ddaniels

Stella was updated to work with widescreen monitors at least several releases ago. In fact, it will now work with any type of monitor (4:3, 16:9, 16:10, etc), even those with weird resolutions. About the only restriction is that it needs at least a 640x480 window for the normal ports (the ports to 'smaller' devices are custom-made to use 320x200, etc). It will produce black bars in any region of the screen not being used, to always keep the aspect ratio correct. Something interesting that I recently found out. I own two MAME machines that have real 19" arcade monitors in them. I wanted to replace one of the monitors as it had burn-in. I went to order a replacement monitor from Happs and was told as of the end of March you can no longer order CRT monitors. All the manufactures have switched over to lcd's which sell for 2x the amount of a CRT. A 19" CRT from Happs or Wells Gardner used to go for $200. These new LCD's sell for over $400. I had to head over to Ebay to find a guy still selling a 19" CRT. Once their gone their gone.

Thanks. For those interested I got those from here http://www.whatisblik.com/Merchant2/mercha...ct_Code=BL-106A

What's up with the hellholes? I too was was under the delusion that emulation would be enough for me until I discovered flash cards like Cuttle cart, PowerPak for nes, etc.

One thing I regret in terms of NOT adding to my collection is the Cuttle Cart. How did I miss that back in'03???

Thanks for the compliment.

While going through my parents attic I re-discovered a box full of my Commodore 64 stuff. I had tons of game floppy's, a few boxed games, and even a few C64 magazines. Within this box I found an Protecto catalogue dated 1987. I believe this was a mail order company (located in Barrington, IL) that sold a big selection of Commodore stuff. I remember ordering stuff from them and when you did you received a free catalogue. This catalogue was roughly 60+ pages of black and white ads with prices. Think of it as a bible for the C64 as it listed everything piece of hardware and software. Kinda fun to look at and see what was selling back in '87 and for how much. Long story short, I hit the internet and did a google search on Protecto. Somehow I stumbled upon a guy in England who collected these catalogues. I sent him an email asking him what something like I had was worth. He said he didn't have this in his collection and would pay me $40.00. I was shocked. I sent him an email back saying thanks but no thanks. I oddly found this catalogue neat as it brought back memories and thought I'd hold onto it. I told him I would be willing to scan it into a PDF for free and send it in an email. His next email simply said, How about $80.00? Well, I no longer have it as I took him up on that offer. I know many of you guys will have stories of getting a rare game or magazine for little to nothing and selling it for alot more but a 1987 black and white 60+ pages catalogue for $80. You got to admit that's crazy. Does anyone else remember this company (Protecto)?

When I moved from my Intellivision collection (close to 50 games) to the new proud owner of a C64 back in '83, I (looking back) regretfully gave my entire INTV collection away to my cousin. I'm not saying I had rare games but I kept my games/boxes/manuals/overlays in mint condition when I handed it over to him. Years later his mom ended up throwing away the boxes since she believed they took up too much space and I noticed that he never really played it much anyway. Why do I regert that? The last few years I started wishing I had this stuff to play again and I started buying (again) some of the stuff I gave away. Oh well, I guess I can't complain when I recently purchased a cuttle cart 3 for the INTV and now I have every conceivable game that I could ever want on the Intelli. Anyone else do something with their collection and now look back and say, "Why did I do that"?

Thanks for the nice comments. The Hokus Pokus machine was quite the project. The person who owned it before me painted the entire cabinet white hence covering the original artwork. I had to purchase a stencil set for that game and the correct matching paint. I was lucky that the pinball (for it's age) was mechanically working fine. Every game shown in my pictures I personally worked on so that it would look better. For example, the Arachnid dart game, I purchased all new decals as the original ones were faded. That was quite the project finding those. I really enjoy taking something that is old and attempt to bring it back to life.

I wanted to show the $50 Hokus Pokus pinball when I first got it home and the after many months of hard work picture. I took two different angles of my basement so I could show all of the games that I have. This is what my wife gets to see when visiting the basement

Since I started this thread, I'm going to take pictures tonight and post them showing my various systems and how my basement is layed out. I'll be curious to hear what everyone has to say of my layout.

I'm not surprised she took interest in Fish Tales. That game's hilarious one liners will catch anybody's attention long enough for them to drop a few quarters. One that comes to mind it the dude telling how big a fish he caught "It was this big!" then the LCD prints out "Total Lie!" Ah nice, I didn't see this post. Fish Tales is an ok machine, pretty fun and yeah that is why she most likely got into it. What you should do is find out what types of games she likes. If she liked fish tales, she would love No Good Gophers or Family Guy. What's the other pinball you have? The other pinball that I have is a 1975 Hokus Pokus. I bought this locally for $50 but it was in bad condition. I knew it was going to be a project but that to me is the fun part. I actually took some before pictures and after I cleaned/fixed it back to working condition.

When I purchased my first Pinball game (Fish Tales) I was shocked to see my wife playing this game every night for a few weeks. That's been it ever since period! I've added two mame games, another pinball machine, an Arachnid dart game and various consoles and she has never touched or showed any interest in them. My 2 & 5 year old show more interest. All of this equipment is in my basement and one could argue that I'm lucky that my wife allows this even if she never shows interest in it. I've learned my lesson, one time I made a comment on how much "junk" (scrapbooking stuff) she has and boy was she quick to point out all of the gadgets in the basement that I have. Needless to say, I never talk about her scrapbooking stuff anymore.

You make good points. My logic for two Mame machines is that I wanted one dedicated to playing the horizontal games and the other one for playing vertical games.

I have a small collection of various consoles/games (mainly early 80's stuff), two Mame arcade cabinets and two pinball machines that I have acquired over the years which has provided many hours of entertainment. The other day I got thinking at what point in ones life do you (let go) try to sell this stuff? Here is my situation, I'm 41, married with two young kids (6 & 3). I know my wife has no interest in my collection and my kids may or may not want anything to do with this stuff as they get older. It would be nice to know that I could just pass on my collection to my kids and they could enjoy it but that may not be the case. I realize that owning two Mame cabinets, pinball machines and various consoles does take up alot of space. Call me crazy, because I enjoy the collecting part but not the idea or thought of getting rid of this stuff as I get older. I've put so much time into these items that I feel as if I can't part with them no matter what dollar amount I could get for them. My plan is to keep enjoying them now as long as I can and hope that my kids would one day enjoy acquiring my collection. What do you other collectors plan on doing with your stuff as you get older? Do you hope of one day selling your collection for more than you paid for it? Pass it on to your kids? Leave it all to a loved one who can deal with it when your gone? Donate it all to charity?

Are flea markets the best place to go and find older systems for a good deal? From my time spent reading different posts it seems like deals can happen in the following ways: You scope out your neighborhoods garbage. You scope out Ebay. You scope out pawn shops. You scope out Goodwill. You scope out flea markets. I'm amazed that I'll read how someone picked up a Turbo Duo for around $10 from a flea market when someone else is paying around $250 for one on Ebay. Are flea markets the best way to go? For me, I find my local pawn shops to be a ridiculous rip-off, Goodwill never has anything gaming related, Ebay is hit and miss and scoping out the garbage in my area would be awkward (the garbage pickup is placed in front of the house). Does anyone know of decent flea markets in the Chicago area? I will be visitng that area in a few weeks.

I'm thinking about buying a Turbo Duo and notice that on Ebay these go for crazy $ amounts ($300 and up). Why? Back in late '88 I purchased the Nec TurboGrafx 16 and don't even recall seeing (or ever heard of) a Turbo Duo. I didn't know these existed until I recently purchased a flash card for the TurboGrafx and saw that it will also work on these. Is this a case of Ebay just being overpriced or is this an item in high demand?

I think it is pretty cool. Helping out people and getting paid for it, Then taken it an buying games. More power to ya. Donating blood is cool. Selling plasma because you have a family to support is cool. Selling your plasma just so that you can buy new release games IN MY OPINION is not all that cool. "Oh man, Pac Man Collection is coming out this week. Guess I have to go tap a vein." Where's the line there? "Dude, my wife just sold some of her eggs, and we bought a motorcycle and a NeoGeo cab." "I just sold one of my kidneys and bought an NWC cart and a bunch of Atari protos." If it works for the OP, then whatever. But if I found myself selling my plasma just so that I could buy games right when they came out, I would have to seriously re-examine my priorities in life. If money is so tight for you that you need to sell you fluids, then you probably shouldn't be buying games in the first place. But that's just my opinion. Chris Personally, I don't see the big deal in what anyone who donates plasma does with the money they receive. Why would it matter if the guy wants to use the money to eat McDonalds everyday, take a trip to Disneyland, take care of his grandmother, or buy videogames? Do you think these Plasma centers screen people when they come in, "How do you plan on spending the money were going to give you, video games or supporting family? Video games!!! Please turn around and leave!" As I said earlier, the plasma center near me is absolutely packed all of the time. Now for me the bigger concern would be the long term effects of doing this 3x a week every week. If in ten years from now I'm fighting some long lasting illness was that worth the Pac Man collection or Atari protos? As a side note, I work at a Medical Clinic and I discussed "plasma centers" with a nurse who at one time worked at one. She said you would see these people who were dedicated regulars that had been coming for the past 10 years, 3x times a week and now they weren't able to come as much because they were always sick. I guess with the times (economy) the way it is I could see doing this for a few months but I wouldn't make this a full time job. For the record, I'm not currently donating plasma nor have I ever.

I think it is pretty cool. Helping out people and getting paid for it, Then taken it an buying games. More power to ya. I live about a mile away from a new plasma facility that just opened up. When I go past there around 7:00pm it is absolutely packed. Saturday is the same scenario. Probably a sign of the times. You can actually earn some decent money if your physically up to the challenge. There is a certain amount of visits you can do in a week. I believe when they pay you it's in the form of a debit card, no cash. Personally, I've wondered what the long term effects of constantly doing this to your body are.

Hi Nathanallan, I appreciate your help. I did notice your name popup on a site (can't remember which one) while googling for Sega cd 2 guides. I see how you repaired a Sega cd 1. Do you know of a place that still works on these? On the other hand, I wonder if it would be cheaper to just let this one go and find a working one on Ebay????? I'm up for the challenge and can handle a soldering iron if needed. It could be that the eye is bad/dirty/disconnected or something along those lines. I know some systems won't even bother to spin up if the eye can't 'see' the disc. Have you tried cleaning it? Hi, Actually, I used a lint free cloth to clean off the lens. I was thinking the same thing. The laser seemed to be connected properly as far as I can tell.

Hi Nathanallan, I appreciate your help. I did notice your name popup on a site (can't remember which one) while googling for Sega cd 2 guides. I see how you repaired a Sega cd 1. Do you know of a place that still works on these? On the other hand, I wonder if it would be cheaper to just let this one go and find a working one on Ebay????? I'm up for the challenge and can handle a soldering iron if needed.

I just received from Ebay a Sega CD 2. When I connected it up to my Genesis 2, plugged in both power cords and hit the power button I see on the tv the Sega cd screen with music playing. A message on screen says to insert a cd. No matter what cd I try (Sega cd or music cd) I get a message after a few moments to push start. I push start and now I'm looking at a screen that looks like a cd player (start,stop,forward buttons,etc) with the message to insert a cd. I decided to disconnect everything (what do I have to lose at this point) and remove the screws from the bottom of the cd player. Upon watching it function while opened carefully with the sega genesis connected and power reconnected, I noticed that the disc does not spin at all. If I move the laser lens manually away from the disc I can hear it moving back into place all the while the disc sits idle. Could the motor that spins the cd be bad? How hard is it to find this part? Has anyone taken one of these apart and fixed it? Most of the problems that I read in regards to this model seem to do with a fuse. I can't see how this fuse is bad on my unit as it's powering up but not spining the disc. Any advice would be appreciated.

The early Intellivision games. The game box opens up like a book and on one side you had the cartridge nicely tucked in a cut-out piece of plastice that held the cartridge firmly and on the other side you had a nice cut out slot where both the color manual and two overlays stayed in place. As time went on this design changed (for cost savings) manuals became black/white and they became cheaper looking and feeling.

Well, if I'm giving out the award for best graphics for a baseball game, I'd have to go with Mattel's World Series Baseball for the ECS computer. You have to consider the time period '83 and what's currently available and NOTHING compares to the graphics of this game. This game had many, many first, 3d and multiply camera angles. The reason many people may not be familiar with this title is because when it was released the ECS computer and Mattel for that matter were going bye bye (out of business). Too bad this game didn't come out a little earlier as this may have helped push sales for the ECS. I still remember the "teaser" commercial for this game back in '83 (which I still can't find on the net no matter how hard I look).

I'd like to see a section that covers hardware past & present. For example, it would be interesting to read about the various peripherals that were released or for that matter never released for all the different systems. As for current hardware, I would find it interesting to learn about the latest flash carts that are available, where to buy from, price, reviews, etc. Pictures of the actual hardware being discussed would also be nice. Interviews with former programmers might be a nice touch. A section that focuses on the emulation scene. Just my 2 cents.

One more question, which version do you have the 64 or 128? My 64 version has two jet airplanes as the logo on the card itself. I wonder if that tells me something about how old it is? If you look at Neo's web site it seems they used different logos (designs) for these cards. Not sure if I'm onto something there or not. Thanks