Madaracs

Curt is aiming for less than $100. However, you'll need to factor in the price of games too. Hell, at $100 I'd send money right now if I thought it would help!

Looks like he's updated his site. I may be relatively new here, but I would encourage anyone and everyone who respects his work to comment on that entry. He may have been hurt by some of the matter-of-fact comments about his frustrations.

Found these (though they're not the ones you need--they're backward.) Just FYI... Search for 72 to 60 pin adapter... I forgot it was 60 pin and not 64.

Let me guess ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9G18qHPhcM . Ding ding ding! *points to nose - points to you*

No, they are running a special right now. They do that every so often. I got my subscription on special 6 months ago. I'll see if I can locate the coupon or link or whatever it was I saw.

You're right. I was playing Pac-Man Plus off of PMC on the ColecoVision and developed a pattern that worked precisely when I began playing Pac-Man Plus in MAME. Did you know that Pac-Man Plus is a hidden game? Yeah, yeah! I mention that. I did forget to mention one thing tho... The packaging is kick a$$, too. Of course all of this really goes without saying for everyone who's been playing for two years already. . But i was just so jazzed I needed to post!

Indeed.

There's a lot of good stuff in there with regards to direct quotes and personal stories, unforunately its sandwiched in between a lot of bad/poorly researched/erroneous info. Stuff like claiming Atari Coin and Consumer were connected buildings. What are you?! (To which I fully expect a certain 1989 Tim Burton movie quotation response...).

It had a limited test market in the New York area in Christmas '85, which did not go well. The reports on the test marketing from January '86 CES stated retailers in NY considered it a failure. Likewise, that's not a mass marketing, that did not occur until the national launch in the second half of '86 as stated. As you stated, which I certainly agree with, "a limited test run doesn't count as being released in my book". Think you might have misread his question... Madaracs - Good catch. Matt - yes, the NES was test marketed in '86 as well. After the '85 New York one there was an Feb '86 Los Angeles testing, and then a slow transition to testing in a few other major cities (Chicago, etc.) leading up to the national launch. This thread has inspired me to read Kent's "The First Quarter." I began reading it tonight. It's chock full of goodness.

That's a good plan. They're usually heavier carts and have 5 screws. Gyromite is an acceptable game to kill. I have two adapters that were made for that purpose--they even have the ribbon to pull it out of a front loader. They pop up on eBay pretty regularly. I'd sell you one of mine but one of them doesn't work so well. But for a top-loader I bet that the "find-a-cart-with-a-built-in-adapter" option is best. I can't remember exactly, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the reason why there were adapters in some of the U.S. game carts was because there was a shortage of game cartridges in the U.S. and Nintendo had excess of 64 pin Famicom boards. So early versions of many games have this adapter in them.

I love that you did these. Mr. Do has always been a favorite of mine but it just seemed like it fell short on the ColecoVision. Too bad they didn't have Raccoon Lad around when they were making these games. With the improvements being made to other games like Pac-Man and Mario Bros. it would be a great project for someone to take on.

Brute force. I love it. That's more my style. It also seems easier than a dremel. I might be able to glue it back together when I'm done!

This is getting a little off-topic, but according to Steven Kent's book (via Wikipedia), the seventeen titles released for the New York City test were: 10-Yard Fight Baseball Clu Clu Land Donkey Kong Jr. Math Duck Hunt Excitebike Golf Gyromite Hogan’s Alley Ice Climber Kung Fu Mach Rider Pinball Stack-Up Tennis Wild Gunman Wrecking Crew Now, about that forum description ... This topic has really been beaten to death. A couple of times. It's been fun having everyone pipe in about the facts and to get some clarification--and the majority of the voters agree a change is in order--but I didn't mean to create any ill will amongst the AA gang. It was just a suggestion and I guess I didn't intend to cause a ruckus. If a moderator feels like it, I'd suggest buttoning up this thread and letting the dead horse lay.

If you order a subscription it's like $80 for 12 issues right now. $6.60 an issue is better than the $10 they get at the news stand. You can also buy them for your iPad or iPhone at $2 a pop.

I'd recommend having at least a close look at any electrolytic capacitors inside, and replace as seems appropriate (or just replace them all). Philipp Good to know. I'm still not sure how to get the darn thing apart. A dremel seems like overkill.

Thanks for sharing. It is funny that I got a lot of good feedback on PMC last week, after so many months. Good to know people are still enjoying it. Eduardo I just bought a copy of this last week. I've been playing it for 3-4 days straight. More than anything I just like powering up the game to see the work that went into everything from the menu to the gameplay. The patterns even seem to work. Here are some of the things that I love about the game: 1. The cartridge: Sweet artwork. Opcode branded carts are cool too. 2. Turning the game on: Beautiful animated rainbow ColeoVision logo with the "The Arcade Quality Video Game System" slogan followed by the Namco logo. 3. The Menu: Pac-Man Fever! Yeeeah Bouy!, Animated Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man characters, The Pac-Man Glove to select Menu Options. And the cool gold placard adorning the main menu with the words "Pac-Man Collection." 3. The options menu: Japanese version?! Cool. Pac-Man Plus hidden menu option. Brilliant! 4. The game play: Near arcade perfect! The ColecoVision shines here. From the "ROM boot up" to the ghosts getting chomped--you can really tell a lot of care went into making this game a reality. It's nice to have people inject so much love into a project. Thanks for the game.

Found this one: And this old thing: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/135047-colecovision-power-supply-connector-bad/ Thanks for the tip. I might try the power supply mod on this thing. It would be nice to rid myself of that huge wall-wart.

Is there a way to revive a dying ColecoVision power supply? I'm getting some red banding on screen when it's plugged in. Using a different power supply fixes the problem. I thought I read somewhere there was a power supply modification you could do... but maybe that was on an Atari--I can't remember. If anyone has any thoughts, they'd be much appreciated.

It had a limited test market in the New York area in Christmas '85, which did not go well. The reports on the test marketing from January '86 CES stated retailers in NY considered it a failure. Likewise, that's not a mass marketing, that did not occur until the national launch in the second half of '86 as stated. As you stated, which I certainly agree with, "a limited test run doesn't count as being released in my book". Think you might have misread his question...

There are more homebrew selections for the 7800 here at AA than the Lynx. I'm not sayin'--I'm just sayin'. *shrug* I'd work on getting both. 7800 may be easier to come by than the Lynx. You could get that first and search for a nice bundle of Lynx stuff later.

Just received Juno First and Turbo! Both are superb! I love the enhanced version of Turbo... it's totally rad. I like that the objects are slowed from the original prototype to make the game very playable. Nice touch on the digital font. From the squeal of the tires to RACE OVER. I love it. The packaging is top notch. The box feels very substantial and the whole package just feels like an original Coleco product. And Juno First? Well it's still as awesome as the day it was released too.

Venture: Troy Hattlestad's ColecoVision in Lakeville, MN. Incidentally, they had the only ColecoVision in the neighborhood. Don't think I've ever played the Atari version. Never saw a pac-land.

It's usually not a matter of hold times... They're in CA so if you're out there your golden. But they have weird hours.

The best place to get this is here: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ Just call the guy and tell him which switch you need. They're pretty cheap and they're NOS.