tyranthraxus

I just want to say thanks for holding possibly one of the most entertaining auctions I've witnessed. I guess the Air Raid was more dramatic but it didn't have as many LOL moments as your canceled bid explanations I almost bid myself when I first saw that it was still at 99 cents

There was still old stock trickling out in the months after the ownership change and into 1985. I had some common cartridges with Atari Corp. in the fine print.

Thanks for updating me. I do vaguely recall something about a dual cart. I wonder what his financial hopes were? I'd have assumed that any idea of a 5200 cartridge would've been more of a labour of love and could have been used as a promotional tie in for something modern like a Windows Mobile release. Still I imagine something like a author approved and autographed release could have sold at a higher premium and netted a few grand in profit.

What a ratty looking lot. Looks like someone heard about the last Air Raid and pulled it out of the garage! You'd think the seller would've provided a better photo or two of Air Raid since they clearly know its value.

Spring Cleaning! Check out my eBay auctions: eBay Seller: jwoods01 Its mainly 8-bit computer related games across multiple platforms: Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari 800 & IBM PC. I've got a couple of Ultima games, a large lot of Sierra adventure games, a few EA games like Archon and others. There is also a couple small Colecovision lots, its all common stuff the most interesting thing would be my boxed Roller Controller which does have a problem with vertical control. And a Pitfall Explorers Patch 5200 version. Thanks for looking!

Its a love/hate system. Compared to other consoles of the same era the thing feels like more of a quality product. Good plastic, very sturdy build and the design is really sleek. The games are of above average quality. Almost all of the common games (and the rares) are really fun, with some of the best home ports of the time. The trackball is a great (if under utilized) controller and its pretty cool using analog joysticks on a machine of this age. I had a four port with the funky TV interface that has its own disadvantages but I like it and consider it to another sign that Atari was trying something different with the 5200. And if you are collecting all the Atari systems, it sitting next to a 2600jr and 7800 looks pretty great! But the system has a lot of marks against it. Most of the games are available on other Atari systems & has few unique titles. The console itself is very large (and the cartridges are likewise over-sized), which is something that matters to an apartment dweller like myself. The controllers you can get used it but they constantly break down and you need to spend a fair bit of money upgrading them. 5200 vs 800, it comes down to whether you prefer a vintage console or a computer. The 800 has pretty much all the games and more on cartridge, like key titles like Donkey Kong (arguably the best home version). Ultimately I chose the 800 over the 5200 but have no regrets over getting it. Its a really unique classic console which stands apart from the others and while you can't recover shipping costs, the system holds its value, especially if you have good joysticks with it so you can always sell it. Give it a try!

Would he really do that? The lawyer fees over a 100 copies, let alone the time and energy. Now I can respect the creator's wishes, its fair enough since the ROM is around but does anyone know the reason for his harsh reactions? Bad memories of a failed business venture? A wish to preserve the value and integrity of the original product? Grumpy old man syndrome?

With nearly a decade of commercial viability the 64 has a pretty massive library, its tough to narrow it down! For me essential classics I'd recommend are: Space Taxi Jumpman/Jumpman Jr. Fort Apocalypse Seven Cities of Gold Impossible Mission Pirates! Paradroid Defender of the Crown Project Firestart Wasteland Pool of Radiance

So they were optimized for the IIGS then? I rarely encountered a GS back then so I don't know much of what was available for it. My Apple II experience is all green and black

In my laymen's eye that patch looks the same as the 2600/5200 version. That site claims the CV version is a different design.

How do the various Sierra Quest adventure games play and look on the Apple II?

After the crash publishers often used whatever box was available to avoid printing more. I've also come across the odd boxed game with photocopied manuals. Those could be additions by a previous owner but it wouldn't surprise me if the warehouse started doing that as supplies dwindled. Nice score BTW

I was just browsing the Lemon64 forum and didn't come across your post, did you post in the games forum? I did a search and came across this old post. No magic answer there but I think you could at least get some game tips from that person.

Parker Brothers really had some good titles, most of the major ports are fun across all platforms. Qbert's Cubes is quite a good rare game and has nice graphic improvements over the original CV release. Although it seems to get trashed in favour of other versions but I like the CV Pitfall!

I was browsing the list of Activision Patches at: http://www.gooddealgames.com/articles/Activision_Patches.html and saw there was no picture for the Colecovision version of HERO. Anyone seen/own this one? The article also mention the possibility of a Zenji patch, which I think was a late release game (CV exclusive?) so its likely they had stopped offering patches at this point. Anyone confirm its existence?

That's the same contest. The pamphlet says if you found one of those runes (10 total, 1 for each virtue) then you were guaranteed to "star" in Ultima VII, if you had moonstone then you had to mail in and enter a draw.

I've been going through some boxes to get ready for eBay and was looking through my Ultima VI box when I came across a pamphlet "Lord British offers you Immortality". Where you could mail in your photo and win a chance to "Star in Ultima VII!". I havn't found any further information on the contest on net. Anyone here enter the contest and perhaps know what became of it? I speculate it was another one of those unresolved video game contests they hoped everyone would forget about.

Thanks for the advice but it seems like the roller has an electronic error The bearings and cylinders are in good shape which they should be as my roller is brand new. I picked it up years ago from a guy blowing out some old stock and just left it boxed all this time till I realized I probably was never going to bother picking up a loose one (especially after confirming how few games there are available). In desperation I even blasted some Tuner Control Cleaner on what serves as the 'pots' on it, in the hopes it would work as easy as paddle controllers are fixed by it. The circuit board has no obvious damage so I guess this will return to the shelf permanently. Too bad as from what control I did have I have to say that this trackball is actually pretty good, much more responsive than I expected.

Try the folks at Lemon64, they have a decent forum and some serious 64 collectors reading. I looked at MobyGames and even that site had a guy wondering about the ending. Sounds like the ending could be a good treasure hunt.

As you can guess with my other post, I'm on a bit of a Roller kick this week. Sadly after ignoring it for years my roller controller is not working properly. I bought it and then put it on the shelf without ever testing it. I cannot get any vertical movement out of it, only horizontal. What I have found is that while playing Centipede I can move vertically using the joystick. Disappointing as my unit appears quite mint cosmetically and I bet has not ever been used before. I'm tempted to open it up and see what I can do. Anyone have any tips on what to look for?

I know there are games that will work with the roller like Centipede and some of the driving games will work in joystick mode but are Slither, Victory & Omega Race really the only games made specifically to use with the roller controller?

Well I did track down my copy of the game. Sadly there is no letter from Cosmi with the answer but all the docs are there, however, before I went to the trouble of digitizing the materials I did a little looking around and found the docs and tape already online at this site: http://c64.hardwired.hu/ The tape is pretty interesting to listen to. The production values are a lot higher than I was expecting, kinda reminiscent of an old radio drama, even having some of the recording be of poor quality based on where the source came from. What's also interesting is that the tape references Islamic terrorists and and has a rhetoric filled recording similar to the Bin Laden tapes. Its an intriguing attempt to mix in Hollywood style drama into a video game (and years before we were plagued with those poor quality video clips on early cd-roms). Anyone know of any other early games that used a recording like this?

We got a 64 at Christmas and it came with originals of Phantom of the Asteroids, Master of Magic, and Aegean Voyage. A week or so later, Dad went back to work and came home one day with a box of copies maybe 20 disks of mainly early stuff like Jumpman, Space Taxi, Print Shop & Fast Hack'em that got me started Because I got that stash of games given to me I was always pretty happy to hand out copies for blanks. I never was really into doing trades, I always thought if you wanted it then here ya go! (and vice versa) But my 64 network was rather small and I wasn't that aggressive in making new contacts so there was quite a few classics that I missed out on playing, many of which I read about in the magazines but couldn't find a copy. Its interesting to look back on the free flow of software in those days, no one thought twice about the implications of it. There is a lot of similarities between the 1980s software scene and the way the current generation treats digital music. Fascinating revelation. Was he running a BBS?

Yeah, I'll see what I can do. I've never played the tape but I think I have a working tape deck around here... ...the other challenge is tracking down where I stored my copy of the game

Havn't played it but I own an original copy of it. I picked it up because of that audio tape. One of those mixed media oddities like that PC RPG whose name escapes me, that came with the VHS tape. Lemon64 has several positive comments on it I'd ask their guru's for help. Seems the game is further strange in that upon completion you had to mail the company with your solution and then they'd write you back telling you the results!