LiquidPenguin

Sears used to have color monitors with RCA inputs as well. I still have the one I purchased when I purchased my Atari XEGS. I left it at my parents house unfortunately since I moved so I can't look at the model number really. It doesn't matter now, it seems that the tube is leaking or the gun is weakening or some such since the image will sometimes expand then contract suddenly once in a great while. I know that there's a box floating about somewhere that will allow you to convert the feed from RCA to the VGA(?) inputs on most modern monitors. They seem to be more-or-less popular with the newer consoles like Dreamcast, XBox, and what not. I looked at it a few times (I'll try to find a link, I think spotted one at Amazon) but the cost of it and considering I already have multiple monitors and T.V.s that I'm quite happy with, I couldn't justify buying it myself.

Is this going to be sold in the AA store or is it going to be released as a ROM?

When I saw the title of this post, I thought it was a new Adventure game... 3D Adventure actually. Since I was thinking Z meant the Z buffer commonly referred to in modern 3D games.... So I'm not sure if Nintendo would have a fit over a game or title like that. It's not like you're equating yourself with Zelda... are you? Still good though... I would like to give it a shot.

1-12-2003

::Bookmarks page:: I didn't even know Atari had their own Arcade tokens. I hope to God I kept the old Aladdins Castle and other tokens from the Arcades in Reno. There was this Arcade there that changed owners at least three times (before going out of business) and had at least a dozen different tokens that the machines would accept. There might be an Atari toekn in there somewhere.

I'll hop in for a quick dip and say this. I like them both. The Lynx has some really cool ideas that I haven't seen implemented anywere. Especially in the later Lynx II. That screen flipping thing was my fav, especially with Gauntlet. Now that I'm ten years older, I don't have any time or need to play portable gaming. So getting a GBA is not high on my list of needs. I was planning on getting the GBA add-on for the Gamecube which acts a lot like the Super Gameboy for the Super Nintendo. But my ex-girlfriend broke up with me this month and she's taking the GCN (but at least I keep my PS2 ). But in a pinch though, I find that comparing the Lynx to the Gameboy Advance is a bit like comparing a 1839 Ford to a 2002 Ford. They're in the same category but they're in entirely different leagues from each other. Then you have to consider that I'm tainted with my love for Atari and the Lynx since that was the portable I chose over the three other choices around at the time. Now if Atari stuck around (and survived) in the console business and they came out with a Nex-Gen Lynx, then we would have a viable discussion. Not to rag on anybody here mind you.

It's also not really fair, in my mind, to compare the Infogrames atari with the Atari of yesteryear. Yeah, I know the arguments. Companies like IBM have been around for years, much longer than any of its CEOs have been alive. But it's not the same. The deal with Atari is like someone trying to bring back the Delorean. Sure, the name is there, but is it the same company then? No not really. Delorean died and so did Atari. What Infogrames had done is essentially dig up the Atari corpse, mount the skeleton in a glass case in a museum, then charge a fee for people to gawk at it. I will not now, nor will I ever in the future consider Infogrames atari the same company as Atari.

Tramiel was a fucking maniac and an asshole. I'll have to look up the various dates, but this is what I know about Tramiel. Back in Tramiel's day, Commodore was the Microsoft of the early 80's. Commodore accountants would always demand prompt payment from those who owed the company money. However, Commodore would work its ass off to actually avoid making payments to those that they owed money to. A classic example would be chip manufacturers. Commodore would promise payment as long as the company continued to ship chips. However, without any income, the chip manufactuer couldn't stay solvent so the owners would be forced to sell during bankruptcy. Commodore would then swoop in like a vulture, buy the company, then forgive its own depts. Commodore did this because they had a variety of investment practices. By holding onto the money as long as possible meant they could take advantage of a variety of high interest rates. As high as 18% in 1981 for example. With this practice, no one in Silicon Valley liked his company. California magazine once ranked Tramiel as 3rd on the list of, "Bosses from Hell." Investigations showed that Tramiel and a lending firm in Canada were involved in some sort of financial scandal involving bloated interest rates, misleading financial statements and two fake companies. Tramiel was never indicted and his partner in Canada died before a full inviestigation could be launched. All that was before Atari. I'm sure everyone here knows what happened when he took over Atari

I've seen that site before. I thought that was the guy that managed to get all those carts from the old mine? He has another source for his carts? Where's the story on his site? To be honest, I don't visit his site much. The horrendous organization and god awful colors only server to deter casual buyers

I have Atari 2600 extension cables that have only 6 of the 9 pins wired. These cables won't work with something like a Colecovision. I have seen Y cables that had less than 9 pins wired as well. The reason, I dunno, maybe cost savings? I'm just guessing here since I can't find any place that has these Y adapters but would the dead pins be pins 5, 7, and 9? I'm just guessing since I think the Paddles are already Y'ed out and there'd be no reason (that I can think of from an engineering stand point) to Y out any of the other controllers.

Although.... now that I think about it. I can't imagine why an Atari Y cable would require some pins to be disabled on any sort of extension or adapter.

Can't vouch for an old console, but newer systems sometimes need to know which joystick they're polling. A good example for some forgotton console is the port would have all the pins connected to both joysticks except for two. One pin goes to one joystick and the other goes to the other. I remember that since I tried to make my own, longer, cable once and it didn't work properly. So used a voltmeter to figure out the configuration. Ideally though, they should have all their pins connected I suppose. never really thought about it.

O Shea? Burned? Dang, I hate feeling like an idiot. Time to search the web yet again.....

Woah! That's quick! For $15, I might get a little picky about scratches across the surface though. However, if you do go and pick me up a nice copy with a manual, that'd be fair. It's a tad expensive, but no one around my local area has a copy that I've found. Now let's see if I can figure out how these other buttons work.... *Pokes Private button to see what happens*

That's pretty much it. Wonderdog for the SEGA CD. I'm writing an article and I would like a copy of the game. Checked eBay and it came up once since I started looking and it was part of a lot that went for too much money. I must be using the wrong key terms for the eBay bot. Nothing to trade since I haven't inventoried my collection yet But I'll pay a bit of money for it. [ADDED] Oh yeah, and before I forget. A manual is a must. It's a part of what I'm working on. If no one is willing to sell their copy, could I borrow it? Nah... I don't think anyone will let me borrow it, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

OK, I'll bite. I don't mean to steal this thread. I don't have anything to offer one way or the other, but you can make the adapter yourself? I did a search but I think I'm looking up the wrong key terms. Is there a website that explains it?

Depending on the quality (phosphors used) of the screen, it takes quite some time for burn in to occur. I worked at a Taco Bell for three years with those T.V. menu screens. I didn't notice the start of burn in until about six months of using the same menu grid for 16 hours, seven days. Burn in was really bad at around two years. It was at the point that when you turned off the monitor, the phosphors were so trashed it didn't even look like it was turned off. To get serious burn in on a modern T.V. you'd have to leave it on the same image for quite a long time. Much longer than most people could conceivably leave it on for. Though a projection T.V. doesn't quite work on the same principle, the toughness of those machines would be the same. I have serious doubts you're going to leave a game on pause for six months in an attempt to burn an image.

Are you talking about those nasty faux wood boxes that come from the late 70's and early 80's that stored Video and Audio cassettes? It seems like every single thrift store I visit has at least one, and many have three or four. I'd imagine they would look awesome underneath the old Atari consoles, but.....

Out of all the people that bought a Lynx where I used to live, I was the only one that bought the Lynx that came with California Games. Maybe everyone else did the same? Atari sold more Lynxs without CG than with?

Egads! I hate staying up all hours of the night. Anyhow, I was reading these posts and I got punched in the face with the ol' Missed Deals Sadness.... Example: About two months after I bought my Atari XEGS. A very good friend (at the time) was moving and he didn't want a majority of his old 2600 cartridges. So he offered me the entire box... for free! Like a fricken idiot that I was at the time, I took one look at the cartridges, saw how big they were, and told him they wouldn't fit in my XE. I realize now, how much I blew that opportunity because he was very picky in his game selections and he made a huge effort not to obtain repeats. It was all a jumble, but I'd guess about 40 cartridges, easy. Near the end of the short life of my XEGS, there was a really cool mail order company that had every single game for sell for a half dozen consoles and computers at the time. Their catalogue was extremely plain (black and white, no pictures save for logos) but very thick and dense with the listings of game titles and their prices. The last page was always reserved for their monthly specials. It was the company that I purchased my precious Lynx from Anyhow, for nearly a year and a half, the specials page listed four groups (lots) of used Atari XE games. The four lots were comprised of every game that was listed in their catalogue. The prices then were amazing! For each lot, the price was the same as one brand new cartridge! Of course, like a dork, I didn't buy them since my buying habits managed to land me at least two games from each lot. I didn't want to buy the lots since I didn't want any repeats in my collection. If I had purchased those four lots, I would have a near complete XEGS cartridge collection. I'd be much much further along that I am now and I could've sold the extra cartridges when eBay went online (after I got my PC of course) My mother took me to a sealed auction one time when I was around 12 or so. A sealed auction is when there are unopened shipping boxes and crates and you bid on them not knowing what's in there. For the damndest reason, there was a very large crate that kept, "calling," to me. Every time I passed that crate, I would look very closely at the crate wondering what was in it. I had around $200 in cash on me and I kept wondering if I should even make an attempt to bid on it. Of course it was my first time at any auction whatsoever and I had spent a lot of time earning the $200 so I didn't even listen to my heart. I sat there through the auction and the crate when for around $60. Later when I went outside, I saw that the contents of the crate was being loaded into a large pickup truck. Anyone want to guess what was inside? I'll save you the trouble. The year was 1990 and the crate had boxes and boxes of consoles and games. Mostly Genesis (from what I could see as he pulled them out), mostly in Japanese, all of them apparently brand spanking new. Is there a little man screaming that I can pick from? Oh here, I'll just repeat these two a few times.

Depends on where you live, I guess..... Where I live, about half the collectors (doesn't matter what they collect) I've encountered are generally assholes. When I first moved, I was still playing Magic the Gathering quite extensively. So I did what any red blooded player would do, found every pizza parlor and card shop within 20 miles to find collectors and players to hang out with. But to my chagrin, I found out the norms are so radically different from what I was used to. Where I used to live, the unspoken rule was you play at least one game against the person before thinking about doing any business. But where I live now, everyone just wants to trade. They won't even consider playing until you strike up a, so-called, business deal. Talk about major suckage, it's like having to pay to find opponents. When they realized I wasn't quite as interested in expanding my collection (at the time, I had very little money so I focused on trimming my collection, which focused on quality, not quantity) they ended up shunning me and kicking me out of any local tournaments The same seems to hold true regardless of the items being collected. I was in an antique shop (I like old furniture ) when a fight broke out between two woman who claimed the other intentionally ruined some sort of lamp. Apparently, they both grabbed for the lamp at the same time and they were arguing who got to it first when the lamp fell and broke. Go figure. I'll talk to people who strike up a conversation. Mostly because I'm pretty lonely in this stupid hell hole of a town. Maybe I oughta get a job again?

Ack! I got caught in a rude lapse of politeness!!! *SIGH* I'm not having a good week Earlier today, I reached into a box in the darkened corner only to discover 40 of those butcher knives that's supposed to be able to cut through metal without loosing their edge. Fortunately, 39 of them still had their protective cardboard sleeves. Unlucky for me, there's a nice long cut on an inconvenient part of my thumb. It's going to take ages to heal.

Eerrr... that's not really Atari.

Yee Gods! What a mess of a website! How the hell does that guy remember where to find the bits and bobs to update?! Oh well, can't complain. He could've gone for a whole 80's look with scads of those idiot animating .gifs.

A bit off topic. But I looked at the Songbird website and I see quite a few games listed there. Games like Blue Lightning and Chip's Challenge. Are these games, games that are . . . reprinted by Songbird or are they unsold stock from the original Atari production runs? I understand that games like CyberVirus are manufactured by Songbird? Is that correct?