candiru

As far as being able to play games in the future, I'm more worried about longevity of the CD/DVD systems than the discs themselves. Flash memory would be great, although it's certainly not infallible either. It's probably a moot point anyway since, like already mentioned, the days of actually owning digital media are numbered.

If you haven't already, you might look into the Sega Master System lightgun adapter. I think I'll be getting one. I was excited when I found an Atari XE lightgun....and then I tried to use it. I'd heard of their reputation for being inaccurate, but mine manages to be several inches off, even at close range.

What's stopping you from doing that without the time machine? It's like training a dog. You've got to catch them in the act of behaving badly if you really want them to learn their lesson. "Let's shelve the 7800 for a couple years." **WHAP!** "Let's try to support 3 game systems at the same time." **WHAP!** This just occurred to me also, if you could prove to him that you traveled through time, just to kick him in the nuts....well, that's gotta be pretty demoralizing. Plus, he's all old now and it wouldn't be quite as sporting.

Yeah, like NovaXpress said, just buy some Microsoft stock and set yourself up with some serious cash. Then you could have some fun. You could take PS2s back to the launch date and screw over the scalpers. Make some weird-ass game hack, put it in a funky case and dump a few around the southern U.S. Personally kick Jack Tramiel in the nuts. Really, the possibilities for fun are endless. Don't forget about the future either. You might as well check that out too. 2084, here I come!

We didn't have very many games. Considering the games we had and what I know now about all the games I missed out on, it's a wonder I still like Atari as much as I do. Combat Pac-Man Human Cannonball M*A*S*H Video Pinball Space Cavern Sky Jinks Carnival Space Jockey I still have my old cartridges and system. I can pick out the originals except for maybe Pac-Man. The M*A*S*H cartridge is dead now, but I keep it around for old times sake.

Here's a few questions. For the "toaster" model, is the socket itself the same as the more reliable NES toploader? Is it mainly the added stress of pushing the cartridge down that makes the socket loosen up? Thanks!

The U.S. got a different release of SMB2 than Japan did. Here's a Wikipedia entry about it.

2600s: 15-20?, I don't know what I plan to do with all of them. Back-ups I guess. 4-switch woodies seem to be the most ubiquitous. Pong Systems: 4, Atari and generic. They're just so strange looking and usually pretty cheap so I usually pick them up if I see them. 7800s: 3. I looked in the thrifts and fleamarkets forever and finally gave up and bought one from eBay. Naturally, I soon found 2 more for great prices in the wild. Genesis: 3 counting the JVC X'Eye. If I bought every cheap Genesis I saw it would easily be at the top of the list. NES: 2 or 3. With the toaster style you definitely need back-ups. SNES: 2 N64: 2. I bought the second one mostly for the controllers. Saturn: 2. One non-working 5200: 1, 4-port Intellivision: 1, a NIB Intellivision II. I'm still trying to decide whether to open it up or just buy another one to play. The box isn't in great shape so maybe I'll open it.... and yet..... decisions, decisions. SMS: 1 Odyssey^2: 1 TI 99/4A: 1 Microvision: 1 I think that's it. If I add a Colecovision my console wants should be pretty well complete.

You'll probably be OK keeping the blinds closed. I know you can buy UV blocking films to put over windows, but you could probably get a new Dreamcast for less than the cost of UV coating your window.

Don't forget the Jesus Juice you can use to temporarily slow down the children.

Raiders of the Lost Ark maybe. Indy isn't a mythical warrior character like Conan, but the hero-oriented theme is there.

OK, I have ZERO knowledge of what it takes to program for the 2600, so there's a good chance this suggestion is utterly useless. And with that reassuring disclaimer..... Would it be possible to do a code-based save like Secret Quest? Once you decide to shut down the VCS, maybe hit the B/W button on the system and it shows a code that reflects the progress you've made. For a battle mode, each player could enter in the code for their character and then begin the game.

Oh yes, do try them, I think you'll find that they're a lot less gamey than baby seals. What can I constructively say that hasn't been said already? Probably not anything. I have been mildly tempted though. The occasion was finding a generic pong unit at a DAV that had been separated from its power cord and each priced separately. Why do they do that?!! Oh well, the forces of good won out that day and here I am -- pure as the driven snow.

I don't think the Antiques Roadshow evaluation is completely laughable. It's just that circle of people is usually completely out of touch with common schmoes like us. (My apologies to those who hang out here that aren't common schmoes.) People that will slap a $80,000 pricetag on an armoire that will likely be placed in a 2nd or 3rd house do not think anything of a $20 game. I wouldn't be surprised at all if a grading system came to pass, especially for high-dollar games. I don't see it affecting the price much for the more common games, and the folks who just want to relive some old memories and play a few games would go on pretty much as they do now. It's probably the mid-level collectors (whatever that means) who would be most affected by a grading service for rare/semirare games.

Yeah that one's good as a handicap level to even the playing field a little -- at least in most cases. That Combat variation takes me back to my first apartment away from home. Bringing the old 2600 with me was what got me back into Atari. I was living with my best friend since 1st grade and we were re-acquainting ourselves with some of the old games. He was getting so he could beat me sometimes at the tank levels so we moved on to the airplane variations. When we did the 3 planes vs. bomber variation he ended up being the bomber. He spent a lot of time spinning and swearing. After a few games like that he demanded to switch, stating something to the effect of, "It's impossible, there's no way anyone could win with that stupid blob!" So we switched and I commenced with the beating. That particular variation always seemed to hang him up. Months later, even after he got pretty good at a lot of the Atari games I could still beat him more than half the time with the bomber. Pissed him off to no end.

Famous last words.

Make sure you get a notebook to keep track of your best scores. All the cool Atari players are doing it! My wife laughs at me for it though...

Oh Epyx 500 how I loathe thee! Actually control and response is pretty good, but it reduces my hand to a cramped claw and the infernal clicking is known to cause long-term psychological damage. Still, the worst all around joystick I've ever tried is the 2600 compatible made by Kraft.

You just raised the blood pressure of every OCD person here. I'm not a terribly neat person otherwise, but my games have to be in order. For NES I keep a series together regardless of alphabetical order.

I've kind of been out of gaming lately, had a lot of other things going on... Yesterday on the way home from work I hit a few thrifts just for the hell of it and found a big ol' box of mixed 2600 and 7800 games, all CIB. No price was marked so I asked the manager, expecting him to say something like $5 - $10 each. Nope! 99¢. I couldn't pass on a deal like that, so for $34 and change I came home with 35 boxed games. Not too shabby. Quite a few R4s in there too.

ophthalmologist

Yikes! Will the ladies be flowered mumu wearing, drawn on eyebrows only, blue haired, falsed teethed old ladies, or does the men thing go for them too?

If that's a local purchase, ie no shipping charge, I'd pay $50 for all that ColecoVision stuff alone.

I agree with Danno that if you're mainly a gamer and you anticipate wanting a lot of games, a multi-cart is going to be your best value in the long run. If you want to build a collection of carts you'd probably save the most money by buying a fairly large batch to begin with, either on ebay or possibly you could luck into one locally. Buying games a few at a time really adds up, especially so with ebay. I try to save those single game purchases for the harder to find carts. Going to thrifts, garage sales, fleamarkets etc is a lot of fun if you can find time for it. The thrill of the hunt is a big part of the hobby for me, though I don't get out as often as I used to. This is a good source for tradebait too. I've never paid more than I'm comfortable with for any videogame purchase -- mostly because I'm a cheap bastard, but also because a better deal usually presents itself.

I used to have pretty good luck with the old search feature, is there something I'm overlooking with the new one? (This is highly possible now that AtariAge has given us so many new features.) I know that phpBB required at least 3 characters to perform a search. Do the new forums require more than that or ignore common terms? The reason I ask is because it's become more difficult to get relevant results when looking for information about particular consoles. Terms like N64 or other common system abbreviations that we all use on a regular basis seem to be ignored. For instance, when looking specifically for information about N64 ports of games, adding "+N64" seems to have little bearing on the outcome of the search. Now I'm the first to admit that I know squat about coding software or maintaining a forum. However, if there is a minimum character limit in place, would there be a way to add exceptions to the rule? Thanks