durkada

Not that I know of. I would LOVE a 5200 version though. Venture, Smurf, and Dragon Fire are the 3 game I would like to see ported to the 5200. I have to agree. Venture was one of those games just on the cusp of being great. I think a rewrite could address some of the annoyances with it. Make the monsters a little smarter, don't kill off the player for touching a dead monster, add more levels and add a little randomness to the map generation.

Thanks! There actually are no sounds yet - that is what I'm working on now. Yeah, I noticed that after I submitted my remarks.. That's actually the 'string' attached to the balloon moving around. Maybe I'll try to re-work that graphic. I think that would be a good idea, obviously. I don't see why they need strings. Better, perhaps, would be to place a couple white pixels in the upper right or left of the balloons to represent a light reflection. That actually was why I put the head-over-heels 'flip' in. The clowns flip when they hit a balloon, a screen boundary, or each other (in dual-player mode) Yes, I love the flip in. I just don't like the one arm raised while they travel through the air. Looks really weird. They are two different colors (player one is blue, and player two is brown)? I also show a '1' or '2' on it for the player number. Hmm. I'm talking about the planks on the teeter-totters. They both, to my eyes, look red. Which can be rather disorienting when the two have to overlap at all. I think these two go together... I may try to fit this in after I have added everything I need to add. I think they can go together, but I think they are, indeed, separate. Some people may hate playing with the old skool Circus Atarians, but want a game without power-ups. Maybe it would be a fun power-up... A third guy jumps into play, sort of like a two ball Arakanoid experience. But if you lose the Atarian, no loss. And, perhaps, in a two player game, whomever launches the Atarian last gets the points for the points he bursts... meaning ownership of the guy can be stolent by successfully catching him.

So, I gave it a try for the first time tonight. Overall, its plays very well. I've not listened to any of the sounds, yet, but will do so later. I played it in the latest sdlmess. Things I like: * Good speed on the clowns. They move at a really nice rate. This relates to the difficulty, which I think is nailed. * Nice animations on the Clowns! I like seeing them looking upwards as they rocket to the sky, so that all you see is a big smile on their heads. The head over heels flips are also a nice touch. * It plays like a solid version of Circus. * The Arkanoid-esque power-ups can be excruciating, since you may have alot less time to catch them. I like that -- risk vs reward. That which confuses me: * Whats on the bottom of the balloons? They really don't look like anything I recognize. * The one arm upwards on the clown. It looks odd. It might be fun to see them dangerously cartwheel around as they hit balloons and launch/fall at an extreme angle. Things I would like to see: * Classic mode. No power-ups. * Different color teeter-totters for two player simultaneous. * Maybe an easter egg where you could play with pixelated versions of the clowns straight from Circus Atari The splut heads would be great, too. Overall, I very much enjoyed playing it! I'm looking forward to future releases. Thanks, Jon

Congrats! I made a similar haul many, many years ago. A 7800 system drowning in cartridges for $10. Ebay was in its infancy, and was still a place to get great deals. Despite that, I didn't use it much. Its only been fairly recently that I've rekindled some affection for it, and I believe, frankly, its best years are ahead of it. The homebrew scene of the 7800 has great potential. There have been some good arcade ports, but those really aren't my thing. It's the originals, like Failsafe, that have been rallied my enthusiasm.

any infocom game, magnetic scrolls game, ultima title or North & South.

This is a great game _if_ you have two players. Its novel, but amazingly anti-fun for one. With only 402 made, its one of the rarer production runs from Williams. As you can imagine, it seemed to do poorly becuase of the awkward size and positioning -- most operators really didn't know where to put one of these. Mine lives against my basement staircase, which is perfect for this game but awkward for any other pin or arcade cab.

I bought a bunch of games off Chris. He's a great guy to deal with -- very reasonable and accommodating. The shipment arived today, well packed, and far more promptly than I was expecting. Highly recommended.

As the subjects states, I'd like some TG16 games. I finally picked up the system, and have only a copy of Dungeon Explorer to play. If you have some HU Cards (US region, please) that you would like to get rid of, please let me know! I don't care if they come in the case or not. Cheers, Jon

Nope -- that's barely over 400 pixels wide. 300DPI would be three hundred dots per an inch. So, if the box is 4 inches across, we should have at least 1200.

I've got the bare carts, and would like to contribute some covers to The Cover Project. If you are willing, I can offer my thanks I've not found any images online of decent enough quality. If you are willing, the bigger the scans the better -- with a minimum of 300dpi. They can be emailed to intv at noctuarium dizzot org. Cheers!

Thanks to everyone for the replies. For the record, I've jiggled the cartridges and cleaned the contacts. We're talking about 10 or so Activision games! They actually seem to fit in there almost as good as an Atari published game. I've got four or five Imagic games, and none of them work, either; they will not go gently into my 7800, but with a little persuasion, they'll fit and play. I'm inclined to believe it is a CPU issue, at this point. That's not too bad a thing, actually -- I may use this as an excuse to do some A/V mods to the thing.

And it's not just Activision games -- Imagic games, too! Yes, I have an Atari 2600 that refuses to play Activision and Imagic carts (about 12 in all). Inserting them simply produces garbage on screen -- nothing that resembles the game itself. This console will play other 3rd party games, such as those produced by CBS. And, I also have a 7800, which, despite some problems getting the Imagic carts to fit, plays everything without complaint. Has anyone heard of this? Its an old school 2600. I can look up the serial and exact model, later -- a bit too tired to do it, now.

I have been using esnipe for a few years. I've used it perhaps 100 times, and it has never failed to submit my bid in the last few seconds before auction closing. There are other such services as well - do some research into which might work best for you. http://www.jbidwatcher.com Enjoy.

If you're going to love a system, the 8-bit Atari is hard to fault. But I really give you props for your collection of Synapse and -- moreso -- Infocom games. Love 'em!

I have a Paperboy cab, and am trying to make it operational again. At one point it was working, but as I dug into the manual, I noticed something that gives me pause. In the manual there is referenced an "a043168-01 5v power supply assy" which connects to the CPU board. It would be fastened halfway up the cabinet to the right side if you were facing it from back. My cabinet has the brackets where it should be, but... its not there. It looks like some hackery was done to get five volts to the CPU board, but, I can't say I'm a fan of such things. Is it common for this to be missing? Anyone know where I could find one? Ebay has been dry on this, for awhile. Thanks, Jon

Its been a fairly quiet year for acquisitions. I did get a Gauntlet II inside a Gauntlet cabinet. It needed a little work, and still does. But, the sound has been fixed. I wound up purchasing a bunch of cheap microswitch based joysticks for it; something I was loathe to do, but couldn't find replacement leaf switches. However, I do like the fact that all the joysticks will be color coded (red on red player, etc). Also have a new CPO to apply, and will probably have to work a capkit in there somewhere. More recently, I picked up a Gyruss in fine condition. Only thing wrong with it is the absence of side-art. As these are all stencilled, its not a big deal to reproduce. I may, in fact, go a little tacky and think about glow in the dark paint.

Thanks for sharing! I had never seen one of these, despite growing up in the era. That's so awesome for being so tacky in all the right ways.

Congrats! Looks better than my own As an owner, you'll probably want to follow the progress of the Gimbal Joystick reproduction project: <http://www.ram-controls.com/blog-gimbal.html>. My own is in decent shape, but most are falling apart.

The 360, without question, is gathering the most dust. Besides all the retro systems, we have the big three, and the 360 just fails to enthuse. Whenever a cross platform game appears, I gravitate towards the PS3. I suspect its a combination of the 360's gaudy menus and its too crass profiteering by charging for the most basic of content: avatars, themes, background images. If it weren't for Bomberman and the occasional XBLA exclusive, the system would be all but useless to me.

Its been a good year for me, but keeping to the idea of forthcoming games... Wipeout HD -- I've been keenly watching this one, and am only irked that we're going to have to wait longer because it failed some epilepsy test. Epilepsy test? Its Wipeout -- and should be a given. Little Big Planet.