Retro Rogue

My understanding is that he's no longer with them. I believe they "parted ways" with a lot of the older staff.

Yes Blip is EM and has "whirring" sounds, I have a whole box full of them (they're extremely common in the thrift stores here). Its a very good version (we ran a competition on one at the Midwest Gaming Classic a number of years ago). The EM nature actually makes it a bit more "realistic" in movement and less predictable, which is one of the reasons people tended to like it so much. The insides of Tomy's EM series of handhelds are frightfully ingenious and complicated inside if you ever manage to take one apart. Most of the LED handhelds at the time used not very powerful microcontrollers that I believe would not have been able to handle any sort of physics needed to handle the ball motion without possibly making a pre-programmed table and risking having it become extremely predictable.

It was designed to play all the previous dedicated console games and Atari/Kee's arcade "hits" at the time (which was '75 through '76). Originally it was thought to be an initial entry in to programmable consoles to be followed up by a much more powerful one a little while after. With Warner taking an increasing interest in management (and Nolan and his staff taking less and less) that idea was nixed by Warner in favor of getting as much out of it as possible. The "next gen" console soon morphed in to the Atari 400 and 800 PCS's.

Actually that's incorrect. Curt and I have been working together on the process, the mini rev B and the mini rev C are the exact same board. Just a Rev C chip in place of the Rev B. Kokovec is right so far, the only way at the moment to tell is to mod the system. We're working on other identifications. Likewise, that was a good month ago they were shipped to the US and as Curt stated it should be in the coming weeks after that - which this is.

If you want, I'll pick one up to send your way. PM me.

I answered that already above.

Here's a stupid question... Am I to understand that the Rev.C boards are physically different from the Rev.B boards? Already answered that in the Rev. C thread.

Probably because it was Ralph and company's way of "getting even" for Pong.

Only Wal-Mart in the US? What about Canada? Well, let me head down to shipping and see where they're off to......oh wait that's right, I don't work at Wal-mart!

"There is no cosmetic difference between the micro Rev. B's and Rev. C's, its only the main chip that differs between the two."

Only in Wal-Mart.

Actually its still probably a Rev. C. The Rev A's and many of the B's use the much larger board shown on Curt's mod page. The last generation of the Rev. B boards use the same micro board as the Rev. C's, and in fact the pictures you have up in your Rev. B mod on your site does show the micro board in question. There is no cosmetic difference between the micro Rev. B's and Rev. C's, its only the main chip that differs between the two.

Yah, had already posted that in the Rev. C thread. These should be the Rev C's that were scheduled to arrive at Wallmart.

One place in Milwaukee that has them regularly - Record Head. And I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy - they're so over priced that its rediculous. Its the type of store that thinks putting shrink wrap around a loose dusty/grimy console suddenly jumps its value up $50 to $100. The knobs had a B&C Computervisions reproduction on display as an authentic proto for a number of years as well, going for well over a $100.

Yah, see the Rev C thread of mine. I picked up 2 for that price that were just stocked this past week. Busy doing comparisons to make sure its the Rev C.

But if any sale was to happen for it to be worthwhile, I am sure whoever bought it would want the IP's or at least some of them? Atari's name is known, but it is the patents and everything that still makes them some money under the table? Well, a lot of patents (by patents I'm assuming you mean hardware) are long expired or the propietary info are in the public domain now. They also own none of the arcade games (hardware and or roms) from 1972 to present. Where the money is in are in the game code (and roms) for consoles and computers, trademarks, copyrights (for those that haven't expired) and licensing for the games and characters, product names, etc. So for example I can go and I can completely reproduce a 5200, I just can't use the name "Atari" or the "5200" in the title without licensing both from them (I'm assuming I could use "Compatible with the Atari 5200!" without licensing). Likewise, I'd need to license any games I'd want to include from them. My guess is right now, Bruno for sure would not sell the name. So if someone bought Atari Inc., they'd have to call it something else. And just like with the name, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't sell the properties for cheap either (since what good is a name without access to the properties that made the name). But if that happened we'd have a 3 way split of everything - 1) The legacy home properties would be owned by a new person. 2) The name by Infogrames. 3) The arcade properties by Midway. I just can't see that happening though and would both Atari Inc. and seperately Infogrames dumping their own more modern properties first (such as when they just sold the Driver franchise).

Popped in to my local Walmart here on the north side of Milwaukee. It had been out of FB2's a while back and suddenly three appeared in the store. Checked the SKU/Price marking on the shelf, and it had a date of 7/11/06 so chances were good these were from the new shipment and not just older ones showing up. They were only $19.99, so I bought 2 (and before you ask, some other guy in the checkout who said "Wow, an Atari game" went and got the other one). Upon opening it up, it is a much smaller board than the one on Curt's mod page. I'll post pics late tonight.

Wouldn't do any good, Atari Inc. doesn't own any of the retro properties. Those are still wholly and seperately owned by Infogrames Entertainment under their Atari Interactive holdings. Atari Inc. (formerly GT Interactive) just has access to them and the name. Anyone buying Atari Inc. would only gain access to the modern (non-retro orientated) products.

Well, I wouldn't completely chalk it up to that. There's a lot of individuals at that company and its in a big state of flux right now in the management area. In fact, one of the biggest obstacles just left the company not long ago. Their biggest immediate worries are to keep from getting delisted and try and stabilize things plan/management/product wise somewhat. The fact that they met financial obligations and got this last shipment of FB2's "off the docks" is a step in the right direction with regards to further FB developments. So while they missed the window for this year, that doesn't leave things out for the future. In the long term, IMHO they need to divest themselves from Infogrames (which would include buying the legacy atari properties from infogrames, since Atari Inc. doesn't actually own those) and stand on their own two feet. They also need to rebuild credibility for putting out some very bug filled modern games, or spending lots of money on games that were duds (and were that before they even went in to development).

I picked up two of those on closeout at Radio Shack the other week. On a related note, also picked up all the console/tv switch boxes (for older non autoswitching systems) since they're closing out of those as well.

No, the FB2 is actual 2600 hardware. Basicly a special menuing chip that bootstraps loading the selected game and turns control over to the 2600 chip. Just like a real 2600, you have to turn it off and "switch cartridges" to load a new one.

There's lots of other rhymes - FB3, whee whee! FB3...and Mr T! FB3 slap my knee! FB3 in my Ford Mercury! FB3 can kick Bruce Lee! FB3 aint no Wii! FB3 I gotta pee!

Thanks, we have grown just a tad.

I'm not sure I agree with that, the 2600 was not "king" until the early 80's. Those are the glory years people usually think about when they think of the 2600. Pong systems had already been dead for some time by that time, and had actually started as "the market". That's a big difference than something being released at the same time to fill a low end void. I think what more filled that "low-end" void at that time were the dedicated handheld and tabletop led/vcd/lcd systems which were also popular with parents at the time as a cheap alternative.

How do you mean? Basicly the "low end games market", which was going to be pushed beyond "dedicated" with the FB3. With the rising cost of next generation consoles ($400+ Xbox 360, $500 for PS3), the success of the dedicated consoles has proven the existance of a demand for lower cost gaming experiences. I.e. the "low end games market". Its not just the fact that they have "retro" content that they're selling, but rather the low cost has been very attractive for consumers as well. Hence you have Jakk's putting out more than just retro systems, licensing Spongebob, superhero characters, Disney characters, and more with all being successful.