of modifying a small wooden box that I picked up at a dollar store. I can apply a nice "woodgrain" stain and easily add a 2600 compatible joystick port.

I picked up a Raspberry Pi a few weeks ago specifically to run the RetroPie package. Overall I am quite pleased. There are a few bugs - specifically the sound doesn't work sometimes - but overall the package is really well done. Most of the emulators are very accurate, including the 2600 emulation. I'm in the process of building my own case for the Raspberry Pi as most of the available cases are just overpriced plastic. There is a blog post that explains how to easily install drivers and add a 2600 compatible joystick port. To BJorgenson, can you share any details as to how you added your controllers, interfaced with the 2600 cart port, etc?

It isn't a great game. Most collectors want a copy for historical reasons.

You can read about Extra Terrestrials on these two pages. http://pcmuseum.ca/extraterrestrials.asp http://pcmuseum.ca/story_etfollowup.asp The second page has a free download of the ROM so that you can try it on an emulator or Harmony cart.. You will need the latest version of Stella for the game to play correctly under emulation. The game is two player only.

I've lived in Southern Ontario all of my life. I read all about the 5200 in magazines "back in the day" but never saw one for sale in a store. I've found a few 5200 games in local thrift stores over the years. Never found a console.

The AtariAge store is a great place to start. I hope I don't violate any rules buy mentioning this but... http://www.gooddealgames.com is also a good source for homebrew. They were very helpful when The Personal Computer Museum did the release of Extra Terrestrials.

Your unit looks very similar to the Micro Genius Famiclones. Expecially this one. http://famicomworld.com/system/famiclones/micro-genis-family-computer/ I have a similar version that looks a bit less like the Famicom. http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=7166.0 Mine does not seem to be a NOAC. I have not had any compatibility issues. I picked mine up in the early 90's. I can't remember what I paid for it. I do remember that it was cheaper than buying a real NES.

You can download a Windows application that reproduces the Missile Command EP from The Personal Computer Museum at http://pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=39639&type=Memorabilia

I was a C-64 guy back in the day. A few friends had Apple IIs. I would have to say Jordan Mechner. Karateka was easily my favorite Apple II game. His follow-up game Prince of Persia was also first class.

Extra Terrestrials was programmed by a single programmer, Herman Quast, who reverse engineered the 2600 by disassembling other games and studying the code. The game was intended to be distributed across North America. The crash occurred and only a few hundred carts were ever distributed to retailers. The company that produced Extra Terrestrials, Skill Screen Games, has confirmed that they had no other games in development. I would not be surprised to learn that there were other games developed by small companies or individuals. These games were likely sold regionally in very small numbers, sold in niche markets (like the religious games) or never released. Don't forget everyone - we collectors are a very small minority. Most people think the 2600 is long gone. If someone finds an old game in their basement they are likely to just throw it in the trash thinking that no one would want something so old. This is the reason that The Personal Computer Museum tried to get as much publicity for Extra Terrestrials as we could. Our hope was that someone would read a news story and remember that strange game still sitting in their basement or attic.

I forgot about the invisible walls. When I spoke to the programmer he couldn't remember if they were there by design or the result of a programming bug.

We don't have any instructions. The Personal Computer Museum has so far only obtained three loose carts - two release versions and an unfinished version. The original programmer and owners of the company that made the game don't have any of the instructions or boxes. Trial and error gameplay suggests that the Extra Terrestrial's goal is to eat eat the "candy" and avoid the "ranger" Player 2 controls the "ranger" who's goal is to capture the ET. The game is two players only. Game Select allows you to choose from different alien images. That's about all we know.

Yes, we plan to make the prototype ROM available. I'm not sure what the timing is.

The museum will gratefully accept either. As a museum we strive to preserve history and to protect all donations. A great example is Extra Terrestrials itself. The museum owns three copies - all of them donated. One is a prototype that contains an unfinished version of the game. Two are final versions - one donated by one of our volunteers, the other donated by the original programmer. The museum has received a few offers to purchase one of the copies. Despite the fact that we could use the money we have declined the offers. The museum feels it is more important to preserve the donations.

Zach, we are not restricted in how we can raise funds. The Personal Computer Museum is relatively small. Any fundraising that we do and any donations that we receive are better used for more general purposes. We simply could not justify allocating a large portion of our income to obtaining one rare item.