[AtGames 2018 speculation thread]

$20 for Blast! 3 (Pong) is an easy sell for me. I would gladly buy a second one if you could sync up two more controllers for Warlords!

[The Exclusive Intellivision I STILL don't have a F*cking Spiker Club]

Ok, I am obviously a charter member. I have no effing Spiker, nor have I ever. However, I have a question about the bylaws.

 

I think that if I stumbled into a Spiker that I would likely sell it to fill multiple holes in the 125; let's say Super Cobra, Tutankham, SMB and Fathom.

 

So, is there a grace period to have a Spiker in my possession while it is being sole on fleabay?

[Peter Goode, The Aquarius Program Book (1983)]

Thanks for providing the scan, I will definitely be typing some in!

[Billy Mitchell TG Banned, Scores Removed]

Twin Galaxies has been a mess for a while. The mess is now a dumpster fire. I honestly think starting over (maybe with a new name) would be the best solution. I honestly think the scores should come from live events, but even that would not rule out shenanigans, so I think maybe I will proceed by no longer giving a shit.

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

lol well guess the xbox gods are with me

went out today junk hunting again (kids are on spring break)

and almost passed this up

saw the bag marked at $9.99 and was like not a bad price for an empty xbox bag but I don't really need it (wife was with me lol)

 

she ran off to look at clothes so I decided to take a second look and soooo glad I did

10$ for a complete portable xbox setup only missing the remote for the dvd playback kit

had working xbox

2 original duke controllers

dvd playback dongle

av cable

power cable

1 memory card

headset adaptor

even a 10 foot Ethernet cable

 

took a bit of begging before the wife said ok lol (already have xbox kiosk , halo xbox, and a complete boxed one in my collection )

 

but I brought it home lol

and it works great

https://youtu.be/gBbkq7f4opk

 

added some pics of my other xbox stuff as well lol (everything except the halo one came from thrift finds , halo one is my original from when it was new)

 

Nice collection. I love using those Logitech wireless controllers!

[Unpopular games that you like?]

I like Tax Avoiders, just something amusing about that game.

 

Tax Avoiders in definitely in my top 10-15 2600 titles and for sure fits the bill as unpopular. Another thumbs up for Miniature Golf and Dodge ' em. Other faves are Human Cannonball and Skydiver.

[The Official AtariAge 2016 Secret Santa Thread]

Cool beans! This year I am going to remember to pick up some general interest goodies at PRGE for my lucky victim recipient.

[TRS-80 Model 1 memory expansion cable?]

Well crap. Does anyone have a spare cable from the ram socket to expanded memory daughterboard for a model one?

 

I was disassembling to look for damage that may be causing a screen full of garbage on a unit I hadn't tested before and totally wiped out three pins on the connector.

 

Nothing on eBay right now. Ian Mavric sells them but $25 plus shipping from AU. If I cant find one cheaper / local, I guess I will pull chips from the daughterboard back to the factory sockets (or maybe that wouldn't work, I forgot about the additional wiring that is soldered in for the upgrade).

 

Any help would be awesome!

[Not sure where to drop this / ataribox]

They're still fishing for ideas. And they're reading every word in this thread - but keeping their mouths shut.

 

 

Here's an idea; learn from the mistakes of River West Brands / Coleco / Cardildo and don't trample on the fans here and elsewhere, blindly enforcing IP rights without taking the required time to determine what is fair. That way, if your product is viable, all the Atari fans are promoting it and creating positive, rather than negative buzz. If you are listening "Atari", classic gamers want to believe, so give them something worth believing in and you will be successful.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

We used to play the Hell outa (Kee Games' )SPRINT back in The day!....Hey, who knew it was actually called SPRINT 2? I swear we all called it SPRINT and never even noticed that that was supposed to be a number; But considering Sprint 1 came out in '78 and Sprint 2 was 1976, The number did not designate a sequel, but rather the number of players.

 

 

I guess I did learn something new today!

 

I sure would love to run into a Sprint 8 or Tank 8 machine some day. I remember playing Sprint 8 and it was a big bastard, but lots of fun. I remember being impressed with the cars being in color, even though I got stuck with a pink car.

[Any bare console/tape only users?]

A few thoughts on this:

 

#1 - I'm in for this, put me on the list, even if it costs a little more than the old post said.

 

#2 - I am running even a little more bare bones than most with just the bare console and speech module, but I use cassettes for my C64 and Coco. Having said that, if anyone has a spare TI cassette cable to sell, I would be interested in that. If no, I will hit eBay.

 

#3 - Using a cassette duplicating machine gives pretty crappy results. I used a high speed machine (about 2-3 minutes for a c-60 tape) in the day to try to duplicate Coco and Apple software and the resulting product never worked. My dad told me the machine could have 1-2% speed variance, which was apparently enough to mess things up. If you were to just use an old dual cassette deck, I imagine it would be fine.

[NES emulator inside Switch firmware]

Coming from Nintendo, it could mean something else.

[Sega Genesis Rhythm Machine]

Very cool!!!

[Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites]

Aww, Eventbrite isn't showing the hall floor for Coleco Expo anymore ... so any exhibitor buying booth space is getting a pig in a poke.

 

Awww, I wanted to be right in the center of action and have my booths back to back. Now god knows if I will be in a good spot to sell popcorn and provide first aid for RFS (Repetitive Facepalm Syndrome).

[Favorite 2600 Hidden Gems?]

You want a challenge? Play this game in clack and white... you think avoiding purple pickles is hard? Try avoiding ALL pickles... talk about panic mode; or the risk and relief of risking eating a pickle and it not causing you to BURP.

 

This was a challenge for me as well, I had the old b/w tv in my room and still managed get pretty good at Pressure Cooker. It very deflating when you managed to do the hard work to put a burger together and then you lost it because you dropped in the wrong colored slot (medium grey vs light medium grey or dark medium grey). By the way, Pressure Cooker would probably qualify as hidden gem. Also much more fun in color!

[Cloak & Dagger Filming Locations]

I wish I could enjoy Cloak and Dagger properly. The DVD out doesn't have closed caption or subtitle for the deaf. I have the Cloak n Dagger and WIzard combo, it was labeled as subtitled but only WIzard is subtitled. The company that made the case and cover said oops when I complained.

 

I do hope I can get to Astoria sometime in my life, I loved the movie as a kid. The crazy adventure was one of my fantasy. Did you get to the 3-eyed rocks? Oh about 20 miles from Astoria IIRC, south along the shore.

 

Well, I have been there, but did not have the movie connection in mind at the time.

[More TAX AVOIDERS insight - "KINDA' LONG" - REVELA]

I also got my Tax Avoiders in 86' at KayBee, pretty sure it was under $5.

[Not sure where to drop this / ataribox]

Sigh. While our cynicism serves us well most of the time here, it also makes us look unfriendly at times. If a new member is really a "PR schill" it will become very evident by what they post or their lack of knowledge / enthusiasm over time. I would love to see us AA super sleuths be a little more patient before blasting someone the second there is a slight tick on the BS meter.

[Cloak & Dagger Filming Locations]

Thanks for posting! I would love to do this as well, but don't travel a lot. So far my experience is limited to the Goonies house in Astoria, OR and some downtown Seattle shots from the Elvis film, "It Happened at the World's Fair". Would love to see more of these.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

Teaseriest teaser ever. They did sucker me into giving them my email address for updates, which I am sure I will regret.

[Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites]

I was going to refrain from posting in this thread again, but after reading this last turn of events, I have formed an opinion of a certain holding company and one person associated with it...

 

 

Yep; bag, hose and nozzle......

[Fest West 2017]

Good to know! I know from his book what lengths Kevin went to to get his first TI computer and now he won the the F18A raffle completely legit to go with it!!

[Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites]

Quiet, you ... we want Cardillo to quit Coleco and go back to selling windows* full time, please

 

*and rapping at polo clubs, and hoarding gi joe dolls, and whatever

 

From one of the reviews; the salesman was "creepy and unprofessional".

[Fest West 2017]

That's a shame, I have reached out to try and recover that for our community. If I succeed, I'll re-hold the drawing for attendees.

 

-M@

 

Thanks for making that effort Matt. This was the F18A, right?

[Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites]

 

 

Speaking of that, I heard a story, not sure if it's true or not...

 

A guy goes out and buys a new all-in-one printer, hooks it up, fills out the registration, etc.

This printer is also internet capable and hooked to his router.

He sticks a $50.00 bill in for scanning, the printer will not scan it.. even after multiple attempts.

The next day Feds are knocking on his door about suspected counterfeiting activity.

Apparently his new printer told on him.

 

I don't know anything about this particular story's veracity, but the general idea is true. We had a high end Minolta graphics machine leased through a copier company, back around 2002. Someone copied something innocent, I think it was an internal gift certificate of some kind. The machine locked up and we had to get service. The tech told us that the machine interpreted the size and design as some kind of a bond certificate which locked the machine and they were required to send a report to, I believe, the Treasury Department. Never heard any more about it, but they did include a copy of our copy job in the report.