Mirage

I think I may have gotten that one... I'd have to check at home to be sure, but I have two, maybe three different versions of Pac-Man boxes.

Ummmm.... where do you work?!?

There's one on my website here. It needs to be updated since Combat DX is apparently finished/cancelled, and I need to add some more. Cool, Thanks! Gonna have some Krok cart fun tonight, then I can answer this poll!

Sounds great! I need to finally start buckling down on learning bB. Can't wait to see what you've done. Is there a list somewhere of all bB games so far? Sorry for my ignorance if this should be something easy to find.

Here's another new one, Atari Classics Evolved: http://psp.ign.com/articles/838/838347p1.h...mp;RSSid=838347 Buck up! Everything is fine!

The Activision Remixed collection for the PSP (article link below) is just one reason why I think this whole "requiem" thing is a huge over-reaction. Products come, products go, and people say crazy and incorrect things in articles sometimes. No one is forgotten, nothing is dead. http://kotaku.com/gaming/gun/atari-2600-co...-psp-195572.php

Cool... well, if it's only that size, it wouldn't be hard to get a really good scan of it, and post the high-res image for people to printout at full-size on their own. It would be cheaper, and Al wouldn't have to take on a financial risk. Of course, if Al thinks AA can benefit from doing it the other way, that's cool too. For that size, I personally would rather just print it myself though. I may very well be in the minority there though.

I would love to have one of those! How large is it? How large would the repros be? Does anyone else have any original Atari artwork that has been reproduced at a large size for posters etc? Scanning the manual covers at high quality and printing them larger (and, I'm a print professional, so I can do it well) only goes so far in enlargement before it looks bad, so I'm talking about either original art reproduced or some other very large (poster) source. I want more artwork for my eventual Atari room

I still think you may be overreacting... you're still saying "this is dead, past, forgotten..." and so on. I don't think it is. Just because you don't see those '80s repros right at this time? Remember, it's the Christmas shopping season, and retailers clear everything out and only put out the big sellers (or new stuff) right now. Sure, the big rash of it may be over -- so what? That doesn't mean anything has "died" or that our "Atari generation" is forgotten. C'mon! You're being quite depressing and apocalyptic! Also, these articles you've supposedly seen saying that the NES is the first console... do you have any links? Or at least can you give an idea where you saw them? Out of context, that's not saying much. Say there's an NES site that says that, who cares? From their perspective, it may very well be. And even if it's some mainstream magazine (Time, Newsweek), it's just one article, and they messed up. A good opportunity to correct them. I have seen nothing whatsoever to say that anything is "dead, past, forgotten...". Fads come and go... doesn't mean that people don't remember or that a lot of people don't still care. I watch and read about everything I can on the subject, and still, other than the normal slight ups and downs, I haven't seen any major trends pointing to anything being dead. If anything, compared to 5 years ago, the Atari is more alive in consciousness than ever, even outside our community. Again, not that it matters. Just saying that I don't really see much support for your premise at all.

Again, I'm going to repeat, that I have seen no solid proof of anything '80s dying out. Trends, interests in the media come and go... I don't think anything is dying. You'll have some people (of all ages) who will be interested, some who will not. Some will be hostile, some receptive, still others apathetic. So what...? Why does this matter? You could say the same about any subject under the sun. Nothing is dying. Nothing is losing significant value in terms of money or nostalgia. As someone above said, move along folks, nothing to see here. I see this as being a moot point no matter how you look at it.

Sure, the rash of golden age retro products in the stores may have passed, but I don't think that means anything. What, are you going to let the marketing people at the big companies tell you what is popular and what isn't? Why do you think everyone is going to stop caring, or enjoying things that have inherent fun to them? I kinda see what you're saying, but I think this is being a bit apocalyptical. I can remember several times over the past 10 years that I've had similar thoughts (no one cares about Atari anymore...) and every time, I've been wrong. And, the large corporations are usually out-of-touch, so don't watch what they're doing to know what people are interested in. Sure, the extra exposure to the public-at-large was nice, but I certainly don't think the Atari generation is dead. And, I also haven't seen a decline in prices on Atari stuff. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I haven't seen it. And if it does happen... so what... cheaper stuff for those of us who do care.

Yeah, in ~1999 when I started my 2600 collection again, I had maybe 15 games. I kinda knew something was happening when I realized I had around 50. Now, I have several closets full of crates, encompassing several systems. It's always just "well, I just need this and this", but that continues, and before you know it, it's a huge collection that can be a problem when relocating! But... I would have to have pretty much a tragedy occur for me to let it all go.

Estate auctions. I previewed an incredible collection a few years ago. I'm not going to list the things I saw there, because it will make me ill again that I missed it. My current collection is fairly impressive, but this collection blew mine away. And most everything was boxed. They were selling it all as one big lot. I thought I was going to make it to the auction, so I didn't set up a proxy to bid for me. I ended up still being over two hours away from the auction when it started, and I missed it. I found out the next day that the whole lot went for $200. It was worth thousands. Heck, there were at least several $200+ carts in there. My point is... estate auctions. You have to hit a lot of them to get the collections, but they are out there. Plus, a lot of these guys at the flea markets are paying "real" prices for these games, thinking they are getting a steal, when in fact it's just the prices most of us would pay. Then, they mark them up and sit on them, partly due to some of these so-called price guides that are popping up. As a collector, it makes me sick since I'd appreciate having some of the items, but I'm not paying some scumbag four prices it. Back when I had a smaller collection, I was more willing to do that (just out of pure excitement and youth), but not anymore.

Same here... but a lot of carts fit tightly into my Sears Heavy Sixer. For this, I dug out a light sixer and it's not nearly so tight. Helps to have 8 or 9 units in the closet to choose from!

I actually got mine in 2004 (I remember this because I have the Holiday Qb manual and the Krok Cart manual in the same bag). I'm embarrassed to say that I've never used it until today! Right when I got it, I moved, life became hectic and I moved again a year ago. Seeing this thread encouraged me to get it out and try it. Wow. This is the coolest thing I own. At least the coolest retrogaming thing, definitely. Thanks again to all involved. And to anyone else, if you can pick one up, ever, by all means do so... or something similar. This should cut my 2600 emulation needs down to pretty much zero. So much fun!

This is a fantastic book on mapping techniques in BASIC. This is for text adventures, but it's the same exact process. Once you understand how to do it in BASIC, you should be able to use the same technique in any other language you learn. This book is very easy to understand and to-the-point. You should be able to breeze through it in no time, as I did. Make it all the way through the book and you'll learn a lot more than just mapping. Creating Adventure Games On Your Computer (1983). http://www.atariarchives.org/adventure/

Yeah, a messy one!

What formats, if any, can you export this as, from Cakewalk? If you can export into just about any other format, I could make PDFs. My guess is that there's no export. If not, but you're on a Mac, you should be able to print to PDF, but on Windows, I'm not sure. If you can install some sort of program on Windows that will let you "print" to a graphic file, that would work. If you don't know how to look into this, let me know and I can try to look into it (I have a Windows machine also). Sounds like a good project.

WINNER! Okay, you're right. They are ColecoVision. I feel kinda dumb because I said they weren't ColecoVision, but I didn't look closely enough the first time. I have 2 CV consoles, but only two carts (both Donkey Kong!), so I'm not expert at spotting them at all. They fit. Mystery solved. THANKS ALL!

Kaboom! tournament

Wow, that was a quick answer! But... drumroll please!!!!... nope! I'm sorry, I wish I had a ruler handy, but these are quite a bit bigger than an Intellivision cart. I'd say these are 1cm (a little over 1/4 inch probably) wider than an Intellivision cart. (BTW, I have an Intellivision and 50+ carts for it, so I can confirm that they're definitely not Intellivision). Good guess though, the overlay slots on the back made me think of Intellivision too. In the thrift store, I totally mistook these for 2600 carts, they're that close in size and appearance at a glance. I never used to buy 2600 carts this common, but these were like a quarter, so I just grabbed them since they're in pretty nice shape. Now I'm glad I did since clearly I didn't have them before (whatever the heck they are). Thanks for the help though!

Found these two Parker Brothers carts at a thrift shop. I can't figure out what they're for -- someone here surely must know! They're not for anything I collect for, and they're not for any console or computer that I actually own. They're not 5200 (not wide enough), not Odyssey 2, not ColecoVision, not TI, and obviously not 7800 or 2600. The backs have a hole that looks like it's maybe for putting controller overlays? And the end where it goes into the system isn't rectangular, it's sort of angular. Can anyone give me a clue? Thanks!

One of my most prized possessions: Sears Heavy Sixer, mfd Sunnyvale, serial 93818T Thanks, Chris

Just returning to the Atari scene after a little absence to move across the country, get married... life! I've been very much interested in Batari Basic programming, and am going to try to make the time to get started now... ran across your game glancing through the forums. All I can say is: wow. You've done a fantastic job, and I can't wait to see the final version. I can't believe you did all that with Batari. Amazing. Will be plugging into the Kroc Cart tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration (and the fun game!) - Chris

I just started building a retrogaming collection database in FileMaker Pro, which is fantastic, but maybe you're looking for something a little simpler. Or less expensive. A few days ago I made a quick one in Bento (the new beta from FileMaker), but that's for Mac only, so that probably won't work for you. My basic thought though is just any good database program -- make your own, tailor it to your own needs. You'll have to enter all the info yourself though, it's not going to pull it from any online source.