theredlineboss

Hit up a local flea market a few weeks back and didn't find anything interesting for sale...but something in a trash can caught my eye: No idea if it works, but I figured that a Sinclair was an unusual find. -Rob

Seeing the Colecovision SGM & 7800 add-ons, and of course the FB2 (as was mentioned by others), it's apparent new systems can be produced. Heck, even some old arcade machine boards are being reproduced. That said, most home consoles seem to be fairly robust- and ultimately, I'd have a hard time spending much on a new board when I could buy a replacement system for (presumably) less. ...On the other hand, I would love to have a drop-in replacement board for the Astrocade. Somehow I doubt that there is enough demand to break even on such a venture, but perhaps the presence of a replacement board would bring people to the system. -Rob

Since I have the XM on preorder still, I'd be willing to wait a bit longer for the XM version. But if it's only released as a TIA cart, I'd still be happy to add it to my collection. It's awesome to see this for the 7800! -Rob

I'm a bit late, but I'd like a copy of Tank Command. -Rob

Received my copy of Thexder yesterday - it looks great! Now I just need the SGM to arrive... -Rob

Haven't had many good finds lately, but I think this one (while not video game related) was a good buy: The thing is almost fully complete. I remember seeing this in the Lego Shop at Home catalog in the 90's, and now I finally have one, lol. 22 dollars. -Rob

Nice response, Pixelboy. It sums up my feelings as well (particularly the taxes part ). -Rob

In my experience, items where the seller "could not test" are almost always bad. Any exceptions to this seem to be mainly with sellers who do not normally sell items similar to the one for sale (game systems, mp3 players, etc). I prefer to purchase known-defective items, where the seller provides the symptoms. I have had much better luck getting known broken items to work than to hope that an "untested" item is usable for anything other than parts. -Rob

I think this thread is what you would be looking for: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/74783-fb3/page__st__850__hl__+portable%20+7800#entry2366366 I don't think I had seen any updates on it in quite some time; it may have been shelved or outright cancelled. Not sure...but in any event, I would not expect to hear of any movement on that project while Curt is laid up. -Rob

Like the others have said, take care of yourself; waiting a bit longer for the XM is not going to hurt us. Best wishes with the operation! -Rob

I have a set of these and they work quite well; the performance seems to be comparable with the Sega-branded wireless controllers for the Genesis. Much better than some others that I have tried in the past (particularly wireless NES controllers...junk). -Rob

Not to speak for Curt, but based on what happened w/ the XM, I don't think that this will see the light of day. Still looking forward to seeing the XM ship, though. -Rob

That's what I do as well - I apparently need my games to take up a lot more space I've actually made a few covers myself (nothing that great) for games that weren't on thecoverproject. -Rob

Wow...that's sad. I can kind of understand tossing a very obsolete or broken system (though I don't like it), but something that is still available at retail? Wasteful. -Rob

Likewise, I would accept the offer. I know I'll be thrilled to see this arrive on my doorstep, regardless of what you decide to do with the blank section. -Rob

Good to see a post from you Bob - Looking forward to seeing the completed game & adding it to my library. And of course, thanks to tep392 for stepping forward to put the finishing touches on it. -Rob

This is the only game that I ever specifically sold because I never wanted to see it again. I did not derive an bit of enjoyment out of it; I am sure someone likes it, but I quickly decided that it had no place in my collection. -Rob

While I'm curious what the "attempts at further compatibility" line might refer to, I'm thrilled to hear that the hardware design has been finalized. Looking forward to seeing this! -Rob

Two items come to mind for thrift stores: - Price tags being placed on the cartridge label - The liberal use of clear packaging tape to reseal an original package -Rob

Hit up a thrift store on Black Friday and piked up some NES carts for $2.50 each- Mega Man 1 - 5, Gauntlet II, and Dig Dug II. Also grabbed an original Game Boy in the box (w/ earbuds and tetris) for 4.50. Love the half off sales at the thrift store Also, a few weeks back I got my hands on a TI-99/4a with several game & program carts. Also has the voice module. Seemed to be a decent buy @ 20 bux. -Rob

Vintage coin op machines can be rather difficult to keep running unless you take the time to "bulletproof" the boards and such. Being that many of these machines are now around 30 years old, there are various components which will need some attention. Besides dealing with different issues on the game boards themselves (like bad RAM), the The CRT monitors will often have screen burn and /or the colors will be "off". Burn cannot be "fixed", but many of the other issues seem to be fixed by replacing the capacitors. Unfortunately, I have not had any experience with vector machines. Poking around on the KLOV Forums, it seems that many of the problems you experience are par for the course with any vintage arcade cab. However, the difference is that some of the components are rather hard to find, expensive, or both. This would primarily involve the vector monitor, as this technology has been mostly abandoned since the mid eighties. At any rate, if you haven't done so already, I would suggest taking the time to look over the KLOV forums. The site has some excellent information but just be aware that many of the members are purists, which does lead to some heated debates or flaming. http://forums.arcade-museum.com/ -Rob

I am truly sorry to hear that Bob is moving on from Atari programming, but I wish him well in his future endeavors. Thanks for all you've done for the 7800 community - I've enjoyed the games you've produced, though I still hope to see a finished Bentley Bear released someday. -Rob

Most of the consoles in my sig are always hooked up thanks to the magic of switchboxes. For the systems that output composite, I have several boxes - one 8 port Pelican unit and two 5 ports. All three of these boxes feed into a fourth switchbox, which is solely used to switch between the other switchboxes, lol. This allows me to have all of them feeding into AV1. For the RF systems, I have a simple 8 port splitter/combiner. Not much too it, but it does the job. As for power - I have the systems hooked into surge protectors which are only turned on when I am actively using the console. I prefer to not have power constantly going into 20 year old+ AC adapters. -Rob

Nice score! I lucked out similarly for my GBP - I had picked one up for a buck with no disk and decided to see if a nearby Gamestop had one. The guy said they had a disk that they couldn't sell because they didn't have the player. So I got that puppy for free -Rob

Excellent work!