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Yea, I gave it the good 'ole college try at putting together a strategy guide. It's probably even possible to finish the game -- I don't doubt it. The problem is, at the end of the day the game is about as much fun as beating your head against the wall. The story, if you can call it that, is terrible. So you basically have to spend hours and hours and hours walking around aimlessly without a clue what you're supposed to do or where you're supposed to go -- hoping and praying you'll stumble upon something useful. Which is the same criticism that PC version suffers from. Life's just too short, if you know what I mean....

Really? Who do you think bought all those games to put under the Christmas tree each year for their children? Oh yea, that's right Santa made them in his workshop. But seriously, you don't think that any parents bought these systems and games for their kids back in the day? You don't think any adults owned Atari stock back in the day? You don't think any people read magazine and newspaper articles about Atari back in the day? And nobody lived near or worked in the game industry back then, or knew someone who did? Additionally, the question didn't ask how many people are "still into Atari", so I don't see your point....

I would think anyone over the age of 35 or 40 does. That's a HUGE chunk of the population. Probably close to half, if not more. So I'd say the number is something around 150 million people or so...... Now, if you want to restrict your question to the under-30 crowd, then you're probably talking a very small percentage (of those that have even heard of Atari in the first place).

Here's an "interesting" interview with the heads of River West Brands. River West Brands interview They basically rip the Colecovision every chance they get. They rip on the power switch. They rip on the number of cords it has. I mean, are these things really that different from a modern console? They seemingly barely even know how to turn it on. It's interesting business strategy -- buy brand, trash brand publicly, profit. Should be interesting to see how that works out for them. Certainly changes my view of what they're trying to do, that's for sure. Like I said in my original question though, it almost seems like they might have already abandoned the brand based on the lack of news and new products....

River West Brands obtained the rights to Coleco about 4 or 5 years ago.

The last press release on their web site is from October 2006 (almost 2 years ago!). The list of games on the site also looks dated. In fact, the whole web site looks pretty dated at this point..... Coleco

Does anybody actually program these old machines in BASIC any more? I mean, is it really a factor for anybody when deciding which machines to collect?

The Democrats were elected in 2006 to do one thing -- stop the war and bring the troops home. Yet every time there's a war spending bill, they roll over each other to be first to sign it. It's not what they have done -- it's what they haven't done since 2006..... Disclaimer -- I can't stand either party. I think they're both two shades of the same thing.

There was a prototype controller with the speed roller built in auctioned off on eBay a year or two ago. It didn't look like the one in the picture though -- it looked very much similar to the standard controller....

The difference is 3.

This route has been tried once if not many times. The Mythbutsters have never responded (or taken up the myth, obviously). It's not really their cup of tea anyway -- they prefer more "controlled" myths where they have a number of variables they can play with, so it's not really surprising that they haven't......

FYI -- they were almost a year late shipping the original run (at least for me). I remember getting more than a little upset with them at the time. In the end though, they did FINALLY deliver.....

Also, the two connectors are just so that you can daisy chain two drives.....

One word: BEAUTIFUL!!! I especially like that last picture where it's dark and the kiosk with the blue lettering is all lit up......

Congrats man!!! If that was closer to me I would have been ALL over it. I was even mapping it today to see how bad a drive it would be -- but 17 hours each way was just more than I thought feasible. Glad to see it went to somebody who will take good care of it. Can't wait to see the pictures when it's all polished up!!!!!

This has been discussed before and I think the general conclusion has been that Bentley Bear probably would have been the best choice. Pac Man wasn't an Atari property, so that wasn't possible....

This is true for a large percentage of Jaguar games, not just SW2K....

So true. I was thumbing through an old magazine the other day, and came across an interview with some executive at Mattel talking about how "video game systems" were dead and "computers" were the future. Seems like the management at Atari/Coleco/Mattel were all drinking the Kool-Aid back then. It's almost like all three companies committed suicide by buying in to this "video games are dead" mentality....

Wow! That is an awesome find indeed!!!

You sure you're talking about the Jaguar version? I found that in the Jaguar version, the view is always from the cheap seats no matter which of the "zoom" angles you choose. The difference between them is so minor it's not even worth messing with them.....

$2.50 seems like a pretty darn good deal to me!

Sounds like controllers for the Mattel Aquarius computer (are you sure the buttons weren't blue?). I'd pick them up (but that's me!)....

I believe the only software released by Coleco that uses the 64k expansion memory are: SmartWriter (word processor) Adam Calc (spreadsheet) CP/M (alternative operating system) So unless you plan on using your Adam to write the next great novel or some such thing (yea right!), there's no need to bother with it....

A disk drive is an absolute must -- which is why they go for good money (and don't come up very often) on eBay. The difference is AMAZING, and really highlights what a mistake the tape drives were. Tapes wear out rather quickly after repeated use, and this especially true with games (which access the tape A LOT). A disk drive turns the Adam in to a fast and reliable machine. I remember getting our Adam when I was a kid, and after only a few days of playing Buck Rogers the tape stopped working. What a disappointment that was. I think all those fast to slow to fast to slow access speed transitions that the tapes are subjected to stretch the tapes much faster than a normal cassette player does and lead to premature failures. I have no experience with a hard drive. But since there were so few software releases for the Adam to begin with, I've never really seen the need for one.

You sure its playable? The only one I saw was nothing more than a title screen. Yep, 100% playable. I've got it right here. You're think of Tunnels and Trolls, which was to be a Colecovision game. Troll's Tale was an Adam game that never made it out the door, though it's basically finished.