roberto

😃 I think this year the bar was set very high and many in the group really went well beyond what was expected! It will be challenging to meet expectations next year! But I guess many of us are ready for new challenges... In the meantime, have a safe and sound (and playful too) new year!!!

Ok!! 10pm on Christmas Eve over here so time for me to release my inner kid and open all the gifts!! My Secret Santa was just AWESOME!!!! The great care in packaging every single item was just amazing (I regret I don't have that patience...) and made my small xmas tree look much more respectable : Then all the gifts were just beautiful: The chocolate is truly excellent (it won't last long... 😁), the mini and tiny arcades are exactly what I was looking for (can't find them over here!), I love the NES coasters and the Flashback games too, while the Lynx t-shirt, patch, button and sticker fill a void in my collection (I confess I had nothing Lynx related till now). Last, the Imagic 'Numb Thumb' patch and membership card were the cherry on the cake! 🤩 This was a truly amazing selection. Really, thanks a lot to my Secret Santa: the real Santa would be proud! 😀 Merry Christmas to all!! Roberto

Same over here!

WOW!!! Found this HUGE (and heavy!) package waiting for me at the office!! Can't wait to open it! Heartfelt thanks to my SS already!!

Thinking of Christmas themed games, I realized a small game I did a few years ago is still available for download (PC/Mac) here: https://adsumsoft.itch.io/secret-santa-its-a-stealthy-xmas (on the other hand, the mobile versions were pulled out of Google Play and the Appstore because I did not update them to officially support the latest 64 bit architectures). Note that the download link will ask to name a small price first, but don't worry about it and just download it Cheers!

Some quick recommendations from my personal experience: I still like AMOS on the Amiga, though I confess I did not code any game on that platform since my sophomore year in university (but I plan to get back to it soon or later! ). For a new platform where to learn how to code in the old-school way, the ZX Spectrum Next is a great choice, if you can manage to get one. On the other hand, I never tried anything on the Jaguar but, again, that's something in my ever-growing to-do list! Cheers!

Ah! Same over here!

While it may still be a bit too early for Christmas carols, it is never too late for some good 8 bit music!!

Yes, I definitely want to participate. Let's finish this terrible year in a positive and cheerful way!

Regarding international shipping, I did send an untracked parcel back to Italy in March and it arrived two weeks ago! I think that, even though it was always recommended in all previous SS editions, willingness to ship with a tracking number this year is particularly important. Cheers! Roberto

Count me in!!

Thanks Grig! But this is really a sad way to start 2020 though... 😢 hopefully there will be a worthy successor next year! All the best!!

Christmas Eve over here and..... WOW!!! Opened the package and I was completely blown away! 😍 My SS managed to hit all the bases (and a home run too!): all flavors of Atari, from the 2600 to the Jaguar passing by a gorgeous SIO2SD for A8bit computers and Atari Age stickers, a dual-sided tape for both C64 and A8 with a wargame I missed so far (Theatre Europe), the 'Red Dead Redemption' of the good old 286 days 😁 (Mad Dog McCree: I never actually played this and I was always curious about it!) and, last but not least, the 2005 Retro Gamer DVD with Amiga Forever, something I had been looking for unsuccessfully for a while!! To top it all, a very stylish black NASA t-shirt was also there waiting for me to try it right away, as you can all see! Once again, all this really made my Christmas special. Thanks a lot to my not-so-secret friend from Adelaide and thanks also to everyone for making this amazing community!! Roberto

That's because we have all been practicing our "self restraining" techniques for a few years by now!

Indeed. Actually, I like the VCD format and it is also one of the few retro items it is still possible to find around here with relative ease (as some of my past Secret Santa recipients over here know! )