Curt Vendel

What you'll want to do is open up the controller, remove the keypad from the connector on the board, take a pencil eraser and go over the leads and clean them. Same goes for the wire connectors to the boards, remove them one at a time and clean the contacts with the eraser. What I really recommend is doing what Coleco should've done all along which is solder the wires to the controller board so you have a nice clean connection. For the joystick contacts you can take a piece of very fine sandpaper and cut a thing strip of it, slide it inbetween the contacts and gently go back a forth a few times, then flip it over and repeat. Just 2-3 times back and forth so its enough to remove any "gunk" but not really dig into the metal as that will expose the raw metal to the air and moisture and the contacts will actually oxized and become dirty quicker the next time. Curt [ 05-01-2002: Message edited by: Curt Vendel ] [ 05-01-2002: Message edited by: Curt Vendel ]

You sure thats Rolling Thunder? Looks like Keystone Bologna Kapers to me Curt

I think the handhelds guy deserves major kudos for taking all the time to bring that unbelievable collection out to the show to have them all running so people can play them, incredible!!! I got a front row seat across from all of them and I was thoroughly impressed! Curt

Nah.... I've got Danbury Airport and the Westchester airport close by, but I prefer Newark for my air travel and thats a bit of a drive though.... I don't mind the distance, it was all worth it :-) Curt

I wanted to fly too.... don't think the stuff would've fit in the overhead storage on the plane though Curt The Atari History Museum

More stuff heading for Phillyclassic: Regan Cheng, the designer of the 5200 case just shipped out something I've NEVER seen before, it is the original prototype of what the 5200 was going to look like but was rejected as too dark and sinistar looking, also he dug up another Atari System X prototype and autographed it in celebration of the Atari 5200's 20th anniversary. I'll make sure to bring Regans contributions to the Atari museum exhibit, stop by and have a look. Curt The Atari History Museum

Just made a Main Menu for the Kiosks projects, so people can view not only the Colecovision project, but also the Astrocade and shortly the Odyssey2 kiosks and as time goes by, any other kiosk projects which may be added. Plus it would be nice to see anyone else who decides to build their own to send some photo's over to be posted onto the pages as well. Reproducing Classic Gaming Store Display Kiosks Curt

Zanza... thanks. Will have more photo's and info later tonight. I just made the generic opening menu for all 3 of the kiosks and I'm working on putting up some of the Astrocade project pages and will add some more Coleco pages on wiring the control panel. Then I'll start putting up some Odyssey2 photo's. This way all 3 projects are being shown and I'll try to have all of the pages come to the finished projects around the same time. Here's the new link to the Kiosks Main Menu page: Reproducing Classic Video Game Store Display Kiosks Curt

Hi, Actually I've been thinking about that as well... I'd like to post up the images but at 5-30mb depending on the image, those are monster files to d/l even with a broadband connection, for dial-up users it would be an all day affair... I guess for those who get to the stage of building the cabinet and then wanting to adorn it with some nice graphics, I would be more then happy to give the graphics I've already done to the them on a CDROM for $5 and send it out to them with the full set of graphics I've already created. Thats a possible solution. The EPS format files are just huge. Curt

I dig the Colecovision, its a cool system and as an Atari fan I was always envious of the slew of controllers that Coleco released while Atari's selection while good was not as flashy and eye catching as the Colecovision Super Action Controllers, Steering Controller and such. The Roller Controller I'm not crazy about... Atari's trakball controller seemed much better and the 5200 controller was true arcade hands down. Well, for those into Colecovision, have a look at a project I've worked on: The Colecovision Kiosk

Patience.... patience young jedi. I have not finished the tutorial yet, only so many hours in the day :-) Curt

Atari Chuck..... Damned good question, its been over 2 years since I've had a look inside the beastie and quite honestly... I don't remember :-) Well, I'll find out again soon! Curt

Joysticks are stock 5200 joysticks, no mods at all, just a label over the original Atari 5200 label on the joysticks and the connection cables are about 15ft long. Other then that and the frankenstein cartridge riser, its more or less just a stock 5200. I'll bring it along to Phillyclassic and leave the top unscrewed for anyone interested in taking a closer look, I'll be bringing the Atari 5100 and the Atari System X prototype along as well for those interested in having a look at the beasties. Curt

Great digging dude!!!

The Mega ST's "Megabus" had a few high end graphics cards come out for it, a Canadian company (name escapes me right now) made several products including a network card as well which was going to have Novell compatibility but I've never seen anyone with an actual unit running, so it may not have been released. Curt

Albert... Actually I prefer the Mega ST keyboard, the TT keyboard keys have a smooth finish and I don't care for the feel of them, also the function keys are a little stiff to push down on, the Mega keyboard just has a nicer feel to it... too bad it doesn't come in TT off-white. I have Atari Unix running on it and I've messed around with NetBSD a bit which runs well on it, I wish too it could take more memory, its nice box for sure. I wish Atari had made the Falcon in the same case design from the get-go or used a variation of the Mega ST "pizza box" I never liked the the all in one 1040ST cases. Curt

Hi Matt, The TT030 has been known not to run all Atari game related software, but its a damned good system. STE based software out there is specific for the STE, same with Falcon030 software, some of the packages released were specific to those ST's. Yes, the 7800 Dev software runs fine on the TT030, I have it on my system and it runs perfectly. The TT's were originally intended to run Atari's Unix V System 4 operating system to go head to head with Sun and HP in the Unix market, but Atari changed its strategy and adjusted the system to be TOS compatible. If you can get a TT030 with an Ajax floppy controller it will read/write 1.44mb floppies. Some TT's that were returned for service had their VME controller chips removed and were downgraded to 16mhz due to hardware issue's early on. If you pick up a nice 19" monitor from B&C or Best you can take advantage of its hi-res mode or look on the web, there is a new VME graphics card with built-in ethernet port on it, the drivers for the ethernet port haven't been written yet, but the 24bit color graphics card can do 1024X768 (or higher I think...) the price is a bit heafty: $249, but worth it if you use a replacement desktop like Jinnee with MiNT and then you can use Calamus, CAB and other really great software and you find yourself with a great alternative system to a normal PeeCee.... Here's some more info: http://www.atari-history.com/computers/16b...bits/tt030.html Curt

The owner of the 1st Atari 2600 is Al Alcorn (technically.... Atari 2600 proto Curt The Atari History Museum See everyone at Phillyclassic!!!

The 5200 Kiosk only had a 4 port motherboard inside underneath the main cabinet area. I'm not aware of a multi-board design, however I think it was Marco K or Marc Oberhause (sorry if I'm misspelling that) who snagged a sweet load of Atari multi-rom kiosk system boards (all 2600, however he did snag a lot of schematics and who knows, maybe a 5200 multi-rom board was in the works) Now Sean Kelly teamed up with a programmer who just made what I would have to say is the best leap in multi-carts to date... a built in on-screen menu and if Sean is continuing his work across the board to his 5200 carts and others, then that would be the next best thing to see an onscreen menu for a 5200 multi-cart which would rock! Curt The Atari History Museum

quote Thats one of the issues I don't stand by with regards to Ralph Baer assestment of a video game.... if the device produces an interactive display (of any kind) whether it is an image on a TV or images on an Oscilliscope they are images nontheless and the images are interactive with the use of controls of any kind. His definition would in fact preclude the use of LCD's and LED's and therefor would mean that handhelds' from Coleco & Mattel in the 80's are not videogames and in turn the Gameboy, Lynx, and all other LCD games that followed are not videogames since your not lugging a 19" Magnavox around with you Curt The Atari History Museum

Wow.... thats gotta be the holey'ist of Grail games.... the elusive "Mustards Revenge"!!! You have to guide Mustard to the Maury Amsterdam sandwich and get his revenge before the pickles attack !!! Got rave reviews in the 1971 Electric Gaming Monthly ahem.... Now back to our regularly scheduled program... Curt

quote: Originally posted by Glenn Saunders: >> But this was never productized and offered to the general coinop industry the way Computer Space was. I consider that a one-off prototype in the same sense as Tennis for Two was, and since it was really just a PDP-10/11 under the hood, not nearly as influential in the evolution of the videogame industry as the CPU-less design in Computer Space (which would be the standard way to do things until the late 70s). It was Nolan's cost-reduction design in the electronics that allowed the first generation of coinop games to happen. Then we need to clearly state, Computer Space is the first mass produced coin-op video game, not just the first coin-op game placed into a public venue for profit Curt The Atari History Museum

quote: Originally posted by Scott Stilphen: Undisputed? Ever hear of Higinbotham and Baer? [ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: Scott Stilphen ] Higinbotham created what could be considered the first video game using electronics... he did not market the product. Its the first commercial arcade game we're talking about, not the first video game or first home video game. You forget Steve Russell who sparked Bushnell and Pitts to make their video games in the first place, he never sold or patented his design either and made nothing from it. Ralph Baer is the Father of the Home Video Game with his designs and the creation of the Odyssey 1, Bushnell is the one who not only designed and sold commercial video games, his methods and concepts for the sale and manufacture of commercial video games were what set the standard by which others would use, copy and refine.... his contributions are really what set the video game industry into motion... hence why he is not the father of video games, but the father of the industry. True, Pitts only made the one unit, but it was the first to be put out for use and profit in the public before Computer Space was placed on location, but Pitts design was not mass produced afterwards... If Bushnell hadn't of had the Nutting connection, Computer Space may very well have only been a prototype as well.... lets not forget another prototype which was placed on a barrel: Pong, the original Orange prototype built by Al Alcorn :-) Just pointing out that Pitts machine was the first to be making money off of a video arcade game. As for whether he made $60K during the time it was put out is from his own word, so whether it is completely true or not is for a debate with him, since he (and perhaps his account) can only say for sure :-) Curt The Atari History Museum

quote: Originally posted by Glenn Saunders: It wasn't one of the first, it was THE first. . Glenn actually it wasn't THE first.... in fact technically Computer Space was NOT the first commercial video game, a few months earlier Bill Pitts, a Stanford graduate and Hugh Tuck, a friend of his built and installed "Galaxy Game", a coin-op version of Steve Russells Spacewar inside the Stamford student hall.... unlike Computer Space which was too complex for bar drunks (just joking) the students at Stamford had no problem grasping the concept of the game and in the end, Pitts made enough money from the game to pay off his $60K tuition fee's... So unfortunately, Nolan gets another notch taken back from his credits, he did not create & sell the first coin-op video game, however he still is the undisputed Father of the Video Game Industry.... Curt Curt

Interesting that you say that... it has been said that Coleco purposely made their Atari 2600 games inferior to make their Colecovision version more appealing, sorta like a bait a switch... you try it on your 2600 and say (man this system can't do good games....) then drool over the Colecovision versions and want mom & dad to spring for a Colecovision. Still gotta love those cool white cartridge cases though, that was a real eye-catcher. Curt